Character Study: J from The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl (& on character tropes, diversity, and universality)

Posted on September 14, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

According to TV Tropes, one of the coolest, most addictive wiki’s on the internet,

Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members’ minds and expectations.

Tropes aren’t bad in and of themselves bad and are not inherently cliché on account of their widespread use in mainstream media.

In fact, tropes can be very useful, particularly characters tropes, which can provide a firm foundation for character development and serve as a helpful cue to readers and viewers about the sort of character journey (and hence the sort of story) they can expect.

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Vacation is the Enemy of Creative Progress*

Posted on September 7, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

My time off included a whole lot of this

The week before last, I was on vacation.

“Holiday” as my friends across the pond and Down Under would say.

Or as I like to call it, “staycation”, for it was a vacation where, rather than travelling someplace, I remained in my home town.

(For the record, I make a further distinction between a “vacation”, which to me involves travel, and a “holiday”, which is travel to someplace particularly noteworthy or exotic. But that’s just me.)

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A Castle was a (Noble)Man’s (and Woman’s) Home (Medieval Mondays #3a)

Posted on August 31, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Remnants of the keep and curtain wall of Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, England

As a child, I used to like drawing pictures of medieval castles.

These drawings always took a similar form: a large square in the middle of the paper, two taller turrets on either side, and a wall that extended the remaining length of the page on either side. I even owned a stencil that had a guide for making square waves that I used on the upper edges of each part of the picture.

For a frontal, ground level representation by an eight-year-old, I actually think I did pretty well, having depicted the three key components of the average medieval English castle: the keep, the tower, and the curtain wall.

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On a Day Without Rain or Writing

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Believe it or not, I don’t spend all my spare time writing.

Image by @lovely_free_bird

I don’t even want to spend all my spare time writing.

The reason for this is because writing is far too solitary a pursuit – the loneliest of all the arts in my opinion, due to it possessing the least impressive and share-worthy interim stages.

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Everything Already Troubling About Fifty Shades of Grey, and Then Some

Posted on August 10, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

I really did try.

After years of hearing and reading complaints about E.L. James’s BDSM-erotica bestseller Fifty Shades of Grey – after having previously convinced myself I’d never read it – that the kinky subject matter didn’t interest me; that I didn’t want to join the global sales bandwagon; that I was too good for so-called “mommy porn” – I came to have a change of heart.

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner in the Middle Ages? (Medieval Mondays #2c)

Posted on July 27, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Dinner scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13^th century dinner table.

The time has now come to take a seat at said table and finish finding out.

The very first point of difference one might encounter relates to the time of day “dinner” was actually served. One might expect that turning up anywhere between 6:00 and 8:00pm as is common for modern dinners (particularly in North America) would also apply to the 13^th century.

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How I’m Spending My Summer, 2015 Edition

Posted on July 6, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

It’s that time of year again.

Summer is the best season there is. This may be my personal opinion on the matter, but I do believe there’s some degree of universal truth to it as well: the weather is warm, the days are long, people are friendlier and happier, and the clothing is less encumbering.

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Medieval Meals Made Not-So-Easy (Medieval Mondays #2b)

Posted on June 29, 2015 by Janna G. Noelle

Cooking scene from the Luttrell Psalter (c.1320-1340, Lincolnshire, England)

In the medieval times, our modern emphasis on easy, speedy meals would’ve been an inconceivably foreign concept to a noble family.

In my previous post on medieval food, I discussed the raw ingredients that comprised medieval cookery.

In turning now to discuss how that cookery was done and what recipes often resulted, a key point made by Margaret Wade Labarge, author of Mistress, Maids and Men: Baronial Life in the Thirteenth Century, is as follows:

The medieval baron liked a complicated and highly seasoned dish. (p.118).

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According to TV Tropes, one of the coolest, most addictive wiki’s on the internet,

The week before last, I was on vacation.

As a child, I used to like drawing pictures of medieval castles.

It’s been a long, hot summer in North America.

Believe it or not, I don’t spend all my spare time writing.

I really did try.

Aside from the obvious – heat, crawfish, lots of people who kinda look like me – I didn’t really know what to expect when I decided to join in on the trip mother was making to New Orleans.

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13th century dinner table.

It’s that time of year again.

In the medieval times, our modern emphasis on easy, speedy meals would’ve been an inconceivably foreign concept to a noble family.

I first began this series on medieval food by questioning what sort of experience one would have if transported back in time to a 13^th century dinner table.