Laura Brewer's Blog, page 5

Character Interview – Veris

Today I have a character interview from an as yet unpublished work, Fist of Stars, by a writing buddy of mine, T.L. Ryder. First, a little background on Fist of Stars :

For centuries humanity has expanded into space, colonizing many worlds. In all their explorations, they have never met no other sentient beings, no threats to humankind other than their own inevitable squabbles.  Suddenly, an utterly alien force erupts into human-settled space.  Part biological, part machine, it seems to exist only to replicate and destroy. Where they came from is of secondary importance when humanity is losing ground every day.

Dobruja is a reclusive colony far removed from the center of human expansion. Even though they produce elite soldiers and advanced technology, the Dobrujan government has had little desire to help out their cousins abroad. Some Dobrujans sign on with the United Planetary Authority’s forces despite their homeworld’s disinterest. Fist of Stars follows the adventures of a group of these rebels with a cause, each with their own reasons for signing on.

Here’s Veris, an exceptional pilot who’s joined the struggle.

Q. What made convinced you to become a pilot in such a desperate struggle?

A. Honestly, when I first signed up I was only thinking about myself and the money I would earn. After our first real mission, I realized that the war effort was really important and that my work could help other people.

Q. What person in your life has had the most influence on who you are?

A. My father. We don’t always agree, in fact a lot of the time we don’t agree on anything. He taught me the importance of doing one’s best, of not giving up when things get hard, and to stand strong when you know you’re right.

Q. What is your favorite thing to do to relax

A. Laughs. I’m not sure I know what relaxing is.

Q. What is it about (one of your companions here) that drives you crazy?

A. I really hate it when Jothie criticizes my flying. He should stick to doing what he’s good at, Engineering, and let me do what I’m good at. I need to fly my way, not his, nor by some silly rules.

Q. What do you fear the most?

A. I fear that one day that our mission will fail because I didn’t fly hard enough.

Many thanks to T.L. Ryder for the interview. I look forward to Fist of Stars publication. Visit her website for more information T.L.Ryder

Ghost Digs Into The Past

Here is the opening scene of Ghost’s new story. I’m treading new ground here, so feedback will be greatly appreciated.

 

His whiskers twitched and all his senses came alert when David carried him into the new place. Ghost ignored his human doing human things involving writing and the thing called a credit card. This place was old, even older than their place in the city. He had never smelled so many layers of thoughts and feelings in all his young life.

The recent scents were of travelers looking for a pleasant place to den. Underlying that were the same sort of jumbled emotions he had observed being left in most places humans gathered. In the older layers though, the everyday ones had long since worn away, leaving strong traces of more significant events. He could feel profound turmoil in the deepest layers that he’d have to work to reach.

He wished David would hurry up and let him out. He wanted to explore.

“Such a handsome fellow.” Ghost felt the lady’s eyes on him, her scent was admiring. “I don’t mind if you want to let him out of your room, so long as he’s well behaved. Cats and old inns just seem to go together.”

David’s thoughts, as well as his scent, were surprised. Ghost squeezed his eyes in approval and purred at the lady. She was more discerning than most humans he encountered.

“As you can see, he also knows who has the keys to the kitchen,” David replied, amusement colored his voice and Ghost stared at him. He had not even been thinking about food. The nerve!

His ire at David using him to gain favor with the lady dissolved as the ancient stench of fear and horror assailed his senses again for just a second. It puzzled him that it should be that strong and then disappear that fast. A deep growl rumbled in his throat in reflex. He subdued the reaction. Whatever he sensed, his voice would not warn it away like some dog in the park.

“Let’s get him settled in your room. You are here for the summer?” she asked as she led them up stairs smelling pleasantly of well-oiled wood.

As soon as they were through the door, David placed his carrier on the floor and opened it. He ignored the routine of being shown where his water and sandbox were placed. Even the mild irritation that David didn’t realize he could find his own water bowl from quite a distance, barely registered as a thought. He began to prowl the room, all his fur sticking out in response to the sense of the place.

Something had happened here. Something horrible. He approached the rug on the floor warily. It could not cover up the pain and despair radiating from that spot -or the darkness of death. With infinite care, he wove his way through the other impressions surrounding that central one. He inhaled deeply, trying to separate the long ago impressions into something he could understand.

“What’s he doing?” the lady asked David, with an odd note in her voice as if she almost knew, or suspected she knew.

“Ghost is unusually sensitive to all sorts of things. I would have had to put Gran in a nursing home much sooner if he had not helped keep an eye on her.” His voice shifted strangely as he continued, “I realize that sounds a little weird.”

Finally, Ghost growled at them to be quiet. To his satisfaction, even the lady was silent. He refocused his attention on the traces before him. He could feel where they had been, like shadows that moved through the room. There had been four of them with the woman and infant that had been their prey. It had not been just a random slaying; they had wanted something from her. Something Ghost sensed she had not known. There was a tiny thread of satisfaction underlying the ancient traces of the woman as well. They had not gotten, had not even tried to get, what she sought to protect.

He placed his paws with care as he wove between the shadows to reach the spot that drew him. He had a strong aversion to touching those fragments of memory. There. The woman had lain here in her final moments of life. He pawed at the rug, as if he could move it and then planted both front paws on the spot. Ghost closed his eyes and concentrated on the fragment of memory. Two memories. One of offspring hidden from predators, another of a secret sent to safety. The memories warred in him for attention. He had to back away.

As he moved to the side, the shadows dissipated and his fur lay down again. He groomed it meticulously to calm his thoughts. He looked up at the humans. David was as full of questions as ever underneath the travel weariness. The lady, however, was pale and he sensed the shock in her thoughts. He did not usually feel the minds of strangers that strongly.

“I’ve never seen him act quite like that. Did something happen here?” David asked.

The lady shook her self, focusing on David’s question. Ghost listened closely. “There is an old story, I’m not sure if I believe it, that a woman and her baby were killed here by a squad of British soldiers in the early days of the Revolution. It was said they were looking for rebels and tortured her and her husband for information.” She looked up at David in entreaty. “It’s not the sort of thing we want to tell about the inn.”

David smiled, “If I see a ghost of a lady, I promise not to tell, and my Ghost won’t either.” Ghost felt his desire to put her at ease.

She laughed nervously. “No, I suppose he won’t at that. Did you name him that because of his odd markings?”

It was David’s turn to laugh. “Nope, my grandmother named him. He can get from one place to another without being seen to move. It’s uncanny.” Ghost decided to demonstrate. He avoided their gaze easily to leap on the bed. A slight sound gave him away as he landed, much to his disgust.

“Wow, he teleports!”

David gave him the tiniest of nods in approval. “I’ll be back with our stuff, Ghost. Behave and I’ll see if I can find you some fish for supper.”

Ghost looked at the golden bar of warm sun on the cover and stretched out in it. It had been a long trip, even before the intrusion of old memories.

World Building – It’s History

Stop groaning, it’s fun! Think about it. If you are writing in either Science Fiction or Fantasy genres, you get to write your own history.

Do you want a planet to be explored that had some catastrophic geological event in it’s past that wiped out nearly all life? You can do that. Whatever sort of world you can imagine, with whatever sort of society you wish to populate it with, is yours for the writing. Please do take the time to think through the basics of how the past shaped the present. Even if very little of this ever gets into your book, you need to have a good feel for what happened in the past in order to make the present you are writing come alive. It’s a fundamental part of world building. It may be extremely simplified in short fiction, with little more than a general idea of the past that relates to your story, but it still needs to be in your head.

Over time, I have developed a sense of what happened in Sorth’s past, to where I know it almost as well as our own ancient history. Very little of that has come out in the first trilogy, but the casual remarks of the characters let the reader know there is depth and richness to the world and this makes it feel real.

As characters need to be round and multifaceted, so do our worlds and their societies. Do all Irishmen just love whiskey and a good fight? Of course not! They love horses too I’m of Irish ancestry, so I can get away with saying that, I think. The point is, there is a lot more to the Irish culture and knowing part of what made them who they are would be important to writing about them. You need to know your fictional societies in the same way or you get what amounts to flat, stereotyped cultures.

The same thing may be true for the physical properties of the world you write about. It’s current physical characteristics are certainly important and it’s past may be too.

How Do Your Characters Grow?

A Main character is determined by the way in which they either change those around them or the way they change as the story progresses. I would say that even if they are primarily changing situations and persons around them, they will also change themselves, at least a little. How do you get them to change?

You first need to know what makes them tick and just what areas they need to change or mature. I had someone once complain that Selarial was too perfect, she needed some flaws in order to be believable and have room for growth. That was in an early draft, but they had missed the point. Or maybe they thought that sort of pride, verging on arrogance, was perfectly all right. I had to knock her down several times, but she eventually grew past it. Sort of.

It’s a lot easier to get our characters to change than it is real people. Writers can control events to encourage, or even force change. You have a character that’s timid and shy, but highly skilled in some area? Put them in a position where there skill is crucial and watch them bloom.

I suppose it’s more of a matter of having a conflict and plot that are compatible with the kind of change your character needs. Or having a having a character that can develop their potential through the conditions in your story.

Heroes And Their Passions

I watched “Spirit of St. Louis” last night. Yes, I should have been writing, but it was worth it. My mom watched it with me and kept making comments like, “why did he do that?”, and “why didn’t he land somewhere are get some sleep?”, or “how could anyone ever do something like that?” Now, she has Alzheimers, so I am used to taking her statements with a degree of tolerance for not understanding. In this case though, she got me to thinking of the skepticism with which we usually great anyone who steps out in any field to be The First. Before that historic flight, Charles Lindbergh was generally regarded as a bum who would never amount to anything because of his consuming interest in airplanes. Like the Wright Brothers, he faced a lot of ridicule because of his passion for something the average person couldn’t understand or see any point to.

He made the first transatlantic flight under harrowing conditions – so that now, innumerable people make transatlantic flights in comfort every day and don’t think anything about it. Columbus, Magellan, Galileo,and Edison all faced ridicule, and in some cases, outright persecution, because they were among the first to dare to do or to think something new. Because they did these things, now everyone benefits and we praise their works, but maybe what we should be praising is their dedication to their passion.

Without a doubt, some of Lindbergh’s family didn’t see the point in him flying all over the place, even being part of an air circus for a while. They probably lost a lot of sleep wondering if he would ever settle down and get a real job. They didn’t share his passion, but more importantly, they didn’t understand the significance of having that passion.

Not all the passionate, dedicated people with real dreams are going to make history. Many of them are around us, determined to take their own path in life, rather than settling down and settling for an ordinary job doing ordinary things. As a writer, I fall into this category in a small way, so I have a glimpse of what it means to go against the flow. Every engineer that steps out on his or her own to pursue an idea instead of staying in a “safe” corporate environment does so because of passion and dedication.

So, why do nearly all parents and schools do their dead level best to squash that passion? It is perhaps, part of the challenge that separates out the weak from the dedicated. I am suddenly reminded of asking my mom why dad had never encouraged me in my choice to pursue my dreams. It was not long after he died. Her answer surprised me and gave things a whole new meaning.  She said, “He knew that if you really wanted to do it, nothing would stop you.” Wow!

How many times do we miss the real lessons in the lives of those who’ve gone before us? It isn’t so much that Lindbergh made that first transatlantic flight, but that he kept his passion and dedication intact against both opposition and, even worse, indifference. The actual flight, amazing as it was, is not what made him a hero. What made him a hero was pursuing his passion regardless. Without it, that historic flight would never have been made.

Uh-Oh, You Shouldn’t Have Said That!

I came across something last night on famous last words and decided I’d be whimsical today. Here’s my list of things you really shouldn’t say.

“It’s so sunny, I won’t need a coat.”

“Things can’t get any worse.”

“You forgot to put the dog out? He’ll be fine till we get home.”

“I’ll pick it up next week, they have plenty in my size.”

“We can make it to the next exit, we’ll stop for gas there.”

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this…but, we’ll do it anyway.”

“I’ll back up my files in the morning.”

It seems certain statements are designed to tempt life into proving we are not as smart as we think we are.

History Is More Than Facts

In school, especially high school, I hated history. All we really did was learn a sequence of events, dates, places, and names. Facts swam in my head with no understanding of what they really meant. What, exactly, was the point? I was never taught that.

I didn’t get a real appreciation for history until I got involved with the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism) that recreates the Middle Ages. They don’t recreate specific events, but culture, arts & science, and something of an appreciation for the life style of the period. I discovered something amazing. History could be fun!

My interests wandered into different time periods and specific areas, but as I studied, I began to realize why history in schools is so boring and pointless. Far more important than the who and when is the why. Understanding why things happened and what the consequences were are the real lessons from history. Not understanding why is the reason it keeps repeating itself. We’ve all heard the statement, “Those who don’t learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” If all you have learned is who and when, you’ve learned nothing of value.

It is the circumstances surrounding any type of historic event that are mirrored over and over again. You can look in depth at similar events and find that very similar circumstances lead up to each event. Once you do that, it should be simple to see when the same set of circumstances are coming together again.

Gaining this insight has given a depth to my world building, and probably why I am anxious to get back to Sorth’s ancient history. In writing that set of circumstances, perhaps I can gain a better grasp on our own.

Why I Write What I Write

I was just a kid when Star Trek was originally on TV and adored it, even though I was very young. By the time I was in middle school, it had a firm slot in reruns and about that same time, I discovered Andre Norton’s books. Those two seem very different and yet they worked together to create a way of thinking about the question – What if? Both opened up avenues of endless possibilities, unknown worlds to be explored and unknown people to meet. There have been many other writers and a few other TV or movie influences. (I saw Star Wars when it made it’s first run in theaters and came out stunned, like everyone else.) None of those other influences have had quite the impact of the first two, though.

Star Trek let me understand that no matter where we go or what we learn to do, people are still the same. Also, that we will never outgrow the desire to explore and seek out adventures. Or places to find those adventures.

Andre Norton won so many awards over her lifetime, I am often amazed her name is not as well know as Bradbury, Asimov and some of the other really well known, early Science Fiction authors. Her writing is relatively simple, often written for the YA audience, yet compelling. She was among the first in many things – writing strong female characters, simply being a woman writer of Science Fiction, dealing credibly with alien races and mixing psychic phenomenon in with SciFi. She was also the first author I ever encountered who wrote animals, or almost animals, into her stories as characters, both easily and naturally.

Both of these influences left me with the feeling there was more out there still to be discovered. Around the next bend in the road, there would be a new path to take with something wondrous, or amazing, or dreadful to encounter. I felt, and still feel, that whatever we encounter, we will find a way to rise to the challenge.

The universe in which Selarial’s world exists is a reflection of those foundational ideas. Worlds where human wears many shapes and has diverse talents. A universe where anything might be. What will I discover waiting? I don’t know yet, but I can be sure I will enjoy the journey. Hopefully, you will too.

Embracing Change

Change can be scary. It is different. Unknown. Uncomfortable. Those are some BIG words to block our thoughts about change. Even when it’s actually uncomfortable, we don’t want to get out of our personal comfort zone. How ever bad a situation is, it is at least known and that makes it comfortable.

This is a rough time for many people. Simply surviving is sometimes all one can manage to think about. Some have lost much, if not all, and the last thing they want is to risk are the remnants they have managed to hold on to.  For most it’s not that drastic, but still troubling. Rather than recognize the need for change, they deny it with all their being. They won’t accept change until it’s forced on them. Change in direction, change of habits, and change of attitude are all easier if you willingly embrace them rather than wait until circumstances force change.

Not just any change, but the right change. That’s a lot harder to do. That’s also a strong reason to willingly embrace change instead of being forced into it. Make a conscious decision and you own it, and can control it somewhat. If the change is forced, you are more likely to allow yourself to be herded into the wrong decision. I’ve been through both kinds of change and the results were a lot better when I sought the change instead of being forced into it.  Planning helps. As does staying open to opportunities that may arise.

Is your life, or even one aspect of it, stuck in a pattern of dissatisfaction? I often think of the words of Einstien, “The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over, but expecting different results.”  The thing is, if you want to change some things – you have to change some things.

What do you have to change? I have no clue – but you do.

The Goal Of Writing A Story Is To Finish

This is something of a continuation on the last post, since it started out about writing the ending. I have some off the wall thoughts intrude at times. Today’s were pointed. Two song snippets came to mind in relation to this – “Never Can Say Goodbye” and “There Must Be 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover”. In writing endings, the first is bad, the last is obvious

How you tie up all the plot threads for the ending will depend on how you have structured you novel (or trilogy in my case). If you visualize your plot threads as a rope, it’s easy to think about the structure. Some stories start off with a strand or two and additional threads are added as it’s spun. Through the middle of the story, it grows thicker. You may lose sight of some of those strands, but they are still there, supporting the story. Some start off with a handful of seemingly unrelated strands that are woven together as the story progresses, but may not all actually come together until the end. However they are worked together, those plot threads, and the conflicts they represent, must be resolved in the end of the story.

With any type of structure, some of the threads are resolved as the story progresses. For instance, the traitor is caught, but you still don’t know who paid him to betray his fellows. This keeps you from having a tangled mess at the end and keeps the reader from losing track of the story. There was a sequence in Selarial’s Song that involved a mercenary. The segment was important to the overall story, but the mercenary really wasn’t. I did not entirely drop his thread, however. He reappeared in Dream Song for a satisfactory resolution of that plot thread that also moved that part of story along. Remember, a plot thread is a question the story poses or a problem to be solved.

Do you have plot threads that don’t go anywhere? Ask yourself if they need to be there or if the story would fall apart without them. Chances are, if you have a plot thread that’s disappeared, it probably doesn’t need to be there. If it’s important to the story you are telling, pick it up and make sure it is resolved by the end. Don’t leave it hanging. You don’t want your story to be like a rope made by a young child with ends hanging out all over the place and generally looking like a mass of tangled string.

If a plot thread takes you to an interesting side path, but isn’t important to the main story, you might just pull it out and make another story around it later.

Equally important is to stop writing when you finish telling the story you started out to tell. Once you wrap up those loose threads, put your pen down or click save and let it be. You have achieved your goal. The story is done. Smile and pat yourself on the back.

Now it’s time to revise