A short story worth reading--"Roses by Moonlight" by Patricia C. Wrede

I’ve been on a bit of a short story kick lately. I’ve written a small horde of them and submitted a couple (fingers crossed). So, I thought I’d take today to introduce you to—if you don’t already know it—a short story that helped spark my desire to be a writer.

“Roses by Moonlight” from “Book of Enchantments” by Patricia C. Wrede

I read “Book of Enchantments” years ago. I loved most of the stories in it, but what really caught my interest was the section at the end from Wrede detailing how she’d written each story. I reread that section over and over again. The method of writing a story fascinated me in a way I couldn’t explain. I know now that it’s the putting together of elements to make something bigger—kind of like cooking—except I like to write. I don’t much like to cook, but I do make a mean meatloaf.

Anyway, back on target. “Roses by Moonlight” captured me from my first read. As a matter of fact, I used it for a class project in a creative writing course during my undergrad to discuss themes. It tells the story of a girl, Adrian, who is jealous of her younger sister, Sam. From Adrian’s perspective, Sam has everything—friends, looks, and success.

While ignoring a party that Sam is having, Adrian meets a strange woman who brings her to a garden of roses. Adrian is enthralled by the beauty of the roses, and goes to pick one. The woman stops her with the warning to choose one and be careful about which she chooses. Adrian quickly learns that each rose contains a potential future. She travels the garden, sniffing roses, and being treated to every possible future she could have from riches to dying of cancer. None of the roses, though, offer what she is looking for.

Finally, she sees a rose that seems to be struggling. Unlike all of the other roses in the garden, this one is disheveled and barely in bloom. When Adrian sniffs it, she is treated to a scene between her and Sam talking and apologizing to one another for how they treated each other over the years. The woman appears at Adrian’s side and asks if that is the rose Adrian wants. Adrian thanks the woman but declines her offer to choose a rose. She leaves the garden understanding what the future can bring and resolving to make it her own.

I love this story. Aside from it being well-written, it’s the kind of story that really makes the reader think. If you had the opportunity to choose your future, would you? Knowing that you could only have one and never go back—never choose another path? I don’t think I would.

I also love the symbolism. Facing Sam and trying to mend her relationship with her sister was difficult for Adrian to even consider. Thus, the rose that showed her doing that struggled to grow. They say that the late flower is the most beautiful, and I think that is a big theme in Wrede’s story. While the wealth, fame, popularity, and other amazing futures that the roses showed looked like great options, they were shallow. They were lives that, given enough work and time, could be achieved by anyone. It’s the things that take the most work, that take the inner struggle to grow that help us the most.

So, there it is—“Roses by Moonlight” by Patricia C. Wrede. If you get a chance, pick up “Book of Enchantments” and read this and the other stories in its pages. I recommend all of them.

Thesis Inspiration Culmination--"Saving Edalya"

Good Friday,

As promised, today is spoiler day for my SHU thesis novel, “Saving Edalya.” I’ve spent the last three Mondays talking about the three kids movies that inspired it: Disney’s Mulan, Quest for Camelot, and The Swan Princess.

Before the spoilers, I’m going to spend a little time talking about my other writing. It’s been a very productive week. I submitted 2 poems, a short story, and a piece of flash fiction to lit magazines, wrote and revised a good amount, and retrieved an old project (that I’d pretty much forgotten about) from the depths of my computer. The bulk of my work was done on my YA fantasy. And, the YA fantasy romance-ish thing that I retrieved from my computer needs the most work. Hopefully, it will get it. I’ve made it my project for Camp Nanowrimo this month. If you’re not a part, join. It’s going to be great!

All right, back to Edalya. Since I talked the most about Jayleen, I chose a section from her POV that I feel gives a close look at who she is. This is the end of Chapter 3. Jayleen has just, very unintentionally, overheard a conversation between her parents about the possible reestablishment of Blackfire—a rebel clan that nearly destroyed Edalya twenty years ago. Earlier in the evening, Jayleen left her father’s study unnerved at her father’s unease. Unable to sleep, she took her journal to a tree behind her family’s house from which she heard the entire conversation. Jayleen’s father has just closed his study window, leaving Jayleen alone in the night.
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Jayleen heaved a sigh as her father disappeared from her line of sight. She didn’t know what she would have done if he had seen her. His temper would have been as formidable as her mother’s. The study window went dark, and only then did Jayleen move back to the flat area of the tree. She glanced down at her sack—again only illuminated by moonlight. All of a sudden, her desk, rather than a tree at night, seemed the perfect place to write a journal entry.

Blackfire back. She didn’t want to believe it. Her father didn’t place full protection on the royal family for no reason, though. Jayleen regretted coming to the tree, but she also was glad she had. Knowing what lay out there made the academy even more important.

Jayleen climbed back down through the branches and dropped to the ground. She retraced her steps to the servant’s door, careful to keep close to the house. She climbed the stairs and slipped inside. The house’s doors were always kept unlocked with the secure knowledge that the outer gates to the estate were sealed. Jayleen closed the door behind her and crept down the hall. She emerged into the foyer and paused. A comfortable quiet filled the house. Jayleen knew the house—took its safety for granted. If Blackfire was at large, that safety would be compromised.

“Honor bound, fidelity strong.” The Edalyan Army’s pledge issued itself of its own accord from Jayleen’s lips. She would recite it again upon completion at the academy, but the words had been engraved into her memory years ago. They fit the situation now. “I swear to uphold the code of honor, protect my kingdom—my home. I take this pledge that I will draw my last breath before I see Edalya fall. Hekulai—I swear this.”
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There you have it.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I’ve put blood, sweat, and literal tears into it thus far. The rode is a bit bumpy, but the destination will be worth the trouble.

Like my writing? Love to read? Support me at Camp Nanowrimo at my sponsor page!

Bridging the Gap: Writing as the Opposite Gender

Before I get into the meat and potatoes here, I’d like to give a shout out to all my SHU peeps who participated in the “Writing as the Opposite Gender” discussion last night. Great insights and info, and I know I learned a lot!

All right—first, a bit of background. Before I did the Seton Hill thing, I took a semester off. Before I took a semester off, I spent four years at a small Catholic Institution in the North Shore of Massachusetts studying psychology. And, since I loved psychology so much, I went to grad school for writing.

Haha, no. Honestly, I am done with psych for a while, but I can’t lie and say that it hasn’t helped me. It does every day. But, it especially helped me last night grappling with the idea of writing as a man.

Officially, I hold a B.A. in psychology. I also have a minor in communication studies with a concentration in interpersonal comm. What does all of this mean for this topic? It means that I spent a good chunk of my undergraduate career talking about people. It was unavoidable in communications, and a lot of my classes were dedicated to the differences between the genders in terms of how they communicate. It was similarly unavoidable in psychology. The Psychology of Sex Differences, as you can imagine, talked a lot about gender differentiation, but it was also a frequent topic in Personality, Developmental, Cognitive, and, yes, Neuroscience.

And, that didn’t even brush the surface.

Needless to say, my undergrad course load gave me a decent look into the deeper workings of the female mind and the general workings of the male one. And, last night’s discussion added to that. There was a lot of stuff I’d never thought of, and I’m sharing the wealth in, hopefully, non-psychological terminology. Old habits die hard.

DISCLAIMER: Nothing in psychology or communication studies is set in stone. Similarly, none of what I’m about to say is set in stone. It can be generally applied to the genders, but, ultimately, it comes down to the individual. The same goes for your characters.

-Writing the genders is actually more similar than different
“People are people.” This is true on more than one level, and characters are no different. Men and women will have similar reactions to a lot of things. They will cry or be sad at funerals, happy at weddings, nervous on tax day. I’m not talking about your dark, disturbed horror protagonist or your mentally distraught villain. They’re in a category all their own and different norms apply. I’m talking about the “normal” people—the everyday people. Even if you look around, you’ll see that men and women aren’t as different as everyone makes them out to be.

-Don’t “over write” your genders
All men are not “alpha/macho overload.” All women are not obsessed with shoes, shopping, and gossip. If your character is, by all means, write them that way. But, do not make all of your women Barbie dolls, and do not make all your men “in touch with their inner dog” because that’s what gender they are.

-Tip—men tend to be reactive where women tend to analyze
What does this mean? It means that, typically in response to a situation, men will make their decision and be done with it. Conversely, women will make a decision but then question said decision. Important to keep in mind for writing believable characters. Believability is a certain percent giving the reader what they expect. But, rules are made to be broken too. So, it’s all right to have a man who questions himself or a woman who just makes decisions and never thinks about them again.

-Tip—men and women deal with their problems differently
According to the research, men are less likely to talk about their problems with their male friends. Conversely, women are more likely to talk about their problems with their female friends. And, men are more likely to talk to women about their problems.

The first thing I learned in psychology about research is that it is never definite about anything. I got an earful from a professor about using “proves” in a paper as a freshman. “It’s always suggests” because they can’t prove anything.

To add to this, and again this is from the research, women want someone to just listen when they talk about their problems. Conversely, men want their conversation partner(s) to offer solutions. Again, good for giving the reader what they expect, but you can have men who talk openly, women who want solutions, or men who just listen.

These are some of the big points we touched on. I want to reiterate that all of this should be taken with a grain of salt. Write how you write, keep this stuff in mind, but don’t let it rule your life.

As a closing, I have a few other things that came up as overall points.

-Dialogue is a good differentiator
Not all men say “dude.” Not all women say “OMG.” But, they can if you want them to, and dialogue is one way to divide your genders.
NOTE: We found that, when writing about educated people, the dialogue gap is smaller.

-Don’t think “I’m writing a man/woman. Think “I’m writing a person.” The rest will follow.

-Talk to your gender. Talk to the opposite gender. The best research is understanding, and, as I learned in comm, understanding only comes from communicating.

Thesis Inspiration Part 3--"The Swan Princess"

This is it—the final week about my thesis.

For those of you just joining me, I am enrolled in Seton Hill University’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program, and I have spent the last three Mondays (today included) discussing the three kids movies that inspired my thesis. As I like to put it, my thesis is not a kid's book, but kid's movies have a lot of adult themes.

So, check out the two previous posts—Disney’s “Mulan” and “Quest for Camelot”.

And now, I present “The Swan Princess.”
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Prince Derek and Princess Odette have been brought together every summer in the hopes that one day they would wed and join their parents’ kingdoms. Now, as adults, they have finally taken the first steps toward romance. However, said romance is ruined in a moment of dim wits from Derek. Odette and her father return home where Rothbart—an evil enchanter—lies in wait. He kills Odette’s father and takes Odette captive.
Derek discovers this and makes it his personal goal to find Odette and bring her home safely. When he does finally find her, he discovers that Rothbart has placed an enchantment on her that turns her into a swan each day and that to break said enchantment, Derek must “make a vow of everlasting love.”
With the help of Odette’s animal friends, Derek and Odette are brought together but too late. Rothbart’s enchantment has been broken, resulting in Odette’s death. Derek fights Rothbart for Odette’s life and wins only with the aid of his guard and best friend. Odette is revived by Rothbart’s death, and Derek and Odette are wed.
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This movie is clearly a romance. My thesis, however, is not a romance novel (it’s an epic fantasy), but since “The Swan Princess” is where some of the romantic inspiration came from, I feel that now is a perfect time to mention the guest post that went up today on a fellow writer’s blog about working romantic elements into non-romance.

All right, back on track. As I said above, “The Swan Princess” provided some of the inspiration for the romantic subplot of “Saving Edalya” (working title). It can’t take all the credit, though. In fact, “Quest for Camelot” is probably equally responsible just in different ways. As I said last week, I loved the concept of romance in “Quest for Camelot” because it wasn’t about the romance. It was about the quest, and the romance was a bi-product.

As can be noted above, this is absolutely not the case in “The Swan Princess.” It is clear from the beginning that the movie is about Derek and Odette falling in love. And, everything that follows is clearly an obstacle bent on keeping the romantic couple apart.

I’m an only child. Thus, I spent a lot of my childhood hanging out with…well, me. I had a lot of time to make things up—which is probably where my creative mind came from—and a lot of what I made up involved twisting my favorite movies to include a new character. This character was always female, not a princess, and a life-long friend of the hero. In the case of “The Swan Princess,” she was also a guard in charge of protecting the royal family and in love with Derek. In my alternate version, Derek realized that Odette was a wimp and married me. Or, occasionally, he married Odette anyway, and my character was left heart broken. I think I may have been a disturbed child.

Anyway, the important thing I took from all of this was the idea of the prince not ending up with the princess. Thus, Jayleen (my protagonist) is not a princess. She is a girl from a strong military family who burns to be in the military herself. Prince Kylander (my other protagonist) is...well, a prince. (Duh) He has absolutely no interest in Jayleen for some time. And, yes, there is a princess involved but not in the way you might think. Jayleen and Kylander aren’t life-long friends either. As a matter of fact, it takes several chapters for them to even really like each other. No more about Jayleen and Kylander will be said. Read the book when it comes out. *maniacal laughter*

There is also an important element from the end of “The Swan Princess” that found its way into my thesis. I feel, though, that disclosing it would just be giving too much away. So, I will laugh maniacally again and say simply that I promise it will be good.

There you have it. Three weeks, three movies. And now, Friday…there will be a bit of actual text from the story. Stay tuned.

See you out of the box,
Caboodle

P.S. Please check out this blog post about a project to raise money for a fellow SHUer fighting cancer. I’m not directly involved—by the time I heard about it, it was too late—so I’m passing it along as my contribution. Many thanks!

Author Interview--Tiffany Avery

Hello again, and welcome to another writer interview on Fiction Friday.

This week, I present Tiffany Avery. Like me, she’s in her second semester of Seton Hill’s MFA in Writing Popular Fiction program. And, as usual, I’ll let the interviewee do the talking.

-What book and/or experience made you want to be a writer?

My third grade teacher "punished" us one day and told us to finish a story prompt. It helped me get away from her bullying ways.

-What genre(s) do you write? If more than one, what’s your favorite?

I like Fantasy the most, but I always try to make the fantastical elements somewhat logical or science based. I also use a lot of religious elements. In the case of my thesis, it's the Dead Sea Scrolls and a lot of my own experiences with religion.

-What project are you working on now?

I have my thesis, of course. It's called The Prophet's Chosen. I have a former drug addict and criminal trying to become a minister. (I call them Elders.) He finds out that he's the heir to my version of the Dead Sea Scrolls, but he doesn't think he's worthy of them, so he spends most of the novel running away from his fate.

A recent dream spawned a project that refuses to leave me alone. It's about faeries and other fantastical beings.

-Spoilers?

This is from the thesis novel, The Prophet's Chosen
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Eli rolled to a defensive position and looked around. He’d fallen through what he mistook as a bizarre aquarium filled with quicksilver. It still looked that way, only it was a few feet above the floor. Eli hadn’t remembered the drop, but as he watched, the shape his body left when he passed through it filled in and went back to its lazy movement. He felt peace flow into his mind and body while he stood up and looked around some more. The walls were painted the same shade of violet he’d seen in other temples to Naima. The smell of jasmine was the same. Being here felt familiar, like he stood in the sanctuary or chapel, but on a much smaller scale. The room looked to be eight feet in height and width and dim sunlight shone into the room from two narrow windows about the length and width of his forearm. Everything in the room was bizarrely familiar; he realized when he saw the furniture. A wooden writing desk and chair was to his left, so that meant an altar was to his right. He looked to his right for confirmation and got it.
I’ve been here before. How though? Did I come here with Elder Kingston? No. That doesn’t make sense. That temple is 2500 miles away from here. This can’t be the same place. Eli didn’t see anything of interest on the writing desk, so he took a step toward the altar and heard someone singing. It seemed to be coming from the portrait above the altar. The voice was male, tenor, and sang just loud enough for Eli to recognize the hymn. The children's choir sang it sometimes. He caught himself humming along until he really listened to the lyrics. Eli's eyes widened. The singer had changed the words.

She loves my banana.
I love licking her mango
And her fully ripe melons.
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-For other aspiring writers, any tips?

Write every day. Get a routine. Try your best to stick with it. Start small. One page. 250 words. You'd be surprised at how fast one page a day can add up.

-What’s your favorite book/genre to read?

I like to laugh and I like to think. I've been reading a lot of Steampunk lately, but I'm also reading a space opera, and a fantasy horror.

-What’s your favorite thing you’ve ever written?

I wrote a flash fiction story about a woman who gets her first kiss. It got published in my undergrad's literary magazine.

Want more from Tiffany?

Connect with her on Facebook or check out her Blog.

Revising: Keeping Your Inner Editor Happy

“How do I avoid revisions?”

There’s a way?

Yes, write it perfectly the first time.

If you’re anything like me, this never happens. So, we revise.

The next 30 pages of my thesis novel were due yesterday. I spent the better part of the day fixing the original 30 pages of crap I’d written.

At this point, you may be thinking—“Oh, you’re too hard on yourself. It couldn’t have been that bad.”

It was that bad. One of my crit partners—in response to my Facebook status about needing a miracle to finish my submission by midnight—said to just send it and let him and our other crit partner help. I read that and thought “NO! I’d be ashamed to let another human being read this.”

And, that wasn’t even the worst part. No—the worst part was the fact that I’d already written 30 pages and was, for all intents and purposes, writing 30 new pages. The percentage of original content I had upon completion of said pages was low, and I mean low.

Why do I bring this up? I’m so glad you asked. I’m here this week to give some advice about revising. Given the day I had yesterday, it seemed a fitting topic for this week’s Writer’s Wednesday.

-“DON’T PANIC”
Heed the advice of the above “large, friendly letters.” (“Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” reference ftw!)
No, really. Stay calm. Revisions rank up there with synopsis writing—necessary but not very enjoyable for most people. (Side Note: If synopsis writing is giving you issues, I tackled that one in my post last week.)

-Just write the first time
I have a terrible time with this one. I write something that I think is crap and then my inner editor has nightmares about it. However, I learned something in the last month from working on my thesis and a YA fantasy project—if you don’t keep writing, nothing gets written. Duh, right? But, think about it. If you’re too busy revising, you’re not writing. And, honestly, if you revise now or when all’s said and done, you’re going to spend the same amount of time revising. Get the words on the page. Seeing your word count go up makes the project seem more manageable and promotes a sense of accomplishment.

-Make notes of things to go back and fix
For me, this pertains especially to that ya fantasy I just mentioned. The background is driving me nuts, and it keeps changing. I have a MS Word file of background. I read it, think “that doesn’t work,” and change it. And then, a few days later, I do that again. Oh, and to make this even more fun, every time the background changes, I think of something that I’ve already written that needs to change. So, to save my inner editor some stress, I make notes of what I need to go back over. This has a few benefits. It makes me feel productive, allows me to keep writing without forgetting what I need to still do, and lets me adjust the direction of the story as needed.

-Break the rules
Every so often—again with the ya fantasy—there are things that you just need to fix RIGHT NOW!!!! (I’m fine.) If it's weighing so much on your conscience that you can’t continue the story or if the change will do so much that you end up with a new story, go back and fix it. Just remember to keep writing—keep that word count climbing. But, don’t torture yourself over one or two edits.

This last point, though, also opens a can of worms, which I will leave for discussion because I think the answer is different for everyone. Where do you draw the line between revising and rewriting? For our purposes, I define rewriting as a situation in which the revisions cause the story to become a completely different story—as in you could have two novels the original and the new one. It’s important to know this because…well (and I’ve done this)…it’s no fun having two novels in one. The separation process takes quite a while. Also, if the first half of a novel tells one story and the second half tells another…that could cause problems.

Thoughts?

P.S. For any “Hitchhiker” fans—check out my post about the Original Radio Show.

Thesis Inspiration Part 2--"Quest for Camelot"

***IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT***
If you attempted to click on a link in any of my previous posts, they did not work. This has been fixed. Blogger and I had a minor dispute over proper html format. I won, and Blogger is now awaiting trial. So, if you go back and click on stuff, it will take you there now. Lol.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled program. This Monday is week 2 of thesis inspiration. Last Monday, today, and next Monday are dedicated to the three children’s movies that inspired my thesis novel for Seton Hill—Disney’s “Mulan,” “Quest for Camelot,” and “The Swan Princess.”

So, without further a due—“Quest for Camelot.”
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Based in Arthurian Legend, “Quest for Camelot” tells the story of Kayley—daughter of a Knight of the Round Table—and her dream to become a knight. Her world is turned up-side-down with the death of her father at the wicked Sir Ruber’s hand. Ten years later, Kayley’s world is further turned to chaos by the theft of Excalibur—King Arthur’s famed sword—and the arrival of Ruber at her home. Kayley escapes Ruber’s watchful eye and flees to the Forbidden Forest where Excalibur has been lost. There, she meets Garrett—a blind hermit who is as good a fighter as any knight—Devon and Cornwall—two heads of a dragon that refuse to get along—and Aiden—a silver-winged falcon. With the help of her new companions, she finds Excalibur and returns it to Camelot only to be intercepted by Ruber. With Garrett’s help, Kayley defeats Ruber and saves Camelot. She is knighted by King Arthur and finds herself in possession of everything she’s ever wanted—knighthood and Garrett.
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That’s a lot. I did say last week that “Quest for Camelot” had the largest impact on my thesis. I wasn’t kidding.

Some similar themes between “Quest for Camelot” and “Mulan” in terms of my thesis. A form of the military figures prominently in both. Jayleen—my protagonist—desires nothing more than to be admitted into the Royal Guard—thirty elite soldiers charged with the protection of the royal family. Like King Arthur’s knights, the members of the guard ride on horseback and are formidable warriors. I can’t say that the idea of the Royal Guard came directly from the knights, but the Round Table certainly had a hand.

Jayleen herself—I originally gave Jayleen auburn hair (similar to Kayley’s). Then, my mentor pointed out that the red-headed heroine was a bit overdone. I privately fumed at this. It wasn’t true. I mean, the red-headed heroines that I can think of are only Kayley, Kahlan (“Sword of Truth” series by Terry Goodkind), Ariel (“The Little Mermaid”), Thumbelina, Merida (“Brave”), Ce’Nedra (“The Belgariad” by David Eddings), and Anastasia (from the 20th Century Fox animated feature). Err, all right—maybe it was overdone. So, I relented and made Jayleen’s hair sable brown. It actually fits her better.

That said, I did base a lot of Jayleen off of Kayley. Jayleen looks up to her father—general of the army and captain of the Royal Guard. Jayleen also finds herself in a situation where she reluctantly, at least initially, has to work with a member of the opposite gender. In her case, though, there are two members of the opposite gender—Crown Prince Kylander and, in different ways, her brother—Julian.

Okay, Jayleen—you’re a spotlight hoarder. Step aside so I can talk about the overall impact of the movie on my thesis. The idea of Camelot—the powerful kingdom—had an impact as well. It’s in no way based on Camelot, other than being a powerful kingdom, but that’s where the idea of Edalya came from.

Most important, at least to me, I will now talk about the romance. Is there any, yes. Do Jayleen and the Prince end up together—not saying. What I will say is that, regardless of whether they do or not, they are given real reasons to grow together. What does this mean? As I say in my post about “Tangled,” the romantic couple is given a chance to get to know one another and fall in love for the right reasons. Kayley and Garrett do this as well. They fight, run, and struggle their way through the Forbidden Forest until Ruber wounds Garrett. In that moment, Kayley and Garrett realize they’re in love. Corny, maybe, but it wasn’t love at first sight, and it wasn’t “I haven’t even really looked at you but let’s get married.” It’s real.

All righty, I think that just about wraps it up. Next week will conclude the Thesis Three (I just made that up, and it’s catchy) sequence with “The Swan Princess.” And, next Friday—could it be? Spoilers?

See you out of the box,
Caboodle

P.S. Check out my duet (thanks to my duet partner) of “Looking Through Your Eyes” from “Quest for Camelot. I’m working at getting “On My Father’s Wings” up as well, but life keeps happening. Stay tuned.