*Got the baby back. My Toshiba laptop had a furked up video/screen wire. Fixed that and I'm up and rolling. I'm also paranoid about saving stuff ASAP. Now back to writing stuff.*
There's a line here and there in novels and shorts that just bring the whole story home. Some folks call it an eyeball kick, I call it a zinger line. The tone can be wry, blase, terrifying, regretful, funny, bitter, any number of deliveries.
Examples come to mind:
Shakespeare's Othello-- Act 5 just before he kills Desdemona:
"Put out the light, then put out the light."
This is the whole play, the motive, the passion. Everything Othello is, is about loving too much, beyond the ability to reason, up to and including destroying what he loves most. The light of reason, the light of love, the light of any day he will live through will be utterly obliterated.
Mark Twain's short story, Eve's Diary--
Adam speaks at Eve's grave: "Wherever she was, there was Eden."
Again, that is all that mattered to Adam. Not losing Paradise and being chastized by God, or seeing the horror of one son killing the other, but that partner who stood by him, she was everything.
Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus:
Lucifer offers Dr. F. some of the most beautiful women in history, Helen of Troy shows up and he remarks: "The face that launched a thousand ships." Though the Dr. forgets that the destruction over 20 years left scars to the present day.
Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times" can certainly apply today when we have amazing technology and horrific genocide.
Not all lines will resonate the same with everyone. Sometimes they're at the beginning of a work or scattered inside or at the end.
Some of my fav lines from my works:
--'the stars picked holes in the night'. I like because it's not describing friendly twinkling stars like sequins. It's not a romantic or meditative sky. It's pulling off scabs, or sticking pins into flies.
--'None of your business what I kept my third eye on.' Says the woman who's more than she seems. She watches, she acts only when she needs to being gentle and nurturing to a friend while allowing others to dispose of a danger in a messy manner.
--'I like to take care of my birthday suit. It's the only one I have.' Is a blatant falsehood, but no other character knows it. For the speaker it's an inside joke, one only the reader will get.
What are your zinger lines?
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Save It Immediately Dammit! June 22, 2008
I'm slogging away on the 4 + year old emachine laptop since my 1 year old Toshiba laptop decided to give me a blank stare the other day. I'm pretty sure it's the video card since the bugger goes from black to dark grey as if it's trying to show but can't. Good news it pooped out 2 days before the warranty was up so I'm sort of saved.
This emachine is prone to over heating--which I find out AFTER I buy it--which is why I bought a new laptop. Everything has a weakness. One of mine is chocolate but that's another blog :}
SAVE what is typed immediately! Silly me, I worked on little stuff here and there thinking no problem and then I can't see a damned thing. I've 3 pages edited on a work for a friend, some flash fiction pieces, photos I haven't copied over--get the picture? No, me neither! ARGH!
I'm usually anal retentive about saving anything new I've done, added, etc, but I forgot, got lazy, didn't think it would happen to me, fill in the blank. *sniff*
There's oodles of places and gadgets to keep your sanity from being pulled out with your hair when something like this happens. Check out the list:
Email: I send my recent stuff to my gmail account, I can retrieve it and it's fairly safe. Gmail is free, over 7 gigs now, and will hold quite a lot. I think Yahoo and AOL are hefty too.
CD/DVD, R & RW: these are pretty cheap from 700 MB to 8 gig in bundles of 10-50 at about 10c each and with the rewrite if you wipe it you can reuse it. Copying over same-name files is simply drag and drop.
USB drive/memory stick/disk-on-key: whatever you call it it's that thumb-sized doohickey that can hold up to 12 gig or so at about 10-20$ per gig. I had the unfortunate experience of getting a bad SanDisk that had some damned virus that created numerous folders with 000000000 as the name, filled with 50+ more files of the same name. Deleting them didn't work, using antiviruses didn't work, it was a flaw in the hardware chip and not something that I could fix--or trust so now I have a Verbatim and an Apus.
External harddrive: 40 gig for about $80 here, (converting shekels to dollars), can be used with any computer, doesn't take up much room at 2" wide x 6" deep x 8" high.
I'm hoping the repair folks don't have to wipe my memory to fix my baby.
This emachine is prone to over heating--which I find out AFTER I buy it--which is why I bought a new laptop. Everything has a weakness. One of mine is chocolate but that's another blog :}
SAVE what is typed immediately! Silly me, I worked on little stuff here and there thinking no problem and then I can't see a damned thing. I've 3 pages edited on a work for a friend, some flash fiction pieces, photos I haven't copied over--get the picture? No, me neither! ARGH!
I'm usually anal retentive about saving anything new I've done, added, etc, but I forgot, got lazy, didn't think it would happen to me, fill in the blank. *sniff*
There's oodles of places and gadgets to keep your sanity from being pulled out with your hair when something like this happens. Check out the list:
Email: I send my recent stuff to my gmail account, I can retrieve it and it's fairly safe. Gmail is free, over 7 gigs now, and will hold quite a lot. I think Yahoo and AOL are hefty too.
CD/DVD, R & RW: these are pretty cheap from 700 MB to 8 gig in bundles of 10-50 at about 10c each and with the rewrite if you wipe it you can reuse it. Copying over same-name files is simply drag and drop.
USB drive/memory stick/disk-on-key: whatever you call it it's that thumb-sized doohickey that can hold up to 12 gig or so at about 10-20$ per gig. I had the unfortunate experience of getting a bad SanDisk that had some damned virus that created numerous folders with 000000000 as the name, filled with 50+ more files of the same name. Deleting them didn't work, using antiviruses didn't work, it was a flaw in the hardware chip and not something that I could fix--or trust so now I have a Verbatim and an Apus.
External harddrive: 40 gig for about $80 here, (converting shekels to dollars), can be used with any computer, doesn't take up much room at 2" wide x 6" deep x 8" high.
I'm hoping the repair folks don't have to wipe my memory to fix my baby.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Describe the Perfect...June 16 2008
Perfect what? Argh! First off, there's no such thing but we CAN describe something to the best of our knowledge or imagination!
Quick exercise to jump start the muse: food--last or current meal.
I'm having breakfast. I've mixed two packages of Instant Quaker Oats--and yes, they do have them here in Israel. One's peaches and cream, the other is blueberries and cream. Now I could wax on about the ingredients as a list and how food companies save money: they often use cheaper apples cut, colored, and flavored to substitute for other more expensive fruits, or I could just do taste as I know real blueberries and peaches:
The oatmeal is very warm, not hot enough to burn but to explode through the mouth with the alternating bumpy and smooth texture. The blueberries taste come in small bursts stronger than the peach that sneaks in with a subtle stubbornness. The oatmeal flakes are the quiet homogenous background, happy to soak up the brown sugar I added.
I'm drinking a pint of Lipton Yellow Label tea, based on orange & black peko tea leaves. I've added sweetened condensed milk for a creamier texture, and two sweetners. This I like almost scalding to feel each swallow drop down my throat into my stomach. The tea leaves have a flicker of sharpness in their scent. The thick milk spreads out to fill and change the color of the tea from sable to a pale sepia.
Almost done with the oatmeal. The heavier brown sugar has sunk to the bottom of the bowl making the last spoonfuls extra sweet. Does this do anything more than promise the next bowl will be just as enjoyable?
This is a comfort food breakfast.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Quick exercise to jump start the muse: food--last or current meal.
I'm having breakfast. I've mixed two packages of Instant Quaker Oats--and yes, they do have them here in Israel. One's peaches and cream, the other is blueberries and cream. Now I could wax on about the ingredients as a list and how food companies save money: they often use cheaper apples cut, colored, and flavored to substitute for other more expensive fruits, or I could just do taste as I know real blueberries and peaches:
The oatmeal is very warm, not hot enough to burn but to explode through the mouth with the alternating bumpy and smooth texture. The blueberries taste come in small bursts stronger than the peach that sneaks in with a subtle stubbornness. The oatmeal flakes are the quiet homogenous background, happy to soak up the brown sugar I added.
I'm drinking a pint of Lipton Yellow Label tea, based on orange & black peko tea leaves. I've added sweetened condensed milk for a creamier texture, and two sweetners. This I like almost scalding to feel each swallow drop down my throat into my stomach. The tea leaves have a flicker of sharpness in their scent. The thick milk spreads out to fill and change the color of the tea from sable to a pale sepia.
Almost done with the oatmeal. The heavier brown sugar has sunk to the bottom of the bowl making the last spoonfuls extra sweet. Does this do anything more than promise the next bowl will be just as enjoyable?
This is a comfort food breakfast.
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Fear of Writing May 19 2008
Yeah, you think as writers we'd be well over that little phobia by now. Nah, it still sneaks in like a cramp from an okay looking piece of fruit that ended up being not quite ripe but we weren't going to waste it and toss it after one bite.
Natalie Goldberg is one of my inspirational writing mentors. I never met her. I have read a number of her books: Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, Thunder and Lightning, and Long Quiet Highway several times each. I do that to keep reminding myself that someone else has gone through this, I'm not alone.
Every word is a step. You walk a mile, 5280 feet gives 2112 steps, about 30 inches apart for my stride.
Teams play a football game on TV that lasts 3 hours, but up to that time they have practiced for hours every day 6 days a week for months.
You can run but it took months to learn to crawl, then to walk, and then to decide where to run, for how long, and to what purpose.
Why should writing be any different? Our works don't come full blown like Athena dressed and ready to kick ass--I wish! Words grow, they follow the sun and close up at night. Or they stay still during the day and spread out like night-blooming jasmine. They have a pace and depending on what you feed them--they will keep growing, in unexpected directions sometimes but that's okay too.
Don't be afraid. As Natalie Goldberg says, give yourself permission to write the worst crap in the world.
Even the words you don't use will lead to the ones you do. Call them fertilizer, call them maintenance activities, call them warm-ups for the finale, they aren't wasted.
Natalie Goldberg is one of my inspirational writing mentors. I never met her. I have read a number of her books: Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, Thunder and Lightning, and Long Quiet Highway several times each. I do that to keep reminding myself that someone else has gone through this, I'm not alone.
Every word is a step. You walk a mile, 5280 feet gives 2112 steps, about 30 inches apart for my stride.
Teams play a football game on TV that lasts 3 hours, but up to that time they have practiced for hours every day 6 days a week for months.
You can run but it took months to learn to crawl, then to walk, and then to decide where to run, for how long, and to what purpose.
Why should writing be any different? Our works don't come full blown like Athena dressed and ready to kick ass--I wish! Words grow, they follow the sun and close up at night. Or they stay still during the day and spread out like night-blooming jasmine. They have a pace and depending on what you feed them--they will keep growing, in unexpected directions sometimes but that's okay too.
Don't be afraid. As Natalie Goldberg says, give yourself permission to write the worst crap in the world.
Even the words you don't use will lead to the ones you do. Call them fertilizer, call them maintenance activities, call them warm-ups for the finale, they aren't wasted.
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Stab the Bastard! May 10, 2008
Or to be a tad less flamboyant: Bad Guy--BG, hurts Main Character--MC, but how?
Okay, lets take it from the top:
1. stabbed with what:
knife, pencil, sword, ice pick, toasting fork, etc.
A thin blade--like a stiletto or rapier will leave a smaller wound though deep, a scimitar leaves a wide one, broken glass from a bottle can slice and dice like a scalpel.
Which era is the MC in, what type of weapon is the BG likely to use?
2. MC stabbed where:
A: clean area--chest with heart, lungs, liver
B: dirty area--stomach, intestines, bladder, kidneys--any perforations here and waste matter gets out for a secondary infection
C: head--face, eyes, cheeks, neck
D: limbs--clipping the femoral artery inside the thigh--as thick as your thumb, and you'll bleed out in 2-3 minutes.
How long does the fight last? Quick means a fast chest stab may hit a rib and deflect worse injury. Prolonged means the BG can strike multiple times and do serious damage.
How proficient is the BG? Is s/he a pro? Drunk? On drugs? In a rage?
What about the MC? Knows self-defense? Carries a weapon too? Knows of the impending attack? Is clueless?
How does the fight play out? Both standing, one stands and one sits, BG dives from a roof onto MC below, BG cuts from under the basement stairs across MC's Achilles' tendon?
What's the MC wearing--depends on personal taste, weather, social class, job, etc. A heavy coat can take longer to stab through. Add an inner pocket with something to deflect or slow a blade and your MC is lucky.
Size and shape of BG to MC matters as well: a small person attacking a larger one would have less force.
Unconsciousness can come from the impact of a fall after an assault, or a choke hold from behind while being stabbed. If the MC goes unconscious from a bleedout, survival isn't assured.
If the victim is not quite human--werebeast, alien, etc, the organs could regenerate faster or even be missing, in different places, etc.
Yes, miracles do happen, but keep it real or the reader will wish that all the characters kick off ASAP and quit wasting time.
Okay, lets take it from the top:
1. stabbed with what:
knife, pencil, sword, ice pick, toasting fork, etc.
A thin blade--like a stiletto or rapier will leave a smaller wound though deep, a scimitar leaves a wide one, broken glass from a bottle can slice and dice like a scalpel.
Which era is the MC in, what type of weapon is the BG likely to use?
2. MC stabbed where:
A: clean area--chest with heart, lungs, liver
B: dirty area--stomach, intestines, bladder, kidneys--any perforations here and waste matter gets out for a secondary infection
C: head--face, eyes, cheeks, neck
D: limbs--clipping the femoral artery inside the thigh--as thick as your thumb, and you'll bleed out in 2-3 minutes.
How long does the fight last? Quick means a fast chest stab may hit a rib and deflect worse injury. Prolonged means the BG can strike multiple times and do serious damage.
How proficient is the BG? Is s/he a pro? Drunk? On drugs? In a rage?
What about the MC? Knows self-defense? Carries a weapon too? Knows of the impending attack? Is clueless?
How does the fight play out? Both standing, one stands and one sits, BG dives from a roof onto MC below, BG cuts from under the basement stairs across MC's Achilles' tendon?
What's the MC wearing--depends on personal taste, weather, social class, job, etc. A heavy coat can take longer to stab through. Add an inner pocket with something to deflect or slow a blade and your MC is lucky.
Size and shape of BG to MC matters as well: a small person attacking a larger one would have less force.
Unconsciousness can come from the impact of a fall after an assault, or a choke hold from behind while being stabbed. If the MC goes unconscious from a bleedout, survival isn't assured.
If the victim is not quite human--werebeast, alien, etc, the organs could regenerate faster or even be missing, in different places, etc.
Yes, miracles do happen, but keep it real or the reader will wish that all the characters kick off ASAP and quit wasting time.
Saturday, November 24, 2007
The Power of Words Saturday, Nov. 24, 2007
I'm not talking abracadabra, but effective communication.
Free speech has been replaced by responsible speech: You don't yell 'FIRE' in a crowded place, nor should you call out a simple greeting to your friend John in the airport, 'HI JACK!'
Ripped from the headlines, as many crime/detective etc. shows and books claim, many unthinking (to be charitable) and deliberately cruel examples show up all the time.
How many times do perpetrators say to the victims or witnesses, 'Tell anyone and I'll kill them, then I'll come after you.' Messages of retribution are left in the guise of body parts or dead pets.
Talk shows are notorious for pitting neighbor vs. neighbor, or exploiting internecine family agnst for ratings. Murders have occurred, notably after the Jenny Jones show of a few years ago in which a man was brought on as the object of affection by a secret admirer--another man--to his shock. The reaction some time later came as a gunshot from the one loved to the one he had no interest in whatsoever. Recently, another revelation on a makeover show had the shamed and humiliated recipient killing herself.
A new Megan's law is trying to stop cyber-bullying but it doesn't work retroactively. In 2006, a 13 year old girl named Megan was on medication for manic-depression. She had a falling out with a girlfriend down the street whom she'd known for years. The mother of the friend went on line acting as a teen boy 'Josh', saying nice things for weeks then slamming Megan saying 'the world would be better off if she was dead.' Less than an hour after that text message, Megan had indeed killed herself. The world is not better off.
Is this woman who pretended to be Josh guilty of murder? Or merely an accessory? Deliberately causing emotional damage knowing the unstable nature of the recipient--is this a crime or an 'unfortunate series of events'. The communication was effective. The message was clear.
Words do indeed have power.
Free speech has been replaced by responsible speech: You don't yell 'FIRE' in a crowded place, nor should you call out a simple greeting to your friend John in the airport, 'HI JACK!'
Ripped from the headlines, as many crime/detective etc. shows and books claim, many unthinking (to be charitable) and deliberately cruel examples show up all the time.
How many times do perpetrators say to the victims or witnesses, 'Tell anyone and I'll kill them, then I'll come after you.' Messages of retribution are left in the guise of body parts or dead pets.
Talk shows are notorious for pitting neighbor vs. neighbor, or exploiting internecine family agnst for ratings. Murders have occurred, notably after the Jenny Jones show of a few years ago in which a man was brought on as the object of affection by a secret admirer--another man--to his shock. The reaction some time later came as a gunshot from the one loved to the one he had no interest in whatsoever. Recently, another revelation on a makeover show had the shamed and humiliated recipient killing herself.
A new Megan's law is trying to stop cyber-bullying but it doesn't work retroactively. In 2006, a 13 year old girl named Megan was on medication for manic-depression. She had a falling out with a girlfriend down the street whom she'd known for years. The mother of the friend went on line acting as a teen boy 'Josh', saying nice things for weeks then slamming Megan saying 'the world would be better off if she was dead.' Less than an hour after that text message, Megan had indeed killed herself. The world is not better off.
Is this woman who pretended to be Josh guilty of murder? Or merely an accessory? Deliberately causing emotional damage knowing the unstable nature of the recipient--is this a crime or an 'unfortunate series of events'. The communication was effective. The message was clear.
Words do indeed have power.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Critiques and Rejections August 25, 2007
Writers, like everyone else, need approval and pats, and we also need good critics--ones who will point out the flaws as well as the diamonds.
Writing scares me because I need to do it, and if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking of doing it. Isn't that the definition of obsession or addiction? Then I'm in good company with millions of others.
Writing scares others because it is isolating, it's retreating into your world, whether the sky is green and the sand red, or you're doing a technical manual on how to use Vista (which I abhor but that's a rant for another site).
I've been with Critters, a critiquing group for f/h/sf for nearly a decade. I cringe whenever I put something up, then I see the dreck--that's old-fashioned Yiddish for crap/refuse/garbage (as an American living in Israel I do understand that)--from others. I see seeds of roses in them that a great story can be built around. I have seeds too.
We're all trying to get better at our craft, we flinch when someone reads and hates it, or worse when they don't want to read it at all. I know I've done crap but it's also nourishing seeds for another time.
When a fellow writer or editor rejects us, who are they really rejecting? Muses willing, it's the writing that needs the improvement. If they reject you, the writing isn't and has never been the issue, no matter what the other person says. Losing a friendship over it is hard, they lash out at your literary children and we as the penning parents defend our offspring. That's on the top, the underlying issue is different. Often it's jealousy that they like your writing better, or they think they're doing 'serious' writing and you with the fantasy are just copying a genre. What someone says negatively needs a hardlook: do I mix tenses, lack continuity, ramble on? If so, I need to go in and fix it. If the person doesn't like me, f--k 'em.
All writing is valid, no matter if it's the daily journal no one sees or the blog thousands read. We're reaching out to communicate, to entertain, to inform, to soothe, to touch, and hope the reader gets our message.
The writer must be his/her first and best audience. Do it for love and hope someone else loves it enough to pay for it. Find a support person or 3 who listen and feedback, and you support them in their love of photography or gardening or whatever.
Call them and say: 'send me good vibes, I'm going to submerge myself in my book for 2 hours and write'. Call them back after and thank them. Letting someone know not only gives you the push, it gives you a place to start from and a place to end without guilt.
We write for many reasons, and we can not write for as many more.
When I need a push and or validation, I turn to writers I trust and read Natalie Goldberg's books: Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, Thunder and Lightning, Long Quiet Highway. I read Julia Cameron's Walking in This World, Vein of Gold, The Right to Write.
I may still be writing dreck, but I am writing. Fertilizer is never wasted.
Writing scares me because I need to do it, and if I'm not doing it, I'm thinking of doing it. Isn't that the definition of obsession or addiction? Then I'm in good company with millions of others.
Writing scares others because it is isolating, it's retreating into your world, whether the sky is green and the sand red, or you're doing a technical manual on how to use Vista (which I abhor but that's a rant for another site).
I've been with Critters, a critiquing group for f/h/sf for nearly a decade. I cringe whenever I put something up, then I see the dreck--that's old-fashioned Yiddish for crap/refuse/garbage (as an American living in Israel I do understand that)--from others. I see seeds of roses in them that a great story can be built around. I have seeds too.
We're all trying to get better at our craft, we flinch when someone reads and hates it, or worse when they don't want to read it at all. I know I've done crap but it's also nourishing seeds for another time.
When a fellow writer or editor rejects us, who are they really rejecting? Muses willing, it's the writing that needs the improvement. If they reject you, the writing isn't and has never been the issue, no matter what the other person says. Losing a friendship over it is hard, they lash out at your literary children and we as the penning parents defend our offspring. That's on the top, the underlying issue is different. Often it's jealousy that they like your writing better, or they think they're doing 'serious' writing and you with the fantasy are just copying a genre. What someone says negatively needs a hardlook: do I mix tenses, lack continuity, ramble on? If so, I need to go in and fix it. If the person doesn't like me, f--k 'em.
All writing is valid, no matter if it's the daily journal no one sees or the blog thousands read. We're reaching out to communicate, to entertain, to inform, to soothe, to touch, and hope the reader gets our message.
The writer must be his/her first and best audience. Do it for love and hope someone else loves it enough to pay for it. Find a support person or 3 who listen and feedback, and you support them in their love of photography or gardening or whatever.
Call them and say: 'send me good vibes, I'm going to submerge myself in my book for 2 hours and write'. Call them back after and thank them. Letting someone know not only gives you the push, it gives you a place to start from and a place to end without guilt.
We write for many reasons, and we can not write for as many more.
When I need a push and or validation, I turn to writers I trust and read Natalie Goldberg's books: Writing Down the Bones, Wild Mind, Thunder and Lightning, Long Quiet Highway. I read Julia Cameron's Walking in This World, Vein of Gold, The Right to Write.
I may still be writing dreck, but I am writing. Fertilizer is never wasted.
The Naming of Names May 27, 2007
Ikarias Book 4 official name: 'Labyrinth's Edge', up to 3 chapters 5K+ word count.
How do names for books get chosen? What makes a good name?
My books are a series: 'Ikarias, Tales from the Worlds of the Half-Dragon'. That describes a name, that there's several things going on, that it encompasses more than one geographical area, and what my main character is.
For series name, it's longish, but the most important character is first so asking for the 'latest Ikarias novel' (wishing really hard that happens soon! lol) is easy. The name may be difficult to pronounce. Some people will think of Icarus, the flyboy, Daedelus' rash son, but that's one story, roughly 2000 years old so the competition isn't new.
What about secondary titles? Since the first is long, keeping the rest to two words is important. The shorter the name the easier it is for people to remember, also, puns, slang, assonance (vowel repetition), and alliteration (consonant repetition) help people to recall. Think 'Centaur Isle'-pun, 'How Stella Got her Groove Back' -slang, 'Angela's Ashes'-assonance, 'Pride and Prejudice'-alliteration.
In Ikarias Book 1: 'Sorceress' Game' describes what is going on: A 15 going on 5000 year old sorceress plays with the lives of Ikarias and her friends.
Ikarias Book 2: 'Soul Teind' focuses on what the debt of a soul is for, who has it, why the young woman Cephira who pays it is threatened, where it is paid, to whom, and how she copes with the bargain made in exchange for her life and that of her sisters. Ikarias and friends come to the rescue.
Ikarias Book 3: 'Balanced Scales' is Ikarias' search to bring her two halves into synch. She tries to find justice for who/what she is when drastic changes take over. Balanced also refers to her frame of mind, and of course scales are what dragons and Half-Dragons have. Scales are also associated with justice.
Coming up to 'Labyrinth's Edge', Ikarias Book 4. The edge does not mean the end, or the beginning, it's a place where one must leave in order to escape.
This brings us back to Daedalus who was the architect of the greatest and most deadly labyrinth. The name comes from the duo-headed axe with curves edges, labrys, Ikarias' favorite weapon. Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, the king of Crete was cursed to fall in love with a bull. This bull had been a gift from the sea god, Poseidon, to Minos. Minos was to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but he didn't. The bull was huge, it was without blemish. Minos didn't want to slay and burn the magnificent animal. You do not disobey a god. In revenge upon Minos, of course the god hit on his wife--gods prefer the anguish of suffering by a family member of the prime offender rather than smack the one who did the wrong. Gods are like that.
Pasiphae fell madly in love with the bull. This was before anyone knew of DNA so the laws of genetic matching didn't exist. He impregnated her, no one knows whether the bull brought her flowers and dinner first, if he did bring a bouquet he probably ate it.
Minos himself was the son of the god Zeus who in bull-shape seduced and boffed Europa. Hera found out and turned Europa into a cow pestered by flies. (Again the god doesn't punish the instigator. Zeus was notorious for skirt-chasing. Poor Hera had to be satisfied with making the damsels' lives a living hell. She wasn't too kind to her step-children either, as if children are cursed for the sins of their parents.) Europa swam across the sea landing far from Hera's wrath and the name of the place stuck. She gave birth there though I'm not sure in which form.
When Pasiphae gave birth, her son was bull from the head or waist up. Unable or unwilling to kill this monster, and certainly in no mood to coddle it, King Minos had the world's leading architect design a place where the bull-boy grew up to be a bull-man, the Minotaur, away from any contact. Meat or criminals were thrown in the labyrinth to feed him, until the war with Athens.
Androgeus was Minos' son, all human, a sterling fellow who visited Athens and King Aegeus. Androgeus and other young men went hunting for a dangerous bull. (Any one see a theme developing here? ) The bull killed him. Mad with grief, Minos invaded Athens and agreed to spare the city only if seven maidens and seven youths came to him every nine years. They were put into the labyrinth where the minotaur found them and ate them.
Theseus, visiting Athens, offered to take the place of one youth and kill the bull beast that was eating the best of the Athenian population. Aegeus made him promise when he sailed back, if the sails were white--victory that the minotaur was dead, or black for failure, as they were on the sorrowful voyage out.
Ariadne was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. Seeing Theseus, she fell in love and gave him a string to maneuver through the labyrinth to safety. He came upon the sleeping minotaur and beat him to death with his fists.
Scratching head--if this bull beast was so fearsome how could a mere man kill it with his bare hands? That's where stretching the fictional tale gets thin enough to read through.
Taking Ariadne and the thirteen other teens, Theseus sailed for home. Ariadne was abandoned on the isle of Naxos where the god Dionysus ruled. He's not only the god of wine but the god of beasts. Perhaps Ariadne felt guilty at having been the instrument of her half-brother's death. Exuberant with escape and freedom, Theseus forgot to change the black sails to white. Seeing the dark sails, in grief, Aegeus threw himself from the cliffs into the sea now bearing his name, the Aegean.
Like fate, labyrinths have many edges. The edges are often the most dangerous place to be.
How do names for books get chosen? What makes a good name?
My books are a series: 'Ikarias, Tales from the Worlds of the Half-Dragon'. That describes a name, that there's several things going on, that it encompasses more than one geographical area, and what my main character is.
For series name, it's longish, but the most important character is first so asking for the 'latest Ikarias novel' (wishing really hard that happens soon! lol) is easy. The name may be difficult to pronounce. Some people will think of Icarus, the flyboy, Daedelus' rash son, but that's one story, roughly 2000 years old so the competition isn't new.
What about secondary titles? Since the first is long, keeping the rest to two words is important. The shorter the name the easier it is for people to remember, also, puns, slang, assonance (vowel repetition), and alliteration (consonant repetition) help people to recall. Think 'Centaur Isle'-pun, 'How Stella Got her Groove Back' -slang, 'Angela's Ashes'-assonance, 'Pride and Prejudice'-alliteration.
In Ikarias Book 1: 'Sorceress' Game' describes what is going on: A 15 going on 5000 year old sorceress plays with the lives of Ikarias and her friends.
Ikarias Book 2: 'Soul Teind' focuses on what the debt of a soul is for, who has it, why the young woman Cephira who pays it is threatened, where it is paid, to whom, and how she copes with the bargain made in exchange for her life and that of her sisters. Ikarias and friends come to the rescue.
Ikarias Book 3: 'Balanced Scales' is Ikarias' search to bring her two halves into synch. She tries to find justice for who/what she is when drastic changes take over. Balanced also refers to her frame of mind, and of course scales are what dragons and Half-Dragons have. Scales are also associated with justice.
Coming up to 'Labyrinth's Edge', Ikarias Book 4. The edge does not mean the end, or the beginning, it's a place where one must leave in order to escape.
This brings us back to Daedalus who was the architect of the greatest and most deadly labyrinth. The name comes from the duo-headed axe with curves edges, labrys, Ikarias' favorite weapon. Pasiphae, the wife of Minos, the king of Crete was cursed to fall in love with a bull. This bull had been a gift from the sea god, Poseidon, to Minos. Minos was to sacrifice the bull to Poseidon, but he didn't. The bull was huge, it was without blemish. Minos didn't want to slay and burn the magnificent animal. You do not disobey a god. In revenge upon Minos, of course the god hit on his wife--gods prefer the anguish of suffering by a family member of the prime offender rather than smack the one who did the wrong. Gods are like that.
Pasiphae fell madly in love with the bull. This was before anyone knew of DNA so the laws of genetic matching didn't exist. He impregnated her, no one knows whether the bull brought her flowers and dinner first, if he did bring a bouquet he probably ate it.
Minos himself was the son of the god Zeus who in bull-shape seduced and boffed Europa. Hera found out and turned Europa into a cow pestered by flies. (Again the god doesn't punish the instigator. Zeus was notorious for skirt-chasing. Poor Hera had to be satisfied with making the damsels' lives a living hell. She wasn't too kind to her step-children either, as if children are cursed for the sins of their parents.) Europa swam across the sea landing far from Hera's wrath and the name of the place stuck. She gave birth there though I'm not sure in which form.
When Pasiphae gave birth, her son was bull from the head or waist up. Unable or unwilling to kill this monster, and certainly in no mood to coddle it, King Minos had the world's leading architect design a place where the bull-boy grew up to be a bull-man, the Minotaur, away from any contact. Meat or criminals were thrown in the labyrinth to feed him, until the war with Athens.
Androgeus was Minos' son, all human, a sterling fellow who visited Athens and King Aegeus. Androgeus and other young men went hunting for a dangerous bull. (Any one see a theme developing here? ) The bull killed him. Mad with grief, Minos invaded Athens and agreed to spare the city only if seven maidens and seven youths came to him every nine years. They were put into the labyrinth where the minotaur found them and ate them.
Theseus, visiting Athens, offered to take the place of one youth and kill the bull beast that was eating the best of the Athenian population. Aegeus made him promise when he sailed back, if the sails were white--victory that the minotaur was dead, or black for failure, as they were on the sorrowful voyage out.
Ariadne was the daughter of Minos and Pasiphae. Seeing Theseus, she fell in love and gave him a string to maneuver through the labyrinth to safety. He came upon the sleeping minotaur and beat him to death with his fists.
Scratching head--if this bull beast was so fearsome how could a mere man kill it with his bare hands? That's where stretching the fictional tale gets thin enough to read through.
Taking Ariadne and the thirteen other teens, Theseus sailed for home. Ariadne was abandoned on the isle of Naxos where the god Dionysus ruled. He's not only the god of wine but the god of beasts. Perhaps Ariadne felt guilty at having been the instrument of her half-brother's death. Exuberant with escape and freedom, Theseus forgot to change the black sails to white. Seeing the dark sails, in grief, Aegeus threw himself from the cliffs into the sea now bearing his name, the Aegean.
Like fate, labyrinths have many edges. The edges are often the most dangerous place to be.
Publish or Perish--Literary Children May 18, 2007
That's a well-known chestnut for the world of academia: you either make a place with the two-dimensional effort of writing an article/argument/thesis et. al. on paper or you are invisible to the rest of the world.
I've had a short tale accepted for the Sept '08 issue of Aoife's Kiss, one of several hard copy/ezines part of http://samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/main.htm. My 6th publishing credit.
'Sin Twister' came as a gift from the Muse in complete opposite of what I had planned. Which is why it's better. It's not the tale of revenge and hate I'd planned--that's too easy, but a tale of redemption by increments. I wrote it in 3 days, it's short and one of the best things I've ever done.
I still need to get Ikarias 1, to a publisher. 25 querys to lit agents have gone over 2 months with maybe 12 'no thanks' and as many non-answers. In this case no news means no interest. Agents have far too many queries to respond with even a form letter. I do think it's rude but I also understand time constraints.
http://agentinthemiddle.blogspot.com/ is by an agent describing her full day/life and the crap she endures because writers don't follow simple rules.
I've 3500 words started on book 4 of Ikarias, either titled 'Keramin Heights' or 'Demons' Dreams'. Titles are tricky. Make them out of whole cloth with no reference: those who've read the previous books will know of Keramin Heights but those who don't will think of heights as mountains and maybe Keramin as a name. This will be a darker book. 'Demons' Dreams' can cover a lot of ground with alliteration, the darkness of several characters, the darkness discussions and delved into depravity, the demonic activities, etc.
Back to the title: if publishers see credits they know someone wants/wanted you, making you more attractive to them. The more credits, the more you're visible with your efforts, showing off your literary children like a proud parent should. If you don't act and feel like they're worth it, no one else will give a shite, as the British say.
You have to love them, and in return the world may just want more.
Publishing credits to date:
*'Sin Twister' to be in the ezine: Aoife's Kiss, Fall '08 as P. Lord
*'Jura the Wanderer' --Tavern Tales Anthology by ComStar Media, Nov. '05 as H. Winterthorne
*'Suits' -- ezine: ATSOISE, Oct. '04 as H. Winterthorne
*'Blind Boys of Bogen's Run' -- ezine: Nocturnal Ooze, Oct. '04 as P. Lord
*'Strains of Wagner' --ezine: Twilight Times, May '03 as P. Lord
*'I'm The Last One' -- literary magazine: Gotta Write Network, Fall '92 as P. Lord
I've had a short tale accepted for the Sept '08 issue of Aoife's Kiss, one of several hard copy/ezines part of http://samsdotpublishing.com/aoife/main.htm. My 6th publishing credit.
'Sin Twister' came as a gift from the Muse in complete opposite of what I had planned. Which is why it's better. It's not the tale of revenge and hate I'd planned--that's too easy, but a tale of redemption by increments. I wrote it in 3 days, it's short and one of the best things I've ever done.
I still need to get Ikarias 1, to a publisher. 25 querys to lit agents have gone over 2 months with maybe 12 'no thanks' and as many non-answers. In this case no news means no interest. Agents have far too many queries to respond with even a form letter. I do think it's rude but I also understand time constraints.
http://agentinthemiddle.blogspot.com/ is by an agent describing her full day/life and the crap she endures because writers don't follow simple rules.
I've 3500 words started on book 4 of Ikarias, either titled 'Keramin Heights' or 'Demons' Dreams'. Titles are tricky. Make them out of whole cloth with no reference: those who've read the previous books will know of Keramin Heights but those who don't will think of heights as mountains and maybe Keramin as a name. This will be a darker book. 'Demons' Dreams' can cover a lot of ground with alliteration, the darkness of several characters, the darkness discussions and delved into depravity, the demonic activities, etc.
Back to the title: if publishers see credits they know someone wants/wanted you, making you more attractive to them. The more credits, the more you're visible with your efforts, showing off your literary children like a proud parent should. If you don't act and feel like they're worth it, no one else will give a shite, as the British say.
You have to love them, and in return the world may just want more.
Publishing credits to date:
*'Sin Twister' to be in the ezine: Aoife's Kiss, Fall '08 as P. Lord
*'Jura the Wanderer' --Tavern Tales Anthology by ComStar Media, Nov. '05 as H. Winterthorne
*'Suits' -- ezine: ATSOISE, Oct. '04 as H. Winterthorne
*'Blind Boys of Bogen's Run' -- ezine: Nocturnal Ooze, Oct. '04 as P. Lord
*'Strains of Wagner' --ezine: Twilight Times, May '03 as P. Lord
*'I'm The Last One' -- literary magazine: Gotta Write Network, Fall '92 as P. Lord
Bad Publishers March 25, 2007
ComStar Media is out of my life, except for the first Jura story stuck in Tavern Tales anthology. (The whole is full of typos per a friend with a discerning eye for copy-editing but apparently they don't have one at CSM either).
Eighteen months was the contract time for 'Ikarias, Tales from the Worlds of the Half-Dragon, Book 1: The Sorceress' Game'. Despite reassurances of interest that's all I received, reassurances. There were no edits, nothing. I wrote emails which took weeks to get replies, tel. calls were picked up by an anonymous machine and not returned. Took CSM 9 months to do a company update. The October '06 sales report came out as a notice 5 months later in their yahoo site that there hadn't been enough sales on the Tavern Tales anthology. The contract for a second anthology never materialized though I'd sent my signed copy back 3 months ago. I pointed out typos on their website--ALWAYS A BAD SIGN WHEN THERE ARE TYPOS ON A PUBLISHING WEB SITE! Run do not walk in the opposite direction if you see that.
18 months is industry standard. Yes, there were problems with distributors, the owner's health, etc, yes it's a family-owned company, small and new, and there's the rub.
New means they're beginners.
Small means they pay after the book gets published--no advance.
New means they have a shoestring budget.
Small means if things don't get off the ground they just don't get anywhere.
If they also do games, and CSM does, then literary efforts will come second to pandering to the gamers.
The publisher-editor is also a writer, I have no problem with that. The fact that the publishing business had to come second or third after she needed to get a 'real' job to support the publishing business speaks volumes. I still needed to wait until the contract time was legally up to get out--that incident was a few months into the contract. I kept hoping, kept asking 'Are you interested?' 'What about the story sent for the sci-fi anthology?' 'How about an artist?' 'Should I edit now and send you the revised shorter version to fit the budget?' I was willing to do anything I could at my end but my end wasn't the issue.
On the good side, the time wasn't wasted. I have become a better writer. I have three complete novels in a series to offer someone who is reliable--a stronger case to present to prospective agents/publishers. It's been a learning experience. It's been frustrating, disappointing, and pissed me off as well.
Eighteen months was the contract time for 'Ikarias, Tales from the Worlds of the Half-Dragon, Book 1: The Sorceress' Game'. Despite reassurances of interest that's all I received, reassurances. There were no edits, nothing. I wrote emails which took weeks to get replies, tel. calls were picked up by an anonymous machine and not returned. Took CSM 9 months to do a company update. The October '06 sales report came out as a notice 5 months later in their yahoo site that there hadn't been enough sales on the Tavern Tales anthology. The contract for a second anthology never materialized though I'd sent my signed copy back 3 months ago. I pointed out typos on their website--ALWAYS A BAD SIGN WHEN THERE ARE TYPOS ON A PUBLISHING WEB SITE! Run do not walk in the opposite direction if you see that.
18 months is industry standard. Yes, there were problems with distributors, the owner's health, etc, yes it's a family-owned company, small and new, and there's the rub.
New means they're beginners.
Small means they pay after the book gets published--no advance.
New means they have a shoestring budget.
Small means if things don't get off the ground they just don't get anywhere.
If they also do games, and CSM does, then literary efforts will come second to pandering to the gamers.
The publisher-editor is also a writer, I have no problem with that. The fact that the publishing business had to come second or third after she needed to get a 'real' job to support the publishing business speaks volumes. I still needed to wait until the contract time was legally up to get out--that incident was a few months into the contract. I kept hoping, kept asking 'Are you interested?' 'What about the story sent for the sci-fi anthology?' 'How about an artist?' 'Should I edit now and send you the revised shorter version to fit the budget?' I was willing to do anything I could at my end but my end wasn't the issue.
On the good side, the time wasn't wasted. I have become a better writer. I have three complete novels in a series to offer someone who is reliable--a stronger case to present to prospective agents/publishers. It's been a learning experience. It's been frustrating, disappointing, and pissed me off as well.
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