Very Interesting

"I'm finishing up a post to my own blog right now which ends up talking about how I handled the plot threads in The New Moon's Arms. That's what gave me the impulse to respond to this post of yours which I'd read a few weeks(?) ago."
-Nalo Hopkinson

This morning when I opened my inbox, I little expected to find a new comment to a post I wrote a while back, http://ev-boulevard.blogspot.com/2007/06/new-moons-arms.html. Even less, did I expect the post to come from the author. Small world, eh? More about it on my other blog.

Deb's Blog

"The pressure is on. A first post on the new blog. Should I be sincere? Funny? Informative?

'The First' is always special and unforgettable, right? Not always. Sometimes The First is painful, embarrassing or messy."
-Deb

So begins my friend Deb's new blog about her first novel and being an editor at Apollo's Lyre. Extra bonus: she's also a great big fan of Great Big Sea.

http://theyremakingmeblog.blogspot.com/

Meta Moment/New Blog

Since so many of my posts of late have had to do with writing, I've decided to launch a new, slightly more professional blog, founded in what Jay Udall said the other night. The blog: http://dwtdwende.blogspot.com/

Wish it luck.

Another Reason Joss is My Hero

"I’ve always had a bent towards apocalyptic fiction, and I’m beginning to understand why. I look and I see the earth in flames. Her face was nothing but red."
-Joss Whedon, http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271#more

I don't know if he planned it that way or not, but by adding the last sentence, Joss had a very poetic (if horrifying) moment in his post, which addresses a home video of an arab girl being beaten to death in an "honor killing." He makes an excellent point too, that while the act in and of itself is terrible, the fact that there were people who could calmly stand by and record it on their cell phone cameras is all that much worse. It's horrifying what people are capable of.

Okay, but why does this reaffirm Joss's hero status? Well, while his outrage and horror at the event are no more than I would expect from any intelligent and feeling person, he has the extra responsibility of being famous. And, he steps up to the plate and uses his fame for something more than promoting his next project. I have to give kudos to all celebrities who champion causes and speak out against the things that are wrong in the world. With all that influence and press, they ought to be doing something productive with it. Joss knows this, and that's exactly what he does.

Scary Poems

"Give me your hand
skinny, beautiful Danny
with a pock mark scar
on his left cheek
said in sixth hour English"
-Barbed Wire, by me

David said to write a "close looking" poem for our second one, and a memory popped into my head of a guy I knew my freshman year of high school. One day while we were bored he drew on my wrist, a line of barbed wire, like a bracelet. It was a very strange, almost surreal, experience - especially since I had such a crush on him. Putting that down was one of the most scary things I've done in writing because of how incredibly intimate/personal the memory is. (Ha! Not anymore!)

I knew, despite the scary factor, that it was the right thing to do. I was hitting a nerve and that tends to be where the best poetry lies. Not the big "this is why I am what I am" kind of hitting a nerve, like writing an "I have issues with my mom/dad" poem, but digging out that memory that sticks with you even though it was only a moment kind of hitting a nerve. To date, I think it's the best poem I've written (and the class & David agree).

After reading and writing poetry on and off for a few years, maybe I'm finally starting to figure it out. To really get to the good stuff, you have to get to the scary stuff. It's all about taking that which is intensely personal and laying it out, layer by layer. Tough, especially for me, given how private and wrapped up I am.

New Adventures in Poetry-land

"It'll be good."
-David

Tonight begins Eng. 640, a four week summer poetry workshop. I'm a bit apprehensive:

1. Most of the people in this workshop are inexperienced as poets + the misconception that poetry is "easy" = potential for a lot of "I feel" or "I think deep thoughts" poetry.

2. I haven't written any poetry (save random word poetry for Camii) in nearly two years. I'm rusty.

On the bright side, I know a lot of fun people will be in class, so - however, the potential difficulties fall - there should be a good group dynamic.

Estes and Manuscripts

"Okay, we've got you reserved."
-Gal at the cottage place

Tomorrow Keith and I set off on a mini vacation to Estes Park. We're going to stay at a little cottage and do a bit of hiking, a lot of bumming, and take a day trip to the Denver Zoo. I'm quite looking forward to it.

Along on the trip will be the first 141 pages of Deb's manuscript, My Mother's Ghost which she recently pitched to an agent who asked for it, in full. She's now frantically "polishing" it before sending it to the agent, and a handful of us, including Jenny and I, have volunteered to lend a hand. Yes, everyone says that pinning one's hopes on a single agent is silly, the odds are against you and all that. However, the fact that he requested the whole manuscript right off the bat and told her he loved her voice, makes me excited for her.

Speaking of Jenny, she's making some progress with her own manuscript, Following Julia Roberts, which she gave me thirty more pages of on Saturday. Thirty pages is not what I would hope for, but it's a start. I'm giving her quite a hard time about writing more. Right now. For me. Damnit. I may have to update my list of occupations: Student, waitress, SCWP assistant, and Jenny nag.

For my own writing, I've decided to pull back on Oracle and stop submitting it to the group for now. I can't write fast enough to be fair to them, and everyone's losing track of what's-what since I'm constantly changing things as I go, making people say "Huh? I don't remember that from the last chapter." Shame on me. Thus, I've decided to work on the book on my own for now, and spend some time building up my short story pile (which has gone long neglected). I'm two pages into a brand new story, and it's feeling good to think that it'll actually be complete soon, rather than a few years from now.

The Fantasy Novelist's Exam

# 38: Do you see nothing wrong with having two characters from the same small isolated village being named "Tim Umber" and "Belthusalanthalus al'Grinsok"?

http://rinkworks.com/fnovel/

Funny, funny stuff. The good news is, I think I'm only guilty of about two of those. However, according to the exam writer's, one is enough to smack a novelist for. Hrm...

Seriously, though, some of the crimes they list are fairly staple of fantasy stories, I mean, magical artifacts are what it's really all about. Oh, and saving the world, too. It almost doesn't count if the whole world isn't in danger.

April 07 Submission

"It's easier to pull the trigger than play guitar. Easier to destroy than create."
-El Mariachi, Desperado

This submission was one of the pulling teeth chapters where I had to sit there and think, "And what's next?" a dozen times or more. Ugh. However, I made it to 4, 023 words all together and I even managed to print it out. Thus, it is only Saturday and my submission is completely and utterly ready to go. Compared to the past few months, I'm on a roll.

Oracle: The Jist

There's a lot of fantasy that deals with magic, but little (at least that I've seen) that puts the emphasis on religion instead. So, that's what my focus is in Oracle. The disaster the heroes have to avert is basically an old god trying to reassert his power - which, unfortunately makes people crazy and sick. Toloth is the god of magnets/magnetism and unbalances living things, which is why there's a problem. His stronghold is a new electric mill (a water powered electric generator) in the most remote part of the country/continent. The country the heroes are in is roughly similar to the late 1800's, early 1900's, think more western than medeival. The country is divided up into a handful of provinces, each ruled by a noble family.

New Gods:
Nyma - goddess of water and life
Liusaidh - goddess of warfare and fire
Ordin - god of gold, earth, and tradition

Old Gods:
All have been replaced by the new gods, except for Toloth who is trying to come back.

Primary Characters:
Jalena - Nyman priestess, created the "holy" sword and dagger that are Nyma's weapons on earth, and something of a prophet.
Arnell - Mercenary hired to track Jalena down, has a change of heart and teams up with her, Kelda, Devyn, Stefanee and Dorian.
Kelda - A red-skinned healer who heals by manipulating the flow of blood in someone's body, the result of an immaculate conception when her mother tried to summon Nyma.
Devyn - Kelda's adoptive father and a woodsman, used to be a Liusaidhan, but now follows Nyma.
Nolan - A tavern owner whose wife left him and their daughter, Gwyn. Also, he's the one Jalena gave the sword and dagger for safe keeping.
Gwyn - Nolan's daughter and Sedge's lover, trained to fight by Nolan and as good a swordsman as Sedge.
Sedge - Born of a noble family, ran when his father died and found Nolan who offered him a place to stay. He's also the one chosen to bear the holy weapons.
Stefanee - Sedge's younger sister, currently fourteen. Trained in a Liusaidhan temple and adept at her weapons training, has a talent for picking things up quickly.
Dorian - Sedge's younger brother, currently sixteen. Also trained at the Liusaidhan temple, but had no talent for combat. Alligned with Ordin and for years has assumed that Sedge was dead and he was next in line for the succession.
Maeve - Retired mercenary, Stefanee's mentor, and Gwyn's mother/Nolan's wife.
Baylor - The big bad. He's Toloth's high priest and an active recruiter for the cause.
Attun - Orphaned teen poacher, he was taken in by Baylor and eventually became Baylor's most trusted henchman, despite his youth, because of his unquestioning loyalty and keen forester's abilities.

Okay, that's everyone. As you can see, there are a lot of characters. Most of them have POV chapters, too, which makes life interesting. It's a lot of fun, though, to switch perspectives, because the tone of an Arnell chapter is much different than that of a Kelda chapter. One of the best things anyone has said about Oracle was when Nicole was talking about how much she likes the characters, she said something like "Whenever I'm reading a Stefanee chapter, I always think how I wish the whole novel were written from her POV. But then, when I read the next chapter, in someone else's POV, I think the whole thing should be in their POV."

Going on two years now. Yeesh, I'm so glad to finally be getting close to the end. Then it's just a matter of starting to edit, which will be almost as much work as writing the thing in the first place, thanks to all the changes to character, setting, and plot I'll be making. However, once the first draft is finished, I am not only allowed, but encouraged, to let the thing sit in a box for a few months. I can't wait.

April Oracle

"How's that for a reunion?"
-Arnell, current chapter of Oracle

I'm feeling a bit please with myself because I added about three and a half pages to my next submission in about an hour this morning. My total page count is now at five. Nothing astonishing, I know, but good for me. This weekend is writers' group weekend and I'm ahead of where I usually am at this point. Go me!

Now that I'm getting to the climax, I'm struggling with what to write next. I'm still not exactly sure how I want the pieces to fall together or who will come out a hero and who will come out dead. Of course, it seems like each submission I have this problem, the "what makes this part important?" problem. This chapter is important because Stefanee finally meets up with her long-lost older brother and because it leads up to his attempt to break out of where he's being imprisoned by Baylor.

As I get closer and closer to the big show down, the problem of what to do with Dorian keeps nagging at me. Ugh.

WM Exerpt

Here's what I wrote at our last stop which was on the Arkansas River. It's messy, I know. This is the rough draft right out of my notebook:

The bridge support tells me LOVE and don't get me wrong, I'm all for love, but I find it odd that none of the officially sanctioned murals along the river say anything about love, only the grafitti. Official murals:
Irish Club
Recyle, Reuse, Reduce 4R Planet
I Walk on This Earth
econo

The only one that comes close seems like it's a quote from somewhere, though I can't peg it. "The biggest expression of a civilization is not art but the supreme tenderness that can be between human beings. Art proceeds out of an exquisite awareness of life." I wonder, though, if it isn't a quote, but the artist's own words. Maybe I should Google it and see if anything comes up.

To our left, a kayaker makes his or her way upstream and Nicole asks, "Is kayak a palindrome?"

LOVE painted on the bridge support in clumsy red letters that have to be at least ten feet high. LOVE is bigger than I am.

On the train bridge that goes across the Interstate just after Abriendo, I think this same person has been at work.

LOVE, HOPE, and WONDER have all appeared there, painted over soon enough with grey. Once, the words were DANNY GLOVER. The best part, though, is seeing one word sometimes become another. I remember seeing HOPE morph into WONDER. LOVE became DANNY GLOVER. It's all connected, see?

WM Highlights

"I am a friend to the bottle of gravy..."
-Kevin, during the read around (hilarious, by the way)

After the yada-yada of "This is what a writing marathon is" and passing around the sign-in sheet, we got down to writing. We started as a big group and got a writing prompt which followed a reading out of Natalie Goldberg's book Laying Down the Bones (or something similar). The prompt was to start out "I am a friend to __" and insert inanimate objects. It made sense in context, I promise. I didn't use the prompt, non-conformist that I am, but Kevin did, and his piece was mundo humorous.

"You coming with us?"
-Constance

Then we split up. My group: John (from the writers' group in Springs), Nicole, Constance, and Dan (one of Constance's students). We went to three different spots all-in-all and had a grand ole time. Writing marathons are fun. I may try to organize an impromptu one for some folk from the Springs writers' group and/or whoever on campus might be interested. I got about a page down each time we wrote, so four, and started three brand-new stories.

"Hey Michael, good news. They've got sausage."
-Me, to my very gay friend

We all met back at Angelo's Pizza Parlor for free pizza - which was very, very tasty - and the read around - which was interesting in spots. Some of the writing was quite good. Some was a bit inappropriate. The topper was from a woman who's notorious on campus for being a general nut job and was essentially about how she wants to get some and nobody's interested. Great. I'm so glad she shared that. Crazy woman.

"I'll have one too."
-Nicole, who mirrored my drink orders tonight. She regretted the Grand Marnier.

Afterwards, most people went to my bar. I opted not to because they asked me to come in tonight, on my night off (the first night off I've actually gotten after I asked for it in a few months) and I didn't want to go as a patron and get the guilt trip about not being there as a waitress. However, Nicole had no problem splitting off so we went to Gus's where Keith met up with us. Much fun, and not as much alcohol, was had and it's now after eleven and I just dropped Nicole off at home not too long ago. Sure, eleven's not that late by most standards, but it's a whole lot later than I've been out any time lately. As Keith would put it, I'm weak sauce.

Anyhow, I'm so very glad I did the marathon. I've got the seeds for a few new stories, and got to have some social time with some fun people. Did I mention the free Angelo's pizza? Mmm...

Random Word Poetry

"It's the sort of website that makes you want to go and write a Sestina, and that can't be bad."

-The Oracular Journal

A few semesters ago, during a poetry workshop with David, he assigned a nifty exercise. He gave us a list of words he'd pulled out of some poems. Then he said we had to use X number of them in the next thing we wrote for class. Now, Camii and I do the same thing in our letters to each other. For a while, we've forgotten to, but this last time I said, "Holy smokes! We need random word poetry!"

Here's an example, from part of my last letter to Camii, of what that looks like. In her response, she'll create some poetry from my list and send another list or two for me to use.

Writing Marathon

"Hello Writers!

I hope that you all are well! Attached is a flier announcing our upcoming Writing Marathon on April 21 from 3:00-7:00."
-Part of an e-mail Katherine sent out

This weekend we're having the 5th or so Writing Marathon. This'll be the first one for me. I'm excited. I've been slacking on my non-school writing lately, and this will force me to do some. Since I'm the one taking reservations, I know who'll be there and I'm looking forward to hanging out with them. Besides, there'll be free food at the end of it. Hoorah!

The Chapter of Much Foreboding

"Yes! An Arnell chapter, I'm happy. Oh, and don't worry about the middle part. I'm sure you'll figure it out."
-Jenny

Last month I slacked and didn’t turn in an Oracle submission to the writers group. This month, I can’t – because twice in row is just bad. Yesterday I managed to sit down for a while in front of my computer and now I’ve got almost three pages, which isn’t too bad for a start. The story is growing more difficult, now that I’m getting close to the climax. I’ve always had a fuzzy idea of how it’d work, but now I have to work out the details – like who’s going to get killed in the fight. So far, I’ve killed two women and a male fetus, so in fairness’ sake, I’m going to have to knock off one of the guys, but who?

Devyn (Kelda’s step-father) is an obvious choice, so he can’t be it.
Dorian (weasely kid) would be out of the way if he died, so I’ve got to keep him. Convenient deaths are annoying.
Sedge (hero) is kind of obvious.
Arnell (mercenary) would make sense, but too many people like him, besides, if he ends up pulling a martyr, that’d be against everything I’m trying to do with his character.
Attun (mentally unwell youth) is so immediately in peril, that there’s little way he could survive.

I can’t figure out who I can kill off without people seeing it coming. Damn it. Of course, there is the Joss solution – decide who’s death will make the audience most angry, then kill that person. In which case, Arnell is doomed. *Sigh*

Of course, the even more immediate problem is what’s going to happen in this chapter. As I told Jenny, I know how it begins, and roughly how it ends, but I’m really unsure about the pages in between. I guess there’s nothing for it, but to sit down and write it out.

Writer’s block is just another way of saying “lazy.”

Birthday and Manuscripts

"I'm thinking the final chapter total will be around 12-14. I have it about to the beginning of Chapter 9 and after that is what I'm thinking of as the "Brandon Chapter" where it's an excerpt from the manuscript. I'm worried that it's a little too short, so I'm debating about what I want.... "
-Jenny, E-mail

I finished the part of Jenny's manuscript that she's given me and now eagerly await the rest. I'm relieved that I was able to get through the chunk I had so quickly. I feel a radiating sense of accomplishment. Hoorah for me! Okay, ego trip over. It's interesting to see a manuscript (more or less all at once) of a novel. This is the first time I've had the experience and I think it's fun. What'll be even more fun is seeing it get published - Go Jenny!

In other news, today's my brother's birthday. It's funny, too, that my parents are out of town and he's still in Springs, and when I tried to call him, he didn't answer. So, yes, it's the anniversary of my brother's birth, but we're far from rolling out the confetti.

Now, cross your fingers for me, because I had a case of the dizzies this morning and I'm afraid another bout of Vertigo might be rolling over me. Damnit, the last one was only two months ago, this isn't fair at all. But, maybe, just maybe, the dizziness from this morning is isolated. Cross your toes, too.

Writerly Blogs

"In which Miss Snark vents her wrath on the hapless world of writers and crushes them to sand beneath her T.Rexual heels of stiletto snark."
-Miss Snark's Blog description

For a while now, I've heard Deb talk about the agent and editor blogs she reads on a regular basis. So, I've decided to check some of them out. You'll see I've added links to two of them on the sidebar. Funny stuff, and very informative. Go read them. Now.

February 2007 Meeting

"I just wasn't interested."
-Part of Oliver's critique of he who shall remain unnamed

I walked in to the back room of Barnes & Noble to find two surprising things:
1. A whole four visitors
2. A member who previously went AWOL, presumed dropped-out

Visitors can be fun, so no worries there. However, I was markedly less pleased to see the returned member. We worked long and hard to chase him away, damnit! Why am I so mean? He wrote a saga about a twelve-year-old girl prodigy hero who had, like mood swings, vast changes in character. She often went from whiny sprat to the gal all the adults followed within the distance of only a paragraph. There were other problems, too, some of which were kinda creepy – like how the EVIL spaceship captain was going to rape her. It just wasn’t right. Whenever you are an adult male writing about a twelve-year-old girl threatened with rape, you must tread very carefully. Not to mention that he stayed with the rape/violence to young gals in a handful of short stories he submitted to the group after giving up on the space saga. A bit disturbing. Now he’s back. On the bright side, he did mention that he might move to one of the other groups. I’ve got all my fingers, and toes, crossed for that one.

The good news is that our own child (okay, not child, he’s legal) prodigy, Oliver, has returned after missing two months to go sing and be at a sibling’s birthday party. Also fortunate was his critique of another member’s submission. Brief note on this other member – he’s arrogant, condescending, and writes poorly (excellent combination). So, hearing Oliver’s critique was definitely a high point. While very smart, Oliver lacks tact, so while you can count on him to make good points in a critique, you can also count on him to sound a bit insulting – not intentional, but still there. He’s known to make comments like, “this annoyed me” or “I just didn’t care if he died.” Great fun.

During dinner after the meeting, we got on the topic of a group romance novel Jenny got some of us English majors started on a few years ago during a night at the bar. The hilarious part was that each person would take their portion right up to the point where things were about to get dirty, then pass it on. The next person would then do a fake out in the lines of “but just then, her father walked in…” then build up to getting dirty and pass it. This wasn’t planned, but things just worked out that way, much to our entertainment. She’s planning to take some seeds from that night to create a whole novel, the outline of which sounds hilarious. I told her she should start it ASAP, but she was being obstinate and talking about some other project she wanted to do first. Bah!

However, those of us at dinner decided to honor the endeavor by creating our own multi-authored romantic saga. Starting with Oliver, one person each month will write a sequential chapter of the novel. It should be fun.

The Red Button

"Delete this blog"
-blogger.com

A while back, I started a "writerly" blog, thinking it'd be my professional type blog. One I could refer people to and say, "Look how well I can talk about writing, there's my vast knowledge." The only problem, I hardly ever updated it. Now I can label. Now anyone who wants to expose themselves to my vast knowledge has it in their power to just click on the "Writing" button and immediately pluck out the relevant posts. Viola!

I have to say, though, I quite liked the blog name "The Greater Conversation." Oh well. Life goes on.