When I get a name for a character in a short story or novel, unless I am super attached to it, I research it first. What is its meaning? Where does it originate? What are some different spellings of it? And lastly, I have to have a feeling that it is right for the book - no negative energy around it.

Anyways, you guys think about it, write a comment, let me know. I'll keep on typing up some more to my novel.

Happy writings,

M.

Now I'm planning to get started with the GTA Clone Project again and yesterday I started working on the script. I've been hesitant about it because I haven't known what type of format to write it in. But I settled with the basic Hollywood movie script format, with slight modifications.

I've written seven cut-scenes as of now, but so far it's almost just dialogue, with simple instructions as to what the characters are doing in the scenes. When I'm done with the whole script, I'll go over it again and add more descriptions about the sets and what the characters does in the scenes. After that I'll go over it once more and add exactly how every line should be spoken. And then it's only a matter of touching it up a bit, adding, editing and removing.

When I started this project I was certain that I would share everything and that I would document my progress with no exceptions. But then when I started working on the outline of the story, it turned out it was going to be better than I thought it would be. That led to me question if I really should put it online, since everyone could steal it. But now I've been thinking about it and I'll stick to the original plan, so you can expect the script to be put up here in the future.

I don't really care if someone takes stuff from this blog and uses it. Don't get me wrong though, I really doubt anyone would do that, because I'm basically a hobby game designer with no skills whatsoever and why would anyone involved in the game industry be reading this blog, or take stuff from it nonetheless? Exactly.

I'm thinking about creating a story bible which will include everything that has to do with the story, the characters, the setting and so forth. That way I could easily keep track of everything story-related. The story bible will of course be available for any readers interested in it.

Now there is 13 characters, but so far they only have names and situations attached to them. I will begin exploring their personalities soon and write descriptions of them, similar to what you can find in game manuals, only more in-depth.

I've come up with some mission too, though not many spectacular ones.

But yeah, that's it for my status report. I just saw an old interview with David Jaffe BTW, which was very motivational. I'm not the biggest fan of his games, but I'm a big fan of him and I visit his blog regularly. His blog was in fact one of the things that made me create this blog, so a big thanks to him.

See ya

I was in a group with all guys, and we had a great creative process. It was probably the best one I've been in all year, and I'm still not sure why. Maybe this creation theme in particular - which involves a great deal of structuring and problem-solving - jives especially with the male mind. Maybe it was just that we all have a similar way of working, and so sparks were able to fly. In any case, I often felt like I was in the middle of a regular theater rehearsal, with things getting done and ideas being moved forward, than the usual tug and grind of the creation process, where sometimes it takes half an hour just to decide on what idea to proceed with.

My group was Robin, Brad, James, Darragh, Ben, and I. Robin plays Sean, the head plumber; and Dave, the hippie Jacuzzi constructor. Brad plays Brown, the foreman; and Rufus, a nervous plumber. James plays Patrick, a flashy interior designer; and Melvin, the hapless owner of the house. Darragh plays Declan, a plumber; and Pascal, an assistant housing inspector. Ben plays Andy, an effeminate assistant designer, and Kemo, a sleazy head inspector. I play Cecilia, Melvin's trophy wife, and Doris, the cleaning lady. Enjoy!

Scene 1

Melvin: Isn’t this fantastic, Cecilia? We’re going to have such an amazing bed and breakfast! Oh look at this kitchen!
Cecilia: Yea! I hope the guest rooms are done now. I really, really want them to look very nice
Melvin: Oh you just love your guests!
(Andy pops up behind screen)
Andy: Mr and Mrs Jinks, welcome to your new bed and breakfast! (descends the stairs) Patrick Montgomery is a bit busy today with the inspection, so I will be the one giving you the grand tour.
Cecilia: Who’s the inspector?
Andy: Oh its Mr. Kemo Samuels.
(Cecilia quickly looks at Andy)
Melvin: So shall we start upstairs? I can’t wait!
Cecilia: Why don’t you two go along first? I’m just going to go powder my nose. (goes into the guest room)
Melvin: Okay!

Scene 2

Dave: Hey are you the plumber? I’m doing the wires for the Jacuzzi. Keep the water off, yea?
Andy: I’ll make a note of that. Take a look at my carpets.

Scene 3

Sean: Alright boys, we need to test the sprinklers today.
Declan: Um, someone needs to turn on the water.
Rufus: I propose that I go turn on the water.
Declan: I second that motion.
Sean: All in favor say aye.
Declan: Aye.
Sean: Aye.
Rufus: Aye.
Sean: Motion carried.
(Rufus runs off)
Declan: Boss, how much do you know about sprinklers?
Sean: A lot. I read a book about it.

Scene 4

Patrick: Brown?
Brown: Yea.
Patrick: Is everything ready for the inspection?
Brown: Everything’s fine. Besides I know the inspector.
Patrick: Even the fire-proofing?
Brown: The fire-proofing will pass. We just need to…massage the specifications.

Scene 5

(Cecilia comes out to get candles form the kitchen)
Dave: Are you a plumber? Tell the plumber to the water off!
(Cecilia looks around, then disappears into guest room)

Scene 6

Rufus: Guys I’ve turned the water on! Just like we voted! Coming right up!

Scene 7

Pascal: Hello? Hello? Hello?
Doris: (entering) I always tell the boys to keep the place tidy for Mr. Melvin, but they never do.
Pascal: Hello, I’m the inspector
Doris: Oh hi, I am Doris. You’ll make sure that the house is ready for Mr. Melvin, right? Mr Melvin! The inspector is here!
Melvin: (running down the stairs) I just can’t get enough of this kitchen!
Doris: Mr. Melvin, this is the inspector. (goes off)
Melvin: Oh hi!
Pascal: I’m Pascal
Melvin: I’m Melvin Jinks
Pascal: Is your wife here as well?
Melvin: Oh, I don’t know where she went.
Pascal: So who’s the foreman on this job?
Melvin: Brown is the foreman, and Patrick Montgomery is the designer.
Pascal: Oh….
Melvin: Money’s no object! Anything for Cecilia and our dream bed and breakfast!
Pascal: I would imagine that’s the case, yea.
Melvin: Let me bring Patrick and Brown down right now!

Scene 8

Kemo: Bam bam bam! (mimes cowboy shooting at Pascal) Just came from the golf course! Three under spar (Pascal tells him how things are not looking good, including the double splitter on the t-bar) Kemo: Double splitter on the T-bar! I haven’t seen that since the Seventies. They’ll be lucky if this place doesn’t go up in flames!
Pascal: And over here…

Scene 9

(Cecilia enters. Locks gaze with Kemo. James’ head pops up singing “jungle boogie” as the others wave their hands above the flats. On the second “jungle boogie” Robin waves his feet. As they start singing “That’s the way, aha aha, I like it, aha aha” the chorus slowly sinks behind the screen, and Cecilia walks toward Kemo. The song finishes once Cecilia arrives in the kitchen)

Pascale: …you can see that the casing is exposed.
Cecilia: (turns to Pascale) Have you seen my husband Melvin?
Pascale: Oh he went that way (pointing to the living room)
Cecilia: Hmmm. (looks at Kemo meaningfully, then turns around, undos her hair, then sashays towards the guest room)
Kemo: (quickly following Cecilia) Don’t worry about the T-bar….I’m going to check out the plumbing in the guest room.

Scene 10

Dave: Hey are you a plumber? I’m working on the wiring for the Jacuzzi – so keep the water off!

Scene 11

Brown: Everything will be fine. Look, we’ve saved a bundle on fire proofing…. (Patrick and Brown see Pascal) Oh. Pascale.
Pascal: Its Pascal.
Brown: I thought Kemo was the one doing the inspection today.
Pascal: Kemo is here today, but I am the one with the clipboard. Lets take a look at this T-bar here….
(Andy pops up from behind the screen and gets Patrick’s attention. Pascal and Brown quiet as Andy and Patrick talk)
Andy: Have you seen the Jinkses? I’m supposed to be leading them on a tour
Patrick: Oh I know where he went, I’ll go get him (goes to the living room)
Brown: That’s the way they do it in Iowa
Patrick: Well we’re not in Iowa...
Brown: Let me show you the living room. (Exits)

Scene 12

Melvin: Hi!
Dave: Are you a plumber? Keep the water off, yea!
Melvin: Have you seen my wife? (Dave shakes his head)
Andy: She must be up here somewhere Mr Jinks, I’ll help you look for her.

Scene 13

Doris: Sorry, I’ll come back later. Double splitter on the T-bar!
(Behind the screen, the plumbers vote about turning the water on)
Sean: Who turned the water off?
Rufus: I propose I turn the water back on!
Declan: I second that motion.
Sean: All those in favor say aye.
Declan: Aye.
Sean: Aye.
Rufus: Aye.
Sean: Motion carried.

Scene 14

(Rufus runs out to turn water on. Says hi to Doris)

Scene 15

Melvin: Cecilia where are you? Oh hi Doris! Do you know where Cecilia is?
(Kemo sex noises)
Melvin: Whats that?
(Rufus runs back on)
Rufus: Oh that’s just the pipes. I turned the water back on! (runs up)
Doris: She’s…downstairs! Lets go find her? (goes down the stairs)
Melvin: Yea! (Cecilia sex noises) Wait what’s that? I think that’s my wife! (shhh….noises die down)
(Melvin walks toward guest room)

Scene 16

(Kemo sneaks out to get the wine and wine glasses)
Melvin: Who are you?
Kemo: Uhh, I’m the inspector.
Cecilia: (offstage) There should be some wine glasses.. (pokes her head out) Oh Melvin!
Melvin: What are you doing?
Cecilia: Mr. Samuels came in to check the guest room, and he got wet paint all over him. I’m just helping him get it off.
Melvin: (Pauses) Oh! I’ll go tell Andy that I found you. (runs upstairs)
(Kemo and Cecilia exit into guest room)
(Pascal and Brown come into kitchen)
Pascal: Its just not good enough Brown. Its going to take an awful lot of convincing for me to sign this form.
Brown: Well, how much it is gonna cost? I’m making a bundle.
(Brown looks at Patrick. Patrick hands Brown a wad of money)
Patrick: I haven’t seen any of this (goes up the stairs)
(Pascal and Brown go into living room for the pay-off)

Scene 17

Melvin: Hey, theres smoke coming through the floor!

Scene 18

Sean: (running down the stairs) This is really bad! Arghhh! Lads! Lads! (runs to get the fire extinguisher) (Declan and Rufus run down the stairs and arrive in the kitchen. Sean comes back with the fire extinguisher. All three stare at the fire extinguisher for two seconds)
Sean: (handing the fire extinguisher to Declan) I propose that Declan go put out the fire.
Rufus: I second that motion!
Sean: All in favor say aye.
Rufus: Aye!
Sean: Aye!
Declan: (handing the fire extinguisher to Rufus) I propose that Rufus goes to put out the fire!
Sean: All in favor say aye.
Declan: Aye!
Sean: Aye!
Melvin: (screaming from behind the screen) Ayyyyye!
Sean: Motion carried!
(Rufus looks terrified. All three run for the stairs)

Scene 19

Andy: (popping up from behind the screen) The fire sprinklers work!
Rufus: (popping up) I’d put that in.
Melvin: (popping up) I didn’t know we had a sprinkler system!
Dave: (running through the space) Keep the water off!
Andy: It’s ruining my rugs!
(The sprinklers stop)
Melvin: What happened to the magic?
(All three screams ahhhhhh and sinks down)
Doris: (pops up) That motherfucking T-bar!
(Patrick runs)
Andy: (pops up) My rugs are completely ruined!
(Rufus runs)
Sean: (pops up) Where is Rufus we need a Quorum!
(Doris runs)
Declan: (pops up) We can fix this boss, we can fix this!
(Andy runs)
Melvin: (pops up) Whats happening here? (runs down the stairs) Oh no! Oh no!

Scene 20

Plumbers Tableaux

(Centre flat falls down. Sean is flipping through a book, yelling to Declan “I’m sure its in here somewhere!” They freeze, then run, handing Melvin the fire extinguisher)

Scene 21

Pay-off Tableaux

(Stage Right flat falls down. Brown is in the middle of paying off Pascal. They freeze, then run offstage)

Scene 22

Sex Tableaux

(Stage Left flat falls down. Kemo and Cecilia are in a compromising position, in the middle of sex. They yell, and sprint offstage)

Scene 23

Melvin is left alone

*The End*

The debate between just-writing versus outlining-first is a funny one. Many novelists advocate one method over the other. (I'm a 'tweener, a mix of both.) I get the sense that "commercial" novelists tend to outline and "literary" novelists, not so much.

I don't advocate outlining over letting the words flow (or vice versa). I'm uncomfortable with "rules" that seem to associate themselves with labels such as "commercial" and "literary." However, I'll always recommend character analysis to anyone seeking my opinion on the matter.

Character analyses are good for everyone! Even, I maintain, for novelists who don't care much about character development. I propose that knowing your characters backwards and forwards before you start writing can help you pinpoint your story, generate plot ideas, and keep your characters real.

Knowing my characters means I know what they wouldn't do, which is as important in my writing world as knowing what they would do. Characters ought to act in accordance with their worldviews, personalities, backgrounds and so on. Knowing all that stuff automatically helps me discipline away those oh-so-brilliant (but actually wayward) daydreams for the story.

For character development and analyses, check out Elizabeth George's Write Away. I found her discussion illuminating.

Brain scans show that women have between fourteen and sixteen areas that evaluate others' behavior, while men have only four to six. Because of this, women are better at juggling several unrelated topics in a single conversation. They also use five vocal tones to make their points. Since men can only identify three of those tones, they often miss what women are trying to say. So men accuse women of not being direct and women accuse men of not listening.

It's amazing we manage to communicate as well as we do, considering that men and women have different reasons for conversing. Women ask questions to show interest in the person; men ask questions to gain information. Women find that talking about a problem provides relief; men feel that talking about a problem is dwelling on the negative. Women think that continuing to discuss the problem demonstrates support; men want to make a decision and forget it. Women provide peripheral details because they want to be understood; men just want them to make their point. Women think that talking about a relationship brings people closer; men generally think it's useless.

Women are better at interpreting body language than men. Because of men's inability to read body language, a crying baby often confuses them, though women know exactly what the infant wants. Women's subconscious ability to interpret body language makes them seem more intuitive than men, but men (and women) can consciously learn to interpret body language, which evens things out.

There are differences in the way our eyes work, too. A study of nonnudists at a nudist colony showed that men had difficulty resisting the urge to look, and their gazes were obvious. Women, on the other hand, were not caught gazing, though they had just as hard a time resisting the urge. Does this prove that women have more self-control than men? No. It only means that men and women are hardwired differently. Women have better peripheral vision than men, so they can appear to be looking at a man's face when in fact they are checking him out.

Men generally have poor close range vision, which keeps them from seeing what's directly in front of them, but they are better than women at spotting targets over long distances.

I'm not sure how to use this information to make male and female characters non-interchangeable, but knowing some of the differences should help.

Free web hosting services have become rampant in the past few years because individuals and companies naturally want to cut back on costs particularly in hosting their websites. The first firms that offered free website hosting took advantage of profits in advertising to be able to provide free hosting services. The venture turned out to be a profitable one in the succeeding years.

But most of those who availed of free website hosting services experienced the downsides of availing of such services. It was often frustrating for them to have their websites be always down.

Free web hosting also gave its users with sub domain name, making it almost impossible to be searched on in various search engines. This made most websites on free web host servers almost impossible to be found on search engines. Reliability was also a concern, troubling most business owners who availed of free website hosting.

With all these problems arising, there's little doubt that getting free website hosting is not that practical. It will not help websites particularly those selling products and services.

There are now cheap website hosting services that are easy on the budget. Perhaps they are more practical to be availed of. For those without a budget, perhaps free hosting can work. Be ready though, to deal with the consequences.

Next week for Sweeps were are going to get a wedding, romance and yes even a little action going on.  Could TPTB actually understand that if you write something decent and true to the heritage of the show we will watch.  It's what we wanted all along.  Faces/Characters we recognize, Character driven s/l's and how about Romance, Romance, Romance.

I'm not blind TPTB, all of these changes come with a price tag but I for one am grateful for the changes.  Look at OLTL, Tina's coming back (the original Tina), David's home for a short stay and the teen story is very interesting.  It's not the usual diappointing my parents because I'm pregnant story.  In the case of Starr Manning, her father's psychotic.  Nice twist don't ya think?

GH...well other than Spinelli and Diane the show storylines are silly and morose.

I read a rather disturbing interview with ATWT's Chris Goutman in SOD yesterday.  Basically he said he doesn't care what the fans want, he doesn't care what the fans think and he doesn't want to hear either from them.  Next sentence he's sure that the show is on the right track and that viewers will like what's coming up.  Excuse me!  Did I miss the bus on this one?  This is a very odd way to produce a show.  And he's all but given up on ATWT.  He said something to the effect that when a shows has been on for 52 years can you really expect it will continue forever?  Are you serious about this?  Dude it's really time for you to move on if you have so little faith in the medium.  Maybe P&G are planning to pull support from GL and ATWT, who knows.

Check out SOD this week for Carolyn Hinsey's column and the Chris Goutman interview!

Here Endth My Rant!

Four years at Howard University's John H. Johnson School of Communications, a brutal two year sentence at Columbia University's J school, multiple internships, and survival through the financial murkiness of the freelance world and Cherise had finally hit pay dirt.  Or something like it.  She had secured a job as a writer for Vibe Magazine, immediately following an unsatisfying stint at XXL that ended when she realized that hip-hop as she knew it was indeed dead.  Vibe was a better fit for her, and allowed her to cover some more interesting artists.  After a year of paying dues, she had finally earned her dream assignment-a cover story.  It just had to be about one of the new breed rappers.  She hated to feel old or out of touch, but in comparison to the artists that she'd grown up listening to, these cats left a lot to be desired.  Especially when they gave her barely a page worth of material that she was supposed to magically morph into a cover story. 

That dumbass.  She'd spent a good hour and a half of the interview trying to ignore his disgusting flirtations.  Ick.  That was another hazard of her profession, fighting off the sexual advances of  clown ass rappers.  Despite how much she tried to downplay it with her honey brown dreadlocks and neo-soul style, Cherise was still a sweet-faced, thick redbone underneath it all.  While she was perfectly comfortable in her own skin and loved the way her curves poured into her size 10 jeans, she hated the way her Coke bottle figure seemed to distract interviewees from the fact that she was indeed a journalist and not the second coming of Karrine Stephans.  This was especially the case with her last interviewee, who had a well-documented fetish for the curvy light-skinned breed.  Every girl he'd been linked to in the industry certainly fit the bill.

And to think, that idiot had made her late for her weekly lunch date with her girls.  Cherise was a good ten blocks away from the sushi bar and the little bit of cash she had was for lunch and train fare back to her Harlem apartment.  That meant that a cab was not an option.  She would have to truck those ten blocks in the knee-high chunky heels that were sure to murder her feet and endure the verbal lashing she'd receive from Peyton for her tardiness.  Why had she resigned herself to  the lifestyle of a starving artist again?  Well, there certainly were perks.  The press pass that allowed her admission into any concert she wished to attend.  And the free CDs and MP3s that kept her music collection on point.  And the hot industry parties she sometimes covered.  And the greatest perk of all, being an insider.  Cherise's words helped to dictate what was hot.  Her voice was heard and her opinions mattered.  So, her interviewee had been a moron, her feet were killing her, and she was late for lunch.  She was living her dream and would not have it any other way.  With a sigh of acceptance, Cherise plugged her ears with the sound of Maroon 5 and began her trek.  The life of a writer in NYC...

This is a work in progress i've been working on and off on for a while. I keep tweaking his face and i'll continue to do so until i'm happy with him. He's just so cute. XD

And I've run into another problem, and another answer that's going to force me to rework much more than I'd anticipated: Rylan is not that effective of a POV character for what I want to do next. My heroine would be much better. She's the one making the decisions, and later she's the one who's going to be in danger, and there are things she will say without Rylan being present.

I take a lot of care with POV. So far, it's all been a third-person fixed and limited perspective, meaning the camera is on Rylan, and always on Rylan and has been for the last nearly 40k words. I prefer it that way; I like to keep things as simple as possible to avoid shifting needlessly. Except now? It's not so needless.

Changing over to another character this late in the book, even using chapter breaks, is a jarring practice. I hate rules, but I'll agree with this one: don't switch cameras to a secondary character for one chapter halfway through the book, then never again.

With that in mind I'm changing chapter two (which I was never satisfied with) to Wyrren's position. I'm probably also going to add another chapter somewhere between four and seven with her as the point of view character. And there's a very important scene I'll do the same. That puts her as the narrator for about 25% of the book.

It also changes the feel of the book, the lighting and mood, if you will. POV is important. It colors the pages with your character. In this case it's steel and stone, oil lamps in the cold, blood and sweat, then to golden light, marble arches, velvet gowns and implication, implication everywhere, murmuring and gossiping, kind words one minute than slander the next; a fairy-tale ball of junior high girls who will never grow up.

It's also going to be harder, longer, and double my work, especially handling the exposition and the secondary characters. I'll do it, of course. I'll do anything to make my book better. Even so, it's hard, and I don't want to. Consider the dilemma ranted and struggled with.

Character: The White Rabbit

This is a side series of "2-Far Playthings". I love all the non-sense characters in Alice's story, but definitely disagree with their appearance in the disney movie. So I tried give them a contemporary re-imagination.  I selected 4 of my favorite characters to re-work on. This is my first try, and obviously I would prefer the rabbit as female.

But then came the career ending injury in the middle of her sophomore year.  That season, Peyton watched with a broken heart as her team made it to the Sweet Sixteen without her. By the end of the season, however, she'd found a new place in Temple athletics as an intern in the marketing department.  A position where her toughness and hardcore work ethic came in handy as she competed with the male interns.  Peyton was a natural competitor with sharp sales instincts.  By the end of her junior year, she'd been offered an account manager position and had become a part-time student, working in the office during the day and completing her degree at night.  It had required a lot of hard work, but two years later, it paid off when she was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers as a marketing rep.

Now, at 28, Peyton was a senior marketing rep for the NBA.  Though she missed the thrill of the game, she didn't believe in regrets and was more than satisfied with her career.  She had shed her tomboy looks over the years in favor of a classic, no nonsense style, but even that had a level of discipline and organization to it.  Peyton still favored a powerful suit over a dress, but her suits were tailored perfectly to fit her petite body.  No bright colors, they were too girly.  She mostly stuck with black, white, and gray, with the occasional red when she wanted to make a statement and remind people that she was indeed all woman.  Her hair stayed styled in a short, blunt bob that barely grazed her chin.  Where Peyton allowed herself to play was with her collection of toys.  Nothing made her feel more powerful than rolling like a big boy, especially since she was the youngest senior marketing rep and the only woman.  She loved pulling up in her black Infiniti truck with her system blaring early 90s era East Coast hip-hop, then stepping slowly out of the truck, allowing her designer black pumps to hit the pavement as men  watched in shock.  Even her apartment looked like a bachelor pad with its black leather furniture and black and white photos of the Rat Pack decorating her walls.  She absolutely loved it. Not bad at all for a petite 28 year old Black girl from Cleveland.

No matter how far removed Peyton was from her hooping days, that player's discipline still lived within her.  She often wished she could take it back to the days of basketball practice and make people run suicide drills when they made her wait.  Maybe then they'd learn to respect her time.  Peyton pulled out her Blackberry Curve and sent a warning text to her lunch dates, "You bitches have 10 min to get here before I roll out." So what if they were only five minutes late? That was five minutes of her life that she could never get back.

Leonard Schiller is old, in failing health, and mostly alone. His wife died many years before, and he lives on in the apartment they shared, recollecting his jealousies and triumphs, nursing his heart, and writing one final book that will probably never be read. He wheedles just enough reviewing jobs to keep himself fed and clothed, but his reputation has vanished along with his peers and the now out-of-print books that brought him some notice in his heyday.

His daughter Ariel is in her forties, and has decided she wants to have a child before it's 'too late'. She is uncertain about the man she lives with (who doesn't want children), and finds herself catching up with a former lover who may father her child but may not be relationship material. Ariel is a self-centered aerobics teacher who has a hard enough time organizing her classes, let alone preparing for a baby, and Leonard despairs (to himself) of her pointless life.

Then 24-year old graduate student Heather Wolfe turns up on Schiller's doorstep. She believes her recent discovery of his books is a profound moment in her life, and wants to bring her treasure to the world through her own planned thesis. She visits Leonard repeatedly, bringing energy, change, and intellectual vigor back into his life. She takes him to literary parties, introduces him to a new generation of editors, and champions his books. Her sincere admiration for Leonard is like a drug to the old man, and for a time he is back in the thick of the criticism, polemics, and backbiting that brought him fulfillment in his younger days. He also begins entertaining images of his cherished stories back in print, discussed in literature classes, and available to readers everywhere. But he also begins to see a price on that engagement, one he's not sure he wants to pay.

Morton does an incredible job of creating these characters as individuals. They feel real enough to be your crotchety old neighbor, your ditzy aerobics teacher, or that dynamic student who drove you crazy in school. But he also makes them sympathetic, delving into the thoughts and emotions that drive them. Like Isaac Bashevis Singer's short stories about those times and people, it is intimate, loving, and unsparing. This is fiction that embodies the purpose of fiction - showing us characters who reveal our selves through a different lens.

My book groups read Starting Out in the Evening several years ago, and it still occasionally comes up in our discussions. I handsell our Gab Bag version to local book groups, and have had a lot of positive feedback about this quiet piece. A 2007 film starring Frank Langella was released on the art house circuit, and from all accounts the translation to screen kept the book's approach intact. I'm on hold for the DVD (thanks, Cheryl), but hope to take time to reread this marvelous book.

Check the WRL Catalogue for individual copies

Check for the Gab Bag

Check for the film edition

Inspired by a comment in a previous post, Lucky Star still seems to be a show that baffles the anime community for some obscure reason, causing flame wars and thread de-railings at the mere mention of it's name.

And why? To this day I still don't get why it causes such controversy. Was it a bad show? Not at all. Was it the greatest anime of our time? Not by a long shot.

The main argument I hear from people bashing the show is 'All they do is talk about food!' Tip: Get past the first 10 minutes of the show, and it'll change. I'll agree with this though, those first few minutes were like something out of Napoleon Dynamite; you keep waiting and waiting for the punchline, and theres plenty of opportunities for one, yet it never comes.

Beyond that, the insults evolve to things like 'The show relied on outside references to make jokes' and 'It's Azumanga Daioh. with less funny and more moé!' Yes, the show used a metric shitton of outside references, specifically to Haruhi, since it was easy to use something made by the same studio. However, I'm still unsure why exactly references are a bad thing, and saying the show 'relied' on them to be funny is a bit of a stretch. The humor was much more of a 'Hey, that's funny because it's true!' or 'Hey, that's happened to me before!' Example being the Comiket episode. That was all funny and good in itself when I first saw it. But after going to my first anime convention recently, watching it over made me able to appreciate the humor a bit more. It'd probably be even more true if you're someone who's gone to comiket specifically.

The next comment, 'It's Azumanga Daioh, with less comedy and more moé!', is more or less true, yet it's acting like a show being cute is also a bad thing. I mean cute? In anime? Wow, totally new concept, huh? It was an enjoyably cute series, it didn't go overboard with cuteness, it balanced it out with comedy and slice-of-life in general. Theres plenty of cute shows out there, still don't see why exactly that's a specific directed at Lucky Star. Aiming that at the whole 'slice of life' genre in general is fine I guess; you either like the genre or you don't, there's no right or wrong. It just seems like a spewed out insult with no actual backing.

Now saying all that makes me look like I'm praising the show, where I'm really not(putting my bias towords Kagamin's awesomeness aside at least). Did I enjoy the show? Absolutely. I caught it around episode 16ish, looked forward to the next episode each week, and was sad when it was over. My main problem was with the characters. You really didn't get to know a huge deal about them emotionally, or hear anything about their past, save the last 2-3 episodes, and even then, it was light. Sure, you'd know a bit about the characters habits, hobbies, spending of their free time, etc. But life isn't *that* good all the time, and they really didn't focus on much of character-development type problems, once again save the last 2-3 episodes. I guess it can be attributed to the slice-of-life genre generally being more episode-based then having a continuing story, but it still could have done a little more with it.

So why all the shitstorming? Honestly it's probably going to rage on as long as all that never-ending 'Pirates vs. Ninjas' crap, which is older than the internet itself (Seriously, it is, I took a one-hour class on it. I shit you not), and never reach a valid conclusion. I just don't think theres much to 'get' about it per say; it's a cute show about a bunch of high school girls going through everyday life, just with a bit of outside references thrown in. Which, now that I think about it, means this entire post really went nowhere, and accomplished nothing other then burning up a bit of my free time. So thanks to you siegetank55, for keeping me occupied for a bit :P

So I wanna yabber about the art of naming for a moment.

One of the things that bothers me about, let's call it...established fantasy fiction, is the proliferation of weirdass, made-up names for people and places. At its worst, the practice becomes a comic act, turning out multi-syllabic über-appellations broken up only by strategically placed apostrophes or other extraneous punctuation. In my opinion, before a casual reader even gets near the end of a sentence such as Yll'trathanagarr Moribundix Gildrantothalosis El'Etten entered the eastern Half-Palantirs of Frightenbarrow Earthensward on Upper Elderloft, they've likely moved on to a fiction that offers instead as its novelty the mere repositioning of recognizable nouns within sentences they've never read before.

That is to say, fantasy already requires one challenging leap sideways from reality, one conspicuous level of remove, one willing suspension of disbelief, to get the reader outta their comfort zone and into an alternate world in the first place. Why add insult to injury and complicate the transition by giving our unfamiliar objects, creatures and locations needlessly alien names?

It alienates the reader!

Ahem.

What I've tried to do with Inlanders is keep the fantasy-naming to an absolute minimum. The characters aren't called Patrick and Jennifer, but their given names are at least related (phonetically, spelling-ly), to the patterns of some existing human languages. And those names aren't twenty syllables long, either.

Too, I've specifically avoided appending fantasy monikers to locations, objects, creatures and 'races' in the Inlanders world, with the exception of cases where there's no existing correlative in our language and experience - namely, no similar concept or process that exists in the real world we call home.

What I'm getting at here is, I want to draw a reader closer to my weird tale, by any means possible - not push them farther away. I'm willing to make a number of concessions to ease that seduction from the everyday into the fantastic, and one genre affectation I have no hesitation to cast aside is invented nomenclature.

Don't get me wrong; I LOVE making up names, especially when they're played for laughs. But in this day and age, I feel the technique has become a cliché, and it's very tricky to pull off in full seriousness unless you're China Miéville (i.e., cool enough to come up with something as fun to say aloud as New Crobuzon), or if you're willing to close doors to people who might otherwise find something human and interesting to relate to in your fiction, if they could just get past all the made-up words.

- Stephen Reese

A.T.M.M. 02

Outer Rim Long Range Assualt Reinforcement Unit

aka  R.A.R.U.

Second in the seires, in consistent with the "mono-mechanics" mobility characteristics.  A war machine, equipped with "standard" weapons and shields.  Estimate size; 2.5 times as big as the bike.

A group of child actors has shown up for the audition, and they are upset at hearing that Disney only wants a quick tape of each one showing a few facial expressions. They argue with the casting people, especially a teenage blond girl who insists that Disney should give the actors the opportunity to show them why they have what it takes for the role. The casting directors do not agree.

The actors are herded into a classroom where they will be read the storybook. One character in the book is a man who is sensitive about being asked about the experience that made him famous, being a castaway, because he feels like that's all that defines him anymore, but the child authors want to hear about it. The reader in the dream shifts between being that character in the beginning and being me.

The actors are unruly during the reading. Halfway through, the reader takes a break as one of the casting directors chooses to highlight and explain one bit of the story, telling the actors what they're looking for here. Then the director realizes that the reader isn't around -- in fact, the reader has gone across the parking lot to get a drink. The director doesn't realize this, though, figuring the reader is at the bathroom or something, and starts singing "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" to kill time. The reader somehow hears this and knows to come back. The director finishes the song, the actors mill about, and he consults with the other casting directors about where the reader went just as the reader walks in and heads straight for the front of the room again.

Now's when the reader becomes more like a teacher disciplinarian. She yells for order, though her voice can barely be heard above the racket of chatting actors. When they do not come back to sit in a quiet and orderly way, she stops them, then demands they do it right over again, sitting as she calls them with hands folded and mouths quiet. She reminds them that the Disney people are watching and that they should be trying to impress them. Will the Disney people want to hire the actors if they see now that they can't take direction?

The actors are a little too dramatic and self-centered performers, though, and while they might try to restrain themselves, most can't manage it. Blond girl especially is still trying to protest through a hand in the air for a question when she should be ready to hear the reading, and one boy (reminiscent of an old students) can't stop chatting, despite the looks of the Disney people reinforcing the reader.

After that, the dream starts to go crazy with actor kids running amok in a place reminiscent of Costco. I remember in particular one actor, the younger sister of the blond girl, using a copier on display to make hundreds of color copies of her head shot that she sent flying around the store.

I also dreamed a great deal of dangerous driving (these are the sort of frequent dreams that lead me to confuse dreams with memories and fuel my fears of car accidents stemming from difficult-to-control vehicles). There was a concert in one dream, I think featuring the Smashing Pumpkins. We left it halfway through to get drinks and snacks (maybe there was an intermission?) and had trouble getting back in -- the people at the door insisted on seeing not just the tickets but also the stickers we had been given on the way in as proof that these were our tickets. I had left my sticker in the car, thinking it was unimportant, but a companion managed to come up with a second one so I could go in.

There was also some point in my dreams that involved going to a convenience store that offered a wide variety of Icees (Slurpees, to those of you who grew up in 7-Eleven territory). My little brother Zach was with me. He tried one mystery flavor, and I tried another. They were both pretty tasty, though I can't remember now what the flavors turned out to be.

Overall, it was a seriously active night in my head.

The following is an example: (Male 1, thus far unnamed)

• Appears extremely confident, almost to a fault
• Good-looking, smooth-talking
• Possesses an initially undecipherable vernacular that inevitably gets picked up by others
• Labeled as the "jerk" or "asshole"
• Contains a great humanity about him, compassionate when necessary
• Reads and understand people very well
• Finishes other people's sentences in his mind
• Quick to judge and characterize
• Faster to act than to plan/organize, sometimes rashly
• Very enthused about things he is definitely passionate about
• Medium tolerance for alcohol
• Generally apathetic to very specific things (TBD)
• Question: Is he deeply insecure about something?
• Question: What is a flaw about him that will allow us to fall in love with him ? Right now he mostly angers us.
• Question: In a play, do we want to root for him or love to hate him?

So I'm off on my lunchbreak with my notebook and pen to scrawl notes and try and work things through on paper.

Or how about John Barrowman as a fairy tale prince?

Or Clive Owen as a fairy tale baron, the youngest son of a duke?

Or Marc Blucas as the baron, in love with a beautiful female fae and thinks she's human?

What about magical silver swords set with precious stones?

There has to be a king held captive by an evil dragon don't you think?

A prophecy perhaps?

Well, someday I may just write this story instead of keeping it all to myself.

What do you think?