Great book find!

Is it bad my reference when I hear "Dulac" is to jump to the scene in Shrek when the puppets sing that "It's a Small World" spoof?

Yeah, that's bad.

But besides my mind singing that every time I think of this name, I went to Borders a few weeks back while in the mood to spend money, and I had picked up a couple of manga. They'd been out for a while, but I hadn't felt compelled to get them. I was mostly picking them up that day because of the urge to go home with something.

Well, I was in a bit of a bad mood for some other reason, so I was walking through the store and talking with my sister. As we turn to head back towards the table where our writer's group meets, I saw the fairy tale section. Jack Zipes and a dozen editions of Grimm's Fairy Tales. And on the top shelf, with a slightly bent corner, all by its lonesome: Dulac's Fairy Tale Illustrations.



Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. [Not really, that's a line from a Ron White special.] At the week-long McKinley booksale, I came across a collection of the Golden Age children's books illustrations, which included Dulac. Information and most of the authors had at least one reprint of their work. So when I saw the Dulac collection, I recognized the work and very quickly made the decision to put back one of the manga and grab it instead.

One of the neat things is, shortly after buying that, wherein an illustration from The Snow Queen includes a carrot-like creature with three goblins (one with a distinctly owlish face), the friend that supplies me in loaned Fables graphic novels, handed me the newest Jack of Fables. Who should be on the cover but Jack Frost, with three goblins and a carroty-looking creature.



I really need to reread The Snow Queen. I want to see what those guys are all about. Honestly, I don't think I've ever read the original/earliest written version.

Is it wrong to be so squeeful about this? 'Cause I am. XD

Tired, but feeling good

Not a writing post, but I just finished my first official day of work. From my side of things, despite my being a bit nervous and worrying about time, the class seemed to go well.

It looked like, once we were done with the syllabus, they got into the ice breaker activity--I wanted them to have a conversation with someone they didn't know. Find out a few things, but converse instead of just asking X, Y, and Z and doing the bare minimum. I shared, too, and we laughed (with me, not at me, lol). That is a key determinant, in my view. If they're comfortable enough to joke around without being disruptive of the lesson, then I think they're more likely to pay attention.

I'm hoping that I can keep that sort of momentum going, even with "duller" topics like grammar and sentence structure.

But I made it through the day. Tomorrow I have two classes, and Wednesday is this one again. I am tired, but overall, happy. There were no rebellions, and I didn't even need to bringout The Gradebook of Doooooom! so yeah, that was cool.

:P

In other news, as I've been cleaning to make room for the work stuff and give it its own space, I have been organizing my craft supplies. I have been feeling the craft bug lo these many many past nights. I just don't know what I want to make yet. And I am tired and getting silly (getting? I am already there), so I'm done now. How are all of you?
~Sabrina

The Job Hunt is Over!

Just a quick update. I was hesitant to say anything until I was absolutely sure, but I got the call that my background cleared and my new instructor orientation is on Monday. I am employed.

~does the happywiggle dance of happiness~




I'll be Heald's newest English instructor, with a pretty full course load for an adjunct (part-time newbie, basically) instructor. I've been reviewing the course plan and have until the 19th, when the new quarter starts, to build my syllabus from there.

I did the interview, then a mini-lesson teaching Program Directors and higher-ups about the usage of the semi-colon. It was a topic I didn't understand so well and I figured it would be good to learn something myself while teching others. And then, hee, I heard through the grapevine that after the mini-lesson, someone called me brilliant. Which blows my mind. All I can do is smile like a goofball and go, "Really?" But that's awesome, and gives me more confidence for this.

Wish me luck!

[And hope my posting doesn't drop off even more. >_<]

Maybe there's a Reason I haven't been Productive

I don't like excuses. [I amend that, I think people do like excuses, generally, when they need to use one, but no one is much of a fan when given them by others.] I try not to use excuses to explain away my behavior or lack thereof.

That said, I wrote a post last night for my personal blog and it got me thinking this morning. see, I had another idea for a new story. Specifically a new story that could be combined with the idea from an old story to create something that I find really interesting. It plays with the idea of who is the villain when it comes to vampires versus vampire hunters. Many of the UFs that contain vamps have at least one who good and sexy if not always nice (or nice and sexy, if not always good...Aaaand now I'm having an "Into the Woods" moment--"You're not good, you're not bad, you're just nice. I'm not good, I'm not nice, I'm just right." Much love for Bernadette Peters.)

Many vamp-UFs have vampires that align themselves with the protagonist, with a lot of sexiness thrown in. At the same time, there are a good number of UFs out there with hunters as their protagonists (LKH's Anita Blake; Buffy to take it into other mediums), so there is a lot of space to play with who is the villain, who thinks who's the villain, and switch between my fairly young, but mature vampire and a seasoned hunter stuck with a new apprentice. But end up having to examine their own behaviors, and existence, and may end up working together (haven't decided the last bit yet).

Anyway, it's one more novel that has tightened its hold on my brain, which makes it about the fourth right now. But none of the other three has kept my attention long enough for me to reach the end of a complete first draft.

Excuses time: Is it just that I've been lazy in my self-control and scheduling, or was there some unconscious part that was waiting for the right story--not that the others are bad, but there's one just ready to be written and I just need to find it?

Honestly, put that way, it's probably just me not making better use of my time. Because in every story I reach a point where I get stuck (halfway to three-quarters in), and I don't use this sort of excuse for those times. Here, it's probably a matter of not knowing where some/most of these are going, so instead of plowing through and forcing a plot to take form, my mind skips on to the next shiny object



Of course, I am going to give this new story some of my attention. But I think making this realization--that I was trying to make excuses for myself and really just need to figure out the full arcs of the stories--has helped me, refocusing my attention. I need to make a trip into town today, which is an hour's bus ride each way. I think I'll take my notebook and use that time to jot down notes are all the major events of at least two of these novels.

Maybe in a few days I can return to tell you all that I've settled on one story to write to its end.

Two Pieces of Good Advice: Do Research and Wear Sunscreen

"Wear Sunscreen" is a song/rap/spoken word poem set to music, which I heartedly enjoyed when it came out. In college, a friend made me a cd of awesome songs, mostly from the 90s, and included this one.

Today, there is a new version out, courtesy of author Seanan McGuire: Do Research.

For the writers out there, it is an adaptation filled with advice, both concrete ("Get plenty of sleep. Be kind to your wrists, you'll miss them when they're gone," and "Stretch") and more abstract or hard-to-quantify ("Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to correct your spelling through interpretive dance," and "Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to spend your life writing").

It's a great way to start the day (my opinion, but I'm not the only one who thinks so, according to the comment stream). It's just great fun, and I suggest anyone who needs a smile clikcing over there and giving it a read. It has the same feel to the original, plucking at my emotions when she writes "Do not read Amazon reviews, they will only make you feel ugly," even though I haven't published anything yet for this to be an issue.

Still. It's good advice. Go. Read. Enjoy.
~Sabrina


Seanan McGuire is the author of "Rosemary and Rue," and "A Local Habitation" (urban fantasy, starring a changeling who has lost everything). Under her pseudonym, Mira Grant, she has a political zombie apocalyse, "Feed," in stores now.

The Beginning of a Plot

Still doing the job hunt thing. Because of that, I've been turning on my phone during the day when I used to keep it on only when I was out of the house. My cell is the number on my resume, and even though I have a landline, this is the direct link to me. I don't want to miss a potential interview.

Well, today I didn't get around to turning my phone on right away. In fact, it's 1:30 and I only just did it a few minutes ago. ~sheepish grin~ But there was already a voicemail (apparently missed the actual phone call by just a few minutes). She sounded like someone's little Asian grandma--we have a lot of those here in Hawaii :)--looking for a guy [R]. She even left a phone number. I don't know if she is a relative or just older, but seriously, am I the only person tempted to call and say, "I got your message, unfortunately I have no idea who this person is and you have the wrong number?"

It makes sense to do that if you get the call directly, phone rings you pick it up and the conversation happens in real-time, but it seems weird to do so in response to a voicemail.

I posed the question to my facebook people, and as I hit post, I wondered what a story would be like if someone did that. You call this number left by someone's obasan--does the lady answer? Is she friendly, annoyed, does she go into a furious old lady rant ("why don't you ever call me? I have to call you all the time and you never pick up your phone. Your mother had to give me this number...") before you have a chance to say you aren't this guy? What if someone else answers, and doesn't know this woman (she also left her name, or a contact name) or R? What if it's a different person and they do know everyone involved, including you? How far down the rabbit hole could you fall just for trying to be polite and do a small good deed?

Since I seem wired for the fantasical, my mind spun off on a Matrix-like thread. Some Morpheus character answers and directs you to go somewhere, gives you a piece of information that compels you to comply. And from that meeting/errand, the world you knew is no more or you're somehow separated from it, and the rest of the story is you trying to find your way home, or pushing deeper and deeper through the forest to see what's on the other side.

Just wanted to share that.

Happy writing everyone,

Sabrina

Making the Spontaneous Inevitable

It's a cool day today, if I open the back door and let the breeze in, otherwise my room gets stuffy and stays that way. It's a hassle to open the door, though. Years of not being used, and the screen and parts of the sliding glass door had rusted, plus there isn't much floor space to get any good leverage. But the breeze is nice when I put in the effort, and outside, a tree that had looked dead for weeks, is in bloom, seemingly dried out twigs suddenly sprouting delicate lavender blooms.

[You can see the branches as a background, like a tangle of graying yarn.

I took this photo just before typing this post.]

I like to stare out the glass door and seeing the flowers open and close over the day, waxbills and doves and bulbuls flitting in and out of frame. Before I got a digital camera, some of those moments might warrant a quick line or two of description scribbled on the nearest Post-it or note pad, now it's a click away.

I memorialize these moments, thinking one day this line or that might make it into a story. It's such a striking image to me, I want to share it with others.

I couldn't tell you how many such scribbled lines fill notepads and journals, still catching my eye as I flip through to a clean page, but never finding their way into a story. For one thing, I never remember to look for these written down moments of setting and mood.

For another, I don't know whether the moments would be the same. Partly because I'm still growing as a writer, one of my "always trying to improve" issues is the balance between description and action, and when it comes to setting, right now I tend to err on the side of "keep it in my head." I get caught up trying to keep the flow of action, I don't naturally slip in these sorts of lines. I worry that doing so might sound forced, or come across as purple prose. I'm working on it.

I guess, then, this post is just a reminder to myself not to forget these moments in a story and to share a little of my world with you readers.

Enjoy. Happy writing.

Fairy Tales and how much fun they are to twist

Playing around with ideas for a new story (old premise, fairy tales in the modern world), I was pondering protagonists. Jack (of Beanstalk fame) seems to be pretty popular, and is usually lumped together with those Jacks of hill-falling and candlestick-jumping renown. Likewise every story with a nameless Prince Charming turns into one single womanizing Prince.

These are not bad things. I like their portrayal in The Sisters Grimm and Fables series, but, as fairy tales often do, they make me wander about the gender roles and amalgamation of characters. What if all the Jacks were separate people, what if there was just one Prince per princess/maiden/heroine? What if "Jack" was a girl, either a female version of the smushed together version, or one girl out of a slew of fellas?

One of the nice things about where my brain is going with this is that it lends itself well to short stories. If you've followed this blog for any length of time, I doubt it's a surprise that short stories are not my forte. I like novels. But the idea of a female Jackie amongst half a dozen other male Jacks is intriguing. I don't know if this thread will make it into the novel that's forming, but I want to write a short story and see how I can play with the gender stereotypes. Not just Jacqueline and Jill went up the hill, or Jackie nimbly jumping over things, but perhaps the most popular Jack finding that beanstalk the next morning, climbing, finding treasures to bring back to her mother, and the subsequent task of killing giants that are trying to kill her.

But for now, like with most of my recent stories, I'm just waiting for a plot to catch up with the characters and premise.

Middle of National Library Week

Does this picture not fill you with bubbling delight?

I wish every library was like this. This week is National Library Week, so I thought it only right to take a bit of time and gush about my local library.

I've lived in this town for many years now, and our library isn't the biggest around, but I can usually find something to read that I haven't before. In more recent years, I haven't gone as often as I want--not the least of which is because I own plenty of books that I haven't read yet, and I really shouldn't add to that TBR pile with more books--but the past few months I started up again, every three weeks or so (the length of time we can borrow books here).

Library-related tangent: Before moving to this town, we were in military housing for four years, and there was a small library there as well. I think in some ways, I was too young to know what I wanted and the shelves, which seemed so tall and full, were overwhelming. I didn't know what to pick in the children's section and thought the best thing to do would be to wander over to the adult books. I ended up in non-fiction, pulling out a book on spiders. It became the book I grabbed whenever I didn't know what else to get. I might have read a few pages here and there, but mostly I looked at the pictures. That library was also a part of a community center, but my siblings and I were apparently too young to play pool. :(

/tangent

It happens with enough frequency to be a pleasant surprise that isn't entirely surprising, that my local library gets new releases shortly after their release.

That right there is what I think libraries have the most to offer--I am a bookwhore, a bookhoarder, and a packrat in general. Sure, I find new series in the library, and am compelled to buy the rest because they don't have the other books, but more times than not, books I want to read, but dread spending the hardcover price (may YA fantasy titles fall into this category), suddenly appear in the new fiction shelf. Then I do my little happy dance in my head, throw in a ~happy wiggle~ and a cheesy grin when I head to the circulation desk.

These are the days when I love love LOVE the invention of libraries.

Hug a book, people,

Sabrina

More about being a Reader versus a Writer

But first, briefly: The week I took off leading up to Easter--I didn't make the (probably unreasonable) goals I wanted to reach, but I got a lot more done in those seven days than I had for most of the previous 33, in terms of editing. It is clear I still find it much easier to write (and edit to a smaller extent) when there's an external time-pressure, be it having less time because of a job or school, or deadlines when a professor of beta-reader is expecting to have the pages in hand.

If I know someone is waiting, I stay on the ball better. Left to my own devices, with essentially nothing but my own intentions to structure my day, I flail a bit.

But I did make progress, so that improves my frame of mind.

On to today's topic: Am I the Only One This Applies to?

I know there are some people that can reads multiple books simultaneously, while others need to start and finish one book, then start the next. I, on the other hand, do some sort of combination of the two. I start a couple of books at relatively the same time. Usually read a couple pages to a chapter or two, and then my attention hones in on one specific book, and I will read that one until it's done, then go back to the others, read pages here and there, until another book grabs my whole attention. [Another issue related to this is when I have a bunch in my TBR pile, and I want to read them all first, but this tends to devolve into the above.]

Here's the thing, it isn't that I like the other books any less than the first one that really grabs me. And there can be some writers or books that I love, but I can put it down for some reason, and it'll be weeks before I pick it up again. Most people might say that means I don't like the book, but I do. I just, lose the thread of it. Ex/A book my sister borrowed from the library about writing and psychology. I started to read it, then it was time to turn in, so I went and borrowed it on my own card. Even reborrowed it on my card, but I have just not been able to pick it back up. It's incredibly interesting, and appeals to two of my favorite subjects, but I put it down to finish up something else that was due back at the library, and couldn't pick up the thread of it.

Am I just weird?

~shrugs~ Just a thought I had yesterday, because this psych/writing book is due back at the library again and I haven't finished it. I'll turn it in today, and maybe borrow it some time down the road, and hopefully I "be ready" to read it again. Just one of the strange things my head does that I don't necessarily agree with.

Happy writing everyone,
Sabrina