You can find a new short story placed in the fiction section, here!!

Well, I use the term “new” loosely because I actually wrote this story in 2005, during my last workshop class (Advanced Fiction) for my Creative Writing major. This story suffers from a lot of problems, and a few of the less critical ones are:

• It’s extremely amateurist, in my opinion, and I make a lot of mistakes on that story that I now try to catch in the 1st or 2nd editting session.
• For the story to truly be a diamond instead of a lump of coal in need of polishing, it would have to have not only another editting session, but great big chunks of it will need to be re-written.

However, none of those things will be done for the simple reason that I’ve lost the story thread. I lost it when I was writing it. This story suffered from what I call “Academic Workshop Syndrome.” Basically, it was drafted to fit a template that I had been taught since Introduction to Fiction. I had never been told what “good” fiction was, simply what it was not and it seemed that everything I wrote fell into the “not” category, especially anything that would be considered genre fiction.

Often times I’ve ranted and raved about how the academic world often views genre fiction and how snobby “literary” fiction enthusiasts and writers can be. From the beginning I was flat out told that I would not be writing anything that fell into the “genre” category, and if I did, I’d fail. Obviously, if I wanted to write genre fiction, I wasn’t interested in being a good writer, I was interested in being a prolific writer — you know, a whore for the money. Like even writing genre fiction guarantees a good income!

Anyway, I found myself in a surreal, unhappy place with the workshops offered through my university. My introduction to fiction teacher actually gave us a comparison of literary fiction vs. genre fiction. Besides the more believable points, such as stories that are character driven (literary) versus plots that are more action/plot driven (genre), there were some very unbelievable points. Supposedly, one way to know if you were reading literary fiction is if the author included bathroom scenes, bowel movements, or didn’t refer to the characters’ bodily functions as “peeing” or “going to the bathroom.” Apparently, literary fiction didn’t shy away from being dirty and nitty-gritty in its details! ‘Course, I’d rather not ready ANY fiction about bowel movements, and I think it’s pretty unneccessary and boring to include bathroom scenes — hey, we all do it, we can basically assume it — but what did I know? I was just the student.

ANYway, it was under this kind of environment that “Tuesday Matinee” was born. I knew the character had to go through some internal struggle and come to some conclusion (think “character driven stories,” Himani!), but I tried so hard that half way through, I found that I didn’t really know what I was doing with my story. It was missing something important. I needed to rethink where I wanted to go with this. But, I didn’t have time for another rewrite, so I just forged ahead, finished it off, and turned it in for my final portfolio. It wasn’t too bad, as all things go, and I got an “A” on it. But…it lacked life and kind of simply chugged along.

That’s not to say it’s a horrible story. It has some very interesting elements in it. I really like my character development and I think that the characters are what kept the story readable. In fact, with the exception of Angela, I found myself really liking the characters I have made. In the workshop, I was asked multiple times if Cactus Wren was a real town (which it’s not), so I knew the environment was believable. I’d like to revisit Cactus Wren and write another story with these characters, especially Hui (I love him! ). You can also see my emerging style in this work here and there, where I let myself shine through, and I think if I had allowed myself to do that much more instead of worrying if I was making good “literary” fiction, I would have been much more satisfied with the end result.

(You can read “Tuesday Matinee” in the fiction section)

12:44 am | Category: Writing | | 2 Comments

Ohmigod, I am so behind on my writing, my correspondence, and my social calls. I even have an email or two to still reply to. Sorry everyone. I still loves ya!

Anyway, enjoy something I fiddled around with a few days ago. I’m calling it “Pillow Talk” for now:

8:22 am | Category: Writing | | No Comments

I went to see The 300 on Saturday. At the insistance of friends, we ended up seeing it in an Imax, which had one positive factor (since the screen wasn’t majorly bigger, I’m not sure the extra $2 was worth it) that the picture quality was much better than on a conventional screen. I did get to see each individual blood droplet in some of the bloodier battles, and in the training montage.

It was an interesting movie, but don’t be fooled: it’s a complete guy flick. Throughout the whole thing, there’s men with six packs going on and on about glory and how Spartans do it better. It is a penis match, and the Spartans ultimately “prove” they got the bigger ones than Xerxes and his forces. However, that also means there’s plenty of eye candy. I found myself wondering throughout the film how long they had to train to get those stunning physiques.

The movie also teaches you a valuable lesson (that should be on some sort of film list, because it always seems to happen) : do not piss off the seemingly minor character, especially if they have some sort of hideous disfigurement or handicap (in this case, a hunchback…yeah, who didn’t see that coming?) because they WILL come back to haunt you — even if they can’t walk straight.

I also found myself noticing some of the undertones. The Persians are shown as bloody, ignorant, chaotic forces. The leaders are androgynous. The Persians seem to be made up of mostly ghastly monsters (i.e. the Immortals), slaves, and strange beasts. The rulers have a taste for perversion, homosexuality, piercings, and God complexes. Contrasted are the clean Spartans, with their trim beards, their very manly chests, and they just believe in freedom. Oh, did I mention that the Persians are every type of minority and the Spartans are only white? I saw brown people, black people (even Zulus get mauled over by a rhino), Asians…I was just waiting for them to throw in a Native American for good measure. I couldn’t help wonder if they were trying to say something with this classic East versus West battle. I don’t care what Frank Miller drew, or how much the filmmakers deny it, this film shows the mindset of many people when it comes to the mysterious/exotic East.

Once I acknowledged and catalogued all these observations, I had to admit to myself that 1) the film was beautiful. It’s surrealistic environment coupled with its strange “bullet time” action made it unique and interesting enough to overlook the obvious weaknesses. 2) The soundtrack complimented the film, even though in some sequences it seemed to consist of heavy metal. 3) They showed the relationship between Queen Gorgo and King Leonides tenderly, something usually lacking in these types of movies, and I actually felt the man was in love instead of out for some T & A. And, finally, 4) Queen Gorgo was shown as a strong woman. Yes, she didn’t break out of the “homemaker and wife” status, but I must remind myself this is a period piece. Greek women were suppose to stay in their part of the house during the day (the movie does reference it — historical accuracy! *gasp*), but she shows a passion and strength that I admired. She even got to stab someone.

So there you go. It ain’t worth an Oscar, and if I didn’t already know John’s gonna buy it the minute it gets on DVD (just like he did Sim City), I’d say I wouldn’t be sure if I’d want to own it either. However, it’s worth one watch in theaters because it really is made for a big screen experience.

2:22 pm | Category: Journal | | 2 Comments

Researching when you’re writing is something that will eventually become a necessity. While I like researching, sometimes I find it a nuisance when I’m in the “flow” and I cannot, for the life of me, figure out a term or what-not. I was having that problem today, when I wrote about Morgan’s Pepperboxes, describing them for the first time (well, not the first, since I rewrote the scene a couple of times…but you get what I mean). Now, I do wish I could find a book devoted to those old-style guns, but I have not found one yet and so most my research has been done online, while looking at different guns has been done through magazines and books. (If you don’t know what a pepperbox pistol is, I suggest looking here, there’s some pictures )

However, I am not really knowledgable with guns. I’ve never fired a gun, although I’ve held one before (but I can’t even remember it’s make!) when my Dad showed me his gun just before I went off to college. He felt it was necessary to “at least know” in case the occasion ever arose. To be honest, it felt a little creepy in my hands; cold, killing metal. I was still going to school through the DARE program, through the GUNS KILL ads, through the Columbine shooting and the fallout from that, so guns are pretty alien to me and I’ve been programmed to view them as dead machines. Sometime, I’d like to go to a range and try my hand at one. I feel I should know, since my characters use them.

Anyway, Morgan’s Pepperboxes are meant to be almost like an extension of her character, maybe even becoming characters in their own right. They are one-of-a-kind guns created to look like pepperbox pistols, but with the power of rail guns (very sci-fi)! And while I was writing the scene in question, I totally hit a snag because I have no idea about the terminology. Imagine the frustration trying to remember what a magazine is and if “cocked” and “uncocked” are the right terms.

I skipped over the research, using the words I needed, and dog-tagged it to come back to. I didn’t want to loose my momentum. However, I’m having trouble finding good books about gun parts. I find a lot of magazines for appraising guns and listing the kinds of guns, but I have yet to find something like Guns for Dummies, with a nice cross section or something. Cross sections are nice.

Come to think about it, if “Big Brother” ever tries to watch my internet usage, he’s in for a surprise because of some of the sights I’ve gone to for research. From the less mundane, more explanable babynames.com to the more disturbing sites about BDSM (there was a story with a brothel, I needed terms). Once, I went to buy a baby name book at Barnes & Nobles when I was 13 and the look the saleswoman gave me when I asked where the baby name books were located! Then there was the time my mom caught my large pile of gun magazines and gave me that worried look and said, “Are you feeling stressed lately?”

Ah, the trials and tribulations of writing.

By the way: If you’re wondering what kind of Pepperbox I chose for Morgan in the end, the design was inspired by Sharps Co. pepperboxes, except with a longer barrel, filagree, and the handle looks more like the kind found on an Allen & Thurber pepperbox. Yes, it does sort of look like a pirate gun, but doesn’t that only increase the neato factor?

12:59 am | Category: Writing | | No Comments

Just as the title suggests, I broke the 15,000 word mark today for Morgan (more information about my novel-in-progress can be found here). This is a great feeling and I love how smoothly it’s coming along. Yes, I can already foresee a heavy editing process in the future, but the story isn’t glitching or getting hung up somewhere, which makes me one happy camper.

12:21 am | Category: Writing | | No Comments

*sigh* I don’t want to volunteer tomorrow — er, later today. I’ve still got 65 hours of being mind-numbingly bored so I can make a check-mark and a graph on my application for teaching certification. Personally, I think sitting and listening to lectures I remember from high school (and getting horrible flashbacks of when I was in highschool) so that I can “become familiar with a classroom setting” can be achieved in 20, maybe 30, volunteer hours. Why must they torture me so?

Yes, that’s the end of the post. It’s a post about me whimpering. Sometimes I just need to whimper with a nice tall mug of peppermint tea. Okay? Now I’m gonna go get my 6 hours of sleep, thankyouverymuch.

12:39 am | Category: Journal | | No Comments