#WordWeavers 2405.18 — What kind of dragon (behavior or looks) would your MC be?
In one WiP, this question makes as much sense as asking a typical Irish person what kind of Tahitian they would be (body type). In the other, dragons also exist but seem to be (it's not totally defined) the result of some kind of contagious magic. We've already seen a wyvern, wbo is a monstrous fire breathing bat, and will soon realize there is a monitor lizard version (a wyrm?), but by this token there could also be a cat dragon. Thus, this question makes no sense in the other WiP, either.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 18 — Have you written sections where the action occurs against the clock? How did you do it?
My current story segment in serialization takes place over a very short time period, after the last third of the previous story taking place between dusk and dawn. The other story I am working on is a three act story, each act taking place over very few hours.
Writing stories in compressed time isn't much different than writing stories that take place more episodically over longer periods of time. In both cases, I write about what is important for the character and how they deal with events. An example may help.
In the serialization (obviously spoilers if you know which story I'm referring to), the MC realizes that though the leader has left on a military adventure to handle a "guerrilla insurgency," she sees evidence that same foe may attack the capital city. In theory, she's politically second in command. In practice, she has no real power. How she spends that day scheming and conniving with only a title to get a single frigate on patrol drives the story and the clock. It starts with a PTSD episode where she realizes she may be responsible again for innumerable deaths without the power to prevent them, then her working every contact she knows, butting heads with the generals who discount her experience running a crime syndicate (briefly), convincing a discriminated against officer who wants to accept discharge to instead command a museum-piece frigate, getting into a bloody fight with the XO, avoiding what the reader will see as assassination attempts, and it just gets worse with her love interests (plural!) pulling at her heart.
All in 12 hours. Tick-tock! That's one day of three days of escalating existential threats. The fourth day's events take place over one hour, which is about the time it would take to read.
"Were my trust misplaced, I'd learn something about myself. But, then again, that seemed to be my method of operation: win—or get hurt, pick myself up, make different mistakes." HRH CPE S. G. Regina A. M.
Any set of readers who appreciate all the characters working (whatever that means) to the best of their ability. The above quote is how my MC views getting things done. Plot advancement by stupidity is verboten. They should probably like fantasy or soft / social SF, too.
A TALE OF LOVE AND MONSTERS is a heart-stopping, action-packed fantasy adventure, a unique romance, and a deep, wise parable about self-sacrifice and family stories. Beautifully crafted kaleidoscope of distinctively new and classic legends. A MINUS
This week I'm wrapping up the audio of Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann. This is the second audiobook in a row for me with truly raw depictions of people just scraping by and trying to make the best of their situation. Tillie's narration is heartbreaking. Next audio read needs to be something not so heavy.
Related: now I feel like I should watch "The Walk" starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. (not a bad thing)
I'm reading Kij Johnson's collection of speculative fiction, The Privilege of the Happy Ending (https://bookwyrm.social/book/1442804/s/the-privilege-of-the-happy-ending). So far each story is a surprise. Give it a shot if you're looking for something different (and there's quite a bit in this to try!)
The titular character of Daniel Chacon's new short story collection, The Last Philosopher in Texas: Fictions and Superstitions, came to him as he was walking his dog in Pecos, the windblown West #Texas town where his father once lived. https://www.texasobserver.org/the-chicano-time-traveler/
Dizzy Corp. [DIZZ] is proud to be sponsoring* #Dgar for #Fedivision2024 and is pleased to announce that Dizzy Corp. is now listed on the #Fedivision voting platform.**
Dizzy Corp! Your Number One Choice in Heavy Lifters!
As you already know, Dizzy Corp are makers of the best selling Dizzy 6-0 Ray and the Award Winning Workhorse, The Dizzy 8-0 Ray!
“The Dizzy 8-0 Ray! Tough and Reliable, with Rover lifting power!”
Now available with Silent Landing function!!***
.
Dizzy Corp. is a fictional entity in the #ExtendedCinematicDgarverse first mentioned in the #DgarMusic song Space Pop (feat. Kaaren Elizabeth Smith)
#Dgar mutters under their breath about how useless corporate advertising is… ugh, they didn’t even mention anything about the Zombie song I wrote for #Fedivision… or that #Dgarheads can vote DIZZ when voting opens on Sunday to support the #DgarMusic entry!
Useless I say, utterly useless!!
#WordWeavers 2405.17 — Have you ever written for other age groups? (MG, YA, A)
My publisher pegged me as a YA writer. Lately, I've been pushing the envelope to adult in general, and in particular writing an erotic fantasy as one of the WiPs. It can all change in revision, of course...
#PennedPossibilities 317 — What clothing materials or outfits feel the most comfortable to your villain?
She was arguably a villain, and she got a thuggish prizefighter to try to kill the MC. She also tried to help a coup d'etat in the mob, which failed. The MC meet her in an alley when the MC dissed her gang boyfriend and she tried to slit her throat. The MC took away her ivory handled jackknife, which becomes a character by itself in later stories. She goes by the moniker of Mustang, maybe because like the car she's unsteerable?
She's described as
"The women looked overly girly in garish reds or pinks, with matching makeup and bracelets, except for a buzzed-cut blonde tanned woman [Mustang] who wore brass stud piercings. (Didn't brass have lead in it...? Poisonous... Oh, never mind.) It worked; she looked tough, more so maybe than her gold chain-wearing boyfriend in a white tee shirt."
We're talking cotton here. Cheap. She's wearing something tight and black around her hips.
#WordWeavers 2405.16 — If your characters were in a museum, how would they act?
It would depend on how they ended up in the museum. If the devil-girl were put on display, it would end badly for whomever put her there. Were she a patron, she'd be indistinguishable from the crowd. Once she got herself into a sealed vault without breaking in or using the vault door; the interior turned out to be somewhat of a museum (it had family pictures), but she didn't steal anything. It did help her solve a kidnapping, however.
#WritersCoffeeClub Ch 9 Nbr 15 — Have you ever attended a writer's fair / festival to promote your work? Would you?
I haven't.
I consider it if it were for the trade, that is for writers, publishers, and booksellers. If it were for the general public, considering that I feel knowing my gender could add a subtext to my stories I don't want, I'd have to think long and hard of the benefits of attending.
#WordWeavers 2405.15 — Who are your most and least gullible characters?
Of the MC's in the two current WiPs, it's exactly the opposite of what you might think.
The devil-girl had been very successful in most all her endeavors, but she'd never gotten to where she was if she wasn't used by someone every... single... time. Mind you, it doesn't always end well for those who gulled her!
Wintereyes comes across as an ingénue and innocent enough that you'll fear she'll get used like a tissue and thrown away dirtied. Not the case. She mediated between a dragon and a farmer whose silo got burnt down. The dragon apologized! (So did the farmer.) She's observant, quiet. Around people she's shy, but says what she sees and sets misunderstandings straight. Kind and helpful, everyone—humans, dragons, wolves, even cats—ends up doing what she sees is best for them and they like it, despite plans they might have had for her. Because she understands what she doesn't know, her skepticism and guilelessness plays havoc on those trying to use her.
#PennedPossibilities 316 — Does your MC or SC have a hard time connecting with others?
Both MCs in the current two WiPs have a hard time connecting with others for different reasons. They could be summed up for one they're people and for the other they're not animals.
If you've followed my posts, you're welcome to guess which is which.
Liz just wants a happy birthday.
Is that too much to ask?
A beautiful antique bed: her birthday present to herself. The nice delivery men set it up in her bedroom, and then all Hell breaks loose. Literally.
When it turns out the bed's former owner isn't basking in the glow of a happy afterlife, Liz must face some nasty adversaries to help him. Why on earth would she risk her life and her sanity to help a ghost? Certainly not because she’s in love with him.
#PennedPossibilities 315 — What smells remind your MC of their childhood? CW: Food, gross.
Two stories, two MCs, two very different answers...
Devil-girl:
She was not ever particularly copasetic with her elevation from middle class to atmospheric. When she found herself having mistreated a servant, threatening their livelihood, her autistic construction of empathy as in /I'm living in her shoes and this is fear/ kicked in. She worked hard from that moment on to /be/ with anyone humbly, and the servants kept her secret of visiting in their quarters or at the homes safe. (Actually, not entirely as the servant-mistake was one of her guardian's "lessons," but let's ignore that.) What she came to adore was a peasant bread that represented in her head getting away from all her responsibilities. Buttery, cinnamony, yeasty, with lots of honey and chopped up pumpkin. Passing by an open bakery door will often remind her of simpler times.
Wintereyes:
She doesn't remember a lot before her gift manifested at age 7. The going theory is that it broke something in her head. Farm smells, flowers, even fields of corn, elicit nothing, though she visits her birth parents' land claim regularly when the Blue Feather's pack hunting grounds shift to that part of the Fell Woods. Her mother's cooking in her kitchen, usually fresh venison or rabbit Wintereyes caught, is simply human food. How she survived going off with a wolf pack at that young age is a tale I should pursue at some point. The fact is that she did. Survive. And well. The smells of a fresh kill, laced with steaming iron scent, does make her remember becoming wild and first running free. It also reminds her of the other smells associated with recent death, some quite noisome. There's a thrill there, even if in the beginning she was barely surviving on too rich organ meat her teeth could chew, or when the alpha wasn't kind, meat Mother Wolf chewed for her. That was a special smell she remembers fondly. Her brother—a hunter that the wolves soon tolerated so long as he didn't visit often—taught her to make fire and to cook meat. The half-burned smell of meat dropped into a wood fire still makes her mouth water, even as it dredges up memories of reaching into a fire and burns, and of ashes and charcoaled fat, which ground in her teeth like soft sand. She became a much more skillful campfire cook out of necessity.
Oh, one other smell: Wet wolf (which is identical to wet dog), because while a wolf could keep themself "clean" with their tongue, the result of a human attending a kill, skin caked with ground-in dirt, sweat, and later ash, was more than the sensitive noses of her pack could stand. They often chased her into streams. She splashed them back, of course!
#PennedPossibilities 314 — Has your MC ever felt as though they were reborn in the mental / emotional sense?
In the current story, she experiences a mental breakdown when events crush her worldview completely. [Spoilers, so you'll have to take my word on this.] Her understanding of what was evil, wrong. Her understanding of the trustworthiness of people, wrong. The goals she set to fix the magic that she saw as ruining others' lives... evil.
She's doesn't quite accept the latter. However, she finds it very weird to face the people around her without a deep down feeling that they will someday betray her.
Book review #30 for 2024 is Collin Dexter's The Riddle of the Third Mile. This time Morse and Lewis face the task of identifying a severely mutilated corpse. Their journey takes them into the lives of men and women with much to hide. The plot was interesting and entertaining, but I found the end uneven, convoluted even. ☕☕☕ cup review. #books#bookreview#fiction#collindexter@bookstodon@books@bookstodon
Book review #29 for 2024 is Collin Dexter's The Dead of Jericho. Another Inspector Morse installment. The characterization of Morse in this novel showed an uncertain and anxious detective who works to solve a murder of a woman that he was wanting to have a relationship with (affair is the better word). ☕☕☕ cup review #bookstodon#books#fiction#bookreview@bookstodon@books@bookstodon
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