Award Goodness

So my friend Rena, aka the Liz with the Dragons, has nominated me for an award. Awards are fun, and I always enjoy talking about myself, so here we go!

The rules:

• paste the award badge to your blog, 
• give us 11 random facts about yourself, 
• answer the 11 questions, 
• and choose your nominees

 Since I am not sure I can think of random facts about myself everyone wants to know, we're skipping right to the questions, m'kay? M'kay.

a.        What naive misconception did you have about writing books when you started

That your "process" was a static thing. Once you found your magical process at the end of a rainbow, that was it. Just, lather rinse repeat for every single book, forever and ever.

This is so not the case. I always try new things, partially because I am always trying to find a better way to do something, and also because the same thing doesn't work for each book. Some ideas I spend a lot of time working on the character, while the next book I might not have to work hard at all. 

This isn't to say that I don't spend equal time working on character, plot, and setting, just that some things come easier than others, but what things are easy and what is hard changes with each book.  
 

b.      What is your favorite part of writing? 

That warm, bubbly feeling in the pit of your stomach when you're writing and the rest of the world disappears. Your fingertips are flying across the keyboard and the words come easy.

I also really love brainstorming new ideas.

 

c.       What is the one thing you would change about publishing and why?

Wow, what a can of worms! Most of the business practices of publishing are there because they need to be, I think (please lay down your pitchforks). But there's a lot of things that could be done far more efficiently, and I think the new computer tracking systems make it hard to build a career. 

 

d.      Do you have an inspiration list? Can you give us a sample? 

I use music and pictures to inspire me, especially during the brainstorming stage of a project.

Pinterest is excellent for the picture aspect. Here are my boards. All of them are for a book idea. Some of those ideas are really far developed (Deja Vu and Sanctuary for example), but other ideas have been really slippery, so I actually used Pinterest in attempts to brainstorm (What the Water Gave Me for example). 

As for the music aspect, that's why Job invented iTunes. I make playlists for each book idea, and I have a separate playlist called The Idea Mine that's nothing but songs I find inspiring. A few of those songs are:

"A Question of Heaven" by Iced Earth

"Snuff" by Slipknot

"What the Water Gave Me" by Florence and the Machine (if you couldn't already tell from Pinterest) ;)

"Talons" by Bloc Party

and "Daisy" by Brand New

Tangent: there is an excellent Whedonverse music video to Daisy...

 

e.       If you were a super villain, what would be your fatal flaw? 

Hubris, for that is everyone's fatal flaw.

Other than that, it would be over thinking everything. I would try to run a Xanatos Gambit, over think all the possibilities, and never get anything done. I would be the less effective supervillain ever.

f.       If you were a super hero, what would be your super power? 

I would be the superhero that pulls all the other superheros together. When the chips are down and all hope seems lost, I would be the plucky sidekick that gives a rousing speech about friendship or courage or nachos that kicks the Moody Superhero off his/her butt and saves the day.

If I was short inspiration that day, I would just crib Aragorn's speech. He wouldn't mind, I'm sure.

 

g.      If you could go on a trip to a tropical island but you didn’t get to pack anything before you left, would you go?

Yes.

If you asked the same question about the Arctic Tundra the answer would be no. I figure, a tropical island, I could just buy whatever I needed there. Arctic Tundra, not so much.

Now for the nominees:

Joe Selby
Liz Davis
Charity Bradford (who also has a book coming out soon, that you should read because it's AMAZING)

...and anyone else that wants to answer these questions. Let us know in the comments section if you're game, so we can visit and see!

Nominees, because Rena asks awesome questions, I am going to ask that you answer the same ones. :D

Pictures of the Baby!

This is not a real post.

It's Saturday and I've been up since 7 and I actually slept really well, and this is a run on sentence but who cares because it's Saturday!


So here I am, posting pictures of the baby because he's starting to look like a little person!

Enjoy!

Tonight, we feast on parrot!

Why won't this leg come off?

Happy baby is happy!

Mush yon baby! Mush!

Really Mr. Mammoth? And then what happened?

My toes are my friends, my toes are my friends!

Seal baby!

This is Grade A sock right here.

The Great Juggling Act

My friend Linda mentioned that she can't juggle more than a few things at once without feeling frantic, which got me thinking.

I can juggle several things at once. I used to pride myself on my abilities to multitask. But I looked at my daily practices, really looked at them, and now I wonder if we as a society should attempt to juggle a bajillion things at once.

Granted, in some cases it's necessary. I know that for a fact trying to juggle a baby with cooking and housework, and oh yeah, dinner, and let's not forget Elizabeth needs to write at least a few times a week if not every day to maintain basic sanity.

But when did we start feeling like not only we had to do it all, but all at once?

In some cases multitasking is a boon. Last night I loaded the dishwasher, cooked dinner, and cleaned out the fridge at the same time. With the time saved, I finished watching season four of Heroes with my husband (more on that train wreck later). 

In other cases, multitasking actually hurts. Imagine trying to write a novel at the same time as reading one. Or walking in the park. I'm not saying that people aren't capable of it (although walking and writing at the same time strikes me as hazardous to your health). But why would you want to? Shouldn't some tasks be awarded your complete attention? I don't know about you, but I want to get lost in a book. When writing, I want to be completely in the zone. When walking, I want to pay attention to the birds and the trees and the breeze on my face.

Some things deserve no less than your complete attention.

What about you? Do you prefer to try and get it all done at once, or one thing at a time?










 

 

No Flying Cars to be Found

This post is going to be scattered, since there's lots of little things I want to say. So I am going to put it in one post. If you get confused, just pretend a squirrel on coffee wrote the post while having an epileptic fit, m'kay?

*Yes, I am still pregnant. I am scheduled to be induced on Thursday. So either the baby decides to come before, or I'll have to evict him then. I am mostly trying to ignore the contractions I am having, since wondering every few hours "AM I IN LABOR?" will drive me insane. My parents and in laws however, are not relaxing as well, and thus I have had to tell them to not ask me every time I call if I am in labor.

*You need to check out this post by my friend Joe. You need to. Then, you really need to read the Brian Brushwood/Teller correspondence he linked to. It's amazing and insightful, and yeah. If I could force words into your brain, it would be this correspondence.

*My husband found this last night: 9 Essential Skills Kids Should Learn. I teased him that he was already Googling child-rearing techniques, but his story is he found the site through another essay this guy wrote. Even if you're not gearing it towards raising kids, I think considering these skills is a good idea. Because there's a surprising corollary to 9 Essential Skills--- How "The Karate Kid" Ruined the Modern World.

*I am editing my ghost book, and beta reading another book, and I am enjoying this back and forth between the two. It's been very enjoyable. Have I mentioned I'm enjoying it?


*Back to the pregnancy thing: it really really irritates me just how poorly it's shown in movies and television. I know, I know. Elizabeth, it's not real. Even reality TV isn't real. Why expect realism? But it's something about HOW wrong they get it that bothers me. You see a woman touch her belly and say "It's time" and then they go to the hospital where she screams at her husband and then, POOF, baby. There's nothing about the broad spectrum of in between. I don't think it would kill producers to just be a little more realistic, if only so women don't suffer from these shattered illusions when they actually experience it for themselves (like, I don't know, having labor pains on and off for a WEEK). It would be like, I don't know, every movie showing flying cars. And then when you go buy a car for yourself, NONE of them fly. Not a single one. Do your research people. Not sure I am making sense anymore, but yeah. I had to get that off my chest. 

In summation: pregnancy/labor as shown on TV and movies? Nothing like a flying car.

*I am pretty sure there was something else, but of course I've forgotten it. It will come to me while I am in the middle of showering or driving or doing something that prevents me from jotting it down. I can only apologize. 

UPDATE: Oh yeah, I remember. I was going to complain about how the magical power of eggplant has failed me. But that's pretty obvious isn't it? And you'd probably just scoff at me for putting my faith in the magical powers of a vegetable. Because really, if eggplant induced labor for reals, they'd tell us not to eat it until the end of the pregnancy. I've also tried all of the other old wives tales, minus the castor oil. Because yeah, just look up what castor oil actually DOES. No thank you.

Uppity Updates!

Just in case you were all wondering what's going on, here's some updates on life, the universe, and everything:

*I am overwhelmed by how awesome all of you are. You guys were nice and supportive about my last post, which only proves my point that you guys are awesome. Also, let's see how many times I can use the word "awesome". It's really awesome that you guys are so awesome. :D


*I wrote this sentence to prove that I have a larger vocabulary than a teenage girl. Actually, that's an unfair statement considering when I was a teenage girl I had a large vocabulary, as did most of the girls I knew. I apologize to teenage girls everywhere.

*I have finished the first draft of Zombie Road Trip. I did not celebrate this occurrence with a blog post, mostly because this draft wins the gold medal of crappiness. I seem to really embrace that whole "crappy first draft" rule. When I say crappy, I am not being modest or hard on myself. We're talking about plot holes the size of the moon, plot threads that went nowhere, a beginning that in no way shape or form matches the middle or the end, and that's just the major stuff. Last year I wrote several first drafts, all of which suck. It seems that this year will be the year of editing these drafts into some semblance of coherence. More on that later.

*I narrowly avoided death yesterday on my way to the OB. A woman was driving and putting make up on. Just, no. No ladies. You're beautiful. You don't have to apply make up while your vehicle is in motion. Really, you don't. At least wait until you get to the parking lot of your destination. And no, waiting at a red light doesn't count. 

*I am 36 1/2 weeks pregnant, and boy am I fat. I had my baby shower this past Saturday and I saw the pictures and wow. Just, wow. It looks like I am smuggling a watermelon under my shirt. Before you guys get all worried or mad at me for calling myself fat, I don't mean it in a "I must now starve myself to keep my girlish figure at 9 months pregnant" way. It's funny, especially since I've always been small. Just when I think my belly can't possibly get any bigger, it does. I am not starving myself; on the contrary, pass me another brownie. It's just that I've gained 30 pounds, and well...it's hilarious. I waddle when I walk. I have a hard time getting off the couch. I out grew my maternity pants and had to buy the next size up. You see? Hilarious.

Fun baby shower game--guess the pregnant woman's belly size! My friend Janice actually guessed it perfectly. Jennifer, the woman in the picture, obviously over shot it by a lot. Thanks Jennifer.

 *Something something something, something something goes here but I forgot what it was.


*I am critiquing two novels and failing miserably. My brain is slush right now, and I can't concentrate for very long, so it's taking forever. I feel horrible, but figured giving the book back with a gigantic smiley face on it wasn't exactly what my crit partners were looking for.

*Holy crap babies make a lot of laundry! I mean, sweet Georgia Brown, he's not even out yet and I've already done two loads of laundry and have about three more to do. Blankets, burp clothes, wash clothes, bibs, clothing, socks (LOTS of teeny baby socks), you name it, I've washed it. 


*No, I am not nesting yet, why do you ask?


*Editing! Yes, it's that time. Last year I wrote a bunch of really, really awful first drafts. This year will be the year I edit them. There's a lot of rewriting in my future. Grid your loins for posts about editing, that's all I've got to say.


*I've downloaded a ton of books on my Kindle. Right now I am reading James Scott Bell's Writing Fiction for All Your Worth and loving it. Reading books on writing puts me in an editing frame of mind, which is great because I am going to need it. Bell has this awesome (there's another one!) makes me want to work on WIP, right away. When I start whining about editing, you guys can remind me I was excited way back when. 

So what are you all up to?

A Hyper Post

I am posting today because I am super hyper! I just got back from my OB's office wherein I drank a super sugary orange flavored drink in about two minutes! This is a real test, and not conducted for my doctor's amusement! They took my blood an hour later to see how my body is processing sugar, to make sure I haven't developed gestational diabetes.


I will get the results in two weeks, but as far as I can tell, my body is processing sugar JUST FINE. Me and the baby are both bouncing off the walls.


WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

*throws glittery sparkles everywhere*

(If I had a way, I would add those glittery, seizure-inducing blinkies you see on MySpace profiles right here. But I do not, so just image the most glittery thing you can.)


Another reason behind my great joy is I am listening to the new Florence and the Machine CD Ceremonials and it's AMAZING. Her first CD Lungs was simply wonderful. I've listened to the entire CD over and over, and it's haunting and beautiful and innovative. So when she announced her newest CD I was excited but a little bit nervous. There's times where an artist puts out a CD or book and it's wonderful, and you wait for the second one only to feel a little disappointed. 


But ladies and germs, Ceremonials is not disappointing in the least. She somehow managed to keep the same sounds that I loved in Lungs but also progressing forward with her music.

This may sound like a paltry reason to some for me to be happyhappyhappy, but you underestimate how much I love music and Florence and the Machine specificly. Music is a book to sound as far as I am concerned and it plays a huge role in my writing. The Ghosts Between Us, a book about a medium trying to stop the ghost of a serial killer I wrote a few months ago, would not be the same if it wasn't for Lungs. It's weird to think about, but sometimes finding the right ambient music can make or break a scene for me (I would go into a long explanation about how I think music is one of the primary ways my subconscious communicates ideas to me, but this post is rambling ENOUGH).

Speaking of my writing, Zombie Road Trip is still coming slowly, but I am pushing through the suck. You guys were great and wonderfully helpful on Tuesday, and I feel like there's hope for me after all. :D

About the writing...I *might* be using this post to procrastinate working on my book...so I guess it's time to get back to work, huh? Yeah, I think so too.


*searches the Internet for pointless timewasters*


What? I thought we agreed I was procrastinating?


Okay, you're right. I am getting back to work now. 


So time to chime in! How's the day going? Have you had any happy surprises this week?

Gee Gee Gee Baby Baby Baby

Guess what! I am sick!
It's the summer. I protest. There should be some sort of law against getting a bad head cold in the summer. Also, there should be an addendum to said law that the punishment is worse if the victim is still in her first trimester. 

Morning sickness + coughing * (lack of sleep^2) body aches - Robitussin Dm + three boxes of tissues and counting = Elizabeth high on cold medicine and unable to string more than two coherent sentences together. 

If I could remember the order of operations I might be able to tell you why my toes are tingling.

Rewriting is going fabulously because I haven't done any in a few days. Too scared to see what my addled brain will cook up. Mostly I've spend my days laying on the couch with my husband, who is also sick (he's the one that shared the virus--he really shouldn't have), watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer on Netflix.

Shocking confession time: I've never seen Buffy or Angel before! I know! I am fixing that right now. It's rather addictive. I feel like I am arriving to a fandom about ten years late. Maybe that's because I am. When I told my husband I'd never seen either series he wanted to know what I did with my time as a teenager.

I read books. Also, I wrote some. I didn't watch a lot of TV, and still don't. 

I tried to post yesterday and tell you guys why you weren't getting a coherent post from me, but about halfway through this post I got distracted and I forgot about it. 


Here's a song:

P. S. I like this song prior to the aide of over the counter cough medicine. True story! I think it's cute. I like J-pop (Japanese Pop, even though technically these girls are Korean so it would be considered K-pop) a lot.


P. P. S. I was going to say something, but I forgot while I was typing the first P.S.


P. P. P. S. I remember now. I was going to make a joke by adding a tag that didn't belong to this post, but then I figured only I would notice/find it funny. First I was going to use the tag "zombie apocalypse" but then I thought it might actually apply since my cold could be the first wave of the virus that will create the zombie apocalypse. (Also, I don't know why I have some of the tags I do. Seriously, why does "Bigos" get it's own tag? It's just a dish I make.)


Okay, so I looked through my tags, and it's no go. Even the ones that don't fit would just seem like I hit the wrong button. I mean, if I tag this post "lolcats" even though there aren't any cats in this post (just Korean girls and a confusing math equation) it won't be funny. Not in the ironic way I was hoping for. So the tag thing is a bust. Sorry. 


P. P. P. P. S. I didn't want to end the post on such a downer. So I added another PS. Although I wonder, adding more "Ps" to the P.S., that's not a real thing right? It's just something people do so you get the point that it's another added message but separate from the first. 


Have a great day!

My Book and My Baby

I promise I am not going to make every post about being pregnant, guys. I swear. But I've always thought of this blog as about more than just the nuts and bolts of writing, but also life that comes with it.

And right now, life is going through some pretty big changes. Being a writer, I compare a lot of what I am going through with writing and getting a book deal. The feeling of disbelief. The shocking realization that this is happening, and within a set period of time.

And my favorite, the feeling that I have no clue what I am doing. 


The interesting thing is that even though pregnancy is something you hear everyone talk about, there's a whole lot of stuff I am experiencing that never gets mentioned. Then something happens, like for example, my hips have been killing me lately, and I think there's something wrong with me. Until I check with my books, and it turns out it's completely normal.


It's a good lesson for doing your research I think. There's a lot of general information about things that "everyone" knows, but when you get to the daily life of a doctor, a mental patient, and a pregnant woman (those last two may be connected) there's a slew of stuff that no one ever talks about. 


So here are some funny observations:


*Morning sickness is a misnomer. Lately I am sick to my stomach all day. For a few days last week I was having dry heaves the very second I woke up. I couldn't even eat a cracker without gagging. It was water, water, water until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon. Luckily that's getting better.

*Which brings me to the next point. You assume your level of queasiness is going to stay the same for the rest of the first trimester. How how naive I was. Last week I was sick to my stomach all day and couldn't eat a thing until the evening. This week it's getting a little better.


*Food aversions. The weirdest things will make you sick to your stomach. Usually it's not until I put the food in my mouth too, will I know if I want to eat it or not. This makes ordering in a restaurant adventurous at best.


*Body aches. Because of the hormones coursing through your veins, your body will ache. Just...everywhere. I can't sleep on one side for very long before it starts to hurt my hip and shoulder. Also I'll get hot and cold and hot again and then cold.


*People over sharing. You would be very surprised how many people have told me their miscarriage horror stories. Most people are trying to help reassure me that it's "totally normal" but seriously, folks. I don't need to hear about that right now. I am still in the first trimester. That's like, Valley of the Shadow of Death for miscarriage. I am taking my prenatal vitamins, eating healthy, not drinking caffeine, and generally doing everything I can to be healthy. But there's still only so much control I have over things. And since I don't want to be a crazy person, I am just not thinking about the Bad Things that could happen. There's no sense in becoming neurotic.

*Have I mentioned that we're also looking at houses? Yeah, we're going to move sometime this year, depending on how quickly the house hunting goes.

*Have I also mentioned that my best friend Melissa is getting married December 3rd? I am the Matron of Honor (that sounds so old, but I am married, so no longer a "maid"). I will be in my third trimester then, and probably huge. Finding a nice dress is going to be...interesting. It's also funny how people act like I will totally be incapacitated and unable to help her with the wedding. I'm pregnant, not dead. 


*Fatigue. This one's a killer, especially for my writing. Imagine that you're moving and you have to pack everything in one day. The next day, you have to move all your stuff and unpack it. Let's also say that you didn't get any sleep at all for a few nights in a row, and your day job is as a construction worker. This scenario barely scratches how tired I am. I still have a day job, so some days it's all I can do to just go to work (which is physically demanding). I've spend a lot of nights on the couch trying to perfect my Jedi mind tricks so I can will the fruit over to me. So while it's been a challenge, I've still managed to make progress on my book.


Because I want to try to be completely done and querying before I go into labor. I am nine weeks right now, so that gives me 7 months to finish rewriting, pass it off to the beta readers, implement beta reader feedback and then start querying. That should be plenty of time, but we all know how life likes to creep up on us. Did I mention moving and a wedding, for starters?


The really great news is that despite all of these funny things, I am still making very steady progress on the book. I rewrite at least a scene a day, and two days ago I managed to write 7k. The tiredness and malaise kicked in, and I didn't feel like doing anything. 


So I just wrote, since it's my first escape.


So there you have it. An update on my book and my baby.


How are all of you dealing with your projects? How do you deal with life's curve balls?

A New Reality TV Show: Writing a Novel

Reality TV show given to people who just had lots of kids. My show is in the bag.

Guys, I just had the greatest idea.

Reality TV is here to stay. We all know that. They will give anyone a reality TV show if they do something halfway interesting. Sometimes not even then.

But I've thought about an untapped market in the reality TV realm.

Writers. Writing books.

Imagine how gripping it would be to watch a writer furiously typing away at the keyboard. Imagine the tension as the writer pounds his head against his (or her) desk trying to remember the name of those boxes built into the wall that hold firewood indoors.

You'll watch day by day as the writer gets the brilliant idea for their next book. You'll see the sweat pour from their veins as they try to figure out how to make a romance/space western/historical fiction with a hamster as a main character and a velociraptor sidekick work.

This show would follow the writer as they go through rough draft blues. When they want to throw away their book because the edits are eating them alive. The show will document the query process.

Face it folks. Writers are a bunch of crazy people. We're nutty than a bunch of squirrels eating peanut butter on a bed of macadamia nuts. You know it. I know it. Following a writer through their daily routine of typing the words out on the computer? That is high quality drama right there. 

There could be guest agents, sort of like Celebrity Apprentice. The agents could judge the query/book and say things like "This guy has real talent. He's someone to watch." Or they could get an agent like Simon Powell on American Idol who could be all tough love: "I'm not loving it. The words are there, but there's no heart."

One of the guest agents should have fabulous hair, like Donald Trump's.

And then towards the end of every episode, the writer could be all, "I can't do it! I'm a fraud! I DON'T WHERE THE WORDS COME FROM!" And then the writer pulls out his hair like a modern day Van Gogh.

They could get several different writers and follow their career. They could have write offs, contests, specials on pantsers versus plotters.

I will await an email from the major TV networks in order to bring this plan into fruition.

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day everyone!

I hope you're all having a great day, whether you're sitting at home or celebrating with family. 

I have to work today, but a shorter shift than normal, so I am excited.

Rachelle Gardner had a great post about your moment of truth. It really hit home for me, because I am facing a near total rewrite. It's daunting and scary and sometimes I just want to hide under the covers. But I keep going, because I love this story. And I am a writer and this is what we do.

Also, some good news. Remember how I talked about series breaking and Criminal Minds? Friday night my friend Liz texted me that CBS is giving the un-qualified character the axe, and bringing back the other actress. I like to think the network read my post about series breaking and decided to heed my sagely advice. 

Consequently, I am available for writing scripts for the next season, CBS. I shall await your phone call. 

The "Strong" Female Character

We need to talk about something, guys. Something I feel very strongly about. 


There's a plague spreading across the forums and the general community. It's been building for some time, but lately it seems like I can't go anywhere without someone mentioning the "Strong Female Character." As in, a certain author's lack of them. Or how well another author writes them.

Leather pants again?

This is a very sensitive subject, which doesn't actually surprise me. You would think when people talked about strong female characters it would be like talking about any other subject of literature--a strong story arc, or well written scenes, perhaps about setting, or stage direction if the media in question is a movie.

But nothing turns into a sexist gender role discussion quicker than the discussion of Strong Female Characters. It seems like a no-win situation. 

If you're a woman, and you don't write female characters are a bossy, independent woman who "doesn't need a man", doesn't wear dresses, and is generally "one of the guys" (only better) then suddenly you're setting woman's rights back. Heaven forbid you just, you know, write a female character without regards to her gender, and develop her as a person with traits and flaws just like any other character. 

If you're a man, you are also shafted. You can write male main characters all day, but the minute you enter a female character into the mix, she falls under scrutiny. Suddenly, female characters in the male author's books are a symbol of his own opinion of women. If a female character is sexy and self confident, the male author is sexualizing the character into a plaything. If a female character is sassy and headstrong, he's parodying woman who are independent, and God help you if this independent woman character ever gets married. See, the male author really thinks every woman just needs a man.

If she had a man, she'd be smiling even wider!

The aspect I find the most irritating about this entire "strong female character" debate, is these characters are ALWAYS strong in the SAME exact way. She's in charge of her own sexuality, she wears tight leather pants and carries a big gun, she's bitchy and smarts off constantly, and the hallmark trait: the strong female character can kick everyone else's butt.

Don't get me wrong; there's nothing wrong with this type of character. Buffy is the quintessential example, and I love her. I also love Whedon's other female characters, because he seems to grasp that not every female has to be a Warrior Princess to be strong. 

But it annoys me that the implication is we have to turn our woman into men with boobs in order for them to be considered strong. Any other female character is therefore weak. Your Suzy Homemaker types are a disgrace to their gender, and so are the Waifs, the Healers, and the Librarians. Because we all know people can only be strong at one thing, and that's kicking other people's butts and not having the good sense to keep their mouths shut when talking to some huge demon that could squash them like a bug.

My current WiP has two female characters, and while neither of them fit the Buffy-Anita Blake stereotype, I still consider them strong. One of the two characters is actually quite passive and painfully shy, but she knows who she is and she's willing to stand up for her beliefs. She knows what she's willing to die for, and she knows what's important to her. She's not sassy--she blushes when people talk to her. She couldn't fight her way out of a wet paper bag, but that doesn't make her a bad damsel in distress stereotype. And let me tell you, her growth arc is probably going to be more satisfying than my other female character, just because she's moving from a place of feeling helpless and weak, to where she can defend herself and protect what she cares about. 


Where is the "strong" female character's growth arc? It seems if you're going to keep her strong, you have no growth. She can't fall in love, or get pregnant or have a family because then she's playing into a gender role she's trying to shun. She can't be beaten by another person (God help you if it's a male character) because we've already established she's awesome at absolutely everything.  

Awesome at hiding and writing and BREAKING MY HEART

In short, if you're not careful, these so-called strong female characters turn into stereotypes themselves. And here's a secret: those strong female characters you see on TV are still weak and vulnerable. Buffy still had fears and doubts and insecurities because she is a well flesh out character.


Most stories are about a character moving from a place of weakness to a place of power. Every story arc has a power shift in it, and if you boil all acceptable female character types into one narrow focus, you're robbing yourself and others of amazing stories. 


And while I am talking about it, doesn't it defeat the purpose of writing a female character we females can look up to if you're forcing a character to act a certain way JUST because the character is a woman? If you say she MUST act this way to be considered a strong female, aren't you doing the same exact thing men did for hundreds of years prior, when they said woman were only good for making babies and cooking dinner? You're just changing the parameters for the stereotypes, that's all.

From now on, all strong women should be nuns. That will subvert the "married with children" stereotype nicely.

 I am not saying sexism doesn't exist. It does. It's there, we've all experienced it one way or another, men and women. If a man wrote a female character as stupid and slutty, there only for the male main character's needs, the author would be called sexist. So why isn't it just as sexist to say female characters can only be sassy, smart mouthed, butt-kicking, "I only wear pants and I wear them better than men" woman in order to be strong?

Wasn't Anne Frank strong? Wasn't Rosa Parks strong? What about Mother Teresa?

How about the titular character on Bones, Dr. Temperance Brennan? How about Olivia Benson from Law and Order: Special Victims Unit? What about Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender (the show, not the movie. The movie is dead to me.) (for that matter, just about every girl character in that show is awesome, even the psychopathic arch-villainess)?

I am not saying girls don't need better role models than Paris Hilton and Ke$ha, and every other perfect white blond singer/actress on TV who's brainless and just there for the male characters to sleep with. I just don't think having only one role model type is the answer.

Can't we just develop characters and not force them to act a certain way because of their gender or race?

I meant to blog about this before, but Natalie Whipple's excellent post: Strong Female Characters reminded me. So go check out her insightful post as well.

A Lot to Do About Nothing

Song Playing: Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machines (on repeat one)

If you've never heard of Florence and the Machines, I suggest you check her out. Oh my goodness, her entire CD (named "Lungs") just gives me oodles of inspiration. I just love how powerful Florence's voice is, without being harsh. Listening to "Cosmic Love" brings to mind rocky coastlines and cold beaches.

Here's the Youtube link in case you're feeling lazy and : Cosmic Love

Anyway, on to more relevant topics. Or semi-relevant.

I was productive yesterday. I worked on some worldbuilding and plot building for my WIP, I went shopping with my mother, twin brother, and his wife. We did the wander around Barnes and Noble and eat lunch thing, which is always good times. Afterward I watched the new Star Trek movie with my parents. I know, that movie's been out forever now. Remember how we talked about time? And how I prioritize my writing just under the Day Job and my family? Yeah, that means I am usually way behind on movies, unless it's something I rabidly want to see.

I must say, the new Star Trek movie was an interesting reboot of the franchise, especially since I had to explain the concept of "reboot" to my mother. She was irritated they changed so much of what was canon in the original series. There was a vaguely confusing time travel plot, which I content was there just so they could shoehorn Leonard Nimoy into the movie to play Old Spock. I had heard fans complaining about the lens flare in the movie, and while I do like the quality it gave the movie, I agree it was a little much. There were several scenes where I couldn't see anything clearly because of the flare, or the glare from the flare (I'm a poet and I didn't know it) actually hurt my eyes. Not a deal breaker, but certainly annoying.


I also watched "Inglourious Basterds" which was much better than I feared. I am hot and cold with Tarantino films. Some of them are so bloody and violent I have a hard time following the plot, but this film seemed like a good balance between plot and Tarantino's trademark bloody scenes.

The dialogue is excellent, and I really enjoyed how the movie was broken up into little short stories that tied everything together. It was an interesting way to bring so much plot lines together. I was most impressed with his use of suspense in this movie. It's not your average sort of "girl walks down shadowy hallway" suspense, but more focused on characters hiding secrets. In one scene, a German SS officer Hans Landa is talking to an woman, who we know to be an escaped Jewish woman. Landa was there when she escaped, but didn't really see her face, so we're left wondering if he knows who she is, and if he's going to attack her or what. All over some coffee and strudel.

It was also fun to watch with my father, who HATES subtitles with a passion. And for those of you who have seen "Inglorious Basterds" the movie is more subtitles than English. The characters go between French, German, and English. Dad can't read subtitles as quickly as I can, so I wound up reading 3/4's of the movie out loud to him. I even tried to do different voices, and put inflection in my voice during long conversations between characters.

The reason why I brought the movie up, other than the fact that I wanted to talk about it, is there was a really cool bit of culture in "Inglorious Basterds". It was such a subtle thing, but it made the difference between a German officer recognizing a British Officer posing as a German.

The British Officer ordered three drinks, and held up three fingers: his pointer, middle, and ring finger, using his thumb to hold his pinky down. Like how we all do it, right? If I told you I was holding up three fingers, that's probably what you would imagine me doing.


But that simple gesture blew the British Officer's cover, and wound up getting the lot of them killed. Why?


Because in Germany (according to the movie, I have no idea if this is true or not. I will have to ask my friend Lena**) they hold up their thumb, pointer finger, and middle finger to indicate the number three.


When we write, we chose which details of our world gets let in, and which do not. I think fantasy tends to lend towards the end of over-description because we think since it's not a real world, we need to make sure people can see what we're describing.


It's important for your reader to picture your setting, but equally so for fantasy and non-fantasy alike. I have never been to Colorado; consequently, the author describing the setting as "Colorado in the spring" does nothing for me.


But if the author gives me some specific details to the setting, maybe the clear mountain air, the crisp, clean atmosphere, and jagged mountain peaks in the distance, suddenly I am there. It's no different if this place exists solely in your imagination or not. I believe description and sense of place comes out better in the small details, like how a people indicate the number three with their hands, than three hundred pages of beautifully wrought prose.


What about you? What are some ways you attempt to get the culture and setting across in your work without stopping the story?


*thank you wikicommons for the pretty pictures.

**I have asked Lena, and she says yes, it's true. They start counting on their thumbs. Cool!

An Open Letter to My Muse

(Author’s note: My muse is a guy. I don’t know why, it’s just the way it is. *shrugs* And he’s much closer to Puck than Calliope, if you know what I mean.)

Dear Hammerstein,

I know we’ve had our differences in the past. You like to constantly flirt with my female author-friends, leaving me feeling like the third wheel. You always come up with good plot ideas for their stories, but hardly any for mine. If one of my writer friends asks for help coming with something, I have a thousand ideas immediately. If, however, I am trying to figure out how to make some element of my plot fit, it feels like I am cramming a square peg into a circular hole, while you stand on the sidelines chuckling.

To be fair, you do give me excellent character ideas. Yet I hardly have any ideas for the corresponding plot, which is problematic because characters need to DO something. I am the only one who is perfectly willing to read about my characters sitting in the kitchen drinking coffee. Is this how you get your kicks? Giving me a great character dynamic, but I’ll be darned if I can think of a proper plot to drop them in?

So I am writing this letter to you today to ask: What gives?

What have I ever done to you?

I feed you chocolate and cookies. Sometimes I stare at the computer screen, or lately, the printed pages in front of me, sure that chocolate will solve the problem. I read lots of books, about all kinds of cool subjects. I dutifully write down various bits of ideas, even though most of them are half baked at best, because of that one time you pulled two completely unrelated ideas together to make something really cool.

Those were good times. Now I am convinced that maybe someday you will combine two ideas again, so presently I have lots of little snippets in my idea folder.

I recently made a break through with my writing process thanks to your insight, so I know you’re still there. One of your favorite methods of idea delivery seems to be through my dreams, leading me to believe you must be Morpheus’s distant cousin (which is really cool, by the way), but this is problematic as well. Characters need to have some sort of purpose. I am all for cool scene ideas, really I am, but those scene have to exist within an entire book. I wish you would also enlighten me as to the context of the rest of the book those scenes go in. That would be really helpful.

I try to be a good author, I swear. I don’t just “wait for inspiration to strike”. I know you fired your last author because she was lax in her duties, and never showed up for your meetings. I try to have my butt in the chair at the same time everyday, and keep working through problems, even if the solution doesn’t immediately present itself.

I try to avoid those slutty new ideas too, that tempt me away from current works in progress. I drink lots of water and take my vitamins. I exercise regularly. I would drink milk, but I am lactose intolerant, so I save my dairy consumption for ice cream. You have already approved this.

So what gives? Is there someone else? Have you found another, younger author? I know I am not getting any younger, but I was hoping our relationship meant something more than just a pretty face to you. I had hoped all those moments of inspiration, coming to me like bolts of lightening, were your way of telling me you cared. Maybe I am just being naïve. Sometimes, when we meet up for brainstorming sessions, I could swear there’s another author’s font all over you. I can’t turn a blind eye anymore. I can’t pretend that I don’t notice that you’re out all night, always “working late”. I went to your house the other day, and your brother Ira was there with a heartbroken look on his face.

I just can’t do this anymore. The books are suffering because of it. It’s not me, it’s you. It’s time for us to part ways. I hope we can still be civil, but I am just too hurt right now to be friends. I’ll give all of your stuff to Ira; he’s been a better Muse to me than you ever have, and I’m not even his author. I am keeping the ideas we shared. We shouldn’t make them pay because we can’t get along anymore.

It’s time for me to move on.

Yours truly,
Elizabeth Poole

The Ultimate Quest

Song Playing: Holy Diver by Dio

***Warning: Extreme dorkyness ahead***

Yesterday I embarked on a noble quest. This is a quest I think we writers all take at least once in our career. This quest gripped me throughout most of the day. It started innocently enough. I was working on my laptop, which has an older version of MS Word than my desktop. Some of my favorite fonts are not on it, as a result. So I thought I would download them.

Any of you who have been on this quest before…well, you know what happened next…

I typed “free font downloads” and hours later, I emerged with fourteen new fonts. I did not find a free download of Georgia, or Book Antiqua, or Gill Sans, or Century, like I was looking for (I assume now that you can’t download them for free, after some thought about copyrights and such). Instead, I found other fonts to fill the void that Georgia and Century had left. Cool fonts. One of my new ideas is about an exorcist’s apprentice, and I thought “Wouldn’t it be cool if I have a gothic-looking font for this project?”



I have several gothic-looking fonts now, but the problem is most of them are not going to be easy to write a novel with. I could use some as headers, but they aren’t good for writing long documents, like books. Some of them are really busy, some are super teeny-tiny (seriously, font-designers, what’s up with squishing words together? Don’t you know how hard that is to read? Especially after hours of staring at the computer screen?), some of them look like they are in all caps, and some of them are so dark they look like someone made them with the “bold” button on. It’s hard to see how a font is going to work out with just a sample sentence, which is why I wound up with so many fonts and so few actual contenders for the Gothic Font of Choice.

I have three qualities that I look for in fonts that I write a book in:

*Medium sized. I can’t stand those teeny fonts or the really big ones that fit roughly two words per page.

*Clean. They need to be clean to look at. If the font is too busy or distracting, I see the words on the screen in front of me, and have a harder time getting into the “zone” to write. Fonts guilty of being too busy for my taste include: Bradley Hand, Castellar, Copperplate Gothic, and Curlz MT. Calisto MT is borderline for me. Sometimes I think it’s just over the line of being too busy and cutesy, and sometimes I think it can come and play with it’s big brother Georgia.



*Pretty to look at. This is subjective, of course, but I want it to have some decoration without it being too distracting. Too many curly-cues and flair to the letters and I look at the words (I am looking at you, Bradley Hand. I think most writers had that thought, “Hey, I am a writer, but I am using a computer. Why not use Bradley Hand? It’s like handwriting on the computer!”…two minutes later, you get annoyed with how the words look and you stumble across trusty old Verdana, or perhaps Book Antiqua and never look back). I fell in love with Book Antiqua first, and now I am stuck in a Georgia phase. I also like to use Century, Palatino Linotype and Bookman Old Style.



I tried Century Gothic to fill my gothic font needs, but it’s a little plain. Century Gothic looks more like a font I would edit in, not write with. Franklin Gothic Book is nice, but again with the too small and squished together problem. I thought about Constantia, though this one might be too dark, I haven’t decided yet. Bookman Old Style is nice, and a contender for the prize.



Despite the fonts I downloaded, I am not sure if I have found the perfect font yet. Some of the pretty fonts I downloaded (I am not going to link back to where I downloaded them. I am not a 100% sure you won’t get a virus (although I did check the website before I downloaded anything), and then come and blame me. So just Google them if you want to look at them):

*Daybreaker: This looks like it’s all in bold, but it’s relatively clean to read. It has an almost faded look to it in 12pt, but I would have to make the size larger if I wanted to write a book with it. It looks like a vampire wrote it, that’s the best way I can describe it.

*SF Gothican: This one is on the small side as well, but very clean to read, and about as dark as Georgia is, which is my preference. It’s downfall is it’s a little busy. It almost looks like script in 12 pt. I am still considering this one.

*Gothikka: This font is similar to Gothican, but it’s a little cleaner to read. It’s just as small as Gothican though, so I would have to write with it in larger size than 12pt, which is really annoying. It’s on the borderline of whether I think it too busy or not.

*Lombardic: this font looks like medieval lettering. It’s medium intensity, but the letters are too busy to write a book with. It’s a contender for my title page though.

*Letter Gothic: I might use this one, or at least to edit with it. It’s very clean, but the spacing is sparse. It’s like a prettier version of Courier, for those of you who thought “Man, I wish Courier was just a bit prettier, but still looked like a typewriter made it.”

Because face it, Courier is a little plain.

*Elphinstone: I love this font. It had a cool name, it’s clean, decorative without being too busy. My main complaint is the tails to the letters don’t drop down all the way, so it can be a little confusing, and once again, it’s small to read in 12 pt. It’s also reads more like script and less like typing, so that could be good or bad. Overall, a great font.

The next three fonts aren’t gothic-looking, but I downloaded them because they were pretty.

*GF Halda Normal: this font is on the darker side, and looks like handwriting, but with very sparse spacing and lettering. If Lucida Handwriting and Courier had a love child, Halda Normal would be it. I am not sure if I would use this to write a book though, because it’s looks so much like handwriting, I am not sure if I would be distracted or not. We shall see.




*Hansa: this font is clean and resembles handwriting as well. If Lucida Handwriting cheated on Courier to have a love child with Papyrus, this is the font they would have. This is like a nicer, more respectable version of Papyrus.

*Swansea: this is a really nice font. It’s pretty and clean, similar to Century, but a little darker. I will definitely use this one in the future.

So my quest for the perfect font to write my new book in is still ongoing, which is fine since I have editing to do anyways. At the moment I am considering: Century Gothic, Letter Gothic, Gothikka, Bookman Old Style, and Franklin Gothic Book.

Now that I have spent an entire post taking about fonts, I would like to know if I am the only one who is this particular about fonts? Do you deliberate between fonts before starting a new project, or do you just use the same one until you get sick of it? Are there some favorite fonts I haven’t mentioned? Any suggestions for me?