Fiction Archives - Page 3 of 5 - SUSAN TIPPETT BRAITHWAITE

What I’m Reading 8th April

Advertisements

It’s been another week of little reading time, but I did manage to squeeze some time in! I finished reading A Spy’s Guide to Taking Risks by John Braddock, and it was a fascinating read.

Spread over the chapters is the tale of Braddock’s first time travelling to a meet in alias. At first, it seems pretty benign but quickly plunges into a “worst day ever” scenario. We follow him as he does risk analysis on the fly, ditching border guards and a possible tail.

In each chapter, Braddock steps away from the story to explain a spy’s decision making in risky situations. The thought process, the AND-OR components that go into their decision making, the factoring in of every possible eventuality–and assigning probability percentages.

As I read, I saw ways of utilising what I’d learnt in my everyday decision making. But, mostly, I couldn’t stop seeing how I could use it in fiction.

And now, onto this week’s reads.

[FYI: The book links are free from affiliate codes.]

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Sma

Advertisements

Hi everyone! Let’s start April off with a nice easy Scots word. There are a surprising amount of things today’s word means, but in the context of the snippet, the meaning I’m going for is obvious–well, I’m pretty confident that it is.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

What I’m Reading 1st April

Advertisements

I can’t believe it’s been three weeks since I shared my latest reads. But, to be honest, all of my reading plans went out the window. Well, not out the window; they just went so slow that I had to re-read chapters to remember what happened in the days since I’d last read.

I go through the odd month of barely getting any reading done, but I’d thought that wouldn’t be an issue given that I was reading two of my favourite authors. But, I know why I’ve struggled to get much reading done.

Okay, that last statement sounds like I did some deep thinking about the issue and came up with some startling revelation… nope. As I was reading my Fun read–a book I know I love because I’ve read it multiple times–I suddenly remembered that I don’t read fiction when I’m writing fiction.

It probably sounds insane. Wouldn’t reading fiction, especially a well-written novel in my genre, be helpful? For me, no.

While I was writing my scenes, I noticed a different tone slipping in. It was present in the narrative, the dialogue, and the characters. It wasn’t a crappy tone. It was just a bit darker than mine and with less humour. Basically, it wasn’t suitable for my story. (H. R. D’Costa calls it tone tampering.)

So, with my lesson learnt, I’ve decided to give fiction a by while I’m in writing mode.

[FYI: The book links are free from affiliate codes.]

The Work Read

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Wean

Advertisements

This week’s word is another one that might require a pronunciation explainer. Last week I explained that ae sounds like the English ay in bay/say/hay. The ea in wean sounds exactly the same.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Naewey

Advertisements

The spelling of this week’s word might make it a bit difficult to pronounce, as vowels in Scots don’t sound the same as they do in English. A good example is the word wash. In Scots, wash rhymes with rash/cash/mash.

And onto today’s word. The letters ae sound like the ay you find in hay/bay/say, and ey sound like eye/why/die. Altogether, naewey sounds like nay-why.

Regardless of whether you needed the quick vowel explainer or not, I’m sure the meaning of this week’s word is clear.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Chib

Advertisements

Welcome to the revamped Things in Scots series. In this incarnation of TiS, I’m sharing the Scots language found in my upcoming romantic suspense novel, Running the Asset.

This week’s snippet is a bit longer than usual. When I cut it to just the Scots word, it made Adam seem like a guy who got violently angry over food. 😬

I’m relatively confident that the meaning is clear from Adam’s internal dialogue.

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

What I’m Reading 11th March

Advertisements

Welcome to another round of Susan loves her work read, and slightly dodgy things in her romance reads.

[FYI: The book links are free from affiliate codes.]

The Work Read

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Planked

Advertisements

Welcome to the revamped Things in Scots series. In this incarnation of TiS, I’m sharing the Scots language found in my upcoming romantic suspense novel, Running the Asset.

This week’s word is either just clear enough, or it’s as clear as mud. It’s a word I use a lot, and one I use with wild abandon when planning out my stories. I’ve got my fingers crossed that the excerpt is leaning towards just clear enough. 🤞

Oh, and there’s a bonus word, too!

Here’s the snippet… (unedited first draft)

What I’m Reading 4th March

Advertisements

I have a dreaded Did Not Finish (DNF) on one of the books I was reading over the last fortnight. I’ve been trying to avoid doing this with the books in this post series, but it was unavoidable this time.

[FYI: The book links are free from affiliate codes.]

The Work Read

Things in Scots: Running the Asset Edition – Greetin

Advertisements

Welcome to the revamped Things in Scots series. In this incarnation of TiS, I’m sharing the Scots language found in my upcoming romantic suspense novel, Running the Asset.

Okay, this week’s word looks like the English word “greeting”, with the g missed off at the end. But that’s where the similarities end with this Scots word.