WFC Day Three: Part 1

I have a nasty little cough going. It's allergy related, so not a health concern, but sort of embarrassing. Pay no attention to the coughing brunette in the corner.

The Story Cycle vs The Novel (Suzy Charnas, L.E. Modesitt, Dennis McKiernan, Mette ivie Harrison): Discussion of the difference between a cycle of closely linked short stories and a novel ... and standalone novels in a series versus a broader arc, because of course all writers are editors and they like to make tweaks to the text at hand. Also the difference between a collection and a story cycle. The central difference, of course, is that standalone stories require an ending / climax, whereas each chapter doesn't ... and, of course, collections really don't sell.

(I thought about trying to frame a question around my time traveling stories, which are written all out of sequence - both in the "real" timeline and the eras my characters are traveling to. I decided not to break anyone's brain.)

I also posed a private question to L.E. Modesitt about titling, because I'm curious about how folks do it - and specifically, when they do it. (I find that all the titles I've come up with after completing the work are unsatisfactory and were certainly a struggle - I'll share some stories after the WFC.) He pointed out that shorter titles are better for a simple matter of marketing - the longer the title, the smaller it is on a cover.

That leaves some concern about "Who Wants To Be A Hero?" ... though they're all very SHORT words. (It's not much longer than "Butterfly's Poison," as a string.) And makes "Flow" the best title ever? ;-)

Moving along ...

The Continued Viability of Epic Fantasy (Blake Charlton, John Fultz, David Coe, David Drake, Freda Warrington): Conclusion here was that epic fantasy is very much alive, but it is evolving towards a shorter, more standalone form as a simple question of economics ... and with the success of the LoTR movies and the conclusion of the Wheel of Time, it is a much more viable form of fantasy than it was five years ago. It's no longer agent / editor anathema. Those big, thick fantasies apparently have another name in the industry: chihuahua-killers. So if you take the book, hold it out at arm's length, and drop it ... you get the idea.

All this is great news for me, but I am still am content with the "mannerpunk" label I've put on Journal of the Dead. Though I did ask the panel about mannerpunk and they were, honestly, boggled. I am sort of encouraged by this.

Lunch break! Free Panera. Two two-thirds of a broken chair.

Guest of Honor Presentation: Lee Martindale Interviews Esther Friesner: Awesome, as you'd expect. Esther Friesner is a ham. She's lively, funny and an engaging speaker. She talked about the experience of winning a Nebula (then another, the next year) and how she came up with the Chicks In Chainmail series - browsing the art show at a convention (so many of these stories started, "I was at an SF Convention ..." to the point where Esther led the crowd in a chorus near the end) and thinking about SF concepts, she rattled through trashy babes behind bars movies and then ... boom. She's also the queen of the SFWA Muskateers, who put on charity fencing demonstrations. The money goes into the SFWA medical fund, for SFWA members who have medical emergencies and can't pay for them. Nifty stuff.

Btw: I learned yesterday that "Death and the Librarian" was titled due to a gift from Terry Pratchett. He gave her tiny figurines of two of the figures from his books ... yeah, you can see where this is going: Death, and the Librarian. The story, mind, has nothing to do with it. (And I really wish I had brought my DatL collection with me to be signed. Whine.)

Slaughtering the Evil Hordes (Robert Redick, Eric Flint, Dennis McKiernan, Patricia McKillip, Tom Doherty): This was a very thoughtful but quick-moving panel about how to handle the evil horde in a day and age when it's no longer fashionable to automatically assume the "other" is monolithic and villainous. There was discussion, particularly from McKillip - who, though quiet, is very deliberate and contemplative about her process - about the idea of the evil from within, of having to conquer that ... either before, after or completely unrelated to the horde. It was pointed out that many of the hordes are the aggressors, coming to take what you have rather than work for it themselves, so in that sense they can be painted as evil ... and that maybe, ultimately, the fantasy horde hasn't gone out of style because psychologically, soldiers have to picture their enemies as faceless to function. Still, there are many ways beyond / outside of the horde to write solid fantasy, even war-based fantasy.

I need to ruuuun ... next panel in ten minutes. I am going to skip the ConSuite and actually pay for my dinner so I can escape back up here and hopefully get a 40 min - 1 hr nap before the last session of the day and then my reading (oh gawd oh gawd I am going to DIE). See you on the flip side!

WFC: Writer or Fan?

I've had a couple people ask me if I'm a writer or a fan, and my answer has been an awkward, "Well, both, I guess." I don't know why, in this context, I've been less certain about introducing myself as a writer.

I guess one reason is because lately, my progress has really discouraged me, and I've started to wonder if I "have it." Another reason is that in this context, I sort of feel as if people are expecting "real" writers - people with pro publications or books in print. It's a comparison issue. When I'm moving around in company that includes Esther Friesner, Eric Flint, Dennis McKiernan, etc, etc, can I really call myself a writer?

Also, I am idly pondering if it is too late to start putting "Lindsey W. Duncan" on my stuff. Would help the confusion with the British actress and I'm always introducing myself as, "Lindsey With-an-e Duncan" anyhow. I am only partly joking.

WFC Day Two: Part 2

More panels:

Everybody Has Their Faults, Mine Is Being Wicked (Molly Tanzer, Mark Teppo, David Boop): This was meant to be a discussion of the comic villain, but ranged more broadly into the appeal of villains and the kinds of thought and motivation that work. If anything, the panel pointed out that humorous villainy could be more creepy - the juxtaposition, the uncertainty about whether or not we should laugh along and what that says about us. In some ways, the villain can be more appealing than the hero because the villain is usually proactive, whereas the traditional hero's journey implies / requires a reluctance. Arguably, psychopathic villains have lost their mystique due to the proliferation of CSI, Criminal Minds, etc.

Esther Friesner Reading: I missed the title and a very small part of this story - I misjudged the time and didn't go in right away because I didn't want to interrupt the previous reader. That didn't affect my enjoyment of the story at all, the tale of a six year old werewolf with decided Opinions about her situation. Friesner used an amazing reading voice perfectly suited to this excerpt, light and child-like without being babyish. Story was hilarious, too. Apparently in an anthology called Full Moon City ...

Transforming Fantasy into a Screenplay (Ryan McFadden, David Coe, Barbara Gallen-Smith): This panel talked about the challenges of adaptation in general: the fact that screenplays don't get into the characters' internal thoughts, the fact that the structure of a successful movie is very different from a successful novel and the disparity between the average screenplay length - about ninety generously spaced pages - versus the average novel. Also touched upon were issues specific to fantasy, such as the challenges of creating a believable world instantly. They ended encouraging screenwriters to mine short fantasy as an untapped source of ideas.

Sidebar: I either lost my Scylla and Charybdis outline or left it at home. I won't know until Sunday, when I get home. Sheesh.

WFC Day Two: Part 1

I kept sneaking into the ConSuite to eat today ... well, sneaking is the wrong word, that's what it's there for. Also, I am about as sneaky as an elephant.

Panels for the first half of today:

Fantasy Gun Control (Walter Jon Williams, Charles Gannon, Elizabeth Bunce, Lee Martindale, Ian Drury): This panel discussed why guns are missing from our quasi-medieval fantasy stories when hand cannons date back to the 1400s. Some theories suggested were the deep influence of the original fantasists, including Tolkien, who very explicitly wanted to move away from that evidence of modernity; the lack of "elegance" in a gun versus a sword, the intimacy of hand-to-hand combat, and the idea of personal courage / heroism that can be lost or diluted when weaponry is added. All these things can be overcome, but there is a very strong public perception / bias against it. Yet other genres - eg westerns - do romanticize guns ...

(My two most recent secondary fantasies do have pistols. Butterfly's Poison is set in a world where these things are brand new, and my mad-scientist inventor is maybe the first person to have come up with a multi-shot pistol. Pity he can't hit the broad side of a barn. And Journal of the Dead is loosely Victorian, so the presence of firearms is in the background.)

The Explosion of Funny Fantasy Series (Lucienne Diver, Laura Resnick, Steven Silver): Another one of those panels where the panelists debunked the topic in question, though not as vigorously as before - they just said it was less a question of explosion and more a question that a field once locked tight is now open for exploitation. Among the difficulties of comedy is the fact that it isn't universal and that pacing is very difficult to maintain - even if it's perfect in the book, you can't control how and when the reader will encounter certain sections. Putting the book down for a crisis? Reading hastily in the car? (... not while driving.) Even the slightest placement of a word or sentence can alter the comedic impact.

Making Mythology Fresh (And a Little Silly) (Elizabeth Bear, Kathy Sullivan, Laura Bickle, Esther Friesner): Another great panel, and one from which I came away with a particular number of books to look up. (Darn, that sentence still ended with a preposition.) Among the suggestions for keeping it fresh were to seek out more obscure mythologies, confront ancient myths with modern realities - akin to science fiction's extrapolation - and going back to the roots of myths that have been so well-mined that the derivations have become the familiar. (Not lookng at vampires here at all, no ...)

Also: never discount zombie Paracelsus. (Actual quote from the panel.)

At this point in the chronology, I take a break for lunch and browsing the dealer's room. At this point in real life, I hop away from my computer with every intention of creeping into the ConSuite again.

WFC Day One: Evening Panels

Two panels tonight and I am wiped out. I have a business stop to make tomorrow in the dealer's room (which I may or may not discuss, depending on the outcome thereof), and once that's over with, I can ... well, not breathe easier, because my five minutes of spotlight for reading aren't til Saturday evening. Mock me if you will, I've done half hour stage sets and introduced numbers for a group - but then I have a five foot tall instrument to hide behind. And I'm good at making people laugh, particularly at me ... not so much with other forms of public speaking.

Fantasy as a Rejection of the Present (Theodora Goss, Walter Jon Williams, Nancy Jane Moore): Every now and again, there's a panel where the panelists seem focused upon debunking the panel topic, and it cracks me up. This was one of them. It was a very thoughtful discussion that went beyond fantasy as a form of nostalgia and into its possible use as social agenda, its expression of the anxieties of the age, etc. For instance, it was suggested that part of steampunk's popularity might be that it goes back to the last period where the average person really understood technology.

(I'm writing down a lot of book titles. My Amazon list is going to sprawl out again after this, I can just see it.)

The Logic of Absurdity (Gerald Warfield, David Levine): Unfortunately, Eric Flint, who I was looking forward to seeing on this panel, was a no-show. He couldn't make it in time. Hope he's not stuck in an airport now. The other two joshed him good-naturedly in absentia. Handpuppet Flint: "Hi, I'm Eric Flint, and I'm not here."

Anyhow, this panel was not about what I expected, and at first, I was disappointed - it was more about using absurd, larger than life elements within stories. However, it turned out to be very relevant in ways I hadn't expected. They talked a lot about the rules of absurdity, the need for it to fit into the framework; how it was essentially an element in context, and in a wholly "absurd" world, the normal becomes out of place. This seemed to affirm some of my gripes / quibbles with "weird" fiction, and I felt better for hearing it. (Of course, it's all subjective, too.) Other points: the absurd still needs to map onto the reader's experience. If you've got plot, character and setting, one of those elements can be absurd, maybe two ... but try to make all three absurd, and it crumbles.

So not at all on that note, what do people think of, "Who Wants To Be A Hero?" as a title?

WFC Day One: Arrival and Afternoon Panels

Dropped the dog off this morning - I've never seen her prance and squeak like that before - and hit the road for a very windy drive to Columbus. Got off an exit too early and wound through the less ... prosperous parts of the city, then ran into a detour my GPS didn't know how to handle and had to just keep driving until it got back on track. Was surprised the hotel didn't have its own free parking lot. Ended up walking in from the garage with my laptop bag and my luggage, then adding the truly mammoth WFC freebie bag before stumbling up to my room. I carry a harp around all the time. I'm tough. But that was work.

(Maybe it will make up for all the candy corn. Yes, I had a craving for candy corn, so I bought some.)

Sorted through the conference bag - a great collection of books, including Ian Esselmont's Night of Knives, which I've been meaning to read. (I didn't care for Erikson's first Malazan novel, but heard that this book in the same setting was worth checking out.) Far more hardcovers than I remember there being in the past. One too many urban fantasies, so I went back to the trade table and exchanged it.

Also put out some freebie flyers and postcard-ish things for Gypsy Shadow Publishing on the freebie table. Hope I picked a good spot!

First three panels of the day:

The Art of the Mashup (Jeff Connor, Jay Franco, Jim Frenkel): Three great, funny guys with a lot of intriguing things to say about the growing popularity of mashups - loosely defined as taking something classic and twisting it by the introduction of something that doesn't seem to fit. The originating book of this recent fad-wave, of course, is Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. I have to point to a couple of personal favorites: "Franz Kafka, Superhero!" (a short story in the Mike Resnick-edited "This Is My Funniest") and Jana Oliver's Sojourn, which while not strictly a mash-up takes some elements (time-travel, Victorian shapeshifters) that you wouldn't necessarily find together and fuses them. The fellows discussed this as a fan/nerd-driven phenomena, with connections to fan-fiction and comic book crossovers.

(Topical to me, since my planned NaNo novel is basically a mash-up of heroic myth and reality television.)

The West Doesn't Exist (Marie Brennan, Dennis McKiernan, Freda Warrington, Liz Gorinksy): I thought this panel was misnamed - sorry, guys. I expected it to be about cultures that aren't often used in fantasy. Instead - a wonderful turn of events - it was about the proscribed / forbidden / impassable zones on fantasy maps, about whether the world even had to be round, about considering climate and human ingenuity in crossing obstacles, about places that weren't mapped because they were very constantly changed. There were reminders that peasant geography is often proscribed into a tiny sphere: this village and our neighbors is as far as most people might think. Ultimately, leaving the blanks leaves room for wonder.

(For the record, my NaNo novel has the "weird / mysterious" culture in the west, not the east - though I am guilty of the barbarians in the north.)

Vampires Thick as Fleas (Melissa de la Cruz, Linda Robertson, Peter Halasz, Alex Bledsoe, Sandra Wickham): I didn't have much hope for this panel, and really got a pleasant surprise. There was a lot of discussion about vampires as symbols, and where their power is really accessed versus just being the "bad boy" in romantic fiction. What about scientific vampires? Why has the religious aspect almost vanished from most modern vampire fiction? Vampires speaking to fears of disease and sexuality. A modern obsession with the redemption story - but maybe some people can't be redeemed.

(Unfortunately, side-effect of this was it made me want to go back to an old project of mine, a post-mana-apocalypse real-world setting which had some traditional, non-mainstream vampires. I have resisted because a) it's a very, very dark story and b) it would require a lot of setup I don't have time to do for Nano, esp as it was always intended to have two plotlines: one the current story of the MC after she's defected from a rebel cause, and the other her flashbacks to the progress of that rebellion.)

And upcoming tonight, possibly the most topical panel for me of all: The Logic of Absurdity. The topic is the line between absurd fantasy and satire which essentially describes the real world ... and that line, and staying on the "right" side of it, is going to be my foremost challenge.

Three hours and I am so, so happy I committed to doing this.

Brace Yourselves ...

There will be no Thursday Thoughts this week. Instead, look for updates on the WFC panels and other bizarre happenings through the end of the month. In 2008, I found this was a great way to process my thoughts - and hopefully interesting to someone else as well. So I'm giving it another shot.

Anthologies!

As my post of last week might imply, I love anthologies ... and one of the things I would love to do (some day!) is put one together. This is something of a pipe-dream, but I figured I would have fun thinking up some potential concepts. Here's a couple:

The Impossible Crime: Fantasy / mysteries are "in" right now, and more importantly, they're something I adore. This theme would be stories where the crime is committed by supernatural means - somehow impossible in the mundane world. For fair play to apply, of course, the stories would have to be very upfront about the "rules" of the settings. Tricky to balance without giving the game away? Probably ... but isn't that the fun?

Things To Do In Fantasyland When You're Dead: Since I can't use this for the title of a (serious) novel, how about a humorous anthology of characters after they've died ... whether we're dealing with a trek through the underworld, a character who discovers - the hard way - that they come back to life the next day, or a reincarnating demi-god. Actually, I would like to see this as a not-specifically-comic anthology, which I guess would mean ditching the title again. Drat!

One Line: I've seen the concept of "The story must start with this line" before, but what about a group of stories where the line can be incorporated anywhere, as long as it's somehow important? I wonder whether this would work better if the line was revealed in the intro ... or if it were left for the reader to discover. (EDITED to add: Put it at the end, so people who want to "spoil" themselves can?)

Thursday Thoughts

Haven't done much this past week - been buried in allergy fog and done a lot of harp-playing, including a networking gig on Tuesday. Hopefully it turns into something ...

Mainly been hashing out this fantasy / mystery short story that continues to bedevil me. I can only remember once before where I've still been changing so much - chopping, adding - after so many edits. That one had a happy ending, so I can hope that I can beat this one into shape yet. I would also love to get another two hundred words out of it - the "8k" market is limited, but it's less limited than the "over 8k" market - but it seems to be holding steady and stubborn about where it is.

I need to get cracking on my character profiles for my novel. One thing I've noticed in reality shows that I'm trying to emulate is that often, part of why you watch is to a) cheer on your favorites and b) see the people you can't stand get bumped off (... the show). There's a visceral intensity to it that I know is partly created by the fact that these are "real" people - grant that the faces the players present to the camera aren't often wholly authentic - but I want to capture as much of it as possible. So I've been consciously thinking about which of the characters fall into which category - which will the reader cheer for, which will they campaign against ... and hopefully, if I do my job right, some of them won't garner the same reaction from every reader.

I am a bit concerned about using a "camera lens" POV for the main scenes in the story, but I am intending to break that up with close-focus on individual characters - and off-stage scenes from a few, select POVs. I am hoping to emulate that sense of not knowing what is going through the character's head - until you step aside with them in the isolation booth. So much of this is balance between getting the meta-story feel of the base material without making it seem arbitrary or unnatural. I'm hoping if done right, it will give its own unqiue element of depth.

"First Contact" at Golden Visions

Golden Visions has just purchased my "First Contact" for April 2011. The only thing I'll say about the story right now is that it takes the concept "first contact" literally and deals with synesthesia ...

Anthologies?

So when I'm in the mood for short stories for pleasure reading, I usually reach for an anthology. I love to see the way different authors tackle the same theme / idea. Anthologies also tend to be more consistently story / character-driven (as opposed to experimental / theme-based), which is what I prefer. From a skilled editor, I also love the macro elements of the way an anthology flows from one mood to another. (I've seen it done badly, alas.)

So I'm starting to put together a Christmas list, and I thought I ought to see if y'all have any recommendations of anthologies you've tried and enjoyed - because a bad one is no fun. Some specifics:

1. As stated above, I'm going to be more interested in theme collections, so "best of" isn't really my cup of tea. See also note about experimental stories (or not).

2. Fantasy or scifi is fine, but not so much urban-specific collections. I have no problem with urban fantasy, but I think there are so many possible worlds out there, an anthology ought to explore a lot of them.

3. I'm especially interested in fantasy / mystery crosses. I already own Murder By Magic and Powers of Detection and have The Dragon Done It on my wishlist. I know Dana Stabenow did another crossover antho, but I wasn't impressed with her as an editor. Yeah, okay, this is a long shot, but if you've encountered others ...

GoodReads Review: The Muse of the Revolution

The Muse of the Revolution: The Secret Pen of Mercy Otis Warren and the Foundingof a Nation by Nancy Rubin Stuart

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


An in-depth portrait of an obscure figure from the American Revolution, this book skillfully portrays Mercy Otis Warren both in her capacity as a political writer and as an exceptional woman of her time. Much care is taken to portray the life she lived around her famous works and illuminate her as a person. The book is liberally (but strategically) sprinkled with quotes from her letters, poems and plays, and also includes some quotes from reply correspondence.

This book is both informative and entertaining. The author does not interpret or apologize for Warren's failings - in fact, at times, I wish there had been a little bit more partisanship in favor of the subject. I learned some connected facts about the Revolution I hadn't known before, as well. The chronology is crystal-clear, though there is one point where there's a typo in the dating, accidentally leaping the account forward a year.

Highly recommended.

View all my reviews

It's (Almost) Official: WFC Reading

The preliminary WFC schedule has been posted, and the BroadUniverse Rapidfire Reading is slated for Saturday at 9:30pm.

Currently planning to read a snippet of The Naming Braid and a somewhat longer excerpt from Taming The Weald ... my five minutes of numbed terror. ;-) Wish me luck!

Thursday Thoughts

Still making my editing marks on Scylla and Charybdis. I would like to be through the book before November and NaNoWriMo, because I consequently won't touch it until December, but that's not looking good right now.

Started my fourth Ishene and Kemel story. One of the things that's delighted me about this is there are passing references to previous events - an embarrassing incident with the Hakathri and the time Ishene "tripled" over herself (went back in time twice to a location where she was already present). And I don't think you can tell which one is "real" - the latter is from "Double or Nothing" - and which one is invented - the Hakathri thing was a fabrication created in the original free write. This is what I love about writing these stories out of chronology: I'm creating foreshadowing, backstory and potential present (for another story) all in the act of writing one tale.

And, of course, it remains singularly appropriate for a pair of time travelers.

Also (yes, I'm busy) trying to finish my character notes for the reality TV project. I'm "feeling" it more that I'm getting into it, except the themesong part of it - while just for my amusement / potential playlist - is a disaster. I also tried to do a character portrait and decided ... nope. My art skills are still not there.

Anatomy of an Idea: Taming The Weald

This is a spoiler-free post, so y'all can read it without fear. Or do fear, because I'm an intrinsically scary person - as you will.

Obviously, since Taming The Weald started as an image prompt contest entry, my first inspiration was the picture provided by Gypsy Shadow Publishing. I knew the obvious assumption would be a fantasy story, so I decided to go in the opposite direction and do something science fiction - or rather, science fantasy.

That gave me the initial idea of having a single wild area on a space station. To further emphasize the contrast, the natives considered it a dark, dangerous place - but why wouldn't it be a potential source of food? I decided they had been eating synthetics for so long that the human stomach had started to adapt away from being able to process organic food. I ended up playing this down for the needs of the plot, but this was the first element in the theme of artificial versus natural that plays through the whole story.

I wanted an evocative name for this wild area. I didn't want to call it just The Forest or some such. I did a little browsing on thesaurus.com (no, really) and came up with Weald. Instantly, I also had my title - which I prefer to have before I start, because my track record of being able to title afterwards is pretty abysmal. It's a Saxon word, so I briefly toyed with using Arthurian legend names for the characters, but none of the names I researched seemed to fit.

Back to the picture ... who is this? A daughter of the wild? I knew right away that I didn't want to write from her POV - for me, that would kill the mystique of the setup I had created. So who is the narrator, then? Keryn and her desire for a child came into my mind ... and I had all the basic building blocks in place.

I Am Puzzled!

This tickled me to death and then right back to life:

http://www.jigzone.com/puzzles/9713FDE43D7?z=0

Yes, Gypsy Shadow Publishing puts their cover images up as digital puzzles. That's rather awesome.

Taming The Weald - released!

It's now out! Taming The Weald, my science fantasy story with Gypsy Shadow Publishing, is now available for your purchasing and reading pleasure:

http://www.gypsyshadow.com/Lindsey%20Duncan.html#Taming

(I love that the abbreviation is Taming. I have Monty Python flashbacks. "Monday morning, I want to be in there: taming!")

Thursday Thoughts

I just started working on the character profiles for my reality TV project, with the goal of starting for Nanowrimo in November. I'm dealing with an interesting problem: because the individuals from each country are the primary if not only thing the reader will see, they need to be representative of their origin ... but I don't want to "normalize" them to the point where they're the stereotypical Thanocian, Sarrlander, etc. Their behavior has to say "I come from country X" and "I'm individual Y" and potentially do it in a single scene. And I don't want to spend a lot of words setting this up, because the elimination style of the novel means that some of those people won't last too long.

A further issue I'm worried about - and I'd welcome feedback - is the opening. Traditionally, on these shows, the first episode does a lot of brief-clip introductions of characters, but I'm concerned it will get heavy and info-dumpy. I also toyed with doing a "casting" where the weirdest, most unsuitable folks breeze past - hoping to play up the humor - and someone we're rooting for doesn't even make it to the competition. I've only seen this once in actual reality TV, so though I have "Casting" jotted down in my structure, I'm undecided if I'm going to do it or not.

Next step for me is a short story, probably the last before Nano starts. It's another Ishene / Kemel story - this one involving time travel to the future and broaching the issues of whether or not the past is still immutable ... if the past you're looking back at is your present.

The more stories I write about these two, the less it becomes an adventure featuring them, and the more it becomes an adventure about them. Ishene's nature was important in my first story, but it was essentially a quest (sort of). The second story revolves around the death of Kemel's sister and how he deals with the fact that they can't change it, and it's also largely about their budding friendship - but it's still more about the mystery. The third story had other facets, but a pivotal point in the story was one of Ishene's shortcomings and the temptation to change it. This fourth story (whoot! Four) promises to be a lot about emotion, desires and her late fiance ...

(Book) Mercy Otis Warren by Jeffrey H. Richards

This isn't a formal Goodreads review because the book isn't in their database, but I wanted to comment briefly on it. I did read this book somewhat out of order - it would have made more sense to read her biography first - but I had already started it when I realized the nature of the book, so I decided to push on.

This book is an exhaustive analysis of Mercy Otis Warren's writings, how it fits in the framework of the times, and what she was trying to achieve with each type of writing. It covers her exhaustive letters to family, major political figures and female friends, her poetry, her plays and (almost paranthetically) the history book she wrote. Richards' book is dense, with long, complex sentences that sometimes need a moment to sit back and process. And I found it fascinating ... for the history, yes, but also for the thoughtful discussion of literature in context with the time period and purpose.

To some degree, the book is apologetic, framing Warren's weaknesses in context with her unique religious and political perspective and her purposes for writing. However, Richards balances deftly and avoids making his text a statement that we should ignore the flaws in favor of what the author was trying to say. He is honest about where her works make for compelling reading and character creation (esp. the plays, of course) and where they come up short.

I cannot put my finger on a specific writing-related thing I learned from this book, but I found it very absorbing and educational on a front the author really didn't intend. Of course, there are great pieces of history here, as well - the discussions of Warren's letters to the Adamses (Abigail *and* John) and the British author Catherine Macaulay in particular - though it's ultimately a specialty book for a reader interested in literature of the period.

Thursday Thoughts

I finished my outline for Scylla and Charybdis this week - comfortably under the deadline I had chosen in a goalsetting group, which was a pleasant surprise. However, I won't be able to hang it on the wall as the length meant I had two size options: massive and sprawling or too tiny to read from a distance. I went with the smaller version - it's actually more manageable than the Journal outline, even though there's a boatload more text. An ocean liner, I tell you. Maybe the Titanic.

I was surprised how little emotional elaboration there was in the first few chapters, considering that Anaea's thoughts chase around themselves ad nauseum later on. I've been jotting down notations to add stuff, which is not how I wanted to start considering I want to get a minimum of thirty thousand words out of the draft (!) by the time I'm done. I've got to keep perspective, though: a trimmer manuscript is important given publisher preferences, but not if I cut out sense and substance.

In the opposite direction entirely, I've almost finished my worldbuilding for the reality TV project. I am concerned I've erred too far in the direction of making the countries and their real-world influence recognizable, but I do want them to feel familiar. Conversely, I feel as if every time I sit down to work out a setting, the result is more nuanced and granular, taking into account more of the elements that shape nations / people. That can't be a bad thing.

Goodreads Review: Glory, Passion, and Principle etc etc

Glory, Passion, and Principle: The Story of Eight Remarkable Women at the Core of the American Revolution by Melissa Lukeman Bohrer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book is an interesting introduction to the untold story of women in the Revolutionary War, solid enough to give the reader perspective and (hopefully) the desire to find out more. However, it is not without its flaws. The author chose to dramatize select scenes from each woman's story in a manner that sometimes results in the worst of both worlds: the fiction segments can be clumsy and amateurish, and the interpolation of facts in the middle of these scenes comes off as badly integrated info-dumping rather than informative nonfiction. If the author was going to attempt narrative, why didn't a fiction editor go over the manuscript?

Another unfortunate side effect of this vehicle is that the author often starts with a dramatic moment and then works backwards to fill in the history. This tendency expands to the rest of each entry, such that I often had to stop and reread pages to decipher the actual chronology.

Probably the best and most cohesive section is the last, discussing the life of Nancy Ward - a figure whose existence was unknown to me. (Though she is the only one here I hadn't at least heard of.) However, I also highly enjoyed the discussion of Molly Pitcher, and thought the expanded social history - the place of women on the fringes of the army; the idea that one legend stood for other unsung acts of bravery - was well handled.

Overall, a thoughtful history book much marred by its execution.



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Showing Off

Here's the official cover for Taming The Weald. No information on release date (haven't even done edits!), but thought I would share.

Thursday Thoughts

First overwhelming thought for Thursday: man, I'd like to be asleep now.

On more writerly topics, almost done with Mathory's story. He and Pazia have a fair bit in common: they're both idealistic, a bit naive, stubborn and impulsive. With Pazia, she just dives into things; with Mathory, there's this little voice that knows it may not be a good idea, but he just can't help himself. Which one is more foolish for this, well - it's a tough call.

In the midst of worldbuilding work for my reality TV project. I'd been staring at the name Thanocyth (for a place, not a person), almost certain I've used it before ... and in checking the most likely source, I encountered another name - Scirhinth - which seemed far more evocative. However, it's very tied to this other setting (it has meaning in the naming language I constructed) and difficult to alter. So for now, Thanocyth stays. But I want it to sound more martial and less institutional.

Maybe something will hit me when I'm less tired. Or conversely, *more* tired ...

Inverted Tropes Wearing Thin?

Taking a familiar trope and turning in on its ear can be a delightful practice ... but there reaches a point where the inversion itself becomes cliche. The first brooding "good-guy" vampire was probably a shocker; now you can't throw a stone in a bookstore without hitting one. Possibly literally. (I'm not wondering about the pale guy browsing the calendars, are you?) There have been so many stories where the knight comes to rescue the princess from the dragon - and the princess doesn't want to go, or is capable of taking care of herself, or ... that I'm no longer surprised by it. (I have yet to see a story where the prince comes to rescue the damsel and falls in love with the dragon, but I'm sure such stories exist. Hrm ... might be worth writing just for fun, actually.)

The best ever story I've seen on the dragon-knight-damsel triangle has to be from my childhood: Waiting For A White Knight, in Cricket magazine. But that just illustrates how long people have been flipping this one on its ear.

There are some trope inversions, however, that I feel haven't outlived their shelf life yet. One I'm particularly fond of works off the girl who disguises herself as a boy. Now, I'm willing to give this a pass as an overused trope in the first place, because it's a) practical and b) fairly common in history, as well. The only time I have a problem with this trope is when it's a major plot point or the reader is supposed to be surprised. (For the best treatment of this trope and all the asssociated cliches ever, read Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment. One of his best.)

The inversion, of course, is a boy who disguises themselves as a girl for whatever reason ... and not to point to specific stories (because that would be a spoiler), I've done this and had a tremendous amount of fun with it. I also played with a different inversion in Just The Messenger: a character stares at the MC and threatens to expose her as a disguised girl. She bursts out laughing and points out that the various accoutrements of male attire are just more practical; she's not trying to hide.

Another trope I can't see skewered enough is a romance trope - the whole, wince-worthy I-can't-even-watch-the-screen tableau that occurs when one character has been keeping a big secret from another, the second character finds out, and then idiotically storms off without waiting for an explanation. Artificial tension and stupidity ahoy. I guess this is supposed to be sort of an object moral lesson: if you're dishonest, you pay for it. But nine times out of ten, it comes out forced.

I inverted this around in a story by having the MC withhold a secret. Someone else spills the beans for him while he and his SO are standing together. He rushes off without waiting for a reaction, just assuming she's not going to want anything else to do with him. He goes to see her later to make amends ... and finds out that she understands exactly why he was lying and doesn't particularly mind.

The prime problem with trope inversions, I think, is that they rely upon an element of surprise. Not the kind that pulls the rug out from under the reader, but the kind that elicits a reaction of, "Oh, wow! Really?" It's far easier for that surprise factor to wear off / become overused than it is for the original trope.

The Final Encounter, published by the good folks over at Aoife's Kiss, was my attempt to invert one more trope: the pulp fantasy / b-movie scene where the hero rushes up to the villain's tower to confront him. In this story, both characters ... decide to walk away, and their evolution from that denial of trope is the story. Unfortunately, when attempting to sell it, I got a few rejections that criticized the use of tropes. This, to me, missed the point, but it's also a relevant complaint, and illustrates another danger with breaking tropes: you have to get a jaded reader who's seen the dragon-knight-damsel a hundred times to read on far enough to enjoy the inversion.

Of course, there are those of us who take this as a thrown gauntlet ...

Religion and Myth

I just started worldbuilding for my novel project and noticed I started with the pantheon. In this case, it's a logical choice - they are the "viewing audience," after all - but it also occurred to me that:



1. I often start with deities, creation myths, etc; and)

2. I usually work from the assumption that these beings / stories are real. Whether this is verifiable for the characters is another matter, and I rarely use divine appearances ... but as an author, I am treating my gods as if they were real forces. So what I am almost always doing is creating the elements and then deciding how worshippers / religions view them.



There is some advantage to this: you can suggest a framework of what is important to a culture and their values from this starting point. To take Greek mythology, notice that the god of wine is important enough to be in the "top tier," the god of war is often portrayed as a bully no one likes, and the female gods who are most protrayed as positive / admirable are virgins (or at least chaste).

So what about y'all? If you do advance worldbuilding, when do you consider the underpinnings of religion for your society / societies? Or do you wing it unless the story in some way features the divine?

Thursday Thoughts

So periodically, I go on research binges: pick a topic and reserve every library book I can find on the topic. My library system has a full internet presence and enables books to be reserved from and sent for pickup to among about thirty different individual libraries ... so all it requires is search and click.

My last binge was a mini binge: I was doing reality TV research, but there weren't that many books to be found. This binge is slightly larger: while in DC, I got interested in Mercy Otis Warren. I reserved two books about her, two books about women who shaped the American Revolution in general, and one book *by* her - her overview of the Revolution. While on vacation, I bought a book about George Washington's spies and lady spies during the Civil War so ... bring on the history. I expect to make a lot of notes about story sparkers: history and myth have been my biggest inspirations.

Might be a good time for me to reread Menagerie (my story with The Sword Review some time back): Mariel "Molly" Strahan is a werehound and bounty hunter in a setting intended to resemble just-post-Revolutionary America. She's about as subtle as a hammer - read the first scene of Menagerie (here: http://www.theswordreview.com/item.php?sub_id=1460) and you'll see exactly what I mean - so putting her directly into a spy role is out, but perhaps she could get caught up in a mission ...

Not much to say from the writing front, which is why I haven't. ;-) Work continues apace.

Adventures in ... Cooking

Over the weekend, I've been making forays into an activity that might be considered creative - but not until you reach more advanced levels of competence and can actually begin to experiment. That activity is cooking.

I'm enjoying it right now because it's a challenging and an adventure ... and the results taste good, too. It will probably become less of an adventure when I develop more competence with the skill set. To illustrate what I'm talking about: yesterday, I fried something for the first time. I blithely poured the oil in, then realized I needed about a quart. I looked at the label on the bottle, and of course, the servings are in tablespoons. So - oil still on the stove - I fled into the other room to Google and discern how many tablespoons were in a quart (64, for the record). Yes, Google is my cooking companion.

I also enjoy the shopping part of it: trawling the store in search of slightly more unusual ingredient such as dill, crystallized ginger, chocolate wafer cookies (way harder to find than you'd ever imagine), etc. No, neither coconut milk nor condensed milk are kept anywhere near the actual milk. (By the way, if you should ever open a can of coconut milk and there's a jello-ish outer layer, do not under any circumstances turn it upside down and try to scoop it out with a spoon. I lost about an ounce of milk from splash.)

By now, you should be getting the idea that my incompetence is pretty impressive, but I have fun with it. More frustratingly, I'm left-handed. Do you have any idea how many kitchen implements are designed subtly (or not so subtly) with right-handed use in mind?

For amusement, here is my list of recipes to try:

Ron's Tybee Island Sausage Pie (Paula Deen)
Creamy Polenta with Gorgonzola Cheese (Giada de Laurentis)
Fettucine Alfredo (Giada de Laurentis)
Pine Nut Cookies (Giada de Laurentis)
Amaretto and Raspberry Smoothie (Giada de Laurentis)
Garlic and Sun-dried Tomato Corn Muffins (Giada de Laurentis)
Baked Samosas with Mint Chutney (Aarti Sequiera) found here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/aarti-sequeira/baked-samosas-with-mint-chutney-recipe/index.html

As you can see ... uh ... well, I am from Italian roots (my grandfather was Italian / Sicilian) and I love that style of food. I don't know where the love of Indian comes from, because I have not a drop of non-European in me ... maybe it's the English / Welsh influence. Given that England does everyone else's cuisine really well because theirs is nothing to write home about. ;-)

When it comes down to it, I have a deep love of food. For me, taste and smell are very strong elements - even though my own sense thereof is sadly muted (blame allergies). To bring it all back to writing ... I often translate feelings and descriptions into taste and smell almost before I go for sight and hearing. It's something with which I identify very strongly, and getting connected with that in a physical way has been a great experience.

Anatomy of an Idea: The Naming Braid

I think I've talked about this story before, possibly more than once, but to recap now that it is available for your reading pleasure ...

The idea for The Naming Braid goes back to my Celtic and Nordic Myth and Religion course, in which we studied the Lais of Marie de France. I was intrigued by the stories of chivalry and magic and the overlay of Christianity on much older myths. Much later, I decided I wanted to write a story based on one of the lais, so I reread them in search of inspiration.

What I noticed was that, even when the woman was the goal / prize of the story, she almost never had a name. She was "Protagonist's beloved" or "Antagonist's wife" or some other combination of male-and-relation. My reaction was both indignation and, "Hmm, there's a story here ..."

So I conceived of a world where people were given epithet-like names in honor of some trait they displayed or deed they performed ... and names were exclusively given to men, the proported history-makers. I decided to weave together three of the Lais in this world in the context of someone naming each woman - effectively giving them power and identity. It took me a bit to figure out how to intertwine the stories and how to pace them in the telling so they all peaked at the same time. I also wanted to set it up so the one most dependent on coincidence didn't come last.

Of course, ironically, one of the Lais I chose - Le Fresne - is one of the few where the woman has a name, but that's neither here nor there ...

There may be another story of similar timbre happening in the future: I am the proud owner of Child's The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, and the books are sitting next to me flooded with pink post-it notes of ballads I think would convert into intriguing fantasy stories. Maybe I'll even try another multiple weave (braid!) like this one. We'll see.

It's out!

Issue 6 of GUD, containing my story "The Naming Braid," is now out! Check it out over at: http://www.gudmagazine.com/.

This story really had a charmed life. GUD was the first place I submitted it. It was also the first story I'd ever sent to GUD. They came back with a comment about having trouble with the transitions. Interestingly, I'd had this story critiqued, and my reviewers mentioned it, but they were split fifty-fifty as to whether I should use scene-breaks or not. Apparently the people who said "use scene-breaks" were right. ;-) I sent back a revised version and ... boom. Contract.

Even if you don't want to spring for the purchase price, the first three paragraphs of the story are up as a teaser ...

Thursday Thoughts

More than a thousand words of cutting later, my Spiritwalker mystery story is looking more shapely. There was a lot of setting and menace clouding the plot ... I don't think I have it condensed to the necessities quite yet, but I should reach that point in the next pass.

I finished the other short story I had selected from my logline-and-summary bootcamp and returned to continuing old freewrites. Now working on a story featuring Mathory Ke'Lieren. He's the brother of Pazia, my protagonist from Fatecraft; he is also mentioned in Pazia's prequel story, Loyal Dice (which I'm hoping will see print soon), and Natural Selection, which is Pazia and Vanchen's second story and hasn't hit submission yet. So it's really neat to explore a character I've referred to, but never introduced directly, and to see another side of this very complex (and completely ad hoc ... ahem) world.

Pazia, Vanchen and Mathory - and just possibly Kalliniar, The Girl from this story - may end up in a novel some day. I have this inkling it'd be entertaining to turn them into detectives. They're certainly all nosey enough. Well, the Ke'Lierens are ... poor Vanchen just wants to be left alone with his clockwork, but Pazia has a way of pulling him headlong into whatever trouble she's stirred up now.

My next steps include tweaking my query letter for Journal of the Dead (whoot!) and the first worldbuilding steps for my reality TV novel, which needs a title before I start or goshdarnit, I'll end up querying for a project called "My Untitled Novel." The first thing I need to do is create a framework: notes for *how* I'm going to create and assemble the pieces. Yes, I have to prepare to prepare.

Gypsy Shadow contest

Sometimes, entering on a whim pays off!

My story, "Taming The Weald" was the winner of Gypsy Shadow Publishing's third round writing prompt contest. I was worried that best case scenario would be, "We loved the story, but the character was too young for the image," so very pleased.

Announcement hasn't gone up formally yet, but they told me it was okay to post. ;-)

Reality TV - gone fantasy-sized

As I look at how best to translate a "reality TV" feeling to a fantasy-world competition, there are several decisions I have to make. The overarching challenge, I think, is to make it feel recognizably like the original concept without shattering the fourth wall and making it so metafictional that it loses its identity as a cohesive, emotional story. I've read good examples of how to do that. Rebecca Bradley's "Lady In Gil" in particular takes skewering, humorous shots at genre tropes and then managed to bring me to the brink of tears by the end ... and not tears of laughter. For me, humor has to be blended with empathy. You want to laugh with the characters, not at them.

So these are some of the issues I'm percolating:

1. Format - The shows I watch have two separate formats:

A) One big challenge that consumes the whole episode. The winner of that challenge usually has immunity for the next challenge.

B) One small challenge which either provides immunity for the main challenge or gives the winner some significant advantage - then a larger challenge.

Immunity usually disappears partway through as the competition gets steeper.

The advantage to using a B-style format is I would have twice as many fun "hero games" to play with. The obvious disadvantage is that it will take up a lot more manuscript space. Which is dependent on ...

2. Number, Length, Format - The between-episode scenes are indeterminate, but I will be giving myself some rough guidelines for the word count of the "episodes" themselves - so how many players, how many episodes, how many go head to head in a finale will have a huge impact on my projected word count. Oof.

3. POV - With so many characters to start, doing a standard third-person POV seems dicey - though I've considered doing it from the POV of a non-player watching (the "prize" bride / groom). I've also considered doing the between-episodes scenes in deep third, and the episode scenes in camera-view third (no internal narrative), with brief "cut-scenes" in first or deep third person ... to simulate those in-studio sessions where characters briefly gripe / bad-talk about each other.

4. Decision Process - Right now, I know only for definite that I don't want to decide before I start writing who will win. There's a possibility I may give the players a few numeric stats and determine their performance semi-randomly. (Being that if I don't like a result, I can always tweak.) That would mostly determine how the episode was written, not necessarily the outcome. I've also toyed with asking people to read episodes and "guest judge." Less sure about that - might be difficult to pull off.

5. Prizes - Yes or no? (Heh - short one.)

6. Worldbuilding - Since there is likely to be an element of, "X embodies Country 1," I could start with characters ... or I could change the way I worldbuild somewhat to focus on pointing up national quirks and character elements. Am I going to use non-humans yet? Not decided.

7. Other Stuff - I have seriously considered doing sketches for the characters before starting. Now, given my (lack of) artistic skill, that means I'd have to find image references ... but I think it could be cool. It would have no marketing value, it would just be a fun toy for me.

Thursday Thoughts

Spent some time this week doing a deep edit of a story I'm still on the fence about. When I first finished it, I was certain I would never submit it: I could just feel it was deeply flawed. After a reread recently, I found some interesting meat, so I decided to edit - expanding where I had taken some elements for granted and slashing out some of the clunkiness and complexity that bothered me. I see the shape that impelled me to write it, but I'm not sure it's there yet.

It's a mystery story in a setting that would also play well for a novel. The world is dominated / terrorized by Spiritwalkers, humans blended with spirits ruthless enough to fight their way back up from the underworld. The possibilities of corruption in the system, the question of whether a murderer is aiming for the spirit or the host ... lots of fodder. The way I ended the story is ripe for a sequel, with the investigator's personal circumstances changing drastically. If I didn't have so many ideas for novels that I love, I might consider retooling it. Maybe a sequel story at some point, instead?

I've also been working on (much) shorter works. I have a list of forms / styles I want to try - originally five, two of which I've completed and three more to go. One (completed) was poetry; the others are flash fiction.

And to the opposite extreme, I have decided that I am officially going for the reality TV novel idea - more on that later.

Goodreads Review: Split Heirs

Split Heirs by Lawrence Watt-Evans

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I came into this book with high hopes because Esther Friesner is one of the authors. Unfortunately, while the book is madcap and amusing, it fails on one major count: the humor is so broad and exaggerated - things carried beyond their logical extreme - that it's hard to suspend disbelief or develop any empathy with the characters. That works fine in a short story, but over a novel, it's jarring and makes it difficult to maintain tension.

That said, once into the book, it's entertaining enough to watch - with amusing turns of phrase and event - that pages keep turning. The plot was well-paced and bounded along with some off-beat twists that I appreciated. However, I still feel I could have walked away from it any time.

I would give this 2.5 stars, but will be generous and round up.

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Another Soundtrack

I don't have iTunes, but this is still pretty cool! This is the soundtrack for the recent issue of Sybil's Garage, which contained my poem Emigrant:

http://www.sensesfive.com/2010/09/01/sybils-garage-no-7-playlist/

SaC Soundtrack

Finished my first readthrough of the Scylla and Charybdis manuscript! It will go away for a short while (three days to a week), and then I'm going to plunge back in for the purposes of outlining. This is something I did when I started to edit Journal of the Dead, and it worked very well: it includes not just a plot summary of scenes, but what information / purpose it serves for worldbuilding, character development, foreshadowing, romantic subplot, etc. This should help me with cohesion, balance and cutting.

I know my followers don't have the same music tastes as I, generally speaking ... but just for kicks, here again is the soundtrack I put together for SaC. I've added two songs since I originally posted this. The songs divide loosely between situational / character specific, overall feel ... and gender-focused songs I chose because I felt bratty.

1. Us Amazonians -- Kirsty MacColl
2. Walk This World -- Heather Nova
3. Suddenly -- LeAnn Rimes
4. Defying Gravity -- Wicked soundtrack
5. Drops of Jupiter -- Train
6. There Is Nothing Like A Dame -- South Pacific soundtrack
7. I Do -- Lisa Loeb
8. Breathe -- Midge Ure
9. Turn This World Around -- Amy Grant
10. I Enjoy Being A Girl -- Flower Drum Song soundtrack
11. Children of the Revolution -- Kirsty MacColl*
12. The Safest Place -- LeAnn Rimes
13. Don't Rain On My Parade -- Glee cast version*
14. It's Raining Men -- Geri Halliwell
15. Free -- Sarah Brightman
16. Poor Little Fool -- Helen Reddy
17. Always Tomorrow -- Gloria Estefan
18. In The Arms of the Milky Way -- Laura Powers

Will probably run this, if not during all editing, then on and off at times. Close enough to mood music. ;-)

Thursday Thoughts

Almost done with my initial readthrough of Scylla and Charybdis ...

I am surprised by how clunky some of the writing is. There are chunks I will be taking and reworking, not substantively, but stylistically. I noticed this mostly with the narration, but somewhat with the dialogue as well. It doesn't approach "As you know, Bob," but the characters are ... well ... overly clear at points. ;-)

I am not surprised, however, to find that there are a few sections I can cut and plenty to trim. Less in the description than in the thought patterns - there's a lot of places where Anaea thinks something through, takes a turn from it, takes another turn ... and ends up taking one turn too many for the clarity of the manuscript. Now frankly, this is the way my brain works - I can riff off a worry and my straight line becomes a labyrinth - but it's not great to read.

I was also pleasantly surprised to discover that the kearl (a companion animal genetically engineered from cats and monkeys) didn't feel tacked on. Her existence seems important and her presence well integrated. Which ... is startling because several times while writing, I had to go back a couple pages and re-insert references to the kearl. I kept forgetting she was there.

Still working on a Flow-world story (and I may call it Flow-world even if it never exists, because that's conveniently a decent label for the cosmology) and editing on my contest entry. Teeny bits of cutting and some adding in spots where I've realized I didn't explain things quite well enough. There's a huge, implied backstory under the main tale, but I did need to convey a bit more of it than appeared in the first draft.

Thursday Thoughts

Homebound today. Surprised at the amount of work I got done while vacationing. The only thing I haven't started is reading the Scylla and Charybdis manuscript.

My travels have given me a keen interest in historical spies. Unfortunately, there's no way to weave that in to the novels I'm planning. Well ... maybe it would fit in The Idea, but it wasn't originally constructed with spies, and if I put anything else in, it will explode. It might be possible to do a spy "episode" in my reality TV concept.

Also banked a lot of ideas for use in the "Flow" universe. Even though I am almost close to conceding defeat with the book, the setting remains a strong one for me ... and I already have a concept for another novel in the same setting, so it's not wasted work. I've also written (and am writing) short stories set in that contemporary-verse.

One of the conflicts in the setting is the clash between the water-witches - who believe in cooperation and containment of the fairy folk - and the Borderwatch - who believe that any fairy should be killed. The water-witches think the Borderwatch are fanatics who kill good "people" due to their black and white view; the Borderwatch think the water-witches are unrealistic, naive and the risk to humanity if a "good" fairy isn't is too high. (And both are, as far as me-as-author is concerned, correct.) Flow is presented primarily from the water-witch POV because Chailyn IS one. In the short stories, I've had more opportunity to explore things from the Borderwatch perspective.

I suspect my next reading binge is going to be non-fiction. I picked up two books and have two historical figures I want to do some research on: Mercy Otis Warren and Sarah Edmonds. This is slightly less weird than my previous binges. I've come out of my library with every book I could find on Helen of Troy ... dream interpretation ... gem mythology ... beauty pageants ... (for the record, despite the Helen of Troy legend containing the first beauty pageant, the two topics were not related.)

But this research may not go unused: I do have a setting that is the equivalent of post-Revolutionary America. "Menagerie" in The Sword Review was based in this world, and I've never used it since. I would have to reread the story (cringing all the way, I'm sure) to mine the setting points, but there's certainly room for sequel stories with those characters.

And, of course, so much of what I read gets transformed, reimagined, or sparks me in a completely different direction. Okay, now I'm just excited.

Goodreads Review: Thief of Time

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


In my experience, there are two types of Pratchett novels: those that start with a tight focus on a single character / plotline and explode outwards, and those that start with several characters / plotlines and converge inwards. To me, the former are far superior, the latter never quite coming together. I never feel like the plot totally makes sense, the characters keep you at arm's length ... and it never quite feels as if they've earned the resolution.

Unfortunately, Thief of Time is one of the latter. The narrative is clever and some of the Discworld's best characters make their appearances, but it's hard to engage with the story. There are some intriguing extensions from earlier books, but I'm not sure whether they would be quite as absorbing for someone who wasn't familiar with those elements.

The exploration of humanity, the horsemen of the Apocalypse, the long-suffering Igor - and the mere presence of Susan Sto Helit - are worth reading the book on their own. Ultimately, however, I felt I was reading the book less for the throughline as for the "good bits." The sideshow was great. I was lukewarm on the main event.

View all my reviews >>

Ups and Downs

Good news: I finished my intended Gypsy Shadow Publishing contest story.

Bad news: It's about 8900 words.

Le sigh. At the core of me there is just not a short story writer. ;-)

Snippets of DC

Things seen over the past few days:

The Declaration of Independence. One of only eleven ornamented Stradivarus violins. The flag for which the Star-Spangled Banner was written. An original copy of the Magna Carta. (Sadly, one of my first thoughts was, "I stole that!" If you didn't play on Crucible City MUX, it's a long story.) A perfect Gutenburg bible. The first map to have "America" printed on it. An entirely unique portrait of Queen Elizabeth. Julia Child's kitchen.

Story sparker for the Flow universe on the Metro.

And this, on the wall of the Library of Congress: "Art is long, and life is fleeting." Longfellow, so says Google. It stuck with me.

Thursday Thoughts

Progress on the synopsis continues. My goal is to get it down to five single-spaced pages (yes. *Down* to. Now you see what I am dealing with, here) and given the complexity of the storyline, I may call it good there. For now, I am going to put it aside and try for the one page / five paragraph version. I'll come back to it. That's a threat, synopsis. Cower in fear. Or at least stop being so difficult.

I can see the end in sight with my story for Gypsy Shadow's prompt. My main concern is that I have taken the age of the protagonist too far. Looking at the picture, I see a young person - a teen or a child - not a fully grown woman ... but I have made the reflected character too young to match. We'll see.

What's been interesting with this one is at the same time, I'm reading a book about dialogue ("Writing Dialogue" by Tom Chiarella, for the curious) and it's influenced the way I've written. One of Chiarella's main points is that, though it should always be shaped in service of the story, real dialogue is messy: people interrupt each other, speak in shorthand, don't answer the questions actually asked, don't listen to each other ... thinking about this has allowed me to create (I think!) subtler dialogues among the more "civilized" characters, to contrast with the subject of the image, who is very direct.

On vacation for a week now, so not sure when I'll finish. It's gonna be close.

I hope August 31st means "before midnight on the 31st." ;-)

Reasons Why Lindsey Should Not Write YA

Since writing Flow - which has a teen protagonist (Kit is fifteen; Chailyn, the other POV character, is twenty-four) - and then, after Journal of the Dead, working on Scylla and Charybdis - Anaea is nineteen - I've wondered if I should be looking into the YA market. Reading a few people on my bloglist discuss YA, I have finally decided ... no. Anything I could write would be lousy as far as the YA market is concerned. Why?

1. No School Experience -- I was homeschooled, not just for a year or two, but from kindergarten through graduation ... and then I took distance courses for college. The majority of my comprehension of highschool comes from watching Glee. This is arguably the social structure for contemporary YA. Even if homeschooled protagonists can work, I am handicapped even drawing the comparisons.

2. Boys Boy Boys -- I had one crush during my teen years, but even considering that, it would be pretty accurate to say I didn't care about boys one way or another. I still am a pragmatist on the romantic front. It would be fair to say the giddiness of teen crushes is beyond me.

3. Identity Crisis -- Or lack thereof. Not that I haven't had my moments, but I've never really had a time where I didn't know what I wanted to be (when I grew up! ;-)). It's a direction I have trouble taking myself in fiction.

4. Rebellion? Why? -- I was a Good Kid (tm). I didn't even drink when I was in Scotland at the age of nineteen, because it was still illegal back home. I never understood the thrill of disobeying just to do so. All that stultifyingly good behavior would make for a sugary protagonist, to say the least - and from what I've read, that's no longer viewed as realistic.

5. Plugged In -- More a handicap for modern stories, but today's teens seem to be increasingly hooked up to every network imaginable. Whereas I am still hotly denying that my cellphone can do anything other than make calls. It's a phone! I don't need it to weigh melons! I don't want to receive tweets every two seconds!

6. Hypocrite? -- I could certainly read it now - in fact, Patricia McKillip's Dragonhaven, which I loved, is classed as YA - but the fact that remains when I was a teenager, I read a handful of YA books and otherwise skipped straight into "grown-up" books. Grant that the selection is a lot wider and a lot better quality than it was, but I'd still feel sorta ... dishonest writing something that I probably wouldn't have read at that age. ;-)

None of this is to diss YA - or even to insult myself, though I guess it does kinda come off that way - simply ruminations on mindsets that don't intersect. Add to that the fact that I find myself increasingly interested in protagonist-as-parent, and I move pretty firmly away from YA territory.

In My Hands ... In My Head

Just back from Kinkos and feeling heady. It's just a rough draft for my own reading and editing purposes, but there is something very satisfying about physically holding your book in your hands.

Unfortunately, there are some formatting snafus - mine, not Kinkos'; when I converted it to a different typeface and size for printing, not all of it made the transition - but luckily, the size change took throughout, so it's legible (and not itty-bitty as my screen print is). I suspect a mixup with the italics, as the mindspeech throughout is in the old font, but there only appear to be a few sections in the rest.

Right now, feeling as if my favorite project is the "reality TV" one for the reason that it's been far too long since I wrote a comedy. I enjoy writing humorous stories; my sense of humor tends to sneak even into serious works. I have written an entire comic novel before - that's actually the one Luna requested to see the entirety of - and had a blast with it.

On the other hand, I have similar concerns as to when I started Scylla and Charybdis: while I write with humor, I don't consider the bulk of my writing to be comedy. (SaC's issue is it's scifi, while I typically write fantasy.) If I produce something that's different from my usual works and somehow strike gold, will it be hard to sell anything else? Very much putting the cart before the horse here, but I wouldn't want to get locked in.

My gut feel may change in a few days ...

Thursday Thoughts

I'm heartened with my synopsis progress: managed to find a surprising amount to cut, though I'm still working. Now I'm going to take a break from it and do some brush-up editing on the manuscript. Basically making sure I am holding the reader's hand appropriately through the early world elements.

I have a plan in place as I go forward:

1. Over my vacation / afterwards, I will read through my Scylla and Charybdis manuscript. There will be no outlining. There will be no editing. This will just be my opportunity to get a sense of the whole thing.
2. By the end of August, I will have chosen my next writing project. (Sigh ... I am dithering so much!)
3. September and October, I will work on worldbuilding, character profiles, outlining *if appropriate* (I usually don't need one, but some of these ideas require that level of coordination) and anything else I might need to ...
4. Kickstart the novel with Nanowrimo in November.

Further plans, not timelined yet: finish editing, synopses and query letter for Journal of the Dead. Begin editing on SaC. I will continue to work on short stories in the interim because if I am just editing / prepping I will lose the rest of my mind.

About Novel the Next

Here are the front-runners I've been dithering over. I do have a few urban / contemporary ideas, but right now, those are tabled because that honestly isn't what I feel like doing.

Background: In this world, magic is performed by creating "thought machines" - and the natural world is held suspect. Centuries ago, enchanters sealed off the realm of the Deep Ones, earning permanent acclaim for wielders of magic. Enchanters create familiars by blending parts of various animals together.
Story: A prominent enchanter dies under mysterious circumstances after petitioning for the rights of familiars. Her own familiar takes on the case with the enchanter's former apprentice as her sidekick. Unfortunately, the suspect list is long and tangled, and the authorities are no mood to see the answer found … much less to cooperate with a lesser being.
Pros: This would be my first attempt to truly do something that has been a goal of mine for a while - write a novel featuring a "traditional" detective in a fantasy world.
Cons: I write a lot of stories that are heavy on conspiracy / politic play. I am concerned I need to get away from that.

Background: This world has a mixed Egyptian / Grecian mythos, where the afterlife is of key importance and the survival of the corpse part and parcel to that. Losing the coin under the tongue also dooms a spirit to wander on the wrong side of the river.
Story: Our heroine … has just died. Unable to pay the toll to cross the afterlife's river, she seeks a way to escape this limbo with other spirits in tow. At the same time, her corpse has been abducted by graverobbers, and her former lover put his role (as secretary to a highly-placed dignitary) in jeopardy attempting to rescue it. A third strand enters as her little sister attempts to enter the underworld to plead her case.
Pros: I really do like the idea of writing a story centered around the underworld. Things To Do In Fantasyland When You're Dead.
Cons: I just did a riff on Egypt and Greece (Journal of the Dead) - though it was a very different feel and the mythos was not central to the storyline.

Background: A massive pantheon of bored, minor gods and an archetypal / trope-heavy fantasy setting …
Story: To entertain lesser gods, the pantheon decides to put on a competition amongst mortal heroes to create a new warrior-king - running them through various challenges and eliminating them one by one. (In a nutshell, it's reality TV competition - fantasy-ized. My model for this has been Bravo shows, The Next Food Network Star, and Project Runway.) Throw in a shapechanging demi-god(dess) intended to be the bride / husband of the victor, an old hero as mentor and teacher, mix, and stand back.
Pros: This is completely whacky, and I think would turn out to be a blast. The structure also gives me an easy way to map out plot and word count.
Cons: Deciding how much to script and how much (if any) to leave to chance; how to handle a huge and gradually diminishing cast; how to handle POV issues.

Then there's the concept I have taken to thinking of as The Idea - the one that has been brewing at the back of my brain for months, but has detractors larger and more significant than all those above combined. The origin is a rewrite of plotline(s) I used in a fandom setting - original characters in another author's world, for those unfamiliar.

Now, I feel that my storylines were departure enough that I am free of concerns about copying - but to work this requires constructing a world where some elements serve similar purposes. I'm concerned that it may look like a "coat of paint," but on the other hand, I have thought extensively about what I would do and I think I've come up with something unique, not at all inspired by the original, and that adds some interesting tweaks to plot. It also takes the mood and twists it from something fairly utopian into something dark and borderline amoral … perfect for the storyline.

Even after this, however, I feel that this is less unique in macro elements than - at the very least - ideas #1 and #3 above. There are certainly a lot of pieces I feel that are unusual, but they appear on the smaller level. Maybe the main large detail that I don't think you see too often is the overarching plotline pivots around the romance between the main villain and a protagonist's sister. (Note that I don't say the plotline *is* the romance, but rather develops from consequences thereof.)

Huge detractor the next is the level of complexity. First of all, looking what I have, I already know I have a trilogy. Book one can be made more or less independent, but I can also tell that I would need to finish all three before I could reasonably edit and submit the first one. That leaves me potentially writing two books that would never see the light of day. *Huge* problem.

Obviously, I also worry about the confusion created by the complexity, especially as I know myself - whatever I've planned, the actual product will be more labyrinthine than my original intentions. On the other hand, I not only have the plotline already, I know I will need to do a detailed outline to keep everything moving in the right direction … so I think I can cap the exponential increase.

And oh, the characters. The main huge attractor is these are people I developed over the course of months and years, I know them incredibly well, and I'd love to spend the time with them.

It would be simpler if this were a marketing question: which concept would sell better? That would definitely knock The Idea out of the running. It would be simpler if I absolutely adored one concept so much that I knew that was what I had to write. It would be simpler if there weren't confounding factors like my concerns about getting stuck in the same ruts. (Politics. Greco-Roman. I'm sure there's another one in there somewhere.)

It ain't simple!