He argues that the title of a short story is even more crucial than the all-important first sentence, because it is the title that will engage a reader enough to even bother with your first sentence. I think, with stories published on the internet, this becomes even more of a factor, as the title is often what a reader clicks on to access the body of the story.
Now, this blog peaked my interest for several reasons. First, one of my favorite aspects of writing is coming up with creative titles. And I'm good at. The NYC agent who stalked me based on my on-line publications said that she LOVED my titles, and that was one thing that drew her to my writing in the first place.
I think coming up with a title for a story, is much like coming up with a title for a piece of visual art, or a creative photograph. Here are some principles I use.
1) The title itself should tell a story. It must hint of a mystery, or cause the reader to ask an internal question that can only be answered by reading the story. My story titled "Sister of the Benevolent Gods" has this story aspect to it. The title causes a cascade of questions in a reader's mind such as "Who is the sister of these gods? Why isn't she a god too? Who are these benevolent gods, and why does she identify them as such so specifically?" These questions can only be answered by reading more.
2) The title should be as unique as you can make it, and still fit the story. I tend to use very unique titles, so I was somewhat surprised to find a Google Alert for a novel titled The Moth Collector's Daughter, which is one of the titles of my recent flash magical realism piece. However, when I followed the link, the author had used that as a working title, but actually changed the published title to something else. I was relieved. Having a unique title will insure that your story is the one people will find when they are looking on-line, in a book store, or at library.
3) The title should encapsulate the larger tones and themes of the story, if possible. This means you often shouldn't finalize the title until the story is complete and you know what the overarching theme is. For example, my fantasy story about the origins of a fire witch is titled "Heart of the Salamander". I could have called it "Origins of a Fire Witch" because that is an event in the story, but the deeper theme of the story is the "ignition" of the main characters heart; how she changes from trying to please others, to realizing she must live for herself.
4) The title should not spoil the story. Your title should not need a spoiler alert, or give away the ending of your story.
5) A one word title is rarely a good title. "The" does not count as a second word.
6) Good titles often come from within the story itself. A great piece of dialogue or a sweet turn of phrase from the text of your story can often be the most powerful title. When the reader comes to that exact replica of your title in the story, it gives them an "ah-ha" moment, a sense of the parts fitting together to make a beautiful whole.
7) Alliteration can work in a title. You don't want to go overboard on this or you can start sounding like a children's author or a bad poet, but it can lend some music to your title. For example, I have a literary story titled "The Comfort of Cabbages", and another one titled "Coffins at Costco." Apparently, I have a thing for the letter C.
8) Unusual words, or an unusual combination of words, can result in a good title. Using words people don't often hear and encounter or putting words together that seem juxtaposed is a great way to gain the attention of your reader. Just be sure it isn't a gimmick. The words you use should actually have something to do with the story, not leave your reader wondering "What was that?" A good example of this is my flash story "Traveling by Petroglyph". Many people have commented on how much they liked that unusual combination and what questions it brought to mind.
9) A longer title should have rhythm or meter to make it sing. Composing a longer title is often like creating a poem or the line of a song lyric. It should have rhythm and meter, and slip off the tongue easily so that a reader will enjoy saying it, and also remember it. A good example of this is my novel title "The Absolute Ruin of Pauline Le Roux". It has almost a sing-songy element to it.
10) Don't be afraid to exchange your title for a better one. Just as with our tendency to have pet words and pet phrases, writers can get attached to a bad title and sink their whole story rather than change it. The editor of the blog I mentioned above writes about this very thing. He has been told to "butt out" by authors, or that their title is fine, or that their workshop buddies like it, so there. He proceeds to give some wonderful example of stories with great titles, and what they would be like if the author hadn't taken the time to craft a creative title for their creative work.
So, now I have a few questions for you.
If you are a writer, do you find titling your stories and books a pleasure, or a frustrating task?
What is a favorite title of someone else's work? What do you like about it?
If you are a writer, what is a favorite title of a story you've written?
Finally, do you have a story whose title you hate, or one you just can't seem to name? If so, and you'd like me to have a crack at it, just leave a comment or PM me, and we'll see what I can come up with.
I'm building an author website. Well, actually ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
angelmcc is building it, and I'm just pestering her with a lot of questions and sticking my thumb in the pie to get things deliciously sticky. Its fun and my learning curve is more like a ramp. For the most part, I don't know what I like or hate, until I see it.
And that is where all of you come in, my Livejournal Lovelies.
Tell me about an author's website that you love (and please link to it). What is it about that website that stands out above the rest? What features does it have that attract you? How does it represent the personality of the author or what they write? What mood do you feel when you visit it? Why do you visit an author's website? What information do you hope to gain there?
Conversely, what makes a website suck (you don't have to link on this one, unless you feel particularly compelled). What mistakes and pitfalls should I avoid so that when I finally launch this baby for the new year, you'll all come and coo at it, and stay for tea and crumpets.
Lately, I've been continually surprised when I Google a writer's name, and I find next to nothing about them on the internet. It is as if the author is a virtual ghost, their story only a wisp of a hint of who they are and what they do.
Stories are a writer's best avenue of self-promotion, and, as such, they should lead interested readers to the author and more of her work. Stories should not be dead-ends. If you want to build a fan base (and if you are a writer, you should want this), you must create a presence on the internet. You can't be virtually invisible, a ghost. You have to work to manifest yourself as a solid, flesh-and-blood entity.
But how does a new writer (or an old one learning new tricks) do this?
MAXIMIZING YOUR PRESENCE:
First, Google Search your pen name, and look through the first three pages of hits. Are any of them you? Does your website show up? Does your blog show? (if you don't have these, well, get them) Do any of your published works show up?
When I Google Search Ripley Patton, the first three pages of hits are all mine. It wasn't always that way, and honestly, it wasn't something I set out to accomplish on purpose. So, how did it happen?
1) Content - The more content you have on the internet with your name connected to it, the less invisible you will become. Content can include blogs, websites, articles, published stories, interviews, communities you post content to, even comments you leave on the sites and blogs of others. Don't pass up a chance to have your work archived on a website, as this will add to your permanent content presence.
2) Linkage - Many search engines generate hits based on how often items have been linked to by others. When you have a story published, always link it back to your blog or website. Include your links in comments and content posts. Write interesting articles that people will want to link to. Ask friends, fans, and family to link to your blog and website on theirs, and return the favor.
3) Key Words - Obviously, your name should be the Key Word utilized on your website or blog. I have encountered many writers who name their websites and blogs something obscure and clever, but without their name clearly attached. This is a Search Engine killer. People cannot find your stuff if your name is not attached to it. Choose domain names and blog titles that incorporate your pen name. Write bios and content in the third person so that your name appears in it.
Don't be a ghost writer. Work on these three simple areas, and you should begin to feel more solid in only a few weeks.
I look forward to seeing more of you on the net.
In order to be eligible for the Nebula, speculative fiction stories or books had to be published in English in the United States (or in English on the internet, which apparently now qualifies as one of the United States) in 2009.
Works may not be nominated by their authors, editors, publishers, or agents, by spouses or domestic partners of their authors, or by any other party with a monetary interest in the work.
All Active and Associate members of SFWA in good standing are eligible to make nominations during the Nomination Period, which ends Feb 15th 2010. Each eligible member may nominate no more than five different works per category and may not nominate any work more than once. Nominations will be accepted via a secure web-based form.
So, here is my list of eligible works in the short story category:
Jan 2009 - "The House that Dirk Built" in The Lorelei Signal
February 2009 - "Sheep Women and Dog Boys" in Reflection's Edge
February 2009 - "The Derby" at Wily Writers Website for Downloadable Speculative Fiction
March 2009 - "A Speck in the Universe" at Wily Writers Website
June 2009 - "Corrigan's Exchange" in Semaphore Magazine
July 2009 - Sister of the Benevolent Gods in A Time To..Volume 3: The Best of the Lorelei Signal 2008
July 2009 - "Rites of Passage" in A Fly in Amber
August 2009 - "Traveling by Petroglyph" in Flash Me Magazine
August 2009 - "The Moth Collector's Daughter" in Reflection's Edge
Not too shabby. Not too shabby at all.
Now, that is weird on so many levels. First, I'm not a huge graphic novel fan. I have nothing against the medium itself, and in fact, I tend to love movies based on graphic novels. It isn't the storytelling or the style I have issue with. And I'm certainly not a literary snob. I love storytelling in all its various forms. My issue comes on a more basic level. I have trouble dividing my personal attention between words and pictures when I read. Inevitably, the words win, if both are present, and so I tend to read books, and watch graphic novels when they make it to the big screen.
However, my husband has an abiding love for graphic novels, so they float around the house a bit. Both my children also consume age-appropriate versions of them like candy.
But never in my "goals as a writer" did I even entertain the intention of writing a graphic novel.
Still, the images flash in my head. Ghosthand, originally in my mind as a YA fantasy, is a little too sensual, a little too dark, and a little too grungy to fit a straight YA market. As soon as I got these graphic novel images, it was like the story had come home.
I mean, consider this; my MC, Olivia Black, who is a spunky goth born with an ethereal right hand, will eventually have to run from the law, and when she does, she will take the alias, Liv Darkly.
So, now that I seem to be channeling a graphic novel, any idea where to go from here?
Obviously, I'd need a visual artist, because I'm not one, and they'd need to be in love with the project and willing to work with a total newb like me.
And then we'd have to actually figure out how to do this. Anyone know any good links on how to produce graphic novels?
Well, this was the sentence I got from the Agent via e-mail yesterday morning refering to the three Chapts of Catherine the Caulbearer I had sent to her last week. I'm pretty happy with that response, and have just sent her through to chapter 12, which is what I currently have written, though the entire book is pretty mapped out in my head.
Catherine the Caulbearer is a children's (protagonist is 14) fantasy and I thought I would post the prologue here. I'd love to hear what you think.
The Catastrophe
When the world ended, the cats survived, of course, though no one really knows how but the cats. The cats survived, and some goats and sheep which had probably just been lost in the mountains and lucked out. Oh, and people survived, though only the ones on boats at the time, or near boats, or those fortunate enough to be lost on high ground with the sheep and the goats, because, you see, when the world ended, it ended rather wetly.
Later, it was called The Catastrophe (probably after the cats), which means it wasn't the end of the world at all if it had a later, which I've just said that it did. But it was the end of "a" world, and the beginning of a different one with lots more water and only a handful of land animals. It was the beginning of a world with very few people (and some cats), and those very few people didn't trust land anymore. They were sailors, and they trusted the sea, and for the most part they lived on boats, only coming home to their little island shacks to visit their wives and daughters who weren't allowed on boats at all because a female on a ship was considered horribly bad luck.
You see, it was a new world, but it wasn't necessarily a better one. The world before had been run on science with great attention to facts and look where that had gotten everyone. The new world, the world of sailors and cats, was run on superstition. Superstitions are silly beliefs that don't necessarily make sense, but they make the people who believe them feel better. Cats don't have a superstitious bone in their bodies, even the unlucky black ones. Sailors, on the other hand, are superstitious down to the littlest phalanges in their littlest left toes. So, since sailors were running the new world, their superstitions became the law of the land (which mostly wasn't land anymore at all, but sea).
These laws eventually became known as "The Sacred Supes" and there were twenty of them. The original Sacred Supes had been written up just before The Catastrophe by a man named, oddly enough, Supey Sails, who wasn't a sailor at all. He had written far more than twenty silly things on a piece of yellowing parchment in twirling pirate cursive, and shoved them away in an old trunk, chuckling to himself. Four and a half years after The Catastrophe that trunk bumped up against a sailor's boat and was fished out of the sea, opened, and the contents immediately deemed to be "sacred text". That meant it was something special, maybe even from God, and should immediately be pounded into everyone's head as "the way to live or else."
So, that is just what happened in our new world. Eventually some of the Supes got thrown out, or lost, or faded off the parchment until there were only twenty really silly ones left. Men, women and children were required to memorize these twenty "Sacred Supes" from the day they were born, because most of them couldn't read or write, though they were exceptionally good at math, navigation by the stars, and chart reading, upon which their lives often depended. They were expected to follow The Sacred Supes as if their lives depended on it, which of course their lives didn't, but oh well.
Those who followed the Supes to the letter were called "Good Mariners" or just "Mariners" if occasionally they broke a few. If someone didn't respect the Supes enough, they were called a "Landlubber" which was the worst thing one could be called. If they ignored the Supes altogether, they were considered dangerous, and it was assumed that someday they would drown, or be pulled down by the Kraken to Davey Jones' Locker and poked with Poseidon's' trident for all eternity.
The cats just licked themselves and ignored all this. They were the only ones in the new world keen enough to realize that when one world ends, and another begins, it tears something wide open so that a bit of magic can slip right in all quiet like and unnoticed to change things even more. The cats knew this, and they knew their part in it, but they weren't about to tell anyone. If you're a cat it is oh-so-much-more-fun just to watch people scramble about like a mouse you've dropped in a rubber boot, than to explain how the world works to them.
Still, not all the cats were totally heartless. Some of them even liked humans for all their faults. One cat in particular in this new world very much liked a girl, and the girl adored the cat, and that is where the real story starts. All of this is just boring back story, and you needn't read it unless you really want to. Don't say I didn't warn you.
Oh, and if anyone wants a copy signed by me (blush) let me know, and we'll figure something out:)
The 2009 Semaphore Anthology is due for publication this December, and they are currently offering free postage for all pre-orders received before the 20th of November. This Anthology will cost international readers $NZ20.00 plus $NZ1.45 PayPal fees, while New Zealand customers who want to pay via direct deposit get to escape the extra charge.
If it's still before the 20th of November and you would like to pre-order a copy of this year's Anthology, send Marie an email and get your name on the list. If it's after the deadline, same applies, though it'll cost your pocket a little more.
This Anthology will feature Janni Lee Simner's "Lost or Forgotten," Ripley Patton's "Corrigan's Exchange," Pat Tompkins' "The Power of Three," Stuart Sharp's "A Madder Scientist" and "The Apocalypse Factor," Robert S. Tyler's "The Sideways Man," Grant Stone's "Dick Whittington's Blues," S. Arthur Yates' "On the Road to Cathmanduel," Joseph Reich's "The Witch: A Clinical Case Study," Kevin Brown's "Invisible Bullets," Michelle Fee's "To Find a Princess," Kate Smith's "Bombshell," Camille Alexa's "Dear Zombie," Therese Arkenberg's "The Gallows Wife," Rachel Zakuta's "Swipe," and K. C. Shaw's "Long Way Home."
Well, I thought you all might be chomping at the bit for a little news about how "The Agent Incident" is progressing.
About a week ago, I sent her the outline and first chapts for Ghosthand. She got back to me the next day with notes/ edits and thoughts on how the storyline might be changed to better fit the YA market. They weren't major things really. Have more major characters be teens, rather than adults. Change the terms "minus flesh" and I'minus to something a little cooler. Be a little more subtle with some of the "leaning toward adult" content. She also used the words "special" and "brilliant" concerning the concept, so with that sugar, it was pretty easy to swallow the critical suggestions.
The day after the feedback, I sent her a story outline and first chapts for Catherine the Caulbearer, a children's fantasy set in a post-polar-ice-cap-melt earth, where sailors rule, women must stay on land, maritime superstitions have become the "religion of the day", and a fourteen-year-old-girl, armed with a cat, turns the entire new world on its head. The Agent said, "I'll get to this in a jiffy," and I've been waiting since. It has been a week. I e-mailed her once, and she responded that she was just busy (it was her mom's b-day) and she'd get back to me.
In an effort not to panic, I've been working up one more idea that I would love to see come to fruition. When all else fails, write!
So, that's the update. You know what I know, and when there's more, I'll post:)
Oh, and how about some ideas from the peanut gallery? What cool name would you call the minus flesh phenomenon? Who knows, maybe your term will make it into the book:)
And what shall I do to comfort myself? Write, of course.
And what shall I write about? How about Ghosthand itself, as a little teaser, and to help myself process that, much like my eleven-year-old daughter, Ghosthand is now off at wilderness camp and I can't save it or help it, or hold its hand any longer. It will have to stand on its own three chapters.
So here is a blurb about Ghosthand. I'd love to hear what you think.
Seventeen-year-old, gritty Goth Olivia Black was born with a rare birth defect known as minus flesh. Instead of a skin, bone, and blood right hand, Olivia's hand is made of ethereal matter, or spirit energy. Everyone in Olivia's small home town is used to her hand, especially because she keeps it concealed under a leather glove, but in the wider world, minus flesh has become an issue of great conflict. Some people think that it is the next evolutionary leap, that humans are destined to throw off their flesh entirely and become beings of pure energy. Other people think that minus flesh is a defect, an abomination, or a sign of the Beast, and that anyone with it should be eradicated. Olivia just thinks of it as her ghosthand.
Then one night, Olivia's ghosthand begins to do strange things, like pulling household items out of other people's chests. Between putting a boy in the hospital, getting arrested, and fighting with her mom, Olivia finds herself on the outs of her small town community. When a dark, young man shows up in place of her high school guidance counselor, asking questions about her hand, Olivia doesn't trust him further than she can throw him, but he just might have the answers she seeks. So, she takes a risk, and together they break into the Police Chief''s house to steal back the items Olivia's hand has been gathering from people. When the Chief catches them in the act and shoots the dark, young man in the chest, it doesn't even faze him and they make their escape, but Olivia has more questions than ever before. Who is this strange, dark man, impervious to bullets, who goes by the title of I'minus? Why is he gathering a rag-tag band of people with minus flesh? And why is Olivia the only female in the bunch?
She'll have to go with him and his band deep into the south amidst the fanatics against minus flesh to find out,
Want to go with her?
I need emergency Critters for a grungy YA urban fantasy/magical realism first chapter. This is not your mama's Twilight.
I need it hard, and I need it fast. First few volunteers get a stab at it, but only if you can get comments back to me in a day or so.
PM me your e-mail.
Well, a day of research revealed that clients of The Agent who stalked me have nothing but rave reviews of her. I found a rad interview with her and I have to say that our philosophies of writing and reading really mesh. She is a young, strong, woman of color which thrills me because I write anything but "anglo white male" fiction. Several exchanges of e-mail revealed that we love the same writers for the same reasons.
The agency itself is interesting. It isn't just a literary agency, it is what I would describe as a media-talent agency. They have clients who are sports figures, celebs, musicians, in the film industry, in television, and writers as well. I think this is a cutting edge approach. Let's face it, books aren't just books anymore. Books are stories that become films, songs, television shows, video games, podcasts, and the list keeps expanding. They agency is relatively new on the scene but have staff who worked in the industry elsewhere before moving to this newer venture. And they are known for selling their client's work, sometimes to the tune of six-figure deals.
I could find no one represented by them complaining. What I did find was a bit of a forum cufuffle by writers who had been rejected by them in a way that was probably not "best practice". I asked The Agent about this and she was really straightforward in telling me what went down. Suffice it to say, there was a "thing happening" that got blown out of proportion, and someone eventually got called on the carpet for it, but some damage had already been done. The agency isn't doing "the thing" anymore. End of story.
So, The Agent and I have been e-mailing back and forth. I sent her a CV, sort of a "here is why I am such a great and versatile writer worthy of your representation". That felt weird, but it was all true. I also included a list of my current projects, of which there are quite a few. She came back with which ones she really likes and which ones she thinks would be a hard sell in the current market, which was advice worth its weight in gold.
AND THEN... she asked for outlines, rough work-ups, and first chapts for my best WIP in every genre I write. AND she said she LOVES my titles.
So, now I have a serious fire up my butt to get my outlines and first chapts polished and ready in a jiffy. I may be scarce for a bit here, but I'll try to keep everyone posted.
Cloud nine doesn't even begin to describe my location.
Oh, and
mylefteye had the same thing happen to him- the agent who repped Robert Jordan sought him out after reading some of his work. So it does happen. I am just still really having trouble wrapping my head around the fact that it is happening to me.
There are things a writer only dreams of. One of them is being "sought out" by a literary agent. Conventional wisdom will tell you agents don't have the time, or the necessity, to look around for writers to represent. They have slush piles higher than Mount Everest. They have talent beating at the door. And for the most part, that is true.
However, occasionally, an agent stumbles upon a story or an author that gives them a "certain" tingle. They fall in love with the writing first, and if it fits what they solicit, and what publishers are looking for, it is within the realm of reality that they might send the author a query.
Don't think it happens. Well, I didn't either, until I opened up my e-mail this morning and found this message:
Sometimes the inner bookworm in an Agent gets a bit of a happy tingle in the belly when they read a piece. This is the rarest of sensations ; one that makes all of the hustle and bustle of agenting worth it. Thanks for giving me that small happiness this morning with The Comfort of Cabbages.
I apologize for the Facebook stalk, but your livejournal addy was bouncing back and I had to get in touch! Based in NYC , my company has over 100 celebrity and Pulitzer-Prize writers. Fiction is my passion and I would absolutely love to hear about what you are working on and what your goals are as a writer.
Of course, I went mad. I called my husband, and e-mailed my friends. I drooled and dreamed. I went and made sure it wasn't a hoax. Yes, she really is an agent with a real agency. Feel free to be excited for me.
However, once the glam and drool have lost their shine, not all literary agents are created equal. I have a lot of calm research to do before I make any committments or sign over my current projects to anyone.
If you ever find yourself being wooed by a literary agent or agency, here are some great sites to help you stay calm, educated, and thinknig with your head instead of your desperate, writerly heart.
SFWA's article on Hunting for a Literary Agent:
http://www.sfwa.org/2005/01/hunting-for-a-l
SFWA's things to Beware:
http://www.sfwa.org/for-authors/writer-b
Great post on how to evaluate an agency's website:
http://accrispin.blogspot.com/2006/04/vi
Preditors and Editors
http://anotherealm.com/prededitors/pealo.h
I'll be sure to keep you all posted on further developments.
I like to blog. It keeps my writerly juices flowing on a regular basis. It helps me stay in touch with friends, family and fans. It gives me a soapbox when something riles me up, and provides me a place to publically celebrate when a story finds a home, goes to print, or gets nominated for an award.
I like to blog. And I think I've gotten better at it than when I first started. Practice makes perfect, right? But I'm fairly biased about my own talents:) I think I"m good, but what do other people think of what I write? Sometimes it can be hard to tell. Escpecially as the holiday season hits and people don't have time to read blogs, let alone comment on them.
So, as an experiment, I posted two of my recent Halloween blogs onto the Red Room author site. They have themed "contests" there. Basically, you write a blog on their theme (in this case Halloween) and the editors choose a few of them to be "featured blogs" for the site's main page. If you're chosen, you win the publicity and usually a cool free book.
And lo and behold, I got an e-mail today saying that my blog, Writing Your Demons, was chosen as one of the three top Halloween blogs. It is featured at Red Room here: http://www.redroom.com/blog/well-red/wee
Thanks for the pat on my blogging head, Red Room. It is much appreciated.
It is Halloween here in New Zealand. Tonight children of all ages will be dressing up in guises of hope and fear. Teenagers will be buying eggs and toilet paper, and telling their parents they'll be at each other's houses until late (which technically isn't lying if by "at their houses" they mean in the back yard vandalizing them).
But it has been a long time since I've dressed up or egged someone, at least on the outside. My monsters have had time to mature, to become more complex and ingrown. When I dress up as the serial killer, the witch, or the apparition, I do it internally, in the inner, dark robes of my imagination. I am a writer, and so I do not dress up as my demons; I write them.
You might think that this is strange, or that somehow I am unique, but I think there are many writers who feel as I do. Bad things happen, scary things, monstrous things. They happen to us, and around us, or maybe we only hear about them or read about them in the news, but they stick, somewhere deep in our psyches. They lurk under our beds, they hide in our closets, or make scratching noises in the basement of our minds until we can't help but go down there.
Stephen King spends a lot of time visiting the basement of his mind. That seems obvious. But I don't think writing demons is unique to the horror writer. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes. King's demons come dressed as the things that scare him, but those aren't necessarily the same demons I wrestle. Nor do we engage them with the same plots, literary devices or words. The things in the basement can be as easily clothed in fantasy as horror. One can shroud them in science turning them to aliens, other worlds, or spaceships. As far as that goes, the wrangling of demons isn't even limited to fiction. Behold the monsters cower and bow when they are written up as sonnets or limericks or articles for women's magazines.
I write my demons, but please don't confuse that with any desire to destroy them. Demons, I believe, always serve a purpose of self-realization. They lead us somewhere we might never have gone without them. They take us into the dark, the marginalized, inner places that most people never visit. They make us who we are, the storytellers; the warriors who dare to face the dark and come back to the world of light and words with a better ending, a satisfying denouement, a hero's tale, rather than a victim's.
That is the power of writing for me, that I can battle my monsters with swords, or flames of magic, or I can dress them all in tutus and have them dance the Nutcracker. My words empower me. My stories redefine what I fear, what you fear, what we all fear.
And so this Halloween I challenge you- what demon has been scratching at your basement door, and when are you going to write it?
You can tell kids there are no such things as monsters. But you'd be lying. Let's be honest for a change, for the sake of Halloween and all that's hallow. There are monsters out there, and most of them are dressed up like humans. Jaycee Lee Dugard, the California girl who was kidnapped at age eleven and kept as a sex slave for 18 years in the back yard of a sex offender - she knows there are monsters. The boy who watches his father beat his mother bloody in a drunken rage- he knows there are monsters. The children molested regularly in their own beds by trusted family members- they know there are monsters, maybe not under the bed, but monsters grim and terrifying all the same.
Even children kept safe and secure know there are things to fear, monsters in the ranks, and with this truth comes a sense of horrible vulnerability. If you are a child, smaller, and weaker, and denied the power that adult monsters wield, how can you keep yourself safe? You may do everything right, follow all the precautions, and still the monsters may get you. Children often feel powerless about the monsters in their lives, the big, strong, powerful things that control or hurt them. What defense do they have?
And then in walks Halloween. Evil, pagan, satanic Halloween and it is the perfect gift of empowerment to children (and adults who still need to face their monsters). For three hundred and sixty-four days out of the year, monsters wear human flesh and walk among us indiscernible. On one night a year, humans don monster flesh and take the night back, and most of them are children. Petite blond girls and shy bookish boys put on the veil of ghosts and ghouls, witches and serial killers. They carry swords and cleavers. They bathe themselves in fake blood and smile the wicked grin of the fanged. They take on claws. They look out of the too-large eyes of monsterhood and demand from adults that they be given treats. It is a threat, this Trick-or-Treat. It isn't meant to be polite or "thank you for the candy." It is a child's chance to become the monster for a change. It is Max sailing away to Where the Wild Things Are. It is childhood embracing the dark, becoming King of the Beasts, and coming home unscathed to dine in decadence.
And so, if you're thinking of insisting that your child dress as a cowboy or a ballerina this year. Well, don't. If that is what they want to be, by all means, empower them. But if they want to be something gruesome or frightening, remember this; children know there are monsters out there. They have seen them on the news, in the paper, and possibly in their own neighborhoods or homes. But there is something about becoming the monster, about donning monster flesh, and monster bone, and the monster crown and yelling "Let the Wild Rumpus begin!"
There is something about Halloween that actually dispels fear, if we let it.
The other day a bad thing happened. It went down like this. First, I got a Google Alert in my e-mail which revealed that someone had uploaded one of my stories to a documents website without my permission and was planning to make some money off of it. The sad thing is the story in question is the SJV short-list nominated sci-fi tale "The Derby" which is already availabe for free at the Wily Website for Dowloadable Speculative Fiction. The good news is I quickly e-mailed the website concerning copyright infringement and they took the story down immediately.
I highly recommend to my fellow writers that you set up daily Google Alerts for your name, pen name, and story/book titles. Not only does it keep you aware of who is talking about your work and linking to it (so you can go comment and thank them) but you can also catch the badies every once in a while, which feels pretty good.
So, maybe that's a good thing.
Ripley
But the day had to get better, right?
Well, nope. Not when I just received a letter informing me that my "long awaited" colonoscopy (for which I have been on the public health care waiting list for 9 months) is scheduled for November 26th. That's right people. I get to drink laxitive and have a camera shoved up my ass on freaking THANKSGIVING.
Momma said there'd be days like this.
I've just received an e-mail that Traveling by Petroglyph, which recenlty appeared in Flash Me Magazine (July 2009), and originally appeared in Flash Fiction Online (October 2008) has been nominated by the editors of Flash Me for this year's Micro Awards.
Thanks guys for nominating it. And all you friends keep your fingers crossed.
At long last my fiction story, The Comfort of Cabbages, has gone live at New Zealand's Prima Storia. I wrote this story years ago based on the experiences of a close friend. It was first accepted for publication in an anthology about breasts titled Knockers which, after two years of negotiations with the publisher, had still not seen print. I finally pulled it and sent it back out into the world. Prima Storia, due to serious editorial and staff changes (and simple things like moving to Berlin), did not respond to my submission, but a query revealed that they wanted to publish it. Yeah!
So The Comfort of Cabbages is finally offered to the greater world. Just a note that this story is not speculative fiction, but a thoughtful read non-the-less.
Here's a blurb to whet your appetite:
I had hoped to sleep off my grief for a month, for a year, for a lifetime, but my breasts woke me up on day two. I sat up in bed, feeling the weight of them pull me forward. My once small boobs, now three times their normal size, throbbed, taut and foreign. I cupped one in each hand, hefting them; wanting to hand them back to their rightful owner. The drum-tight skin tingled with anticipation.
Oh, and don't miss fellow SpecFicNZ Core member Grant Stone's offering at Prima Storia as well.
Good reading.
We have moved. We have moved from our home of three years in a quiet, remote valley on Banks Peninsula New Zealand, to the heart of Christchurch City. We have exchanged the sound of the burbling river for the concussion of tires in pot-hole puddles. the bleating of sheep for police car sirens, the twittering of birds for- the twittering of birds. There are birds in the city, you know.
For the most part the move went well. We lost one cat (out of four). He went on a wander the day before the move and never came back despite our frequent visits to the property to secure him. I feel much loss and guilt about that. Why didn't I keep him in the house the day before? What was I thinking? How will he feel when he comes back to his home and jumps up to the window to be let in only to find the house filled with strange furniture, strange people, and a Bull Mastiff the size of a small cow?
He (is) was a great cat. One of three kittens that I helped deliver, and he was a caulbearer, born with his amniotic sack completely intact and I had to poke it with my finger to release him so the mother could lick him clean. Caulbearers are known to be able to see "beyond the veil" into the spirit world and they are also impervious to drowning, but sadly not to accidental abandonment.
We left notes in all the neighbor's mailboxes to keep an eye out for him, but I have little hope. The reality that all change involves loss is a little comfort, but not much. Loss sucks no matter how you couch it.But one must move on from loss. You can't reside there for too long. In a way, our first home in New Zealand was a land of loss. It was a beautiful place, quiet and isolated from which to mourn our homeland in hiding. Leaving America has not been easy. We have no family here, no sense of inherent belonging. We share the language (mostly) but not the culture. There were disappointments we had not anticiapated- our children bullied out of the local, rural school. My husband's job less than ideal. Anti-American sentiment and prejudice. Finding some things we had left behind completely unrecoverable here. We were naive. We made mistakes. We had no idea how much moving countries and continents would affect our inner landscape, our psyches, our essential selves. I would say internally each one of us experienced a tectonic upheaval- the very ground beneath our feet had moved and changed. There were numerous times in those three years that we would have high-tailed it back home if property ownership hadn't tethered us to our new land. Looking back, we are thankful for that.
I have heard before, from other immigrants, that if you make the three year mark, you have "made it". From that vantage point of time and perspective you can finally objectively evaluate if you have found a place you can belong.
Our move to the city comes a month after our three year anniversary of transplanting ourselves in New Zealand. We have left the remote valley of loss and hiding. We have even thrown off the secure tether of a mortgage.
And we love our new place smack in the heart of the city with its wood floors and french doors and neighborhood full of cats. Our children are happily attending alternative city schools. My husband is within walking distance of work and has plans to build a boat in our front garden. My writing is going well, and I have discovered a family of writers here- a community both welcoming and open.
I can finally say, without hesitation, that I belong in New Zealand.
Yes, there has been loss, and movement, but out of such dark, rich compost the seeds of renewal sprout eternal.
