Monthly Archives: July 2012

Jul
16

Writing What You Don’t Know

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I was on a forum over the weekend where people were talking about things they hated most in books. One person commented that they hated it when men wrote about women characters. Now, the user has a right to that opinion, even though it was pointed out that that sort of limitation would completely obliterate most books as we know them. And the thing is – the user’s specific complaint was the author’s treatment of the female character’s period – e.g. referring to it as her “little monthly visitor” or some such.  Now, I haven’t read the passage in question, so I don’t know the context. But her argument is that you can’t write about something you don’t have and will never be able to experience. Huh? That’s like saying I can’t write about dying because I’m not dead. The short answer is  – not everyone experiences everything, regardless of… Read more
Jul
13

Blogging Plans Awry

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I had all these plans today to write up a post about character development and what aspects help to create a compelling character, but real life seems to have waylaid me. For one, I ended up spending a few hours at the vet with Tumbleweed today (lovely shot there for you.) Think she’ll be okay, but I gotta watch her for the next few weeks and make sure she gets her meds and then we’ll see. (It’s nothing major, but she just seems to be walking funny and a bit off her feed.) For the other, it’s Connor’s birthday today and I’ve got a whole bunch of family type things to arrange and do, so that’s cut into my blogging time. Once I get these first pass pages in next week I’ll have a little bit of a breather, but otherwise I suspect I’ll be rather scare on the interwebs… Read more
Jul
12

Word-Whore ~ Fox and Willow Thursday

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So this week on Word Whores we’re talking about books or characters we wish we’d written. Which is difficult for me – and I obviously did pick some, but to be honest, I don’t really wish I’d written anyone else’s stuff. The reason I love those characters and books is specifically because someone ELSE wrote them and made them brilliant. Wishing I’d written them instead just seems to suck out all the enjoyment out of it for me, because even if I had written book x…it wouldn’t have been the book x by author y that I loved. It would have been book x, written by me. Which maybe doesn’t make any sense, but there it is. Anyway, check that out and of course new Fox & Willow up today as well! 😀… Read more
Jul
11

Popping the Culture

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So I’ve got my first pass pages for A Trace of Moonlight sitting on my desk – my last real chance at making any last edits, catching typos – the small stuff. They always say not to sweat the small stuff, but in this case small stuff can sometimes make a big difference. Pop culture is always changing – so sometimes a reference I’ve made in a book made perfect sense when I wrote it…and doesn’t a few months later. Case in point, the above passage is a rather snide commentary aimed at the Mass Effect 3 ending debacle. (The main issue was the the overall outcome seemed to be the same no matter what you did. To say gamers were upset would be an understatement of gross proportions.) Which is fine, except that a few weeks ago, Bioware released an extended ending DLC that attempted to give the player… Read more
Jul
10

Brave

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Before I left on vacation I had mentioned I wanted to talk a little bit about the movie Brave. Spoilers ahead and all that, but I think the movie has been out long enough that most people have seen it (who wanted to.) The thing is, as a whole, the movie seems to have gotten a bad rap from a lot of critics, particularly because of the plot. A lot seems to have been made out of the fact that Merida is Pixar’s first female lead, and with that in mind, perhaps she should have…done more? The crux of the issue is this – the setup leads us to believe that Merida is a bit of a warrior princess type – she’s brash and headstrong, rides her horse, shoots arrows and is basically a tom-boy. (Incidentally, this EW article on the subject insisting that Merida might be a lesbian because… Read more