new posts in all blogs
Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Maureen Lynas, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 14 of 14
How to use this Page
You are viewing the most recent posts tagged with the words: Maureen Lynas in the JacketFlap blog reader. What is a tag? Think of a tag as a keyword or category label. Tags can both help you find posts on JacketFlap.com as well as provide an easy way for you to "remember" and classify posts for later recall. Try adding a tag yourself by clicking "Add a tag" below a post's header. Scroll down through the list of Recent Posts in the left column and click on a post title that sounds interesting. You can view all posts from a specific blog by clicking the Blog name in the right column, or you can click a 'More Posts from this Blog' link in any individual post.
by Maureen Lynas Who is celebrating!
I may be odd but I love going to the tip and on Friday our car was packed with bags of shredding, old computers and cardboard boxes. Tidy house! Hurrah! Geoff was ready and waiting, I was putting my boots on, and the phone rang. I nearly didn’t pick it up - the tip was awaiting! But I did. Right choice!
Amber Caraveo from the Skylark Literary Agency was ringing with an offer of representation! We talked for an hour, we agreed our terms, we discussed editorial suggestions and happily said our cheerios. Amber went on to share the news with partner Joanna Moult and announce it on twitter. I went to the tip.
Then out for a celebratory lunch. I was a jumble of emotions as I tried to fill Geoff in on all the details. This has been a long time coming and it was a bit overwhelming. By the end of the weekend I realised there had been quite a few emotions at play.
Elation, relief, exhaustion, acceptance, fear and - determination
Elation - the whoopy doops, the yay’s, the yahoo’s, the twitter and facebook storm of congratulations and new friends. It’s exciting. A happy dance must be done. Prosecco must be drunk. Chocolate must be consumed. It was. By both.
Relief - JOB DONE! No more agent rejections, no more fingers crossed, no more searching and hoping that one day someone will ‘Get me’. Relief that Amber loves my work so much she’ll invest her time and effort into my career. Thank you!
Exhaustion - This has been a long journey! I once climbed a seemingly never ending mountain called Ingleborough, in Yorkshire. It had many false peaks and I was convinced that each rise was the top. That the torture would be soon be over. My writing journey has been similar. There’s been a number of false peaks and sometimes it’s been difficult to get back up from them. Songs have helped. Especially this one from Chumbawumba.
Acceptance - This may take some time but I think using these words as often as possible should help - My agent. As in: When I was talking to my agent. My agent is lovely. My agent is going to be pitching soon. My agent said… (I intend these sentence endings to be something wise and intuitive to show she is the best agent a writer can get.)
Fear - Amber is going to pitch my book! It’s not ready! It’s not good enough! I have three pages of editorial suggestions. What if I can’t do it! What if I end up with a big mess of a muddle?
Determination - There’s been a lot of determination over the many years of writing and learning and hoping. Now it’s needed even more than before. Because getting an agent is a huge, wonderful step but it isn’t the end. The end is one of my books in a child’s hand and, hopefully, a lot of laughter.
Now I'm off to come up with a plan of action for Witch School Sucks! Because MY AGENT is waiting.
Maureen
by Maureen Lynas
One of the great things about attending a crit group is realising that you and other writers have ‘tics’ in common. By helping to identify them together you can help each other to remove them and improve your writing.
Here are two tics that came up during our latest crit session.
Metaphors and similes.
Simile: a figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid.
Beware the cliché - as brave as a lion
Beware The Blackadder Syndrome - This place stinks like a pair of armoured trousers after the Hundred Years War – unless you are Ben Elton, Richard Curtis or another genius of comedy.
Metaphor: a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable.
Beware the cliché - A blanket of snow
Beware The Blackadder Syndrome - The path of my life is strewn with cowpats from the devil's own satanic herd. - See above on who is allowed to be this ridiculous.
Used appropriately similes and metaphors are wonderful tools. They aid the readers' understanding of complex issues, they create images that bring immediately clarity to the work, they make us laugh.
BUT
Used inappropriately – wrong image/sound/feeling, too intense, too complicated etc they jolt the reader out of the story as the reader attempts to work out what the author means. A reader might even start to have an adverse reaction to the metaphors and similes
e.g.
Author - Princess Penelope’s stomach gurgled like a blocked drain.
Reader – No it didn’t. I’ve heard my stomach and it has never, ever sounded like a blocked drain.
Actually, having written that, I’ve just thought how funny it would be to write a story about a princess who DOES have a stomach that gurgles like a blocked drain. So, perhaps you should make up a better bad simile for yourself.
Some editorial suggestions for those who love to use metaphor and simile.
- Check the appropriateness – is it right for the situation/genre/age group?
- Check the word choice - Am I being inappropriately poetical? Does the tone of the metaphor match the tone of the work?
- Check the logic - Read it as a critical reader and say ‘Really? Does it? Is it? What the hell do I mean by it?
- Check the image. What image have I created? Is that the image I want?
- Check the intensity - is it right for the emotion I want the reader to have at this point in the scene?
- Check you’re not trying to be too clever – am I bringing clarity to the text or am I confusing the reader.
- Check the frequency of metaphors and similes in some mentor texts (books from the same genre, age group etc that you think reflect what you want to achieve). I analysed a few YA books, just the first chapter.
Neil Gaimen’s Neverwhere - 2 similes (both together in one description)
Malorie Blackman’s Noughts and Crosses – 0
Phillip Pullman’s Northern Lights – 1 metaphor
Hm. Interestingly sparse.
Next tic – Inappropriate Mystery and Atmosphere
Sometimes writers bury their hooks and protagonists in false atmosphere and mystery. I think they do this to intrigue the reader but it leads to confusion. And there is a fine balance between intrigued, puzzled, and totally confused.
If this is your writer’s tic you will have put your protagonist into a scenario that’s normal to him/her and then added a mysterious or scary atmosphere hoping that this mysterious tone will hook the reader. If you’ve done this then you will have created a confused reader when it becomes clear that the protagonist is not in a Hammer Horror.
e.g.
Dave the gravedigger paused in the shadow of the ancient gravestone. His spine tingled. Was this the right place? The right time. He looked around. Listened to the beat of his heart amongst the silent dead. The sun was going down. He wouldn’t be seen now. He dropped to his knees and flipped open his bag. His stomach growled like a stomach that was ready to digest a rotting corpse of putrefaction and pus. (Oops - The Blackadder Syndrome!) He surveyed the contents of the bag. ‘Oh bugger it,’ he swore. His flask of tea had leaked. His butties were soggy. His lunchbreak was ruined.
Cemeteries aren’t spooky to those who work in them every day. Don’t write mysteriously because you’re writing a mystery. If it isn’t mysterious to the protagonist don’t make it mysterious to the reader. Be clear. The reader should see, hear, know and feel what the protagonist sees, hears, knows and feels.
If this is your tic ask yourself -
- What is my protagonist seeing and hearing?
- What emotion is my protagonist experiencing?
- How have I transferred that into the head of my reader?
- Have I been honest with my reader?
I could go on with more tics, in fact I may do that over the next few posts. Meanwhile, if you want to identify your own tics you could start with How Not To Write a Novel by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman: 200 mistakes to avoid at all costs if you ever want to get published. It's an excellent checklist.
by Maureen Lynas
This was a very interesting discussion at the SCBWI BI York critique group involving:
THE GAP
The space that's left for the reader when we SHOW rather than TELL
Leaving THE GAP gives the reader a role to play in the story as they infer and interpret the text. There's a balance to be had between showing and telling depending on the genre, age group, and experience of the reader.
If a book is set in a familiar world to the readership then THE GAP can be quite large. The reader fills it with their knowledge, life experiences, cultural history, emotional history etc. The author can then play with the reader's inferences and expectations. If the book is an unfamiliar world then - the author has to try harder to familiarise the reader with the world and may need to leave a smaller GAP. Without resorting to information dumps.
What are these worlds?
This is what I've come up with so far. Please do add more in the comments.
The book samples below are taken from a western readers POV but I'd love to see a similar post with book choices from another cultural POV e.g. which children's books reflect the normal world for a reader in India and how big would THE GAP be for the western reader.
The normal world young readers live in:
Often school based. The readers are familiar with school, teachers, family, friendships, bullies, emotions.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.
Most books by Jacqueline Wilson.
Mariella Mystery by Kate Pankhurst.
Chocolate Box Girls by Cathy Cassidy.
The World of Norm by Jonathan Meres.
The world young readers live in plus…
Often still school based but includes some sort of magical or fantasy element. The readers are familiar with school, family, friendships, bullies, emotions, this type of magic, good v evil, destiny, prophecies etc
Harry Potter by J K Rowling - school plus magic.
Matilda by Roald Dahl - school plus magic.
Diary of a 6th Grade Ninja by Marcus Emerson - school plus ninja.
Spies in Disguise by Kate Scott - school plus spies.
Readers are bringing an awful lot to THE GAP in the above worlds. They're really dealing with a familiar unfamiliar world. But what about the next lot.
There are lots of examples of the above that I'm very familiar with. I'm not so familiar with the types below. So please do add extra titles in the comments.
A contemporary culturally unfamiliar world.
Shine by Candy Gourlay.
An historically unfamiliar world.
Which may also be based in a culturally unfamiliar world.
Buffalo Soldiers by Tanya Landman.
An alternative historical world of unfamiliarity
Twisting history but history is unfamiliar to children anyway. So would they know?
Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner.
A non-existent unfamiliar world of oddness.
A society and premise different to the familiar - physically, culturally, geographically, and socially.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness.
An alternative future of weird technology
Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve.
How can you begin to establish it's a different world? I would begin with the question - How do other authors do it?
I've taken a look at Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines to get you started.
In the first chapter Philip Reeve paints a picture. He establishes a world for the story, and creates a smaller world for the protagonist, Tom.
These are the notes I've made on my first pass through.
The book opens with: An Action Scene
The city of London is chasing a small mining town.
Establishing the bigger world:
Philip Reeves places us in an unfamiliar 'bigger world' as the action unfolds. Sometimes through dialogue, sometimes through announcements, observations, setting, interactions etc.
Names
Tom Natsworthy, Chudleigh Pomeroy, Herbert Melliphant, Clytie Potts
Geographical
St Paul's cathedral glinting gold, two thousand feet above the ruined earth, land-bridge, ziggurat-town.
Society
The Anti Traction League, guildsmen, apprentices, historians.
Religion
To the people of London it seemed like a sign from the gods.
Philosophy
Municipal Darwinism.
Food
…lawns grubbed up to make way for cabbage-plots and algae plants
Unique language and technical terms which help to establish this is not here and now.
Gut-duty, traction city, argon lamps, goggle screen, exhaust-stacks, sky-clipper.
Time and cultural references that set the book in an alternative future
"It's playing merry hell with my 35thCentury ceramics."
…once been the island of Britain.
…past the big plastic statues of Pluto and Mickey, animal headed gods of lost America.
Establishing the protagonist's smaller world:
Position in society
"He's just a third, a skivvy."
Friends
Clytie Potts - "Dancing and fireworks! Do you want to come?"
Enemies and conflict
Of a similar age: Herbert Melliphant - "We don't want Natsworthy's sort there."
In a position of power: Chudleigh Pomeroy - "Natsworty! What in Quirke's name do you think you're playing at?"
Personal History
"Natsworthy's mum and dad lived down on Four, see, and when the Big Tilt happened they both got squashed flat as a couple of raspberry pancakes: splat!"
Goal
To be a hero.
Brilliantly done! Philip Reeves is a master. All that in one chapter with no info dumps. It seems to me that the protagonist's smaller world can have a bigger GAP because it's dealing with emotions and situations common to all. But the bigger world needs a smaller GAP if it's unfamiliar.
Right, now go and analyse a book in your genre. Get the highlighter pens out. Use a colour for each heading. Add your own headings. Then apply this to your own writing. Work out what the reader NEEDS TO KNOW and get rid of anything the reader DOESN'T NEED TO KNOW. Weave the info in and out of the action. And above all
THINK ABOUT THE GAP!
It'll be fun!
by
Maureen Lynas
By Maureen Lynas
The second post highlighting literary issues raised in critique groups. This came up recently at our SCBWI BI critique group in York.
Awesome first lines
What are we aiming for?
I've written an awesome first line that will wow the agents and engage the reader.
OR
I've written an appropriate first line that will wow the agents and engage the reader.
We've seen some amazing first lines in our critique group. Lines that have that wow factor. Lines that we've loved, admired and wished we'd written.
Unfortunately, they weren't always appropriate for the story that followed. They set a tone, an expectation, a hint of a totally different story, a totally different world, and genre. It's so easy to fall into the trap of creating a darling but a first line has a job to do so you may have to assassinate yours.
Read more »
By Maureen Lynas
When Candy said - Would you like to start blogging on the slushpile again? - I said yes immediately. Then spent two months thinking – what about?
The size of my slushpile?
Done. It’s even bigger than when I first blogged about it. It wobbles now. Sometimes it sways. It may topple.
The seven steps to pacing and plotting?
Done. But I could talk about the steps for ever. So that theme was a possible.
The five bricks of story?
Done. I think I'm up to seven now.
Show not tell?
Done, said Maureen as she exhibited frustration, annoyance and desperation through her body language.
Jenny raised various issues but this one resonated with me the most
Struggling writers are not often the best judges of struggling writing.
She made me wonder whether there was a critiquer's journey in the same way there is a writer’s journey. Could a critique group become stuck in one of the four stages of learning?
Quick reminder for those that have forgotten or have never heard of the four stages of learning.
Unconscious Incompetence
We don't know what we don't know
Conscious Incompetence
We know what we don't know and are shocked!
Conscious Competence
We are applying what we know but it's like walking through treacle with delicious little pools of bubbly, uplifting, lemonade every now and then.
Unconscious Competence
We know everything (ha!) and can write via a mind meld with our characters.
So I wondered - what can a critique group do if it thinks it's stuck in one of the stages, as Jenny was suggesting. How does a critique group kick itself out of conscious incompetence when it doesn’t know what it doesn’t know?
I love our critique group in York. We’re fun, chatty and extremely supportive. As you can see.
But, what if we were one of those groups stuck in the treacle and didn't know it? Was Jenny talking about us? Were we moving on with our knowledge and application or were we repeating the same suggestions each meeting? Were we listening? Were we really discovering what we needed to learn?
So, as an experiment I suggested we changed the way we critique.
Normally we skill share in the morning and critique in the afternoon. This was so that we could go home to digest the comments, cry into our wine, forget the trauma. There was no discussion of the work. It's possible we were concerned that people would begin defending their work if we had a discussion time. Or not.
So we swapped around. We critiqued in the morning using our usual format - Each critiquer has one minute to give a verbal critique, then hands over a written critique. The author being critiqued makes notes but says nothing.
We then had lunch and some breathing space to digest the food and comments.
Then we spent the afternoon discussing the issues the critiques raised - both specific to the author's work but also broadened out to discuss the issues in other literature. It worked brilliantly. Everyone pitched in with examples and analysis. We even walked through Morag Macrea’s scene of a girl having her head stuffed down the toilet, so that she could see it clearly. I was that girl.
These were just some of the issues we were able to identify and discuss:
· Which stories had an inciting incident and which didn’t.
· Which story had multiple inciting incidents and needed a prune.
· Which story had an amazing opening line that set the wrong tone for the story and why.
· Which ordinary world confused the reader and why.
· Which stories had a lack of clarity in action scenes.
· Which stories had too much backstory in the opening chapters.
This led to suggested homework:
· Analyse your favourite books and identify their inciting incidents so that you really understand what an inciting incident is.
· Persuade, demand, order, friends and family to act out the action if you can’t see it in your head. Walk through it or use toys.
· Analyse how other authors deal with back story.
· Identify the essential information the reader needs in your opening scenes.
This was probably the best critique session we've had. So that's what I'll be blogging about on Notes From the Slushpile. The issues raised in our critique sessions. Hopefully we'll add to your knowledge, encourage insightful critiquing and get you out of the treacle and into the pools of bubbly, lemony pop and beyond.
Maureen
Maureen Lynas blogs intermittently on her own blog which she creatively named - Maureen Lynas She is the author ofThe Action Words Reading SchemeFlorence and the MeaniesThe Funeverse poetry site.
<!--[if gte mso 9]>
Normal
0
<![endif]-->
Last week I discovered Miriam Halahmy’s post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure about using her kindle as an editing tool.
Using the kindle in
the way she describes is so useful. Being able to change the font size and view your manuscript in a different format highlights many problems. But there is another way to use the kindle as an
By: Candy Gourlay,
on 1/27/2013
Blog:
Notes from the Slushpile
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Shaun Tan,
Writing For Children,
Children's authors,
James Scott Bell,
Working Partners,
Maureen Lynas,
inferring,
Show Not Tell,
Cornerstones Literary Consultancy,
Add a tag
By Maureen Lynas
Look, I'm cross. Can't you tell?
Do I have to actually spell it out for you!
Grrrrrrrrr
I once attended an excellent weekend course run by
Cornerstones Literary Consultancy. Each day was split into sessions based on
plot, character, settings etc. and all was well until we reached the session on
‘Show Not Tell’ Blank looks all round. Explanations were given. Examples
No To No Rhyme
To live in a world where there is no rhyme
Would seem to me to be a crime
And surely children need this skill
To prevent them all becoming ill
From: sums and science, laws and rules
Boredom, bedtime, some of school.
To have no rhyme would be a curse,
That's why we have the funEverse!
Introducing:
Georgina Kirk
Growing up on the dyslexic side of life I've always found
By Maureen lynas
Say hi to more funEverse poets
I'm so lucky to be working with these people. They're funny, they're talented, and they care deeply about kids and want to make them laugh.
And where else would I have discussions on whether it's appropriate to have a character trapped in a sumo wrestler's bum crack! (That was not one of my poems!)
Introducing:
Rebecca Colby
I
Blistering barnacles!
Me head's exploding!
By Maureen Lynas
I've been trying to respond to a request from a very important person to make Prince Bob the
frog's idiolect more... idiotic. Can you make him more like his dad? Like him, but not like him. As funny as him? Funnier? But maybe reference froggy stuff? Because Bob's a frog?
But King Fred is special. He punctuates
by Maureen Lynas
Hi Maureen, thanks for having me on Notes from the Slushpile. I’m very excited to be here!
Welcome to Paula Harrison, our latest debut author, who has not one, not two, not three, not four but FIVE books coming out this year. The Rescue Princess series is a great concept with lively characters and I'm desperate to emulate her amazing success. So I jumped at the chance to be
By: Candy Gourlay,
on 4/4/2012
Blog:
Notes from the Slushpile
(
Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags:
Malachy Doyle,
Cornerstones,
Candy Gourlay,
Undiscovered Voices,
Maureen Lynas,
Juliet Clare Bell,
The Arvon Foundation,
Rebecca Colby,
Eve White,
Addy Farmer,
Julia Goulding,
Add a tag
By Maureen Lynas
Are you embarrassed by the size of your slushpile? Do you hide it, ignore it, lie about it? DON'T! Be PROUD of it! SHOUT about it. I'm telling you now - MINE IS HUGE!
Why am I telling you now? Well, after reading Candy's latest blog post on the trauma of completing her second book, and seeing ex-lurker Tamsin's comments about writing for six years and not giving up, I was
Two things came together yesterday.I saw a documentary on the brain. It showed that writers are at their most creative when the part of the brain that deals with future scenarios, the what if area, is activated with the part that thinks about people, the who’s there area. Brain scans have shown that these two areas light up and work together when we’re idle.
Brilliant news! No more housework – I’
By Maureen Lynas
There are two types of critiques, the face to face, the report that lands on the doormat...There are three types of critiques, the face to face, the report that lands on the door mat, the online supportive group of friends...There are four types of critiques... the first three plus the online site where no one knows anyone and you get a message that says, I'll critique yours if
I may be odd but I love going to the tip and on Friday our car was packed with bags of shredding, old computers and cardboard boxes. Tidy house! Hurrah! Geoff was ready and waiting, I was putting my boots on, and the phone rang. I nearly didn’t pick it up - the tip was awaiting! But I did. Right choice! 
You make an interesting and valid point about showing and telling. I guess that the balance between the two ends up being based on what will suit your readership, your genre and what is happening at that point in your story.<br />I have my kindle app at the ready and am looking forward to downloading your story.
Thank you very much, Maureen. Another peice to print out and pin on my board. I, too, having been struggling with the amount of telling I see in successful books, despite overwhelming advice against it and the exhausting nature of reading (and writing) scenes that unremittingly show. James Scott Bell - write on.<br />
Tremendously useful, Maureen - thank you. As a writer on BEAST QUEST I'm always particularly intrigued by what makes them so successful, as they aren't the most entertaining books to write. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves of our audience and not get too uppity about stating the obvious!
Brilliant piece on showing not telling! And folks, I've read Florence and I can guarantee you a wonderful read!
Great post, said Ros admiringly.
Thanks for this really useful post, Maureen. I've often wondered why my daughter loved the Beast Quest books so much, apart from the wonderfully-collectable cards at the end. Maybe a reason why Enid Blyton has been so popular, too? Does this mean we should add a bit of telling every now and then so younger children can understand?
Thanks, Amanda. And I haven't forgotten about your appearance on the funEverse, I'll be emailing you this week, sorry it's taken me longer than expected.
Hi, Rowena :) James Scott Bell is one of the masters of 'How To' isn't he.
I'd love it if I had a Beast Quest book in my portfolio, the kids have such enthusiasm for them. They have their place in a child's journey to become an independent reader.
Aw, thanks, Candy. Have a cupcake.
'WoW! Thanks!' said the author of the blog, excitedly. Because she really was pleased that Ros had admired the post.
Hi Anna, I tried to find some samples from Dahl where he'd shown, then confirmed what he'd shown by adding a little bit of telling. I'd spotted them last year, but I didn't have time to do the research. Also I've noticed that good illustrations often confirm the showing. So children know they were on the right track with their interpretation of the text. Interesting subject
GREAT post, Maureen! Thank you so much. In the past I've held back on 'telling' in my novel for fear of being 'reprimanded' ;0) but have been realising recently (through studying other books) that some telling is not only ok but essential (for the reasons you describe above - although I hadn't really thought about how the child's limited life experiences affected this
Thanks Emma :)<br />I used to live in fear of the 'Show Not Tell Police' too. I think one of the tricks is to pick a novel that you absolutely love and analyse how that author has balanced showing and telling. Then you'll have a guideline that suits you. Maybe the book's pace comes from that balance. <br /><br />Glad to hear I've lightened the load!
Thanks Maureen, your posts are always so useful.
Cracking post! Thanks.
No problem Maureen. I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon - whenever you are ready is fine.
This was a wonderfully instructive article. As an illustrator/author, I tend to think visually. I believe the examples you've given are going to really stick with me. Thank you!
Thank you, Heather :)
Thanks, Paula.
My pleasure, Sue, The triangle of words, pictures and gap is fascinating to me. I wish my illustration skills were good enough to do the whole thing myself. Maybe one day.
This is a great post, and what an insight into the cursed Rainbow Fairies (I will give my poor daughter a break now and allow her to read them without my judgement!) <br /><br />I think that 'telling' is the biggest mistake that people make when writing a picture book, especially if they are not illustrators as well - they forget that the words and illustrations should work together.
Ah, happy times ahead for your daughter :) Until she gets bored and moves on. <br />The example makes sense, Lucy. If you can see it, you don't need to write it.
Great post, thanks! I have heard that you can tell a bit more in picture books, and your post explains so clearly why.
This explanation/demonstration of why we shouldn't "tell" is very pointy indeed.
Ha ha K is for Phillippa!
Mind the gap!
Sylvia, picture books are different to the series reads where telling is used more. In a book like Rosie's Walk there seems to be a lot of telling in the text, but none of the story is told. The pictures show the story. It's a brilliant example of the words, pictures and the gap working together. <br />You can actually have less telling in a picture book and more showing not just because
I thank you for pointing that out, Helen :)
Maureen, you're a star - she said, fawningly. The issue of the gap being different for different ages really is an important point - and so nicely put. I still struggle enormously with this. <br /><br />And of course *donning her neuroscience teacher hat for a moment* well done for identifying that it's the synapse where communication between the neurones happens. It's getting
Hahahahaha! You big show off in your big hat! I did know it, I did!, said Maureen smugly. Big hug, Louise.
Maureen, you are an excellent teacher. The concept of The Gap is brilliant and I just read Louise's comment about synapses which confirms it.<br />Great post and I do like Florence's cover. Thank you.
Thank you, Jan, on all counts.
Oh **** I knew that. Sorry Phillipa.
Awesome, Maureen. I am always struggling with showing and telling, and it's hard to recognize it at times. I like your explanation and your examples are very clear. Thanks!