Despite the long weekend, I've been too busy doing things to blog. In brief, I celebrated Thanksgiving with my inlaws, took Alex to Chuck E. Cheese, Sam's Club, and the mall on Black Friday (though not all in the same trip), went to Christkindlmarkt, and attended a little girl's birthday party. Oh yes, and I baked three batches of cookies so far. I would have baked another recipe tonight, but Eugene needed to finish some cookies he started earlier. Here are a few pictures from the weekend:
My Blog Chain entry will have to wait until tomorrow; it's too late to work on it tonight.
Abigail at Blogging Experiments nominated this blog for the "I Love Your Blog" award. Thanks, Abi! That was sweet of you. Recipients are supposed to pass this award on to five other blogs (like a tag), so here are my five nominees:
Maria Zannini--for her professional approach to writing and marketing.
Autopilot--I enjoy his sense of humor and his political analyses--even if at times I can't follow them.
Since I joined Facebook, I've been trying lots of the applications people keep sending me. Some of them I try a couple of times and decide I don't care for them too much, but some of them can be practically addicting. One of the latter is Pet Dragons One (a sequel is in the works). It's a simple premise; a friend gives you a dragon egg, and you hatch it and raise the dragon. Every day you have twenty actions, or turns, you can use in feeding your dragon, letting it collect gold, or training it for combat with other dragons. There are a variety of different strategies one can use in this game; you can try to be the biggest dragon, the richest, the best fighter, or an all-around type of dragon. Although the game really doesn't require a lot of time (you can use all of your turns in a few seconds, and once you send your dragon off to combat, it can take up to twelve hours to resolve the battle), I still find myself checking the game constantly and learning as much as I can on the forum. I'm also looking forward to Pet Dragons Two, which should be coming out in the next month or two.
It didn't take me long to realize that a group of people who are interested in dragons might be interested in reading about dragons, especially the Firestorm of Dragons anthology. When I set up my dragon, I named her after a character in my short story, and I based her profile on that short story too. I did mention the anthology on the forum, though I did so in a thread devoted to dragon books. And tonight, when I earned enough gold to buy a custom title, I chose "Firestorm of Dragons." I wanted to make it "Read Firestorm of Dragons," but it didn't fit. I don't know if this marketing will have any effect, but I figure it's my best chance at turning the game gold into real cash.
It's time once again for another (cue deep, echoing voice) Blog Chain Poooost! (end voice) This time, Michelle has asked us to share a favorite poem, quote, joke, anecdote, or anything of the sort that deals with writing, writers, the publishing industry, or the other strange and unusual tidbits that belong to our little world.
I'll share four little gems with you today. The first is the Chinese rejection letter. I don't remember exactly where I first saw this; I think it may have been in a book, which I then copied and saved. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I still have the paper. Luckily, I did some Googling and found this link, which explains the Chinese rejection letter and offers an example. (I think my version was more poetic, but that's the price you pay for convenience, I suppose.)
The second example I'd like to share with you is Nancy Fulda's "Let There Be Write," published by Strange Horizons in 2005. To respect her copyright, I'm simply providing a link instead of quoting the text, which is a writer's version of the Creation myth. I think most of us will agree with the ending.
If you're a fan of Whose Line is It Anyway?, then you can probably picture Colin Mochrie saying, "As long as there's been writers, there's been songs about writers. The Beatles, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, and Sting--these are just a few of the artists who threatened to sue us if we mentioned them on the air." But I couldn't resist throwing in this video:
Finally, I'll end with a personal ancedote. In the early days of my con-attending, I'd dress up. No, not in costume, which would have been fun; I'd dress up in blazers and slacks and skirts, hoping to impress an agent with my professionalism. (These days I just dress casually, since so many of the pros do anyway.) One year at WindyCon, as I was attempting to enter the con suite, someone sitting in the hallway must have thought I didn't fit in at the con. He challenged me with the question "What is the meaning of life?" I responded, "If you have to ask, you'll never know." He acknowledged that was a good answer and let me pass. What does that have to do with writing? Well, if you have to ask, you'll never know. ;)
Anyway, I'm sure the others in this chain have plenty of other gems of their own to share, so I'll turn you over to Kate. I'll be picking the topic next time, so please check back December 1 (I'm sure I'll blog before then, but that will be my next Blog Chain entry) to see what we're discussing next!
Eugene saw an ad in the paper the other day for a Christkindlmarkt going on the first couple of weeks in November at a nearby mall. Long-time readers of this blog know we go to the one in Chicago every year, but we thought that we'd try this one. After all, if it was in a mall, it would be inside, and we wouldn't have to go when the the weather gets even worse than it is now. So after we got everyone ready, off we went. What we didn't realize, however, is that this mall was an outdoor mall. So we were out in blustery weather anyway, which made me feel bad for Alex, who has a cold. (The poor guy already has cabin fever; as we were leaving, he led me down the driveway to the park. We let him go around for a few minutes, but the equipment was too wet for him to play.) We stopped in at Crate&Barrel/Land of Nod to warm up. Alex fussed to get out of the stroller. When I get him out, he was all over grabbing things. He especially enjoyed Land of Nod, where he got to play with a wooden train, grab paddles for an air hockey game, and play the tambourine. Somehow, we managed to leave without breaking or buying anything.
Eugene and I were disappointed by the Christkindlmarkt. It was smaller than the one in Chicago, and some of our favorite booths weren't there. The only thing we wound up buying was a shirt for Alex:
Also, Alex made up for his long nap yesterday by waking up early from his nap screaming. I gave him Motrin, and Eugene calmed him down. But I didn't get to take him to the library to play again. So it turned out not to be one of the most fun or productive Sundays we've had in a while. At least Eugene did get to put up some floating shelves in Alex's room and the study. We've had this house for almost a year; it's about time we decorate a little.
Continuing the patriotic theme from Election Day, I decided to do some shopping today to help the economy. (How's that for a segue?) Of course, that wasn't my only motivation; it's always nice to get out of the house with Alex on Saturday while Eugene works, and there were some things I wanted/needed. Poor Alex wanted to get out of the house too; he kept looking and pointing outside, and when I finally managed to herd him out to the garage, he tried walking down the driveway (accompanied by me, of course) toward the local park. Unfortunately, today was too cold and drizzly for the park. But eventually I got him, the diaper bag, and the stroller loaded in the car, and off we went to the closest strip mall.
We stopped first at Linens N Things, one of the victims of this economy. Their bankruptcy is my gain. I took advantage of the reduced prices to replace the seat cushions for the kitchen chairs (the old ones originally tied onto the chairs, but the strings came off years ago) and get new towels/area rugs for the half bath downstairs. I even got Alex some iced animal crackers.
I placed my bags in the car, transferred Alex to the stroller, and headed to my next store on the list, TJMaxx. This store tends to be hit or miss for me, but today was a good day. Since the owner of our company is stopping by next week, I need some dressier clothes than jeans. I bought myself a pair of black slacks and two wool sweaters, plus a new wallet. I also found a couple of outfits and several books for Alex. While I was browsing through the children's clothes, I noticed he looked very tired. The next time I looked at him, he had fallen asleep, despite the cookies I had given him. He stayed asleep while I finished shopping, transferred him to the car seat, drove home, and brought him upstairs to the crib. He wound up taking the longest nap he's had in a while: about four and a half hours. I was able to get most of the laundry done and pick up around the house a little, but I worried a little about him. He had fallen asleep earlier than normal, and I hadn't been able to remove his coat. It also seemed that he stumbled more often than normal this morning. I heard him stir from time to time, but when I went in there to check on him at one point, he had flipped over but was still sleeping. By the time he got up, it was too late to bring him to the library to play there and return some materials. He ate, read books with me, and got poop on my jeans when he sat down on me as I was changing his diaper.
We were supposed to go to an improv show tonight; unfortunately, my parents had to cancel babysitting Alex because my dad hurt his back. We were all disappointed, but since we couldn't find anyone else to take our tickets, I guess next time I shouldn't order them in advance. We wound up returning to Linens N Things to buy more items for our house, including floating shelves, artwork, new pillows, and a couple of kitchen gadgets. When it comes to spending money, "Yes, We Can!"
A little blast from the past to celebrate this historic day:
If you haven't voted get, go out there and do so. I went to my polling place twice, actually. I was up early thanks to Alex, so I drove over to the school around 6:50. The line was out the door, so I turned around and went home. I took Alex to daycare and then returned. The lines were shorter this time, but due to a snafu I still waited for over an hour. It's still worth it to have my say, even if I'm only one voter among 130 million. We'll see how much of the election coverage I watch tonight--sugar is no substitute for sleep!
Yes, I'm back on the Blog Chain (think, "Back on the Chain Gang") again. This time, Archy picked the topic: Some people argue that creative people need “angst” to produce good work. Do you? What emotions drive you as a writer? Archy said while there may be some overlap between "creativity" genes and "mental illness" genes, mental illness may make it difficult to be creative.Michelle argued that strong emotions are easiest to tap into. I come after Michelle, but as there are others posting after me, I'm not exactly the tiebreaker.
As a sidenote, whenever I hear "angst," I'm reminded of Evard Munch's The Scream:
One of my classmates in grad school had a blow-up doll of the Screamer (I kid you not), and her license plate was "ANGST." G., I hope your life is less angst-full now, wherever you are.
Anyway, when I read Archy's post, I was reminded of my patron muse, John Lennon. John had a traumatic childhood. John's father was a seaman, and while he was away, John's mother became involved with another man. When John was five, his father returned and attempted to make him choose between his parents; John initially chose his father but then returned to his mother, who turned him over to his aunt and uncle so they could raise him. John's mother sparked a love of music in him and gave him his first guitar, but she was killed in an accident when he was 17. All of this family drama remained inside of John for years, resurfacing after his primal scream therapy in his album Plastic Ono Band, particularly in the song "Mother."
John's emotions are so intense on that album that I find it hard to listen to it, even though it's good.
So, in John's case, his angst did fuel at least some of his work. In fact, Paul McCartney also lost his mother as a teenager, and this commonality helped establish the bond between them.
Does angst also inspire writers? Yes and no. Yes, in that I agree with Michelle that writers need to tap into strong emotions to bring their stories to life, and dark emotions like grief or anger tend to be powerful. Also, unlike painting or songs, which can be purely joyful, stories are all about conflict. Reading about someone who has no problems would be uninteresting, so writers often pile obstacles and raw emotions onto their characters. When I was just starting out as a writer, it was difficult for me to place characters in conflict, but I can do so now, even if I feel with them.
On the other hand, like Archy, I agree that too much angst in a person's life can be overwhelming and make it impossible for someone to write. However, moderate emotions can be sublimated into writing. For example, if I feel angry at someone, I might use that anger when writing a scene. This is a positive way to deal with emotions.
Ultimately, I think writers need to handle a variety of emotions when they write. Some of the darker emotions may drive the writing at times, but under all of them (for me, at least) is the desire to connect with someone else through writing, and that's a positive thing.
That's all I wanted to say on this topic, so I will extend the chain to Abi. I know she's feeling a little angsty about this topic, but I hope that will ultimately inspire her for her post.
It's feast or famine around here when it comes to my blog. After going through a dry spell when I didn't have anything interesting going on, I now have more blog fodder than I can manage. In fact, I missed my 20th high school reunion and a Halloween party for Alex this weekend. Why does everything have to happen at once?
It all started Friday, on Halloween. This year, Alex had two costumes: a dinosaur and a little devil. He wore the dinosaur outfit to daycare, where they had a little parade and a party for the kids. I don't have the pictures from that yet, but here's Alex earlier this month:
And here's his devil costume:
Notice he doesn't like wearing the caps that come with his costumes.
I left work early on Friday to get ready for a trip up to Madison. After I had most of the packing done (I admit I overpacked, but with a toddler, you need to be prepared for anything), I picked up Alex and took him trick-or-treating to a few houses. Most of the kids came later--and there were lots. I bought five bags of candy; we would have run out if we had stayed for the entire trick-or-treat time. Although Alex wanted to go outside when he saw all of the kids, he was excited enough to hold the candy and wait at the door. At one point, a little girl in an angel outfit came. Eugene said, "Devil, meet angel," and the girl's father replied, "Devil, stay away from my angel." Too bad I didn't get a picture of them together.
We drove up to Madison Friday night and checked into our hotel, a Holiday Inn. This one featured a whirlpool bath in our room (which only got used for Alex's baths, alas) and a water park that we didn't use either. Unfortunately, we didn't have a suite, so when Alex woke up in the night, he could see us, and that made it harder to calm him. We wound up having to bring him into our bed--something we don't plan to do in the future!
On Saturday, we went to the Farmer's Market. I don't have any pictures from there, but Eugene took some. Instead of getting food, we bought a personalized piggy bank for Alex and a toy parrot for a friend's son. I browsed through Wintersilks but didn't find anything, and with Alex needing a nap, we skipped a trip to the Soap Opera. We let Alex sleep in the car while we took turns visiting Borders (one of us stayed in the car with him). We picked up lunch at Whole Foods; Alex woke up and ate a fair portion of a Honeycrisp. Later, we visited our friends for our annual Faux Thanksgiving reunion with our college friends. The food was good, and we enjoyed talking with everyone; unfortunately, I don't have any pictures. All of the kids are growing up, though.
We didn't have a chance to have brunch with our friends this year, since we were supposed to meet my family for lunch at a Polish restaurant. We did stop at the Olbrich Botanical Gardens briefly. Although we lost track of time, it was neat seeing the Thai Pavilion:
Finally, we left Madison to celebrate my grandmother's 94th birthday with my mother's side of the family:
Luckily, at this point, it was a relatively short drive back home. It was great to go, but it's good to be back. Even with an extra hour today, I still have a lot to catch up on.
I've mentioned before that Firestorm of Dragons will be participating in a book tour in November. I've been busy the last couple of days finishing up interviews for different blogs. It's tougher than you'd think, but I think I managed to fill out all of the interviews. (There were three total, but I overlooked one of them until yesterday--and of course the deadline for finishing it was today.) I'll keep you updated with links to the host blogs once I learn what the schedule is.
Other than that, we've been getting ready for our annual Thanksgiving dinner with our friends in Madison. Plus there's the usual work and taking care of Alex. I saw two deer this evening as I was heading over to his daycare. The deer were in someone's back yard. I didn't realize how close this subdivision was to forest area. It would be neat sometime if the deer actually came up to the daycare so the kids could see them.
I'm not doing National Novel Writing Month this year; instead, I'm focusing on rewriting my draft from last year. It's tough going, and the only time I've had for it is on my lunch hour. Today I was too busy answering interview questions to even write. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.
I promised you another Blog Chain post on the 19th, and here it is. This time, Kate chose the topic: How as a writer do you find the balance between being having too much or too little confidence in your work? We've already had some wonderful insights from Kate, Archetype, and Michelle. Feel free to read their posts, as well as the other members of our Blog Chain. As always, links are on the side bar to the right.
This topic reminds me of a Passing the Pen essay I wrote five years ago for my website. It's called, "I Me Mine: Writing and the Ego." In this essay, I discuss the various ways in which writing can help or hurt the ego, as well as help you move past your own sense of self when you're actually writing. But I owe you my current thoughts on this topic as well.
One of my conclusions in my earlier essay is that the best way to keep the frustrations of writing from hurting your self-confidence is not to let your self-confidence depend on your writing. I think the level of confidence you have in your daily life is a major component of your confidence in your writing abilities, and I think feeling competent in some part of life helps improve your confidence. Whether it's being good at your day job or a hobby or parenting, a skill in some part of your life will make you feel more confident about tackling other hard tasks, like writing.
I have to admit I was overconfident at first when I started writing. I wasn't so foolish as to send out my very first draft--I rewrote it completely after taking a writing class--but my first novel was about 170,000 words long with about seven different POV. I did get some interest from a couple of agents, but it never got past the partial stage. An editor at Tor did look at the full manuscript, but I never got the suggestions he had for it. It's been so long he's no longer there, so even though I never got an official rejection, I consider that book dead there.
My confidence in my writing has varied over my career. There are times when I read my work and think it's great; then there are times when I can barely get a sentence to behave. (Or, as I like to put it, you can't write your way out of a paper bag with a sharp knife.) There are times when I read a book and am so impressed by it I feel I can never world-build or describe something as well as that author does. I've had some modest successes, such as an Honorable Mention in an international competition called the UPC Science Fiction Awards. (This was enough to get my name in Locus, the newspaper of the science fiction field.) My short story, "A Reptile at the Reunion," was published earlier this year in the anthology Firestorm of Dragons.Still, I want to sell a novel and see it in bookstores. It's a tough goal to accomplish, given that only a small fraction of books make it out of the slush pile. Are my books ready for that? Perhaps not quite yet, at least that's not how I feel now that I've been reading Flogging the Quill and Miss Snark's First Victim. I still need to capture with words the hook that makes people want to read on. But I think if I keep learning and writing, I will learn that skill, and someday I'll achieve my goal--if not with one of my current novels, then with another project.
So that's my conclusion: confidence is not a fixed quantity. Although it may fluctuate, you can maintain your confidence if you think of yourself as a student of writing. Every new project will teach you something different. If you're always learning, you can encourage yourself by realizing how far you've come but not get too confident and think you know everything.
Before I extend the chain to Abi, I'd like to leave you with a quote from William Blake:
If the Sun and Moon should doubt, they'd immediately go out.
and I promised my Blog Chain partners I'd share more quirks with them and discuss why I consider John Lennon my patron muse.
It all started a long time ago--1995, to be exact. I was working as a technical writer up in Madison, and as much as I love the city, being there couldn't make up for my dislike of my job and the separation from my then-boyfriend, Eugene. But that November, the Beatles Anthology aired on TV. I was just a casual fan at best, but I was interested enough to watch the first episode. At the end, the song "Free as a Bird" priemered. Although some diehard fans dislike this song, it stuck in my head, especially at work. I watched the rest of Anthology and soon found myself listening to more Beatles music and learning more about the group.
Early in 1996, I lost my technical writing job and had to move back home while I looked for work. My Beatles fascination kept me going through this time. At one point, while reading about the four-fold synergy of the group, I came up with the idea of having a quartet of magicians working together in a similar fashion. That was the beginning of Day of All Seasons, the first novel I finished and submitted to agents. I got a few requests for partials, but ultimately nothing came of it--not surprising, given the book was over 170,000 words. I would still like to pull that one out of the trunk someday and revise it. But in the meantime, I moved on to other stories, including some that had a direct link to the Beatles. And I've been writing ever since. So thanks, John, for helping me become a writer.
Speaking of writing, I submitted the (revised) first two sentences of Across Two Universes at Miss Snark's First Victim today. Reactions were mixed, though I got some useful feedback. Thanks to all of my reviewers! And if you found this blog through one of the comments I left, I hope my comment was useful.
Yep, once again I'm participating in a blog chain. We've had some changes in our membership since my last blog chain post; a couple of people left, but we had some more people join us. You can check out the links in my sidebar to find the blogs in the chain.
Mary chose the topic this time: What kind of quirky habits or rituals do you have regarding your writing? (or regarding anything else, if that is more fun.) We've had people discussing everything from Panera sandwiches to alphabetizing spices (the latter is courtesy of Michelle, my precedessor in this chain).
This is supposed to be a fun, "getting-to-know-you" topic, but in some ways it's more difficult for me than the previous topics. Yes, I'm a non-conformist in many ways, but they don't all translate into quirks. Perhaps I should translate them into quarks, but for some odd reason many people don't like to discuss quantum physics. Is that a quirk?
All kidding aside, one of the quirks I have is one I share with my husband. While on our honeymoon, we got the idea from a couple we met to take pictures of a stuffed animal. Since we were on an Alaskan cruise, we bought (on sale) a stuffed orca named Oscar. Since then, he's been joined by Big Oscar and Baby Oscar:
Oscar has his own page on my website to chronicle our travels. He's been to Canada, London, and Las Vegas, which is where we got Big Oscar. Baby Oscar came from The Soap Opera in Madison. (Baby Oscar is actually a bath toy and can squirt water, albeit not through a blowhole.)
During Alex's first year, Big Oscar and the original Oscar posed with him every month, even in the professional pictures.
As for writing quirks, it doesn't matter to me where I write or what my desk looks like. Most of my writing these days is done on my lunch hour at work, actually. The only quirk I could think of applies to the end of my projects, not to my daily writing. Every time I finish a draft, I type the following:
The End The Very Very Very End! Amen A Book Report on Peter Rabbit
A kudo to the first person who can identify these lyrics and their source. And yes, they do come out during the editing stage.
My son just woke up, so it's time to end this post and pass the quirkiness to Abigail. Tune in again on October 19th (sooner if you wish) for another exciting post in our Blog Chain!
P.S. In response to Terri's request for me to show my true wierdness, I'll post a bit more on Thursday about another of my writing quirks--my muse, John Lennon.
The three of us went to a picnic today. It was hosted by an online group we belong to. Although not all of the members have kids, many of them do. Eugene made one of his mile-high apple pies (he got the recipe from Paula Deen) last night, a task made harder by Alex's refusal to go to bed. It was Eugene's turn to put Alex to bed, but Alex wanted to play, leave his room--anything but sleep. Eventually I had to go in there so Eugene could bake. Even so, Eugene didn't finish baking the pie until almost 1:00 a.m. Good thing Alex wound up sleeping in.
The picnic was in the middle of a forested area. We were the first ones to arrive; we were early, but we were surprised the picnic organizers weren't there yet. But soon people started arriving with their families and pets. The main course was chicken from Popeye's and sandwiches from Subway. There were also side dishes and desserts, including a Snickers salad which probably can be classified as both. Too bad I didn't have a chance to try that one!
Alex slept a bit in the car on the way over. He woke up on his own, but he was very Eugene-clingy for a while. He also didn't eat much, although he did help himself to a sugar cookie. It took him a while to warm up to the point where I could carry him or even let him go down on his own. He never did run around as much as the other kids did, but I think he's just going through a stage where he feels more secure with us close by. We should probably enjoy it while it lasts.
We got to meet some people we only knew online, including a couple with a baby and a Great Dane. At one point, the mother had to use the bathroom, and Eugene offered to hold her little girl. As soon as Alex saw that, he started to cry, and Eugene had to give the girl back to her father. Sounds like Alex isn't ready for a sibling any time soon.
Here are a couple of pictures:
Both Eugene and Alex are sleeping right now, so I suppose I should relax too--or at least get ready for my Blog Chain post tomorrow.
Apparently I am. People are fighting to tag me in the latest meme to infect our blog chain. Heather meant to get me first, but Michelle beat her to it. So I guess I'd better post my answers:
Four goals I have in the next 5 years: Get a novel published and in bookstores Go on a cruise to celebrate our 5th anniversary Finish with pregnancy/childbirth--either by having another child or deciding that we're done Add a deck or patio to our house
Four places I will visit someday: Liverpool, the Mecca for Beatle fans The Philippines Ireland Vienna, Austria
Four of my favorite foods: Pizza Macaroni and cheese Chocolate Shrimp
Four jobs I've had: Crew person at McDonald's Maid Teaching assistant in grad school (in the English Department) Technical writer
Two places I've lived: Delavan, WI Rockville, MD
Two places I'd like to live: Madison, WI London
Four things I'd do with my spare time (if I had any):
Read Sleep Write Exercise
I will inflict this meme on Russ, Sara, and Maria. Enjoy!
Sometimes I don't blog when the day has been too ordinary to inspire me. And sometimes I don't blog when too much is going on. This week has been more like the latter than the former.
It started Sunday afternoon. We took Alex on a play date to Chuck E. Cheese, and he did OK. However, he woke up from his nap with a fever. We took him to Urgent Care and found out he had yet another ear infection. It was a long afternoon at the clinic and getting his prescription filled. Since Alex had a fever, we couldn't take him to daycare on Monday. Eugene and I split the day, with each of us watching him part of the day and working the other time. Alex did OK for a while, but he relapsed in the evening, so we took him into Urgent Care. Alex didn't do too well Tuesday morning, so I stayed home with him. He perked up for a while, but then he had some reactions to the antibiotics. I wound up bringing him to a third doctor, who said his ears were now fine. At least today Alex was consistently well, well enough to go back to daycare.
It was a good thing Alex was better today, since I was scheduled to go on a once-in-a-blue-moon business trip. Eugene had somewhere to be this afternoon, so in case Alex had to leave daycare early, I made arrangements with my parents for them to take my car and pick him up. Happily, that proved to be unnecessary. The trip was not without misadventure, as Chicago traffic was even worse than usual due to a truck that leaked hazardous chemicals onto the highway, shutting off the route we originally planned to take. (Good thing we saw signs and altered our course.) Even so, we were still forced to pass the accident--more like inch past it. "Are all of your business trips this much fun?" I asked my coworkers. What was supposed to be a 10:30 meeting turned into a lunch meeting. Luckily, things worked out, though we did get back a little late. I'm just glad for a chance to relax now.
I got my first royalty payment today for my short story in the Firestorm of Dragons anthology. It's quite a heady feeling, though I won't be quitting my day job anytime soon. And considering Alex has been having some rough times today due to his ear infection--not to mention he's currently Resisting A Rest--it's good to have something good happen today.
Today we decided to go apple picking. Eugene and I have been doing this for several years, although we skipped last year since Alex was so young. This year we decided to try a new orchard. Although it's in Woodstock (same as our old place), it's a little closer to us than our usual place. Plus it also offers Honeycrisp apples and Asian pears. So we packed up Alex and the half-ton of supplies we need to leave the house with him, stocked up on gas and cash, and drove to All Seasons Orchard.
When Alex is in the car at certain times of the day, he tends to fall asleep. This drive was no exception:
But he soon woke up when he saw all of the new things. The general store was very busy; we had to go there first to buy a half-bushel bag. (They make you tell them what you want to pick and pay for the bag first.) We gave Alex his lunch and snacked on a couple of apple donuts while we waited for a wagon to take us to the orchard. The setting was very beautiful, and there were plenty of games for kids, though we thought Alex was a bit young for some of them.
We ate lunch next to this waterfall and pond. A bunch of bees wanted to join us, so I had to lure them away with peach juice.
Finally we rode out to the orchard on a hay wagon. We had to fold up the stroller, but Alex took the trip in stride. Then we picked Gala apples, Honeycrisp apples, and Asian pears. We had to pay extra for the Honeycrisp and pears, but they were worth it. Alex reached for some of the apples, so we gave him two small Galas. I thought he just wanted to hold them, but he actually bit into them and ate about half of each apple. I had no idea he could eat whole apples so well:
We were done picking in about half an hour, just in time to catch the next wagon back to the main farm. I tried buying some apple butter and honey, but the lines in the main store were so slow they were stuck. Someone said they had been having computer problems; someone else said the delay was due to a shortage of donuts (appaprently they could only make two dozen at a time, so people were paying for them and then waiting). I finally gave up so we could leave and let Alex take his delayed nap. Despite those problems, I think we'll be back next year.
I was on a residential street headed toward the highway. Normally, when you see squirrels in the street, they're half a block away, and they're smart enough to look around before attempting to cross. This one just jumped right out in front of me, only a few feet away. I don't think there were parked cars blocking its view, but it all happened so fast. Maybe something was chasing it. I knew as soon as I saw it that I would hit it, and sure enough, I heard it hit my the underside of my car. Glancing back in the rearview mirror, I saw it curled up in the road.
I drove on--what else could I do?--but I felt a bit shaken up by the incident. At least there doesn't seem to be any damage to my car, and Alex and I were unhurt. I'd rather hit a squirrel than a deer. Still, I felt bad again when I came home and saw the squirrel still on the road. I know there are plenty of squirrels in the trees, and they can be pests, especially when you're feeding birds. But it never feels good to see something die so senselessly.
Time for another Blog Chain Post. This time, my friend Heather picked the topic: How do you as an author choose or create your story-world and give that setting authenticity? You can start with her blog if you wish to follow the entire blog chain link to link, or you can check out all the marked blogs in my Blog List.
The previous poster, Archetype, focused on the laws of fantasy and science fiction worlds. I'm going to continue discussing science fiction; specifically, I'm going to talk about creating future worlds. My novel Across Two Universes has three major worlds: the world of mid-21st century New York (about 60 years ahead of us), the world of the spaceship Sagan, and the world of 1980 Earth, where my hero, Paul, meets the man he was cloned from and attempts to change the fate of that world. Everything in ATU is set up to make that meeting possible.
When I came up with this story world, my initial idea was to send someone back in time to hear the Beatles play at the Cavern in Liverpool. I then had to figure out her motive for doing so, and it turned out to be to clone John Lennon. (The original versions of my novella "Move Over Ms. L." and the first few drafts of ATU did use John Lennon and other real people; there's no denying that. I'm currently changing them, though.) So I had to set up a world where time travel was possible and figure out how that worked. I started with a few Writer's Digest books devoted to time and space travel. I decided that the best time travel method for this story would be to have the time traveler pass through a wormhole into another, younger universe. She would need a spaceship to do so, not to mention a wormhole. I don't want to go into too much detail about the origins of the wormhole, but I will say it's not natural. But I also needed a society capable of making a spaceship, so in my future world, cold fusion is possible and used to power the ship (which still isn't capable of faster-than-light travel, so it travels relatively short distances). The ship itself is used to collect genetic samples and other treasures of the 1980 Earth and bring them back to the 21st century.
In designing the Sagan, I focused more on how people live in it than its technical specs. Although the ship is well-stocked and maintained every time it returns to the 21st century Earth, it has to be able to supply its residents with food independently. I therefore gave it a salmon tank and a hydroponic garden. It also has a psychiatrist to help people cope with space travel and little cubicles where people can seek privacy. Since passage through the wormhole is rough at best, passengers are required to strap themselves into their bunks.
To come up with other technological wonders of my world, I read Scientific American. My heroes wear "smart clothes" that can keep the wearer warm and spidersilk armor that can stop bullets--things already being discussed today. I also extrapolate uses of the technology; holographs aren't just used to replace TVs but to create costumes for actors. I also think about how current events would affect the future. In my world, global warming has caused severe flooding in New York City; the city was saved by building levees.
Research and imagination can help you create your world, but it's the way you use them that makes your world authentic. Instead of telling my readers about my world, I show it to them as Paul would see it. The story starts with Paul using his autoholoprojectors during a play. On the Sagan, he meets with his girlfriend in the hydroponic garden and in a private cubicle, interacting with the settings and experiencing them through several senses. I don't lecture the readers about flooding; instead, Paul mentions in bypassing how he was an extra in the documentary The Floods of New York.
It's time for me to pass the blogging baton to Kristal, but I'd like to sum up in three points: when creating a world, make it multifaceted. Think about the implications of your decisions on other aspects of the world. And don't forget to show it to the reader with sensory descriptions and telling details. No matter what world you write about, the details will make it real.
This weekend was one of the rainiest I've seen. I'm not sure how many inches we got in our area, but nearby towns received over eight inches in the last two days. We had plans for a playdate, but our friends not only got water in their kitchen but also had several roads in their subdivision flood to the point of unusability. Luckily, our house stayed dry. I did take Alex out shopping yesterday; he got a raincoat and some new clothes for fall. Eugene's plans to do a photo get-together with some friends at a garden got washed out. Instead, we met another photography couple for lunch and went to Legoland at Woodfield Mall. Here are a few photos:
I just saw this meme on Sara's blog. My memory is hazy on some of them, but I thought I'd give this a whirl anyway.
This is a list of the top 106 books most often marked unread by LibraryThing users.
bold = ones I've actually completed. italic = ones I've started and never finished plain text = ones that I've never read underline = ones you had to read for school. CAPS = ones that I really really WANT to read. (what do I do for a maybe read?)
It's time once again for another entry in our ever-growing blog chain about writing. The current topic is, "How real are your characters, and how much do you know about them?" Please go here and here to read the previous and next entries in the chain. I also have links to all of the blogs in the sidebar.
Before I start discussing characters, I'd like to discuss briefly the relationship between fiction and reality, as this topic has inspired me to mull about that. We read fiction for various reasons; sometimes we want a mirror of our own reality, and sometimes we want to escape from it. (I've lived in Midwestern suburbs for most of my life, and although the Midwest is my home, there are times when it's so mundane I need to escape from it mentally. That's one of several reasons why I love science fiction and fantasy.) But when we read or watch movies or TV, we want to believe in them, at least as long as we're actively engaged in them. So perhaps it's more important to find out what makes readers believe in the reality of characters. Since writers generally start off as readers, and since both writer and reader are needed to bring a story to life, I'll talk first about the writing side of the equation before going into the readers' perspective.
As Heather pointed out in her own entry on this topic, writers almost always feel their characters are real to them; otherwise, the writers wouldn't feel inspired to write about the particular characters in the first place. I haven't tried to obtain Social Security numbers for my characters and claim them as dependents on my taxes, but they still feel like real people to me, perhaps citizens of the universe next door. My characters have strengths and weaknesses, like anyone you meet on the street. They have their own dreams and interests, even ones not relevant to the story. I also have a fairly good idea of what happens to them before and after the beginning of the book.
As for how much I know about my characters, it changes over time. Although I do get to know my characters in my head before I start writing, I generally don't write out a full-blown character sketch for them before my first draft. Even if I do try to create a mini-biography of the main character, it's often incomplete on paper, as I hold more details in my head. Other things come to me as I write. For instance, I have two incomplete trilogies, one fantasy and one science fiction. In both series, after I finished the first book, a secondary character who already had a love interest "told" me that he or she was bisexual and in love with the main character as well. Talk about a plot twist! I worked that into my fantasy series, but I'm still not sure how I want to handle it with the science fiction series.
Although at times my characters will rebel as described above, at other times, I'll come up with a plot twist that feels right for them. I can change the details from draft to draft, but the end result stays the same. In Across Two Universes, Paul's mother is murdered at the beginning of the story, though I've changed how and where it happens. But I could not start afresh and save her; that would be a different book. I do other cruel things to him in the sequel, enough for me to shed real tears over him. Paul may not be a real person, but he inspires real emotions in me.
This brings me to my final point: no tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. (Edit: this line isn't from me; it's from Robert Frost. I should have Googled first before quoting.) How do we convince our readers that our characters are real? I think part of it has to do with the telling detail, using all of the senses to bring the world to life. Small details about the characters, like quirks or favorite things, can also make them seem real. But for me, what gets me involved with my characters is their emotional lives, and those need to be portrayed realistically as well. If you can convince your readers that yes, someone would really react a certain way in a given situation, then they too will start thinking of your characters as real.
Finally, for my non-writing friends, something they can relate to!
We took Alex on his first trip to the zoo today since the weather was fantastic. Alex's sleeping/meal schedule got messed up, but although he had a few fits, overall he did OK. We weren't able to see everything, though, and by the end of the day, he was too tired we skipped the carousel. There's always next time. We took him to the Farm in the Zoo, where he got to see various farm animals. (He's still too young to feed them.) Here are some of the pictures:
The swans with their cygnet.
A deer--I can't remember which one.
A flock of birds in a tree.
A real tiger....
and Alex with a stuffed tiger to take home as a souvenir.
As I mentioned in my last post, I've joined a blog chain created by members of QueryTracker, a site devoted to helping writers keep tabs on their submissions to agents. (I'm a member too, but since Across Two Universes isn't ready for submission yet, I haven't used the tracking feature.) The current topic is, "Where do you get your ideas from?" You can follow the chain by going here and here. I've also linked to all of the chain members' blogs in the sidebar, so go ahead and check them out.
It's interesting that this is my first topic in the blog chain, since I wrote an essay about ideas for my website back in 2002. You can still read it here, if you'd like. In that essay, I talk about how the Beatles, particularly John Lennon, inspired the novels I was working on then. One of those novels got sent around to various agents (and to Tor) before being trunked; another has gone extensive revision and is currently titled Across Two Universes. Of course, I wrote that essay six years ago, and I've had other projects come into my life since then. I'll summarize briefly what inspired them.
Much of my inspiration comes from my daily life. My short story "A Reptile at the Reunion" came about from the combination of an invitation to my grad school reunion (which I skipped) and a writing challenge in a magazine. Other short stories (which I've started but not finished) came from a bout of insomina I had this winter or non-buyer's remorse I felt after passing on a beautiful silk blazer on sale up in Madison. These incidents made me think of ways to lure the "sheep of sleep" (the ones you're supposed to count) back into a person's life or what it would be like to discover a chest full of the things you once wanted but didn't get. Interests such as dealing with the conflict between evolution and science inspired me to create an alien race that has a unique way to handle this conflict--except that for one individual, it doesn't work. Yet another short story I need to finish.
Other times I get ideas from reading. Sometimes I get a little frustrated when I find too much of the same type of story on the bookshelves of my local B&N. There are stories that I think need to be told, even if they don't use "conventional" (i.e., commerically popular) types of heroines or themes. For instance, other than Julie Kenner's Demon series, I don't see too many mothers featured in stories. You could say my NaNoWriMo project from last year, about a working mother who gains the ability to turn into an owl, was inspired partly by a desire to find more stories with heroines I could relate to. Part of this idea also came from everyday life. I often see red-tailed hawks as I drive around, so I wondered what it would be like for one of them to be a human in disguise. I thought at first of a stay-at-home mother, but since the character I came up with is divorced, she has to work to support herself and her daughter. I also changed the bird to an owl so she could go around at night (and interact with werewolves), but I have plans to bring a hawk-person into that story as I re-think the plot.
I mentioned before that one of my short stories was inspired by a writing challenge in a magazine. After Firestorm of Dragons was published, I recieved an invitation from the editor to submit something for another themed anthology. (I don't know what the status of this project is, so I don't feel comfortable sharing the topic here.) This might be one of the hardest things for an author, to find an idea about a topic someone else picked. I did some research and thought about what kind of characters could bring a fresh perspective to this topic. Ultimately I did come up with an unusual take on a stock character, which then helped me determine the rest of the plot for the story. Unfortunately, I didn't finish the story before the deadline, but I may go back to it at some point.
I'll finish this post by repeating a point I made back in 2002; an idea alone isn't enough to make a story. Sometimes you need to combine several ideas before you can create the characters and plot necessary to make an idea come to life; other times, you need to interrogate the idea to generate the characters and plot. But when you learn authors such as Mercedes Lackey can write stories about paper bags (see "Roadkill"), you realize there are more ideas out there than you can ever write about.
OK, I think this finishes the blog chain for this topic. Tune in soon when I go Back on the Chain Gang!
I normally don't blog about work, but I thought I could share this with you. Today one of my co-workers brought in her niece to do a shadow study in the lab. I only found out about it this morning. In a way, it's too bad that the niece came in this particular day, since it was relatively quiet in the lab. My boss spent a good deal of time talking to her, and I did show her some of my work in the morning. She did say that she got a lot out of it, even if it's not quite what she's interested in (something to do with the polar regions). But it is good to see students who want to pursue science; there just aren't enough of them, IMO. Given how quickly science and technology advance, I think we need to increase scientific literacy in this country so voters can make informed choices.
In other news, I may be joining a writer's blog chain. One of the members is H.L. Dyer. It's already in progress, but apparently there's always room for more. Maybe I'll post some "catch-up" posts about the topics they've already discussed.
I finally updated my website. I didn't add a lot of material, but I updated my biography and the information about Firestorm of Dragons. It took me a while to get this done. First I had to do the edits in FrontPage, but when I tried to save the files on my computer, I ran into problems with the FrontPage extensions. Although I couldn't figure out how to fix this, some Googling helped me realize that I could edit the webpages another way. I haven't uploaded my latest notes from WisCon yet; that'll come later. Right now I'm too tired.
Alex had a rough night, waking up around 3:30 and not going back to sleep until about 7:00. He literally nodded off in his highchair after breakfast. Luckily I was working from home today, and I was able to get my project started while I waited for him to wake up. Then I brought him to daycare while I finished the job (and, I have to admit, rested/relaxed while I was waiting between steps). He was very upset at daycare, refusing to play outside and tugging his ears, so I brought him to the urgent care clinic after picking him up. For once, he doesn't have an ear infection; he apparently is just having some trouble teething (molars are coming in). I hope he sleeps better tonight; all three of us need sleep desperately!
And I'm plastering the news all over the Internet. :grin:
We don't have much planned for the day. Given that Alex woke up between 5:00 and 5:30 this morning , perhaps that's just as well. We'll pick up dinner from a local restaurant (easier than eating there with a toddler). Maybe I'll make some ice cream--white chocolate. After that, who knows?
Now that it's August (we're expected to reach the 90's today, but with all the storms we've had so far, I don't know if that will happen), it's time to start thinking about Christmas. At least, that's what my co-authors and editors have decided. They want to promote Firestorm of Dragons as a gift for the dragon-lover. (But why not go ahead and buy it now? It's always reading season in my universe!) So we're going to do a blog tour in November. I don't have many details yet, but I'll post them as they become available. One thing that I do know is that there's a Yahoo! group set up specificially for this book tour, and it's open to bloggers/podcasters as well as the authors. If you know anyone who might be interested, please tell them or pass me the contact information. In the meantime, I'll need to increase my presence in the blogging community to help promote this book. I figure by November, Alex should be past the point where he needs to grab Mommy's fingers to walk around the house. Instead, I'll only have to jump up every five seconds to prevent a walking/climbing/exploring accident. I'm sure I can accomplish a lot with the other four seconds....
ETA: Maria makes a good point; I should include the link to the Yahoo! group. Here it is:
And I can't believe I forgot this (though I've forgotten a couple of other things at work today too); it's the trailer for the book on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWgszslAEtM As always, links to the official website for Firestorm of Dragons and the publisher's website are on the sidebar on the right.
My friend Kristi got married yesterday. She met her husband right before Eugene and I had our wedding; I remember asking her if she wanted to bring her then-boyfriend, but she didn't feel ready at that time. Every time I've seen Lyle with Kristi, he's been very supportive of her. So I was very happy when she announced her engagement. I was also honored when she asked me to read a passage from the Bible (part of the "Love Chapter" in I Corinthians) during the ceremony.
Normally, when Eugene and I have a special summer event, it's dreadfully hot that day. Even our wedding, which was in mid-September, was in the 90s. Naturally, we were expecting that pattern to hold for Kristi's wedding, since hot weather was predicted for that day, but our streak was broken. We were not disappointed by this turn of events. The wedding was held not far from the apple orchard where we pick apples, only instead of being on a farm, it was held outdoors in a gazebo overlooking a lake with a fountain. The view was gorgeous, and I'm sure Kristi and Lyle took a lot of pictures there.
The ceremony was probably about a half-hour long, much shorter than ours. Although I came to the rehearsal (with Alex) on Friday, I was late, so I wasn't sure exactly when my reading was. But several people told me afterward that I did a good job, so I guess it all worked out.
After the ceremony, Eugene and I went through the reception line and caught up with Susan and Tina, some friends of mine that I hadn't seen in a long time. We all sat at the same table, which was named for the Beatles. (Yes, Kristi is as much of a Beatles fan as I am; that's how we met.) Kristi did a great job of putting a personal touch on the table names, favors, and other decorations. The food was also good, though if I had to nitpick, I would have to say our table seemed to be one of the last to be served. But the cake was especially good, and they had other sweets as well.
Eugene and I shared a slow dance, and I danced solo when they played some of my favorite songs, but we couldn't stay for the full reception. We had to get back early to relieve my parents, who babysat Alex for us. (He did fine, though he got upset when I called to check in.)
It's time for me to call it a night too. Here are a couple of pictures, though:
