Sunday, December 30, 2018

Song Styles

I've gone through a bit of a hibernation period as a harper.  Not that I haven't been performing and teaching, but before I started on my Christmas repertoire, I noticed that practicing had become a chore.  I wasn't looking forward to it the way I used to, and was even putting it off.

I've come to the realization I need to make a change.  Pre-Christmas, my goal had been to take old pieces from my repertoire that had gotten dusty and revive them.  A sensible project, but not strictly necessary:  even without these contributions, I have enough "active" music to play a solid three hour set, which is usually the functional limit for this poor harper's fingers.  (I did seven hours in a day once, lunch and then dinner, but I came out bleeding.  Literally.)

So apart from one or two obligatory repertoire projects - I need to revive / finish a couple classical tunes and make sure The Entertainer is still in the pocket; the latter is *not* a chore, because it gives me a total kick to play - I'm going to let myself play around, goof off, try things on a whim and see where the music takes me.  I don't need the tight discipline from a professional standpoint, and on an emotional level, I think I need to let go of the reins a bit.

Ha ... not like that's in my nature.

I've done this on the writing side.  I was feeling grumpy and that writing was becoming something of a chore.  That's when I decided to do a purely for-fun, goofy project that I thought was unsellable:  the zombie novella.  And I've never had so much fun writing something.  I'm approaching a review of it, and maybe it's not so unsellable after all, but the greater point is:  it rekindled a spark.  Maybe letting myself play will do the same here.

I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions, so the timing is coincidental.  From a harp standpoint, I've just gotten out of the Christmas rush, so it's a natural point for, "What next?"

Play on.

Wednesday, December 26, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Happy Boxing Day, (belated) Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wonderful Winter Solstice ... whatever you choose to celebrate or ignore, I wish it all to you with a homemade candied cherry on top.  I've been almost radio silence on this blog for most of the month due to the craziness of the holiday catering (and musician) season, plus some personal malarkey keeping me running amok.  (Amok amok amok!)

I haven't been writing as much as I would like, in part because a good chunk of that is editing, which takes more brainpower, and generates additional and undesirable desires to stab something.  Seeing as I work around knives, it's best to be cautious.  I have actually been contributing writing for a work feature, Kitchen Wisdom Wednesdays, and that's been a lot of fun.  I've toyed with posting Foodie Fridays here, but I know myself and I fear I wouldn't maintain it.

In my (leisurely, molasses-esque) editing, I noticed something new.  I've had a couple short stories go to press over the past few months, and both editors thought I used too many speech tags and, to a lesser extent, too many action cues connected with dialogue.  Now, for me, I often find that's a comment I give other writers in reverse:  their dialogue can feel like "talking heads" to me, words floating in space without clear connection to characters.

As I went back through these stories to trim up speech tags, I found I resisted it.  It made the characters' speech feel disconnected to me.  Somehow, having tags in particular spots made the dialogue feel more grounded, more attached to the character speaking.  
What I realized is that it comes back to something in my underlying nature.  I'm a very kinesthetic person:  I experience the world and learn through action, tactile sensation, movement and activity and *doing*.  So cutting those ties - via cutting the speech tags - was very disconcerting to me.

To some extent, I still feel as if I make good choices on this topic; I also feel that part of this is stylistic, a writer's way of crafting prose.  But this whole experience has taught me to look more closely at the dialogue and analyze, not always listen to the instinct I wasn't even aware of before.

Sunday, December 16, 2018

Song Styles

Another few months, another set of music CDs to entertain me upon my driving ... driving ... so much driving.  As always, I create CDs with themes, whether it be "House and Home" or "Long Distance" ... and then one set that where the connecting theme is word association, the title of one song suggesting / playing off the next.  Sometimes, admittedly, the link is tenuous because I'm bound and determined to get a specific song in there ... and other times, my brain is just peculiar.  You decide.

Shivers - Rachel Platten
Ice - Sarah McLachlan
Cold Shoulder - Adele
Get Away - Chvrches
Don't Shy Away - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Whisper - A Fine Frenzy
Scream It Out - Ellie Goulding
Cry - Faith Hill
Cry to the Beat of the Band - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Is It the Beat? - Selena
Dr. Beat - Miami Sound Machine
Medicine - Shakira
Recovery - Broods
Better Life - P!nk
Good Life - Rachel Platten
Life Uncommon - Jewel
No One Like You - Sarah Brightman
Ain't No Other Man - Christina Aguilera
It's Raining Men - Geri Halliwell
Echoes in Rain - Enya
Cue The Rain - Lea Michele
Rain, Tax (It's Inevitable) - Celine Dion
Pot of Gold - Dian Diaz
Wrong End of the Rainbow - Anne Murray
Wrong Side of the Sun - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
Brighter Than The Sun - Colbie Caillat
Sun, Moon and Stars - Loreena McKennitt
Heavenly - Lea Michele
All This and Heaven Too - Florence + The Machine
Heaven/Hell - Chvrches
Who the Hell Are You? - Emma Bunton
Who's That Boy - Demi Lovato
Fell in Love With A Boy - Joss Stone
A Boy Like That - Selena
My Boy Builds Coffins - Florence + The Machine
Building a Mystery - Sarah McLachlan
Ritual - Ellie Goulding
Black Magic - The Green Children
The Blackest Lily - Corinne Bailey Rae
Flower - Liz Phair
Opening Up - Waitress soundtrack

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Since I've had a number of short story sales lately (huzzah!), I'm working on editing a new story to put into submissions soon.  This tale, "Lip Service," is a contemporary fantasy. where phantasmal creatures resembling bees secrete magical energy; their sting puts victims under their spell.  The story is told from the perspective of the teenaged daughter of a hunter who gets dragged into her mother's life.  It is also chock-full of references to both the word "kiss" and phrases / idioms that involve it, hence the title.

Editing it has been a bit of frustration, though.  I've gone through it twice now, and each time, the goalposts of what I need to revise change.  On the bright side, it's mostly tweaks and expansions, adding more detail rather than serious alterations to the plotline.  Though part of the point of the story *is* that the character is a teenager unsure of her direction in life, I've tried to sharpen her goals and motivations.  Another goal in the editing process was to intensify the sense of stakes - a fine balancing act between the trivial and, "Why would her mother let her get involved with this?"'

And then, just as I reached the end of the most recent pass through, I realized I needed to work a bit more on the line of investigation the story follows.  Why didn't I pick this up the first time through?  Am I just an idiot? ... don't answer that.

Making all this trickier is the fact that the story was just too long, somewhere over 7500 words.  Ideally, I want to get it under 6000 ... which means a lot of cutting while still building up the elements mentioned above.

Another point on my mind is the tone.  The story is light and sometimes humorous, but it's not intended to be comedy - it just incorporates human foibles and a narrator with a tongue in cheek streak.  It also includes some in-jokes about Celtic / traditional musicians that are probably only funny if you're part of that community.  I could push it over the line into outright humor, but I'm not really feeling that.  Conversely, it wouldn't bear the opposite treatment:  I'd have to strip out some of the bones to make it read as a truly dramatic, serious tale.

I'll be going over it one more time, but if I'm not satisfied after that, I may have to shelve it for longer to get somewhere I'm happy with.  Or maybe, perfectionist that I am, that's just not possible, and I should give up and be sensible ...

Ha.

Sunday, December 02, 2018

"Super Solutions" now available!

The Fifth Di ... December 2018 issue is now out, with my story, "Super Solutions."  Check it out:  

The Fifth Di - December 2018

This is my oddball little superhero reality television show story.  I had so much fun with it, but humor always seems to be a harder sell ...

Song Styles

One of the reasons I have this Sunday feature is because as a professional harper, music is very important to me, though my listening tastes are quite different from my playing tastes, where I specialize in Celtic and early music, with some contemporary / show tunes.  

Sound like your cup of tea?  Or perhaps it perfectly matches someone you know?  (Here comes the shameless plug ...)  My harp CD, Rolling of the Stone, could be the perfect holiday gift.  Check it out here:

Purchase Page

Please do buy directly from me; Amazon not only takes a sizable cut, they require me to send them replacement CDs one at a time, which makes any profit I might make virtually nil.

If you buy from me and give me permission to cut the shrink-wrap, I would be happy to autograph the CD liner - just let me know.

Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Notes from a worldbuilding ...

The world creation aspect of this project has certainly taken me longer than in the past, but it's not because of the quantity - and believe me, I have one set of world notes that clocks in at around 50,000 words, as long as a short novel, so quantity is a thing I have been known to indulge in - but rather because life keeps getting in the way.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I've been doing some things differently this time around.  Rather than defining a few global elements and then narrowing down to individual countries, I've spent a lot more time discussing trends, tendencies, and, "some places are X, some places are Y."  This means that as I get into writing up descriptions of specific locations, I'm defining where each falls on various spectrums ... and I keep finding that I need to circle back and add more detail.

This is a little irritating to me; I'm not usually this disorganized.  Also, it means that I'm not always putting the information in exactly where it makes sense.  For instance, it makes more sense to have something minor like currency after discussions of larger elements like technology and gender bias, but that's not where it fit in.  Of course, since I'm not writing an RPG guide (or for anyone but myself), and since Word has a handy-dandy Find function, it only makes a difference to my anal-retentive side.

And now you might be wondering (or more likely, you're not) why I can't just put the information anywhere.  It has to do with the way I write.  Even beyond narrative flow, my sentences in stories tend to connect to each other, a chain of logic and poetry.  It's why I often find it so difficult to add sections to my stories:  it's artificially forcing another link into the chain.  Of course, maybe the logic falls apart a bit here in that I find it much easier to cut, but it's easier to remove a link and connect the remaining ends ... maybe.  I'm a writer (harper / chef), not a jeweler.

Right now, I'm reaching the point where I'm setting up two rival nations whose struggle (or more particularly, the struggle of the people representing them) will play a part in the plot ... and one of my goals is not to make it too symmetrical.  I don't want them to be too perfectly opposed.  The real world, after all, is not so neat.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Song Styles

(Past few weeks have been very hectic, hence the radio silence here.  Hope I'm back in action now!)

I talked a lot about the various portions of my Scylla and Charybdis playlist during my blog tour, but I don't think I ever posted the list in its entirety.  So here it is, a combination of general theme, specific character / situation inspiration, some tongue in cheek inclusions (mostly for the gender aspects), and songs I otherwise associate with the novel:

Us Amazonians - Kirsty MacColl
Walk This World - Heather Nova
Suddenly - LeAnn Rimes
Defying Gravity - Wicked soundtrack
Drops of Jupiter - Train
There Is Nothing Like A Dame - South Pacific soundtrack
I Do - Lisa Loeb
Breathe - Midge Ure
Turn This World Around - Amy Grant
I Enjoy Being A Girl - Flower Drum Song soundtrack
Children of the Revolution - Kirsty MacColl
Wishing Heart - Lisa Loeb
The Safest Place - LeAnn Rimes
Don't Rain On My Parade - Glee Cast version
It's Raining Men - Geri Halliwell
Free - Sarah Brightman
Poor Little Fool - Helen Reddy
Always Tomorrow - Gloria Estefan
Fire Under My Feet - Leona Lewis
In The Arms of the Milky Way - Laura Powers

Most of this list was composed years ago; the only recent addition is the Leona Lewis song.  But I've always been a bit of a dinosaur when it comes to new musical releases ...

Sunday, November 11, 2018

Song Styles

No posting of my writerly musical musings would be complete without eventually mentioning this gem, which is a pretty accurate depiction of the inside of my brain at times:

Bears Dance To Sweet Dreams

Yes.  Really.

Wednesday, November 07, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Confession time:  I'm a comma maximalist.

I adhere to the formal rules of comma use, even those that some publications and editors have begun to abandon.  I'm a fan of the Oxford comma.  When a comma is indicated for clarity or effect, I tend to use it.  On the flip side, I'm very conscious of where commas do *not* belong, and it grinds my gears (and my teeth) when people misuse them.  Prime candidate:  Any sentence that has a comma *after* the word "but."

I understand that language evolves, and I understand that if the punctuation isn't required for clarity, it doesn't strictly *need* to be there, but (there's the proper placement for commas around that word) for me, the comma denotes rhythm, pause and flow, distilling the audible into the visual ... and since I do read visually, not phonetically, I need (or at least like) that reminder.


We also need to talk about my addiction to parentheses, but that's another (much thornier) story ...

Friday, November 02, 2018

Story Sale!

Abyss and Apex just accepted my story "Natural Selection" for publication ... ahem ... sometime in 2020! This is the second story featuring Pazia and Vanchen, directly following the events of Fatecraft. Don't hold your breath too long ...

That makes three of the four stories I've written around these character(s) and their associates out in the wild.  The final one concerns Pazia's hapless brother Mathory and his misadventures, and maybe that should be next on my submissions docket ...

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

A long time ago, I submitted a story to a writing challenge where a character in impossible circumstances (because aren't they all?) cheats on her husband.  A fellow writer / critiquer said they enjoyed the story, but had trouble with that aspect.  I said that I'd had trouble writing it, and the response was ... "So why did you include it?"

Not a bad question.

This aspect in film / fiction has always been a pet peeve of mine; I find it difficult to sympathize with characters in that position.  And that is why I did it.  I challenged myself to take on a perspective I didn't agree with and do it sympathetically.

As a writer, I think this is an important exercise; as a speculative fiction writer, doubly so.  If you write antagonists, chances are they espouse positions that don't align with those of your main characters (and we'll assume that usually, main characters have morals and ideals similar to those of the writer).  Can you make the antagonist convincing without at least trying on his shoes?  Can you write a nonhuman character if you can't write a perspective that isn't your own?

And maybe the answer for some writers is they don't, whether due to interest or because they are trying to convey a specific message.  For me, though, I like squishing around in heads that aren't my own, though I could always do a better job of it.  Maybe it's high time I visit a foreign (mental) land again.

Sunday, October 28, 2018

Song Styles

I mentioned recently on Facebook that I've had a number of earworms running through my head, some of them stranger than others ("Living On A Prayer" substituted with the words "Pigeon on a bear," for instance).  One of those is from Kate Nash, whose CD I just purchased.  It's my first experience with Nash.  She's a lot like Lily Allen, with a piping, high-pitched voice, a chipper hand with profanity, and catchy rhythms and melodies, but (in my opinion, at least), her lyrics are quirkier and their path is a lot more meandering.

This is the song that keeps worming its way into my brainpan:


I identify with Mariella, really.  She'd get along with Angie Baby.  They might go on a serial killing spree.

Wednesday, October 24, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Work and life have been hectic - including some good writing news, as the previous post will attest - so I've spent a lot of time vegging out with television, and I've taken advantage of Amazon Prime's collection to binge House.

Now, House is not high theater.  It's formulaic, though the dialogue is often snappy and clever, and the overall series arc is relatively predictable.  However, there are two elements that are particularly well done, and I think there's lessons to be learned for writers.

First, the way the show handles filling in the backgrounds of the characters.  Every actor has to be well versed in rattling off arcane (medical) information, so it would be relatively easy to give them an excuse to infodump their personal history and leave it at that.  Instead, the characters make casual remarks that fill in bits and pieces - Chase has a rich dad; Cameron was married - sometimes approaching the same information from a different direction.  In their behavior, in their speech, in the ways they react, we feel the iceberg under the surface ... so when the story finally comes out, the audience feels they've earned it.

This cycle flows seamlessly through the first seasons with Cameron, Chase and Foreman, and then repeats with the new crop of residents added thereafter.  How the show handles the huge number of new characters is worth a look, too.  There's no possible way for the audience to remember, or even want to remember, such a cast, but for the audience to care about the process of elimination, the characters have to be memorable.  So the show puts shorthand right in House's mouth.  Through the excuse that he can't possibly remember everyone's names, he gives them all descriptive nicknames, drawing attention to their key attributes.  The names we need to know flow naturally in the background until we start to pick them out.

The second element that House handles well is making the medical "mystery" work.  It's the reason for that tight formula:  a major dramatic case; a secondary, minor case - often humorous; and one or two personal storylines.  The latter provide an unrelated dialogue that spark an "aha!" moment for House to solve the primary case.  This particular beat is overused in most mainstream television shows, from medical mysteries to cop shows to courtroom dramas, but I forgive it in House because it provides an important hook for the audience amongst a sea of the incomprehensible.

Because I put "mystery" in quotation marks for a reason.  A true mystery follows the rules of fair play, giving the reader all the clues they need to solve the mystery before the detective (in this case, doctor) does.  In the case of House, this is impossible unless the viewer has a medical degree, and possibly even then.  In fact, the average person has limited ability to follow the cause and effect of the medical aspects of the plot, which means that the elements have to make sense on a deeper level.  We have all internalized the basic shape of plot arc, so we instinctively respond to those beats, even if we don't totally understand the logical connection between B and C.

And the show does an excellent job of this, signaling to us where we are in the story progression with plot symbols.  The audience recognizes when the mystery isn't solved yet, and not just by looking at the clock.  Arguably, this is why House has to be so formulaic, and while Chase, Cameron and Foreman grow and change, the character of House himself has to be static.  Any major alteration to the way House works would jeopardize the plot signposts.

Or I'm simply justifying binge-watching as writing research.  Take your pick.

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Family Tree sold to Metaphorosis

Metaphorosis just purchased my tongue in cheek fantasy story, "Family Tree," about an evil overlady - make that Overmother - and her wayward son, for publication around the end of the year.  Keep your eyes peeled!

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

There's a phenomenon in fiction and film that I like to call "villain creep."  Villain creep is when an antagonist, whether they are the primary opponent of the main characters or a flunky / associate, evolves into an ally and perhaps even becomes one of the protagonists.  Villain creep often occurs when the antagonist reveals that all their actions have actually been in service of fighting even a bigger threat.  Differences are put aside ... and never quite picked back up.  Villain creep isn't the same thing as a pragmatic antagonist temporarily aligning with the heroes to solve a single problem, then returning to his/her roots; it's a permanent (or at least long-term) transformation.

It's easy to see why villain creep occurs.  For a character to be more than a cardboard cutout, they need to have valid motivations; in novels with multiple points of view, that sometimes means stepping inside their brain.  The writer begins to identify with them; so does the reader.  And sometimes the evolution makes perfect sense with the villain's goals.  It's the smart writer who lets the plot move in accordance to the characters.  On the other hand, it's also easy for a writer to sympathize too much with a character they've developed so deeply.  When that happens, villain creep infests the entire plot.  No matter how unsavory that new antagonist seems, they're probably going to end up helping the hero out eventually.

Villain creep happens in television for additional reasons:  viewers get attached to the actor (especially an attractive one); or the writers like working with the actor and want to give them a greater role.  (Of course, this doesn't explain incidents like the evolution of Aneela in Killjoys, because she's played by the exact same actress as the protagonist Dutch.  If this sounds confusing, it is.)

This isn't to say that villain creep is a bad thing.  (It had better not be, because I'm kind of addicted to it, myself.)  There is something deeply satisfying in watching a character we've slowly come to admire "see the light" - and it also makes breathe a certain sigh of relief and shake off the guilt we may have felt for sympathizing for him.  Handled right, the surprise has the perfect punch.  But when used again, the impact slowly lessens.  So the best way to incorporate villain creep is in moderation, and perhaps in combination with movement in the other direction:  protagonists turning coat and joining the other side.

Is hero creep a thing?  Certainly not to the same extent, possibly because we all like to think we're the hero of our stories, not the villain; watching those we identify with become the enemy is unsettling.  But every now and again, it's a good reminder that life is complicated, and people even more so.

Sunday, October 14, 2018

Song Styles

Still working on my worldbuilding for my next novel project, then it's on to character profiles.  The dynamic duo at the center of this story, Pirelle and Chiria, both started out as D&D characters - both shapeshifters, because I'm a bit obsessed with that, apparently.  There's a song that inspired Pirelle as a character and shaped her personality and profession both:

Popular - Wicked soundtrack

Yes, I have an addiction to musicals.  I sought help, but it burst into song.

Sunday, October 07, 2018

Song Styles

I'm a fan of the songs from the Waitress musical, the story of a waitress stuck in a dead-end town / job / marriage whose biggest joy is baking pies.  When she discovers she is pregnant, she dreams of entering a high-profile pie contest to earn a better life for her child (and also starts an affair with her obstetrician).  The songs were written by the marvelous Sara Bareilles.

There's an ongoing refrain that often gets stuck in my brain as an earworm, and it's featured here in the opening song:

What's Inside

(And if you enjoy, just let Youtube carry on:  it will flip to the next baking themed song, "What Baking Can Do."  Is it any wonder the pastry chef loves this musical?)

I find myself mutter-singing "Sugar butter flour" in the kitchen more often than I care to admit ...

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

When I was little, I had a huge whiteboard - I think it was maybe 3' x 4' - that I used to draw maps on.  I've never been much of an artist, so it was all symbols.  Sometimes, it was countries, with swaths of coastline, little blue squiggles for oceans, and starred cities, but I particularly liked drawing towns and cities.  Maybe it was the level of detail:  I drew individual houses, placed shops here and there, and formed the outline of streets with the spaces in between.  The maps would stay up for days or even weeks before I erased them and started anew.

As I grew older and technology advanced, I started to dabble with map drawing programs.  Sometimes, I'd use them for existing projects, but more often I liked to come up with a map concept, put it together, and then come up with a world / story to match.  I used the map programs as I always had used maps:  to begin.

Over time, I lost interest in map creation, and I've never really come back to it.  It would be nice to have a formal map for one of my projects - especially since one of my fellow writers at Grimbold Books does beautiful illustrations - but I don't need it.  I can arrange countries and lay out rivers and lakes in my head without the need for the visual reinforcement.

In fact, I'm not sure there's much visual about it at all.  It's very possible that the way I think about positioning and geography is a kinesthetic, bodily system of organization.  Sadly, this theory is reinforced by how much trouble I've have had with the maps in my wine studies.  When there's a tangible description of the relation between geography and climate, I can keep track of how regions interrelate.  But when it simply comes to dots on a map, all the visuals in the world don't help.

Sunday, September 30, 2018

Song Styles

It's that time of year.  You're seeing it in stores, even though Halloween hasn't even hit yet and the temperatures (at least around here) are still in the 70s.

I'm talking about ... the Christmas season.

Deep, mournful sigh.

I have a wedding I'm playing harp for next weekend, but after that, it's time to get out my Christmas music list.  Yes, really.  A few of the tunes are obscure and I play them all year round because no one would recognize them as holiday, but most are distinctly seasonal, so I haven't touched them in months.  With a forty-plus tune repertoire, ranging from ancient carols to traditional favorites to Celtic off-shoots to contemporary merriment and even a Hanukkah tune, and considering that Christmas-themed parties start right after Thanksgiving, I need the time to dust off and review my holiday music.

I probably won't be adding new tunes this year, not so much because of time allowances - though there isn't much of that - as because I've currently hit the limit of repertoire that is a) recognizable; b) I enjoy musically; and c) is playable on the harp.  (For instance, I love the Charlie Brown Christmas song, but the accidentals and chord progress make it impossible on a lever harp.)  I can also easily get through a 2-3 hour set, so there's no practical reason to add more.

Not that that ever stops me if I run into a song I want to play ...

What are your favorite Christmas tunes?  Obscure or familiar, new favorites or centuries old?

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Yesterday, I opened a new document and jotted down this:


                I may not howl at the moon or be stopped in my tracks by a line of salt, but the liminal is an inescapable part of my life.  I’m a Sniffer, which means I can detect the earthy loam of a dryad or the formaldehyde tang of a vampire.  It also gives me an edge in my mundane job:  I can detect the “tar and roses” of Nebbiolo from across the room, and at closer ranges, separate the green apple and melon of Chardonnay versus Chenin Blanc – the wet wool of the latter is a dead giveaway.  My two worlds cross a lot, because Old World liminus love their Old World wine … and if you had a magical affliction, wouldn’t you drink?
                The Old World versus New World divide that runs through the wine realm – tradition versus innovation; subtlety versus the punch of fruit; pride of place versus showcasing fruit – has its parallels in the liminal world.  Vampires with pedigree back to the Roman era often look down their noses at technomages and even Mayan alux, who pre-date a lot of European fairies.  Most of the less traditional liminus don’t stand on or respect their ceremony, but sometimes they come into the shop like nouveau riche, insisting on a bottle of Chablis.  I always feel like standing them in front of a map and asking them to pinpoint the region.  (Closer to Champagne than its parent region of Burgundy, for the record.)

No, it's not the beginning of a new novel - it's much too "telly" for that, not to mention that nothing has actually happened in a little shy of 250 words.  Instead, it's a loose narrative I'm using to help myself in my wine studies.  By putting down facts in my own words and building a story around it, I'm hoping to enhance my memory.  But the fact that I'm not trying to make something sale-worthy / viable means that I can jump around and focus on the topics that are giving me trouble.

All that said, there's still some worldbuilding implicit in the paragraphs above, because of course.  I'm getting bored with everything in contemporary fantasy being "the supernatural," so I've used the term liminal here - essentially, "on the threshold," which is also used in magical context / spaces.  So a magical being is a "liminus," and I spent a good twenty minutes flailing around the internet trying to determine if that was an appropriate cognate before I gave up and went with it.

This may end up sparking a short story or two, but that would be a bonus, not the goal.

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Song Styles

Driving in my car a few days ago, listening to my most recent word association CD - see a few posts down - it occurred to me that one of the songs was an excellent fit for one of my male characters, directed towards my female lead.  His perspective may not be accurate, but Maren has definitely cut him deep:

Congratulations - Rachel Platten

Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

People recognize that red and blue make purple (unless they're colorblind or just plain stubborn), but not everyone realizes that scents can combine to make other scents.  Here's an easy example:  yesterday, I was making cinnamon french toast casserole and, at the same time, rehydrating raisins on the stove.  I paused, because it smelled exactly like Sun Maid Cinnamon Raisin Bread.  

But it's more complex than that.  Occasionally, I've stepped into the walk-in fridge and smelled something completely different, something for which we don't even have the ingredients.  The combination of other dishes cooling creates the perception of a third, unrelated scent.

There's science behind this.  The chemical diacetyl is present in butter, and shows up in wine that has undergone malolactic fermentation.  It's responsible for that buttery taste in Chardonnay, but there isn't actual butter involved, just the same volatile chemical interacting with retronasal sensors.  (Most of what we consider "taste" is actually smell that occurs within the mouth.  The tastebuds can only perceive tactile sensations and the basic tastes:  sweet, salty, bitter, sour and umami.)

I've recently become aware that I have a much keener sense of smell than I'd ever thought.  This is especially weird because growing up (and still), I had miserable allergies.  I was used to being stuffed up and not relying on my nose.  In fact, I still breathe solely through my mouth.  (Yep ... I'm a mouth-breather.)  So I'm used to thinking that I had a subpar sense of smell.  Maybe it's that I concentrate on it more than most people; maybe it's that I appreciate it more.  It might even be connected to my writing:  I've always tried to include smell, taste and touch in my descriptions, so I'm used to pinpointing and labeling.

However it comes about, I do notice the interaction of smells.  I haven't yet picked out a pattern as to what combinations create what results ... after all, the human nose can pick out 10,000 scents (at least), which makes millions of potential blends.  An olfactory rainbow waiting to be discovered.

Sunday, September 16, 2018

Song Styles

I'm on my final editing pass for Unnatural Causes.  This is a targeted pass, to smooth out the additions from the previous pass and to cut unnecessary fat.  Since the novel is at 98,000 words and a bit of change, I'm in a different position than I usually am:  rather than looking for what I can cut that won't hurt the story,  I'm looking for what I can cut that will help the story.

So in honor of that, here's (one of) the quirky song(s) that I put down as a themesong for my narrator, Vil.  It's inside out and topsy-turvy, much like Vil herself even before the chaotic events of the novel:

Anywhere Is - Enya

This music video also gets thumbs up from me for actually connecting to the music.  Nothing drives me more nuts when the music tells one story and the video another ...

Well, all right.  People who say things happen "on accident" drive me more nuts.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Between the chaos of my daily life, I've been working on the worldbuilding for my next novel project.  It's coming together somewhat differently from my usual process, and I hope the changes will pay off.

I typically do a few short sections on global elements - cosmology, world history, magic system, general geography - and then focus on the specific individual countries about which I'm writing.  Elements may bleed over from country to country, or I may deliberately set up contrast between them.

With this project, I'm spending a lot more time on the global ... but rather than precise definitions, I've included scope, variance, and tendencies - a broader approach that gives me a framework upon which to hang individual regions (and individuals).  My hope is that the end result will be more granular, less neatly defined, and that when I get down to specific countries and cities, I'll have a clearer sense of how they fit into the world as a whole.

In particular, rather than simply saying "this is what religious people believe," (as if one global religion is realistic!) I've created a quartet of deities who manifest in different ways.  Some denominations may revere all four; others may believe in the existence of only a single deity; still others might believe in two, but consider them "good" and "evil."

It's a lot more work, but a) I think it will go quicker when I get down to the specifics, since I won't be creating so much wholecloth; and b) ... let's face it, I'm obsessed with worldbuilding and I would cheerfully spend all my time doing it anyway.

Another change to the way I usually do things is I don't have a mental outline for what sections I need.  I'm writing sections as they occur to me.  For instance, I just realized that I wanted to go back and talk about holidays.  Now, this is a general / global discussion; individual countries might have their own days of celebration ...

I'm also running into the weird issue that the word "chimpanzee" feels irredeemably modern and I'm not sure how to handle referencing such a creature, but that's another story.

Sunday, September 09, 2018

Anatomy of an Idea: Soul Medley

As I mentioned in my previous post, Soul Medley is now out in Andromeda Spaceways #72.  I discuss briefly the origins of the story, but here's a more detailed account ... spoiler free, if you haven't read it yet, though I do encourage you to do so!

Soul Medley started in response to a monthly challenge prompt at Fantasy-Writers.org.  The prompt was to write a story about / involving music.  I decided to build a story around the repertoire of famed blind Irish traditional harper Turlough O'Carolan.  He's easily the most prolific composer in the traditional repertoire, responsible for a few hundred tunes.  Now, I'm not a huge O'Carolan fan; like many artists who churn out works, a lot of them start to sound the same.  But he does have a few gorgeous tunes.

One of the most unusual is Eleanor Plunkett.  There are two stories around Eleanor Plunkett, one about the namesake, one about the tune.  (You may sometimes see it referred to as Planxty Eleanor Plunkett, a planxty being a tune written in honor of a person.  Many of O'Carolan's tunes are planxties, whether referred to by that name or not.)  Eleanor Plunkett, the person, was allegedly the only survivor of her family, who shut themselves up in their castle and drowned in boiling water (?!).  Probably historical exaggeration of some sort, but that Eleanor was the last of the Plunketts is not in doubt.

Legend has it that O'Carolan was playing the first part of Eleanor Plunkett, the tune, when a bystander commented that he'd heard another song just like it.  O'Carolan was so incensed he stopped right there and never finished writing it.

So that takes care of the inspiration for my main characters.  For my antagonist, I decided to reference another traditional harper:  Rory Dall O'Cathain, also a blind harper of Irish / Scottish background (both cultures claim him) who pre-dates O'Carolan.

Throughout the story, there are references to other O'Carolan tunes, such as Sheebeg and Sheemore (the Anglicized translation of the Irish title), which refers to a battle between the fairies over two hills:  the big hill and little hill.  And I tried to make the journey through the underworld feel like a classic tale of the fairy, while still having its own unique qualities.

Thursday, September 06, 2018

ASM #72 Now Available!

It's out!  Check out Andromeda Spaceways Magazine #72 with my story, "Soul Medley" ... here!

Watch this space for a discussion of how this story came to be.  Or don't.  ;)

Wednesday, September 05, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Last week, I discussed the CW's fantasy series, The Outpost.  This week, I'd like to talk about one of television science fiction offerings, Salvation.

Or ... is it?  During the first season, I posted about Salvation's exploration of coming-apocalypse movie tropes - it's almost a love letter to that particular subgenre - and how it took the familiar and explored them more deeply, an opportunity presented by the longer format.

In season two, the difficulties of writing an extended storyline that centers around a world-ending asteroid begin to manifest themselves.  There's only so many scientific barriers to place between the main characters and the solution before it either strains credulity or bores the viewer with technobabble.  There's also only so many other kinds of complications before it is no longer a story about impending collision and instead becomes a story about all the ways people can be terrible to each other.  Salvation does a decent job of this, but it's the places where the broader plotline strays from this central plot problem that are the weakest.

Among those, Salvation falls back on a familiar trope of spy / thriller shows:  the shadowy cabal that manipulates governments and decides the fate of nations.  I'm not sure how plausible such an organization really is, if it could really exist without being discovered.  In fact, I might be tempted to say that such a cabal actually belongs in fantasy, not reality.

Then again, how much of the science in Salvation is near-future science fiction, how much is currently in our grasp, and how much is pure fantasy?  I don't know enough about technology to answer that question.  For the matter of that, how many purely "real" shows indulge in technological solutions that don't yet exist?  Fudge the details of a drug?  Even grounded politics-based shows like Madam Secretary use invented countries to avoid insulting real nations, create tension that wouldn't be possible with a real place, or create parallels comfortably removed from our reality.

What about those cop shows where a single forensics expert does the work of six, so the viewer doesn't have to remember six people?  Or, as my mother is fond of pointing out, the attire that no real cop / attorney / businessperson would be allowed to wear to work?  Ultimately, every work of fiction is a fantasy, a reality that doesn't quite mesh with our own; that makes assumptions about the world which may or may not be accurate; that changes the rules to make for the best story.

So when it comes to defining genre lines, there's a lot to be said for that old saw about pornography:  you can't define it, but you know it when you see it.  It's a lot about overall feel.  Salvation feels like science fiction to me, so I choose to call it that.  If you chant a spell to become invisible, it's fantasy; if you press a button on a gadget, it's science fiction.  There was a time (I'm not sure if it's true any more) where scientists were certain that time travel was impossible, so any story that contained it was necessarily fantasy ... but time travel is so ingrained in our concept of science fiction that it continued to be classified that way.  Handwaving a memory-wiping drug in an otherwise non-fantastical thriller is fine, as long as it's plausible.

For a show that does an excellent job of keeping the viewer guessing about the paranormal - is this fantasy?  Is there a rational explanation?  Is what the characters believe more important than what's really going on? - check out Fortitude.  And expect things to get progressively weirder ... 

Sunday, September 02, 2018

Song Styles

Another few months, another set of CDs and music to accompany me upon my travels through the strange lands of the midwest.  Besides the themed sets, I enjoy doing word association, where song titles string one into the next through linked words, concepts, and occasionally shameless punnery.  This is my most recent set of songs:

A Hundred Wishes - Loreena McKennitt
1000 Miles Away - Carrie Newcomer
Many The Miles - Sara Bareilles
Miles From Our Home - Cowboy Junkies
Feels Like Home - Chantal Kreviazuk
Are You Home - Broods
Walking Home - Metisse
Take Me Home - Sophie Ellis-Bextor
House - Sahlene
Cigarettes and Housework - Rachel Fuller
Smoke - Natalie Imbruglia
Skies on Fire - The Green Children
World on Fire - Sarah McLachlan
Weight of the World - Chantal Kreviazuk
Heavy - Dreamgirls soundtrack
Heavy Metal Lover - Lady Gaga
Circle of Stone - Laura Powers
Circle - Sarah McLachlan
Never Ending Circles - Chvrches
Loose Ends - Imogen Heap
Let It Loose - Gloria Estefan
Break Free - Colbie Caillat
Breakout - Ronan Hardiman
Prisoner - Mariah Carey
Prisoner of Love - Miami Sound Machine
Hearts Without Chains - Ellie Goulding
Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken - P!nk
All The King's Horses - Joss Stone
Poem to a Horse - Shakira
My Song - Alessia Cara
Love Song - Sara Bareilles
Sarah's Song - Sissel
Good Old Song - Anne Murray
The Old Fashioned Way - Helen Reddy
Ages Past, Ages Hence - Loreena McKennitt
Dear Future Husband - Meghan Trainor
Marry Me - Martin McBride
I Do - Idina Menzel
Congratulations - Rachel Platten
Thank You - Celine Dion
Thank U - Alanis Morissette

Saturday, September 01, 2018

Story Sale!

The Colored Lens just accepted my story "Canvas Captured" for their fall issue!  Watch this space for details and suchnot.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

So I've been watching the CW's fantasy series, The Outpost.  I don't know that I would have even known it existed, except that Dean Devlin - from Leverage - is one of the producers.  That's also what pushed me over the edge to turn it on, besides the fact that it's a fantasy series and I have a certain perverse desire to see those succeed.

At first encounter, The Outpost is purely formulaic, cliche fantasy.  There's an evil empire, which has taken over from the rightful rulers, and goes about oppressing people.  The main character is a Strong Female, an orphan whose village was slaughtered and is now seeking revenge.  She has incredible fighting ability for someone not formally trained.  For goodness' sakes, her name is Talon ... and this from a fantasy race that bears a remarkable resemblance to elves.

But then the little details start creeping in.  Those "elves" are Blackbloods, which gives our heroine some trouble when she has to hide her injuries and her nature.  The zombie-like creatures encountered early on are known as Plaguelings, and they have the neat (if nasty) detail of producing a venomous serpent mouth to attack their victims.  The Lu-Qiri summoned a few episodes in is recognizably demonic, but cut from an insectoid cloth, giving it an unusual appearance, and it's very well done.  (In fact, I think an inordinate portion of the effects budget was spent on the Lu-Qiri - more on that later.)  What's interesting about the Lu-Qiri plotline is the particular way the creature plays cat-and-mouse with Talon.  She may have called it, but she can't control it.

Most appealing, though, are the secondary characters.  First is Janzo, the odd little brewer who works in the tavern.  Janzo at first comes off creepy (and still does, at times - the actor walks a delicate line), but then the viewer finds out he's an awkward, weirdly charming, loyal nerd.  The second character who really jumps out of the screen is Gwynn, the outpost commander's daughter, who is first seen gambling in the tavern before she sweeps down upon Talon and imperiously demands safe escort home.  She's regal and mischievous by turns, able to wear the mantle of power but never taking it too seriously.  She becomes steadily more important as the season progresses, and Talon can't figure out *what* to do with her ...

Captain Garret is nothing much to write about; he rescues Talon, and they start up an angry / flirtatious banter.  There's even a scene where they have a fight, one overpowers the other, and Sexual Tension Is Rife (tm) until someone interrupts.  (Come on, really?)  That said, there are hints of depth to his character that suggest he could grow beyond the boy-toy role.

Overall, the cliche elements in The Outpost read like an attempt to make sure that the show is appealing and "safe" to people who aren't really familiar with fantasy - maybe those whose only exposure is the Lord of The Rings movies or perhaps a few episodes of Game of Thrones.  It has all the flags to tell the viewer that "yes, this is epic fantasy" ... and let's face it, the first few episodes of Thrones followed the same strategy.

The big difference is budget.  The Outpost clearly dumped a lot of its production budget into the Lu-Qiri and the Plaguelings, which effects are really well done ... and honestly, not enough into their stunt work or scenery.  Some of the wide shots are painfully obvious as CGI renderings.  But let's face it, how do you make these decisions when there's only so much money to go around?

Still, as The Outpost continues, the characters expand and the world trickles in, and one gets the feeling that it's poised to depart from the expected beats of stereotypical fantasy, and where it does to continue to follow the lines, it can do them well.  *If* it gets the budget to expand for season two ...

Sunday, August 26, 2018

Song Styles

This is not a writerly song, but it is definitely a human song.

I think most women - and probably a lot of gentlemen - have felt like this every now and again.

Bad Body Double - Imogen Heap

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

I watched the pilot for AMC's Lodge 49 this weekend in the hopes of finding a new show.  I managed to get through it, but I don't think I can stand to give it another episode, because the main character is a certain type that I find particularly infuriating:  the lovable loser.  

I feel as if there should be quotes around the first word there, because all the traits that make this character type someone the audience likes can't overcome my reaction to the "loser" part.  The lovable loser is usually quirky, endearingly awkward, good-natured even to a fault, and often has a treasure trove of trivia to hand.  But this is a character who often doesn't have a job, or if they do, it's a subsistence job that they keep screwing up.  Unemployment itself isn't a vice, but the lovable loser generally isn't even trying to find a suitable job.  If they're on the hunt, it's usually for some ridiculous, pie-in-the-sky scheme.  

Often, the lovable loser doesn't have a home.  They crash on someone's couch, or there's an endearing vignette about them breaking into their old apartment - which they've been kicked out of - and sleeping there.  Or a hammock on the beach is fine ... until it starts to rain.  The lovable loser doesn't have long-term ambitions.  Sometimes, there's a backstory of tragedy to explain why the lovable loser has fallen apart, but many of these characters outlive their welcome on this.

The nail in the proverbial coffin, though, is the fact that these characters routinely let down the characters in their lives.  They borrow money and don't pay it back.  They disappear for weeks at a time.  They don't have phones.  If nothing else makes them snap out of it, letting down the people they love sure ought to.  (You could argue that clinical depression might be preventing this, but I've yet to see a take on the lovable loser seriously incorporate this rationale.)

The lovable loser is the overgrown man-child in Knocked Up.  He's the screw-up brother in every family dramedy; he's probably every character Owen Wilson has ever played.  And he's often the love interest for a female lead who is "too straight-laced, too ambitious, too career-obsessed."

And the lovable loser is pretty much always male.  I can't think of a female example off-hand; Annie from Good Girls is the closest I can come, and she's not always that likable.  In fairness, I wanted to knock that character in the head several times, too.  Seems like women don't get to implode this way.

Seeing these characters grow up and redeem themselves is often supposed to be part of their arc, but sometimes - especially in a television series - they just exist as a foil for everything around them.  The problem is, personally, I don't have patience for their nonsense, unless they're going to shape up within the first few episodes ... and then if they aren't the lovable loser, what are they?  Of course, when it comes to movies, this is when the curtain conveniently falls ...

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Songs Style

The traditional musician and the writer in me meet when it comes to songs that tell a story.  All good songs do, to some extent, but most are a vignette:  a snapshot in the middle of (implied) backstory and perhaps resolution.  This is part of why Adele's "Rumour Has It" drives me so nuts:  I can't suss out the exact sequence of events or what's going on.  Which I think is the point with that one, as it's about baseless rumo(u)rs and how they get out of hand, but ... still!

But in this case, I'm talking about ballads and story songs, music that shares the whole scope of a story.  And in true Celtic fashion, often an unhappy ending.  Easily one of my favorites:


(Fun sidebar about this song:  the first time I heard it, I went, "This is *so incredibly Celtic* in sensibility."  Some time later, I did a Google search on the composer, and many of the hits on his name were Irish tunes such as Eleanor Plunkett.)

Reddy does this a lot - "Keep On Singing" and "Angie Baby" are two others that spring to mind.  By contrast, I'd consider "Delta Dawn," though it definitely makes events clear, less of a story song and more of a vignette.  It's static, staying in the aftermath.  (For the longest time, I thought the guy in this song was "a man of loaded grease.")

Here's a slightly more recent song, the arc of a life:


And, of course, there's a classic.  Here's the inimitable Kirsty MacColl's take on ...


This one is so definitive for me that I find the uptempo jazz version jarring.  (And this isn't even quite the right version - I couldn't find the Titanic Days cut on the internet.)  It's Celtic emotion at its best.

For my fellow writers, I'm going to end with a jazzy harp original that presents the ultimate writer's dilemma:

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

One of the unexpected side benefits of entering the culinary field has been that I've become more aware of my creative tastes, what I like to do - not just food, but with fiction and even music.  (Since this is a writer blog, though, I'll focus on the former.)  Part of it is metaphor; I'm used to drawing comparisons between disparate things, to seeing the application of a thought or technique in something else.  But mostly, it's sheer volume:  I invent more dishes, cook more food, than I will ever complete short stories, flash, poetry and certainly novels.  So a pattern emerges in a much more concentrated form.

First of all, though I enjoy some traditional elements, I'm bored by (most) straight interpretations.  I like my mac-n-cheese with goat cheese, chorizo, or even avocado.  I'm mostly drawn to unusual, even unlikely, flavor combinations.  If it makes you go, "... wait, what?" I probably want to try and tackle it.  One of my favorite discoveries of late has been carrot risotto; speaking of carrots, parsnip cake is so much better than carrot cake.

And I do this in writing, too.  I tend not to find inspiration until I've put two unrelated ideas together; sometimes, the more unlikely, the better.  I'm currently editing a story for an anthology I describe as my "spy tree" story.

Which leads me to:  I enjoy a challenge.  Give me a new dish, a new technique, something precise to mix and measure, and I will dive right in.  As a cook, I started with Indian cuisine, which isn't usually beginner friendly.  As a writer, I just had to try writing a mystery novel from the POV of a nonhuman character ...

But I don't like things that are overly elegant and polished.  I'm not a fan of ornamentation and garnish work for its own sake.  That doesn't mean the plate is always plain, but the garnish has to serve some purpose:  taste component, moisture (sauce), or in the case of a pastry, hinting at what is contained within that chocolate (etc) shell.  I like things that look handmade, rustic, perhaps a bit messy, even random - but the design is often far more composed than it looks.

All of this applies to my writing, too.  I'm at home with peculiar, off-beat descriptions, but I don't like lengthy passages or purple prose for its own sake.  And I'm averse to stories that are too tidy, where absolutely everything presented is germane to the plot and everything gets tied up.  I enjoy showing glimpses of the setting, the characters, the past, that aren't strictly linked to the story, but they do contribute to the feeling of a living, breathing world beyond the page.

In conclusion, cooking has actually helped me hone in on some of the things I do in my writing that I might have recognized in passing, but didn't really think about in detail.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Song Styles

Lately, I've been obsessed with two songs that offer somewhat different takes on the same theme:

No Roots - Alice Merton
Lone Ranger - Rachel Platten

As is my wont, I've turned these songs over in search of characters I can connect them to ... and come up blank.  These are both tales of wanderers, and more than that, wanderers by choice, without strong ties to where they've come from or the specific intention of finding some place to put down ... well ... roots.

Both my current novels in progress - Surgeburnt in draft stage, Unnatural Causes in final edits - center on a single location.  Obviously, that's easier from a descriptive standpoint, but given the fact that I worldbuild obsessively, I certainly could send my cast further afield.  Scylla and Charybdis is a novel of journeys, but Anaea is deeply informed by where she has come from.  I lack the kind of rootless-by-choice drifter the songs above describe.  Perhaps it's because I'm a homebody at heart; perhaps it's that the type of stories I tend to tell don't lend themselves well to this kind of wandering.

Or perhaps it's a phase I have yet to get into.  I find I tend to go through loose trends / themes with my writing.  Right now, it's snarky narrators, women with attitude who tend to bring a tongue-in-cheek air and sarcasm to their world.  Who knows where I will travel next?

Wednesday, August 08, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

Recently, I posted a roundup of some of the best review comments I got for Scylla and Charybdis.  In the interests of balance, I felt I should post my favorite negative comment.  Here it is:

That said, apart from a few too many descriptions of clothing for my tastes ...

I had to laugh when I saw this.  It helps if you know me in real life:  I'm the embodiment of that meme, "I base my fashion sense on what doesn't itch."  Add in my preference for things that let me move freely and play the harp, plus the necessity of performance wear that looks good for a gig, and you end up with a style of long swooshy skirts and sleeveless shirts, and an awful lot of purple because that's my favorite color.

As far as Scylla and Charybdis goes, I used clothing descriptions in a general sense as an illustration of its respective societies.  Fashion has a lot to say about individuality and values.  In my fantasy realms, I sometimes take it a step further and have cultures emphasize (and design clothing around) features the western world take for granted.  One unpublished project, I had a culture that prized feet ...!  Maybe for the best it didn't go anywhere. 

Since Anaea is trying to blend in, and appearance is often everything in those cases, clothing was part of how she did that.  Certainly I couldn't use makeup for this:  I've got no clue how to use it beyond the basics.  Researching physics and planetary science, sure.  Makeup, absolutely not.

In conclusion, this reviewer just might have a point.  Perhaps I described a few too many articles of clothing.  It still makes me laugh.

Sunday, August 05, 2018

Song Styles

Preparing for a wedding in October where the bride requested Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah for walking down the aisle - just for her specifically, so I'll be playing the Irish tune "Southwind" for the bridal party and then switching when she and her father come in.  Thanks to a harper friend, I was able to get my hands on a harp arrangement of the tune.  Here's the version:

Hallelujah - arr. Michelle Whitson Stone

Some tricky rhythms going on, but I have time to absorb it, and otherwise the arrangement is well within my comfort zone.

Wednesday, August 01, 2018

Wednesday Wanderings

I didn't post last Wednesday due to culinary commitments:  I had my practical exam for CPC (Certified Pastry Culinarian) certification.  I passed! ... and then passed out.  A lot of stress and hard work leading up to that moment.  This week, I'm working (Weds is my usual day off), but I figured I could squeeze a post in.

Of course, my brain still very much is on food (isn't it always?), so I'm mulling over how cooking resembles writing fiction.  You start with a concept, however specific or vague:  mac and cheese or a high fantasy story of an underground race.  Before you begin, cooking or putting fingers to keys, you'll want to gather your ingredients.  Now, some of us - both cooks and writers - fly by the seat of our pants, throwing things in as whim and inspiration strikes, but you can't work with something you don't have.  For writers, let's call that research.  You might be able to fake gun play (or curry powder) if you don't know what you're doing, but something will probably be not quite right.

No matter how much of a plan you have (or don't), things change as soon as you start cooking / writing.  Maybe as your characters argue, you uncover something that changes your plot; maybe the peaches you're using are sweeter than intended and you need more vinegar to balance flavor.  If you follow the plan blindly, you run into trouble.  You have to follow what the ingredients (characters) are telling you.

And you have to add things at the right time.  Don't foreshadow a plot twist, and the reader feels cheated; don't add the potatoes early enough, and they won't cook through.  I suppose here's where the metaphor falls down:  you can edit the story after you're done, but good luck retroactively changing how you cooked something!

If cooking is writing fiction, then baking is form poetry.  It requires a delicate, precise balance of elements.  And it doesn't matter how objectively "good" a potential component is:  if it doesn't fit into the form, then it either all falls apart, or you end up with something that doesn't meet the definition.  You still have to be able to improvise, but within narrow specifications.  Think of it like tightrope walking.

Oops ... that's another metaphor entirely.

Sunday, July 29, 2018

Sunday Snippet

I just finished "Reputation Precedes," the short story whose idea origins I discussed on here a while back.  (Yes, it took me this long to finish writing it.  It's been a hectic few months!)  The story revolves around a bodyguard and a royal secretary who create a fictional individual to explain why their queen can't meet with a foreign ambassador.  Here's a glimpse at their storytelling:


“The queen,” Carac said, “has set out to recruit the assistance of a powerful blood mage.  She knows such a man will benefit Yoruth as well as Sanorre, if he can been convinced to pledge his loyalty.”

“The timing,” Marhan said, “seems questionable.”  The words were mild, but there was a knife’s edge beneath them.

Carac hesitated.  “The timing was unavoidable.”

Tiava recognized the pause as the secretary collecting his thoughts.  “The mage is a wanderer, reclusive and elusive,” she said.  “In the Ghoran Mountains – his homeland, as far as we can tell – he’s spoken of as a local folktale, with all the strange traditions that surround one.”  She was prepared to come up with something, drawing upon the farmer precautions she had grown with, but a side glance at Carac told her he had found his footing.  This was his plan; she was just backing him up.