Super-Mini-Blog: Embracing Random Quotes

It is not necessary to change.  Survival is not mandatory.  ~W. Edwards Deming

Embracing a Whole New World

Since returning from my blogging hiatus, I have alluded to something big happening in the non-writing-world-of-Sam. Finally, I am able to share the news with all of you...

I am moving to Korea to teach English!

Let me preempt one question I know you're all wondering; I don't know when or where I'm going, as I have not yet secured a teaching position.

However, I do know that I've given notice at work, I've told my apartment complex that I'll be out by October 31, and I've told my family.

What does this mean for Wuthering Life? Nothing. I will still be here, and I'll still be writing. If anything, this experience is only going to make my writing life richer.

If you are curious about my Korean adventures, please feel free to stop over at my new blog, Dear Korea..., and check out my letters to the land I will soon call home.

If you're not interested, I'll see you back here for more adventures in Wuthering Life.

Embracing My Five

I'm hoping to get back to Freaky Fridays before long, but I thought that this dreary and oh-so-important Friday could use some positivity and hope.

What better day than the anniversary of a national tragedy to begin my journey to making a positive difference in the world?

So after much delay, I present my five:

1. Encourage others to pursue their dreams. Of all the things that I'm grateful to my nearest and dearest for, this is the one that tops the list. Having the faith and support of those around me has made a greater impact in my life than almost anything else. I know that I would not be where I am today with encouragement and kind words. I want to do that for others, and to do it more often.
2. Lead by example. It may not seem like a particularly philanthropic goal, but it might very well be the hardest of my five for me to live by. As Mahatma Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world." Too often, we forget that it's only by allowing ourselves to be happy and prosperous that we can even begin to help others to achieve the same.
3. Pay more attention. When I begin to think about what I can do to help – to help the world, to help the impoverished, to help the distraught, to help the hopeless – I realize how little I know. Because of the pessimistic, never-point-out-the-good-in-life nature of news (particularly American news), I avoid it almost completely. But if I want to make a difference, I can't tune out the bad. I have to pay attention in order to spot an opportunity to act.
4. Be mindful. Every day I ignore opportunities to reduce, recycle, or reuse. I know all of the little tricks that can lead to less energy or water consumption, to less pollution, to less waste. It's time for me to take those extra few minutes to take my recycling out. It's time for me to find places to donate old clothing/equipment/furniture/etc. instead of throwing it out. It's time for me to do what I know I should be doing anyway.
5. Reach out. Whether it's an e-mail from a long-lost friend, a phone call from a relative on a non-holiday, or a compliment from a perfect stranger, it feels good to make connections and be acknowledged. I don't do that nearly enough, and I plan to change that. 

How can you change your life, and the world, for better in five ways?

Super-Mini-Blog: Embracing Thought Provocation

Kimberly over at Oceanside Praise posted a very interesting question on her blog today, and I'd like to pose it to all of you:

Are dreams just the opposite of our deepest fears?

(Check out her blog comments for my thoughts, but feel free to discuss wherever.)

Embracing What's Come Before

Merriam-Webster defines original (adj.) as "not secondary, derivative, or imitative" or as "independent and creative in thought or action".

M-W defines an archetype (n.) as "the original pattern or model of which all things of the same type are representations or copies".

When we look to the ever-helpful Wikipedia for guidance, we learn that Tolkein's beloved Gandalf is an archetypal figure himself, the wizard-as-advisor, of the likes Merlin — who himself was quite possibly modeled after religious authority types (like Odin).

Hold up, JRR Tolkein, the father of modern fantasy, was unoriginal? His main characters had been done before? His venerated series is allegory?

You may be wondering why the Hell I'm giving you a vocab lesson. The truth is, I think that we (writers, agents, etc.) can use the reminder. There is a big difference between the use of an archetype and a lack of originality.

The goal of a work of fiction, as far as I am concerned, is to pull something new and exciting out of those old stories and characters – out of the familiar. That balance of new and old is what makes a great story great, in part at least.

We've got to move past the anything-with-a-school-is-like-Harry-Potter and anything-with-a-butt-kicking-female-protagonist-is-a-Buffy-rip-off reactions. See stories for what they are, and if they're good enough, it won't matter how many tropes the author used.

Embracing Author Interviews: E Van Lowe

Uh, in lieu of my five and in celebration of Zombie Week, I have brought you a peace offering:

E Van Lowe and his debut YA novel, NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE !

A Little About E:

Bronx-born, LA transplant, E Van Lowe, began writing at the age of 10 and hasn't stopped since. A graduate of Lehman College and the University of Southern California, E sold his first short story to a romance magazine while still a student. He has gone on to write for many award-winning TV shows including: The Cosby Show and Even Stevens. He also co-wrote the Academy Award nominated short film, Cadillac Dreams.

A Little About the Novel:

NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE is E's first teen novel, but it won’t be his last. E still has lots of important, and weird, thoughts to share with readers. It hit shelves August 18!

The Blurb:

On the night of her middle school graduation, Margot Jean Johnson wrote a high school manifesto detailing her goals for what she was sure would be a most excellent high school career. She and her best friend, Sybil, would be popular and, m

ost important, have boyfriends. Three years later they haven't accomplished a thing!

Then Margot and Sybil arrive at school one day to find that most of the student body has been turned into flesh-eating zombies. When kooky principal Taft asks the girls to coexist with the zombies until the end of the semester, they realize this could be the perfect opportunity to live out their high school dreams. Now all they have to do is stay alive...

The Assessment of Yours Truly:

Margot is awesomely horrible!! Maybe she deserves a PhD in Horribleness?

• Translation: As a protagonist, Margot is an incredibly refreshing twist on the shallow, but unnoticed, teen who wants nothing more than to have it all. Instead of being empty and "what adults think unpopular teens are like," Margot was conflicted about her increasing bad girl behavior almost from the start. But she did horrible, mean girl things anyway – a sad, but true fact about some teenaged girls, and executed very creatively.

Lovelovelove the relationship between Margot and Syb!

• Translation: While Syb is the basic sidekick, less-dominate character, the genuine sweetness and goodness about her was the perfect compliment to Margot's increasing selfishness and self-delusion. They worked together very well without feeling over-the-top or like a "because I said so" relationship. (Sub-translation: When an author decides that things "just are" and never really shows the hows or whys.)

Very, very bizarre, but in a good way!

• I wasn't sure what to expect, but with a title like NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE, I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised by some of the things Margot did. It read a lot like a situational comedy, and that was something I wasn't used to. It's something I love about television and didn't realize was missing from books...until now!

All-in-all, I couldn't put it down, and that's really the litmus test for books as far as I'm concerned. E surprised and delighted me, and really, what more can a girl ask for? Except maybe a zombie boyfriend. ;)

The Interview:

Writing...is the elixir that keeps me young and vibrant.

My favorite part of the publishing process (so far) has been...seeing my first copy of the ARC. I was on cloud nine.

My least favorite part was...rewrites. I can't tell you how many times that danged book came back. At times I thought it was a homing pigeon.

Without my agent...I wouldn't be a published author. That's for sure.

The best thing my editor suggested was...the summer camp story from the book. It's something that really happened to her. Capturing her pain helped me with Margot.

My greatest writing asset is...my computer? Why do I suddenly feel like I'm back in high school, taking a test, and failing? LOL. That's my answer, and I'm sticking to it.

NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOBMIE is like...Mean Girls meets Shaun of the Dead.

Margot's biggest problem is...that she hasn't gotten over a past hurt. The pain is what shapes who she is in the story, and until she gets past it she can't become a better person.

Don't read this book if...you are a hard core zombie fan, or don't like light-hearted stories.

If I were a zombie and had to choose between brains and flesh, I'd eat...brains. I'm not a meat-eater.

The best zombie movie EVER is...28 Days Later!

Come zombie apocalypse time, I won't be able to live without...books and movies, and pizza.

If I had to be back in high school, I'd...hopefully realize that others are going through exactly what I'm going through. That definitely would make it easier.

If I had to be back in high school, with zombies, I'd...probably try to find a cure. Zombies are not fun, and I like fun!

Zombies...represent the ultimate in getting along and tolerance. Margot says: "...they don't snark at each other, or gossip behind each other's backs, or get jealous when their friends like a cute boy. They have one thing in common–they're zombies. But we kids have a whole lot in common, shouldn't it be easier for us to hang together?" We humans can learn a few things from zombies.

****

For the record, I would like to state that, though this blogger believes in peace and harmony, if forced to choose: UNICORNS RULE, ZOMBIES DROOL!

Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed having E here as much as I did. Class, say, "Thank you, Mr. Van Lowe!"

If you want to know more about E or NEVER SLOW DANCE WITH A ZOMBIE (in stores now, people!!), his Web site and blog are great places to start.

Please stay tuned for more author interviews in the future, and don't forget to pick up your copy of this hilarious book today!

Super-Mini-Blog: Embracing Beautiful Art

I will post my five today. But in the meantime...

Kat Kuhl, a dear friend of mine, takes amazing photos. (See below.)

In order to pressure her to "takez moar fotoes plzkthxbai!" I would like you all to visit her Flickr gallery and pester/encourage her.

That is all.

Mini-Blog: Embracing Living Your Five

Living Your Five is an amazing initiative I stumbled across today thanks to Alyson Noël, whose Immortals series is keeping me very entertained at the moment.

In a nutshell, "Living Your Five is about making the world a better place, one person at a time. It's about understanding what you care about most and how you can make a positive difference in the world."

I think this is a fabulous idea, and I'm writing out my list as soon as I've finished the post. (You can expect it to be up in the next day or two.)

What are the five most important things to you?

How can use those five things to change yourself, or the world?

Are you living your five?

Super-Mini-Blog: Embracing Essays

Sarah Rees Brennan posted a very interesting essay about how female characters are represented and perceived in literature. I'm not sure I agree with all of the points, but she makes some very fine ones.

Read it!

That is all.

Mini-Blog: Embracing the Unforgettable

As summer shows come to an end, I've started thinking about what keeps me coming back for more, and what keeps me thinking about characters long after the shows have gone on hiatus or ended. But, most importantly, I'm wondering what allows me to let them go.

Or, in book terms (since this is a writing-related blog), what is it about Cathy and Heathcliff or Atticus Finch that makes them so memorable, but doesn't have me clamoring for TO KILL ANOTHER MOCKINGBIRD or RETURN TO WUTHERING HEIGHTS?

...Wait, you mean someone actually had the nerve to write a sequel to Brontë's masterpiece? *vom*

Ahem.

What I'm talking about is a truly incomparable literary moment, a figure we can't shake no matter how hard we try, but for whom we are never left wanting. Those are the types of characters, and stories, I aspire to create — their authors the ones I aspire to emulate.

Now if only I could find that magical formula...

Embracing That Damn Cake

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

I was thinking about that oft-confusing adage recently while perusing the Emmy award nominees list, which got me thinking about all awards, which got me thinking about publishing...and here I am.

How did I connect the two? Well, it was a very complicated train of thought, but here's the gist:

We all want to win awards and become famous and find fortune, but we want to achieve all that while doing whatever we want. I believe we call it "expressing ourselves."

But, there are certain genres, certain styles, certain concepts that are award-winning material (or have mass appeal, or make tons of money), and those that aren't (and never will). For the Oscars it's gain-thirty-pounds-and-sob-on-camera performances and make-the-audience-think-while-depressing-them-to-the-point-of-needing-a-therapist storylines, mostly. And no matter how beloved the "Ocean's" movies and Brad Pitt's Rusty were, they were never going to win Oscars.

Does that mean Soderbergh should have turned the projects down? That Angie should have threatened to leave Brad if he reprised his role for the nth time? Yeah, right.

My point is: why do authors (and creative types of all kinds) so often feel the urge to complain when their "thing" isn't given its due credit? Like short story authors who complain that they're just under-appreciated, or YA authors who bemoan the negative stereotypes that accompany the genre.

To those authors, and to comedians and indie rock bands, I say this: you can either do what you love and roll with it. Or you can do what is loved and be awarded.

Have your cake, or eat it, people. You can't do both. There's no sense in arguing with physics, and I really don't want to hear you try.

PS - Yes, I fully intend to ignore the fact that my last post was almost three months ago. Except for this post script, which is acknowledging it...

Embracing Freaky Fridays: Heathcliff Heathcliff

Before agreeing to participate in a Freaky Friday, I poked around on this blog. The emphasis everyone here seems to place on choice intrigues me. Never before have I seen such a concentrated amount of optimism in one place. And it is optimism that has this group thinking that people, fictional or otherwise, have free will. There is no "choice" in life; people simply comfort themselves with the illusion of options.

From birth, each person is set on a path—one path—that leads only to his or her final destination. Along that path, there appear to be forks, but just the one path exists. 

Imagine a traveler reaches the his final destination and reflects back on his life's journey. Though he may want to believe it, our traveler was never going anywhere other than where he went. As he passed each fork, making a "choice" about his path, he only reinforced the next "choice" he would make, until his life reached its end.

I, for instance, was always going to become Heathcliff Heathcliff. I remember my mother reading WUTHERING HEIGHTS to me around Christmastime every year when I was a child. I never forgot the fascination she had with the character I abhorred, or the words she used to describe him. She said, "Poor Heathcliff. If only he had been able to give up the life he imagined was supposed to be his..."

That vague sentiment came back to me clearly the day I joined the ranks of the Undead. What other name would I have "chosen" for my new life when Miss Xavier asked me to supply one?

Think about it, and you'll realize that all the things you've convinced yourself were choices in your life weren't. You wouldn't be you if you had chosen anything other than what you did.

Your life, your path, already stretches out in front of you. The best you can hope for is that you like it even part of the time.

Embracing Free Will

Now that the maniacal laughter has subsided... I thought we could discuss free will and our characters' abilities to act on their own. Because I believe that by providing our characters specific personalities governed by specific laws and by allowing them to reside in our subconscious minds, we hand them that proverbial apple.

For non-writers, it's hard to grasp the idea that characters have the ability to act on their own. We've all heard a writer say something along the lines of, "And then Sally decided she wasn't going to break up with Tom, and I had to rethink my entire ending," only to hear non-writers respond with something like, "Sally's not real. You control her. Just write her breaking up with him."

If we embrace reality long enough to be honest with ourselves, the reason behind this behavior can be boiled down to one sentence: the author didn't have a firm grasp of the character when planning that scene/plot point and discovered at the last minute that it was no longer in-character.

If we're avoiding reality, the reason is equally simple: our characters lash out against us for complicating their lives (no matter how well we have it work out in the end) and do things to intentionally mess up our master plans.

Aryli and her Anjidian companions most certainly fall into that latter category, reality or no.

Throughout the course of the novel, various characters have:

• stormed out of rooms when I wanted them to stay and have a conversation;
  
• gone to one locale when I wanted them to go to another;
• revealed things I didn't want revealed;
• betray characters I didn't intend for them to betray; and
• killed characters I didn't intend for them to kill.
  

I often found myself wondering who was actually telling the story. Based on how much the characters changed my pretty little outline, I'd say it wasn't me.

What have your characters done that messed up your game plan? Or improved it?

Mini-Blog: Embracing Turning into Our Mothers

I am God.

Thank you, Litgirl01 and Beth, for helping me realize that this morning.

I can create. I can destroy. I can shape destinies and control lives. I am the ultimate mother. I can say, "Because I said so."

Remember that, Aryli, when you want me to explain how you traveled from Point A to Point B. 

Remember that, Draven, when you insist on monologuing about your troubled childhood. 

Remember that, Sam, when you start letting the characters walk all over you...

Embracing Freaky Fridays: Ilyra

Despite the fact that Sam almost forgot about me... I have agreed to pop by here and share whatever I want with you. 

So I've decided to talk about advice—more specifically, knowing when to listen to the good advice of others, who obviously have more common sense than you, and knowing when to show a little spine and make up your own mind. If you were wondering, no, I'm not directing this at any one in particular, Aryli.

Let's take Sam for example. 

She just entered the first 250 words of Aryli's story into some contest for something. If you don't know what I'm talking about check a couple of posts ago, because, frankly, the whole publishing thing confuses me. Besides, I'm still not sure how exactly Sam got her hands on that story in the first place. I mean, don't you people have rules about using other people's lives without their permission to tell stories? And don't think I don't see through that whole calling it "a novel" thing. Please.

Where was I? Oh, right... Sam as an example. She's gotten all this feedback on the opening, and she's printed it out. Now what? 

On the one hand, books are written for readers. These commenters are readers. But, just because some anonymous Internet reader thinks she's an authority on all things pertaining to first pages, does that mean Sam should start changing everything blogposter1 didn't like?

(By the way, Sam, obviously the answer is no. I'm not sure how well my sarcasm comes through on this thing, but I was rolling my eyes. This is why in-person conversation is SO much better. Ugh.)

On the other hand, clearly these people don't know what Aryli's story is about, and they don't know were it's headed—like Sam does. Does that means she should just laugh at their ignorance, call them fools, and burn their comments in a trash can?

(Okay, Sam, not only is that dangerous, but I've never heard you mention winning any of those fancy writing awards you people crave. It's not like you're so much better than other writers that you get to sneer down at them from your ivory tower. Plus, this is Aryli's story. You damn well better make it the best it can be, especially the parts with me. Speaking of which, I've got a bone to pick. See me after, young lady.)

Anyway...where does that leave Sam and her helpful (or not) comments? Should she just continue staring at them and ANJIDIA hoping they magically address themselves?

...

No, really, that was a question. If I told you the answer, then this wouldn't be a post about advice. It'd be one about answers. Obviously.

Fine, I will say this: If a majority of readers are saying the same things, then it's no longer "one person's opinion"; it's crossed over into public opinion territory. I'll let Aryli or Miqqal tackle a conversation about public opinion some other day. But even I know that you can't ignore public opinion if your goal requires it to succeed. And you can't argue with it. All you can do is locate its source and start making changes, which will always take time.

Have fun with that.

Embracing Identities

The writing blogosphere has been abuzz after Nathan B's post about writing as an identity. I read it, found it interesting, and then avoided the comments section of that post like I avoid having to sit next to the smelly guy on the bus in the morning. ("Yes, I realize there is an empty seat, but just look at that view...I think I'll stand, back here, far away.") Anyone who's ever met a writer would know that post was going to call them to arms.

And then I saw people tweet about it. And then I saw people blogging about it. And finally, I collected my thoughts to respond to my dear Captain Monkeypants' post about it, only to realize that my "comment" had rambled on to the length of a blog post. So here we are.

My thoughts on the matter are this:

I got from Nathan's post that he was referring more specifically to writers' attitudes toward themselves re: rejection once they cross the line into identifying themselves as "Writers"—as in they respond to "so what do you do?" with "I'm a Writer."

I think that, sadly, unless you have a paycheck coming in to back that claim up, you're messing with fire (which is why I don't tell people I'm "a Writer"). At the end of the day, a paycheck is validation. I am an Office Manager. Every other week, my boss pays me to validate that as my role.

When an unpublished author, or even a struggling published one, claims to be "a Writer", he is fundamentally tying his validation to that fact in the questioner's mind, at the very least. The questioner will undoubtedly follow up with "oh, really? what do you write?" meaning "is it in bookstores? have I heard of it? how much have you sold?"

When the implied questions go unanswered due to a lack of impressive details, the questioner becomes a skeptic. She gets that face—the one all writers have seen on some family member, friend, or coworker at one time or another. The conversation fades out into an awkward silence. And the "Writer" feels like crap. (Ditto when critters slam their work. Ditto when agents reject them. Ditto when editors pass.)

Unless I'm wrong about him, I believe that was Nathan's point. Tying your identity to something that so very often has no tangible pay off is a very risky move. Others need to see some results to validate your claim, and identity requires validation.

I could bring some philosophical theory in to this, but I hope you all know what I mean. I'll just leave you with two examples-for-thought.

If I said I was "a Astronaut" and read everything I could about being an astronaut, and trained like astronauts do, but had been rejected by NASA and had never been to space, would I be an Astronaut? Would you think me one?

Would you consider Nathan an agent if he loved repping books—ate, slept, and breathed repping books—but had never sold a single one? Or would you be laughing his reality tv-obsessed @ss right off the internet?

Embracing Secret Agent (Wo)Man

Authoress is busy posting Secret Agent entries. Exciting, no?

I will be depositing my two cents on as many of the entries as I can, and it'd be cool if you all would do the same. If, while you're there, you happen to stop by Post 12, please feel free to leave your inarticulate and excited "OMG"s and "FANTASTIC!!"s. (The more caps locks and exclamation points, the better! ;)

Seriously, though, it's a great chance to see what's floating around out there in the Queryverse. Those are the first 250 words YA-repping agents are seeing right now. What do you think?

Embracing Linkspam

If you don't know about Miss Snark's First Victim, click don't - wow, that analogy really doesn't translate well to Internet-speak - um, just go over there and check it out. There, you'll find not only a fantastic blog and a very kind and generous blogger, but also a very supportive community of authors and great contests and other ways to get feedback on your work.

Speaking of contests, this month's Secret Agent contest will feature yours truly. Yes, after a few months of watching these things roll by and never matching being the right fit for ANJIDIA, finally an agent has stepped forward (masked, for now, in anonymity) and called for YA fantasy entires.

Mine will be Post 12, so feel free to stop by tomorrow and offer your feedback on ANJ's 243 words. (Just don't point out any of my flaws in front of the SA, okay? ;) 

Boy am I glad that I'm set to wrap up my last run-through for typos and whatnot tonight! What perfect timing...and, yes, this does mean that poor Bassak is gone. We'll always have the first draft, my removed friend.

In other Authoress-related news, her lovely husband just finished a trailer for her book, AGENT: DEMYSTIFIED. I thought it'd be fun to share. It's awesomely ridiculous — the way book trailers ought to be:

Know of any cool book trailers I should check out? Know of any Godawful ones? Man, I saw one last night that took itself WAY too seriously. I wish I could remember the name, but then I'd have to try and remember the trailer itself and...*makes retching noises, very maturely*

Ahem, I have to go back to work now.

Ta!

Embracing Loss

My excitement about (finally) finishing up "one last" editorial run through on ANJIDIA is back. I actually think having Vituya stop by here helped with that.

Anyway, the return of this excitement led to a very interesting and productive conversation with my beloved roommate and beta reader. I think I may cut one of my tertiary characters from the novel entirely. It will be the most major revision I've made since the second draft. I like the character, but she suggested (and I agree) that divvying up the role this character plays between a couple of my secondary characters will strengthen them without adding unnecessary words. It's brilliant, really.

Alas, farewell, my dear Bassak. You were a good character, and friend. I'm afraid your time has come.

RIP

Embracing Apologies

So sorry about that. 

Vituya is... Well, Vituya was not meant for the blogosphere. Perhaps we'll have more luck with another of the dragon species. Or, maybe I'll see if someone socially inclined will take the reins next Friday.

For the record (and since Vituya was too rude to introduce itself), Vituya is the dragon who saves Aryli when she arrives in Anjidia at the beginning of the novel. Vituya only refers to itself in the third person (as is dragon custom). And, Vituya doesn't have any social skills.

Yeah... choosing it as my first character blogger was really not an inspired choice...