Shawn L. Bird

Original poetry, commentary, and fiction. All copyrights reserved.

creating beauty August 5, 2012

Filed under: OUTLANDERishness,Pondering — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:06 pm
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“You are beautiful,” he whispered to me
“If you say so.”
“Do ye not believe me? Have I ever lied to you?”
“That’s not what I mean. I mean— if you say it, then it’s true.”

Diana Gabaldon.  The Fiery Cross

I have pondered over this concept a lot.  When Grace first sees Ben in Grace Awakening Dreams, she thinks he’s completely average and uninteresting.  By the end of Grace Awakening Power, she describes him as handsome, golden, and glorious.

What has changed?  Has he literally become better looking, or has her perception of him just altered, so that she finds him more attractive?  Does being in love, and having someone love you make you more attractive?

I think the answer to all three questions is yes.

It reminds me of a parable I heard when I was a teen about the 100 cow wife.  Hunting on the internet, I see that it’s actually about an 8 cow wife.   (lol  Memory inflation!)  The gist of the story is that you get what you pay for.  If you want a beauty, you have to treat her like a beauty.

Physical beauty, internal beauty, or whatever, your declaration to the beloved is what makes it true.  Conversely, if you denigrate your spouse, call him or her names, and put him or her down, you create what you declare.  You create what you desire and what you declare.

 

help guys! I need some male vocab! August 4, 2012

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 5:38 pm
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I was once told, “Guys don’t say ‘cute.'”  That’s a problem, because I’m editing Grace Awakening Myth, and Ben thinks ‘cute’ and ‘adorable’ rather frequently.  If I need to kill the word cute, but somehow get the same idea across, what words should I use?

What do you say when the girl you adore is so uncoordinated around you she can barely walk?  When she blushes whenever she sees you?

When I was that girl, I remember a lot of knowing grins, and I’ve got that, but what word would be in his head to describe his affectionate amusement?

Help!  Please leave your suggestion in the comments below!  Thanks!

 

invocation on sport August 3, 2012

Filed under: Rotary invocations — Shawn L. Bird @ 5:57 pm
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At this moment, thousands of athletes are battling on their fields of endeavour in search of glory.  Through dedication and sacrifice they strive to be the best for one brief moment in time.  They glow with satisfaction as they achieve their best and receive the accolades.

For one shining moment, they achieve glory.

Let us be thankful for hard work and dedication which unite us in celebration of success.  Let us work together to achieve our club goals, that we may celebrate together the improvements we, as Rotarians, make in our communities and our world.

(c) Shawn Bird.  Free use within Rotary.  Please credit Shawn, and record your club and the date you used this invocation in the comments below.

 

How to write a book in 6 weeks August 2, 2012

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:23 pm
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My first thought when I saw this title of a Bookbaby blog was, “You sit down and keep typing!”  While this is definitely true, Beth Haydn’s guest blog has some other contributions.  🙂  Go check her  How to Write a Book in Six Weeks over at Bookbaby.

 

 

inspiration August 1, 2012

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 11:16 pm
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I have been asked to do a reading and discuss the inspiration behind my writing with a group of seniors.  That has me pondering a bit.

I have a lot of inspirations.  There’s a common “be careful or I’ll put you in my novel” sort of thing with novelists.  It’s true that there are several plot elements that reflect events going on around me.

For example, when my Communications 12 class was regaling me with some of their more foolish adventures, they described the infamous time that one of them had leapt from the top floor down into the open atrium below- some 20 feet.  That  became a scene in the book.  An evil character leapt to attack Grace.  At the end of the semester when they convinced me to read it to them, the young man in question laughed and shouted, “That’s EXACTLY what happened!” even though I had merely taken the fact of the jump, and imagined how it would play out.

One scene happens at a wedding.  The events described are true.  I attended that wedding, and experienced that strange radar.  The context of the event is different, as it fits into the story to explain something about a character.

Of course, I’ve already explained to you the germ of truth behind the concert scene.

Then there is the whole use of mythology, which came after reading Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, and realising that  incorporating mythology solved all my plotting  issues.

What about the inspiration to actually sit down to write?  That was that niggling saying, “Those who can, do.  Those who can’t, teach.”  That aphorism has ticked me off for years.  Finally I thought, “Well then, I guess I’d better ‘do’ and prove it wrong!”

So many inspirations!

  • personal experiences
  • stories from others
  • desire

To be honest though, there is something more than all of that.  It’s as if the characters needed to live, and they asked me to record their voices.  They came into my breath and became part of my world.

 

 

 

encircling silence July 30, 2012

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:47 am
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This silence is a circle.

Mine says,

“wrap me with warm words!”

Yours says,

“huh?”

So silence encircles,

Mine says,

“compassion is in companionship.”

Yours says,

“shh.”

Silence circles.

 

her with him July 27, 2012

Filed under: Poetry — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:55 am
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It’s not truth,

but danger.

    Not what is real,

    but what’s perceived.

        The excluding

        exclamations

        of laughter

             contrasted by

             bored eye brows

             and sighs.

An amused knife

slicing through

her security.

         © Shawn L. Bird

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Being a free verse, there is no strict rhyme or rhythm pattern in this one, but you’ll see lots of examples here of consonance, assonance, and alliteration.  Notice in particular the pattern of growling of the /r/s, the explosive /ex/s and the sighing /s/s which reflect the narrative persona’s emotional experience.  

There is a circle pattern with the 6 sections (not quite stanzas, not being separated) being strongly consonant /r/, then assonant /e/, then alliterative /ex/, and then reversing: alliterative /b/, assonant /i/, and finally consonant /r/ again.  How does this pattern reflect the persona’s emotional state?

You are welcome to use this poem in your class room, crediting the author.  I’d also be pleased to see a comment indicating where and when you did.  Thanks.

 

the amazing fruit fly trap July 26, 2012

Filed under: Recipes — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:46 pm
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My friend Dani told me about this fly trap, and so for the last couple of years, we have NO problems with fruit flies.  I saw one last week.  I recharged my trap, and this is what I found in it yesterday:

the very efficient, watery fruit fly grave

The recipe is extremely simple. Mix a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar and a couple of drops of dish washing detergent.

Set the trap near where you store your fruit, and then start counting bodies.

I just leave the trap out until it evaporates, then I rinse it out and start again.

We don’t see fruit flies any more, except in the trap.  They hatch and are lured to their death almost simultaneously, it seems.

Best of all, this is a perfectly safe pesticide solution.

Fly trap placed near fruit.

 

 

 

 

 

sex scenes July 24, 2012

Filed under: OUTLANDERishness,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:16 am
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I have been writing a brand of YA that leaves sex scenes safely out of the picture, and firmly entrenched in the reader’s imagination.  But eventually the time will come (reasonably soon in the process of writing Grace Beguiling, I think!) when I will have to write a real scene involving sex, and I can only hope that I will do it as well as Outlander author Diana Gabaldon does.  I will be following her advice from this article, because Diana Gabaldon is a master of honest, well-crafted, realistic, brilliantly steamy sex scenes!

 

beginnings July 23, 2012

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 3:15 pm
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I met with my editor last weekend.  She was feeling a little grumpy.  There are so many new characters, both mythic and modern, in Grace Awakening Myth, she was trying to find something to grab at the beginning of the story to put them into context of Dreams, and she hadn’t.  She offered some suggestions.  Essentially, I needed to go back and start the book a little earlier than it does in the parallel story (Grace Awakening Dreams). I came home and wrote the prescribed scenes thinking ‘I need to more clearly establish the main conflict’ for the reader and ‘I need to grab the reader right away.’

I wrote a couple scenes and sent them off to her, wondering if I needed something with more action at the very start, and pondering how I was going to put it in there.  I hadn’t come to a decision yet.

What I call the “James Bond Method” of starting a work, is the leap into the action, immediately.  It’s common way to start action films or spy novels.  Sometimes this is an intense prologue of a scene that will be explained at the end of the book.  I had in mind that I had to somehow make that fit the beginning of Grace Awakening Myth, but I couldn’t figure out how I was going to make it work.

This morning I was reading through Tweets by agent Victoria Marini and she had posted a link to a blog by agent Kristin Nelson on this very issue.  Nelson argues that while the beginning has to grab the reader, it doesn’t have to be by ACTION, though the scene must still be ACTIVE.  Good stuff here, including clear examples.  The ‘active’ one seems definitely superior.    Check it out action vs active here.

Whew.  I’m on the right track, after all. 🙂