Cat News and World Building

Yesterday afternoon, (Friday,The Ides of Winter) was practically 70F, so I managed to get some writing done outside. I was visited by a small black spider, who seemed  to be particularly interested in my tea:  I had to shoo it out of my teacup twice.

It appears that what Smokey has been wanting the last few nights is to sleep in our bed.  When Cicero came to our house, there was a divying up of rooms and territories (for reasons that I don't understand, as at the time Cicero was a five pound kitten and Smokey was a sixteen pound cat).  In any case, Cicero somehow got our bed.  The cats get on tolerably well, although Cicero is a little too rough-and-tumble for Smokey's tastes.  Apparently, there's another territory shift going on, or the borders are relaxing or something, because after meowing a few times at 2 AM, Smokey jumped into our bed and began grooming the top of Mark's head (which is an old, familiar trick).  

There's a big wedding for later today -- one of my first cousin's daughters is getting married --  so this morning's plan is to go to the gym when it opens, write, and then go to the wedding and reception.

Saturday workout (since I'd hadn't gone since Wednesday, I decided to try for a fuller session):  30 minutes and 300 cal on the Nordic Elliptical.  Downstairs was very chatty.  3x13x30lbs on the deltoid fly.  13x(30+40+50)lbs on the pec fly.  13x(40+50+60+70)lbs on the lat pull-down.  3x14 curls on the Roman Chair.  3x13x30lbs bar-bell curls.  3x13x30lbs on the triceps curls.  Bits of free-weight work.  And now I want bacon.

On the writing front... I've hit a point where the magic user is thinking about how to do a spell, and the moons' phases could affect his spell, and I realized that if I was going to be consistant in the story, I really needed an ephemeris of the moons' and the sun's position in the sky.  The variable nature of the length of time the moons take to make a complete orbit means that the concept of a month is more fluid.  Looking back at other fantasy books, unless there's a race to get the McGuffin to the Mystic Place by the Full Moon, there's not much detail -- but it's the sort of detail that's going to shape how the characters speak and think.  

I set out to program a switching set of orbits, and after wasting some time trying to put together a web-based program on Wolfram, I reverted back to a Perl script on the iMac.  Several hours later and about 80 lines of code... I had a program that would spit out an ephemeris table.  Now I have to review it by hand to make sure it's doing the right thing (there's a state where the program will double-switch the moon's if they're haven't moved far enough away from each other).  

What building the ephemeris has shown me is that there will be a Red Moon Season, when the smaller, ruddier moon is larger (and faster) and a Blue Moon Season, when the larger moon is prominent.  Which means the story will have phrases like "Blue Moon Fortnight" (which is 14 days, like ours) and "Red Moon Fortnight" (which is a few days shorter).   So I don't go too crazy, the fantasy world's sun moves at about the same speed as ours... and I think I'm going to use a 360 day calendar of 12 months of 30 days each, with an intercalendary period just before the winter solstice.  

Sunday Gym, Sticks, and Moons

Went to the gym Sunday (1/22) afternoon.  20 some minutes on the Nordic elliptical for about 220 calories.  13x(30+30+40)lbs deltoid fly.  13x(30+40+50)lbs pec fly.  13x(30+45+70)lbs lat pulldowns (different machine).  3x13 curls on the Roman Chair.  3x13x30lbs barbell curl.  3x13x30lbs triceps curls.  Some assorted free dumbell work.  

The gym folks said that I could use the Zumba Studio for bo-stick work, but between the support beams, hanging light fixures, and ceiling fans, it's not a good idea.  I had better control of the stick before my workout; surprisingly, I was more of a butter-fingers with it after (I thought I might be more limber, but I guess not).

On the writing front, The Family went on a hike Sunday, so I was able to get in about 700 words in of back-story.  I also found a Fantasy Map Generator on Saturday, which was cool, and made me think about the landscape--I'd had the characters in a fairly "grey" hilly landscape or else a generic fantasy city, and the map generator was a reminder that most early cities are going to be on the coast or along a major waterway.  The other "writing" project was figuring out the story's moons -- in a moment of insantity, I gave the world two, co-orbital moons.  Several hours of pen-and-envelope calculations later, I figured out that larger moon (which is like Earth's Moon), takes either about 30 days or 41 days to make an orbit, and the smaller moon takes either about 24 or 48 ... and they switch places high or low orbits every 79 or 106 days.

Of course as I'm writing this I'm looking at all the influences and thinking too many times, "I can't make it like X" or "Ooh, this is really derivative of Y."  I should just write it and then go back and edit it.  So... The next step is to spend a little more time exploring characters and places and then doing a kind of slow NaNoWriMo over the next eight weeks (eyes a calendar).

Gym and Fighting Mechanics

Went to the gym Thursday (1/18) evening.  It was very full.  Only 15 minutes on the Nordic elliptical.  Downstairs, 13x(30+30+40 lb on the deltoid pulls.  13x(30+40+50lbs on the pec fly.  12x(40+50+60lbs on the lat pull-down.  3x13 Roman Chair pull-ups.  3x13x30lbs barbell curls.   3x13x30lbs triceps curls.     Back upstairs for about five minutes on the cable rowing machine.

I've been doing some experimentation with short sticks to get a feel for how Jerick, my fantasy axe-wielding character, would actually fight someone without opening himself up between swings.  In order to not tire out his wrists and arms, he'd have to keep his axes spinning.  In order to keep his guard up, he needs two axes:  one for striking, one for guarding.  If he's doing Parkour, it's going to be hard, because his hands will be full of axe-haft -- so I'm not sure how he's going to leap over and up walls unless he can use the axe as hooks, which will only work on wooden obstacles.  If he's doing backflips up walls and landing behind an opponent, that's going to require some intense sprinting -- so physically, he's going to to have to have the build of a gymnast, be able to sprint into striking range with his axes (or throw them) and then sprint back out before a more traditional fighter (or animal or magical beast) can whack him with a sword.  Which means padded leather armor, or "magical" metal armor that's super-light.   One net, or caltrops, or broken glass, or an oil slick, and he's either going to pull a muscle, or otherwise be unable to spring all over the place.   Good thing I'm making him twenty-two-ish.

Summary of Forster's "Aspects"

I read that in the 70's Ursula K Le Guin had read EM Forster's"Aspects of the Novel" and that is was her go-to resource whenwriting.

Having just finished it, I think A) Forster read a lot of non-Science Fiction (it was 1927), and B) this isn't a "how to" manual.  

I wish he had spoken more about HG Wells or Frankenstein, because I would have liked to see more examples of applying "Aspects" to science fiction novels.  What was useful about "Aspects" is that Forster is always returning to the relationship between the novel and the reader, and the demands each make on the other.

The last three aspects Forster writes about (see summary below) wereparticularly vague, and Forster is using the terms prophecy, pattern, and rhythm in idiosyncratic ways.  In a conversation I'm having, someone has said that rhythm (and prophecy and pattern) are British and particularly Fosterian ways of approaching the (Science Fiction) novel.  


The Aspects of the Novel Are:

Story
        Curiosity:  "And then?"
        Sense of time
        Sense of space
        Story voice:  for the eye, for the ear?
People
         human feeling and a sense of values

         Surprising -> Round character
         Convincing -> Round character
Plot
        "Why?"
        Intelligence -> Mystery
        Memory
Fantasy
         things which are not and implying the supernatural

         mixing the ordinary and the extraordinary
Prophecy
         "Prophecy - in our sense - is a tone of voice."

          Universal themes
          Requires the reader's
                 Humility

                 Suspension of the Sense of Humor
Pattern
          The shape of the story, plot, and characters.
Rhythm
          The gestalt expression of the novel which 

          releases or liberates it.

DREAM: Blade of the Pink Skull

I think this is what I get for reading "The Crystal Cave" before falling asleep.


I was a warrior in a fantasy setting.  I may have been an Elf, but in any case I was the "strange foreigner" who fought well, and who the others thought was on their side, and probably was, but there was a hint of mistrust in all of our dealings.

We fighters were practicing before the Queen, who watched us from her throne.   She was a classic pulp fantasy Amazon Queen:  She wore golden breast cups, a golden tiara/headband that came to a single point over her forehead (and which kept her long, straight dark hair out of her face) , knee-high boots, and a long gold lamé cape.   (I've just realized writing this that she was a gilt version of Linda Carter from Wonder Woman.)   A shadowy, grey-haired adviser hovered behind the shade of her blocky throne.  The room was dark, lit by flame (torches? lamps?), which made curtains hanging waves of shadow and flickering yellow light.

I fought with a kind of thin, light sword and dagger.  I think I wore padded leather as armor.  My opponent was much larger and wore chain.  When I was in the right frame of mind, I could move much faster than everyone else, so I was able to dance around and touch him multiple times with the tip of my sword.

Then, somewhere else in the dankly dark of the fantasy world, a pink skulled hulk awoke.  One moment the dream perspective focused on his sleeping/dead face, the next his eyes snapped open and he lumbered from his resting place.  I'm not sure if it was Frankenstein's Monster, Death, or a fantasy version of the space ghost which haunted an airport in a 1969 Scooby-Doo cartoon (although, now that I think more on it, he was sleeping upright, like a Borg).  He set off for the court of our Queen.

Meanwhile, I was facing off another opponent.  The tourney marshal was telling us to get ready.  I held my sword out and pointed down, and began the mental discipline which would make me one with my sword and lightning fast.  My opponent saw the look on my face and accused me of using magic to win the match.  A brief discussion of the rules followed, and the Queen determined mental focus or state of mind was not a magic spell.

We got wind of Pink Skull's approach.   He actually hadn't done anything bad, yet, and there was a sense that we might be able to parlay with him.  I stepped away from the combat circle and looked down the halls, which had dream-transformed into a kind of junky dark alley.  I held my sword ready and called out for Pink Skull (I used a different, suitably impressive fantasy name in the dream) to show himself.

I could see the yellow glow of his approach, and then he was on us.    He didn't kill my opponent, but instead of practice touches, he sliced him.  I got sliced, too.  When I intervened on my opponents behalf, Pink Skull sliced me hard--it hurt a lot.  Then he sliced the backs of my hands, slowly and one at a time.  Which also hurt a lot.

And then I woke up, and my hands were sore in real life.  I wish I could blame the weather for the way they ache, but I think it's supposed to be a clear sky today (cloudy tomorrow).  Maybe they got too cold.  Maybe I should call this dream, "Gawain and the Arthritis Knight."

Notes from Saturday CSWS 40th Anniversary Celebration

Summary of "A conversation with Ursula Le Guin."

 If I could ignore the critics and the fixed opinions and the publishers' ideas, I would simply ... never think of genre.  There's this kind of story and that kind of story (stories without genre).  Some are more realistic, and more more imaginative. But they're all fish in the ocean of story.  And I'll catch any fish that comes to my net.  And all the rest in a sense is applied from on top by intellectuals trying to sort things out (OK) and by Capitalism (not so good).

Getting admiration from another writer is incredibly important to other writers  It's why the Nebula Award is extremely important.  That's really something.  I got a fan letter from Andrea Norton which said, "I really liked your novel," and OH Boy, I walked on air for a week.  The thing is--women got more of that kind of praise from women.  And getting it from Tiptree... we thought, "Gee, that's a neat man."  (The truth was confusing)

I'm a story teller who wants to tell a story.  The story is going to be political, whether you want it to or not.  It is going to reflect the politics of the time.  How much you want to control that mess...you have to decide for yourself.  With the caution that if you are perceived to be preaching by your readers, they will quietly go away (and they're right to do so).  

A story is not a vehicle for a message, a story is itself.  And what it tells you is what it tells you.  The less the story is about the author, the more readers get out of it... but the author can over-direct...  But on the other hand, if there is a message you want to get across, and the best way to to tell a story... then that's what you have to do.


Summary of "Feminists in the Archives" Panel.  

Take-away messages.  Feminist science fiction writers of the 1950-1970's had extended conversations with each other via letters; the community they formed created a forum of sorts for supporting themselves and also thinking about story and voice.


“Feminist Science Fiction as Political Theory,”Panel.Summary:  Feminist Science Fiction has explored "Women's Ways of Knowing." (WWoK was suggested to be "intuitive" or "spiritual".) Feminist Science Fiction has moved from utopia as a destination to utopia as a process or conversation.

 Just writing a female main character in the 60's-70's was a bold political act.  Science Fiction in the last forty years has made progress in terms of numbers of female authors, characters, and subject matter; but there's still a long way to go ("Wow, she writes like a man").

Speculative fiction in general is dismembered into niches not by authors, readers, or editors, but by marketing divisions.  Feminist science fiction is a cultural response to a political situation.  The message of feminist science fiction is:  "We are not satisfied with the status quo and we want it changed--and if we can get it , we will.  And if we can nudge folks to bring the change, we will.  Because change is needed for us to survive. "

The USA exports weapons and culture; it's important for us to write feminist (or rather, egalitarian)  science fiction as a challenge to patriarchy world-wide... but for goodness sake, write a good story, not a political one.  Write, not film, because Hollywood is still stuck in the male buddy story.   Fantasy is mostly War Stories.  The cultural process continues, and part of that process is for each and every one of us who is aware, to help others become aware.

Sanctificetur Nomen Tuum

I just got back from a workshop on Russian sacred choral music. It was fun and interesting, and it wasn't what I expected.

I misunderstood who would be teaching. I thought it would be Eastern Orthodox Christian monks, so I imagined a cross between Rasputin, the pictures of the the monks who raise German Shepherds, and Jedi Knights. They'd wear long dark brown robes, or at the very least have circular, fur-lined hats reminiscent of the Renaissance. I imagined they lived and sang in a monastery that only recently acquired electricity and indoor plumbing. Oh yes, and there would be a hint of frankincense and myrrh wherever they walked.

One of the reasons I went was story research. Sacred music and its effects play a major role in the fantasy world I tend to write about, and my understanding of Eastern Orthodox Christian monks is that they eschew musical instruments because the human voice, which is something fashioned by God, is the holiest way to sing hymns. And here was an opportunity to learn Secret Chants from foreign holy singing people! With monastic vestments and accents and everything!!

I even thought there might be a discussion of the symbolic means of various musical key signatures, and maybe even Secret Names of God. Or they'd pull out Sir Arthur Sullivan's Lost Chord with a small smile, a shrug, and a "Oh, this? It was discovered in St. Petersburg... we use it every day to get in touch with The Almighty." And maybe they'd have a musical monk's version of a lightsaber.

As a writer of fantasy stories where song, spell and prayer are supposed to the same thing, you can imagine my excitement.

It turned out the instructor, Sergey, wasn't a Orthodox Russian Ninja-Monk. He wasn't even a monk. He _was_ Russian, and he was the leader of a touring vocal ensemble. Learning a Russian Pater Noster was interesting, but the most useful thing from a writing a story-world point of view was when he would stop us singing and say something like, "this part means 'bread' and here is where the phrasing should be largo," or "Don't punch the words here, they shouldn't be war-like," or "...and this is 'Maria' and we venerate her."

In my fantasy world, I've been approaching magic and song in a mechanistic way. The story-world's Old Testament creation myth has The Father singing creation, and The Mother taking His Song and fashioning the cosmos. I've been having my spell-casters singing mechanically, which is a mist-step similar to having a B-movie scientist proclaim "E=mc^2!" in order to justify giant nuclear frogs. (Pause to imagine Bill Nye the Science Guy singing "Doe, a deer, a female deer" as a valid physics lesson....)

When I depict my characters doing magic, I need to have Sergey's memory whispering in my ear, "this is 'Maria' and we venerate her" so that, for the characters--at least some of them--there is no difference between song, spell, and prayer.