Which Weighs More: Art or Friends?

It occurred to me recently how often events from my past have sprouted up in my current writing. I'm talking about things that happened twenty plus years ago. At the time, I had a job with a lot of built-in conflict, which you can read about here if you are so inclined. There are people and incidents from that time that, when I think back on them, still trigger strong reactions in me, and so it's stuff I'm compelled to write about, twisting the events to fit into my speculative fiction novels. I feel it's entirely legit to draw from past experiences and relationships and dramatize them for the purpose of creating a story. The statute of limitations has run out on the confidentiality of most of those old connections.

Willa Cather once wrote, "My art is more important than my friend."

And William Faulkner echoed that sentiment with this:

"A writer's only responsibility is to his art. He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one. He has a dream. It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it. He has no peace until then. Everything goes by the board: honor, pride, decency, security, happiness -- all to get his book written. If a writer has to rob his mother, he will not hesitate: the "Ode on a Grecian Urn" is worth any number of old ladies."

For me, any stranger, any observation, any overheard conversation, any emotional trigger is fair game when it comes to writing. But I think I draw the line at including or identifying current friends and family. Don't get me wrong, there's enough emotional crap in some of those relationships to fertilize forty acres, but I'm not going to use it, at least not blatantly, if it will in anyway "out" a friend or family member whose only fault is being related to a writer. Of course, talk to me again in a few years and we'll see how I feel then. :)

I'm curious, though, how you all feel about depicting friends or family for the sake of your art. Is your story more important? I think for some it could be, and they might write beautiful masterpieces that need to be told.  Memoirs for example. I think it's just one of those things each writer has to weigh for themselves.

Of course, never say never. I have to admit it might fun, just once, to get this reaction to something I've written:

Villain Is As Villain Does

But I, -- that am not shaped for sportive tricks,
Nor made to court an amorous looking-glass;
I, that am rudely stamped, and want love's majesty
To strut before a wanton ambling nymph;
I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing world scarce half made up,
And that so lamely and unfashionable
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them; --
Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace,
Have no delight to pass away the time, 
Unless to spy my shadow in the sun,
And descant on mine own deformity:
And therefore, -- since I cannot prove a lover,
I am determined to prove a villain, 
And hate the idle pleasures of these days. 


I have tickets to see Richard III at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival this summer. Very excited. First because I love live theater, second because Richard III is such a badass villain. He doesn't give a damn about you or anything you value. There is no tenderness in his heart for your pleadings or your lofty aspirations. He wants what he wants, and he'll do what it takes to get it, even murder. That's what villains do. At least the good ones. And I LOVE to hate him for it. 


One thing Shakespeare did with his villain, though, that I don't always agree with *checks for lightning strike* is how he made Richard deformed and ugly, so ugly apparently that dogs bark at him as he passes. That line is brilliant, and the image worked for his Elizabethan audiences who were conditioned to shun such disfigurement, but it reeks of stereotype by today's standards. Associating ugliness with evil and handsomeness with good is a little too black and white for most modern tastes. And yet, it does work still, doesn't it? We're not so far gone in our politically correct thinking that we aren't susceptible to those ingrained prejudices. But that's what makes the portrayal so easy for modern writers. There's no disguise to it, no attempt to challenge our assumptions. 

Challenging the stereotype is one of the things I'm enjoying about the Game of Thrones series. For those who haven't read or watched it, the dwarf Tyrion from House Lannister is described by George R. R. Martin as stunted and deformed, physical traits that would have painted him the villain in Shakespeare's time. He does do dastardly things on occasion, but not necessarily as a villain. And yet he is a schemer, so I haven't quite figured out exactly which side he's on, and I like it immensely that I'm having to pay close attention to his motivations to figure him out. I'm hoping very much he ends up a hero, but don't tell me if he doesn't. I hate spoilers, remember! 


So how do you like your villains, blackhearted and cruel but with a handsome smile, or bad to the bone with a face to match? Got a favorite you love to hate? 

Armor For Amours Only

The number one search term bringing people to my blog is women warriors. I wrote a post on the topic once back when I had maybe five followers and no readers. That post, unlike any other, gets viewed every single day, sometimes twice. The interest in women warriors is encouraging, since the main character in my novels is a woman who fights. And I suppose it's possible people really do want to read about tough women who go to battle, but somehow I think it's more likely that when people stumble upon my blog looking for women warriors they are looking for those bikini clad fantasy women with overly developed hips and breasts.

I get the whole sexual fantasy thing about women in scantily clad warrior outfits, but as a woman who writes about women who fight, I find it all a little comical. I mean, can you imagine trying to fight someone in hand-to-hand combat in a metal bikini? Sure, you might live in a hot climate, and things might get sweaty if you had to cover up your belly with leather or metal, but wouldn't you rather put up with a little sweat than have your spleen removed for you in a knife fight?

I'm sure this warrior woman is a very lovely person, and probably has paramours lined up around the block waiting to woo her, but I don't believe many women would choose to wear this outfit to battle, even in a fantasy novel. Sheesh, I remember how much it hurt falling off the bike and skinning my bare knee as a kid.

And let's be fair. It isn't just the women who are portrayed this way. Men get the treatment too. And yes, it's very nice eye candy, but the truth is a Spartan warrior would have more likely worn a bronze or leather cuirass to battle to help protect those finely chiseled abs. Wouldn't you?

So I guess I'm saying that the scantily clad warrior is one of my fantasy pet peeves. Have any of your own? Pet peeves, I mean, not fantasies. I don't want to hear about those. Unless you really want to tell me. :P

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Spoiled Rotten

While on my blogging break I picked up the second book in George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Clash of Kings. Still reading it, and probably will be for awhile. It's a big book and I'm a slow reader. The problem with reading a novel like this, though, is that it's everywhere right now. The second season of the HBO series is underway and people are naturally talking about it. The problem for me is that there are spoilers everywhere.

Movie critic Roger Ebert once said that no one has a right to take that moment of discovery away from someone else, and for stories like The Sixth Sense or The Others where the twist at the end is so crucial to that OMG reaction, I absolutely agree. If someone had tipped me off ahead of time about either of those movies, I would have been furious. I would have felt robbed of that magical moment of realization.

And yet...other stories I'm kind of okay with the spoiler thing. I knew, for instance, *spoiler alert* that a main character would die in the first book of Game of Thrones. Luckily it didn't ruin anything for me. In fact, I think I paid more attention to how he was set up than I might have otherwise. And I certainly have read some novels more than once, obviously knowing how they ended, and it didn't spoil any enjoyment for me. But for the most part I don't want that moment of discovery ruined for me. I want to be able to test my own powers of deduction as I read to see if I can figure out who's going to die and who's going to be left standing at the end of a novel.

How do you feel about spoilers? Do you cup your hands over your ears and start singing, "lalalalalalala I can't hear you," when people start talking about a book you're reading or a movie you haven't seen yet? Or are you one of *gasp* those people who deliberately reads the last page of a book first?


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Also, Also Also: I'm late in blogging about this, my apologies, but I want to give a shout out to M Pax, whose newest story The Backworlds is now available for download. Click on sidebar.

After the war with Earth, bioengineered humans scatter across the Backworlds. Competition is fierce and pickings are scant. Scant enough that Craze’s father decides to hoard his fortune by destroying his son. Cut off from family and friends, with little money, and even less knowledge of the worlds beyond his own, Craze heads into an uncertain future. Boarding the transport to Elstwhere, he vows to make his father regret this day.

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Zounds! I'm Zonked

Thomas Hood's Celestial Hemispheres/ Zodiac at the British Library

Another A to Z Challenge that has reached it's zenith. I don't know about you, but I'm worn out. It was an excellent challenge though. So many great themes, so many interesting posts. I saw entries on music, movies, writing, castles, WIPs, cities, books, mythology, science fiction, and just about anything else that can be found in the dictionary. Learned a lot, laughed a ton, and met several new people.

I almost didn't participate in the challenge this year because of the trip. I thought it would be too much work for me. I was still traveling during the first week of the challenge! But as usual I'm glad I did it, because it was really fun to share the things I got to see and do, and it felt like I had you all in my back pocket while I was there (er, hope you all aren't too bruised from the ride).

I'll be making the rounds to see what else under the celestial hemispheres you have for me to read about today, and then, like many of you, I'm going to take a short hiatus and get caught up on some much needed writing and reading.

Hope you enjoyed your A to Z-ing, and have a great week!

One last photo from Wales...I miss it already.

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Say Yes To Those Yearnings To Go Yonder

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.                                       -- Mark Twain.

If you've stuck with me this far in the A to Z challenge, then you know my theme throughout has been about my recent travel to England, Scotland, and Wales. For me, it was as much about dreaming and discovering as it was researching the places I visited.

Travel is good for the writer's soul. And it doesn't have to be a big trip across an ocean. Anywhere that takes us out of our backyards for a day and let's us experience something out of the ordinary will make a difference in the way we perceive the everyday...if our eyes and minds are open.

Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.        
                                                      -- Helen Keller



To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.
                                                      -- Aldous Huxley

Traveling is almost like talking with men of other centuries.
                                                   -- Rene Descartes




I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.
                                                  -- Robert Louis Stevenson

I shall be telling this with a sigh somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I -- I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. 
                                               -- Robert Frost

(thanks maine)

College probably won't hurt you -- if you don't take it too seriously. But far more important, I believe, is broad general experience: living as active a life as possible, meeting all ranks of people, plenty of travel, trying your hand at various kinds of work, keeping your eyes, ears, and mind open, remembering what you observe, reading plenty of good books, and writing every day -- simply writing.
                                           -- Edward Abbey                                                                                

And one more thing about travel:


If you actually look like your passport photo, you aren't well enough to travel. 
                                                         -- Sir Vivian Fuchs









Now tell me where you've always wanted to travel to. 



Source for creative commons travel posters 

X Factor Exceptions...

Work with me on this. We're all getting punchy after this many letters, and the most difficult ones seem to come at the end.

Okay, so I think this "X" photo is of the ceiling in St. Thomas's Tower, built in the mid 13th century by Edward I at the Tower of London site. I say "I think" because so often what happens when you get home from a trip is you have an entire camera roll of photos and half of them you can't remember what they're of or where you took them. At least that's what happens to me.

Sometimes I start taking pictures of anything and everything that catches my eye. I took something like 500 photos on my trip. Ha! See, I didn't show you all of them, it only felt like I did.

Anyway, some photos turn out better than others. They have that certain X factor that makes them stand out a little more. Maybe the lighting was just right or the color in the photo really pops. Those are the ones you think you might actually download off the camera and print out some day.

Like this door in Conwy, Wales:

And this photo of the reading room at the British Museum:

Or these flowers in full bloom at Bodnant Garden:

Or this stone footbridge:

Dragons on rooftops:

Tartan plaid on display at Edinburgh Castle: 

So what do you do, now that we're in the digital age, with all your favorite photos after a trip? Do you create files for them? Print them and scrapbook them? Frame them? Make everyone look at them in a slideshow on your blog? :D

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