Geographical inspiration

When I was younger I was lucky enough to travel each summer to some of the most beautiful national parks in the western United States. I traveled by bus. With about fifty relatives. And my great-uncle Joe was the bus driver. But that's a story for another time. Anyway, clearly all of the amazing landscapes captured my imagination, because they keep popping up in my book:

 The geothermal features of Yellowstone National Park appear in the Silvermarsh Province in Abernwyth. 

The beautiful rock structures of Arches National Park appear as the Archlands in the northern desert province.

And Canyonlands National Park becomes home to an isolated clan of ninja-faeries.

So, what about you—does travel inspire you? Do you get your fictional settings from real places, or places you make up in your head, or both?

Water Magic

I've been writing this young adult fantasy novel for over a year now, and yesterday I hit 60,000 words, meaning I've only got about 30,000 words to go! Now, I realize that a year is a long time for only 60,000 words, but that includes several false starts, when I had 10,000 to 20,000 words down, only to realize that the point of view was all wrong. Or the protagonist needed to be older, or a different gender. My early attempts were pretty bad, to be honest. I knew the basic idea of the story, but not how I wanted to tell it. Now, I've got something that actually feels like a book! And that's pretty exciting.

The plot of Water Magic goes like this: Two years after her baby brother Jayson disappears, 15-year-old Violet Cantwell is haunted daily by thoughts of what may have happened to him. Then she and her brother Caden, along with two of their friends, discover the entrance to a faerie world in the basement of an abandoned house. When they pass into Abernwyth they meet Loper, a Guardian who has been protecting the portal, and Zilas, his teenage apprentice. The faeries take them to meet Floridyn the Mage, the most powerful sorceress in the province. It's Floridyn who divines that Jayson has been kidnapped by the mysterious sorcerer Ezekiel Stone. And what's more, the sorcerer has been stealing children from every province in Abernwyth. Now the travelers and the faeries must band together to rescue Jayson—and all of the other children—before it's too late.

There are a few subplots that include a mandrigal (someone who can talk to animals), a clan of canyon-dwelling ninjas, a wicked dragon breeder, and a proud desert king.

The reason it's called Water Magic is that there are many different types of magic that faeries can do—elemental magic, color magic, sound magic, etc.—but water magic is the most ancient and powerful (and, as you might have guessed, it's an important feature of the story).

I usually aim to write about 1,000 words a day. But my writing is flowing really well lately, so I've set myself a goal of reaching 70,000 words by next Tuesday, when we leave on our vacation.

What about you—what are you writing right now? Do you set yourself writing goals and stick to them, or play it by ear?

THE TENANT OF WILDFELL HALL by Anne Brontë

 

ISBN: 9781853264887 [UK]  

 

First can I just say that I love the Brontës. Probably Emily first, then Anne, and then Charlotte. It always amazes me that these three sisters were able to write such captivating stories, all without computers or typewriters or even electricity. Imagine drafting an entire 300 page novel with a pen. By candlelight. And then having to revise and edit. Wow.

The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is the first book I've read by Anne Brontë. I found her style to be much less reserved than that of her sister Charlotte, and somehow rougher than her sister Emily's. Anne Brontë's characters passionate, scandalous, rambunctious, violent... anything but boring. 

The novel is narrated by the elderly Gilbert Markham, who is relating by letter the events of his youth for the benefit of his friend and brother-in-law. The story follows young Gilbert as he meets and falls in love with Helen Graham, a mysterious widow who takes up residence with her young son in nearby Wildfell Hall, an isolated, run-down old mansion.

The second part of the novel is told through Helen's journal, which she gives Gilbert to read so that he will understand why she cannot be with him, even though she is in love with him. With the diary comes the shocking revelation that Helen is not all that she seems...

Honestly, this book, despite having been written 162 years ago, was a page-turner for me. I neglected the three other books I was reading at the time in order to learn more about Helen and her mysterious past. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall is a must-read for anyone who loves dark Victorian novels or tales of mysterious fugitives.

I thought this was cool

 "And Daniel Boone Comes to Life on the Underwood Portable."

This was posted on Lines and Colors, an art blog I like, a couple weeks ago. It's a typewriter advertisement from 1923, painted by Norman Rockwell.

Happy Saturday!

Epic reading feat

I'm proud—and a little exhausted—to announce that after over a year and a half of reading aloud to each other, Big Chimp and I have today finished all 1,006 pages of Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke. Okay, to be honest it was mainly Big Chimp who did the reading, but he has the better accent for it.

All I can say is wow, what an epic story! What an amazing build-up and ending!

Glowing review to follow.

(Now if I could only figure out whether I am a Strangite or a Norrellite...)

Hollywood plots are boring

In the past two weeks I have watched one of the saddest movies I have ever seen:

And one of the happiest:

And I loved them both! They're both titles from my new favorite, Studio Ghibli, a Japanese animation film studio.

Now, the fact that I loved two very different films—one is about two war orphans trying to survive a food shortage in Japan, the other is about a magic goldfish—got me thinking. Normally it's a rare event that I truly like a film, let alone love one. So what's different about these two?

The answer is that they tell stories in ways that I'm not used to—they tell stories in a non-Western way. After 25 years of living in the United States and Great Britain, I'm officially burned out on Western storytelling in films. Or more accurately, I'm burned out on American and British films. The predictability. The cliches—the stripper with a heart of gold, the tired old athlete who gives it one more shot, the teacher who inspires inner-city kids, the mismatched couple who hate each other at first but inevitably fall in love—yawn. The same goes for most American sitcoms: gender stereotypes followed by ethnicity stereotypes followed by sexual orientation stereotypes followed by yawn, yawn, yawn. I've seen it all before. I'm bored.

What I like about foreign films is that they tend to tell stories if not in a less formulaic way, then at least with formulas that I'm not familiar with. When I watch these Japanese animated films, I watch them having no idea what is going to happen next. Even Ponyo, which is based on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid," surprised me with its originality; its utterly unique take on a familiar story. The delight of being surprised, of truly not knowing what will happen next, is what enables me to sit through a film.

I guess that's why I've been finding more and more inspiration in foreign and independent films over the past couple of years. I figure that if I can learn to tell stories in an unexpected, unpredictable way, then they will be more fun to read, and more fun to write as well.

So, what do you think? What makes a story—whether it's a a book, a film, a play, or whatever—interesting for you? What keeps you reading/watching/listening?

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller...

In case you tend to get Henry Miller and Arthur Miller confused, here are the lyrics to Dan Bern's "Marilyn." (This is the song that Magnus Toren serenaded us with at the Hay Festival last month). Watch the video here. 

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

But if she did he'd have taken her to Paris

And if she did she'd have smoked a lot of opium

And if she did she'd have dyed her hair blue

And if she did she might be alive

Oh-oh-o-oh Henry Miller

Oh-oh-o-oh Marilyn Monroe

Oh-oh-o-oh Henry Miller

Oh-oh-o-oh Marilyn Monroe

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

She lived outside the Tropic of Capricorn

Marilyn Monroe didn't marry Henry Miller

I don't even know if she knew Henry Miller

But if she did he'd a taken her to Paris

And if she did they'd have fucked every day

And if she did she'd have felt like a woman

Not like a photogragh in a magazine

Oh-oh-o-oh Henry Miller

Oh-oh-o-oh Marilyn Monroe

This is not a knock against Arthur Miller

"Death of a Salesman" is my favorite play

But Marilyn Monroe should have married Henry Miller

And if she did she might be alive

Cause if she did he'd have taken her to Paris

Tied her to the bed and eaten dinner off of her

And okay maybe she'd have died the same, anyway

But if she did she'd have had more fun

Oh-oh-o-oh Henry Miller

Oh-oh-o-oh Marilyn Monroe

Oh-oh-o-oh Henry Miller

Oh-oh-o-oh Marilyn Monroe