Living the Fictional Dream

The premier of The Vampire Diaries on the CW this month led me to pull all my old L.J. Smith young adult novels off the back shelf where they had been collecting dust and give them a re-read for the first time since the ’90s. Strangely enough, I don’t actually own a copy of The Vampire Diaries book trilogy, but I have copies of what (in my opinion) were Smith’s better trilogies — Dark Visions, The Secret Circle, and The Forbidden Game.

It’s been fun to journey down memory lane by rereading these old books. I loved them when I was the right age for them. In fact, Dark Visions was one of several inspirations for one of my novels-in-progress.

But, reading them now, with much more writing experience (and life, too) behind me, I can recognize their flaws much more readily than I could back then.

I may come back and address other flaws in these books, as I can think of several, but today I wanted to talk about eye color.

For some reason, writers love to take liberties with eye color. Why have boring old brown or blue eyes when youre characters can have aquamarine, violet, or amber colored eyes?

Now, I will admit to having done this on occasion. One character in my urban fantasy ‘verse, a werewolf, has the distinguishing characteristic of ice blue eyes. Though, I did do some research — there are a few wolves who have blue eyes.

But these L.J. Smith novels take eye color way over the top. One heroine has pine green eyes. One hero has blue-gray eyes that, every time they are described, are comparied to the sea. A villain has eyes that are bluer than blue — described as the blue that you see when you close your eyes, an unearthly blue (though, he is a Shadow Man from an evil dimension, so maybe he has a right to crazy colored eyes). A villainess has eyes alternately described as amber and golden, which are paired with honey-colored skin and a mane of black hair. A supporting character is always described as having emotionless or cool gray eyes.

I think the lesson to be learned here is that character descriptions are a powerful tool for drawing your reader into your world and for helping them to remember a character. All characters really do need one feature that is uniquely there’s so that the reader can distinguish that character from all the rest.

However, that distinguishing feature does not always have to be the eyes. And if you use too many crazy eye colors in one story, it starts to feel absurd and/or cliche. Maybe just give one character unique eyes, and let other characters have something of their own — a unique hair color, thick eyebrows, unusual stature (tall or petite), large hands, etc.

Now I have the urge to revisit my young adult novel in progress and see how many crazy eye colors I put in there. I remember emerald green and violet off the top of my head. Uh-oh!

Residential Aliens, a great e-zine, has revamped its look and come out with a new website. I really like the upgrade. If you have a chance, go check it out here. And, while you’re there, you can read some good speculative fiction.

If you like prowling archives, once you’re there, you’ll find my flash piece, “The Sorcerer’s Wife,” as it made the transition to the new site.

Enjoy, folks!

My flash piece, “The Wall,” is live in the September 2009 issue of Hypersonic Tales. Check it out here — you can read it or listen to the audio version. I’ve been trying to break into the audio fiction market for a while now, so I’m excited about this publication.

This story made the rounds for a while before finding itself a home. I wrote the first version about 10 years ago, while I was still in college. It was a much longer version with a romance and a happier ending. I pulled it out of mothballs when I renewed my focus on writing back in 2oo7, and, with the help of my writing group, refocused the story and made it flash. For this story, the shorter format works — it makes it pop. There wasn’t really enough plot for the longer version.

I don’t remember any more what inspired this story, but I see it as a combination of the fantasy and sci-fi genres. When I shopped it around, a lot of sci-fi markets said it was too fantasy for them, and vice versa on the fantasy markets.

If you haven ‘t read the story yet, this paragraph is a spoiler, so skip to the next one. Personally, I think the end of “The Wall” is a happy one. In my mind, Hannah was saved from her prison in Orlon by what she knew as the Chaos, but in reality, life on the other side of the wall is beautiful and free. However, you could also interpret the ending in many other ways. That she was willing to die rather than be reprogrammed is also a valid reading of the story. I’d love to know what you thought.

I was beginning to think this story was cursed. It kept getting “almost” accepted, and then, once, it actually got accepted, but the market shut down before “The Wall” could actually be published (bummer!).

But, now “The Wall” is finally having it’s day, and I couldn’t be happier with Hypersonic Tales. Go check it out when you have a chance, and let me know what you think. You can leave a comment here.

Watch out for the Chaos — it will pop up when you least expect it!

I recently received my first rewrite request from an editor. The story I submitted was a flash piece about a selkie. I would love to place this piece, so I will definitely attempt the rewrite. I wonder if I can get a first pass done before my maternity leave is over next week?

I appreciated that the editor’s request explicitly stated what they think the problem is with the piece so I know what needs to be addressed. And, I must admit, I agree with the editor. The basic problem is that the main character needs to have more at stake, more conflict, in the story. As it stands, the main character is more reactive than proactive — something I have to watch for in my writing. I did go back and try to give the main character in this piece a character change after her selkie encounter, but apparently that was not enough.

Now, I must ponder where to go next with this story… At least there is no restriction to keep it flash. The market in question accepts stories up to 4,000 words. I don’t plan to use that many, but adding more to the main character will probably require more words than I have left for it still to be considered flash.