When I was first starting to really take myself seriously as a writer (as in writing every day and trying to actively get published), I remember thinking that I was way too boring to write anything exciting.
Read MoreFriday Review: Mabon and Pomegranate
A review of Kimberly Richardson's Mabon and Pomegranate.
Read MoreWrite Like You Because There is No One Right Way to Write
Write when you can when it's best for you, and forget what other people are doing. Maybe some people would rather sleep until noon and write until 3am, if it works for them awesome! Maybe some people write in marathon 10,000 word binge all nighters. But don't ever feel like someone else's process has to be yours
Read MoreInternational Women's Day!
Yesterday was International Women's Day so to celebrate I wanted to post some of my favorite women writers, and to hear what writers you love!
- Banana Yoshimoto
- Alia Mamdouh
- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Rosa Montero
- Ludmila Petrushevskaya
- Octavia Butler
- Helen Oyeyemi
- Anita Desai
- Kim In-Suk
- Leslie Marmon Silko
Fandom First: The Business of Conventions
When thinking about comic/fantasy/sci fi conventions, most people immediatly think of costumes, and a gathering of people playing games or talking about the latest books and movies. Few people immediatly think of economic power and the impact a large convention can have on a city. But conventions have a huge economic impact on the cities they're hosted in, and on the vendors and dealers travelling around the world with booths.
In an essay for Apex Magazine, I looked at the economic forces behind conventions and the money behind the funny business of fandom.
You can read the essay here.
Liebster Tag! 11 Questions and Random Fact about Yours Truly
The amazing Meghan nominated me for the Liebster award so now you get to learn all kinds of new things about me. exciting, yes?
- What was the WORST story you’ve ever written?
Oh god, so many.... Um... any first draft? There was a story I once wrote about a girl who grew a garden and then TWIST AT THE END. She's blind. It was awful. I was also 7.
- If you could cast anyone to be your favorite main character, who would you choose?
My instinct is Tom Hiddleston, but he's already Loki so that doesn't work out.......I really want to see Gina Torres as Wonder Woman!!
- If you could no longer write in your favorite genre, which genre would you switch to?
Romance easy. In fact I do write in it too so that doesn't really count... I write in a lot of genres already so this is a challenge. I suppose if I could no longer write genre fiction I'd switch to poetry again.
- Do you ever act out scenes to make sure you get them just right?
All the time. I regularly flail around my room trying to make sense of what my characters are doing.
- Have you ever been caught talking out loud to a character?
Absolutely. I mutter under my breath and tend to work in the living room so my roomies have often asked, "What are you doing?"
- Which character was the toughest for you to write and why?
I struggled with the creation of The Bone Queen character because it was the first time I really got to go on and write a full villain origin story. I wanted her to own her choice, not be brought into it because someone hurt her. I wanted her to have agency over her own life, and her decisions.
- What are your top five songs for you current book?
Well I actually have a playlist you can listen to for that.
- What would you do if you could hang out with any of your characters?
I would totally hang out with Aramis, the Pulptress, and Jackson! They're entertaining. I bet Aramis could really help with my french langauge skulls too.
- Which non-standard word do you use most often?
Oh god, I'm so bad at this. I like using sounds as verbs so people 'THUNK' downwards.
- What is the weirdest thing you’ve had to research for a book?
So many options... I guess probably looking at how exactly Black Plague victim bodies were dealt with and studying that time period.
- Based on your search history, would you potentially be arrested? Oh yes.
- Two cats have recently adopted me and turned my world upside down.
- I am a vegeterian and have been for almost as long as I have been eating.
- I LOVE video games and wrote my thesis about them.
- I've been going to conventions regularly for over 10 years.
- Welcome to NightVale is probably one of the best live shows I've ever seen.
- I use star stickers to mark my calendar with what I've done that day.
- I hate driving. I really want to live car free but my area isn't friendly to that lifestyle.
- I've only recently gotten into comic books and I'm in love with them.
- Cooking, baking and cleaning are how I procrastinate.
- I'm a morning person and would much rather get up early than sleep in.
- Dark chocolate is my true weakness.
- Plotter or Pantser? Why?
- Do you write every day or in one great marathon?
- What's the best writing advice you were given?
- What's the worst writing advice you've been given?
- Do you have a writing ritual? What's involved?
- Favorite author?
- Who is your favorite character from your own work?
- What's your next project?
- Favorite inspirational quote.
- Where do you do most of your writing? Why?
- What's your favorite recipe? (Seriously, I need some new ones)
Fandom First: I Ship It!
When people talk about fandom, one of the first things that pop into their heads is about fanfiction, and fanart. While some of these works are more general adventure stories a large amount of fan work is based on a ship or a romantic pairing of characters. (Ship is shortened from relationship).
Shipping first reached documented 'mainstream' with Kirk and Spock in the 1960s though the term shipping was first used by fans of the X-files wanting Mulder and Scully to finally get together. The advent and rise of the internet spread shipping as now fans were able to better find others to talk about their pairings, and a better space to share their works with wider audiences.
Many ships come up with their own name, usually a portmanteau of the two characters name, such as Drarry (Draco and Harry from Harry Potter), Korrasami (Korra and Asami from Legend of Korra), and Sherlolly (Sherlock and Molly from the BBC's Sherlock). This also happens with celebrity couples in Hollywood gossip magazines like Bennifer (Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck) and Kimye (Kim Kardashian and Kanye West) are just a few examples.
However, some ship names aren't quite so obvious like frostiron (Loki and Tony Stark from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) where it's the combination of Iron Man and Loki being a frost giant; JavaJunkie (Luke and Lorelai from Gilmore Girls) which is based on their mutual coffee obsessions and coffee shop meet ups. These names come from idiosyncrasies within the shows that fans know. This naming can make many ship names appear to be nonsensical to non-fans. These names help fans organize, tag, and find new work. Many of these tags become their own community of fans who share fanworks, thoughts, and personal information.
Many pairings use multiple names and there can be discord within the community of shippers about which name is the correct name. To avoid confusion, some also label fanwork "Character A X Character B" to let others know exactly who the pairing is without relaying on a ship name.
The terms, OTP, BrOTP, OT3, and OT4 (and probably onwards to infinity) come up frequently in ships. OTP is a 'One True Pairing' while a BrOTP is a portmanteau of 'Bromance' (a friendship between two people) and OTP to mean a best friendship while OT3 and OT4 are for three or four characters involved with one another.
So why do people ship?
The reasons range widely from person to person. For some, it's a safe way to explore relationships and sexuality, for others it's wish fulfillment, for others it's a way to bring lgbtqia representation to their media. For some it's a social activity and a way to complete creative works and have a built in audience.
Regardless of the whys behind shipping, it's clear that relationships are here to stay as an important and vibrant part of the fandom community.
Fandom First: What is Fandom?
One of my 2015 Resolutions is to spend more time on the things I'm passionate about, so I'm starting the year off with a post about one of the topics that fascinates me the most: fandom. I'm going to post about fandom on the first Monday of every month in this series I'm calling, Fandom First
Read MoreFriday Review: The Book of Life
This week I’m going to review a movie rather than a book so, let’s hear it all about….BOOK OF LIFE!
BOOK OF LIFE
Full disclosure, I have been excited about this movie since I first saw a trailer for it. I love Guillermo del Toro’s work.
So I was able to go to a screening Thursday night and let me tell you, you are in for a treat if you go see this movie. It’s a great story that really paints the culture of the day of the dead in a beautiful light.
The story is, at its heart, a classic tale of one girl with two boys, best friends, who both love her. Only this time, the stakes are much higher as two immortal creatures make a wager over which boy she will ultimately wed. Maria is spirited and spunky, and causes far too much trouble at a young age so she is sent off to a private school much to the sadness of her two best friends, and future suitors, Manolo and Joaquin.
Now the whole woman as the prize issue is the main problem I had with the movie, and while Maria comments on it a few times, she never really challenges much, and for most intents serves as a background character. She’s a decent female character but she doesn’t stand out as an example of a great female character.
Manolo, on the other hand, I really loved. He is compassionate, and sticks to that compassion even in moments when it would be far easier to fall into violence and abandon his morals, but he actually sticks to them and finds a way to make them work.
One of my favorite parts is that almost no one is all bad in the movie, even the character who is at first painted as the ultimate villain comes around and is forgiven and allowed to be redeemed. And the rivalry for the hand of Maria doesn’t destroy the friendship between the two boys which is so great to see.
The music is a lot of fun (though The Apology Song was without a doubt my favorite and if you’re an animal person you’ll probably love it too) and plays an important part to the movie because Manolo so loves his music.
The message in the movie is hammered home pretty clearly towards the end: that you can write your own story no matter what is expected of you.
While there are some parts that might be a little scary for very young children (nothing any worse than your average Disney flick), I think it will be a great movie to see with (or without) kids. I went with my roommates and we all had a blast. It’s funny, sweet, and an entertaining story that will keep you wondering what’s going to happen next.
Setting Projects Aside
I am 100% for finishing what you start and powering through to the end. However, recently I had to put a project I was very excited about into a drawer and now, I’m just letting it simmer.
I wrote the first draft of a YA novel that I think has some great potential. The plan was for me to let it sit for a few weeks and then get back to work on rewrites. When that day came, I stared at the first draft and realized that I still had no clue what to do with it.
I had huge plot problems where I couldn’t decide between two very different story lines, and I still didn’t know where the story was going. The excitement had vanished, and all that I had left was a whole lot of frustration and no action.
So I’ve decided to put the project aside and work on another project that I’ve had in my mind for a while, but it still burns to not be working straight through to finish my YA novel.
Hopefully in next few months, ideas will click back into place and I’ll be on that train once again!
What do you do when a project needs to be set aside?