L. Jagi Lamplighter's Blog, page 66
September 10, 2012
Interview with John
Here's an interview with John done by Jean Marie Ward at Balticon for Buzzy Mag.com.
http://buzzymag.com/john-c-wright-interview/
September 6, 2012
Magic Spells Help — part two.
You guys were a great help yesterday!
But, from your good comments, I realized that you could probably be more help if I gave a few more specifics. So, here's a question or two:
1) Love Spells…there is love enchantment…but the enchantment is music with a scent and visible sparkly lights. So, it's not subtle. Still…you could play it on a sleeping person or something.
My question is: In a culture where there were love spells…what disasters and legal problems/solutions do you foresee that might be different from what we have?
2) Conjuring. They can conjure stuff that lasts up to a day. It can be made permenant under certain circumstances, but that is a different issue. My question is: What uses can you think up for temporary stuff?
I've already thought of:
Plates…you could learn to conjure really nice dinnerware. So that every night, you would have this beautiful table. You would eat. Then you would just thorow the plates away. When they vanished, the food left on them would be left in the trash. No washing dishes.
Candy…making food with Conjuring not that wise, since it disappears. But you could make a quick vanish sweet that you could eat and would then disappear.
What other uses of being able to make anything temporarily can you think of?
Thanks in advance!
September 5, 2012
Help needed — Magic Ideas
Okay Folks,
Magic spells…if you could do stuff with magic, what would you want to do?
What objects or items do you wish were magical?
What do you think the average pre-industrial person would want to do with magic?
Trying to populate the spell/magic item list for the world of my YA novel.
September 4, 2012
Save City of Heroes
CoH:http://www.change.org/petitions/ncsoft-keep-ncsoft-from-shutting-down-city-of-heroes#intro
August 24, 2012
Request for Help
Hey folks,
I could use help with two things:
First, Reviews on Amazon– I have recently learned, thanks to the lovely Misty Massey, that the number of reviews you have on Amazon affects sales, in that Amazon treats books with more than twenty reviews differently than those without. I had not realized this and had not be urging people to review.
So, if you have read any or my books and feel moved to write a review, I would appreciate it tremendously.
The first book already has twenty, so it's mainly the second and third that need help, but everything is appreciated!
(While you are at it, feel free to write reviews for John's books, too.)
Second, Prospero In Hell Paperback– the paperback for Prospero In Hell is finally out, one year after it would normally have come out. But I haven't seen it in bookstores yet.
If you happen to visit a bookstore, I would be so appreciative if you would ask about it…or a library!
If you should ever feel really helpful, if you order a book at Barnes and Noble, and you don't pick it up, they put it on the shelves. That would be very cool!
Thank you all! And bless you!
August 16, 2012
God’s Mysterious Ways
Sometimes, when I have no money, I pray: "God, if you want me to do X, please send the appropriate funds."
Sometimes, He does.
Today, I prayed that way. Then, I went to the mail box. There was a copy of our churches' magazine and two bills. I love the magazine and felt it counted as a type of supply, so I was delighted…but it would not pay for the thing I had wanted to do with the children. But I felt so bouyed up, so held in God's love, I opened the bills with a happy heart.
And discovered that I had accidentally overpaid one of them by quite a bit.
Which meant I didn't have to pay it this month.
Which meant I did have money…the money put aside for that bill.
Divine Love really does meet every human need..but sometimes It does it with a sense of humor.
Overheard At the Wright Household.
My eldest son: "Okay, we're going to do this 'outside the box.' And then we are going to put it back in the box, just to confuse them."
Can't tell you how amazed I was that this particular young man had even the vaguest idea where 'the box' was.
August 15, 2012
Wright’s Writing Corner: The Three Levels of Character.
Hey all. Haven’t posted a Wednesday writing post in a while. Hoping to get back to it in September when the kids go back to school, but I thought I’d write down some ideas from a conversation I had with a fellow writer one night as we took a walk.
Our discussion was about character and what it meant to be a one, two, or three-dimensional character. Here are a few thoughts:
One-Dimensional Characters— are just that. They have one-dimension to them. The girl with red hair. The angry guy. They are very seldom memorable, because they do not have a second quality to distinguish them from every other character with the same quality.
If the only thing that sets ‘red-haired girl’ apart is her red hair, she is indistinguishable form all other girls with red hair.
One-dimensional characters appear in almost every work, because not all characters need fleshing out. The messenger who brings the news of the king’s death does not need a personality if he’s never to be seen again. Being ‘the messenger’ is just fine.
He could be the messenger with red hair or the messenger who was missing an arm. But he is still a one-dimensional character because he is indistinguishable from other one armed messengers, having no other qualities.
If the character changed their distinguishing characteristic, the reader could not recognize them. If red-haired girl showed up as a blonde, we would never know her.
Two-Dimensional Characters—are characters who always act in a predictable way.
She is the fiery redhead. He is the angry guy who apologizes terribly every time he hits someone. They are easily recognizable, because they always act exactly the same.
Two-dimensional characters are not necessarily forgettable. They can be complicated, even delightful. Some are famous. But we know them because they are always the same: the perky girl who always swears, the depressed boy who carries a blanket and sucks his thumb, etc. They never act out of character.
A really good example of beloved, vivid, two-dimensional characters are the Peanuts. They characters on the Peanuts never act out of character. Charlie Brown never wins. Lucy never gives him a break. But they are definite and recognizable and lovable.
If one day Charlie Brown got out of bed, put on a different shirt, acted brave and cheerful, and won a game, we never recognize him.
Three-Dimensional Characters—are characters who come to life.
In particular, they are characters complex enough that we can recognize them even when they act out of character. They are character who have two separate themes to them that are in conflict with each other: such as, for instance, scofflaw rascal and Southern gentleman.
There is a logic to character…an interweave of qualities…that makes it so we can tell when someone is out of character as opposed to breaking character. A three-dimensional character is one who is so well defined that even when he acts out of character, he does not break character…and he is still recognizable as himself in a way that Charlie Brown or Lucy—much as we love them—would not be.
An example that comes to mind is Rhett Butler in Gone With the Wind. It is a huge surprise when the casual rascal decides to join the army when it becomes clear that the South is losing. It is so different from his normal way of behaving—from his two-dimensional front as a blockade runner who doesn’t care.
And yet, the character is skillfully enough drawn that the reader does not think, “Oh, come on, he would never do that. This is ridiculous. I’m not reading this tripe.”
Why? Because we know that the other string to his ‘scofflaw rascal present’ is his ‘Southern gentleman past’. Under pressure, it is his secondary qualities, his sense of honor, that come to the fore. The action is surprising and yet understandable.
A three-dimensional character can be go anywhere, be thrown into any situation and still be recognizable.
So…quick review:
One-dimensional characters never changes.
Two-dimensional characters have a range of behavior but cannot act outside that range.
Three-dimensional characters are recognizable in any situation.
At this point, my friend paused on the darkened sidewalk, stroked his beard, and said, “You know. I think I’m a two-dimensional character.”
(I wasn’t going to argue with him…but he’s not. ;)
Who are some of your favorite characters of varying dimensions?
August 9, 2012
To My Writer Friends…
So…
Do you guys have that thing happen where you have this scene running through your head and you keep picturing how to write it…but it's from like book Seven of a series where you are on Book Two?
August 8, 2012
Life With Boys
A special post of the Overheard at the Wright Household variety about Life with Boys:
Me, upon returning from a wonderful trip to Georgia: "Ping-Ping's brother's family was really great. I wish you could have come with us. I think you would have had a wonderful time."
To which Juss, the eternal boy, asked with bright-eyed glee: "Did they have video games?"
