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Blog postI met Bill Rasmussen in Fourth Grade at Mills Elementary School in Benicia, California. Bill came from a large, poor family who lived in a big house on East J street. His mother, June, was very good at stretching dollars. She baked her own bread, served Carnation powdered milk, and forced the family to go vegetarian so they wouldn’t starve. Bill’s father, Larry, was a carpenter. He chose the job in honor of his childhood hero, Jesus.
The Rasmussens were good Christians – t -
Blog postA Revelation
I recently stumbled across the term “transgressive fiction” while researching my genre. I was baffled because my books were too far out to get into a mainstream genre like “Young Adult” or “Gay Coming of Age”. Coming of age locked up in jail and the mental hospital is too far out for that genre. Dying and having adventures in the afterlife is too far out for mere “Young Adult.”
Then on Goodreads, while typing ‘Burroughs’, I stumbled across a group called “Transgre -
Blog postThe blog is going to remain up, but new content will be found on http://www.duncanwritesbooks.com
If you sign up for my newsletter, you get a free copy of 5150. Scroll down the home page and sign up! I write very infrequently so you don’t have to worry about your inbox overflowing with snake oil. Just a few thoughtful essays, perhaps a short story, or more grammatical fun.
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Blog postSometimes I get so excited to finish a cycle of edits on a novel, I decide it’s ready to go without giving a holistic read. The solution for this is to order review copies and pass over with a red pen. In the process of fleshing out 7th Avenue South (prequel to 5150) I inadvertently ruptured the timeline and told a half dozen stories twice. I was so anxious to get the paperback book out there. I published it before my review copies arrived.
I wasted a few hours being embarrassed befor -
Blog postSometimes I get so excited to finish a cycle of edits on a novel, I decide it’s ready to go without giving a holistic read. The solution for this is to order review copies and pass over with a red pen. In the process of fleshing out 7th Avenue South (prequel to 5150) I inadvertently ruptured the timeline and told a half dozen stories twice. I was so anxious to get the paperback book out there. I published it before my review copies arrived.
I wasted a few hours being embarrassed befor -
Blog postMy aunt Clara, a second cousin really, was a writer of children’s books. She loved being around children, so her book tours were a source of great joy for her. She also liked to mentor young adults. When I was newly sober, after a harrowing run in with the mental health system and drug culture, Clara came to see me in San Francisco. She bought me a computer through a catalog, and I was hooked.
A couple of years went by, and I took a train out to Minnesota to visit her. I was in my mid -
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Blog postThe first novel in my series, 5150, is a gritty self-exposure of the inner workings of a teenage mind in the throes of psychosis. It’s a roman ‘a clef revealing some of my deepest secrets. Most people who know me long enough to remember that period in my life are aware I was diagnosed at the time with schizophreniform disorder. The rest of my friends were astonished to learn that I had been hospitalized and still suffer today from a fairly mild case of bipolar depression.
Good friend -
Blog post5150 and Half have always been on Kindle Unlimited, but now M3X1(0 and A Quarter are too. If you subscribe to Prime, you can read one book per month for free. If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read all four whenever you want!
Read 5150 on Amazon for Free if you have Prime or Kindle Unlimited -
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Blog postIt sounds much harsher than it is. Pathetic fallacy is a story-telling technique in which the environment surrounding a character is an extension of what is happening inside their head. My first introduction to pathetic fallacy was in Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff is raging somewhere on the moors while thunder and lightning crash and flash. At least that’s how it’s stuck in my head all these years later. It is also when human emotions are attributed to an inanimate object, like a “sad” cl
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Blog postIt sounds much harsher than it is. Pathetic fallacy is a story-telling technique in which the environment surrounding a character is an extension of what is happening inside their head. My first introduction to pathetic fallacy was in Wuthering Heights when Heathcliff is raging somewhere on the moors while thunder and lightning crash and flash. […]
The post Pathetic Fallacy and Other Literary Devices appeared first on Duncan MacLeod.
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Blog postFrom bane to boon Readers ask me how I manage to construct complex sentences without grammatical errors. My answer is always the same: ‘Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition’.
In Junior High, I had two great English teachers. They were night and day when it came to their teaching style and curriculum. The only constant was the cursed Warriner’s grammar book.
“Today we’re diagramming sentences.” The class would give a collective groan. What was the point of breaking apart -
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Blog postFrom bane to boon
Readers ask me how I manage to construct complex sentences without grammatical errors. My answer is always the same: ‘Warriner’s English Grammar and Composition’.
In Junior High, I had two great English teachers. They were night and day when it came to their teaching style and curriculum. The only constant was the cursed Warriner’s grammar book.
“Today we’re diagramming sentences.” The class would give a collective groan. What was the point of breakin -
Blog postWhich one are you? Writing can be drawing if you need it to be Are you the writer who makes an appointment each day or week to sit down and write for a set period of time? Or are you the writer who can only write when inspiration strikes?
If you know me, you know I’m a bit of a slob. I blame it on left-handedness and the need to keep tasks visible on my desk. Similarly, I find schedules really kill my hard on for writing. Right brain thinkers, in general, don’t do well with disciplin -
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Blog postI discovered that all four of my book blurbs were lacking “the hook”, that killer first line that makes a casual book shopper want to read the rest of the book description. I added hook lines to all my blurbs a few days ago. It should not be “keyword optimized”, but rather a well-crafted plain English one-line pitch for the book.
5150 – Psychosis is not for the faint of heart. Half – A halfway house is a terrible place to fall in love. M3X1(0 – During the 1988 financial crisis in Mexico, -
Blog postI discovered that all four of my book blurbs were lacking “the hook”, that killer first line that makes a casual book shopper want to read the rest of the book description. I added hook lines to all my blurbs a few days ago. It should not be “keyword optimized”, but rather a well-crafted plain English one-line pitch for the book.
5150 – Psychosis is not for the faint of heart. Half – A halfway house is a terrible place to fall in love. M3X1(0 – During the 1988 financial crisis in Mexico, -
Blog postI got laid off because I was underage It wasn’t until I wrote the fourth book (A Quarter) that I at last had one of those “know thyself” moments. I have been laid off or fired from nearly two dozen jobs. I’m smart, very good at solving problems…but I don’t fit in with corporate culture. I don’t even fit in with anti-establishment culture. Here is an incomplete inventory of the jobs where I had to quit or was let go for incompetence, under-agedness, or spite:
Vallejo Times Herald – Pape -
Blog postI started 5150 in 1997. It’s taken 22 years to go from a single manuscript to a complete series. I honed my craft. I learned to self-publish. I opened my inner life up to public scrutiny. It has been a rewarding journey. As I pen the last words to the fifth book (a prequel to the series) I complete the tale of an incredibly difficult period in my life. It makes me grateful for all I have now. My dog just sighed and gave me the eye. What a wonderful life.
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