Taven Moore's Blog, page 47

Safe From the Storm

Those of you who know where I live and worry (Steve, I’m looking at you!) should know that my company is closed for the day tomorrow so I will be spending the duration of Drake’s fury warm at home and completely safe alongside my husband.

I hope those of you hit by the storm are similarly blessed.

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Fire and Storm - New Short Story Up

Server Issues and Blog Weirdness

I apologize for the oddness on the blog lately. Apparently my server had some very serious issues over the past two days and although my host scrambled to get things fixed, I had over 24 hours of downtime and lost comments and settings and who knows what else. Apologies to those whose comments got lost, it was most definitely not a decision I’d made.

Hopefully I’ll get everything back up and running by the end of the week. *fingers crossed*

Related posts:

On Audiobooks and Server Space
Subscribing to Comments
Blog Housekeeping

[Perry] Three Parts Dead

Three Parts Dead is a book of speculative fiction, written by Max Gladstone.

While this novel has elements of fantasy, I’d find it hard to classify it as straight fantasy.

The novel also feels a lot like urban fantasy…but I’d hesitate to dump it into that category as well.

In all honesty, Three Parts Dead sits very comfortably right in between fantasy and urban fantasy and has decided that it just isn’t budging.

This novel was recommended to me by Tami and was described to me as a legal fantasy thriller.

Suffice to say, my initial reaction to it was along the lines of, “blargle?”

What in the hell could a book with that kind of description be about?

“Your honor? My client, Mfawny the Keebler elf, submits to the court that the point of his hat followed regulation guidelines on elf workplace safety and therefore, I move that all charges of his being negligent with regard to his elf fashion be dismissed.”

That’s what I had going on in my head so you can understand that I was a little hesitant when I picked up the book to give it a try.

…And holy crap.

You know that feeling when you walk into something and you’ve almost sort of made up your mind that you’re going to hate it? Like best intentions of your friends who recommended it aside, from what you’ve heard of it, you figure that there’s no way that it’s going to be your thing.

But you give it a go anyway, just to be nice or just to humor them.

That’s when it hits you. When you read through the first couple chapters and you realize that you’re just not going to be able to put this thing down.

Every now and then, I run into a book that changes the way I think about a genre.

Books like World War Z, In the Night’s Garden, or The Name of the Wind opened my eyes to just how hard stories can hit you when they do it with with something unexpected.

Three Parts Dead is no different.

Now there were some criticisms leveled against this book, some of them were pretty valid and I agreed with them to an extent.

At the same time, to me, the novel stands as a testament to the fact that the spark of an idea can make an old thing new again.

There are many familiar elements in Three Parts Dead. There are gods, vampires, gargoyles and magic users (of a sort) and none of those will throw you for a loop. But the magic is all in how Gladstone pulls together these familiar elements in a new and wonderful way.

If you enjoy fantasy, have a bit of time free and feel like trying something a little off the beaten path, I absolutely cannot recommend this book enough.

Related posts:

[Perry] Judging a Book by its Cover
[Perry] Books That Grow Up With Us

In Which Writing Is Not Entirely Unlike Horses

Horses?

Okay, I nearly went with baseball, but even barring my horse-crazy nature, I know almost nothing about sportsball. Horses it is.

Sporting

Let’s say you’re a fan of an equine sporting event.

Racing (quarter horses or thoroughbred or standardbred)
Show Jumping
Dressage
Steeplechasing
Rodeo
Western Pleasure
… anything.

Lots of different flavors that all tend to boil down to a love of horses in general. You can love watching these events without actually owning or knowing how to ride a horse of your own.

Genres

And let’s say that you’re a fan of books.

Fantasy
Sci-Fi
Mystery
Biography
Travel
… anything

You can love to read without being, yourself, a writer.

Riding

If, however, you do happen to be a rider, you might be striving to join in those sporting events. You might not.

Perhaps you love to ride and spend time with your horse just for the joy of it. You love to curry and saddle up and go for a lazy trail ride, even if there’s not a blue ribbon at the end of the day for your troubles.

Writing

Same goes with writing. You may hope one day for publication and bestseller lists … but perhaps  you just love meeting the characters and the flow of words on the page or the taste of them on your lips.

The Silliness Of Discouragement

Say you have a friend who is a casual rider.

They like to ride, but they don’t enter contests, and aren’t interested in the demanding training necessary to get themselves and their horse in blue-ribbon shape.

Would you tell them they were wasting their time, and that they should just sell their horse and give it up outright?

So why, dear writer friends, would you tell yourself that you were somehow “doing it wrong” if your writing isn’t on the NYT Bestseller lists?

Why the shame in writing just for fun? Why do we drive ourselves to “prove” something, to someone?

You can call yourself a horseman even if you just ride for fun every once in a while, and you can call yourself a writer even if you just write for fun every once in a while. You wouldn’t expect a green rider and horse to go out on the field and win ribbons without a RIDICULOUS amount of practice, nor should you expect yourself to be the next J.K. Rowling with the first story you ever write.

Not “Writer” Enough

If you write, you are a writer. No matter what level your writing is at or what level you want to take it to.

It is the passion for the thing that creates the writing community, that burning desire to tell a story. That’s what makes you a writer. There may be tiers within that term, levels of writer-hood that may or may not have any true meaning, but don’t ever let someone tell you that you’re wasting your time unless you’re planning on going all the way.

Don’t ever let someone tell you that if you’re not writing for at least an hour every day, you may as well give up now. That if you don’t have a thousand-and-one ideas for stories and characters that you’re fooling yourself with this writing hobby of yours.

Own your passion, whatever it may be. Don’t let someone else (or even the negative voice in your own head) tell you that you are somehow not worthy of it.

Regardless of whether that passion is text on a page or the thunder of hooves on turf.

Related posts:

On Writing a Webserial
Love of Writing
Writing Playlist

Pre-Birthday Post

Saturday is my birthday!

To celebrate, I’d like to invite any lurkers to de-lurk and say hello (and have a cupcake!). It’s always nice to see who is reading the blog without commenting. I know I’m guilty of lurking on MANY blogs, so I certainly don’t begrudge it!

Anyone can ask me a question and (unless I think it’s inappropriate) I will do my best to answer it!

*hands over a platter of various cupcakes, each with a happy little candle burning merrily away on top*

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[Perry] Hidden Character Aspects

This post won’t go up until halfway through December but I’m writing it shortly after having seen Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie. I don’t cover any spoilers to the movie in this post but there will be some discussion regarding the characters that you may or may not wish to avoid.

I’m writing this now because about halfway through the movie, I was completely floored by a revelation regarding the character of James Bond.

Namely this: the character of M holds within herself certain aspects of James Bond’s character.

It’s important to note as well that this interaction is something I’ve noted solely when it came to the interaction between Judi Dench’s M and Daniel Craig’s James Bond.

I was originally introduced to the character of James Bond with Pierce Brosnan in Goldeneye but I don’t recall noting this interaction back then.

In any case, halfway through this movie, I came to a point where I realized that M is just as much a part of the core character of James Bond as his suave demeanor, his Walther PPK short, or his preference of having his martinis shaken instead of stirred.

The interaction between Judi Dench and Daniel Craig sheds a light on parts of Bond that would have otherwise remained in the dark. The way the two characters play off one another reveals so much about the character of Bond.

Her presence is almost the only way that Bond interacts with his sense of duty. Throughout the movies, Daniel Craig’s Bond does an awful lot of gallivanting around in what appears to be a flaming disregard for authority and orders. At the same time though, the things that continually draw him back to his job and his country is M. Whether she’s hounding him or whether he returns to her to exchange some witty repartee, he keeps coming back to her with the purpose of fulfilling his duty.

He’s written to portray a very cavalier attitude when it comes to duty and country…but that’s only because M is where that aspect of his character resides.

Without her, he wouldn’t have that drive that makes him such an effective member of her Majesty’s secret service.

But it’s the technique of hiding an aspect of a character within another one that really made me sit up and open my eyes. I’d never seen it done before and even more importantly, I’d never seen it done well.

This opens my eyes a little and my fingers are already itching to try it out for myself.

Do you know any other good examples of characters that share aspects of themselves with other characters?

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[Perry] The Power of a Good Threat
Character Voice
[Perry] Wherein Not All Things Need To Be Ambitious

Christmas Music

Christmas music

Confession time: I love Christmas music.

I do. I love carols and singing and falalalas. I love three kings and decking the halls and even rocking around the Christmas tree. A heartfelt rendition of O Holy Night fills me with warmth, and it’s hard for me to listen to Let it Snow without wanting to wrap my husband in a big hug.

Modern

That being said? I still cringe when I walk into a store these days.

I do NOT love most modern songs.

I do not love it when my old favorites are twisted and stretched like snow-flecked taffy in the name of “individualism”. I do not like it when my grandma is run over by a reindeer.

I do not like it, Sam I Am.

It makes me feel like a fuddy-duddy, like I should be shaking my cane at the kids throwing snowballs at my windows.

Enough!

I’m tired of feeling like a grumpy old woodchuck.

Share with me, please, some of your FAVORITE relatively-modern Christmas music. It can be a new-ish rendition of an old song, or a completely new one. Let’s celebrate the good stuff instead of just wrinkling our noses at the bad.

My contribution

Nsync (oh yes) and their acapella version of O Holy Night

sd

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Mice, Microphones, Puppies, and a Christmas Llama
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Themes : Why Does It Matter?

Theme

Let’s define it first, so we can work with a shared understanding. Definition comes from here.

The theme of a fable is its moral. The theme of a parable is its teaching. The theme of a piece of fiction is its view about life and how people behave.

In fiction, the theme is not intended to teach or preach. In fact, it is not presented directly at all. You extract it from the characters, action, and setting that make up the story. In other words, you must figure out the theme yourself.

So basically, it’s the moral or lesson or important value.

It is, in essence, the reason your story matters.

Themes turn a story into something that touches the reader’s heart, that makes them share the story with others, and want to re-read it time and time again.

The theme is your way, as the writer, to communicate directly to the reader. Your way of saying, “Hey! This matters to me, and I hope it matters to you, too.”

Example Themes

Example themes might include “Love conquers all” or “Stand up for yourself” or “One person can make a difference” or “Never give up hope.”

Accidental Themes

Themes can turn up naturally in fiction, without the writer really intending for them to. The reason for that is because themes are directly tied to conflict.

The way your character handles conflict always reflects your theme, whether you intend it to or not.

Your hero stands triumphant over her old war leader, the conniving general who blamed all his faults on the hero and almost got away with it. Your hero stands with her sword at his throat and he begs mercy, swears with tears streaming down his face that he can be useful, he was only trying to do the right thing.

… What does your hero do?

Do you see where the theme of a story in which the hero loudly proclaims that the villain brought this upon himself is VASTLY different than the theme of a story where the hero reaches down and places her hand on the villain’s shoulder and forgives them?

Intentional Themes

If you KNOW your theme, you can examine each of your conflicts (every scene should have a conflict, of course) and make sure that the decisions you make reflect your themes. That your characters act in ways that uphold or break or strengthen or weaken your themes (depending on the purpose of the scene).

You have control, and you strengthen your story in a thousand tiny ways when the decisions of your characters uphold that theme.

Ask Yourself : Why Does It Matter

Look at your conflicts and ask yourself why the conflict matters. Why the reader should care that someone is starving or arguing or crying or racing. Not just from a story standpoint, where there are consequences for failure, but from a personal standpoint.

Your reader cares because it matters to THEM, not just because it matters to the character.

There’s power in that.

Related posts:

New Theme In The Works
NaNo2010 > Plotting Vocabulary
My Rough Story Outline Blueprint

[Perry] Books That Grow Up With Us

I had an interesting experience last year.

I was meeting a friend for dinner and drinks. When we got to the restaurant, I noticed that he was carrying around a battered copy of The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger.

I asked him if he was reading it for the first time and he told me that he had joined a book club. That he had read the book before and was being asked to read it again.

We talked about it for a while but I found, strangely, that our opinions on the book differed vastly. So my friend eyed me speculatively and asked me when the last time I’d read the book was.

When he found out that it was back during my high school years, he nudged the book across the table to me and told me to take it home to give it another read.

Curious, I did.

I remembered the story pretty well, that of Holden Caulfield running away from his home at a private school.

Here’s the thing though.

While the story hadn’t changed, my perception of the character had shifted drastically.

The book I remembered in high school…I really remember identifying with the main character. I remember liking Holden and understanding his little mannerisms and the things he said. I remember really liking the character, thinking he was like me and really enjoying the book.

My recent read through was a different story entirely. The story hadn’t changed in the slightest but I found that the characters had. I read through the novel and absolutely loathed Holden. I thought he was a smarmy little twerp and I REALLY enjoyed my second read.

It showed me that having grown and matured a bit myself, my perception of once loved classics had shifted as well.

I loved the book and Holden when I first read it because I felt I understood him and the way he thought.

I loved the book but hated Holden the second time I read it because I could see that he was a whiny little brat and I realized that he was simply a teenager.

My perceptions had changed and with it, it changed the tone of the novel as well.

As I had grown, so had Catcher in the Rye.

In a similar fashion, I recently finished reading the Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander. It was a beloved series when I was a young and reading it now…some of the magic is gone.

While the story itself hadn’t changed, the magic that had once captured me had weakened its grip a little. The characters seemed a little flat and the plot was…well, simplistic to say the least.

Needless to say, I stopped with my experimentation shortly after, content to let the classics of my childhood retain their magic instead of exposing them to too bright a light and ruining them forevermore.

But the knowledge that they DO exist gives me hope. Books like Catcher in the Rye that matures as I do and offers a different experience when re-experiencing them.

Have you re-read any beloved childhood novels recently? How did the experience hold up against what you remember?

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When You Grow Up

NaNo2010 > Characters 1

The Surprising Science of Happiness

A TED talk by Dan Gilbert.

You folks know I only links ‘em if I think they’re fantastic. This one? Fantastic.

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Video : Of Success and Happiness
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