Robin Burrows's Blog, page 14

Blog: What Is In a Name?

What is in a name? People can go by so many different things. But is a true name less of an actual name and more a word for the person's soul?

I got married earlier this year and took my husband's last name for my personal life. It has felt quite odd to be called by the new last name. Anytime I introduce myself, I have to pause a second to remember to use the new last name. To complicate this I am using my maiden name for my writing. Now I am both names; yet I am neither. It's odd how a name can embody who you are. It's even stranger to have two names that are so completely different. The names feel like different lives.

Although, in the life department I've probably lived six different lives in my short life so far. This would just be another new chapter. And speaking of chapters, my birthday is this week. It's one of those big-chapter birthdays – one of the more depressing ones for someone in my age range – where numbers should start going backwards instead of forwards. It's also my first birthday with my new last name. And the first birthday without any of my family nearby; except my husband of course.

But back to names.  A single name can mean so many different things. My first name means 1) a bird by the same name 2) a bright fame 3) a bright flame (as in the red chest of the robin bird). My maiden surname means dweller by a hill/berg (German for mountain)/fort. That's ironic since I grew up in the hills of northwest Arkansas and lived nearby a place called Mountainburg. I really loved those hills and miss them now that I live in a concrete city. My new last name could mean anything from crow's pass to crossing of blood.

But do all of these different names and different meanings really mean anything at all? A name can mean anything. Each person creates their own meaning. And no two people with the same name will ever be the same.

While we are discussing names, here is an excerpt from my Painted Realm setting with my character, Wendell the Wanderer. Poor Wendell believe that it is his name that has defined his unlucky life.

Wendell was the amicable type.  All he ever wanted was a place to call home.  Life did not agree, however, and always found reasons to send him to anew city every couple of weeks.  It was not his fault that he ended up in the middle of the street outside the bank, holding the stolen money in Silver Springs.  It was not his fault that the citizens fiercely refused to believe that he had absolutely nothing to do with the robbery.   Wendell decided he did not wish to live out the rest of his days in Silver Springs, so he quickly scattered the money to the wind and ran for his life.  It became another city on the long list of cities he had visited, which he would not likely visit again.

If his deceased parents had known his name meant "wanderer" when they named him, Wendell was sure they would not have burdened him with such a curse.  Instead they would have named him something normal like Jack or David or Raphael.  He had always liked the name Raphael.  It sounded so handsome and eloquent.  He could almost hear the women cooing softly, calling out, "Raphael, oh Raphael, come over here, Raphael!"  It was like music to his poor lonely heart.  In one city he even told everyone that his name was Raphael, but they all laughed at him. No one believed he could possibly be named Raphael.  When you are called something for twenty-five years, you become that something he decided.  No matter how much he wanted to be a Raphael, he would never be a Raphael because his parents made him a Wendell.  They called him that from birth and everyday of his life, until the day their tragic deaths left him homeless and made him a wanderer.

Blog: DragonCon, Terry Brooks, Selina Rosen, and Writing Advice

As I'm sure you can tell from this blog title, I'm back from DragonCon. It was not quite what I had expected. I went to an anime convention in Dallas while I was in college. I was expecting it to be more like that experience. I knew DragonCon was a much larger convention, but I didn't realize just how much larger it was. We spent as much time waiting in lines to see some of the big-name panels as we did in the panels themselves. Probably more time in line actually.

But I did get to meet writers: Terry Brooks, Selina Rosen and Laura J. Underwood, and got their autographs. Sadly, Anne McCaffrey had to cancel because of health concerns.

The first day was extra crazy because we weren't expecting the lines to be quite so long. We also hadn't really planned out our schedule for the day, except I knew I wanted to go to the Terry Brooks autograph session Friday afternoon.

We stopped by the dealer room briefly, but it was so crowded that it was almost claustrophobic. It was like herding turtles into a cattle pen for slaughter. Everyone was shoulder to shoulder inching along. Not to even mention if you wanted to stop and look at anything. You had to wait until someone left the booth to make space for you. We decided to leave and come back later in the weekend when the crowds in the dealer room were slightly thinner.

After missing our morning panel because the line wrapped around the building twice, I got in line an hour early for the Terry Brooks autograph session (my husband went to see something else). Terry Brooks and Anne McCaffrey were two of the first fantasy and science fiction writers I ever read. When I heard they would both be at this DragonCon, that was the deciding factor for my attendance this year.

Terry Brooks and his wife, Judine, arrived early. He started signing books before his hour officially began, and I was through the line five minutes after the signing was officially scheduled to start. Terry Brooks was really nice. I only had a couple of minutes with him while he was signing the book I brought. I didn't know what to say. I'm sure he's heard everything before. Everything about how much people love his books and appreciate his writing. Unable to think of anything more unique to say, I said basically the same thing. But I also mentioned that I am an aspiring writer. He asked what I write. I told him fantasy and science fiction. His advice for writers is to keep trying. There are so many different factors that go into whether a book is successful or not, and what works one time might not work in another case. As an aspiring writer, you have to keep trying and "sometimes the magic works". Okay, he didn't say that last part word for word, but it's essentially what he said (keep writing) and I added the reference to his book on writing for purposes of this blog.

I also attended the panel with Terry Brooks and his editor from Del Rey later that evening. Look for more about Terry Brooks and this panel in an upcoming blog in the next few weeks. Other panels I attended over the course of the weekend included ones with the cast of Battle Star Galactica, Stan Lee, and William Shatner.

When I finally made it back to the dealer room on Sunday, I stopped by the booth for Yard Dog Press and met Selina Rosen, Laura J. Underwood and Sherri Dean. Selina also gave me some advice on writing. She said that if you want to be a writer, you need to do two things:

Keep writing. Don't just talk about writing. Do it. And don't continue rewriting the same manuscript over and over again if it's not working. Keep writing new material.
Write what you are passionate and don't worry what anyone else thinks about it. With all the effort that goes into writing, it's only really worth the effort if you're writing something you're passionate about.

Selina's advice really struck me because of her second point. Every single writer I have ever talked to says something along the lines of "write" or "keep writing". But the second point is really important too, because if you worry about what everyone else thinks, then it can paralyze you as a writer or suffocate your "writing voice".

When I was compiling my poetry book for my wedding, I didn't really worry about the other readers. The point of the book was a wedding gift and the poem for my husband was most important. I worried and worried about that poem and procrastinated it as long as I possibly could. Probably longer than I should have. But I was still able to ship the completed books in time to give out at my wedding. Aside from the poem for my husband, I think I only made changes to one other poem solely based on the target audience for the book. But I only changed it because it stood out. The reader's opinions were not really on my radar when I finalized the poems for the book. That's probably part of why the book now exists in print.

It was only later, a few weeks after the wedding when the realization dawned on me that I hadn't considered what other people would think about the poetry. My mother had called and mentioned the poetry book among other topics on the call. I asked her what she thought about it and she didn't really say much. I'm still not sure if she liked it or not. But then again, my parents have never really "gotten" poetry. It was only then that I started to worry what other people would think of the poetry. But at that point it was already published so there really wasn't anything to do about it. And at a certain point every published writer has to take the leap and sent their long-wrought written-child out into the world.

I remember back in high school writing 17 novella-length "Captain Codfish" adventure novels. Looking back, I always thought the reason it was so easy to write back then was because I didn't have a life (my parents were overprotective and wouldn't let me and my siblings do any activities away from home). Okay, maybe that was part of it. But now I think perhaps another factor was that I didn't feel any pressure. I was unaware of the difficulties of being a writer, so I simply wrote because I enjoyed it. Whereas, ever since college I have always felt pressured for my writing to live up to everyone's expectations.

One of several reasons why I set aside my Captain Codfish setting, my Landrina setting, and never really started much in my Lessara and Nokar settings was because of people's expectations of those settings. When I started my Kaylee Nevins story it was a blank slate; something new and different. Something to start over with new ideas.  In a sense, freedom. I'm sure I'll get back to the other settings eventually when the time is right. But the Kaylee setting feels good right now.  I foresee lots of good to come from the Kaylee stories. Who knows, Kaylee might be the next best thing since Harry Potter.  :P

Poll: What is your favorite form of entertainment?

From the selected items, what is your favorite form of entertainment?

Books, eBooks, watching tv (as it airs), movies (in theaters), TV or movies (recorded or online), computer games, console games, app games on your phone or a website, listening to music, performing music or singing, or playing sports, exercising or doing outdoor activities.

View This Poll

Poem: The Shadow (A Vampiress Lessa Poem)

This poem is a response to last week's Writers Digest Wednesday poetry prompt.  The prompt was to write an "out of this world" poem . "The Shadow" is set in my Vampiress Lessa story setting. If you used this as a writing prompt, what would you write?  Here's my poem!

The Shadow (A Vampiress Lessa Poem) 

By Robin A. Burrows

I saw an angel today

In my shadow

One wing black

One wing white

He descended

From the sky

Like a fallen star

And lifted me

Through the smoke

Above the flames

Away from the

Cold death and

Descending darkness.

Weightless

My injured body

Flew

In the arms

Of a shadow -

Translucent

And brilliant

With color.

Blackness followed.

When I awoke

Across the street

From the black,

Burnt rubble,

Only bruises and

Dried blood remained.

No sign of a shadow,

Angel, demon, abomination

Or saviour.

Perhaps

In my weakened state

On the threshold of death -

Perhaps it was just a dream.

Or perhaps something

From another world -

A world where vampires

Might be accepted.

© Copyright 2011 Robin A. Burrows

________________________________________

Read more writing samples.  |  Like Robin's FaceBook Page  |  Buy a book.

Character Interview: Leon Caraway of Kaylee Nevins and the Dragon Ring

Happy Labor Day everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the holiday. In honor of the holiday I have a very special blog for today. It is a character interview with Leon Caraway, an important character in the novel I am working on, Kaylee Nevins and the Dragon Ring.

The book is about a girl who is magically transported from her world to the wonderous and dangerous world of Azinia. However the ring she uses to travel to Azinia is stolen. Kaylee must find the ring and outwit the other keen on claiming the ring for themselves if she ever wants to go home. (For more background information about the novel, click here.) Leon is one of Kaylee's companions on her journey through Azinia.

______________________________

Leon Caraway, tell us a little about what you do in Azinia.

I sell wooden trinkets in a merchant stall at the bazaar in Junction City.

No, tell us what you really do?

I sell wooden trinkets. I carve them myself.

How did you meet Kaylee?

She bumped into me at the bazaar when she first arrived in Azinia. I'd never met her before but I recognized her immediately because she looks exactly like her, uhm, mother.

But I thought Kaylee's mother had blond hair and blue eyes? Kaylee has dark hair and brown eyes.

Kaylee has her mother's face.

So, you recognized Kaylee because she looks like her mother. How did you know her mother?

Her mother and I were childhood friends. We grew up together on Erimas, the world Kaylee is from.

How did you end up in Azinia if you are from Kaylee's world?

Certain worlds with two moons have transportation portals that align for interplanetary travel once every 28 years. Some of the portals are common knowledge. Others are closely guarded secrets. Allison (Kaylee's mother) and I found our way to Azinia during an alignment using on of these secret portals.

Were you and Allison close?

That's no concern of yours. I'm here to talk about Kaylee and the book, not myself. Had my author not forced me to do the interview, I wouldn't have been here in the first place answering your questions.

Well, then, tell us about Kaylee.

She is as stubborn as they come. And her temper is bound to get her in trouble one of these days. Not that it hasn't already. But her stubbornness also translates into a fierce loyalty. She is young, only 14, and I think she will mellow out as she grows up. I had the hardest time getting her to do anything she didn't want to do. Had she not been sad about events that occur at the beginning of the book, she might not have listened to me at all. Even though I was supposed to be in charge, I felt like she was calling all of the shots and I was just along for the ride. I guess that's what parents feel like sometimes.

What do you know about the dragon ring?

The dragon ring is just a myth.

Leon, your author told us that you would tell us more about the dragon ring during this interview. It's okay. We won't tell anyone else about it.

Most people think that the dragon ring is a myth, but I've seen it. Supposedly a dragon created the ring a long time ago when dragons still existed. Over time, the ring ended up in the hands of humans and whoever possesses the dragon ring has the power to travel between worlds without waiting for an alignment. There are a lot of dangerous people who would do anything to get their hands on it. Kaylee would be in great danger if anyone knew she has the ring. You can't tell anyone else I told you about this.

Is it true that the ring can give you the ability to fly?

There are a lot of rumors about potential abilities of the dragon ring. I haven't really had enough interaction with the ring to know if any of these rumors are true.

And now the question everyone has been waiting for. Are you Kaylee's father?

My author will break my legs if I divulged any information about the identity of Kaylee's father. You will have to read the book yourself to find out.

 

Poll: How Do You Read? Books or eReaders?

How do you read? Do you prefer the crisp pages of a book between your fingers? Or do you like to carry all of your books with you in one convenient container?

Do you prefer books or one of the many different types of eReaders on the market today?

View This Poll

Poem: Forsaken (A Vampiress Lessa Poem)

This poem is a response to last week's Writers Digest Wednesday poetry prompt.  The prompt was to write an "everything is against you" poem . "Forsaken" is set in my Vampiress Lessa story setting. If you used this as a writing prompt, what would you write?  Here's my poem!

Forsaken (A Vampiress Lessa Poem) 

By Robin A. Burrows

The whole world had abandoned her.

God

Had forsaken her

Allowing her to be

Cursed by this

Abomination;

Instead of dying

A pure death

She lived broken, fallen,

A single charred wing

Hanging from her back -

An invisible reminder

Of who she

Could have been

Of who she

Was cursed to be.

Humans

Had forsaken her.

That which is different

Being evil by nature.

Expelling her from

The very walls

That once protected.

She was sinful now

Visibly cursed

And it must be

All her fault.

A single look

Could curse them

Too.

No one wanted

To be cast out

As a sinner,

So instead,

They abandoned her -

Even her own parents.

But the vampires

They had forsaken her too.

She did not belong

Among them.

Her nature was not

Such as theirs, and

Her religious babblings

Reminded them of

A human life

Long ago cast aside

And forgotten.

If that was not enough,

She had rebelled against

Their older member,

The one who had given her

Second-Life.

No one dare disobey him.

She alone stood against him.

And she was forsaken

Because of that.

The whole world had abandoned her.

But Vampiress Lessa

Didn't abandon it.

She would use her new life,

Her new abilities,

To make the world better,

To help those in need,

To protect others from her fate.

Thus began

Her war on the vampires.

© Copyright 2011 Robin A. Burrows

________________________________________

Read more writing samples.  |  Like Robin's FaceBook Page  |  Buy a book.

Poem: Forsaken [A Vampiress Lessa Poem]

This poem is a response to last week's Writers Digest Wednesday poetry prompt.  The prompt was to write an "everything is against you" poem . "Forsaken" is set in my Vampiress Lessa story setting. If you used this as a writing prompt, what would you write?  Here's my poem!

Forsaken (A Vampiress Lessa Poem) 

By Robin A. Burrows

The whole world had abandoned her.

God

Had forsaken her

Allowing her to be

Cursed by this

Abomination;

Instead of dying

A pure death

She lived broken, fallen,

A single charred wing

Hanging from her back -

An invisible reminder

Of who she

Could have been

Of who she

Was cursed to be.

Humans

Had forsaken her.

That which is different

Being evil by nature.

Expelling her from

The very walls

That once protected.

She was sinful now

Visibly cursed

And it must be

All her fault.

A single look

Could curse them

Too.

No one wanted

To be cast out

As a sinner,

So instead,

They abandoned her -

Even her own parents.

But the vampires

They had forsaken her too.

She did not belong

Among them.

Her nature was not

Such as theirs, and

Her religious babblings

Reminded them of

A human life

Long ago cast aside

And forgotten.

If that was not enough,

She had rebelled against

Their older member,

The one who had given her

Second-Life.

No one dare disobey him.

She alone stood against him.

And she was forsaken

Because of that.

The whole world had abandoned her.

But Vampiress Lessa

Didn't abandon it.

She would use her new life,

Her new abilities,

To make the world better,

To help those in need,

To protect others from her fate.

Thus began

Her war on the vampires.

© Copyright 2011 Robin A. Burrows

________________________________________

Read more writing samples.  |  Like Robin's FaceBook Page  |  Buy a book.

Blog: James Joyce and a Decade of Experience

Once one of my college writing professors told me that my writing style was a lot like James Joyce. That's funny because what I really wanted to do was write a fantasy or science fiction story. Our assignment was to write a (realistic) story about a child.

I wrote a story about one of the characters in the Captain Codfish stories I wrote in high school. The girl wanted people to remember her birthday, but no one ever did. So one year she made a big deal about telling people her birthday was approaching. When her birthday arrived, someone she cared about got her a birthday present. But the protagonist wasn't happy. She was sad because the only reason she got the present was because she had indirectly asked for one. Had she not mentioned her birthday to everyone, no one would have remembered her. She didn't want to be the person who had to beg for presents. She wanted to be the person who others chose to give a birthday present to because they wanted to - because they thought she was special.

Earlier in college, I had a unit on James Joyce. I wasn't particularly fond of his work, but two of his stories stuck with me, "Araby" and "The Dead". So when my creative writing professor said my writing reminder her of James Joyce, I was familiar with the story she was referring to: Araby. Like in "Araby" my short story was more about the emotional journey than the actual journey. I didn't really understand "Araby" until then. It took me even longer to understand, "The Dead".

The irony a decade of experience can have.

I don't consider my writing anything like James Joyce. Perhaps I emphasize the emotional elements like James Joyce, but that is where the similarities end. After all, most of my writing is in the fantasy or science fiction genres. It's about adventures and hope and wonder (hopefully). I want it to entertain and have meaning. I am no James Joyce, but someday, I hope my writing matters.

___________________________________

P.S. – Stop by my blog next week for a special Labor Day treat: an interview with one of the characters in my current novel, Kaylee Nevins and the Dragon Ring!

 

Poll: How Do You Watch Television Shows

The way people entertain themselves is constantly changing with our busy lives in the ever evolving digital world. I no longer sit down in front of the television to watch shows live as they air. How do you watch tv shows? Do you schedule your life around your "stories" or watch everything on your own schedule? Or do you entertain yourself in other ways?

View This Poll