Born To Write

There And Back Again

2012-01-06T15:38:00.000-06:00

OK, so I have The Hobbit on the brain, but I DID just have to read that book again, so that's a good enough reason for me. =)

I usually write up my yearly post closer to January 1, but this year I have been a bit delayed. I've been thinking a lot about 2011 and how fast it flew by. It zoomed by so fast that I hardly got anything done that I had intended. To me, this means I'm doing something wrong.

Perhaps I'm expecting too much of myself, perhaps I have too much on my to do lists and when I falter even just a little it drags me down and I feel like any of it is impossible. Or maybe I just need to find the right motivation to propel me forward. Even with raising a toddler, dealing with sickness, and managing my M.F.A. classes, I know I should be able to progress with my writing at a better rate than I have been.

And because of all these thoughts, I think I need to take a lesson from FlyLady.net I am a fluttering FlyBaby attempting to get my house in order as well as my writing. One of the big things FlyLady encourages is Baby Steps. Don't pile it all on, do a little at a time, and slowly add things in until they become habits.

I need to make my writing time into a habit, and to do that I need to start small. My main goal for my Writing Term project in my M.F.A. program is getting on a consistent writing schedule. THAT is my SINGLE goal for the year. This means writing every day, even if it is just 100 words.

And since I definitely need to take Baby Steps, I need to work on one habit at a time, and cut back on other things. This includes blogging.

I have made the decision to cut down (for now) on how often I blog. The writing has to come first - I need to start producing more instead of having novels linger for nearly a decade before a rough draft is done. I'm not going to set a blogging schedule for at least the first six months of the year. I'll blog when I find slivers of time, when I have a link or two to share, when I possibly have some essays from my classes to post, and if anyone decides they want to do a guest blog.

I do hope to start taking part in SFFS (Science Fiction Fantasy Saturday) some time soon (not this week yet, though), but I don't know how often I will participate.

I do hope that those of you who have enjoyed visiting my blog will still hang in there with me, even though there won't be as much content as there was in 2011.

So, I am ditching all the disappointments of 2011, and I am taking Baby Steps in 2012:

WRITE EVERY DAY

Eventually I'll get back to blogging every week, but I'm not going to rush myself or set a date.

Good luck to everyone with their goals and resolutions for 2012. Happy writing!

And don't forget to visit my Facebook Page and join in on Writing Quest if you dare - I will still be running it each month. There's an ambitious list of goals from many people for Writing Quest - January already!

Sick and Tired

2011-12-30T14:04:00.000-06:00

OK, sick and tired is one of those phrases that can sometimes be seen as hyperbole, one of those phrases people use to say they are just annoyed with a certain situation.

Unfortunately for me, it's a literal meaning. I have been pretty darn sick all week, so much so that I have been unable to sleep much all week. I was quite lucky to just type the previous sentences and have them make sense. Do they make sense? Maybe only to my sleep-deprived brain and illness-addled mind.

So, I am going to be skipping another week of a blog post with some type of content that doesn't include me whining about my life or making excuses.

This has also made me realize that I may need to step back and take a look at what I've been doing on my blog. Life is crazy, and I need to schedule things better and plan ahead. I'm not even sure if any of my posts have been interesting to the few readers that I have (no one comments - ha!). Also, over the next six months, I will have a heavy load of classes, which will strain my time even more.

What do all of these thoughts mean?

I'm going to take a few days to chew over things. My blog will NOT be disappearing, that is a given, but I might be posting less, at least for a while. I know that means I will be in danger of losing the few readers I do have, but I think I may have to take that risk or lose my sanity (I mean, it's hanging by a thread to begin with!).

There will be no blog posts about Once Upon A Time for now, since I am so behind on episodes and people usually like reviews shortly after the episodes air. Perhaps I will review another episode down the line, but no promises (same with Grimm).

My next post will be my yearly goals and a look back at 2011, and I hope to write that up next week, when I also decide on the direction and time commitment I will be taking with this blog. I am open to any comments and suggestions as well.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and manages to stay healthier than I have been! Happy writing. <3

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-23T11:02:00.001-06:00

Whether you celebrate Yule, Hanukkah, Kwanza, Christmas, or another holiday this time of year, I wish everyone a happy holiday!

For all the writers out there, I hope you've reached your goals for the year and the holiday season isn't road-blocking your writing time (like it is me - heh).

My review on the next few episodes of Once Upon A Time will be delayed until next week.

Happy holidays and happy writing!

Steampunk and Time Travel in The Anubis Gates

2011-12-14T14:52:00.001-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Anubis Gates there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

In the Recent Science Fiction and Fantasy class I took, we had to research the steampunk sub-genre. The Anubis Gates was on many steampunk lists as one of the original novels that started the sub-genre, and I was curious about it then, so I was pleased to have the chance to read it now. Time travel paradoxes also tend to make my head spin, so I was interested to see how Tim Powers handles it in The Anubis Gates.

I must admit, The Anubis Gates is not what I expected from a novel labeled as steampunk. When I think steampunk, I think more the science fiction side of things with the air ships, the interesting gadgets, and the focus on steam as a power source. Therefore, I did not expect to find so much magic in such a novel! I'm quite glad I had the chance to read this novel, though, since it did give me a fresh perspective on the sub-genre. And with it leaning toward fantasy because of all the magic, I enjoyed it immensely.

When I wrote my essay on Boneshaker for the aforementioned class, I used an article I found on the internet called "Steampunk: A List of Themes" to examine how that novel incorporates steampunk elements. I looked at the article again after reading The Anubis Gates to see just how many categories it fits into. It's obviously an alternate history, closing in on the Victorian era, so we see a lot of those antiquities. There's the cannon near the end of the novel and the gunpowder used throughout. Plus the chemistry used in the magic and to alter the humans and animals in Horrabin's "hospital"--Horrabin and his father I think would rightly qualify to be labeled as mad scientists. There is the monster, of course. Dog-face Joe is a wonderful twist on a typical werewolf. There are secret societies, sword fights, and a clear class divide (Doyle himself experiences life on the low and high end of this). All of these things clearly make The Anubis Gates a steampunk novel, and I am even more enamored with the sub-genre after seeing this fantasy side versus the science fiction side.

But before we are steeped in this magically rich Victorian time period, the main character needs to get there first. And even though The Anubis Gates is steampunk, it's also a time travel story. Time travel is a fickle thing. The writer needs to set things up just right to make sure it all makes sense. Paradoxes are easy to fall into. Powers sets up his view on how time travel works in this world right away when Doyle and the others arrive for the Coleridge speech. History already states that Coleridge lectured at that date and time, but if Doyle and friends wouldn't have arrived and paid the money to rent the room for the lecture, it never would have happened. From this example it's clearly seen that Powers' view on time travel (at least in this novel) is that you can't go back and change things--everything has already happened. There is no way to change history because if you travel back in time, you've already effected that history so the result will be exactly the same.

Even though I think the "it's already happened" approach is a great one, since it doesn't mean the writer has to explain the ripple effect, I still found it hard to accept everything concerning the time traveling. Once Doyle was left behind in 1810, I had a hunch that he would actually be William Ashbless. That hunch was obviously correct, and I do think the set-up for it was done quite nicely. However, there were just some instances where I fell into a couple paradoxical holes. First was the poem, "The Twelve Hours of the Night". Since Doyle is Ashbless, he wrote the poem at the coffee house. As he admits, he wrote it from memory. So if he is the original creator of the poem, where did the words come from in the first place? It's like the eternal debate of "what came first, the chicken or the egg?", since you keep going in circles on trying to figure it out. The words had to be originally written at some point. Powers tries to explain things away later: "My God, he thought, then if I stay and live out my life as Ashbless--which the universe pretty clearly means me to do--then nobody wrote Ashbless' poems. . . They're a closed loop, uncreated! I'm just the . . . messenger and caretaker" (273). But the words have to come from somewhere originally, so this assertion fell flat for me. Even later in the book Doyle decides his experiences are what Ashbless must have been talking about in the poem, but it's hard to believe that the poem came before the actual experiences. Even the words in the book from the 1600s has the smell of paradox. Doyle would never have written the Pig Latin words in the book if he hadn't seen them in 1810, but if that was the only reason he wrote them, they shouldn't probably have been written in the first place. It can become a circular mess, and even trying to write about it strains my brain cells.

Even though I had some issues accepting some of the time travel paradoxes, I overall did find The Anubis Gates a great read. The story was compelling, even when you did know things were already "written in stone", so to speak, and it was hard to put down. I can see why this steampunk fantasy is considered a classic, and it makes me want to read even more in the sub-genre.

Works Cited

EvilEgg. "Steampunk: A List of Themes." Writing.com. 2007. Web.
Powers, Tim. The Anubis Gates. The Berkley Publishing Group: New York, 1983.

NEXT UP: A review of a few more episodes of Once Upon A Time.

Classic Fantasy from 1975-1989

2011-12-07T13:30:00.000-06:00

This will be the last reading list I post in my Classic Fantasy series! And next week will be the final essay in the series as well. I hope you all enjoyed this series and came away with a longer reading list than you had before. I plan to revisit this Classic Fantasy series in the future to take a closer at some of the other texts which I have listed.

Without further ado, here is the reading list for Classic Fantasy from 1975-1989!

The Riddle-Master of Hed by Patricia A. McKillip
The Dragon and the George by Gordon R. Dickson
A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth series) by Piers Anthony
Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever by Stephen R. Donaldson
The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks
Gate of Ivrel by C. J. Cherryh
Beauty by Robin McKinley
MythAdeventures by Robert Lynn Asprin and Jody Lynn Nye
The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
Tales of Neveryon by Samuel R. Delany
Split Infinity (Apprentice Adept series) by Piers Anthony
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
The Land of Laughs by Jonathan Carroll
Little, Big by John Crowley
Imaro by Charles R. Saunders
Pawn of Prophecy (Belagriad Sequence) by David Eddings
Magician (Riftwar Saga) by Raymond E. Feist
The Elfin Ship by James Blaylock
The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers
The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Alanna: the First Adventure by Tamora Pierce
The Colour of Magic by Terry Pratchett
Tea with the Black Dragon by R. A. MacAvoy
Mythago Wood by Robert Holdstock
Neuromancer by William Gibson
Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones
The Fionavar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay
The Black Company by Glen Cook
Archer's Goon by Diana Wynne Jones
A Blackbird in Silver (Blackbird Quartet) by Freda Warrington
Wizard of the Pigeons by Megan Lindholm
Soldier of the Mist by Gene Wolfe
Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey
War for the Oaks by Emma Bull
Jack, the Giant Killer by Charles De Lint
The Healer's War by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
The Dragonbone Chair by Tad Williams
The Satanic Verses by Salman Rushdie - 1989

Again, this list was pulled from the following two books: Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination by Richard Mathews and A Short History of Fantasy by Farah Mendlesohn and Edward James.

Keep reading fantasy, past and present!

UP NEXT: An essay on The Anubis Gates.

Review: Grimm - Pilot

2011-11-28T12:52:00.000-06:00

Grimm is another new fantasy TV series that just started a few weeks ago. I was quite happy to see that there were two more fantasy based series coming out this year, even if they started later in the season.

Unlike Once Upon A Time, though, I'm still not sold on Grimm after watching the Pilot. Right now, I consider Grimm a mash between Charmed and Supernatural. Now, both of those shows have a special place in my heart, but Grimm feels much like the cliche I just used.

Here is our premise. Nick is a homicide cop, and he is supposedly a Grimm. This is something that is hereditary, and it's his responsibility, since his aunt, his last living relative, is dying of cancer, to hunt down the scary creatures--all those frightening fairytale creatures that no one believes are real.

Now Charmed had several cops throughout the series helping out the sisters. The Halliwells also had their awesome old Victorian they lived in (so does Nick!), and they had to keep everything a secret. And Supernatural, the Winchester brothers are always hunting down those scary creatures, and of course impersonating law enforcement in the process.

So, you see how I made the connections? Right now, the protagonist as cop has been way overdone. There are enough cop shows on TV (some very good, and I happily watch them), so why did Nick have to be a cop? What makes these nasties he's hunting any different than the ones that the Halliwells and Winchesters have beaten down repeatedly? I guess I am looking for something to lift Grimm out of the world of predictability, to surpass the "been there, done that" feeling.

Did I totally dislike Grimm? No. It did have some good points. I particularly liked Nick's partner, Hank. Not only was he willing to put up with a little of Nick's craziness, he was shown to be a smart and observant cop. He noticed the song that the "Big Bad Wolf" was humming. Unfortunately, Hank's smarts kind of reflected badly on Nick. Nick wasn't looking close enough for the proof, throughout the entire episode. It was like once he learned about the monsters and that he was a Grimm, he forgot that he was also a cop and should act like one.

I also liked the music frame of the episode. At the beginning is "Sweet Dreams" by the Eurythmics, and then at the end is the cover of the same song my Marylin Manson. Although I am not a fan of the cover song (kind of creeps me out, even though I love the original), I did think that was a nice frame to use for the episode. Heck, that was the best part of the episode for me.

I am hoping the second episode will show more promise. I'm giving it two more episodes before giving up on it.

Overall rating: 2 of 5 Stars

NEXT UP: Classic Fantasy from 1975-1989.

Coming-of-Age and Balance in A Wizard of Earthsea

2011-11-19T14:50:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read A Wizard of Earthsea there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

Ah, A Wizard of Earthsea. I've read the initial Earthsea trilogy before (I have yet to read the newer two books in the series, though), and it's another story that I enjoyed reading again, especially since Ursula K. Le Guin is one of my favorite authors. A Wizard of Earthsea is a true coming-of-age story for the wizard Ged. Le Guin also does an excellent job structuring her magic system--it perfectly reflects what Ged becomes at the end of the novel.

"The first two books of the Earthsea cycle thus recount coming-of-age stories for two children, a male and a female" (145). What Richard Mathews states here is simple truth--it's hard not to see the coming-of-age story in A Wizard of Earthsea (and the female coming-of-age story in The Tombs of Atuan is a wonderful mirror to the first novel). We meet Ged when he's still a boy, still unnamed, and as he learns his magic, he goes through many stages and emotions to finally reach adulthood.

When Ged first becomes Ogion's apprentice, he's an impatient child. He wants to learn everything, and he wants to learn it immediately. The childish impatience gets in the way of what Ogion is trying to teach him. It's not until far later in the novel that Ged finally accepts and craves learning by listening and watching as Ogion originally wished. That impatience also sends him straight to Roke.

Once on Roke, Ged develops a disdain for his fellow student, Jasper. It's another emotion and impulse of childhood or even adolescence. And it leads him to believe that anything that goes wrong isn't his own fault, but the fault of another. When Ged looks like a fool his first day at Roke, he doesn't take responsibility for his own actions. "And Ged followed sullen and sore-hearted, knowing he had behaved like a fool, and blaming Jasper for it" (Le Guin 41). It was Ged himself who actually chose how to respond to Jasper's questions and made himself look the fool, yet Ged blames Jasper.

And the next stage in Ged's life is his fall, which comes about due to his pride. Like a pompous teenager, he boasts and shows off, which then comes back to tear him down. His spell causes the shadow to enter the world. Ged's pride comes crashing down, and instead of simply learning from his mistakes, he feels as though he needs to be constantly punished. Initially he was so high on himself, and now he drags the perception of himself to rock bottom.

Then Ged runs. He attempts to hide from his mistakes in a literal sense, by running from the shadow that pursues him. This is yet another stage in his growth.

Finally, when he's ready to accept the mistakes he's made, he decides to face them head on. He chases the shadow to the ends of Earthsea because he knows he must face the truth about himself. And once he finally meets face to face with the shadow, he realizes he is made up of his successes, failures, and mistakes; that there is a balance inside of him between good and evil, just like there is in everyone. This realization is Ged's step into adulthood. "Ged has completed one stage of his life and is ready for the next" (Mathews 141).

The balance that Ged attains at the end is a reflection on the entire magic system of the book. Le Guin masterfully outlines just what and what not magic users can do in Earthsea. You can't get something out of nothing, you can't change something without it effecting something else. There must always be a balance. And when Ged takes the shadow into himself, he's righting that balance inside of himself, just like magic.

A Wizard of Earthsea is a great high fantasy that shows that coming-of-age arc, and that's only emphasized by the magic Le Guin weaves into the story. The following novel focuses on the other side of the coin, the growth of a female protagonist, making both books powerful reads in a great series. Le Guin is an author that I think should be read by any fantasy or science fiction writer (or reader) since she is an exceptional storyteller.

Works Cited

Le Guin, Ursula K. A Wizard of Earthsea. Bantam Books: New York, 1975.
Mathews, Richard. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. Routledge: New York, 2002.

NEXT UP: A review of the first episode of Grimm.

Classic Fantasy from 1950-1974

2011-11-16T18:04:00.003-06:00

This will be a long list! I'm not sure if I will end up taking this series all the way through 1999 because the books multiply exponentially. But below is a list (at least somewhere to start) of classic fantasy from 1950-1974.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
Gormenghast by Mervyn Peake
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White
The Borrowers by Mary Norton
The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt
Voyage to the Mushroom Planet by Eleanor Cameron
The Golden Apples of the Sun by ray Bradbury
The Broken Sword by Poul Anderson
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Half Magic by Edward Eager
The Children of Green Knowe by L. M. Boston
The Wonderful O by James Thurber
The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope
A Fine and Private Place by Peter S. Beagle
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
James the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
Ficciones by Jorge Luis Borges
The Stealer of Souls (Elric Saga) by Michael Moorcock
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
Witch World by Andre Norton
The Book of Three (The Chronicles of Prydian) by Lloyd Alexander
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
Snow White by Donald Barthelme
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
A Wizard or Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
Swords in the Mist (Gray Mouser Series) by Fritz Leiber
Dragonflight by Anne McCaffery
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
Creatures of Light and Darkness by Roger Zelazny
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Nine Princes in Amber (Amber series) by Roger Zelazny
Deryni Rising (Deryni series) by Katherine Kurtz
Watership Down by Richard Adams
Darkover Landfall (Darkover series) by Marion Zimmer Bradley
The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
The Princess Bride by William Goldman
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

And that is the list. So, which classics on this list do you love? Are there any others you think I should include that aren't on there now? It's amazing how much fantasy is out there, past as well as present.

This list was compiled with the help of Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination and A Short History of Fantasy.

NEXT UP: My look at A Wizard of Earthsea.

Review: Once Upon A Time - Pilot

2011-11-07T11:16:00.000-06:00

I know I'm a couple episodes behind, but hopefully everyone has now watched the Pilot of Once Upon A Time (for those like me that DVR everything and watch when there is time). There are of course spoilers in this review.

Since both Once Upon A Time and Grimm are new fantasy TV shows this season, I thought it would be a good idea to take a look at both while the season passes. I always get excited when I see the networks taking a chance on fantasy.

The Pilot of Once Upon A Time pleased me, overall. However, I was left with a few questions that kind of felt like plot holes.

I loved it that Emma Swan's profession was a bounty hunter. It was unexpected, and unexpected is always good, especially if it fits nicely into the story. Her profession was utilized a little bit in the first episode, but I'm hoping that it will be used throughout the series. As long as the writers didn't just make her a bounty hunter and forget about it in the long run, it was a great choice.

I also liked how she was the type of person to spot a lie. It was nicely done at the end how she asked Henry's "mom" if she loved him - Emma obviously saw it was a lie, but instead of outright telling us that's what she saw, the writers showed us that she saw the lie by having her check into the inn instead of leaving town.

The clock re-starting was a little predictable, but it is hard to get away from some predictability.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there were a couple of things that didn't make much sense. First, Emma's name. She claims she was abandoned on the side of a highway (obviously where she came through via the wardrobe). How exactly did whoever found her or the foster care system know her name? We know there was no note attached to the child. Was her blanket embroidered with her name? If so, I totally missed that, but it does seem like a bit of a hiccup.

The second thing that bugged me was Henry. Supposedly, he's Pinocchio. So then, why didn't he immediately have the curse on him and exist in Storybrooke like the others? How was he then born to Emma Swan? And if bad things happened whenever anyone left Storybrooke, how was HE able to leave Storybrooke without consequences? Some of it just seems a bit shaky or big leaps in suspending disbelief to me.

There was one more thing I wanted to comment about. Now, I haven't watched any further episodes yet (although I hope to this week), but from this one episode it really felt like the writers have a horribly negative view on our own world. Our world has been portrayed as a place where there can never be any happy endings. I do like the darkness that surrounded the first episode. After all, I'm all for the dark fantasy, as you know. I'm just wondering if it was too heavy handed for some people in the first episode with such a negative view on our own world.

I do look forward to watching the next episode of Once Upon A Time, though! That's a good sign - just like the desire of wanting to turn to the next page in a book.

Overall rating: 4 out of 5 Stars

NEXT UP: Classic Fantasy from 1950-1974 (I promise this time, really).

NaNoWriMo 2011

2011-11-01T14:24:00.002-06:00

It's that time of year again! Writers are going crazy to push out 50,000 words. Ah, NaNoWriMo, you daunt me and drive me all at the same time. I have never successfully completed a NaNo novel, but at least I've gotten a decent amount of words done trying.

This year, I'm going to be a Rebel again! That's nothing new for me. Projects that need finishing before I can start new ones. I will be completing the rough draft of Dead As Dreams (so close!), and then I'll be continuing Daina's Dance: Rhythm novel. There should be more than 50,000 words between those two projects, but I am going to allow myself to set a goal of 25,000 instead. I do still have the toddler to chase around and an online class to complete this month. I will attempt to post weekly updates on my blog, and I will be Tweeting the results of my writing sessions.

Also, don't forget about Writing Quest - November! You can join Writing Quest in concert with NaNoWriMo. =)

My Word Count Meter for the month is below. I will attempt to change out the emoticons everyday, but no promises. I've already gotten in an hour of writing time already today! Next session will start right after I post this!

NEXT UP: Wherever my whims take me! (Either the Classic Fantasy Reading Lists continued or a review of Once Upon A Time.)

Sickness, Class Work, and Party Prep

2011-10-28T19:51:00.000-06:00

Have you already guessed what I'm about to post? Yup, I am going to have to push off my next promised blog post. Life never seems to run smoothly when I need it to!

And the 1950-1999 fantasy reading list will actually be split in two, since there are so many titles I have already gathered. It's great that there is so much wonderful fantasy to read out there. =) These posts might not be the next immediate posts, though, as I will be posting for NaNoWriMo, and I hope to post some reviews on the two new fantasy series on TV - Once Upon a Time and Grimm.

Have a Happy Halloween everyone!

The Hobbit - The Adventure!

2011-10-20T12:45:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Hobbit there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

I remember the first time I read The Hobbit. It was 8th grade, the same year I was exposed to "The Pit and the Pendulum". Perhaps Poe and Tolkien both influenced my love of writing dark fantasy, as it was the following year that I started working on my first (rather horrible) novel. I loved The Hobbit then, and I still do now. The songs, the riddles, the races, the world, and above all the adventure.

"The Hobbit's enduring appeal to children of all ages is exceptional; it is a book with ample craftsmanship and depth to reward repeated readings and a nearly perfect lure into the larger mythos of Middle-earth" (Mathews 60). I couldn't agree more with everything in this statement from Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. I have read The Hobbit several times, and I don't think I will ever tire of it. Most importantly, though, it is a story that is a great read for children and adults, just like The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

As I read through it this time, I really saw deeper into the appeal of the adventure and the dichotomy within Bilbo. First, there is the Baggins side of Bilbo. This represents the adult--serious, responsible, and happy to enjoy the comforts of home. Bilbo's Took side, on the other hand, is pure child. It's the side of him that is tempted by the idea of adventure, no matter how uncomfortable and dangerous it might be. "Then Mr. Baggins turned the handle and went in. The Took side had won. He suddenly felt he would go without bed and breakfast to be thought fierce" (Tolkien 18). Children can instantly connect to the Tookish side of Bilbo, the fun and adventurous side. And adults can recognize it too, since there is usually a little Took in all of us, even once we've grown up, buried deep within the responsibility of the Baggins half.

The Took side obviously wins out, with a bit of trickery from Gandalf, and Bilbo runs off on his adventure. And what an adventure it is! The Baggins side invades many times, yearning for the comforts of home, but Bilbo continues on. Throughout the entire book you have a constant rising and falling action: captured by trolls, escape the trolls, captured by goblins, escape the goblins, Bilbo stumbles across Gollum who wants to eat him, and he escapes Gollum as well. And that's in just the first third of the book. Right along this rising and falling action, Bilbo and party are going over and under mountains, up and down trees, through forests and down rivers. Their journey is a perfect mirror for that rising and falling action. Bilbo says it best: "I come from under the hill, and under the hills and over the hills my paths led" (Tolkien 221).

Child or adult, it's easy to get sucked into Bilbo's adventures. "Tolkien married the adventure fantasy with epic: suddenly, the journey on which the participants embarked had world-shattering consequences" (Mendlesohn and James 48). This statement mostly refers to The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but The Hobbit also has those world-changing consequences. How can a quest that would ultimately disturb an ancient and terrible dragon not? At the end of the book the goblins are nearly wiped out due to a war over the treasure. It's an epic end to an exciting adventure, and I look forward to the next time I read The Hobbit.

Works Cited

Mathews, Richard. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. Routledge: New York, 2002.

Mendlesohn, Farah and Edward James. A Short History of Fantasy. Middlesex University Press: London, 2009.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. Ballantine Books: New York, 1989.

UP NEXT: A reading list of fantasy books from 1950-1999.

The Allure of the Unknown in Black God's Kiss

2011-10-14T14:17:00.001-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Black God's Kiss there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

The main thing that pulls you into the stories in Black God's Kiss is the description of the worlds that Jirel enters. C. L. Moore uses the character of Jirel as a vehicle to explore new and unknown worlds. I found myself dragged along by the need to discover just what Jirel would face next, since the worlds are set up so that almost anything can happen.

In the introduction of the book, Suzy McKee Charnas states, "Moore was clearly as interested in mood and atmosphere as in action" (18). And this is evident right from the first story, "Black God's Kiss". Instead of seeing a deep backstory or an emotional exploration of Jirel, the reader is presented with this weird portal into a strange world--a tube that twists and turns deep into the earth, where there is no up or down. Then, Jirel steps into a world with an expansive night sky, a place where gravity works differently, where strange human apparitions hop through a swamp, and a tower made of light greets her.

Every step Jirel takes in the story, she doesn't know what is to come, nor does the reader, and that's the great appeal of it. The reader looks forward to the new discoveries and the descriptions of this alien world. At one point, Jirel comes across a herd of white horses. It all seems so beautiful and majestic, something a little more normal, but we find out otherwise. "But as they came abreast of her she saw one blunder and stumble against the next, and that one shook his head bewilderingly; and suddenly she realized that they were blind--all running so splendidly in a deeper dark than even she groped through" (39).

In the second story, my favorite, "Black God's Shadow", Jirel enters that same world as in the first, but it's changed. The tower of light is gone, and there is a river where one wasn't the first time. At this point, we get the hint that this world is like a living entity in itself. And throughout the entire story, many of the descriptions hint at how this world is truly alive. "But it seemed to her that the ground against her body was too warm, somehow, and moving gently as if with leisured breathing" (75).

"Black God's Shadow" is the epitome of a story that pulls the reader along solely with the atmosphere and the strange discoveries Jirel finds. There are fields of flowers that grow with insects trapped in them, and if disturbed and released, those insects are vicious. The water whispers and sounds as if it is talking, and it attempts to reach out and grab onto Jirel. Even the trees she comes across cast strange shadows. "And one slim, leafless tree writhed against the stars with a slow, unceasing motion. It made no sound, but its branches twisted together and shuddered and strained in an agony more eloquent than speech. It seemed to wring its limbs together, agonized, dumb, with a slow anguish that never abated. And its shadow, dimly, was the shadow of a writhing woman" (71). Near the end, Jirel hears a strange music on the wind, and Moore describes it all so beautifully.

I could go on to point out all the alluring details in every one of the stories of Jirel of Joiry, but I think the previous examples are just enough to show the draw of Moore's atmospheric writing. The pull of the unknown tempts the reader to turn the page, and then there are wonderful descriptions when Jirel crosses paths with the many oddities. Darkness pervades all of these stories, and Moore is deft at reigning it in and making the alien worlds come alive.

Works Cited

Moore, C. L. Black God's Kiss. Planet Stories: Bellevue, Washington, 2007.

NEXT UP: One of my favorites - The Hobbit!

Classic Fantasy from 1900-1949

2011-10-06T09:27:00.000-06:00

So, the last list I offered we left off with William Morris and H. Rider Haggard. Where do you think I'll start this list? I bet some of you will guess right.

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie
The Gods of Pegana by Lord Dunsany
Country of the Blind and Other Stories by H. G. Wells
Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Moon Pool by A. Merritt
A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay
The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison
Mary Poppins by Pamela L. Travers
Black God's Kiss by C. L. Moore
Hour of the Dragon by Robert E. Howard
Retelling of the Mabinogion by Evangeline Walton
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien
The Sword in the Stone by T. H. White
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake
The Well of the Unicorn by Fletcher Pratt
The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction started publication in 1949, and it's still going strong today!

Again, this is by no means a comprehensive list! There are so many great fantasy classics, and some of these listed are also the beginnings of series.

Did I miss anything that you insist should be listed here? What is your favorite classic fantasy from 1900-1949?

Most of the list was taken from Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination by Richard Mathews.

NEXT UP: A look at the Jirel of Joiry stories, including "Black God's Kiss", by C. L. Moore.

Week Off Take Two

2011-09-30T20:49:00.000-06:00

So, this week I've been sick and still swamped, so my compilation of a good reading list has been delayed. I hate being so inconsistent with my blogging, but I fear this might happen a couple more times while I am still working on my M.F.A. My apologies.

Perhaps I'll leave this post with a question. =)

What is the most influential fantasy book that you have read? Do you consider it a classic? Why?

OK, that's three questions. Next week, I will have that 1900-1950 reading list for everyone.

Sense of Wonder in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

2011-09-23T12:06:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz there are spoilers in this essay.

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a story that is still popular over a century after it was written. This children's fantasy tale has been adapted for the stage as well as the screen, and many writers have explored the novel by creating new retellings (myself included a couple years back). There is a sense of wonder throughout the story that makes me smile every time I read it.

Portal fantasy is a type of fantasy that takes you into another world. And L. Frank Baum does just that in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by using a cyclone to drop Dorothy into the land of Oz. "L. Frank Baum Americanized the other-world fantasy" (Mendlesohn and James 26). Baum's main goal with this portal fantasy was entertainment, to create a piece of popular fiction that children would love without the addition of teaching lessons like most older myths and fairy tales. In the introduction to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Baum writes: "It aspires to being a modernized fairy tale, in which the wonderment and joy are retained and the heartaches and nightmares are left out" (2-3).

And in his pursuit to entertain, Baum created a world and story that pulls the reader along with a sense of wonder. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is bursting with description, and the type of description that causes the reader to pay attention, so he or she becomes wrapped up in the world. Color, the contrast of light and dark, and the use of gemstones are especially prevalent. There is hardly a page without some type of description to evoke a sense of wonder.

The biggest device used is color. Dorothy lands in the realm of the Munchkins, where their favorite color is blue. The Winkies favor yellow, the Quadlings red. And near the Emerald City, everyone prefers green. These colors surround Dorothy at every turn, and she even puts on a pair of silver shoes that once belonged to the Wicked Witch of the East. The road she travels on to the Emerald City is yellow. One of the best sections that highlights the array of colors in this novel can be found right before Dorothy and her companions wade into the field of poppies. "They walked along listening to the singing of the brightly colored birds and looking at the lovely flowers which now became so thick that the ground was carpeted with them. There were big yellow and white and blue and purple blossoms, besides great clusters of scarlet poppies, which were so brilliant in color they almost dazzled Dorothy's eyes" (Baum 514).

The use of light and darkness is more subtle. When Dorothy first arrives in Oz, the sun is shining and she walks past many open fields. But she eventually reaches the darkness of the forest, where unknown monsters lurk. "It was almost dark under the trees, for the branches shut out the daylight; but the travelers did not stop, and went on into the forest" (Baum 250). There is a back and forth between the light and the dark throughout the novel.

And there are of course the gems that glitter in the Emerald City. But that isn't the only place we see such wonder. The Good Witch of the North wears a beautiful white dress. "Over it were sprinkled little stars that glistened in the sun like diamonds" (Baum 63). Even the cap Dorothy uses to call the Winged Monkeys is studded with jewels.

This sense of wonder saturates The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and because of it, Baum succeeds in pulling readers into this other-world, young and old alike. It's a story that is sure to live on for many more centuries ahead and to impact future generations.

Works Cited

Baum, L. Frank. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. George M. Hill Company: Chicago, 1900. Public Domain Books, 2009. Kindle Edition.

Mendlesohn, Farah and Edward James. A Short History of Fantasy. Middlesex University Press: London, 2009.

NEXT UP: A reading list of classic fantasy from 1900 through 1949!

Origins of Fantasy

2011-09-16T15:07:00.001-06:00

My apologies for the tardy post this week. Other things that needed to get done got in the way due to some personal things, but better late than never.

Last week I promised a list of some classic fantasy "must reads". Now, as I mentioned in a former post, the definition of classic varies. So, this list may not be what you expected. I'm going to stick to some much older titles this time around, and I'll cover newer ones in a future post. All of these texts were published before 1900. And of course, many of these weren't even considered fantasy when they were written.

Have you heard of Project Gutenberg? If so, you know what a great thing it is. If not, it's time you learned! Project Gutenberg has made many texts, ones where the copyright has expired, into free accessible e-books! If you don't have an e-reader, you can also download them to your computer and read them that way. So, when I have books listed below, if they are on Project Gutenberg, I'll have the link.

As a note, I may take a closer look at these fantasy texts in the future, for a Classic Fantasy Series: Part II.

The Odyssey by Homer
The Iliad by Homer
Aesop's Fables
The Aeneid by Virgil
The Metamorphoses of Ovid
Beowulf
The Divine Comedy by Dante
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Mabinogion
The Arabian Nights Vol.1, Vol. 2, Vol. 3, Vol. 4
Le Mort d'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory Vol. 1, Vol. 2
The Faerie Queen by Edmund Spenser Book 1
A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost by John Milton
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift
The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole
Grimm's Fairy Tales
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Goblin Market by Christina Georgina Rossetti
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Hagard
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court by Mark Twain
The Wood Beyond the World by William Morris
The Well at the World's End by William Morris
She by H. Rider Haggard

This is by no means an extensive list. What other texts that were published before 1900 do you think should be included? I'd love to hear what everyone else thinks.

Most of the list was taken from Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination by Richard Mathews.

NEXT UP: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz!

Baiting the Reader in The Wood Beyond the World

2011-09-08T15:34:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Wood Beyond the World there are spoilers in this essay.

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The Wood Beyond the World contains a lot of classic markers of modern fantasy, including adventure, an otherworld, foes to overcome, and a happy ending. That happy ending, though, isn't a surety throughout the novel. William Morris baits the reader and implies that things could turn out much differently, much darker.

Richard Mathews states, "William Morris and George MacDonald are the pioneers of fantasy as a modern literary genre" (16). And in Morris's The Wood Beyond the World we can see some of the themes that have become popular today. Our protagonist, Golden Walter, yearns to see more of the world and thirsts for adventure. So, instead of doing what is expected of him, he sets out on a journey, seeking people he saw in visions, and not knowing where his next step will lead him. He enters a strange land, where he isn't sure what the inhabitants actually are, and subtle magic surrounds him. To be with the woman he falls in love with, he must contend with a queen and a dwarf, as well as later a primitive people that would sacrifice him to their god.

However, the journey must always come to an end, and so much classic fantasy contains the happy ending, including The Wood Beyond the World. Walter gets to be with his love, the Maid, and both become King and Queen of a land which they rule well.

That happy ending may not have come to pass if Morris had taken a different turn. Throughout the novel there are hints and indications that mislead the reader, that suggest things might not be as happy and perfect as they seem, that good intentions could in fact hide manipulation.

Walter sees the images of three people--they appear and disappear before his eyes like apparitions. So, wanting to know who they are, he starts his journey. And the first of the three he comes across is a dwarf. In this meeting, Morris plants the first seeds of doubt in the reader. The dwarf speaks of the Maid as if she were some monster, calling her a Wretch and Thing. "'But thou, fool, wilt repent it thereafter, as I did. Oh, the mocking and gibes of It, and the tears and shrieks of It; and the knife!'" (Morris 429). This makes the reader wonder if the Maid is truly a monster, and when Walter finally crosses her path and falls in love with her, the reader then wonders when she'll reveal herself, when we'll finally see what she truly is, instead of the innocent Maid she appears to be.

But Morris draws us deeper in, adding touches to confirm those doubts, to make the reader consider even more that the Maid may be manipulating Walter all along. She tells him one thing, but he overhears the opposite when she's speaking to the King's Son. And then, when the Maid finally makes her escape with Walter, after a scream pierces the night, she keeps putting off the telling of her tale to Walter, making excuses about why she cannot speak of it. The delays in the telling lead the reader to believe she has something to hide, that the love she professes to Walter might not be true.

And finally, when we near the end of the tale, Walter loses track of the Maid in the mountains. Walter thinks she may have lost him on purpose. "And now once more the thought came on him, that the Maid was of the fays, or of some race even mightier; and it came on him now not as erst, with half fear and whole desire, but with a bitter oppression of dread, or loss and misery; so that he began to fear that she had won his love to leave him and forget him for a new-comer, after the wont of fay-women, as old tales tell" (Morris 1645). This begins to confirm the doubts and fears that Morris had planted for the reader to follow.

But of course the Maid eventually finds Walter and allays his fears. They both come across a city, and Walter is chosen to be their new king. He takes the Maid as his queen, and she finally gives her innocence to him. She doesn't turn out to be a monster after all.

I must admit, the dark fantasist in me kind of wished for the hidden reveal, that the Maid was truly the Wretch and Thing the dwarf had claimed her to be and had played Walter as a fool all along. But Morris laid things out wonderfully, misleading the reader into thinking that this evil was a possibility, which made The Wood Beyond the World a great read. And yea, I verily look forward to reading more of his novels at a future time.

Works Cited

Mathews, Richard. Fantasy: The Liberation of Imagination. Routledge: New York, 2002.
Morris, William. The Wood Beyond the World. London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1913. Project Gutenberg, 2007. Kindle Edition.

NEXT UP: A list of some Classic Fantasy must reads!

Classic Fantasy

2011-08-31T13:14:00.000-06:00

For those of us who started reading fantasy when we were younger, we likely have fond memories of some of the novels we first read. In most cases, those novels are now considered classic fantasy.

I do think the definition of classic fantasy is different depending on who you talk to. It's hard to draw a a solid line between classic and modern, especially since time continues to pass and what was considered modern one day may be considered classic the next. The line moves, and sometimes age still doesn't make a novel classic, depending on the viewpoints of many people.

The class I am taking this semester involves reading and examining many classic fantasy texts. So, over the next few months, I will be focusing on classic fantasy on this blog. Hopefully you'll find things to reminisce about or classics that you never picked up before, but decide to finally do so.

Do you remember when you first started reading fantasy?

I think J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit was the first fantasy book I ever read (and I'll get to read it again for class!). And for me, the books that thoroughly pulled me into dark fantasy were Tanith Lee's Black Unicorn and Books of Paradys. I also have fond memories of Andre Norton's Witch World books.

What are your favorite fantasy classics?

NEXT UP: A look at William Morris's The Wood Beyond the World.

Week Off

2011-08-25T14:22:00.000-06:00

Dear readers, I've decided to take a week off from blogging! I know you were all looking forward to discussing Classic Fantasy, but I assure you, next Wednesday I'll do just that. Until then, happy reading and writing!

Finding Time to Write!

2011-08-18T12:32:00.000-06:00

Recently, I've picked up the book Time to Write: Professional writers reveal how to fit writing into your busy life. Heck, finding time to read the tips is a hard enough feat!

But the truth is, for all of us that have that drive to write, time is always a factor. So many things want to interrupt writing time, seem more important than that writing time. Before you know it, a year has come and gone with little to no writing because you let everything else get in the way.

If you're Born to Write, you'll find the time, even if you do have productive periods and unproductive periods like I do. That drive, that need, that yearning will overcome you, and you'll jump off that writing cliff. The thing is, we all need to strive for more consistency. We need to stick to it if we intend to produce words on a regular basis. Get in a schedule, a pattern, and learn what is the best environment and time to write. We have to make writing a habit. This is something I've yet to succeed at, but I'm still trying.

Time to stop making excuses and make time to write! It's easy enough to say, not so easy to do. So when you scrub out those excuses and get in the good habit, make sure you're proud of yourself for doing just that - it's a lot of hard work. Writing isn't easy, nor is making the time to do it.

There are several links below with many tips on finding time to write. Bookmark them if you don't have time to look at them now. One small bit of advice just might be exactly what you need to get your writing gears turning and your fingers flying.

So, when do you make time to write? What are your usual roadblocks, and what do you think you can do to overcome them?

Finding Time to Write: Making Writing a Priority
Five Tips for Finding Writing Time
Finding Time to Write When You Have No Time to Write!
Why There'll Never Be a Perfect Time to Write
Make Time to Write: How to Find Time to Write

UP NEXT: Classic Fantasy

Lee Allen Howard - Horror and SciFi

2011-08-10T17:06:00.001-06:00

OK, last week I had said a review of The Sixth Seed would be next up. Life and school intervened and cut down my planned reading time, though. Instead of a review, I have something better - a guest blog post from the author of The Sixth Seed, Lee Allen Howard! If you'd like to know more about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Horror and SciFi by Lee Allen Howard

When I first began working on THE SIXTH SEED, I wasn’t planning to write anything other than a horror story. And it started out as a story, a short one, way back in 1994.

The idea invaded my mind during my drive home through rush-hour traffic as I approached the Ft. Pitt Tunnel in Pittsburgh, PA. A man gets a vasectomy performed by a doctor in league with the Gray alien race in order to produce the first human/alien hybrid. The doctor implants a genetically engineered paraseed in the man’s vas deferens, outside the cauterization point, that impregnates his wife with their sixth child—the first hybrid to develop full-term in utero.

I thought this was horror at the time. It was when it was only a 5000-word short story.

But the more I worked with it, the bigger it grew. Frustrated with my inability to get a handle on this tale, I sent it out for review and received a comment that the idea was too big for a short story; why not develop it into a novel?

When I wrapped my head around the possibility, I broadened the story arc, developed the characters, and gave them a backstory. Working on my antagonist revealed that I needed to represent his world realistically, and this included science and medicine. (Frankly, without this grounding in reality, the story would be too farfetched to believe.) So I studied up on urology and obstetrics. I was lucky to have an uncle who’s an OB/GYN and a friend who just underwent a vasectomy and was willing to give me the gritty (intensely portrayed in chapter 1).

My horror story was mutating into something else, some kind of hybrid… Was it science fiction? Kind of. Fantasy? That, too, listing toward the dark side. Definitely paranormal, in the aliens and UFO sense. And what else? Family drama. What a mish-mash.

I tried to place this book for a decade, and it couldn’t be categorized. I liked it just fine the way it turned out, so I refused to rewrite it to make it acceptable for traditional print publication. I finally decided to produce it myself for Kindle and Nook.

I bill THE SIXTH SEED as “a dark paranormal fantasy fraught with suburban Pittsburgh horror.” But the science fiction is there too, in the medical procedures, extrapolated to the conception, prenatal care, and delivery of a child half alien.

Like Tom and Melanie Furst’s bizarre progeny in the novel, every great story is a unique mix of fact and fiction, science and horror, family and fantasy. Whatever tale you’re writing, don’t let genre constraints keep you from birthing the story that needs to be written. Create your own hybrid!

THE SIXTH SEED is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com, or at Smashwords.com: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/64365.

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About the Author

Lee Allen Howard has been a professional writer since 1985. He writes horror, erotic horror, dark fantasy, and crime. His publication credits include Cemetery Sonata anthology, THOU SHALT NOT... anthology (Dark Cloud Press), THE SIXTH SEED, SEVERED RELATIONS, and STRAY. He is currently working on his fourth novel.

Lee blogs about writing and editing on his writer’s site: http://leeallenhoward.com. He is currently studying spiritualism, mediumship, and healing with the Morris Pratt Institute.

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NEXT UP: Finding time to write!

Liz Coley - Extraordinary People

2011-08-03T15:34:00.000-06:00

Today we have another guest blog! This one is by author Liz Coley. If you'd like to know more about her, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Extraordinary People by Liz Coley

Back in 1976, Judith Guest wrote the very influential YA novel Ordinary People about a troubled teen in a dysfunctional family trying to survive the death of the oldest son. By the end of the book, the most this kid will be able to save is himself and his relationship with his father. He's an ordinary person.

In science fiction and fantasy, when the protagonist is a teenager, the kid is far from ordinary. Think Ender Wiggin, Frodo Baggins, Katniss Everdeen, Miles Vorkorsigan, Luke Skywalker. Think Harry Potter. The stakes are huge--save the world, save the empire, defeat ultimate evil. The teens who star in adventures of huge consequence can't be ordinary, not even in a "well, everyone is special in their own way" version of ordinary. They have particular grit, particular grace, particular cunning, particular vision, particular maturity. They see a world of hope and possibility. They step out in front of the adults--they step up to carry the ring, build a personal army, save the world, lead the way. Their voices aren't those of adolescents wondering the usual adolescent wonders--can I get a date? am I too fat? why are my parents such dorks?--at least not most of the time. They aren't navel gazers. Their eyes are up and on the distant horizon, or higher even, in the stars.

Science fiction and fantasy readers, at least those I know, read to escape the ordinary; we read to think about and experience the extraordinary for a while. The what-ifs are large, cosmic even. Readers who haven't grown up immersed in these genres don't entirely get it. Why would you read that? they ask. It's so unrealistic.

That's the whole point. It's unrealistic. It's inspiring.

But then is this likely? A thirteen year old boy scaled Everest--could he have climbed Mt. Doom? A sixteen-year old girl circumnavigated the world solo--could she have led a space fleet to another planet? Several kids have taken on the evil of genocide in Darfur--could they take on Voldemort? A teenaged girl with visions led a defeated French army to victory--would she have rallied the Earth to fight off invading Martians?

In my just-released novel Out of Xibalba, a teenager from Ohio finds herself stranded in the deep past, alone in the waning days of the Mayan Empire. Mistaken for the goddess Ix Chel, she has to figure out not only how to survive, but how to give this catastrophe meaning. By changing the world, of course.

There are extraordinary voices, people who aren't like most of us. There are extraordinary teens with exceptional talent and drive and initiative and maybe even magic. Between the pages and in the real world.

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About the Author

Liz Coley writes science fiction and fantasy for adults and teens. Her short story sales appear in a variety of anthologies: The Last Man Anthology (2010), More Scary Kisses (2011), and the upcoming Bride of the Golem and Strange Worlds Anthology. She has also been published in Cosmos Magazine and Cosmos Online in Australia. Liz has been writing and submitting seriously since 2001, with efforts coming to fruition in 2010/11. Her novel Out of Xibalba is available at Amazon, B&N, Smashwords, and Createspace in trade paper and ebook versions. On the heels of this publication comes the news of her first sale to big publishing--but that announcement will wait for a later blog.

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NEXT UP: A review of Lee Allen Howard's The Sixth Seed.

Camp NaNoWriMo and a Chain Story Continued

2011-07-28T15:05:00.000-06:00

Many of us know about NaNoWriMo - that novel writing event that comes around every November. Writers dive in and attempt to accomplish 50,000 words of a rough draft, ignoring other less important things for the month, such as cleaning and sleeping.

Of course, November can be a less than ideal month for some to attempt this challenge. Thanksgiving dinner for those in the U.S. can interrupt the flow (especially if the writer is the one preparing that dinner, and for a lot of people). School is in full swing as well, students and teachers working on things not only during school hours, but at other times as well (teachers have homework too!). Oh, and usually the weather is turning into something plain undesirable, making it harder for those people with weather mood swings.

So, why November? Why not have this novel writing month in summer? Well, those of you who have desired such a change don't need to wait any longer because now there is Camp NaNoWriMo! Camp NaNoWriMo is run both in July and August, so the writer can choose the month that works best for him or her. Or maybe try both!

I know, you're about to say I'm a little late on the bandwagon with talking about Camp NaNoWriMo. July is almost over. I actually didn't know about it until June 29, and I had the blog slots all scheduled and planned. So, I'm talking about it now. And what better time to do so than when we're so close to August? There's always time to set up your tent, throw some logs on the campfire, and join in with the other campers...er, writers.

Will you join in on Camp NaNoWriMo? What do you plan to work on?

I hope to get down 25,000 words in August (I sadly know well enough that I don't have time to do 50,000 in a month right now), which is a scary goal to begin with, and I'll be continuing Dead As Dreams - I'm so close to the end, I can taste it!

Also, don't forget to watch my Facebook page for August's Writing Quest!

I'd be interested to hear what others are working on - feel free to post a little something in the comments, and if you're bold, post an excerpt as well. ;)

Speaking of the comments section, I'd also love it if we'd all continue the last chain story that was started. I have copied what we already have below for ease of reading (and added some paragraph breaks - heh).

The Rules: Add only 1 sentence at a time - you can take as many turns as you'd like, but you can't post right after you just posted! To get the ball rolling, I will tag someone on Facebook, so if you'd like to keep the story going, make sure to tag someone or e-mail someone to ask them to take the next turn.

The Story So Far:

A dandelion seed danced on the wind, weaving back and forth, finally alighting on the cap of an emerald mushroom. It quivered in the breeze, almost lifting off, but the skin of the mushroom cap rippled and engulfed the seed, casting off the fluff.

Tetrarch Q'rin hovered over the scene, dutifully noting the occurrence in her journal. Soon it would be time to face her new husband. She did not know how the arranged marriage would work, she being a scientist, and he being a royal bureaucrat, although she had an empirically based estimation...and a bad feeling.

She sighed, turning to go, but saw the mushroom twitch.

NEXT UP: A guest blog post from Liz Coley.

MGOC Series on Fantasy (And Science Fiction) - Heidi Ruby Miller

2011-07-21T13:09:00.000-06:00

Today we have Heidi Ruby Miller guest blogging for the Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy (and science fiction). This is the last guest blog in the series. I hope everyone who has stopped by to read all the wonderful guest blogs have enjoyed them - I know I have! If you'd like to know more about Heidi and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Science Fiction Romance by Heidi Ruby Miller

I didn’t realize I was writing Science Fiction Romance when I started Ambasadora as my thesis novel for Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction graduate program. It took several critique sessions with a mixed grouping of genre writers before I appreciated the relationships in my novel were integral to my plot and my world.

That was 2006, and though SF Romance was around at the time, I had never heard of it. Then two things happened: one of my critique partners, Rachael Pruitt, suggested I read Heart of Gold by Sharon Shinn in the same semester that Catherine Asaro was the author keynote for the WPF program. I looked at my work differently from then on.

Gone were the days of writing for men. (Though it should be of telling interest to note that one of my critique partners and all three of my thesis readers were men, so in essence, the majority of my audience at that time were still male….)

I played up the emotional intensity and elevated the sensuality of the book, especially between the main protagonists, Sean and Sara. It proved to be an easy enhancement considering the society is essentially based on sex, as all societies really are. My Ambasadora-verse society is divided into an Upper and Lower Caste with sub-divisions among the Uppers. Add to that the concept of multiple partners and I couldn't help but write about how sexual relationships had a direct impact on my world. Then I went about finding other books like mine, and it was more difficult than I anticipated.

But thanks to wonderful online communities like SFR Brigade and SF Romance groups on Goodreads, I'm finding more to read within the genre. Recently, I've come to enjoy Jacquelyn Franks' The Three Worlds series which begins with Seduce Me in Dreams; Sara Creasy's Scarabaeus series; and I just started reading Pauline Baird Jones' Girl Gone Nova, which won the 2011 EPIC Award.

I wonder if what draws me to SF Romance is the idea that love can transcend time and space, being as much a constant as the speed of light. That's really what the Ambasadora-verse is based on—how love and desire rule everything else, including government, religion, and science.

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About the Author

Heidi Ruby Miller writes stories where the relationship is as important as the adventure. She loves science fiction, Chanel, action movies, and high-heeled shoes and teaches creative writing at Seton Hill University. Heidi co-edited the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft based on Seton Hill's MFA program in Writing Popular Fiction. The first book in her Ambasadora series was her thesis novel for the WPF program. You can find Heidi at http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com and @heidirubymiller and on Facebook and Goodreads or interacting in person and online as a member of the following organizations: Authors Guild, Pennwriters, Broad Universe, SFR Brigade, SFPA, and EPIC.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: Camp NaNoWriMo and continuing the current chain story!

MGOC Series on Fantasy (And Science Fiction) - K. Ceres Wright

2011-07-13T21:50:00.000-06:00

So, I thought Heidi Ruby Miller would be up this round, but instead we have a wonderful blog post from K. Ceres Wright! My apologies for the change of direction. And it's even more of a change of direction because this time it's about science fiction, so this time we'll say it's the Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy (and science fiction). =) If you would like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, you'll find further information below the article.

Science Fiction by K. Ceres Wright

Older Influences

The first science fiction book I remembering reading was The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet. I would read it over and over again, and remember spilling cocoa on several of the pages as I sat in bed at night. What appealed to me was the notion of a lone scientist who could discover something important through a clever invention of his own, in this case, an undetected planet orbiting Earth. One could only see it through a special filter. The scientist persuaded two boys to build a spaceship and travel to the planet. Upon arriving, they found that the Mushroom people were dying due to a lack of sulfur. But they rectified the problem by leaving their pet chicken on the planet. Anyone who’s smelled rotten eggs know they contain a lot of sulfur.

As I got older, I discovered Isaac Asimov, and delved into his short stories and eventually his novels. After I read his Robot series and Foundation trilogy, I didn’t think science fiction could get any better. He had told an epic tale of human space travel over a span of about 20,000 years, and the rise and fall of the Galactic Empire, which mirrored, of course, the fall of the Roman Empire and the onset of the Dark Ages.

I think history is a wellspring of ideas for science fiction because you can take basic themes, events, and characters and just inject them into a new universe. Characters can make the same decisions as historical figures, for good or ill, but they may or may not get the same results. It just depends on the nature of the writer’s universe. For example, slaves threw open the gates of Rome to the Visigoths in 410 because they were fed up with oppressive treatment. However, if in your universe, the slaves are well treated and can expect to eventually climb the social ladder, the outcome would most likely be different. They may use the impending invasion as an opportunity to negotiate full civil rights, or they may defend the city and take advantage of the period of rebuilding to secure their rights. It could turn out any number of ways, but the important thing is to make sure the effects logically follow from the causes. And to do that, you have to make careful study of not only history, but human nature.

Speaking of human nature, out of all of Asimov’s books, my favorite character was Dr. Susan Calvin. She was intelligent and objective, like a detective of sorts, as she teased out the reasoning behind many a robot’s behavior. And she was quirky, preferring the company of robots to humans, as it were, not the stereotypical lone female in science fiction who needed rescuing. I think it was her so-called quirks that made her endearing.

Newer Influences

I love cyberpunk, but I came late, having first read Neuromancer by William Gibson in 2004. It was written in 1984. I had discovered it on the book shelf of a colleague at work. The cover was awful, but the promo at the top said it had won three major science fiction awards, so I thought it couldn’t be that bad. And when I started reading, I could hardly put it down. I was amazed by Gibson’s use of language. His prose was tight, efficient, hardboiled and reminiscent of Dashiell Hammett, but startlingly original, as were his concepts of “jacking in” to interface with computers. He sliced in pop references throughout the book, metaphors for the modern age. Gone were the pristine cities and heroic characters of traditional science fiction. Here were the anti-heroes, urban decay, and moral ambiguity representative of today’s society.

Another author who has captured my imagination in the realm of cyberpunk is Richard K. Morgan. In his book, Altered Carbon, a person’s memories and personality were stored in cortical stacks in the spinal column. When the body died, the stack could be downloaded to a new body, or sleeve. Stacks could also be copied and updated, to ensure against permanent damage to an already-downloaded version. The book’s protagonist, Takeshi Kovacs, was an ex-soldier whose sleeve had been enhanced with specialized neuro-chemical sensors that increased physical strength, intuition, and the five senses, delving into the realm of biopunk. Morgan’s writing style is hardboiled, as well, but makes use of beautiful descriptive narrative.

My Fiction

My short story, “The Haunting of M117,” in Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction, is not cyberpunk. I would describe it as a combination of science fiction and paranormal. My protagonist is a Gullah healer who’s been sent to a planet, along with practitioners of other religions and the occult, to exorcise demons that were released when particle beams collided inside the Titanic Hadron Collider on planet M117. She has a secret guilt, which she has to overcome, in order to save the others on the planet.

For the book I’m writing now, tentatively entitled, Cog, I’ve endeavored to use the hardboiled narrative style I like so much. I also enjoy making up new words, forcing the reader to use context clues to understand what I’m talking about.

My protagonist is an heiress to a wireless hologram company, and finds out one day that her father is in a coma, her brother embezzled money and skipped town, and the company’s vice president wants her dead. She’s forced to return to her friends from the street, back when she was a drug addict, for help. Here’s an excerpt:

He led a squad of skeemz rackers on the other side of Baltimore, in Owings Mills. They worked out of the basement of the mall. Nothing like Tuma’s operation, though. They were connected. Really connected. His programmers just sat, wearing fryers, writing skeemz for weeks at a time, their medinites monitoring and patching the effects of inactivity, nourishment forced into them intravenously. They looked like hollowed-out corpses, skin and flesh sagging on their bones, but man, the end product seemed worth it. Groundbreaking, visionary shit. Everyone wanted a Lydo skeemz. Best in the business.

We’ll see how it goes…

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About the Author

K. Ceres Wright is a writer and editor for a management consulting firm. Her story, "The Haunting of M117," appears in Genesis: An Anthology of Black Science Fiction, Book 1. Her poem, Doomed, was nominated for a Rhysling award. She lives in Maryland with her son, Ian, and daughter, Chloe.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: Unless something catastrophic happens, I promise that next week we will have Heidi Ruby Miller's addition to the MGOC Fantasy Series!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Mike Mehalek

2011-07-06T11:35:00.001-06:00

Today I have a new post in the Many Genres, One Craft Fantasy Series! This time Mike Mehalek is guest blogging. If you'd like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Only Metaphor by Mike Mehalek

I was never good at writing fantasy. Even when I was a kid trying to mimic TSR’s (now Wizards of the Coast) choose-your-own adventure books, I knew something was missing. I still have those handwritten pages tucked away in an undisclosed, I’ll-take-it-to-my-grave location--Okay! Okay it’s in the filing cabinet under the printer, but you’ll never find the key (because the drawer doesn’t lock)--and they are pretty terrible pages. It’s a combination of inexperience, anachronisms, trying to copy something that has already been done, and not knowing how to incorporate the creative backstory and characters without just dumping them into my tale as carelessly as I dump sugar into my coffee each morning.

What really made this story and most of my fantasy writing crap--hell, almost all of my stories suffered this tragic flaw until I discovered the grizzly (and obvious) truth--was their lack of an ending. Not just an ending but a middle, and a late beginning too. You see I suffer from a genetic writing disorder on chromosome 20. Many people have this disease, but fortunately most are not writers. You see, where most writers possess a metaphor gene on chromosome 20, whether they know it or not, I have none.

The metaphor gene allows writers and storytellers to sprinkle symbols, language, characters, character actions, plot points, colors, textures, sights, sounds, setting, motif, irony, and other literary tools to convey a central theme or themes to their readers. Some readers lay it right out in front of you (Some writers can do it so readers “get” the metaphor without ever mentioning it, while others place it right before the reader so that his or her psyche can gorge on it like some sort of book vampire. (Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, for example, and Paul Harding’s Tinkers both explore the passage of time, coupled with the desire to return to the past, the former implicitly, the latter explicitly). A book’s metaphor is its lifeblood. Without it--call the morgue--it’s a “dead” book.

Enter Only Human (OH), the current name I am using for my urban fantasy manuscript, which was named Dragon during my sojourn at Seton Hill University. OH came into existence years before, as this question: what would it be like for a dragon if it had to spend its existence as a human? The question got me started on the manuscript, but it was an indirect question; and as I’ve previously mentioned about my writing, I never could make it beyond the first few pages before the story fizzled out. As I explored this question through the writing of OH, I realized that what I was really asking of my manuscript was “what does it mean to be human?”

It occurred to me, if I were to explore this theme, then my dragon needed someone in his life--someone that he cared deeply about. The creation of the character Kevin was a direct result of this revelation. And the story started writing itself. If I hit a wall, I spent time, mostly unconsciously, exploring that central question. What does it mean to be human?

More and more pages revealed themselves to me. Stressors from the plot points and action sequences created new interactions with these two characters and as much as I feel that OH is chockfull of violence, gore, humor, and suspense--the theme of love was all over the place; and when the final bullets flew and the six-inch long teeth stopped crushing bones to dust, my metaphor emerged from the flotsam. Love is what makes us human, and true love cannot die.

OH was insightful to me as a first time novelist in both its message and its use of metaphor. Despite my genetic makeup, I know that it is possible to write meaningful fiction and to complete volumes of prose if only I keep at it with persistence, dedication, and metaphor in mind.

So let me close with the words from a very dear friend of mine, a dragon, who taught me a little more about life than I did before I met him, and wish that you and your writing find “all the things you need, not everything you want but what you need. And I sincerely hope that every once in a while you too receive something better than you deserve.”

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About the Author

A friend once told Mike Mehalek that "writing will set you free," and he’s bought into that philosophy 110%. To him writing is a way to escape from reality, a means to earn a living, and a way to show the world that one person can make a difference. He feels fiction should be enjoyable at the surface, but it should also have enough depth that those willing to dive for it can find greater meaning. In 2008 Mike graduated from the Writing Popular Fiction program at Seton Hill with his thesis Dragon, an urban dark fantasy.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: Another article in the MGOC Fantasy Series - Heidi Ruby Miller! Strike that, Heidi will not be until the following week. I've been informed that next up will be K. Ceres Wright!

Randomness: Sense of Wonder, the Sublime, the Uncanny (And Chain Story #2)

2011-06-29T21:07:00.000-06:00

*Grips the wheel of randomness, takes a deep breath, and pulls it into a dizzying spin* Where will the wheel stop? Who knows?

Yes, yes - I know. I didn't know last week, though. >:) Today, the wheel has landed on Sense of Wonder, the Sublime, and the Uncanny! Also, if you keep reading until the end, you'll find the beginning of another chain story for your writing pleasure.

So, as mentioned in my update post, I had my residency for my M.F.A. program this month. It was a blast, and I knew I'd want to blog about at least part of it. Dr. Al Wendland did a wonderful module on Sense of Wonder, the Sublime, and the Uncanny. I thought it would be a good idea to at least cover the definitions of these concepts as they can be hard to wrap your head around at times.

Sense of Wonder, the Sublime, and the Uncanny are all devices used in speculative fiction (and can also be found in other types of fiction). These devices make a story richer and can help deliver a bigger impact.

Sense of Wonder is found mostly in beautiful description, evoking awe and the desire to be pulled into the described location or object. The use of color is prevalent, as well as other sensory details. As a writer, you take something ordinary and make that ordinary object breathtaking with words. A sunset, a vast field of flowers, the intricacies of an electronic device - anything can be described just so to bring out that Sense of Wonder inside of us, a tug at our emotions.

The Sublime takes that Sense of Wonder to a whole different level. It's a feeling of vastness and the unknown. Instead of looking at something ordinary, the writer takes a look at something that is incomprehensible. This is utilized in things such as an alien planet or an apocalypse. The reader gains a sense of something impossible to describe when introduced to the Sublime.

And then there's the Uncanny, where you take something ordinary and make it strange. Talking cat? Uncanny. It's where the writer creates something normal that does something unexpected. If it's taken far enough, if that ordinary object is pushed to the point of changing that it becomes a bit terrifying, it turns into the Grotesque.

So, where in your writing do you take advantage of Sense of Wonder, the Sublime, and the Uncanny? Even if you weren't aware of writing these things in initially, you'll notice that they're there and they make your writing that much better.

Speaking of writing, don't forget to join us for Writing Quest - July. Sorry, had to mention it. =)

Now, as promised, here's the start of a new chain story (and an example of a Sense of Wonder). Rules are the same as last time: only add one sentence, you can add another sentence after someone else has posted, and don't be afraid to have fun (and be silly). Happy writing, all!

Beginning of Chain Story #2:

A dandelion seed danced on the wind, weaving back and forth, finally alighting on the cap of an emerald mushroom.

Continue the story in the post comments!

NEXT UP: The MGOC Series on Fantasy continues with Mike Mehalek!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Chun Lee

2011-06-23T05:20:00.000-06:00

The Many Genres, One Craft series on fantasy continues with Chun Lee - another great writer I've known for many years. If you'd like to know more about the author and Many Genes, One Craft, please scroll to the end of the article.

Just Because it’s Grounded Doesn’t Mean Fantasy is Bad by Chun Lee

I’ve been asked to do a guest blog, which is something I have never done, but I don’t think it will be too difficult. I thank Alexa, for this opportunity (it’s really nice and comfy here). Our subject is fantasy. More specifically I am to give you two examples of fantasy from way back in the day and two examples of contemporary fantasy and explain why those titles speaks to me or influences me.

Let me first define my favorite type of fantasy. I like my fantasy to be grounded. I like it to make sense. I don’t mind the wonder of it, absolutely nothing wrong with wonder. In fact I think grounding a fantasy enhances the wonder. Giving the reader a sense of how characters view their world lets the reader understand how wondrous a certain fantastic element is. I never liked it when characters felt no awe in the presence of the fantastic. So my favorite fantasy reads tend to have a realistic grounding to it. Take a look at T.H. White’s The Once and Future King. This is the novel that pretty much decided what the Arthurian legend was going to be for the 20th century. The fantasy elements in this book can always be doubted. It could be magic but it could also be an interesting dream or a simple misinterpretation of reality. In this world magic is magic only when you believe it to be magic. It’s a very fine line that White does a fantastic job treading.

Another fantasy classic worth taking a look at is Dracula. I know you want to now point out that Dracula is a horror novel, but what’s wrong with considering it to be both horror and fantasy? There are plenty of fantastic elements in it. It’s also grounded. It’s a strange mixture of the emerging faith in Victorian technology and the fear of the distant supernatural coming to town. Applying science to fantasy seems to be the most logical thing to do when faced with the impossible. It’s human nature to want to understand how some strange foreigner is using supernatural powers to drink people’s blood and take their women.

Let’s now move on to contemporary fantasy. We have so many choices to look at so how about I just let my inner superfangeek out and use my two favorite contemporary fantasy writers? George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series has been captivating my interests for years now. It is low magic fantasy, but it does not need to be low magic to be grounded. It is grounded because Martin created his world from a historical basis. The man has done his research and it’s obvious he knows a lot about the politics of a medieval society. There is an economy to his world. Matters on one side of the world have ramifications on the other side of the world. And when Martin does use fantastic elements in his story I know I am in good hands because he has thought out exactly what such things could mean to his world.

Another favorite of mine is China Míeville’s Perdido Street Station. I love the fact that Míeville answers the question of how science would react if magic was a common phenomenon; it tries to find industrious uses for it. Míeville creates a world in which magic and technology are married to one another. And yes, it breaks the rule of lack of wonder from its characters (Míeville tends to break a lot of rules and does a fantastic job at it), but there is a sense of wonder in the narrator’s voice that is imparted to the reader. The characters may not be impressed with all the amazing architecture, fantastic machines, and multiple races, but the narrator is and he isn’t scared to share the impressive nature of the world he is describing.

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About the Author

Chun Lee is dodging gators and enjoying amazing Cajun cuisine in Lafayette, Louisiana. His work has appeared in The Late Late Show, Dissections, Sails and Sorcery, and the upcoming anthology Paper Blossoms, Shattered Steel. He is a graduate of the WPF program at Seton Hill University and is currently earning a Ph.D. in English at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His article "Pursuing the Graduate Degree" is part of the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction.

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MGOC Series on Fantasy - David J. Corwell

2011-06-17T12:11:00.002-06:00

Let's give a warm welcome to David J. Corwell, another guest blogger in the Many Genres, One Craft fantasy series! He's a great writer and a good friend. To learn more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the post.

Fantasy by David J. Corwell

List two older fantasy novels which impacted you, then give a sentence or two why:

1. Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Tolkien remains a master worldbuilder and storyteller; Middle-earth is a living testament to his tremendous skills in both arenas. Its magnificent environs and the struggles of its peoples live on long after the book is closed.

2. The High King by Lloyd Alexander
The culmination of the first four books in the Chronicles of Prydain series, Alexander expertly weaves many story threads into an emotionally satisfying whole. A compelling story about choices and how these shape one's destiny.

List two newer fantasy novels which have impacted you, then give a sentence or two why:

1. Hawkwood's Voyage (Book One of the Monarchies of God) by Paul Kearney
Brimming with military stratagem and political intrigue, Kearney's world mirrors the Arab conquests in Europe as well as the search for a new world and vividly captures societies in the midst of tremendous upheaval. Yet, seemingly sworn enemies may not necessarily be the true danger, for something darker stalks the chaos.

2. The Adamantine Palace (Book One of Memory of Flames) by Stephen Deas
I've always loved dragons, and Deas breathes new life into these majestic creatures, wherein they form the power structure of the ruling aristocracy. But the human's tenuous hold on their "power base" is threatened when one dragon disappears. Did I mention I love dragons?

List one or two of your fantasy stories, then give a sentence or two about them:

1. "Susto" (Dia de los Muertos: A Day of the Dead Anthology)
An intimate reunion becomes a struggle for survival when a curandera (folk healer) invites her deceased husband home for Dia de los Muertos and also inadvertently summons La Llorona (the Weeping Woman), a vengeful spirit out to exact revenge. A fictional reenvisioning of a popular Southwestern legend, which also incorporates elements of Catholicism and curanderismo (Mexican folk healing).

2. "Conqueror of Shadows" (Tales of the Talisman magazine, Vol. 6, Issue #2)
An Apache boy faces a cunning, hidden enemy in order to save his father's life. A great Southwestern coming of age story with supernatural elements based on Western Apache witchcraft.

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About the Author

David J. Corwell’s stories appear in Cloaked in Shadow: Dark Tales of Elves (Fantasist Enterprises), Daily Flash: 365 Days of Flash Fiction (Pill Hill Press), Día de los Muertos (Elektrik Milk Bath Press), Voices of New Mexico (LPD Press/Rio Grande Books), and Tales of the Talisman (Hadrosaur Productions). He is an indefatigable promoter of his work, and his latest lineup of book signings can be found at http://booktour.com/author/david_j_corwell. David is also a 2006 graduate of the Seton Hill WPF program and the New Mexico sales rep for Fantasist Enterprises. He lives in Albuquerque with his beautiful wife and three daughters. His articles "Successful Book Signings: The Personal Touch" and "Top Ten Reasons People Give for Not Buying My Books" are part of the writing guide Many Genres, One Craft.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: Chun Lee, the next guest blogger in the MGOC fantasy series!

A Step Back

2011-06-10T12:23:00.000-06:00

Wow, it's been a seriously long time since I've done a purely personal blog entry. I guess that's a good sign - it means I have tons of other material to cover!

If you prefer not to read my ramblings and updates, feel free to stop reading and come back next week (when I will continue the MGOC on Fantasy Series). But if you don't mind my craziness, don't hesitate to read on!

I figured it was time to take a step back and examine what I've accomplished so far this year and what's ahead of me for the rest of 2011. It's always good to assess, as it can help refresh what still needs to be done.

The big accomplishment: completed another revision/edit of The Mind Behind the Mind. I think it cleaned up quite nicely! Not to mention it is currently sitting in the slush pile of a publisher who requested to see the full manuscript. This still excites me, and it reinforces that my first 50 pages aren't drivel - ha! So, what's ahead for this manuscript? I wait for a response back from the publisher. If they want to sign me, I celebrate (and panic about writing the sequels). If I get a rejection back, I already decided where I want to send it next. Good to have a plan. ;)

In other news, I have been running the monthly Writing Quest for over a year now! Yup, it started back in June of 2010. You can always find the event for each month on my Facebook author page. Come join us for Writing Quest - June! I feel this monthly challenge has been quite successful.

As for other writing, I mostly still have a lot to do. I'm still sending short stories out to slush piles, I still have the Dead As Dreams rough draft to finish, and I have many short stories that need to be revised. I hope to be able to work on those in the next couple months, but other things will come first.

What other things? Well, my crazy choice to go back to get the F to shove between the M and the A. I start full-time in less than two weeks! Residency starts on June 21, and after residency is over, I'll need to concentrate on a new thesis project. Daina's Dance has been on the back burner for ages, and I really want to work on it with my mentor because it's a lot of juggling (it's a working title - feel free to suggest any different titles in the comments). Here's hoping I can also finish Dead As Dreams while working on Daina. That will be quite a challenge for me! I also have another Readings in the Genre class starting in August. My main goal for the rest of the year is to survive. =D Then I need to survive the first half of next year. =/ Can't think about that right now.

So, I feel like I've been productive on many fronts at least, and I know I still have a lot of work ahead of me. Time to get out the battering ram to keep it all in place. What have you all completed this year so far? And what do you have left for the rest of 2011? Don't be afraid to take a step back, suck in a deep breath, and examine everything you've done and that you still plan to do.

Happy writing, all! Oh, and don't be afraid to add more to the chain story we started a few weeks ago: Luca's Story. I was going to end it, but unless everyone wants it to be a dark, gruesome wrap-up, someone else better add to it! It's back to reading for me now. =)

UP NEXT: A new entry in the MGOC series on fantasy from David J. Corwell!

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Anne Harris

2011-06-02T19:43:00.002-06:00

We have another guest blog from a contributor to Many Genres, One Craft! This time it's Anne Harris. If you would like to know more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll down to the bottom of the post. After this week, we will be taking a brief break from the series, but I assure you, there will be more!

Fantasy Then and Now by Anne Harris

Two older Fantasy novels which impacted you:

Tolkien's The Return of the King saved my life in junior high school. It didn't stop a bullet from entering my heart, but close.

Freedom and Necessity by Emma Bull and Steven Brust is a wonderful epistolary fantasy novel which woke me up to my love of romance and helped me zero in on what matters to me most as an author.

Two newer Fantasy novels which have impacted you:

I recently read Sunshine by Robin McKinley and absolutely adored it. And I'm not a big vampire fan, but this book was written in such a way that I was captivated first by the protagonist, and I had no choice but to go along for the ride.

Wicked Gentlemen is another recent fave. It's a fantasy because it has demons in it, but the way author Ginn Hale constructs a Victorian-era society informed by all the denizens of Hell converting to Christianity felt science fictional in the way that she uses that event as a point of extrapolation for her story.

Your Fantasy story:

I don't have any fantasy novels but my (2005) Nebula nominated short story, "Still Life with Boobs" was definitely fantasy. That was a story in which keeping the fantastic element mysterious and unexplained was crucial. It allowed the focus of the work to remain on the main character's personal struggle. If I'd done it as science fiction, it would have been a different story, probably one with a broader focus on the overall cultural impact of the phenomenon.

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About the Author

Award-winning author Anne Harris writes young adult science fiction under the name Pearl North and gay romance as Jessica Freely. She also mentors students in Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction MFA program. Anne blogs at http://friskbiskit.com. She's also on Facebook and Twitter.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: A Step Back - Examining my year so far and the year ahead.

MGOC Series on Fantasy - Rachael Pruitt

2011-05-26T14:41:00.001-06:00

Today's post is the first in a series. Several contributors to the book Many Genres, One Craft will be stopping by to guest blog about fantasy. Our first guest blogger in this series is Rachael Pruitt. To learn more about the author and Many Genres, One Craft, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

Why I Think I Love Fantasy by Rachael Pruitt

As is probably the case for many of us, my life has literally been changed by reading works of fantasy. That said, ironically, I do not usually read fantasy as a genre. My reasons for this are many, but probably boil down to the fact that I find most fantasy to be either so densely written that characters are nonexistent or--on the other extreme--so action-packed and superficial that I feel as if I'm reading Ian Fleming on steroids.

Yet when asked to rank my favorite classical and current fantasy authors, it is hard for me to limit my choices. I guess this is because, for me, when fantasy is great there is no other genre as powerful.

What is it about successful fantasy that makes it so powerful? The works I've listed below all offer a balance of brilliant world-building, believable characters, and the great pacing, suspense, conflict, and dialogue we are trained as writer/readers to look for.

Yet it is the pervading sense of wonder that, I believe, makes fantasy unique--and not merely the kind of wonder you feel watching the ocean at night or the last fireworks on the Fourth of July. I'm talking about the kind of wonder you experience when you smell your grandmother's perfume in the air of the room where she died--three years ago. The kind of wonder you feel when you turn off the highway and take a back road you've never seen before, a road that twists and bends through hills and farmlands, through villages so tiny they have no name unless you live there--all of a sudden, you realize you are lost--and a mist begins to rise . . .

The kind of wonder you feel when your heart opens up to a whole new world.

So here is a list of fantasy novels which have offered me enough wonder for a lifetime:

The Classics

1) CS Lewis' The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. This was my first introduction to fantasy as a six-year-old. Although I never got into Lewis' later Narnia novels, L,W, & W influenced me so much, I still look into strange closets with a sense of anticipation. You never know.

2) Evangeline Walton's Mabinogion tetrology (recently reprinted in one volume & available on Amazon). Based on ancient Welsh mythology, individually these novels are titled Prince of Annwn, The Children of Llyr, The Song of Rhiannon, and The Island of the Mighty. I discovered these beautifully-written retellings when I was nineteen. Of Welsh ancestry myself, Walton's novels changed my life, haunting me with their romance, poetry, and tragedy, and turning me into a "myth addict" long before I ever heard of Joseph Campbell!

They were one of the earliest inspirations for my own Arthurian novels, also set in mythic Wales.

The only minor criticism I have about Ms. Walton’s writing is that, interspersed with her lyrical prose, she has a habit of putting feminist theory into the mouths of mustached Welsh warriors, a juxtaposition that very rarely works!

Historical Note: Walton actually wrote her books in the 1930s & 40s (predating Tolkein), yet it took until the early 1970s for her to find a good publisher. Song of Rhiannon won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award in 1973 & Evangeline Walton herself won a World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, almost solely on the basis of these four novels. An interesting final fact about Ms. Walton is that she was treated with silver nitrate for bronchitis when she was a child, which caused her fair skin to turn grey & darken as she got older. According to Wikipedia, when she became well known as a fantasist in the 1970s, "her blue-grey skin made her appearance exotic, much like a benevolent deity from an Etruscan tomb fresco." (I was thinking more along the lines of Avatar!).

3) Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar Tapestry (a trilogy of three novels, The Summer Tree, The Wandering Fire, and The Darkest Road). Begun in the mid 80s, these are Kay’s first novels, written before he hit on his template of creating fantasy worlds based on historical cultures. These are also my personal favorites. Here Kay simply creates a marvel-filled mythic world, clearly influenced by Tolkien, with the distinction that many of the primary characters are from Earth. Not only are his characters and setting wonderful, but so is his underlying concept: that the mythic realm of Fionavar is the origin of conflicts that will be played out on Earth as well. This not only ups the stakes, but is a fascinating--if chilling--idea. Especially interesting to me, as an Arthurian author, is Kay’s use of the Arthurian legend in his trilogy.

Current Favorite Fantasy Writers

1) Charles de Lint, especially Someplace to be Flying, Forests of the Heart, & Onion Girl. Charles de Lint is well known as being one of the first, if not the first, fantasy writer to develop the modern urban fantasy genre. I stumbled across some of his earlier works in the 80s (Yarrow and Moonheart remain favorites) and was transported back to my childhood fascination with CS Lewis-like wardrobes--those not-so-distant other realms, glimpsed in shadows just beyond my line of sight.

Although some of de Lint's earlier works are a bit thin on character development, his mythological knowledge is encyclopedic--& wonderfully woven into his novels. Additionally 1) his sense of magic, whimsy, & creativity 2) the charisma of his themes regarding the importance of art, freedom, magic, and the nature of mystery and 3) his written ability to conjure believable scenes in which real fairies and goblins appear in neighborhoods populated by artistic street kids and/or Goth musicians are all delightful.

He remains a unique & beloved talent in my book.

2) Judith Marillier's Daughter of the Forest, the first book in her Sevenwaters series, is a retelling of the Irish legend of the Children of Llyr. A haunting adult fairy tale, Ms. Marillier sets her story in ancient Ireland. The daughter of the title must save her older brothers who have been turned into swans by their evil stepmother.

Marillier's work and Jane Yolen's Briar Rose --which sets the story of Sleeping Beauty against the landscape of the Nazi Holocaust--are, to me, the two finest examples of adult fairy tales I've ever read. Both authors demonstrate deep respect and understanding for the power of mythic structure and are adept at plotting, characterization, and suspense.

3) Fantasists Maria Snyder (Poison Study), Carol Berg (The Soul Mirror), Lynn Flewelling (The Bone Doll's Twin), Sharon Shinn (Archangel), and--of course--Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games trilogy are all brilliant at world-building, characterization, and plotting/suspense. Their individual "voices" are quite distinctive, but they are all an equal joy to read and have a treasured place on my bookshelf.

My Novel: The Dragon's Harp

A friend recently asked me what writers most influenced my own writing. I started to laugh because the answer is an unlikely hodgepodge of early Stephen King, Charles de Lint's urban/mythic fantasy, and Anya Seton (For those unfamiliar with her, Ms. Seton was a historical author of the 50s and 60s noted for her excellent research, romantically-themed plots, and fantastic writing ability. She was also noted for creating memorable, multi-faceted female protagonists--particularly admirable in an era when such women just weren't being "written".)

So this unlikely combination of influences has resulted in my first novel, an Arthurian historical fantasy, The Dragon's Harp. First in a four book series, Dragon's Harp opens as an aging Queen Gwynhyfar begins to tell the story of her youth to a young refugee girl she has saved from the Seaxons. In my version of the legend, Gwynhyfar is growing up in northern Wales, Merlin is her uncle, Vortigern is a serial killer, and Gwyn herself is torn between the gentle Christianity of her mother and the magical Druidic traditions of her grandmother and Merlin--traditions that reflect both the majesty and brutality of her world.

Here's a taste of the beginning:

Gwynhyfar:
The Coast of Scotland
510 CE

Men have called me beautiful. But the gods men worship now have cursed beauty.

My name is Gwynhyfar, born daughter to Cadwallen, Ordovician King of Dinas Emrys in the North. As a young woman, I married Arthur, High King of all the tribes of Albion. I am no stranger to the ways of sovereignty. I know much of pride and stature. Yet I am old now. I see my past and shudder.

---End of excerpt, The Dragon's Harp by Rachael Pruitt

In conclusion: my long awaited website should be up and running this June and will include excerpts from my novel, articles, & poetry. It will also offer interactive Arthurian artwork & story-creation, links to other sites about Celtic culture & mythology, and other interactive components referring back to my work as a teacher of personal mythology--"Myths for Our Time". Come join me, be inspired, & play!!

Happy adventuring,
Rachael Pruitt
April 28, 2011

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About the Author

Rachael Pruitt is a writer, storyteller, and teacher with a lifelong fascination for Celtic mythology and the Arthurian legend. Her Arthurian poetry has been published in Paradox magazine (2008 and 2009) and she has just completed her first Arthurian novel, The Dragon's Harp, a retelling of Gwynhyfar's coming-of-age. Currently an English as a Second Language teacher, Rachael has also published nonfiction articles detailing "Myths for Our Time", a personal mythology process she developed while an Artist in Residence in the Pacific Northwest.

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About Many Genres, One Craft

Many Genres, One Craft: Lessons in Writing Popular Fiction (Headline Books, 2011)is an amazing anthology of instructional articles for fiction writers looking for advice on how to improve their writing and better navigate the mass market for genre novels.

MGOC is available for purchase from Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

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NEXT UP: The MGOC series on fantasy continues next week with Anne Harris!

Chris Stout - The Thrill of Exploration

2011-05-19T13:37:00.000-06:00

Today we have Chris Stout guest blogging. Another great writer, as well as a good friend I met through Seton Hill's Writing Popular Fiction program. If you'd like to know more about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article.

The Thrill of Exploration by Chris Stout

First and foremost, many thanks to Alexa and all of you for allowing a thriller writer to bomb in on this blog. I'll try not to break too much stuff while I'm here.

I'm a big believer in trying new things. I haven't always been this way, of course. It's hard to break out of the mindset of "do one thing, and do it really well." The drawback to that, however, is the possibility of missing out on all sorts of cool opportunities and experiences. For a writer, there are further dangers: burn-out, stagnation, boredom, feeling like you've said all you can. All of these can bring production to a screaming halt. Perhaps more importantly, the very act of creativity itself requires bringing something new to the table. Every artist strives to grow and evolve. Sometimes that means branching out onto a new path.

To illustrate: I refer to myself a thriller writer. My master's thesis was a thriller. If you ask me what kind of books I like to read, I'll recite authors like MacLean, Morrell, Child and Eisler. Same with the movies: if it has stuff that blows up, I'll probably want to watch it. I always figured that if I ever were to make a living as a writer, it would be by writing thrillers. I still hold onto that goal, but I've found that some of the stories I have to tell don't fit neatly into the realm of action and adventure. So what I am supposed to do with those?

The short answer, of course, is: write them. Believe it or not, I kicked against this notion for years, simple though it seems. I was convinced that writing time spent on something other than my genre was time that was wasted. It took earning an MA from Seton Hill University's Writing Popular Fiction program to break me out of that mindset, and working towards my MFA has served as a reminder. There is a whole world of fiction to explore and be a part of. Refusing to write (or read) a story because it's "different" is purely self-defeating. In fact, my first two publications were outside of the thriller genre. One was horror, the other was fantasy. Those opportunities would have passed me by if I'd limited myself to my stated genre.

Now, meandering through different genres is not without its drawbacks. These days, the publishing world is all about establishing the author as a "brand." With this branding is the expectation of consistency. If you are a writer following the traditional route towards publication, you will probably need to adopt different aliases for different genres, assuming you want to publish those side-projects. That can create its own set of headaches, and lead one to conclude that all this talk of exploration is a waste of time after all. However, even if you never publish or even write a complete work in a different genre, it can still be worth exploring. You can take notes on your travels, and adapt the techniques you discover to suit your own purposes. The tension between the lead characters in a romance, for example, can help inform the relationship you create between your thriller hero and his nemesis. The rich world building found in fantasies could help a romance writer bring the setting of her seaside town to vivid life. The heart-stopping action sequences in a thriller can help turn the sweeping battles of an epic fantasy into a tense, personal battle for the heroes.

Knowledge and experience are powerful tools. They provide more than just a good feeling. As an author, you will be able to pay them forward to your readers. Take the chance and try something new once in a while. No matter what you consider to be your genre, you will enrich the stories you tell and thrill your readers with the fresh imagination that you provide. With that, everyone benefits.

Thanks again for the chance to guest post here. Happy reading and writing to you all, and don't be afraid to go exploring!

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About the Author

Chris Stout is the author of the novel Days of Reckoning and several short stories. You can follow him on Twitter @ctstout, or follow his blog at ctstout.blogspot.com.

You can purchase his novel Days of Reckoning from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. If you'd like to read one of Chris Stout's short stories, you can get "Charmer" from Amazon and Barnes & Noble as well.

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NEXT UP: The first guest blog post in a series from contributors to Many Genres, One Craft. Rachael Pruitt is the first up!

Writing Prompt #2 - Chain Stories

2011-05-13T13:38:00.000-06:00

My apologies for posting this later than intended, but Blogger was down almost all day yesterday.

Any past Tips & Prompts can be found on my website: Writing Tips & Prompts.

Writing Prompt #2 - Chain Stories

So, what's a chain story? A chain story is when two or more people get together and go back and forth, adding bits to a story. Each person could write one sentence, one paragraph, or even one page (or more, if people are so inclined to attempt a chain novel).

This isn't to be confused with collaboration, though. Collaborating with another writer on a story or a novel is something that takes a lot more thought and planning. Chain stories take no planning at all! They are very in the moment.

Why write something that is so unplanned and spontaneous?

First, getting together with a group of friends and seeing how a story unfolds when you have to continue from the previous person's addition is just plain fun. Heck, if you have a bunch of writers at a party, it might actually be a great game to play. Most of the chain stories I participate in tend to end up humorous--it makes the stories more fun and off the wall. Lots of laughs all around.

Second, it teaches you how to think (er...write) on your feet. You need the story to still make sense from one entry to the next, and you have no clue what the person before you is going to write until she writes it. This pressure to come up with something on the spot is even harder if you time each person's turn. If you're doing it via e-mail, you can say, allow a day between each response, even less if you're writing the story in a chat or if everyone is together in the same room!

Third, it can get the writing juices flowing. If you're having some issues with Writer's Lack of Motivation (or Writer's Block, but I don't believe in that now, nope, no such thing) writing chain stories with others could just be enough of a push to make your fingers itch to work on your own writing. Like stretching before a run--it gets the blood flowing.

Don't be shy to ask some friends to join in writing a chain story with you. You may even come away with new ideas for your current or a future work in progress.

Now, after this prompt, I thought it would be nice to start a small chain story here. The rules for this one are as follows:

Each person writes one sentence, taking all sentences that came before into account.
Post your sentence in the comment section - you can add another new sentence after someone else posts after you. No limit to how many times you can add to the story.
Don't be afraid to be silly (and don't worry too much about grammar and spelling)!

OK, without further adieu, here is the first sentence:

Luca swirled the water of the pond with his finger, then yanked it back when something nipped at him.

NEXT UP: Chris Stout will be guest blogging!

J. Gunnar Grey - Reading an Epublishing Contract

2011-05-05T17:54:00.000-06:00

J. Gunnar Grey is guest blogging! She has been my critique partner for several years, and she's a great writer. For more information about the author, please scroll to the bottom of the article. Enjoy!

Reading an Epublishing Contract by J. Gunnar Grey

So the epublisher loves your story and wants to publish it. She forwards you a contract. You start reading and it's gobbledygook. There's no substitute for a good contract or intellectual property attorney, and I certainly don’t claim to be either. But here are some of the paragraphs likely to be included, what they mean, and what you should avoid.

First the contract should specify what it covers. This includes the name of the publishing company, the author's real name, the title of the manuscript, and the contract date. The date is important because contracts of this sort are bound by a time limit. More on this later.

Second is usually the publishing rights, which the author is granting to the publisher. This can take a number of forms, such as exclusive world rights, English language rights, North American rights, and so on. Rights can be further broken down by media, e.g., print-on-demand (POD) paperbacks, traditional print run trade paperbacks, audio formats, or the most popular right now, readable (text) digital format.

It used to be the case that authors jealously guarded their rights, selling different rights to different companies in different deals, which added together to total a more attractive sum than the straight paperback advance. In fact, this was considered an important part of the agent's job, getting the best deal possible for the author across a broad spectrum of the entertainment industry, including the movie option and audiobooks. This is less important than it used to be, because most epublishers don't want your movie rights in any case. Again, more on this later.

The third section generally covers what the author guarantees the publisher, and that's a manuscript that's free and clear of encumbrances. The author must warrant (guarantee, in layman’s English) that no one else has any right to the story. If it was previously published, all rights must have reverted to the author, who will generally be asked to provide written proof of this reversion.

Other paragraphs in the contract are likely to cover:

who provides the ISBN (usually the publisher)
who secures the copyright from the U.S. Copyright office (usually the author, if the author wants one)
who sets the selling price (almost always the publisher)
the conditions and percentages governing advances and royalties
who provides the cover art (generally the publisher but the author is often invited to submit, if he likes)
what happens if the publisher goes under (reversion of rights to the author) or the author dies
who pays taxes on the earnings (almost always each party pays their own)
whether the author has the right to audit the publisher’s books (if not, this is a red flag)
whether electronic signatures are acceptable, and
if there are any future disagreements between publisher and author, which state law shall govern (usually the publisher's)

Some specifics:

As mentioned above, these contracts are bound by a time limit, and for epublishing contracts, the duration is usually somewhere between three to ten years. While a longer duration allows the writer to build up a head of marketing steam with one company, that's assuming the two parties continue to get along.
It's important to specify when the contract begins running: from the date within the first paragraph, from the signature date, or from the date of the title’s release by the publisher. Theoretically, it's possible for a publisher to tie down the rights to a book and never publish it, if the contract runs from the release date. But before becoming paranoid, note that the publisher would have little to gain by such behavior, certainly not money. (Although that could be a lovely cozy mystery, couldn’t it?)
The writer should also note who has the right of final approval of the manuscript, him or the publisher, and whether his input is required for substantive changes. If an editor will be hired, who pays for her services?
The writer should maintain control of his name or pseudonym, his characters, and his career. The publisher may request a sequel, the right of first refusal (meaning she wants to be given first crack at any sequel or book featuring the same characters), or some deal of that sort.
There's usually a clause of mutual indemnification in these contracts. That means if anyone sues the publisher, this third party has no right to go after the company’s writing stable. Or if someone sues the writer, the third party can’t also attack the publisher through the contract.
Another clause is likely to cover who's allowed or required to take action in the event a third party infringes the book’s copyright.

There are so many possible red flags, there's no way to list them all. But here are some of the more common or outrageous ones.

The so-called "rights grab." This is where an epublisher ties down rights she has no intention of exercising, such as those for foreign languages or movie production. These are potentially lucrative avenues for the author, easily capable of replacing the advance (if the publisher doesn’t offer one). Note that if the publisher does intend to exercise these rights, and this is spelled out in the contract with a member of staff assigned to the project, it's not a grab.
A ridiculously long duration. Epublishing contracts are not meant to last forever and even ten years is seen as lengthy in this fast-changing environment. Twenty or thirty years, the length of the copyright, and "in perpetuity" all qualify as ridiculous.
Ownership of the characters. It's fair to say that an epublisher is merely renting the rights to your book for a set length of time. Any demand to own or control the characters or the serious is not a good thing.
Ownership of the author’s career. I'm not kidding.
Finally, any required transfer of money, time, or work from the author to the publisher. This does not include marketing, which is a necessary evil at any level of publishing shy of James Patterson or Janet Evanovich. It also doesn't include any volunteer effort the writer may put into the firm, such as a blog hop for all the house's authors. But if the publishing company requires its writers to pay for publication, that's a vanity press and it’s one of the reddest flags of all.

Some epublishing contracts are straightforward and easily understood, but others are complex, professionally prepared, tight legal instruments. There's something to be said in favor of a company that utilizes a basic contract, as it implies a willingness to be flexible and work out issues with its writers. But there’s also something to be said for a company that wants no grey areas where misunderstandings can form. Each writer considering such a contract should only sign if he's comfortable with the terms. And it's worth repeating—if there’s any doubt, there's no substitute for a legal beagle on your side.

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About the Author

J. Gunnar Grey has never wanted to be anything except a novelist, so of course she’s been everything else—proofreader, typesetter, editor, nonfiction writer, photographer, secretary, data entry clerk, legal assistant, Starfleet lieutenant commander, stable manager, dancer—and no, not that kind of dancer. Her long-suffering husband is just excited she’s actually using her two degrees, one from the University of Houston Downtown and the MA in Writing Popular Fiction from Seton Hill University. Gunnar writes novels that are mysterious, adventurous, and historical, but all sorts of other stuff can leap out of that keyboard without warning.

The first part of her novel, Deal with the Devil, is currently available from Astraea Press, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble (and you should go buy it - it's a great read!). She also published a handy book that every writer in e-publishing should have: Format Your eBook the Free and Easy Way.

You can also find her on Facebook and Twitter.

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NEXT UP: Writing Prompt - Chain Stories.

The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms - World-Building and Structure

2011-04-28T22:26:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms there are spoilers in this essay.

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The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms was a great dark epic fantasy that kept me turning the pages to find out what happened next. N. K. Jemisin did an excellent job with world-building, and the structure she used was a nice addition which added a whole new layer to the story.

I admit, I initially had a difficult time getting into the novel. Near the beginning, we get more of a world-building info dump, instead of story progression and characterization. I honestly think this was one of the drawbacks of the novel. Too much backstory and world-building right at the beginning has a tendency to drag the narrative down. The true pull into Yeine's world didn't come for me until she first meets Nahadoth, at the end of chapter three. "The black-haired man lifted his head to look at me. He was smiling. I could see his face now, and his mad, mad eyes, and I suddenly knew who he was. What he was" (23). Those words sucked me in, and I was lost in Yeine's world for the rest of the novel.

Nahadoth is a god, a fallen and imprisoned one, but a god nonetheless. He and the other gods who appear in The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms are not only well-rounded characters, but the best vehicle Jemisin uses to expand the world-building. It's through the false and true stories of the gods, along with their previous war, that we truly learn about this world and how things work in it. Even though the entire novel is told from Yeine's point-of-view, we still see things from the gods' perspectives, either through her interactions with them or through strange dreams that visit her, dreams she has because within her is the soul of a dead goddess.

The structure Jemisin uses deviates a bit from the norm, but it all makes sense in the end and fits the story well. There are two main types of interruptions in the narrative. First, there are asides from Yeine, commenting on something she remembers, things important for the story. Second, there are small conversations between Yeine and who we eventually find out to be the goddess Enefa--the soul that shares Yeine's body. Even right at the beginning, we know Yeine struggles to remember. Almost the entire novel, until the very end, is her remembering the events that lead up to her death. And it's no secret that she's going to die at the end. "I am not as I once was. They have done this to me, broken me open and torn out my heart. I do not know who I am anymore" (1).

These interjections that Jemisin uses demonstrate how much Yeine tries to remember, and how hard it is for her to do so. When we reach the end of the novel, when Yeine's soul is hovering over the scene and watching things unfold, we understand she had been piecing things together all along as she told her tale--her death jarred her senses, and she had to remind herself of who she was and the events that led up to her death. In truth, the novel begins when she dies, and the entire novel is her putting the puzzle pieces together.

The interruptions also serve another purpose, though. It avoids an info dump at the end of the novel. Yeine's soul hovers in space, alongside Enefa's soul. And they talk, they communicate. If that entire conversation was at the end though, showing how Enefa encourages Yeine to remember, it would have brought the action of the novel's end to a grinding halt. By weaving in the conversation throughout the novel, we have the sense at the end, when Yeine rises again as a goddess in her own right, that so much more had gone on between Yeine and Enefa before Yeine was restored to her body. It also gives that disembodied feeling of how time is nothing to the gods, their conversations seemingly lasting for a long expanse and a short moment all at the same time.

Aside from my initial issues near the beginning, Jemisin successfully immersed me in the world of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. It comforts me to still see great dark epic fantasy written today, since it's my chosen genre. I look forward to reading the next book in the trilogy.

WORKS CITED

Jemisin, N. K. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms. Orbit: New York, 2010.

NEXT UP: A guest blog post from J. Gunnar Grey!

Steampunk

2011-04-22T10:59:00.000-06:00

Last week I looked at the steampunk elements found in Boneshaker. Steampunk is such an interesting sub-genre that I thought I'd take a closer look at it and offer some links.

When I think of steampunk, the first thing that comes to mind are all the neat contraptions people have built that I've seen pop up across the internet - the copper and brass computers, modern technology with a historical/Victorian flare. I haven't had much experience with the steampunk genre otherwise (aside from a neat episode of Castle a few months ago) before reading Boneshaker (at least I didn't think I had until after my research!).

Steampunk.com covers the definition of steampunk well in their article "What Is Steampunk?" They touch on all of the aspects of what it represents, starting with the literature. Here were the general bullet points copied directly from the website:

"* Take place in the Victorian era but include advanced machines based on 19th century technology (e.g. The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling);
* Include the supernatural as well (e.g. The Parasol Protectorate by Gail Carriger);
* Include the supernatural and forego the technology (e.g. The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers, one of the works that inspired the term ‘steampunk’);
* Include the advanced machines, but take place later than the Victorian period, thereby assuming that the predomination by electricity and petroleum never happens (e.g. The Peshawar Lancers by S. M. Stirling); or
* Take place in an another world altogether, but featuring Victorian-like technology (e.g. Mainspring by Jay Lake)."

It was great to see some examples for each of the types of steampunk. The movie Sherlock Holmes was also mentioned in the article. I never thought of that movie as steampunk, but it clicked and made perfect sense when I saw it listed here.

Near the end of the article, they say, "Another criticism has been that steampunk focuses on the best of the past and quietly sweeps the bad (i.e. slavery, child labor, widespread disease, etc.)." I found this statement interesting, since Boneshaker doesn't fit this at all - it's very much a book that shows the bad side of things. This observation was paired with a link, though, to "The Future of Steampunk" by Paul Jessup.

In Jessup's article he talks about how steampunk needs to veer away from focusing on the good of the era. "But I do see a disturbing trend towards Empire worship and a hidden undercurrent of racism." He also includes Boneshaker as an example of one of the novels that goes against this current trend.

So, like many other sub-genres, steampunk is also one that is still growing and being defined. Jessup insists that it needs to take a new direction, to look at the bad in the era, like in Boneshaker: "And for it to thrive without hate or tyranny, it is a road we need to follow."

Some links I came across in my searches that I thought were fun:

Steampunk Magazine - Yes, the sub-genre has its own magazine! Did you write a steampunk story? This is probably a good place to submit to.

Steampunk: 20 Core Titles - Yup, Boneshaker is on this list.

Top 25 Novels for Steampunk Aficianados - I never would have thought of The Golden Compass as steampunk (great book), but it does make sense! And yes, Boneshaker is on this list too.

12 Classic Steampunk Books - Can never have enough book lists.

Steampunk: A List of Themes - Great list to see the particular things that tend to crop up in steampunk literature.

Clockwork Couture - Fun corsets in the steampunk style. I know, not literature based, but I had to include one of the awesome clothing sites in my links.

NEXT UP: A look at the novel The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Searching for Steampunk in Boneshaker

2011-04-14T16:46:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Boneshaker there are spoilers in this essay.

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The most interesting things for me in Boneshaker by Cherie Priest were the steampunk elements. Once we ventured into Dr. Minnericht's underground, I was fascinated. So, I thought it would be fun to examine what makes Boneshaker steampunk. I utilized the article "Steampunk: A List of Themes" as a starting point. It's a long list, and Boneshaker includes many of the ideas listed.

First and foremost, Boneshaker takes place in an alternate universe, as it's an alternate history. The American Civil War, or the War Between the States, is raging and Washington still hasn't become a state. The thing is, the war has been going on for 15 years. In our timeline, the war only lasted for about 4 years. At one point in the book it mentions a certain Confederate General not dying during a battle he dies in in our timeline, and that the English came to help the south, which is what likely stretched the war out longer.

Zeppelins and sky pirates are also often found in steampunk, and Boneshaker doesn't disappoint in this area. Briar needs to ask the help of sky pirates to get into the walled up city to rescue her son, Zeke. We even have a rollicking scene between two balloons fighting it out because one was stolen (again, as the captain it was stolen from originally stole it from the Confederate army). "'Some miserable goddamned son of a bitch thief flew off with the Free Crow!...The only warship ever successfully stolen from either side, and someone had the temerity to steal it from me!" (Priest 392-393).

The world in Boneshaker is also a dystopia. Aside from the war continuing on, Seattle has been walled up, due to a Blight being released from underground--a gas that causes death or zombification, what the people in the story call Rotters. These Rotters are monsters, yet another element sometimes found in steampunk.

But we can't forget what released the Blight gas in the first place, and one of the bigger things people think of when steampunk is mentioned--the Boneshaker, a huge machine was created by Leviticus Blue, Briar's husband. It burrowed deep under Seattle 15 years ago, releasing the Blight on the city. "Its grinding drills--each one the size of a pony--had twirled and twisted around everything near them; Briar remembered thinking of giant forks twirling at a bowl of spaghetti. And although rust had taken the biting edges off the grooved, bladed drills, they still looked nastier than a devil's dream" (Priest 403). Briar even comes across some of Levi's other old machines near the end of the novel.

Big machines, though, aren't the only gadgets prominent in steampunk. Smaller things, like Lucy's mechanical arm also permeate this sub-genre. "She flexed her fingers, and the knuckles popped with a tiny clack. 'The whole thing's mechanical. It gives me a little leak every so often'" (Priest 189). There is also Jeremiah's Daisy, which uses static electricity to charge up and releases a loud noise to down the Rotters for a few minutes. Near the end we're also introduced to the destructiveness of the Sonic Gusting Gun.

Of course we have to have a mad scientist to create these things, and Dr. Minnericht fits that role perfectly. He has a bit of an obsession with lights, which is only one example of how crazy he is. "Lamps of all shapes and sizes blazed around the room on pillars and poles. They were strapped to the walls and to each other, and bundled into groups. Some functioned with an obvious power source, and their lemony flames cast a traditional glow; but others broadcast beams made of stranger stuff. Here and there a lamp burned blue and white, or created a greenish halo" (Priest 304). He attempts to convince the inhabitants of Seattle that he's Leviticus Blue, another mad scientist from Briar's account, but Briar knows otherwise.

Even some small things are examples found in steampunk. Briar's goggles, the lenses acting like a magnifying glass to see the Blight, her corset-like top, as well as the detail of the oriental rugs and the velvet couch when Briar finally enters her old home after 15 years have passed. Even Dr. Minnericht's watch exemplifies the small intricacies and details that show up in this sub-genre. The Blight itself is used to make a type of drug, bringing in the chemistry side of things.

These are some of the main elements found in Boneshaker that can be considered steampunk. This is by no means an exhaustive list, and if you look closely, you can see other themes and tidbits that tend to show up often in steampunk. It's an interesting genre, and I hope I find the time to explore it more thoroughly one day.

WORKS CITED

EvilEgg. "Steampunk: A List of Themes." Writing.com. 2007. Web.

Priest, Cherie. Boneshaker. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2009.

NEXT UP: A closer look at steampunk!

The Eyre Affair - History and Humor

2011-04-08T11:50:00.001-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read The Eyre Affair there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

An interesting protagonist, a multi-layered plot expertly woven, and the set-up for future books in the series--The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde has a lot going for it. The only thing that derailed me a bit were some of the point-of-view hopping choices. For me, though, it was the history and the humor that made this a great alternate history novel.

I have to admit, I don't know historical facts all that well, so I read the first chapter out loud to my husband, so he could confirm for me what was and wasn't a part of our own timeline. Even if I didn't have a husband who is knowledgeable when it comes to history, or if I chose not to look the historical facts up, not knowing our own history wouldn't have detracted from my reading. It was presented in such a way that I knew things were different from our own timeline, even if I didn't know specifically how. Thursday's quirky father grills her about history, and I immediately knew we were in an alternate history. And most of the big historical differences were presented in the first chapter, instead of bombarding the reader throughout the novel.

What made the alternate history even easier to swallow, though, was the humor added into the mix. We're greeted with that humor in the first sentence: "My father had a face that could stop a clock" (1). It made me laugh, at least. And it's quickly explained to us that this is not an insult, but a literal statement, as Thursday's father is part of the ChronoGuard and can cause time to stand still. Even the description of the world as it's frozen, then subsequently unfrozen, around Thursday when her father arrives has humor in it. When time freezes, Thursday observes, "Cars and trams halted in the streets and a cyclist involved in an accident stopped in midair, the look of fear frozen on his face as he paused two feet from the hard asphalt" (3). And we revisit that cyclist once Thursday's father leaves. "...and over the road the cyclist hit the asphalt with a thud" (6). The banter back and forth between Thursday and her father is even laced with humor. A grand beginning, the humorous making sure the history doesn't weigh down the prose.

Of course, the humor doesn't stop after chapter one. Thursday can be very straightforward at times, her responses to some questions sounding funny when read. Even names in this novel can be humorous, most being a play on words that got a snigger or two out of me. Some of the quotes at the beginning of each chapter are written by Millon De Floss, a silly nod at the Victorian era writers, since most of the novel concerns Jane Eyre. The name that got the biggest response out of me was Jack Schitt--what a perfect name for a greedy corporate shill.

Fforde also uses things from our own timeline to tickle the funny bone. Thursday's Uncle Mycroft is an inventor--many of his inventions are quirky and interesting. One particular invention referenced is a Retinal Screen-Saver. "Pretty soon I was staring at a whole host of brightly colored fish all swimming in front of my closed eyes....the scene shifted to an inky-black starfield; it seemed as though I was traveling through space." (98). The joke finally clicked for me with the final shift. "'Or how about this?' asked Mycroft, changing the scene to a parade of flying toasters" (99). Ah, the humor of those first screensavers on computers. Too funny.

The Eyre Affair is a wonderful read, and the humor helping the alternate history along is only one of the great things about this book. I could probably go on, at length, about many other things I enjoyed, but I'll refrain from doing so. Though, I will mention, I now want a pet dodo that goes plock-plock.

WORKS CITED

Fforde, Jasper. The Eyre Affair. New York: Penguin Group Inc., 2003.

NEXT UP: A look at the novel Boneshaker.

Big Hairy Audaciuos Goals

2011-03-31T14:01:00.000-06:00

I apologize for the delay of this post. It seems planning and preparing for my daughter's third birthday derailed everything else I needed to get done! Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me. On with the topic!

Big Hairy Audacious Goals. We talked about this a couple months ago in one of my Writing Popular Fiction class chats.

Sometimes, it's hard to find the time and drive to write, and we need to trick ourselves into pushing on, continuing with our writing goals. This is where the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) comes in.

What you do is think of your one big dream when it comes to writing. No, don't just think, "I want to be published", or "I want people to buy my book". Think bigger and more specific. Pick a dream that may be far out of reach, even one that you may only be able to admit to yourself (we all have those things we'd be too embarrassed to admit to other people). Something like: "I want to have a book on the New York Times Bestseller List!"

Then imagine it comes true. Don't tell me that's too hard, either. I mean, we're writers, we imagine things everyday, writing those imaginings down in long (or short) stories. Close your eyes and really see your BHAG coming true.

The power of positive thinking a bit difficult to accept and wrap your head around? For some it is, and I struggle with it as well. It can be hard to think positively when there are so many hurdles to jump over when it comes to starting a writing career.

If you have a hard time with the BHAG, try taking things one small step at a time. What do you need to accomplish this week, today, or even this hour? Break things down, make a small list if you have to, then start working your way down that list. Maybe after some time, the BHAG won't be as daunting.

What's my BHAG? My ultimate one is really hard to admit to myself, let alone others. OK, OK - since you are all such loyal readers, I'll reveal a bit of my soul. My BHAG is to be able to show the people throughout my life that have told me I couldn't do it, that didn't think my writing (or the SF/F/H genre in general) is worth anything, that I can do it. I want to have the proof in my hands (and maybe, just maybe rub it in their faces a tiny bit *blushes*).

Enough about me. What's your Big Hairy Audacious Goal?

Note: Much of what I talked about in this post was mentioned in a discussion led by Lee McClain.

NEXT UP: A look at The Eyre Affair.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom - Character Growth

2011-03-16T13:34:00.000-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

When I first started reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, it reminded me a lot of A Clockwork Orange, with all of the new terms of this futuristic world thrown at me--Whuffie, deadheading, ad-hocs. It took some time to get used to this world, but once I did it was an enjoyable read. The odd, new terms and the imaginings of this type of future didn't overtake the novel, but aided in this truly character-driven story.

Money no longer exists, and it's Whuffie that people earn and spend. Whuffie can't be earned with a normal job, but through social interactions, popularity, and respect. "By measuring the thing that money really represented--your personal capital with your friends and neighbors--you more accurately gauged your success" (14). In essence, it's your social standing that earns someone the good life in this future world--one that can plummet with the simple acts of sabotage or murder. Oh, and if you're murdered, they'll just regrow a clone and download all of your memories back into a new body, as long as you've made a back up. In a society where you can no longer die, it's your actions that pay your way through life (or lives). Whuffie makes the world turn.

And it's no different for our main character, Julius. He pings Dan's Whuffie, much higher than his own, the first time they meet. Once in Disney World, another attempt to reinvent himself, he grows his Whuffie by helping his new girlfriend, Lil, by maintaining and improving the rides and demonstrations. Dan shows up with all of his Whuffie gone, in need of help. When Julius brings Dan home, Lil's reaction also demonstrates Julius's perception of Whuffie. "I knew she was pinging his Whuffie and I caught her look of surprised disapproval. Us oldsters who pre-date Whuffie know that it's important; but to the kids, it's the world" (22). Julius has the need to maintain his Whuffie and stay connected, or online, to the technological computer-like thing in his head.

This all changes, though, and goes through ups and downs once Julius is murdered. He becomes obsessed with bringing down the person he thought murdered him. Then he forgets to back up, and soon a glitch is found and he goes offline. He would have to restore to a new body and lose months of striving to one-up the person he thinks had him murdered and months of memories lost with his friend Dan. See, Dan won't be around much longer--he intends to kill himself via lethal injection and finally end his life, once his Whuffie is back up, so he can go out on top. Slowly, Julius's mind also unravels, and his Whuffie plummets after he sabotages the Hall of Presidents.

No Whuffie left, Julius only has Dan to turn to. Yet Dan is the one holding onto a secret--he was the one who had Julius murdered. The person he had stuck around for, not wanting to lose his memories for, was the person who betrayed him. Yet this last year of Julius's life, he'd changed and grown enough to realize that it didn't matter. "I couldn't make any sense of my mind. Dan, taking care of me, helping me, sticking up for me, carrying this horrible shame with him all along. Ready to die, wanting to go with a clean conscience. 'You're forgiven,' I said. And it was true" (197). He even forgives the girl Dan hired to murder him. And his reaction to her at the end shows that he doesn't hold much stock in Whuffie anymore. "I wondered if we could be friends when it was all over. She probably didn't care much about Whuffie, one way or another" (200). Julius becomes her friend and companion, and they head up into space to continue their lives together.

This character growth was the core story in Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. The science and the futuristic world were only used to aid in showing this character growth. And who doesn't like to fantasize about living in Disney World?

Side Note: This book is currently available for free download through iBooks.

Works Cited

Doctorow, Cory. Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2003.

NEXT UP: Big Hairy Audacious Goals!

Slipstream

2011-03-10T13:28:00.001-06:00

While I read Feeling Very Strange, I tried to but my finger on the exact definition of slipstream. To my dismay, every time I thought I found an over-arching connection, a new story I read wouldn't have that same trope used in the previous stories.

The introduction of the anthology discusses Bruce Sterling's definition, the person to coin the term. I found a copy of the article while doing my internet search: "Slipstream". Sterling states: "Instead, this is a kind of writing which simply makes you feel very strange; the way that living in the late twentieth century makes you feel, if you are a person of a certain sensibility."

Now, I will admit that some of the stories in the anthology felt strange to me, but not all of them. I truly think slipstream is hard to define, even with Sterling's definition, due to the fact that it's ever-changing. The "stream" in the term could refer to something that keeps flowing and changing. I think that slipstream is whatever fiction at the time that doesn't seem to fit into the normal genre guidelines. What is considered slipstream one decade may be different than what's considered slipstream in another decade. Perhaps, in time, all of the stories in Feeling Very Strange will no longer be looked upon as slipstream, but will be considered the norm for other genres and sub-genres.

There was one theme that I saw in most, but not all, of the stories. It seemed to me that these stories weren't written with simple reading enjoyment in mind, but that each story had an underlying message. They leaned toward the literary side of things, in most cases, and there were a couple of stories that were lost on me because I felt I should be reading between the lines, but unsure of what I was actually supposed to find there.

A few links I found in my searches:

The Best of Slipstream Stories - They even mention in the intro of this that "Slipstream usually has a 'literary' feel to it. The authors take risks with style. Often there is a 'message.'"

Is Slipstream Just a Fancy Word for Voice? - Interesting take on whether slipstream should even be considered a genre, but instead a style or voice.

Slipstream 101 - Another good rundown of the genre.

What's Your Favorite Slipstream Story? - This was a thread in the SF Signal archives. Someone on the thread labeled Spin as slipstream!

NEXT UP: A look at Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

Feeling Very Strange - Fantastical and Literary Elements

2011-03-02T12:58:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

Slipstream is a hard genre, or even style for those who would rather not claim it a genre, to define and pin down. The stories in Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology are no different, and are hard to categorize. It's even difficult to find one major theme in all of these stories that connects them, but most of them do have a literary slant. There are fantastical elements present as well, so I decided to take a brief look at three of the stories in this anthology to glance at the use of both literary and fantastical elements.

"The Little Magic Shop" is a short about James, a man who uses youth potions he buys from a magic shop to stay young, only aging a year or two every decade. The cost every time he buys a potion, which lasts him ten years, is everything he owns. As James stays young, the shop changes and the shop owner, O'Berrone, grows older. The genre element in this story is obvious--the potion that sustains James' youth is the magic dash of the tale. This is the only fantastical thing, as the shop changes, and James' new attitudes are very realistic. James acts as a stereotypical person from each decade when he visits the shop. The literary implication doesn't really come until the end, in my opinion. On his deathbed, O'Berrone sells the last of his youth potion stock to James. Throughout the story, he insists rules must be followed, so he can't drink any of the potion himself nor leave the shop. James drags O'Berrone out unwillingly and has him drink the youth potion, thwarting the rules. And in essence, that's what the underlying message of this story is--tossing the rules out of the window. If James can drink the potion in moderation, to make sure he has an exceptionally long life, he avoids the rule of "with life there must come death". He ignores the rules of the universe, and if James can do that, why can't the shopkeeper ignore the rules of magic? In essence, it's also a comment on the fantasy genre itself, posing the question of why exactly certain rules have to be followed. "O'Berrone stared at it, licking his dry lips. 'But I can't...I'm simply not allowed to do this sort of thing. I own that magic shop, I tell you.' James shook his head and laughed" (26).

An alien creature similar to a panther follows Paul's brother, Light, around in "Light and the Sufferer". Light is a crack addict, and the Sufferer latches itself to him, following him around. Paul thinks and hopes that it's Light's guardian angel, to help him kick the addiction, to let him know he's meant for greater things. In the end, though, the Sufferer is off cavorting with one of its own kind when Light dies--the fatal gunshot from a gun that they had many chances to discard. Again, there's really one element of fantasy in this story, and that's the Sufferer. It's introduced as a commonplace thing, though, something integrated with this world. As far as the literary aspect goes, I think the Sufferer is a physical manifestation of hope that everything is going to be all right, even if things are dismal. The Sufferer turned out more to be an angel of death instead of a guardian angel. Also, Light had the "monkey on his back" with his addiction, and the Sufferer could also represent that. Partway through the story, Paul notices, "Now that I see it up close, it really didn't look so much like a cat. The face was really more human, like the sphinx with a toothless octopus mouth" (69). Or perhaps, not more human, but more simian? That literal monkey on the back.

"The God of Dark Laughter" starts out like a murder mystery. A clown is shot, and his face peeled off of him. Ed Satterlee is the district attorney for the county, so he's stuck investigating. His search uncovers information on the ancient worshipers of the god called Yrrh. Two factions, one who worships the God of Dark Laughter, and the other who worships the God Who Mourns, are bitter enemies. The clown is of the first faction, and his killer of the second. The believers of the God Who Mourns think the father-god Yrrh will only return when all of the followers of the God of Dark Laughter are dead. Satterlee is a man who denies most religions; reality and facts are his beliefs, after seeing what blind following did to his mother. The murder case is never actually solved, but the story ends with Satterlee resigning, since the case shook his core beliefs. He thought the cults fantasy, but then the coroner tells him, "He suffered from some kind of vitiligo. There are white patches on his nape and throat" (226). The clown that didn't actually need the white face paint to be a clown. It's hard to say there is any blatant fantastical element in this story, as it is really subtle. The dead clown, in essence, is the speculative touch, as well as the murderer who smells salty like the ocean and soaks his pillow with tears. They are non-human, a sub-culture that lends itself to a speculative nature. The literary device attempts to compare reality to religion. People blindly follow religion without proof. Satterlee blindly follows reality, believing it's the truth because of proof. At the end, he sees that reality is as tenuous as any religion, that what we see isn't necessarily proof of anything. "Each of us blind to or heedless of the readiest explanation: that the world is an ungettable joke, and our human need to explain its wonders and horrors, our appalling genius for devising such explanations, is nothing more than the rim shot that accompanies the punch line" (226).

These are only three of the fifteen stories in Feeling Very Strange, and every one can be studied and picked apart in its own right. Most times, the genre elements are subtle, the literary elements taking precedence. These stories are only some examples of slipstream, which I really do think is more of a style than a genre on its own. And its an acquired taste--not everyone will enjoy such stories.

Works Cited

Kelly, James Patrick and John Kessel, ed. Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2006.

NEXT UP: Slipstream.

Hard Science Fiction

2011-02-23T13:59:00.002-06:00

Diving back into the sub-genres, today we have hard science fiction. So, what's the difference between hard and soft science fiction?

Hard science fiction stresses the science side of things more. Most fiction in this sub-genre is rooted in real science. In fact, some readers actually will take the time to check and make sure the science is right! I found a wonderful definition at WordIQ.com. It also mentions that hard science fiction doesn't stress characterization much. Although this can be true in many instances, it isn't always the case. Some hard science fiction likes to look at the human condition, to see exactly how science would impact the world.

Star Wars and Star Trek? Yep, that's all soft science fiction. Warp drives are not based in real science. Both shows could also be considered space opera. It is possible to have a space opera that is also hard science fiction, though. Got to love how convoluted genre labeling can get.

I leave you with a few good links I found concerning hard science fiction:

Hard SF - This is a great place to start for all things about hard science fiction. Tons of links, reviews, and information on the genre.

10 Books That Prove Science Fiction Just Got Harder - A great list of more recent books that are bringing hard science fiction to another level. I've read two on this list, and I highly recommend Lilith's Brood.

Why Is Hard Science Fiction So Unrealistic? - Hard science fiction may base itself in real science, but this article discusses how it's actually one of the more unrealistic science fiction sub-genres out there.

References for Hard Science Fiction Writers - Do you write hard science fiction or are considering it? A lot of good scientific links on this website for a starting point for research.

Interview: SF Author Hal Clement - This is an interview from 2003.

NEXT UP: A look at Feeling Very Strange: The Slipstream Anthology.

Spin - The "What If" Factor and Characters to Reveal Plot

2011-02-16T12:10:00.005-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Spin there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

It's all about the plot, at least when it comes to hard science fiction, and Spin is no exception. Robert Charles Wilson does have a lot of character development in this novel, but the "what if" factor is the central core, the main draw.

What if you were watching the stars twinkle above you, then all of the sudden they disappeared? What if Earth was encapsulated in a bubble, one that not only blocked out the stars, but created a temporal anomaly, so time moved faster outside of it? And why? These are the questions addressed in Spin, and the novel spans over thirty years delving into these questions, with science and technology at the core of the exploration. The perfect set-up for a science fiction novel, and an interesting idea, in my opinion. We assume that the stars will always be in the night sky, but that might not always be the case, so it's a plot that can easily pull any reader in, since it's something that almost every one of us can relate to. Not only that, the novel incorporates the fear of an apocalypse, alien lifeforms, and science and technology based in fact, prominent and usually expected themes for hard science fiction.

We see the story of the Spin from Tyler Dupree's eyes, and he is inexorably connected to his two childhood friends, Jason and Diane. These characters are developed throughout the novel, the encapsulating of the Earth occurring when they are adolescents. While I felt they were rounded characters, I still had a hard time connecting to them. I think this is because the characters are merely there to reveal the plot, to show the scientific and religious responses to the Spin membrane. It's too convenient that our protagonist happens to be friends with both Jason and Diane, since it's through them that he learns anything. Tyler is pulled around by his friends for most of the novel, doing what they wish, and not having much of a desire of his own in the world.

Jason is a genius--this, and the political connections his father has, puts him square in the middle of the project to study the Spin membrane. Anything Tyler learns about the science or the Hypotheticals (the name given to whomever encapsulated the Earth) comes from Jason. At times, it feels over the top that Jason would even be sharing this information with Tyler. They don't see each other for years, Tyler graduates from med school, and out of the blue Jason wants to get everyone together for a mini-reunion of sorts. When Tyler arrives, though, Jason reveals his excitement and fears about what they've discovered, sharing classified information. "'I'm sorry. I know this sounds cryptic. I'm not supposed to be talking about these things at all. With anyone.' 'You're making an exception in my case?' 'I always make an exception in your case.' He smiled. 'We'll discuss it over dinner, okay?'" (64). The learning of information, especially in the first part of the novel, seems contrived, and it's as though Tyler is merely the tape recorder that Jason reports to. This is a key element on how the characters are used to reveal the plot--even though depth of character exists, they feel like pawns to extrapolate what's going on with the world.

Of course there's not just a scientific side to things. The human condition and reaction is also a valid exploration in science fiction, and that's where Diane comes in. She loses herself to religious fanaticism, entrenching herself into a cult of sorts initially, then chaining herself to a husband who devoutly seeks to be redeemed by God, to be rewarded when the end of the world arrives. At the beginning, we're told that Diane is almost as smart as her brother, Jason. That all fell apart for me further into the novel, though. She becomes submissive, doing what her husband tells her, not thinking for herself--her smarts disappear along with the stars. It's as if she's merely a tool, so Tyler sees the religious and human reaction to the Spin. Eventually she's fleshed out more, but it takes a special drug to bring her genius back.

It's interesting to look closely at how a hard science fiction novel works. The "what if" and the plot drive the story, using the characters as speakers and observers. Even though the plot is the central focus and the characters take a bit of a back seat, Spin shows us that those characters can still be imagined well and rounded out. I prefer to read stories that place character before plot, but I can see the benefits of the opposite in hard science fiction.

Works Cited

Wilson, Robert Charles. Spin. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2006.

NEXT UP: Hard Science Fiction.

Urban Fantasy

2011-02-08T13:49:00.003-06:00

Over the last decade, there has been a takeover of speculative fiction from the urban fantasy genre. We can barely turn around without stepping on the toes of a vampire that sparkles.

In class, we recently discussed what exactly urban fantasy is. From everyone's research, it's obvious that the definition of this genre isn't clear, and that there are as many takes on it as there are people who write it. I think that might because it's still growing and coming into its own.

My definition? I think its synonymous with contemporary fantasy--a fantasy that takes place in current day. It's our world, with magic or some other fantastic element thrown in. Of course, the story tends to take place in a city, or at least a town (as was pointed out in class discussions, the Sookie Stackhouse novels are more rural, not a city, but still considered urban fantasy).

As mentioned, though, there are many other definitions out there. All you need to do is a simple internet search on urban fantasy and you'll find a wealth of debate and viewpoints.

Here are some links I came across in my research that I found interesting:

All Things Urban Fantasy is a blog that reviews and discusses urban fantasy (as well as paranormal romance). It seems like a good place to go if you are looking for opinions on more recent urban fantasy.

Carrie Vaughn wrote an article for Tor.com in 2010; Urban Fantasy Recommendations. It's always great to see what other writers think is good in the genre.

Is This the Year Urban Fantasy Conquers Science Fiction? - This article was back from 2009. So what do you think? Has urban fantasy taken over the speculative fiction genre? The statistics they discuss are interesting. Urban fantasy has seen a big boom in recent years.

On the Geeks of Doom website, they have a Top 10 List for urban fantasy and horror books in 2010. One of the Dresden Files books is on the list!

Origin of Urban Fantasy? is a blog post from 2008 discussing the where urban fantasy has its roots.

Urban Fantasy Cliches is an article from 2010. We all want to avoid cliches, and if something is overdone enough, it'll get corralled into that category. One of the things mentioned on a couple sites was how cliche the cover art for urban fantasy has become.

NEXT UP: A look at the novel Spin.

Storm Front - Do You Believe in Magic?

2011-02-01T14:33:00.005-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Storm Front there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

Thirsting for a bit of magic based in our own world? Want a detective mystery along with your fantasy, where the stakes are raised in almost every chapter? Storm Front by Jim Butcher has all this, as well as a wonderfully quirky main character. I found it a quick and enjoyable read, and any problems I came across were tiny and overshadowed by the good stuff.

Harry Dresden is the only private detective wizard in Chicago, and all he wants to do is help people. Unfortunately, his desire doesn't pay the rent. Even at the beginning, everything isn't rosy for Harry--aside from his money problems, the White Council is waiting for him to slip up, so they can throw down a death sentence, and most people have an aversion to magic. Butcher does a wonderful job setting up Harry's character, dragging the reader in right away with Harry's problems.

Once the police ask Harry to help with a murder investigation, and a shy client procures Harry's services, money trouble is the least of his worries. A big-time mobster attempts to convince to ignore the case, a reporter tries to drag the story out of him, the wizard committing murders marks Harry next for execution--not to mention all the little things thrown into his path. When we talk about a writer torturing his or her characters, this is a prime example. Butcher throws everything at Harry, upping the suspense almost in every chapter. And it's great. I felt for Harry, wanted to know how he was going to get out of each situation, knowing that once he did there would be yet another roadblock in his way. Even near the end, when Harry is finally off to face the bad wizard, something happens to thwart him from his goal. This is the way to bring suspense into a novel, by pushing your protagonist to his limits and beyond.

Even though this is a fantasy, readers feel that it's rooted in our world. Butcher drops in references that are clearly from our time--most of these references develop the main character. Since this is first person, we're in Harry's head the whole time, so the particular references he thinks of reveal who he is, and therefore, in essence, do double duty. The one that made me laugh is when a storm whips up outside, and Harry gets up, his apartment dark, the rain battering on the building, and then, "There came a knocking, a rapping, at my chamber door" (176). The Poe reference is priceless, and it fits Harry's character to a tee, since we learn at the beginning he spends most of the time in between cases reading paperbacks.

The biggest thing I noticed, though, when first delving into Storm Front was the magic system. As with many of the things in this novel, the base is from our own world--Harry's magic is rooted in pagan belief systems. I know not everyone will notice this, but I definitely did, and it's one of the things that drew me in and made me smile. Some of the instances that stood out for me were Harry's talk about magic as life, his mention of "As above, so below" (20), the pentacle used as a talisman because of his faith in magic, and the energy direction utilized in his spells, especially drawing from the storm itself. Since the magic system is derived from some ideas of magic in our own world, it made me comfortable and accepting of the use of magic in the novel.

Those little quibbles I mentioned earlier? Well, I felt the word "just" was overused, and that might be because I've been scrubbing it from my own manuscript lately. The only other thing was a small plot hole slip with the pentacle. When he visits Bianca the vampire, he puts it on the table when he stands down. Yet, when he leaves, there is nothing in the text that says he picks it up again and takes it with him. It's later around his neck, one of the last things he has left to fight against the bad wizard. Tiny hiccups, yes? The novel more than makes up for it.

Character, suspense, and a magical detective story set in our world, Storm Front has a lot going on to draw in many different types of readers. I fully intend to continue reading this series to see what Jim Butcher has in store for Harry Dresden next.

Works Cited

Butcher, Jim. Storm Front. New York: New American Library, 2000.

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Don't forget about Writing Quest - February! Come join us on Facebook or post here if you have a writing goal for the month.

NEXT UP: Urban Fantasy

Born to Write

2011-01-28T12:14:00.004-06:00

After years of not doing so, I have finally changed my scrolling marquee. Born to Write. That's my new shtick, and the marquee may remain unchanged again for many years ahead.

Why "Born to Write"?

I was clearing out some old e-mails in my inbox last week, and I came across a couple I had saved from back in 2002 and 2003. There was a reason I saved these e-mails--to remind myself that no matter what, there are other people who believe in me. These e-mails were from my undergraduate advisor (truly more than that, as he allowed me to get away with writing fantasy for assignments in his classes) and in response to applications I had sent out to creative writing graduate programs. I was in quite a miserable state after a couple of rejections.

Well, one sentence in those e-mails struck me again as I read it. He told me: "We both know you were born to write."

It's hard for me to put into words how much I appreciated his support and how his words still touch me. He's right, though--I was born to write.

That sentence was followed by, "Just follow the path best you can through this forest." And that path led me to the Writing Popular Fiction program at SHU, all those years ago (and yes, now I'm back in the program to snag that F). I'm still on that path too. Once in a while the trees close in and I wonder if they'll swallow up the trail, but they don't, and I keep moving.

What does this all mean? That I was Born to Write, of course! So, I'm continuing to slog ahead and push forward. It doesn't matter if I ever get a novel published because that's not going to stop me from writing. I'm going to write until my body grows cold and then is nothing but ashes on the wind.

And I hope, one day, I can touch another writer as I've been touched, to tell someone else that they were Born to Write.

Online Critique Workshops

2011-01-26T14:18:00.005-06:00

As mentioned in my previous post, it's beneficial to give and receive critiques, no matter what stage of writing you are in. Sometimes it's difficult to find the right place to exchange critiques, though. You will have to test groups yourself to find a good fit for you.

Below is a list of online critique workshops. It's by no means comprehensive, and many of the links lean towards science fiction, fantasy, and horror, as those are the genres I am more knowledgeable in. Sometimes you can find critique partners via writing forums as well.

Online may not work for you--search for critique groups locally as well, or start one yourself. I found my critique partners through my M.A. program (we exchange via e-mail, but I've met them in person during the residencies or retreats).

Also keep in mind, if you form a local group you are likely to have people with many genres--this is not necessarily a bad thing! We can learn a lot from critiquing outside of our genre as well. OK, on with the links:

Critique.org - This includes the Critters workshop. Recently, many new workshops have opened for a lot of genres. No cost. If you have questions about how it's run, feel free to ask me, as this is the one on the list I actively belong to for short story critiques.

Hatrack Writers Workshop - This one is off of Orson Scott Card's website, hosted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury. The information I read does not state it is genre specific. No cost.

Online Writing Workshops - Currently only have a SF/F/H workshop, but have had general fiction and romance in the past. First month free. $49 per year. Yes, they charge, but I know they have been around a long time - it could be worth it for some people (at least you get a month free to test it out).

Critique Circle - Another big one that's been around for a while. All genres. No cost.

Other Worlds Writers' Workshop - F/SF genres. No cost.

Coffeehouse Select or Casual Critique Communities - Looks like all genres. No cost.

Short Story Writers' Group - Only short stories and poetry. All genres. No cost.

Science Fiction Writers Workshop - Speculative fiction only. No cost.

Fiction Writing Brainstorming & Critique Partnership - This is a fledgling group on Facebook, but it has a lot of potential! All genres. No cost.

Some writing forums where you may be able to exchange critiques or find critique partners (there are countless forums out there, don't be shy to use Google):

Absolute Write Water Cooler
Forward Motion for Writers
Author Nation

NEXT UP: Born to Write!

Critiques = Invaluable

2011-01-24T15:12:00.002-06:00

Any past Tips & Prompts can be found on my website: Writing Tips & Prompts.

Writing Tip #2 - Critiques = Invaluable

If you want to improve your writing, there is nothing more valuable than receiving feedback on your work. No, not something like "your writing sucks" or "this is great" - constructive criticism, tips and suggestions on how to improve in various areas of writing like characterization, plot, story, and even grammar.

A lot of critiquing is subjective. Not everyone will suggest the same things, but not every reader will read your story or novel and see it the same way. So, you'll need to pick through the comments and decide which ones you think will work the best. It's another good reason to get feedback from more than one person. Likely if everyone says to change a certain aspect, you better pay attention and change it!

Receiving feedback isn't the only way to see what you need to improve on, though. Critiquing for others is just as important. By noticing things in the work of others, it brings perspective to your own writing.

Many times when I'm critiquing, I find myself giving feedback on the things that I am working on or things I have finally learned to fix in my own writing. And sometimes when I notice a bump in someone else's work, it's the first time I realize I've been making the same mistake.

No matter how much you write, how many times you put words to paper and spin stories, nothing will ever be perfect. I don't think anyone ever grows out of needing feedback from other writers. You will improve, though, and you'll be able to look back at an old piece of writing and say, "I've gotten so much better!"

The sky's the limit, right? What limit? ;) Critique, ask for critiques, and know that you are doing so to shine and sparkle up your writing a little more each time.

NEXT UP: Links to online critique workshops.

An Eighth Color in the Spectrum?

2011-01-13T12:42:00.003-06:00

What is the color or magic? Octarine, of course! "It was alive and glowing and vibrant and it was the undisputed pigment of the imagination, because wherever it appeared it was a sign that mere matter was a servant of the powers of the magical mind. It was enchantment itself. / But Rincewind always thought it looked a sort of greenish-purple" (136).

The Discworld is a world that is flat and rests on the backs of four elephants, which subsequently are standing on the Great A'Tuin, a turtle swimming through the universe. This simple image, which opens The Colour of Magic, sets things up for the humorous immediately, and Terry Pratchett doesn't disappoint. This is an older novel, and the first in a long series, but I still think it deserves yet another look at it, simply because I love it (I'm not alone in this).

Rincewind is a wizard of sorts. The truth is, the only spell he knows, but doesn't actually know, is one of the eight great spells that lodged itself in his brain. Of course, this spell left no room for any others, so Rincewind was kicked out of Unseen University, and no one knows which spell took up residence in his mind. The first tourist, Twoflower, ever seen on the Disc attaches himself to the unfortunate wizard. Twoflower seeks adventure, the eternal optimist, quite the opposite of Rincewind. Can't forget Twoflower's Luggage, made of a magical wood--it follows him about, running on dozens of legs. Yup, a box with legs and attitude. Did I mention it eats anyone who threatens its owner?

The adventure ensues, and Rincewind and Twoflower are dragged all over the Disc. Fire and flood in the city of Ankh-Morpork, an ancient monster in a forgotten temple, an upside down mountain where imagination brings dragons to life, and near death at the Rimfall, where the water tumbles off the edge of the Disc. Fantasy and humor all rolled up into one. Love it. I know, I said that already, but I can't say it enough.

The Colour of Magic is split up into four sections. It's like four novellas combined into one novel, which makes it nice to read in small chunks, since each section feels like a completed story. If you're looking for something short and humorous to read, this novel is a good start. The only unfortunate thing is that it ends on a cliffhanger. Literally. Perhaps that was the point, though, to add yet another bit of humor by playing off that particular literary device. The good news is, The Light Fantastic continues the antics of Rincewind.

This time, I restrained myself from giving away any spoilers. I will mention that the second section, "The Sending of Eight", is my favorite. You can easily dive into that part of the book without reading the first bit. Heed this warning, though--once you start reading, it'll be hard to stop! Especially once you come across Death (some of the Discworld novels are centered around him as well, great fun).

Want to hear Terry Pratchett talk about The Colour of Magic? Click Here!

Pratchett, Terry. The Colour of Magic in Rincewind the Wizzard. Science Fiction Book Club Edition, 1983.

NEXT UP: Benefits of Critiques

From 2010 to 2011

2010-12-31T19:04:00.004-06:00

I can't say 2010 was kind to me, or that it was a good year. It was a year, it passed, stuff happened. Enough said.

Okay, maybe I won't leave it at that. When have I ever left things alone?

I didn't reach all of my writing goals, but I did progress with a few things. Dead As Dreams still needs to be completed, but I have less than one third of the rough draft left, and I can see the ending far down the tunnel, a little pinprick of light (that has been going through one huge arse mountain since I started writing it back in 2005). I completed and revised some short stories, as well as sending many stories out to slush piles. And I successfully survived my first class for my M.F.A. program.

A friend, Heidi Ruby Miller, posted her submission, acceptance, and rejection stats for the year. This made me curious what my numbers ended up being for 2010. Unfortunately, this meant I had to go through my submissions program and count everything per manuscript (since I don't have a handy spreadsheet to track the numbers yet...I will have to change that!). My numbers are below. =)

Novel Queries

Submissions: 6 (5 to agents, 1 to a publisher)
Rejections: 5
No Response (some counted from the previous year): 3

Short Stories

Submissions: 38
Rejections: 36
No Response/Still Waiting/Withdrawal (some counted from the previous year): 6

I didn't want to depress myself by listing a category for acceptances when I had none. True, it would be nice to have those acceptances, but looking at my numbers, I'm pretty damn proud of myself for submitting that much. What does it mean? That I haven't given up. Perhaps 2011 I'll happily have an acceptance category, but for now, all I can do is keep going!

So, how did you do for the year? Achieve all your writing goals, feel like you accomplished a lot, even if you don't have any acceptances as proof? It's always useful to take a look back on the year that's just passed, so you can think of what you want to do in the coming year.

Some people may roll their eyes at resolutions, but many people feel that sense of a new beginning when the old year comes to a close and a new one begins. It's a circle, the snake eating its own tail, but there is still a beginning and an end, the end being a new beginning.

How to begin 2011? Good question!

First, if you want to work alongside other writers and make a goal for each month, keep Writing Quest in mind. I just started Writing Quest - January up on Facebook. The event is open to the public, and I'll continue to host a Writing Quest each month. If you don't have a Facebook account, feel free to post your goals here!

I'm feeling pretty good right now, since I just came off a 2 hour stint of writing, ending with 7 new pages and the completion of a short story rough draft. This means I must make sure to rein in my desire to list outlandish goals and think I am Super Woman who can complete a list of countless resolutions. Got to beat down that story completion high (who needs drugs when you can just write?).

If you've been watching Twitter, I've been poking some fun at resolutions today. So, I'm going to list some GOALS for the year. For 2011, the list will not be exhaustively long. Promise.

- Revise Mind Behind the Mind once more, and start sending it to publishers (since wait time can be up to a year, it might only hit the slush of one publisher).
- Complete the rough draft of Dead As Dreams.
- Don't start anything new! Got to finish some things first. I include Fate stories in the Not New pile - hell, I had that series idea 3 or 4 years ago (hence, Not New).
- Hey look at that, my study is clean, and I just spent 2 hours in it, writing, so I don't need this on my list this year!
- Keep submitting, and submitting, and submitting....
- Survive my M.F.A. program once I start full time in June.

That's it. Short and sweet. Of course I intend to keep up with my blog, as well as critiques, but those don't need to be on my goals list. One of these days I'll get to catching up with my writing forums and listserves, but I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen this year.

What are your goals for the year? Or have you chosen to make a resolution or two? I'd be happy to hear what everyone else has planned!

Happy writing in 2011!

NEXT UP: Terry Pratchett's Colour of Magic

Fringe - This Decade's X-Files?

2010-12-29T14:56:00.006-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not watched through Season 3, Episode 9 of Fringe, there are spoilers ahead.

* * * * *

Fringe, a science fiction show in its third season on FOX, has the potential to be as successful as X-Files. The turn it took at the beginning of this season, though, could have driven many of its viewers away. But I'm getting ahead of myself. This may be a mid-season look at the show, but for those that have never seen it before, I'll go over some of the basics that I think makes this show great.

Imagine that there is a parallel universe out there, one that reflects our own in many ways. Of course there are differences--the twin towers still stand, technology is more advanced, and they contain fringe events (kind of dimensional holes, glitches from our own dimension) by sealing the location, and the people, in some sort of gelatinous mixture. They have to contain it, or our world may destroy theirs. We don't get a glimpse of this parallel universe until the end of Season 1, though, and it's not until the end of Season 2 that our main characters cross over to this different reality. In our world, Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv), along with Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his son, Peter Bishop (Joshua Jackson), explore the odd fringe events taking place here. This eventually leads them to discover the parallel universe, a world that sees itself at war with our own--the people there think the only way to save their world is to destroy ours. Rich world-building and a well thought out plot sucks you into Fringe. Even though Olivia and her team investigate weird events, in the end those odd events still have some type of explanation (whether it's explained during the episode or a season or two later).

Yes, the world the writers have built is great, but the true shining star is the characterization. Olivia is an FBI agent who loses her fiance to a fringe event, eventually finding out he was involved. She's assigned to investigate these events. I'll admit, in Season 1, her character was the hardest for me to swallow. She felt a bit flat because I didn't see a lot of emotion from her. Seasons 2 and 3 have changed my mind, her character being fleshed out little by little. As far as we know, she is the only person who can safely cross over to the other side.

The first time we meet Dr. Walter Bishop, he's in a mental institution. A brilliant scientific mind that has fractured. He is the comic relief of this show, and by far the best character, in my opinion. His character is quirky and needy, but he still has much of the scientific knowledge needed to investigate the fringe events.

Peter Bishop, who originally was estranged from his father, is the perfect foil for Walter, and eventually a love interest for Olivia. It just so happens that Peter is actually from the other dimension (unknown to him until the end of Season 2). Walter's son died, and he couldn't bear to see this other Peter die, so he crossed over--the only way to save Peter was to bring him back to our world. This was the event that caused the instability in the other world.

It's about time I get to season three, don't you think? It starts out slowly. Our Olivia is trapped in the other world, while their Olivia is infiltrating our dimension. Walter, Peter, and other characters have no clue that there is an impostor in their midst. Our Olivia is brainwashed (with the help of some drugs and memories) to think that she is actually the Olivia from the other world. Great set-up for the beginning of the season, no? I thought it was, but it didn't stay that way.

They alternate episodes, one in the other world, then one in ours. Makes sense. Unfortunately, once our Olivia is finally brainwashed, the episodes in the other world left a bitter taste in my mouth. The characters around her weren't developed to their full potential, which made them come across cardboard and felt like mere tools. Not only that, but anything we discovered about this world didn't have as big as an impact as I think it could have. I contest that it is far more interesting to explore a new world from the eyes of a stranger. Since Olivia thought she belonged there, we saw the world from familiar eyes, so everything to her was ordinary and commonplace. The world failed to come alive for me--it had been more alive when Olivia, Walter, and Peter had crossed over initially at the end of Season 2, since they were all discovering the differences compared to our world.

The big thing that sunk me, and made it hard for me to hang on from episode to episode, was the length of time it took for our Olivia to finally get home and, more importantly, for everyone on our side to figure out that the Olivia working with them was an impostor! It's not until Episode 8 when the Olivias end up back in their respective worlds. I can see a few episodes, but not nearly half the season.

Episode 8 was great, I have to admit that. It just kills me that it took so damn long to get there. Walter was in prime form in the episode--I'm still laughing over the word he created, Vagenda (you have to watch the episode to get the context, it's well worth it). A lot of action, twists and turns, speed bumps, and someone's life sadly ends. Good fun, but it should have come four episodes sooner, in my opinion.

Am I alone in my feelings? No, I'm pretty sure I'm not. My husband read a few articles throughout the last few months that reflected dissatisfaction, and the viewers were slowly declining. I think stretching things out so long was what did it. Is there hope? Yes, I believe so. Fringe is an excellently imagined story, and if the writers pick up the pace and start throwing more punches concerning the war (which our side now knows about), then they can redeem themselves. Every series has a slump period. I can only hope that the viewers they lost will come back or new viewers will start watching. Fringe should have at least two more seasons in it--not sure if it will reach eight seasons like X-Files. It has held its own going up against the original CSI, Supernatural, and Nikita, among other powerhouse shows.

This is the clincher, though--starting at the end of January, Fringe will move to a Friday time slot (it has been airing on Thursday nights, with some odd Monday night episodes during Season 2). Many people consider Friday a death slot. Will the final bell toll, or will Fringe embrace that time slot as X-Files did in the past? Perhaps in the mirror dimension, they've already hit the cancel button, or perhaps it's been renewed for another ten seasons! No matter what, I'm sure Fringe has plenty of surprises in store for the future.

NEXT UP: Resolutions and Goals for 2011, and a look back at 2010.

Critters Workshop - Expanding to Other Genres!

2010-12-14T15:48:00.002-06:00

Apologies for the lack of a blog post last week. My daughter and I were really sick all week (I will spare you the disgusting details), so I am behind on everything.

I've mentioned before that I belong to Critters online workshop, for SF/F/H. A few months ago, the Critter Captain (Andrew Burt), decided to create some new workshops, stretching into other genres. Yes, some of the new workshops have been up and running for a while, but I figured this would be a good blog topic, just in case some people still don't know about it. =)

If you're interested in taking a look at the new workshop offerings, you can find them all at http://critique.org/ Not only are there workshops for mystery, romance, and non-fiction, but also for other types of media, like videos and music. You need to sign up for each workshop separately, though. So, if you're looking for a place to exchange critiques, this is a good place to start!

Speaking of critiques, I have some novel chapters to read. Happy critiquing all!

NEXT UP: A mid-season look at Fringe.

In Between

2010-12-02T15:42:00.004-06:00

I am officially done with my Horror: Monsters class - the final paper was sent out a few minutes ago. Yay!

That means I'm at the dreaded In Between. My next online course won't start until January, but I can't let me blog linger until then (I'm not even sure if I'll need to post my essays to my blog for that course - I will be stepping away from horror and delving into Recent F/SF)!

In the past, I have had long dry spells from blogging, and though it was mainly due to lack of time, I also think it was because I didn't have any type of focus in my posts. Seriously, I have probably whined enough about my life and attempts at writing, which has probably driven most readers away.

Time for something different! The problem is, I need to figure out exactly what to do. I will probably still comment about my trials and tribulations now and then, but I'd rather post something that other people find useful (I am not so self-absorbed to think my complaints are useful).

I admit, I enjoyed posting my essays - I made sure to include my own opinions as well as taking a serious look at all of my readings. And I hope others enjoyed them too.

What I think it boils down to, though, is I need to know what people want to read. Obviously most topics should be writing related. Some of the things that have crossed my mind are as follows: book reviews/discussions, movie reviews/discussions, TV episode reviews/discussions, focusing on certain aspects of the craft of writing, guest bloggers, writing prompts and challenges (Writing Quest is still ongoing, by the way - Writing Quest December), discussions of writing related websites/blogs/internet material. And I am willing to take any other suggestions, no matter how far off the wall they are. True, these ideas don't break any new ground - there are so many blogs nowadays, especially writing blogs, that it's hard to find something new and innovative.

I do know this - as long as I am in school for my MFA, I will likely only be blogging once a week, and any required class posts will take place of a normal blog post. Once I've completed my MFA, I hope to up my blog posts to 2-3 times per week - they don't all need to be long, and I can have daily themes as well.

What do you all think? What do you want to see me blog about? =)

P.S. Don't ask about NaNoWriMo. I feel a miserable failure, even though it was school and the toddler that got in my way mostly. I am hoping to make up for my November slump. My December goal is to write 35,000 words at least! Progress will be reported via Twitter. ;)

Snow...Or Is That Really A Monster?

2010-11-07T13:34:00.003-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Snow there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

As I read Snow, I found myself instantly pulled in--there was excellent character development and great description of the monsters. Unfortunately, about halfway through, I grew disappointed. There were several parts of the second half that just didn't work for me, especially the epilogue.

Malfi does a nice job using the prologue at the beginning to pull the reader in, to let us know that something is going on in the town of Woodson. This prologue allows chapter one to start more slowly and interweave character development as well as get our protagonist heading toward the town. The set-up here, with describing the men taken over by the monsters, also leads the reader to a knowing moment when Todd, Kate, Nan, and Fred come across Eddie wandering alone in the snow. "A man in a black- and red-checkered coat and high boots, mid-forties, bearded, pale--" (32). That last word, pale, sent bells off in my head, knowing that Eddie is no longer truly human, a perfect echo from the prologue. And that suspicion is confirmed when they find Eddie's "missing" daughter, Emily--the girl has no face. I thought that was wonderfully done.

The character development in this novel is also well done. Todd is our main protagonist, and at the beginning he is trying to reach his son for Christmas. He doesn't want to let his son down again, like he's done so many times in the past. This makes him a sympathetic character. Even his flaws--the gambling, mainly--cause his character to come to life. So we're rooting for him the entire time he's faced with the monsters.

Speaking of the monsters, I thought they were wonderfully described and fleshed out. "Like a puzzle piece sliding out of position, a section of snow seemed to unhinge itself from the rest, a compact little vacuum of white filaments sliding into the wind" (100). The characters never know if what's covering the ground is real snow or the monsters themselves. And, of course, these snow monsters can burrow into human beings, and after killing the host, use the corpses as puppets. They are also able to pull from the person's memories and experiences. Another great, creepy monster.

The scene where things started to unravel for me is where Shawna, the point-of-view character from the prologue, meets her demise. She holes up in the basement of a house for the night, her leg wound worse from recent incidents, and in the morning wakes to find the human puppets of the monsters clogging the upstairs. There is nothing peaceful about her death--she is overrun and devoured, with no one around to help. Now, I'm all for the monsters picking off characters one by one, but this death left me feeling empty. I really think that may be because I was hoping she would be made into a puppet and Todd and Kate would have to face her before the end of the book. Shawna's death scene is the last we see of her.

Nearing the end of Snow, disappointed with no reappearance of Shawna, many incongruities showed up, in my opinion. There's a scene where Kate takes a hammer to this slug-like thing. What the hell is that about? Is it the snow monster's form when it's not in the cold? If so, that needed to be established either earlier in the book or followed up before the end.

Todd is supposed to be the hero of the book. He finally contacts help outside the town. This act doesn't make him a hero, though, since the help doesn't reach them until the monsters have already left. Bruce, a minor character and the true hero, blows up a gas station, killing himself in the process, to kill many of the snow monsters. After this, the monsters decide it's too much of a hassle, funnel back up into some portal in the sky, and vanish. We find out later this happened in several small towns in the Midwest. Why exactly did they all leave, across the many towns, at the same time? It seemed weird that an explosion in one town would cause the monsters to leave all the towns. And why exactly weren't they slowly spreading to neighboring towns if they were there to feed? Once they ran out of humans to eat in Woodson (true there were a few people left in hiding, but not many), why didn't they move to the closest town over to find more food?

I also would have liked to see Kate give Todd that dollar she owed him at the end of the novel. Even though, I felt like through the whole novel, he had learned his lesson with gambling, yet in the end he gambles whether they will be able to reach help or not. That wonderful characterization at the beginning tasted a bit stale when Todd bet Kate that buck.

And finally, the epilogue ruined it for me. Eddie and his supposed daughter, whom I mentioned before, are seen driving across the country in a truck. It's that "they're still out there" moment, which I could have done without because it made me wonder why Eddie and Emily are so different that they weren't sucked back up through the portal like all the rest. And what is up with the band-aids?

So, yes, I felt Snow had a good start with a great set-up, a wonderful monster, and nice characterization. As you can see from my endless string of questions in a couple paragraphs above, though, the end left me feeling like everything wasn't thought out well enough. There were too many inconsistencies that pulled me out of the world and shook my suspension of disbelief.

Works Cited

Malfi, Ronald. Snow. New York: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., 2010.

NaNoWriMo 2010

2010-11-01T17:02:00.006-06:00

It's that time of year again! Yup, time to take on the craziness that is NaNoWriMo. And I just happen to be behind ALREADY, and it's only the first day. Dentist appointments, budgeting, and bill paying do not like being pushed aside for things like NaNoWriMo. Or sickness. My daughter was sick all last week, so I was unable to prep as much as I wanted to.

So, I still have my novel soundtrack to to figure out, my spreadsheet to set up, and of course actually having a plot. The plot bunnies are avoiding me. I have two characters in my head (one who still needs a name) and a conflict, so I'm hoping that will lead me to a plot at some point while writing.

What was that? I should be working on Dead As Dreams, you say? Maybe. Probably. Yes. But I wanted to not be a Rebel this year (at least to start out with) and write something new. The working title for this year's NaNo novel is Forsworn Madness.

Who else will be working toward that 50,000 word goal this month? You can find me on the NaNoWriMo website as alexagrave - feel free to buddy me!

My writertopia meter is below. I will attempt to update it a couple times a week. And I need to fix my word count stuff on the left side (sorry I haven't updated it in a while - class has been crazy...only one more essay and then the big paper for the term!).

The Thing - Are You Really Human?

2010-10-29T21:14:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not seen the movie The Thing there are spoilers in this essay.

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Ah, The Thing. Like Alien, this is an older movie. There are various similarities between both movies, which I'll explore in a bit. Unlike Alien, I had seen this movie before--about ten years ago, so my horrible memory didn't ruin anything for me. The Thing was enjoyable, as I remembered (at least I remembered that). Not really scary for me, but I've already mentioned that not much frightens me in way of movies. I do think the monster in this movie is creepier than the one in Alien.

So, what are the similarities between Alien and The Thing? Both monsters are from space. In The Thing, the creature is on our planet, though. Yes, Antarctica--a research outpost in the middle of nowhere, and the winter storm is rolling in, so the team will be trapped there until spring comes. In both movies, the characters have no way out and are forced to face the monsters head on. My husband claimed haunted house movie again, but The Thing isn't as dark and foreboding as Alien, in my opinion.

The monster in The Thing is creepy--make-your-skin-crawl creepy. It's that fear of not knowing, being unsure who the monster actually is. Could it be the person sitting next to you? Is it your husband? Child? This monster can mimic any form, as long as it has enough private time to do so. It's not until late in the movie that they figure out a way to tell who is a monster and who is clean. Have to take a hot wire to everyone's blood, and the creature will instinctively try to defend itself. Great thing for the people with the flamethrowers (if they worked, that is). Not so great for those tied up next to the monster.

I do love the unknown throughout the movie, but I think when we actually see the creature, which is pretty much just a mish-mash of all the forms it has assimilated, it kills a bit of that unknown suspense. The transformations were wonderfully done for a 1982 movie. Unfortunately, the big blobs of flesh with raw dog heads and split human parts sticking out didn't do it for me.

I have to give props to the dog they used at the beginning, though. That dog was a great actor--he was utterly creepy (I've used that word a lot, sorry). The dog had this look in his eye, and you knew something wasn't right.

There were a few other things I felt were off and unbelievable. Many of the actions of the people were hard to swallow. When they don't know who the thing is, why would they allow anyone to go off alone? Mac is still staying in his shed by himself. Wouldn't it have made sense to stick in groups of three, since this creature prefers to attack when it's alone with a victim? Once they clear all the people who are left, aside from Blair, they split up again, leaving one person behind. Why the hell would they leave a single person alone? True, it feeds into the whole ending where MacReady isn't sure if Childs is the thing or not, but the logic to get there has a big hole in it. And near the end, when they are setting charges to blow the compound, Nauls hears a weird sound and slowly wanders to where the thing has just killed Garry. That was an "Are you really that stupid?" moment I could have done without.

True, there are a few unbelievable moments, but I still enjoyed the movie. The monster is a good one (and creepy--yes, I said it again), and not knowing if either of the survivors are really still human is a great ending.

Works Cited

The Thing. Dir. John Carpenter. With Kurt Russell. Universal Pictures, 1982.

Reading a Movie - The Wolfman

2010-10-22T11:09:00.001-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read the novelization of The Wolfman there are spoilers in this essay.

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I tend to avoid reading novelizations of movies--I'd rather see novels made into movies, instead of the other way around. So, I approached The Wolfman by Jonathan Maberry with some trepidation. Since I haven't seen the movie yet, that at least didn't affect my reading of the novel. My verdict this time: mediocre. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. It was predictable for me. I'm actually back and forth on some things. It felt like a quick read, but I thought the novel was too long for the plot. And then there is the werewolf, or werewolves--a great monster, but a cliche.

The predictability of the story disappointed me, but that also may be because many current movies disappoint me in this aspect. Main character gets bitten by a werewolf, he turns into one himself, he kills the original werewolf, then dies at the hands of the one he loves since it's the only way to "save him". I pretty much knew right when Lawrence reached Blackmoor that his father, Sir John, was the werewolf. There wasn't really anyone else it could have been. I was hoping, beyond hope, for a twist, that perhaps Lawrence's mother, had been a werewolf. They claim she committed suicide at the beginning, and I would have loved to see that suicide be because of the monster she was and not wanting to put her family in any more danger. Sadly, of course, Sir John was the one who slaughtered Lawrence's mother.

Some of the descriptions were nice. I especially liked the full moon as the Goddess of the Hunt and the werewolves as her children. "Outside the moon rose into the sky with regal grace and the inevitability of death. It was huge and beautiful. The Goddess of the Hunt reached down with claws of silver moonlight to take the village of Blackmoor by the throat" (189). The imagery used with this association throughout the book was great.

Unfortunately, some of the description or backstory was a bit much. This book is 342 pages, and for a book this length you would think there is at least one decent subplot, if not two, but the closest we get to a subplot is the growing love between Lawrence and Gwen. The core plot of the book is stretched out overlong, in my opinion. Likely much of the description is longer because the novel is omniscient, not sticking to any one point of view even in a single scene--this made it feel more like a movie, and I didn't want to feel like I was reading a movie.

Things also got repetitive when it came to character development. Lawrence and Inspector Aberline could have been the same person, aside from their backgrounds and professions. Lawrence's reaction to seeing the werewolf for the first time: "All he could do was stand there and behold this thing. This monstrous impossibility. This perversion of all sense and sanity" (108). And then Inspector Aberline, after Lawrence changes before his eyes: "His mind felt disconnected from reality. He could not have seen the things he had seen. It was impossible, insane" (248). Both pursue the werewolf at the risk of their own lives, both are excellent at reading people, and both in the end are bitten. Parallels can sometimes be interesting, but I felt Lawrence's and Aberline's reactions and thoughts were too similar and detracted from rounding out their characters.

In this novel, the first werewolf, or Sir John, is dubbed the Werewolf, and Lawrence is the Wolfman. As humans, both are quite different. Sir John is a true monster--he knows what he is and allows himself to run loose as the Werewolf, frames Lawrence for his crimes, and kills everyone close to him. Perhaps that's why he's more wolf than man, as per the titles. He allows his beast to take over. Lawrence, on the other hand, hates what he's become and considers ending his own life to save others. The beast inside him doesn't rule the human. Some might say he isn't a monster. Only when he turns, and all human awareness vanishes, can he be considered a monster, and it's beyond his control. You have to wonder, though, if he survived as long as Sir John, would he, in the end, become the same? It's a possibility, especially if he would have lost Gwen by his own hand.

The werewolves in The Wolfman are cliche, unfortunately. Turn at the full moon, don't remember their actions as beasts, fast healing, and can only be harmed by silver. I do like the werewolf as a monster, but it would have been nice to see something different, a new layer to an old archetype.

I can't help but mention the fight scenes, if briefly. These bugged me the most, to be honest. The first big one we see is the slaughter at the Gypsy camp. All I kept thinking as I turned the pages was that it was too cinematic and over the top. That made me feel even more like I was reading a movie. I know werewolves are powerful, but it was all overdone, in my opinion.

I might have been overly critical of the book, but the things that annoyed me stuck out in my mind more than the things I enjoyed. The Wolfman is a good choice for the reader who likes novelizations of movies, and I'm just not one of those people.

Works Cited

Maberry, Jonathan. The Wolfman. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 2010.

Haunted House in Space - Alien

2010-10-15T14:55:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not seen the movie Alien there are spoilers in this essay.

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Here I go admitting my shortcomings again. Until now, I have never watched Alien in its entirety (as a note, I watched the 2003 Director's Cut version). Bits and pieces, here and there, yes, but not the whole thing. There was no reason why, aside from not enough time and too much else to watch--the usual. The verdict? It was a good movie. It probably would have been better if I didn't have a two-year-old making it hard to hear and causing me to pause it every fifteen minutes. Did it scare me? No, but not much does. I don't watch horror movies for the scare factor--I like them for examining the dark side of things. Alien definitely explores that dark side.

My husband calls Alien a haunted house movie, well one that takes place in space at least. I can see why he perceives it that way. Essentially, the entire crew is trapped on the ship, having to hunt down the monster that springs from one of their crewmate's chests. This is no small ship, and there are many places to hide. Even the lighting in the movie lends to the haunted house effect--everything is dark or in shadows, when they are on the hunt.

It's no ghost that they're trying to kill, though, but an unknown life form, one that is vicious and smart. It tricks their motion sensing device, and near the end its smart enough to sneak onto the escape shuttle before the ship blows up. The little creature that springs from the chest quickly sheds its skin and grows into a huge black monster with many rows of sharp, pointy teeth. Mind you, the growth time was a tad unbelievable for me, and like a snake, I would expect more than one skin shed when going from arm-size to bigger than human-size. I know there's only so much time in a movie, and you need to maintain the suspense by not taking too long to go from Point A to Point B, but I would have liked to see a better explanation of its rapid growth.

The best way to describe the alien are the words of yet another monster in this movie--Ash, the science officer who turns out to be a robot. He is given orders by Mother, the ship's brain, who has been programmed by the Company (such a wonderful chain of monsters here), to bring back the life form at all costs, including the sacrifice of the crew's lives. What makes Ash more monstrous is his awe of the creature, and here is where we get the wonderful description of the alien. "The perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility....I admire its purity. A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality" (Alien). The discussion with Ash, while he's a severed head, is the best dialogue of the movie, in my opinion.

Both the alien and Ash are great monsters, but they weren't my favorite part of the movie. It was actually one of the scenes added into the Director's Cut version that I liked the best. It's so brief, but I feel it has a strong impact. Ripley is the last of the crew alive (well, and the cat, which my husband dubbed the Harbinger of Death), and she is heading toward the escape shuttle. She makes a stop first, and finds two of her fellow crewmates still alive, but plastered to the walls by some unknown substance. Kind of like a spider wrapping up its prey for later consumption. The captain of the ship begs to be killed, so Ripley takes the flamethrower and ends his misery, along with the other crew member. I was disappointed to find out this scene wasn't in the original, but I'm glad they finally added it in.

Overall, I enjoyed Alien, and I thought both main monsters were well done. I just hope the next movie I have to watch, my toddler sits still long enough. ;)

Works Cited

Alien. Dir. Ridley Scott. With Sigourney Weaver. Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, 1979.

World War Z - Zombies, Meh

2010-10-08T21:38:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read World War Z there are spoilers in this essay.

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I'm going to be up front--I don't like zombies. Never have, never will. Therefore, I struggled reading World War Z. I tried to have an open mind, but the documentary style isn't interesting to me either. I know this is all a matter of taste, and I am probably in the minority. I've never been one to follow the crowd, so I'm not about to jump on the zombie bandwagon just because everybody else has. In World War Z, though, the zombies weren't the only monsters. Humans do monstrous things as well, when cornered.

Zombies bore me. That is the simplest way to sum up my dislike for them. This boils down to what I've mentioned in past essays--I like my monsters to have a bit of intellect. Zombies, not even a flicker. You can't even say they have pure animal instinct. Animals are more intelligent by leagues! I didn't like Rawhead, but I'd take him over a zombie any day. The slow moving and human flesh eating doesn't do it for me, and that's really all any zombie is. In World War Z, Brooks made them strong, made it possible for them to walk along the bottom of oceans and survive, but those additional differences weren't enough--they were still the same old zombies, in my mind.

World War Z is more about the human condition, the reactions people have to the zombies. The book is a series of interviews from the survivors of the Zombie War. Although this style didn't appeal to me, I did find some of the interviews interesting. I also noticed that some of the interviewees or the things that happened to them could be considered monstrous. Breckinridge "Breck" Scott is the first interviewee who had monster written all over his face. He developed a vaccine for the zombie epidemic. It was a rabies vaccine, and the zombie disease was labeled African rabies. Of course, he knew full well this vaccine wouldn't protect against a zombie bite. "All I did was what any of us are supposed to do. I chased my dream, and I got my slice....Shit, you wanna blame someone, why not start with all the sheep who forked over their greenbacks without bothering to do a little responsible research. I never held a gun to their heads" (58). Not one bit of remorse or guilt--only pure greed. No wonder this guy was hiding out in Antarctica.

Sometimes monsters force others to become monsters. In Russia, the government was determined to hide what was going on with the zombies and they wanted to keep a stranglehold on their military, which led to the Decimation. "We would be the ones to decide who would be punished. Broken up into groups of ten, we would have to vote on which one of us was going to be executed. And then we...the soldiers, we would be the ones to personally murder our friends" (82). To save their own lives, the soldiers abided, followed orders. "Conventional executions might have reinforced discipline, might have restored order from the top down, but by making us all accomplices, they held us together not just by fear, but by guilt as well" (82-83).

There is one interview in the book, with Jesika Hendricks, that implies cannibalism. Many of the people in the states headed north into Canada, where winter comes sooner, since zombies would freeze and give the humans a reprieve (until they thawed in spring, of course). Even though winter took away the zombie threat, they were fighting for basic survival. Jesika was only a child at the time, and she was sick. "There was this smell coming from the neighbor's RV. They were cooking something, meat, it smelled really good. Mom and Dad were outside arguing. Mom said 'it' was the only way....He came back ten minutes later, without the radio but with a big bucket of this steaming hot stew. It was so good!...Dad still had that look. The look I had myself in a few months, when Mom and Dad both got sick and I had to feed them" (128-129). It was a choice thrust upon her family--live or die, and I felt the looks that Jesika and her father had were the disgust at the monstrous act of cannibalism they were forced into simply to survive.

The survival of not only individuals, but of the human race as a whole was paramount in many nations. Everywhere, the zombies were winning, dwindling human numbers and adding more to their own army in the process. Paul Redeker developed a plan for South Africa. First, a safe zone needed to be established, but that isn't what made the plan monstrous. It was the second part of the plan that required the sacrifice of other human beings. "In his mind, only a small fraction of the civilian population could be evacuated to the safe zone....Those who were left behind were to be herded into special isolated zones. They were to be 'human bait,' distracting the undead from following the retreating army to their safe zone" (109). The interview this is from was one I liked. You find out at the end of it that the interviewee, Xolelwa Azania, is really Paul Redeker, who mentally cracked after developing the plan--he distanced himself from it by believing he was another person entirely. So, even though Redeker and many nations stretched themselves to that monstrous line, it had a large mental impact, the guilt taking its toll.

It was a little interesting to see the thoughts, in World War Z, on what actions humans might be willing to take simply to survive. The monsters inside of us can come out when we are fighting for survival, whether we want them to or not. This novel also reminded me how much I dislike zombies, and if anything I like them even less now--my opinion only, as always.

Works Cited

Brooks, Max. World War Z. New York: Crown Publishing, 2006.

Frustrated Demon - "The Yattering and Jack"

2010-10-01T11:37:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read "The Yattering and Jack" there are spoilers in this essay.

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The Yattering, in "The Yattering and Jack," is a fun monster, and I liked it more than the monster in "Rawhead Rex". It's making me consider reading other works by Clive Barker, unlike the last story. The only thing I am still having trouble with is Barker's frequent use of head-hopping.

A poor lesser demon, that's all the Yattering is, instructed to do his job whether he wants to or not--a lot of people can relate to that situation. He's supposed to make Jack Polo go insane to pay a debt owed by his mother (see, they owned her soul, but she snuck out of the deal). The problem is, Polo seems imperturbable. Anything the Yattering does is brushed off. We feel the demon's frustration at failure after failure. "The Yattering wept. The Yattering screamed. In a fit of uncontrollable anguish, it boiled the water in the aquarium, poaching the guppies. Polo heard nothing. Saw nothing" (46). Throughout some of his failed pranks, I could just see him shaking his little fists in the air in my mind.

We are solidly in the Yattering's point of view at the beginning. I had no problem with this, and I actually enjoyed it. There would have been no other way to hook the reader with the demon's feelings of being trapped--Polo's house is his prison until he completes his job. Eight pages into the story, though, after the Yattering had killed three cats (one went into the fire, another was drowned, and the third exploded into little bits), there is an abrupt shift from the demon's point of view to Jack Polo's. Since I was a third of the way into the story, the shift pulled me right out of the tale. I had to reread that transition, and several subsequent passages with point of view hops, over a couple of times to get a handle on what was happening. At first I thought it would have been better to have the entire story in the Yattering's head, but then we wouldn't have seen how manipulative Polo actually was--he was wise to the demon's goal, and determined not to let him win. So, Polo's viewpoint was necessary, but the way Barker has the shifts was unsettling, and it didn't help me stay deep in the story.

Polo's two daughters come home for the holidays, and this is when the Yattering ramps up his tricks. Instead of succeeding, though, he grows impatient, and breaks two cardinal rules in the end--he leaves the house and he touches Polo. Now he has to suffer as Polo's servant for the rest of his existence. It was a nice twist at the end, but there was one thing that left me wondering. Polo and his daughter Gina pretty much escape the encounter unscathed, but Amanda does not. "Then he met the vacant look in her eyes and the truth dawned. She'd broken, her sanity had taken refuge where the fantastique couldn't get at it" (59). This was the very thing the Yattering had been aiming for with Jack. Now, we don't see if she ever comes out of it at the end. I wondered, if the demons wanted Jack's soul via the route of insanity in place of his mother's, wouldn't a granddaughter's soul be just as good as a son's? Does the Yattering actually succeed at his job by breaking Amanda's mind? It seems silly if the higher demons would only think of Jack's soul as a good enough replacement. I'm not saying it's a flaw of the story or anything, simply that it was something I considered after it all soaked in.

Overall, this was a fun read, and I loved the quirky monster. The Yattering's personality was great, and he was a well-rounded character. Do I read more Clive Barker now? We'll see.

Works Cited

Barker, Clive. "The Yattering and Jack." Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998. 43-64.

Mood and Monster - Cycle of the Werewolf

2010-09-24T11:06:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Cycle of the Werewolf there are spoilers in this essay.

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Mood--this is what pulled me into Stephen King's Cycle of the Werewolf and kept me turning the pages. He has a way of setting up each chapter, each attack of the werewolf, with just the right description and tone for an ominous mood each time. Every chapter is like a story in and of itself. Unfortunately, since we don't discover who the werewolf is until the third to last chapter, we don't get into the monster's head quickly enough to make him more real and rounded. At least that was the case for me.

Every chapter is a new month, the full moon, when the werewolf attacks. The chapters are vignettes, a peek into the lives of the town of Tarker's Mills--and the first couple lives we visit are ended abruptly at the close of these chapters. I loved February, the Valentine's Day full moon, and Stella Randolph's death. King sets up this scene so beautifully. "The moonlight has been blocked out by a dark shape--amorphous but clearly masculine, and she thinks: I am dreaming...and in my dreams, I will let him come...in my dreams I will let myself come. They use the word dirty, but the word is clean, the word is right; love would be like coming" (21). And the punch at the end doesn't disappoint: "'Lover,' she whispers, and closes her eyes. It falls upon her. Love is like dying" (24).

It isn't until chapter six, June, where we discover that the werewolf is someone in Tarker's Mills that everyone may know, and then it's not until chapter ten, October, that we finally learn the werewolf is Reverend Lowe from the Grace Baptist Church. Once I found out who it was, I actually wanted to go back and re-read chapter five, May, since that chapter was in Reverend Lowe's viewpoint. The discovery puts that chapter into better perspective, but I think it did a disservice to his character to have such a gap.

The werewolf wasn't truly real to me until we end up back in Reverend Lowe's point of view in November, chapter eleven. This is where we find out he finally knows that he's the monster that's been slaughtering the townsfolk. Before this chapter, the werewolf was a two-dimensional figure, but when we see into Reverend Lowe's head and how he views his own transformations and subsequent murders, that's when the monster became three-dimensional to me. It's the human flaws that hook me into this monster, and I wish King would have instilled that humanity much sooner.

The thing is, Reverend Lowe isn't ashamed of what he does. Instead, he tries to rationalize and justify his transformations into a werewolf. "I am a man of God and I will not kill myself. I do good here, and if I sometimes do evil, why, men have done evil before me; evil also serves the will of God, or so the Book of Job teaches us; if I have been cursed from Outside, then God will bring me down in His time. All things serve the will of God..." (111). This was a great way to make the monster in this novel more human, in my opinion. True, you can't really empathize with him, but most people can't say they don't relate to this in some way. There is at least once in all of our lives where we justify our actions, where we feel the need to give reasons for what we did or are about to do. And it only makes sense that someone with strong roots in religion would use that religion to explain and justify why this is happening to him--it is God's will that he is afflicted with becoming a werewolf. Reverend Lowe's justifications are only backed up in his eyes when his next victim is a man who beats his wife. "He was not a good man. All things serve the Lord" (113).

Although I like how King humanized the monster, brought some depth to the werewolf, I felt that it came too late in the story. It was simply the mood and description that pulled me along chapter to chapter, not the monster itself. I guess this just reminds me that I like my monsters to be a little bit human for me to be drawn to them, and in Cycle of the Werewolf that humanity came too late for me.

Works Cited

King, Stephen. Cycle of the Werewolf. London: Penguin Books Ltd., 1985.

Primal Beast - "Rawhead Rex"

2010-09-17T11:39:00.002-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read "Rawhead Rex" there are spoilers in this essay.

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"Rawhead Rex" by Clive Barker is the tale of a monster that is the epitome of an ancient, primal, and animalistic archetype. Since I prefer my monsters more human than animal, most of this story didn't appeal to me, but I can see where it would draw many horror readers in, especially those who enjoy monsters from long-forgotten times brought into modern day.

We are in Rawhead's mind for part of this story, and even though his thoughts seem more human than animal, he even admits to himself: "He'd never been a great thinker. Too much appetite: it overwhelmed his reason. He lived in the eternal present of his hunger and his strength, feeling only the crude territorial instinct that would sooner or later blossom into carnage" (372). This can be seen in his actions throughout the tale. His hunger drives him, snatching children to feed upon. The animal instinct in him is demonstrated through the defiling of a man's genitals and marking his territory, in this case a worshiper. Even at the end of the story, the animal in him is his downfall. He can only think of destruction, and using the gasoline he discovered burns so well, he sets the town ablaze, heedless of the damage it does to his own body.

Because Rawhead feels he owns the land that the humans now inhabit, he raises himself to the status of a god. "And when he was ready he'd throw those pretenders off his throne, he'd cremate them in their houses, he'd slaughter their children and wear their infants' bowels as necklaces. This place was his" (371). This god status doesn't just exist in his mind, though. Declan, the Verger for the local church, worships the beast as a god as well. "Had he known all along that if the beast were to come sniffing for him he'd kneel in front of it, call it Lord (before Christ, before Civilization, he'd said), let it discharge its bladder onto him, and smile? Yes. Oh yes" (385). Even Reverend Coot struggles against Rawhead's lure--it takes all of his focus to not kneel down and allow Rawhead to baptize him as he had Declan.

There is always of course the other side of the coin. Gods can be vicious, but are his acts more those of a demon? Ron Milton watches Rawhead kill his son, Ian. From that point on, he makes it his mission to destroy Rawhead. He's never been religious, but circumstances beyond his control make him rethink things, consult the near-dead Reverend for advice, and seek out the one thing in the Church that Rawhead may fear. To Milton, Rawhead is no god. "But he was prepared to be openminded, and now that he'd seen the opposition, or one of its troops, he was ready to reform his opinions. He'd believe anything, anything at all, if it gave him a weapon against the Devil" (399).

So yes, Rawhead is a monster from ancient times, long before Christianity was established, a horror that brings its wrath down on the town's ancestors. Who doesn't fear a loathsome creature from the dawn of time? It was a well-written story, but in the future, I hope to avoid monsters like Rawhead--child and baby eaters just aren't my cup of tea.

Works Cited

Barker, Clive. "Rawhead Rex." Books of Blood: Volumes One to Three. New York: Penguin Putnam Inc., 1998. 362-407.

Believability in Breeding Ground

2010-09-10T11:02:00.003-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read Breeding Ground there are spoilers in this essay.

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Breeding Ground, by Sarah Pinborough, didn't work for me. Most of the issues I had with this novel were with believability. Even in a piece of fiction, I feel the reasons for certain occurrences should be believable enough to make the reader think the events could actually happen. This suspension of disbelief is harder to attain when you are working with a story or novel that actually takes place in our world--Pinborough didn't reach that level, in my opinion.

At the beginning of the novel, we discover that the women are putting on weight rapidly for some inexplicable reason. Not one woman here and there, but nearly all of them. Matt, our main character, takes his girlfriend to the doctor because she's pregnant and he's worried about her health. The doctor shoos them out of his office saying everything is fine. When Matt runs into the doctor a short time later, he finally discovers everything is not fine. "We're all just going to have to wait and see. That's all we can do. Wait and see" (52). This is what the doctor tells Matt, and this is the first instance where my suspension of disbelief is shattered. True, some things can't be explained, and not every sickness can be treated, but only waiting to see what happens is a bit of a stretch for me. This is happening world-wide. Doctors know, the government must know. No thoughts of a quarantine or taking certain precautions? Nope, the doctors and the government just plan to wait and see what happens, and not by actually observing the afflicted women in a secure environment, but by allowing them to go on with their lives so they eventually give birth to the monstrous widows within their own homes. I can't easily accept this. No thought of any possible damage control had me baffled.

I patiently waited for an explanation as to how these widows came about--I understand not revealing it right away, and I was hoping the novel would redeem itself with a good solid explanation that made sense. Unfortunately, all I found was more disappointment. "Genetically modified food. That's where the smart money is. They, or I suppose I should say we, let it get out of control" (219). The words of a geneticist. He goes into a lengthy explanation, of course, but it's still not enough to make me believe that this is the true cause. If it was genetically modified food, how is it that this happened to most of the women around the world at the same time? This reason would have made more sense to me if the creatures spawned in a more scattered pattern. Everyone consumes different foods, different proportions of those foods, and because of that, I would think people would birth these monsters at innumerable varying rates. And why did it effect only women at first? The mates of the widows do not start spawning from the men until the end of the novel. I was hoping the genetically modified food was a guess and that we would find out the real reason further in, but that never happened.

Near the end, they discover that a certain kind of blood is like acid to the widows, killing them effectively. It just so happens that this blood is from a deaf woman and a deaf dog. "It seemed that the simple genetic defect that had probably been a curse to them throughout their lives up to this point was now what made them the envy of every other survivor on the planet" (318). At this point, my faith in Pinborough's ability to back up anything with a solid explanation was shaken, so the whole blood-of-the-disabled-is-poison caused a sigh. What exactly is so different with this deaf woman and dog that it effects the widows? The closest connection is that the widows are telepathic, but that's a fraying thread. Not to mention, deafness is caused by an array of things, not only genetics.

Perhaps Breeding Ground isn't my type of monster novel. I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief, unlike with I Am Legend. This caused the monsters to be less effective for me, in the end. I'm sure others feel differently, but I couldn't bring myself to accept this post-apocalyptic world Pinborough created.

Works Cited

Pinborough, Sarah. Breeding Ground. New York: Dorchester Publishing Co., Inc., 2006.

Short Story Conventions in "The Funeral"

2010-09-03T13:15:00.003-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read "The Funeral" there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

Since "The Funeral" was written in the 1950s, it's interesting to compare the conventions used in short stories at that time. Many of the things we're taught to avoid in writing today, like overuse of adjectives, speech tags, and point of view slips, are prevalent in this story by Richard Matheson. Once you get past those changes in style, though, the core of the story is a fun and quirky romp.

The beginning of this short is bogged down with heavy adjective use--things like "placid clasp", "leisured pace", and "flaccid-fingered hand" (254). Those are just a few from the first page. To me, who has learned an overuse of adjectives bog down prose, it was overwhelming. It slowed the start of the story for me, making it hard to slip into right away.

Because the adjective usage is so prevalent, and I had to read the beginning through more slowly than usual, I also noticed a couple other style quirks that writers are warned against today. When you are writing a close third-person story, you're supposed to stay in your narrator's head and not pop out of it. This usually means it's difficult to describe the narrator if they aren't looking at themselves. Matheson doesn't follow this convention, especially in the phrase, "blinking meditation from his liver-colored eyes" (254). The other style quirk I noticed in the first page is a speech tag--the use of which made me flinch when I read it: "'Ah, good evening, sir,' he dulceted" (254).

What this shows is that conventions and tastes change throughout the years. Back in the 1950s, it seems that more of an omniscient approach was favored, over a close, inside-the-character's-head third person. The writing was more flowery and dense, chock full of adjectives. Who knows what will be standard in another fifty years? Perhaps in the future, second-person, adverb-heavy prose will be the big thing--no one can predict.

Although the first couple pages tripped me up initially, once the hook of the story presented itself, it was an enjoyable read. Three pages in, we finally find out that Morton Silkline's customer, Asper, intends to have a funeral for himself because he didn't have a proper one the first time. This was great, and it pulled me in. I wish it wouldn't have taken that many pages to hook me, though. I suppose that's another convention of the times. In today's day and age, a short story needs to pull the reader in on page one, even the first paragraph or sentence. If you have to wait for the hook until page three, there is a great possibility an editor won't even read that far. This could be a reflection of the instant gratification much of society seeks nowadays.

Once at the heart of the story, with the funeral event in full swing and a hodgepodge of monsters all in one room, I ate it up. The characters come alive. Matheson uses his technique as he does in I Am Legend to not reveal too much to the reader, so we can figure some things out for ourselves. Not one monster is labeled, the descriptions and actions the characters take providing enough hints so we can guess which archetypal monsters are at the funeral.

So, in the end, even though some of the devices used are ones I am used to avoiding, "The Funeral" was a fun read. I'll admit it--I wasn't able to figure out all of the monsters. Perhaps I will on a second read-through and a bit of research.

Works Cited

Matheson, Richard. "The Funeral." I Am Legend. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1995. 254-263.

Suspense in I Am Legend

2010-08-27T11:20:00.005-06:00

SPOILER ALERT! If you have not read I Am Legend (which is nothing like the movie, in my opinion) there are spoilers in this essay.

* * * * *

Richard Matheson builds suspense throughout I Am Legend with a slow release of information and a pattern of ups and downs. He drops clues along the way like pieces of bait--they tempted me toward the hook, encouraged me to continue reading. I loved it, and the pay off in the end was worth it.

Robert Neville talks about the monsters, but he doesn't name them as vampires until page 16. Matheson wants the reader to figure it out for themselves, to guess what it is Neville is up against. The first sentence is the first clue: "On those cloudy days, Robert Neville was never sure when sunset came . . ." (1). Then we see the cracked mirror he put up, the stakes he makes, and the garlic. "Garlic always worked" (2). I found myself quickly dragged into Neville's world, wondering when he would finally name the monsters he faced.

Matheson doesn't stop there with his slow dissemination of information, though. Another piece of bait is dangled when we find out the body of Neville's wife is sealed away in a coffin. I wanted to know what happened to her, what happened to the daughter he mentions. How exactly did the vampires come about and what tore his family apart? This curiosity and need to find the answers ramps up the suspense, and to keep that suspense going, Matheson deliberately feeds us information bit by bit. Our first major backstory chunk isn't seen until page 39, finally revealing that his wife caught the disease that turned people into vampires.

There was one place in the story where the holding back of information didn't quite work for me. The first flashback concerns his wife getting sick, and his daughter has yet to show any signs of the sickness. On page 57 we finally reach the second flashback, his wife dies. Reading a couple pages into this flashback, though, he talks of giving his daughter's body over to the fire to be burned, which is why he refuses to do the same with his wife. I had to re-read the passage about his daughter several times because the point the information is revealed detracts from the suspense he built up. Instead, I was confused. Matheson jumps around in the timeline too much in this instance, and it interrupts the nice flow of information he developed. I was stopped in my tracks while reading because of the confusion brought about by this slip.

Moving on from how Matheson utilizes the release of information, there is another strong pattern he uses to keep the suspense going. I Am Legend is a rollercoaster of ups and downs, of hope and having that hope crushed. It begins with Neville's search for the answers about how people were turned into vampires. He wants to find a scientific reason, instead of a superstitious one. Right when he thinks he has the answer, he's stripped of it, realizing that it doesn't explain the fear of crosses and their own reflection. Then he has the hope of the dog. This dog is the first living thing he's come across that doesn't seem sick. A companion for Neville's loneliness. Again, his hope shatters when the dog grows sick and dies. Finally, the pinnacle of all hopes, a woman walking in the daylight--someone else that survived. Or so he thinks. These ups and downs, the playing Matheson does with Neville's emotions, makes for an engaging and suspenseful story.

Every story needs suspense, and I Am Legend is infused with it. If you've seen the movie, forget about that drivel and read the book--it's a more compelling and believable story.

Works Cited

Matheson, Richard. I Am Legend. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, 1995.

Move Your Pen to the Music

2010-08-18T14:18:00.003-06:00

I have finally added a Writing Prompt to my website, and I figured it would be a good idea to post it on my blog as well. Just follow the link to find any Tips & Prompts I've written up in the past (only one past Tip at this time and the new Prompt).

I have a general update on what's going on with me below the Prompt. ;)

Writing Prompt #1 - Move Your Pen to the Music

Music effects people in different ways--it can be an emotional experience for some. For me, music has always been connected to my writing. Certain songs inspire images that come alive in my mind. A kernel of a story can blossom from a melody or lyrics. For short stories, I usually play a song or two on repeat that I feel has the mood of what I'm writing. Novels, I create an entire soundtrack.

I know, not everyone uses music in their writing, but I still suggest trying the following exercise. If anything, it will get you in touch with the emotion you need to infuse in your writing.

Pick two songs. One should be slow, without words--a classical song would likely be a good choice. The other should have more of an edge to it, can have words, be more fast paced--an alternative rock song, for example. If you do not own any of these styles of music, there are many options for radio stations on the internet.

First, listen to the classical song, and write. It doesn't matter what you write about. There doesn't need to be a plot or even a character. Let the sound of the music wash over you and write something that reflects how you currently feel. Keep going until the end of the song. Next, listen to the alternative rock song, and do the same thing. Allow the music to worm its way into your bones and release those emotions out onto the page.

Now, you have two starts (or maybe middles or ends) of something. Take a close look and compare the two. Did you have a different emotional reaction to each song? Your words should represent the mood you felt when listening to those songs.

If you can see a difference, then you've discovered a way to get yourself into a certain frame of mind depending on what you're writing. Even if you can't write to music, you can always listen to it right before you dive into that novel or short story to get your emotions percolating.

* * * * *

I hope some people find the Prompt helpful. =)

So, I've been sick since last Friday. This has delayed many things on my scary To Do list. I haven't worked on Dead As Dreams since last Wednesday! Here's hoping I feel well enough this weekend to churn some more words out. My goal is to finish the current chapter I'm working on. After that, I have a first draft of a short story that needs writing. I am going to try my hand at writing a story to submit to the Speakeasy anthology. I've done some research already and have a basic idea of my main character, so we'll see how it goes. =D

I've also started the readings for my class. This term I am taking Horror Readings: Monsters. It will be a fun jaunt, looking at the reading list. I am currently reading I Am Legend. This likely means that after this post, my blog will be taken over by class essays. It's a good thing, though. This means tons of content and all about writing--well, at least discussing published novels and short stories (a couple movies too)!

So, if you only see essays and no status updates until December, don't be surprised. You can always watch my Twitter feed as far as my writing progress goes, and perhaps I'll tweet more often about other things going on.

Oh, I updated my website, if you didn't figure that out from the Writing Prompt post. I hope to keep the "What I'm Reading" on the Home page updated consistently, since I'll be reading a lot!

Happy writing, all! =)

So Ends July - August, Here I Come!

2010-07-30T15:06:00.002-06:00

I apologize for not updating the word (and page) count on the left of my blog...or writing a blog update before now. If you have been watching my Twitter feed (also still on the left side), I've at least been keeping up with that. Sometimes, I just need to focus on one way of updating or I will spend more time updating than doing everything else that needs to get done - including writing. =P

Anyway, on with the blogging!

How did everybody do for Writing Quest - July? Close to goal, exactly at goal, surpassed the goal? If you had a setback and weren't able to reach your intended goal, don't feel guilty. Life happens, and we have a new month about to start with new goals right on the horizon. The key is to not give up. Keep plugging away (or keep torturing yourself, however you'd like to perceive it). It's what all writers have to do.

Speaking of writers and undergoing the torturous journey, I highly recommend you read the following blog post by Scott A. Johnson - The Writing Life: The Ugly Truth. Even non-writers should read it (perhaps especially non-writers, so you all know what us writers go through). It IS the ugly truth, and I think every writer has a bit of a masochist in them, since they subject themselves to these things on purpose.

Back on topic. Writing Quest - July. I managed to write about 23 pages - over 5,800 words. I am QUITE happy I wrote more than I did in June. The slow climb into productivity feels good. I wrote 9 of 31 days. Yes, there is still today and tomorrow. We'll see about today, but tomorrow I will be camping and the laptop is not coming with. 31 pages was goal, but that's all right, I was much closer to my goal than I have been in the past when making scary, crazy goals. I also discovered for the first time that I need to edit my graph in my word count spreadsheet...when it passed 50% it started to go back down. =/ We'll see if I have the patience to figure out what is wrong with the thing. It depends on how much I feel I need to see that lovely pie chart showing my progress.

I've also been keeping up with critiques this month. I didn't get a chance to revise "Love Fades" which I need to do so I can send it out.

The only thing I worry will cut back on my writing progress is my first class toward my F starts at the end of the month. Lots of reading, lots of essay writing - I'll be swamped! Fortunately, it actually bodes well as far as blogging goes because I will be posting all of my essays here. When was the last time I blogged at least once a week? ;)

July is coming to a close, though. On to August. New month, new goals! If you didn't join in last month with the Writing Quest, you're welcome to join in any month at any time. Either post your goals here, on the Facebook event wall, or Twitter about it using the tag #writingquest

I am stepping up my writing goal for Writing Quest - August. Let's see if I can get 11,500 words, or about 46 pages, written! I am going to try to write every day again, and I hope to get writing in on more than 10 days this time.

Oh, I did finally finish reading A Storm of Swords and have started in on A Feast for Crows (which will be interrupted by class). I do still enjoy some of the characters in George R. R. Martin's books, but I was kind of hoping Sansa would have met her demise by now - she grates on me to no end.

That about wraps things up for this post. Here's hoping I find time to update again mid-month (if anyone cares - ha). =) Happy writing, all!

Support Fantasist Enterprises and Fantastical Visions V Anthology!

2010-07-04T10:45:00.002-06:00

Fantasist Enterprises needs your help! It's a great small press that strives to pay professional rates to its authors. My story "Kindled Morphogenesis" appears in Modern Magic: Tales of Fantasy and Horror, an anthology published by Fantasist.

Right now, Fantasist needs support to publish the Fantastical Visions V anthology. For more information, please click on the widget below, which will take you to their Kickstarter page. Make sure to watch the video! You can pledge as little as a dollar to help Fantasist Enterprises reach their goal.

In Your Write Mind Retreat and Writing Quest July!

2010-06-30T19:58:00.002-06:00

Hold onto your pens, this is going to be a long blog entry! The first half I will cover some things from my writing retreat and in the second half I will go into Writing Quest, previously known as the Monthly Writing Challenge.

I can summarize the retreat in one sentence: It was awesome! Yes, not descriptive, but true nonetheless. The guests included Janet Reid, Jim McCarthy, Annette Rogers, and Tina Trevaskis. Aside from getting valuable information from all of them, the dynamics of the group when they were together on a panel was priceless. I will attempt to describe some of the modules, but please forgive me if I linger on some more than others.

Janet Reid is an agent from FinePrint Literary Management and is best known as the Query Shark. If you want a chance to have your query properly torn up so you can improve it, I recommend visiting the Query Shark website on how to submit it for critique. Right before I read my query out loud in the module run by Janet Reid, I realized how flimsy and vague it was. Let's just say I have re-written my query for Mind three times in the last five days, with much help from my critique partners. The process was painful, but I think I'm a better writer for it - it also made me realize that yes, sometimes it's better for someone else to write your hook and couple paragraph summary because you are too close to your own writing and think everything is important!

Jim McCarthy is from Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. Jim did a wonderful job of detailing social networking for writers. Website, blog, Facebook, Twitter - all of it was covered and it's amazing how important it is in today's day and age for any writer to gain exposure and find networking opportunities. I think I am going to have to take more advantage of my Twitter account from now on and start following all those agents and editors out there (who all have great advice most times).

Annette Rogers is from Poisoned Pen Press. This press publishes mysteries (and I am trying to nudge a friend to submit - heh). Annette explored what draws readers into fiction - it was a fun and relaxed module. Even though I don't write mysteries, I thought she did a great job explaining what she looks for when she's choosing fiction to be published.

Tina Trevaskis is the Director of Sales and Marketing for Samhain Publishing. Her module covered the current trends in e-book publishing. I have always been quite leery of non-traditional publishing, but hearing what she had to say changed my mind about it drastically. I loved how she said that e-books were just another format for publishing, kind of like audio books. If only the bigger publishers would approach it that way! Some people prefer to read hardbound/paperback books, but others prefer e-books, so to gain as many readers as possible, having books in both formats would be an advantage.

I also managed to have a "pitch" session with Tina. I use the quotes since she can't actively acquire for Samhain, since she deals with the marketing side of things. It was a wonderful conversation about what I'm currently working on as well as how I intend to market myself. I guess I need to start upping my blog posts! She also told me I needed to finish Dead As Dreams. ;)

Of course the guests weren't the only amazing thing about the retreat. I was more than thrilled to reconnect with many of my writer friends, the modules run by alumni were also engaging, fun, and useful. And that fire I needed to get me going has been lit under me. The last couple days I have been busy revising my query, submitting a couple short stories, critiquing a bit (of course), and submitting a query and chapters to Samhain! Wish me luck. I think it's a publisher that would be a perfect fit for Mind, since I do have a strong romance subplot.

This leads me into wrapping up June and starting July. I only pushed out 3,500 words during the June Writing Challenge. Not my goal, but it was still 3,500 more words added to Dreams than I had written in the previous five months.

One of my writer friends suggested I do such a challenge every month. So, after talking it over with others, I decided, why the hell not! The challenge is now called Writing Quest, and will be held monthly. It will be flexible for everyone - as long as the goal is associated with writing (word count, revising, researching, etc.), come join me and others to work towards our goals. Sometimes all you need to know is that someone else is trudging alongside you to get those fingers moving. If you're on Facebook, you can find the Event for July here: Writing Quest - July. If you're not on Facebook, post your goal in the comments of my blog. =) And if you Twitter about the Writing Quest, please use #writingquest as a tag!

I know you're going to ask it. What's my goal? This month is a Butt In Chair goal for me. I am going to try to write at least one page, approximately 250 words, EVERY DAY. I need to get into the habit of writing every day, and this may be small to start with, but if I keep it up, I will have 31 pages added to Dreams by the end of the month. As a side goal, I would also like to revise "Love Fades" and send it off to a slush pile. I received several wonderful critiques, from my critique partners and people on Critters, for that short.

Oy, that was a long post. Who's still with me? Watch for a new blog post either Friday or Saturday - it will be shorter, I promise. I will be blogging about Fantasist Enterprises because they need some help to raise money to keep things going.

Until later, happy writing!

Quick Update - June Writing Challenge

2010-06-09T20:48:00.002-06:00

Since I have slacked and did not update my word count meter until today, I figured I'd write up a quick blog post.

Yes, my word count is only at 1811 words. BUT I have not given up, and there is still plenty of the month left. Life has been a roadblock, as usual. I'm hoping I'll be able to do some catching up this weekend.

Oh, and does anyone know any good resources for glass blowing/shaping? (Don't ask - just a corner I wrote myself into and now need to write myself out of...it will likely be write now, research and fix it later - heh).

Hm, this could be my shortest blog post ever! How are YOU doing with the June Writing Challenge?

Happy writing! =D

I Have Proof!

2010-05-31T12:46:00.007-06:00

Yesterday, I tweeted that my study was finally clean. Since today is the day before the June Writing Challenge starts, I figured it would be a good time to blog. What better way to start things out than to show proof of my efforts? After all, the study cleaning has been on my To Do List for months! I have added three pictures to this post. OK, I DID cheat a little - all the papers I needed to deal with went back into boxes, which are currently sitting out in the hall. Those boxes will be moved back into my study today, but it will not impede any writing efforts for June. =)

I also finished the first draft of "Love Fades" and have already received a couple of great critiques from my crit partners. The story has also been sent to Critters to gather a few more critiques.

I did two critiques for Critters last week, and I plan to finish another today - I wanted to be a bit ahead so I don't have a lot of pressure to critique in June.

So, as far as the writing goals on my last list, I'm doing well! Don't ask about the dishes and the rest of this messy house.... "Ode to Buses and Libraries" will also have to wait a little longer to be revised.

All I really need to do writing-wise (aside from finishing that one critique) is re-read what I have written for Dead As Dreams, which I will likely do tonight - something nice and relaxing.

I likely won't be blogging everyday during the June Writing Challenge, but I will be keeping everyone updated in various ways. I will tweet my progress each day (or multiple times a day if I have more than one writing session) - those still appear on the left side of my blog, as well as on my Facebook author page. Every few days, I will also make sure the word count goal bar (under the tweets) is updated on my blog. Perhaps I'll do a blog post every now and then, but it depends on how much time I have and how behind I get on the challenge. Wait, was that some pessimism that just sneaked in? I will not get behind on the challenge! There, that's better.

Anyway, I have some cleaning to get done, so I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the week when I'm trying to write. Happy writing all, and good luck to those challenging themselves along with me!. =D

June Writing Challenge

2010-05-19T10:06:00.002-06:00

*pops in*

Yea, I'm overdue for a post again. Life does that. =)

So, what have I been up to? Aside from the normal daily tasks (chasing after the little one, destroying evil ferns in my backyard, getting angry at the PS3 for freezing a PS2 game at a certain spot so I can't play it on the PS3 anymore, etc.), I have at least done some writing related things.

Let's see. I'm critiquing about one story a week for Critters, I am signed up for the WPF Writers' Retreat and have my train tickets purchased, all short stories are in slush piles, and I sent out three more queries - the last of the agent queries for Mind (time to start in on the publishers next, but not until after the pitch session at the retreat).

I know, it doesn't sound like a lot, but it's better than nothing. My study is still a disaster and I haven't written a new word (fiction at least) yet this month. =/ All in due time, I know. Good thing is, I now have a box of Raisinets to bribe myself. =D

Anyway, I had this CRAZY idea this week. I long for the push and drive NaNoWriMo gives me to write. I NEED it, but November is too far off. Most of the TV Shows I watch with my husband are reaching their season (or series) finales, so soon there will be a bit more time in the evenings. So, there's no better time than June to start a writing challenge! Anyone want to join me in the craziness?

I was thinking, if people join me, we could all just set our own goals for writing or revising, yet try to aim for a little more than we would normally do in a month's time (or a lot more if you are crazy like me). I really need to get the rough draft of Dead As Dreams finished, so I am going to set my goal scarily high and say 39,000 words. Not quite NaNo proportions, but still pretty darn daunting. I will Twitter tag it #Junewritingchallenge for those of you who are on Twitter. =)

With that idea brewing in my head, that means I have a lot to get done before May ends, just so I don't have as much to worry about. So my goals to be done before June 1 are as follows:

- Oh study, oh study, why can't you clean yourself? - Yup, needs to get done so I can shut myself in and my husband can watch the little one when I write.
- "Love Fades" - That last scene wants to be written. Caradeci is tugging at my neurons to the point of insanity; I just need to find some time this week to get it out.
- "Ode to Buses and Libraries" revision - This one is a maybe, as it will depend on other factors and time constraints.
- Continue critiquing once a week (this week is done already - yay).
- Reread what I have written for Dead As Dreams so I know where I'm at before I delve into the crazy challenge.
- Attempt to get the house in order, so I have less to worry about in June (oh dishes, oh dishes why won't you clean yourselves (and stop piling up)?).
- Finish other non-writing projects that have been lingering on my list for ages - this will mean less worry and stress for June.
- Continue reading Storm of Swords (I've made some progress - just wait until I have a million books to read for my online course, though - ha).

That should do it. Not many days left in the month, and one day this weekend will be tied up taking my little one to the Zoo since it was too cold on Mother's Day, but I can't cut out everything fun!

So, who's with me? Anyone want to challenge themselves in June?

*pops out*

Facebook Page

2010-04-22T14:19:00.002-06:00

Yes, I wanted to update mid-month. So, I'm only 7 days late, right?

I now have a Facebook author page! Please click HERE to visit it - I would love it if people who Like/Fan the page would start up some discussions, as I'm always up for a good chat about writing. I now have things set up where if I post on the Facebook page, it will automatically post to Twitter as well, which is nice!

I also managed to finish the critique of the Monster Manuscript. After doing so, I found myself with nothing to critique. So, what did I do? Yea, I re-joined Critters. ONLY for short stories, though. My lovely critique partners churn out the novels, and I am quite happy to critique them, but they don't dabble with short stories, so I figured I should keep my mind honed when it comes to those as well, since I do write some occasionally. Even though I'll be sending shorts to Critters for critique, my crit partners better not think they won't see them as well! =D

No, this doesn't mean I've finished the rough draft of "Love Fades" or revised "Ode" - the former will hopefully happen this weekend.

My website has also been updated - that was a long afternoon project. Fixed some errors and the like. If anyone has any suggestions (aside from adding to the Tips & Prompts or Chronicles - I know I need to do that) for things to add or subtract from my website, please let me know!

As far as pursuing my MFA goes, I am supposedly registered for one online class that starts in Fall. I say supposedly, only because I had to do it via e-mail since I never received registration info...and I still haven't received the other things I was told I would. I'm not sure what's going on, but if I don't hear anything within the next week, I'll likely be sending another e-mail.

I think that's about all today. I feel a bit pressured for time - the little one is napping, and I have about 100 other things on my To Do List. =/ Makes me less chatty - heh.

Happy writing, all!

I'm Posting! April Fools! Oh, That's Tomorrow?

2010-03-31T13:24:00.002-06:00

Yea, been almost two months. Guess I can't play the April Fools' Day I'm posting but really not joke - huh? *mutters* I should have waited until tomorrow! ;)

Anyhow, things have been slow going, per the norm as of late. I was sick for a week, and that also included my little one (she's 2-years-old now, as of last Friday - where did the time go!?) and my husband. There were also a couple weeks of extremely stressful, not sure what's going on, brain doesn't want to turn on until the issue is resolved time. I won't go into the details because I'd likely get upset all over again, and that's no good for me and my productivity. Needless to say, that situation has been resolved, and I am a little more at ease. Another weekend was spent up north at my in-laws, as my father-in-law was in the hospital. It hasn't been a good two months for crossing off things on the evil To Do List.

So, you likely guessed it - I haven't managed to get anything written. I did read through the old critiques of "Ode to Buses and Libraries" as well as re-read the story. I pretty much know what I need to do to revise, I just haven't been able to get around to it. I also have been chugging through a long critique. As of yesterday, I only have 75 pages left!

I did finally write up my Scholar's Discount essay and send that in, along with my acceptance. Things are still up in the air, though, since I haven't received confirmation yet if I can take the one online class at a time the next two terms and still receive the discount. My fingers are crossed because there is no way in hell I'll have time to eat, sleep, or breathe if I have to take 3 online courses and a writing term all at once.

Unless I am pretty much forced into starting my first residency this June, I intend to go to the WPF Retreat this year. It's been two years since I've gone! The retreat is open to non-graduates of the Writing Popular Fiction program as well, so I made sure to put the link in if anyone else might be interested in attending. As always, there are pitch sessions, which are always good, whether they make me nervous or not.

Forgive me for a moment, for I am about to put my usual pessimism aside. Today is a gorgeous day here. The sun is shining, I have a lot of the windows open in the house, and it's the first day of the year where the temperature has reached 70 degrees (it's 75 here according to weather.com!). Yesterday I saw a robin hopping around in the back yard - that's always been my sure sign that spring is finally here. I'm in a decent mood, and I intend to take my daughter to the park after I post this blog entry. I'm hoping, nay I'm determined, that this mood will follow me for the rest of the year.

Will I get any writing done today? No, but that's all right - a new month starts tomorrow, and I intend to make the most of it. I will scratch things off of that To Do List (actually both lists, the one for writing and the one for other things...).

With that determination and optimism (yes, so unlike me), here are my Writing Goals for April:

- Clean the cursed study so I can use it! And while I'm at it, try to figure out which herb decided to hop around all the other pots and take over everything....
- Finish critiquing Cheryl's monster manuscript. ;)
- Finish the rough draft of "Love Fades".
- Write at least one more chapter for Dead as Dreams - I am under-shooting this time, so if I get more written, I'll feel good about myself - lol.
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries".
- Update my Website, and perhaps create a Facebook page (would anyone Fan me?).
- Get those stories back into slush piles! Before I knew it, all the ones I sent out are back and waiting to go out into the world again (to be stomped on most likely - sorry, can't scrub out all of my pessimism).
- 3 Agent Queries for Mind, if I can find 3 more agents to query - I have nearly exhausted that list.
- Blog mid-month! =)
- Continue reading Storm of Swords - I'm slowly plodding through.

Small steps for me in April. I need to get back into a groove, and the spring weather should help me with that!

I intend to encourage my little one's love of books consistently as well. I'm just hoping she'll sit quietly for the story time at the public library. She's fine at home, but she also insists on turning the pages herself, or she gets upset. =P

Well, I think it's time to wrap this post up and go out to soak up a bit of that sunshine. Happy writing, all!

Another Month Has Zoomed By

2010-02-06T13:54:00.002-06:00

January disappeared on me before I even had the chance to realize it was here, and now we're almost a quarter of the way through February! I miss the days of my youth where time just seemed to exist in endless quantities.

Well, January pretty much consisted of me dealing with my little one's new favorite thing: temper tantrums. Yup, that's right, she wants what she wants NOW and if she doesn't get it then she decides to bang her head on the floor.... She is not making life easier, I'll say that much. And I spent a week dealing with my husband's computer that managed to collect the Sinowal Trojan - it's still not fully off, and I will likely have to do a wipe and re-install of the entire OS (for now I'm waiting on a response from the tech gurus at Bleepingcomputer.com).

So, where did all this leave me? With not a single new word written. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. And six days into February with no new writing to show for it either. I did critique a lot again. Had to have a novel critiqued by the end of January, but I was even four days late on that because of the damn sick computer.

Let's see...I also revised "Ancient Ways" and got that into a slush pile, which was just returned as a rejection this week and has now been sent out again. I also sent out my three queries for Mind.

Oh, yes, I do have a bit of good news! A story I submitted to the Writers of the Future contest earned me an Honorable Mention. I know, it's not a publishing credit, but I have to savor every scrap I get.

I've also been thinking about the MFA. Aside from still needing to send in my acceptance and write the essay for the Scholar's Discount, I think because of the little one's new temper tantrums (did I mention she's also not napping until like 7pm? sigh), I am going to have to take it at a slower pace than originally planned. If I'm allowed to, I'm just going to take one online reading course during the June term, as well as next January term, then go back for my first residency and the heavier load in June 2011. I hate to do it, but I think it's the wisest path (see, there's that Wisdom goal peeking in). I still intend to get the F in between my MA - it'll just be a little longer than originally planned. This also means I can ease up on my Before June Battle Plan.

Anyhow, goals for this month, even though it already feels like the month is almost over.

- Study - clean, organize, file the papers away, put pictures up...finally make it usable for a writing hideaway! (Yes, I still haven't done this - I hate cleaning SO much.)
- Finish the rough draft of "Love Fades" and send it out for critiques.
- Dead as Dreams rough draft - right now any progress would be good....
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries," then send that out for critiques.
- Edit and Submit "Ode to Buses and Libraries," depending on when I get it revised and critiqued.
- Start revising "Hell Hath No Fury".
- Continue critiquing - I'd like to get through another 180 pages of a novel I'm critiquing by the end of the month.
- Update Blog and Website bi-weekly (likely opposite weeks).
- Send out three more Queries for Mind.
- Keep my completed short stories in slush piles - all are currently in circulation as of yesterday - let's hope for an acceptance somewhere!
- Continue reading Storm of Swords and resist the urge to pick up some already read Ursula K. LeGuin novels (I blame Cheryl for this itch!).

That seems doable. Maybe. It would be nice if I managed to get some downtime this month. I haven't played any video games for two weeks, and my body is yearning for a break! Break or no, I have to keep going and start crossing things off my scary To Do List. Happy writing, all! ;)

2010 Already!?

2010-01-03T16:18:00.002-06:00

It snuck up on me! The end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010. I have no clue where the year went! But it is a new year now, which means renewed vigor to get things done. I hope. It's only the 3rd day of the year and I already feel behind...I hope I don't feel that way for all of 2010.

Anyway, with one of the silly collecting games I play, they have new creatures for the 1st of the year. I snagged a bunch on the 1st and named them after my hopes for the year. Here's the list, along with my pretty little Wisdom bird:

Wisdom
Balance
Patience
Diligence
Intuition
Determination
Creativity
Optimism

I need to think of these eight things as I take everything I do step-by-step, with each task I check off of my endless list.

I'm not going to post a yearly goals list here this year (that won't of course stop me from drawing one up otherwise, as I am a compulsive list maker - it's an obsession). I will continue to post my monthly goals, though. Nice doable chunks that way - right?

Sorry for not posting an update in December, but I got crazy busy with holiday stuff (we celebrate Yule in our house, but visited the in-laws since they celebrate Christmas). And since I was crazy busy with holiday stuff, I didn't get all the goals for last month completed. Sigh. That's why I feel so behind.

It doesn't help that a short story I had lined up to write in March decided it wanted to be written NOW. Fickle characters.... That means I'm behind on Dead As Dreams, even more so since I didn't attain my monthly word count. I have time to slowly catch up, really I do!

Are you wondering what I accomplished in December with writing? Mainly a heck of a lot of critiquing, about 3,500 words written between Dead as Dreams and "Love Fades", and I read a little bit.

The goals for January are as follows (some are copy and paste from last month):

- Study - clean, organize, file the papers away, put pictures up...finally make it usable for a writing hideaway! (Did I mention the holidays made things crazy? - Not enough time to clean - sigh.)
- Dead as Dreams rough draft and "Love Fades" short story - write at least 3,000 words per week, ultimate goal of 20,000 words by the end of January.
- Revise/Edit "Ancient Ways," then subsequently submit it somewhere.
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries," then find a few people to critique it. =)
- Edit and Submit "Ode to Buses and Libraries," depending on when I get it revised and critiqued.
- Revise "Hell Hath No Fury," then then send it out for critiquing (why do I see this one taking me a really long time - it's a massive short).
- Continue critiquing - lots of critiquing! - I am halfway through one manuscript, but it is now on hold because another manuscript has priority.
- Update Blog and Website bi-weekly (likely opposite weeks).
- Send out 3 Queries for Mind.
- Keep my completed short stories in slush piles (I have a few that came back and really need sending out).
- Read 50 pages per week in the current novel I'm reading. (I read a little bit in December.)
- Start to catchup with online Writing Groups and Newsletters that I am tremendously behind on.

I am really hoping the holiday craziness doesn't leak over into January too much. One of my Saturday's will be shot, though, to do the holiday thing with my mother. =(

Diligence, right? Have to get it done! Happy writing, all. =)

December 2009 - Battle Plan!

2009-11-30T00:19:00.003-06:00

True, there is still a day left of November, which means I could theoretically get more words. The problem is, I won't be able to write - Mondays are insanely busy days, and if I don't get certain things done, they won't get done for the rest of the week.

With that said, I have drawn up a Battle Plan for myself extending all the way through the end of May 2010. Why? Well, in June of 2010, I'm planning to go back to Seton Hill University to get my MFA! The Writing Popular Fiction Program is now offering a MFA instead of a MA. Since I already have the MA, I only need to take half the required credits to get the MFA. Am I crazy? Yes. Will this mean I barely have time to breathe? Yes. Am I worried about time and money? Always. But it's worth a shot, and I think it will encourage me to rev up my writing engines and keep them humming.

Once June hits, I won't have time for many other writing projects I need to finish. Hence The Battle Plan. Dead As Dreams needs to get finished before June! At least the rough draft.

Instead of posting the entire Battle Plan, I'm going to post it in monthly chunks. Future blog posts will track my progress (as well as Twitter posts - I have been enjoying Twittering during NaNo - remember if you wish to follow me on Twitter, my username is AlexaGrave).

December's goals:

- Study - clean, organize, file the papers away, put pictures up...finally make it usable for a writing hideaway!
- Dead as Dreams rough draft - write at least 3,000 words per week, ultimate goal of 14,750 words by the end of December.
- Revise/Edit "Ancient Ways," then subsequently submit it somewhere.
- Revise "Ode to Buses and Libraries," then find a few people to critique it. =)
- Continue critiquing - lots of critiquing!
- Update Blog and Website bi-weekly (likely opposite weeks).
- Keep my completed short stories in slush piles (I'm happy to say all are currently off my desk and waiting in aforementioned slush piles).
- Read 50 pages per week in the current novel I'm reading.
- Start to catchup with online Writing Groups and Newsletters that I am tremendously behind on.

That's it. Not too scary, right? If I take things one month at a time, I think it won't be so intimidating. Unfortunately, I have other non-writing things that need to get done before June as well. Sigh. Well. Bring it!

Wish me luck, and happy writing!

NaNoWriMo 2009

2009-11-01T14:49:00.020-06:00

As promised, here is my post that will track my progress with NaNoWriMo for the month. I will try to update the Writertopia graph daily (there is also a Word Count meter on the left side under my Twitter updates). Once in a while, I'll post a note with the date under this meter, instead of starting a new post for every comment I have.

Also, if you can't tell, I am doing frequent updates with Twitter - so if you want to know how I'm progressing, just follow me on Twitter (AlexaGrave)!

11/1/09 - Day 1 down, only 29 more days to go! The weekdays will be the biggest challenge, since my husband was around to be driven nuts by the little one today. Hey, at least it didn't feel like I was writing total crap. ;)

11/6/09 - Weekdays = no way I'm getting anything written because the little one demands my attention and I refuse to live in squalor (dishes and cleaning bathrooms, etc.). By the time my husband gets home I can barely think! And this Sunday I won't be writing either since we'll have friends over most of the day installing the molding in the little one's room (this must be done, as it's been put off for over a year and a half already). Sigh. We'll see what I get done on Saturday, but right now reaching 15k by the end of the month would make me happy.

11/9/09 - I'm not sure what's wrong with the Writertopia counter. I'll still update the other meter at the end of each day. Perhaps I'll copy that meter here in the post as well.... Anyway, I may be far behind, but at least I haven't given up (even though last Tuesday I was very close to giving up in a bigger sense because trying to do everything I need to do has been straining me). Only got a couple pages today, but it's better than nothing.

11/10/09 - Yay, I'm 10% to 50,000! I know, I know, still way behind. I have to revel in the little accomplishments to keep me going at least.

11/22/09 - I was sick most of the week. =( And I gave up on the 50k goal a while ago. Just not going to happen with the little one and other things. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop trying to add to my word count. I'm hoping for 14-16k by the end of the month. We'll see!

11/29/09 - I was planning to hit 10k at least, but unforeseen circumstances meant I couldn't (trust me, it was a good excuse, as far as excuses go). I won't be writing on the 30th, so 9,003 is my total for NaNo this year!