People Who Get Things

When I was little, I looked forward to when my parents would go out of town and leave me and my brother with our usual babysitter, our family friend "Aunt" Chris (aka Christine Agnes Camp). She was chronologically an adult, but to me at least, she was more like a playmate or a friend. We loved when she'd play "Octopus," when she'd get on the ground and chase us around. I think most of all, she wasn't afraid to be a kid with us.

The thing that I think of most now is that she "got" the realm of fantasy and make-believe. She brought over the old BBC Narnia movies (taped from PBS, I believe) and watched them with us. OK, I'm not sure my brother actually watched them; he's never liked fantasy at all (you should hear him vent about how Quidditch is a fraud!). But Aunt Chris and I did, and then we discussed how faithful to the books (or not) they were.

Today, I'm amazed now that probably the majority of people I know (including several of the VERY dearest people to me) just don't "get" fantasy at all. If they try to watch a movie or read a book set in another world, they just can't follow it. (Which means that some of the people dearest to me will never "get"--and probably never even be able to read--the Christian-romance-fantasy-with-pirates novel that Maggie Phillippi and I wrote and are putting the final edits on now.) Now, I do have a hard time getting into adult fantasy books, but I'm just SO fascinated by the realm of the imaginary and the speculative.

Aunt Chris passed away fairly suddenly a couple weeks ago. I'm grateful she loved Jesus, but it's still sad. I don't know if she would have been interested in reading a romance, but it hit me that she may have been one of the people who might have "got" that book Maggie and I wrote. I'll never know now...or at least not this side of the grave for sure.

The Gruesomeness of Editing

I edit a lot, often on paper, because I like the visuals and the feel of marking out words.

Spoiler alert for novel that will probably never see the light of day ("Flight from Endwood")!

Of course, I like to edit SO much, a big thing for me is getting the first draft out, so I have something to work with. I'm still working on a short story...the plot has changed quite substantially, but whatever...abusive husbands lording their power over their Selkie wives are SO cliche. New idea is stronger (though still involves selkies).

Healing Field Tempe Town Lake - September 11, 2011

If you're in the East Valley, I think this is the most beautiful memorial to 9/11. I think it's put up every year for the weekend (at least, I saw it this year and last year, and believe it was around several years before that). As far as I know there's a flag for each victim killed in the attacks.





To me, the most heartbreaking and touching part is the cards on each flag. Some just have the barest of data, but a lot have more information:





Perhaps the most touching aspect about these stories is the way they show the love felt by the people who loved those who were lost.





I still remember how everyone came together immediately after the attacks....I was in college at the time and went to get my roommate for lunch. We were in one of the office buildings there and everyone gathered together to watch TV coverage--something I've really never done before or since.

It was a scary time (as a natural coward, I was a bit worried that the terrorists might strike my Arizona campus!) and an eerie time (I wrote a little stream-of-consciousness poem, now lost, but I believe it started, "Food smells delicious. I'm alive."). And such a sad time--though the initial reports said that as many as 50,000 were killed...I consider it God's providence that the final toll was more like 3,000.

My classes all met as scheduled, and we might have even had a regular lecture in a big auditorium class (psychology, I think it was?). But in my smaller Japanese history class we just talked about the attacks. Everyone wanted to help, I recall, even though there really wasn't all that much we could do out in Arizona. Besides pray.

My thoughts and prayers go out to the survivors and those who lost someone...and to all who are suffering through less-known but still tragic tragedies and illnesses.

Personality types and writing

OK, busy night tonight, so I'll make this short!

Have you ever done a Myers-Briggs or similar personality test? I usually come out as an INTP when I do the test for myself. Some of my traits (indecision; difficulty following through without deadlines) can make writing tricky.

This page gives a rundown of the types. Here is a free test you can try.

To be honest, the test results can almost read like horoscopes, in that you can probably find something that pertains to you and something that doesn't. (In fact, I understand some Christians don't believe in personality tests at all, thinking they're too similar to horoscopes/etc.!) But I don't think the personality tests are wicked.

Though actually, once I realized that two people I knew--same gender, similar body structure--had similar traits, and got this idea of Satan having a HUGE list of personality types--far beyond the 16 Myers-Briggs types--that let him target everyone by their type's weakness. Whereas God sees us as individuals!

I do think it is fun to type characters. Aridin, male lead in "The Healer and the Pirate," tests as an ESFJ. What does that mean?

SUPER shorthand based on my reading and experience--serious students can actually figure out the way the different types interact.

E - Extroverted (50% of people)
I - Introverted (50% of people)
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S - Sensor - Grounded in the physical world (65% of people)
N - Intuitive - Grounded in ideas (35% of people) - By the way, someone who is extremely messy is quite likely to be a "N" type. Yo.
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T - Thinker - Ruled by logic (65% of men; 35% of women)
F - Feeler - Ruled by feelings (35% of women; 65% of men)
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J - Judge - Makes decisions easily (50% of people if I recall correctly)
P - Perceiver - Has a hard time making decisions (50% of people if I recall correctly)


So Aridin is extroverted...as a pirate, that shouldn't be terribly surprising. Sensor sounds right for him; a pirate who's not very aware of his or her surroundings may not make it so long. I frankly have some trouble understanding the Judge/Perceiver one in general, but Aridin is quick to act and certainly "judges."

Feeler is the unusual one for a man. People think that women are the emotional ones and men are the unemotional ones. I think the 65%/35% idea is about right, personally. The majority of women are more emotional than the majority of men, but there's a big continuum. I actually am not very emotional, or good in social situations. (And it can be tricky to be a woman who's not emotionally sensitive!) I imagine it can also be hard to be an emotional man. Though I think men have more outlets for their emotions than some people give them credit for. (Like those guys who are so caught up in sports they come close to crying over sporting events!)

Of course, I think romance novels generally have the heroes being more emotional/sensitive than most men are...and I know someone who noted her husband is a "feeler" and it can cause some problems! But Aridin is just a very passionate person. And if you believe the scientists, 35% of men ARE "Feelers." I think there is room for all personality types, regardless of genders, in fiction (romance and not!)...and in life, too!

(Or at least, this Thinker woman hopes there is. :) )

Musing about Fiction - WHY

Still musing about fiction! Almost through the series, too!

So WHY...Why write? I won't say too much because I've already addressed the topic here and here.

Most writers seem to be driven to write for some reason. I think I've mentioned that for myself, I just like to tell a story. At work I met someone today who writes screenplays (!) with a writing partner and evidently even made a documentary! People have encouraged her to write novels or non-fiction, but her passion is screenplays, and from what she said, it sounded like she'd probably write without an audience to read it.

I try to be the same way...before the Internet was big (and before I was working full-time!), I was definitely the same way. Now I find it's too easy to just read and post to messageboards and Facebook, and get my writing bug out at work (I spend all day writing sternly-worded letters) instead of writing fiction for fun. I do still write fiction, of course, but not as much as I used to. Some of the fun does drain away (for me, anyway) when you actually have people critique it...

Still, as my dad likes to say, "Writers write." While I'd like to make a living off my writing, mainly I'm just driven to do it, and I like to think led to, as well.

But other WHYs.

A big one I hear from people who critique me seems to be "Why are your characters doing that?" I've had compliments on my characters, yet sometimes they seem to act to advance the plot more than doing what comes logically. I'm not sure how to prevent that, but I think the only way to SPOT it is to get some third party to look at my work. I just don't see it when it happens.

Which explains WHY you need someone to critique or give some sort of feedback on your work! Even if it's not fun! (That someone can be an editor, critique partner, beta reader, or even WRITING partner, but if you're just writing on your own without any feedback, your fiction will probably be a lot weaker than it could've been.)

One more WHY would be the overarching message of your work/s. When I was younger, I just wanted to write, yet my first full-length fantasy novel (high school; not so good) literally had a Jesus figure show up. My dad charitably commented that he'd read books worse than mine, and that it got awfully religious at the end. LOL. So on the one hand, I just want to write. But on the other hand, God seems to creep in anyway. The majority of the things I've written have had substantial express Christian content and much of the rest has had at least some in there.

I think whatever the writer believes will probably seep through into his or her work, really, whether those beliefs are the motivation for the work or just something that slips in unbidden.

Happy Father's Day!

Is it just me, or are good Father's Day cards hard to find? I spent at least 15 minutes searching Walgreens for the perfect one. Strange experience.

Almost all the cards weren't right for one or more of the following reasons.

*Trying to be funny but weren't (beans for 29 cents a can! CHEAP GAS! Get it???).

*Used mild profanities (there's a picture of a donkey on the front! Get it???).

*Featured a picture of a dad who had legs, or just a picture of shoes (!). (My dad's a double-amputee. I couldn't be more blessed to have him for my father. But I didn't think a daughter dancing on Daddy's feet card was appropriate when NEITHER of us dance.)

*So sweet it put tears in my eyes. Only one card managed this.

*Was vaguely creepy (these can be summed up by "Daddy, it may just be my opinion, but I think we have an exceptionally close relationship..." and "I need you to know that you'll always be an important man in my life." (Subtext: Please don't hurt my boyfriend.) ).

*Referenced things my father doesn't really do (it's amazing how many cards focus on grilling, golfing, and/or watching sports).

*Had random quotes on the front. Not quotes FROM people. Just weird lines in quotation marks, along the lines of "Father's Day is a time to remember a man who's done so much." Why the quotes? Quotation marks are the new apostrophe, I tell you.

*Were very wordy (one was at least 15 lines of text on the outside and that many on the inside!) and oddly specific. Like "You're a great father and I couldn't be more proud that you're my dad. You've done so much for us--put food on the table, bandaged our owies, took us bass fishing in the rain..." (I did not feel comfortable buying a card where I'd have to black out some of the lines.)

*Had Dora the Explorer on the front. OK, I didn't look inside that one. It was probably perfect.

Anyway, I ended up going to a Target near a university, which was almost out of cards even though it was a Wednesday or Thursday. Go figure.

In retrospect, I should've just gone with the ridiculously sweet one.

Happy Father's Day, Dad!

The Adjustment Bureau

Full disclosure: I would not be writing this blog if I hadn't gotten this cool shot of a theater in Florida.



But I did, and I saw The Adjustment Bureau in the cheap theater Friday. If you don't want spoiled at ALL, just gaze upon that spiffy old theater and then move on. If you want spoiled enough to get an idea if you might want to see it...

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...there was more profanity than I expected, and an amorous scene...and...
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...oh, yeah, the adjusters are probably angels (!) enforcing the plans of God (!!!!), which the Matt Damon character is railing against. Not sure whether or not I would've seen it if I'd known all that, even though not ALL the ideas were completely out of whack, and they were all INTERESTING. Stop here if you don't want more detailed spoilers.

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OK! So obviously, I was not keen on the (fairly brief) gratuitous sex scene or the profanity.

Religiously...I read the writer/director intended to raise questions. Mission accomplished! (Of course, that was partly because the film brought up complex ideas of fate and free will...and partly because by the end, it seemed there were no rules.)

The story was that Matt Damon--er, ah...let me Google that...David Norris, New York Senate hopeful, meets a young woman, Elise, and instantly falls in love with her. He loses track of her and finds out that there's an entire secret society of men in fedoras making little adjustments to people's lives to make sure that everything in the world goes along with the Chairman's (point to the sky) plan. And the Chairman (look heavenward) does not want David to be with Elise. Despite dire threats and the bureau's best efforts, David searches for Elise.

Given the fact that the adjusters literally do point to the sky when referring to the Chairman, it's challenging to picture the (unseen) Chairman as anyone but the movie's version of God. One review I read said it could just as easily be an alien force; I think that's a possible interpretation, but kind of a stretch. I don't know, though; I'm not an atheist.

The movie doesn't state the adjusters are angels but it's heavily implied. But one of them is pretty open to going against the Chairman's plan. They also face random limitations that seem to come out of an X-Men-type film. Their powers don't work around water. They need their hats to do their cool bits of travel. Fun for Hollywood, but really, angels needing these random restrictions to their powers? So I imagined they had to be something different than angels...but not sure what.

I wonder if maybe they should be pointing DOWN when talking about the Chairman--that would make some sense with the water restrictions!--but then he shouldn't have been quite so powerful (IMO) and he wouldn't have been kind at the end...

To me the film did have some redeeming qualities. Superficially, there were some cool special effects (think Monsters, Inc. (!)), a lot of great shots of places in New York City, and even some humor.

Spiritually, the film did remind me that there is a Plan for each of us, and a world around us that we're not even aware of.

But contrary the movie--and I know this is to the exiles of Israel back in the day, but I still believe it in an eternal framework:

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future....

--Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

I love to imagine the possibilities that may stem from when we do what we feel God leading us toward. Like whenever I have to move, I spend a ton of time researching where to live. Where I am now, though, I just drove by and decided to check it out. The price was OK, the bathroom is wheelchair-accessible for my dad (less typical than you think), and it's been...fine.... But did God PUT me here? If so, why?

I once had a neighbor who was trying to study for a test to become a doctor, and she asked for my help with her computer. I think I was able to help her somewhat (there was a bit of a language barrier). I certainly didn't directly witness about Christ to her or anything (she was Muslim and I am a pretty severe introvert), though we did talk a little about religion. But could some good have come from it anyway? It's POSSIBLE that she actually went on to be a doctor and maybe even helped save someone's life, because I chose this place to live.

Now, is that likely? Who knows? But I like to think of all the amazing possibilities that are out there (which is what makes writing so challenging and exciting for me!).

Perhaps the most terrifying aspect of the film was the idea that on rare occasions the adjusters will step in and change your mind for you. But on the other hand, in the Bible, God DOES sometimes harden people's hearts or change their minds (see Pharaoh v. Moses, for instance). So the (scary) aspect of God sometimes changing people's thinking is probably true. Though I don't think it requires men in fedoras or machinery.

Anyway, as you can perhaps see, I enjoy thinking about possibilities, and the movie had some fascinating ones.

Unfortunately, there was a problem I don't see a way around. The moral of the story seemed to be that if you avoid your fate and go AGAINST the Plan the "Chairman" has for you, you will in fact get what you want, which is evidently kind of what the "Chairman" wanted all along. I wonder how that would play for Eastern audiences who often believe in a sacrifice of self for the sake of others. But to most people, I guess the idea that even the Chairman will back off in the face of true love is appealing.

I would've been interested to see what would have happened if David decided to seek and follow the "Chairman"'s plan, instead of weaseling his way out of it and it working out fine in the end. But I admit, I am not sorry there was a happy ending (though a happy ending where he didn't "get the girl" could've been interesting). I mean, I didn't expect a retelling of the book of Jonah or anything.

And in the movie's defense, I do think that there is a danger when people blindly follow what they THINK or have been TOLD is fate/God's will. We need to be careful to test everything and try our best to be sure it's from God.

Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.

--1 Thessalonians 5:20-22 (NASB)

We can't simply trust something is right because someone powerful tells us it's so. (Not even if they're wearing a fedora!)

But my own personal weaknesses tend to be trying to avoid God's plans, more than following a plan that wasn't from God at all.

Anyway, it's definitely a film that can inspire conversation, almost like Bruce Almighty in that respect. I can't say absolutely don't see it, but I wouldn't highly recommend it either.

Thursday Bonus - Music (free music by A Rotterdam November!)

Scroll down most of the way for a great video and all of the way for free music!

So I've been listening to the news on my drive to and from work lately. Between all the turmoil in Japan and also Libya, I've found the news interesting. But it's not always good for the spirit.

This morning I felt like singing...but I only like some of the music on Air1, not much on KLove, and still miss when The Effect was in Arizona. So I ended up listening to the news again.

But this evening, I finally put on my music and got to sing along to a band I like. I believe they've broken up, and the songs I cite here are actually from their album "These Words Become Us," which is out of print; Amazon.com has one used copy for over $60 (!) And I wouldn't sell my copy of that album for that price!

I was blessed to listen to the late (?) great Ever Stays Red on my whole drive home. I love encouraging songs, I love rock songs, and I love Christian songs. I love this song! (And most of their others.)

You can listen to it here. The fan video is kind of appropriate because a commenter noted, the band used to play a video of the old animated Superman while playing this song live (with lyrics!).

The lyrics listed below are a combination of the liner notes (which are artistic but have typos and missing lines) and my ear, which is horrible at helping me transcribe. (I'd argue it's "break of day" but the liner notes say "light" twice.)

You say you're ready to fall, you say you're down on your luck
You say you've given it all but now you're giving up
'Cause everything's your fault, you're so ready to fall
You've got nothing to lose

Is there anyone there, is there anyone that
Could take a second to care about the place where you're at
When everything goes wrong you can't see to your heart
What are you going to do?

Is there anyone who hears me talking tonight?
We're so ready to fall, we're all ready to fall, what are we going to do?

You've grown tired of a life
Where there's no one left alive
Hold on if only for this one last time.

Look to the sky to make it through the night
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever
One beat in time could bring the break of light
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever

You say you're ready to fall, you say you gave up the fight
You say you tried to be strong, but you forgot how to try
You love to say it's your fault, you're so ready to fall
You've got no place to turn

Now I say there's a chance, I always said there was fight
Trying to hard to breathe just to prove you're alive
When nothing seems to work and now that you're all alone
Who will help heal the hurt?

Hold on if only for tonight
I swear it'll be all right
Take your hand in mine and we'll be fine

Look to the sky to make it through the night
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever
One beat in time could bring the break of light
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever

So tell me, can this carry us through the night
And keep us still 'til the first sign of light?

Look to the sky to make it through the night
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever
One beat in time could bring the break of light
This all won't last forever
These times can't last forever

Anyway, songs like that really lift me up, and Ever Stays Red also has excellent outright worship songs to sing along to. Probably the best concert imaginable, which I was blessed enough to go to several years ago, was Delirious? with Ever Stays Red opening. Love them!

And also, I DARE you to watch this video and not at least smile.



OK! The free music (for a limited time only, I'm sure) is 3 songs from another band I like, A Rotterdam November. It is on their fan page on Facebook, but I don't think you need an account to download it. Just scroll through the songs; three say "download." If you like them, go ahead and "like" the band's page too. It's the least you can do; those songs are like a $2.97 value.

Random 13th - Books

First off, my thoughts and prayers go out to Japan (and every other place touched by recent earthquakes). I only have one acquaintance there; she is safe and her blog is very interesting.

So at the Tucson Festival of Books, in at least a couple panels, discussions arose about what books influenced the authors. It was fun to hear what books children's book authors Grace Lin and Candace Fleming used to love. Grace Lin cited the Anne of Green Gables series on two separate occasions; she said she wished the books went on longer because Anne was so real. Candace Fleming loved "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" and "Island of the Blue Dolphins," but her favorite was "Misty of Chincoteague"--she even got a signed first edition with Misty's hoofprint (!) in it. She also reminisced about the old Scholastic Book Club days, when they used to have real quality books you could order. I think I remember those days. Now I feel old, but I DO remember most of the books they mentioned. (Then Louis Sachar went and had a grown-up answer that he didn't really enjoy reading until high school, when he got into J.D. Salinger and Kurt Vonnegut. Oh well. I liked "Wayside School" when I was a kid anyway.)

What about me? Three that influenced me:

The Little House Series: I think I've always been interested in other cultures/technology levels, and that series has it all over. Also a very light touch on the romance (I hated the very thought of romantic threads in books when I was a little girl!). I've read them a ridiculous number of times; I'm the type that likes to reread books. I'm pretty sure if I went back and read them with a more critical eye they might not be quite as good as I remembered. But then again, I re-read "The Long Winter" (my least favorite as a child, unless you count "The First Four Years") fairly recently, and it held up pretty well, I thought. Though, it's my understanding that kids today aren't at all interested in pioneers anymore. I've even heard it argued that due to the prevalence of electronics, they can't even find that world interesting anymore. I think that's sad.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Honestly, I think it would be a pretty unusual Christian fantasy writer who doesn't at least kind of like them, and I REALLY like them, still. I was fairly young, sleeping in a cousin's bedroom (I think) at my aunt and uncle's house, when I discovered "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." I stayed up late reading and was absolutely enchanted with the whole idea, though I'm not sure I picked up on the Christian allegory just then. I checked out all the rest of the books from the library and read them multiple times before we finally bought a boxed set for the family. I actually read "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" more critically before the movie came out, and it wasn't quite as good as I remembered...I think I found a typo or something, though given how many printings the book has had, that could've been the publisher's fault. If I recall correctly, I think the others have held up pretty well, though. I'm sure they gave me a push toward writing about other worlds.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH: I think I actually read this one AFTER the cartoon Rescue Rangers came out, though I imagine I've always been interested in tiny parallel societies and the like. Anyway, it's a fascinating exciting story AND has little mice behaving like people. I adored it, even though the ending was bittersweet. (The movie adds a lot of magic that I didn't care for; I thought their world was interesting enough.)

Robert C. O'Brien also wrote "Z for Zachariah," which I believe is a YA novel, but awfully dark--in some ways even darker than "Hunger Games," I'd say (maybe not moreso than the sequels, which I haven't read). Not a bad book, but I'm really glad I didn't read it until I was an adult!

Writing Wednesday - Too Busy

So I've made distressingly little progress on my snowflake. Like, about 2 hours' work in a week. Granted, I did a LITTLE more thinking in my head on top of that, but still. That's IT??? Still on Step 3 (quick telling of the story from each major characters' POV). But I'm planning to go through what I wrote on Step 3 one more time and then move on to Step 4 (expanding the paragraph summary you wrote of your novel into 5 paragraphs).

While I don't like writing down plans, I DO like thinking about problems, and I haven't even been doing much of that lately. I think most of the problem is my own human nature, to get caught up in distractions. I taught Children's Church last Sunday and the lesson was on Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). The lesson itself was about putting God first (something I'm not particularly good at). And that made me think the lesson was to do MORE for God--spend more time reading the Bible, praying, etc. Which is a good thing, of course. But in this day and age I do wonder if Satan loves to see us so caught up on Facebook, in Internet rabbit holes, etc., that both our quiet time with God, and our quiet time to think, all get pushed by the wayside. Statistically I've read that we have MORE leisure time today than any generation before us. (I'm not sure that's entirely true; farmers would be completely busy during the harvest and planting, but when the snow came there wouldn't be that much to do. But most women, excepting the ones who had a ton of servants, probably do have a lot more time to themselves. Every time I get annoyed at having to do a load of laundry, I imagine how angry my great-grandmothers would probably be to know their descendant was whining about having to move clothes from the washer to the dryer....

I do think just sitting down and THINKING was a lot more fun before I became a grown-up, and also before the Internet. I still remember when I was on the school bus or even sometimes in class, I'd daydream adventures that I could later write down. (Too bad many of those would qualify as Rescue Rangers fanfiction and thus could never be salable!)

Then in high school I'd sketch on the top margins of my notes and by college the sketches had even turned into comics. (Speaking of which, I was just thinking of that very comic lately...maybe someday I'll turn it into a novel. Hmmm.)

Anyway, now between my busy job (and there's always work I can be doing there) and the millions of rabbit holes that are the Internet (and the wonderful people who populate it), I just haven't been taking as much time to be creative. I think I need to try to carve out more time to just sit and think and listen. Easier said than done, but I'd better try.

VNSA Book Sale - Phoenix, AZ - And gingerbread!

We arrived at the annual VNSA Book Sale in Phoenix at the fairgrounds (by the Coliseum) maybe a bit after 9 AM. It opened at 8, but there's a substantial line to get in until maybe 11 or later (the line was gone when we left at 12:30).

Yes, this is meant to be artistic, yeah....

As recently as 2009, maybe even 2010, they had two lines feeding in. This year they had one, which is fairer but takes away the chance to get in earlier by picking the right line! Was in line behind some of the SAME PEOPLE I'd been behind 2 years ago (my brother's friend's family). The line can be slow; the fire marshal makes sure the place doesn't get dangerously overcrowded. A great way to pass the time is to make conversation; we ended up spending about 30 minutes or more talking to a nice couple behind us! And we finally got in at maybe 10:20.

Inside there are something like 500,000 books, DVDs, etc. I initially gravitate toward what they're now calling "Treasures," which has historic books (my favorite!). Rare & Unusual is also awesome...it tends to be more expensive, but sometimes they have some deals. I got an old tour book of either England or Scotland (I forget which) for I think $8 one year. And in that section, once I even got one of the better Dance Dance Revolution games (DDR Max 2) for $3! At that price I couldn't pass it up for a friend, even though I already had it. It was scratched but played fine.

This year I went looking for stuff published before 1923 (public domain!). 2 years ago I got a ton of tiny books (just the right size for dolls) at 80 cents to a dollar! Paperbacks are $1.50 and the money goes to charity! I tend to buy stuff that looks like it might be good, figuring it's for a good cause.

A view inside.

Once you're (finally) inside, you can easily spend a couple hours browsing. People bring backpacks, suitcases, handtrucks and crates--anything you can use to carry books. They do have some plastic bags for you but they were in short supply this year, and get awful heavy. Sundays are half-price but I find Saturday is plenty cheap. Highly recommended if you like books at all!

$31.60, baby! They had some...interesting little books that were the right size for dolls and looked almost like mini textbooks, so if you see a peculiar tiny book in there, that's why! :)

And to top that out, my mom met me later with her Valentine's present to me!

Yes, those ARE gingerbread unicorns. :)

Sunday Special - Football and History

I'm not exactly a fan of football, to put it mildly. I do thank God that I was blessed with a brother who loves sports, so I know enough to at least listen politely and interject an occasional comment when people are talking about sports. (I know we're not talking college football, but isn't the BCS awful?)

I looked up some stuff about history from the NFL website but frankly I'm not sure my audience has much overlap with football fans.

Still, this note stuck in my mind:

1904 - Halfback Charles Follis signed a contract with the Shelby (Ohio) AC, making him the first known black pro football player.

This would help explain why in the 1934 Middletown, Ohio yearbook ("The Optimist"), there are several African-American players.

Bear in mind, Arizona schools were still segregated by race at that time. :P

Two more, relevant to the 1920s:

1920 - Pro football was in a state of confusion due to three major problems: dramatically rising salaries; players continually jumping from one team to another following the highest offer; and the use of college players still enrolled in school. A league in which all the members would follow the same rules seemed the answer.

(They called themselves the American Professional Football Association; soon to become the NFL)

1921 - At the league meeting in Akron, April 30, the championship of the 1920 season was awarded to the Akron Pros.

A) The Akron team getting the title at a meeting in Akron? That sounds more crooked than the BCS (thanks, Bill!)

B) Isn't it nice that in just a few hours we'll know the champion once and for all? That's great if you love football, and also great if you don't love football. No offense, but I don't want to be hearing MORE football news in April.

1922 - The American Professional Football Association changed its name to the National Football League, June 24.

--From the 2010 NFL Record & Fact Book via the NFL website

Winning Wednesday

So winning refers to something that was "luck" (or Providence), not anything to do with writing skills. Be warned!

And for my writing progress report...could be worse. I did finally finish the last full chapter of Endwood (just need to complete the epilogue). I probably should have split the ending into two pieces but I really didn't want the story to continue too terribly far after the climax. I'm SO looking forward to being done with it!

So I joined American Christian Fiction Writers a while back and sometimes people will post about when they have agents or editors on their blogs. So someone at Seekerville posted on ACFW about how they were having a costume party and invited everyone to come. I'm not sure if they mentioned a giveaway or not, but I didn't notice. I just wanted to dress my avatar up!

So the real story is that Tina James, senior editor of Love Inspired Historical and Love Inspired Suspense, was announcing they are printing four Historicals a month instead of two. Since I've never actually wrote historical romance (or any historical fiction without a major speculative element) I'm not sure if that's relevant for me or not, but squee! Historical clothes!

So I posted.

Aside from sewing the ribbon on the hat, this is all items I found at Ross and/or TJ Maxx. I do love making historical and fantasy costumes, but I suppose that's a story for another time. Anyway, I chose to dress in 1920s garb because if I WERE to write an outright historical, I reckon that's when I'd set it. And I love the Coney Island pictures, LOL.

Anyway, long story short, I was just outright SHOCKED to have won a contest that I believe was just a random draw. Really? I don't know how many entrants there were (well over 200 comments but some were from the same people). And I won four books? Shipped from the Senior Editor at the one Love Inspired line I could ever imagine writing for??? I didn't even know there were four books to win!

I used to believe in, if not luck, then things just happening randomly. But after going through Beth Moore's study of Esther, I'm not so sure. It's pretty much impossible for my mind to wrap around how every single little thing (as small as misplacing my keys and taking a minute to find them) could happen for a reason, but it certainly wouldn't be outside the range of God's power.

At any rate, winning four books is a lot bigger deal (and more unusual!) than losing my keys. A little part of me is wondering--maybe I should try a historical romance?

Another historical outfit I made (perhaps the most accurate, and completely made by me) is a 1770s dress. It would take so much work and research, but I believe people were getting into 1770s historical recreation in the 1920s...it seems to me that could be a very fun romance, with characters from a past era trying to recreate an even farther past era. And anything on Coney Island could be interesting (although I'm not so sure that would fly, given that the place used to be nicknamed "Sodom by the Sea"...).

Anyway. For now I reckon I will need to settle down and read them. I'll likely review them here, but I'm both a picky reader AND not much of a reviewer, so we'll see.

Oh right! In the comments from last week, I promised a picture of my phone, too.

If you want your Samsung Comeback to also look a bit like EVE from WALL-E, here's the photo.

I modified a page to print a paper EVE mask (of all things) I saw online, then shrunk it to a 240 height so it looks nice on the inner flip screen (I suggest you set your phone to "Black theme"--Menu, Settings, Display settings, My Theme, Black theme for the Comeback).

So, have you had anything recent happen that might be Providential?

Busy Wednesday

I don't have much to say today, really. I'm going a little slower than I wanted for my work in progress "Flight from Endwood." I hoped to have it finished by the end of the month, and I'm a touch behind. Believe me, if it were a hard and fast deadline I would have worked harder to get it done, but it's more of a "I'd just like to be DONE and work on another project!" date.

But without a hard deadline, how could I turn down a get-together with co-workers at a pizza place? (Delicious, by the way.)


In fairness, a little of the procrastination is that I got a new phone! (I got my previous one in November 2009, and have been complaining about it since...November 2009 + 2 days.)

I think it's about as powerful as the first computer I bought. If I can get a working microSD card, it will have considerably more "hard drive" space. Even without additional storage it's working out decently so far. AND it has a place for a cell phone charm!

Yes, that is Silvermist the Disney Fairy. I had Fawn on my old phone (in memory of a wonderful trip to Disneyland in June 2010, when we happened to meet her and Tinkerbell). Oh, I love Disneyland.

I'm thinking about changing my background to black with two blue ovals and making my phone look a bit like EVE from Wall-E. What do you think?

Anyway, despite such obstacles as playing with my shiny new toy and trying to get its memory card to work in FOUR different devices, I'm nearly done with the second-to-last chapter of Endwood, and the last will be an epilogue. God willing, I'll be there soon.

Got some great (positive) feedback on my collaborative novel, so that's great news! I'm wondering if we should just buckle down and edit it, then start sending it out...

I don't know. If I don't have anything interesting for next week, maybe I'll just put up some ship pictures? What do you want to see, anyway?

Why Write for Publication?

Writing progress report: I have another chapter of Flight from Endwood up for critique (33!). 34 has been kind of sort of written, and I think I just have one more chapter to go!

And, last weekend I found an Alphonse Mucha calendar (no nudity even). His art is just the type of art I want to see on the cover of my (eventual) next novel, so it seems very appropriate.

Last week I talked about why I write, and I promised I'd answer the question, why write for (traditional) publication?

Writing for publication is not the only way to get your work out there. If you give your writing away for free on the Internet, you just might end up with more readers than if a big publisher had your book. (That works well for webcomics; I don't know about novels.) If you sell your book for a small fee on Kindle, you have a potential to make thousands and reach tens of thousands of readers. Even if you want a book to hold in your hands (and e-books may make those a bit obsolete), there are several ways to accomplish that, with and without going through a traditional publisher.

I'll try to sum up some of the different means of publication as quickly as possible:

*Vanity press = more or less, the author pays someone to print his or her book

*Print on demand = the author uploads his or her book to a site like Lulu.com . When someone orders a copy of the book, the publisher prints a copy just for that person; the author gets a percentage of each purchase of the book, based on how he or she priced the book.

*E-books = like print on demand, minus the print aspect. When someone orders a copy of the e-book, they get it delivered digitally, and the author gets a percentage of each purchase of the e-book, again, based on how he or she priced the book.

*Traditional press = may or may not pay an advance to the author. Author probably gets a percentage of the sales (provided that amount exceeds the advance). An editor probably looks at the book and suggests revisions before it is printed. Small presses might use print on demand or e-book technology, as referenced above, but in this case the press will determine pricing and the author's share of any profits.


I bring all these options up because it was just a couple years ago that I discovered that to most people who don't write, a book is a book. They don't know or care how it was published. From interactions I've seen online and in person, a lot of people consider a print-on-demand book to be about the same thing as one printed by a small press, and maybe even as good as something from Random House. They seem to see it as, you have a book with your name on it! You're an author! I have a copy of a book that I got printed through Lulu.com just for fun and yes, most people I've shown it to are wowed that I wrote a book and am "published." I duly explain that no, I just got this printed out, but I'm still not convinced that they grasp the difference.

Writers, on the other hand, will often argue that you need to be accepted by a publisher in order to really be an author. It can be very hard to get published traditionally. Publishers have very narrow definitions of what they will accept, and finding a publisher can literally take years. They may request substantial edits to the manuscript, some of which the author may not agree with. Small-press publishers can have significant overhead as well, meaning that a book you could have sold for a good profit at $9 a copy, they might need to sell for $12 a copy, which can reduce sales, while still delivering smaller profits to you personally. Publishers on all levels still expect the author to do a lot of the work of promoting the book; many publishers do little or no marketing of their authors' novels anymore. I've also heard it said that publishers really want you to submit a near-ready-for-press novel; they're supposedly not even interested in editing anymore! (An editor I saw at the Tuccon Festival of Books disagreed, but he did seem old-school (and wonderful!).)

And if you're a Christian author writing anything besides category romances like Heartsong Presents or Steeple Hill Love Inspired, many big publishers won't even look at your book unless you have an agent. Meanwhile, it's very difficult to land an agent if you haven't been published.

On the other hand, quite a few people have had success selling their novels as eBooks on Kindle, for instance, with no particular publisher. When I say success, I mean I've heard of people selling thousands in a month. One person on the critique site I frequent (Critiquecircle.com) says she has sold over 20,000 copies of one book.

I'm sure those successful e-book writers generally work very hard to achieve those numbers, and I think these people often sell their books at a low price. But even if you make 35 cents profit on 20,000 books (which I understand is the norm for a low-priced book), that's $7,000, which is more than a lot (most?) authors get from publishing with a small press, and about the size of some advances. Meanwhile, I've seen small presses that offer advances of $10 and consider 300 books sold a success.


So, with all that in mind, why write for traditional publication?

I think the main motivation for being traditionally published for most people is probably validation and respect from one's peers and from some third party authority. I imagine it would be an incredible self-esteem boost to have a publisher accept your work. And fellow authors and authors' groups usually (not always!) consider self-published authors to be the same as amateur or unpublished authors. It can be hard for self-published authors to find promotion opportunities. And of course the (few) famous authors you hear of are all (eventually) traditionally published. There's something to it.

When it comes down to it, very few novelists make a full-time living on their writing, regardless of whether they're traditionally published or self-published. One (of many) reasons I don't play the lottery is because I'd much rather be blessed by becoming a rich novelist than just winning the same amount of money...and the odds of winning the lottery are a bit better than being a rich novelist, I think. So it's probably a matter of putting your book where God wants it to be, and not so much getting rich.

I'm not sure what God wants me to do with my writing right now; I only have one (co-authored) manuscript that's near the stage of being ready to go out, and it's not quite there, so I haven't worried too much.

But barring any specific guidance, the plan is to start with the biggest publisher that will accept Christian fantasy romance, and work our way down the (small) list, until someone accepts it or we end up self-publishing. I believe in our novel and I think God wants us to get it out to people. But I think a publication credit would be good for my co-author and me both.

All that said, I'm most likely going to do some experimentation on self-publishing with a novel that has 8 chapters on my personal website.

Wow; that's a lot of words. What do you think about publishing? I think I need to ask God for some more guidance.

Wacky 13th - About me

Stolen (and edited down) from a friend's Facebook note:


Name → Julie Bihn

Nickname(s) → Jules; JR

Status → Single (happily)

Zodiac sign → Bah. (On the cusp)

Male or female → Female

Height → I think 5'6

Hair color → Brown

Long or Short → A bit past shoulder length (I got it cut way too short!)

Loud or Quiet → I'm usually considered quiet, but I can be a chatterbox too.

Sweats or Jeans → Cargo pants (I visit you from 2001!)

Phone or Camera → What does this mean? You kind of have to have your phone but my camera phone is hilarious--it takes tiny photos and when you zoom in, it just CROPS them. I take my camera when I'm going somewhere interesting.

Health freak → Chocolate is a fruit, right?

Drink or Smoke? → I have never had more than one drink at a sitting (not been remotely drunk), and never smoked.

Do you have a crush on someone? → Are we in grade school? No.

Piercings? → 0

What did you do last night→ I'm actually writing this on January 6, 2011 :#/ so who knows? (TIME TRAVEL!) Odds are, stayed up too late, probably wandering down Internet rabbit holes.


CURRENTLY:

Eating → No

Drinking → No, but I'm about to get up and have some water

I'm about to → Do laundry!

Listening to → "The Office" ("Let's get ethical, ethical...")

Plans for tomorrow → Going to work


HAVE YOU EVER:

Run away from home → No, but when I was a kid and we came home after a vacation and found our house burgled, I took my bike, I think it was, and rode to the edge of our 10-acre property. Yes, when I am frightened, I run like a rabbit.

Broken someone's heart → Highly doubtful (if so, I'm sorry!)

Been arrested → No


DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

Yourself → Kind of

Love at first sight → Sure?

Heaven → Yes

Santa Claus → My brother did discover that Santa has the same handwriting as Dad...

God → Yes

Why Write?

Progress report - I'm still getting a chapter of Endwood up for critique weekly, so that's good. I think I'm about 3 chapters from the end. I'm really excited to put this novel behind me for a while! Also returned a couple critiques in the past 7 days.

My question today is: Why write? God gave me a passion for writing, I believe, as I've been interested since I was a small child. I drew comic books and wrote stories when I was about 11 or 12, and have been writing ever since. If you count NaNoWriMo, I've completed drafts of about 5 novels, plus a co-written novel and one that I stopped at 50,000 words after NaNo but will rewrite someday. At any rate, I adore entertaining people with imagined characters and worlds. For someone who can't memorize, writing is a great way to do it.

OK, so why write novels? I just haven't gotten the hang of writing short stories--I like to have more time to play with characters. And in a perfect world, I know every novel would be as polished as a short story, but in the real world, every word has to count in a short story, whereas novels have a bit more wiggle room. I'd like to try it sometime, though.

I actually love writing comic books, but I'm not a very good artist and don't enjoy drawing enough to become a much better artist. I've toyed with having artists draw my scripts, but that kind of collaboration can be difficult to pull off, in that both parties must be very motivated. I've heard that it usually comes down to the artist "encouraging" the artist to work, and I'm not so good at that.

I wrote a script for a play once (I took a playwriting class in college instead of advanced fiction writing...more on that another day!), and it was enjoyable. But I feel like doing a play would be so draining for someone who loves ideas but can have trouble interacting with people for long, long stretches.

I think it'd be kind of cool to write for TV, but I'm not sure I'd want to write other people's characters, and I know I don't want to move to LA.

I know if you write a movie screenplay and Hollywood makes it, odds are VERY poor that your vision will end up on the screen. I think that would be hard to deal with, no matter how excellent the money can be.

And I prefer imagined worlds to the real ones, so that's why I prefer to write fiction. Did I leave out any possibilities you can think of?

But when it comes down to it, I love to write, and it's just something I do. Even in the lunchroom at work, I prefer to just sit down with a pencil and paper and work on my novel. It's one of the things I enjoy most in the world, and I believe God likes me to do it.

Do you write? If so, why? If not, why not?

Next Wednesday I'll continue this thread with, why write for publication?

6 songs FREE - High Flight Society!

Your life is more than what you've done.
You can't hold on forever.
I hope you know it's time to let this go.
You gotta run from yesterday,
Turn away from past mistakes
And leave them all behind
You're holding on too tight...
--"Run From Yesterday", High Flight Society

First thing's first: Go to this page before January 31, 2011, so High Flight Society can make another EP. Got it? Free songs closer to the bottom.

A new year and I figured I could work on my blog! Still haven't hashed out everything I'll write about, true enough, but one thing I do have quite a bit of interest in is Christian rock. It helped me emotionally around and following college, and it's been interesting to trace which songs were meaningful to me then, versus now.

Most the Christian bands I know of--and some you even hear on Air1--are pretty small outfits. Many of them tour the country with their van and their trailer, and then they set up and sound check their own equipment. Since I like harder music with good (and not filthy) lyrics, I tend to like the more independent bands. I actually came to love Christian rock from Effect Radio back in the day when it was in town (Air1, no relation, now has its 89.9 frequency).

High Flight Society is one of those smaller bands, and their story is one of the common ones. Put out a record on a small label; signed by a larger label; label has a shake-up and drops them before they even get a record out.

The whole world of business can be especially heartbreaking to be any sort of artist--musician, artist, writer. The one point of hope that any Christian artist has that others don't is knowing that if we're doing what God has led us to do, we can know that God's purpose has been accomplished. I find it comforting to know that no matter what your sales numbers are, perhaps God used your work to touch just one life. Given that I love to create, to me that potential is enough.

Back to music. After their first album, High Flight Society put out a short digital EP, "Par Avion," which has good songs and kind of hidden Christian messages (as most Christian rock does nowadays). The first track is a hard rock song, "Give It Up," which starts out with what I consider almost discordant beats, but it ends up working. "Inhaling a Bullet" has heavy guitars, not surprisingly. The "Whoa-oh, oh-oh"s kind of remind me of a 1980s song, in the best way. "Run from Yesterday" is both very catchy and works nicely on a Christian level, though I'm sure non-Christians could listen to it and not be overwhelmed. Definitely one of my favorites on the album. The closer on the general release of the EP is "Come on Sister," which is pretty low-key.

On top of that, there are two bonus tracks that you originally could only get by buying the download card at their concerts. (I may or may not have ducked out of my only sibling's wedding rehearsal dinner maybe an hour earlier than most in order to get to their concert and procure said card...) "Sanctuary" may be my favorite song on the EP; it's another of those songs that is Christian if you want it to be. It makes me want to write a spaceship/war story. Download it and maybe you'll get some ideas too! The final song is "Indecision" which is another hard-rock song.

Something else I'm generally interested in is FREE stuff! [b]You can get ALL SIX SONGS FREE from High Flight Society if you just give them your email address![/b] I would give my email address for "Sanctuary" alone, actually. (In fact, on 1/1/11 them my email myself to make sure it works. The whole process from submission to download took about 90 seconds. The download page might say it has 4 songs, but when I downloaded I got all 6!)

[b]And if you like the music, you can help them out by throwing them a few bucks via this page before January 31, 2011, so they can make another EP. You can even get their new EP free if you pledge! Your credit card will only be charged if they reach their goal, so go help them out![/b]

(FTC disclosure - I DID pay regular price for this EP in June 2009, and reviewed the copy I paid for. But you can get it for free as above.)

Introduction

My lovely and multi-talented friend Maggie is making a website for me and would like me to have a blog with it. Which I need to do anyway. I'm thinking we might track the exciting life of a writer here...but right now I'm busy with the holidays and, oh, yeah, finishing my NaNo. (Disneyland in space during a war!)

So hopefully I'll have more here in weeks to come. Pleased to meet you, random strangers, acquaintances, and friends!