E.M. Prazeman's Blog, page 4
September 1, 2015
Writing About Characters that are Smarter Than You
This topic came about as a result of a panel I sat on for Sasquan (Worldcon 2015) with Denise Connell, Teresa Nielson Hayden, Robert J. Sawyer, and Steven Silver. I'm not going to recap the panel, because that would involve putting words in the mouths of people that are far more capable of representing themselves with more eloquence than I can muster. I will, however, go over some things that we didn't get to go into in depth due to time constraints.
The moderator suggested that we read this article to prep for the panel. I did and I was glad. It was fascinating. I suggest that you read it as well, but in case you don't have the time (in which case I thank you very much for spending your limited time with me!) the two sentence summary is that authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stack the deck in their character's favor to make them look smarter, and don't insult your audience. The author (Graham Moore, screenwriter for The Imitation Game) also wrote a neat twist at the end of the article.
I write quite a few characters that are smarter than me. They're not all intelligent in the same ways. I'll give you my initial list, and you can build your own from there.
Spacial Intelligence: The ability to visualize in three or more dimensions and to be able to map and rearrange things. These things may be objects that are literally oriented to each other, like shapes in a Tetris game, or they could be scenes in a book, lines or concepts in a poem that's being developed, social maps (how people in a group or how various groups relate to each other) or even more abstract things I can't even imagine. People with spacial intelligence can create metaphors for what they're studying that they can visualize in their minds or on paper and then orient and reorient them to learn new things and to create greater efficiency, artistry or effectiveness in the system they're modeling.
Organizational Intelligence: Less abstract than spacial intelligence, organizational intelligence takes an existing body of data and sorts it or resorts it so that it makes sense or reveals a useful pattern that can lead to problem solving. People who are organized can appear to be extremely intelligent even if they're of average intelligence simply because they can find what they need and can realize when something is missing, duplicated or out-of-place.
Emotional Intelligence: They walk in the room and instantly know who is nervous, who is bursting with news, who is intent on violence and how to manipulate each and every one of these people. They can comfort grieving friends while the rest of us stand around awkwardly not knowing what to say, and figure out how to get the general of the army to stand his men down until news of the treaty arrives. This is a largely overlooked form of intelligence. I use it extensively in The Lord Jester's Legacy and it's also important in The Poisoned Past trilogy.
Fact Collecting: Trivial Pursuit made useful. It's an element of Sherlock Holmes' intelligence, and he's often depicted running various experiments in order to build his mental catalogue of seemingly useless bits of information that later prove critical to his ability to solve crimes. It's a bit of a cliche' that individuals who collect facts tend to rattle them off even if no one cares to hear about them. Although this can be true, it's not a requirement to make your fact collector eager to share his or her body of knowlege at dinner parties or on dates.
Memory: A well-honed and/or a genetically enhanced memory is extremely useful. Being able to recall entire conversations helps catch liars (or sustain lies), and people who have eidetic ('photographic') memories can, for example, picture a page in a book they'd glanced at and reread it to themselves to pick out relevant details long after they no longer have access to it. People with good memories tend to do well academically. They may have an advantage when learning languages as well (though that is a separate skill) and also have an opportunity to do well socially. I had a college professor who memorized the names of every student in his classes every term. He was very popular as a result, except among the people who wanted to skip classes. People who remember the names of your kids and ask whether your aunt's surgery tend to be well-liked.
Perceptiveness: People with perceptive intelligence live more in the present than most people, who tend to live in their heads (or on their iPhones.) They notice things that most people overlook. Some perception is very specialized. My daughter can spot wildlife that's invisible to most people, but she has no idea when someone is flirting with her. Sometimes perception is an ability to get an instant feel for a situation without being able to point specifically at the clues that give that impression. For example, someone might get a bad feeling when they go into a bar without actually noticing that all the people there seem to know each other and that most of them tensed when the stranger came in.
Observing the Negative: A specific, conscious form of perceptiveness. People who observe the negative notice what's missing or what's been deliberately omitted, be it ring on a finger that has a pale band on an otherwise tanned hand, or realizing that when someone tells you that they're paranoid and can't stand to be too close to people, and yet they're telling you this without being asked and are standing three feet away. People who are able to detect the negative visually often find the trick behind optical illusions more quickly.
Lateral thinkers: They rarely take things for granted and often look for more options even after a solution or explanation has been agreed upon. Lateral thinkers make a game of figuring out many ways of interpreting data. Rather than going for the first, easiest route, they search for alternatives, either as an exercise or because they realize that choosing the best among many options has great advantages over picking the first workable option, and increases the chances of discovering a compromise or hybrid option to a difficult problem that appears to have only one solution. Lateral thinkers tend to be artistic, creative, and can improvise.
Engineers: Engineers take a physical problem, such as how to cross a river, and come up with a solution with the available materials. They may rely on lateral thinking, but more often they employ a form of spacial intelligence combined with an excellent understanding of practical physics. In my experience, some of the best engineering minds exist among farmers, who have to solve physical problems, such as fixing gates and moving large loads of wood up a steep hill, on a daily basis.
That should get you started.
For additional reading:
A nifty commentary on the Dunning Kruger effect
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
Lateral Thinking (ebook format)
The moderator suggested that we read this article to prep for the panel. I did and I was glad. It was fascinating. I suggest that you read it as well, but in case you don't have the time (in which case I thank you very much for spending your limited time with me!) the two sentence summary is that authors like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle stack the deck in their character's favor to make them look smarter, and don't insult your audience. The author (Graham Moore, screenwriter for The Imitation Game) also wrote a neat twist at the end of the article.
I write quite a few characters that are smarter than me. They're not all intelligent in the same ways. I'll give you my initial list, and you can build your own from there.
Spacial Intelligence: The ability to visualize in three or more dimensions and to be able to map and rearrange things. These things may be objects that are literally oriented to each other, like shapes in a Tetris game, or they could be scenes in a book, lines or concepts in a poem that's being developed, social maps (how people in a group or how various groups relate to each other) or even more abstract things I can't even imagine. People with spacial intelligence can create metaphors for what they're studying that they can visualize in their minds or on paper and then orient and reorient them to learn new things and to create greater efficiency, artistry or effectiveness in the system they're modeling.
Organizational Intelligence: Less abstract than spacial intelligence, organizational intelligence takes an existing body of data and sorts it or resorts it so that it makes sense or reveals a useful pattern that can lead to problem solving. People who are organized can appear to be extremely intelligent even if they're of average intelligence simply because they can find what they need and can realize when something is missing, duplicated or out-of-place.
Emotional Intelligence: They walk in the room and instantly know who is nervous, who is bursting with news, who is intent on violence and how to manipulate each and every one of these people. They can comfort grieving friends while the rest of us stand around awkwardly not knowing what to say, and figure out how to get the general of the army to stand his men down until news of the treaty arrives. This is a largely overlooked form of intelligence. I use it extensively in The Lord Jester's Legacy and it's also important in The Poisoned Past trilogy.
Fact Collecting: Trivial Pursuit made useful. It's an element of Sherlock Holmes' intelligence, and he's often depicted running various experiments in order to build his mental catalogue of seemingly useless bits of information that later prove critical to his ability to solve crimes. It's a bit of a cliche' that individuals who collect facts tend to rattle them off even if no one cares to hear about them. Although this can be true, it's not a requirement to make your fact collector eager to share his or her body of knowlege at dinner parties or on dates.
Memory: A well-honed and/or a genetically enhanced memory is extremely useful. Being able to recall entire conversations helps catch liars (or sustain lies), and people who have eidetic ('photographic') memories can, for example, picture a page in a book they'd glanced at and reread it to themselves to pick out relevant details long after they no longer have access to it. People with good memories tend to do well academically. They may have an advantage when learning languages as well (though that is a separate skill) and also have an opportunity to do well socially. I had a college professor who memorized the names of every student in his classes every term. He was very popular as a result, except among the people who wanted to skip classes. People who remember the names of your kids and ask whether your aunt's surgery tend to be well-liked.
Perceptiveness: People with perceptive intelligence live more in the present than most people, who tend to live in their heads (or on their iPhones.) They notice things that most people overlook. Some perception is very specialized. My daughter can spot wildlife that's invisible to most people, but she has no idea when someone is flirting with her. Sometimes perception is an ability to get an instant feel for a situation without being able to point specifically at the clues that give that impression. For example, someone might get a bad feeling when they go into a bar without actually noticing that all the people there seem to know each other and that most of them tensed when the stranger came in.
Observing the Negative: A specific, conscious form of perceptiveness. People who observe the negative notice what's missing or what's been deliberately omitted, be it ring on a finger that has a pale band on an otherwise tanned hand, or realizing that when someone tells you that they're paranoid and can't stand to be too close to people, and yet they're telling you this without being asked and are standing three feet away. People who are able to detect the negative visually often find the trick behind optical illusions more quickly.
Lateral thinkers: They rarely take things for granted and often look for more options even after a solution or explanation has been agreed upon. Lateral thinkers make a game of figuring out many ways of interpreting data. Rather than going for the first, easiest route, they search for alternatives, either as an exercise or because they realize that choosing the best among many options has great advantages over picking the first workable option, and increases the chances of discovering a compromise or hybrid option to a difficult problem that appears to have only one solution. Lateral thinkers tend to be artistic, creative, and can improvise.
Engineers: Engineers take a physical problem, such as how to cross a river, and come up with a solution with the available materials. They may rely on lateral thinking, but more often they employ a form of spacial intelligence combined with an excellent understanding of practical physics. In my experience, some of the best engineering minds exist among farmers, who have to solve physical problems, such as fixing gates and moving large loads of wood up a steep hill, on a daily basis.
That should get you started.
For additional reading:
A nifty commentary on the Dunning Kruger effect
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis
Lateral Thinking (ebook format)
August 19, 2015
At Sasquan: Worldcon in Spokane, WA
Actually, technically I'm not at Sasquan yet. We got in later than we expected and registration was closed by the time we walked to the convention center. But we had a nice light dinner at an Irish pub and explored the immediate vicinity.
The tarnished silver and platinum sky as we came in glowed in tones of tangerine, hot pink and white gold. The waitress we spoke to at the pub told us that the smoke blows in and out. It caused at least two major wrecks in the area, including a 40 car pile-up near Ritzville (which we drove through on our way.) These intense fires transform the area from a beautiful desert filled with starry skies and brilliant days of clear blue into gray, mysterious places where one moment everything is uncertain and unnerving to deadly. Between the dust and the smoke when a fierce wind blows through, driven by heat from both the sun and the wildfires, visibility can go from okay to nothing in seconds.
We were lucky, and I was shocked by the scope of the fires. As an owner of livestock on acreage that's vulnerable to wildfires (can you say uphill from a freeway with dry grass, dry trees and inaccessible gulleys that could seriously hamper firefighting efforts) my heart aches for all the impacted people, but especially those with livestock who are having a rough time trying to find somewhere to take their horses, cows, goats, sheep, etc. or who have to go through the heartache of having to leave their animals behind and hope that they escape the fire somehow.
I'm grateful that we're safe, and well-fed, and that our animals are safe. I plan to enjoy myself at the convention, but those intense skies and that smoke-filtered sun are a constant reminder that there's a nightmare burning not far away.
Come see me at Sasquan! I'll try to post my schedule tomorrow. In the meantime, Oubliette is available for 99¢ during the duration of the convention and for a couple of days afterward. I'll also be signing copies at the NIWA table in the dealer's room. If I'm not there, catch me at a panel or in the halls or check back at the NIWA table later. I'd love to autograph a copy for you!
The tarnished silver and platinum sky as we came in glowed in tones of tangerine, hot pink and white gold. The waitress we spoke to at the pub told us that the smoke blows in and out. It caused at least two major wrecks in the area, including a 40 car pile-up near Ritzville (which we drove through on our way.) These intense fires transform the area from a beautiful desert filled with starry skies and brilliant days of clear blue into gray, mysterious places where one moment everything is uncertain and unnerving to deadly. Between the dust and the smoke when a fierce wind blows through, driven by heat from both the sun and the wildfires, visibility can go from okay to nothing in seconds.
We were lucky, and I was shocked by the scope of the fires. As an owner of livestock on acreage that's vulnerable to wildfires (can you say uphill from a freeway with dry grass, dry trees and inaccessible gulleys that could seriously hamper firefighting efforts) my heart aches for all the impacted people, but especially those with livestock who are having a rough time trying to find somewhere to take their horses, cows, goats, sheep, etc. or who have to go through the heartache of having to leave their animals behind and hope that they escape the fire somehow.
I'm grateful that we're safe, and well-fed, and that our animals are safe. I plan to enjoy myself at the convention, but those intense skies and that smoke-filtered sun are a constant reminder that there's a nightmare burning not far away.
Come see me at Sasquan! I'll try to post my schedule tomorrow. In the meantime, Oubliette is available for 99¢ during the duration of the convention and for a couple of days afterward. I'll also be signing copies at the NIWA table in the dealer's room. If I'm not there, catch me at a panel or in the halls or check back at the NIWA table later. I'd love to autograph a copy for you!
August 7, 2015
Loneliness
Loneliness is a complicated thing, or at least it seems to me.
There are plenty of times when I'm by myself and I'm not lonely at all. And being alone in a crowd is an old cliche'.
So what is loneliness, really?
I don't really have an answer, but I have a piece of one. I felt super-lonely today. Not just any loneliness, but a writer's loneliness. Writers put a lot of love and sweat and pain and joy into their books. You'd think that the months or even years of effort would eventually pay off, but art isn't like that. Art is brutal that way. I've read a lot of books that have heart and a great idea ... and the writing is totally in the way. I've also seen really great prose attempting to dress up a lame idea that's been done a thousand times better on a hundred different tv series. (I know, the character will travel back in time and start the chain of events that leads to his own birth ....)
So when I say that, as a writer, I felt lonely, it has layers of ugly meaning, like a mud pie made of actual mud. There's that feeling that no one is reading your work. There's the feeling that the people who wrote the negative reviews are spot on, and that the other reviews are people just being nice and encouraging. There's the sense that you're not just wasting your time, but everyone else's.
That's pretty damned lonely. It's like working on a house with your own hands for months, and having an inspector come out and say the foundation isn't up to code and it all has to come down. It's hearing your lover tell you that they haven't loved you in a long time and that they've been faking it for years for the sake of the children. It's feeling useless, unwanted, inept and pitiful all wrapped up in beautiful binding that should have been covering a much better book.
Do these feelings stop me from writing? No. But it makes for a tough day. Tomorrow, though, will be better. I have high days and low days, but most days are in the middle and the lows never hang around for long. I'm very fortunate that way. I'm grateful that these funks don't last long. It usually isn't encouragement that pulls me out. More often than not it's exercise and a good night's sleep. I'll be doing the sleeping part shortly. I hope you all have sweet dreams, and that your work leads you all to great success.
July 10, 2015
Website & Book updates
A website is never done, but http://emprazeman.com is a lot closer to being complete than it has been in a long time. I'm still looking for fan art or fanfic. Don't be shy! If you're proud of it and I like it, I'll put it up on the website with credits and links to your page if you have one (or three.) There's no way for anyone to comment on these things, so you don't have to worry about haters or trolls.
Rant warning.
Where I was born, it's just assumed that you're going to play an instrument (or sing) and be able to do at least some basic art. People make their own stencils for their walls, guitars come out for family gatherings and everyone sings, everyone tries their hand at painting now and then, and writes songs, and poetry. Everyone (health permitting) dances. There's no shame associated with rudimentary work/play. There is still pride (of course!) when someone excels. But there's no toxic idea like there seems to be in the United States that you have to be at a certain level to do anything. There's also no automatic assumption that if you're really good, you deserve super-stardom and more money than you can spend at a mall in one day. I hope that this idea that doing art because it's fun, that it doesn't have to be 'professional' to be beautiful and worth celebrating and sharing, and that if you have talent you don't have to exploit to make millions or consider yourself a failure if you don't, will catch on. Especially the dancing part. Refusing to dance when you're a teenager and you feel awkward and self-conscious is natural. But continuing to deprive yourself of that joyful movement throughout the rest of your life because you're not good enough or don't know how ... that's sad. That's a recipe for living life only halfway. There is no reason to live life halfway. Trust me. Our ancestors have danced and sang and painted on walls since before the written word existed. It's in your blood. You'll love it if you give it half a chance.
Rant over.
In other news, Oubliette, book one of The Poisoned Past trilogy, is live and available for purchase in Kindle format here. Thank you to those of you who've already gotten a copy. I hope you enjoy it! I'm working hard on the second book, Penumbra. I was hoping to have it out by now, but as it happens, I got behind schedule. All three books will (most likely) come out by the end of the year. So you won't have too long to wait.
Thanks for reading!
Rant warning.
Where I was born, it's just assumed that you're going to play an instrument (or sing) and be able to do at least some basic art. People make their own stencils for their walls, guitars come out for family gatherings and everyone sings, everyone tries their hand at painting now and then, and writes songs, and poetry. Everyone (health permitting) dances. There's no shame associated with rudimentary work/play. There is still pride (of course!) when someone excels. But there's no toxic idea like there seems to be in the United States that you have to be at a certain level to do anything. There's also no automatic assumption that if you're really good, you deserve super-stardom and more money than you can spend at a mall in one day. I hope that this idea that doing art because it's fun, that it doesn't have to be 'professional' to be beautiful and worth celebrating and sharing, and that if you have talent you don't have to exploit to make millions or consider yourself a failure if you don't, will catch on. Especially the dancing part. Refusing to dance when you're a teenager and you feel awkward and self-conscious is natural. But continuing to deprive yourself of that joyful movement throughout the rest of your life because you're not good enough or don't know how ... that's sad. That's a recipe for living life only halfway. There is no reason to live life halfway. Trust me. Our ancestors have danced and sang and painted on walls since before the written word existed. It's in your blood. You'll love it if you give it half a chance.
Rant over.
In other news, Oubliette, book one of The Poisoned Past trilogy, is live and available for purchase in Kindle format here. Thank you to those of you who've already gotten a copy. I hope you enjoy it! I'm working hard on the second book, Penumbra. I was hoping to have it out by now, but as it happens, I got behind schedule. All three books will (most likely) come out by the end of the year. So you won't have too long to wait.
Thanks for reading!
June 11, 2015
Vivid Sight and the Writer
One thing a lot of people take for granted, including me, is sight. Actually, all the senses are often taken for granted until something shakes us up. Maybe a sense is temporarily or permanently lost, or is permanently or temporarily impaired. Or maybe it's overwhelmed, or challenged, or seduced by something wonderful.
When a writer sits down to set a scene, they're advised to use all the senses. I think the advice should go one step further. Use all the senses, but exploit them to the full. I wish I'd heard that a long time ago.
Let's use sight as an example.
I woke early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought I'd surf online for a bit and then maybe do some gardening. I hadn't been to Pinterest in a while, so that was my third stop. I'm glad I did. Wow, did I find some amazing boards to follow. One in particular featured color photography. What an inspiration! It made me want to write. Why? The colors. The composition. The spectacular landscapes, interiors, the human faces with such expressions that go far beyond the classic supermodel smolder we've been inured to. BTW, I thought about whether inured is really the right term, but I kept it because although a model's face is on the surface beautiful, and the expressions are often poised, lively or elegant, they are in fact unpleasant and lifeless when compared to, for example, this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/171559067029144126/
or this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/305189312220781522/
I love this board, btw. It's expressions:
https://www.pinterest.com/zury2012/expressions/
But I digress (a bit.) You set a scene, and the mind is often limited by the sights you're used to, or the sights you have idealized in a shadowed way. The difference between the sight of the imagination combined with experience, and the full range of what can be seen and described, is pretty big. For example, when I went to describe Saphir, I thought a bit about mountain fortresses, and Yellowstone National Park, and exotic fortifications I half-remember from visiting Prague. But until I started looking at photos of these places, the descriptions didn't have a lot of fire. I still think I could have gone further with those. I needed to pace the character emotions and didn't have the luxury of going on for three pages about Lark's first view of Saphir, but still.
You live, you hopefully learn.
I also mentally catalogue flavors when I go to new restaurants. It's not as good as eating while writing, but it's better than not tasting something other than the daily fare you've gotten used to and then attempting to describe something exotic (or worse, having the characters eat what you eat even if it doesn't make sense. Better not to mention food at all, IMHO.) And sensations. When I cut myself on accident, for example. Crazy, I know.
The thing is, those photos (or better yet, seeing amazing things with your own eyes) can go so far beyond imagination, it can be jaw-dropping. When I grew up I'd been taught that the imagination can go way beyond what the world really is. That might have been true before long-distance travel was practical, and when photography was less prevalent and far less accessible. But now? Sorry. I've had my imagination blown away a bit more often by real photographs than I've had the work of someone's imagination blow away what exists and has been captured by film in our universe. Sometimes the imagination wins, hands down. But in the contest between imagination and reality, the imagination's superiority is certainly not the foregone conclusion I'd been taught.
So that's my rant about sight in particular and putting senses on the page. Now, back to looking at images of woods and hills. Because I need to set the scene. Again! How I suffer, being forced to look at gorgeous images for the sake of my art. Alas.
When a writer sits down to set a scene, they're advised to use all the senses. I think the advice should go one step further. Use all the senses, but exploit them to the full. I wish I'd heard that a long time ago.
Let's use sight as an example.
I woke early this morning and couldn't get back to sleep, so I thought I'd surf online for a bit and then maybe do some gardening. I hadn't been to Pinterest in a while, so that was my third stop. I'm glad I did. Wow, did I find some amazing boards to follow. One in particular featured color photography. What an inspiration! It made me want to write. Why? The colors. The composition. The spectacular landscapes, interiors, the human faces with such expressions that go far beyond the classic supermodel smolder we've been inured to. BTW, I thought about whether inured is really the right term, but I kept it because although a model's face is on the surface beautiful, and the expressions are often poised, lively or elegant, they are in fact unpleasant and lifeless when compared to, for example, this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/171559067029144126/
or this:
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/305189312220781522/
I love this board, btw. It's expressions:
https://www.pinterest.com/zury2012/expressions/
But I digress (a bit.) You set a scene, and the mind is often limited by the sights you're used to, or the sights you have idealized in a shadowed way. The difference between the sight of the imagination combined with experience, and the full range of what can be seen and described, is pretty big. For example, when I went to describe Saphir, I thought a bit about mountain fortresses, and Yellowstone National Park, and exotic fortifications I half-remember from visiting Prague. But until I started looking at photos of these places, the descriptions didn't have a lot of fire. I still think I could have gone further with those. I needed to pace the character emotions and didn't have the luxury of going on for three pages about Lark's first view of Saphir, but still.
You live, you hopefully learn.
I also mentally catalogue flavors when I go to new restaurants. It's not as good as eating while writing, but it's better than not tasting something other than the daily fare you've gotten used to and then attempting to describe something exotic (or worse, having the characters eat what you eat even if it doesn't make sense. Better not to mention food at all, IMHO.) And sensations. When I cut myself on accident, for example. Crazy, I know.
The thing is, those photos (or better yet, seeing amazing things with your own eyes) can go so far beyond imagination, it can be jaw-dropping. When I grew up I'd been taught that the imagination can go way beyond what the world really is. That might have been true before long-distance travel was practical, and when photography was less prevalent and far less accessible. But now? Sorry. I've had my imagination blown away a bit more often by real photographs than I've had the work of someone's imagination blow away what exists and has been captured by film in our universe. Sometimes the imagination wins, hands down. But in the contest between imagination and reality, the imagination's superiority is certainly not the foregone conclusion I'd been taught.
So that's my rant about sight in particular and putting senses on the page. Now, back to looking at images of woods and hills. Because I need to set the scene. Again! How I suffer, being forced to look at gorgeous images for the sake of my art. Alas.
May 28, 2015
Cover Reveal (rough) and Book Teaser for Oubliette
Oubliette is on the verge of release.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, because I'm only halfway through Penumbra, and I'd intended to write the entire trilogy before I published Oubliette. But, the players are all playing. The game is on. Feedback from first readers is coming in, and I have a solid hold on the plot(s). So. The time seems to be right to finalize the copy editing, formatting and detail work on Oubliette. Terrifying. Even more terrifying to think that I released Masks without having written one word on the sequels. I'm on far more solid ground than with The Lord Jester's Legacy.
But maybe I belong at sea ....
Mild spoilers:
In Oubliette, Mark is in trouble. Again. As always. He knew something was up, but because of his memory loss he didn't know if his mistrust was misplaced. The book opens with Lord Jester Lark attending a splendid party. It's the First of Sooner, the holiest day of the year. It's like New Year's Day but in springtime, or Mardi Gras with a somewhat spiritual lean. Everyone is starting to head to home when an emergeny arises. Lark heads for home when he's ambushed. This should have been a night to celebrate his survival and a time to look forward to fading out of politics into a semi-retirement as his master's presidency goes into an autumnal state. Instead, he has to use all his skills--manipulation, swordwork, logic, and his growing powers as a Confidante in order to survive.
This time, Gutter isn't around to save him.
This time, though many offer alliances and promises, he's on his own.
We'll have some new characters in this trilogy. Cockatrice. Ambrose. And late in the game, a new jester, Just, who (like Cockatrice) serves someone, or something, other than a master. We'll see the Lord Dellai, the Church's attempt to provide leadership in place of a king. And this time we'll have some changes in points of view. In Oubliette, we'll get Verai's take on things, and learn a bit more about the relationship between priests and the sacred beings. What do you all think? Are you ready to have a look into Verai's head? That beautiful priest, who can be such an asshole at times, and plays the part of the wise old man, but with a young man's passions. Is he a jerk? Lovable? Sexy? Does he give Mark strength, or tear him down? I'd love to hear your comments.
In other writing news:
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've had a short story accepted into an anthology. More details when I can provide them, but the story is set about five hundred years before Mark Seaton is ever born. You know, back in the days when jesters wore bells .... I hope you'll like it. Release date will be in November. I'll keep you posted.
This comes as a bit of a surprise to me, because I'm only halfway through Penumbra, and I'd intended to write the entire trilogy before I published Oubliette. But, the players are all playing. The game is on. Feedback from first readers is coming in, and I have a solid hold on the plot(s). So. The time seems to be right to finalize the copy editing, formatting and detail work on Oubliette. Terrifying. Even more terrifying to think that I released Masks without having written one word on the sequels. I'm on far more solid ground than with The Lord Jester's Legacy.
But maybe I belong at sea ....
Mild spoilers:
In Oubliette, Mark is in trouble. Again. As always. He knew something was up, but because of his memory loss he didn't know if his mistrust was misplaced. The book opens with Lord Jester Lark attending a splendid party. It's the First of Sooner, the holiest day of the year. It's like New Year's Day but in springtime, or Mardi Gras with a somewhat spiritual lean. Everyone is starting to head to home when an emergeny arises. Lark heads for home when he's ambushed. This should have been a night to celebrate his survival and a time to look forward to fading out of politics into a semi-retirement as his master's presidency goes into an autumnal state. Instead, he has to use all his skills--manipulation, swordwork, logic, and his growing powers as a Confidante in order to survive.
This time, Gutter isn't around to save him.
This time, though many offer alliances and promises, he's on his own.
We'll have some new characters in this trilogy. Cockatrice. Ambrose. And late in the game, a new jester, Just, who (like Cockatrice) serves someone, or something, other than a master. We'll see the Lord Dellai, the Church's attempt to provide leadership in place of a king. And this time we'll have some changes in points of view. In Oubliette, we'll get Verai's take on things, and learn a bit more about the relationship between priests and the sacred beings. What do you all think? Are you ready to have a look into Verai's head? That beautiful priest, who can be such an asshole at times, and plays the part of the wise old man, but with a young man's passions. Is he a jerk? Lovable? Sexy? Does he give Mark strength, or tear him down? I'd love to hear your comments.
In other writing news:
I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but I've had a short story accepted into an anthology. More details when I can provide them, but the story is set about five hundred years before Mark Seaton is ever born. You know, back in the days when jesters wore bells .... I hope you'll like it. Release date will be in November. I'll keep you posted.
May 17, 2015
Reviews of Masks, Book One of the Lord Jester's Legacy
There's a very kind review of Masks on this blog:
http://www.terryjackman.co.uk/2015/02/review-masks-e-m-prazeman-5.html
Another positive review here. I hope I didn't disappoint in the following books!:
http://www.marinarosemartinez.com/masks-by-e-m-prazeman/
This review site (with the old cover) has a review where the reviewer hated the book:
http://booklikes.com/masks-e-m-prazeman/book,10698956
Agree? Disagree? I always appreciate reviews of my books. Even the negative ones, because a negative review potentially helps prevent someone who doesn't like the kind of books I write from wasting their time and leaving a bad taste in their mouth.
http://www.terryjackman.co.uk/2015/02/review-masks-e-m-prazeman-5.html
Another positive review here. I hope I didn't disappoint in the following books!:
http://www.marinarosemartinez.com/masks-by-e-m-prazeman/
This review site (with the old cover) has a review where the reviewer hated the book:
http://booklikes.com/masks-e-m-prazeman/book,10698956
Agree? Disagree? I always appreciate reviews of my books. Even the negative ones, because a negative review potentially helps prevent someone who doesn't like the kind of books I write from wasting their time and leaving a bad taste in their mouth.
May 4, 2015
Book Review: Darklady's Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail
Posted on Goodreads:
Darklady's Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail by Theresa Reed
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
First off, I have to say, the hate mail is mesmerizing!
The only reason I didn't give this a five star is because I think she could have taken it up a notch. As it stands, it's an excellent book. It's personal, insightful, courageous, educational, political, and endlessly fascinating. Highly recommended. I can't say it's not just about sex. This book reminded me and brings forward the fact that whether you're neutral about, ashamed of, or embrace your gender and sexuality, sex is a huge part of you that goes beyond your bedroom desires (or lack thereof). I was very thoroughly satisfied ... and yet she left me hungry for more. And that's a good thing. I hope to see more books from her soon.
View all my reviews
I want to add a few things that I didn't want to post on Goodreads because using adult words might upset some people. Adults, mostly, I figure. I don't think kids are bothered by strong language.
At first I expected a lot more sex. I thought I'd immediately get poked in the eye by a penis jutting out from the page. When that didn't happen, I wanted to race ahead to the juicy parts. I'm glad I didn't. I also was surprised that the book would be entirely composed of articles. I shouldn't have been. It does say archives right in the title, after all!
I'm glad I didn't let my initial impatience rule me. The early articles created a strong foundation on which I could experience the rest of the book. Besides, some people, to whom the presented concepts might be entirely new, probably need a gentle easing in rather than sudden full penetration.
There is a huge amount in this book to digest for people who haven't looked at the world in quite this way. I have, but I don't have as much experience as Darklady, in all senses of the word, so I was delighted to find some of my ideas about sex and love reinforced, and to find new angles from which I could view the subject of sex, sexual politics, gender, gender identity, love, fucking, body image, self-love, tolerance, trust ... the list goes on and on. I could write a book about this book. For some, this book could very well be mind-blowing. For me, I felt like I'd met someone who understood me and liked me well enough and trusted me enough to show me the rest of the iceberg that lies hidden beneath the sea of societally-imposed secrecy.
Not that Darklady wants, intends or even tries to keep her ideas about sexuality secret. We're taught from a young age that we're not allowed to look, that we'd be somehow damaged or traumatized if we saw someone having sex in public, that certain parts of our bodies are dirty (but beautiful and possibly even irresistable--what's the real message here?) and that we're not supposed to talk about it. That it's private. I can whole-heartedly agree with the last part. It can be and sometimes ought to be private, some of the time. Chimpanzees will sneak off to have a private moment together. Speaking as a descendent of an ape-like critter, that can be intense and fun. But it's not a necessity. They're not protecting the young chimps from potentially damaging, 'adult only' situations. They very well might be indulging in something illicit that the other chimps might not approve of because of tribal sexual dynamics and who is supposed to belong with who, and find it all the more delicious because it's forbidden. Or maybe they just want to fuck without any distractions or interference. Maybe they just want to shut out the rest of the world and be completely alone with each other, worshipping each other and drowning in each other without someone nearby talking about how to best dig ants out of a rotted stump. That has nothing to do with sex being a sin or tainted or wrong. That's just one flavor of a whole feast of sexual possibilities.
The fact is that Darklady doesn't know me (outside of a few fascinating conversations we've had) or trust me and hasn't taken me into her fold of privileged men, women, intersex, etc. She's just being open about her beliefs and her sexuality, out in front of the whole world. And although she writes frankly about her own sexuality, experiences and upbringing, I didn't get the feeling that this was all about her, beyond the physical sense that some of the chapters are literally about her. The book feels open, questing, questioning, though she doesn't directly ask the questions of her readers: what do you think, how does this make you feel, what's your perspective? And I think that's the main reason why I wanted to write a book about her book. Because I want to answer those questions.
And that's the real genius of the book.
Darklady's Carnal Archives and Mesmerizing Hate Mail by Theresa ReedMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
First off, I have to say, the hate mail is mesmerizing!
The only reason I didn't give this a five star is because I think she could have taken it up a notch. As it stands, it's an excellent book. It's personal, insightful, courageous, educational, political, and endlessly fascinating. Highly recommended. I can't say it's not just about sex. This book reminded me and brings forward the fact that whether you're neutral about, ashamed of, or embrace your gender and sexuality, sex is a huge part of you that goes beyond your bedroom desires (or lack thereof). I was very thoroughly satisfied ... and yet she left me hungry for more. And that's a good thing. I hope to see more books from her soon.
View all my reviews
I want to add a few things that I didn't want to post on Goodreads because using adult words might upset some people. Adults, mostly, I figure. I don't think kids are bothered by strong language.
At first I expected a lot more sex. I thought I'd immediately get poked in the eye by a penis jutting out from the page. When that didn't happen, I wanted to race ahead to the juicy parts. I'm glad I didn't. I also was surprised that the book would be entirely composed of articles. I shouldn't have been. It does say archives right in the title, after all!
I'm glad I didn't let my initial impatience rule me. The early articles created a strong foundation on which I could experience the rest of the book. Besides, some people, to whom the presented concepts might be entirely new, probably need a gentle easing in rather than sudden full penetration.
There is a huge amount in this book to digest for people who haven't looked at the world in quite this way. I have, but I don't have as much experience as Darklady, in all senses of the word, so I was delighted to find some of my ideas about sex and love reinforced, and to find new angles from which I could view the subject of sex, sexual politics, gender, gender identity, love, fucking, body image, self-love, tolerance, trust ... the list goes on and on. I could write a book about this book. For some, this book could very well be mind-blowing. For me, I felt like I'd met someone who understood me and liked me well enough and trusted me enough to show me the rest of the iceberg that lies hidden beneath the sea of societally-imposed secrecy.
Not that Darklady wants, intends or even tries to keep her ideas about sexuality secret. We're taught from a young age that we're not allowed to look, that we'd be somehow damaged or traumatized if we saw someone having sex in public, that certain parts of our bodies are dirty (but beautiful and possibly even irresistable--what's the real message here?) and that we're not supposed to talk about it. That it's private. I can whole-heartedly agree with the last part. It can be and sometimes ought to be private, some of the time. Chimpanzees will sneak off to have a private moment together. Speaking as a descendent of an ape-like critter, that can be intense and fun. But it's not a necessity. They're not protecting the young chimps from potentially damaging, 'adult only' situations. They very well might be indulging in something illicit that the other chimps might not approve of because of tribal sexual dynamics and who is supposed to belong with who, and find it all the more delicious because it's forbidden. Or maybe they just want to fuck without any distractions or interference. Maybe they just want to shut out the rest of the world and be completely alone with each other, worshipping each other and drowning in each other without someone nearby talking about how to best dig ants out of a rotted stump. That has nothing to do with sex being a sin or tainted or wrong. That's just one flavor of a whole feast of sexual possibilities.
The fact is that Darklady doesn't know me (outside of a few fascinating conversations we've had) or trust me and hasn't taken me into her fold of privileged men, women, intersex, etc. She's just being open about her beliefs and her sexuality, out in front of the whole world. And although she writes frankly about her own sexuality, experiences and upbringing, I didn't get the feeling that this was all about her, beyond the physical sense that some of the chapters are literally about her. The book feels open, questing, questioning, though she doesn't directly ask the questions of her readers: what do you think, how does this make you feel, what's your perspective? And I think that's the main reason why I wanted to write a book about her book. Because I want to answer those questions.
And that's the real genius of the book.
April 11, 2015
The Poisoned Past: Tentative release dates!
There's a challenge going around on Facebook for authors to post seven sentences from their seventy seventh page. Sounds like fun to me! This probably won't be the 77th page on either the print or Kindle version of Oubliette, the first book in The Poisoned Past trilogy, but it'll be in the ballpark.
“And the music?”
Mark had to feign mild surprise rather than allow his sudden tension show. “I hadn’t intended to send that home. It’s for my own use.”
“I’d like to see it as well.”
Mark doubted he’d ever break the code, but he would determine it was one if he had an eye for ciphers. They might not send his letters if they thought he’d written something of it into Ellen’s lullaby.
And here are seven sentences from Penumbra, the second book in The Poisoned Past.
“The resemblence to Gutter is unmistakable. Or is Soren of the same stature, coloration … where is your husband, Burai? Do you even have one, or was that a lie?”
She thought of when she and Gutter last argued, and looked up at him, daring him to call her a liar twice, though she had in fact lied before, and often.
She’d born the Gelantyne mask, survived battles, killed. She would kill this man if she had to. Not here, not while his smile slipped from his eyes and he expected her to attack him.
With the covers potentially coming through this month (almost for certain, but this is art and there are a lot of variables) and with the first book in the hands of my first/advance readers and book 2 at about the 1/3 to halfway point, I'm tentatively going to pencil in the following release dates:
Oubliette: June 1
Penumbra: June 21
A Dark Radiance: July 15
That's a truly crazy release schedule, but slightly less crazy than it might initially seem. By the time the first book in the trilogy is released, all three books will be written. Perhaps not in final form, but they'll be written through to The End. So. There we are. I'm secretly hoping that I'll finish everything way ahead of schedule and have A Dark Radiance release on July 4. That would be really, really wonderful for a lot of reasons. But, I might need that extra ten days. We'll just have to see how everything turns out!
“And the music?”
Mark had to feign mild surprise rather than allow his sudden tension show. “I hadn’t intended to send that home. It’s for my own use.”
“I’d like to see it as well.”
Mark doubted he’d ever break the code, but he would determine it was one if he had an eye for ciphers. They might not send his letters if they thought he’d written something of it into Ellen’s lullaby.
And here are seven sentences from Penumbra, the second book in The Poisoned Past.
“The resemblence to Gutter is unmistakable. Or is Soren of the same stature, coloration … where is your husband, Burai? Do you even have one, or was that a lie?”
She thought of when she and Gutter last argued, and looked up at him, daring him to call her a liar twice, though she had in fact lied before, and often.
She’d born the Gelantyne mask, survived battles, killed. She would kill this man if she had to. Not here, not while his smile slipped from his eyes and he expected her to attack him.
With the covers potentially coming through this month (almost for certain, but this is art and there are a lot of variables) and with the first book in the hands of my first/advance readers and book 2 at about the 1/3 to halfway point, I'm tentatively going to pencil in the following release dates:
Oubliette: June 1
Penumbra: June 21
A Dark Radiance: July 15
That's a truly crazy release schedule, but slightly less crazy than it might initially seem. By the time the first book in the trilogy is released, all three books will be written. Perhaps not in final form, but they'll be written through to The End. So. There we are. I'm secretly hoping that I'll finish everything way ahead of schedule and have A Dark Radiance release on July 4. That would be really, really wonderful for a lot of reasons. But, I might need that extra ten days. We'll just have to see how everything turns out!
April 5, 2015
No Joke
I realized that I posted my convention itinerary (as it exists so far) on April Fool's. It's not in fact an April Fool's joke. My books were available at Norwescon, and books and posters will be available at Sasquan (Worldcon in Spokane) and Rose City Comicon. It's also likely that I'll be at OryCon in Portland in November. I don't know if I'll be a panelist, but it's close enough to home that, unless I'm out of the country, I make an effort to be there every year. Also on the radar, possibly, is World Fantasy in September. That's quite a ways out of my way, and a lot of travel for one year, but I've always wanted to go .... So there we are.
Work continues apace on The Poisoned Past trilogy. I'm stuck at the moment. I don't worry about stuck-ness, though. Some of the best writing comes out of struggling with a scene or a theme or whatever rather than patching together a workable solution and moving on. Getting stuck means that the brain is aware that something is not as good as it could be, or that there's something seriously wrong. As long as you don't go running toward the nearest pile of sand with the intent of burying your head in it, you're in good shape. If you take the stuckness as an opportunity to re-evaluate where you were going with an idea, and maybe even brain storm some possibilities, then something really excellent can come from it. After all, if everything is moving along smoothly and quickly, there's a chance that everything is also moving along predictably. Not always, but there's that chance.
Definitely don't take a break, though. A step back, sure. Time to let the subconscious work? Maybe sleep on it. Ignore the problem for weeks? That's not working. That's procrastination. If I take too long between writing sessions, I have no f***ing clue what I was writing and where I was going with it. That's bad. Really bad.
In other news, I'm at the coast. I'll be back home in a few hours, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the sea air, rare sunshine and warmth for this time of year, and very little wind. There's something about walking barefoot in the sand on a warm day that fills me with alive-ness. I love the sea. I respect it, fear it, but most of all, I love the oceans, steely and wide and cool, blue and warm and green, love the waves and calm and deep, shallow, vast, seen and dark, silent, roaring and free.
Long Beach, April 2015
Work continues apace on The Poisoned Past trilogy. I'm stuck at the moment. I don't worry about stuck-ness, though. Some of the best writing comes out of struggling with a scene or a theme or whatever rather than patching together a workable solution and moving on. Getting stuck means that the brain is aware that something is not as good as it could be, or that there's something seriously wrong. As long as you don't go running toward the nearest pile of sand with the intent of burying your head in it, you're in good shape. If you take the stuckness as an opportunity to re-evaluate where you were going with an idea, and maybe even brain storm some possibilities, then something really excellent can come from it. After all, if everything is moving along smoothly and quickly, there's a chance that everything is also moving along predictably. Not always, but there's that chance.
Definitely don't take a break, though. A step back, sure. Time to let the subconscious work? Maybe sleep on it. Ignore the problem for weeks? That's not working. That's procrastination. If I take too long between writing sessions, I have no f***ing clue what I was writing and where I was going with it. That's bad. Really bad.
In other news, I'm at the coast. I'll be back home in a few hours, but in the meantime I'm enjoying the sea air, rare sunshine and warmth for this time of year, and very little wind. There's something about walking barefoot in the sand on a warm day that fills me with alive-ness. I love the sea. I respect it, fear it, but most of all, I love the oceans, steely and wide and cool, blue and warm and green, love the waves and calm and deep, shallow, vast, seen and dark, silent, roaring and free.
Long Beach, April 2015
