Cindy Layton

Now reading A Diary in the Age of Water by Nina Munteanu. The author keeps the science accessible and the story real.

The Multi-Part Harmony of the Screwball Comedy — Acts of Revision by Kimberley Allen McNamara The Screwball comedy is named after a baseball pitch. The screwball pitch starts like other fast breaking pitches; it looks like it will break in one direction but then br...

New at Acts of Revision - Our own Kimberley Allen McNamara dives into screwball comedy – where it came from and where it is today in both books and on screen.

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Watch Your Language: Does Adding Slang to Your Novel Slay? — Acts of Revision Slang can slay—or sink your story faster than a Myspace profile. Using colloquialisms in your WIP can be risky business. Drop in a tired, outdated phrase, and you risk losing credibility with readers....

In our latest post at Acts of Revision, Elizabeth Solar examines the pitfalls of using slang in fiction. She walks the tightrope for writers who need to know which words evoke authenticity and which come across as cliché.
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Summertime and the Productivity is Not Easy — Acts of Revision by Cindy Layton   I just wanna play. Why is that so bad? My inner critic says I’ve got query letters to send and editing to finish. Besides, I’m itching to write something fresh and new. A...

Does the beach beckon while your to do list gives you the side-eye? I stumbled on the I'm Busy Being Awesome podcast that drills down to the heart of the productivity matter. Read my latest post at Acts of Revision.

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imbusybeingawesome.com

Set In A Small Town: There's a Book For Your Type — Acts of Revision by Kimberley M. McNamara Small towns are often featured in works of fiction: novels, plays, movies, and tv shows. The Small-town mystique lends itself to fictional works because they are in essence s...

Kimberley M. McNamara taps into the mystique of fictional small-towns - "snow globes where the outside world, the bigger, grittier, more enlightened world doesn’t intrude." Added bonus - her list of books with “small town realness.”
www.actsofrevision.com/home/set-in-...
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Poetry Festivals - celebrating one of the oldest of the art forms — Acts of Revision by Nancy Sackheim April, National Poetry Month, has been in the rear view mirror now for a month.  If you think you missed your only chance to celebrate one of the oldest art forms during Nation...

AoR’s own Nancy Sackheim goes ultra-genre in her latest post as she highlights the Cowboy Poets, Fisherpoets, and Baseball Poets – 3 notable pairings that, not surprisingly, make for a fine festival. www.actsofrevision.com/home/poetry-...

#writingcommunity #baseballpoetry #poetryfestivals #poetry

Going to the Well — Acts of Revision By Cindy Layton “If people cannot write well, they cannot think well,  and if they cannot think well, others will do their thinking for them.” George Orwell   I’m not a person who’...

“If people cannot write well, they cannot think well,
and if they cannot think well,
others will do their thinking for them.”
George Orwell

Orwell, from sixty-plus years ago, sums up the importance of writing.

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www.actsofrevision.com/home/2018/2/...

Thanks for standing up, Senator. We need more of your colleagues to meet this moment.

Senator - Trump and Musk must be stopped. Please vote no on cloture.

Senator, please hold the line and vote no on cloture as well.

Driven to distraction ‘while the Republic burns’ - The Boston Globe Between George Orwell’s “1984″ and Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” the debate has raged: How will the fall of democracy be realized?

A few weeks back I mentioned two of these books in my letter to the Boston Globe.
www.bostonglobe.com/2025/02/23/o...

Reading for the Current Moment — Acts of Revision Books like these not only help us imagine worst-case scenarios but, hopefully, inspire us to fight against tyranny.

Feeling quite dystopian, historical fiction author at AoR, Victoria Fortune, switches genre to post her essential books in www.actsofrevision.com/home/reading.... Anything here you haven’t gotten to? It's National Reading Month, after all. Wait, did someone cancel that?
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Writers and Readers Share the Love: The Rise of the Romance Novel — Acts of Revision Romance is no longer just about a woman settling down; today’s heroines are career-driven, independent, and multifaceted. Relationships are more varied, representation is expanding, and consent is an ...

Are you a reader or writer of the romance genre? It’s a leader in print book sales! Acts of Revision is out with our latest post from Elizabeth Solar, all about our love for romance – novels, that is.
#Booksky, #writersofbluesky, #writingcommunity #romance
www.actsofrevision.com/home/writers...

kind of begs the obvious response - a literal, (not literary) Fear of Flying. Sorry, couldn't resist ‪Molly Jong-Fast‬ ‪@mollyjongfast.bsky.social‬

A Grander Multiverse — Acts of Revision By Kimberley Allen McNamara According to Brian Greene , author of The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos , discoveries in astronomy and physics point to the possibil...

My colleague, Kimberley Allen McNamara, posted this while her family adjusted to Covid lockdown. Then, everything seemed “half a bubble off plumb.” As the bubble tilts, yet again, read her thoughts about world-building in uncertain times.

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The universal language of baseball...

Query writing=wincing. No getting around it. But, yes, thanks for the pointers. On to the next iteration.

Rarefied Air? – Notoriety is the Newest Award for Acclaimed Authors — Acts of Revision When your favorite author goes from the Pulitzer Prize list to the Registered Offenders list, what's a reader to do? Cindy Layton looks at the fall of two writers, Alice Munro and Neil Gaiman, who've ...

In our latest post at Acts of Revision – what’s a reader to do when their favorite author goes from the Pulitzer list to the registered offender list?
www.actsofrevision.com/home/rarefie...
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Speculative fiction, YA, short stories, blogging about writing. After a career in financial consulting, I switched on my right brain and never looked back. Still, it’s amazing how much crossover exists between creative endeavors and business. Find me and my cohorts at www.actsofrevision.com.