Sidney Blaylock Jr.'s Blog, page 69

One Story Closes, Another Story Opens

So I picked this rather provocative title, but all that I really want to say is that I finished one story and I’m beginning to work on another.  

I finished a short story that I’ve been working on for most of the spring and summer.  I, Magi is the story that I finished.  Readers of the blog will recognize the title as one that I was contemplating starting once I finished Citizen X.  I literally finished Citizen and started Magi right away.  I usually don’t work like that, but I was so enthused about the project that I couldn’t help myself.  Now that the project is done, I have at least 3 more short story ideas, but I find that I want to try longer works.  

I have Project Skye that I started on 2 weeks ago, but I have not worked on it since.  Today, while I wait on this week’s episode of Dr. Who, I want to work on a graphic novel project that I’ve had in my brain for a little while.  I’m calling it Project 51.  I would like it be a Sci-Fi project that I want to work on in tandem with Project Skye.  

The problem with working with longer projects is that they are marathons instead of sprints.  When it takes 2-3 months to sprint to the end of a short story, a novel, a graphic novel, or a screenplays seems like an ETERNITY.  At the rate I’m going, Project Skye may not become a reality until 2016/2017.  Project 51 may be done by the end of the school year, but that’s 10 months away.  That feels SO far away.  

How do you piece together the puzzle over months, over years, over decades, if necessary?  Creation takes time.  That’s the greatest flaw about creativity that most people don’t understand.  Even I fall victim to turning a blind eye to this fact.  I’m less than 2 weeks away from Destiny, a game that I’ve wanted since I first heard about in February 2013 and yet, I’m chomping at the bit to play it, to devour it, to lose myself in the world that Bungie has created, without regard for the amount of time they’ve spent on it.  

Another way to look at it would be this: imagine reading your favorite book 1 page at a time because that is how much you were allowed to read by some unnamed person, organization, etc.  Imagine how infuriating that would be.  That’s what its like to be a writer who wants to write long, but is limited by time.  It takes me so long to write something, to build something, that it is easy to freeze by looking at the enormity of how long it will take to finish what I want to accomplish.  

If I can find a solution to this problem, I’ll definitely post it here.  Some authors don’t have this problem–for them, writing long is easy.  I’m not one of them.  I’m a perfectionist, or at least, one who has a definite idea of how the project should go.  My philosophy has always been, “better to have it done right, even if you’re slow about it, than to have it fast and wrong.”  For some parts of my life, this has been helpful, but right now, trying to transition to a longer form writer, it is very discouraging to know that there are projects that I won’t see the end of for many months or years.  Somehow, someway, I need to find a way to make peace with this prospect, or I don’t think that I’ll ever mature into the writer that I would like to be.

Dr. Who

I watched the Dr. Who season premiere last night on BBC America.  I mostly liked it.  I thought that they maybe tried a little too hard to create a link between the “still cooking” Doctor scenes of David Tennent and Matt Smith.  Once the “mystery” was introduced and the Doctor and Clara began to investigate the mystery, that’s when I thought it settled down.  I began to like the episode at that point.  

As a Whovian, I have been watching Dr. Who since it “rebooted” with Christopher Eccleston.  I saw the first series with him, but missed episodes, not understanding that British TV runs their seasons differently from American TV.  I managed to catch the first (of the current Doctors) regeneration where Eccleston’s Doctor morphes into David Tennant’s Doctor.  However, because I still hadn’t figured out how British TV worked, I was still missing episodes, so I didn’t have to get used to David Tennent’s Doctor–there was no emotional investment on my part.  

It wasn’t until I saw the episode “Blink” that I was hooked.  “Blink” introduced the Weeping Angels and was probably the most suspenseful TV episode that I’ve ever seen with some beautiful emotional moments.  After that episode I made it my mission to figure out how British TV worked (I was helped that around that time I also discovered Top Gear–and both series helped me to figure out the way British TV works).   I followed Dr. Who since then, and I really did have to make the transition when David Tennent’s Doctor gave way to Matt Smith’s Doctor.  At first, I didn’t think I’d like the new interpretation (too mad-cap), but the episode was so well done and Amy and Rory played off each other so well that by the end when Matt Smith’s Doctor was in full form and calling the aliens back at the end to chastise them, I was totally on-board.

I said all that to say that the last scenes of last night’s episode, “Deep Breath,” while it didn’t grab me in the same way, I have hope that I’ll at least be able to like Peter Capaldi’s Doctor.  The mad-cap humor may be gone, but the wordplay more than makes up for it.   The final scenes where the Doctor mentions that he doesn’t think he’s a “hugger,” or a “fetcher,” and Clara’s responses to both was absolutely priceless.   I’ll try to revisit this again when this “season” ends to determine if I like Peter Capaldi’s Doctor Who.

I found a blog post from another blogger written about a year ago who wrote about the 5 Stages of Accepting a New Doctor Who.  The post is so spot-on that I want to link to it in this blog.  If you have a chance be sure to check it out–it’s a riot (& true too!)

 

 

Characters

So, I was watching TV the other day and I heard something that made me take note and I jotted it down so I wouldn’t lose it.  I was watching a small featurette that plays in the couple of minutes before the new feature movie started on one the Epix channels.  In it, one of the directors of a movie (I think World War Z–yes, it was that movie because I remember him talking about how the book didn’t lend itself to film).  

Anyway, at the very end, he said something profound and I wrote it down just to be sure that I wouldn’t lose it or forget it.  He said, (paraphrasing): “Begin with the character and you can explore any world you like.”  

This resonated with me because even though I write short fiction, I read novels, graphic novels, and watch movies–all longer forms of writing.  I’ve long been interested in trying to write and create these longer works myself, but have been unable to maintain the “traction” needed to make it through to the end.  I literally have notebooks filled with ideas that could become the basis for novels, screenplays, and comic/graphic novel scripts, but after about the first twenty pages or so, I seem to lose the thread, even if I’ve meticulously planned/plotted them out to the end.  

I think it is because I’m so caught up in the plot, in the cool actions and settings of the world, that I set out to write the longer works with only the vaguest hints of my characters.  I have a name, but perhaps I only have a cipher of a character rather than a true character when I start.  

I’ve decided to try again at starting a novel.  I have a character: Skye.  She has a personality.  She is a “grease monkey,” who works on airplanes.  She has a problem: She is only an Aviator, but she wants to be a Pilot (there is a whole WORLD of difference between the two titles in the world the story takes place.)  Somehow she must earn her place as a Pilot even though she “technically” doesn’t have the right qualifications.  

I think I have a title for the novel, but for the moment I’m going to refer to it as “Project Skye,” to remind myself that it is the CHARACTER who is the most important part of the story (not the cool setting or all the cool things I hope to have her run around doing, but that she needs to be the coolest and most important part of the story.)  And if this works out and I manage to publish “Project Skye,” then I owe the Director of World War Z a BIG thank you (as well as a non-alchoholic beverage of his choice :) )

Knights

I’ve always been fascinated with knights.  Swords, armor, shields, horses, the medieval timeframe, and the idea of a warrior class has intrigued me since I was a child.  I remember checking out books from the library about knights.  One of the reasons why I like and can play chess is that I found a book that showed the various chess pieces and moves using illustrations that were based on knights.  

Eventually, as I grew older, I expanded my love of knights to a love of heroes in general.  I think that expansion started with Star Wars and the explanation of the Jedi Knights.  It was that movie (along with lesser movies of the time: Krull, Legend, and The Dark Crystal) l where I saw that heroism could apply to more time periods that just the medieval age.  Now, I know that knights as a class of people were not the “heroes” that we often think they were, regardless of the chivalric code.  However, to a child, they seemed to represent the best of both worlds–fighters with a code of ethics.

Perhaps that’s why I’m so fascinated with knights.  They are a class of warriors that (ideally) can be awesome at warfare, but also can respect others (yes, again, I know that this is naive and that “real” knights–from the Templars all the way down to the Crusaders were little better than thugs, but it is the IDEAL of knighthood that I’m discussing).  

Many of my stories revolve around the idea of something or somebody as a hero.  I got tickled by a former co-worker who read my work.  She happened to read two of my stories in which the main character fails.  I think I only have two or three of these so far.  She was saying to me that it looks like I like “sad” endings.  Actually, I think I’ve written 20+ stories so far, and out of all of these 90-95% the hero wins.  I really wanted to tell her this, but patron came up and I never did explain myself.  I’ve never been a fan of the “sad” (aka kill the main character) ending.  I only use it when the main character must sacrifice himself/herself for the greater good.  I’ve read too many stories (“All Things Dark and Deadly,” which I’m pretty sure was published in the RPG Cyberpunk 2020–although I could be mistaken for I no longer have the RPG to fact-check it) is a prime example of this.  Spoilers–the main character dies in that story for NO good reason.  This is the worse type of “ironic” ending, but I see it all too often (especially in short works).  

I seem to have an affinity with knights as several of my published works have some element of knights embedded in them.  Don’t be surprised if you see more “knights” (or heroes) in my fiction.  I really, REALLy like them!

Fae releases today! (My story, Faerie Knight, is on p.175!)

“FAE”
EDITED BY RHONDA PARRISH

Alpena, MI (July 22, 2014)– World Weaver Press (Eileen Wiedbrauk, Editor-in-Chief) has announced FAE, a new anthology of fairy stories from classic tales to urban fantasy, edited by Rhonda Parrish, is available in trade paperback and ebook today, Tuesday, July 22, 2014.

Contact: Elizabeth Wagner publicity@worldweaverpress.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE

Praise for FAE:

“A delightfully refreshing collection that offers a totally different take on your usual fairy stories! I found it difficult to stop reading as one story ended and another began – all fantastic work by gifted writers. Not for the faint of heart, by any means.”

— Marge Simon, multiple Bram Stoker® Winner “Anyone with an abiding love of Faerie and the Folk who dwell there will find stories to enjoy in FAE.”

— Tangent (C.D. Lewis)

“The Cartography of Shattered Trees’ by Beth Cato and ‘And Only The Eyes of Children’ by Laura VanArendonk Baugh are shining examples of what could be done with the subject of faeries that surpass tricks on the reader, that build worlds and characters worth knowing and exploring, that have something important to say about the real world.”

— Tangent (John Sulyok)

“Nibble on this deliciously wondrous collection of stories of fae one at a time or binge on its delights on one night, you’ll love the faerie feast this collection provides. I devoured it.”

— Kate Wolford, editor of Beyond the Glass Slipper; editor and publisher of Enchanted Conversation: A Fairytale Magazine

Meet Robin Goodfellow as you’ve never seen him before, watch damsels in distress rescue themselves, get swept away with the selkies and enjoy tales of hobs, green men, pixies and phookas. One thing is for certain, these are not your grandmother’s fairy tales. Fairies have been both mischievous and malignant creatures throughout history. They’ve dwelt in forests, collected teeth or crafted shoes. FAE is full of stories that honor that rich history while exploring new and interesting takes on the fair folk from castles to computer technologies to modern midwifing, the Old World to Indianapolis. FAE bridges traditional and modern styles, from the familiar feeling of a good old- fashioned fairy tale to urban fantasy and horror with a fae twist. This anthology covers a vast swath of the fairy story spectrum, making the old new and exploring lush settings with beautiful prose and complex characters.

With an introduction by Sara Cleto and Brittany Warman, and new stories
from Sidney Blaylock Jr., Amanda Block, Kari Castor, Beth Cato, Liz
Colter, Rhonda Eikamp, Lor Graham, Alexis A. Hunter, L.S. Johnson, Jon Arthur Kitson, Adria Laycraft, Lauren Liebowitz, Christine Morgan, Shannon Phillips, Sara Puls, Laura VanArendonk Baugh, and Kristina Wojtaszek.

FAE is available in trade paperback and ebook via Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, Kobo.com, and other online retailers, and for wholesale through Ingram. You can also find Fae on Goodreads.

Anthologist Rhonda Parrish is driven by a desire to do All The Things. She has been the publisher and editor-in-chief of Niteblade Magazine for over five years now (which is like 25 years in internet time) and is the editor of the benefit anthology, Metastasis. In addition, Rhonda is a writer whose work has been included or is forthcoming in dozens of publications including Tesseracts 17: Speculating Canada from Coast to Coast and Imaginarium: The Best Canadian Speculative Writing. Her website, updated weekly, is at rhondaparrish.com.

World Weaver Press is a publisher of fantasy, paranormal, and science fiction, dedicated to producing quality works. We believe in great storytelling.

Publication Date: July 22, 2014 • Fantasy / Horror Anthology $12.95 Trade paperback, 247 pages • $6.99 ebook ISBN: 978-0692207918 Publicity/Reviews: publicity@worldweaverpress.com

Information: http://www.worldweaverpress.com/books/fae

worldweaverpress.com @WorldWeaver_wwp

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Friday Night Trailers – Dead Island 2

So, I’ve been away from the blog for a while.  Sorry.  There are reasons, but they are too long and boring to talk about.  

I’ve decided to start something new.  I like routines, so I decided that I’d pick some things that I like and build posts around those themes.  My first theme is: Friday Night Trailers (a play on Friday Night Lights).  Every Friday, I’ll post a link to a trailer that I really like.  The trailer can be movies, video games, TV, or some media of some kind.  

This week’s Friday Night Trailer is for an upcoming video game called Dead Island 2.  I loved this trailer!  I don’t like zombie games, but the trailer is great!  The humor is dark and macabre.  I don’t always like this type of humor, but the way it plays out shows great creativity.  It doesn’t hurt that the song is catchy too! :)  Full Disclosure: I liked the song so much that I purchased it from iTunes.  

Take a look–but don’t blame me if that song gets stuck in your head!  ;)

I finished CROWN OF RENEWAL by ELIZABETH MOON

I finished Crown of Renewal over the weekend.  I liked it and gave it 4 (of 5) stars.

Here is the text of the review that I wrote for the Amazon.com Kindle page & Goodreads.com

Having read the entire series, I found this book to be a solid conclusion to the series. I started the series reading in hardcover and finished it via electronic editions. I liked the entire arc of the series and felt like most of the major characters got their time on-stage. I probably would not characterize this book as a good first book in the series (obviously, as it is the conclusion), but the sheer number of characters and their relationships to one another are something that the author (rightly) assumes that you’ve already read and understand based on the previous novels in the series. For that reason alone, if the description of the book’s contents intrigues you in any way, I can’t emphasize strongly enough that you should seek out Volume 1 and then work your way to this book. I enjoy Elizabeth Moon’s writing style and felt that this book is comparable to the others in the series, and more importantly, leaves a couple of the main characters in positions where they could explored further down the road should she choose to visit the world again in a new series. There could have been a little more action–the resolution, while not lacking conflict, is much more on the cerebral side. Some may find the story dull in places, but to me (and I like action) I found that the more subdued finale fit in with the overall tone of the series as a whole.

LibertyCon 2014

So LibertyCon is happening in a couple of weeks.  I debated about going to LibertyCon this year.  I have more time as I’m free for the summer, but in many ways I seem to have less time.  I’m working on my novel (more to come in a following post), I’m working on a short-story that is due at the end of this month (for a contest), I’m revising another short-story that just came back (rejected, but I’ve found another market for it & I’m trying to get it ready), and I really want to contact an artist that I know about seeing if she would be willing to accept commissions to do artwork for some of my stories (I’d really like to showcase her artwork here on the blog as “covers” to my short-stories so that people might be able to get a visual sense of what story might be like before having to plunk down money them to decide if they might like it–sorta’ what covers on books are designed to do).  In addition to this, I’m trying to clean up the house (inside and out), work on prepping for next school year, play games, and yes, rest over the Summer Break.  Last week, I finished four days of intense Personal Development learning how to become a better teacher (considering my school day is 9-4 and the PD was 8:30-3:30, I REALLY and TRULY did put in a full day’s work–I really hope that I can put all the great information to use and really shine this upcoming school year).

I decided that I might be trying to do TOO MUCH and so I wondered if it might not be better to scale back a bit and not go to LibertyCon this year.  After I thought about it, I realized that Chattanooga only has 3 major Sci-Fi/Fantasy conventions: ChattaCon, LibertyCon & Con Nooga.  Of those three, only LibertyCon is a writer/reader focused Con, meaning that while it has costumes, parties, and the like, it is really focused on authors, editors, and artists, the people who create and produce the genre fiction that we love.  Yes, there are actors (rarely) and media-based properties (again, rarely), but this is the one Con to go if you’re into books, authors, and the written word.  All the other Chattanooga Cons are more like traditional cons.  

I don’t like crowds–never have and probably never will.  Therefore, a more specialized con probably fits me more than a larger con would (at this point in my life, at least).  Also, I decided that if I could find one (just 1) workshop each day of the convention that might aid me in my writing, then the con would pay for itself in both information and inspiration.  Friday and Saturday were fine, Sunday, I’m probably going to have “stretch” to find a workshop that fits the bill, but I’m happy enough with the presentations that I went ahead and signed up for it.

Since this will be the first LibertyCon that I’ll attend with a blog, I’ll try to remember to take photos to upload on the blog.  After being somewhat ambivalent about it this year, I’m hoping that it will help me and inspire me.  At least, if nothing else, it will give me three days of SOLID writing time because the short story that is due at the end of the month has 3-5 planned scenes–I’ve only finished scene 1 at the moment.  Looks like I’m going to have to really press and use the downtime during the Con to get words on the page–so maybe I can use it as a mini-writing retreat, if nothing else ;)

Anyone interested can find out more information about LibertyCon by clicking on the link, or you can take a look at some of their pictures on their picture gallery.

Heroes are NOT Bland–A passionate defense of the Hero

E3 is happening this week.  I’m a huge video game player and I will be highlighting things that I”m interested in and talking about them periodically over the coming weeks.

Below you will find the trailer for a game I’m interested in called, Tom Clancy’s The Division.  The trailer is at once both depressing and stirring.  Have a look for yourself:

GameTrailers, has a show called “Let’s All Go To The Trailers,” that showcases effective and evocative game trailers.  You can find their website here:  http://www.gametrailers.com/shows/lets-all-go-to-the-trailers

In the latest episode, “United Division,” one of the trailers that they discuss is Tom Clancy’s The Division.  What concerns me is that they decide that EVERYONE (from the villains–both sets–all the way down to the victim that is being protected) are MORE interesting than the bland heroes.  The heroes, it is argued, are the LEAST interesting part of the trailer.

I cannot DISAGREE more.  It’s probably not fair for me to pick on them because I have seen this sentiment expressed over and over again for the past six to seven years, but the way they expressed this idea just made me shake my head and fixed firmly in my mind WHY I WRITE.

Too often in the past few years, I’ve heard the term “Shades of Gray,” to reference characters who are flawed and who are complex and who have both good and evil inside them.  It is commonly argued that these are the current “models” that we should base our heroes on, but I couldn’t disagree more.  In many instances, these characters are not heroes.  Heck, they’re not even anti-heroes.  They are straight up thugs and villains, given one or two “heroic” traits and then paraded as people who we should feel sympathy for and who we should root for in stories (Walter White from Breaking Bad, I’m looking directly at you).

These are people whose actions most of us would abhor should we encounter them in real life, but critics adore them and cite them as “complex characters.”  They kill, they lie, they cheat, they skirt rules, or simply break them, and yet, they are the pillars around which we hang our stories.  I first noticed this villain as hero in the genre world after watching Pitch Black several years ago.  I won’t spoil the movie, but it definitely falls into this category.

Yet, the hero is SUPPOSED to be the one who struggles.  To do what is right even though you are under intense pressure is FAR MORE interesting TO ME than to do what is wrong because it is quicker and easier and watch the results of those actions.

At any time, a character can give up, take the easy way out, but once that character does, then the character gives up any sense of agency. They become a pawn of their addictions, afflictions, abuses, and the critics adore them for it.  However, a character that is a pawn is a character without agency.  A character without agency is one that is manipulated by the plot.  We call those stories Deus Ex Machina–God from a Machine.  The writer intervenes to save his characters.  When we have villains that masquerade as heroes, the heroes lose their agency–their ability to struggle.  They suffer–and that is where the sense of drama comes from as we watch them go from excess to excess–but do they actually struggle?   How can they when they’ve all ready given in to their baser natures?

As much as I like Jason Bourne and Matt Damon’s portrayal of him, I dislike the lack of portrayal of him earning his abilities.  In the first movie, he was a superman with INNATE abilities.  We never saw him earn them, we never saw him STRUGGLE to get them.  We learned later who he was and that caused him to suffer.  However, I felt (and will always feel) MORE for Luke Skywalker than Jason Bourne.  I SAW Luke sweat as Yoda trained him.  I SAW him fail as Yoda tried to inculcate a sense of “faith” into him and watched as he failed even as Yoda succeeded in raising the X-Wing fighter.

And yet, it was Luke who had to make the HARD choice to face Darth Vader again, knowing what he knew about Vader.  It was Luke who, having lost his own hand, realized just how close he was to following Vader down the same path, it was Luke, who understood that faith that Yoda had taught him could be applied not just to Luke’s abilities, but also to a person, Vader.  The whole story hinged on Luke surviving and making HARD CHOICES.  Yes, those chose are HARD, but necessary.  I don’t remember once Vin Diesel’s character in Pitch Black having to make a HARD CHOICE.  Everything was given to his character, everything was easy.  Life isn’t easy–everything is a struggle–and I thought that critics wanted COMPLEXITY.  It seems to me, that a truly complex character is one that must struggle and fail and struggle and fail until they finally “get it” and struggle and succeed.  How complex a character can one truly be if they never struggle and all we see is the suffering of a character that is in a spiral?

I see the allure of the villain as character.  Everything is easy.  Just follow your heart’s desire and everything will either be given to you and you’ll be awesome (Bourne) or everything will spiral out of control and we’ll enjoy watching the fall (Walter White).  Yet, to me, this type of character and (by extension) this type of fiction doesn’t appeal to me because nothing in my life has EVER been easy.  This then is the most unrealistic type of fiction (even more so than genre work) because it is a lie that I can see through, and how can a fiction that one can see through tell me anything about the world I live in?  Isn’t that why we, as writers, work so hard to hide the fictions that we write–so that we can then reveal the TRUTHS about the world we live in?

So, Schedule . . .

. . .  And this is why I try not to predict how long things will take.  My goal was to update the blog on Wednesdays and Sundays, but this just isn’t going to work (for now).  I’ll try smaller updates mostly daily and see if this works better.  So, without further ado:

Goodreads.com: So, thanks to my story being published in Fae, I’ve now become a Goodreads “author.”  I’m not a very active social media person, but I’ve ALWAYS gravitiated ot any place that has books or sites that make books their primary focus.   As such, I’m trying to learn my way around the Goodreads site and familiarize myself with all that I can do there.  I’m adding more and more of my collection to the site, writing reviews, and rating books.  I’ve even discovered that I can add my writing there.  Unfortunately, putting new writing there would constitute publication, so you’ll probably see things that I’ve previously published go up on that site, but it’ll probably go there first before it goes up here on the blog.  Their editor is a lot easier to use for uploading stories.  I would highly encourage BEGINNING writers to check out that feature, but remember: once you post it for EVERYONE to see, you’ve used up your First Publication Rights.  From there, you can only sell Second Publication Rights (Reprints) and those typically earn you less money and there are fewer places to market reprints.  I also encourage anyone interested in books to come, look around, and see what’s available.  While you’re there, come take a look at my author’s page:  http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...

Like this blog, it is a work in progress, but I’ll be adding on to it over the coming months.  Hope you like!