With the impending release of The Force Awakens, a lot of old Star Wars material is being revisited about the internet, including several fun conspiracy theories. I delayed writing this post too long, so you may have seen some of these by now, but here’s a roundup of my favorites.
I know well enough that the Jews will keep a festival upon my death, however it is in my power to be mourned for on other accounts, and to have a splendid funeral, if you will but be subservient to my commands. Do you but take care to send soldiers to encompass these [illustrious] men that are now in custody, and slay them immediately upon my death, and then all Judea, and every family of them, will weep at it, whether they will or no.
This was how Herod intended to ensure mourning at his funeral. Yikes. (Fortunately, these orders were not carried out after his death.)Herod the Great (Big Jerk) in History
Why write from history? Because seriously, even my caffeinated imagination couldn’t make some of this stuff up. From my (very rough) NaNoWriMo work in progress: “Now, don’t judge him too harshly,” Saman said. “After all, the man is capable of deep love. When he left for the dangerous… History: When Fiction isn’t Whack Enough
So Monday night I attended for the first time our local library’s book club. It may also have been my last.
The club was discussing Something Wicked This Way Comes, the creepy seasonal novel by Ray Bradbury. I’ve always felt vaguely guilty about not liking this novel quite as much as it probably deserves, but after listening to everyone else give their impressions, I felt like a positive fangirl. Oh, sure, a few enjoyed it, but at least half the group hadn’t even finished the book.
That’s not what got me into trouble, though. No, this particular session of book club offered dinner and a movie, and we watched the film adaptation for further discussion.
I realized I was both dominating the conversation and sounding rather negative, both of which I figured were bad for a first-timer, so I squelched myself a bit. And thus a blog post was born! But the comparison really does offer a really spectacular example of what removing the stakes and changing motivations can do for a story.Something Wicked, or How I Got Kicked Out of Book Club
To celebrate the recent release of Fae, an anthology of fairy tales like you haven’t seen them, some of the anthology authors are taking turns interviewing one another. Today I have the pleasuring of sharing a virtual chat with Shannon Phillips, author of “The Fairy Midwife.”The Fairy Midwife – a FAE interview
Today I can share with you a nifty interview about the Kitsune Tales series over at the blog of Annie Douglass Lima. She’s running a series called “Realm Explorers” about worlds built in fantasy (or fantastic history, as in this case), which is a pretty fun idea. Hop… Interview at Letters from Annie
I have a short list in Evernote titled “Unofficial Goals Indicating I Have Arrived :D”. There are only a few entries, formatted as a checklist, of cultural ripples I have observed around successful stories.
I keep the list a secret, because I don’t want to influence the process. I want to see the organic ripples — I want a reader to tweet my title on #FridayReads because she was enthusiastic about the book, not because a friend did it just to make me feel good. Only once an achievement has been unlocked do I allow myself to share that it was ever a goal. (Yep, a #FridayReads appearance was one!)
I am ridiculously excited to get to share this with you.
I asked Kristie Good of Crash Bang Labs to do the Con Job cover art, in great part because she is also a longtime geek and would understand the flavor such a cover needed. Kristie does comics as well as artwork, so check them out on her site.
She obliged with very fun, manga-inspired front and back cover art. The front features our protagonist Jacob and his friend Sam, and the back shows their friends Jessica and Zach in their costumes. I have the front here for you today.
Samson, alpha male gorilla in Givskud Zoo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I had an interesting Twitter conversation a while back when World Weaver Press tweeted a link to an article about hot alpha males (“dangerous,” “possessive,” “dominating,” etc.) in paranormal romance. Being a total behavior nerd, I replied that most of these “alpha males” were actually displaying lower-ranking behavior – real alphas don’t posture, act aggressive or defensive, etc. — and we chatted briefly about the implications for fiction and PNR in particular.
Don’t confuse the “alpha male” and the “bad boy.” They’re different things. It’s a common myth, the posturing alpha male, but it’s a myth. Simply put, if you’ve got it, you don’t have to flaunt it. Only those worried about their position waste time, energy, and other resources in reminding others of their position.Alpha Males & Fiction
Drummer James Roddick of the 92nd Gordon Highlanders, defending Lieutenant Menzies during hand-to-hand fighting in Kandahar, 1880, signed and dated ‘ W. Skeoch Cumming/1894’ (lower left), pencil and watercolour, 28 x 42½ in. (71.1 x 107.9 cm.) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There are two reactions I get from pretty nearly all my beta readers and critique partners, regardless of the story:
“I don’t know exactly what your characters look like; don’t you ever describe them?”
and,
“Holy smokes, your action scenes are really detailed.”
These may be phrased in various ways, but the general gist is almost always there. And it’s a problem for me.
To celebrate the recent release of Fae, an anthology of fairy tales like you haven’t seen them, some of the anthology authors are taking turns interviewing one another. Today I have the pleasuring of sharing a virtual chat with Shannon Phillips, author of “The Fairy Midwife.”The Fairy Midwife – a FAE interview
