Redemption of a Scaredy Cat--Finding Courage Among Your Fears

    Have been on a Native American reading kick--Osage, Arapaho, Mixtec. Don't know why I haven't talked about Laura Resau before. Not only does she have an anthropological background and done the English-as-a-Second Language bit, but she's a local Colorado author. Worse, her young adult novel, Red Glass, is a wonderful book, even if published in 2009. -- No. I wouldn't know her if I stumbled over her in the daylight.

     Red Glass is a coming of age novel about Sophie, a risk-avoiding teen "amoeba" [a social singleton, isolate, loner, whatever], who learns her strengths by taking action against her better judgement and deciding she likes new self. Given the cliched situation, including a boy as motivation, Resau works writing magic.

     Have you ever thought lush description could be restrained? Well, Resau accomplishes the feat. The action doesn't stop. Yet, the reader can almost reach out and touch the scene they're in. This especially so when she's describing the milpas of southern Mexico/Guatemala.

    Pulled this example at random from when Resau describes the background of a secondary character returning to her house after it was bombed in the Bosnian Wars: "She shuffled and sorted through the debris, picking out pieces of green crystal wineglasses, sharp bits of vases, amber and violet, crushed wings of a blue angel. Some of the glass was smooth, melted in the heat of the explosions, some jagged. Finally, she picked up one shard of red glass, and put it in her pocket."

    I think that's a devastating depiction of the pain of war. And, no...I didn't search for it. The quote was truly a random pick though the piece of red glass appears often in the storyline.

    Yeah. I'm green with envy. Most writers would hit the pathos hard and heavy. But there's lots of humor in the story. On the other hand, even characters, that at first seem a set up for ridicule and comic relief, turn out to have an important role in sending Sophie on her self-revealing adventure in war-torn Guatemala.

    Oh, the storyline. Sophie's family fosters Pablo, an illegal child migrant, whose parents died on their journey to El Norte, the north, the USA. Her family wants to adopt Pablo, but they must first get his relatives', in southern Mexico, permission. Sophie travels south--with Pablo, Dika, a distant relative who's a refugee from the Bosnian Wars, and Dika's boyfriend and his teenaged son--on her journey of discovery.

Each character contributes to the mosaic of love and loss, courage and fear in this complex novel. While the theme is the standard teen stuff: character finding the guts to shed emotional crutches, Resau's storytelling soars. Even the adults learn something from the action. Read an excerpt and more reviews on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.

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    A thank you to my blog readers, whoever you are. My last guest blogger, Helena Smole, got an upsurge in her book's borrowing on Amazon after her blog appeared last week. Thank you again.

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My Writing Rut

    Surprised myself when I went back through and renumbered the pages on the often revised beginning chapters of  On the Run. When I'm drafting a novel, I create a file for each chapter. In the switch from short story to novel, I've gone from five breaks in the storyline to sixteen chapters--and I haven't even started the ending when Pillar returns to Taddledon.

    The surprise? I had a 600 word chapter when I didn't go back and add to a demon attack scene. Taken care of, so I can now check it off. Still, have to add a bitty scene to another chapter because the guy comes back to make Pillar's miserable when she returns from the Bittermounts.

    Still, having problems getting the action of the expanded academy section started. Did get the mage dogs, an idea from Showdown at Crossings, added though they haven't done much but act like dogs. Can't wait to start inventing again.

   Taking Vengeance? It's waiting for me to do the paper edits. Then, it'll be on to the copy editor when I get them transferred. 

Am wondering if there is any magic that 

transfers a completed novel from the mind's imagining to the published page.
*sigh*

Historical Fiction Writers, Do Your Characters Live in Their World or Yours?

Fantasy writers get dissed a lot for creating massive info dumps as they create worlds for their characters to act in. I'm no different. My critique partners often say I don't have enough action in my stories.

To my mind, historical writers as a group handle the problem worse. Seems like more of them either write fluff or lead. One bunch hasn't done enough historical research or don't understand the facts they wrote down. Others layer on so many facts that their characters get lost. 

Oh, for the writer who creates a living, breathing world.

I just hit it lucky again with Vicky Alvear Shecter's young adult historical novel, Cleopatra's Moon. Yes, that Cleopatra, the seventh of her name, figures large in the book, but this novel's main character is Cleopatra Selene, her daughter. Set during the civil war that changed ancient Rome from a Republic to an Empire under Octavian, the novel is laced with politics as Cleopatra Selene and her two brothers struggle to survive after their loving home in Egypt is destroyed, but it's never dull.

Yeah, the book is well researched and draws wonderful comparisons between the civilized Egyptians with their animal-headed gods and the uncouth Romans who stole so much of their culture from the ancient Greeks. [Okay, I know the Etruscans were part of ancient Greek civilization, if not the actual refugees from the Trojan Wars lead by Aeneas, but the Romans conquered them too.] 

After their parents and older brother die, Cleopatra VII's three younger children must then navigate the corruption of Octavian's rule to survive, especially Selene who hopes to return to Egypt as queen with the help of the worshipers of Isis. Selene tries to protect her younger brothers as she tries to choose which member of Octavian's household will best help her reach her goal of becoming queen.

Shecter builds well-rounded characters. A passage from the scene where Cleopatra offers her own life for her oldest son, fathered by Julius Caesar, shows how deftly she weaves historical facts to draw a three-dimensional secondary character. "Octavianus stood and crossed his arms, a cold grin on his face. 'Very noble of you, but I need you for my Triumph. And I cannot let any blood-son of my adopted father live to contest my legacy, can I? Two Caesars are simply one too many.'"

The motivation for Octavian's actions are neatly tied up in one bit of dialog. Add to that the light airy descriptions of Alexandria and the fetid depictions of Rome, Selene's headstrong maneuvers to return to Egypt as queen, and a choice between two attractive men. You end up with a plot that twists and turns enough to create suspense even though the historical facts are well known. [Cleopatra Selene survived to become the client queen of what's now northwest Africa.]

Think I have an advantage in knowing the era over most readers since I took three years of Latin in high school as well as reading a lot of hard history over the years. Maybe more important, I've re-read I, Claudius by Robert Graves several times. Shecter's writing is awesome and well worth five stars for the way she motivates her characters, though I think she let Livia off easy.

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Question. What do you write first 

I tend to set up dialog first and then fill in the setting, descriptions, and motivations. Then, I have to go back and add my character's doing something.

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Got a surprise from the Grumpy Dragon. They've given my stories set in my alternative California worlds a tag line: "The Andor Chronicles". This is my editor/publisher's reaction when I told her that my short story, Crossings, is threatening to become a novella, which I might self-publish if she didn't mind.

I'm still waiting for the final edits for There Be Demons, but they have been promised by the end of this week. When they arrive, she's going to get another story to glance at, The Noticed One, also set in my alternate California. Even though it's darker and deals with emotional vampires, it's set in the territory and wouldn't take much revision to fit into Andor.

Slowly Changes the WIP

The Read:  Am getting into the new read:  Cinda Williams Chima's The Warrior Heir -- after stumbling through the prologue.  (Hey, the science magazines are coming in so the books have more competition than usual.)  I'm far enough into the book to see where the back story is important, but I think this is a case where bits and pieces inserted into the text would have served just as well.  --  But who am I to say anything.  I'm not the published writer.

For a change, this is a young adult fantasy with the premise that secret magic workers live among us -- only to be sacrificed by rival factions seeking political dominance.  (I think.)  An interesting concept as far as it goes.  I haven't determined who're the good guys yet, only the potential victims.

Locus (the "journal" of science fiction and fantasy) came today bearing good news.  Three writers I drool over are coming out with new books which hooked good reviews:  Patricia Briggs (Silver Bourne), Jim Butcher (Changes), and Kim Harrison (Black Magic Sanction).  The bad news for cheapskates like me --  they're hardbacks.

Progress:   Emma is slowly filling a binder of her own so she can be filed away.  Printing is taking a long time because of the slipping roller in the printer.  (Guess who's too cheap to buy a new one.  "Wasn't a monitor enough?", she whines.)

Maren.  The scenes in the first chapter are starting to make sense.  I may have two chapters done by Saturday.  --  Don't get impressed.  I prefer short chapters.  So far, the YA chapters are only slightly longer than the MG ones.

Blog.  I guess regularly posting a new blog up is progress of a kind.  So, I'll take the credit.  ;-)

Trivia:  I martyred myself and made some polenta stuff since the old man kept asking about the three unopened packages in the pantry.  Slimey.  Or, have I insulted you because you like the stuff?  Better yet, do you have an edible recipe for it.  No?  Scrambled egg sandwiches, here I come.