Endings

My role-playing group has reached the end of a long journey. Starting way back in April of 2019, Gamemaster Dan led us through an escalating series of adventures. Last night, we finished it. The universe was saved!

But then, the game ended abruptly. It was after 9 p.m. and some of us had to get up for work in the morning. We all just shouted thanks to Dan and ended the call. I was left… disappointed.

The last couple of games were really intense. Over 2-1/2 years, we built our characters up with skills and powers. We hoarded mighty weapons and magical items. This battle was what it all came down to. Evil forces were trying to seize control of a weapon that could destroy the universe one solar system at a time. Normally, you hold back some resources for the next situation. This time, if anyone held back, there was not going to be a next situation. We laid out everything. Each player had their chance to land a great spell or make an impossible shot. A victory like that should be sweet and savored. But instead of sitting together afterward, enjoying the moment, the game just cut off.

This is something I’ve noticed before in some books, but especially in video games. After the characters go through all that, sometimes there’s really nothing else. You’re left standing in a cave with the dragon dead at your feet. Or it loops you around to start the whole game over at a higher difficulty.

But in a great game, you return to a hub location, where all the side characters you’ve bought weapons or healing potions from will thank you and congratulate you. Sometimes you can even watch an epilogue that describes the result of decisions you’ve made and what the supporting characters do afterward.

Role-playing games may be different than video games or books, but there still are lessons to be had in this. Our readers stick with us through all kinds of world building and plot twists, but if the ending isn’t satisfying, they’ll walk away unhappy. Worse, they might tell their friends the story fell flat.

Writers have to work as hard on the end of the story as we do on the beginning.

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Nothing Much

This will be a short post, because there just isn’t much going on around here. Besides, after the last couple of posts, I figure you all deserve a break.

I’m working on those final revisions for Prisoners of the Wailing Tower. I hadn’t realized I started sentences with conjunctions (and, but, or) as much as I do. Also, it’s funny, but every story seems to have one certain word that keeps cropping up. This time it’s “rickety.” It’s a fun word, to be sure, but not everything in Skaythe can be rickety. I have to find interesting new phrases for those conjunctions and all my rickety objects.

In other words, writing as usual!

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The City We Became, by N. K. Jemisin

Today I’m following up on my previous post about the contrast of characters who are Innocent or Not Innocent. For most writers, I think we understand that stereotypes do not result in very good writing. No one likes them. In fact, I’ve noticed that a lot of writers want to conceal the nature of stereotypes by calling them something else. “Tropes,” for instance.

You say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to.

However, a clever writer can have fun with stereotypes, flipping them and such. I’ve done that myself, and I find it a really effective way to get readers to question some assumptions they might not even have known they had.

One book I read recently does a really good job with this. That’s The City We Became, by N. K. Jemisin. Jemisin is a multi-award-winning author, and that’s for good reason. She uses stereotypes liberally throughout the book. In fact, every one of her principal characters is a stereotype. Before you complain about spoilers, I just want to point out that the cover copy on the book says this exact thing.

I’m speaking here of the stereotype as a character which embodies and personifies a set of ideas and actions that are closely associated. In this book, the main characters embody and personify the five boroughs of New York City: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx and Staten Island, with Jersey City playing a strong supporting role. Jemisin explores what it means to exist as a stereotype while also being an individual.

She brings in a whole lot of other stuff, too. There are queers, racism, sexual harassment, artistic fraud. There’s a strong vein of homage to a certain vintage horror author. There are a whole bunch of observations that might have made more sense if I had ever lived in New York City. The thing is, none of it felt forced or packed in for the sake of woke-ness. The book is big because New York is big.

I especially enjoyed this book because it expands the definition of what Urban Fantasy can be. Not that there’s anything wrong with vampires, werewolves, love triangles, et all. Those concepts were very successful, but they’ve all been done. Many times. The genre was overdue for a shake-up.

As writers, if we want to avoid using stereotypes, one thing we can do is to be aware of what’s current for our genre. You recognize stereotypes once you start seeing them repeated. For that reason alone, I urge you to read The City We Became. Personally, I can’t wait for the next book.

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Innocent

Something has been nagging at me recently, and I think I finally realized what it is. Every time you hear a news story, they seem to go on about someone or something being “innocent.” Innocent civilians fleeing a civil war. Innocent children being shot at school.

It brings to mind a passage from the Tao: “When people say that some things are beautiful, other things become ugly. When people say that some things are good, other things become bad.”

Just so, when news coverage and fictional stories continually refer to a few people as Innocent, what happens to the other people in the story? Do we think of them as Not Innocent? And what exactly does that mean?

Yes, innocence is a complicated concept. It can strictly mean that one did not commit a certain crime, but more generally an Innocent person is simply unaware of harsh facts in life.

It’s easy to recognize an Innocent character in stories. They’ll be the pure, virtuous person who deserves to be cared about and defended. If they do wrong it will be portrayed as a simple mistake and they will receive leniency. And by the way, they will be dressed all in white.

What about characters who are Not Innocent? They are mean and selfish, and don’t care if they hurt other people. They don’t deserve to be cared about and defended. A character who is Not Innocent doesn’t make simple mistakes. They are assumed to act with malice and should be punished harshly. Also, they dress in black.

Do you see how ridiculous these stereotypes are? Yet, they turn up over and over in stories, movies, news reports. How often in the past year have we heard that a black man was killed by police, only to have pundits and politicians rush in, assuring us that the dead victim was Not Innocent.

As storytellers, we might sometimes feel that it’s okay to lean on the concept of Innocent/Not Innocent characters. It might seem like no further effort is required. But anyone who is even a little thoughtful will surely realize that the world is much more complicated than that. If our fiction is to have deeper meaning, our characters have to be more complicated, too.

Just a little something I’m Innocently reflecting upon.

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Woman at Work, Part 18

What’s Happening? The big change at my house is that my older kid has moved out. One of his friends owns a house where my kid will be renting a room. After years of restaurant work that he hated, Kid also found a job he really likes. It’s janitorial, not glamorous, but perfect for a night owl who doesn’t want to deal with people. It’s a big step, and we’re proud of him. Here’s hoping it will last.

What I’m Working On. Being Director of Programming for SpoCon is taking all my creative energy at the moment. I was able to get the schedule posted before school resumed, so mostly now I’m adjusting for the speakers’ requests and also tracking down their photos and bios. With 60% of my community resisting both masks and vaccines, I don’t even know whether to expect that we’ll be able to host our event. Again, here’s hoping!

What’s Next? When I have a moment to think, I need to do a fresh pass on Prisoners of the Wailing Tower before publishing it around Thanksgiving. At least I don’t have to “here’s hoping” this one. As an indy author, I can make these things happen on my own.

Fun and Games. Currently I’m playing Skyrim. My character is a cat person who’s part of the Thieves Guild. In Animal Crossing, I’m trying to catch 100 fish in a row. Thrill a minute, right?

Here’s hoping you all have a fun Labor Day weekend (if you live in the United States).

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What’s On the Menu?

Food is one aspect of a setting that I really enjoy exploring. I always seem to get much more wrapped up in their menu than in what they’re wearing. In the Minstrels of Skaythe novellas, all the people wear mage robes, peasant dresses and trousers and shirts, mostly without further description, but then I go on a whole paragraph about the river grain, smoked fish, oranges, and what have you.

On the other hand, lazy food choices can really throw me out of a story. I don’t know how many times I’ve read that the characters are eating beef stew, when they supposedly live on an island. Wouldn’t it make more sense for them to eat fish?

Like many aspects of setting, a writer can do double-duty with food. You can draw on things the reader already knows to fill out a setting. Most people have some knowledge about where foods come from and how they are grown and processed. Name foods allows you to imply things about the climate and manufacturing base of an area. For instance, eating bananas implies a warm, tropical landscape. If prickly pear fruits are on the menu, that clearly evokes a desert environment.

Don’t forget the spices and seasonings! Cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg, for instance, are grown from tropical trees. If characters have food spiced with cinnamon or pepper, they either live in a tropical area, or there are trade routes allowing valuable spices to be transported. With this, the author illuminates aspects of the world’s economy.

Readers also have ideas about food that an author can exploit. For example, someone drinking beer might be viewed as working class, while someone drinking wine might seem to be upper class or more educated. Those are broad stereotypes, but they still can be useful.

People also have emotional attachments to food that writers can exploit. Are the characters celebrating? Let them eat cake! Or, you can put an original spin on it. Back in my fan writing days, I had a character who could cook magical foods. She distilled the concept of memory into a lemon meringue pie that brought a master vampire to tears.

What do you think? Is the way to a reader’s heart through their stomach?

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Settings

Your story’s setting is a crucial element, along with character and plot, to keep readers invested. Think about it. All those movie trailers that start out, “In a world…” They’re talking about the setting.

For me, the setting is one of my favorite things. When I’m planning a new work, the setting is almost the first thing I think about. Yet when I’m browsing advice, it’s all about characters, dialogue and plot. Setting is often the last thing mentioned.

What I love about setting is how it combines both physical and emotional elements. The way you describe the physical attributes can imply things to the reader. Past history of the place is a big one for fantasy. The feelings of the character who is viewing the place will illuminate their personality. Writers also can shape how the reader feels about this place.

For instance, my most recent short story, “Hag,” takes place in a swamp full of ruins. Already the reader might have preconceptions about a swamp environment. For instance, they might think swamps are disgusting with all the frogs and quicksand. They might see the ruins as dangerous. A writer could enhance this by covering it with creepy mist, if that’s what they want for the story.

However, the character viewing the swamp might think of it as a safe place. In my novella, The Ice Witch of Fang Marsh, Meven was looking for a place to hide and reconnect with her family roots. Fang Marsh had all sorts of hiding places, and lots of resources she could exploit. I hope that I surprised readers with her perception of the place.

My favorite thing about the swamp in “Hag” was all the collapsed buildings and sunken courtyards I filled it with. These are relics of a drowned empire, and that history is an important part of the plot. From the moment you “see” this place, you know those ruins are important.

Hmmm, seems like swamps are kind of an “ism” for me. Anyhow, I’d be interested in hearing from any of you about the interesting ways you have used a setting in your own work.

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Pretty Please?

One of the things I do when I’m between projects is to update my web site and social media with quotes from people who have reviewed my e-books. Writers can never have enough reviews. Even a few stars would be great, but like I said I’m hoping to quote good things from a review or two.

So, if it just so happens that you’ve read one of my e-books and put up a review, I would love to hear from you! Which one was it, where is your review posted? If you have one but didn’t remember the review, now would be a great time for that.

Thanks so much, if you did! Every mention is a big help for us Indy authors.

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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And Now, the Rejections

As previously mentioned, I’ve resolved to push myself and submit my short stories to more places before giving up on them. You know what that means, right? Rejections are coming in.

Rejections are part of a writer’s life, and I usually try not to dwell on them. When one comes in, I just look for the next market to submit to. My goal is to submit to 5 places. That may not sound like much, but with markets quickly coming and going, it should be attainable.

With one of my stories, that’s going to be harder. It has a juvenile voice, but at 2,300 words, it’s too long for the juvenile magazine markets. So far it’s been at 3 places. I’m casting about for any more markets to try. If anyone has a suggestion, I’d love to hear it.

The other is more clearly for adults, so I have a lot more potential markets there. The first one I tried sent a generic “didn’t work for us” but then added they’d like to see more from me. I’m trying to focus on that, instead of the didn’t-work part.

One thing I’m observing already is that the responses are coming faster. Instead of mailing physical manuscripts back and forth, most publications now take electronic submissions. They are able to get through submissions in a couple of weeks, or even a day or three, where previously you would wait 3 months or longer to hear back.

Would be nice to get some acceptances, though!

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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Best Laid Plans?

Actually, these are plans I’m still laying. Coming up in the fall, I’ve had hopes that the pandemic would subside enough that I could make personal appearances again. With new variants and recalcitrant neighbors, I think we all know how that’s going.

Still, I am attempting to lay plans. The first one is around SpoCon, the science fiction convention I help to organize. I’m in charge of programming, which means I gather ideas for panel discussions (and other activities), recruit speakers, and schedule it all. It’s a lot of work, but it keeps me in touch with the other writers and artists in my area. Our dates this year are October 29-31, ending with Hallowe’en. That makes it extra fun!

We on the convention committee are all holding our breath and organizing as best we can. I think we all have a dread that the state will put us back in lockdown before then. Our convention can get up to 500 people, although under the circumstances 200 is more reasonable. So if the Governor halts gatherings of 200+ people, we are done.

The other thing we’ve had to wrestle with is health measures. I’m hearing around the Internet that speakers want to know vaccine cards are being checked. I don’t thing we have enough volunteers to do that, but I brought it up at the most recent meeting. One of our organizers started talking about “yellow stars” and “vaccine Nazis” and the vaccine being questionable. The convention chair, an RN, stated brusquely that the vaccine is valid and safe, and that we will have no more talk of Nazis in regards to public health. I agree with her, but it was pretty sad to hear one of our own lay down the anti-science card.

Anyway, we are going to require masks to attend. If we don’t do that, I’m pretty sure some of our speakers will back out. The same person then wanted to wrangle about what defines a mask. Sigh… It’s close enough to our event that we need to be clear about this. If there are cancellations because of it, we might be better off without them.

The other thing coming up is Fall Folk Fest, which is a weekend of mostly folk music and dance, but other crafts as well. I usually read my short stories there. I’m not part of organizing this one, but I’ve put in to read again and if the event takes place, I’ll be there.

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Have you read one of my books? Then it would be great for you to leave a review! Meanwhile, if you’d like to learn more about me and my work, check out my web site, Facebook, Instagram and/or Twitter.

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