THAT was a weak analogy. Then again, it's not every day you can sneak in a wildebeest reference. I'm going with it.

***

I am trashed today. Just totally trashed. I will grant you that we've been running non-stop day and night for about 3 days, and we're not used to that after summer. It sure doesn't make for being an awesome machine of efficient awesomeness.

There's going to be another quiet weekend, although if I'm lucky tomorrow, I'll get a post up (see above. The wildebeest isn't getting much done in the office right now, so maybe not.) There's a discussion about women and beauty in public, and I have...an angle. Or two.

I also want to talk about my stack of books, and how this is a growing, rather than diminishing problem, sometime.

This weekend, however, is the joy of nuptials for our good friends Aric and Kim in Minneapolis, so we'll be running up there to sign a license. While we're not doing that, I'll be running around with old friends from my costume queen days.

Now, if only these rating scales for courses would do themselves, I'd be satisfied with what I'd done today. Oh look...a meeting. Guess they'll be here tomorrow.

Project Runway tonight. Maybe a bomb will fall on Gretchen.

Disjointedly yours,

Catherine

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Writer Michael Jasper and artist Niki Smith launch the first issue of In Maps and Legends, their cool comic. You can buy it in a variety of digital venues.

***

J. Kathleen Cheney's novella "Snow Comes to Hawk's Folley" is out in Panverse 2. I had the good fortune to read the this novella back in the pre-publication stages, and it's a worthy successor to "Iron Shoes."

Go out. Read. Enjoy.

Catherine

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Thanks, Caroline!

Tamago: When we first meet Faris, she is rough and untrained. It isn't until we see Faris in the Glass Slipper rescuing Gunhild that we come to realize Faris is a strong character. In many YA books, girls like Faris transform to become more conventional. In College of Magics, Faris transforms to become more the strong character we are introduced to here.

Caroline: Long answers are good, right? Then I'll mention that I got the idea for the book in the first semester of my sophomore year of college. I thought of the final plot element nine years later. Unfortunately, I was so excited, I told the story to a close friend before I'd written it down. I am, it turns out, one of those people who shouldn't talk about what they write until they've actually written it down. The whole story turned to ashes. It took me another five years to pull myself together and actually finish the rough draft so revising could begin. It went through many, many drafts.

All this was a very long time ago indeed, so forgive me if my answers aren't as specific or accurate as they would have been right after the book was originally published. I wrote A College of Magics because I wanted to read a ripping yarn in which the protagonist was a woman. The books that inspired me (for example, The Prisoner of Zenda and its sequel, Rupert of Hentzau) invariably relegated girls to subsidiary roles where they had nothing to do but look pretty and act nobly. I wanted Faris to be imperfect and independent. Perfectly reasonable people dislike her intensely, and I don't blame them.

Tamago: What do you hope readers will take away from your portrayal of Faris?

Caroline: The key word for Faris was always truculent. I hope that the disadvantages of having a short temper are made clear in the course of the book.

Tamago: How do you see Jane influencing Faris? How do Jane and Faris complement each other? How does Faris influence Jane?

Caroline: Jane shows Faris the merits of finesse. At first, Faris views the world in absolutes. As events unfold, she begins to understand things are not as simple as they'd seemed. Jane is adept at showing Faris that a small amount of fussiness and discrimination can return great benefits.

Faris shows Jane that it is possible to sacrifice nonessential details (such as excess luggage or a varied diet) to achieve a greater goal. Jane cares for her family a great deal, but by the time she appears as the protagonist in A Scholar of Magics, she pays much less attention to her family's ideas of propriety and much more to choosing a life that puts her skills to work.

Tamago: When Faris rescues Tyrian, his loyalties shift from her uncle to Faris. What is Tyrian's view of Faris up to this point? When does Tyrian realize he's interested in Faris?

Caroline: I think initially Tyrian is far from impressed with Faris. His opinion of her improves the night of the Glass Slipper. He doesn't really get interested in Faris until she frees him from Menary. (I've always thought there was something more to Menary's spell than mere transformation.) From then on, his first allegiance is to her.

Tamago: Both Tyrian and Faris undergo significant transformations at the end of the story. Any agenda you have in mind there? Where do you see their relationship going?

Caroline: What a tactful way to phrase it! I congratulate you.

I'm working on the third book (after A Scholar of Magics) right now. One of the biggest challenges is to deal realistically with their relationship, which would be complicated enough without the necessity to keep it a secret.

Tamago: At first blush, Brinker looks to be the villain of our story, but both we and Faris come to realize that he has more complicated aims than personal gain. How would you describe their relationship?

Caroline: I think Brinker holds Faris in considerable affection. If Faris fully realized how fond he is of her, I think she'd be both disgusted and exasperated.

Tamago: Galazon means many things to Faris. At the beginning of the book, she wants to be nowhere else. By the end of the book, she is not returning. Is there anything symbolic in this change? What does leaving Galazon denote about Faris and her world view?

Caroline: This is a toughie. I wrote two answers, and neither one really succeeds in saying what I mean. Since you encouraged me to hold forth, I'll include them both.

Thank you for letting me natter on. And more than anything, thanks for reading A College of Magics and finding it worth thinking about afterward. I really appreciate it.

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***

And now, some sobriety.

It's been a strange morning here at Kirkwood. A student from Africa stopped in to drop her classes because her mother is dying in the Congo, and she must go away for a month. Her mother is 68.

Another student just called to tell me she wouldn't be in class tomorrow night because her mother has succumbed to a virulent cancer, and the family is now on death watch.

This comes on the day that Bryon and I are running to Southern Iowa for a funeral visitation for his aunt Hilda, the fourth aunt or uncle Bryon has lost in the past year and a half.

Makes that other post I was going to write otherwise this morning seem frivolous, so I think I"ll talk about this.

I know some long time live journal friends are aware that I lost my father in the summer of 1993, after six weeks of life support following his stroke. Even though my father was an unpleasant abuser, it was a hard summer. Losing even a bad parent can be wrenching. I have some experience with drawn-out death, and I can support the cliche that sometimes "it's for the best," and it's okay for people to go. There's a way to prepare that a sudden loss doesn't give you. As horrible as I think the ordeal for my two students will be, both of them will have some time to prepare for loss. If their experience is in anyway similar to mine, the death may well be a relief.

The situation with Bryon's aunt is much the same. Hilda has been in the nursing home deteriorating for a couple of months. A life-long stubborn smoker, her condition was exacerbated right up until the end with tobacco. Her children have had some time to prepare.

It's Bryon's parents that I am concerned about. Phyllis is 84. Neal is 87. Neal is on a steroid-based inhaler, so he tends to be slightly depressed a great deal of the time these days. In their generation, families were social circles. They've lost 4 people who were close to them in a very short time. Neal, especially, is taking all of this very hard.

When you read psychology texts, authors talk dryly about this time of life. How, when the elderly lose those that are close to them, they begin to become increasingly isolated and depressed. How it is important to maintain multi-generational contacts. How it is vital to come to accept death, and to try to stay active in life.

How much more difficult to see those you love going through this. No wonder that Phyllis and Neal have fallen back to the position of religion for comfort, reminded of their own mortality as well as those around them.

Of course, you think about your own future as well. Bryon and I, childless, at the end of our lives, watching our friends pass away.

Our culture seems afraid of death. I can't help but think that there is some satisfaction at the end in a life well-lived. I've regretted not having more time to write, but I will never regret the service I've rendered to others because of education. No one wants to die, but everyone does. Those around you do too. Is it a blessing to be the first?

We learn to deal with loss. We learn to cope with loss. We have to accept death. I wonder how, at the end, I could leave my friends with the idea that I am okay with going, and that they should carry on. I know that I would miss my nearest and dearest terribly. How can I hold them to me like bright stars in my memory? How can I appreciate the life and accept the death?

A friend reminds me of Satoshi Kon's good-bye this month. He died at the early age of 46 from pancreatic cancer. There is wonder and worth in this good-bye. It makes it both harder and easier to accept the loss of such a man.

Catherine

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However, I'll confess that I was reluctant to read College because of the inevitable marketing tack toward Harry Potter comparisons. It wasn't that the Potter books were the best in the cosmos. It was that unlike the people who search for similar books, the marketing ploy convinced me I would be reading another variation on a theme.

I know Caroline is a gifted writer, and I should have trusted my instincts, but I'll admit to be doing duped by corporate public America trying to make a buck. Damn them. As I've gotten to know Caroline better, however, I thought I should read more widely in her works. I'm glad I did.

Don't let anyone compare A College of Magics to the previously mentioned magical school series. Both stories take place, to some extent, in a boarding school. There is magic in both stories, and that's it. No more similarities.

What you will find is the story of Faris, a young woman that YA-reading girls aren't encountering as much in the current universe of Bella. Faris is a heroine that I'd like my (imaginary) daughter to appreciate.

While Faris has her faults (she is impetuous, stubborn, and pig-headed), she is also not our stereotypical impetuous, stubborn and pig-headed YA heroine. Her social graces are lacking, even though she is perhaps the most important noble figure in her country. A lesser YA author would make this story about the feminization of Faris, how her good friend Jane teaches her to dress and act like a lady, thus finding love and happiness.

Ahem. Faris is just fine, thank you. She has some growing up to do, you betcha, but her essential character is strong and moral. She isn't perfect, but on the other hand, she's very much her own person, and she is great in a crisis.

What about that other big YA chestnut? Does College have romance. Sure, it does. But not easy, teenage googoo eyes romance. Not dependent girl needs supernatural creature romance. And not even patly wrapped up by the end romance.

No, Faris is so socially awkward, she alienates her potential love interest. And then she saves him. And then he enters independently into her service. She develops a crush on Tyrian, and they have a mutual thing for about a minute, before the story comes crashing down on them.

I like it. A lot. The ending is not pat. It's complicated. There's a twist that I find very fulfilling, and in the end, the relationship is ambiguous. In a frustrating, but very fulfilling way. Maybe this is why I'll never be a commercially successful YA writer. I like ambiguity.

I want to recommend A College of Magics. It's a fantasy whose setting is 19th-century Europe, and you know that's how my tastes run. I want to sing the praises of the heroine as a model, and the praises of the author for assuming that not every adolescent girl wants to read a novel that leans more toward Harlequin.

Right. I suppose I'd better being seeing to my own writing. Or checking papers. Or something like that.

Catherine

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So all I can say is this:

Project Runway Season 8:

Gretchen: Does anyone else hate Gretchen as much as I do? I have never seen such a self-serving, arrogant contestant on the show. She even outdoes Wendy Pepper from Season One.

Team Luxe: Those arrogant bastards. They couldn't even see how awful their collection was! They were so sure they were going to win. I was so happy when they lost.

I am amazed that their arrogance blinded them to the worth of the lace/military collection, and I am furious that they threw Michael under the bus. Yes, he's not a great designer. But he did deserve to be treated like a human being, and not a disease.

It was so interesting that the team let Gretchen and Ivy set the tone. Most of the guys were just passive, but passive in this case is plenty criminal.

And they couldn't see that their collection was absolute crap. Don't designers need to be able to see that sort of thing?

Tim Gunn: Tim still rocks my world. Tim called it like it was at the end of the episode, asking Team Luxe how it could allow itself to be "threatened, bullied, and manipulated" by Gretchen. He's no one's fool. He could see the writing on the wall.

I can't believe Ivy was shocked by Tim's statements, like she didn't realize that was what was going on. The toadie!

I gotta say, while I'm not thrilled with the designers on team military/lace (their Michael is good, and Mondo and Valerie aren't too bad), I will in no way, shape, or form support ANY of the evil people on Team Luxe. Because I know what jerks they are, I can no longer appreciate their talent. I hate them with the white hot intensity of a thousand suns.

Not that any of them come close to Seth Aaron, Emilio, or Christian, the designers on the show who I think have been the best. Gretchen isn't fit to stitch their hemlines. What a reprehensible person!

So, yes, I was a little riled up. I was so hoping Gretchen would have been sent home. Just...argh.

Catherine

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For those of you holding out for the whole draft, hold out a little longer. I'm going to go through this version pretty quickly, so it won't be too much longer before I've given it my best shot.

***

And...nothing is more boring than just hearing a work status report, so I thought I would talk about a couple of new words that Bryon and I have worked into our vocabulary.

Wiilusion: n. The idea that, because you are good at something on the Wii, you would be good in real life. This is not necessarily the case. Example: Because Catherine lost the hula hoop contest, even though she is a calorie incinerator on Super Hula Hoops (TM), she realized that she was having a wiilusion.

Wiiluded: v The state of having a wiilusion. Example: You think you can sky dive? You're wiiluded!!!!

***

My recent willusion, however, is that I would like to try frisbee golf. I am very good at it on Wii Sports Resort. I think it would be a great sport. Walking and throwng frisbees. I could dig that.

Maybe I'm not wiiluded, because I don't expect to be good at it. But I might like to try it. Do any of you have experience with frisbee golf? Do you like it?

Expanding my physicality, one virtual scenario at a time.

***

No, really, the next write up will be about Carolyn Stevermer's excellent book A College of Magics. I'm a little late in coming to it, but it deserves some conversation.

Catherine

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I smell a writing analogy.

There's a lot of self-help literature out there to help writers. Like many get rich quick books, or life change books, these books are success-oriented, and often suggest that their suggestions will help you circumnavigate a lot of hard work and succeed. With particular methods, you will separate yourself from the herd, and publication will be yours.

Um...

Some people do get lucky, and indeed their story is published, regardless of time up front, or even the quality of the piece.

Some people also win the lottery. Some people are also struck by lightening.

For the majority of us, we have to grow to fit the shape of what will become our writing career.

The truth?

There is no substitute for hard work.
There is no substitute for hard work.
There is no substitute for hard work, ESPECIALLY if you are God's gift to writing.
There is no substitute for hard work, REGARDLESS of who you know.

And here's why.

In the beginning, I knew few other writers. I didn't know which agents were good, and which were less than good. Hard work has made all those connections for me, and continues to make those connections.

In the beginning, I didn't know that one of the things that happens is that by submitting short work and novels, and safe-guarding your reputation, you grow to fit the shape of what will become a writing career. People now associate me with a kind of genre and a kind of story. That means they might ask me for that sort of thing.

In the beginning, I was writing not nearly as well as I'm writing now. I'll be writing even better in the future. I am a talented writer. As I write more, I become a skillful and talented writer who knows the conventions of the kinds of work I"m writing. The polish of talent mixed with professionalism is why good writers have to work hard. Alas, good writers are a dime a dozen.

As I write more, I prove myself as a professional. I know appropriate responses and behaviors in publishing. I know how to handle myself in public as a writer. I don't make as many naive mistakes.

As I write more, I seek out opportunities to educate myself and improve my writing.

As I write more, I discover the kind of writer I am, and what I want people to know me for.

None of these things can happen unless I'm writing. I can't gain self knowledge unless I'm writing. I can't improve my writing unless I'm getting educated. The more I do, the more I become.

A mark of writer naivete is that rejection turns the future writer away. Of course you'll be rejected. You haven't built any kind of reputation. You are an inexperienced writer sending a message in a bottle out into the sea, banking on the fact that your genius will be recognized (see above about lightening and lotteries.) You generally know little about the conventions of novels or the systems of publishing.

And of course you don't have an agent yet. Based solely on your words, an agent isn't likely to see you as an investment of time that will help them make a living, or increase the reputation of your agency. Based on other data as well as the quality of your writing, the chances go up.

This process is not unlike being the new kid at recess. Or the intern at work. Or, well, learning and mastering any new endeavor.

As for myself, I must claim persistence. I'm okay with things. I don't have an agent. I'm growing into one as I perfect my writing and style. You know what I really like about being a writer who's still learning? No one sets my agenda but me. I'm practicing writing books which will become the shape of my career.

I intend to be a writer, working and improving. My motivations are intrinsic, and perhaps that is why I can take this stance. I only wish that there were more writing advice that advocated for patience and persistence, rather than creating unrealistic expectations.

There are lots of ways to measure success. If you're sitting down most every day, and working hard, eventually you'll have a writing career. You'll grow into it.

Catherine

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The next draft/polish should take less time. There are three objectives:

1. The romantic YA overlay (but not too sappy. I'd never make it as a romance writer.)
2. Change and focus the role of one of the characters a bit.
3. Sharpen everything.

Since the fall semester has started, given the new job, this should be made easier. I have scheduled writing times during the day, and I tend to have more energy when I write during the day.

I can actually see this project ending. Readers should be asked opinions soon.

How are your projects coming along?

Catherine

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My imagination is, apparently, better than Universal's. And you know, I think if Disney had had this property, a few things would have been done differently.

Note the following list.

What I wanted: My own unique wand
What I got: A terrible death head's wand that was obviously cheesy and plastic. (Later to be replaced by one that I liked better).
What Disney would have done: Made several build a wand stations at the park and its subsequent toy stores in Disney Marketplace

What I wanted: A wand that worked
What I got: A resin toy.
What Disney would have done: Set up a sort of Geocache game around the park, a la the kind of game at the Mall of America, or the Kim Possible scavenger hunt at EPCOT.

What I wanted: More wizards in the streets.
What I got: Universal employees who were holding back lines at doors.
What Disney would have done: Had a cast of roving wizard inhabitants that interacted with the visitors.

What I wanted: A nice meal at the Three Broomsticks
What I got: A mediocre cafeteria meal
What Disney would have done: Created a restaurant called The Great Hall, where the customers were sorted, and "house elves" served the food.

What my friend wanted: To put the butter beer "head" on top of a pumpkin juice
What happened: A flat out refusal
What Disney would have done: Already have thought of that, or acquiesced.

The Harry Potter park was an okay experience. Unfortunately, I kept getting pulled out of the narrative. Going to Disney is like reading a really good book. Going to Universal was more like reading a book, and occasionally noticing something the author had done. There were many reality seams.

When we were standing in line for the Hogwarts virtual reality ride, several things jogged me back to reality.

1. Crowding at the beginning of the lines was not controlled by staff.

2. It turns out there are pig chutes behind Hogwarts. Who knew?

3. There's a big, visible plastic warehouse adjacent to the castle. Obviously,that's where you're going to have your "experience."

4. The staff rushed riders through the loosely connected Hogwarts story into the ride.

5. There were lockers to put your possessions in that couldn't hold the wands you bought. Yeah. At Hogwarts.

Now, this is all pretty standard amusement park stuff. The trick is, Disney wouldn't have let me see these seams. The warehouse would be there. I wouldn't see it.

Let me compare Hogwarts to the Haunted Mansion.

1. The waiting line for the Mansion can spill out into the square. Disney employees put up ropes and route overflow down by the riverboat. No one crowds the front of the line.

2. Once you are into the ride proper, the line stretches through the manor and the graveyard.

3. You enter the house. It looks like a house, but it's really an elevator that takes you downstairs via a stretching room trick.

4. The ride is entirely hidden underground, so you don't see the building that houses it.

5. Maids and butlers who man the ride stay in character for the whole thing.

Fewer seams. Better narrative.

I liked Universal Studios. I especially enjoyed the virtual reality rides, most of which were very well done, and didn't kick me out of the story. While I'm not much of a roller coaster rider myself, the coasters looked fine (although Bryon, my resident coaster afficiando, is not keen on the recent architectural trend of coasters to loop more than glide). Some parts of the park were really well decorated.

There just wasn't the attention to detail that made the visit to the park, well, er, magical.

Disneyland doesn't have it either. I liked Disneyland, but back then, Walt Disney also had seams. He hadn't become the master of his craft yet. Sort of like you and me, fellow newbie writers. But Walt put in his time, and we got the Magic Kingdom in Disney World.

So, I guess what works in any creative endeavor is attention to detail. Universal is a fine park to visit. I won't go back. I'm already scheming about how to get to Disney again, because I feel like I've had a diet dessert when I wanted a rich piece of cheesecake.

Catherine

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