G is for Evil.

I don’t believe in Good, or Evil. This comes as a shock to a lot of people, or maybe it doesn’t. I don’t know. I do believe in right and wrong. And I believe in Grey.

Good and Evil have always seemed a bit too black and white to me, and I think things come in shades of colors. I’ve seen people do things they thought were Good, for all the wrong reasons, and I’ve seen people do things that are Evil to others, for all the right reasons.

Maybe this is why I always feel so drawn to the bad guy in books. The supposedly evil character, especially when they are well written. When I can see their motives, and sympathize with them, because they are the people who are doing things they think are right, or perhaps are for the greater good, or perhaps are just because they are selfish, and you know things won’t work out for them.

Some of my favorite bad guys (and why).

Merick: from Riyara Revelations (I could also list most of the bad guys from this series)

I doubt Merick would think of himself as a bad guy. I think he would think of himself as morally neutral. And that is what makes him awesome. He works for the bad guys, he manipulates the hero’s. He does it all for money. His interests are purely self sustaining. Yet he has moments when he actually cares about the people around him.

Guy Du Bas Terra: from the Rift War Saga:

Again, Guy isn’t exactly a bad guy. Although he fully admits that it’s the way others see him. He is aware that he killed people. He is aware that he has done bad things. But he always believed that he was doing things for the greater good. AND Feist convinced us that he was right, and although the greater good was accomplished regardless. You could see how if Guy had gotten his way, things would still be okay.

Marsh: from the Mistborn Trilogy (which I really didn’t like)

Marsh really got the worst possible deal in this series. Marsh agreed to play double agent for the good guys in the first book. Half way through, we think he died, but really, what happened was that he was changed, turned into a kind of monster. This change cost him his free will, as the books went on, and he went from being a double agent, to really working for evil. He fought his instincts from time to time, and managed to shift things in favor of the good guys, but he was still considered a bad guy for his changing sides.

Do you believe in good and evil? Who are some of your favorite bad guys?

F is for Flawed Fun Fighting.

I might be a freak, but I really enjoy writing fighting scenes. Maybe it was because I was a fencer in college (saber and foil). Maybe its cause I did some work with the theater in fight scene chorography…here is a HORRIBLE skit thing I played a part in…freshman year. Where I choreographed the fight scene for…if you choose to watch it (at your own risk) please skip to 5:10 in…which is where the fighting begins, and ignore my horrible acting, the actor I taught fighting too didn’t show.

As for writing fight scenes, there is something about how quickly the scenes move that make them fun. At least to me. Here is a short excerpt, once again that was cut, from my current WIP, Sacrifice.

A bit of background: Leni is a trained assassin. Although as a sacrifice, she has no rights, so her best friend was hired to kill a man, she botched the job, and Leni is attempting to clean up the mess.

“To bad” He replied throwing a knife, but Leni ducked letting it slip harmlessly above her head. His two friends took the opportunity to move sideways so they were surrounding her. The others didn’t know how to fight together, Leni knew she wasn’t as lucky with these last three.

There was a table between her and the one to her left, but nothing between her and Clive and the one on her right. Clive lunged. Leni blocked. But it was clumsy block, the pommel twisted in her sweat soaked hand. The weapon dropped to the floor.

She took a quick step back, bumping into a table. Her hands felt something smooth and cold. Instinct took hold, as she grabbed the object. She jumped up as the one to her right attacked. Leni somersaulted backwards on the table. She stood up next to the one on the left, and smashed the bottle over his head. She broke his neck as he dropped to the ground. The next one attacked, weapon at the ready. Leni easily avoided his swing and stabbed him in the chest with the broken bottle, wrenching her wrist so that shards stuck in the wound, delivering a kick, pushing them deeper.

All that she had left was the neck of the broken bottle and. The table separated them, and Leni used the brief moment to pick up another sword from the floor, the pommel was slick with blood, and Clive was around the table charging. She blocked his blow, forcing him off balance, he fell forward, and Leni turned the neck of the bottle in her hand so it impaled his eye as he fell. A mist of blood coated her arm, before she pulled away, leaving the bottle neck where it was, and walking towards the door. 

So, do you like writing fight scenes? Reading fight scenes? In case your curious, the only bit of that which I kept was: 

Focus, Leni thought to herself, flowers, Lilly, daffodil, lavender, lime. She can only see what

you’re not trying to hide, lily daffodil, lavender, lime. Leni felt the bracelet cutting into her wrist.

“Get them outside,” Leni heard herself yell again, to Amiel, who was running down the stairs.

She turned to see the mercenaries discarding their drinks and picking up weapons. “I really don’t want to hurt any of you.” Leni said slowly, she knew her voice was affected by the poision the temple gave her that kept her numb and impaired,  but she was hoping that her anger hid it.

The closest one laughed, Leni thought his name was Clive. She could still feel his hand on her

leg, telling her things would be okay, slipping a bottle towards her. “Hurt us Leni?” He asked, stepping forward “Can you count? You’re outnumbered, and what exactly do you plan to do? You’re unarmed.”

No! Leni shouted in her own mind, lily, daffodil, lavender, lime. Broke a bottle and shoved it

through his eye. Lily, daffodil, lavender, lime. Sometimes people just have to die.

E is for Hearing.

Every now and then I write something and I think, Damn that was a stroke of brilliance. Don’t get me wrong, most of the time when I write something I think, well that’s complete and utter crap. But every now and again I write something and it feels prefect.

And when that happens (mostly and especially for this blog) I quickly hit post. If you were ever reading my blog and wondering why the hell I have so many typos, I’ve probably answered that qunundrum. Anyway, when I post something fresh, something that feels perfect, I make a real and deliberate effort not to go back and look at it again. Cause I know as soon as I do, I’ll hear all the mistakes.

And when I say I’ll hear the mistakes, I really mean I’ll see them. This is actually one of my writing pet peeves (although I do it a lot too). When people hear things with their eyes. I get why we say it. When I read something I do hear it in my voice in my head, but really I’m not hearing it, I’m thinking it.

The English language could make things a bit easier. Really, do we need to hear things with our ears. Couldn’t we just earing instead of listening or hearing. And what about seeing, wouldn’t eyeing something be much more logical. I’m using my eyes to see it, aren’t I? And I really should feel things with my feelers, instead of touching things with my fingers. However, if I’m out feeling things with my feelers it means I’m probably no longer human, which could be a problem.

I think my point however, if I have one, is that ears are underutilized (which is a really fun word). Ears are awesome. They hear things and they listen to things. And no ear is exactly the same. Law and Order SVU taught me that. Although I know I shouldn’t get facts from Law and Order SVU, that’s what CSI is for.

How is A-Z going for you? Are you hearing lots of cool blogs? Do you have any writing/reading pet peeves. Did you know in the Unicorn Series by Tanith Lee—the MC has a pet that’s a peeve. What is your favorite body part?

D is for Insecurities.

Or D could be for Damien, who is one of my main characters in my current WIP. Damien is described as:

He was tall, taller even than Mother Trina, with dark hair, that looked like he cut it himself, so it stuck out in a haphazard way. Leni couldn’t make out the color of his eyes, they were somewhere between brown and green, with skin tanned from lots of time outside. He had an open face, which Leni guessed would make him attractive enough if he smiled, but he was keeping his face intentionally blank. To be fair, though, so was she.

The most impressive thing about him, Leni thought, was not his size, it was instead the great sword, which he carefully drew and wrapped in padding.

He is probably the character I’ve poured the most of myself into. He is self deprecating, he is light hearted and uses both of those things to disguise a troubled past. But Damien is also full of self doubt and duty. That combination makes him a very insecure character. Especially when he has doubt about the duties he is supposed to perform.

Because of all that he is a lot of fun to write. As time goes on, he wants more and more to try to help the MC, yet he is duty bound not to. One of my favorite Damien scenes that has actually been cut is a bit of dialogue between Leni and Damien:

“Dai,” she whispered, “What am I doing here?”
“You called me Dai” he replied,
“Not the point.”
“What if I don’t want you to call me Dai?” he whispered, lips brushing against her neck.
“Do you care if I call you Dai?” she asked, shuddering under his touch.
“You don’t let me call you Lens” he replied, smelling her hair
“Fine call me Lens, but answer the question.”
“I don’t care if you call me Dai or not.”
“Not the question I wanted answered” Leni snapped.
“I know. I forgot your original question” he answered, lifting his head.
Leni paused and stared at him. “Would you stop me if I tried to leave?”
“Depends,” he answered smiling, “where would you go?”
“Away from you.”
“Could I follow you?” he asked, frowning slightly.
“Why would you want to?” She asked
“Why don’t you want me to?” He whispered, tracing a scar along her back.
“Stop answering my questions with questions.”
“Sorry. What was your question again?”
“Would you stop me if I tried to leave?” She asked again.
“Do you want to leave?”
“Damn it Damien.” She shouted, pushing him away. “Just answer the question.”
“I think I already have.” He replied letting his arms fall to his sides.

Who is your most insecure character? Why? 

C is for Constipation.

I don’t think I like the letter C very much. I keep coming up with C words. But none of them seem all that interesting.

Originally I was planning on writing about characters. But in all honesty I don’t know what I’m talking about, and writing a post about the characteristics of a character, when I don’t know what I’m talking about seems careless.

I briefly entertained the idea of writing about one of my characters, but then I decided it would be better to write about them on their “day”.

The problem with C is that I’ve come up with several cunning C words. However, none of them have truly caught my fancy. I’m constipated with ideas for C.

Then I thought about writing about culture or community. In one aspect of my crazy confusing job, I teach civics. And in one of the lesson plans I bring kids into a neighborhood and ask them, what makes that neighborhood a community. What makes it a culture? Then we could talk about how to get that into writing, cause I suck at world building. And maybe if I did that I would force myself to world build.

I’m not all that good at world building, but I think developing a culture is an important part of it.

The culture in Sacrifice, my current WIP, is ruthless. There are no kingdoms; there is no true central authority. There are warlords, and cities they control. There are mercenary groups who roam from one warlord to another, taking what they want. It’s a culture where children accused of crimes are put to death through a challenge of ordeal. And there is the Church (another interesting C word).

The Church, or temple, is a loose connection of several different polytheistic gods, held together by the Triad, an elected council of the leaders of different temples. The Triad sets temple policy for all of the temples. And the Temple oversees the challenge, or as they call it, the Sacrifice.

A challenge very few children ever survive, but if you do survive, if you turn eighteen, you are pardoned. It used to be that if you survived to sixteen, you would be pardoned. When Leni, the MC turned sixteen, and survived, she did not receive a pardon. She instead received a change in the law, making it seventeen. She survived at seventeen, and the triad changed the law again.

What do you think makes up a culture?

B is for Racism

I’m bending, bludgeoning or breaking a rule, (damn). I told myself I wasn't going to do a blog post about the Hunger Games. Mostly because I feel relatively ambivalent about the series, but also because I just didn't want to. Well, not until I read the article. 

Basically it’s a collection of tweets from some so called Hunger Games fans.

“kk call me racist but when I found out Rue was black her death wasn’t as sad” --jashperpars

I’ll let that sink in for a second. People were cheapening the death of a 12 year old fictional character, saying it meant less to them because of her ethnicity!

To me, when I read the book, I pictured Katniss as Native American, or perhaps of Middle Eastern Decent—just because that’s what Olive skin means to me. I pictured Rue and Thresh as African American. They were described as; “She has dark brown skin and eyes,” To me, that means Black. I never doubted that Rue or Thresh were supposed to be Black characters.

Yet apparently, other people don’t read descriptions.

The fact that Collins decided to include characters of other races is one of my favorite elements of the series. I have olive skin, I am a bit of a mutt ethnically, but I have both Native American, and Middle Eastern ancestors. I hardly ever read about characters that look like me.

And I understand why, most fantasy (at least what I read) is set in a Europe type world. And in the Middle Ages, very few non Europeans lived in Europe. Although I always feel like it adds something to a novel when you can include characters from different backgrounds, different places, different ethnicities.

I feel like if I was Black it would be worse though. Aside from Hunger Games, Kate Elliot’s Spirit Walker Trilogy (which I can’t honestly recommend) is one of the only books that I’ve read in recent memory that includes Black characters.

What do you think? Is it worth it to include Black, Brown, Blue, Green, Olive, Yellow, people?

Here’s the article—how are you guys doing with A-Z?

p.s. I really need to work on making my posts shorter. 

A is for OMFG…

So, its April, and officially the first post of the A-Z challenge. I thought for a while about what I would post for the first post, letter A. The beginning. The Alpha. 

I came up with a few good ones. And I decided that there is a problem with the letter A. A has a few too many awesome words. At first I thought I could do A for April-cause you know it would be a great opening to this blog hop/fest/roll thingy. But then I thought, if I make an entire post about the A-Z challenge, I really should post my plan, but I don’t really have a plan, and I got overwhelmed trying to make a plan so I decided not to. Like anything hard, I’m good at quitting it. Plus I thought I could do some sort of April fools thing there.

Then I thought I should do A for Alpha Male. Which fit into the plan I had when I had a plan. The plan, of talking about elements of writing, and I could talk about Alpha male characters, and the existence of Beta characters could be B and so on and so forth, but that got a bit boring, so I gave up on that plan.

Arrogance was a great A word for the beginning of something that I really don’t think I’m remotely cut out to do, but that I’m arrogant enough to be pretty sure that if I pull it off it will be epic. Also because I’m arrogant enough to believe this drivel is worth reading.

I dwelt for a while on the word Apathy. I’ve been meaning to write a post on Apathy for a while. I’ve just been too apathetic to write it. I deal with apathy a lot in my life, not only at work, although I accept a lot of it there. But in my personal life too. See I’m a very apathetic person. I blame my father. He is apathetic too.

Awesome appeared appropriate for a while, and so did award. Awesome because this challenge is going to be awesome. Also awesome cause I could tell you about some of my recent experiences, like going to see Phantom of the Opera live on Broadway, which I did right before writing this post. Or I could do an Award and announce the winner of my first ever book giveaway (see end of post!). Although that doesn’t really work because it’s not really an award, it’s just a giveaway…and claiming that reading about my recent experiences is awesome is arrogant.

So in the end I decided on OMFG because indecisive is not an A word. And I’m a bit overwhelmed. But I’m also excited. And, maybe. Just maybe, ready. Don’t let the fact that I’m writing this at 12:47am on 3/31/12 in a Marriott hotel room, in NYC and I don’t have any of the other posts written (I have a full train ride home for that). If you’re here for the Chalange, then Welcome!

I hope you enjoy the ride, and that I haven’t scared you away, yet.