Writer’s Mail 4/27/2010
by Kimberly Simmons
“Start doing more; it’ll stop all these moods you’re having.” – Ray Bradbury
Last Week
Kim – Millie and others are able to follow the story better now. Alicia wants to know why Ryoko isn’t dead from the bite. Pat thought there was some magic in the cloak. Jerry didn’t think Ryoko would be able to grab the snout of the creature as it’s biting her. Nicole wants to know why James has such a classic name whereas nearly every other character has a fantastic name. Pat wants to know why James is running through the jungle yelling, no sign of life anywhere. Kane thought the chapter ‘Darkness’ was a little too dark. How would adversaries know where their targets are? John asks for a character description of Ryoko. Kane got 19,000 hits when he googled “…an ice chill ran down her spine…”
Amber – Jerry – one more water balloon. Alicia – What’s happened in the meetings between Moira and the Wyvern? Over those weeks…what happened. John – What does and doesn’t he talk about. Nicole – spicy food, something different, build on it. Kim bothered by the end. Did she see him coming in? Kane found the language ‘caught sight,’ archaic.
Jen – Pat thought it was much better this time. She got a better sense of physical space. Millie was happy to get a list of characters via e-mail. Alicia would still like to see more description. People in law enforcement could have little descriptors to help ID them. And characters could be revealed through dress. Jerry wonders about the time release. Alicia has a work around. Kathy wonders if there will be more about the research facility.
Pat – Ladies of the Garden Club: Every variety of monkshood is poisonous. Jerry liked that all the ladies were growing something dangerous in their garden. Alicia caught a whiff of “Arsenic and Old Lace.” Could Latin names be used? Kim wants more. For My Prison: Alicia – absolutely loves the first version. Jen thought so too. John thought Pat captured the prison idea very well and wondered if an idea of escape could be offered at the end instead of directions. Shel had a problem with looking up toward the sky, ‘cause wouldn’t it be concrete?
Alicia – Pat thanks her for finally letting us know who wins, but she didn’t buy Lincoln’s internal dialogue about not wanting to win the case. Cathy, respectfully disagrees. She enjoyed reading his internal dialogue. Nicole thought the struggle had to come a little earlier along with more of it. Shel thinks there might be some pain associated with trying to win the case – physical? Kane disagrees with Pat as well and getting away from the image of ‘Honest Abe.” John wonders if he couldn’t include his thoughts about not wanting to win in his closing argument – Pat would buy that.
Jerry – Millie wants to know where the baby went. Apparently, she went with the doc home. Pat thought it was a good action scene. Jen had a question about word choice. Pat thought them getting Early dressed was good. John wondered why a shot didn’t go off when he got banged around in the coffin. Alicia sent some notes that got incorporated , but battery life keeps us from hearing them. Kane has a question about the night scope and would have liked more blood in this chapter.
Who’s Up Next
May 4: Kim Simmons (chapters 18-19, James Hyde), Millie Mader (chapter, Life on Hold), Cathy Riddle (chapter 6, Beer Crimes), Amber Boudreau (chapter 13, YA novel), Clayton Gill (chapter 12, Fishing Derby), Judith McNeil (radio play).
May 18: Kim Simmons (chapters 20-24, James Hyde), Nicole Rosario (chapter), and Alicia Connolly-Lohr (chapter 40, epilogue, and preface, Lawyer Lincoln), Jen Wilcher (chapter 3, Memories Awakened), Greg Spry (???), and John Schneller (synopsis).
June 1: Kim Simmons (chapters 25-30, James Hyde) and Jerry Peterson (chapter 10, For Want of a Hand).
Bobulations (WordSpy)
recombobulate
v. To recover from a state of confusion or disorganization.
—recombobulation n.
Example Citations:
My heart was gladdened by an official-looking sign in the Milwaukee airport, just beyond the Transportation Security Administration checkpoint, hanging over where you put your shoes and coat back on and stuff your laptop back in the case: The sign said, “Recombobulation Area.” The English language gains a new word. Recombobulate, America. Pull yourself together, tie your shoelaces, and if your pilot is wearing a button that says “To hell with the FAA,” wait for the next flight. —Garrison Keillor, “Running on anger,” Chicago Tribune, January 27, 2010
Writing Habits
by Jen Wilcher
For me, inspiration these days comes from TV shows. If a real person is portrayed in the show, as is the case with my current story, Memories Awakened sometimes inspiration comes from researching that person. I find an idea the show explores and wish to explore it more through my story.
For writer’s block, I will usually go work on a different story, and then come back to the one I was previously working on. Having ideas sit in the back of my mind for awhile seems to help bring more coherent plots and ideas forth. I like to start out with good old fashion pen & paper and then go on to typing. I find this helps me do a lot of editing myself.
When working on a story, listening to music, helps me focus on the task at hand. I find that any of the Myst PC game soundtracks do the job very well and Afrocelt Soundsystem and Enigma work too.
Got a book? Free exposure . . .
Just came across a Facebook page called The Bookshelf. You can post your book cover and a bit about you and your book here, free exposure to those Facebookers who follow this page. Check it out.
For those among us writing young adult novels, here’s another one to check out: The Story Siren, both its Facebook page and website, http://www.thestorysiren.com/ Story Siren reviews YA books. ~Jerry
Allusions
When my daughter was little and scraped a knee, what brought the swiftest diversion wasn’t candies or toys, but stories. Stories soothe us, teach us, take us to other worlds. Even when we grow up, our hunger for stories remains.
Each of this week’s five words is a story in itself. From mythology, fiction, and poetry, they contain tales that are hundreds or thousands of years old. Through the allusions and metaphors in them we’ll visit lands afar. – Wordsmith Anu Garg
Monday – vanity fair
PRONUNCIATION: (VAN-i-tee fair)
MEANING: noun: A place characterized by frivolity and ostentation.
ETYMOLOGY: After Vanity Fair, a fair that lasted all year long in the town of Vanity, in the novel Pilgrim’s Progress by writer and preacher John Bunyan (1628-1688). In the fair were traded houses, honors, titles, kingdoms, pleasures, and much more – sounds like an early version of eBay.
USAGE: “[The Millionaire Fair] was a vanity fair of thin beautiful women sporting mink fur coats and low necklines decorated with glittering jewelry and dark-suited, elegant men shadowed by beefy bodyguards.”
Maria Danilova; In Moscow, A Nouveau Riche Showcase; The Associated Press; Nov 3, 2006.
“In one corner was Karl Rove, presidential adviser and global-warming denier. In the opposite corner was the An Inconvenient Truth tag team of singer Sheryl Crow and documentary producer Laurie David. Their encounter took place Saturday night in Washington at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, a vanity fair for journalists, politicos, and celebrities.”
The Lightning Round; The Philadelphia Inquirer; Apr 24, 2007.
Tuesday – Old Man of the Sea
PRONUNCIATION: (old man ov the see)
MEANING: noun: A tiresome burden, especially a person, difficult to free oneself from.
ETYMOLOGY: After Old Man of the Sea, the sea-god, who forced Sinbad to carry him on his shoulders and refused to dismount. In this story from The Arabian Nights, Sinbad the Sailor eventually released himself from his burden by getting the Old Man drunk. Also see albatross.
USAGE: “Deirdre has Ken the Cardie Wearer ever at her side, an Old Man of the Sea she can’t ditch. He grows daily more brain-sapping as he takes up local causes like t’cobbles in Coronation Street.”
Molly Blake: The Mail’s First Lady of TV; Evening Mail (Birmingham, UK); Dec 6, 2000.
Wednesday – Pygmalionism
PRONUNCIATION: (pig-MAY-lee-uh-niz-uhm)
MEANING: noun:
1. The state of being in love with an object of one’s own making.
2. The condition of loving an inanimate object such as a statue or image.
ETYMOLOGY: In Greek mythology, Pygmalion was the king of Cyprus who carved a female figure in ivory so realistic and beautiful that he fell in love with her. The goddess Aphrodite took pity on him and responded by bringing the statue to life as Galatea. Pygmalion married her.
USAGE: “Sarah Palin has been an exercise in Pygmalionism gone wrong. The most famous female politician in the world today is a vain and sanctimonious woman of boundless ambition and no vision.”
Janet Bagnall; Setback for Women; The Gazette (Montreal, Canada); Feb 12, 2010.
“The aim was to show the reverse Pygmalionism of cinema, which takes live bodies and makes cool, untouchable idols of them.”
Hold On to Your Popcorn; The Observer (London, UK); May 20, 2007.
Thursday – Sisyphean
PRONUNCIATION:(sis-ee-FEE-uhn)
MEANING: adjective: Endlessly laborious and fruitless.
ETYMOLOGY: After Sisyphus, a king in Greek mythology who was cursed to push a huge boulder to the top of a hill, only to watch it roll back down and to repeat this forever. Roll, rinse, repeat.
USAGE: “Even making the bed together in the morning, an act that had hitherto struck me as Sisyphean, took on meaning.”
Tim Page; Parallel Play; The New Yorker; Aug 20, 2007.
Friday – Achates
PRONUNCIATION: (uh-KAY-teez)
MEANING: noun: A trusty friend or companion.
ETYMOLOGY: After Achates, the faithful companion and friend of Aeneas, in the epic poem Aeneid by the Roman poet Vergil (70-19 BCE). In the story, Achates is called fidus Achates (faithful Achates) and he accompanies Aeneas everywhere in his adventures.
USAGE: “I was baffled by the lack of reference to the sleuth of Baker Street and his trusty Achates.”
John Banville; Bloomsday, Bloody Bloomsday; The New York Times; Jun 13, 2004.
iStory, A New Format
A new iPhone application is in the works and they’re taking submissions. These super-short iStories can only be 150 words long!
Go to http://www.narrativemagazine.com/iStory for more information about how to submit your stories. (fiction & nonfiction accepted.)
A Language By Any Other Name Would Still Be Just As Difficult
Little sub-languages are everywhere, mostly in terms of slang and jargon. Even regional dialects include different words that mean the same thing. Example; ‘pop’ for ‘soda’. But it gets more complicated than that. When I was in high school my friends and I passed notes to each other written in Norse Runes. English words in a foreign alphabet. The process of learning a new language, as those who have studied Spanish or French in school can attest to, is not an easy task.
You can memorize simple get-by words like articles, salutations, comments on the weather or names for clothing. But unless you learn a language early, it won’t stick with you. I took seven semesters of Spanish during high school and college and only stopped when the language finally refused to make any more sense to me. Even now I don’t understand whole words and have forgotten 90% of the verbs I learned, but the general meaning of a sentence floats to the top of my mind.
Learning a new language is a pain in the butt. However, creating a language, as some fantasy/sci-fi authors do, is even more difficult. And those of us who aren’t professional linguists are in deep trouble. For the film Avatar, James Cameron hired a linguistic professor from California to created the language of the Na’vi. His challenges lay in creating a specific type of language (more tribal-sounding) and formatting odd verbs. The verb conjugations for the Na’vi happen in the middle of a word rather than before or after it. In an interview the professor said one of his greatest challenges was keeping the language consistent, i.e. making it sound as though all the words belonged to the same language.
In creating the language for the kitsune people in James Hyde, I forged ahead with whatever sounded right for the circumstances. Now, however, I have a dictionary of words I have to be careful not to repeat. I was completely surprised when, almost out of thin air, verb conjugations appeared. In speaking the language and its corresponding English accent (which had been created many years ago) I was even more surprised to discover that they mirrored each other.
But there’s more to a language than just that. Where does a certain sound fall in the mouth? Are there nasals? Is it soft-sounding or harsh, with many difficult consonants? There are some fantasy languages I can pronounce (Paolini’s Eragon contains a magical language) but others, like Tolkien’s Elvish, leave me tongue-twisted. What are the roots? I studied Spanish extensively and I watch a lot of un-dubbed Japanese TV and I’m sure it’s all had an influence on my linguistic style.
If you want to know more about creating a language visit http://www.zompist.com/kit.html
Of course, as Counselor Troi (Star Trek, Next Generation) would say, the fact that those with different language can communicate at all is, in itself, a fascinating thing. Keep up the good work, everybody.
The Last Word…
“I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.” – Franz Kafka
Tuesdays with Story 
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