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Anyone who has been here for a while knows I'm not big on making resolutions for each new year. 2021 is no different in that regard; however, after the train wreck that was 2020, I do want to take the occasion to try and get things back on track.  The addition of Gumball to the family was perhaps one of the best parts of 2020.
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I began looking into the autism hashtags on Twitter in late 2018 and early 2019 between beginning to suspect I might be autistic and before seeking a diagnosis. Like most social media sites, Twitter uses algorithms to determine what to show you, even from the people you follow. So an interesting thing happened as I broadened my searches from just writing related topics to autism and ADHD.
Tweets and hashtags related to the own voices movement, most specifically those related to authors with autism and ADHD, began popping up in my feed. Before then, I hadn’t heard of such a thing. We haven't visited the Secrets and Stones universe much in this series, but we will today. Today's flash fic is set three or four years before all of the other stories in that series thus far.  Today’s lesson covers a very simple form of figurative language. An onomatopoeia is a word that sounds like its meaning.
Examples would include words such as boom, bang, crunch, clatter, crackle, hiss, and buzz. Comic books and comic strips have made use of enough onomatopoeia it has become rather cliche. Who hasn’t seen a panel of a superhero punching a villain with a big “pow” written out in colorful bubble letters? We're back in the Supers Universe with today's story. "Your Timing Needs Work" takes place about an hour or so after the events of "Not in the Job Description" and "Symbolic Name Fail." While it is not necessary to have read these particular flash pieces or the series as a whole to understand today's story, having done so will probably make it more enjoyable. Emma and Cameron are two of the main players in the universe as a whole, so long time readers have seen the dynamic between these two in different situations and know why Cameron is beaten to a pulp.  In a manner of speaking, many of the paintings and literary masterpieces we consider classics are fan works.
Shakespeare is well known for taking the work of other writers and improving upon it when crafting his plays. When you get right down to it, what are Paradise Lost and Dante’s Inferno but fan fiction written about the Bible? Many of the earlier novelists took inspiration from each other’s work, often borrowing heavily from one another. Aside from portraits, what are the subjects of most of the famous Renaissance paintings we learned about in school? They either featured Bible scenes or scenes from Greek or Roman mythology. Today's story takes us back to the AI Universe immediately following the events of "Unauthorized Call." While those who have read the AI series up until this point will have a deeper understanding of what is going on, the flash fiction is written from the point-of-view of a character who doesn't know what is going on. So, no prior knowledge is needed at all to understand the fic.  Alliteration is one of the less obvious forms of figurative language. It is much more about impact rather than the image produced, so it can be easy to overlook.
What exactly is alliteration? Alliterative text uses the repetition of initial consonant sounds for effect, which is to say, the author uses words that start with the same letter, or same consonant sound, in a row to make a phrase stand out. Tongue twisters are almost always alliterative. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. We're back in the Myth and Science universe today with a story set about four months after the events of "Strange Neighbors." Those who have read the series will recognize the characters and understand their backstories; however, the story can be understood perfectly well without having read any of the others.  Being both a homeschool family and a bunch of creatives, it’s no wonder summer is a busy time for the lot of us when it comes to our personal projects. During the break the kids and I all take advantage of the extra time to pour a few more hours each day into the creative pursuits we work on throughout the year. So it also tends to be a time of skill growth as well.
This is always a good thing, though both girls have found it to also be a tad frustrating. You see, they have a talent for more visual arts than me, and both have been progressing quickly. This is developmentally normal given their ages and the leaps in fine motor control and abilities to understand and think through complex sequences. However, this becomes a bit of a problem when working on large scope projects such as the comic series one is writing and the animation and game design the other is pursuing. By the time they finish a leg of the project, the art they are producing no longer looks like what they did at the beginning. |
A. B. England is a small business owner, mom of two, novelist, all around geek, and avid crafter. She loves mythology, fantasy, and all flavors of science fiction.
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Work QueYekara Series Book 2 Prewriting/Outlining 20% The Icarus Project Rough Draft Progress 77384 / 75000 Myth & Science Collection Planning Stages 38% Supers Collection
Planning Stages 23% Icarus Series Book 2 Sketched w/ Some Drafting Icarus Collection
Sketched Yekara Series Book 3
Sketched Myth & Science Collection 2
Intent Only at this Time Icarus Trilogy Book 3
Sketched Supers Collection 2
Intent Only at this Time Yekara Series Book 4
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