Writtenwyrdd

Mistaking mysterious for mundane

Back several years, I was just on the verge of flittering off to Paris for a week of fun and frivolity when I woke up with a rash.  Not just any rash, mind you, but one that--I kid you not--was the pattern of a giraffe hide!  Since I had just started the first med I took for migraine prevention I thought it might be an allergic reaction, and the doc had me come in straightaway.  She looked at me, pulled out a reference picture book, called in the other doc, and they together determined I had what is called a viral rash. 

Yep, a virus causing a rash.  Now, it wasn't a skin infection.  I knew you could get a viral skin infection.  But I'd caught some odd bug that was lingering, had lingered a couple of weeks already but hadn't put me out.  It did affect me enough to give me a glorious rash, however.

The rash faded enough on my face and hands that by the time I was in Europe I didn't cause widespread panic and cries of plague.  But it lasted for about a week in total on the unseen portions of my anatomy.

What brings this up?

Well, I was catching up on my blog reading and saw the above cover.  It reminded me of my wonderful rash.  And that gave me an idea...

The idea.
Well, not to make any claims of brilliance, it's really a simple idea in specific; but I thought you all might be able to take it and run with it in your own worldbuilding and plotting:

What if what you and your doctor thought was a simple medical condition wasn't?  What if a viral rash that looks like a giraffe's hide is really the first sign that you have caught something other...like lycanthropy?  Or some other monstrous curse?

That's it.  But you can take the idea and extrapolate the basic nature of it into What if something apparently mundane occurs, is dismissed, and then you find out it isn't mundane at all?  The crux of a horror plot, isn't it? 

And now you know why that cover picture is relevant.

Happy writing, my friends.  I may not comment for a few days due to my surgery tomorrow.  You can probably see how I'm doing on Facebook though.  (Link at top right on the blahg.)

Newsflash: Ricky Martin is gay

Well, it seems like Clay Aken started a trend:  Gay pop stars have children and said children inspire them to fess up to their public.  Because Ricky Martin outed himself.

Actually, that sounds harsh, and I don't mean it that way.  I think Ricky Martin is brave and admirable for outing himself.  It might affect his Latin fan base immensely.  He's so good at what he does, though, the sexy stud muffin probably won't notice a difference in his income.  But being a Latin guy and confessing to being homosexual is practically a death sentence in some neighborhoods.  I grew up in a heavily latino town, and it wouldn't have gone over well then.  Catholic, machismo and gay?  Trouble.

Happiness 101

Helen Ginger gave me the Happy 101 Award.  I am not sure what motivated the lady to choose moi, but I appreciate the thought and will gladly play along.  

The rules are that I have to tell ten things that make me happy and then choose five other people for the award.  So far as I'm concerned, anyone can play and I therefore INVITE any and all of you to play along.  No awarding here, because that would be playing favorites and on this one I really want to know more about everybody.  Hence the ambivalence/clever gamesmanship.

Ten things that make me happy (in no particular order):

1. Family and friends.  I may be one of those complete loners who want/need to be along 99% of the time, but I really need my friends when I decide to poke my hole out from my shell.  And that includes my blog/online friends.  Several of you have become really good friends over the past few years, even if we haven't met in person yet.
2. The internet.  What would we do without the internet??????? I adore the internet!  I may not be able to trust all that's on wikipedia, but you can find anything to buy, know, do or whatever on the internet.  You can enlighten yourself, amuse yourself, whatever makes you happy.  And you can meet some really awesome people there!
3. Modern medicine.  Yes, the little things like aspirin, tylenol, antibiotics, modern anesthesia...but also how doctors can save shattered arms with halo casts, endoscopic surgery, drugs that treat a plethora of diseases and painful conditions so quality of life can continue at a reasonable level.  Without modern medicine I'd be unable to do my current job because of arthritis and muscle spasms.  I'd be miserable with constant migraines.  And I'd be over 90 pounds heavier.
4. Writing.  Of course writing makes me happy, even when I grumble.
5. Reading.  Goes along with the writing.  Besides, without the reading there wouldn't be the writing.
6. Pets.  Our two cats and the Pug are such lovely additions to our life.  I think that life without pets is just sad.  Of course, I should be voted Most Likely To End Up Single and Alone With Many, Many Cats Lady...
7. Seasons.  I agree that cold can be hard on the old body, but the wheel of the seasons, turning, is a needful reminder how life goes on.  I feel we humans, who have overcontrolled our world and become so disconnected from the rhythms of life, need to have reminders that we aren't the biggest thing on this planet: the planet is.  And seasons are a wonderful reminder, as you have to shape your life around them, not the other way 'round.
8. Cheese.  Never met a cheese I didn't like. Need I say more?
9. Steak.  Especially every steak I ever ate in the state of Texas.  Mmmmmmm!  Very rare, of course, and preferably char grilled. 
10. Travel.  I love traveling.  I confess that road trips are my favorite.  Taking photographs during long walks in strange places is my second favorite type of travel.  And after the Nile cruise, I think I'm a really big fan of cruises.
11. And I have to add this one:  Coffee.  Coffee, coffee, coffee.  Never enough coffee. 

So there you have it.  My off-the-cuff list of ten things I like. 

Rational conflicts in relationships

An excellent post from romanceuniversity.org talks about charachters and conflict, citing a book about couples counseling.  While I strongly suggest you read the entire post, here is a list of typical real world relationship conflicts:

No, what we want are realistic conflicts. Things that could bother any couple…things that might’ve even bothered US at some point. Things that can tear a couple apart — or, if you want a happy ending, that can be overcome when the couple is willing to work at it.

So, those seven basic issues are:

1. GENDER ROLES (things like who should make decisions for the castle, who should change the flat tire, who should nurture or protect the other one?)
2. LOYALTIES (where does each person rank the importance of family, work, community, friends, etc?)
3. PRIVACY (is each person a “glommer,” who likes to glom onto their loved ones and spend as much time together as possible, or a non-glommer who wants more time alone? Either can work fine, but couples are a lot better off when they’re both the same type.)
4. MONEY (how does their approach to earning-spending- saving reflect their values? It’s not too likely their choices will be a perfect match.)
5. SEX (when-where-how-why-what? It can be a huge source of conflict in real life, but sex rarely creates problems in a romance novel…well, unless maybe they break the bed?)
6. POWER (or CONTROL can be the worst of all, showing up in any of the other areas or in unrelated areas — like who decides on the dinner menu?)
7. CHILDREN (should we have any? How should we raise them? What about kids from a previous marriage?)

Random Corporate art in NYC

Because it amuuuused me:

Molly and the dog's bone

Occasionally, the cat actually licks or gnaws on the rawhide! Drives the dog nuts!

Egypt began with New York

As you can see by the Egyptian obelisk in Central Park.  My friend Margaret was taking the picture.  She lives in Brooklyn and we had a great visit.  I hadn't seen her in nine years, it felt like yesterday.  (The litmus test of a great friendship is when it surprises you both that it's actually been so long.)

And I thought you might like this shot of Belvedere Castle:

And for the writerly types, here are a few significant buildings:

Some day...some day...

You need to check out Livia Blackburne's blog, "A Brain Scientist's Take on Creative Writing," especially this post:

http://blog.liviablackburne.com/2010/02/winning-neuropublishing-jokes-and.html#comments

Cool cover art: Paranormalcy, by our own Kiersten White

If you hadn't heard the screaming over at Ms. K's blog, she's gotten the cover for her upcoming release, Paranormalcy.  It's a YA book and her first. 

Congrats to Kiersten both for her novel and for such a great cover. 

Twitter talks for writers

Courtesy of "Notes on the Art of Writing" blog, a list of Twitter chats for and by writers:

#WriteChat
@WritingSpirit aka Julie Isaac is the host and creator of #WriteChat which takes place

Sundays 12-3pm a discussion & tips to unleash your writing genius.

#LitChat
@LitChat created the discussion for book lovers as well as writers.
#litchat is Monday, Wednesday & Friday 4-5pm EST

hosted by @CarolyBurnsBass via @LitChat
Topics & schedule can be found at the blog: http://litchat.net/

#ScriptChat
@scriptchat is moderated by @jeanneveillette for aspiring & seasoned screenwriters chat & learn w no ego and takes place SUNDAYS 8pm EST & 8pm GMT
Topics & schedules can be found at the blog: http://scriptchat.com/

#Kidlitchat
Takes place on Tuesdays at 9PM EST
Topics & schedules can be found at the blog: http://yalitchat.wordpress.com/schedule/

#SciFiChat
@scifichat Moderated by @DavidRozansky
Next chat is Friday, February 12th from 2-4 pm ET.

 

If you know more of these, kindly share and I'll create a page of them on my links.

I'll have a little mortar with my poetry, please

Angela Ackerman, the Bookshelf Muse, had an interesting discussion on writing with the senses and how to pull readers into your writing.  I wholly agree with mixing your description with much more than visual descriptions to draw your readers into your fictional world.  But I think that there's something else we writers should consider, too, and here's my comment to that effect.*

Writing with the senses is excellent advice and I totally agree with...that. 

But I think that, to evoke emotion, it's also needful to use a lot of the tricks that a poet uses.  Writers shouldn't forget the words themselves are your tool, not just what you say with them. 

By using the right words you can evoke emotion like good poetry does, with evocative metaphor/simile, word choice, pacing, sentence structure, voice. 

How you say it is just as important as the details you choose to promote.

Yes, I show my poetry writing roots in my opinion, don't I?  But consider this:  A novel is a building, a building made of words and meaning.  And words are bricks.  How you arrange the bricks defines the structure.  And the descriptive elements define the meaning/emphasis.  Descriptions are the flying buttresses, stained glass windows, and Gothic/ Art Deco/ frou frou/ gingerbread that give the whole building it's personality.  The two must work together to form a harmonious and functional whole. 

*Forgive me for not generating an entirely fresh post on the subject; I've got a lot going on and surgery in a week.  I'll engage more neurons in blogging when all of me is present and accounted for.  Hopefully that will be after surgery on April 1st.

For Weird Book Wednesday, it's about murdering song

And I don't mean you're off key.  How about a book about ballads which have as their topic murder?  Don't you want that one for your own?

American Murder Ballads and Their Stories
Olive Woolley Burt
Citadel Press, New York, 1964.
Pictorial Cover. The folklore and songs the author has collected for this book cover the whole area of the United States and the entire period of our history, from pioneer times to the 1950's.

This one is listed as new, but shelf worn "from years of shelf wear in our store."  Yuh huh.  Don't wonder much about why that might be...

MYKUWorld...writers converse in poems

An interesting conceit, which you can check out here.  Not sure what I think about it other than it's rather pointless and another way to avoid writing...but which I'd find excruciatingly BORING.  But I'm an equal opportunity provider of ways to avoid writing. You can check it out here.

More Egypt!

The bad about the animals was that I saw far too many horses in this condition, although most were in areas that weren't full of tourists.  I never saw a rack-of-bones camel, though.

 

Temple at Philae, which we had to reach by boat.  The story goes, the temple was being drowned by the rising Nile after the dam was built, so they built walls around it, took it apart, and moved the entire site to an island nearby.  It took 2 years plus to level the new island, redubbed Philae (Love) as the temple if I recall correctly was dedicated to Isis, goddess of love.  (Don't expect me to be all scholarly on this stuff.  I can't even tell which temple pictures were which for a lot of them.)

 

Nubian villager selling camel bone jewelry.  They swear no camels are butchered for bone, but they sell an awful lot of the stuff.  It's very beautiful stuff.

 

Probably the best preserved statue, left where it was unearthed in Memphis.  The striking thing about the statues which had undamaged faces was the serenity in them. 

 

Street scenes, of which unfortunately too many have bus window glare:

 

 

And here you see the typical structure of Egypt: a somewhat reinforced concrete frame structure with brick or mud brick infill between the framing elements.  The quality of the brick work is pretty shoddy, with holes between bricks and inconsistent mortar application.  The floors are generally unfinished with rebar jutting up like some dried up plant sticking out of walls (they build walls that way, too, with mud brick).  The guide told us that they get tax breaks if the building is unfinished: practicality over beauty.  The really scary thing is that the buildings built this way are real hazards in case of earthquake.  I don't know about the concrete frames, which might hold up for all I know; but the masonry infill will fall like dominoes in case of a quake.  AND THERE WERE HIGH RISES MADE THIS WAY.  I'm talking greater than 20 stories at least. 

Lastly, a beautiful Mosque.

Worldbuilding thoughts from a transitional country

Egypt, as you might imagine, is quite different from major industrialized nations.  I don't know if you can categorize it as Third World, but there are huge swaths of the country that fit the definition as far as I can tell.  Poverty, filth, and a plethora of armed police and military every where you went were some indicators that we weren't in Kansas any more, Toto.  Also, the architecture, signage in Arabic, different dress and different products for sale in the ubiquitous stores and bazaars were omnipresent reminders that it's different from home.  So many things to take away from the experience that are, basically, glitter and shine...and a lot of ideas about how to write the ephemeral differences like attitude and cultural expectations (taboo, gender roles, etc.)

I liked the look of the place (except for the garbage everywhere); but the cultural differences are what sparked my writerly interest, not the visual ones--I can always come up with visual differences!

Here are a few thoughts I take away from my Egypt experience.  They do not necessarily have anything to do with actual experiences, just that my trip gave me some ideas. 

• Mixtures of high and low tech, old and new architecture, ultra modern cultural elements and conservative ones (which can included dress) can be used to create a feeling of cultural conflict or a sense of dystopia.
• The condition of dray animals (donkeys, oxen, horses) can be an indication of where you are in a city that welcomes foreigners.  In other words, if you see starving horses in harness, you aren't where the bleeding heart tourists usually go.
• The greater the poverty, the more jobs are oriented toward selling things to tourists.
• Countries with little or no social welfare tend to have an expectation of a strong work ethic in order for a job to be kept.
• In a country where baksheesh/tipping is expected, it is generally based upon value for service rendered...but the value depends on the social equality of the parties involved.  In other words, if it's a "rich" (by comparison) tourist, the tip is high to the locals and generally always expected for every little thing.  If it's a fellow local, there may be no expectation at all of monies, but of future goodwill or mutual back scratching to follow later.  If money is involved, it is expected to be smaller in amount than you'd expect from "rich" tourists.
• City culture versus country culture:  There's a distinct tug 'o war between the two.  City dwellers can view the country dwellers as less, and the poor can view the city dwellers as trying to copy Westerners (or other culture that's strongly influencing the countrys' development.)
• Foreign visitors don't get the outlook, even if they know the motions to go through.  Take bargaining for example.  In Egypt, it's basically an insult not to bargain, to accept the first offered price.  The why is a bit tricky.  Near as I could tell, the issue is that no bargaining is like saying, "I'm the rich foreigner and I am too well off/too above you to haggle." 
• Cultural and religious issues are traps for the unwary.  People can understand your words and not your meaning.  And we are not talking idioms but unvoiced assumptions.  The things that one simply "knows" or "does" unthinkingly that were absorbed along with breast milk and language.
• People who don't understand each other tend to smile and nod a lot, or to smile, nod and say Yes.  It might be because they are hoping to understand, that they don't know much of your language; or it might be that they are being polite and don't want to make you feel bad. 
• If the merchant agrees to a price, he's not losing money.  Tourists quit haggling waaaaay too early.  A tourist who is a good bargainer is respected.

So much more could be said.  But the above list is really all about how you can portray the experience of a foreigner, or portray a foreigner in the eyes of the locals.

Anything you want to add to the list?

Writing a post-apocalyptic story? Here's your soundtrack!

Tom Lehrer again (sense a theme?) tells us about pollution.

Ah, New York. It was fun, but now the overwhelm commences...

My apologies to all my blog pals out there. I sincerely doubt I'll be reading your posts from the past three weeks,much less commenting. I'll probably mark them all as read on Google Reader. And to top it off, I appear to have caught something and now am off to sleep it off.

Below is part of the NY skyline as seen from the Empire State Building.  The Chrysler Building is in the center there.  A bit hazy, but beautiful.

Boomer illustrates jetlag

I forgot to tell you...

Writers are everywhere.  I met a lovely young lady (not so young, she was celebrating a birthday not so far behind mine, yet we all thought she was about 28!) who is a writer, getting her first book epublished by Red Rose (if I recall correctly).  It's titled Pharaoh's Desire and the author's name is Chanta Rand at ChantaRand.org, and the book is a historical romance to be published mid-June. 

I just thought I'd plug her to you all, and wish her the best in her first novel publication.  She's also very nice, so I'll buy her book just for that.

Camel bone bracelet and necklace...no camels were slaughtered for bone, but waste not, want not.

So supposedly these camels died of natural causes.  And I believed they never are slaughtered for any purpose whatsoever.  The thing is, though, the camels are not bred to be slaughtered for bone, they are used as transportation all over Egypt.  And the material is in all sorts of things because it's durable and very beautiful. 

Sorry to plague you all with the unfortunately crappy camera phone photos.  I was too lazy to dig up more batteries for the good camera, not when I could email them here.

Cool hot red caftan

I have a lovely white blouse that is similar (but shorter, obviously) with white on white embroidery, and an Egyptian cotton tee shirt.  Egyptian cotton is to die for soft and fine, very strong and very soft at the same time.  I got the caftan for $15 and the white shirt for $6.  (Remind me to tell you about how I bargained for the white one some time.)  My tee cost more at LE 105, about $21 as in general transactions people give you $5 for LE 1.  Anyhow, the tee shirt is so unbelievably soft it's really incredible.  It feels like flannel.

Statuary from Egypt

Sorry for the lousy focus of my cell phone camera.  As you can see, both are nicely carved stone statues, but the lefthand one of Anubis is of mystery material (although it is definitely stone) and the one on the right is basalt, the very dark and hard stone Egyptians carved a lot.  The right hand figure is Bast-et (aka Bast or Bastet) and she is the cat goddess. 

The cobra between her legs and with flared hood and head against her chest symbolizes protection.  The left foot forward on both statues symbolizes life.  A figure with arms folded indicates it is not a live depiction (in case you cared.)  The Bast-et is very finely carved and made in a village just outside Luxor.  The carvings there in alabaster, granite, limestone, basalt and other materials are all made in the traditional way (at least the alabaster is).  For all I know, they use power tools in the back rooms to get the polish...but I sincerely and severely doubt that. 

FYI they gave us a demo on creating vases of alabaster in the traditional Egyptian manner.  First, they polish with stone and place a wax on the outside of the finished piece and bake it in a kiln type oven for ten minutes to set the wax and bring out the colors of the stone.  It takes about 2 weeks to make a vase, as they first have to haul the stone on camel or donkey back, then auger out the middle with a big auger/drill, then use stones to chip the outside and then sand the surface smooth before the polish/waxing begins. 

Lots of work, all by hand. 

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

Still getting my act together and enhancing/cropping/naming photos.  Over 1500 I believe before deleting the real crap.  That includes New York City, though.

We had a terrific time, especially on the Nile cruise boat, the Queen of Hansa.  There are something like 300 of these barges that go up and down the river above the High Dam between Luxor and Aswan, and the acomodations are really, really nice.  Big cabins (staterooms, actually) great food, friendly and efficient service.  My only grouse was that with my gall bladder acting up a lot of the food was a bit too greasy for me.  But I don't eat much anyhow, so it wasn't a big deal overall.  And I forgot to mention that you cannot get stamps in Egypt.  The hotels didn't have them except for the first one we stayed in (where they charged a usurious price) but we were running about so early and so often that we clean forgot to get stamps for postcards.  Boo!

Egypt is indeed a 3rd world country with an incredible poverty rate.  But the people are very nice and the food is delicious.  Especially their tomatoes and cucumbers, which are far superior to any I've eaten before.  The Egyptian pound is about $1.00 to LE $5.45, so a hundred Egyptian pounds is about 20 dollars.  It's a good idea to take a bunch of $1 bills for tips.  Everybody wants baksheesh (tips) for everything.  And let me just say that the vendors are very good for your ego.  I've never been so beautiful, nice, and had such a nice laugh!  And neither did I know I had so many friends and cousins!

Mom and I bought a bunch of stuff.  Well, more me than her.  Of course I bought books in the museums and for the sites we visited.  Got a book on the collection at the Egyptian museum, too.  It was worth it to pay $60 for a book like that. Besides a couple of scarves, a caftan, a pair of red leather slippers with cheesy Nefertiti profiles 'gilded' on them, some camel bone bead jewelry, postcards and a refrigerator magnet that turns out won't stick to the fridge--I got several genuine papyrus reproduction paintings, some gorgeous mother of pearl inlaid boxes, and several stone figures.  I have four papyri to frame and hang in the living room and more as gifts.  Those were my biggest expense.  But the boxes and stone carvings were tied for second place.  The stone carvings are my favorite things.  Two are of mystery stone, one is a cat head as a gift and one of Anubis for myself, and two basalt carvings from the artisans who make them at Luxor.  One of the basalt statues is Horus as a hawk with wings spread, about 9" high and about 8" wide, and the second is of Bast-et (sp) the cat goddess as a sitting cat.  A hundred bucks for those two was an excellent price, considering they are hand made sculptures and finely crafted. I had to dicker like mad to get that price, which was slightly less than half the asking price. I probably could have gotten the guy down some more, but considering all the work that went into them, I was satisfied at the price I paid. I'll post pictures eventually. 

Our tour group numbered 40 including our guide, Hisham, who was great.  We've started an email photo exchange, and about half of the people were so nice and we hit it off so well I'm hopeful we will all remain in touch.  Fifteen plus people out of 39 is a pretty good rate!

I highly recommend the river cruise tour with all the additional tours (except the light and sound shows, which are stupid beyond belief) especially if you can do the ten day, which includes Alexandria on day 10.  We didn't do that one and I wish we had.  Gate1 Travel was great to deal with, and everything went exceptionally well due to our guide's diligence.  He was very kind and considerate of elder travelers like my mother who have some limitations or were affected adversely by the heat (which was not that hot to me; I wanted it a lot hotter, frankly!) and in particular when one gentleman fell and injured himself in his hotel room.  They were able to continue the trip, but he did spend a night in an Egyptian hospital, which from the stories is something to avoid at all costs.

Anyhow, a few pics.  They won't be properly labeled, most of them, but they are pretty cool.  When I get a flickr or whatever site up, I'll link to it for you all to peruse.  Also, I'll be doing a Facebook album at some point.  Not everyone in our group is on FB, though, so I'm going to post them to a photo service for their convenience.

Tourist Police officers at the Great Pyramid.  (Egypt has Antiquities Police, Tourist Police, the military, and civilian police.  Every tour group is accompanied by a plain clothes tourist police officer.  Every cop carries a machine pistol, a German 9 millimeter of some sort with a collapsible stock so they can shoot it like a rifle if needed.  They mean business.)  The haze in the background is part smog, part humidity.  So far as I can tell, it's mostly humidity, because it looks like that in Southern Egypt, too, especially in the evenings and early mornings.

You recognize this fellow.

The Great Pyramid and a shot with me and Madre. Notice how stylishly we are dressed.  But hey, it was about 6:30 in the morning.

Lake Nassar, which is formed by the Aswan Dam.  Photo color adjusted so all the haze doesn't block the nice aspect.

Camels at the camel ride photo op.  And, no, I did NOT ride a camel.  Not interested in the slightest.  But they are very photogenic, aren't they?

and

There were a lot of shots like those, and stupid me I didn't make a note immediately and now am not sure which is which all the time.  Probably doesn't matter all that much, seeing as I am not writing a research paper.  I do know, however, that I didn't get any photos of Karnak, as I forgot my freaking camera!  But the best ruins were the ones at the temple in Luxor. 

The "Lido deck" on our boat, the Queen of Hansa.

More of our afternoon cruise.  Sadly, there was only the one day.  I found it quite pleasant.  Drinks were available for about three bucks, but we don't drink.  We stuck to lots of bottled water.

Feluccas, the ubiquitous Nile boat.  And in Southern Egypt, there is a lot of farming and a lot of date palms.  There are over 20 varieties of date palms native to the Nile.

And to share some interesting hieroglyphics:

Yes, that is a phallus.  If I recall correctly, it represents the sound, "Aaah."  Srsly.

For most of these pictures, the light coloration of stone combined with an incredible haze and bright sunlight washed out the pictures.  To keep the fiddling with the files simple, most are just adjusted in Microsoft Picture Manager by increasing contrast to +30 and adjusting the saturation until it looks more or less like the eyeball sees it.  Unfortunately, a lot of great shots have bus window glass reflections in them, but they are still good for the memories!

Home!

Still getting my act together, but if you are patient, I will sort through my 1500± photos and share a few. Also, turns out I'm a great haggler...although I confess I'm not fond of it. Which might actually be an advantage, lol, for the more impatient I got the better deal.

List making for ideas

Have I ever mentioned what spurred me to take writing seriously?  I was reading yet another vampire paranormal romance about ten years ago, and got fed up with it being a cookie cutter example of same old, same old.  Ended up tossing it across the room in disgust while I disclaimed, "I can write a vampire novel better than that!"  Whereupon I did with great enthusiasm and reasonable skill for a newbie. (That means it was really bad as a novel but had some great scenes and dialog.) It's my Tome of Shame, my beloved trunk novel I really want to fix up some day.  And when I wrote it I did something as a challenge:  I deliberately used every single trope in vampire novels I could think of.  My thinking was that everyone else was using the same tropes, and if I really could do better, I should be able to do so with the same 'handicaps.'  Er, that would be cliches.

I think that's a valid approach for constructing a creature in your fantasy novel; but it would generally prove most useful for a spoof and not a straight urban fantasy or paranormal romance.  And there are risks in using cliched traits in your story:  You might seem to be a copycat; you might not be as good as someone who's done it before; or you might turn off readers who are tired of the same old, same old.

So perhaps you might consider an opposite approach: Brainstorm to get traits for your paranormal beings that haven't been used before (or often.)  Come up with something new (or newish.)

I'm particularly fond of vampires.  So I'll walk you through an exercise to develop a new type of vampire.

First, it pays to do some research. 
Vampires of various flavors are all over the mythological map.  I ran across a few sites recently that showed Asian mythical creatures, and many of them were vampiric. (see the Vamp Chix article for some examples.)  There are a lot of places on the net where you can find info on monsters.  Monstropedia, wikipedia, etc. Read up on your intended type of creature and get a feel for what's out there.

Idea for how to come up with something different in a trope.
When you have a sense of other types of vampires, list the commonalities.  You may very well plan on using them, but it's a good idea to understand what's a trope and what's rarely seen. 

List the basic vampire traits you commonly find in stories. As in, how do they look, what do they eat, function, flaws, Achilles heels, advantages, disadvantages, how to kill them, how they heal, how they are organized.  Brainstorm by listing the random things that come to mind.  If you are stuck, ask what if questions. Just list anything, just as long as it's not been seen by you before.  Anything that comes to mind, and ask questions of that answer.  Your mind is a deep well of inspiration.  You can only delve it, though, if you drop that bucket of questions in there and haul up some answers. 

As an example, here's my alternative vamp food list:  Business acumen, depth perception, warts, memory, language, dreams, hunger/thirst.  Just a few things that popped into my mind.

Take a look at your lists.   Make a few notes.  This is where you can generate fresh ideas.  Ask and answer questions such as How would these traits/things be used by the vampire?  Why?  What effect upon the victim? What if you inverted this idea? (I can think of several story possibilities from my meager list alone.)

I guarantee that if you keep making lists and asking questions, you will eventually find some idea that goes zing! makes you sit up and take notice.

Didn't I just say that?

"Think texting and driving, blow-drying and bathing: it’s dangerous to do more than one thing at once. Oh never mind, the results of that kind of multi-tasking could be pretty riveting. In this case, the greatest danger is that “as” you ramp up weak prose by making more than one thing happen at a time, over and over, your baffled and lulled reader will fall asleep."  Kathryn Craft

Excellent tips on editing on a Blood Red Pencil article by Kathryn Craft.  Read it here.  And although the above quote is from the article, it doesn't directly address the point of the thing, which is to address repetition--words and structure--in your prose. 

Another thing to look at is the first word of paragraphs by page: Are they the same construction, same word?  If so, consider a change. 

There are many more things to look at, but repetition, like inappropriate alliteration, always calls attention to itself.  And anything that distracts the reader from your world is not a good thing.

Jozin Bazin for Musical Monday

Whatever the heck that means, I got it from a mention Sherri Cornelius made a while back on Facebook.

The Character Therapist

Liana Brooks had a cool link list roundup a couple weeks ago, which included a cool site, The Character Therapist.  Lots of good stuff there.  Check it out!

Opportunities for apocalyptic writers

Thanks to Anthology News & Reviews for this post content.  I've swiped it in its entirety from their Feb 20th post.

The Last Man Anthology is seeking submissions:

We are a print publication bringing together the best of catastrophic literature. This anthology is a tribute to Mary Shelley's novel, "The Last Man." Submissions to the Last Man Anthology will be accepted until filled. The anthology will be released August 30, 2010 in celebration of Mary Shelley's birthday.

Word count: 1500-8888 words.

All fiction should focus on the theme of catastrophic literature, and present interesting and innovative ideas that lend to the conception of being the last. Show us the last man, woman, robot, alien, planet, universe. The last person to do what. The last planet to do what. Show us the end of the world. What world is up to you to decide. The characters or world must show the last of something. Stories should be science fiction in nature, although genre-bending is acceptable. No alternate history.

Email submissions to LastManAnthology[@]aol.com. Attachments in doc. or docx. Subject header should read: Last Man Anth/title/word count. Please include a bio, any creative writing or college classes you've taken, if any. In a few sentences tell us what your favorite book is and why. Lastly, in a few sentences explain why science fiction is important to you.

Visit our website for complete instructions: http://lastmananthology.weebly.com/

Informative site: Behler's blog

"[T]here comes a time when you need to wear your characters like a coat and dig deep to assume their personalities. Only in that place can you find the magic of dimension to make your characters come to life."  Lynn Price at Behler's Blog

From the publishing side of the house, a blog that is informative and interesting.  Check this out, their character development articles.  And there's more good stuff where that came from.

Off we go!

After we board our flight at six tonight, I'll be offline until I return to thee US next week. Hope all is well in your worlds.

Character quirks

"One of my favorite ways of showing, not telling, of weaving back story, is through hidden talents. Those things characters can do--that come with a tiny story. Might be a sentence. Might be a paragraph. The character who can ink a prison tattoo--because he's been in prison once. Or, in two of my books, the Amazing Coaster Trick--learned in a bar at age 7. THAT ONE is based on me. And I really DID bring my beer coasters to second grade for show and tell and do my Amazing Coaster Trick, taught to me by Eddie the Fox. And my teacher really DID call my mother to tell her how inappropriate it was for a young girl to be hanging out in the Bowery on Sundays learning coaster tricks from men named Eddie the Fox. But hey . . . you want to win a bar bet? I'm your gal. It's a hidden talent--and one I've given a character or two of mine, like Ava in THE ROOFER and Skye in DOUBLE DOWN."  Erica Orloff, from her blog.

I like snippets that give characters depth.  I particularly like unusual or quirky ones.  But I cannot think of a trait that I've used which could be deemed 'quirky.' 

I'll have to give it some thought.

Yes, Virginia, there is a librarian

Or something like that. 

I liked this.

Musical Monday: Bodies!

Here's some mood music for the Zombie Apocalypse.  Drowning Pool's song, Bodies. 

Ideas from today

I confess, I get odd ideas sometimes. But when they have they impact of a butt stroke to the head (get your mind out the gutter--it refers to a combat manouever) you better write it down, it might be useful/important some day. So I'm telling you now so I don't distract myself from current projects by going all "Ooooh! Shiny!" and starting something new.
Anyhow, there was this odd little vignette where a horse-drawn carriage clopped by on 8th Ave with a single male passenger sittng, slouched yet staring straight ahead.
When I caught the driver's eye with my smirk and quirked eyebrow, he began to snicker with his face. You know what I mean: that little head nod/shake with attendant facial contortions indicating suppressed laughter.
Anyhow, it got me wondering what that scenario was all about. And it popped into my head that what if he had a relative who was the victim of a kidnapping, and he had to deliver a ransom. And what if the instructions for delivery were a series of embarrasment, awkwardnesses that eventually add up to the conclusion that either th kidnappee is already dead, or possibly the one demanding the loot? Or what if the kidnapper's objective was to toy with the guy, humiliate him, make him suffer, and the real story was the story leading up to the action--sort of Run, Lola, Run meets Conspiracy Theory meets Borne Identity.
I could go many places with this idea, but have to put the spec fic or horror spin on it...
Can't help but wonder if the answer for that spin is to have the character be actually trapped inside his head, a mental prisoner while his body is used for involuntary labor...and the kidnapping crap is his psyche trying to reassert itself...and the ending is when the character realizes this. (But at the moment, these two ideas aren't well meshed and might not go together at all!)

To Oscar, or not to Oscar?

Speaking for myself, Oscars are cool but the award ceremony generally bores me enough to turn the show off after I finish rolling my eyes at some of the dresses and hair/makeup disasters. But since I'm here in a hotel room, it's the night's entertainment. And not bad this year, either.
I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to have to give those speeches. If you ask me, most people aren't likely to be egotistical enough to assume they're the 'It' person for their nomination category; so I have to wonder what goes through their heads. If it were me, I'd be wanting to run the other direction,lol. I can speak in public just fine, if I must...but I do NOT like to be the center of attention if I can avoid it.
And that preference of mine is probably the biggest hindrance to my writing. I have a big part of me actively sabotaging my focus and drive with a serious conflict. It's ironic.
Anyhow, re the NYC visit, we climbed (pitons, crampons, belaying ropes and all--hope I remembered the terms right) the Empire State bldg today, bought a signifigant amt of touristy loot and a wicked cool acid green leather purse in Chinatown for thirty bucks...and saw Wicked. The play was fantastic. Best production I've ever seen. My mother enjoyed the heck out of it, too.
And it was about sixty degrees today, and sunny. Spring but ice kating in Rockerfeller Plaza.
Oh, and I saw the coolest graffiti in Brooklyn: It said, in ten foot high scrawled letter, 'READ'

Wow, been busy!

Hi guys! Using phone to post because hotel charges ten bucks a day for internet. And I got charged a usurous amount for a fax when I needed some travel docs needed to be sent to me. Thirty bucks when I really only needed two of the pages. Because the travel co. 'could only send the whole thing.' Bleh.
NYC is expensive. We saw Rock Of Ages last night, and it was hilarious. They gave us LED 'lighters' to wave, and audience participation was an expected part of the show . Don't care if Constantine Maroulis was billed as star...the character of Lonny/narrator stole the show.
We see Wicked tomorrow.
And while I can see the charms of big city life and NYC in general, let me just say NY is expensive and I like my old town' San Francisco, better. Sorry, NY.

Starting blocks rather than writing blocks

"Nothing is more exciting than the promise of a story in your head, but in order to get it on the page you need to figure out exactly what you need to do to make it work. You need to realistically outline and throw out what bogs the readers down. You need to set up a game plan to hook your readers and keep them reading. Here are some simple steps to help you build the frame that you hang your story on." N.M. Kelby, Writer's Digest online article, 16Feb2010

So, you have an idea.  You're in the metaphorical starting blocks.  But, tell me:: After the Big Idea sparks your urge to start a new piece of fiction, where do you begin?  For me, the process begins with that idea, which is usually a scene.  So I write that scene/idea and discover my protagonist.  And, by some miraculous process--subconscious  or divine, who knows?--I discover the general idea.  The above article and a recent Edit Torrent article speak to this.

Now, you could argue the process really begins just with an idea, say a parameter like "I want to write a vampire romance."  And so you envision a character (heroine, an average working gal), and then envision the problem (she doesn't want to be involved with a vampire) and the thing that forces this upon her (she's writing a thesis for her Master's degree and vampires are it for subjects whether she wants to study them or not.  Why this is so to be answered later.) 

The above is what I did for Blood Shot, but I really did both the 'write the scene' and 'ask the questions' things at the same time.  I think that breaking down the process as in a you must follow a list A through Z is going to be less than helpful for those writers who are advanced enough to have their backbrains do the processing that a newbie might have to consciously follow.  We've likely done the thinking for a story start often enough we can do it seat of the pants and just use 'it feels right' as the basis for a green light for starting the story. 

But that's a pantser tendency, and for die hard outliners, they might have to do a lot more thinking. 

In the Writer's Digest article, you are told to start with your protagonist, then establish time and place and announce the stakes.  This is typical first scene stuff, though--especially for speculative fiction, where much of the fun for readers is learning a new world along with the story.  You make a promise with that first paragraph as to what type of story this will be (fantasy or science fiction, romance or urban, etc.) and you give enough to show the reader who is important/protagonist and enough about the world for the reader to get his or her feet beneath them.

I disagree that you always start with a protagonist.  I think that speculative fiction by its very nature often requires a writer to begin with something that is important, not just with a protagonist.  In fact, you might not start with any main character at all,just with an incident in some faraway place or time that establishes the basis of the story.  (Some people call this a prolog; but I find that it can often be a first chapter, lol.)  Point being, spec fic isn't like most 'standard' types of fiction.  And, for that matter, detective stories can begin with a crime such as a murder, because that's an attention grabber for readers. 

But I think it's valid to say that the big thing about starting your spec fic tale is this:  You have some flexibility in how you structure your opening, because (as I mention in this earlier article) you have a different set of readers who will allow you to start in a different manner than, say, a romance or literary novel.  Just be sure you open with something interesting that either informs readers about the crux of the main plot or introduces a main character (not necessarily the protagonist/hero.)

Vacationing in the land of Denial

Well, I'm heading down to Bangor ME in tomorrow morning to catch a shuttle to NYC, where I'll be goofing off for several days, me and Madre that is, and then heading to Cairo.  We are going to sail down the Nile and tour the highlights of wonderful, warm and sunny Egypt.  After wonderful, cold and snowy Maine, I think a bit of heat is going to be really nice.

The Doorstop (my name for the laptop) is remaining at home, and The Spare is still wedged under that jiggly table leg.  So I won't be posting, updating, commenting or sharing my no-doubt thousands of pictures until I return to Maine on 3/17*. 

So wish me Bon Voyage, my loves!  Mwah!! *blows big air kisses your way*

*There may or may not be posts up in my absence, depending on how energetic I get before we leave.  And if you think the enforced absence from blogland is easy for me, know that my fingers will be twitching and I'll keep reaching for the cell phone, thinking I really can afford the ten-dollars-a-minute rates to use my cell phone in Egypt...

Poetry recommendation

Here, Bullet
by Brian Turner
Alice James books, Nov. 2005, 80pp, trade paperback

I don't talk about poetry much on the blog.  But this book is really worth reading.  It's an incredible, moving portrait of war as seen through an American soldier's eyes.  Mr. Turner is an exceptional poetic voice, and his innate sense of how to use imagery to evoke what words by themselves cannot say about the flaws of mankind and the nature of war is, putting it mildly, awesome and stunning.  It will leave you feeling both small and expansive, sad and proud, enduring and hopeless.  The poems stretch your psyche between two polarities, that of victim and victimizer, horror and hope, and yet you feel an innate sadness, respect, even kindness in his description of what war is like for the soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Like one of the reviewers said, "nonpartisan attention to the terrors as well as to the beauty of ruins."  Yep. 

Reviews from Amazon

"Turner attempts to capture the extreme experience of war by depicting the feelings it generates..." -- Library Journal

"Turner has sent back a dispatch from…the war in Iraq—and deserves our thanks…" -- The New York Times Book Review

"…a powerful reading experience…" -- The Franklin Journal

"…earnest, nonpartisan attention to the terrors as well as to the beauty of ruins." -- The New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice

"…written by a veteran whose eye for the telling detail is as strategic as it is poetic." -- The Globe and Mail

Mathical Musical Monday

Tom Lehrer explains why I can't do math.