Reality...Bites?

I just spent a week in Florida for my honeymoon.

How we managed to pick the hottest, most humid week in seven years I’m not sure—just lucky, I guess.

Anyhow, we had a great time.

Disney World is made of imagination, adventure and wonder.  It feels magical (as it is supposed to) and even after hours in lines, kids are ready for more.  The adults, not so much sometimes.  The people working there do everything they can to make sure you are having the best time possible.

Let me focus on just one ride.  Star Tours.

Okay, yes, I’m a huge Star Wars geek, and my husband is a fan. They’ve recently redone the Star Tours ride, adding a 3-D aspect as well as having 54 different combinations of scenes that you could go through.

We went on it five times and didn’t even see half of the options for the combinations.

It was so much fun! My little geek heart soared, and if we’d had more time I would have gone another five times.

Another spot that made me giddy was The Wizarding World of Harry Potter.  All I can say is awesome.  To see a place I’ve read about for years and years pretty much come alive was quite the experience. And to be surrounded by people who are talking about the shops, the jokes, the candy, the butter beer and the way to get into Dumbledor’s office (half of them in British accents) was a once in a lifetime experience.

So those were my geek out moments. I loved every minute of it.

However, on our last day we went to the Kennedy Space Center.  My husband is a huge science/math/space geek, and this was his one request for the trip.  I’d been there before, when I was about 12 years old, but didn’t remember much.

A few years ago they retired the Space Shuttle program.  In one of the buildings we learned about the last flight to upgrade the Hubble Telescope.  They talked a bunch about the program, the engineering and all of the missions. It was great.  The screen the movie had been playing on went black, then translucent, and right behind it they had the Space Shuttle Atlantis.

I walked into the same room as a Space Shuttle that had been off of the earth 33 times.

I started to cry.  It was overwhelming to think about all of the time, effort, engineering and money that had gotten us to this point.  The sheer though process of making a shuttle that could be reused was innovative and completely new.  There are more than 24,000 separate and unique (and numbered) tiles on the Atlantis that keep it from exploding when it comes back into the atmosphere. And the people at NASA did it along with help from companies all over the country, maybe even the world.

This was real. Not like Space Mountain (which I love), but real life ingenuity and tenacity.

My writer’s mind paused and asked, “So if this is the reaction you get from something real, why do you love stories so much? Why do they matter?”

I got stunk on the reason, and I still don’t have a great answer to the question. I’m thinking about it.

But I’d love to hear your opinion on the subject. Please leave a comment below. I'm seriously curious.

Up in the Air

Hey everyone,

Today we have a guest post by the lovely and talented Ann Marie Meyers, author of the new Middle Grade book Up in the Air.

Please be nice to her!

<>  If you could eat anything for breakfast, what would it be?

AMM: Fruit cake and strawberry ice cream.

<>  Do you prefer leather or cloth seats in cars? Why?

AMM: Cloth is definitely much softer and more comfortable.

<>  If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go? Who would you take with you?

AMM:  I’d love go to Australia and take my daughter and husband with me. I’ve heard so much about the outback that I can’t wait to finally get there.

<>  What is the most interesting job you've ever had to this point?

AMM: I was a sales representative for the Trinidad and Tobago Tourist Board. I loved traveling and meeting so many interesting people.

<>  Tell us about a strange writing habit that you have.

AMM:  When I get stuck on how to write a scene, I’ll type in what I want to achieve, the tone I want to have and the mood I want to capture, then move on to something else. I’ll let my subconscious work on the problem and revisit my notes every once in a while until I’m satisfied with the outcome.

<>  What is your favorite quote/saying about writing? What does it mean to you?

AMM: “Writing is magic for those willing to follow their imagination to a region where anything is possible” by William Kotzwinkle (ET).

            To me, it means that our limitations are self-imposed, and that everything is possible once we let ourselves believe it. So too with writing. Whenever I get ‘stuck’ I know that it is only a question of time before I figure out the ‘solution’. I just let my imagination roam free.

           

<>  What scene of this novel proved to be the most difficult for you to write?

The hardest scene was Melody’s initial arrival into Chimeroan. I just couldn’t get it right. Either it was too fantastical or too concrete. It was only months before I finally submitted the manuscript to Jolly Fish Press, that I finally figured out what wasn’t working and fixed it.

<>  What scene turned out exactly as you imagined it?

AMM: The very last scene of the book (not the epilogue, which was added later).

<>  What aspect of your life has most influenced your writing?

AMM:  I guess I’ll have to say it’s the hundreds of fantasy and sci-fi books I read in my teens. I absolutely love the genre, and am drawn to some element of fantasy in most everything I write.  

¨      Why should people read your book? What does it have to offer them?  (This is the part where you brag it up!)

AMM: What child has never dreamed of flying, even if as a mere passing fancy? Who doesn’t wish that their dreams could come true; for life to be happy and go exactly the way they want?

Up In The Air will fill you with hope and remind you of the dreams you once had when life was filled with possibility. It’s a story about holding on to the things you truly want and never letting go. Up In The Air will take readers on an adventure to a magical land called Chimeroan, where a person’s dreams (deepest desires) come true. And yet… what is it that prevents us from pursuing our dreams?

Readers will follow the journey of the protagonist, Melody, whose dream is to fly away and be free. Yet when Melody gets the wings of her dreams, she realizes that this does not solve anything. Readers will stick with Melody as she encounters situations that help her face her fears and confront the reality of the accident that paralyzed her father and left her unscarred. They will rejoice in her newfound freedom, the one within, from which everything stems.  

<>  If you could write a spin-off novel about a side character, who would you choose?

AMM: I would choose Andrew, Melody’s friend from school, so we could see Chimeroan from another perspective.

<>  Tell us why you love this story.

AMM: I love Melody as a character. I admire her gumption, her desire to be tough and not let anyone hurt her. Yet, I also love her vulnerability, which is revealed during her stay on Chimeroan. Her fears resonate with me very strongly, especially since these very fears are what she needs to face in order for her to live her dream. And in the end, I rejoice with her newfound freedom.

I am enchanted by Melody’s journey. She has wings. She can soar with the birds. The freedom! The absolute joy of this!  Yet, this outward tangible joy does not bring her the peace she seeks. She needs to go within. Her journey reminds me of my own, those moments when I need to go within to find peace.

Also, the world of Chimeroan itself enchants me. Chimeroan not only has the ability to make everyone’s dreams (their deepest desire, not merely a whimsical fancy) come true, but has a way of revealing exactly what holds a person back from achieving what they truly want; and in doing so frees the person.

Check out Up in the Air today!

And stalk Ann Marie in these locations:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AnnMarieMeyersauthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AnnMarie_Meyers
Website: http://www.annmarie-meyers.com/

The Dangers if Infodump

When I was in my college years, I loved epic fantasy. I also loved Tom Clancy novels. Pretty much anything under 300 pages was a short story, and I would have nothing to do with them.

I can’t believe I had “extra” time in college. Where is it now???

Anyway, at one point in my life I loved the big, thick, intricately plotted books that I now realize take years and years to write.  And way back when, I didn't mind the info dump.

Now I’m older and far less patient.  When too much information is thrust at me, instead of embracing it and soaking it in, I glean the top layer off and cast the rest off like yesterday’s socks.

Not that I usually mistakenly put on old socks…

I’ve mentioned a few times that I recently returned from a trip to Israel.  Well, when you go there, your tour group will be assigned an Israeli guide. I think it’s a law or something.  Ours was named Bassam, we called him Sam for short.  After all, uncultured American’s can’t possibly be asked to remember a guy’s name that’s different.

No, no, not a name. However, he gave us so much information that I’m pretty sure I’ve ejected more than 80% of it out the port on the back of my head.  One name (Bassam) I could totally handle.  But the 117 names for cities, people, regions, bodies of water, religions beliefs, rulers and a bunch of other things was WAY too much.

Granted, they did tell us to read some book before we went, which was a comprehensive (and quite dull) guide to the places we went to visit. If I had prepared maybe I wouldn’t have gotten so lost.

And it’s really easy to Google most of these places and get the  information that I’ve most certainly mixed up in my head. 

King Herod built the Dead Sea in the mountain region near the brother of Jordan and lived there until his college buddy Tiberius ruled the world from the  Mount of Olives and they had a party under the Dome of the Rock.

You see! That’s how my brain feels when someone does a huge info dump at the beginning of a book. It’s especially bad if all the names are similar. Herod, Heronian, Hades, Helvitica…you see. I’m already confusing myself.

I realize that most people who read big, fat books expect big, fat info dumps, but if you can incorporate it into the story in a sneaky but helpful manner, then do it. Please. For those of us with simple minds.

Besides, the story of Herod and Tiberius as college buddies is probably a pretty good story. (If they even lived at the same time. My brain is seriously overloaded.)

World Building

Some old guy at the very first Geek Fest (it was somewhere between a writer’s conference and a convention for fans—yes, there was some dressing up going on) I ever attended spewed forth a piece of advice that I will never forget.

A member of the audience, an aspiring writer I’m sure, asked the question, “Where do you get all your ideas for world building?”  If I recall correctly the old guy to whom the question was being asked had written some fairly epic fantasy novels.  So he had some experience at world building.

Well, instead of a long explanation from a scholar (which this man seemed to fancy himself), we got this bit of writing advise.  “Find something that sounds interesting and steal the Hell out of it.”

I’m pretty sure he wasn't just saying to look at the spot where the damned go in someone else’s world. Although I could be wrong, I don’t always get smart, old people jokes.  To me they’re just not funny.

However, this is good advice.  I’ve traveled a lot, but never before to the Middle East. I just returned from 9 days in Israel, and I have to say that the place is teeming with bits of world building to steal.

Seriously, think about it, first off, there have been multiple sets of people claiming this land for more generations than anyone can actually remember. Good thing for the Bible, right? So that particular conflict runs really deep.  And frankly, after driving through most of the country, I didn’t get the whole “bountiful, promised land” thing. The place is mostly a desert. I live in a desert. You have to work hard to get crops to grow and to get water where it should be.  So who came up with the land of plenty angle? And why are all these people so keen on keeping the land for themselves?

Good question. Make some answers and take your world building from there.

Let’s look at a different angle.  Jerusalem has been completely sacked like 8 times.(I didn’t Google, sorry, I’m on a plane, so that number could be off.)  What does that do to the land? Maybe the place itself is cursed, or blessed, or alive, or a crossroads to more than just trade routes, and all of the fighting is causing imbalances on a different plane or in a different part of the world.

We had an interesting discussion within our tour group. Basically, both the Palestinians and the Israelis (or maybe Jews and Muslims would be better to cite) believe that at the end of days, the other group will be wiped out by God because they are not worshiping the right thing or in the right way.  (It’s a long, long story that I’d rather not  go into here.)  But as we were discussing this, we thought about trying to negotiate a truce between the two peoples, and how fruitless that would be because both sides think that the other will eventually be gone. Why not start the annihilation now? Why wait?  There’s immediate conflict that can get both broader and deeper.

This is just a few ideas about world building.  If you can’t travel, view some documentaries and glean some ideas off of those. Take what you see and twist it. Steal the Hell out of it and make it your own.

Duct Tape? Really?

Lately, I’ve been trying to delve into my character’s heads a little more.  Everyone has quirks, and finding out how they got said quirk is usually a nice little tidbit for a story.

For instance…

I was packing for this trip, and my boyfriend was “helping.”

Okay, he did actually help quite a bit. However, he was reading my list to me so I could grab everything, and he kept stopping and asking questions about stuff. I had  to justify my list!

“Earplugs?”

“Uh, my traveling companion (not him, this trip was planned before we started dating) snores like a chainsaw.”

“Ah.”

“Rope?”

“I’ve had my suitcase fall apart on me before.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, and I’ve also needed a laundry line a few times.”

“Huh.”

“Duct Tape? Really?”

“Uh yeah.”

“…”

“Hey, you NEVER know when you’re going to need some tape. Seriously.”

“Okay.”

(I wrap a few feet around a pencil. The pencil is wood and can be used to stake vampires. Or write a message, or you can use the tape.)

Point in fact, we’re still  on our first leg of plane rides, and we’ve already found uses for the tape. So don’t make fun!

These are the cool things that make your characters real people. Why does your main character always carry a dollar’s worth of quarters in his pocket? Or why does she keep floss in her purse? Or what’s with the padlock?

Each character in your story should have these awesome quirks. Because, let’s face it, we do in real life. And fiction is just an extension of real life, with a few really great twists and turns.

So delve, get into your characters bags, pockets and suitcases. Become a stalker. They’ll thank you for it.

Airplane Travel

I get the best writing ideas when I travel. I don’t know what it is, but I look around in the airport terminal or on the plane, and see more stories than I could tell in a life time.

For instance, while making my way to my rear-ish seat for the first leg of our flight to Israel, I thought about the people who were already comfortably seated and watching me as I wandered by with my back pack, pillow and “personal carry on item.”

Someone might be on their very first plane ride. There are a few kids onboard, so this is likely. But there could be an adult for whom this is their first ride as well. If so, why? Do they hate flying? Never had the money before?

Perhaps this is someone’s first time out of their own state. Or someone’s first trip to New York.  Or, as is my case, where is everyone headed after New York? If a super virus got let loose through the air system in this plane, how far would it travel in the next 24 hours? I’m going to Israel. Who knows where others are headed.

On the opposite spectrum, perhaps this is someone’s last flight. They may know they are dying, or it could happen unexpectedly. This could be the last time someone will see a loved one. Or there could be a handful of people going to funerals.

What about international adoptions? Business trips? Family obligations? Vacations? The list goes on and on. Then you start delving into who each of these people are, and why they are here, and what else is going on in their lives, and you just might get a story or two worth telling.

My mind always tosses in some sort of super-natural element, which makes things really interesting. Are there guardian angels sitting on the wings? Will someone time travel back before we all got on board and thwart a terrorist plot? Is there a wizard on board who can’t control their powers?

Sorry, it’s the geek in me that goes off like that.

There are stories all around us. Even better, there are bits and pieces of stories littering the world like dust, ready to be picked up and put into your latest novel or short story.  So take the time to look around and see what’s going on. You might find a bit of inspiration you’ve been waiting for.

Oh the Places You'll Go!

A few weeks ago I got to travel to Mesa Verde, Colorado.

(My boyfriend has some family there, so we went on the premise of a visit, but really I wanted to see the awesome cliff dwellings. Please don't tell him.)

I love ruins. I love to hear all of the possible scenarios that the historians and such have come up with as to:

Why did they build here?

How many people lived here?

What is the purpose for all of these circular rooms in the floor?

How long did people live here?

Why did they leave?

What did they do with their time?

What did they eat?

I've had the opportunity to see Machu Picchu in Peru, Chichen Itza in Mexico, old places in England and Europe as well as some ruins near Cozumel, Mexico. I listen to the tour guides and eat it up!

I maybe should have been an archeologist.

So as I'm sticking my head in a window in the cliff dwellings in Mesa Verde, I get the greatest idea for a story. What if the spirit from someone who lived there is trying to communicate with us now, and they choose a random tourist to drag back into their time so they can fix something that's gone catastrophically wrong?

Okay, the idea is better than that, but that's the gist.

As as I'm climbing the ladder of death to get back to the top of the plateau, I start to think that in some ways, I am an archeologist.

I'm a writer.

I'm a fantasy and sci-fi writer. I take ideas and pictures in my head, and I flesh them out into an entire belief system, magic system, cultural issues and in some cases, an entire world. Sometimes beyond into a universe.

I have to ask myself the same questions that an archeologist does. That list above? I totally ask myself all of that. And then some.

And to me, that is some of the funnest part of the writing process. Creating a world out of a raw idea, and building a culture on a few key points that I want in a story, is both exciting and rewarding.

Heck, just look around your house, try to imagine you've never seen anything quite like it, and start to fill in the blanks. Which rooms did they live in? How many people lived per structure? Why is there an extra house at the end of the house? What lived in there? Did they worship these black screens? How did they communicate with their neighbors? What did they eat? How did they get food?

Writers have hard jobs!

But we also get to have a whole lot of fun. :)