Shanna Swendson's Blog, page 124

Fantasy Adventures

I was going to say I was lazy this morning and skipped yoga, but really, I skipped yoga because I wanted to get more work done. I need to finish proofing that book, and then I have a lot of other things to take care of, like finding an illustrator to do some cover work for something new I have in mind. I have a vivid mental image of the style I want, but haven't been able to find someone who does that, and when I've found a book that has something similar, I can't find info on the artist. I want something kind of cute and semi-cartoony, similar to what's on the Enchanted, Inc. books in tone but a different style of art. Everyone who's been recommended is closer to manga than I want, or else more newspaper comic-style. I think I could probably best describe what I have in mind is the kind of illustrations on the slightly arty humorous greeting cards -- the Hallmark Shoebox Greetings style.

In other news, I watched the first two episodes of Westworld, and it was certainly thought-provoking. It's based on the 1970s Michael Crichton movie about an immersive Old West theme park/live-action game in which there are robot "hosts" that interact with the guests. The hosts can't harm the guests, but the guests can do anything they want to the hosts. It's unfortunately probably rather realistic that a lot of the guests use this as an opportunity to rape and murder, though there do seem to be some guests who just go to play out an adventure, like finding gold with a prospector or joining the sheriff's posse to track down bandits. Things get tricky when the hosts start becoming a little too realistic and become more self-aware, so they're affected by the trauma they keep getting put through. I do hope that the series gets into how a human is affected by committing violence against something that seems very human, even if it isn't human. The series is done by the people who were behind Person of Interest, so I can imagine there will be all kinds of delving into what it is to be human and how humans can go too far.

Anyway, I found myself thinking about what kind of theme park like that I'd want to visit. Since I have no desire to rape or murder anything, I wouldn't really need robots to create the environment, unless it's strictly a case of ensuring that the storylines play out or for purposes of hygiene -- less historical stench and less risk of disease if all the animals and most of the people are robots. Really, I suspect I'd be kind of a wimp about adventures. I don't even like regular theme parks all that much because I don't like being scared, even if it's a "safe" scared. I wouldn't want even the illusion of being in danger, regardless of whether I knew I couldn't actually be hurt. I also like my creature comforts. I'm not into sleeping on the ground, and I don't even like Renaissance festivals that use Port-a-Potties instead of having real bathrooms.

So, if I were going to have a theme park like a Westworld, I decided that I'd want a Narnia experience. You go to an old house, and you open a door to find a magical world where there are fantasy creatures and talking animals, and you can go on quests and adventures, with technology simulating magic. There would also be accommodations built in, so that you'd stop for the night at a place where there's a nice mossy spot on the ground (a concealed mattress) and a secluded pond with a waterfall feeding into it (a camouflaged tub and shower). Toilet facilities would be hidden in a cave. A "magic spell" would result in meals appearing. There might be hints of a potential threat to give your quest a ticking clock, but it would mostly be about puzzles to solve and characters to interact with. Mostly, though, I think I prefer reading about adventures to living them. There are all kinds of things I like reading about that I wouldn't want to experience myself.

Though if I were going to write that story, it would involve someone who thinks that's what they're getting, but there's a glitch, and they get transported to a real fantasy world.

Not that I need more story ideas.

New Fall TV

I ended up with two days off from posting because the new Internet/phone service installation took all morning, during which time I was offline, and then I had to run errands, and then I was catching up on what I should have done in the morning, and then I realized the day was over. The new service requires a few changes, in that my wiring doesn't support both phone and Internet with the kind of service they're offering now, so my phone jacks no longer work. My phone has to be plugged into the Internet router, which meant I had to get a cordless phone with multiple handsets, which was one of my errands. I'd have wanted new phones anyway because the new service comes with Caller ID, and my old phones didn't support that. I ended up getting a system that will pair with my cell phone, so I can use the home phone handset to make/receive cell calls. That should mean less running around the house when my cell rings. The other cool thing is that because I now have voice over IP phone service, I can use the NoMoRobo feature and block robocallers. That should block most of the scams, as well as many of the political calls. Just in time for the election!

The school visit on Wednesday went really well. The kids seemed to be at least moderately interested. The 8th graders may have been a little too cool for it, but the 6th graders were enthusiastic. I got good feedback from the teachers and principal, and I've seen some nice things posted by parents who are friends of my friend who helped set it up about what their kids said. It turned out that one of the teachers in this school was a high school classmate, so we had a mini reunion there. Meanwhile, my friend who helped set this up has roused the power of the PTA moms and is determined to get me speaking all over the area.

Now I guess I need to write more YA books if kids are starting to catch on.

In other news, the fall TV season has begun. I've started with three new shows so far. I wasn't planning to watch the TV version of Lethal Weapon, but I read surprisingly good reviews for it, so I gave it a shot, and it's better than I expected. It's still essentially a brainless 80s action movie that's more about the characters than the action, but it does that pretty well. Though I must say I was less impressed by the third episode, so I don't know how long they'll be able to sustain it. How much havoc can they really create in the city before something gets done?

I also liked the pilot for Timeless, the one about time travel. A terrorist (maybe?) has stolen a time machine and seems to be going back in time to change things, for a reason that remains unknown. They still have the prototype time machine that's paired with that one, so they send a team of a historian, a soldier, and a scientist from the project back to try to stop him. The thing that possibly elevates or differentiates this series from others with a similar premise is the suggestion that there's something more going on. Also, there are ramifications in the present from things that they do while time traveling. So, there's a lot of potential there, and they're using the time travel premise for more than just a way to get to a different time and place to have adventures in history.

There's also a new animated show on Disney XD from the same people who did Phineas & Ferb called Milo Murphy's Law, about a kid who pretty much embodies Murphy's Law. He's a big-time jinx. If something can go wrong for him, it will. But instead of him being a Charlie Brown kind of guy and moping about his bad luck, he's developed impressive coping and survival skills, and he goes around prepared for just about anything. As he says, he's found that screaming doesn't help and all it does is damage the larynx. If you're with him, disaster is likely to occur, but he'll also know exactly how to get out of it. The kids who avoid him because he's a jinx end up having much less interesting lives than the kids who are friends with him. It looks like it could be pretty cute.

I haven't yet had a chance to watch Westworld on HBO. That may be for tonight. Otherwise, there isn't much new this season that interests me, and I like not spending so much time watching TV. Not that I've been spending that time on writing this week, but now that all the life upheavals are over for the week, I'm going to get back to proofreading today.

Not THAT Busy

Maybe it wasn't the yoga class yesterday because I'm still tired today after a good night's sleep and letting myself sleep until I woke up. I blame ragweed. I was so spacey and not wanting to work yesterday that I actually did something that's been on the to-do list for weeks that involved making a phone call. My phone/internet are being transitioned to fiber, as they're stopping their support of the traditional copper wiring-based service, and I had to call to set an appointment for installation. It's actually a plus for me as I'll be getting more/better service for less cost, but it did require making a phone call, and will require installation. I was able to get an installation appointment Thursday morning, but that means I need to tidy the house a bit because I'm the kind of person who cleans up before repairmen come over. Also, he'll need access to outlets, I'm sure.

Thus, I made an executive decision that since the deadline I set for myself to proofread this book was arbitrary and it's not urgent that it be done this week, I'm not going to stress over it. In addition to the cleaning I need to do before Thursday, I'm spending tomorrow morning at a school. When an old friend who helped set up the school visit invited me over for dinner tonight and I almost refused because I was so busy, I had a moment of realizing that most of the "busy" is self-imposed. So, I'm taking the late afternoon/early evening off to go have dinner with my friends and see their kids, one of whom I've never met in person and two I haven't seen in ten years (and it sounds like her kids are really excited because apparently they decided I was spending the night and were fighting over whose room I'd sleep in).

Proofing is so critical that it's hard to do when you're tired, distracted, or spacey, so I'm doing it bit-by-bit, reading out loud, and taking breaks. If I finish this week, then great. If not, I'll live, and meanwhile I'm using some of the breaks to do research for the next book.

I think tomorrow I'll skip a day of blogging, since I'll be out all morning, leaving early.

Revolution on the Brain

It's being a very Monday Monday. I have a lot to do this week, and all I really want to do is crawl into a blanket fort and nap. Of course, that could be because of everything I need to do this week. I need to "adult" big-time, and I don't really want to. I'm going to have to rethink the Monday morning yoga class because it's starting to make me feel like I'm behind before the week even starts, as I get nothing much else done on Monday mornings, so I'm catching up early into the afternoon, and then I don't get my usual work started until much later. We also have a new teacher who has a very different approach. Physically, it's more or less fine, but there's a different atmosphere. The previous teacher played very soft "yoga studio" music that was mostly ambient sound -- some nature sounds, maybe a little flute type music. This teacher plays church praise music, which is a musical genre I'm not crazy about to begin with, louder than I'd really like (I can barely hear her over the music), and then she cranks it up higher during the relaxation time. I actually physically convulsed when she did that today because it was such a jolt. It didn't help that the singer she was playing did that thing where they deliberately sing just a bit flat, and the loud off-pitch music just isn't relaxing for me. It's a class held at a church, so I guess that's her thing, but it's not my thing. It's hard to get into a proper yoga mindset when you spend the whole class wondering if you should say something about not being able to hear instructions over the music and getting more and more irritated by the music.

I may look around to see what other class days and times might be an option at other yoga studios nearby (there are a ton), or maybe develop enough self discipline to do it regularly at home at times that better fit my schedule. I think it might work better for me in the evening as a way to wind down because it makes me sleepy. It wasn't an expensive class, so I'm giving myself permission to only go when I really want to for the rest of this semester, and we'll see how it affects my week. When I was sleeping later in the mornings, the class forced me to get up, and I got home at about the same time I usually got settled down to work, but now I'm usually well into my day by the time I get home, so I feel behind, and I don't like to start the week feeling behind.

In other news, I think that perhaps the universe was doing me a favor all those times when circumstances kept me from seeing the movie Reds. I finally watched it, and it wasn't what I was expecting. I was thinking something closer to Doctor Zhivago, though from the perspective of someone involved in the revolution, but that stuff didn't kick in until the last hour. Most of the rest of it was pretentious people making pretentious speeches and living bohemian lives, with Diane Keaton apparently not aware that she wasn't still playing Annie Hall. I got a couple of idea notes out of it, though. Then I finally got around to the Rebellion miniseries on my DVR from earlier in the year, about the Irish Easter Rebellion. That one's more interesting, and possibly more relevant to my needs. It's funny, I thought that The Tudors was some kind of full employment program for Irish actors, but there's no crossover that I've noticed so far with this series, which also has an Irish cast. Maybe all the people who got noticed in bit parts in The Tudors are now working outside Ireland, and this was the next wave. They've been showing the first season of The Tudors on Ovation, and it's fun spotting all the people who have done other things since then. In this series, though, the Irish actors get to play Irish characters, for a change (except for the ones having to play British characters living in Ireland).

It looks like I'm going to have revolution on the brain for the next month or so, but first, I have to proofread the previous book.

Ridding the Land of Evil

I made it through copyedits yesterday. The next round is proofreading, which I'll probably start tomorrow. Today is for dealing with business stuff and research on the new book.

But also, since it's a pleasant day, I think it will be a picnic lunch kind of day. They finally re-opened the park that got damaged by floods, so I may walk over there and check it out. The places to sit by the river are still closed (since the river is currently filling up those spots), and it's still too warm to get off the trail safely (snakes!), but I should be able to manage a pleasant walk in the woods. I made a corned beef yesterday and I have pretzel rolls, so I've got good sandwich material, and the new Honeycrisp apples are in.

Meanwhile, the mosquito fogger outdoors did work. I sat out all afternoon without seeing a single mosquito or getting a single bite. However, it only lasts as a repellent for six hours. There are probably fewer mosquitoes because it kills them if you spray directly in spots where they lurk, but visiting mosquitoes may still show up after six hours. I may need to buy this stuff in bulk, now that I know that it works. Not only does the stuff you spray directly on you not seem to work on me, my skin doesn't like it. Repelling the nasty bloodsuckers from the whole area seems like a great idea. Keeping them away from the patio also seems to keep them away from the door, so they don't sneak into the house when I'm coming and going.

I need to come up with an evil fantasy creature based on mosquitoes so I can kill them in large numbers in a book and rid the land of the evil.

Patio Office Time

It's the time of year when I move to what I call the patio office, where I can sit under my patio umbrella in the afternoon and work outdoors in perfect weather. That's even easier now that I have wi-fi that extends out there. The one downside is the mosquitoes. They love me. Strangely, I seem to get more bites when I put on mosquito repellent than when I just use a Bug Band, but this year, even the Bug Band isn't scaring them away, nor does the giant citronella candle. But now I have escalated. I got an outdoor fogger and sprayed the patio this morning. It should be safe to work out there this afternoon. Supposedly, this stuff kills them when you spray grass and bushes where they live and repels them when you spray the hard surfaces. We'll see what happens.

I also got a purple mum to have some color out there. I thought about getting some pansies, but then I couldn't remember what pots I had to work with. I got a gizmo that supposedly does automatic watering, but it requires a rather big pot to work, and I'll have to check what I have in the garage.

At this time of year, I could happily live outdoors, except for the sleeping, and even then, I like to have windows open. Unfortunately, ragweed is a bit of an issue, but the Allegra is kicking in. I'm not suffering as badly as I usually do at very high ragweed levels.

This afternoon, I should finish going through the copyedits. Next week will be proofreading time. I hope to get to writing on the next book very soon because I have so many stories I want to tell.

Worldbuilding: Geography

In my writing posts, I'm doing a series on worldbuilding. Previously, I introduced the topic by talking about your story world being a place where things can happen. Now we need to look at the actual place and think about geography.

This isn't just about the maps at the front of a fantasy novel. It's about what those maps imply and what goes behind the maps. Although we call it "world" building, it may not be about a whole planet, but rather about the places that affect your story. This is where some knowledge of geography and historical geography can help. For one thing, there's usually a reason why people live in a particular place. You can look at a map and see groupings of towns and cities. This is especially obvious in older settlements. People tended to come to places where they had things they needed to survive. Water was especially key, for crop irrigation, as a source for food (fish), as a draw for wild game, and as a means for transportation. It's easier to get to and from a place near a river, and it's easier to bring in goods and send away materials for trade.

Settlements might also arise near some other natural resource, like a mine or quarry. In a fantasy world with magic, cities might be built along ley lines. While many settlements arise because of easier access, there might also be settlements built because a location is safe and easy to defend, like a mountain outpost.

There can be less natural reasons for a settlement. A city might arise around a religious shrine that's based on an event that happened in that location. Once transportation technology comes along, it can drive settlement. If you travel on a road that parallels railroad tracks (or former railroad tracks) that date to the age of steam trains, you'll probably find a town or some kind of settlement every seven miles, whether or not there's a natural reason for there to be a town there. That's because steam trains required service every fourteen miles, and they set up the stops so that every other one served trains going in opposite directions. That meant there was a railroad facility every seven miles, which meant that the people who worked there needed a place to live and access to services. Since the trains stopped there, it was a good place to put things like stores. Other people then settled there to serve the railroad people and travelers, as well as people like farmers who brought good there to ship elsewhere. Churches and other civic institutions were established. Some of these towns became self-sustaining and continue today, even though the trains no longer stop there. Some remain as just a cluster of houses or an old church because there was little to keep people there if there weren't trains stopping.

The reason for the settlement and the ability to access it will affect the way that society develops. A place that's easy to reach by long-distance travelers is probably going to be more culturally diverse than the secure mountain fortress. A place with good resources is going to be wealthier, but also may have to be more fortified because others will covet that wealth and try to take it by force.

So, in planning the corner of your world where your story takes place, why are people living there? Can people from other places get there easily? What do they bring with them? What would happen to that society if something changed? If the mine is played out or the trains stop running, would the society continue? Do people feel safe living there? Is the place under attack often? How does this place compare to its surroundings or the rest of the world? Has the society spread from the initial settlement?

You don't have to actually draw a map, but knowing why people live there is a good start to figuring out how your place works. If you're using a real setting, it might help to look at some of the history of that place to understand why it's there and how it developed. That will affect who lives there and why, which could have an impact on your story.

Fun with History

Okay, it's back to what passes for normal around here. I actually hit my minimum "work time" quota yesterday in doing research reading, but today I need to work on copyedits, which feels more like work and less like reading. The research for this book is going to be interesting because I'm coming up against ripples from my alternate history premise that I'll have to deal with. There's a lot of stuff that happened in the 1800s because of the aftereffects of the American Revolution that wouldn't have happened in my world, but then there's some that may or may not have happened anyway, and in those cases I have to do my best to project how they might have progressed from that point in changed circumstances.

Fortunately, thanks to a Twitter post from the New York Times reviewing a new book on American history, I found an older book by the same author at my library that covers exactly the topic I was curious about. It's a potentially touchy subject that I hope to treat well -- something that didn't go well in real history but that I might be able to "fix" in my world, but on the other hand, is fixing it a way of erasing what did happen? I imagine that the people who are looking for things to find offensive will find something to be offended by no matter what I do, but I hope that most people will find it interesting and maybe even thought-provoking. I'm not famous enough to really get a lot of attention (and if I do get singled out for attention, it would likely raise my profile). I guess I just need to do what feels right for my story and the people in it and try to be honest about how things might go.

At any rate, this reading is already getting scene ideas brewing in my head as I find myself mentally inserting my characters into the historical events as they're depicted in this reference, and then I'm also mentally trying to move things forward by 100 or so years and imagining how it might have progressed. That's what's fun about playing with alternate history.

Really, reading history books and that counting as work makes my job so cool. Then to get another sense of revolutions, TCM is showing Reds on Friday night, and I've never seen it, though I've wanted to. Every time I was planning on it or thought I was going to see it, something came up or fell through -- including the time I showed up at the campus theater when it was supposed to be playing and they were showing something else. Now watch it get pre-empted this time. I'm so looking forward to a quiet, do-nothing weekend. Well, do-nothing other than research for a book, even if some of that involves watching a movie.

Fall! (for a day)

I made it through the convention weekend, and now it's time to get back to the real part of my author job, the part in which I actually write books. I may have to rethink my role in this convention because when I spend a lot of time setting up before the convention, I'm socially spent and physically exhausted before the convention even starts, so I'm less good at the author part. I barely remember any panels I was on, and there were friends I only saw in passing. The whole thing was a blur. It only just occurred to me that I hardly even had any conversations with people. It doesn't help that peak ragweed hit this week. So it may be possible that I can either be a writer guest or on setup crew, but possibly not both.

I do know that I've got some reading to do, as I picked up some good recommendations. I'm also eager to get back to writing. Having lots of people telling me they're waiting for the next book will do that for you. I want to keep all those people happy and get books to them before they forget about me.

For today, though, I'm taking it easy. It's the first day that's really felt like fall, my favorite kind of fall day. It still hasn't hit 70 degrees on my patio, it's gray and kind of drizzly. I don't have the brainpower for copyedits, so I'm going to focus on research reading. There's a chance that this is the only day like this we'll get this year (you never know around here), so I have this urge to Do All the Fall Things. I may even feel compelled to bake (but I'm pretty tired, so maybe not). So there will be reading with tea and the windows open, maybe an apple cinnamon candle going. If it's not raining later in the afternoon, there may be tea on the patio. If my knees weren't so sore, I'd take a walk, but I know better than that. My body needs rest today.

Then tomorrow, I'll tackle the serious work.

Off to FenCon

It's day before the convention craziness. I've got about an hour before I need to head over to help with setup, and I've got about two hours worth of stuff I need to do.

Today is FenCon setup, then tomorrow I have two panels and probably more setting up. And then Saturday is busy day, with panels, a reading, and a presentation. Sunday I have an autographing and a panel, and then we take down everything we set up. Then I come home and collapse. And then Monday I start work on copyedits.

Now to go get the rest of my work for the week done in the next hour.