Writtenwyrdd

Miscellaney for the week

Some daisy-like red thing I found all over Island Pond, Vt.

 

 

A canal behind my motel in Island Pond.  Wish the light was better, but overcast was all I got.

But we had a gorgeous and sunny day on the 1,000 Islands boat tour.  Just look at that sky!

On a less interesting note, I've had a nice 2 weeks off of work.  But I'm putting the harness back on in the morning and have at least the next month without time off.  And I got next to nothing completed about the house this past week except for canning cherry jelly and cleaning.  I read four books, though.  I read 3 the previous week.  No writing, no lawn mowing (good thing it's been dry, it hasn't grown to ridiculously shaggy yet).  I did get the electrician in to fix the problem, and had a fellow regrade the driveway.  And I bought a bunch of canning equipment because I managed to leave it all behind when I left New Hampshire back in 87.  Now, however, I have all the stuff I could use.  Bwahahaha!

If I was sure it would be safe to ship, I'd offer a half pint as a prize in the upcoming blog contest.  Because, peeps, I am going to be celebrating my 4th blogaverssary on August 7th.

What do we want for a prize????  Besides jam, which will break and give the appearance of oozing blood and freak out the postal carriers?

Oh, and do we want a writing contest again?  What say ye?

Will she, or won't she?

Where do you find your facts?  And how do you know they are accurate, when you know that not everything you read on the internet is properly vetted and factual?  And obtaining information on esoteric topics is much more difficult to obtain unless you use the net?  Even better, who do you ask to verify things you find and are not sure if they are current or accurate? 

Know before you ask.  I suggest that, before you contact anyone for info or help, you make the attempt to research the topic a little bit first, so you have a general idea about what you need to know as it relates to your story.  Have a list of questions and things in plot points that you anticipate using upon which the plot's outcome depends.  Have an idea where your plot will fail if your understanding is wrong.  Because you don't want to be either unprepared or waste your resource's time.  If you can have a conversation of some sort about the topic, you will get more mileage out of everyone's time. 

Asking nicely. I have found that asking people at universities if they can spare the time to answer some questions can provide you with some useful information.  You need to be considerate and realize that your questions are being answered at the expense of a busy person's time, though.  You need to acknowledge the effort they may put into helping you out and thank them, either for their direct assistance or for their referrals.  You can also call professionals and see if they are willing to assist you.  I would expect that people who already know you at least peripherally might be your best bet, for they at least will know you aren't a wacko and might offer up information.  You can also ask these acquaintances if they are able to refer you to anyone with more specific knowledge re the topic.  That's even better. Most of all, though, you need to resist the urge to pester them or demand instant attention.  That's key.

Friends, acquaintances and friends of acquaintances.  Think of your options like a phone tree.  Call people whom you think might know something about the topic, ask them what they know.  Ask them who they know who can help you. 

Other writers.  Sometimes you can engage in a little mutual back scratching with writer friends who have differing areas of expertise. 

Various sites will net you information on the topic; but I'd be concerned you look like a potential terrorist to Homeland Security! 

Vetting.  Sometimes what appears to be incorrect data isn't.  Here's an example, from the Darwin Awards.  They have a report of people smoking around TNT and getting blown up.  TNT doesn't explode that easily, so this may be urban legend.  But I recall being told back in my Army days that when it gets old, TNT sweats...it sweats nitroglycerin.  And nitro is very, very volatile.  But a mere quick look on the net gives me conflicting info so that I do not know which is correct.  (I'm not actually talking about this topic here.  It's just an example.)

Now, what I "know" about explosives is not that extensive, and not that current.  But it illustrates the point, once again, that what you "know" about a topic isn't necessarily fact, and during edits of your work, you need to check your story and be certain the plot points involving things like TNT or firearms or technology or medical or scientific concepts/ideas/facts are accurate. 

And the same goes for the people who provide you with the information. 

Just give it your best shot and try to be accurate so you look as smart as you can.  Your readers will love you for it.

Resource to mine: Usenet

Interesting sources of datas or discussions on miscellaneous topics can be found on Usenet archives.  to find them, google the string "usenet topic" without the quotes (which nets you a search that has the words within quotes as a string in the search text.) 

One interesting archive is here.  
History and info on Usenet archives on Google is here.
And UsenetArchives.org.

These are are just a few ways to find old Usenet archives.

The thing I need help with, though, is on how to set it up to read these things NOW.  (Can anyone guide me to an idiot-friendly site with instructions?)

Cool Site redux

Here ya go, for ideas about Stupid Human Tricks, try the Darwin Awards site.  Go have fun, y'all.

Road trip photos

I had some lovely weather on the way to Ontario to visit Bernita, and we took a 1,000 Islands boat tour that had some gorgeous weather.  But on the way home it was rather overcast...and that was when I took the scenery photos.  Anyhow, here are a few shots of the lovely St. Lawrence river and my drive through upstate Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. 

 

A nod to my host country.

 

Perhaps the smallest island of the Thousand Islands that has a house on it.  There are a number of these with 'modest' yards.  Cute.

 

Where I stayed in Island Pont, VT.  Built about the time I moved here.

 

View of the lake from the motel. I stopped off to visit a friend.  I hadn't been back here since 1987, and it's pretty much the same.  Rather like the town I live in now, except we don't have a gorgeous lake with a large island in the middle.  The island is the land mass right of center.

Here's a better shot of the island.

And here are a few of the roadside pictures I took as I drove from Island Pond to Colebrook NH and then over to Route 2 in Maine and then up 95 towards home. 

 

Cool tech

I haven't been camping in dog's years, not since I moved back to New England in 1999.  So I'm a bit behind in the latest and greatest gear that's available.  Today, I learned about a cool thing (which I want now):  The Hennessey Hammock.  The hammock has a mosquito net on tip, a rope 'guy wire' that both helps to keep the hammock tent-like, and keep it from drooping from your weight by providing tension along the sides of the hammock.  Hammocks are comfortable and lightweight, and, so long as you have trees or something to string them from, they are quick to put up.  You can't beat that!

So, you can use this little bit of info in a story some time, if your characters are out camping someplace.  I actually have a story where they are out camping, so I might even be able to use it. 

Avoiding factual errors: Part III - Firearm myths from television

Stupid myths about firearms. 
I know you have seen these before, but--please!-- try not to perpetuate them.  (Television has so much to answer for.)  For even more fun, you can check out the TV Tropes page on guns.  Highly amusing.

Shoot 'em in the kneecap.  Generally speaking, cops and soldiers do not shoot to wound.  Because it's a lot harder than you think to hit a moving target with a handgun, especially during the excitement of a fire fight, and really especially when you are trying to shoot a human being.  And it's vastly more difficult to hit a kneecap (like you see in the movies) versus the torso.  Any distance further than arms length degrades accuracy unless a person is used to firing while under fire or is used to handling a sudden adrenaline overload. And because a cop or soldier is trying to put down a hazard (or they wouldn't be shooting in the first place) they are going to go for the more reliable target: the torso.  Furthermore, cops and military members are trained to aim for the torso or the head, and they are trained to shoot until the target is down or has surrendered. 

Think of it this way: Cops don't shoot for the heck of it; they shoot to save a life in danger, save themselves, or to subdue someone deemed dangerous enough that they may likely seriously harm or kill someone if they are not apprehended.  Shooting is a last resort for a cop. 

Taking a knife to a gun fight.  Actually, a good knife wielder has the advantage over a someone with a holstered weapon, especially someone who isn't expecting to defend themselves.  Knife wielders also have the advantage of knowing they are going to attack, while the target is likely unprepared and will take a second or two to react-- giving the knife wielder time to close the distance.  And knife wielders can be incredibly quick.  Many are martial artists...and you've seen how fast some of them are if you've seen even one Bruce Lee film!  Further, how many cops are trained and experienced in knife fighting?  Yeah.  I think you see my point.  Now for a fact: The safe distance to keep someone with a knife is on the order of 30 feet.  If they get any closer before you get your gun out, you can receive a fatal wound before you realize you are in trouble.

The neverending magazine. For gods' sakes, count your shots!  Different weapons and different calibres in the same model handgun carry differing amounts of lead, peeps.  Also, cops and military often have more ammo in their mags than a civilian model is legally allowed.  (Some mags are marked Law Enforcement Only, as well.)  As an example, if a cop has a law enforcement magazine in a Glock 17 [which is a 9mm], she has 17 rounds in the mag and one in the chamber, making it 18 total.  Plus however many mags are required for duty carry.  Non LE mags hold, I believe, 11.  And the Glock 22, a .40 calibre model, carries 15 in the LEO mags.  I think it's 9, but I couldn't verify, in the civilian magazines.

Shooting under water.  Any gun with dry ammunition will fire underwater.  Once.  Whether it is safe to do is another story. The issues are threefold: mechanical function of the firearm, barrel length, and fluid dynamics. 

• Mechanical. You have to understand that semi- and auto weaponry is often powered by gas pressure from the explosion of the previous cartridge, and that fluid (water) is far more dense than air. The first issue, the gun's mechanical function, is that even if a model fires underwater, it may not fire a second time using double action because the pressure may not be there to 1) to move the slide all the way back and cock the hammer; and 2) slam the slide forward with enough speed to grab and seat a new round in the chamber.  You may get the first to occur, but not the second. You might have to jack the slide to chamber a new round and cock the hammer, or you may have to fire single action if a round does chamber.
• Fluid dynamics. Sure, you can fire the gun under water. But is it safe, and is it worth the bother? Water is much more dense than air, and, as fluid does not compress as readily as air, the energy of the gunpowder's explosion is taken up by having to push the bullet first down the barrel and then through the water toward the target. Basically, this renders a bullet next to useless except at very close range. This is true whether you are shooting into the water (fish in a barrel) or shooting below the water (bullet torpedo.)
Blowing up in your hand? There is the possibility of either a misfire or non-fire due to water rendering the gunpowder in the cartridge useless. (Hence the old saying, "keep your powder dry.") However, I would be concerned about the worst case scenario, the gun exploding in your hand. Here is a great explanation from a yahoo discussion forum: "As all metallic cartridges are waterproof for short periods of exposure to fluids, ANY firearm WILL fire underwater, but, as water is several times denser than air, the bullet will lose velocity very rapidly, and actually come to a complete stop. Also, a weapon with a longer barrel, a rifle or shotgun, if the barrel is filled with water, may burst its barrel from hydraulic overpressure when the gas pressure from the fired round impacts on the fluid confined in the length of the barrel, as it would if the barrel became obstructed with mud or any other solid matter." (my emphasis)

So, um, go ahead with the underwater shooting scenes, peeps. Just know that there are issues. But the issues are such that it can provide some great tension and dynamics to your scene, if you work them right. Here's an article on fluid dynamics for you.  Also at the yahoo groups site cited above, there are a few links for your perusal on the topic.  I recommend them.

Announcing your presence before shooting.  Unless you are a police officer who is required to do this, no one in their right mind gives away the advantage by telling the bad guy to get prepared to shoot back (or, worse, so they can shoot first.)  Sometimes TV has a character dramatically announce themselves with a gun cock; which is dramatically cool but in reality dumb as a box of rocks.  Yeah, I can picture a sniper or assassin yelling, "Hey! Buddy!  Look up here!"  Not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Let me state again, I am not an expert on firearms or police/military tactics.  But I have some training as well as experience in all these areas and know enough (and know enough people) that I can confidently say I'm basically accurate here.  But, that said, I always verify technical things like this, just in case.  Because what you think you know may not be correct.  Technology is everychanging.

Technology can date you...and that's not with candy and flowers (Repost)

Reposted from December 27, 2006. 

The paranoia.
Have you heard of "mobile bugs"? Check out the CNET article talking about how the FBI is using our cellular phone microphones to listen in on us.

You might want to check out this site in order to be certain you aren't having your thoughts read, either! Foil helmets never go out of style.

The idea.
Well, this is an interesting little techno ditty to use in a modern-day urban fantasy. One could have a sleuth who discovers this factoid, who gets an FBI pal to exploit this idea, or whatnot. It is not a big, plot changing bit of tech, but it might prove interesting to use someplace, someday.

The downside.
However, my recent observation is that technology can date your writing and reduce its longevity or believability.

It's amazing how fast that can occur, too. I was just reading "The Stainless Steel Rat Sings The Blues," by Harry Harrison--written in 1994-- and, in this book, satellite communications were hush hush...in a spacefaring society, no less. That dated it for me. Not to mention, the mic is stuck as a false fingernail on your pinkie, and the speaker is on the forefinger nail. You see, you stick your first finger in your ear and talk into the pinkie... Yuh-huh. What was funny back then is dated today.

Avoiding factual errors, part II: Motor vehicles - VIN numbers, importation, & forensic vehicle identification

I was reading another excellent book by a writer I love, and found a different factual error from Monday's post.  This one really really bugged me, as the point in error set up the entire following plot!  To whit: the investigation team cannot identify a vehicle's owner 'because the vin number was obscured on the dash.' 

And this is incorrect.  And every time they refer to being unable to find the vehicle's owner, who is presumably the murderer, I gnash my teeth and am really irritated because this wouldn't be an issue if the author had done one of two things: arrange the situation so that the obscured vin number issue was set up properly; or make some other choice of issues on which to hang the plot...such as having the vehicle in question be a dead end because it was stolen from a dealer's lot.

Vehicle identification.  Vehicle identification is deliberately made redundant to appease both law enforcement and financial institutions/insurance companies.  I suspect that insurance/financial companies have more to do with the current practices than the law enforcement authorities, as they hate to toss out big money and they do so when vehicles are reported stolen falsely--say by someone selling the car out of the country, or someone destroying it to get out of payments or what have you.  Big money (she states cynically) generally dictates governmental policy.  Which is unfortunate, but fairly accurate.

There are a couple of ways I know of where you can identify vehicles.  The first is the VIN (vehicle identification number) and the second is via parts numbers. 

VIN numbers.
According to the History of VIN numbers page posted by AutoInsuranceTips.com,

In earlier years, the serial or VIN number could typically be found in one or two obvious places. This is not the case today. Today, the VIN number has many different locations including but not limited to the following locations:

• Dash by windshield
• Driver’s door or post [Ed.: usually a sticker]
• Firewall of the vehicle
• Left-hand inner wheel arch
• Steering column
• Component parts
• Radiator support bracket
• Machined pad engine

There are, however, other, little known locations used...and I'm going to share the biggest, coolest VIN secret with you all (details courtesy of a mechanic friend, although I was aware of this peripherally.): 

• Secret site #1: Every motor vehicle has at least one hidden VIN placed somewhere on the frame. The frame VIN is not going to be visible from casual observation. And it isn't in the same location for every car. They are not even in the same location on the same manufacturer's models from different years. Parts have to be removed to find the numbers and you still can have trouble finding them, even when you know where to look! Why do they do that? This location is useful for identifying vehicles who have been chopped and placed back on the road with different parts (e.g. someone takes an expensive car or two and swaps the VINned parts so the car appears to be a different car and can thus be registered; or the vehicle has been damaged and you cannot find any other VINs to make identification with.
• Secret site #2. Sometimes there is also a VIN on the underside of the vehicle's main body, generally on the bottom of the floor pans. This is generally visible to casual viewing.
• Secret #3.  There are often even MORE secret sites that host VIN numbers.  Looking on the internet, I've seen references to as many as 12 of them.  (Holy moly!)

Parts numbers and serial numbered parts. 
Most, if not all, parts have part numbers so you can identify where they fit and order replacement parts to match.  Some are also marked with the vehicle's VIN when the car is manufactured.  What is not common knowledge, however, is that many car parts have unique identifying serial numbers which are not VINs, and they are tied by the manufacturer's records to the vehicle into which they were placed at time of manufacture. 

Now, I am not certain how reliable this method would be in the long term; but if a car has been recently issued, it is likely the manufacturer could provide records that indicate which part serial number belonged to the car where the part was originally placed.  Which would also be a means of determining that someone has stolen parts on their car, or of identifying a car that has been damaged too badly for VIN numbers to aid in identification or where the manufacturer may not have had a VIN on a particular part. 

The catch with parts numbers and part serial numbers is that 1) not all manufacturers use the unique numbering system; 2) I am sure their recordkeeping retrievability varies considerably; and 3) only the original* parts on the car have the VIN or unique parts serial number associated with a particular vehicle.  (And, as I say above, not all original parts have VINs.) [UPDATE: I am informed by my mechanic friend that a damaged frame, when remanufactured by the factory, will have the VIN number for the vehicle in question.  However, an aftermarket source will not.]

Identifying false VINs. 
Another useful twist on the VIN is using it to identify when it has been replaced in the obvious spots, such as on the door and dash, the obvious spots to double check.  Since 1981, VINs have a mandated structure that can be read to tell what make, model, year, country, and even the plant where the vehicle was built.  See the Wikipedia or Vinguard article on VINs for fantastic charts that spell out what the 17 digits mean. 

The situation where knowing you have a fake VIN  could be when, say, a maybe-stolen Harley Davidson motorcycle is located.  The problem is the thing has been parted out, with the frame VIN lost due to the frame having been scrapped or the VIN ground off and replaced. (This is actually an extremely common situation with stolen vehicles, motorcycles in particular.)  Given the generally overworked nature of the DMVs of the nation, do you suppose they'd question a VIN that made no sense?  I doubt they'd notice!  Or, there might be software out there that would peg a fake VIN.  You can go either way, research it to find out which is true or where it's true.  Possibilities, possibilities...

Identifying vehicles that are on the road illegally.
One thing that frequently occurs is that people buy junked cars and put them back on the road.  And this is illegal.  Once a car is junked, it is never supposed to be retitled and registered.  The title is supposed to be title branded, marked as having been deemed scrap. "The designation or brand is mandatory in most provinces and states in North America when an insurer or vehicle owner writes off a vehicle as a "total loss". Typically this means the cost to repair the vehicle would equal or exceed the car's value, although legal definitions vary." (from Wiki)  Presumably, there's a database owned by either law enforcement or insurance companies, likely both.

Greymarket vehicles.  Per Wiki, "Grey import vehicles are new or used motor vehicles and motorcycles legally imported from another country through channels other than the maker's official distribution system. The synonymous term parallel import is sometimes substituted."  The reasoning behind the laws and regulations which cause vehicles to be grey should they be imported are spelled out in the cited article.  But the basic issue is that any vehicle which is imported into the United States must meet DOT (Dept. of Transportation) and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) standards before it may be licensed for road use.  There are some exemptions for personal vehicles imported by the owner, but they are limited to things like not being required to change the odometer/speedometer to m.p.h. from k.p.h.  (I know this stuff because I live in the Canadian border and people import and export cars all the time.)

Once upon a time, back in the Dark Ages when I was in the Army, we could import a car we bought overseas and the regulations were not enforced.  (I'm not sure if we were supposed to comply with EPA/DOT back then and the military/Customs just ignored the issue, or what.)  We just picked up the car and went blithely off to insure and register it, no questions asked.  These days, the vehicle must meet the DOT and EPA standards within 90 days of arrival or the vehicle is seized by US Customs & Border Protection or crushed.  (This updated info is according to a military member I know.)

Export and import of vehicles. 
Here's a factoid that many people don't figure out intuitively:  You are not allowed to just take a car from one country to another and register it.  A few reasons why are: 1) What if there is a lienholder?  They may have no recourse for satisfaction of debt if you have a loan with that car as collateral and you remove it from where they can reacquire it.  2) Keeping track of vehicles that are coming in and going out serves the public good as well as business interests. Law enforcement as well as insurance companies like to know if formerly scrapped or stolen vehicles are returning or leaving, because they can recover them or prosecute for fraud.  3) Keeping track ensures that appropriate mandated safety and other standards are applied before a vehicle is licensed or sold to unsuspecting consumers in the US.  An example would be a Canadian, travelling to Florida, who trades in his Canadian car for a new US one, and registers it in Florida.  *He's illegally exported his car from the commerce of Canda, illegally imported a car into the United States, and illegally sold it...because you cannot sell an imported item without "entering it into the commerce of the United States" as the Customs people will tell you.  That entry procedure info can be found here and here...and also on the Customs & Border Protection site.  (Lots of info on the CBP page.  Click the links.) And, getting back tot he list, 4)  it's about money.  Duties, tariffs and administrative fees may be required for importation or exportation of vehicles (or anything else for that matter.)  Goods manufactured in the US are not subject to duty, but there may be other requirements.  But the biggest issue isn't that the car was illegally exported/imported; it is that the poor sap who buys the car 'as is' or what have you, will go on and potentially fail the safety or smog inspection when he goes to license the vehicle.  He gets screwed over. 

*The import/export issue is added here because it's a tangential issue that may involve the use of VIN numbers. 

Useful info sites.
History of VIN numbers on autoinsurancetips.com
Wikipedia's VIN page. This is a fantastic site as it spells out what the VIN digits mean in an easy to read chart. 
Wikipedia's title branding page
Vinguard's How To Read A Vin page

Summation.  Really, there are many ways to use the vehicle identification numbers in a story.  But, as you can see, you must be certain you do not leave a glaring plot hole or error like the one I ran across in the story I'm reading.  It really is damaging my enjoyment of the book (which I like a lot) by continually having the VIN error shoved in my face. 

Epic fantasy (repost)

Reposted from 9/29/2007

Epic fantasies usually begin in medias res, in the middle of things. Consider, for example, how much history comes before we meet Frodo Baggins in The Lord of the Rings, and I'm not just talking about its prequel, The Hobbit. The Silmarillion will give you a better idea. In this eon-long context, the One Ring can be seen as merely a loose end that must be tidies up before it and its master can destroy all of Middle-earth, smashing sundry lives in the process including those of various innocent hobbits.

This pattern runs through much of modern fantasy. The past is a looming shadow that shapes the present and threatens the future. Characters thus totter between light and dark, between simple, everyday life and cosmic destruction, on a scale that sometimes boggles the mind even of their creator. P.C. Hodgell, the introduction to Blood & Ivory

P.C. Hodgell is one of my all-time favorite fantasists. She wrote God Stalk, which is not so well known but which is in my top three favorite books of all time list. Go read it and the sequels if you want to read something truly unique. Her world is not a Tolkein deriviative; it's fresh, new, fascinating.

And what she has to say about the looming history of an epic fantasy is so true. I've always had the sense of this, but hadn't ever put it so well.

And you can find information on Professor Hodgell here.

Avoiding factual errors, Part I: firearms

I love a good read.  I hate to find errors in said read, however, because it makes me have difficulty trusting the author.  A factual error I have seen more than once brings me to write this post.  I am reading an urban fantasy I like by an author I like.  In it, she has a character place the safety on on the Glock handgun she was carrying.  WHAT??!!  Fact, peeps:  Glocks do NOT have safety buttons*, and they do not have decocking levers.  (More below.)  But a simple check with a gun dealer or on the net would have told her that.  (If there is a Glock out there that has a safety or a decocking lever now, please let me know, as I have apparently missed out on that change!) 

Guns. 
Remember this about guns, writerly peeps: Just because you know that such-and-such is true about some guns (pick your saying or idea) doesn't mean it is true for all guns.  And, while I am NOT an expert in these matters, I know some stuff.  And here are a few places that writers step on it and trip. 

The two most common spots I've seen errors related to weaponry in fiction are 1) nomenclature, vis automatic versus semiautomatic; and 2) use of the terms 'gun,' 'weapon,' and 'firearm.'  There's an old Army thing where they used to punish soldiers for calling their rifle a gun:  "This is my rifle, this is my gun, this is for fighting, this is for fun."  (I'll let you figure out the visuals.)  But that illustrates the perceived difference in the military use of the terms.  You always call your M4 or SAW your weapon.  Knowing what jargon to use, what it means, and how that changes the characterization or perceptions about your character makes this sort of thing really useful.  For example, calling something a weapon can indicate a military situation, a gun a civilian one where the character isn't familiar with firearms or the nomenclature.  And firearms is a bit generic and clinical, but is as likely to be used in a gun shop as anywhere else.  But terminology is largely (as you know, being writers) dependent upon the era, situation, people involved, and what the writer is trying to convey to the reader by the word choice.  Point being, know what you are saying by your word choice. 

Safety buttons & empty chambers.  Not all guns have safeties. And--ask anyone who knows guns--the real safety is keeping your idiot finger out of the trigger guard.  Modern semi-automatic guns cannot, literally can not, fire unless you pull the trigger back, releasing the mechanism to fire.  (Unless you have the hammer back, in which case dropping it might have an extremely slim chance of setting the thing off, generally due to a mechanical failure.) One common error is the assumption that all semi-automatic handguns have safeties that you have to take on and off, and whether or not cops/military have their weapons on safety.  I have on at least 3 occasions seen a writer err by saying a character took their Glock handgun off safety,.  That is patently incorrect. 

Then there's the concept that no gun is safe unless the chamber is empty.  This is was standard for revolvers, as it is impossible for a dropped gun to accidentally fire if the chamber is empty.  But it's not true for semi-automatic (magazine fed) handguns.  Writers often have people jack rounds into the chamber before going into a trough situation, nd that's probably not SOP (standard operation procedure) with modern law enforcement or military in a war zone.  And a cop or soldier isn't going to go on patrol with their weapon on safety.  To my knowledge no cop in the country is required to have the chamber empty and jack a round in it before engaging.  It would be a quick way to die..  In the military, however, I was required to have an empty round in the chamber of my M16 and the rifle on safety unless we had a shooting situation.  But we weren't expecting incoming fire, either.  We were guarding an installation in the continental US..  Big difference.

Keep your fool finger off the trigger unless you're planning to shoot.  If you've been in a firearms safety course (such as the ones make first time hunters take), you already know this drill.  For the rest of you, you may have developed a misperception by watching the Hollywood heroes on tv.  If there is the immanent likelihood of shooting (they have unholstered their guns) someone would have their finger on the trigger.  That makes good sense, as they are expecting to need to shoot.  But you also see these same tv heroes casually handling their firearms with their finger inside the trigger guard when they aren't clearing a building or in some other situation where they expect they might shoot.  No.  Nononononono, that's dangerous and stupid.  Your finger is straight, next to the trigger guard if you are, for example, holstering a gun, or anytime you are at a firing range, where safety is paramount.  I think that how you address the finger on or off the trigger both is a useful character indicator and a distinction.  Very useful for a writer.  

Automatic versus semi-automatic.  Seems like most of the 'automatic' firearms on the news (usually in gun control stories) are not automatic.  There is a profound lack of knowledge about the difference between the two, so that in many minds the 'automatic' is any firearm which has a magazine holding ammunition.  Here's the diff: Semis require a trigger pull for every shot that is fired.  Automatics will multiple shots per single trigger pull.  Automatics can fire single shots based on duration of trigger pull.  Smaller automatics (personal weaponry like the M4) are governed by a selector switch which designates whether the weapon will fire auto or semi-auto.  A semi-automatic rifle, can closely resemble the automatic assault rifle version...but it's the function that defines the thing. (Check out the civilian AR15 versus the M16, which to the uneducated eye are twins, with the AR15 being only semi-automatic.) 

Machine guns are essentially bigger automatic weapons, differentiated by the size of the ammo they shoot.  They are usually full auto only, as was the old-school M60 (which I'm quite familiar with as I carried one on a reaction team, go me.) The M60 shot 7.62mm ammunition as does the current Army machine gun, the SAW [Squad Automatic Weapon.]  Both fire 7.62mm, but the SAW, like the M4, is limited to a 3-round automatic burst (again, to save overuse of precious ammo.) 

Fire hosing.  FYI, military weaponry changed a bit since Viet Nam.  The old M16-A1, which I used in the Army over 25 years ago, had a full auto selector switch that let you keep firing downrange so long as you held down the trigger.  (Back then, we called it fire hosing, for obvious reasons.)  Now the personal weapon is the M4, which replaced the M16.  It has a only a 3-round automatic fire burst and single action settings, limiting the dispersal of ammo in high-adrenaline situations. Fire hosing is out, selective fire is in. 

Semi-automatic versus revolver handguns.  Semi-auto handguns are magazine-fed, where a revolver has a cylinder that you must open to drop the rounds in.  Semi-automatic means this: you pull the trigger and one bullet fires without you having to cock the hammer.  Like with long arms (rifles), one shot per trigger pull always means semi-auto. 

Machine pistols.  These are mini-machine guns.  Quite literally mini, as they are not much larger than a handgun.  You pull the trigger, they keep spraying bullets.  They are magazine fed, and they run out of bullets faster than you'd think...which is why people are trained to fire 3-round bursts.  (That is actually pretty easy to do, so long as you don't get all adrenaline poisoned and forget to lift your finger off the trigger.)  Info tidbit: it takes a lot more strength to hold one on target than you would think.  Even Arnold vis the scene in the Terminator couldn't hold those two Uzis he's shooting level like that if the thing weren't shooting blanks. Check out the things, they have semi-auto and auto versions, the semi versions being longer barrelled.  There are also restrictions as to the magazines, and I believe for the folding or collapsible stocks that can be used to configure them to fire like a rifle. I'm not up on these puppies, but they are used by tactical squads, are sometimes carried in tactical holsters which are strapped to the thigh, or slung crosswise for instant availability. 

Single action versus double action in revolvers.  Single action means you always have to cock the hammer back before you can shoot the gun.   The first revolvers were all single action, which is why 'fanning' of the hammer was done, so you could snap off rounds faster.  But with double action revolvers, the trigger pull first moves the hammer back so it's in position to drop, and a complete pull releases the hammer and fires it.  NOTE:  You can stop the trigger pull at the point where the hammer is cocked, locking the hammer back for a future single action shot.  This takes practice, and, if you do it wrong, you have an accidental shooting.  Might be useful for your writerly toolbox. 

Decocking/uncocking a revolver.  [I've heard both terms used; not sure which is more common or appropriate.] Once the hammer is back on a revolver, the gun is literally poised to fire.  Just dropping some revolvers (particularly early models) can set them off even without the hammer back.  So, for safety, you have to decock the hammer, returning it to the static and safe upright position. The most common and safe way to do this is to stick a finger between the hammer and the cylinder, then pull back on the hammer to release it, then slowly let it move forward until you let it rest gently against the finger, letting it slide along your cushioning finger as you bring it forward.  The finger cushions the hammer in case you lose your grip on it.   And, in case you haven't guessed, the stupid way to decock the revolver would be to pull the trigger, firing the gun. 

Decocking levers and semi-automatic handguns. Semi-automatic handguns can be fired single-action.  If you have cocked the hammer back to fire semi-automatic, that means you only have to pull the trigger a small amount in order to fire, and the safety is off, so just dropping the thing has an extremely remote possibility of misfiring.  Not as likely as with an early model revolver, though.  But it's dangerous that way, mostly because it takes just a small trigger pull to fire it like that.  Now, why would someone do this besides grandstanding, which is how the movies use the move?  Well, it can give steadier aim as you don't have to apply as much pressure to the trigger.  This is a move not done often, 1) because it's stupid in 99.99999% of any shooting situations, merely grandstanding; and 2) because if you have the kind of time to do that, you have time to fire carefully without that maneuver and you should be able to shoot just as well!  

But if you do have a hammer pulled back, you have three choices for putting the hammer back down so the gun won't go off.  1) use the means described for revolvers.  Not the safest method.  2) drop the magazine, jack the slide back to eject the round in the chamber and pull the trigger.  A stupid idea as it renders you with a non-functioning gun until you reload.  And 3) use the decocking button.  Built in safeties make this the safest means.  However, not all guns have them.  And not all guns by the same manufacturers have them.  NOTE:  Some handguns do not have an exposed hammer (the Glock.)

NOTE: many semi-auto handguns, such as the Glock, allow you to have a similar advantage of the low trigger pressure for follow up shots if you do not entirely release the trigger, just enough so you feel a click, which means the firing mechanism is reset.  It reduces the amount of pull required for the next shot and will improve your aim, as the trigger doesn't have to travel so far, giving you less chance of screwing up the shot.

Ownership of fully automatic weaponry.  It's illegal to own fully automatic weaponry without very specific Class 3 weapons licenses issued by the govt, specifically the ATF (Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms).  Semi-automatic weaponry is not affected by these federal government permits.  State law, however, varies on what is legal (just as it does for any weaponry.) 

Importation & exportation of weaponry.  The rules for importation of any firearms into the US are also restrictive and require permits, although hunters can take their weapons outside the US (subject to importation laws of the destination country) and bring them back easily, so long as they have registered them with Customs & Border Protection before they leave, or have the proof of sale with them.  (Again, living on the US/Canadian border provides lots of personal experience.)  Note: Military goods are not allowed in or out without a Department of State permit.  Even really old surplus stuff.  Likewise, explosives, certain technology deemed risky and other items deemed important to national security are controlled and involve permits from their governing regulatory agencies.  Lots of room to create problems for your characters here.

Conversion to automatic.  It's illegal to convert a gun to automatic without an ATF permit.  Not sure you can actually get a permit to even do it any more, but back 20 years ago, I was informed you could get one.  What's worth a mention here is that, for the purposes of writing a story, you should know that the conversion can be done...but the parts are illegal to own unless you have the required permit.

Civilian long arms, explosives, and et cetera.  Not touching this one.  Shotguns, rifles, yada yada ya.  Too many to go into.  Depends what or who you are hunting.  And as I am really only truly familiar with the police or military uses of these deadly implements, you are on your own.  Explosives?  I'm not going to discuss them, as the world has enough of that info out there.  No offense, but go buy The Anarchist's Cookbook or subscribe to S.O.F. magazine or whatever and research it yourself if you are that interested. 

Shooting situations & ammo, e.g. shoot/no shoot.  Vis the situation where a character is in a shooting situation, there are a couple of things you might consider researching.  First, consider the area around the target.  By this I mean bystanders or things that can go boom (and other hazards).  If there are other people around, a cop/good guy would not want to shoot them.  If there is a hazardous substance that a bullet might ignite or release, that can make it a no shoot situation.Therefore that character needs to consider that it's pretty difficult, really, to hit a person at even ten yards if you are adrenaline poisoned and aren't a practiced shooter.  You can shoot the wrong person.  Even for practiced shooters, if they've never been in an actual fire fight it can be easy to screw up in this manner. 

Second, consider your field of fire and the ammunition you are using.  If you are shooting fully jacketed rounds, they will penetrate drywall or standard house walls like a hot knife through butter, and you can kill someone you cannot even see if you are unlucky. Many law enforcement agencies specify ammo that breaks up on impact (variations on wad cutters) partly so that the first person the bullet strikes is the only one who is injured...but also because these bullets disseminate all their energy on impact and thus have vastly more stopping ability, e.g. make big entry and even bigger exit holes.  Lesson?  Shooting someone isn't nice. 

Third, consider your surroundings.  Cops or soldiers can sometimes get excited and engage in what is called crossfire, where they are essentially shooting at each other with their target in the middle.  This occurs when they are too focused on the need to shoot the target (adrenaline poisoning and lack of experience at work, giving them tunnel vision) and they don't see there are friendlies or non-combatants/bystanders in the line of fire.  This coud be useful in a story.

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An observation.  You want to read an author uses firearms and tactics excellently?  Read the first four Anita Blake books by Laurel K. Hamilton.  That lady has it nailed.  Every time a gun is used, she KNOWS it.  She knows how and why it should be used tactically for the given situation, and she knows its limitations, and she knows the types of ammunition police use and why they use them.  Her research in these early books impresses the heck out of me.

*NOTE: I have found a reference for a specially designed model of Glock with a thumb safety.  Basically, however, this is not applicable to Glocks in general, as these haven't been released except to the Latvian police! Models for sale in the US have no thumb safety, and I doubt that's going to change, because these handguns are basically bomb proof.

I hope this post gives you some direction on what to think about if have to have a firearm of some sort in your story.  I'm not trying to be the definitive source here, and there are likely going to be divergent opinions regarding some of the points I make.  But as writers you know to double check what you think you know!

I want you all to know, my darlings, that I have hammered out a number of posts for your descrambling pleasure while I'm out and about. I might email a few tidbits from the road, as well.

The program you have scheduled has been pre-empted...

Firstly, I'm on vacation starting this evening (for TWO weeks, yay!) and I am trying to blast out a few posts before I go off on a road trip to Ontario to visit a blog friend.  (More on that later, if she gives me permission.)  So you are only going to get a few reposts and what I can come up with haven't been as well vetted for clarity as I generally try to do.  So forgive me the even worse than usual quantity of typos and errors.

Secondly, I've been a bad blogger of late, both in the realm of reading and commenting and in terms of actually posting.  I've been doing it for four years, though, so my lagging a little doesn't seem so strange when you consider I have over 2,000 posts under my belt--508 on the old blogger blog and 1593 on the typepad blog for a total of 2001...an auspicious number, lol.  The unfortunate thing is that I am no longer writing essays like I used to.  I like writing the things, actually, and I think it stretches the brain to write articles instead of quickie here's-what-I'm-up-to or here's-an-idea-on-writing-with-half-baked-plot-ideas-too posts. 

Thirdly, I'm going to be having a bloggaversary contest in August to celebrate the possibly underwhelming event of my presence in the blogosphere for four years.  August 7th is the 'magic' date.  I'm going to get a cool prize for this one (still to be determined) and I'm thinking that there should be another themed writing event along the lines of the Halloween/Samhain contest from last year.  That was a lot of fun and showcased some really good writing, too.  A few ideas for a theme include Summer/hot weather/heat, fairs, carnivals, scary clowns or circus acts, and in general a science fictiony sort of story theme as opposed to horror, which was the last contest's overall theme.  Do any of these seem appealing to you all?

And fourth, I am 49 today.  Go out and eat something full of calories for me, as I cannot.  And because it's for me, it won't count against you.  Really. 

 

Fingersnaps

On the heels of the last post, how about migraine symptoms as part of your story?  I ran across a mention of migraine aura being phantosomia (phantoms smells) and looked it up.  Turns out there are a TON of uncommon aura phenomena out there.  You can read a lot on them, including personal anecdotes, on Migraine Aura.

I'm not sure how to use migraines specifically in a plot; but the thing for me is that there are lots of uncommon symptoms and side effects.  I think that the last post has had me considering the possibility of murder/ suicide/ assination in the depths of my back brain-- stuff an urban fantasy or noir-type story might have in them. 

Perhaps you might get the Writer's Guide to Poisons and look up some intriguing symptoms for a poison victim; but you want to have the symptoms also be a red herring of some kind.  So you go look up medine side effects and symptoms of diseases.  Perhaps you have your murder victim have a disease, such as migraine,that has symptoms that mimic the poisoning symptoms.  Or perhaps the symptoms are really caused by some underlying disease and no one knew it because they were rare.  Or perhaps the person with hallucinatory aura symptoms (be they oral, visual, aural, taste) is eventually proven to not be crazy (or, as above, the reverse) and thus provides some critical clue or red herring.

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Additionally, an amusing (sort of) anecdote from helping a pal do a crossword puzzle.  He does them, for the most part; but I help out with spelling and soundingboard/word retrieval services.  (My vocabularly is, like many of we writers, ridiculously large.)  Today, he handed over the puzzle with a few words left, because something had been filled in wrong.  One of the issues was a word he'd filled in as 'fingersnap.'  It was a cookie.  Now, I ask you: what other cookie has 'snap' at the end?  Gingersnap, of course.  I insisted that he was a nutbag for using the 'f' there, it had to be a 'g'--and the cross clue proved me right.  But because I was so certain that there was no such cookie called a 'fingersnap' he looked it up...and Lo! there IS such a cookie.  (He'd never hear heard of it, either, but had to look it up just to be a jerk, lol.  And it's apparently a rare usage, involving biscotti, so I'm not sure it even counts, lol.) 

The point being, you need to open your mind and consider that what you KNOW may not, in fact, be TRUE.  Other options you refuse to consider might be valid. 

Paranoia and hypochondria

The other day, I was talking about little used tropes in speculative fiction.  Most specifically, I focused on urban fantasy.  You can consider any form of genre fiction in the same manner, of course, but I'm sort of focused on UF as there is so much of it out there and my favorite reads of recent years inhabit that spectrum.

 

Today's idea post is about two related strains of personality disorder:  Paranoia and hypochondria.  While they are not related in the sense that all hypochondriacs are paranoid and all paranoids are hypochondriac, both mental problems do have the person suffering them focused warily on the world and altering their approaches to life in order to deal with their issues.

 

The only time I've ever seen a hypochondriac used was in Carolyn Crane's new book, Mind Games.  She did an excellent job creating a protagonist with hypochondria and actually using the hypochondria as fuel for what could be termed a super power.  Wonderful stuff.  Paranoia, on the other hand, can be anywhere and everywhere.  I don't specifically recall clinical paranoia used for a protagonist in a story, however, not in the sense that the hypochondria drives the plot in Ms. Crane's work.  (If you know of an example, please chime in.) 

 

I ran across an informational email about workplace safety, in particular MRSA, a dangerous staph infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.  (Info below.)  It occurs to me that either paranoia or hypochondria could be used in relation to some sort of disease.  Your character is convinced that someone is trying to kill them, but it's via an insidious means such as MRSA.  So your character, who also is a gym rat and has to pump iron for hours a day or the world will end, must go through some odd machinations in order to get his or her workout in.  (That doesn't run the plot, actually, just adds complications in how the character would be potentially limited in dealing with plot elements.)  Hypochondria, though, would seem to be an obvious issue:  Fear of catching MRSA staph infection like Carolyn Crane has her protagonist afraid she's going to die from vein star syndrome.  Yet the fear alone isn't enough.  Ms. Crane has a character whose neurosis is used as a super power; to have your character's hypochondria function as part of the plot, you'd have to come up with something equally functional in the dysfunction, or have it add a major complication that the character has to work around.

 

Anyhow, thats' just some thoughts I was having.  Happy writing!

 

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WHAT IS MRSA & HOW IS IT SPREAD?

MRSA (Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococus Aureus) is a potentially dangerous staph infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.  It is mostly hospital acquired but also can be community acquired.  Outbreaks typically occur in gyms, dormitories, and among armed-services personnel. 

MRSA is spread by direct contact with a contaminated individual or surface.  It can also be spread by contact with contaminated tactical gear or personal items such as towels or razors.  Note: some NFL teams have their practice fields sanitized periodically as a precaution.

WHAT ARE THE SIGNS & SYMPTOMS?

MRSA may proliferate where there is an uncovered cut, abrasion, or other skin flaw.   Check for fever.  Look for a bump or infected area that may be red, swollen, painful, warm to the touch, pus filled or draining.  These may quickly turn into deep, painful abscesses that require draining. 

HOW CAN I PROTECT MY FAMILY & OTHERS AROUND ME FROM MRSA?

 Know the signs of MRSA and get treatment early.  Keep cuts and scrapes clean and covered.  Encourage hand washing or the use of a hand sanitizer and good hygiene.  Don’t share personal items such as razors and towels.  Use gloves when in direct contact with symptomatic individuals.

HOW CAN I AVOID MRSA IN THE GYM?

Wash and heat dry gym towels and workout clothing after each use.  Clean and disinfect gym equipment after each use.  Keep cuts, scrapes and wounds covered.  SHOWER. 

 

Enforcing your willpower with cyberlocks

Yesterday, I was grousing about how I couldn't resist teh lure of the internet.  Betsy Dornbusch told me there was indeed software to block one's access so email, twitter, Facebook or other social networking or fiddly things wouldn't derail one's work ethic.  Good intentions notwithstanding, I'm a bit ADD and all about the Oooh, Shiny!  So I needs me all the help I can get.

So I followed Betsy's suggestion and rummaged about Nicola Griffith's blog, Ask Nicole.  She posted about a software program you can use on a post here.  It's called Freedom and is only $10.  There is also Anti-Social, which turns off the social parts of the net so you can do research on line as needed.  (That's what I'm talking about!)

I think I'm going to try these (there are trial versions), but not tonight, as I just stayed up way past bedtime to read the latest Chicagoland Vampires book.  I have a headache and less than five hours to sleep...so Goodnight, Peeps!

Thank ye gods for the internet

Okay, I'm sitting here, working on a story (the same one, the never ending one.) And I have bits of world creation needs as I go along. This time, I need a name for a type of sigils or magical characters used by a future group of magicians who are a combination of middle eastern, eastern european and african peoples that mushed (yeah, that's my technical term) together in the nearly two thousand years post an event that changed the way the world works. 

So I needed to look up ancient alphabets right quick, and a google search let me to the coolest site, Omniglot.  On it, you can look up ancient alphabets and even Klingon or Tolkien Elvish.  And there are pronounciation guides as well as other useful info, such as historic information on that language.  Definitely a cool site a writer should bookmark. 

Thank ye gods for the internet.  Instant gratification.

I mentioned before I loved Stacia Kane's Unholy Ghosts, but I just finished Unholy Magic AND IT IS BETTER THAN THE FIRST BOOK!!!!!! Go out and get these, they are great urban fantasy. Really.

Twilight: Eclipse as done by LOLcats.

http://www.popsuede.com/2010/07/twilight-saga-eclipse-with-cats.html

Superwimp?

Here's an idea for you.  I was reading my post from a couple days ago, about standing tropes on their heads.  And it occurred to me that one thing the uber violent world of urban fantasy lacks is true pacifism.

A few questions came to mind.

• How would a writer use a pacifistic hero?
• What means would a pacifistic hero use to change the situation when dealing with evil, minions of evil, supernatural critters or other things that go bump in the day or the night?
• Would religion come into this at all? If so, how?
• Would your hero be a Quaker, or a follower of Ghandi? What sort of elements could an affiliation such as these add to the story? (Make a list of quirks such as hunger strikes as a form of manipulation, etc.)
• Could a pacifistic hero be more than a running gag, or a minor and failed character?
• If the protagonist spends the entire story resisting the violence...how could you obtain a positive outcome in a battle against evil? By winning it over?
• What if the pacifist is the evil character? (Vis Good Omens by Neil Gaiman, where the son of Satan gets switched at birth and ends up being normal.)

Just a few ideas to toss around.  But pacifism and non-violence and the philosophy of Harm None is lost in the world of fiction--movies, books, tv, games--that I can't help but believe that, if done well, pacifism as a tool for your fictional character might very well work.  Might be a one-trick pony; might prove to be only fodder for a send up; but it would be an interesting experiment.

A feel good story for ya:

http://www.uniquescoop.com/2010/06/kitties-rescued-by-us-marine-soldiers.html

Take a dash of urban legend and a pinch of tall tale...

You can get ideas from many places.  I've been looking up interesting places to stop and have a looksee on my upcoming vacation road trip, and the below story, found here, strikes me as a cool story idea...

Slipperyskin – Bear, Bigfoot, or Indian?
In the 1700s the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont was (and still is to a certain degree) frontier country. It was inhabited by woodsmen, hunters, trappers, and fishermen extended families, mostly Wabanaki, but also a few sturdy others. It is told that it was also the haunt of Slipperyskin, a bear, which is supposed to have caused a general misery among the settlers. His name Slipperyskin was because he managed to elude every trap that was ever set for him. The Indians knew him and called him Wejuk or Wet Skin.

The story is told that an old bear once terrorized Lemington, VT for many years and committed wholesale destruction. He was a mean animal, and evidently had a grudge against humans. He destroyed their fences, ripped up their gardens, frightened their cows and sheep, tromped through the cornfields and caused no end of mayhem.

He was a huge bear, the stories relate, and he always ran on his hind legs and never on all fours. Before a hunter could lay his gun sights on him, the old bear would vanish into the woods as silent and swift as a drift of smoke.

He is said to have left tracks as big as wagon wheels, and for what it is worth, it is told he squeezed the sap out of maple trees when he felt so inclined. For maliciousness and cunning, it was claimed he could never be compared, except to humans. He seemed to enjoy himself immensely, frightening people and livestock, kicking over manure piles and throwing stones into machinery left in fields. Where the old bear came from, and why he eventually disappeared entirely is a mystery.

You could use this basic legend, as in the recreation of a fairy tale can work; or you can take the idea of a mysterious and deadly creature from current myth, e.g. the Bigfoot or Yeti, or you could make it sf or horror by having the terrorizing thing be an alien or a supernatural being.  All you really need do is come up with a cast of characters, personal motivations and a story for those characters that fits into the challenge of the monster. 

Let me know if you use it.  And happy writing!

An idea

What if this were an alien in your story?

http://cuteoverload.com/2008/08/22/the-lonely-deso/

Jumping into the lake of Verts

Well, taking a few minutes off from ACTUALLY WRITING, I thought I'd catch up on my blog reading via trusty Google Reader, which helps me at least know when I am blowing off my favorite 200-or-so bloggers rather than simply forgetting to check in regularly.  And, lo! I read a few snippets of things here and there and had a relatively interesting idea or two.  (Forgive me in advance for not looking up the links and references; I am being intolerably lazy, I know, but you will just have to live with it.  Either that, or you won't have a post to read.)  So I have a few things that struck me as interesting things to use.  (I should probably have broken this up into two posts, but instead you get a really long and rambly one.  Enjoy!)

Children and parenthood.  One blogger mentioned that in her novel she decided to have a slayer who has retired from slaying in order to deal with parenthood and ensure she maintains custody of her daughter.  The blogger poses the question: why don't we see more parents/parenting and children in urban fantasy?  Are we afraid to have children in the monster-slaying biz, or are we afraid to actualize children like in Lost Boys, where teens hunt and kill the monsters on their own?  Is it PC-ness or something else?  There's lots of room for interesting stories when parenthood crossbreeds with urban fantasy, I'd think.  It would be possible to have the children be involved, or the parent might want to keep them in the dark...or, even better, the kids could be embarrassed by mom/dad the slayer when they find out.  Or the reverse.

Less common settings.  And another blog mentions a cool sounding book based on an African (Senegalese?) myth, which is a milieu that isn't dealt with nearly enough.  Even better, the story is humorous.  We see very little in the US in the way of books set in other cultures or using other mythologies besides Greek, Roman, Native American or other familiar to our culture themes.  It seems that Norse and Celtic mythology and tales are the predominant "alternative" cultural motifs.  African myths and tales are rich in variety, characters, what have you.  (Read some of Migene Whippler's collected tales of the Orisha for a few examples.  Most are out of print, but I own them all because they are that interesting.)

Let go of the dysfunction. Stacia Kane has a great post from a couple days ago about Twilight and the one thing it really gets right: the concept that relationships are good things, and wanting to love and be loved isn't something to be ashamed of; and neither are marriage and kids.  We tend to downplay that in our society, and Stacia discusses how the criticism of the Twilight books can become negative criticism of wanting a relationship more than college and a career.  And there is nothing wrong with wanting to love and be loved.  Nothing.  And while the whole Edward thing is a bit creepy, the fact that Bella wants a relationship more than college and a career isn't inherently a form of mental disease.  So...how about having healthy relationships between your characters for a change, instead of a dysfunctional emotional shoot out in every chapter?  Or physical/emotional abuse?  Or lying, grudges, passive aggressive behavior?  [As a side note, the Kitty the Werewolf series by Carrie Vaughn has a very stable and healthy relationship between Kitty and her husband.  I just read the latest installment of the book and the thing that I pondered rather fondly after I finished reading it was that the relationship was so normal and Ms. Vaughn wrote it so well.]

Avoiding the Ooooh, Butterfly! Then there is the mention (by Mynfel, I think) about being easily distracted by the next shiny idea when you hit the middle-of-the-story hump, that place where things and thoughts get rather tangles and you absolutely must push through against your own mental inertia in order to get to the end.  (Is it mental inertia?  Or is it just that by that time the New, Shiny Idea has been niggling at you long enough you cannot further resist it?  Just sayin'...)

But really, the Big Idea of this post is that there are all sorts of trends, tropes, ideas, or commonalities in the everyday world that don't make frequent appearances in the (oft dysfunctional) fantasyland world of urban fantasy or fiction in general.  And perhaps we should, as writers, take a look at those elements--both to enliven what may be a stale plot and to look at other issues that might provide some interesting character development opportunities or plot enhancement.

When What Next rings your bell.  So, you have all these ideas for plot points or interesting things you can toss into the mix to add to the conflict or obstacles for your hero/ine.  Or you get stuck in that middle-of-the-book doldrum, or you have a scene that you can't figure out how to fix.  Lillith Saintcrow says she just kills off a character to get the story rolling again.  And while that probably works, it might seem a little obvious after a while if that's your only trick pony...so perhaps you can try something a little less bloody and with a bit more variety:  You can use the list of odd little tropes, ideas, trends like we discussed above.

Take things you don't see much of and see how they would play out in your chosen genre.  Or pick a trope or plot element that you have been using in the story and invert it, subvert it, convert it. 

Invert it.  Take any plot element and stand it on its head.  Work from there to see that shakes out from the idea tree.  For example, if the vampire slayer bad ass is totally tough and totally able to kick vampire butt from here to next week...you have her not so tough in ways that give her a real Achilles heel.  For example (and there are better ones out there, I'm sure) you could take a vampire slayer, the Chosen One like Buffy, and make her get ill at the sight of blood.  Or even pass out.  So how is she going to deal with that reaction?  I imagine she will have to get pretty clever about it.  Perhaps therapy, or perhaps she finds a way to make herself color blind!  You can take any expected ability of a hero and pull the rug out from under it, making an unforseen complication and a rich opportunity for variety in your plotting.  Also, humor opportunities might arise; and that is a plus.

Subvert it. Usually in a paranormal romance (like most romances) there's a common mistake where lovers lie by omission or deliberately out of fear.  Well, subvert that trope by making the lie a big, ridiculous one, one that is so egregious by the understatement (I have a child and her mother and I are estranged) versus the reality (my kid's mother is your arch enemy and I don't know how to tell you and I don't want you to hate me because I want you bad, future baby mamma #2.)  In other words, make the paranormal romance pivot on a fairly typical plot element of the lie/misunderstanding and twist it.  So, as in the example above, the fact that the guy turns out to be the father of the child of Our Heroine's the Evil Enemy--and then, to make matters worse and more complicated, he's got to drop everything to go to a parent/teacher conference when the kid acts out at Evil Doer's Prep by insisting she be called Joan of Arc and be martyred by burning at the stake.  (Or something equally outre.)  Just try finding something extreme and outrageous and see if that gets you moving.  You can always modify it later on, right?  

Convert it.  Take a trope or plot element and make bad into good, good into bad, enjoyable into loathed, sexy into turn off.  Whatever.  But if you turn things around, or have your character(s) react differently from what the reading audience would expect, you give yourself an opportunity for memorable differences between your vampire novel and the many, many others.  

There are lots of ways to change things up and make your storyline more interesting.  But when you feel most comfortable with a plot element, you might consider if it's because it's something you've seen a lot of times previously.  And you may want to dip at least a toe into the lake of Verts. 

So, if you are stuck...Find the Verts. 

DISCLAIMER

I find I have fallen afoul of the FTC's 10/5/2009 new rulings that require me to tell you I have been "compensated" for some of my book recommendations/reviews. This merely means I've received an occasional ARC or free copy of a book (via contests, usually), and have then given my opinion about said books. For the record, let me state that I've done these recommendations without receiving any monetary reward besides the free swag. And I'll tell you in the posts if it's a freebie or ARC that I'm reviewing. Or if I've been bribed to say nice things for money. That is all.

750 Words, a way to keep you writing

Sylvia of Can't Backspace posted a link to 750 Words, a site that reminds you to write 3 pages every day. It's a nice concept. Check it out here: http://750words.com/

Check your baggage (pun intended)

"Use the right word, not its second cousin."  Mark Twain

"The difference between the right word and almost the right word is the difference between lightning and the lightening bug."  Mark Twain

Catching up on blog reading a bit this morning, and ran across Marian Perera's recent post talking about my favorite writing contest, the Bulwar Lytton contest held at San Jose State University every year.  (Did I ever tell you I went to SJSU for a whole semester before dropping out to join the Army?) 

At any rate, she mentions the first quote, and I was reminded of the second, which I've quoted someplace on the blahg in previous years.  Also, check out the article Marian links to.  Funny stuff.  It also contains-- couched in the pithy humor-- some great advice for writers.

Sometimes, we don't know the precise word we want or need.To quote The Princess Bride, "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

And, regarding word choice, nuance is everything, especially in English, which has so many words with so many shades of meaning attached.  Any given modifier has implications that go with it, some subtle, some not so subtle.  It's called baggage, and baggage is the subtext and submeaning of the word-- how it's usually used, what it usually implies.  The things that you communicate without having to spell it out...or, aas I'm discussing here, the things you didn't mean to imply.  Sometimes it's the literal context of the words in the converation or story; sometimes it's just the underlying submeanings or alternate meanings or common usages of a word.

A quick example is the word 'special.'  If you have two characters having a conversation while watching their children play, and one child falls and hurts himself:  Child's mom says, as she's dusting him off and kissing his booboo, telling him to go back to playing, "That's my special Johnny."  Other mom: "Really?  He looks fine to me."  'Special' may or may not have been intended to indicate a handicap of some sort, but in that context, it sounds like it was...because that is the baggage the word has gained from being used euphemistically for mental handicaps.

You also need to recognize unintended innuendo (sexual, racial, or other allusions.)  By definition, that's an 'indirect and usually malicious implication.'  Phrases that are actually innocent in the writer's mind can imply something else that can create problems.  For example, if you use the line "everyone should own one," it may bring to mind a racial slur, even if what you are saying has nothing to do with race and you in no way intended to imply anything along those lines.

So...check your word baggage, if not at the door then at least during final edits.  You need to recognize the fine differences between using the 'second cousin' word and the one that you really need to make your reference clear; but you also need to recognize perfectly good words when they contain subtleties and implications that work against what you are trying to communicate. 

A contest at Razored Zen!

Charles Gramich is hosting a launch party at his blog for a new book.  Details here.

Cool Site: Alphabet photography

Asite where you can form inspirational words via photographs.  Check it out here.   

Happy Independence Day!

May your corndogs be juicy and your strawberry shortcake sweet. 

Make that first page count...or else

My favorite Editorial Assistant, Moonrat, has a great post on your first page and how important it is.

I don't want to reject books--I want to buy them! But I can't buy something that I'm not passionate about. So many of these manuscripts are only 60% of a book I'd want to read. There are different reasons they don't fit the bill--maybe the content doesn't interest me personally; maybe I don't like the writer's style; maybe there's nothing special about the book, it's just adequate. Maybe the agent didn't do a great job of pitching it, and I was expecting something other than what I got.

Or maybe it's a beautiful, perfect, exquisite book, exactly the book I've always dreamed of publishing. But I'll never know, because the first page was CRAP.

There are different ways to create a crappy first page. Boringness. Cliche. Too many fancy schmancy words. Immersing your audience too quickly into the action. Immersing them too slowly.

Yeah, I know, it's basically impossible to win at this game. But YOU MUST TRY.

Above all things, YOU MUST BE SPECIAL.

Assume whoever is reading your submission is going to be in a terrible mood when they look at page 1.

You just don't have until page 2.

I've asked if she would say what big things make it special, and if she can describe the intangibles, the emotional reactions, or whatever, a bit more for we writers.  Off the top of my head, though, I'd have to say that, regardless of where or what action with which you begin your story, it simply must grab the reader's attention and not let them go. 

A good exercise would be to check out your library shelves and pick up the top ten books there.  The ones you reread more than once, or which you remember with great fondness.  There might be some good beginnings to look at there, good beginnings which you can dissect to see why they grabbed your attention.  Your taste as a reader may not be that much in line with acquisition editors and their assistants, or with agents, yet this is a place to start.

And there are the things that you see regularly, things that may or may not be considered cliche.  If you have seen it regularly used as an opening, you should think about whether you really want to start there.  Sure, murder mysteries or urban fantasies (among other genres and sub-genres) frequently begin with a dead body.  This isn't necessarily going to be an opening: Fail! if you use that set up; but you might want to consider that if you can change that up, you might have something fresh.

Likewise, waking up openings, the sweeping description via  narrative opening, or others used decades ago but which are now considered cliche may even work...but you are risking rejection from a cranky reader if you use them. 

I would say that above all the most important thing is the mystery 'something' that just flat works.  Movie industry folks call it "lightning in a bottle;" the French, je ne sais quois - literally "I don't know what."  It cannot be definied, but we know it when we see it!

McKoala Challenge report for June: Bellyflop!

I must confess to slacking off for June in addition to May.  No excuses.  I made about a thousand words again, though.  (About 25% of the minimum goal.  Pretty poor showing.)

The good news is that my neurologist agrees I do still have sleep apnea and I'm getting my CPAP back, reset to a lower pressure level.  I hadn't been able to use it because after losing all the weight it's like sucking on a leaf blower to wear the thing, and doing without has been better than wearing it.  But now I won't have the bad headache, tiredness or difficulty losing weight after the respiratory therapist gets ahold of it.  Because my metabolism has already been getting funky despite the gastric bypass.  Haven't lost weight in the eight or nine weeks that I have been off the machine at night.  Really, being tired and having a bad headache all the time is the worst of it, though.  I'm really only borderline; just enough that it affects me, but I could survive without the machine.  I can thus do without it on vacation or for a night or two, which makes life much simpler when traveling, let me assure you.  Nothing beats flying with a medical device.  I get tired of getting patted down in the airport because every time they swab the thing it comes up positive for something or other.  Sheesh!  ;0

Slinking off to hide now...

A nice bit of worldbuilding

"The elves are an ancient breed, far older than humanity, born of a time when the very nature of this world was different.  Our rules and restraints don't apply to them, but then they don't have our certainties, either.  Like Life and Death, Good and Evil, Heaven and Hell."  Simon Green, from "The Spy Who Haunted Me," p.257 of the mmpb

I like that.  I find it a bit annoying in that Eddie Drood, our main character, is always explaining things to the others involved in this story, but overall it's really fun and almost as excellent as the first two installments in "The Secret Histories" series.

The way he thinks about the elves is really intriguing to me.  They aren't really spelled out clearly, but the elves are nevertheless scary and the need to go to their world (which is under discussion in this scene) is made incredibly ominous, in large part because of this description.

I didn't enjoy Green's Deathstalker and thus didn't read teh followup books in the popular series, but I adore his Nightside books.  The "Secret Histories" books are set in the same world as Nightside.