Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 42

In My Continuing Fictional Life...

In my continuing fictional life as Dylan Calish, I've got a new podcast (just a ten minute quickie: a bonus Halloween special) up at the Unseen page, along with my notes about the episode: http://entertheunseen.com/notes-halloween-travels/.

As I say in my blog, we had such a great conversation with the professor that it seemed a shame to only use the ten seconds or so where she read a few phrases for us. I mean, the phrases were AWESOME, but the poem she reads in today's podcast is possibly even more powerful. I was sorely tempted to begin the podcast with an incantation familiar to a lot of pagans, "Listen to the words of the Great Mother, who of old was called... Inanna, and by many other names...."

Also in the podcast, we learn the name of the first author EVER. Like, the first person to write something and claim, 'this is mine.' Do you know who that is? Would you be surprised to discover the first author was a WOMAN?

Also, Dylan has been very creative, because as Dylan I've also published a short story that kind of-sort of takes place in Rachel's Unseen World universe: http://entertheunseen.com/portfolio-item/read-frayed-edges/

I might also be pulling out stories that the professor told us about Inanna as "bedtime" stories, so be sure to look for those in the up-coming weeks.

Happy Samhain/Halloween

Last night was pumpkin carving. Here's some pictures to tell the story...

Mason being frightening as he plunges the knife in....


Greasy, grimy pumpkin guts:


Mom takes on the second pumpkin with Mason:


Inspired by Grumpy Cat/Tard?


My Renji + Zabimaru inspired pumpkin:


Tard/sad face lit up and lookin' spooked:


Tonight there will be trick or treating at Sargent Avenue, where we go every year, because each of the houses is decorated and there are dancers in the streets and spookiness in the air!

Best Wedding Present Ever

In about an hour, I leave to go to the eye doctors. I'm... not exactly sure the last time I went to the eye doctors, because, it's expensive and, until recently, I didn't have health insurance (well, I did, but it was "collision" as I liked to call it, because the premium was so high that it would have only really helped me not be bankrupted if I got hit by a bus.)

But, I'm MARRIED now.

So, I'm off to find out how bad my eyes are. Whoot.

Last week, I went to the regular doctor and ordered all the tests I could think of and together we booked all the appointments I thought I might need. It's thrilling. I have to say, though, I feel like I could be an advertisement for "How old are you?" (Or how much does American insurance suck?) Because, seriously, no one should be this excited to be able to see a doctor.

In other news, I'm feeling kind of drained, like you do, after spending the whole day jumping around about the podcast. Thanks to you guys, we got a lot of hits for that first day. So, thanks! I think I've mentioned, but I put together a "supplemental language program" that's going to be live tomorrow, for Halloween, as is some other content--like a short story from me.... but I'll post links to all that tomorrow.

It's rainy here today and kind of cold and miserable. I feel somewhat at loose ends, and I'm not sure why. (Not enough coffee?)

Podcast is Live!

If you want to listen to me (as Dylan Calish) hosting "Travels to the UnSeen World"... it is now live: http://entertheunseen.com/travels1/

People have asked me about the name, what's the deal? Well, Dylan is nearly Lyda (just mess up the letters and add a "n"). Plus when Rachel asked me if I wanted to be a sibling to her pen name, I said, "Sure, but I kind of want to be your brother." Clearly on the podcast, I can't pass as a dude, so I picked a gender-neutral(-ish) name.



We had a lot of fun with the podcast. If you give it a listen, you'll see that it's still a bit rough around the edges, but I'm quite pleased, despite all that. Particularly since, before a few days ago, I'd hardly used Audacity at _all_. I'm looking forward to doing more of these. I already put together a quick one that's meant as a language supplement episode for Halloween. Our professor reads a much larger passage in the phonetic Cuneiform and I added part of our interview with her where we discus language and gender and gender and power, the effect diminutives (like -ess on princ-ess) has on the perceived power of women. We also joked about early language as advertisements for beer (which was, of course, invented in ancient Sumer.)

My friend empty_mirrors reminded me that I should probably add a link or write a blog post soon about Inanna, since not everyone is familiar with her story. The cool thing is that we got our professor to tell us the most famous Inanna story--of her journey to the underworld--on 'tape,' as it were. So Rachel and I are talking about having a "Velveteen Demon Bedtime Stories" podcast too.

Because, damn. I just discovered audio.

Imma record EVERYTHING.

:-)

I Did a THING

I just finished editing my very first podcast!

It's called "Travels in the UnSeen World" and it's in support of my friend and fellow writer Rachel Calish's UnSeen World. The podcast isn't up yet, but it will be very shortly. I'll post here again when it is.

But, at moment? I'm super proud of myself. Everyone told me working with Audacity wasn't hard, but I didn't really believe them. Now I do! It helps that Rachel purchased the podcast a really nice microphone, which we've nicknamed "Magic Mike" for reasons...



Yeah... it's probably one of the more phallic things any of my friends have bought me. Uh... yeah, let's go with that. Anyway, we recorded several interviews that got distilled into the first episode, which is going to be one part interview and one part like, language/Berlitz tape. Our first language? Cuneiform! Rachel happened to know a professor at my alma mater, Augsburg who was willing to record a few "phrases" for us. Our first word of the day? "Like a dragon...."

If you can't tell, I'm still really excited about it. I'll be sure to put up a link when it's all ready to go.

Whoo!

In other news, I finally got to go to the doctor. Shawn's insurance finally covers me, so I went in and took ALL the tests. Also weirdly invigorating. On Wednesday I see an eye doctor too. Next up? Booking the dentist!

We also got our house decorated for Halloween and Mason went to the first (of possibly other) Halloween parties. His friend Soren invited him over and they even did things like BOB FOR APPLES. When I saw pictures of that on Soren's mom's Facebook page I said to Shawn, "OH THANK GOD. Someone else has provided picturesque childhood memories for Mason!" I mean, seriously, isn't bobbing for apples one of those things kids are supposed to experience at least once in their lives? Now we can check that off the "things you never knew you needed to provide as a parent" list.

Right, so here's his costume:



He's a ghoul harlequin. This is an outfit that he found in a catalogue for Party City that he got, for whatever reason, really attached to. It is pretty cool, I must say. Plus, I managed to find a perfect red wig should I decide to cosplay Renji again anytime soon, so even though we drove around forever on Saturday trying to find a Party City, I'd say it was worth it.

Okay, that's all I got for now. More soon!

Plague House

As I wrote before, I got a nasty little stomach bug last week, which I proceeded to pass around the house. Mason wins the most spectacular event by vomiting copious amounts of ring spaghetti onto the sidewalk on our way to hang out with revolutionaryjo at the Tea Garden. I felt like the World's Best Mom (tm), as I rubbed his back as he barfed in public. Seriously. Not cool. But, in true fannishness, Mason and I hung out and chatted SnK and Free! for a little while despite all the excitement.

Sheesh.

Shawn, who usually has the lowest constitution in our campaign party, was the last to fall. She got sick yesterday and, like Mason, seems to be over it already. Me, I got to have it for almost five days.

But, yesterday, I managed to take advantage of an unplanned pajama day (since Shawn was down for the count with the sick) and did a little preliminary editing on the podcast project. I successfully made a separate audio clip of the Sumerian language stuff, so it's now ready to be spliced into to the podcast at some point. The next thing I need to do is go through the interview I did with Rachel and pick out some of the highlights for the first episode. And then I need some kind of cohesive narrative to tie it all together. The good news is we're not looking to have it ready until the 29th. The bad news THAT'S ONLY EIGHT DAYS FROM NOW.

Today I also worked a bit for Sofa Wolf. I'm helping them package things up for the kickstarter that they did to print an omnibus edition of Digger. Today I packaged up a lot of stickers. Tomorrow will likely be the same. I'm fairly sure I drove Jeffery insane singing to myself while listening to my mp3 and generally nattering on about people's cool last names, where they were from, my opinions about the characters in Digger (most of which I find ridiculously awesome, charming and/or hilarious) and all sorts of other odd observations.

I'm kind of my own noise generator.

:-)

My agent was also looking for something with different sexual orientations, so I dusted of my very first novel, Sidhe Promised, and sent it on to her to see if it would fit the bill. It'd be cool if it did. I rather love that book still, though it may be a touch dated, given that I wrote it almost 20 years ago. Anyway, fingers crossed.

So, that's kind of the re-cap. I should be working on the UnSeen World novel for Rachel, but I'm being side-tracked by silly Halloween stuff right now. And Tumblr. Such a time suck Tumblr is. Though, my fandom really does live there.

All Learning is Purely Accidental

Sometimes I think I should have an alternate blog which is titled, "All Learning is Purely Accidental," wherein I just collect all of the crazy stories of my teaching "style."

Yesterday, I "taught" (yes, I know I'm overusing the air quotes, but seriously, I suck,) the Fan Fiction First Pages at Nokomis Library in Minneapolis. First of all, getting there was a nightmare. As I have long said, the Minneapolis fairies have rejected me. They smell a Saint Paulie coming and they make everything simple complicated. Like the fact that there is a Minnehaha Boulevard, Minnehaha Parkway, and Minnehaha Avenue THAT ALL INTERSECT AT ONE ROUNDABOUT and the SIGNAGE SUCKS ROCKS. I was meant to take one, but, of course, went down all the others first.

So there was screaming into cell phones, a few frustrated tears, but, thanks to a calm and loving spouse and Google Maps, I arrived only six minutes late.

But, I was late, and that put me on edge. I hate being late. Especially for things like this.

It was a small class. The Loft told me I could expect as many as fifteen kids, but there were only four. In a way that made it easier. I also had absolutely no idea what to expect. The sense I'd gotten reading about it was that it was informal. Kind of a drop-in session. But, it seemed as if the expectation was something a lot more classroom like. So, I kind of started winging it, like I do.

I should also interject here to say that I was on day four of a terrible stomach flu. I'd had almost nothing to eat all day, so I was kind of loopy.

We ended up talking about plot. I drew my theory of the plot arc on the white board. My theory is that it's not so much an arc, but a valley, where your character gets deeper and deeper into sh*t. By the middle of the book/story/fic (or perhaps 2/3rds in), your character should be in serious sh*t, but be beginning to see the way out. We talked about external forces acting as plot, and how it's just as important to remember the internal pressures. If I'd felt better I might have remembered to have them ask the "what's at stake?" question, but I petered out.

We talked very specifically about the feeling one of the young women had about 'stealing other people's ideas.' She didn't put it that way, what she said was, "What do you do to avoid repetition?" What it turned out she meant was, "What if I see a cool cross-over idea, but I think, 'yeah, that, only with my interpretation'?" to which I said, FOR GOD'S SAKE WRITE IT. First of all, I reminded her, the idea of the original idea is a complete and utter myth. We are all building on each other's thoughts. Plato did it to Aristotle. It's how ideas work. You should never feel ashamed to be inspired by something someone else wrote. I told her about how I wrote my first published novel because I really loved an X-File episode, except it didn't quite do all the things I wanted. That's where a LOT of ideas come from--good ideas. ORIGINAL IDEAS. Because ideas are free and they want to grow and multiply. There's nothing new under the sun, as is said. You're only in trouble when you copy someone's exact words. That's plagiarism. Don't do that. But steal ideas? YES.

We talk about stealing each other's ideas a lot in my writers' group. Sometimes there will even be an obvious theme going, where everyone is kind of writing about the same stuff. ONLY DIFFERENT. Because that's the beauty of it, and why a single prompt can generate multiple stories. Every artist/writer will have a different vision of the same idea.

The short of it? The young lady seemed really relieved by my rant.

I can't remember much else we talked about, though I know I flailed around for some time after that. Finally, the library liaison suggested that I offer up some prompts and get people writing. Terrifyingly, I did. Do you know how hard it is to come up with writing prompts on the fly?

But, because this was about fan fiction, I decided to do some things you might not think to do with your favorite character/character you want to explore. And, I just made a crazy list. What was your character like in high school? What will they be like in old age? What kind of joke would they tell? If your character were interviewing for a mundane job (like a secretary or ditch digger), how might the interview go? Stupid stuff like this. However, it seemed to work because heads went down and pencils came up.

So, I opened my laptop and wrote, too.

Technically, that means I got paid to write Bleach fan fic. :-)

My life is complete. (or nearly so, because I just heard from a fan of Precinct 13 that she's thinking of cosplaying Alex for Convergence next year. If that happens, I may have to explode from awesome.)

I ended up hanging around afterwards because two of the young women (just for the record, there was one young man) were also journalists who were writing an article about fan fiction for a teen magazine. So, they interviewed me about my opinions and theories about fan fiction. I got kind of deep at one point and might have scared them by talking about the need some of us have to queer our stories. It'll be interesting to see what comes of that.

But, in other news, Mason has caught my stomach bug. On our way to hang out with revolutionaryjo for tea today to talk Free! and SnK, Mason barfed. On the sidewalk, no less. I felt like the world's worst mom, because he'd said his stomach was rough and I dragged him along anyway. On the flipside, I told him he never has to join a fraternity now. He's already experienced hurling into a gutter.

Sheesh.

But, if he's suffering anything like I have. The crampy stomach thing comes and goes. So, hopefully, he won't suffer much. Mine, at least, seems to have settled.

Life and Such

Today I'll be teaching one of the Loft's "First Pages" (a one day, drop-in, informal class) at the Nokomis Library from 2-3:30 pm on "Fan Fiction." First Pages is a neat idea. It's described as: 90 minute introductory sessions in creative writing for kids, teens, and adults. They take place at area libraries throughout Hennepin County and are free to participants.

I'll be curious to see how this goes, but I'm excited to give it a try. The only bummer is that I seem to be suffering a touch of stomach flu. I thought I was over it, having gone to bed last night at around five o'clock and slept straight through until this morning. However, the toast I tried didn't last long, as they say.

Ah, well. Other than bathroom breaks and limiting what I feel like eating, I'm otherwise doing all right.

Yesterday, I spent most of the morning recording some Sumerian phrases with an Augsburg College professor for the podcast. I think we got a lot of really good material, actually. So, now I just have to find some time (harder than you'd think with Mason home for MEA week and my work with Sofa Wolf Press starting on Monday) to do all the editing. I am hoping, however, to have something together by next week. I'll be posting about that all over the place when it's up. But, what was cool about yesterday's meeting is that the prof. talked a lot about how Sumerian works, and the various levels of meaning attached to each pictogram. We talked about the beginnings of writing, and how the very first piece of creative writing to be attributed/claimed by anyone was that of a woman. The prof. re-told the story of Inanna's descent into the underworld, which I'm hoping to clip out of the interview and maybe set up as a separate podcast, something like "Unseen Bedtime Stories."

So there's a lot going on creatively.

I just wish I felt a little better.

Oops, Fandom Ate My Brain (Again)

Fandom and Life, I should say.

First of all, I had to watch all of "Free!" or, as a lot of people refer to it, "the swimming Anime." I have to say? Free! is kind of awesome. It's possibly the gayest show I've ever watched, as I'm not sure how any of the plot make sense if you think those boys are straight. However, I recommend it without reservations. You could show it to your kids, honestly. The guys in the show read gay, but they don't do anything other than get *really* sad when one of them leaves for Australia to make me say that.

The other thing I've been doing with my life is trying to figure out the whole podcasting thing. I've got a bunch of material recorded, and now I have to sit down and edit it. I have been a little afraid to do that, honestly, but it's time to jump in and give it a go.

I also wrote a short story. As I just posted to Facebook, some day I hope to write a short story that doesn't "feel like the beginning of a novel."

Ah, well. It does have an end and I'm going to see if any short story publishers are fooled into thinking it's NOT the beginning of a novel. ;-)

Yeah, that's been my life. I need to go pick up Mason now, but I realized that I hadn't posted anything here in nearly a month.

Attack on Titan (Spoilers?)

Thanks to revolutionaryjo , last night I finished #24 of Attack on Titan/Shingaki no Kyojin. When I mentioned in passing that I was watching this finally, a reader of my Bleach fanfic said that s/he couldn't decide whether or not to look forward to or dread the day I started writing SnK fanfic.

I'm never going to write in this universe.

Though it has a military structure that totally appeals to me (because unlike Bleach, the various units actually function a lot more like real military divisions,) the universe the characters exist in is unrelentingly grim. The situation itself is no more horrible than a lot of shonen stories. The future is a place where humanity has been forced to retreat behind walls because kaiju giant human-shaped creatures (Titans) roam around looking for tasty people to eat. A hero emerges.... you know how this part goes, I'm sure. Eren has a determination no one else has, along with a nifty superpower that makes him the hope for humanity.

There's even a lot of intriguing politics. There are spies and traitors in our ranks. It's unclear whether or not the whole thing is a farce, ie a giant set-up by the powers that be to keep humanity cowering and afraid and completely malleable and heavily taxed.

Normally, this would be a winning combination for me. But, the author is really extremely 'realistic' in his approach to war and casualties... heavy on the casual part of that, which is to say, like in a real war, people die stupid, meaningless deaths, sometimes very much random and unfair. Very, very few people get to be heroes. Even the hero of the story, Eren, doesn't always get to be heroic. Sometimes his superpower goes out of control, and sometimes he can't call it up, and sometimes he's ASKED to waste human lives for a greater goal (which also sometimes doesn't work out, even if the effort is valiant.)

That last bit is the part that has caused an utter lack of "FEELS." I care about what happens in this story, but the situation has forced me to divest in everyone. I have one character I like, but the words "DOOMED" seem so clearly printed on his face, that I refuse to imagine anything beyond THIS MOMENT.

SnK should also be a prime candidate for fic from me, because they skip over a lot of the more interesting times--boot camp is given two or three episodes before we get a timeskip and then training with the advance scout troop also gets only a few episodes. This is where the FEELS fail. Possibly more attention is given these times in the manga, because the speed at which we head into action means that I miss out on the little moments that could make these characters stand out. It shrinks the world rather than expand it for me. If we had several episodes of life at boot camp, I might give a few more 3-D maneuvering f*cks.

Yet I'm expected to keep track of all these white people. The other problem about SnK is that no one really stands out physically. Several people (being military and all) have the same hair color and hair style and there's not a single person of color. Which, I presume can be blamed on the fact that this takes place in some kind of pseudo-Germany/Europe, but last time I checked the Moors had made an in-road into Europe SOME TIME AGO. It's kind of creepy, in fact, that it is CANON that Mikasa is Asian and THUS IS CONSIDERED VERY RARE. I have no idea if that's meant to strike the kind of fear it does into my heart, but, if we have more Gunthers and Heinricks I'm going to start thinking that they're intentionally echoing Nazis.

The uniform certainly does.

So, perhaps if I read the manga I'll start sympathizing with the mindless Titans?

It will be interesting to see why [ Spoiler (click to open) ]Annie is one of them. Her motivations are currently unclear and it's fascinating to me that the times that she powers-up/rips free/calls others to eat her while in her Titan form is whenever someone threatens to cut off her limbs. Had she been experimented on? Is Eren's creepy-ass scientist dad somehow to blame with his Silence of the Lambs basement? My theory about why all the Titans are attracted to Eren and why they're always trying to capture him? Dad is the villain. He's created all the variants, including all the ones who are ultra-intelligent and he's done it at the behest of the government.

But, even with all this, I have very little interest in investing in this fandom beyond being a reader/watcher. if I had any FEELS it would have been focused on Jean/Marco AND ONE OF THEM IS ALREADY DEAD. It's kind of hard to write a sweeping romance with a F*CKING GHOST (although SnK fan writers/artist are sure doing their damnedest.)

So, yeah. NO. Just NO.