Life, Interrupted

"Your story may be the lifeline that your readers desperately need to pull them to shore." ---Martha Wells

Our own Martha Wells won not one, but two Hugos last night at WorldCon 2021. For best novel (NETWORK EFFECT) and for best series (THE MURDERBOT DIARIES.)

Here's the link for her acceptance speech--she figured that even with crazy luck she would only need one speech, right?

The tl;dr is the sentence at the top of the entry. I think that is why she won. Not simply because she is a great storyteller--she's been that for years. But because MurderBot was and is a lifeline for a lot of us.

(I don't think I shared this essay over here, either. Yes...still alive. It's been complicated. Maybe I can get a manuscript snip up here this month.

When I can see my way out of this, I will share part of what has been going on.

It occurs to me that I should mention that when I think of adding "romance" to my own novels, what I am really doing is giving characters, especially characters with less power in societies, agency. So that may be why in this case I think of Austen as giving us romance. Austen, of course, was writing out her own life observations. She wasn't aiming for HEA. For more on this, see bookviewcafe.com/blog/2017/08/26/hapax-heyer-austen-and-the-language-attic-ton-and-sprack/ where people have at the romantic discussion with Sherwood Smith occasionally riding herd. )

Where does ROMANCE fit as an element of modern storytelling?"

Writer Stephanie Osborn asked this question, and my immediate thought was “as a subtle puzzle piece.” I know that is not the usual response to the question. Half the fiction books published in this country every year by major New York publishers are romances, in almost every flavor you can imagine. (That is, if by flavor you are imagining one woman and one man who end up in a HEA--Happily Ever After--or, more recently, HFN--Happy For Now--relationship. Every other romantic relationship slides in from the shadows, makes a surprise appearance, or even has a small independent publishing line somewhere else.)

Where does romance spring from? I’m not asking in a technical sense, or a scientific sense. We know that chemistry and biology triggers the first flush of attraction, and we can research to find out where the modern Western concept of romance began. I always think of it as starting with Jane Austen—a woman choosing to reject offered security for the hope of at least liking and respecting her partner. That she ended up with a man whom she also loved, who was solvent enough to support her and their children, was a bonus. For most women, having it all was a fantasy, but a lovely dream. We can go back further, into legend—but most of those famous lovers did not end well.

( Continued... )

So often we talk about "X things you need to know about writing Y." I think we often forget that first, you must learn to listen to your own voice.

Verlyn Klinkenborg writes about how the medium doesn't matter -- we have everything we need:

I’m repeatedly asked how I write, what my “process” is. My answer is simple: I think patiently, trying out sentences in my head. That is the root of it. What happens on paper or at the keyboard is only distantly connected. The virtue of working this way is that circumstances — time, place, tools — make no difference whatsoever. All I need is my head. All I need is the moments I have.

It's the NY Times, so the link will expire.

Is THIS what this book is about?

I am speechless. I thought the book was merely derivative, mildly erotic, and poorly written. This is appalling.

At the least, this is a well thought-out analysis of FIFTY SHADES OF GRAY. So what do you think?

I have written the first back cover blurb for the e-book HIDDEN FIRES. Now I have to go get ready for a birthday party. When I come back, I can decide if I'm going in the right direction. I need this by the end of the week, max, so I can get the ISBN from the appropriate BVC person, and get that info to our Library Thing connector.

Tomorrow, some writing must happen!

Now, I've lasted through 167 or so episodes of this shonen anime (see other anime posts for definitions) and unless I've missed it, no one from the Soul Society has ever asked the question: "Why does Ichigo Kurosaki have not only measurable spirit energy, enough to fight with -- but possibly astronomical spirit energy, yet-to-be-tapped energy, the type a captain of the Thirteen court guards has?"

We know that Ichigo's mother saw ghosts. That's where the series starts. So far there is one other possible reason for Ichigo and his sisters' ability to sense and see spirits -- tossed into the mix at one point, and then walked away from. It's an entire, unmapped place in the story, with a couple of signposts. I won't be specific and give anything away. But you'd think at least one captain would have started doing some research on the situation, other than expressing mere irritation with Ichigo, or friendly tolerance since Ichigo is the kind of person who might end up being reborn as a Soul Reaper. Or you'd think that we would see them avoiding the subject -- because they already know why, and aren't sure how they feel about it. It may be something they've been forbidden to discuss. The rules of the Soul Society are occasionally obscure, and often unjust -- they may just be letting Ichigo flounder around to see what happens.

And what will happen to the family dynamics when this point is revealed?

Quite possibly this has been dealt with in the manga, which is further ahead, I believe. (It's so popular the anime has a sub-plot the manga doesn't, to give the manga artist time to catch up with the monster he's created!)

As a writer, I'd be seeding that in somewhere. But the fighting and swords are the main things some people watch, so the family history and dynamics -- and how it effects Ichigo -- may not interest the artist nearly as much as it does me.

I need to find a site with icons from anime, or a place to take a DVD snapshot and make my own....

April 29, 2010:

Having caught up with the manga (skipping the anime detour for right now) I can say that I have caught almost everything up until now, although I am not sure about the validity of some sub-points of information at this time. They come from an unreliable source. But still, the story continues to be entertaining, and I can see why it is holding the attention of the young men it's written for, as well as a few others of us who occasionally yell at the screen for something to happen and it doesn't. But women look at things differently, and each artist has a goal of their own.

I anticipated the surprise of a certain arrancar, although not as big of a surprise as it turned out to be.

Still a recommended series!

By the way -- this is an R-rated title for a group, not quite clean for work, in my opinion. (I would not want a work associate to see this over my shoulder, unless it was a friend. I avoid using this word as a modifier, or in name-calling, but I accept that some people do.)

If NaNoWriMo never quite works out for you? Here is WriSomifu. It is quite silly -- they claim they are underachievers -- and although I know I won't finish a novel in a month (let me re-phrase that...I am furiously doing notes for several things. If Allie grabs me by the throat and says "MY TURN!" who knows what might happen....) I don't expect to finish in a month, but sometimes short time goals are good spurs to work. So -- If this is the monthly inspiration for you, you've got until the 31st to ask for an invite.

http://fitofpique.livejournal.com/170754.html

This may temporarily lift the journal rating to PG-13+. Kids, I do NOT advise this language at home! Think of it this way -- if you over-use a swear word, it loses its effect. Save it for NEED! (Although there was a recent study that said people who, when they swear, REALLY swear, get more relief out of it. Curious, eh?)

I am getting BVC posts done every Friday, plus my LeGuin post last Wednesday. I may start posting my anime reviews over here, and expanding on them. So y'all know why (other than enjoying the art form) I'm watching them. These things are the seed of DragonRain. Wrisomifu is to make sure actual fiction notes and writing takes place every day.

Now....the great transfer to the laptop in the chaise lounge!

"Without me the literary industry would not exist: the publishers, the agents,
the sub-agents, the sub-sub agents, the accountants, the libel lawyers, the
departments of literature, the professors, the theses, the books of criticism,
the reviewers, the book pages -- all this vast and proliferating edifice is
because of this small, patronised, put-down and underpaid person."

Doris Lessing (1919 - )


Thanks to writer Ashley McConnell, who sent this to one of my writer group lists.

J.K.Rowling proves it was not just timing and luck -- the woman can write. I wish I had said it, because I've finally admitted that I have been living it.

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2008/06.05/99-rowlingspeech.html