I finished Obsidian Butterfly — not sure what number that is in the Anita Blake series, they all seem to blend together. I have been borrowing the book from a friend since before the move, but I finally had time to read it. I still can’t decide if I like the Anita series or not (I do know I like the secondary characters much more than the main one). This time, religion seemed to be a big aspect of Anita’s rant in this book — well, religion and her self-chosen celibacy. Anyway, the bad guy may be an Aztec god, so of course every time someone said “bad guy” and “Aztec god” in the same sentence, Anita had to say something along the lines of how she’s monotheistic, and it could be a god with a small G, but not god with the big G. I’m surprised at how gung-ho she is about it all, I’d expect someone whose seen and done everything she’s seen and done to be more open-minded.

When discussing this with the person who let me borrow the book, he pointed out that religion is a conflict. I said, “Sure, but does it always have to be religion? I’ve been reading about people conflicting with their religion in one way or another since middle school. Isn’t there other major conflicts?” His answer was basically “No, not in today’s society.” Maybe I’m just weird because I don’t have religious conflicts about whether my beliefs are the right ones or not. They either are or their not. I think religion is much more a personal choice, but that’s neither here nor there.

I began thinking about my own stories. What are the conflicts my stories contain? I, of course, thought of “Morgan” since I’m working on that one right now. I listed a few: morality, love, and responsibility. You know, the big ones. But religion wasn’t there. While I had debated another story, if I decide to make “Morgan” into a series, that may touch on the subject, it wasn’t something I generally wrote about. My characters have had existential crisis, but that’s about the closest I’ve come.

So, now I’m wondering, am I missing something? Are my books lacking if religion is so important? Is religion that important to build a complex character?

11:36 pm | Category: Books, Writing | | 2 Comments

I don’t know why night time inspires me. I find myself much more flighty during the day, and as a result its harder to concentrate. I’ve been having trouble with “Morgan” lately, so I indulged in writing the first chapter of another story idea I’ve had. I currently have “Morgan,” and two other story ideas that are floating around in my head, however I’ve told myself I won’t veer away from Morgan until I have at least the first draft finished. I’m horrible at finishing, I have plenty of ideas, but finishing them is much harder.

John says its because I have the attention span of a ferret. Which is true in one way: I always want to get the latest, brightest idea down on paper before it goes away, and then ideas just keep coming and before I know it, I’ve put aside my original work for this new idea.

However, writing the first chapter for something else was very invigorating. It was like I’d been eating spaghetti for weeks but then I ate something different. I feel more inclined to go back to “Morgan” now and I’ve been thinking about the story all day. The annoying thing is that I wrote that first chapter last night just past midnight (I couldn’t ignore my itchy fingers any longer) and it glided out of me like melted butter. Unfortunately, when the first chapter was done, I just went straight to bed so that momentum went toward…erm, sleep. That’s one of the major frustrating things about having ideas late at night, that momentum is wasted because you still want to sleep.

Of course, here’s an excerpt of what I was doing last night. Of course, it’s completely unedited and I think there’s one or two run-on sentences in there, so don’t judge too harshly.

(more…)

8:06 pm | Category: Writing | | 1 Comment

Yup, so I’m currently addicted to this RPG called “Rogue Galaxy” and it’s been taking up way too much of my time. I mean, hello, pirates in space! With actual frigate ships as spaceships! And awesome graphics of prettiness. How can you resist? So, of course, when the zombie hordes started shambling outside my door, slowly making their way across my front window with their arms extended and a kind of brainless look on their face (for a minute, I thought John had forgotten his Monster again, but then I realized it was just a zombie) I couldn’t put down my controller. I wasn’t at a save point yet!

There were a few screams of fear, quickly silenced as my neighbors inadvertently tripped over a pebble (yes, the same damn pebble) and sprained their ankles and became zombie chow. I began wondering just how much Ramen noodles I had stacked away for that day-the-zombies-come-in-droves — you know, you gotta be prepared for everything. I must say, though, that the zombies are much quieter than my neighbors ever were.

Anyway, now I’ve got to try and dig out my Emergency Zombie Attack Box, you know, the one you keep in your closet in case of zombie attacks? The one that has a shotgun, lots of extra shells, a machete, a chainsaw, and a syringe full of special, non-zombie virus that will turn me into one badass motherfucka.

It’s going to be a long day.

10:24 am | Category: Writing | | 1 Comment

I’m feeling horrifically under the weather today. It might have something to do with the fact that I got about 5 hours of sleep because I was reading Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris. Or the fact that today I was cleaning and for some reason The Works Bathroom Cleaner’s smell always makes me feel like hurling. But it cleans the tub with minimal scrubbing and it’s at the Dollar Store! It may be because I have a killer headache that 4 advils only reduced to a bearable pounding at my temple. It may be because of the headache, my appetite has been non-existent today and I have done all my chores sustained on a bowl of cereal. Who really knows?

So, of course, my plans were shot to hell today. My major plan, besides working on my damn application to the teaching program at the university, was to make some logical sense of the brainstorming sessions I’ve had lately (er, with myself). While lucrative, I’ve been finding it difficult to transfer to paper; my prose has seemed flat lately. Of course, having a grandiose headache doesn’t help when you’re trying to go through notes. Even more annoying, some time at 3am last night, I had an epiphany. I remember distinctly thinking, “Oh. Eureka, that totally works” and all the puzzles about the story falling into place, which would have allowed me to get past my current road block — and then I rolled over and went back to sleep. Curses! I’ve got to be more firm with my brain: “Yes, you WILL write a note to yourself so you remember your idea because no matter how much you say otherwise, Brain, I know you won’t remember this shining jewel of an idea come morning…no, don’t argue, you’ve only proven my point time and again.”

And I distinctly remember it being a good idea, too. I wish I could remember the idea, though!

7:51 pm | Category: Journal, Writing | | No Comments

Just a quick (and small) site update:

• Added my reading list.
• Added my wishlist.*

*Well, since it’s dinner time and I’m starved, I’ll add the wishlist tomorrow.

After all, whose not dying to know more about me, right? Right??! Although, the lists are more for my benefit and I thought it would be fun to add them on Wynderlon, too.

7:34 pm | Category: News | | No Comments

I’ve been blocked since I had my horrible Jump Drive fiasco. Faced with the problem of whether I wanted to continue the way I was going (thereby re-writing those 20 pages) or go a different way, I found myself um-ing and aw-ing. Finally, I threw my hands up in the air and decided to just do a brainstorming session. I even had a new white board which was big enough to brainstorm on!

And then, because I was bored this morning, I decided to take a picture of it and post it on Flickr, so you can see. It even has photo notes! It’s advanced!

Click on the thumbnail to go see:

10:31 pm | Category: Writing | | No Comments

Grrr, so I spent a good 2 hours yesterday desperately trying to backup my Jump Drive, which had decided to malfunction. If I plugged it in, in about a few seconds, I would get an error telling me that it had malfunctioned and to re-insert my Jump Drive (even though I hadn’t unplugged it). I had a horrible panic attack where I imagined all 170 pages of Morgan going down in smoke (which wouldn’t have happened because I have 50 pages online somewhere, and another 100 backed up on the computer), but imagination is still a potent thing. And I hadn’t backed up the 10 Modest Mouse songs that my friend, Eric, and so kindly given me; nor had I backed up my new recipes that I was in the process of transferring from laptop to computer; nor…well, you get the idea.

So, I backed up everything and then checked around until I found that OfficeMax was doing a deal on Sandisk Cruzers. They had a special for a 2gig for the same amount I paid for a 256meg Jump Drive a few years ago ($20, in case you’re wondering). Boy, how times change. When I picked up John, the first thing I said to him was, “We’re going to OfficeMax. I’m getting a Jump Drive. I need to have my stories in the palm of my hand, I need to know that I can take them anywhere with me — even the beach, if I wanted, not that I wound. Unless I took my laptop with me. But, you get the point.” His only reply was, “Um, OK. No problem.”

So now, I have more space than I will ever need on my Jump Drive and have named it Durga II, in loving memory of my old Jump Drive. Then, when I was clearing off everything from my old jump drive and wondering if I can be devious and sell it to Bookman’s for some credit (the lure of books can lead one down a dark path), I realized that it wasn’t the jump drive that had malfunctioned. I realized it was my Morgan folder that had! No wonder I hadn’t been able to keep the damn disk in long enough to copy Morgan, and had to resort to backups. I had been too panicky to really notice yesterday. Carefully, I deleted the malfunctioned Morgan 1 file at a time, and now…I think my old jump drive may actually still be functional. Hrm…

My mouse is also going. It’s my favorite type of mouse, a Microsoft Intellimouse that isn’t ergo metrically designed (yuck, I hate those misshapen kidney-bean mice). I bought mine second hand from Bookman’s, and even then the buttons were past their prime (I shudder to think what the previous owner did to it. Don’t worry, I cleaned the mouse with rubbing alcohol ). Which means I’ll soon need a new mouse, and while saddening, opens up a dizzying amount of possibilities in the wireless mouse frontier.

I’m wondering what’ll be next and hoping it’s nothing (or at worse, I’ll break a nail or something) because you know that old saying: misfortune comes in threes.

7:07 pm | Category: Journal | | No Comments

I loved this book. It’s one of the first books in a long time that I actually read in about a day because I couldn’t put it down (I also got very little sleep because I was up reading). This book is based on a Norwegian myth, however, it bears a striking resemblance to the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche, and similarities with Beauty and the Beast. Only, there’s less Aphrodite and more trolls.

Since Eros and Psyche was my favorite Greek myth, and Beauty and the Beast is one of my favorite fairytales, is it surprising that I loved this book? The heroine is extremely strong, determined, and tenacious. She travels hundreds of miles, meeting all kinds of people, and learning different cultures and customs; she’s kind enough to go with the white bear for the benefit of her family; and chooses adventure over the mundane. She’s a girl after my own heart.

The POV is first person, and the writing is clear and concise. The odd thing is that each chapter is named after who is speaking. We learn the story of the girl and her white bear not only through the girl’s, but through the white bear’s, the troll queen’s, and the girl’s brother. While I’m not adversed to POV changes, I’m not a big fan of continuous POV changes. However, Pattou managed to pull it off professionally and in a way so that it didn’t get annoying. I didn’t find myself saying, “Ohmigod, not again! When can I get back to the main character? It’s her story I want to read!” Instead, she used all the POVs to make the story stronger. It was like being around a campfire and listening to a lot of people recount an experience they mutually shared.

My only complaint is that compared to such strong female characters, and even the brother had a strong voice, the white bear’s voice was relatively weak. Even up to the end, I found myself dissatisfied with his account of things, and at the end, I didn’t feel like I knew where he stood. Interestingly, I knew more of the white bear before the entrance of the trolls. After the troll queen captures the white bear, I felt that the story diverges away from him and he becomes a mysterious figure. I unfortunately can’t go more in depth, without giving away major plot points, so I’ll just say that considering I was reading portions from his POV, I would have liked more.

9:04 am | Category: Books | | No Comments

Just a little snippet of fiction I wrote out today in my journal:

9:58 pm | Category: Writing | | No Comments

I was reading Whedonesque a few days ago when I stumbled upon this awesome post by Joss Whedon himself: http://whedonesque.com/comments/13271. I never realized how pro-woman Whedon is. It was delightfully refreshing, because until that moment, I had never heard of a man so vocal about his support of women. Sure, I know guys who are “pro-feminists”, but there’s always a point they stop. Usually that point is when it comes to equal rights. I knew a guy who scoffed at me and said, “Sure, I want equal rights for men and women. But, we have that already. What women really want is a reversal, where they can subjugate men.”

Um…okay, so you admit women have been subjugated in the past? Doesn’t that make bells ring? I know there’ll be the few out there who think, “Why not give them a taste of their own medicine?” (and in my darker moments, I’ll admit that I’ve thought the only way for equality is for the subjugator to get a taste of his own medicine), but really, that’s not the goal. The goal is to be able to be mothers and providers — or just mothers, or just providers if we choose. We weren’t given the choice to have children, but we’ve been doing it. Does it need to define us? Give an excuse to dub us “weaker” or “in need of protection”? If anything, it’s proof of the opposite. Any woman who can make breakfast and lunches for her family, putting the kids on the bus, kissing the hubby goodbye, go to her full time job, come home to cook and clean and spend time with the kids is a hero in my eyes.

Anyway, the reason I bring this all up is not only because of the article, but because of something else that ties into something that happened to me a week ago.
(more…)

3:27 pm | Category: Journal, Writing | | No Comments