Ok, first my apologies in blogging in 2 weeks; seriously, I don’t know where the time goes.  Much of it to ficiton writing, though, and that’s a good thing.

Secondly, my latest issue of P&W arrived, and I was indulging in it the other day.  There is an aticle about Cuban American author Achy Obejas, which includes an excerpt from “Ruins”.

It was WONDERFUL.

That got me back to: why am I writing high fantasy? Shouldn’t I be writing literary fiction?

In bed this week, I thought of my literary history, which I think began when I read “A Wrinkle in Time“. As I look back the books I really remember are “Stranger in a Strange Land”, “Roadmaps”, the Ray Bradbury collection, and the Douglas Adams collection, all read before I went through my Stephen King and Anne Rice phases, King later replaced by early Clive Barker.  And of course, Jack Finney’s time travel books.  Yea, there’s a lot of scifi that I read, but in high school I loved “Siddhartha” and Shakespeare, so my literary tastes were also refined early on.

My point is, what I really want to write is always literary, but my mind is inspired to stories by the fantastical.  And the SF/F audience is not the same as a literary audience.  So I’m not sure where to go. My non-fantastical story ideas are dull and dry, and my fantasy is not conducive to my more natural literary voice (or at least, I can’t quite get it there, as the elements of fanstasy seem to steal from the element of literary devices).

Augh. I need some schooling, or a tutor or master I can follow, or something.  Ideas?

I have a confession to make.  The great, awesome, wow-I’m-really-into-it fantasy novel I’m writing?

It’s written in first person.

OK, OK, before you start throwing shoes at me, you have to understand TWO things about me:

1. I LOVE LOVE LOVE books in first person.  Really.  Maybe that’s why I’m so fussy about books, it’s tough to get 1st person right.

2. Somewhere along the way, I was taught that you should ONLY EVER WRITE from one person’s POV.  Ever.  Or you’ll burn in hell, or drown in a soggy slush pile.

Ever.

This is an extraordinarily difficult feat while writing fantasy, by the way.

This week, I started reading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones
.  It’s really extraordinary how he worldbuilds, just flawless and easy to get without being “simplistic”.  I have in my novel been struggling with the villian.  I’ve given her an amazing backstory that really brings out her dimensionality.  When I write her, though, she’s as flat as a sand dollar (sorry, daughter brought home another fish book from school).

Last night it occured to me this could all be solved with POV and 3rd person perspective.

OH CRAP.

Not only that, but a buncha little “can’t quite figure out how she’d know THAT” of things would be resolved.  You have the stationery court characters, which I’d anchor, probably to her mother, and then you have the exiled jouneying princess.  It could be done.  It would be good.  Hm…  And Firlona would get redeemed as we’d learn EXACTLY why she has so much hatred without the hearsay.

SIGH. today I’m tired just thinking about it…

Not sure how THAT happened, but last night I really got into editing my book.  It was awesome that after this weekend, I came to the sweet spot in the plot.  This too after realizing that it needs A LOT more work, world building and thickening of characters.

In fact, I’m not really sure how I have to do the next rewrite, just know I have to, and that’s OK.

Hit 1000 followers on Twitter today, how many read fantasy or at least my kind?  It’s a first novel, but I do have to give it my all.  It’s almost to the point where the NEXT novel is not pulling me off it anymore.

I also really want to go the Greater Lehigh Valley Writer’s Conference next month, since it will feature a fantasy author workshopping the genre and worldbuilding, PERFECT.  The job I did this weekend should pay for most of it, but this is also BIG PAYCUT MONTH so I need a little… um…manna from heaven, shall we say? Wish me luck.

Ok, it seems every week I’m learning something as I edit my novel and read or watch more SF/F.  Here’s what I learned this week:

1. We saw Babylon A.D., which struggled to be a good movie (ultimately, hubby and I didn’t think it made it, but this is not Film Critique 1010).  As I watched, I realized it was an old plot, I even recalled what movie it mimicked (though I’ve forgotten).  Basically, hardened man rescues young girl and through many trials encountered on a journey, discovers love. (OK I can see a whole buncha guys throwing their BluRays at the screen, but really, that is how it breaks down for a woman).  I realized as I’m watchin Babylon that my plot is similar.  The romantic interest is not a bad guy, but it IS  a journey story- a classic tale where a physical journey develops your protagonist.  It always was meant to be such, but I forgot along the way.  A bit.  It’ll be stronger.  It also needs more action - on their journey, it would be better if they met with foul play (they don’t at this point).

2. Starbucks is a writer’s heaven.  This is another thing I’ve forgotten.  I’ve been finding alone time to edit late at night (with deep exhaustion and zero motivation).  Saturday late morning, I went to Starbucks, which plays the PERFECT soundtrack for me, and sat with my over-sized coffee.  I got more done in an hour, plus I wrote a poem.  Hm, could it be the lack of children underfoot?  (They don’t sleep well, so even at night privacy is rare).

3. I learned that there is a writer’s conference in Allentown, which is a stone’s throw from my house.  In fact there is a pretty promising looking fantasy author teaching there on, of all things, my nemesis, world building.  If Chris gets his job, he agreed I could attend, so let’s all pull for that!

That’s it, and really, that’s enough.  Ok back to work.