Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 26

Happily ever after

A post at Writer Unboxed: Happily Ever After

I’m a sucker for happy endings. I’ve written before, though, That a lot of writers tend to shy away from them because they can easily degenerate into cliches.  When the guys in the white hats always win and the guys in the black hats routinely go down in flames, endings start to get shallow and predictable.  To avoid this, we get stories in which either nothing happens – stories that are more about creating character than watching character develop toward a climax – or where what happens to the characters is just the result of random, generally cruel fate.

I do think this is nonsense from front to back. That may be because I’ve read almost nothing published in the last few years, but what I *have* read has included, for example, romance or romance-adjacent novels by Jennifer Cruisie or romance or romance-adjacent novels by Sharon Shinn, for example.

Speaking of Sharon Shinn, check this out. This just came out … let me see … yep, this month, thought so. I did not notice it was out, but I did read this book in draft, which is obvious since my name is under that unreadable quote on the cover. That says, “Shinn’s characters are vivid, distinctive, real people,” and it’s a line from this review-ish type of post I posted here earlier this year.

It’s barely a romance, thus romance-adjacent, which I think applies to a lot of Cruisie’s books too, since they’re also murder mysteries or something else besides romances. But my actual point here is: non-ironic happy endings are provided in all romance novels and all romance-adjacent novels, and thank heaven for that, because if there’s one thing I would prefer to know about in advance, it’s that the ending is happy. Or, if you MUST, then ambiguous, with any tragic elements leading toward a just ending, even if the ending isn’t exactly happy. I’m thinking of Elizabeth Bear’s Eternal Sky trilogy here. Outstanding trilogy, many superb characters, a satisfying ending with tragic elements.

Happy endings are surely still quite common in SFF, yes? What HAVE I read recently? (Quasi-recently?) Well, The Year of the Reaper. That was a happy ending with bittersweet overtones; my comments here. Also a just ending, which is even more important. Journey Across the Hidden Islands –– what a warm and fuzzy novel this is. My comments here. Middle Grade, to be sure. Perhaps one can also point to MG SFF for nearly universal happy endings.

Of course Marag and Rihasi had happy endings, and of course they would, since they both included strong romance plotlines.

Anyway, my impression is that happy endings are normal in SFF, though not utterly required as in romance. I don’t think authors need to justify happy endings and I think it’s actually quite silly to say that if the good guys win, the endings become trite and predictable. It’s the author’s job to handle the ending in a way that is not trite or predictable, no matter how often the good guys win. And if the ending is just a matter of watching random (cruel) fate play out while characters flounder ineffectually through the plot, wow, either that’s Literary or it’s a terribly written novel, one or the other.

Where is the linked post going? It is actually heading somewhere much better than I expected given the first paragraph. It’s going here:

I don’t buy that your only choice is between shallow, black-and-white morality and a descent into ennui and meaninglessness.  Instead, I think we need to take a deeper look at where happy endings come from and what they mean.  And a good place to start is the Middle Ages. … Happy endings, at their heart, are about justice. 

THERE WE GO. Suddenly I’m on board with this post. Not that I think you need to go back to the Middle Ages; you can actually go to any historical era — Classical Greek myths, say — and see the same thing.

So, how do we bring all this medieval metaphysics back to writing?  Well, the first step toward finding happy endings is to delve deeply into your characters’ choices, to understand who the are and why they choose to do what they do.  Then ask yourself, what about those choices has broken or healed something, either within your character, your character’s family, your character’s business, your character’s world.  Follow that brokenness or healing through to its natural conclusion, and you will have found your ending.

Which leaves plenty of room for tragic endings, of course. However, your protagonist(s) ought to have healed something, restored something, improved something; and they ought to have done so in ways that are just. This is why I massively prefer the ending of, say, the Scholomance trilogy to the ending of the Hunger Games trilogy.

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Poetry Thursday: Edith Södergran

The Stars

When night comes
I stand on the steps and listen,
stars swarm in the yard
and I stand in the dark.
Listen, a star fell with a clang!
Don’t go out in the grass with bare feet;
my yard is full of shards.

***

I really like the above poem! Great imagery. This was translated from the Swedish, and because of the “shards,” I’m wondering if it should have been “a star fell with a crash,” since to me “clang” does not imply the star smashed into fragments, while “crash” might. However, I like it either way.

I’ve never heard of Edith Södergran before. From the linked post:

The Finnish modernist author Edith Södergran has through her poetry touched, inspired and affected generations of people and writers, not only in the Nordic countries, but also around the world. Södergran’s poetry has been translated to over 40 languages and the 24th of June 2023 marked 100 years since the passing of Södergran.

***

The Land That Is Not

I long for the land that is not,
For all that is, I am weary of wanting.
The moon speaks to me in silvern runes
About the land that is not.
The land where all our wishes become wondrously fulfilled,
The land where all our fetters fall,
The land where we cool our bleeding forehead
In the dew of the moon.
My life was a burning illusion,
But one thing I have found and one thing I have really won –
The road to the land that is not.

In the land that is not
My beloved walks with a glittering crown.
Who is my beloved?  The night is dark
And the stars quiver in reply.
Who is my beloved?  What is his name?
The heavens arch higher and higher
And a human child is drowned in the endless fogs
And knows no reply.
But a human child is nothing but certainty.
And it stretches its arms higher than all heavens.
And there comes a reply:
I am the one you love and always shall love.

***

Here ‘s a page with the above poems plus some others. I like them all! A lot are VERY short. if you have a moment, click through and check them out.

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A request

Okay, so, at some point, not entirely sure how soon but depending on this and that it could be really soon, I’ll want to run a promotion for The Griffin Mage trilogy to boost its visibility in general and particularly boost its visibility relative to older edition product pages.

AND, When a promotion runs, it would be really nice if the books of the new editions had a handful of reviews posted.

SO, thank you very much, if you’ve already copied reviews from older editions to the new edition, or if you’ve written a review from scratch. If you haven’t yet done so, but you’ve read this series, particularly if you liked it, then I would sure appreciate your taking a few minutes to copy or write reviews.

Here are all the relevant links:

The Griffin Mage Trilogy Omnibus, OLD edition.

Lord of the Changing Winds, OLD edition; and HERE is Lord of the Changing Winds, NEW edition

Land of the Burning Sands, OLD edition; and HERE is Land of the Burning Sands, NEW edition

Law of the Broken Earth, OLD edition; and HERE is Law of the Broken Earth, NEW edition

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Fashion and Food

Five novels that worldbuild through fashion and food.

Always interested in fantasy novels that emphasize food. And I guess fashion is okay, too, though from there I get distracted by architecture and that goes off in every direction, and the point is, I like food, so let’s focus on that.

Or … maybe not! Because I like the sound of this one, which focuses on fashion:

Spin the Dawn, says Amazon, is is a story where Project Runway meets Mulan in this sweeping fantasy about a teenage girl who poses as a boy to compete for the role of imperial tailor and embarks on an impossible journey to sew three magic dresses, from the sun, the moon, and the stars.

And I have to say, lots to love about this, including the girl-disguised-as-boy trope. Also the fairy-tale dresses. Also, the cover is lovely.

Does that list have a novel as intriguing as the above, but one that focuses on food?

Not really. There’s A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, but that was my first T Kingfisher DNF, because the heroine was such an idiot that I just couldn’t stand it and quit.

Legends and Lattes, but it just sounds a little silly for my personal taste. The title, I mean. It just sounds … silly. I realize everyone seems to love it. But … it just sounds silly.

Thus we see that the title does make a difference. If Terry Pratchett had titled one of his books Captain Carrot, or anything of the kind, I would probably never have read that either. Or very reluctantly, after many recommendations, maybe. But it’s painful just to think about picking up a book with such a silly title. Even describing Legends and Lattes as “ridiculously cozy” isn’t enough to make me pick it up.

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Update: WHEW

While “finished” is a strong term, I did send Silver Circle #3 to early readers on Sunday afternoon.

Seriously: whew!

As expected, I snipped off the epilogue because it’s not finished. Is it more than half finished? Probably. Is it mostly finished? That might be going a little far. Will I enjoy finishing it? Yes, I will; I always like the falling action / epilogue / everyone lives happily ever after part.

Anyway, this time, the primary revision was a huge deal, with far more rewriting and finishing than usual. Half a chapter got completely replaced here; complete new scenes got added there; characters once present for a series of five chapters disappeared and then played a different role when they finally reappeared; four complete chapters got added and then two got combined into one, and the whole thing just went on and on, argh.

However, I hope it’s pretty smooth at this point. Except for not having the epilogue.

What’s next?

Breathing for a few days and not even looking at it. Ha ha, no just kidding. I’m going to start over and re-read it from the top, with an eye to continuity, proofing, tweaking, and trimming. I would sort of like to lose 10,000 words or so, which should be very possible as I haven’t done any trimming so far. Or if I have, it was long enough ago that I have literally forgotten about it. Trimming would be good because that would make room for the epilogue and updated character list. The full version with the partial epilogue is about 177,000 words, which is about the length I start to say ARGH, FOR GOD’S SAKE, TRIM THIS MONSTER. Or, I mean, I cut it in half, but obviously I’m not going to cut this one into pieces because that would be ARGH in a different way. Anyway, if I can ditch 10,000 words, great.

Though there’s another brief scene I might want to add …

ANYWAY, it’s far, far closer to really finished than it was. Let me see. Ten days till Thanksgiving. Okay, I would be REALLY GRATEFUL to be just about at the pure proofreading stage by Thanksgiving, or at least by the end of the Thanksgiving weekend. We’ll see!

I’ll put this book up for preorder on Amazon as soon as comments come back and I confirm — hopefully — that secondary revision won’t be too insane. If it drops on Amazon before Christmas, it won’t be much before, so I hereby declare that this is a Christmas novel. It sort of is, what with the story taking place during the weeks right before Christmas.

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Poetry Thursday: EE Cummings

So, after EE Cummings was mentioned here recently, I thought: OF COURSE! Because his poetry is so intriguing, and I’ve never read more than the ones that are routinely selected for every single literature book ever printed. So I went poking around and found a couple poems I haven’t seen before. Maybe you have, but if so, I hope you’ll like revisiting them today.

The metaphorical language in these poems is remarkable. I kept pausing as I read them — I mean over and over — caught by one metaphor after another.

***

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond
any experience, your eyes have their silence:
in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me,
or which i cannot touch because they are too near

your slightest look easily will unclose me
though i have closed myself as fingers,
you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens
(touching skillfully, mysteriously) her first rose

or if your wish be to close me, i and
my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly,
as when the heart of this flower imagines
the snow carefully everywhere descending;

nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals
the power of your intense fragility: whose texture
compels me with the colour of its countries,
rendering death and forever with each breathing

(i do not know what it is about you that closes
and opens; only something in me understands
the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses)
nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands

*** *** ***

love is more thicker than forget

love is more thicker than forget
more thinner than recall
more seldom than a wave is wet
more frequent than to fail

it is most mad and moonly
and less it shall unbe
than all the sea which only
is deeper than the sea

love is less always than to win
less never than alive
less bigger than the least begin
less littler than forgive

it is most sane and sunly
and more it cannot die
than all the sky which only
is higher than the sky

*** *** ***

Here is a YouTube video of one of my favorites — All in Green Went My Love Riding, as sung by Joan Baez:

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Books for when you need an escape

It occurred to me that I hadn’t looked at tor.com — I mean Reactor (If I liked the name, I’d adjust to it faster) — for a long time, so I checked in and immediately tripped over a nice post by Jo Walton: Out of This World: Books to Read When You Need an Escape

Interesting list — thirteen books, of which I have read six, all of which I liked. Jo Walton’s lists tend toward books I like. To me, there is absolutely no unifying theme here. “Books when you need an escape,” really? Some are fluffy and some are thoroughly tense. Wild Seed by Butler, Rimrunners by CJC, Double Star by Heinlein (Walton says she thinks this is his best novel, which is interesting right there).

But also Piranesi by Clarke — I loved the audiobook, btw — Fangirl by Rowell (my favorite of hers), Warrior’s Apprentice, and Derring-do for Beginners.

Seriously, there is no common thread here.

Of the books I haven’t read, here is the one that struck me as most cool: Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City

Jo Walton says: This was the book that broke my reading slump during lockdown. I was reading, but I had to keep forcing myself to concentrate. This just did the thing where I wasn’t thinking about myself and this world but the problem of finding a sixteenth way to defend a walled city. This is a fantasy novel without magic, written in first person confidential, where the reader is being confided in, in an imaginary history with very fun logistics and military technology. It may not be for everyone, but nothing is for everyone. It was just what I needed.

Amazon’s description: A siege is approaching, and the city has little time to prepare. The people have no food and no weapons, and the enemy has sworn to slaughter them all. To save the city will take a miracle, but what it has is Orhan. A colonel of engineers, Orhan has far more experience with bridge-building…

My response: I have to read this book!

Here’s another: Under Italian Skies

Jo Walton says: This is a romance novel set in Italy, and it’s very well written and the romance is almost off the page; it’s about a woman going to Italy and everything being OK. 

Amazon’s description: Stella finds herself trying on a stranger’s life. As the villa begins to get under her skin, she can’t help but imagine the owner from the clues around her. She meets his friends, cooks the local food he recommends and follows suggestions to go to his favourite places. But can an idea of someone ever match up the reality?

My response: In this case, it was Walton’s description that did it; Amazon’s description doesn’t do a lot for me. But this story in inexpensive, and “a woman goes to Italy and everything is okay” sounds like just the ticket.

I should do a list of “Books to read when you need an escape,” and then pick a theme. Or, more likely, a tone. To me, CJC’s Rimrunners is far too high-tension to belong on a list like this, and Wild Seed gets too grim. I think a cozy tone is better for “reading when you need an escape.”

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(Late) Monday Update: A lot is going on behind the scenes

A) I’m shortly going to do the corrections for Silver Circle #2 and load the new! improved! version over on Patreon. That should happen before five pm Monday (Central).

B) I am deep, deep, deep in revision for Silver Circle #3, I am not calculating how many hours per day I’m spending on it because I don’t want to know. While there is basically no prayer that I will have it ready to send out to early readers on Wednesday, there is every chance I will have it ready by Friday. Probably without the epilogue, which if I am still working on that, I will snip it off and send the book to early readers without that. It is, after all, an epilogue. I’m not concerned about it as far as large-scale story-level comments go.

***

Posting may be light this week, see (B) above. However, I’m seeing glimmers of the light at the end of this extremely long tunnel. anyone would like to suggest a title in the following category, I would be most interested:

What One Novel Should Rachel Read First After She Finally Has Time To Read Novels?

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Design your own interstellar generation ship

Really: Design an interstellar ‘generation ship’ to spend decades among the stars with Project Hyperion competition

Rather than focusing on the design of the propulsion system, or structural design of the ship, researchers are specifically interested in answering what an ideal space habitat architecture and social system would look like for such a journey. For the competition, a team of at least one architectural designer, one engineer, and one social scientist is tasked with designing the habitat of a generation ship, including its architecture and system of societal organization.

Should you happen to have friends in the required professions, here you go: a neat hobby.

One word of caution I think ought to be offered to participants: No matter what you think humans ought to be like, all the people on your generation ship will be actual humans, with human instincts that constrain what will succeed as far as societal organization goes.

No doubt somebody with a primary interest in architecture could offer a similar caution about that. Hey, here’s a suggestion: Ditch the Brutalist aesthetic and go for … what? Anything else, really. I would personally get a kick out of designing a generation ship with Classical Greek temple-style architecture!

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Intuitive Writing

A podcast from The Creative Penn podcast, here’s the transcript: Intuitive Discovery Writing

There’s a bit of an emphasis on serial fiction, but then this:

What is discovery writing? How does it differ from plotting or outlining?

I find discovery writing, in a more positive description, is that you’re leaning into your curiosity. So you’re not deciding ahead of time what happens to your character specifically. … So you get into it because you’re like, “I want to know what happens next!” So that same rush that a lot of people get when they’re reading a story is a foundational aspect of using discovery writing as a technique.

That’s one of the things I really push in my book is that discovery writing is a technique. It is a technique you use with outlining, using story beats, without any of those things. It’s a technique that you can hone and improve upon over time by practicing it. So that’s kind of the short version of what I think discovery writing is and how it can be useful to writers. …

And then there’s a good discussion about how different people are, which is always so fascinating to think about —

[I]n my head, I see that person in the cafe, and I see them falling into the crypt, and I can see the crypt. Like I could physically describe that for you because I am a very visual person. How is that for you? I feel like I hear from some people they hear voices, so they hear dialogue. I never, ever, ever hear dialogue. 

Good podcast; I don’t listen to a lot from The Creative Penn because this podcast is fairly strongly marketing-focused and growing your business and so forth, and that’s not what I want to do with my time right now. [Who knows if ever?] But I do try to remember to take a look at recent podcasts now and then.

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