Tidbits from the Travel Journal: The Shetland Islands

One of our favorite stops was our day in the Shetland Islands. Our tour guide (one of our 4 Scottish guides or bus drivers named "Andrew" throughout the course of the trip) moved to the Shetlands with his wife when she got a job there. He had been there for 4 years and it was obvious that he loved his new home.

He gleefully informed us that we were experiencing a "warm, sunny Shetland summer day" - it was 50 degrees and drizzly. He explained that due to Shetland's combination of northerly latitude and being one of "last stops" on the Gulf Stream, that the islands don't really have extreme temperatures. He said that it doesn't ever get much warmer than 70, but also never really gets below about 23. (And, yeah, 23 is toward the colder end of things, but considering that I had do deal with a cold snap last winter where it got down to 10...)

Due to its location (approximately half-way between Norway and the Northern coast of Scotland), Shetland also was part of Norway/Denmark for many centuries. Along with the Orkney Islands, the Shetlands were given to Scotland as part of the dowry when a Norwegian princess married the king of Scotland in 1469. Even though it's been quite a while, the Shetlands consider themselves to be just as much Norwegian as Scottish; there is a dialect that is only spoken in the Shetlands that is a mix of Old Norse and Scotch Gaelic. Even our guide, when he referred to the mainland, made it sound like it was another country, saying that a lot of Shetlanders go to university "in Scotland" (even though Shetland is a part of Scotland and the UK).

Andrew was also telling us about the native plants and animals on the island - while heather and mosses are common, trees are rare. Birch trees only grow to be about 6 feet tall, and there are 100-year-old sycamores that are only 25 feet tall. I think I recall him saying that none of the trees that grow on the island are native. Also due to its being an island in the middle of nowhere, there are no deer, foxes, squirrels, or magpies. The largest carnivore is "a type of ferret called a polecat*." These were introduced to help control the rabbit population after they were introduced to the island by someone who didn't realize that there were no predators.

*Not a skunk, despite the fact that I always thought "polecat" was slang for "skunk."

Travel Journal Breakdown

Hello, readers! Now that I'm back from my trip, and through Banned Books Week, it's time to share some of my stories from my travel journal.

August 31-September 17, Jason and I went on a delayed honeymoon/1st anniversary trip. We visited England, Norway, Iceland, and Scotland. I will eventually post some pictures here and on social media, but I first want to tell you about the journal itself.

One of the things my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas was a beautiful blank book. As soon as I saw it, I knew it had to be my travel journal. I've been on trips before where I've said, "I will write every day! I will write about every little detail!" But that's a hard goal to live up to, especially when you have a lot of exciting things you're doing.

This time around, I had a more reasonable goal. This wasn't meant to be a 100% comprehensive documentary of my trip. Instead, I would write impressions, some of our experiences, little details that I found interesting, and story inspirations.

As of looking back through the journal, I find the grand haul to be:

-8 quick anecdotes/interesting facts

-9 details and inspiration for writing in general

-3 new story ideas (not counting the one I had the day we left, before we left the house)

-5 interesting historical tidbits (not counting the ghost stories)

-3 important facts or inspiration for stories I'm already working on

-3 general/longer anecdotes

-3 ghost stories

-2 goofy anecdotes about our captain

I won't be sharing everything I mention above, and what I do share will be spread out over the next few weeks and months, interspersed with other topics and updates.

(Unrelated to the journal itself, I also bought 4 books on the trip. So there’s that.)

October Already

August gone, September over, now on to October. Gosh the last few months have really flown by!

Just a quick little update tonight:

-One of my projects for September was to post a blog every day of Banned Books Week - and this year I was able to succeed!

-Another project for September was to keep a travel journal while Jason and I were on our trip.

My goals for October include:

-Sharing some of the anecdotes from my travel journal.

-Submitting a Christmas story for publication.

-Figuring out what I want to do for November/NaNoWriMo.

Look for my regular blog schedule of on blog post every weekend from here on out.

Speak Out, Write Out, Read Out

So we have now spent a week celebrating the books that made it onto the banned and challenged lists. But it's not over today. The American Library Association estimates that there are many more banned and challenged books out there that haven't made it to the official lists because they haven't received enough media coverage, or have been quietly secreted off a shelf without any publicity at all. Every day, there are challenges issued in each school and library system in the country, sometimes for the most innocuous reasons.

This isn't to say that there isn't a time or place for parents to prevent their child from reading a book they feel he isn't ready for. Indeed, I think parents need to me more involved in what their children are reading, not less. But what I mean by that is that rather than just taking it for granted that a book is inappropriate, offensive, whatever, parents should take the time to research and, dare I suggest, read the book themselves.

Now, as someone who myself doesn't have as much time as I'd like to read without the added time constraints of having kids, I understand that you can't always read every book your child is interested in (especially if your child is a voracious reader like I was). But we live in a day and age where resources are available literally at our fingertips 24-7. Join Goodreads (goodreads.com), which is a free website where you can, among other things, read and post books reviews and engage in book discussions. Email, text, or tweet with friends and fellow parents that you trust. Talk to your child's teacher or librarian. Some public library websites now have links to reviews from places like Booklist and School Library Journal who often specifically list a recommended age range for children's and young adult books, often also listing things parents need to be aware of such as violence and profanity. But take ALL your research into account - if you see one review online that is a one star review, certainly read why that reader ranked the book as one star, but don't stop there and take that as your only decision-making factor.

On the flip side of being aware of what your children reads is being open to the idea that they may not like the same stuff you do. Heaven forbid that I might someday have an 11-year-old daughter who comes to me and wants to read slice-of-life, middle school, 11-year-old girls doing 11-year-old girl things books. I would have nothing to personally recommend, as I never read those sort of books. However, I would know where to look, who to ask, and would maybe have to resign myself to the fact that my daughter had not inherited my taste in pretty much anything other than slice-of-life.

Parents, be open to the fact that what interests you may not interest your children - and that's OK. Talk with them about the books they read. Show an interest in the topics they're interested in. Be a sounding board and a discussion forum for them, and once they accept the idea that they don't have to be embarrassed or guarded about the books they read because you are not going to tell them they can't, they will likely be more open to sharing with you. And even if you do decide that they aren't ready for a book, talk to them about it. If all their friends are reading that cool new book, but you think it's too violent, the language is too strong, there's sex in it, whatever, tell them why you think they aren't ready. Offer alternatives, offer to discuss it with them, maybe even offer to read the book with them if you feel it's something that is a topic you want to work through with them.

With that said, be open to new things yourself. When you hear about a book that has been challenged in your school system, library, or just has caused a regional scandal, look into it. Read reviews, tweets, talk to people about it. Check out your local library's book sale - you'd be surprised how many people anonymously donate books they're done with in the book drop overnight because they're concerned someone will see what they've been reading and give them a hard time about it. (For the record, most librarians are super opened-minded and are more likely to ask you your opinion of the book so they can know what to tell other patrons who ask about it, than to pass any kind of judgement.)

If you like it, (or for a challenged book, even if it's just mediocre, but not bothersome), get the word out. Go back to that group of research resources we've talked about compiling above. Express your opinion. If the book is in serious danger of being removed from a school or library, make sure you speak out against its removal.

And even if you read said challenged book and don't like it, consider the difference between "this book bothers me because of X" and "No one should read this book because of X." You have just as much right to dislike the book as someone else has to read it as the author had to write it. Remember that. You are entitled to your opinion; you are not entitled to take away someone else's right to come to their own opinion. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the whole point of Banned Books Week.

Over and out.

Unsuited to Age Group

The American Library Association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom keeps track of the reasons why books are challenged.  One of the most common reasons is "unsuited to age group."  Honestly, though, there is an awful lot of stuff out there that adults find inappropriate that goes right over kids' heads. 

To use a non-literary example, I recall a slumber party my sister had where my mom let us watch Mrs. Doubtfire.  I was 10 or 11, and my sister and her friends were four years younger.  Re-watching the movie as an adult many years later, I said, "Oh, my god, I can't believe my mom let us watch this!"  But when we were kids, we didn't understand the racy jokes - when we were kids it was just Robin Williams in a dress doing goofy things like dancing with a vacuum cleaner.

A few years ago, there was a big to do in the county where my parents lived about a book that was on the summer reading list - Z for Zachariah.  A lot of parents were upset because a teenage girl in the book is assaulted by an adult man.  My mom asked me if the book was "really that bad," because she remembered that I had read it in middle school.  Honestly, I didn't remember any kind of assault.  I remembered that the girl was trying to get away from the man, and that I had been far more upset by the dog dying.

Similarly, there was another book I read around the same rough time/age, Julie of the Wolves.  Unlike Z for Zachariah, this one is on the national banned books list. 

In the book, the main character, Julie, is left with her father's friends when her father goes missing.  At 13, they arrange for her to marry their son, who is a couple years older and a little slow.  She is told they will be "like brother and sister," and so she goes along with it.  Daniel, her new husband, barely speaks to her, let alone anything else.  But one day he comes home and says that his friends are making fun of him - "Dumb Daniel - he's got a wife and he can't mate her."  Julie points out that "we don't have to."  Daniel counters that "they're laughin'."  He tries to kiss Julie; she pulls away.  He trips her and they fall to the floor together.  He sticks his tongue in her mouth and she kicks him.  He lays on top of her for a moment but tries nothing else.  Then he gets up and runs out of the house proclaiming, "Tomorrow!  I can!"  Julie rolls over and throws up, then immediately begins packing her things.

Reading this as a 5th grader (I think), I had a general idea of what "mating" meant, but I saw this scene just as Daniel forcing a kiss on Julie an generally being mean.  Apparently a lot of parents read more into it.  My mom asked me about this one when I was a children's librarian too, asking me if that scene had bothered me (she had read it after I did) and lamenting that she had let me read it.  Since this one also shows up frequently on the banned book list for being “unsuited to age group,” I decided to reread it with an adult mindset; it seemed I had obviously missed something. 

But, no, on rereading it, the scene I describe above plays out pretty much as I have written it - no fade to black, no "half an hour later" or "the next day" or "after what happened."  I mean, it’s possible to read that scene and find somewhere that more can be inserted than what's already on the page (that’s always possible).  However, Daniel getting up and proclaiming “tomorrow!” kind of clinches it for me that he didn’t accomplish what he set out to do, especially since it’s pretty clear that Daniel has no idea what he's really trying to do. 

Rereading the book as an adult, I also caught other things, wonderful details that I completely missed as a kid.  Julie and her father are Inuit.  Shortly before Julie's father goes missing, he tells her that "the government is fighting a war" and they want him to go fight, too.  He takes his kayak out hunting and doesn't return.  Later his kayak is found smashed on the shore and everyone assumes he has died.  At the end of the book, though, Julie discovers that he is alive.  As a child, I hadn't even remembered the brief mention of the war and the smashed kayak; as an adult, I had a strong suspicion of what was going on.  I flipped to the front of the book.  Seeing the publication date of 1972, it confirmed my suspicion that the war was Vietnam and Julie's farther faked his death to get out of being drafted.

There were other things I noticed on the reread - color description, metaphors I had taken literally, and literal passages I had taken metaphorically, and generally just really good writing that I hadn't appreciated when I was a kid.  I love that, though - that a book that is written for kids has multiple layers so that it can be reread and appreciated over and over again.

Let's (not) talk about sex!

Uh, oh.  The "s" word.  One of the easiest ways to get your book on the banned books list.

Every year there are plenty of books that are challenged due to being "sexually explicit."  It seems that people have a lot of different interpretations of what qualifies as "sexually explicit;" books with vaguely implied sexual situations, or books written for parents to share with their children about puberty and where babies come from - more often than not with no actual depiction of the sex act -  get slapped with this label.

Then you have books that are labeled as both "sexually explicit" and "unsuited to age group."  One of the book series that got slapped with both labels was the 50 Shades series.  What age group?  Y'all know these were written for adults, right?  I mean if we're saying that they're unsuitable for adults because they started out as Twilight fan fiction you might have a valid point... But the "unsuited for age group" label is supposed to reflect books written for children or teens, or assigned to children or teens, that parents or teachers feel are too mature for the age group that is meant to be reading them.  I hope no one is assigning 50 Shades - except maybe as an example of how not to write.

And before 50 Shades, there was the Sleeping Beauty Trilogy.  Sleeping Beauty came out before erotica had become more acceptable, so the author used the pen name A. N. Roquelaure.  Now that she has become well known and respected, and has gone back and forth between horror/dark fantasy and religious novels, the Sleeping Beauty books are now as often as not printed with her real name - Anne Rice. 

We seem to have a real problem with sex in this country – whether it’s admitting we're reading a book about it, or teaching our children about it.  I personally have no problem reading sexual scenes in books provided they are well-written and further the plot or the character's journey. 

I was curious about the Sleeping Beauty books.  In the oldest versions of the story, the chaste true love's kiss becomes something more sinister.  In one version, the sleeping princess gives birth while still in her cursed state and it is only when he baby sucks the poisoned thorn out of her finger that she wakes.

So with the obvious undertones in the original fairy tale, and knowing that Rice has written about sexy, angsty vampires*, I said, "well, let's give this a try."  And... well, a more appropriate name for the series would be the Spanking Beauty series.  I'm not even kidding.  Not a whole lot of plot, and a whole lot of pretty people getting spanked and paddled.  A lot.

*At least these vampires aren’t sparkly…

So my suggestion is that if we put warning labels on these books, that they read as follows:

Don't read The Sleeping Beauty Chronicles - all that paddling gets old after a while.

Don't read 50 Shades of Grey - there is a lot out there that's just as racy and better written.

I recall reading a review of the 50 Shades series on Amazon.com that was written by a gynecologist who said that there were a lot of scenes that were "anatomically inaccurate."  Which I guess what you get when you don't let people read about sex.

Harry Potter: The Boy Who Died

As I've already mentioned in my posts this week, the Harry Potter books have a strong theme of self-sacrifice to save others.  Reading through the whole series, again and again, you see a character who loves someone (or multiple people) so much that they are willing to die to protect them.  This message is, at its simplest, a very Christian message.  Yet, ironically, many Christian groups, parents, teachers are quick to challenge or try to remove these books from schools and library simply because of the words "witchcraft" and "magic" in the synopses of the books. 

That's not to say that all Christians oppose the books - it seems to be those that aren't willing to give the books a chance, to read them and see what they are about, before they assume that they are bad.  It is worth noting that an Episcopal priest, who was the middle school chaplain at a local Episcopal school, urged me for months to pick up Harry Potter before I finally started reading it in college.

In the first book, we find out that the reason that Harry lived, the reason that Voldemort's curse couldn't touch him, was that Harry's mother's final act, her offering of her life to protect her son, was such a strong and powerful mix of love and magic that evil couldn't overcome it. 

In the sixth book, Dumbledore makes a choice.  He knows his time is limited - he has a slowly growing curse that is killing him.  He also knows that Voldemort is going to try to force Draco Malfoy to prove his loyalty and guesses that it's likely that Voldemort will assign Draco to be the one to kill him (Dumbledore).  Dumbledore wants to spare the boy - to prevent him from losing his innocence - so he asks Snape, who he trusts, that if it comes down to it, to kill him so that Draco will not have to. 

In the last book, Snape is left mortally wounded by Voldemort's snake.  Rather than begging Harry to help him, to get him somewhere that he can be saved, he gives up his memories to Harry, so that Harry will understand what he has done and why.

And finally, fueled by Snape’s memories and the new knowledge that he must die so that Voldemort's power can be broken and his friends, teachers, schoolmates, and other wizards and witches can live and live freely, Harry doesn't run.  He doesn't hide.  He doesn't try to find a way out.  A 17-year-old boy makes the decision to walk up to Voldemort with his head held high and let himself be hit full-on by the killing curse that felled his parents and so many other people he cares about throughout the course of the books.  And he dies.  Maybe.  He survives, or maybe he even returns from the dead.  But he didn't know that would happen.  That's the thing; he walked in with blind trust in Dumbledore and Snape.  He had no idea that he would survive; he wasn't even sure that his death would completely fix everything.  He just knew that he had to die before Voldemort could be killed; the little piece of Voldemort that lived inside of him had to be killed and there was no way to do that without killing Harry too.

Harry.  Gandalf.  Aslan.  Jesus.  Pretty cool dudes who are worth reading about.

Harry Potter: The Chosen One

The Harry Potter series was one on the most challenged series of the 1990’s.  As I mentioned in yesterday's post, the use of magic often gets the label of "occult" or "Satanism" slapped on it - frequently, it seems by people who have not read the books, because there is a very strong theme of doing the right thing to protect others throughout each Harry Potter book and the whole series.  Though, I was looking at some info compiled by the American Library Association yesterday, so it seems that challenges due to (perceived) occult/Satanism dropped off in the 2000’s: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics

Concentrating specifically on Harry Potter and the Philosopher/Sorcerer's Stone*, we meet Harry - the Boy Who Lived, the Chosen One.  Here we meet a boy from a humble background, about whom there is a prophecy.  Sound like someone else you know?  (OK, we don't know the actual prophecy for several books, but other characters know about it.)  He is hailed as the one who defeated the Dark Lord, who cheated death itself.  Harry doesn't even know he is anything special until he is 11 years old, and even then, seems hesitant to accept the truth. 

At the end of the book, Harry is faced with a puzzle. The Sorcerer's Stone, which is desired by Voldemort to restore his power and make him immortal, is hidden in the mirror of Erised.  As already established in the book, when Harry was first faced with the mirror that showed him his deepest desire, he saw not money, not toys or candy, not athletic prowess or popularity.  He saw, very simply, his family.  Now, when faced with the mirror again, his deepest desire has changed.  He desires to keep Voldemort away from the stone; he desires to protect his new friends, and, indeed, the world, from the man who destroyed his family.  So what does he see in the mirror?  The stone safely hidden in his own pocket.

After Harry defeats Voldemort in this book, Dumbledore explains to him the enchantment that he put on the mirror when he hid the stone in it was that only someone who wanted to find the stone - "find it, but not use it" - would be able to retrieve it.  What does an 11-year-old boy want with immortality?

I was reminded when I first read this book of young Arthur in the Sword in the Stone.  Many men had tried to pull the sword from the stone because of the prophecy that whoever did so would be king.  Arthur was squiring for his foster brother at a tournament, when he realized he had forgotten Kay's sword.  Desperate to find a replacement, he came across a sword sticking out of a rock.  Thinking only of his foster brother's need, he pulled it out and took the sword to him.  Kay instantly recognized it for what it was, whereas Arthur, who if I recall, was about the same age as young Harry, didn't understand the significance of what he had done.

While so many are quick to cry "black magic, black magic!" I instead like to see in these stories the innocence and selflessness of the young.

*Here's a thought for those of you playing along at home - if the American version had kept the original title of "Philosopher's Stone," would there have been such a hue and cry about "black magic?"

Banned Books: The Magic Users

One way to wind up on the banned books list* is to have magic, wizards, or witches in your book.  The Harry Potter books, the Lord of the Rings, The Witches by Roald Dahl, even a poem by Shel Silverstein about how you should always sprinkle pepper in your hair so that you will be too spicy if a witch catches you and wants to eat you, have been challenged or banned at some point or other.  I think it's interesting how many people will slap the label of "witchcraft," "black magic," or "satanism" on a book that has a positive message just because it uses the word "magic" or "wizard." (I've noticed that somehow the Narnia books get a pass; maybe because their author is very well known for his Christian writings as well.)

Let's look specifically at Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings (I perhaps should not have included The Witches, as that is actually a case where the witches in the story ARE evil and are using their powers to do harm...).  In The Lord of the Rings, Gandalf the Wizard is a protective figure; he is a guide and mentor.  He leads the "good guys" into battle against the "bad guys."  When confronted with the Balrog, a dread and powerful entity seeking to do harm to his traveling party, he stands between the party and the beast, doing all in his power to protect those who trust him.  And when he fails, he tells the group to run, rather than asking them to risk their lives to save him.  And he dies.  Others live because of his death.  But then he comes back to life - sound like someone else you know?

In Harry Potter you also have that same theme of someone giving their life to to save others - multiple times throughout the series, in fact.  But more on that theme of self-sacrifice and Christian allegory in Harry Potter later this week. 

I wish I could remember now who said it, but I read somewhere once something like "saying that all magic users worship Satan is like saying that Hermione's parents (who are dentists) worship teeth."  The magic isn't what they believe in.  It isn't what they revere.  It's what they do.  It's like thinking that an electrician worships lightning.  Or, to put it another way, saying that all magic users are evil is like saying that all demolitionists are terrorists.  Sure, someone who knows how to use explosives can use that power for evil; he can design a device that will cause death and destruction.  But a demolitionist can also use his knowledge for good, even to protect.  He can bring down an old building that has become dangerous, in a controlled way, so that no one is hurt, often making way for something new and better.

It is not the power, but how it is used, that makes a character "good" or "bad" - but more on that tomorrow as we visit Harry Potter in more detail.

*See these handy dandy charts for examples of why books are challenged:

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics/1990-99

http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/statistics/2000-09

Interestingly enough, it seems that people are getting more comfortable with the magic…

Banned Books Week Background

Hello, readers! Welcome to Banned Books Week 2018. I will be posting a blog every day this week, some of them about specific books and some about broader topics.

For today, I wanted to give a little background on Banned Books Week. The American Library Association's Office of Intellectual Freedom keeps track of books that are reported as banned or challenged. These challenges can include reasons such as language, sexuality, age-inapropriateness, or religious reasons. These challenges can range from a concerned parent or citizen asking that the book be made less accessible to certain age groups, to a book being successfully removed from a school curriculum or library. Every year, the ALA releases a list of the top 10 challenged books reported in the previous year.

Obviously, the list changes every year, but there are some books that you might call "frequent offenders" that appear on the list for several years in a row, or even return to the list after a period of time. The big granddaddy of these is To Kill a Mockingbird, which appears on the 2017 Top 10 Challenged Books list a whopping 54 years after its publication.

For the rest of 2017's list, and other info on this important observation, check here: https://bannedbooksweek.org/about/

Stop back by tomorrow, when I will begin delving into more specifics as to banned books or authors, and the reasons why they have been challenged.

Autumn Announcement

Good morning, readers - I'm back!

I have lots of fun news and updates in store for you:

-Jason and I just returned from our delayed honeymoon/first anniversary trip. I will have fun stories to post for you, as I kept a travel journal during the trip. Those may still be a few weeks out - we have tons of pictures to sort through, and I have a special project I'll be doing for you all this week.

-Tomorrow is the first day of Banned Books Week* and I'll be blogging every day. This is something I first did for Banned Books Week the first year that this blog was active. The following 2 years, I was too busy to do a post every day, so I just reposted what I had done in years past. This year, I planned ahead and wrote 5 of 7 posts ahead of time, so things are good to go!

-I also have 1 story out for submission, another that I'm going to be sending out for submission shortly, and several others that are close to submission-ready. I hope to have updates on one or more of those sometime in the next few months, so "watch this space." (Apparently "watch this space" is something everyone in the UK says... : )

*For more info on Banned Books Week, check this out: https://bannedbooksweek.org/

See You in September

As some of you will remember from my last monthly update (https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2018/8/1/august-update), and my July update (https://www.iveyink.com/blog/2018/6/30/oh-say-can-you-see-my-plans-for-july), I intentionally set the bar low for August.  I knew that I was going to be visiting my sister in St. Louis the first week of the month, and that the middle of month was going to be crazy with the University starting back on the 20th.  I didn't count on coming down with a sinus infection in the midst of all that, too.  So I'm actually pretty glad that I didn't have any major goals this month.  

I did get a little bit done: I wrote a "new" story that is now publication ready.  (I say "new" because I've needed to put it down on the page for years.)  I have also decided on the next story after that that I am going to workshop, and have narrowed down the title to a couple options.  I also have identified the next couple stories I'll be workshopping after these two and decided on their titles.  

It will probably be another month before I start working on submission for the above; I have some stuff going on the next few weeks that just won't allow me to work on this any.  I also plan to write a blog post for each day of Banned Books Week* (September 23-29 this year).  That will be my major project for September, though I do have another project I'll be able to tell you about in a few weeks.

This will also be my last blog post for about 3-4 weeks, so don't worry if you don't see anything from me online for a while - I'll have cool stuff to share with you this fall.

*For more info on Banned Books Week, check this out: https://bannedbooksweek.org/

Better Late Than Never

If you follow my Facebook page, you might have seen a post I made a few days ago about how I had finally written down a story that I've had in my head since high school.

It's not very long - in fact I was surprised to find that it's just over 1,000 words, even with a few fleshed-out details that weren't part of the original idea.  I think that I had thought it would be long because I see it so cinematically - it's so richly visual in my head - that I thought it would take forever to describe everything.  But the written version doesn't have that much description, as it turns out.  

I decided to write quick, clipped sentences when possible; a telegram figures prominently in the story, and I wanted to give the story that feel of a short, urgent document that just has the most vital information you need to know.  I think that I actually did really well at achieving that while not sacrificing the emotion.  

You won't be seeing the story on here any time soon.  It's a holiday piece and I want to see if I can get it accepted for publication this Thanksgiving/Christmas.  As I've mentioned on here a few times before, most publications won't accepted a story that has already been published elsewhere, and many of them consider sharing a story on your website to be publication.

But I do have a favor to ask of you all: if you know of somewhere that accepts short holiday stories - magazines, websites, radio shows, whatever - please let me know.

History and Science Fiction

A few months ago, Jason and I watched The Terror on AMC.  It's a show based on a novel that speculates what might have happened to a British voyage to the Arctic in the 1840's.  The two ships, The Terror and The Erebus, become trapped in the ice while trying to find a navigable passage through the Arctic ocean.  At first, no one is really concerned.  They have planned for this possibility.  They have enough supplies for a journey of several years, and many of the officers have been on other arctic expeditions.  The time between episodes of the show can be months, in universe.

In one episode, the captain's wife and niece are concerned because no one has heard from the ships in a year.  The powers that be brush it off.  This is a journey that was likely to last 2-3 years, best case scenario.  Remember, we're talking about a journey of thousands of miles (traveling from England to Asia over the Arctic and then back by way of more southerly routes) during a time when a fast ship traveled at about 11 mph.

This was also a time when communication traveled no faster than a ship or a train could travel; the telegraph was a relatively new invention and, just like cell reception today, you can bet that the remote arctic islands the ship was passing would not have had telegraphs or telegraph operators.  News of the expedition would have been along the lines of a ship returning to port and reporting that they had encountered the other ship months before.

We have gotten to where we are so used to instant communication - phone calls, emails, texts - that it's baffling and mind-blowing to think about having to wait so long for news.

But, this setting of being so isolated, so lost, of taking years to get to your destination, and of news and updates taking months or years to get back home, got me thinking about science fiction.  And when I say science fiction, I mean a certain type of science fiction.  I don't mean that in the far distant future, or the far distant pass sci-fi where we have faster than light travel and instant communication.  I mean the "near" future science fiction, the science "fiction" that we are almost (or even already) capable of.  

I'm talking about The Martian, where if you get stuck on a planet, it is months or years until help can get to you.  I'm talking about Contact, where it takes 27 years for a message to travel from one planet to another.  That idea of being out by yourself on the frontier, with only what you have with you to get by if there's an emergency, fascinates me.  

I write historical fiction.  But I also itch to write frontier sci-fi.  I need to read more sci-fi, and more science, before I do.  But I do think it's interesting how certain historical periods can lend themselves so well to a genre that a lot of people would think are on the opposite end of the scale.

August Update

Hello, readers!  I'm posting today, both because it's time for my monthly update, and because I won't have time this weekend.

As I mentioned in my July update, I'm going to be changing gears for a month or two.  Partly this is because I'm going to have a lot on my plate for the next month, and partly because I've gotten to a point with Wolf and Sheath where I just need to step away from it for a bit.

Late last week I wrapped up things with W and S, preparing to put it away for a while, and started rereading some of my short stories, partial stories, snippets, and ideas.  I had been thinking recently that after "The Cause of the Disturbance" and "The Wrong Kind of People," the two stories that I currently have out for submission, that I didn't really have anything else I could be submitting.  But after digging through and rereading a lot of my files, I've found that I have a lot more than I thought.

I've found that I have a lot of good quality, nearly complete stories - many of them from prompts and exercises - that it wouldn't take a whole lot of work to make them publishable.

So, while I may not have a lot of time in the upcoming month or so, I think I now have a good project that won't take as much direct focus as working on a single novel.  I am going to pick out a handful of those nearly-finished stories and figure out what needs to be done for them, where I might have good luck submitting, etc.  But, with that said, I won't be submitting all of them to 5,000 places at once.  

Instead, I will be taking the advice of Janisse Ray, an author who I recently heard speak, and chose five places to submit.  Then wait 'til I hear back.  And, honestly, doing it that way it'll be easier to keep track of what I have out, where I'm waiting to hear back from, etc.

And, of course, if and when I have success, I will share it here.

A Good Viking Yarn

I've been reading The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings.  In the front of the book are lists of historical figures and what they did, various cities and countries that will be visited in the book, and maps to tie all these people and places together.

Before I started reading the actual book, I started looking through all these resources.

I used to think of history as these neat boxes: British history is people in England only very rarely interacting with other groups; European history, same thing - France does its thing, Germany does its thing; Asia is way over there doing their own thing; and America... well, usually what you learned about the Americas didn't start until the Spanish and English went out poking around.

But I've come to realize more and more since leaving school - thanks in part to books like this, and to watching things like "Who really discovered America" on the History channel - that rather than history being neat little boxes, it is a basket of messy balls of yarn, all tangled up in each other.  You can see the different colors, but trying to figure out where one ends and another begins requires a lot of patient unraveling.

Taking just the period of approximately 800-1100 AD, and what I've learned just from those introductory resources and the first 1/3 or so that I've read is that the "Vikings*" had a much larger influence on European history than I realized.  

*And what I also didn't realize is that the raiders we know as Vikings were not just Norse, but also Danish. And they weren't a neat allied nationality - they were just as likely to fight and plunder from each other as they were from the other kingdoms they were invading.

Everyone knows Vikings went raiding.  Everyone pictures the Vikings pulling up in their long ships, jumping out to smash-and-grab, and then heading home.  But apparently a lot of them stayed.  There were raiding parties, but there were also full scale invasions.  Several Irish cities, including Dublin, were founded by Vikings.  York was a major Viking trading center.  Normandy was created when a Frankish king gave some land to the Northern invaders and said, "Look - please stay out of Paris and you can have this land.  I obviously can't protect the coast; you broke it, you bought it."

I knew that early medieval Russia had been influenced by the Vikings.  I didn't know that Kiev was founded by one, or that just a couple generations later his descendants (St. Olga and St. Vladimir) would turn Kievan Rus into a Christian state which is a huge and influential turning point in Eastern European and world history.

The Vikings found and settled Iceland, and had colonies in Greenland and areas that we would now call Canada and New England.  They also raided as far south as the Mediterranean.  Looking at all that on a map that is a huge, huge swath of the world to have influenced.  And we don't learn about it.  What I was taught of European history generally went: Ancient Greece and Rome, Fall of Rome, France and England in the "dark" ages, Italian Renaissance, German and English Reformation, Spanish Armada, Spain and England settle the New World, 'Merca, French Revolution, Queen Victoria, World War I and World War II.  Neatly labelled little boxes.  

I remember learning that there was a very stark red line in British history at 1066; the Normans invaded and English history began.  Seriously.  So many resources almost make it seem like nothing happened in England before 1066; so many lists of English events and monarchs don't begin until after that.  Yes, I realize that prior to 1066 England was made up of a handful of smaller kingdoms, but Alfred the Great was apparently...well, great...and deserves some recognition.  I also realize that a lot of people consider 1066 to be the start of English/British history because the invading Normans created a unified kingdom, as well as because that was the last time the island was successfully invaded.

Remember the French giving the Vikings Normandy?  This happened about 150 years before the Norman invasion of 1066.  Great, great-grandsons of "Vikings" invaded land that 150 years prior had been fought over by Anglo-Saxons and other "Vikings," who eventually settled and intermarried in the area.  Vikings invading Vikings.

Between the Norman invasion and the strong Viking influence in Ireland, I thought about the number of English and Irish who would be descended from Vikings.  English and Irish ancestry are two of the largest backgrounds in America.  So realy, when you go back far enough, that probably makes a lot of Americans the descendants of Vikings when you get right down to it.

Hmm... Now I have a really strong urge to go pillage Ikea.

For Those About to Craft, I Salute You

Many of you know that I used to work in a library.  I worked in the Cobb County Library System for almost 8 years, the last 2 1/2 of which I worked in the children's department at the Mountain View Library.  While I was there, Mountain View was the busiest library* in the county.

*This is going on number of items checked out, as opposed to total number of people in the door, where the central branch, Switzer, had us beat, or computer usage, where South Cobb held the title.

You might notice I said "worked in the children's department" rather than "was a children's librarian."  I don't have a Master of Library Science, which is what you need for the distinction of "librarian" in most places.  But the position I was hired for did not require the MLS, and was specifically intended to help revamp the children's programming.  Having a love of literature and a creative background was more important than the degree for what I would be doing.  A lot of what I would be doing was kids' story and craft hour.

One of my favorite parts of the job, and arguably what I miss the most, was coming up with monthly (or in summer, weekly) craft projects that tied to either a seasonal theme or the summer reading program theme, and a story or two that tied the whole thing together.  It's not going out on a limb to say that people loved my programs.  My very first story time had 13 kids attend; my highest before we started offering 2 weekly summer sessions was 30.  This was within 4-5 months of my first program.

Because of such high demand my first summer, my second summer I was asked to do double sessions of each craft/story.  I still look back fondly on how much I enjoyed these sessions, even though they made the rest of my day and week more packed and hectic.

Recently, I was cleaning out my basement and found a stash of art supplies - a caboodle** full of crayons and markers, and a bag full of scrap pieces of bulletin board trimmer that I had been holding onto "just in case."  I guess when I left Cobb County, I had thought that at some point I might go back to kids' library programming.  But now having been working in a University registrar's office for almost a year and half, and a university library before that, I figured there was no point in continuing to hoard these.  But, since I work at a university that has an education department, I decided to ask if the dean of the school of education was interested in having these supplies for her students.

**80's/90's kids, you remember those?

A couple weeks ago, I took my stash over to her office, and we got to chatting about just WHY I had a stash of craft supplies in my basement.  I don't think she had known about my past in the children's department and was fascinated.  She even said that I should come teach a workshop.  That was very flattering and we left it at, "well, let's get past the first month of fall semester..."

But I do miss the craft projects; the planning, the brainstorming, even the budget challenges.  When you have a very small budget, you have to be even more creative.  What can you do with what your already have lying around?  What "junk" do you have lying around at home that you can use as craft supplies?  (Just using Kleenex and food boxes - crackers, cereal, etc. - we had fodder for robots, shadow puppets, mosaics, time machines, and probably other cool stuff I've forgotten.)

This summer, many public libraries are using the "Libraries Rock!" summer reading program (with the awesome banner "For those about to read, we salute you" in the AC/DC "for those about to rock" font).  I remember at the beginning of the summer wistfully watching my library buddies post their displays, projects, and program announcements on social media.  There were a couple mornings in the car on the way to work that I was daydreaming about what craft projects I might have done with the kids, especially if I had ever had the opportunity to start working with older kids.

I do miss it sometimes.  But I also know that for all the fun, there was a lot of stress - the demand keeps going up, the budgets generally go down, and there's just so much one person can do.  I have a lot of respect for my former coworkers who are still plugging away at it.

For those about to craft, I salute you.

The Teenager's Bucket List

Last weekend I cleaned out a box that had various papers from college and late high school.  In addition to some VERY angsty poetry, I found a list entitled "Things to do before I get to old and/or too busy."  (The "too busy" part makes me think that I knew more then about my penchant for trying to do too much than I realized...)

Looking over this list, I was pleased to find that there were a decent amount of things on the list that I have done.  I don't recall exactly when this list was made, but the inclusion of "go swing dancing" at the end, in different pen, would likely put the majority of the list as having been written around the time I graduated from high school, or no later than early in my freshman year of college.  Prior to college I was unaware of swing dancing and got into it within a month of two of starting freshman year.

For kicks and giggles, here is the list in it's entirety (exactly as I originally worded it), with notes of what I've accomplished from it:

• Read a romance novel.  /I have read a few.  I was not impressed.
• Enter one of my really good love poems in a contest or publication. /Done better than that - I have published four stories, which are of way better quality than the above-mentioned angsty love poems.
• Make a Romeo and Juliet collage like Caitlin did. /I don't remember this collage or person at all : (  But I have done a whole bunch of other cool art projects, so we'll say this evens out.
• Walk around downtown or Little 5 and take pictures. /I've taken pictures of cooler, safer places ; )
• Attend or host a murder mystery dinner, preferably set in the 20's. /Not set in the 20's, sadly, but I performed in a murder mystery dinner show.
• Go all out for a costume party - complete with historically-accurate hair and costume (corset if the character calls for it).  ie, Marguerite, Ankhesunamun, etc*. /Maybe not truly historically accurate but I have now done this a boatload of times - often with corsets.  I'm also not sure why this was on the list, as I did a pretty accurate Egyptian costume in 9th grade and, as mentioned above, I'm fairly sure this list post-dates that party.
• Watch a classic horror movie. /I'm not sure what I meant by "classic" but I've now seen several that could qualify.
• Watch a movie you wanted to see as a kid but didn't - ie, Princess Bride.  /Done.
• Watch something Mommy wouldn't approve of - like South Park.  /Ha!  Done.
• Watch (live) all of the Broadway musicals I can - ie, Scarlet Pimpernel, Phantom of the Opera.  /Phantom twice, Rent, Lion King.  I'm sure there are more I'm not thinking of right now.
• Go to a nightclub, a karaoke bar, a drive in theatre, and a cafe where they do poetry readings.  /Nightclub: I'm not sure what I meant by a "nightclub."  I think I was picturing something out of I Love Lucy, though I did go to a discoteque at least once in Russia, so I'm counting that.  Karaoke bar: not specifically a karaoke bar, but I've done karaoke several times, so I'm counting it.  Drive in theatre: Not yet, sadly.  Cafe where they do poetry readings: Stirlings.  Amazing how much of this list was checked off at Sewanee : )
• Sit under a tree on a cool fall or spring day and read or just wonder.  /Probably.  I lived in Sewanee for 6 1/2 years.
• Go on a picnic and take your sketchbook and/or camera.  /Not precisely, I don't think.
• Eat a banana split.  /No.
• Eat an ice cream sundae with everything - nuts, chocolate, whipped cream, and cherry.  /Again, I don't think so.  
• Share a milkshake with your boyfriend** with 2 straws.  /Again, no.  Why I thought there was an age limit on these ice cream-related things is beyond me.  I mentioned this one specifically to Jason and he jokingly said, "Too late!  You're too old and you don't have a boyfriend."  Thanks, dear.
• Try out an outrageous hairdo or outfit you wouldn't normally wear out.  /I was a theatre major, so, yeah.
• Write someone a love letter or poem - anonymously, if you're afraid to do it otherwise - and send it to them.  /Yeah.  Those didn't work out so well...
• Go swing dancing.  /Been there, done that, got the shoes.

*Marguerite from The Scarlet Pimpernel.  Ankhesunamun was Tutankhamun's wife and I was kind of obsessed with her in high school.  
**I did not have a boyfriend at the time of writing this, and would not for several years.

(Also, it is an absolute travesty how good my handwriting was then and how bad it is now.)

The timing of finding this list is kind of odd.  If my assessment of when I wrote it is correct, it was the summer I was 18, and I found it in the summer, precisely 18 years later.  It's interesting to see what experiences I thought would be important or formative then, which of them I accomplished, and what I still feel is important of formative now.  (The fact that I had three "bad for you" food accomplishments listed says a lot about how I will never be thin! ; D )

In all seriousness, though, I think it's very telling to look back at these, see what I wanted to do at 18, and see how much of it was part of my college experience, without actually being something you learn in school.

Technology and Time Period

Sometimes you can very quickly date a story by the technology used (or not used) in it.  Sometimes you watch a movie or TV show that is set in a certain time period specifically to lose a piece of technology that would solve a problem.  (How many slasher stories would be solved by someone having a working cell phone?  Notice how so many now are set in a rural setting to use the bad reception as a crutch?)

Sometimes you have a story, set not all that long ago, and it makes you realize how much has changed in the brief time between the story's setting and the present.  Jason and I have been watching season 2 of GLOW, which takes place in the mid-80's.  In the last episode that we watched, two characters, Ruth and Debbie, are tasked with writing the script for a scene they will be shooting.  The director begrudgingly lets them use his type writer.

Ruth and Debbie brainstorm their scene and get more and more excited, culminating in the moment when they say, "yes!  That's it!  Let's get this on paper!"  Debbie triumphantly sits down at the typewriter, lays her hands on the keys...then turns to Ruth and says, "I don't know how to type.  Do you?"  Ruth can't type either.  They have to go find another cast member who can type so that they can write their script.

It was an odd moment.  I was alive (though a small child) when this show takes place.  I don't recall exactly when I began typing (probably middle school, when I realized that having my dad type my papers for me meant I was getting his AP style rather than my teacher's expected MLA style), but it's probably safe to say I've been able to type for 2/3 of my life.  Not well.  Despite taking a typing class in high school, I type with just a couple fingers on each hand.  But I can type fast and with conviction; people often tell me that when I really get into it, my typing sounds angry.  But I type every day.  I spend a large portion of my day at work typing.  I type to communicate, be it here, in an email, or in a Facebook post.  

It was kind of an eye opener to see a skill that I quite literally cannot do without be a rare commodity not all that long ago.

Oh Say Can You See My Plans for July?

Can you?  'Cause I'm not sure what they are either.

I have spent the last month continuing to work on name research and replacement.  It's taking me longer than it should.  Partly, this is due to the depth of research that I'm doing due to some irrational fear that I will miss the "perfect" name for what are, at this point, important, but not the most major characters (having named all of the major characters already).  I actually am close to being done with this; I think I only have one left that requires the more in depth process I'm doing.  For the other minor characters that have yet to be named I can probably just pull something from the lists I've already created.  Until I write more and need more names, ha!

And that last part brings me to why, even though what I have been doing is important, it feels like I haven't done much.  The Wolf and the Sheath still stands at the 51,729 word mark, where it was in late April.  I have not written any new material since then.  (This doesn't mean I have writers block; I have plenty of scenes I need to write and know pretty much what I am going to do for them.  I just got to the point where I said, "I'm past 50,000 words; I need to finalize these names.")

It also occurred to me within the past couple days that I'm going to have a lot going on in September, and to a lesser extent, August.  I may very well not get much, if anything done, on W & S these months.  (I'm not saying I'm going to intentionally not work on it, just that I know my realistic limitations and I'm not going to set myself up to be disappointed at not meeting an unrealistic goal.)  

I keep thinking that these months are SO far away, SO down the road that I hadn't thought much about them.  But tomorrow, is July 1, meaning that August and September really are just around the corner.  Looking now at what I will have occupying my time during that period, I think I may take a break from W & S completely (aside from writing brilliant scenes that come to me in the shower, 'cause that's what I do) and work on some smaller projects.  

I actually have a couple projects in mind for September.  One of them is that I will return to something I did a few years ago and post a bog entry for each day of Banned Books Week (at the end of September); actual posts, not reposting the same thing I posted two years ago.  I will probably write them ahead of time; the whole reason why I was reposting BBW blog posts last year is that it actually takes a lot of work to write a blog post every day.  I have another project in mind, too, but y'all will have to wait a little while to hear more about that one.

I think for August I will work on small projects; polishing or finishing existing short stories, or creating new ones.  I've been thinking a lot recently about how I need to start working, really working, using my writing.  I need to start submitting my pieces to places where I will get paid more than a contributor's copy.  I do want to eventually be able to work "full time" as a writer (by "full time," I mean that that would be my primary source of income).  At the rate I'm going, that's some time in the far-flung future.  And, yes, I need to finish writing my books.  But with all but one of my complete short stories published, I also don't have anything to submit to paid publications right now.  I need to find a better balance on that front.

So, what does this have to do with July?  For July, I will finish my name research and replacing (that might even happen this week).  I will then do a full reread, making sure that all the names have switched out properly.  (I only trust find/replace so much.)  I will slot in names off my list I've been compiling as I research for those minor characters who need it, so Lady X and the cook can actually have a name.  We'll see where that gets me in July.  If I have time, I will commit all those brilliant shower scenes to the page.  But I will also prepare to put the story away for a while.  I've been "working" on Wolf and Sheath (some months more steadfastly than others) since November, and it may be that I just need to step away and refresh my creativity a bit.  I also have one more writing contest I definitely want to enter that opens tommorow.

So this July 4th I will be celebrating my independence from an indefinite timeline and "to do" list and see if maybe that helps jump start myself some.