Writtenwyrdd

More Forensics Fun!

Woot! I've found a great place for forensics information: The Writer's Medical and Forensics Lab by D.P. Lyle, MD.  Lots of good links and the doc has written some books on the subject as well as consults.

Still trying to know for sure if an exsanguinated body goes into rigor the same as one that isn't bled out.

Cool Sites

As I can't access typepad from work to post (on breaks, I tell you!) I've been a bit behind with mentions of cool places and links.  So you get a dumpster load today.

 

John Scalzi, whose blog I only recently discovered, is a funny guy.  I discovered (with attendant head scratching at the time) that he was known, besides for writing the Old Man's War series, for bacon references.  The Canonical Bacon Page explains.  Also, many hilarious links to bacon-related material…like bacon bandaids and a bacon replica of an AK-47.  http://whatever.scalzi.com   http://whatever.scalzi.com/about/the-canonical-bacon-page

 

Then there's the blog of The Crochety Old Fan, subtitled "Science Fiction for Old Farts" which I guess includes me, although I don't feel like an old fart.  Is almost 48 an old fart?  Probably, if you are under 40, lol.  http://www.rimworlds.com/thecrotchetyoldfan

 

Best Fantasy & Science Fiction blog has some amusing video clips and a bit of news about sff films and books.  Worth checking out for that.  (Besides, if you haven't seen the Darth Vader golf commercial, you've missed something funny.)  http://bestfantasysf.blogspot.com

 

Another interesting spot for those of us who like our speculative fiction is the National Fantasy Fan Federation.  http://www.n3f.org   They have a new ezine as well, FanDominion.com, which you might check out for your online reading needs.

 

Via SFF.net, there's a list of bookstores, both online and brick-and-mortar, which sell sf and fantasy.  Check them out here.   (And if you have a link to a list of sff specialty stores, which is particularly what I was seeking, do let me know!) http://www.sff.net/people/DoyleMacDonald/bookstor.htm

 

And, finally,I'd like to direct you to Marta's art blog, Words Are Art.  I love her art. She's in the middle of a show somewhere in Texas at the  moment, so some of these collages are going to new homes.  I'd love to own one myself, some day.  (And I'm inspired to do my own version of a writing-related collage, too.)  http://wordsareart.wordpress.com

 

Epic Fail, anyone?

 

Found a new amusing way to avoid writing: Epic Fail. Found via comment trail on Evil Editor's blog, it has kept me amused and not writing for a couple hours. I gathered it's an internet meme, so I looked it up at wiki with the result that I now know that Epic Fail is an ouroborous, a recursive definition because it seems to define it self. You ask, What is Epic Fail? And the answer is Epic Failure pointing to itself. Or something like that. The ultimate in joke, if you will.

 

The Internet Patrol defines Epic Fail thusly:

 In its purest form, epic fail means a catastrophic failure. Not just any failure - not just an “oopsy” - but a full stop, game over failure.

Like the Challenger exploding.  Or the Exxon Valdez.  Or Charles marrying Camilla.

But here is where it gets fuzzy. Because some people use the term “epic fail” to mean a failure that by its very show-stopping spectacularly failing nature comes full circle and actually “wins”.

Still others, perhaps those namby-pamby shrinking violet types, use it to mean something somewhat short of a spectacular failure, because they don’t have the cajones to actually come out and say “hey, you suck”, so they instead brand someone or something with “epic fail”. Or maybe they just haven’t (yet) experienced a full and complete failure, and so have nothing against which to benchmark for an epic fail.

 

Wikipedia has this to say:

"Fail" is the name of a popular Internet meme where users superimpose the word "fail" or "epic fail" onto embarrassing, ironic, or compromising photos or short videos. The meme is widely believed to come have from the arcade game Blazing Star. If you lose, the message "You fail it! Your skill is not enough! See you next time! Bye bye!" is shown.

 

The term "miserable failure" has also been popularized as a result of a widely known "Google bombing", which caused Google searches for the term to turn up the White House biography of George W. Bush.

 

Amusing, perplexing, and coming to a blog post near you.

 

 

Tell my cats about this, will ya?

Suuuuure...

Hampster Dance!!!!!

Come on now, sing along!  This one's for Aerin and Kiersten and everybody else with small children likely to replay the thing over, and over, and over, and over...

If I only could listen along, too.  But my sound card has just fried on the laptop!  Oh noes!!

One Blue Marble - informative and timely

Richard Levangie gave up his writing to work toward environmental change.  This is an excellent place to discover where and what we can do to change our world before we destroy it.  One Blue Marble was created as a result.  I discovered this site from Richard's comment on my post of Severn Suzuki's speech to the UN a week ago.  (If you do not see his comment, click on the 'see more comments' link at the bottom of the page.)

Check it out, if nothing else to be informed.  And you might just find some interesting ideas to use in your worldbuilding. 

NomNomNomilicious

Stolen from Cute Overload a while ago, the NomNom Song! 

And now, Elvis has left the building.   Thankyevehrymuuuuch!

the rumors...

I can't recall if I've ever mentioned this on the blahg:  Since my mother moved in with me two years ago, a certain few (bitchy) people (who are 'pius' and 'religious' types of the apparently not practicing what they purport to believe variety) have been spreading rumors about my mother and me.  Apparently, you see, we are lesbians.  Now, I do love my mother, but not in the sapphic way.  I mean...ick. 

But these biddies insist on spreading and respreading the rumor.  And here's the most current laugh:  Now that we've moved into a new house, the current rumor is that "the town is being overrun with lesbians" and they reference for examples my old house and my current address.  Yup, overrun.  (And yet they are apparently unaware of the several gay or lesbian couples I know about, because these folks are not mentioned in the rumor mongering!)

You have to love old towns.  We make our own entertainment, apparently out of whole cloth. 

What brings visitors to the blahg

Judging by the Feedjit in the sidebar, most of my visitors who aren't coming from google.com as in Google Reader are coming in via a search involving magic (to the Magic For Fantasy Writers series) or for the Jungian Archetypes  & Characterization post from a while back.   There are a few others that get regular hits, but these always come up every day it seems. 

And then there's the person from "Ølstykke, Frederiksborg arrived from kierstenwrites.blogspot.com."  What's up with that?  It's a regular visitor, but always coming from Kiersten's blog according to the Feedjit meter.  *shrugs*  Just another weird internet thing, I suppose.... 

Spring is here!

This morning after my bitch rant blog post, I went to the store and bought some plants.  I planted a cherry tree, a couple of blackberry bushes and an elderberry bush.  Now I just need to transplant some hostas from the old house and I'll have done all the yard work I'm going to be doing this year except for mowing. (As I don't as yet have a spigot outside, it's hand water only for the nonce.  So nothing drastic.  Not that I have yard for non-drastic planting even.  My lot is 1/10th an acre.) 

I also moved most of the junk I had the movers stow into garage.  Except for some stuff that needs reorganizing and the snowblower moved, I could almost park in there now. 

I hauled all that crap to the house, planning on staging it from kitchen to basement.  Mom decided to help and fell on the basement stairs.  :(  Fortunately she's just bruised.  When you have a leg an inch and a half shorter and  you're pushing 70, narrow and awkward basement stairs are not your friend.  The thing was I was outside for another two hours before I came inside.  She could have been laying there in agony and I wouldn't have known.

In any case, she's okay, like I said.  And it's beautiful outside.  And my back is killing me.  I have to finish trekking stuff to the basement and then cut a hole in the wall for the new closet upstairs, do a load of laundry, order a much longed for pizza for dinner and then I can write for a bit.  Well, after I vacuum and clean the cat box.

All in all a relatively productive day.  I mean, I did something at least!

Sunday Writing Avoidance

I think I'm going to start a new semi-series, the Sunday Writing Avoidance post.  With tongue firmly planted in cheek, I admit to being a writing avoidance nut. 

I think my resistance to writing lately has had a few different sources.  One is the sense that I should be doing other things, like working on the house.  Myriad things on the list which I am avoiding there, too.  Like texturing the kitchen walls and painting them.  The cupboards need paint, too, but I'll wait to do that until after I have my gastric bypass surgery.  I figure a couple of weeks post surgery I'll be climbing the walls and painting ought to be nice and soothing.  I'll just make my mother lift the cans of paint for me so I don't break the "lift nothing over 5#" rule.  Plus I have to clear the garage of all the stuff I couldn't deal with before.  Replace the basement window.  Finish a couple of jobs in the upstairs (where my bedroom and office are) like making some dead space in the wall into another closet (so my good clothes aren't in the downstairs guest bedroom.)  So many little things. 

Also, there's the itchy fingered urge to draw or do some craft project.  I've been itching to do a collage, actually, a la Marta; perhaps I ought to do that. 

Then there's the beta readthrough I'm supposed to be doing for a friend's novel.  I'm stalling on that as well, and he deserves better from me for that.  I need to get on the stick there, particularly.  (It's a good read, by the way.  No panicking, you know who you are!)

Then there's the distractions of having to modify my behavior prior to the gastric bypass surgery.  I'm doing the exercising, I'm logging what I eat; but I'm supposed to be eating excruciatingly slowly and at that I'm failing.  I keep forgetting!  (That's my excuse, even if it is a bad one.)  And I cannot even try for breakfasts, because I have to take medication that requires I eat with it.  After surgery, I won't be taking those meds so it won't matter, though. 

Blah blah blah and more things I could name but which I won't.

My instincts are telling me I need to do something creative or work on the house to mentally clear my head for writing.  Cleaning or projects do clear the creative blockages, give me some impetus.  But I'm resisting.  I'm in the grip of the I don't wannas. 

And besides that, for the last couple of months, maybe longer, the migraines have been bugging me.  It's the aura and the light sensitivity that are most problemmatic.  Even with three preventative meds that keep the migraines at bay I still get strong headaches; but they are generally tolerable.  it's the light sensitivity that gets me, like when it hurts to look at a computer screen, or sit in a room with flourescent lights, or where the bright sunlight outside keeps stabbing me in the eye.  It's not great, but it's not so horrible I want to suicide for relief.  so I can cope.  It's just not the sort of situation where I can write or think about writing.  Bleh.

Nevertheless, I have been writing recently.  I've fallen in love with Boetha the Electric Zombie, and have managed 500-word increments for her fairly easily.  (Maybe I should stick to writing in 500-word increments?)  And this morning I've written a scene in the vampire erotica, Blood  Shot.  It's not a great scene, but it's a decent draft/placeholder. 

Now I really must go and get some plywood cut and then work on my kitchen for a few  hours.  Bleh. 

I'm feeling a bit snobbish, but...

I find myself appalled (in a mild-mannered sort of way) by the book Pride & Prejudice and Zombies.

Not that I'm saying it's a bad book; the reviews are such I figure I'll pick it up once it's out in paperback.  But what the book IS bothers me.

See, author Seth Grahame-Smith rewrites Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice to add zombies, which are referred to as unmentionables in the book. 

Call me a snob, but I object strenuously to riffing off another writer, using their characters, writing sequels to another writer's work (unless the estate is involved in the decision.).  It smacks of cheating and fan fiction to me, and (here's where the snobbishness comes in) like you aren't coming up with your own material because you are riffing off someone else instead of making it all up.  Rehashing a literary giant's work, or anyone's for that matter, isn't copyright infringement with a novel this old; but it bothers me. It's cheating. It's taking someone else's world and moving in, like a squatter.  And I don't want to see squabbling over literary squatting rights. I don't like this trend, even if the book is brilliant (which by the accounts I've read, it is.) I objected to League of Extraordinary Gentlemen for the same reasons and I shall always object to what amounts to plagiarism via fan fiction--the kind the author isn't around to object over.

Jasper Fforde went a bit over the line for me in his Thursday Next series by having his characters living inside of books, and by taking characters from novels like Great Expectations.  However he (mostly) bypassed my sense of unfair play because he made these borrowed characters act roles outside of the ones dictated by their original authors, and (with minimal exceptions) Fforde did not use the original books, just a few of the characters by name, with their original characterizations just acting roles. I didn't feel totally comfortable about the set up, felt I was on the lip of a slippery slope--but it wasn't the same thing as taking others' characters and, ahem, reanimating them for the purpose of rewriting the original.

It continues to bother me and feel wrong that a writer takes another work and riffs off of it.  But with Pride, Prejudice and Zombies, it's gone a step further to actually rewriting a classic for effect.  I have always been bothered by sampling in the musical realm for the same reason:  Feels like cheatin' to me.

If it's fan fiction, which I think Pride, Prejudice & Zombies is, it seems somehow wrong to profit off of it…but I feel wrong for thinking that, feel that, somehow, I'm missing the rationale that makes it all okay… 

What do you think? Is our social fabric falling to pieces and this new trend of reworking old stuff a sign of the impending Apocalypse?  Will Lassie get Timmy out of the well by the end of 60 minutes?  Can you really lose weight by taking As Seen On TV diet aids?  

 

Cyber security and your worldbuilding.

The issue of cyberspying, cypersecurity and cyberwar were all over the news recently. Apparently, the Chinese and Russians have both sought to map out our power infrastructure via cyberspying, leaving behind tools that could be activated in case of war, thus crippling our country at a critical moment.  Whether the worry is a valid one at this time is irrelevant for the writer; it could happen, so we can play with it a bit here.  MSNBC article here.

 

Can you imagine such a latent cyberbomb for your fictional world? Something that lies in wait, a stealth mode predator, waiting for a viral cue that sets it off?

 

Ideas.

The first thing that I think of is the article's literal scenario. Simultaneous to an attack, the power grid falls, communication systems fail and assorted physical attacks from sleeper cells do things like set off limited EMP strikes and conventional explosives. Nasty! (And thus I LIKE it!)

 

But what this really sparks for me is how to use this sort of scenario in a fantasy world. You could have both tech and magic that is blown to merry hell via such a stealthy set up. Think about it. How would stealth tripwires be set? Stealth magibombs? What sort of trigger would you use to set off a planted magic blast, and what types of magic would create havoc on your world?

 

Asking about magical attacks-from-within brings up even more questions. You need to consider how magic works, the strengths and weaknesses of the magical grid (if you world has a grid equivalent) and where it would be most easily disrupted. Would you be best off throwing a wrench in magical powr supplies, or by occupying the magical cops with a multitude of magical brush fires? Could the rerouting of magic into a big display drain the magic from other important workings, like security shields? Could such an act allow an entry of say an entity from another sphere or reality?

 

You can really play around with this idea. Have fun with it, my friends, and happy plotting!

Continuing the saga of Boetha, the Electric Zombie...

Episode Three of "Boetha & the Phantom Poet"  is up at the Legion of On-Line Superheroes.  Check it out here.  The previous episodes are here. 

And be sure to read the others' stories.  Well worth the visit.

Opportunity Thursday - this time, contests!

Some contests with plenty of prep time:

Oncewritten.com (an online magazine) has the "2009 Midnight Hour Halloween fiction contest".  First prize: $500 and publication.  Runner up: $100 and publication.  Deadline: August 31, 2009.  There's a reading fee of $15, however, so you need to decide if you want to participate based on that.  per the site:  "Do you have a really great ghost tale to tell?  Are horror stories your specialty?  maybe you've written a Halloween story that you can't wait to share with the world?  Perhaps midnight is just a time of reflection for you and your characters.  Scare us, depress us, inspire us, we don't care, but tell us a great story about what happens in The Midnight Hour.  We aren't too strict with word counts, but use 3,500 words as a loose guideline."  http://www.oncewritten.com/Contests/MidnightHour.php

Minnesota Society for Interest in Science Fiction and Fantasy (MISFITS) has the "11th Annual MISFITS Writing Contest."  First prize, Open Division:  $125 Amazon.com gift certificate.  Two winners will be chosen from this category.  Not much on what they want except, "Science fiction,fantasy, horror, supernatural or alternate history fiction." (There are also youth division and poetry division contests; check the site for details.)  Submissions:  April 1, 2009 through May1, 2009.

NOTE:  If you were already aware of this contest, check the rules link anyhow, as the rules have changed. http://www.misfit.org/writingcontest/rules.htm

Aeon, "Ireland's magazine of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror" presents the International Aeon Award.  Prize:  1,000 pounds and publication in Albedo One.  2nd and 3rd prizes are 200 and 100 Euro and publication in Albedo One.  Again an entry fee of  7 pounds.  http://www.albedo1.com/html/aeon_award.html  Length: No more than 8,000 words, no minimum length. Multiple entries are allowed (separately submitted, I presume.)  From the site:  "The contest opens 1st January 2009, and runs for four rounds throughout the year.  The submission deadline for the first round is March 31st, the second round [is] June 30th, the third round September 30th and the final round November 30th.  (i.e. you can submit any time from 1st Jan to 30th Nov.)  At the end of each round, the best story submissions received within each round will be chosen by a panel fo judges and shortlisted for the Award.  The stories chosen for shortlisting in each round will be announced…on the Albedo One website…shortly after the end of each round."

 

Future architecture

I

've considered worldbuilding potential in many things of minor import in the building of your fantasy or science fiction world--such as waking routines or fashion and shoes.  Seems to me that even the simplest invention can have ripple effects that would influence esthetics and design choices for buildings, infrastructure and artworks. 

One concrete example (forgive the pun) is concrete itself.  The Romans' invention of concrete was partly based on the particular soils of their region (forgive the lack of research; I know this to be so, but can't recall the specifics) and concrete as well as superior architectural skills and stone working skills allowed for monumental public works projects, the Appian Way, the Coliseum, aqueducts that are still in use two thousand years later. 

So.  A small change in building materials, or even a loss of knowledge (as the Dark Ages clawed into the Renaissance and the peoples of Europe had to rediscover many previously known principles of building design and construction).  And a similar loss (how to make steel?) would precede a marked change in our present day choices to build high rise buildings.

Idea.
A new medium is going on sale this year:  Transparent concrete.  And I can imagine some expensive and innovative means to use this stuff.  Would you like to see a transparent bridge, for example?  Or could a similar technique be made for large slabs used for windows?  What would the addition of moldable yet transluscent concrete mean for the architect? 

Queryday thoughts

Rachel Gardener posts her tweets from Queryday here.  Good thoughts, some of which are excerpted below.

• "Learn your craft" = nothing to do with grammar. Style, voice, story, plot, pacing, dialogue, characterization, etc
• A query that makes me laugh out loud is a great thing! Whether or not the book is for me, it gets my attention.
• A query that talks only about the THEME of your novel is rarely effective. You need to tell about the STORY.
• DON’T say “the book gets exciting in chapter 5” or “the pace really picks up toward the end.” Make it shine from page 1.
• Don’t send us something outside of our guidelines and try to impress us with how “out of the box” you are.
• Fiction writers… it’s ALL about the writing. Nothing’s as important as what’s on the page. If it rocks, nothing else matters.
• Fiction: qualification=ability to write. Non-fiction: must have credentials and/or significant platform.
• Humility is much better than arrogance in a query letter. Try not to oversell yourself, but present your work with confidence.
• I love queries that are straight-to-the point and don’t “try too hard.” The matter of fact approach is refreshing.
• I prefer your query NOT tell me what a great movie your book would make. If it has movie potential, trust me, I’ll notice.
• I rarely find mixed comparisons helpful ("Jane Austen meets Frank Peretti"). Works in Hollywood but not for me.
• I realize some people write great books but not killer queries; I give the sample pages much more weight than the ltr.
• I understand it’s difficult to visit so many agent websites and read all their guidelines, but it’s worth the effort.
• If fulls/partials aren't getting you a yes, then go back and work on craft & story. Don't rush. Take your time & get help.
• If I can change my two-spaces-after-a-sentence habit after 25 years of typing, so can you. One space is standard in publishing.  (This was news to me!)
• If you mention a previously published book, make sure I’ll be able to find it on Amazon because I WILL look it up.
• It's a big risk to say you're "sick of vampires" (or anything else). What if it's the agent's favorite genre?
• Many great stories are difficult to summarize adequately. Everyone's in same boat unless its high concept.
• Never, never, never phone an editor or agent unless they're YOUR editor or agent
• No need to reveal entire plot in query; give the set-up and premise; make me want to read it.
• Professional does not mean boring. In a query letter, boring = pass.
• Queries are first step in the door, but they’re not nearly as important as your book! Put 99% of your effort into your BOOK.
• Reality check: If you are your family’s breadwinner, plan to keep your day job even after you sell several books.
• The first book MUST be able to stand on its own, mention you have series in mind if 1st book hits. Give synopses.
• The key to a query letter is the same as in good fiction: show, don’t tell. SHOW me that your work is amazing, don’t tell me.
• This is the only time I will shout today: IT'S A SUBJECTIVE BUSINESS! Like art, TV, movies, fashion, etc. Not a reason to whine.
• This may be hard to hear, but I suggest you avoid being in a rush to get published. Take TIME to develop your craft.
• TOP reason I say “no” to queries is the story doesn’t sound unique, fresh, exciting. The problem isn’t the query, it’s the book.
• Writers are always asking for feedback; but often when we give it as concisely as possible, it's interpreted as cruelty.
• Writing credentials don't sell your book, your WRITING does. Can't stress strongly enough. Take time to develop craft.
• You can write all the amazing queries you want, but if you don't have a great book, you'll never get a book deal.
• You don't need comparative titles in the query, but in the PROPOSAL, you do.
• You must include the genre. Publisher, bookstore, consumer all need to know! Find books/websites that discuss genre.

Vocabulary inspired (again)

Looking up a word (which one being irrelevant at the moment) I ran across en brochette, which means 'on a skewer.'  Omygosh I immediately wanted to use this word in the next vampire party scene I wrote.  (One is coming up soonish.)  Human...served en brochette.  So bizarre. 

Who knew I would be inspired to start researching obscure (to me) terms for ways to serve food?  Bwahahaha!

Definition: Horror fiction

"Horror can be many, many things and go in many, many directions..."  Robert McCammon

Lately I've been contemplating short story writing, and find that I seem inclined toward horror fiction--a surprise to me, I assure you.  I typically don't read horror; so where did that penchant come from?

I considered the genre definition, which is more subtle than the slasher blood-and-guts-painting-the-landscape sort of movie that's become predominant.  According to the Horror Writers Association, the definition of horror fiction is diverse and the definition of writing that evokes the dictionary definition of the emotion, "a painful and intense fear, dread, or dismay" is thus horror.  "By this definition, the best selling book of all time, the Bible, could easily be labeled horror, for where else can you find fallen angels, demonic possessions, and an apocalypse absolutely terrifying in its majesty all in one volume?"  And they go on to say,  "[i]n his 1982 anthology Prime Evil, author Douglas Winter stated, 'Horror is not a genre, like the mystery or science fiction or the western. It is not a kind of fiction, meant to be confined to the ghetto of a special shelf in libraries or bookstores. Horror is an emotion.' He was correct and his words have become a rallying cry for the modern horror writer."

Okay, so there you have it:  Horror is not in and of itself a genre.  But it sure is shelved that way!

I think the "I know it when I see it" definition can come into play for horror, especially given that that great arbiter of gestaltic wisdom, Wikipedia,  defines horror as pretty much the dictionary definition of the term (see above), adding, "Since the 1960s, any work of fiction with a morbid, gruesome, surreal, or exceptionally suspenseful or frightening theme has come to be called 'horror'." Before that, I am left to presume, a supernatural element such as a haunting or vampires made it a horror tale.

So there you have it, clear as mud.  And rhetorical question time:  Why is it that when I try to come up with a definition of genre, the hair splitting commences and the grey sops all the starkness from the black and the white?  Why?  I like black and white definitions, thank you very much, evil gods of writerly confusion!  (Rant over.  Hope you enjoyed the show.  I'll be here all week.)

And why this came up in the first place:
A couple days ago, someone posted a new beginning at the Evil Editor's blog, and it was a remake of Beauty and the Beast.  Now, I've always hankered to do a fairy tale rewrite, but never had an idea that grabbed me by the throat and insisted I take it on.  Until the other day.  Because I liked a lot of the dynamics and language in that beginning.  And I got to thinking why I liked it, and I got me an idea...

So I'm writing a Beauty and the Beast story that's a horror.  And it's a horror because, in the end, you wonder who is the actual monster... And all the basic elements of the story fit into my sense of the horrific.  To whit:

• 'Worthless' handicapped daughter pawned off by daddy to escape his debt. (Rose stolen, thief caught and price demanded.)
• Pragmatic daughter willing to do anything, even be some noble's lemman, to better her life. (Daughter given to appease Beast.)
• A dark secret and the reason the servants are invisible...and who they really are, how they became that way. (There is more to the Beast than the Beauty can know, and she becomes curious.)
• The salvation of the Beast, which reveals that the girl's agenda is not at all altruistic. (Girl goes home and nearly kills Beast by doing so.)
• And, finally, what the girl becomes by "saving" the Beast.  Her choice is pretty horrific and yet so satisfying on certain levels, because I can envision how someone in her position became that way...   (The salvation of the Beast, the HEA where he is a handsome prince rescued by love.)

I like it when I have a sense of the resonance the story is supposed to impart at the ending.  And this story is supposed to be, while not pleasant, right.  Because the girl protagonist is a throw away person and she does something good for selfish reasons and to spite those who threw her away.

Of course we'll have to see how it turns out.  The characters have a way of getting their own ideas mid-story!

Oh, you will LIKE this one!

Found via Tara Maya's link to Liana Brooks' blog. 

Learn by doing

Can I just say that writing the Boetha the Electric Zombie tale has been enormous fun?  It's also taught me something.  See, I know I tend to overwrite, but I also tend to let myself do it so that I can worldbuild during the first draft.  That's all well and good, but I've wondered it it was an excuse for having flabby prose. 

Conclusion:  I think it is more of an excuse (and a poorer one) than I wanted to believe.  Because, writing the 500-word increments of Boetha's story, I discovered more about tightening up what I write than I'd learned in all the years previously. I mean, I know how to edit and trim, but to the bone?  Hadn't shaved it that close to the bone before. 

And I can see the writing is better for it.  Hmmm....

(Don't you hate things that make you go, "Hmmm...."?  Because then you have to get all philosophical and self-exploratory and examine your feelings and all that crap?--Sorry, I think I'm flashing back to therapy!))

Anyhow, I'll be continuing Boetha's tales for the forseeable future.  Because I like her.

Have a little fun when you brainstorm

From a humorous email:

The Funniest Staff Meeting Ever!

The boss of a Madison Avenue advertising agency called a spontaneous staff meeting in the middle of a particularly stressful week. (This is one pretty sharp boss!) When everyone gathered, the boss, who understood the benefits of having fun, told the burnt out staff the purpose of the meeting was to have a quick contest. The theme: Viagra advertising slogans.

The only rule was they had to use past ad slogans, originally written for other products that captured the essence of Viagra. Slight variations were acceptable.
About 7 minutes later, they turned in their suggestions and created a Top 10 List. With all the laughter and camaraderie, the rest of the week went very well for everyone! The top 10 were:

10. Viagra, Whaazzzz up!
9.  Viagra, The quicker pecker picker upper.
8.  Viagra, like a rock !
7.  Viagra, When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight.
6.  Viagra , Be all that you can be.
5.  Viagra, Reach out and touch someone.
4.  Viagra, Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.
3.  Viagra, Home of the whopper!
2.  Viagra, We bring good things to Life!
And the unanimous number one slogan:
1.  This is your peepee. This is your peepee on drugs.

And the lesson?  Ideas and humor go together.  Have fun when you are coming up with ideas. 

NOTE: This accidentally got posted with the wrong date.  So I'm fixing it now.  Shalom.

Puntillio!

Once you make a point, move on, don't keep looking for new ways to say the same thing. Evil Editor

Episode 2 of Boetha & the Phantom Poet is up

...at the Legion of Online Superheros.  Please stop by if you are so inclined. There are other stories  as well for you to peruse. 

It's Alive! It's ALIIIVE!!

"I think what keeps the book fresh isn't the fantasy, but the fact that I was trying very hard to make it real. To make the voices real. In the end it is always the voices, for me."  Peter S. Beagle, in an interview regarding A Fine & Private Place on amazon.com

I haven't read anything by Peter S. Beagle in years.  But I think I'll have to get something of his again to read...

Plot summaries

Can you summarize your plot?  What is your elevator pitch?  I sure hope it is not boiled down to something like these, which are funny, but not a great pitch.  Enjoy.

(This link was all over Twitter. I don't know how to retweet so you get it on the blahg.)

Opportunities via Angie

Angie listed a few anthology story opportunities, some erotica, some SF, some fantasy.  Check them out here. 

Have you seen Susan Boyle?

I have to share this video, because Susan Boyle, a contestant on Britain's Got Talent, gave a phenomenal performance.  She's my age but looks quite a bit older, is a never-been-kissed virgin who lives with her cat...and she has a dream to be a professional singer.

Watch the video here.  She'll be a professional singer, all right.  And, for comparison,here's Elaine Paige singing the same song.  (I think Susan did the big key change perfectly, effortlessly, where Elaine had to work to get the notes.)

Mind/body and your character

"The essential part of [the person transplanted to a new body], call it the soul or consciousness or whatever it is, still remains. The container has changed; the person remains the same. Who you are morally, who you are in memory, who you are in continuity, still exists. All the rules still apply. You have a new body and a new lease on life but that doesn’t mean you’ve cheated God or fate.

From a moral or teleological point of view, it’s no different from a heart or a liver transplant. Those would also extend your life and give you new opportunities. But you’re still obligated to follow the moral strictures of your god or your conscious and make sure you don’t treat the gift of life-extension as a “get out of jail free” card. It’s not a chance to abandon morality. It’s a chance to reaffirm it."  John Scalzi

In John Scalzi's interview at Tor.com, he discusses the reaction of a character who is placed in a replacement body.  And he states the above, apparently confident that who we are spiritually is transplanted along with the mind and personality and memories.

Which of course got me thinking, What If.

I think a key means of getting a new take on an old trope is to ask the assumptions that lay below the choice the writer made.  In this case, Scalzi is assuming that the soul and mind are going to transplant complete and unchanged to a new body.  Personally, I think the house dictates some of the personality; so I went in that direction in my thinking: What if the essential element that ties spirit to mind to flesh, forming a gestalt that equals our personality, is dependent on the flesh?  And what occurs to the individual who changes bodies?

That is an intriguing idea to me.  The consequences of not having the original flesh with its chemical and hormonal signals and relationships to affect thought and deed and emotion would possibly create a being who is no longer able to experience certain (or any) emotions, despite recalling these feelings.  It might even render the individual worse than a sociopath who 'gets' the rules of society but ignores them at will without guilt; it might render the changed individual so alien in thinking that he or she no longer can truly comprehend our drives and desires.

What if the newly bodied person finds that he can, without the blinkers of the original flesh, see the dynamics of humanity in a manner that leads him to think that he ought to 'fix' it, either by taking over or subverting the existing government in favor of a new one?  Or the old trope raising its head again: He decides humanity doesn't deserve to live? 

So many possibilities if you change the rules and assumptions.

Grammar refresher: passive voice

Great link on Passive Voice--what it is and what it isn't.  I found it on a blog yesterday and can't recall whose now.

Visual aid: genre

Thought you might like a visual aid.  This is more geared toward movies, but I figure you can get some mileage from it.  I give you Don Hertzfeldt's Genre:

And more of his shorts can be found here.  (God I love You Tube!  Such a glorious wasting of bandwidth!)

Legion of On-Line Superheros

Please stop by the Legion and read Whirlochre's (sadly gorgeous) tale of Sorrow, part 1, Blogless Troll's (gut-splitting) story of the Mad Smart Pirate (and his wifflebat)  and Bevie James' (mysterious) Panthera installment.  There will be new posts every day or so, as well, so please link and enjoy as they arrive! 

My story of Boetha the Electric Zombie is also up if you haven't yet read it.  Feedback is always appreciated.

Amazon's response to my complaint email

Amazonfail part deux.

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Amazon.com.  

This is an embarrassing and ham-fisted cataloging error for a company that prides itself on offering complete selection.  

It has been misreported that the issue was limited to Gay & Lesbian themed titles - in fact, it impacted 57,310 books in a number of broad categories such as Health, Mind & Body, Reproductive & Sexual Medicine, and Erotica. This problem impacted books not just in the United States but globally. It affected not just sales rank but also had the effect of removing the books from Amazon's main product search.  

Many books have now been fixed and we're in the process of fixing the remainder as quickly as possible, and we intend to implement new measures to make this kind of accident less likely to occur in the future.  

Thanks for contacting us. We hope to see you again soon.    

Sincerely,  
Customer Service Department

Amazon.com

Not that I believe them for a red hot second.  I believe this was totally deliberate, considering that they actually emailed that it was policy re adult content.  Lilith Saintcrow has some reasons to rebut it on her blog as well which might interest you, as well as one reported 'explanation' which is suspiciously specious if you ask me, especially since Craig Seymour had all sorts of issues getting his book relisted in FEBRUARY.  Read and decide for yourself.

But I am giving Amazon's response to me in the interest of letting you, the public, know their public response as to what occurred.  (It's all over the net in other blogs, too.)  Me, I am seriously considering taking my very expensive Amazon habit elsewhere.  And that will inconvenience me no end, seeing as we do not have a decent brick-and-mortar store for 120 miles, and I actually like Amazon's site and capabilities over any of the other online sources.

And, correct me if I am wrong, but the lack of ability to find books by any author who only had delisted books strikes me as rather oddly suspicious...

Vampire Lolcat

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

#Amazonfail

You may have heard about the recent change at Amazon.com regarding removing sales ranking for books deemed adult content?  Well, here's an update. 

The 'facts' are being merrily spun to a fare-thee-well at Amazon, so what was true and not true as of Saturday or Sunday is not necessarily the case now.  However, follow Betsy's link at her post (where I first heard about Amazonfail) to the petition.  Then perhaps read this and the #amazonfail link, which has some updates in the timeline order they occurred.

I think that the spin on this will not be a good thing for Amazon.  I for one will not buy from them if they do not put things back the way they were.  I am not for censorship, in particular censoship purportedly based (see the #amazonfail article) on 'customer complaints'. 

Word play from xkdc

 

This is what is fondly termed as a mind fuck, courtesy of xkdc.com webcomics.  I suggest we do not do this to our readers, lol. 

Readers hate feeling the butt of authorial jokes.  (And it's the reason I tend to loathe pun endings.)   Don't be like that with readers, all esoteric and high falutin'...because they'll hunt you down and kill you...

Musical Monday link

Check out this cool Fatboy Slim video for Right Here, Right Now.  It's Evolution in 3 minutes, thirty six seconds. 

They also brought us the wonderful dance video starring Christopher Walken in Weapon of Choice--which I've already linked to previously.  Still one of my favs ever.

Happy Easter!

And for all you pagans like me, Happy Spring! 

Wishing fertility symbols, hopping bunnies and sugary sweets to all!

Boetha & The Phantom Poet

Episode One of Boetha & the Phantom Poet is up here at Legion of Online Superheroes.

Let me know what you think!

The Legion of Online Superheros

Legion of Online Superheroes.  Bevie James is the ringleader of a brand new blog where a handful of writers are posting 500 word installments relaying the ongoing adventures of our very own superhero alter egos.  (Thank you, Bevie.)  Below is my character, a feisty gal who may be more of an anti-hero or a force of nature than a genuine hero.

*

Once the daughter of a wealthy magnate Martimus Catallan, Boetha got sick of the party circuit and joined the Intergalactic Rangers.  There she found her true calling as a soldier.  But when a clash with the alien Slykkernay leaves her near death and missing most of the parts the gods gave her, she opts for the ultimate Special Forces--The Cybercorps--and an eternal undeath of kicking ass and taking names. But when the loyalty chip malfunctions, what's a freewheeling undead sociopath to do?  Why, go into business for herself!

Now, no one orders Boetha around.  She's got her trust fund and the keys to her daddy's research labs.  

The thing to know about Boetha?  She is not a Nice Girl.  She likes crushing skulls and kicking puppies.  But when the plasma bolts are flying and the enemy's space navy is bearing down, you can rely on her EMP bolts and nasty temper to see you through. Because PMS has nothing on Boetha, the Electric Zombie.

(And that's her trusty robot factotum, Zap, floating with her.)

FYI, I've set this character up in the first millenium of the Zahoran Empire, which is a universe I've been creating for a while.  I haven't gotten any stories from it published as of it, but I do have one in the works for "present day" Zahoran Imperial time--about 2,500 years later.

*My new superhero identity, courtesy of my imagination and Hero Machine 2.5, which is a dreadfully amusing time waster.  Visit site at your own peril, kiddies.

And Episode One of "Boetha and the Phantom Poet" begins today.  Or whenever Bevie posts it.  I will link when it's up.

another blush

Fairyhedgehog has awarded me with the coveted Zombie Chicken Award.  Thanks, FHH! 

"The blogger who receives this award believes in the Tao of the zombie chicken - excellence, grace and persistence in all situations, even in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. These amazing bloggers regularly produce content so remarkable that their readers would brave a raving pack of zombie chickens just to be able to read their inspiring words. As a recipient of this world-renowned award, you now have the task of passing it on to at least 5 other worthy bloggers. Do not risk the wrath of the zombie chickens by choosing unwisely or not choosing at all…”

While I am not the biggest zombie fan out there, I do have a zombie story making the rounds.  It's the one that got short listed.  Only, instead of being a bloody horror, it's more what I call a "cozy horror" if you can believe that.  Not all bloody and gutsy, me. 

Instead of passing it along to specific bloggers, I would like to extend the invitation to all of you writing bloggers on my link list, as I did not list you yesterday.  Somehow, I don't think the awesomeness that is the Zombie Chicken Award can be diluted. 

Opportunity for WTF? writing

Angry Robot Books is launching a new imprint looking for SF/F/WTF?!, due to launch in July 2009.  From the publisher:

Angry Robot ™ is a new global publishing imprint from the rather wonderful HarperCollins. Our mission, quite simply, is to publish the best in brand new genre fiction - SF, F and WTF?!

Traditional SF and fantasy has been ploughing an entertaining furrow for many decades, but to our way of thinking much of it is missing a trick. To the new generations of readers reared on Dr Who and Battlestar Galactica, graphic novels and Gears of War 2, old school can mean staid, stuck in a rut. “Crossover” is increasingly the way forward and you’ll find plenty of it here, without batting an eyelid. New heroes and new settings, or maybe just reinventing the wheel, we’re not fussed - if there’s an energy in a book that gets us jumping up and down, we’re all over it.

We know many readers are madly passionate about their genres. Angry Robot is too. If anything, we’re too passionate. We are fans, given at any moment to break into a lengthy harangue about why book X is a lost classic or author Y really should give it up already. The sheer joy, though, of being able to jump onto a table (only sometimes metaphorically) and tell the world about how bloody great a chosen writer or novel is, is what drives Angry Robot.

Submissions page here.

Are you a fluffy bunny?

Liana Brooks has a neat article on your draft style here.  Check it out...and let me know if you're a fluffy bunny, too!

What makes a dystopic story?

"A “reciprocal interaction” model of our culture suggests that it is possible to predict historical developments by closely studying the current line of “products”. A product can be viewed as disposable items bought by consumers. Unfortunately, books and tracks are included on this list as consumers are constantly searching for the next “big thing” and frequently discard yesterday’s “hits”. Two popular products─cyperpunk fiction and industrial music─ are purposely prophetic as they are meant to serve as a warning about the bleak future ahead. Yet, these products from the “dystopian genre” reflect our present as well." "Dr. Thanatos" of Ann Arbor

Doing a bit of link-hopping to pass the time and come up with fresh article ideas when I found a support site for writers of POD books.  Now, wait, I admit to finding the site wrong-headedly self-enabling and self-congratulatory, but there are plenty of great articles and discussions here at novel editor.  Do check out their blog article, where I found the quote.  While I find it a bit off base and crack pot, it has some good points about what makes a good dystopian society.  His list of ingredients include (but presumably are not limited to):

• A small government (e.g., a fascist state)
• controls their large populace (e.g., poor and uneducated masses)
• using a rare technology (e.g., retinal scans).
• Abuse of the system (e.g., greed) causes a societal decline to the point of apocalypse (e.g., global warming).
• A group of “rebels” arise from the masses with the aid of an outside hero. These rebels often re-vitalize an under-used technology to overthrow the totalitarian state.

Thus, if this version of dystopia is to be followed, you always have to have a rebellion, you always have to have some "outsider" as rebel leader/hero, and the unwashed masses come across (to me at least) as basically helpless.  To me that's somewhat insulting the reader's intelligence if you go about a story in that manner; it says in the subtext that 1) the mass of humanity is always going to be a victim, and 2) it takes an outsider to promote change.  Both ideas are bunk, and might even be self-contradictory. 

But this list of a dystopic story progression does have some good points.  You could, for example, structure a story that way.  Not that I think it would appeal greatly to many readers, but you could.  In a way, The Silver Metal Lover is dystopic in that fashion, because the hero of the book makes herself an outsider, deliberately dropping out of her priviledged rich lifestyle to become a street singer with her robot lover.  But the world, despite being slave to technology, isn't all thornless roses.  And the girl suffers for trying to live her life the way she wants.

However, on the surface that world Tanith Lee created seems a bit more utopian than dystopian.  Which is where another definition of the term comes into play.

Wikipedia distinguishes two varieties of dystopia:  "A dystopian society is one in which the conditions of life are miserable, characterized by human misery, poverty, oppression, violence, disease, and/or pollution....Some academic circles distinguish between anti-utopia and dystopia. As in George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, a dystopia does not pretend to be utopian, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was intended to be so, but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian world or concept."

The Matrix, however, when looked at from within the grip of the matrix, utterly matches the first definition, outside rescuers and all.

How I define dystopic stories is that the civilization involved is somehow past its peak; the populace is plagued and affected by high tech that has gone awry; and the tech is also (or can be) a means for salvation.  But at base, to me dystopian worlds skip the fluffy bunnies: they have slavering rabid bunnies with cybernetic limbs that hunt you down and kill you.  It's not just man vs. machine OR man vs. government, either.  A dystopic world has got to have some sort of need to improve the human condition as the driving factor, be it post-apocalyptic conditions (radiation, disease, starvation, natural disaster, an asteroid striking the planet), mankind's creation coming back to bite us (computers take over the world, environmental pollution, global warming), or what I like to call the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire version 2.0 (or 3.0; we might possibly be in v. 2.0 at the moment...) where a functioning society stagnates and begins to decay and crumble. 

To me, a dystopic novel isn't about the exact plot, so the definition I first quoted doesn't work for me too well.  To me, a dystopic novel is more a story told in an environment that is a product of man's desire to controlthe world where the human measure is largely lost to the outpouring of technology.  Greed generally will play a part, as well as selfishness, shortsightedness and power politics.  Altruism is generally the provenance of the few, and most often the hero embodies it...but not always. 

My definition. 
I think, in a dystopic novel, part of what is at stake for the protagonist isn't the overt goal of the story, the MacGuffin if you will:  It is humanity itself at stake.  In a dehumanized world, the protagonist (or something the protagonist may be working towards) is like a light in a mineshaft, leading the way home.

Perhaps the thing about dystopic settings is that they can show hope survives.  Dunno.  But I love me some dystopic reads, I do!  (And I look forward to seeing what you think makes a good dystopic story.)

Reads. 
Off my bookshelves, some favorites:  Nylon Angel and its sequels Code Noir and Crash Deluxe by Marianne dePierres.  (I'm sure I have more; but the books are haphazardly stacked three deep on the shelves at the moment so I can't just give a quick look and find whatever else I have.) 
Also, on Amazon I found a list that has some classics as well as some of more recent vintage.

Links.
See here for a general discussion of utopian/dystopian literature and film;
and visit here for a list of dystopic reads you might like. 

*blushes*

From Aerin at In Search of Giants, an award.  Thank you, Aerin, I am sincerely flattered.  Sometimes when you blather on about a topic enough you begin to wonder if you are just spouting off like the pontificating wind bag that you know yourself to be.  (I am decidedly a windbag; I recognize this with a perverse lack of humility.)  But it's nice to discover that you can actually be interesting, too...at least some of the time!

The rules are

1) Add the logo of the award to your blog
2) Add a link to the person who awarded it to you
3) Nominate at least 7 other blogs
4) Add links to those blogs on your blog
5) Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs!

So, in the interest of sharing the lurv, I nominate

• Charles Gramlich (for many great posts on writing, good books and life in general),
• Bernita Harris (for being Bernita.  I hope you come back to blogging soon lady),
• Whirlochre (you wacky feller),
• Kiersten (our Left Coast Whirl),
• Ellen Oh (for enthusiasm and saying hard things about racism),
• Bevie James (for several cool blogs and the wacky idea to start and play ringleader for the League of On-Line Superheroes),
• Betsy (I'd say it was for the blog title that got banned by my work filters but it's really because she writes awesome posts about writing.  Plus I like to hear about her kick ass snowboarding adventures.  Sorry about the knee.)
• And an eighth one for all the rest of you on my sidebar link list.  You wouldn't be there if I didn't love ya! 

A Rationale for Rabidity

I know you have met, or seen, or experienced in some fashion some individual somewhere who is, ahem, overly dedicated to a certain way of thinking, religion or product.  And An Amazing Mind blog has a wonderful talk on that. 

Have you ever met fanatic Linux fans?

You know, folks devotedly shouting that Linux is even better than sliced bread, that anybody still using Windows is stuck in the stone ages, that Linux has great anti-virus capabilities and it’s free and it’s awesome and…

And have you ever met a fanatic Google supporter?

I personally find there are plenty of fanatic Linux fans. But I haven’t met any fanatic Google fans yet. All the Google fans I have met (and there are millions of them) have been calm, almost matter-of-fact.

I’ve always wondered why that is. And I just found the answer in the book Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance:

"You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow.

When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths, or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because the dogmas or goals are in doubt."

I thought this quote a useful reading and insight for creating a more rounded version of this sort of character, in particular by showing their motivation via the above interpretation--because if your pov character understands them, it makes them (more) sympathetic to the reader even if they are being wholly obnoxious. 

It could even be really funny, say if you have the pov character (or the evil villian) psychoanallyze their opposing hero/villian by quoting things such as the above to rebut their contentions, and when the person gets all worked up and foaming at the mouth, toss out the bit about they only bluster because their goal or dogma is in doubt.  That could be a really funny scene.  Imagine if someone did that to Dr. Evil, for example.

Great article on Asian fantasy

Cindy Pon talks about Asian fantasy on Enchanted Inkpot today.  It's a brilliant article.  Go check it out!

Short-listed!

Some good news:  Got the word that a short story I submitted is short-listed.  Woot!  I am always glad to know that something was received well.  Now we just have to wait and see if it gets picked up.  I'll keep you posted if it is, of course.

What I'm writing.  I am trying to write shorter stuff, both to train myself not to over plot my writing and to get stuff out there.  You could say I am not that 'hungry' to be published.  But mostly it is just that I don't finish things.  Honestly, I can write reel gud; just don't finish the novel length stuff due to laziness, ADD attention drifting and, well, laziness.   I am focusing on the goal of being a published novelist by the time I retire in ten years...so I CAN retire in ten years.  If I don't have something else going on to occupy me full time I might just as well keep on with the job instead of retiring in my 50s and save more money. 

I will never be one of those prolific writers who can just hammer out book after book; but I'd like to get a few out there.  Considering I plan to live to at least a hundred, I might manage a few, lol.  At least that's the goal.  My other goal is getting thin again so I don't feel awful and hurt and need knee replacements.  But that's really a lifestyle change. :)

I'm working on two projects at the moment (to illustrate the attention-deficit problem at work):  My vampire novel and an erotica vampire novella/short novel.  After two weeks on the trunk novel Ellie & the Vampire, I couldn't stand the sight of it and am now playing around with the novella, which I started around a year ago. 

The problem with E&V is it has too much plot, which I am desperately invested in.  I galloped away on that story idea until I hit nearly 400k words and then got smart enough to set it aside to perk in my subconscious.  It's going to be 2 or 3 books eventually.  And I got a lot of plot sorted out, made some ruthless cuts, and now I'm sick of the sight of it.  But working on that helped my figure out how to finish plotting out the 20k start of the novella, tentatively titled Blood Shot.  Now I'm working mostly on that, and setting it up for sequels in case it sells. 

I really started Blood Shot to see if I could write erotica.  Considering how bad some of the stuff out there is, I think I might manage to get picked up.  However I don't plan on using D Lynn Frazier as my pseudonym for them.  My friend Becky and I have jokingly come up with our author names for erotica.  Mine's Turquoise LaTrelle.  I think it may actually use it, too, lol.  But I've fallen in love with the ideas in the book, the world I've come up with.  It was deliberately derivative (something I keep doing with vampire stories as a challenge: take old tropes and try to twist them) and I think I've come up with something that can stand on its own as not too derivative at all.  (We'll see how others see it, and then we'll know.)

More blather on my process.  Maybe reading writing formulae works for you guys in determining how much is too much; but for me, the gauging of plot elements and where to place things like the Act ends, the Black Moment and Climax and getting the subplots all lined up and resolved pretty much at the Climax and in the Denoument is something I've not mastered.  A learn-by-doing adventure.  Writing shorter pieces is helpful for me to get a seat-of-pants feel for what a story IS.  I learn best by jumping in and doing, not from books on how to do something.  After I get a feel for it, an instinct as it were, then I can pick up a how-to book and quantify or rethink my process a bit.  But I have to have that back-brain sense of understanding first.  (This is, you may correctly surmise, not a good process for doing home improvement. Sadly, I keep trying to apply it.)

I taught myself to paint and draw that way, though.  No classes, just dig out paint and start going.  I'm not bad, either, although I'd  never manage to be a commercial artist.  And it's how I learned to write.  But learning to write is a never-ending process.  I'm a lot better than the story bit I shared a while back, though! 

And thank you.  Everyone who has been encouraging about my upcoming gastric bypass surgery--thank you for the kind comments.  I know it's off topic on the blog, but after blogging since August 2006, I've become more comfortable with saying personal stuff in this forum.  Some of it's the online community that we have developed; we know each other to a certain extent, and it's a nice thing to share with your friends.   The bypass surgery is a big issue for me, and blogging a bit about it helps me deal with the attendant anxiety.  Because it's freaking me out, seriously.  I just try and avoid thinking about the actual surgery and focus on dealing with the day-to-day stuff, because it helps.  I am the queen of denial and it helps to deal with the worry by just not allowing myself to do so.  And so do your comments rooting for me. (I don't know the date as of yet, but early May I see the surgeon, the final pre-surgery appt, and after that it's something like 3-6 months wait.)  And then I'll be off work for six weeks.  the upside is writing time :)

Musical Monday

An Errol Flynn meets Lord of the Rings music video.  You'll have to click the link for this one. Thanks to Tara Maya for the linkage. 

After a lengthy hiatus, Musical Monday is back...until I run out of enthusiasm again.  I will try to get back to the Opportunity Thursdays again soon, too.

In the midst of a reading Frenzy

"...then gravity came down on him like a great soft hand with bones of ancient stone."  A line to describe lift off by William Gibson, Neuromancer, p 102

I've read three books these last three days, the new Ilona Andrews book, Magic Strikes, (very good, but just a tad too much explaining of previous book events and character backgrounds), the new LKH Merry Gentry book Swallowing Darkness (almost no sex--a shocker, I know--and sort of weird with that style change mid series) and Dead to Worse the 8th book in the Southern Vampire series by Charlaine Harris. Also working on William Gibson's Neuromancer (still fresh since its debut in 1984.)  I enjoyed them all. 

I've read other books by Gibson in the 80s, but didn't keep them. Can't even recall much about them because I never reread them.  But they left this sense of how a dystopic sort of glittery high tech and lowdown, slum-ridden future world might run.  Like Bladerunner, which gave the visuals, Gibson's prose made cyberpunk a full-blown sub-genre.  A writer creating an entirely new genre is not that common.  And it gives we writers something to strive for--not precisely setting a new standard or creating a new genre, but to strive to create something uniquely our own.

What's that line about copying being the sincerest form of flattery?