Tracy Falbe's Blog, page 53

Fiction is good for you and a defining characteristic of humanity

I ran across an interesting book at the library last week called The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human by Jonathan Gottschall.

His research delves into our inherent love of stories. Our ability to express ourselves with narratives has allowed us to share ideas, relate events, illustrate philosophies, and teach lessons. I think most people agree that things are easier for us to remember when we hear it through a story. We naturally pay greater attention to stories because they engage us both intellectually and emotionally.

In The Storytelling Animal Gottschall presents findings from neuroscience studies. Brain scans are proving to be very illuminating in a number of fields, and Gottschall reported that when our minds experience fiction they light up like the individual is actually experiencing the action and feelings directly instead of indirectly. We empathize with the characters instead of sympathize because we feel what they are going through. This is why when I am immersed in a narrative (either fiction or nonfiction) the world around me drops away and I am transported into the details and feelings of the story. Gottschall described our capacity for experiencing fiction as a computer flight simulator in our brains. We can imagine a situation in great detail, feel what it will be like, and think about what the outcomes may be without actually risking ourselves through direct action. Hearing or reading the stories of other people also lets us experience events and feelings beyond our personal experiences. This expands our knowledge and our ability to cope with new things.

Gottschall wrote "Fiction is a powerful and ancient virtual reality technology that simulates the big dilemmas of human life."

As a fantasy author, I know that my fiction genre is typically described as escapist. This is true, but Gottschall makes the point that escapist fiction does not appear to be whisking us away to happy worlds of foot massages and rainbows. Fiction focuses on problems, sometimes huge horrific dangerous problems like zombies have taken over and want to eat your brains. The author proposes that we seek fiction as a way of exploring big scary problems and thinking and feeling about how we might deal with them.

Gottschall wrote "...if fiction offers escape, it is a bizarre sort of escape. Our various fictional worlds are -- on the whole -- horrorscapes. Fiction may temporarily free us from our troubles, but it does so by ensnaring us in new sets of troubles -- in imaginary worlds of struggle and stress and mortal woe."

I absolutely agree with him. These imaginary worlds of struggle and woe are so engaging for me as a writer and a reader. I want to think about what it would be like if I had to fight for my life. Or what it would feel like to be sold into slavery. Or what dealing with magical creatures might be like, and so on.

I found The Storytelling Animal to be both informative and validating. In chapter after chapter he shows how our entire species is hardwired for telling and enjoying stories. Experiencing things through our imaginations instead of only direct contact is a great human strength. Even when we sleep our dreams continue to generate experiences, and some of them are very intense.

Gottschall made the point that people really can't stand to be without stories. We like to hear them and we like to tell them. Throughout humanity's existence there have been people who were storytellers. They were a little better or at least more inclined to develop narratives for the enjoyment of others. Storytelling is natural to our species. We do it much more elaborately than a honeybee dancing out directions to some good flowers. Reading The Storytelling Animal let me know that I am not weird. Our species needs storytellers to feed the constant craving within all of us to experience feelings and challenges beyond our personal lives. Everyone wants to hear a story so some people have to step up and deliver.

So I finally watched the 1927 silent classic Metropolis and it was astounding

Fritz Lang's Metropolis is the first feature length silent film I've ever sat down and watched. I was a little leery of the experience and did not expect to finish. I was not sure if I could sit through two hours of silent cinema, but Metropolis was an absolutely riveting experience. Truly it deserves the title masterpiece.

The actors were amazing. This silent acting really is a lost art. I watched talented actors display full emotions with their faces and bodies. I also noticed that the silent medium made all the extra actors really put their backs into it too. The movie had many scenes with masses of workers, and the expressive throngs exhibited intense human energy.

This whole movie is on a grand scale, and I was struck by how timely the story remains. It coupled perfectly with current rhetoric about the 99 percent and the 1 percent as the wealthy all powerful ruler reigned from the towers of his shining city and workers plodded between shifts at their machines and were forced to live in an underground city. I appreciated how the clock for the ruler had 12 hours on its face and the clock for the workers only had 10 hours on its face. They work 10 hours shifts by the way. I thought this was a nice way of illustrating the drastic differences between the classes.

Metropolis is also a ground breaking science fiction film with great special effects for its time. The scene when Rotwang the Inventor (He's complete with a mechanical hand.) unveils his Machine Man robot is pretty cool. The robot is obviously female so I'm not sure why it's called the Machine Man, especially after it is given the appearance of Maria who is a prophet of sorts among the workers and teaches compassion.

The restored version of the movie is a bit fragmented, but text strings together the surviving pieces of film so I was able to follow this very engaging story. As you might expect, there is a terrible worker uprising. It's hardly communist propaganda though because the uprising is not pretty and the workers go destructively berserk.

Metropolis is a feverish movie full of compassion, love, sexiness, exploitation, religious commentary, economic commentary, and great storytelling. I wish I had time to watch it again.

Forbidden Planet so classic it's the headwaters of cliche

I'm not sure how I lived this long as a fantasy and sci fi lover without knowing about the 1956 classic Forbidden Planet. It has a good story and is well paced, but mostly it is fascinating because it breaks ground for so many sci fi movies and television shows that come after it. The style of Forbidden Planet serves obviously as a template for Star Trek in the 1960s. The starship of disciplined explorers led by Commander Adams easily reminded me of the Star Trek crew led by Captain Kirk. As I watched the movie it was as if the producers of Star Trek were checking off boxes with lists of items from this movie.

The story in Forbidden Planet has mystery, a reclusive scientist, his hot young daughter, Robby the Robot, and the leftover technology from the exceedingly ancient lost civilization of the Krell. If you've watched any Star Trek, you'll certainly recognize these motifs.

The movie opens with Commander Adams and his crew reaching the paradise planet Altair-IV. His mission is to determine the status of any earlier expedition of settlers. Adams is able to make contact with Doctor Morbius on the planet and learns that all the other settlers were killed by an invisible force years ago. Only Morbius' daughter Alta, who was born on the planet, survived with him. Both claim to be immune to whatever force wiped out the other people.

Morbius is content to live so reclusively because he dislikes humanity and Earth and is also obsessed with the magnificent leftover technology of the Krell. Alta meanwhile is thrilled by the arrival of the all male crew and happily obliges their frequent advances for female company. After going through "everyone" as she says, Alta discovers that only Commander Adams is able to stimulate her. I adored the sexiness in this movie. It's G rated, but Alta is amazingly comfortable with her sexual discoveries considering it is 1956. She very much reminded me of Zev from Lexx.

Leslie Nielsen plays Commander Adams. I had only seen him in his later comedies, particularly Airplane and the Naked Gun, so it was a little odd at first to see him playing his trademark serious straight guy without being funny.

I recommend Forbidden Planet to anyone who likes sci fi. I watched a bluray version that had some of the special effects jazzed up, but it's still charmingly classic.

Free fantasy ebook in UK Kindle store

Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I free for UK KindleAt long last the UK Kindle store is finally price matching my free promotional novel Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I. In the Kindle publishing system at Amazon I don't have the ability to make an ebook free, so I was forced to price it at 99 cents in U.S. dollars even though I give it away for free as an ebook everywhere else.

Thankfully enough UK Kindle readers have alerted Amazon to this price discrepancy, and they can now access Union of Renegades for free and find out if The Rys Chronicles is the kind of epic fantasy series they like.

About the novel:

Dreibrand Veta has killed for his country. At the frontlines of imperial expansion, he seeks to rebuild the fortune of his noble family. In his daring travels he encounters the rys, a race far more powerful than the human empire that bred him. Dreibrand cannot defy the rys Queen Onja nor defend his companion, Miranda, and her children from the wicked tyrant Queen.

Desperate for help, Dreibrand and Miranda join Shan, a rys with emerging powers who plans to challenge Onja. In Shan’s pursuit of the rys throne, he exerts his magical powers, gathers his allies, and incites rebellion among Onja’s human subjects.

Great wealth and power will reward the kings, warriors, and spies that align themselves with the rys pretender, but defeat could mean worse than death. Onja can imprison souls and her genocidal rage is legendary. Everything is at risk for Shan’s union of renegades.

Get it for your Kindle in the UK.

Or download the ebook right here and save it to your computer to place on your preferred device.

Great advice from author D.W. Hawkins on writing action scenes

While perusing blogs I follow this afternoon, I came across some advice from author D.W. Hawkins about writing action scenes, specifically fight scenes. I read through his points and agree with them all. I was actually hoping to get a new bit of insight because I'm in the midst of writing a very important fight scene right now. It's the final duel between Amar and Cruce in my newest fantasy series Rys Rising. Still, it was good to get good reminders from a fellow author who has military combat experience. It was validating to know that I have some correct things going through my head.

In his article D.W. Hawkins: Writing Action Scenes he made an excellent point:

"Plucky heroes who always win the day are all grand and wonderful, but there’s nothing truthful about a fight scene where The White Knight cleaves rank upon rank of the evil Horde of Baddies with the greatest of ease, laughing in the face of his enemies. If that’s what you’re into, then fine. I challenge you to split about fifty logs with an axe, and laugh at them the entire time. At some point, you’ll get quiet and think this is pretty tough, after all."

Although I've never hit anyone with an axe, I do know what it's like to chop wood. This is a good point about making sure a fictional fighter is experiencing the proper physical demands.

Hawkins also made the important point that it's silly for fighters to shake off really bad wounds and keep fighting. This is something I see in movies all the time. When someone gets shot and keeps on trucking, I am always annoyed. My characters battle through some light wounds, but when they take a bad hit, I better make arrangements for someone to save them. I also plan time for recovery and recuperation too. Since I write fantasy, I sometimes speed things along with magic, but I always try to be realistic about the damage done and the impact it has on the character.

Just last night I was studying my Illustrated Atlas of the Human Body because I need to plan some horrible wounds that let my victims linger. I need some dramatic death scenes and last words, so I can't be having any quick clean deaths.

Anyway, thank you for the important points about writing fight scenes and action. Read the complete article at D.W. Hawkins' blog.

Update on Love Lost: Rys Rising Book IV

For those who are waiting for the final novel in the Rys Rising series I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that publication is months away.

The good news is that I'm making progress and I'm on track for publication in the fall of 2012.

I am in the middle of writing Chapter 31. I'm hoping to complete the novel in five or six more chapters. My ambitious goal is to finish drafting the manuscript by the end of May because having the kids at school all day is SUCH a help with writing novels. I basically despair during their summer vacations when their nonstop action shakes the house fourteen hours a day.

I really don't know if I'll make this goal, but I am going to try really hard. These final chapters are difficult to write. Because I write long multi-volume epics, the final part has to tie up MANY plot lines. The tough part is putting it together in a manner that is comprehensible and potentially entertaining to others. I'm also killing characters. This necessity leads to procrastination as a writer. I don't like killing characters I've spent years filling my daydreams with. But I'm motivated! This story has been in my head for years and it's high time I sent it out into the world.

After I make or not make my deadline for completing the manuscript, I'll spend the rest of the summer editing and rewriting it. Then I'll move into the production phase for a fall release.

If you haven't read the Rys Rising series yet, or if you've started it, three novels are complete and available.

You can get Rys Rising: Book I for free and buy Savage Storm: Rys Rising Book II and New Religion: Rys Rising Book III.

If you've bought from me directly, your automatically on my readers' list, so you'll be notified when Love Lost is published.

If you've been sourcing the series at another retailer, please get on my readers' list so you'll know when it's published. Use the form on the right hand side on any page at Brave Luck Books.

Nice 5 star review in UK itunes for Union of Renegades

My fantasy novel Union of Renegades is free in all iTunes stores. Considering that Apple only has a modest share of the ebook market, I do pretty well in their iTunes outlets, and I'm very appreciative of the readers who find me through this retailer.

And some of those readers appreciate me. One example is this glowing review from a British iTunes user Emz2011:

"Fantastic book!

A well written and deeply engaging story line, the characters are interesting and the setting is easy to imagine with the descriptive writing. I will be downloading the rest of the series! :-)."

Every time someone leaves me a good review it makes my day, and it also helps other readers decide to give my fiction a try.

Thank you for leaving me such a nice review, and I'm so happy that you're enjoying The Rys Chronicles.

People in the United Kingdom who use iTunes can get Union of Renegades for free at this link:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/book/union-renegades-rys-chronicles/id365801314?mt=11

You are now experiencing Space Opera

Jak Phoenix 2 The Markazian Deception by Matt D. Williams has blasted out of space dock without authorization.Last year I had the pleasure of reading the humorous and exciting space adventure Jak Phoenix by Canadian author Matt D. Williams. See my glowing review.

Happily Williams chose to create a sequel about the financially-challenged and permanently not-boyfriend-material Jak Phoenix and recently released Jak Phoenix 2 The Markazian Deception.

I bought it the other day at Smashwords and saw that Williams was kind enough to acknowledge me as an author colleague who had been supporting of his fiction. Thanks for the acknowledgement! I get so very little of it most days.

I already had the pleasure of previewing the first two chapters of Jak Phoenix 2 prior to its publication, and I can confidently say that readers will get great entertainment. I encourage others to indulge in the Jak Phoenix novels. They have given me many good laughs and a good space story driven by fun characters lovingly crafted.

Visit JakPhoenix.com to access all places in the galaxy where you can spend your space credits on it.

Help make Union of Renegades free for UK Kindle readers

All my novels are distributed into the UK Kindle store, but since Amazon ceased price matching Union of Renegades: The Rys Chronicles Book I for free, like it is at other ebook retailers, readers in the UK have ceased to notice my work.

It's a bummer for me because during the short time Union of Renegades was free in the UK Kindle store, it caught on with some readers who went on to buy more of my novels. Several months ago I even contacted Amazon UK about reinstating the free price for Union of Renegades, but the response I got was a brush off and the novel remained priced at its 99 cent equivalent. The Kindle publishing system does not allow me price anything for free, so it's not my fault that it is not free in the UK Kindle store.

I wish Amazon UK would start price matching my novel again because it creates a win-win-win situation.

I win because I gain more sales of other novels.

Amazon makes more money off of me.

More readers discover a fantasy fiction series they like, or at least get to sample one for free.

I understand that Amazon does not want to give everything away, but a free Union of Renegades leads to more sales. I've been marketing with this model for years and it works. I also understand that Amazon is trying to get authors to sell exclusively through Kindle with the KDP lending program, but this is not an option for me. First of all Union of Renegades is available through numerous retailers and it would be a lengthy and difficult procedure to remove it from other outlets. Also it would be stupid for me to make my work exclusive to the Kindle platform. I want to be a happy and free nomad who can graze her flocks everywhere. Not a vulnerable sharecropper tied to one estate.

Union of Renegades IS free from other retailers and from my websites.

You can download the .prc format that works on Kindle right here at this blog.

See how to add ebooks to your Kindle that are saved on your computer with this quick video tutorial.

If you're in the UK, these are some altenative places to get Union of Renegades for free:

Apple iBooks UK
Smashwords
Kobobooks

If you'd like to see Union of Renegades for free in the Amazon UK store, please alert that system to where you can get this novel for free. Maybe someday the company will go back to price matching.

Look for the link to tell Amazon where Union of Renegades is free in the Product Details section.

You're working for Mordor and I'm trying to live in Lothlorien

 Lawn chemical companies say I deserve a better a lawn than this. I don't recall ever mentioning this at my blog directly but I'm an environmentalist.

Why?

Because it is irrational not to care about my environment and whether or not it is healthy and able to sustain life in perpetuity.

I've come to the dismal realization that I can't really do much to prevent the widespread destruction of our beautiful planet. I know that Earth will have Her revenge on all of us sooner or later. Most of us who are paying attention are already feeling it.

What I can do is protect my immediate habitat which is my home and yard. I never apply any pesticides or herbicides. Insects and weeds hardly warrant pouring poison on my own land.

Amazingly, getting people to poison their own land is huge business. I see my neighbors having their lawns sprayed by these foul concoctions meant to make their lawns so green and lovely. Then the chemical worker sticks cute little signs in the ground that say children should not play on it until after it rains.

And people PAY for this, which brings me to my story. Every spring clean cut young salesmen come knocking on my door from these companies that want to broadcast toxic chemicals. (And yes it is always young men because the companies want to appeal to suburban cougars who answer the doors and control bank accounts.)

A nice young gentlemen from a familiar "poison the lawn your children and pets play on" company visited me not too long ago. We had an amusing conversation during which I constantly reminded myself not to lapse into some hostile rant even though in my mind I was indulging in a Sarah Connor-esque tirade.

Salesman: "You deserve the best lawn possible."

Me: "I like it the way it is."
[I smile lovingly at my straggling mass of clover, rye, and stuff that grew on its own.]

Salesman: "It really doesn't cost as much as you think."

Me: "I'm not interested in the service and don't need another bill."
[Why would I pay anyone to spray fertilizer and herbicide on my lawn that already looks so lovely?]

Salesman: "We could get rid of these weeds and make everything nice and green."

Me: "It pretty much grows nice all on its own."
[You fool! The weeds are contributing significantly to my habitat diversity. Why do you want to transform my lawn in a toxic and sterile wasteland?]

Salesman: "Can I just write down for you what it will cost."

Me: "OK, sure."
[I'll indulge you because I'm trying not to be mean.]

He showed me the figure $350 for the season.

Salesman: "Was it about what you thought it'd be?"

Me: "I suppose, but it doesn't matter. I have no interest in the service."
[Whether it was 10 cents or a million dollars, it still is unthinkable that I would pay for this or even let anyone do this to my property.]

Salesman: "Why don't you want it?"

Me: "Because I don't put any chemicals on my property. I do all organic gardening, including my lawn."
[Duh. Why would anyone want harmful chemicals that kill things broadcast repeatedly on their land?]

Salesman: "We have an organic fertilizer. It's a polymer molecule that slowly releases the fertilizer and there's no herbicide so you'll still have weeds but the grass will be green."

Me: "My grass is already green."
[You seem like a nice person why are you working for evil?]

I'm sure he doesn't realize that he's working for evil, but the lawn chemical industry is responsible for monstrous amounts of pollution across the continent and no one knows how many medical problems. Once upon a time I never considered what was in these weeding and feeding lawn products. When I bought my first home I would apply the fertilizer granules with the weed killers and think that it was a normal thing to do. Then I got a puppy and decided to actually read the bag of lawn product. It said not to let your pets on the lawn after applying the product until after it rained. Well, at the time I lived in Northern California and it was not necessarily going to rain any time soon, so where was I supposed to put my pets? Then I thought why would I put something on my lawn that seemed to be implying it was bad for pets? Um, if it's bad for pets it must be bad for me.

I haven't bought any more lawn chemical products since that day. I realized that if I wanted to nurture life in my home, then killing most of everything living in my yard was direct opposition to my goal.

Then I did a little research and learned that common lawn chemicals are quite harmful. Here's a smattering of information on the subject.

From the report Poison In The Grass: The Hazards And Consequences Of Lawn Pesticides by Nathan Diegelman The S.T.A.T.E. Foundation bl891@bfn.org

"Symptoms of pesticide poisoning are often deceptively simple, commonly mis-diagnosed as flu or allergies. They include, but are not limited to, headaches, nausea, fever, breathing difficulties, seizures, eye pains, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, sore nose, tongue, or throat; burning skin, rashes, coughing, muscle pain, tissue swelling, blurred vision, numbness and tingling in hands or feet, incontinence, anxiety, irritability, sleep disorders, hyperactivity, fatigue, dizziness, irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, spontaneous bleeding, and temporary paralysis. Long-term consequences include lowered fertility, birth defects, miscarriages, blindness, liver and kidney dysfunction, neurological damage, heart trouble, stroke, immune system disorders, menstrual problems, memory loss, suicidal depression, cancer, and death. The National Academy of Sciences reports that at least one out of seven people are significantly harmed by pesticide exposure each year.(3) Increasingly, reports from many people around the country are "beginning to link feeling terrible with the fact the neighbors had the lawn sprayed the day before", notes Catherine Karr, a toxicologist for the National Coalition Against The Misuse Of Pesticides."
http://www.cqs.com/elawn.htm

From the report Risks from Lawn Care Chemicals from Environment and Human Health Inc.
http://www.ehhi.org/pesticides/pr_lawncarereport.shtml

"There is growing evidence of links between pesticide exposures and the risk of human cancers, including acute childhood leukemia with home pesticide use and non-Hodgins lymphoma with exposures to herbicides," said D. Barry Boyd, M.D., an oncologist at Greenwich Hospital and board member of EHHI.

From A Beyond Pesticides Fact Sheet at http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn/factsheets/facts&figures.htm

"Of 30 commonly used lawn pesticides 19 have studies pointing toward carcinogens, 13 are linked with birth defects, 21 with reproductive effects, 15 with neurotoxicity, 26 with liver or kidney damage, 27 are sensitizers and/or irritants, and 11 have the potential to disrupt the endocrine (hormonal) system."

I like to imagine that the salesmen coming to my door are blissfully unaware of these issues. They do not know that they are spreading evil and disease. I do, so I will try to keep the barren ugliness of their dark lords outside the porous borders of my green realm. These poisons still drift in on the wind when my neighbors use them. The smell makes me choke and I have to shut my windows. I can't do anything about that, but I will never pay anyone to do it to me.[image error]