Why not

I found an interesting blog written by another mommy, which I will have to poke around in a little more. But I thought her aspiring writers pledge was a good idea. I mean, hey, I’m already working on it, right?

I, Nightphoenix, take The Aspiring Writers Pledge to write a book in 2010 with the intent of publishing. I promise to update my progress weekly, ask when I need support and encourage others to complete the task at hand.

http://www.writingmommy.com/

Tags: business of writing

Art!

It’s Thursday! Here’s a drawing I did a while ago of my main characters from Shades.

 
And, perhaps a couple of maps. It’s funny, I actually didn’t draw these until the first draft of the story was almost done, when I finally needed to know exactly where things were.
 

 
Here’s the world as a whole. You can see Aschera and Chisge in the upper center area. The village where Raphel was born is almost due west of Aschera, on the other side of the Midplains. The red area is the cursed Midplains, top-left pointing stripes represent Mantle territory, top-right pointing stripes are Cowl territory, and crosshatching is disputed territory. (You may notice that there is quite a bit of disputed territory, and that the Cowls have much less undisputed territory than the Mantles. The Mantles are winning the war when the story opens). Iadnah and Lanschport are both southern Cowl cities. Iadnah is nominally under Mantle control, while Lanschport is purely Cowl. Lanschport has a rather unsavory reputation even among Cowls, which is probably why the Mantles don’t want it (people on Verre have odd superstitions about the ocean); both Geris and Teja hail from that city. The battle of Iadnah plays an important role in all three of my major Cowls’ pasts: Mora lost her husband, infant daughter, and father; Kaladan lost his faith in the Mantle cause and turned Cowl; and I haven’t yet decided how Raphel was involved (but I have decided that he needs to be).
 

 
Here is Aschamon. A great deal of the action in the first and third books takes place on Aschamon’s campus, so I needed to know exactly where each building was in relation to the others.

It sits on a hill in the western quadrant of Aschera (Aschera I have not mapped yet. Not sure if I need to). The Temple and the main sorarc tower are the hub of the school, both physically and spiritually. The small triangular buildings are the dormitories: one for the youngest (gray) students, three for the various ages of Mantle students, and one for the cleric students. Saeli lives in a Mantle dormitory, even though she is not a Mantle; she and Cara got special permission to be roommates, and since Cara is a Mantle, the school allowed it.

Tags: artwork, Kaladan, maps, Mora, Raphel, Saeli, Shades

An interesting article about Ayn Rand

Don’t know how many Objectivist fans I have on board here, but this is an extremely well-written article by Nathaniel Branden, one of Rand’s close associates for a number of years. He highlights precisely what is attractive about Rand’s philosophy, and where it falls short. More eloquence than I’d be capable of on the subject.

Read the whole article…it’s worth it

Here’s a quote from within the article, which quite nicely sums up why I still admire the woman’s philosophy, even if I disagree with some of its finer points:

“Ayn Rand has an incredible vision to offer—in many respects a radiantly rational one. I am convinced that there are errors in that vision and elements that need to be changed, eliminated, modified, or added and amplified, but I am also convinced that there is a great deal in her vision that will stand the test of time.

Her vision is a very uplifting one, it is inspiring. It doesn’t tell you your mind is impotent. It doesn’t tell you that you’re rotten and powerless. It doesn’t tell you that your life is futile. It doesn’t tell you that you are doomed. It doesn’t tell you that your existence is meaningless. It tells you just the opposite.

It tells you that your main problem is that you have not learned to understand the nature of your own power and, therefore, of your own possibilities. It tells you that your mind is and can be efficacious, that you are competent to understand, that achievement is possible, and that happiness is possible. It tells you that life is not about dread and defeat and anguish but about achievement and exaltation.”

I think I’ve said it before in another post, but I maintain to this day that there were a number of things that Ayn Rand hit dead on.

Tags: advice, ideas

To the extent that I love it, I own it

So, first order of business today: the Hanson concert was awesome!

Okay, so having to stand in a tiny spot in a huge crowd for 6+ hours straight after walking a mile barefoot wasn’t quite so fun. (There were three bloody opening acts. Have you ever had your feet cramp from standing for too long? Yeah…). But they made it worth it in the end.

This concert reminded me of why, out of all the bands I really like, Hanson remains the only group that inspires me. Maybe it’s because they’re my age…I dunno. Doesn’t really matter. I watch them play onstage and I can see how much they love what they do. (And how much their fans love them).

Most bands have a mix of hardcore fans, lukewarm fans, oh-I-heard-them-on-the-radio-once fans, and people dragged to the show by other fans. Hanson only ever really had lovers and haters, at least in the public sphere. To an extent, this is still true, although I think most of the haters have long since given up. They are no longer the huge sensation they were in 1997, so the fans they have now are the ones that still believed in their music even after they dropped out of the spotlight. (And their fans are not all female…I saw more than a few guys rocking out Saturday night). There’s no way in hell you’re going to drag a ho-hum person to a Hanson concert.

Their shows are amazing because nobody that doesn’t LOVE the band is going to be there.

Other concerts I’ve been to, the band plays to you, to entertain you, and it’s an enjoyable experience. There are moments when something magical happens, and the energy of the band and the audience are absolutely in sync…where the band is playing better and harder than they could ever do alone because they’re feeding off the crowd’s energy, and everyone in the crowd gets pumped from the music and forgets that they’ve been on their feet for 6 hours and that they’re exhausted. But it’s moments. The rest of the time you’re kind of just listening, or singing, and generally enjoying yourself. (Or, if you happen to be in the middle of a mosh pit, you’re busy trying not to get drop-kicked).

Saturday night the band and the crowd were plugged into each other the whole time. It was all kinds of intense. There was so much energy in that place that when I walked out of there, I was neither tired nor hungry (though I was so sore I could barely walk). Actually, I didn’t even wake up hungry the next morning, despite the fact that I hadn’t eaten anything since midday before. Residual energy? I dunno.

Interestingly, I walked out of there wanting to write, because that’s my passion. Just from a two hour glimpse of those three guys living theirs. It made me start thinking about creativity, and art, and the connection between those who make the art and those who appreciate it. There is an interesting paradox that happens when your work is admired, and when it starts affecting and changing other people’s lives. It’s still yours, but to an extent, it belongs to the fans, too.

Listening to Hanson playing live last night, I was aware of this sense of ownership. To the extent that I loved each song, I owned that song in that moment. It was mine. I cannot take it from them, but they cannot keep it from me…nor would they want to. Anyone who creates art wants, on some level, for other people to own it, to make it theirs. Artists are idea whores. We willingly, eagerly, offer up our passion and our souls to the world, and we love it when our ideas get owned. (Note: Owned, not stolen. There’s a difference.) Every artist wants to make art that changes people. In the same vein, I would argue that Twilight no longer belongs exclusively to Stephanie Meyer, or Harry Potter to J. K. Rowling, or Middle Earth to Tolkien. Edward and Harry and Gandalf live in the hearts of every person who has been touched by these characters.

Believe it or not, the book Atlas Shrugged is riddled with this very idea, and I think it’s one of the few things that Ayn Rand hit dead on. The players in that story are seen as selfish bastards by the rest of the world, seemingly because they refuse to share their ideas, their intellect, their passion with the rest of the world. But they willingly share these things with each other, and it has to do with the difference between thievery and ownership. The world wanted to take what Rearden and John Galt and D’Anconia and Dagny offered, but they didn’t want to own it. They didn’t want to understand it.

Anyone can steal an idea. But to own an idea, you have to be worthy of it. I’ve never respected the really rabid fans of any popular phenomenon…you know, the ones who spend all their time following a band’s tour bus around the country, or spend all their money on paraphernalia, or talk about nothing else. Those to whom a touch of a famous person’s hand, a picture, an autograph, or a rare collectible becomes the currency by which they measure their worth. I say that the way you become worthy of something you love is to use it to fuel your own passions. You will never truly appreciate another person’s creation until you become a creator. I love Hanson’s music. How do I know? Because I want to write stories to that music. I don’t have to have every damn piece of music they’ve ever written to get it. Their passion fuels mine.

However, hell hath no fury like an artist whose work has been stolen or appropriated by someone else. That’s because when someone steals an idea, all they really want is the fame, or admiration, or appreciation that goes with it. They don’t understand the idea itself…in fact, sometimes a thief can be downright afraid of the idea he or she has stolen, because deep down, they know they aren’t worthy of it. I take ideas from other artists all the time…but I use them to create other ideas, and I make them my own, and I gladly own up to where the original idea came from. I have no reason NOT to, because I know my work is equally as worthy as the source. They own it because they created it, I own it because I’ve made it mine. I hope my ideas are good enough that others will own what I’ve made someday, and make it theirs.

It’s funny, I’ll go to a concert like this and, like any fangirl, I hope to get the chance to meet the band personally. I had plenty of chances Saturday. Before every concert, Hanson organizes a barefoot walk to provide shoes, through TOMS, and other aid for people in Africa. For every person who takes the walk, they donate a dollar to the cause. And yes, Hanson participates…they are out there, in the sun, the rain, the snow, whatever, walking with their fans. It’s a really awesome thing they do.

http://www.hanson.net
http://www.takethewalk.net

So I had the shot to go up and say hey to one of them…but when it came down to it, I just…couldn’t. (Okay, so the bleeding toe and the 90 degree weather and the fact that everyone was walking really fast didn’t help). I start feeling like, what am I going to say to them that’s more interesting or noteworthy than what anyone else might say? A lot of that is natural shyness, but the other part is the one that wants to be able to say, “Hey, I just got a book published, and I used a song of yours as inspiration…” Not to brag, but just to have some tangible evidence of the oft expressed sentiment: “You guys inspire me.” Any fan can say that. I want it to be true.

I’m starting to believe that this is what I truly liked about Ayn Rand’s work…she understood this concept, if nothing else. (She might not have thought about it in such terms, but she got it.)

Tags: Hanson, Reviews

The Waters between the worlds

We watched Spirited Away last weekend, and I was once again struck by the train sequence. I started to imagine what kind of stories the spirit train itself had collected before Chihiro even gets on: where it goes, who the spirits are that get on and off, its connection to the real world, etc. A vague story idea began to take shape in my head. Something about a character lost and riding the train between the worlds (or some other transportation device), trying to find his or her way home…or possibly a different character falling in love with the lost one.

I’ve let the idea percolate a little bit over the last few days, and here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

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I don’t know where this one will go in the queue. Possibly pretty far back, as it’s relatively undeveloped at this point.

In other news, I’m 5 scenes into the Shades rewrite, and am actually in scene 8 from the first draft. The High Priestess has a little more of a presence at this point than she did in the first draft, which I’m hoping will make her fight with Raphel more meaningful. I’ve actually almost reached that scene…yay for me!

Tags: characters, ideas, the Waters

Writing prompts, because I can

For your amusement. I find prompts don’t work very well on me, but people seem to like them.

“You are driving in a suburban neighborhood and see a lampshade sitting on the side of the road. Curious, you stop your car and investigate. Underneath the lampshade is a (very) dead squirrel. Now make up a story about how the dead squirrel ended up under that lampshade on the side of the road.”

The hubby and I really did see a lampshade on the side of the road on Viera Blvd, though we didn’t check for squirrels underneath.

“You are in Walmart at 10PM. The person in front of you in the checkout lane is an older gentleman, a bit on the scruffy side, and his only purchase is a single jar of olives. What is his story, and what is he going to do with those olives?”

This actually happened to me. Perfectly nice guy…olives just seemed like an odd thing to get all by itself.

Tags: humor, ideas, prompts

Because I’m really an obsessive fan girl at heart.

I think I briefly reviewed The Mortal Instruments trilogy by Cassandra Clare on this blog somewhere. Well, I had this small palm branch that I could never figure out what sort of athame to make out of it…so instead, I decided to make a stele. A stele, for all of you that haven’t read the books, is a writing instrument that Shadowhunters use to draw angel runes on themselves. It is made of special glass, is somewhat bigger than a pen and smaller than a wand.

Obviously mine is not made of glass, since working with glass is not (yet *cough*) among my list of artsy skills. Mine is also more intricate than the canon Shadowhunter version (which, as far as I remember, is just basically a glass wand).

Yay for iridescent white paint. The swirly design is blue twine that I super-glued to the body of the stele. (Yes, that took a while).

The blue twine up close.

The flower is supposed to be an amaranth. Also not canon, but since I intend on hanging on to this thing (unlike some of the Mortal Instruments characters), why not make it personal?

The design on the end is the rune for angelic power. Appropriate for a stele. No, I did not create the rune…someone online did.

The stele in action. (Or rather, cleverly photoshopped to appear so). The rune being drawn is a healing rune, borrowed from the same online source.

Anyway, this project was such fun that I’m not in the process of making a seraph blade from the same book series. If I ever get the opportunity to go to some Cassandra Clare fan gathering, I’ll be prepared.

Tags: artwork, The Mortal Instruments

Short story idea from an unusual source

The hubby and I finally got around to watching Mall Cop. I’d had my doubts about this movie from watching the previews, which made it look a whole lot more stupid than it actually was, but it was surprisingly good. I really liked how the crooks were named after Santa’s reindeer, and how edgy and modern they were. Young, athletic, tattoos, skateboards, trick bikes, etc. There were points during the movie where I actually regretted that they were the bad guys, because they were so cool.

It gave me the idea of assembling a team of anti-heroes, taking pseudonyms from popular culture, and creating an unlikely crime fighting squad. (Yes, I’m sure it’s been done before, but don’t burst my bubble just yet.) Other than Santa’s reindeer and the seven dwarfs, however, I could not think of any salient characters that come in groups (that aren’t already superheros). My first idea was to create a group of children whose mission is to save other children from getting kidnapped by Faeries…and my first inclination was to name them after Grimm’s fairy tale characters. But then I decided to see if I could come up with something better. I spent a few hours online looking up gods and goddesses from different pantheons all over the world…but the ones that people know are overused, and the ones that people don’t know would take too explaining to make them work.

So, I went back to the original idea.

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I think the next step is to actually construct a plot skeleton for Rora’s rescue story. I may enter that contest of the SCWG, which means I have to finish this before October 15th. *sigh* And I still have to get Shades done.

Tags: characters, faeries, Grimms, ideas

Icons

So I got a wild hair the other day and decided to make some avatars based on characters in my story. It was so much fun that I just kept going. The pics are of real actors and other famous folk, so you might recognize some of them. (So if by the 0.00001% chance that you are one of these celebrities, and you happen across this site and see these pics, know that they are simply for my own entertainment and all in good fun.) The quotes are things that these characters have actually said, but as I have a massive trimming job to do on my second draft, there’s always the chance these sayings won’t appear in the finished story. (If you can’t read them, just hover over with the mouse…or click to see a slightly bigger version.)

As always, don’t steal…though I can’t imagine what anyone else would do with them.

Tags: artwork, Raphel, Saeli, Shades

The Changer Contract

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Tags: Briar Rose, Fae, ideas, Moonsworn, vampires, worldbuilding