Month: May 2011

The Fry Graph—No, You Won’t Find It in a Cookbook!

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

When my friend, Kris, who teaches English and Writing at a community college, critiqued the first few chapters of my manuscript, one of the first things she did was analyze them using the Fry Graph readability formula. Unfortunately this formula doesn’t tell an author how much his readers will enjoy his writing, but it does calculate how easy or difficult his writing is to read. The Fry Graph result is a grade level. If the analysis result is 6.4, that means that most sixth graders would be able to read it. It counts the number of syllables and sentences in a hundred-word writing sample, and plots words vs. syllables on a graph. The more syllables and the fewer sentences there are, the higher the grade level. It’s best to use descriptive or narrative parts of a piece of fiction, not dialogue. The analysis is simple. This is how to do it. So that’s great, you say, but what good is it? Edward Fry developed the… Read More »

Wish Me Luck!

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Synchronicity, Young Adult Fantasy

The rewrite of the first few chapters is complete. After several back and forth e-mails of suggestions on her part and revisions on mine, Jessica, my editor, says it’s “in good shape.” She wanted me to tighten it a bit more, and I tried, I really did, but I was only able to pare it down by a sentence here and there. She doesn’t like the title either. She says it needs to be more active and let the reader know that this is a fantasy. I’ve thought about shortening it to The Remaking, or possibly Forging the Blade. I also had Kris, a friend who teaches English and Writing at a community college, take a look at it. She critiqued the manuscript in a totally different way than Jessica. As an English teacher, she mostly looked at sentence structure and length and word usage. And because she’s only read the first three chapters she was able to give me a viewpoint of someone who’s… Read More »

Major Arcana, The Hero’s Adventure: Wheel of Fortune: Epilogue

Posted C. LaVielle14 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Synchronicity, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Uncategorized

The Wheel turned for us today. I was fixing breakfast when my husband walked into the kitchen and handed me the phone. “This man is saying Paris (our cat) is dead. Talk to him, I’m going up to get dressed.” “Where are you?” I asked the caller. He was right outside the house. Two of the utility guys that were putting in a gas line at a neighbor’s house met me as I came running out. Their faces were grim with concern and sympathy as they handed me Paris’s collar. “We were over there working and when we looked up he was laying in the street. He was up on our rig earlier saying hello. Really nice cat.” “Where is he?” “He’s just over there ma’am,” One of them said. He put his arms around me when I started to cry and patted me gently on the back. “If you let me know where you want me to put him, I’ll take him there for… Read More »

The Major Arcana and The Hero’s Journey: Wheel of Fortune, Part III

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, The Hero's Journey, Wheel of the Year

The Wheel of Fortune’s number is 10 which puts it as close to the center of the major arcana cards as you can get, assuming The Fool, 0, is at the beginning, so it signifies a turning point or balance point. The number 10 is also the beginning of the next series of digits after 0-9 (The Fool through The Hermit), so it can be seen as the beginning of a new cycle. This cycle can be either “better” or “worse” than the one before it, but it is always a step up in complexity and challenge. Jupiter is the planet assigned to the Wheel of Fortune. As the largest planet in the solar system, it is the planet of expansion, which is what the Wheel does—it expands not only our outlook, but our options. Astrologers also call it the Greater Benefic, or bringer of good fortune, with Venus, The Empress, being the Lesser Benefic. Kaph, or Kaf, is its Hebrew letter. Its symbol is… Read More »

Happy Beltane!

Posted C. LaVielleLeave a commentPosted in Wheel of the Year

If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, Don’t be alarmed now. It’s just a spring-clean for the May Queen. Robert Plant Stairway to Heaven Beltane, the celebration of the union of the God and Goddess which brings fertility and abundance to the land, was probably celebrated in the British Isles in some form centuries before Christ was even a twinkle in God’s eye. I doubt that it was a coincidence that the wedding of the future king and queen of Britain was scheduled for this weekend.