Shawn L. Bird

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

what is vs what could be October 20, 2011

Filed under: OUTLANDERishness,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 7:26 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

In the acknowledgements at the beginning of Drums of Autumn, Diana Gabaldon observes that her husband says, “I don’t know how you keep getting away with this.  You don’t know anything about men.”  That made me laugh out loud.

Gabaldon might not really know men (though I think she captures them very well, myself), but she definitely understands what women WANT their men to be!  Strong and tender, proud and humble, wounded and capable, physically arresting and self-effacing, full of  desire and faithfully devoted, a gentleman and a serf.  Her main character, Jamie Fraser, may not actually exist, but he is the complex bundle of contradictions that women desire.

This should be a consolation to the men: Jamie’s weaknesses are at the root of his strengths, and he is adored for them.

 

interviews October 19, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Grace Awakening,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 7:10 pm
Tags: , , , ,

I like interviews.  I enjoy meeting people, and I enjoy the fun of discovery that comes from questions.

Recently I was asked if Grace, Ben and Josh would consent to participate in an interview.  With some difficulty, the three of them were assembled in one place, and this is the result:

http://oneminutebooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/good-characters-make-you-feel-like-you.html

 

cannibal art October 14, 2011

Filed under: OUTLANDERishness,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:30 pm
Tags: , , ,

In Diana Gabaldon’s Voyager, Jamie observes,

“It was not Monsieur Arouet, but a colleague of his—a lady novelist—who remarked to me once that writing novels was a cannibal’s art, in which one often mixed small portions of one’s friends and one’s enemies together, seasoned them with imagination, and allowed the whole to stew together into a savory concoction.”     (p. 148)  

This seems like a fairly accurate picture of my own experience.  How about you?  If you are a writer, is this how characters and plots develop for you?

 

getting it October 12, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Grace Awakening,Mythology,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 6:01 pm
Tags: , , ,

I was impressed with OneMinuteBooks’ review of Grace Awakening for a couple of specific reasons. Of course, I like that she’s enthusiastic in her praise, but specifically, I love that she GETS it.

She understands that since Grace is the narrator, the reader has only as much information as Grace does. (Well, they get a little more, as they get to peek in on those 3rd person mythic realm dialogues that Grace doesn’t know about). Yes. This is confusing. Yes. This was intentional.  Yes.  This means you are Grace, in all her confusion.

I like that the reviewer gets the mythical allusions, and understands the purpose behind not telling the reader straight out. Yes. You’re supposed to be smart enough to be able to look this up yourself (with the help of the glossary at the back).  Yes. I expect that you are smart enough to figure out that there is another story happening, beyond the one that Grace knows about.   Congratulations on discovering the puzzle pieces that Grace doesn’t understand!   Reading between the lines and interpreting the additional clues take skill!  Grace hasn’t figured it out.  I’m glad when readers can!  😀

Once upon a time I was told “Grace Awakening is Twilight for intelligent girls.” I think this is true. Most people will get the surface story, but there is a lot more at play here than is apparent on the surface. It makes me happy when someone not only gets it, but actually appreciates that it’s there.

Followers of Athena, I salute you! This book was written for you!

Thanks Amanda for understanding what Grace is all about.  After a couple of weird reviews this week when I suspected the reviewers hadn’t actually read the book, this gave me faith in the process again.  Not everyone will get it, or like it, but there are more out there who do!

To read the OneMinuteBooks review visit here.

 

do October 8, 2011

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 12:49 am
Tags: , , , ,

“Do or do not.  There is no try.”

~Yoda

I keep running into people who want to write lately.  Actually, since most of these people have been on the periphery of my life for a few years, it’s just that I am learning, now that I’ve got a book out, how many people I know harbour this dream.

What is it about the power of story that so many of us hold the dream of sharing words with the world?

I tell all of those who share this dream with me the same thing: what is stopping you?  Why aren’t you writing?   The answer isn’t important to me, the question is entirely for the would-be writer.  You have to identify your enemy if you want to defeat it.

Face down the negative and write something.

It’s like those commercials that are out at the moment, “I don’t want to pay a mortgage.”  “If you don’t want to pay a mortgage, then don’t.”  Unlike the bank, where you have to work through some plans to be free of your mortgage, all it takes to write is your fingers and a steamy mirror.  Paper, pencil or a computer will do as well.

Get started today.  Put down some words.  Later you can decide what they’re for.  See where they take you.  Let the journey begin today.

 

impression & memory September 30, 2011

Filed under: Pondering,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 1:19 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

I was watching the move The Curious Case of Benjamin Button the other day and was intrigued with this quote.  Benjamin says of the lady who taught him to play piano:

It’s funny how sometimes the people we remember the least make the greatest impression on us.

For example, my grade three teacher at Sam Livingston Elementary in Calgary was Mrs. Thompson.  I don’t remember anything about her, except her name and her face in the pink fortrel dress in my class photo.  However, it was Mrs. Thompson who first encouraged me to write down my many stories, and first gave me an audience for them, as she had my share them regularly during show and tell.  That encouragement was the first step on a long journey.

Who made a huge impact on your life, though you ‘remember least’ about them?

 

title as theme September 28, 2011

Filed under: Grace Awakening,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 8:41 pm
Tags: , , , , , , ,

When my high school English students are struggling to figure out the theme of a novel they are exploring, I always suggest that they take a good look at the title.  Most of the time, the title distils the essential element of the story.  This is certainly the case in each book of the Grace Awakening series.

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this way.  According to Poynter, in 1962 songwriter Johnny Mercer was asked whether lyrics or music begin the songwriting process for him.  He replied,

First — the title. That encompasses the grand idea, the crux of the obsession, the thought; it all goes into that … that’s what hits first, that’s what’s way back in your mind brought together in sharp focus; the title hits like a bullet, and if it’s right, then you have it, all of it, ready to go, in a succinct package — all the crazy, unconscious groping has merged into something real. … A title sends me. Is it the title that comes first? Or is it all of the inside of you that has produced the title, and suddenly you recognize it, and you think there it is — and from there you go. When a title occurs — I have begun.

I have to say that when I began Grace Awakening, I had the feelings conveyed in youthful poetry and some nostalgia.  I started writing about the feeling and imagining a scenario that went with it, but it wasn’t long before Grace introduced herself, and once she had, the title arrived soon after.  The feeling scene that started the book was edited out rather early on, as Grace herself pulled the story in a different way than I originally intended, but from the first week, Grace awakened to herself, and her dreams held the key.

 

 

hourglass September 25, 2011

Filed under: book reviews,Reading,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 5:27 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

I belong to a YA reading group on Goodreads.com that had Hourglass by  Myra McEntire as its monthly book in August.  I really enjoyed this story of a teen who is fresh out of the psych hospital for hallucinating.  She wasn’t hallucinating though, she was seeing through time bubbles.  I love Emerson the protagonist- she’s sarcastic, feisty, and tortured.  I enjoyed the time travelling component that came up toward the end of the book.

The characters in this book were well crafted and became very real for me. In fact, they became so real that as I read Hourglass, I had a new experience. I kept hearing echoes of my own characters, and I kept thinking how well Grace and Ben would love to hang out with Emerson and Michael. I could see them all taking on the bad dudes together. How cool would it be for Emerson and Michael to go back and visit Grace and Ben in one of their past lives? (There’s a project for some fan-fic writer).

I had never had that experience before, and it was quite fascinating.  Emerson is tougher than Grace, but she shares the same bent for sarcasm and healthy doubt about the male in her world.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to the next book in the series. Very entertaining read, Myra McEntire! Thanks a lot!

 

junk or genius September 23, 2011

Filed under: Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 11:24 pm
Tags: , , ,

I asked Joan Reeves of http://SlingWords.blogspot.com  if I could share a note she recently posted on a conversation at LinkedIn.  There is some excellent wisdom here!

 All writers reach a point where they think the WIP (work in progress) is pure garbage. If you have finished the first draft, rejoice! Set it aside for a while. Then you can come back to it with fresh eyes. Novels are not so much written as they are rewritten.

If you have not completed the WIP, then give yourself permission to write crap and keep plowing ahead until you get to the end. A bad page of writing can always be fixed. A blank page is just that–blank.

Don’t let self-doubt stop you from writing. When you have a manuscript in progress, do NOT make any assessments or judgements about the writing. That comes later. Just get it finished.

I particularly like the line, “a blank page is just…blank.”   Something is better than nothing.   Thanks for the advice, Joan!

 

ridiculous love September 22, 2011

Filed under: Pondering,Writing — Shawn L. Bird @ 9:30 pm
Tags: , , , , , , , ,

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”

-Agatha Christie

This quote came through my newsfeed the other day, just as I was working on a scene in Grace Awakening Myth, when Grace is appearing quite ridiculous, and Ben is thinking how paralyzingly adorable she is to him.  If you’ve missed it, the third and fourth books of Grace Awakening tell the same story as the first and second, only from Ben’s point of view.  Because he is spending a lot of time in the mythical realm, it is quite a different story, and it explains a lot of the mysteries in Grace Awakening Dreams.

As you remember from Awakening Dreams, Grace spends a lot of time falling apart in front of Ben, while he smirks at her.  Those are the moments he is finding her particularly adorable.  This happens a lot in the first half of the book, of course.

I love those nerdy moments that happen in my household, that make me flood with affection for the nerdy people I love.

How about you?  Are you frequently stricken with affection as you observe the ridiculous in action?