Football Season 2012: Ohio State Is Undefeated!!!

Posted: November 24, 2012 in Living and Life
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Aha, this is my school! All the Bucks are awesome and cool! Few times we run the ball, and we didn’t lose at all, ’cause we ain’t no 3rd string team! We ain’t no 3rd string team.

Oh come let’s sing Ohio’s praise
And songs to Alma Mater raise
While our hearts rebounding thrill
With joy which death alone can still
Summer’s heat or winter’s cold
The seasons pass the years will roll
Time and change will surely show
How firm thy friendship … OHIO!

Oh, I just love Carmen Ohio, don’t you! Today Ohio State beat University of Michigan 26-21 in the fourth quarter, officially ending football season for Ohio State and securing us a 12-0 season. Honestly, when the game was over I wanted to rush over to Ohio Stadium and just give Urban Meyer, our head coach just coming off his first season, a big old hug! Thanks Coach Meyer!

Now I will admit, there were several plays, both this game and other games, that Ohio State made some really stupid mistakes that almost cost us the game. However, Coach Meyer really trained us hard, and we came back from a previous season that no one wants to remember to becoming an awesome team. If this year we were undefeated with a bunch of mistakes, how will we do next year?

And even if we don’t get to play in a Bowl Game because we’re still on probation, it’s still quite the season to remember don’t you think? So O-H, go Bucks, and I can’t wait for next year!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why I’m talking like I’m on the football team even though I’m not, let’s just say it’s an Ohio State thing where everyone acts like they’re a part of the game, a part of the team, a part of Ohio State. It’s strange I know, but it’s a thing we do, and I’m guessing it arose out of that famous Midwestern America hospitality.

Or it could be I’m completely wrong. I have no idea.

We All Can Take Different Levels of Disturbing

Posted: November 22, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff
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“Where is the one who killed me? I want my revenge!”

This evening after Thanksgiving dinner, some of my family and I settled down to watch The Hunger Games movie (which is kind of ironic, and not just because there’s a big metal structure in the arena called “the cornucopia”). All those in the room under the age of twenty had already seen the movie, while the adults–my dad and his wife, my uncle Tom and my aunt Tiina (and the “uncle” and “aunt” part is lowercase because I don’t call them “Aunt” or “Uncle” and they’re fine with that, for those of you wondering. And no, that’s not their real names)–had never seen this movie or read the books (except  my dad’s wife Michelle, but she hasn’t read the second book yet). The younger generation loved the movie of course, and most of them screamed during the scary parts, even if they’d already seen the movie. The older generation though…they didn’t get the film. Tina and Tom asked several times, “What’s the point of this movie? Why do teens find it so appealing?”

Well, if you don’t get dystopia’s appeal to teens and young adults, then there’s just no reason to explain it to you. But I’m digressing from what I really wanted to talk about in this post, and that’s indicated by the title of it.

During the course of the movie, some people like myself could handle the blood, gore and violence, while others who will go nameless were screaming or covering their eyes everytime someone died. What does this say? Obviously, that some people are okay with the macabre and terrifying, while others do fine without it. And it’s important to know that sometimes, but not because you should tailor your writing to suit their tastes. Heavens no!

What it teaches us is that, with those close to us, we should know whether or not they like something or not before we recommend it to them. I know some people, people close to you, will buy or read your work because they love you and they want to make you happy, but if you know someone’s not a fan of this or that and you put it in your work, you should give them fair warning before they read it. Safe to say, I think when Reborn City comes out, I’ll recommend it to everyone above the age of 15 who reads fantastic fiction, while I’ll tell everyone to be prepared for nightmares and terror when Snake comes out. Only fair, right?

Speacking of which, how do you guys deal with fear and terror? Do you really go for it, or not so much?

Snake: Halfway Done!!!

Posted: November 21, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Scary Stuff, Writing
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With the first draft, that is!

This evening, while waiting for the laundry to finish, I was working on Snake. Much later than I should’ve been, actually. But what does that matter, because I got three chapters out of the way. And one of them was Chapter 52. Multiply by two, and you get the number of chapters in Snake, at least in this first draft.

So yeah, I’m halfway through, and I’m happy as hell! This chapter was actually kind of difficutl to write, to tell you the truth. This chapter was the first time in several chapters that a character had appeared, and I wanted to do an update on what she’d been doing during that time. However when I was editing Reborn City, I’d been told that doesn’t always work very well, and I had a feeling that it wouldn’t work here, so I had to go back and rewrite what I’d written (thanks again, Matt; it’s good to have your counsel in so many ways). In the end, I used dialogue and a really creepy mafioso to explain what had happened to that character, which made for a much more interesting way of telling this story.

In a way, I wish I could show you this chapter, but not only does it reveal one or two plot details I wish to keep concealed, it’s a little too disturbing for some audiences. What can I say? I write creepy stuff, but I know not everyone wants to read it. They prefer other stuff found here on my blog.

So I’m halfway done, and I’ve still got fifty-two more chapters to do. But hey, if I can get from chapter thirty-five to chapter fifty-two in twenty days (with a ton of schoolwork and whatever getting in the way), I can probably tackle the rest in that amount of time. Who knows? I might be done by New Years, God willing!

Wish me luck. I’m going to bed.

More from the Self-Publishing Front

Posted: November 20, 2012 in Progress Report
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Hi again. So you know how I’m planning on self-publishing my novel Reborn City, right? Well, I also said I was planning on starting a small, independent press for legal purposes, and was contemplating what sort of business my press should be. Well, my uncles–one of whom is a lawyer–jumped in and asked me some questions. Several emails and phone calls later, and a bit of counseling on legal matters (thanks, Uncle Joel and Uncle Arthur; your metaphorical checks are in the mail), and I’ve come to the conclusion that a press won’t really help me, not until I at least have something I can offer to major publishers who are considering distributing my work, and unfortunately at this point, I don’t.

Hopefully someday though, I will have something to offer them. Just got to finish the final draft of Reborn City, and then get it out. Maybe then, I’ll have publishers knocking on my door (can’t hurt to hope, right?).

Some Thoughts on Romance

Posted: November 20, 2012 in Reflections, Writing
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I think at one point or another, if we haven’t written romance stories, we’ve all included romance in our works. I know I have. And last night, I was thinking about romance in writing, and what it took to write romance. I hope you’ll forgive me if I go over this topic a little bit.

Now, some writers say you actually have to draw on personal experience in romance in order to write about it. I disagree; I’ve never been in a relationship before, and I’m also one of those types who doesn’t need to be in a relationship in order to feel fulfilled. So not a lot of experience there. And yet I’m pretty sure I can write stories with romantic elements, I’ve read enough books and seen enough movies to see how it’s done: two people meet (I’m not saying boy meets girl here, because that’s no longer necessarily the case); there’s the initial spark of attraction; some sort of obstacle keeps them apart; they get over said obstacle and get together; if the author wants to explore the relationship even further, there will be more obstacles between the characters and true happiness; and once they get over those, it’s supposed to be happily ever after (unless there’s a sequel).

And the elements that go into such stories are only limited by three things: how much romance plays into the plot of the story; the setting the story takes place in; and the author’s imagination. For the first, you have either your typical romances, where the whole plot revolves around someone (usually a woman, because that’s how these stories typically work) finding fulfillment with a man (because once again, that’s how those stories typically work), and the travails she goes through trying to reach that happy state (pretty much most of Jean Auel’s Earth’s Children books). Then there are other stories that, while having romantic elements, don’t focus exclusively on them. Instead the romantic elements are used to highlight the story and/or explain the motivations of certain characters (like the various romances in Harry Potter). Of course there are also stories that hint at romantic attractions but don’t have characters play on them or anything, but I’m not going to focus on them (though if you want an example, there’s Ptolemy’s Gate by Jonathan Stroud).

Next you have settings, and this plays more into a story more than you think. For example, if you want to have a character unable to be with their lover because of an arranged marriage, it makes more sense to have that in a historical drama (or in a country where that is still common) than in Midwest America where I doubt that sort of thing happens. In the same vein of thought, if you have a story taking place in Victorian England, it makes very little sense to have a montage scene or a musical number out of an 80’s movie unless your story is a musical to begin with. So as much as we tend to forget the setting, it plays a big role in how much you can do in the world of the characters.

Finally, you have my favorite part in this equation: the author’s imagination, and this is especially useful when coming up with obstacles for the characters to get over. Perhaps there’s someone else that is courting the character (I think this is what’s used in The Hunger Games and Twilight, though the main draw of the latter might just be sexy teen boys). Or perhaps the characters are from different social classes, and being together would be tanatamount to social suicide. Or perhaps the main character is leading a campaign and as much as they’d like to focus on love, that would be detrimental to the war effort. Or perhpas one character had a traumatic childhood experience and has trouble getting close to people. Or the romance is forbidden (religion, politics, orientation, etc). Or one character is still getting over the loss of a previous love and has trouble moving on. Or a thousand other options; it’s all up to the author to decide.

So, what makes a good combination of any of these? That’s up to the author, really; besides putting all these factors together, one has to write and write it well. Otherwise, who will be interested?

Graduate School? I’m Not Sure

Posted: November 19, 2012 in Living and Life
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This evening at my dorm we had a discussion from some grad students–one of whom I’m actually friends with–about going to grad school and what it could potentially mean for us. We had there a student from the engineering department, a higher education and ecology studies major (my friend Renata) and an artist who also teaches art classes in the undergraduate school. All were current grad students, and all gave us a candid and honest look at grad school without trying to gloss over the bad parts or say we had to go to grad school.

All in all, it was very informative.

However, it left me a question: should I go to grad school? I’m still a sophomore, and I’ll stay that way for a little while longer, so I don’t exactly have to worry about it any time soon, let alone paying for it or what I’ll do once I get there. But what if I did? I’d probably pursue a Masters in Fine Arts because, for the same reasons I’m majoring in English and in History, I want to improve my writing and storytelling skills. I might already have a novel or two out at that point, so that might help me a little bit.

But is it right for me? Can it make me a better writer or at least give me more job security? I have no idea. At the very least, when graduation is a little closer, I’d definitely have to look a little closer at the possibility of going to grad school. And luckily, my school has a course on publishing that’s taken by both graduate and undergraduate students, so that’d be a good preview of what I might be doing in grad school if I were to go (I’ll have to talk to my advisor about that one when I meet with her in spring to arrange my fall semester classes).

So now I turn it over to you. Have you ever been to or are you in grad school?

What school?

What was your experience?

Did you find it beneficial in the end?

Please let me know. I’m curious, and as much weight as the opinion of three grad students carries, I’d like to hear from more people with experience in this.

Snake: Longest Chapter Yet

Posted: November 19, 2012 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Someone’s been a glutton!

Okay, so I just finished chapter forty-seven of Snake, and so far, it’s the longest chapter I’ve written of Snake, a whopping ten pages (double spaced and 12-point font Times New Roman) and 2,424 words, beating out the 2nd longest chapter by about seventy words. This chapte is important to the plot, because this is a point where the Snake really starts moving toward his ultimate goal (what that is, I can’t say, but more people are going to die for it). I guess that’s a pretty good excuse for it to be very long, though I can tell you that the chapter afterwards will be relatively short.

At this point, I’ve got about nineteen chapters in Part III of Snake left before I finish this part, and I’m also very close to the halfway point in the book. Hopefully soon I’ll be able to blog about finishing Part III and taking a little break, maybe just to write a short story or watch a movie or even play video games because I don’t usually play them! I don’t know, I haven’t decided yet, but I’ll let you know when I’m there.

NaNoWriMo Is For Those Who Can Devote Time To It

Posted: November 18, 2012 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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And unfortunately, I can’t devote my time to it. I’d like to though; I’d like to be able to spend hours each and every day just typing away on my computer, pushing out word after word to create an awesome story that people will want to read. The only time I would stop writing is if I was hungry and wanted to make something to eat; or if I had to run an errand; or if I wanted to work out; or if it was just too late in the day, so let’s forget work and just play.

Sadly, I cannot live that sort of lifestyle right now. Instead, I spend more than ten hours a week in classes, and close to that amount at a part-time job. In addition to that, I spend several hours over the week working on homework, reading books and writing papers and doing projects, and that’s especially so in the last 3-4 weeks of class before finals. Add into that meals, sleep (essential, even in college), errands, and just finding time to relax, there’s only so much time to write.

So I’m going to have to drop out of the National Novel Writing Month challenge. It’s just too much at the moment to try and get out fifty-thousand words in thirty days with the workload I have. I’ll still work on writing Snake and editing Reborn City, but I won’t do it with the focus of just getting 50K words written.  Instead, I’ll work on them with the hope that eventually I’ll get them done and share them with everyone.

Am I sad that I can’t finish the challenge? Yes I am; I was getting so much done at the beginning of the month, I thought that if I couldn’t get 50K words, I’d get very close to 30K. Not so at this point. But hey, look on the bright side: I managed to write twelve chapters of Snake and type out 12,329 words. Not bad for my first time, right? That’s more than your average short story.

Maybe next year, if I don’t have that much of a workload, I’ll try again at NaNoWriMo. In the meantime, I’m off to work on chapter forty-seven of Snake. Wish me luck.

Write And Don’t Be Ashamed

Posted: November 17, 2012 in Living and Life, short story, Writing
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A classmate of mine in my creative writing class sent me (and the rest of the class) an email today. In the email, she said her mother and her aunt had wanted to see the short story she’d written, but the problem was her story dealt with subjects like drinking and random hook-ups. Guess what? Her mom and aunt don’t approve of those sorts of activities.

So my classmate–whom I’ll refer to as “Freya”, because that’s as far from her real name as you can get–whipped up a little short story that doesn’t involve any of that, and asks all her classmates to take a look and edit it if we can spare the time.

Naturally, my instinct as a writer is not to encourage this, so I write back to Freya and tell her that her mom and aunt should be proud that she’s grown into a strong, independent woman with her own thoughts and feelings, and they should be proud that she wrote a story with her own original ideas in them. If she has to be ashamed of her own work–which for romantic fiction set against the background of a wild college party, is actually a quality story–what’s the point of even writing the story in the first place? If Freya’s family doesn’t like the topics voiced in the story, then she should just tell them so, and leave it at that. If they still want to see it, then show it to them. These women might actually like it, and might also be fans of Fifty Shades of Grey, but are too proud to admit it.

I hope Freya get’s my message and doesn’t feel she needs to hide, because honestly, if a writer can’t be proud of their work, or at least admit they wrote such subjects, what’s there for the future of writing and fiction? Be proud of your work writers; it’s your brainchild, after all. You shouldn’t be ashamed of it, no matter what objectionable material within. Instead, shout it to the world, “I wrote a story and it has stuff people don’t like in it but I don’t care.”

If I didn’t do that, why would I bother writing a novel with a serial killer in it?

My Own Beliefs

Posted: November 16, 2012 in Living and Life, Reflections, Scary Stuff, Writing
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I write scary stories. As such, I sometimes have to use the supernatural in my work, something I enjoy doing. But at some point, if you start to write stories about demons and spirits and murderous beings from other dimensions, people are going to ask you, what’s your own beliefs? Do you believe in any of the things you write about? Do you believe in aliens that appear over Boston, like in Ripple (if you want to read that short story, click here: http://www.nthzine.com/fiction_online.php?archiveDisplay=20121105), or do you believe in succubi like that one short story you wrote that you hope to publish?

Well, I thought I’d clear a few things up before I get asked that question. I’ll include about five major things that people will probably ask me about, and unless people want to know more, I’ll leave it at that. Hope you find it informative:

1. God and Satan: I definitely believe in an all-powerful, all-encompassing authority that created our universe and is very active in the day-to-day lives of human beings as well as the changing of the seasons and the orbiting of the planets. I also believe that this Being is called by many names, answers to several of them, and as long as you live a good life and do not do horrible things in your life, eventually He will reward you for your good behavior (when though, I can’t say).

As for Satan…well, I believe there is a being called Satan, but my belief in him is more in line with the traditional views of Judaism, which say he’s more a servant of God with a bad job of tempting good people in order to test their devotion. The view that Satan is the antithesis of God only came later, around the time of Jesus, and it’s more Christian than Jewish belief, so I really don’t follow it, or follow the belief that there’s one being who embodies all evil and is set against the being that stands for all good. Doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy a story involving that bad boy Lucifer, though.

2. Ghosts/Demons/Spirits/Angels: I do believe that there are beings I can’t see, but do have ways to interact and even interfere with the material world. I’ve actually had encounters with ghosts/spirits, leading to some very interesting stories (ask about the time a spirit was pushing against my teeth while I slept). I also believe in demons and angels: there are times when I’ve believed there is something near me that wishes to do me harm, like when I wrote that succubus story and I swear something was summoned because I couldn’t stop thinking about and researching succubi. At the same time, I believe that there are benevolent beings that if you can call them by name will come to your side to protect you. There’s even a prayer in Judaism that calls the four archangels to protect you in time of trouble, and the couple times I’ve used it, I’ve felt like there was something around me protecting me from harm. It’s pretty neat.

Now, if I believe in demons, how can I not believe in one that’s leading a war against Heaven? Well, if humans and demons all have one creator, why does there have to be a king of demons when there isn’t a king of evil humans? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

3. UFOs/Extraterrestrials: I’m a bit of a skeptic on this one. There was actually a class here at OSU I took that explored the subject, and the conclusion was that if there is life out there, it probably is either very basic, like single-cell organisms, or if it’s like humans, it’s probably at the same level of intelligence and technology as humans, so we probably don’t get a lot of visitors from the deep, dark space. I know there are a lot of people who say they’ve been abducted, but then again there are a lot of people who say they speak to Jesus and that they are being investigated by the CIA (who aren’t allowed to do domestic investigations, by the way) because they know how their chocolate fudge recipe relates to the attacks of 9/11, and they all sound alike to me.

No offense meant to those who believe in aliens, though; I just need more substantial proof before I start believing in visitors in ships coming to observe and abduct creatures that, for all our intelligence, still don’t know how to live together without getting into a huge fight.

4. Magic: I believe there are forces that human beings can summon and control with rituals or spells. Such rituals and spells can be found in nearly any group, including Judaism (*cough* mezuzah *cough*), and that each group’s rituals/spells are unique and can do wonderful things when done right. 

I also believe that this can be rather dangerous, especially if you are summoning a spirit or a being with great power, for example, so only take part if you are aware of the risks, you accept them, and you don’t think your particular God will mind if you take part in such a ritual.

5. The Afterlife: Now, here’s where my beliefs aren’t traditional in any sense of the word: I believe that this life is sort of a preparation room, one where, through the choices we make and the actions we take and the people we meet, we’re groomed for a journey we take in the next life (assuming we don’t get stuck in this world as ghosts). What this journey entails or whom we take it with, I can’t say. All I can say is that this journey is specially prepared for us after our deaths, and that at the end of this journey…perhaps then it’s the final destination.

If you’re wondering what Jewish traditions might say about my beliefs, I’ll tell you that the only mention in the Torah of the afterlife is “Sheol”, which is either some sort of pit, or it’s a plain of existence where the dead go. Truth be told, nobody’s really sure what it is, Jewish scholars are well-known to have many different opinions on any number of issues (in fact, the joke goes you get two rabbis together, you’re going to get three different opinions). There’s also something in the Kabbalah that could be seen as reincarnation, but I’m not familiar with it, so who’s to say my beliefs on life after death are out of line with my religion?

Well, that’s all I’m going to say for now. If you want to know my beliefs on the Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot or something along those lines, let me know.

But what I really want to know is:

What are your beliefs? Do they agree or disagree with mine? And what gives you faith in your own beliefs?

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