Month: March 2010

The first two new scenes feature a horse chase across a winter landscape. Alfheim is patterned on Scandinavia, and I am looking for places to have such a chase. Which is why you get this exciting entry on Hardangervidda.

Ready? Here we go.

What I needed was a flat feature of lands embedded in mountains. A cave in the ice is a feature I intend to add in myself. What looks promising?

Hardangerjokulen. If the glacier is good enough for George Lucas in The Empire Strikes Back, it’s good enough for me. This travelogue shows some beautiful pictures of the area.

The glacier itself is situated in Hardangervidda, a peneplain. Peneplains are one of geography’s little controversies. The theory is that erosion causes these sorts of plains to build up near sea level. The lack of formations of peneplains in this time, though, casts some doubt upon that theory. Most peneplains are old, and they have been uplifted through orogenic (mountain forming) activity.

In 1981, Norway created this area into a national park. Apparently, there are loads of activities to do all year around. In winter, snow activities are king. In summer, the hikers and fish enthusiasts come out.

If you’re interested in getting there, Hardangervidda is between Bergen and Oslo, sort of on the way. I think, geographically, this will do quite nicely.

And it should also do quite nicely for tomorrow’s writing session(s).

Catherine

From over at Matt Cardin’s journal, Getting to Know Your Creative Demon, Part 3, part of the ongoing exploratory series.

I’m off to research cold land masses. That is all.

Catherine

Spring break=me pretending to be a full time writer. I’ve put in a lot of writing time today. While I don’t have an excerpt for you after all, here’s where I’ve been and what I’ve done today.

Chapters 1 and 2: Complete
Chapters 3 and 4: 3 scenes in need of deep revision

Issues: Think about how to handle POV. This book may need to have more of a sense of narrator, given you have a lot of POV going on.

Well, I’m going to send out some short story feedback, and then I’m going to knock off a while.

Hope your day is going well.

Catherine

It’s not going to quite happen, that handout I need for the academic conference I’m going to right after break, so I’ll be taking that home with me.

That’s the only work thing I have to take home. Oh yeah.

The writing all break plan should begin on Monday. I’m excited. Did I mention I’m excited? Because I am excited.

First, though, have a weekend of hanging out with friends. I’ve got to get a role playing game around for them (the geeky horror! the geeky horror!). There’s a Tupperware party tonight too (the Midwest horror! the Midwest horror!)

I’m going to try to post interesting snippets all next week, so I don’t just keep coming here and saying exciting things like I’m writing and I have nothing to say.

Catherine

As of today, I’m driving this book. I just spent the last hour plotting the book, and I know everything that happens. Who’s doing what, where the emotional stuff fits in, all of it.

Although the alternate title could now be Teen Elf, I’m still pretty pleased. It’s definitely a YA book. The end of the book is the culmination of romance that develops over the series of the adventure. Sure, there’s heartache and there’s a tone of bittersweet for some of the characters as well.

And interestingly, it sets itself up for a Decorah sequel.

At any rate, now the plan is to write all this into reality. I have an entire week off next week, and I will spend it working on this book.

It feels so good to have a map, finally.

Off to read some other people’s work. I have a full manuscript (about halfway through that one) and a couple of short stories in the hopper, so I’m excited to do it.

Catherine

I know that writing is a lot of unglamorous hard work. Yes, yes. It can be hard and frustrating during those fallow times, or when the writing isn’t going where you want it to, or the words seem particularly insipid to you as you pen them. I’ve been there. And I know edits and suggestions can just make you tear your hair out!

Right now, I’m in that whole ‘nother place, one of the big reasons I keep coming back to writing in the first place. The happy place.

I’m back on the troll story pretty much in full force, and after discovering that what I’ve already done mostly works, I’m feeling very encouraged to move forward. The way before me is not clear, and I know I’ll throw away more stuff before I keep it. I’m clearing a lot of debris out of my brain by zero drafting. Then the real stuff shows up, and I sketch it down, then flesh it out.

The plan is to get the plot and action, smooth out the glitches and add the transitions, look at what the characters are thinking, and add the emotional veneer over the top. Very structural and work oriented, yeah?

Except now I am in the spot where I realize that this story is about someone and something.

Sometimes my stories are not about anything. Sometimes they are about everything. Substance of Shadows is both about life as an abused child, yet at the same time is a love affair with my husband, because one of the characters reminds me of him, and I’m sharing him with the world, in a sense.

The Winter the Troll Danced with Old Nick is in part my way of exorcising issues with my mother, but it is now turning into my love affair with my friend Lisa.

Lisa and I were almost inseparable at one time. We spent a great deal of time together, as much as we could, and enjoyed each others friendship very much. We still do when we get together.

But…life happened. We were entirely swept away by becoming too busy to see each other, except on occasion, the way these things work, whether you’re far away from each other or closer to home. The fade away was both easy and hard for both of us, as these things are.

Part of this story encapsulates that. There’s a close friendship between the two new characters in the story that’s almost painful, yet is incredibly close. They’re at an awkward time, but deep down there is closeness and concern, a sort of friendship that can be rewarding at its best and painful at its worst. It takes me back to times that were not always easy, but were most often rewarding, and I hope it will do the same for my friend when she reads it.

I’m not trying to make a statement about friendship or love. I’m trying to portray what they are like, as true in my experience. It makes me feel good when it feels that there is more to my writing than moving words around on a page. It makes me feel like my writing has a soul.

Do you find yourself drawing on your life experiences as you write, and in what ways?

Catherine

Sarah Prineas wrote a pet story today, and asked us to share ours. Right now, we have two wonderful cats: Sekhmet, war princess of the upstairs, and Bastet, the queen of all cats. In the past we have had Michael, god emperor of the yard. All 3 of these cats filled or have filled our lives with warmth and softness, hauteur and love all at the same time.

There’s always a special one, though. Toby died at the end of 2006. He was the victim of the poor pet owners across the street and Urinary Tract Infection. This is the story I wrote when he died. It still makes me tear up, because he was that well-loved. My apologies to those of you who have seen it.

Yellow Cat and the Man

Continue reading “Pet Story: Yellow Cat and the Man”

I’d like to draw attention to this response to my post earlier. Sylvia Rachel makes some strong points that I feel are exemplary.

***

Tonight I’ve written about 1200 words. Sure they’re sketchy and not well-crafted, but they’re new. I’ll take it.

***

I understand that a box of Hulk Hercules: Professional Wrestler books will be ordered for me on Friday, and I should get them as soon as they are printed and shipped. I will let you know when they are in the house. I’m playing this low key, but it’ll be nice to have them.

I gotta go clean the kitchen. Because that’s the way I roll.

Catherine

This has been on my mind for a while, and I think the ideas about it have coalesced at the crossroads of Jim Hines‘s entry about rape victims pressing charges and watching the Academy Awards last night, and seeing Mo’nique win her well-deserved best actress award.

I’ve been public about my experiences as a sexually abused child for some time, inasmuch as I’m not afraid to talk about being a survivor. My hope is always that somewhere being public can help those who are still living with the big secret to realize that there is a world outside of their victimhood.

I’ll probably cut this about here, because this might not be something all of you want to read, and I can respect that. I’m going to talk about Mo’nique’s portrayal and why I believe that we’ve got to encourage children of abuse to make that first step. This is a very different kind of post than Jim’s post because I am talking about children.

Continue reading “A Few Words about Precious’ Mom”

Artistic notes to self.

1. While the film was as uneven as Tim Burton films often are, Alice’s champion armor from Alice in Wonderland is first rate, and I can see my frost elf girls dressed similarly.

2. Scott Lynch has me wanting to read the rest of Red Seas under Red Skies after a mere four pages. That’s writer power, that is.

3. Resubmitted Empress Dark, now out at Flash Fiction Online. Got over the sting of the rejection for The Make-Over and sent it out to Fantasy Magazine.

For writing stuff, that’s it today. I hope to get some words down tomorrow.

Catherine