Living the Fictional Dream

For your post-Thanksgiving reading pleasure, check out the new issue of A Thousand Faces, which includes my story, “Dinner for Three.” This can loosely be considered a sequel of my story “Bridge Club,” which was published in ATF issue 6.

The idea behind “Bridge Club” was to explore what super heroes’ spouses do while their loved ones are out saving the world. “Dinner for Three” goes back to the hero’s point of view and explores the options when things don’t work out with the spouse.

I love stories about the intrapersonal relationships of superheroes. Sure, action-adventure and crime-fighting are great, but what happens when the masks and capes come off? Can a super hero go on a blind date like any other person, or will the secret identity always get in the way?

If you read “Bridge Club,” you might be interested to note that Greg from “Dinner for Three” is the same character as Craig in “Bridge Club.” The bridge club members all use pseudonyms — Greg just wasn’t very creative!

If you check out “Dinner for Three,” leave me a comment here and let me know what you thought of it. I hope you enjoy reading the newest jaunt into my super hero ‘verse as much as I enjoyed writing it!

And, once you’re over there, you should check out the rest of the new issue. There is some great fiction in there, including “A Son of the Night” by K.C. Ball. And, as with all issues of ATF, if you want to have it after the issue is taken offline, go here to buy your very own print copy.

My goodness — November has been such a busy month. It is lucky I didn’t attempt NaNo, because I surely would have failed. What with the last of busy season at work, I’ve been doing well the past few weeks to take care of the baby and myself and get all that work done. Things are finally slowing down a bit, though, and I’m definitely looking forward to the long weekend.

Some people on FaceBook have been putting what they are thankful for in their status updates all month. There are so many things that I’m thankful for — the health of my little girl who was born so early and is now doing great, supportive family and friends, an understanding job, my sister’s wedding that’s coming up… I could go on and on.

But, in addition to all that real life stuff, I’m also thankful for my characters. Characters are the most important things in a story (in my opinion, anyway). A story can have a great plot, but if I don’t identify with or at least like/respect/enjoy spending time with some of the characters, I won’t enjoy either reading or writing a story.

Here are some of my favorite characters from my own stories and why I’m thankful for them:

• Caryn — She is the main character in my Y/A fantasy novel-in-progress. As far as characters go, she is the one who takes the most from me. Writing Caryn taught me that you can’t be too nice to your characters — if you don’t force your characters to go through hardships, you’ll have a very boring story.
• Sean — He is the male lead in the same novel discussed above. He was the first really flawed character I created, and I’ve learned lots about writing trying to balance his flaws with the hero he is destined to be.
• Sarah — She is the main character in my short story, “The Widow and the Stranger.” She is the first character whose first person voice came to me fully formed, which helped me better utilize that point of view (most of my stories are in third person). She also helped me realize that a plot does not have to be grand or action-packed to make a good story.
• Luke — He is a werewolf and the hero of my urban fantasy universe, the pack leader who doesn’t want to be in a pack. He featured in my story “Alpha,” and he’s the main character in another story set in that ‘verse that is making the rounds.
• Super Sonic — My very first superhero, the main character in “Zero to Clean in 10 Minutes or Less.” That little piece of flash started a whole universe, and I’m glad he finally got his happy ending.
• Daniel — He is the male lead in a Y/A novel that I wrote for NaNo a few years ago (I stalled on the revisions, so it is also still classified as “in progress”). Daniel is deaf, and trying to write him was a good way for me to stretch my writing chops by writing about someone who is not like me. I researched into deaf culture and tried to make him as real as possible.
• Viola — She is the antagonist in my short story, “The Sorcerer’s Wife.” When I wrote that story, Viola was the villain, but as I wrote, her character came to life and leapt off the page. She is the embodiment of something one of my graduate school professors said: “Everyone is the hero of his/her own life story.” Once I thought about the story from Viola’s perspective, it was a whole new ballgame.

So, those characters are some of the writing-related things that I’m thankful for this year.

What about you guys? Have you ever written a character who changed you as a writer or whom you could not live without? What writing-related things are you thankful for this year?

I just saw the full list of stories chosen for Every Day Fiction Two (the new anthology) over at EDF’s forums. Looks like an awesome line-up. In addition to the stories from writing group mates Alex, Jens, and Stephanie, there are a lot of other favorites: K.C., Gay, Kevin, Sylvia, and more… I can’t wait to get a copy.

I was trying to figure out the reasoning behind the story order in the antho. I guess it is chronological? Since I have more than one this year, I was able to note that mine are in chronological order (and, thus, fairly evenly spread throughout the volume), so I guess that is the overall method? I could figure it out if I looked up the publication dates of other people’s stories, I suppose, but I’m not that anal (nor do I have that much free time).

While we’re all waiting for the EDF anthology to be released, I was pleased to discover that Alex has today’s EDF story of the day. It’s called “With the Band,” it’s a fun piece of rock-n-roll science fiction. Go read it!

And now, I’m off to get as much work done as possible before lunch and my first official NaNo write-in! Maybe I will finally get that freaking zombie story revised that the group critted for me while I was on maternity leave!

I’ve recently been reading the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain. I purchased the first book, Green Rider, several years ago, and I remember, at the time, being completely hooked by the novel and devouring it. I was seduced by the cover art, which I found particularly good on this novel as cover art is not ususally a compelling motive for me to buy a book, but I loved the story, too.

Karrigan, the main character, comes across one of the king’s messangers in the forrest (a green rider) who is dying, and he makes her swear to deliver the message in his stead. Then adventures ensued in a well-thought-out fantasy universe full of magic, magical creatures, stoic good guys, and creepily evil villains.

It was much later that I discovered there was a sequel to the novel, and longer still before I was able to start reading the sequel (First Rider’s Call). I picked up FRC last month and realized it had been so long since I read the original novel that I should read it again before picking up FRC.

My second read of GR was a lot different than my first. I still really like Karrigan. She’s plucky and fiesty and she takes initiative — some of my favorite traits in a heroine. I also still liked the story.

However, I have gotten pickier over the years about the types of writing I enjoy. Little foiables and quirks in the writing do a lot more to throw me out of the story than they used to. It can be a little annoying, actually, because I remember really enjoying GR the first time around, and this time… well, if I hadn’t already purchased the sequel, I don’t think I would have finished it.

One of Britain’s writing quirks that bugs me is a tendency to over narrate. We’ll be going along through Karrigan’s point of view, and then suddenly she will start thinking of something totally random. Like she’s walking to the palace to see the thing and then her mind wanders off for half a page about a garden or some other big of scenery. Or, sometimes, it’s acutally important information, like how the government works or why the riders came into existance, but it’s still off topic from what the character was doing when they randomly started thinking about this. The information doesn’t flow with the pace of the narrative. It feels like the author wanted to get this information out there for the reader, so she shoe-horned it in.

I know I’ve been guilty of that in my own writing from time to time. When you know your world so intimately, you want the reader to know it that way, as well. You get carried away with the behind-the-scenes workings and want to get everything in there that you’ve put thought into during the world creation.

Part of being a good writer, I think, is realizing when you’ve gone too far and edit yourself down. The workings of the government are only important if they impact the plot. Why tell us about a budget meeting of the council if it has no bearing on the bad guy or the war at hand? It might be interesting (might), but it doesn’t move the plot along.

And, if the information is necessary to the plot, you still have to find the right time to bring it in. Narration is good, but maybe it would be better to just talk about it instead of having the POV character think about it. It can feel odd for a character to randomly start thinking about a bit of information, but a skilled writer can insert a bit of narration into the mix without the cumbersome “she thought,” etc., and keep the flow moving. Or, if the character has to actually think about it, then make her have to act on it in some way, as well.

If you enjoy fantasy, I would still recommend the Green Rider series. It’s not bad, and parts of it are quite good. But it wouldn’t be at the very top of my recommendation list.

It’s already 11/4, and I have yet to even go to a write-in. Crazy! I’m not used to this. Not that my hours aren’t totally accounted for — the busy season at work and taking care of the little one have been fully consuming.

However, I must admit, I do miss the hustle and bustle of NaNoWriMo. There is something energizing about jumping into a novel feet first and taking off running toward the finish line. It’s hard, but it’s satisfying at the same time.

My only real complaint about NaNo is that the finished product requires a lot of revision. Since novel revision is something I am particularly bad at (illustrated by the fact that even though I’ve completed several novel first drafts, I have yet to finish something that is finished enough to think about sending off to agents), NaNo isn’t quite as helpful to me as it could be. But it sure does give you a rush. And that creative rush is awesome. So is the companionship of knowing so many people are out there pulling on the universal muse at the same time.

I’m looking forward to my writing group’s NaNo write-ins. Several are coming up. We’ve got some Friday lunch write-ins scheduled, as well as a couple on Tuesday nights and Saturday brunches. We’ll see how many I can make. I do hope to get some writing done during November. Any progress would be a victory compared to my snail’s pace this year.

I hope all you Wrimos out there are doing well and that you’re still in that high of the first 10K. I wish you all plentiful word counts, and that you are spared from any carpal tunnel or eye strain issues. Keep it up!

Oh, and in other news, writing group mate Stephanie had a story up at Every Day Fiction recently. Check it out here, if you have time. It’s a short read — light and fun.