Saturday Bonus - Meek Heroes

Friday night I went to Corona After Hours (a.k.a. "loud church," or at least I call it that because of the rock music, which I like, but I always have to put in earplugs, even at concert!). Pastor Mike preached on the Beatitudes, and specifically:

Matthew 5:5: Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. (NIV)

Pastor Mike noted (correctly, IMO) that in today's society, it's especially hard for men to be meek and gentle, as it's not a quality valued in men. But that made me think of Suzanne Collins' "Hunger Games" (a kind of post-apocalyptic book--incredibly compelling, rather dark and not from a Christian worldview at all). Nadine has a pretty good review of it--though she was a bit more positive toward its morality than I am.

I think you could argue that Peeta, the male lead, embodies many of the Beatitudes, while Katniss, the female lead, rather does not. And I adored Peeta in that book (haven't read the sequels and don't plan to). While I found Katniss fascinating, I can't say I actually LIKED her as a person, exactly. It could be that she's too human, fair enough, but I really wanted to shake some sense into her...

That said, Peeta's gentleness makes me wonder if guys actually like Peeta, or if he's just a woman's fantasy. Thoughts? Can men enjoy reading a "meek" hero?

(EDIT: I answer a great question in the next post.)

Flashback Friday - The Good Old Days - January 8, 1921

A New York Times editorial that would have been written almost exactly 90 years ago today complains that the British are selling oil to the Japanese for $1.80 a barrel, but selling the same oil to Californians at $2.40 a barrel!

--The New York Times, January 8, 1921

If this converter is to be believed, that's $22 and $29.34 in current dollars, respectively.

Ow!

Hey, Great Britain, if you'd like to make up for your unfair treatment of 1921 and charge us $29.34 per barrel of oil today, we'll take it. :)

Harding has been cited as saying "Prayer is a dominant factor for a successful life." The New York Times said he wrote those words as President-elect to Reverend Benjamin Root of St. Paul's Episcopal Church.

See Herald and Presbyter, Volume 92 and The New York Times, January 8, 1921

Collaborative Writing - The Long Awaited Part 2

So updates on my own writing...I had a vague hope of finishing Flight from Endwood before the new year. That didn't happen, but now I'm cheering for the end of January. So I am buckling down and trying! I'd love to start a new collaborative project, too, but we'll see....

Speaking of collaboration! So a few weeks ago I said I'd share some things I heard at a panel on collaborative writing. Never mind the timeline I said I'd get that information out to you. Here it is now!

In November 2010 at the (secular) Tuscon Sci-fi/Fantasy/Horror convention, there was a panel on co-authoring with Michelle M. Welch, John Vornholt, and Jeff Mariotte. Some collaborated while under contract; I'm not sure any of them necessarily wrote a novel with someone quite how we did, without even having it sold yet. (Note that these writers are not necessarily--I'd go so far as to say not likely--Christians, but that doesn't mean they don't know some good techniques.)

A couple reasons for collaboration might be to have fun with a friend, and sometimes utilize different points of expertise. Overall, as I may have already mentioned, the goal of collaboration is for the finished product to be better than you could do yourself.

Random points they offered:

*Get a detailed outline first so that you know where it's going (this is beyond important if you're collaborating with one person writing some chapters and some people writing other chapters, etc.)

*Collaboration is very good for comedy--if you find something funny, someone else may not find it funny. But if TWO people think something is funny, then maybe other people will find it funny too!

*Distance is no longer an issue in collaboration, as it comes down to words on a page. You used to have to mail floppy disks (!) back in forth, but now you can collaborate in essentially, or even literally, real-time (see Google Docs etc.).

*Collaborating can be easier with a tight deadline (I think the logic there was that with a tight deadline, you both have to work, and you won't quibble about the small stuff).

*If an argument arises between the authors, try just scrapping the scene and writing something else.

*MAKE SURE WHOEVER SENDS TO THE EDITOR SENDS THE RIGHT VERSION! (One of the panelists had been working on a collaboration and the partner who sent the final copy out sent a previous draft. Since I can see myself doing that, I thought that was a good thing to note.)

They vaguely mentioned you need to agree who gets the final draft, etc., which I already knew from reading up on collaboration before we started.

And that...was about it. I thought I had more info, but sometimes short and sweet is best!

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.)