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Wednesday 28 March 2012

Lucky Seven - Deathhawk's Betrayal


There are a lot of chain blogs and awards that go around. Occasionally I join in for fun, but most of the time I’m too busy to bother or they quite simply annoy the hell out of me. Very, very rarely, though, one comes along which actually looks like fun and, even better, requires very little effort on my part! It’s not that I am averse to hard work, you understand, it’s just I do so damn much of it. And I’m currently on holidays in beautiful Port Stephens, so really, who would want to work hard?

But I’ve been tagged by four people in this latest meme – yes, it wasn’t enough for just one of you pester me, four of you had to gang up to get me to do this. Thank you @markbrassington, @dionnelister, @thatgirlani and @stephanieberget. But that’s OK, I’ve decided to play along this time.

So this is how the Lucky Seven meme works: 
  1. Go to page 77 in your current manuscript;
  2. Go to line 7;
  3. Copy down the next 7 lines as they are (no cheating);
  4. Tag 7 other authors.
Here we have it, from Deathhawk’s Betrayal, page 77:
Raylee had not been fooled by her contrived defeat of the mercenary in town, but she had no intention of sharing the information. Just because Astarl had offered to look into the missing girls? Or was there more to it? And for that matter, why had all the other girls gone missing but not Raylee?

If Astarl needed something, she believed Raylee would help. And expect nothing but the same in return. Maybe not all people are the same.
I’ve tagged seven writers I know to play, but please, don’t feel compelled! This is strictly optional. Don’t play if you don’t enjoy! I know all of you are writers, but I’m not totally across your latest projects so forgive me if you don’t have a current WIP or haven’t made it to page 77 yet. 

  1. Erica LuckeDean
  2. Kelly Stone Gamble
  3. Shawn Wickersheim
  4. Marsha Moore
  5. Amberr Meadows
  6. Krystal Wade
  7. Kirkus MacGowan
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Sunday 25 March 2012

Six Sentence Sunday: Dire Straits


From Deathhawk’s Betrayal:
Gavalon forced her teeth apart; the funnel invaded her mouth. Astarl choked on the sudden gush of liquid, coughed, and swallowed reflexively. Feebly, she sprayed out half a mouthful, then choked on a fresh flood. She thrashed again, redoubling her efforts.
Her elbow connected. Gavalon grunted, his grip easing for a moment.
 You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here.
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Thursday 22 March 2012

Knurd to Writer’s Block


Unless you’re a hardcore Terry Pratchett fan, you are probably wondering what knurd is. Knurd, on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, is an extreme state of sobriety, where all the pink illusions we comfort ourselves with are stripped away to leave stark, bare reality. It is described as being all the way through sobriety and out the other side. Someone who is knurd needs a couple of drinks just to be sober. Put simply, it's the complete and absolute (not Absolut! ha!) opposite of drunk. In fact, read it backwards...

So what do I mean when I talk about the knurd to writer’s block (assuming writer’s block is a state of drunkenness).

I’m referring to someone who has so many writing ideas, and is so dedicated to the idea of their craft, they become paralysed by indecision. I think this complex is tied to perfectionism. And I am guilty as charged.

Because last week I had a serious case of writer’s knurd. 

I realised this when I I was struck by recognition that I have eight short stories and one novel, none of which are finished. I mean, they are finished in the sense they have a beginning, middle and an end. But I have never completed the editing process. Which is not to say I haven’t edited them to the end. Because I have. Many times. I just… keep editing.

It kind of goes like this:
 
Step 1 – Write story.
Step 2 – Revise story.
Step 3 – Give story to alpha and beta readers.
Step 4 – Consider feedback and revise and edit as needed.
Step 5 – repeats Step 1 – 4.

And there should be a Step 6 – Finished, but there isn’t! Why not? Two reasons:
  • I’m constantly trying to improve the work. Part of this stems from the fact I am nearly always studying my craft, learning new things, seeing old errors in the work and then wanting to correct them. The other part is just a complete inability to recognise when the work is finished i.e. no longer needs improving. 
  •  I don’t know what to do when I get polar opposite feedback from my readers, and I mean polar opposite e.g. ‘I love this’ versus ‘this is terrible’.
So I went into emotional meltdown when I realised all this, or otherwise had a knurd moment, and suddenly reality was so tangibly real I couldn’t cope. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t see how to fix this. OK, so I’m a control freak who always knows the answer (or at least has a strategy that might lead to the answer) and this is most likely a contributing factor. 

Not knowing what else to do, I sought advice from some people I know, and what I got back helped. 

Summed up, it went like this:
  • Are you a perfectionist? Because you might have to let go of that;
  • Don’t listen to the critics and be true to yourself;
  • Don’t let someone else edit your own voice out of your work;
  • There is no way to know when a piece of work is finished; you just have to decide that it is; and
  • You are a perfectionist, I know this. Creative writing is an art, like the performing arts, and often the pursuit of perfection is encouraged but is ultimately unattainable. Recognise that.
Probably no one piece of advice I got was enough on its own, but together they all helped me to get some perspective. So I came up with some rules:
  • Disregard any feedback which is not supported by at least two readers. For better or worse, if it is a solitary opinion I will treat it as a subjective opinion until someone else agrees there is an issue. For my own sanity;
  • I will not entertain changes that don’t feel right to me. I don’t mean of the variety of ‘My writing is perfect and nothing needs to be changed’ but more the variety of ‘If I make these changes I will be changing the very nature of the piece’. Or, put another way, it would destroy my voice. Someone else might write the same story a very different way, but it doesn’t mean my way isn’t right for me, or that either way is better. Just that I am writing with my voice and not the voice of another! 
As for finishing… I’ll just need to let go of my perfectionism. That may be easier said than done, coming from the black and white legal background I do, but I will try. 

I would like to give a shout out to the people who generously gave advice last week; @sirra_girl, @JustinBog, @DionneLister, @CharityParkerso, @RachelintheOC, @amberrisme, @wxmouse, and Erin, my friend since 1994 at school. 

And a special shoutout to @LydiaAswolf for helping me to hear my voice. Because of you, I won’t be making wholesale changes to a short story I wrote.

Thank you all and apologies to anyone I might have missed.

 
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Monday 19 March 2012

Six Sentence Sunday: Little Hawk

From Deathhawk's Betrayal:
Danek; no one else still called her little hawk. A hiss of anger escaped Astarl’s lips. Of all the people Jeharv could trust with delivery.... She ignored Danek’s use of the diminutive rather than flag its significance.
I am no man's little hawk. The note crumpled in her fist.
You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here.

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Thursday 15 March 2012

Beasties of the Deep: Mythological Creatures of the Sea - Part 2


Welcome to Part 2 of Mythological Creatures of the Sea. If you missed Part 1 you can find it here. Previous posts i the mythical creatures series can be found here (on dragons, fantastical horses, and mythical creatures of the sky). Today we’re dealing with other beasts of the deep!

Hippocampus depiction in ancient art
Hippocampus – Still no hippos....

Common to Phoenician and Greek mythology, the hippocampus is typically depicted as the front half of a horse with a fish’s tail. 

Poseidon, god of the sea, but also of horses and earthquakes (talented chap!), was described by Homer as drawn by "brazen-hoofed" horses over the sea's surface, whereas Neptune (the Roman name for Poseidon) has a sea chariot drawn by hippocampi, gicing the god slightly different depictions in each culture. 

Neptune's horses do appear as hippocampi in the Trevi Fountain in Rome. I’ve seen this fountain in the flesh…er, stone… and didn’t realise the horses were more than just horses! In my defence, it was a little crowded at the time. And I had sore feet. 


You don’t see this one much in fantasy, I’m afraid. So if you’re looking for something a little unusual… consider the poor, forgotten hippocampus!
The Trevi Fountain in Rome

Kraken - Oh, giant octopus!

OK, that’s some octopus. The kraken, of truly giant proportions, probably had more than 8 arms and was reputed to live off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.

One tale goes that the Kraken was sometimes mistaken for an island, and the real danger to sailors is the whirlpool left in its wake. Other tales more commonly have the kraken wrapping its tentacles around hapless ships and dragging them to a watery grave. It was said if the kraken were to seize hold of the largest man-of-war, it could be pulled to the very bottom of the sea. 

The myth may have grown from sightings of the giant squid, estimated to grow to 13–15 m (40–50 ft) in length (including tentacles). Although giant squid usually lives at great depths, they are sometimes sighted at the surface and may even have attacked ships.

The kraken makes an appearance in The Sword of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. The monster that drives the Fellowship of the Ring into the mines of Moria may also have been a kraken or kraken type creature. 


Man o' War

Kraken
















Each Uisge - Beautiful Horse!

 Pronounced Ach (rhymes with Bach, the composer; the "ch" is a gutteral sound, caught in the throat, almost as if you are choking – if you’ve ever heard a Scot say ‘Och!’ you know what I mean) ishkeh (like "shish kabob", without the first "sh" and "bob" at the end). Yes, as far as I can see, there is no logical connection between the spelling of these words and their pronunciation!

Considered a relative of the Scottish kelpie, or waterhorse (which is not a Loch Ness Monster type-creature - we'll cover waterhorses ina  future post), the Each Uisge of the Scottish Highlands is reputedly the most dangerous water-dwelling creature in the British Isles. 

Unlike the kelpie, the Each Uisge lives in the sea, sea lochs and fresh water lochs and is far more vicious. It often appears as a beautiful horse or an incredibly handsome man. In human form, the Each Uisge can be recognised only by the water weeds in his hair. Highlanders tended to be wary of lone animals or people near the edges of lochs for fear it was the Each Uisge. 

If a man or woman mounts the Each Uisge while in horse-form, they are safe so long as they remain out of sight or scent of water – although this may be difficult in Scotland! For if the Each Uisge scents water, his back becomes sticky, preventing the rider from dismounting. The Each Uisge then drags his rider to a watery doom, diving to the very deepest part of the loch. After the rider has drowned, the Each Uisge devours his victim, except for the liver which floats to the surface. Presumably the poor soul has unstuck from the Each Uisge’s back at this point....

One tale of the Each Uisge recounts a blacksmith from Raasay who lost his daughter to the Each Uisge. In revenge, the blacksmith and his son made a set of large hooks, then roasted a sheep and heated the hooks until they were red hot. A mist appeared from the water and the Each Uisge rose from the depths of the loch, seizing the sheep, and the blacksmith and his son rammed the hooks into its flesh, killing it. Nothing remained in the morning except a jelly like substance.

The Each Uisge makes an appearance in the Bitterbynde trilogy by Australian author Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

Selkies - Seal People

Selkies, also called silkies or selchies, are also Scottish in origin (also Faroese, Icelandic and Irish folklore). A selkie is a magical seal which can take the form of a human. When in human form, the selkie sheds its seal skin. Without the skin, it cannot return to seal form. 

Unlike many other mythological creatures, the selkies lend themselves to romantic tragedies. A human might take a selkie for a lover, not knowing their lover is not human, and wakes one day to find them gone. In other’s, knowing their lover is a selkie, the mortal takes and hides the selkie’s seal skin, denying them the ability to return to the sea. This is the only way a human can keep a selkie lover, for if the human does not hide the selkie’s skin, the selkie must wait seven years before they may make contact with their human lover again. 

Male selkies are very beautiful and seductive to human women, but prefer dissatisfied women, such as those at home waiting for their fishermen husbands. If a woman wishes to call a selkie, she must go to a beach and shed seven tears into the sea. Then the selkie will come to her. 

If a man steals a selkie’s skin, she is in his power and forced to become his wife. Female selkies supposedly made prized wives, but they often gaze at the sea, missing their home. If she can find her skin, she will return to the sea, even if she has mortal children. Often it is one of her children who unwittingly finds her skin and allows her the opportunity to escape. How sad! Such escaped selkie women usually avoid their mortal husband but may return to visit their children from time to time. 

In the Faroe Islands there is the story of the Seal Wife. A young farmer goes to watch the selkies dance on the beach. Hiding the skin of a selkie maid, he forces her to marry him, and hides her skin in a locked chest to which only he has the key. On the day he forgets the key, she takes back her skin and escapes back to the sea, leaving behind her husband and children. 

Although selkie lore tends to romantic tragedies, not all tales are about faithless lovers. The fisherman, Cagan, married a selkie and sailed against his wife’s wishes into dangerous weather. His selkie wife shifted to seal form and saved him, although this meant she could not return to him or her happy home for seven years. 

I find the selkie folklore very sad. Nothing ever seems to go right for selkies who love mortals or mortals who love selkies. Doomed from the start!

Selkies also appear in the Bitterbynde trilogy by Australian author Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

That’s it for our mythical creatures of the sea. I’ve been asked to cover undines and rusalkas (other types of water creatures, although more typically associated with fresh water) so if you have any special requests, do let me know!

You can find other posts in mythical creatures series here - Dragons, Fantastical Horses, Creatures of the Sky, Mythical Creatures of the Sea - Part 1, and Spirits of Inland Waterways

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Monday 12 March 2012

Six Sentence Sunday: Why Am I Here?


An extract from Deathhawk’s Betrayal:
Why am I even here?
As Astarl slid the pick into the lock of Aldenon’s door, she wanted to tell herself last night’s failed attempt had driven her here. She wanted to tell herself the wards on the treasury were too powerful to trick. She wanted to tell herself it was important she obtain that key.
What she admitted only in the dark, secret places of her soul was that the morning’s visit with the Order’s relay, his gentle charm and the remembered touch of Aldenon’s hands, had driven her here.
Is it that I want Aldenon to catch me?
You can find more Six Sentence Sunday writers here.


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