Robyn Braemer Writes

Do you ever go out to a local bar, club, or street dance and notice that the band playing is really good.  I mean so good that they grab your attention from talking with your friends and hold your attention while you think to yourself, wow, they are really good. Sure, we’ve all heard the bands that match the environment that they are playing in, good, but relegated to background music while you visit. There are also the bands that make you cringe and try to tune out because they are so awful. The largest group is in the middle, of course, the bands that have the music down well enough that a non-musician wouldn’t notice a missed note or two and a lead singer that does a decent job. It’s happened many times where I’ve really noticed how good a band is in a small time venue and wondered what separates them from the top bands, the ones that everyone knows their name and they sell over a million copies of their songs. Because some of those small time bands are really, really...

There has been a lot of change in our lives due to technology. Technology is now a part of everyday life, almost every minute life. So which is better? The physical book or the ebook on the ereader (or actually many devices)? I like them both. I used to travel a lot for my job and it was sort of a pain to drag along multiple books for long flights, especially to Europe or India. Eight hours on a plane can mean easily finishing an average sized book before landing. Then there's the flight back. So either drag along multiple books or try to find a book in the European city in English or pay premium for a book at the airport. Along comes the ereader. The ereader is the traveler's best friend. You can load up several books at once or just buy/borrow from Kindle Select as you want and it's slim and portable and handy. Then there's the physical book, which we all still love. There's no denying that holding that book and turning the pages holds a special place ...

Like many writers, I follow several public writing pages on FaceBook, whether for inspiration, to follow trends, or hoping to learn some new hints to help my writing. Sometimes I take a deep breath and dive into the comment section. The comment section of public pages on FB can be daunting. I am always amazed at how often a simple post will initiate a spiral of fighting, unrelated discussions, misunderstandings, and sometimes pure insanity spouted in barely readable text. Yet, on occasion, I will step into that chaos to read what may come. On most writing pages there is the steady posting of advice memes. To be a better writer you must read often. Totally agree. I agree so much that I often wonder why it even needs to be said. Writing is an obsession. Reading is the first obsession that leads to the writing obsession. Yet there are always people who argue against reading to improve writing skills. There are often quite a few "I don't have time to read." and even...

I'm wrapping up my next novel, a story set in a magical realm with skin changers and people who can connect with animals' minds...and other things...and I searched for hours and hours for the terms for some of the magical folk who live in my magical world where the story takes place. It was not an issue at first, until I needed a character to discuss his talent with another character and suddenly I realized that I did not know the name for a person with that talent. I initially used warg but the word niggled at my mind with doubt. I had never heard the word used in any other work until I first encountered it in Game of Thrones books back in the 90s. Yes, I was one of those who started reading the books long before HBO was kind enough to make it into a televised series. Stop and think about it, I have been waiting for the final books for a long, long, long time. I appreciate that HBO has gotten ahead of the released books because I would love to finish this series. Wel...

The 4th of July holiday falls in the middle of the work week this year, Tuesday. I don't know how people in other parts of the country celebrate the holiday but in this area everyone heads for the lakes. It's a term, The Lakes. Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes so there are lots of lakes to choose from. It's so quiet in town with so many people being out of town, at the lakes. I'll bet it's quite a commotion at most campsites and lake resorts though. Here the hush feels a bit uncanny, the roads silent because they are deserted, missing the nonstop hum of traffic passing by. You can look up and down the main roads and see only a car or two for miles in either direction. Over at the lakes cars are likely parked along the narrow, gravel roads leading to campsites and even on grassy patches neighboring the tent sites with their blocky metal grills. Every campsite has them, perched on their thick pillared post, pocked and rusted from years enduring the elemen...