Another thank you!

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Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
This is my first post in here! First of all I'd like to wish SK a happy 70th birthday for September (I'll hit 70 in April). Next up, I'm at page 165 of On Reading and I don't think I've ever read anything about the writing process which is so much fun. I've recently submitted my MA Dissertation (what you guys in America would call your 'thesis') and am now attempting to write a novel about my study subject (Merlin in Twelfth and Twentieth Century Narratives). I'm only just starting out but already I've gone back and removed all those things such as adverbs and the passive tense that SK doesn't like. I now don't like them either! Result! I'm not too certain how far I'll get with my novel (being nearly 70) but already it's feeling better and so much more readable - and fun to write! Thank you.
 

Spideyman

Uber Member
Jul 10, 2006
46,336
195,472
79
Just north of Duma Key
This is my first post in here! First of all I'd like to wish SK a happy 70th birthday for September (I'll hit 70 in April). Next up, I'm at page 165 of On Reading and I don't think I've ever read anything about the writing process which is so much fun. I've recently submitted my MA Dissertation (what you guys in America would call your 'thesis') and am now attempting to write a novel about my study subject (Merlin in Twelfth and Twentieth Century Narratives). I'm only just starting out but already I've gone back and removed all those things such as adverbs and the passive tense that SK doesn't like. I now don't like them either! Result! I'm not too certain how far I'll get with my novel (being nearly 70) but already it's feeling better and so much more readable - and fun to write! Thank you.

Hi and welcome. Age does not matter-- you can do anything you desire. Continue to write and enjoy life.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
...Welcome!...
feature
 

Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
What a lovely welcome, thank you every one! (this is nicer than FB isn't it?)
I wish there was a Contents list for On Writing! There isn't so I spent this morning (cold and wet where I live) doing one. I just took a key word and created the list so that I could find things more easily - I guess I'll be picking this book up quite a lot. I've even started a kind of Index (I once belonged to The Society of Indexers), not that I'm fussy or obsessive you understand! Yes, Gentle Giant, I wanted to use BookWorm for my user name but someone else had already bagged it, so I thought I'd do it in Latin - probably got the tense and the gender wrong though as I don't know much Latin! (Wish I knew more, especially having to read a translation from Latin to English for my dissertation:(:glee:)
 

Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
Oh! I meant to say that I had an amazing discovery this morning. My dissertation was called Harking Back: Merlin in Twelfth and Twentieth Century Arthurian Narratives and lo and behold SK, bless him, has written his Dark Tower series (I'd not seen this <shame on me>) and there is Maerlyn in book IV: Wizard and Glass! - I filled my Amazon shopping basket, with all 8 titles, quicker than fly and they are now flying towards me (as the pounds fly from my bank account :()
 

Dana Jean

Dirty Pirate Hooker, The Return
Moderator
Apr 11, 2006
53,634
236,697
The High Seas
What a lovely welcome, thank you every one! (this is nicer than FB isn't it?)
I wish there was a Contents list for On Writing! There isn't so I spent this morning (cold and wet where I live) doing one. I just took a key word and created the list so that I could find things more easily - I guess I'll be picking this book up quite a lot. I've even started a kind of Index (I once belonged to The Society of Indexers), not that I'm fussy or obsessive you understand! Yes, Gentle Giant, I wanted to use BookWorm for my user name but someone else had already bagged it, so I thought I'd do it in Latin - probably got the tense and the gender wrong though as I don't know much Latin! (Wish I knew more, especially having to read a translation from Latin to English for my dissertation:(:glee:)
I'd be curious your latin headings for things.

I took my copy of On Writing and put page tabs on the edges to find things faster that were of interest to me.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
What a lovely welcome, thank you every one! (this is nicer than FB isn't it?)
I wish there was a Contents list for On Writing! There isn't so I spent this morning (cold and wet where I live) doing one. I just took a key word and created the list so that I could find things more easily - I guess I'll be picking this book up quite a lot. I've even started a kind of Index (I once belonged to The Society of Indexers), not that I'm fussy or obsessive you understand! Yes, Gentle Giant, I wanted to use BookWorm for my user name but someone else had already bagged it, so I thought I'd do it in Latin - probably got the tense and the gender wrong though as I don't know much Latin! (Wish I knew more, especially having to read a translation from Latin to English for my dissertation:(:glee:)
....I took a couple of years of Latin, which is why I knew what it was....tense and gender be damned....I'm just glad it wasn't this....:D

de_vermis_mysteriis__mysteries_of_the_worm__by_herbertw-d6s8fgp.jpg
 

Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
....I took a couple of years of Latin, which is why I knew what it was....tense and gender be damned....I'm just glad it wasn't this....:D

de_vermis_mysteriis__mysteries_of_the_worm__by_herbertw-d6s8fgp.jpg
Oh my goodness! I know enough to know that this might be called The Mysterious Skin or The Skin Mysteries - looks pretty ghoulish doesn't it - is it a truly old book? I think I read somewhere that human skin was used for parchment (Name of the Rose?) and even for covering books. No, I guess this is a very clever publishing ploy - does the blocking of the title give it away?
 

Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
Welcome. And don't forget to start in medias res.
View attachment 19842
Well, Mr K doesn't really like in medias res too much but it's a phrase that I came across a lot during my studies. He quotes it in On Writing (darn, if I had a complete index I could tell you the page number...!) in the section/chapter on back story (just looked it up, it's on page 269 of my 2012 Hodder edition.) ;-D
 

Ebdim9th

Dressing the Gothic interval in tritones
Jul 1, 2009
6,137
22,104
Greetinz Liber Vermis! There was a movie called the Mysterious Skin, now I know where they got the title from. That book either started with Stephen, or originated with Lovecraft .... and don't worry about your novel not being a success. In the fast food business, Colonel Sanders started selling his fried chicken restaurant when he was in his seventies, and you know what happened with that. He fully enjoyed it's runaway success in his lifetime.
 

Liber Vermis

Member
Mar 2, 2017
7
45
76
That's very encouraging, thank you Ebdim9th, (why is that a man's chord, or is that a dumb question? Maybe I should just ask Google in case it's embarrassing :a11: ) Anyway, I don't think it's ever going to give you away or get hacked! Stephen mentions a lady, Helen Santmyer, (p.287) in his book who was living in a retirement home when she published her first book so there's hope for me yet:rofl:
 

Neesy

#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
May 24, 2012
61,289
239,271
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
That's very encouraging, thank you Ebdim9th, (why is that a man's chord, or is that a dumb question? Maybe I should just ask Google in case it's embarrassing :a11: ) Anyway, I don't think it's ever going to give you away or get hacked! Stephen mentions a lady, Helen Santmyer, (p.287) in his book who was living in a retirement home when she published her first book so there's hope for me yet:rofl:
11-22-63 Welcome.JPG

Welcome to SKMB Liber Vermis
:):cheerful:

Hope you like it here!
 

Ebdim9th

Dressing the Gothic interval in tritones
Jul 1, 2009
6,137
22,104
That's very encouraging, thank you Ebdim9th, (why is that a man's chord, or is that a dumb question? Maybe I should just ask Google in case it's embarrassing :a11: ) Anyway, I don't think it's ever going to give you away or get hacked! Stephen mentions a lady, Helen Santmyer, (p.287) in his book who was living in a retirement home when she published her first book so there's hope for me yet:rofl:

It's a chord, but it's also a quote from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It's Career Day at Sunnydale High and this conversation, well part of it, takes place:

Willow: Well, don't you have some ambition?

Oz: Oh, yeah! Yeah. E-flat, diminished ninth.

Willow: Huh?

Oz: Well, the E-flat, it's, it's doable, but that diminished ninth,
y'know, it's a man's chord. Now, you could lose a finger.

Willow nods, pretending to understand.
 

GNTLGNT

The idiot is IN
Jun 15, 2007
87,651
358,754
62
Cambridge, Ohio
Oh my goodness! I know enough to know that this might be called The Mysterious Skin or The Skin Mysteries - looks pretty ghoulish doesn't it - is it a truly old book? I think I read somewhere that human skin was used for parchment (Name of the Rose?) and even for covering books. No, I guess this is a very clever publishing ploy - does the blocking of the title give it away?
De Vermis Mysteriis - Wikipedia