Category: Musings

Get out there and vote

An ugly election season is finally almost over. Those who know me know where I stand on the issues, and if you’ve read my blog posts you can probably figure it out. But no matter who you vote for or what issues are dear to you, please get out and vote. Your vote does count and we are fortunate enough in this country to be able to have that choice. Some people fought long and hard to have the opportunity to vote. So do it! And whatever happens, the sun will still rise tomorrow and we can get back to the business of figuring out how to come together.

“Our daughters daughters will adore us and they’ll sing in grateful chorus,
Well done, sister suffragette!”
-Mary Poppins (rather appropriate for this historic election)

Haunting reads

ravenFall is here. There’s a chill in the air (maybe, since the weather keeps going from hot to cold here), leaves are turning red and gold, and the nights are growing longer. Halloween will be here in less than a day. I have candy and pumpkins at the ready. And nothing says Halloween like a spooky read. Here are a few old and new favorites.

The Girl With All the Gifts: I don’t read a lot of zombie books, but this one is really different. I’d say it’s more of a literary zombie tale. Very unique. And it will make you think long after you’ve finished it.

Ghosts by Gaslight: This is a collection of spooky short stories. If you like gothic, Victorian reads, check this one out. Some stories were better than others, but I found a few gems.

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children: Not necessarily scary, but it does have a fantastical, creepy vibe. I haven’t seen the movie but really enjoyed the book.

The October Country: My first introduction to Ray Bradbury and still one of my favorites. Lots of spine-tingling creepiness here. “The Emissary” and “Uncle Einar” are still memorable after all these years.

Dracula’s Brood: You can’t go wrong with classic vampire tales!

 

Murder your darlings

“Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.”

-Stephen King, On Writing

Writers love to write. Well, most of the time that is. Actually, for me quite often it’s as painful as opening a vein. But even harder is cutting out something that you’ve written and loved. Maybe in the light of day it’s not as brilliant as you thought it was in the wee hours of the morning. Or maybe it just doesn’t fit in the story any more.

I now have a folder on my computer with a bunch of chapters that have been completely cut from the current draft of Thief of Destiny. It’s sad because there are some great scenes and characters in those chapters, but the truth is they no longer fit with my new plot line. And since the plot is working out much better than before, all I can do is send them to the “old chapters” folder and hope that maybe they’ll see the light of day in a future book or a novella. Somewhere I have a file called “darlings” with deleted paragraphs and scenes from book 1. It’s tempting to post some deleted scenes or make a “director’s cut” version, but on the other hand, things are generally cut for a good reason. Chopping down my beloved prologue from Thief of Hope was so hard at the time; now I can barely remember the original version because the changes worked so much better.

So the writing proceeds. Chapters are cut and new words are added. The book is coming along. I keep thinking of the words of a wise fish as inspiration: “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.”

When walls between worlds grow thin

Happy May Day and happy Beltane! I’m not sure how it got to be May already, but here we are. I was thinking about the belief that Beltane is one of the times of the year when the walls between the human world and the faerie world grow thin, making it easier to pass from one to the other. I’ve been writing about this in Thief of Destiny, which has all kinds of interesting stuff about the faery realm and magic and my main character’s connection to both of those things.

And for my fellow Washington College alumni, May Day probably brings back memories. The college has a tradition of students running around naked on campus on May Day. Apparently it has its own page in Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_Day_%28Washington_College%29. I feel a bit sad reading that there isn’t as much nakedness as there used to be! There’s also a video of my favorite English professor describing how he inadvertently started the tradition in the 60s (of course it was the 60s!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjjBgtvrQNY

So if you get a hankering to run around naked and read poetry today, here’s a poem to include. I’m pretty sure this was on my May Day list one year. I’ve posted it before, but it’s a favorite.

Spring
by Gerard Manley Hopkins
(from The Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins)

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush
Thrush’s eggs look little low heavens, and thrush
Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring
The ear, it strikes like lightnings to hear him sing;
The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush
The descending blue; that blue is all in a rush
With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and all this joy?
A strain of the earth’s sweet being in the beginning
In Eden garden. – Have, get, before it cloy,

Before it cloud, Christ, lord, and sour with sinning,
Innocent mind and Mayday in girl and boy,
Most, O maid’s child, thy choice and worthy the winning.

Rogue One trailer

Looks like we’re going to have a Star Wars Christmas again this year! (And for years to come…) I’m not sure how many times I’ve watched the trailer for Rogue One–I cannot wait! A friend commented that the new protagonist seems to have some Sydney-like qualities, and I agree, based on the brief glimpses we get of her. I’m very curious about her and her role in the story. I also loved seeing Mon Monthma. Maybe some of our Imperial favorites from A New Hope will make an appearance?

At some point I will have to share my thoughts on The Force Awakens, but needless to say it met and exceeded expectations and reaffirmed my faith in Star Wars.