Of tomes and transportation Cynthia 8:26 AM

Cover of Anna Karenina 
(Barnes & Noble Classics)

I am long overdue for a new post, so here it is. I hope it was worth waiting for. The end of 2013 was busy for me, what with NaNoWriMo (success!), the holidays and my daughter coming home for a visit. That being said, I've discovered something amazing—something that has helped me reclaim precious hours every weekday.

Public. Transportation.

I know, I know. Some of you are shaking your heads and gagging a little. You think public transportation is for homeless people and people who have lost their driver licenses, but swallow your vomit and listen: I commute for an hour each week day to and from work. Normally, that consists of me stumbling (or sliding, depending on the weather) down my front steps, chucking my purse into my car, while balancing (sometimes failing to balance) a coffee mug and white-knuckling it to work, trying to find a good song on the radio, or belting out half-remembered lyrics to a karaoke CD. I have been known to listen to an audio book on the way, but they're either expensive, or narrated by a British octogenarian with an ultrasonic, crackly voice (e.g. The Aeneid from the public library).

Cover of The Book Thief

Enter the commuter train. It's far from perfect. Sometimes the temperature is low in the morning—like in the ones of degrees. Instead of getting in my car and cranking up the heater until I'm toasty, I make a quick drive to the station, tromp through the snow and ice and find a seat that doesn't smell like wet dog. Today a female commute was loudly upset that I sat in her usual seat. Also, it's not acceptable for me to sing at the top of my lungs. But the upside is that after that point, I get to read for AN HOUR. And then again on the trip home. That's two hours of reading a day, people—two hours I didn't get before. It's like a snow-soaked miracle.

Although I've had to deal with some awkward public transit moments—the guy across from me wet-coughing into my face or the lady next to me telling random fellow travelers a story for the fifth time in as many days—I get to read. In the six weeks that I've been taking the train, I've read six books, including:

Cover of Divergent
(Photo credit:.
Veronica Roth Books)

Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Divergent - Veronica Roth
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
The Picture of Dorian Gray - Oscar Wilde
Electra - Sophocles

Some of you will understand how amazing this is—to find two extra hours a day to read. And I can read on almost anything. I have a Nook, which was a Christmas gifts from a friend a couple of years ago (thanks friend!) on which I have 60+ e-books—many of which were free, because they are the classics, including The Picture of Dorian Grey and Electra. When I forget to charge my Nook, I can use the Nook app on my phone to access said e-books. I also have a Kindle app on my phone, and Goodreads has some e-books available. I'm currently reading The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle on Goodreads. When all else fails, I have real-life, hold-in-your-hand, turn-the-page-with-a-lick-and-a-swish books to read.

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
(Photo credit: bubbletea1)

When I get home, instead of feeling angry and defeated—hyper aware that the world is filled with bad people who text and apply makeup while driving or must get in front of you at all costs, I can experience other emotions. Sometimes the other riders get to experience them with me, especially when I'm reading the last few pages of The Book Thief. (Sorry, guy who tried not to notice the tears quivering off my chin.)

What does this have to do with writing? Everything. Reading has everything to do with writing. Reading has everything to do with everything. Reading gives you a better vocabulary, enhances critical thinking, reduces stress and improves memory, discipline and concentration. It also heightens your emotional intelligence. I've read so much lately, I'm an EQ superhero who knows what you're thinking right now. I don't even need to see your face. For more information on how reading can make you superhuman, see this article on The 26 Major Advantages to Reading More Books and Why 3 in 4 People Are Being Shut Out of Success and this article on What Reading Does for the Mind.

The Picture of Dorian Gray
(Photo credit:
Ben Templesmith)

That's right. So because I'm reading more, I'm inspired to write more. And because I'm writing more, I'm inspired (required) to edit more. And I have plenty to edit. Three NaNoWriMo manuscripts lay waiting for me to tackle them and two "finished" novels are waiting for me to fine-tune and query their word-filled pages.

Partly due to my aforementioned discovery, I expect this year to be filled with reading, writing, coffee and awesome.

Happy 2014 everyone.

Blog off.

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All work and no play makes Cynthia a dull girl Cynthia 8:31 AM

Dreamscape
(Source: Stupid Station)

I am a writer, which means I spend months putting words on paper so I can spend months editing and rearranging them so I can spend months submitting them and getting rejected. When I don't get rejected, I rejoice for years, just to balance everything out.

I first discovered that I have skewed perceptions of reality when I was eight. I had a really good idea for a book, but I didn't feel comfortable telling my siblings that it was my idea in case they thought it was weird, so I called it a "dream." When I was done with my amazing tale, they told me that something was probably wrong with me.

Side note: I believed the "dream" gig was such a good red herring that I tried it again the next year. Except this time, I peeked at my birthday gifts and told my sibling about this "dream" I had that coincided with every gift I was about to get. Said sibling ratted me out and I didn't get birthday gifts that year. Dream fail!

Shopping cart
(Source: Saving Sanity)

They were right. There's something wrong with me, but I prefer to say I'm "creative." Also, I can do shit in my writing that I would never be allowed to do in real life, which is really cool and therapeutic, and the reason I don't drink too much or hit people. But there are two sides to every coin. My writing affects my real life in unhealthy ways too.

• When I grocery shop, I think about my totals in the terms of word count:
• "That cost me almost a whole page."
• "That wasn't much more than a paragraph."
• "I can get two of these, they're only a clause apiece."

• When I watch the news, I find myself thinking, "that would make a great story."

• At least once a year, I sequester myself away from the world for a month to write 50,000 words. On the weekends, I might not even comb my hair.

• When I read a really good book, instead of thinking "That was a really great book," I think, "Damn, I should have thought of that."

• I have a crush on some of my characters. I'm not saying which ones.

• I eavesdrop in public places to get character dialogue ideas.

• I delight in being of part of, or seeing awkward situations, because I know I will eventually use them in a story.

Ink blot
(Source: zaynabdenaziari.com)

Most of all, writing something and putting it out there is baring your soul to the world. You're opening yourself up to criticism and psychological evaluation. That includes blogs. After reading two or more of a writer's works, I know who has daddy issues, a broken heart or a boring love life. I can also pretty much guess who felt nurtured as a child, who feels loved now and who has an unhealthy obsession with masturbation.

The Shining
(Source: Be the Ink)

That being said, I'm set to lock myself in my room at the end of each work day for a month in an attempt to pound out another 50,000 words that (should) make sense when read sequentially. I'm supposed to write 1,667 words a day, but generally I write 500-750 a day during the week and then 15,000 on the weekends. The last day I'll probably write 5,000 but look back and  find the page covered with: "All work and no play makes Cynthia a dull girl" over and over again. Ooh. That could be a cool plot point.

Blog off.

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Taking the NaNo Plunge Cynthia 2:34 PM

Preservation Hall Bass Drum
(Photo credit: Infrogmation)

Well it's official. My next work will be from the first-person perspective of a teenage boy. And it won't be science fiction. I don't know how that happened, but it happened somewhere in New Orleans' French quarter last month—maybe after I stepped out of Preservation Hall in the rain, or perhaps somewhere near the little Tarot table on the street outside of
Café du Monde.

Wherever it happened, it happened. So starting on November 1st, I'll be 1,667-word-a-daying with a testosterone-dipped ballpoint pen for 2013's NaNoWriMo.

Astronaut , mission specialist of STS-121
and STS-124 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME!

Can I write from a teenage boy's perspective, you ask? I'm a certified expert. Not only do I have three boys, but two girls who like muscle cars and arm wrestling.

Side note: When my oldest daughter was in the 3rd grade, she picked up a kid and threw him across the playground because he was picking on her younger sibling.

Side side note: My youngest daughter owns more knives than I have shoes and is pretty much a sharpshooter.

Me changing a tire outside
Hermosillo, Mexico
(Photo credit: My Facebook page)

I was also essentially a teenage boy until I was 16. I climbed trees,  played basketball, wanted to be as astronaut and tried to weasel my way into Boy Scouts. Furthermore, I grew up with five brothers, which is how I know about defensive eating, offensive driving and sucker punches. I'm painfully familiar with practical jokes and ninja training. I still wear the emotional (and physical) scars.

Still not convinced? I'm not afraid of needles, spiders, sweat or changing a tire. I like action movies more than chick flicks and vodka more than fruity drinks.

Side note: I also think chicks in Jeeps are hot.

All of the above qualifies me as an honorary dude. So if you happen to see me next month and I'm wearing a baseball cap and/or scratching myself, remember, it's for The Art!

Blog off.

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NaNoWriMo and life as it happens Cynthia 12:17 PM

Well folks, NaNoWriMo is quickly approaching and I find myself looking for a new book-length project. I've already done the post-apocalyptic, the time travel, the mystery and the young adult adventure story. I've written in third person, first person, had a male protagonist and a protagonist named Bertha. I'm a crazy person. I've done it all.

Okay, so I haven't done it all, but I'm definitely looking for something different. I think it's tough to find your niche if you don't do a little niche-hopping every once in a while. You may think you've found it, but you could have just hunkered down into the nearest dirty corner and called it your own. In my quest for differentness I've been reading a lot and searching the InterWebs for inspiration. Sometimes I find inspiration in photos like these:

Where dreams go to die

Don't press it!!!

Sometimes I find it in places like these:
http://wa.emergent-publishing.com/2012/09/try-something-different/ http://mommyhasapottymouth.com/the-best-of-dog-shaming-part-17-18-pics-22490/.

Sometimes I just made stuff up off the top of my head, because...you know...creative.

I'm going to be honest with you. Most of my story ideas have come from something really insignificant--a look on someone's face, a weird dream sequence, an unexpected shadow or a conversation with a friend.

I think writing fiction is seven parts creativity, 67 parts persistence, 45 parts books you've read and 22 parts self-loathing. It looks something like this:

Awesome graph about writing

You're welcome. I made that myself. For you.

I've done NaNoWriMo for the last two years with surprising success, and once I accidentally did it on my own in April before I knew there was such a thing as NaNoWriMo. But it feels better to do with with the support of thousands of other crazies. That way, when people ask you why your hair isn't combed, or why you're shouting dialogue in your office, you can say something that sounds legit, like "I'm participating in NaNoWriMo," to which people normally respond, "Oh really? What is that?" But when you say, "I decided to write a novel in 30 days," people tend to respond with something like, "Why..." and back away slowly, avoiding sudden movement.

Right now I'm going to attempt an outline of a story that I think I might be interested in working on. If the outline makes me hate myself, I won't write it. It's a promise I made to myself in an attempt to shrink the self-loathing section of my clever pie chart. Write because you love it! 

Is anyone else out there participating in NaNoWriMo this year? Feel free to join me on NaNoWriMo as a buddy if you are. It's free. Just create a profile, update your word count and start writing.

Blog off.

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Setting sketch - science fiction Cynthia 2:13 PM

It seems like a science fiction setting would be easy to write because you pretty much just get to make a bunch of shit up—as a matter of fact, sci-fi and fantasy often get mushed together since they both incorporate a lot of made-up shitness. That's part of the charm. You get transported to a whole new world, a new way of seeing things, new people and new problems. The ultimate escape fiction.

But good science fiction is more difficult to create than you might think. Whereas fantasy seems to be backwards-looking, science fiction tends to be forward-looking, so it's a little harder to find reliable research material. To make it even more complicated, I prefer what is called hard sci-fi. This is science fiction that is backed up by fact and theory and focuses on technical detail. These books are usually written by people like Michael Crichton, Isaac Asimov or Arthur C. Clarke. Instead of writing that the sun exploded suddenly and without warning, a hard sci-fi story might discuss the details leading up to the explosion, the particles that were released—or better yet, created—during the explosion and the effect it might have on any landscape or living tissue that survived the initial blast. Some are so detail intensive that by the time you're done with the book, you feel like you've earned an honorary physics degree.

A sci-fi setting can be another planet, a dystopic or utopic Earth, a laboratory or a plain old regular city. But wherever you decide to set your story, it should be convincing.While I was researching A Scribble in the Margins, I read books like How to Build a Time Machine by Paul Davies and Breaking the Time Barrier by Jenny Randles, among others. I also read a book discussing the probability that the water in the oceans came from comets, but I don't remember the name of that book, or why I felt like it would be appropriate research for A Scribble, which had nothing to do with oceans whatsoever. I researched TBI and spinal cord injuries, spent a lot of time creeping on the rooftops of Los Angeles via Google Earth. I looked up restaurant menus, visited the physics department of one university and collaborated with the physics department head at another university. I taped forty colored note cards to my wall and created timelines and character sketches. I drew my main character's apartment so I could keep track of her as she tried to move her sister around. I even traveled to London to find another character's apartment—a character I later deleted. Now that's dedication. Okay, for really real, I was in London anyway, but walked around until I found a place that looked like where my character would live and then I took a picture of it like a creepy person. Later, in an interview with a guy from London, he told me that she would in no way live there so I moved her to a different neighborhood.

The point is that even though the story is set on Earth in contemporary times, I still had to do a lot of research to make it seem convincing. Nothing cheeses me off more than cop-out settings—stuff that doesn't really make sense, where it's obvious the author has only made a half-hearted effort. The only exception is C.S. Lewis' Space Trilogy, which is so much less popular than The Chronicles of Narnia, that you've probably never heard of it before. The books are Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra and That Hideous Strength, set on Mars, Venus and Earth respectively. I'm a Lewis fan and I loved these books, but it's obvious he hadn't an inkling about space travel.   

On the flip side, there are those authors who go into waaaaaay too much detail about their new and obviously much-loved worlds. Those types of books are annoying too, because unless the whole history of your planet is exactly relevant to what is happening in the story, then it's called backstory. It's to help guide your writing, and it doesn't need to be spelled out for us, thank you very much.

That being said, there are too many good sci-fi worlds to list as great examples, but I'll try anyway. Some of my favorite sci-fi books, movies and TV shows (in no particular order) are as follows:

• Star Trek
• Firefly/Serenity
• Primer 
• Fringe
• Dune
• FlashForward
• 1984 
• Battlestar Galactica
• 12 Monkeys 
• Looper
• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
• Donnie Darko
• Farscape
• Planet of the Apes
• The Andromeda Strain
• Fahrenheit 451
• Sliders
• The Matrix
• Contact
• Quantum Leap
• Dr. Who
• Back to the Future
• Bladerunner
• E.T.
• A Wrinkle in Time

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Character sketch - the heroine Cynthia 2:32 PM

Buffy Summers

Two of my favorite heroines are Buffy and Xena, not only because they are badass babes, but because everything doesn't just come easy for them. Season after season, they endure all kinds of hardship and come out at the end kicking (and swearing)--the phoenix rising from her ashes. Maybe they are emotionally, mentally and physically scarred, but they keep on keeping on despite the fact that they are abandoned by friends and family and...you know...die. Sometimes twice. It takes some real grit to keep fighting evil after you're dead. Twice.

Xena Warrior Princess

I've always appreciated a strong female lead and was impressed that when Joss Whedon was asked: "So why do you write these strong female characters?" he responded with "Because you're still asking me that question." Yeah Joss. That's why I watch all your stuff. Also because it's awesome.
When I was little, I was completely enamored with Wonder Woman. Because first of all, she's an Amazon princess. Then you add the invisible jet, magic lasso of truth and bullet-repelling bracelets.... Plus, in comic books her hair is blue! What's not to love?
Today there are myriad strong female characters spouting lines like: "Touch me and that hand will never touch anything again," and "So are you going to kill me or are we just making small talk?" Any guy (or girl) who's been shot down by a woman, knows nothing stings quite as much as snarky words from a hot chick.

Wonder Woman

Yes, we've come a long way, but we're still in that awkward transitory stage where women can be badasses, but they're still required to wear impossibly revealing outfits and stilettos while doing it. One of my biggest beefs with Star Trek: Voyager, is that when they rescued 7 of 9, they took her out of her leather armor and combat boots and stuck her in a catsuit and stilettos. That doesn't even make sense. I know it appealed to the target audience (pimply males) but c'mon. Wedges at least. The point is, we still have a ways to go.

Inanna

Side note: one of my least favorite things anyone has ever said to me is, "Women are supposed to be soft."
Psh. What? "Supposed to be" by whose decree? Inanna the Sumerian Queen of Heaven wasn't soft. She's been around since 2,000 BCE. She is the goddess of love, fertility and lust, but not of marriage (burn!). She isn't just a love-them-and-leave-them type of goddess. She's a black widow. She's also the goddess of war (double burn!). Years later, legend has it that the badass Amazons hacked or burnt off their right breast so it didn't get in the way of their bow-pulling or javelin-throwing skills. They fought in the Trojan War and popped in and out of history in their badass fashion. See Herodotus' account of the Amazons settling with the Scythians:

Amazon Warrior

"The Amazons (also called oiropatas -- man-killers) were taken captive by the Greeks and put on board ship where they murdered the crew. However, the Amazons didn't know how to sail so they floundered until they landed by the cliffs of the Scythians. There they took horses and fought the people. When the Scythians figured out that the warriors they were fighting were women, they resolved to impregnate them and schemed accordingly. The Amazons didn't resist, but encouraged the process which was complicated by a language barrier. In time, the men wished the women to become their wives, but the Amazons, knowing that they couldn't live within the Scythian patriarchy insisted the men leave their native land. The men obliged and a new land was set up. These people became the SAUROMATAE who spoke a version of Scythian adapted by the Amazons."

- Herodotus Histories 4.110.1-117.1

They moved in, let the men make their babies for them and then kicked them out. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

River Tam

Because I grew up reading about the Amazons, I have a hard time being impressed by any heroine who lapses into a coma when her boyfriend leaves, falls in love with the guy who beats her up or hides under laundry when things get rough. I'm trying to be subtle here, but you probably know which books I'm referring to.
I've compiled a list (in no particular order) of some badass heroines from movies, TV and books who make me want to put my stilettos on and kick a bad guy in the face. They're not perfect, but that's okay. That just makes me love them more.

Trinity

• Ripley from Alien (has no need for an upper lip)
• Thursday Next from The Eyre Affair (engages in clever wordplay while fighting crime)
• Clarice Starling from The Silence of the Lambs (6th greatest protagonist according to this)
• Medea from Medea (yeah, some of the stuff she did was a little messed up, but hey, she got to ride off in the Sun god's chariot!)
• The Bride from Kill Bill (looks great in yellow)
• Hester Prynne from The Scarlet Letter (strong and silent)
• Sarah Connor from The Terminator (has great arms)
• Dagny Taggart from Atlas Shrugged (has this site dedicated to reasons she is cool)
• Charlene Elizabeth Baltimore from The Long Kiss Goodnight (just a lot of butt-kicking)



The Bride

• Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird (start young and stay strong)
• Sarah from Labyrinth (I would have run screaming at the first "'ello".)
• Hermione Granger from Harry Potter (smart and strong)
• G.I. Jane from G.I. Jane (looks great bald)
• The Duchess from The Duchess of Malfi (what's a girl got to do to get some peace?!)
• Maggie Fitzgerald from Million Dollar Baby (serious badass)
• Una from The Faerie Queen (pulls the Redcrosse Knight out of his funk)
• Eowyn from the The Lord of the Rings (doesn't take no for an answer)
• Lisbeth Salander from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (I don't want to &@$% with her. Do you?

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