Iffix Y. Santaph's Blog, page 3
July 7, 2015
June 30, 2015
Best Mahgi Forever (Bonus Scene from Deception)
Toby and Mahgi had saved the city of River’s Edge from a horrendous storm. The others had helped too, Toby supposed, if not quite as much as he had. And saving lives really worked up an appetite. And seeing the Slipwrench’s home scorched to charred coals had been disheartening, which also apparently worked up an appetite. Well, just about anything worked up Toby’s appetite. He was just happy there was a kitchen aboard the Cloud Catcher.
Apparently Mahgi was nearly as hungry as Toby had been, and for good reason. His seasonal hibernation had ended early, a number of times actually, and each time he’d woken up hungry and he’d done nothing to remedy the situation. It would seem that Toby expected to keep him up for the remainder of the afternoon, if not for the remainder of the season.
Toby’s stories about a giant bug which roamed his homeland made the escudo all the hungrier. He no doubt could have eaten at least three. Alas, giant bugs were nowhere to be found in Ress Janoa. Toby had let Mahgi sniff his lucky shirt which somehow had gotten covered in the guts of the giant bug. “But no licking,” Toby said. Mahgi groaned, but his stomach groaned louder. That had been cruel indeed.
Toby had found two full boxes of ready-make pancake batter. And though Toby could have eaten them entirely by himself, Mahgi was his friend now, so he supposed he would have to make certain sacrifices. Among the other discoveries of this kitchen were a half eaten jar of peanut-butter and an unopened jar of beruta preserve. And given Toby’s knack for discovering sandwiches, he created the first quintuple-decker PB&J pancake sandwich. It was—how did Jendra say it?—“a little slice of paradise”. Yes. That seemed adequate.
He also made a quadruple-decker sandwich for Mahgi. It wasn’t quite as impressive as Toby’s sandwich. But Toby had saved the same city from obliteration twice today. Surely he deserved the best. And Mahgi didn’t seem to notice.
“This good,” Mahgi repeated over and over between bites.
“Well, it’s not my best sandwich, but I came as close to it as I could.”
Mahgi peered at him curiously in a way that begged Toby to indulge him with juicy details. “Okay, picture this.” Toby had to clear his throat. This was going to be good. “First, you take the biggest, floppiest fish you can find. I prefer gemfish. They have an exquisite flavor fresh-caught, so I eat them like sushi.”
“Sushi?” Mahgi asked.
“No cooking,” Toby explained. “It would take the juice out. Plus, I like to leave the head on, so the fish can appreciate it’s been put to good use.”
Mahgi groaned contemplatively.
“Then, I take this same batter from these pancakes, and I press it in a machine that creates little tiny pockets, so I can alternate the mayonnaise and the mustard.”
“Why?” Mahgi asked.
“Because it’s a flavor explosion fit for a commander!”
“No,” Mahgi said. His mouth watered. “Mahgi mean ‘Why me no eat that?’”
“I didn’t have the right ingredients,” Toby replied. “But someday. I promise.”
Mahgi sighed contentedly.
It was nice to know Toby’s creations could be appreciated by someone else besides him. Everyone else had always thought he was crazy. Leon didn’t even give him a chance. And he’d always thought Leon was his friend. But Mahgi was the first one who ever truly understood him.
“Mahgi,” Toby said, “you’re my best friend.”
Mahgi thought about that. “Mahgi best mahgi?”
Toby grinned. He’d forgotten about that. “Mahgi best mahgi,” he repeated.
Mahgi grinned now too. “Toby best mahgi to Mahgi.”
“Always,” Toby replied. It felt good to have a friend like Mahgi. Toby couldn’t remember having one before. Cousin Leon had been close. Heck, Sami Fuzwik had been close, before Sami tried his sandwich and ran away with a green face. No, there never had been a friend quite like Mahgi. They’d been in different caves all their lives. Toby didn’t know just how they’d found each other, but he was truly happy they had. It seemed like a wonderful start to the best friendship ever.
Best Magi Forever (Bonus Scene from Deception)
Toby and Mahgi had saved the city of River’s Edge from a horrendous storm. The others had helped too, Toby supposed, if not quite as much as he had. And saving lives really worked up an appetite. And seeing the Slipwrench’s home scorched to charred coals had been disheartening, which also apparently worked up an appetite. Well, just about anything worked up Toby’s appetite. He was just happy there was a kitchen aboard the Cloud Catcher.
Apparently Mahgi was nearly as hungry as Toby had been, and for good reason. His seasonal hibernation had ended early, a number of times actually, and each time he’d woken up hungry and he’d done nothing to remedy the situation. It would seem that Toby expected to keep him up for the remainder of the afternoon, if not for the remainder of the season.
Toby’s stories about a giant bug which roamed his homeland made the escudo all the hungrier. He no doubt could have eaten at least three. Alas, giant bugs were nowhere to be found in Ress Janoa. Toby had let Mahgi sniff his lucky shirt which somehow had gotten covered in the guts of the giant bug. “But no licking,” Toby said. Mahgi groaned, but his stomach groaned louder. That had been cruel indeed.
Toby had found two full boxes of ready-make pancake batter. And though Toby could have eaten them entirely by himself, Mahgi was his friend now, so he supposed he would have to make certain sacrifices. Among the other discoveries of this kitchen were a half eaten jar of peanut-butter and an unopened jar of beruta preserve. And given Toby’s knack for discovering sandwiches, he created the first quintuple-decker PB&J pancake sandwich. It was—how did Jendra say it?—“a little slice of paradise”. Yes. That seemed adequate.
He also made a quadruple-decker sandwich for Mahgi. It wasn’t quite as impressive as Toby’s sandwich. But Toby had saved the same city from obliteration twice today. Surely he deserved the best. And Mahgi didn’t seem to notice.
“This good,” Mahgi repeated over and over between bites.
“Well, it’s not my best sandwich, but I came as close to it as I could.”
Mahgi peered at him curiously in a way that begged Toby to indulge him with juicy details. “Okay, picture this.” Toby had to clear his throat. This was going to be good. “First, you take the biggest, floppiest fish you can find. I prefer gemfish. They have an exquisite flavor fresh-caught, so I eat them like sushi.”
“Sushi?” Mahgi asked.
“No cooking,” Toby explained. “It would take the juice out. Plus, I like to leave the head on, so the fish can appreciate it’s been put to good use.”
Mahgi groaned contemplatively.
“Then, I take this same batter from these pancakes, and I press it in a machine that creates little tiny pockets, so I can alternate the mayonnaise and the mustard.”
“Why?” Mahgi asked.
“Because it’s a flavor explosion fit for a commander!”
“No,” Mahgi said. His mouth watered. “Mahgi mean ‘Why me no eat that?’”
“I didn’t have the right ingredients,” Toby replied. “But someday. I promise.”
Mahgi sighed contentedly.
It was nice to know Toby’s creations could be appreciated by someone else besides him. Everyone else had always thought he was crazy. Leon didn’t even give him a chance. And he’d always thought Leon was his friend. But Mahgi was the first one who ever truly understood him.
“Mahgi,” Toby said, “you’re my best friend.”
Mahgi thought about that. “Mahgi best mahgi?”
Toby grinned. He’d forgotten about that. “Mahgi best mahgi,” he repeated.
Mahgi grinned now too. “Toby best mahgi to Mahgi.”
“Always,” Toby replied. It felt good to have a friend like Mahgi. Toby couldn’t remember having one before. Cousin Leon had been close. Heck, Sami Fuzwik had been close, before Sami tried his sandwich and ran away with a green face. No, there never had been a friend quite like Mahgi. They’d been in different caves all their lives. Toby didn’t know just how they’d found each other, but he was truly happy they had. It seemed like a wonderful start to the best friendship ever.
June 29, 2015
Instant Camera
Finding Inspiration
I am a small town guy from northern Minnesota. I love my family very much. They are my greatest inspiration. Case in point, I’ve been recently clearing out my grandma’s basement and one of the smaller items she asked me to bring out to the garage for a garage sale was a vintage Instant Camera; you know, the ones that were big before everything went digital.
I was carrying out that box and I got the idea, “Wouldn’t it be great to have an instant camera so that if you were ever in a situation where you needed to take a picture right now, it was readily available?” Now, I’m not the sort to keep up with certain technology. In fact, I still have an old flip phone. So it later occurred to me I was actually behind the times and many people of western civilization do have a camera on them at all times in their cell phones. Still, I found it quite amusing to have a camera that could fall from the sky.
I had a ten-year-old, unfinished short story I had begun writing shortly after the success of my first published story when I went through a phase of writing children’s books. I still had this idea about a little girl running away from home with a teddy bear that came to life and a talking suitcase. I even had a notion to return to that project occasionally. But that Instant Camera was what got the ball rolling again. If Beary wore a whistle around his neck that he swore was an “instant camera”, it might be an added ounce of comic mischief. (Anyone who knows my work knows that it thrives on comic mischief, which is why I prominently write for middle-graders.)
Inspiration can strike at very bizarre times. As writers, searching our everyday lives for inspiration may be just the thing that keeps us fueled to write the next page. What about you? Where have you found unlikely inspiration? How have you used it?
I wanted to give an update. While Teddy Bear Junction is still available as a short story on Smashwords, I am currently in negotiation with the cartoon artist Albert Perez (whose work provided inspiration for my Forgotten Princess series) to turn the story into a children’s picture book. While the project may take a few months, I will keep you posted regarding its release.
June 25, 2015
Managing Expectations
I started out, as many authors do, sending query after query to agent after agent after agent. I received a great number of those uniform rejection notices that are popular enough to trend on Twitter. Some agents never bothered to write back. Still, I had great expectations for my product, and indeed I still do. It has a great deal going for it (as do countless other books out there, and I do not speak poorly of any of them). I mean to say writing a sci-fi Snow White as though the evil stepmother was Darth Vader is probably gold in the right hands. But every author struggles to build a platform initially. And as a middle-grade author of products that cannot be found in an actual store where kids can ogle them, I’m sure this will take a while.
It’s a tougher game when you’re independently published. There is a stigma about independently published authors. Anyone and her grandma are indie authors! And someone can go to Shutterfly and put together a photo album and feel like an indie author. But the reality is, no one outside of your closest friends and your immediate family want to see pictures of that cruise you just went on. (Some of them don’t even want to see it. Can you blame them? It’s not like they had money burning a hole in their wallet to travel around the world in 80 days.)
But being a true indie author is different. You have a legitimate story that requires just as much effort for you to write as it did New York Times’ best seller of the day. And you then must put it through the paces of an editor because someone with a few pennies to his name to start with doesn’t have the thousands of dollars to spend on an editor. So at the least, we get beta readers, and most of the time the ones so eager to read our story aren’t the sort who are willing to tell us what’s wrong with it. Not only that but we are expecting a handful of people to really know what everyone feels about our story.
But here’s the cool thing. (You may not think it’s so wonderful, but believe me, it is.) When NYT’s best seller of the week realizes he’s no longer #1 next week, and when he puts an extra load of pressure on himself to make his publisher enough money so they are willing to publish his next book, sooner or later those feelings will catch up with him. He’s inexperienced because it’s his debut novel and he’s being set up for a crash. He’s further being told that someone wants those movie rights but wants to cut the heart out of the story he wrote. And he doesn’t know how to feel.
When we start out at the bottom and build up our product line and build a platform of loyal folks, even if we know every last one of them by name, even if we affectionately call them mom, we know what it feels like to carry a secret treasure just waiting to blow minds. We know what the bottom feels like, and when the story hits the big time, we get the full experience. We can enjoy the elation of a successful product while knowing what it felt like to be at the bottom. There’s no tripping over egos.
I’ve been told this past week that the way I wrote descriptions in Impulse seemed like a brilliant approach. I was told this week that my descriptions were terrible and my sense of humor is ridiculous. And to reply to such cynicism I released a comedy short story. (Ironic, isn’t it?) I even found an agent this week only to discover the agent wanted an unpublished product and I didn’t qualify. So life works in interesting ways. I’m learning that if I keep my expectations low and learn to laugh at myself even when no one else will I will be a much happier author and enjoy the ride a whole lot more.
I usually write advice about writing in my blog. The advice I hope to share in this post is this: keep your hopes high and your expectations in check. When the others finally discover our gold, and they will in time if we don’t give up, they’ll join us on the journey if we keep our sanity. No one wants to worry about a crazy tour guide tripping them into an active volcano. Pull for others, let them pull for you, and somehow together we’ll all make it through. (Sorry. Too much Seuss juice.)
Because I believe we learn best from the experience of others who’ve been there too: how do you manage expectations?
*Rejected Stamp ©dailyplateofcrazy.com used under Creative Commons license.
June 24, 2015
Returning to my Roots…
Today I completed a short story. To be clear, when I say it was a short story, I have been in the process of writing it for the past 10 years. It’s a very different story than I usually write. It was not a sci-fi. That being said, 10 years ago, I published my very first short story, which was also not a sci-fi. That story happened to be about the classic feud between cat and mouse and was called The Adventures of Phineas Harrington. In the future, provided I can track it down, I will put it on this site.
For now, I wanted you to know that I have made the short story available with Smashwords. I chose Smashwords this time rather than my usual publisher for a very good reason. I wanted it to be free and allow readers to donate as desired.
I tackled a rather dark concept for a kid’s story: Teddy Bear Junction is about a little girl who has been abused and neglected by her aunt who she has been forced to live with after the loss of her parents. And she decides to run away from home with a teddy bear and a talking suitcase. Now, while the overall feel of this story is comical and uplifting, I want it to be known that I don’t take child abuse lightly. I work most of my days as a volunteer minister, and part of what we do is teach families who will listen how to be happier families. I think that’s something we all want. And I am personally blessed to be able to share this message with all who will listen.
It is my hope that this story will be a force for good in the world.
June 22, 2015
A New Side Project
Traditionally, I write sci-fi, and I have a true passion for sci-fi. But one of my other great goals in life is to write for young ones. I know that, before Forgotten Princess is concluded, it will likely be at a New Adult/YA phase.
I want to try my hand at writing early middle-grade. I started out my publishing career by writing an early middle-grade short story, and I was recently told by a fan of that story that I should return to writing for younger kids.
I have had this idea, for quite some time to write a wacky short story somewhere between a western, Discworld, and A Series of Misfortunate Events, featuring a teddy bear and a talking suitcase. The working title is Teddy Bear Junction.
Anna is a little girl from a wealthy family who was orphaned and raised by her Aunt Mavis. Aunt Mavis can't get at the inheritance and because of her greed, her heart is rotting and she is growing ever more abusive.
One day, Anna is crying in her room, when the teddy bear breaks Aunt Mavis' fancy television set to repay her for her abuse.
With the help of the Teddy Bear and a talking suitcase, Anna escapes to a western outback world beneath her bed, and sets off to Teddy Bear Junction, where Aunt Mavis can't reach her, because only good people can ride the train.
Aunt Mavis chases Anna into this world, but when she arrives, she is a hideous purple monster. As she sees herself in her own reflection, her reflection tells her that this is what she looks like in her heart. This is the monster Anna sees everyday.
Now, she is determined to apologize for her wicked ways. But along the way, Anna, the teddy bear and the talking suitcase are still determined to escape.
When they arrive at the depot, the teddy bear learns that he cannot join Anna because he broke a television. When he sacrifices himself so Anna can get on the train, the conductor grants him a ticket and they board the train.
When Aunt Mavis arrives at the train depot, she must convince the conductor that she has had a true change of heart. And when she disembarks from the train and finds Anna, the little girl knows that her aunt has changed, for only good people can ride the train.
They reconcile and take the train back home where Anna, the teddy bear, the talking suitcase, and Aunt Mavis live happily ever after.
I plan to work on this side project in my free time until it reaches its joyful resolution. It will help me keep my youthful imagination alive as I continue to work on my Forgotten Princess series.
I would love to hear your thoughts regarding this new project.
June 22-27: Kindle E-book Countdown Deal
In preparation for the release of Deception (Forgotten Princess #2) in July, Amazon is having a countdown deal on Impulse e-book.
June 16, 2015
Baking Soda & Vinegar
Identifying Your Catalyst Character
Make no mistake, fellow writers, your catalyst character is no less important to your story’s plot than your protagonist or antagonist. A catalyst character is necessary to your protagonist, and choosing the right catalyst character to pair with your protagonist is absolutely essential. Your catalyst speaks to your protagonist’s most essential need.
Let me share with a few short passages from the Forgotten Princess series. These are from three different books. (The last is from Retrospect, which will be released next spring.) As I share these passages, consider the protagonist’s relationship to the catalyst character.
IMPULSE: Paradise was out there; [Jendra] imagined her father would not have abandoned her for anything less. She’d long wished to escape this life, this prison. In her heart, she knew that paradise was real, and she would keep searching until she found it.
***
Falling forward, she braced herself on her hands. Finally, she came to a rest on her knees. Her eyes were sensitive enough to see what lay in front of her, but darned if she believed it: a large, unfamiliar, alien creature… Curiously, it seemed, the being had not been here very long. It had not begun to decay. Weirder still: “It’s breathing!”
***
“She’s been poisoned.”
[Jendra] gasped. “Can we still help her?”
“If you hurry,” Grisham replied. “If this is what I think it is, she doesn’t have much time.”
***
[Jendra] could have hugged [Grisham] at that moment if she had been the sort to give hugs, if he had been the sort to want a hug. It would have been very awkward for both of them. She settled for giving him a sort of maniacal smile that indicated her readiness to comply.
Here we meet our protagonist Jendra, a character who feels trapped in her life, a character who wants something more out of life, but a character who, when introduced, has no immediate reason to go beyond what she’s already been doing. Jendra is occupied, if not necessarily content, with the search for paradise inside of the neat little box her life has been placed into. When she discovers the alien woman, she has a reason to go searching outside of the box, where the excitement happens. She had a basic desire before. The alien was a catalyst in that she took a desire and forced the process into action. You might compare the way baking soda and vinegar react with one another. They won’t react at all if they never come into contact. But when combined, they are the catalyst that leads to a notable effect.
Consider this from Jendra’s own perspective. At this time, the formerly comatose character is speaking with Jendra. She has no memories and has been called Amnesia.
DECEPTION: “You’re not a danger to us,” Jendra affirmed, crossing her arms. No, that didn’t quite feel right to her. She hadn’t meant to seem so distant. She took Jendra’s hand in her own. “Never think that, okay? In fact, I think you’re more or less the catalyst I’ve been searching for my whole life.”
“Catalyst? What does that mean?” Amnesia asked.
“It’s sort of like the spark that makes the whole thing go boom,” Jendra replied. “Poor analogy, I suppose, given the situation, but I’ve always wanted to leave that no good, rotten city behind. I just needed an excuse, and you were a really good one. …”
A catalyst character can be as varied as your protagonist. Perhaps she’s just entering the protagonist’s life. Perhaps she’s the protagonist’s arch foe. Perhaps she’s the character’s best friend. In some ways, throughout the arc of Forgotten Princess, Jendra herself is a catalyst, while at the same time being a protagonist. We need to understand that the role of someone as a catalyst is not mutually exclusive to his or her other role(s) in the story. The catalyst is just another character’s reason to act. And ideally, we want that reaction to be emotional and gripping. We want the catalyst to be the other character’s reason for joy, her reason to suffer, her reason not to give up. And that takes a strong emotional pull.
RETROSPECT: Jendra’s earlier exploits in behalf of her human friend had nearly killed her on multiple occasions. She and Leon had crashed their hang-gliders and fallen head-first into a monster-infested lagoon. She had nearly been eaten alive by a massive hideous creature she’d sworn didn’t exist: the legendary Je’rax, legendary among gwalf for what turned out to be a very good reason. On that occasion, it was friendship that saved her life, and it was friendship that would save [Amnesia], if Jendra had anything to say about it.
***
It was clear, the more she thought about it, that [Amnesia] meant more to her than her own life, at least more than her own hide. She had found her true self, finally understood who she really was and what she had been searching for her whole life, because [Amnesia] had turned her life upside-down. She owed a lot to [Amnesia], a greater debt than the human would ever realize.
What is the indication of this passage? When we choose to make a character a catalyst, we elevate that character. The character becomes every bit as important as the protagonist in your story, and that character becomes endeared to your reader as well.
I’ve stated before that a catalyst character’s role is not dependent on his or her other roles. But what is even more intriguing about this plot device is that any character at any time can become a catalyst, and a catalyst need not be static. (Of course, the most rewarding stories for readers feature a main character as a catalyst. And given the importance of a catalyst, this role usually isn’t best served by a minor character.) At some point, the catalyst may take on grater or less significance in the overall story-arc. The key is to use these opportunities when we have them. When you identify your catalyst, you give the plot an identity of its own, and since characters pull readers into the story, it can’t hurt to give your plot a face.
Once you have identified your catalyst character, you have a means by which to channel your plot. So identify your catalyst character as soon as possible, and you will have some idea where your plot is going. This is a convenient way to avoid writer’s block and keep your story moving forward.
I hope that by means of this article, you have seen the benefits of having a catalyst character in your story. As a writer, you might know other benefits to a catalyst character. Please feel free to share these in the comments section below. Remember that when we learn from each other, our writing becomes better as a result.
***
Iffix Y Santaph is the author of the novella series Forgotten Princess. Impulse, the first book, is available now from a variety of online retailers. Deception, the sequel, will be released in July. Retrospect from which one of the excerpts in this article was taken, will be available in the spring of 2016.
#OneSentenceAtATime
I decided to run an experiment with my Twitter account: @IffixYSantaph.. I’m going to start writing a single sentence at a time to share Jendra’s back story. I know that this may take longer than the release of my entire 6 book series. (I am hoping to release book 4 before I drop any of the major twists. But I will see how it unfolds. Keep in mind, I am free writing these sentences, though I have a clear picture in mind.
Anyhow, I realize that the story will descend in backward order, because oldest posts are posted below newest posts on my twitter page. So, after a month or so, I will compile the paragraphs on my site. In the meantime, I wanted to let you all know I am working on this project.
