Living the Fictional Dream

In honor of a lovely Friday where I am home and don’t have to even attempt to work, I thought I would post some links for y’all. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

First of all, Kevin has today’s story of the day at Every Day Fiction. It’s called “Krupper and Jons,” and it’s quite a chuckle. When you get the to end, you’ll see what I’m talking about.

Yesterday, I stumbled upon this set of posts on author Shanna Swendon’s blog. They’re all about character archetypes. I find character archetypes a fascinating tool for character building. Of course, you can’t cheat and use the archetypes for character. Then your characters turn out flat and boring, predictable and lame. But I find thinking about the archetypes helps me to write characters that are all wildly different, and not based solely on myself. They are a tool to help me broaden and improve my writing. Shanna’s post talks about the archetype constructs based on the hero’s journey.

Tami Cowden, on the other hand, explores different character types based on personality. Each archetype has a male and female equivalent, as well as heroic and villainous incarnations. I’ve read her book, and it’s really interesting. The thumbnail sketches on her website are a great starting place, but to really get the depth out of this idea, you need to read the book. (I’m fairly sure I’ve linked to this before, but how can I not in a discussion of archetypes?)

Now, I’ve never really talked about politics on this blog. I would share my political views with you, if you asked, but this is a writing blog… posting about politics would be way off topic. However, I want to share this post with you, written by my friend, Ms. Eclectic. It’s a really thoughtful post-election post, and I especially thought that it spoke well to people here in Texas. Though, I think anyone who’s dealing with this post-election world might find it interesting.

And, now, for something entirely different, here another friend Kevin’s take on the newest restaurant in downtown Fort Worth, Simply Fondue. I’ve been a fan of this restaurant since it was only in Dallas (now you can eat there in Dallas, Arlington, and Fort Worth), and I’m thrilled that there is a new location close to home. My husband and I ate at the new location once, and it’s top notch. From Kevin’s article, it sounds like they’ve been improving since we ate there. It’s not cheap, but if it’s a special occasion, it is definitely worth the price of admission.

Here’s something that’s a little related to the last link (it’s about food) and also related to this blog (its about books), there is a new site called TasteBook that I’m very intrigued by. On this site, you can make your own cookbooks, either with recipes from their partners or by inputting your own recipes. I haven’t yet ordered a tastebook of my own, but I’m working on compiling the recipes for one. I don’t know that it’s worth the cost unless I can get at least 50 recipes in there! But, so far, it’s been really fun collecting the recipes and choosing my cover images and everything.

And, finally, still on the food theme, I’ll leave you with the link to a new recipe I found during my TasteBook adventures — cheesy tacos. These were a great hit at my last pot luck dinner party. If you’re doing a low carb diet (like my hubby and I are, under advice from our nutritionist), these taco shells made out of cheese are completely awesome! I’m planning to use the same idea to make us some “chips” for dipping. (It wouldn’t be so great, I suppose, if you’re doing a low fat diet, though.)

However, even the guests who weren’t watching their carbs enjoyed the cheesy taco shells — they were that tasty. Once I got the trick down, they worked out really well, but while frying the first few, I dubbed this the most hilarious recipe I’d ever made, because those first taco shells ended up a little malformed. But after I’d done a few, it was easy. (The counter full of a cobbled together drying rack of wooden spoons and cups was hilarious, too.)

And now, I will leave you to enjoy that random collection of links, and I hope that everyone has an awesome weekend. My husband and I are planning to travel to the cabin (the land of no Internet) this weekend, so it may be Sunday or Monday before you hear from me again. Have a great weekend!