A Brown and Orange Week

    My one-month Huluplus subscription was an accident, but at least The Adventures of Tartu was good. I've totally neglected my Dundalk research, but I did peruse all the opening pages of the Chronicles of Narnia to study style. I got next to nothing written on Wynna, but I did draw a satisfactory picture of her mother and uncle. I messed up on the sleeves to the Red Cross nurse dress, but the apron is turning out nice!

     As you can see it's been a sort of brown and orange week. Here are three things I learned from it.

1. True tests of how nice one is and how good one's temper is come at home.

2. I am a night writer. (I'm useless in the afternoon, and I can't get up early enough to write mornings.)

3. I seriously have to shut myself away from people to write.

How has your week been, and has it taught you anything?

Jack of Songwriting

     Hello, Well-Wishers. I missed my Saturday post, but I'm back with a recording of my first original worship song. It's inspired by one of my fave hymns, "As the Deer." These words mean something to me, and I hope they will to you, too.

Lyrics/vocals/piano: me
Violin: Rina
Recording: iPod touch
Mixing: Garageband

"Deer Song"

Jumping Hurdles

     For me, world-building is the best and worst part of writing fantasy. It's the best because writing fantasy means that the details of the world are entirely up to you. If you decide that only royalty eat with their hands or that mermaids inhabit all freshwater lakes or that the Northeastern hillsides are smattered with little white flowers called yipparis, then that's how it is. But with creative freedom comes a few hurdles.

Hurdle #1: You might not have to look up facts in a book, but you do have to make up all those facts out of your own head.
Jumping the Hurdle: Everything is based on real life, so look for inspiration. For example, every culture has music. I got a lot of ideas for instruments in Wynna's world in my World Music class.

Hurdle #2: The world you create has to be plausible, if not possible. Readers notice and get pulled out of the story if things don't work in a logical manner.
Example of plausibility: In C.S. Lewis's Horse and His Boy, the two horses Bree and Hwin journey across the desert. As Bree says, galloping all day and night isn't horsely possible, so although it might seem less dramatic, they walk and trot their way to the other side (it's quite thrilling in the end).
Jumping the Hurdle: Maybe you do have to look up some of your facts.

Free image courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net

Hurdle #3: Since fantasy is such an established genre, if you don't do something very unique your story will end up generic, like a cardboard props. But sometimes those clichés seem unavoidable. Take Wynna as an example. Travel cloaks are one of the same-old same-olds of medieval fantasy, but I can't get rid of it! Wynna needs a cloak when she's blasting through the clouds on dragonback at over sixty miles an hour.
Jumping the Hurdle:  Weave the cloak from the threads of glowworms, because it makes Wynna stand out from the Coal Lizard riders black camouflage. Give it details that make it specific to your story and your world.

Hard as it is, world-building can be done! J.R.R. Tolkien is a classic successful example. K.M. Weiland who wrote Dreamlander is also a fantastic world-builder. So, there is hope.

What do you find hardest about world-building?

Gone Researching

      My plan to have the full story of O' Donnell up this week went to shambles after I sent it off for review. I now have a big research/rewriting project on my hands, because as it is my story is too theme-heavy. Since it's realistic fiction and relies mostly on dialogue, I really need to expand on my two characters--know them and where they come from. So I'm going to immerse myself in Dundalk, Ireland  and then read up on ranching and country churches in the 1940's.

Have you ever finished a project, feeling quite proud of it, only to find out it had major issues?

Book Review: Dreamlander

   

          Chris Redston, a harrowed young man who struggles with grief and bitterness finds out that he of all people is the Gifted, one chosen to live two lives and remember both. When his body goes to sleep in Chicago, he wakes up in the land of his dreams. Thrown into a medieval world on the edge of disaster, he unwittingly creates his own archenemy and throws off the balance of the universe. In order to right what he’s wronged, he must make a choice. Walk away like he always has, or trust in a higher plan and face his own greatest weaknesses head on.

Image used with permission by author

Rating: 4.5 stars  

Creative, ambitious, and unafraid, Dreamlander is quite a ride. K.M. Weiland's fantasy novel hinges on complexity and character. The straggeringly detailed world of her imagination is scenic and has a rich history and clear geography, sprinkled with unique technology like travel by skycar. And just when I thought the plot was as thick as it could get, it got even thicker!
            Out of a large cast of characters, my top three (all secondary characters) were:

Duke Eroll- fashionable, carefree, gallant friend of Princess Allara who reminded me of Bertie Wooster (of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves tales)

The Garowai- Chris’s mysterious but reticent and sneezy guide

Orias- a pale-skinned, blue-blooded warrior of the Cherazim race

            In spite of its complexity, Dreamlander reads clearly and smoothly (often eloquently), and  as a follower of K.M. Weiland's advice blog, I see that she's entitled to give it. But after all my glowing praise, let me explain why I didn't give Dreamlander 5 stars.

1. The surprises and plot-twists had me wishing for smooth, or at least, straightforward, sailing by the end

 2. With its Three Musketeers 17th century Europe feel, the occasional cowboyish colloquialisms jarred me a bit

3. The figurate descriptions grew a little heavy and distracting at points

           I did like this book a lot. The ending made me teary, which is almost worth a whole star! Dreamlander addresses a plethora of human issues, and in the end it’s really a story about redemption, one that left me pondering my own choice to do right. 

Stepping Into Nurse Crawley's Shoes

     You never get too old for dress up. I'm sure that's one reason Halloween is such a popular holiday. Here is a Downton Inspired Nurse Sybil Crawley costume. Everything is handmade. The dress was originally sewn for a Wynna movie that didn't happen, and the apron was part of a Halloween maidservant costume.

     Call it escapism or whatever you like, but that desire to try being someone else is what I think is at the root of fiction. We invent characters and make things happen to them because it allows us to experience the exciting, the novel, the out-of-the-ordinary, all from a safe distance.