“And they lived happily ever after.” Think about this line for a few minutes. Are you living happily ever after? If not, what will it take for you to get there?
Funnily, I have thought about this. I imagine my life as a story in itself, and I try to imagine my journey and what it would take to get there... There's always stakes in stories though, and they're what make people grow. I could take steps on my own... but I know I won't. And I don't have stakes.
But yeah, there are definitely things I have to work on, personally. I'm sure everyone has that.
I clutched its mate to my chest like a baby, though of course it was futile. What is one boot without the other boot? It is nothing.
—
The prompt this weekend was a reading challenge, so I’ll be putting off the short series I’ve been writing until next week. The weekend’s prompt for Trifecta is taken from Wild by Cheryl Strayed. I finished it recently; it’s quite a good book.
“What are you all dressed in black for?” her grandmother complained. “You going to a funeral?”
Kay rolled her eyes. Old people just didn’t understand. “I don’t need to go to funeral to dress in black. All the kids are doing it.” That wasn’t quite true, actually. She just didn’t think she’d understand Goth.
She didn’t do it because she was fucked in the head, or because she was sad or mourning. It was a fucking fashion statement.
Only… that wasn’t true.
The first time her mum had heard her listening to Jack Off Jill… “What is this? Why are you listening to this garbage?”
After fiercely defending her style in music, she soon had to defend her mind. “Are you alright, dear? Is there anything we need to talk about?”
“No!” Kay had shouted, and slammed her mother out of her room.
But in the privacy and darkness of her room, she began to wonder. She used her music to help her probe deep into her mind. At the end of the night, she was cradling herself from crying about everything; the isolation from her parent’s divorce; the abuse she’d suffered under her uncle’s hand; the death of her baby sister.
Her grandmother was judging her. She had only recently sorted all this out — somehow — with her mother, and she wasn’t exactly ready to share yet.
“If all the kids jumped off a bridge, would you?”
“No, but I’d push you –” she lashed out.
“Kay!”
She looked to her mother. Great, here it came. She was gonna drag her away to have a talk.
“Can I see you in the other room?”
Sarcastically, she spat, “All hail the talk!”
She let herself be dragged away to drudge through it. She knew all this, and it wasn’t helping. In fact, it just made her feel worse.
“Okay?” said her mother.
“Whatever. I’m going out.” She wasn’t listening to another word; she stuck a cigarette in her mouth and shot out the back door.
I’ll make this short and sweet. Because I’ve been nominated before, I refer to the original post I made on this for all the other parts of accepting the award. From what I can see, there’s no rule against that.
Also, thanks to Chelsea Brown for nominating me.
I will, however, give you 7 fresh new facts about me that you didn’t know, to tide you over.
1. I have just moved from Sydney, Australia, to the Sunshine Coast up north. I have moved many times in my childhood, but this is the first trip out of the state.
2. I have been planning a series of books for years. Originally, they were two separate trilogies, but during last month while doing Camp NaNoWriMo, my ideas evolved into one straight series, strung together by my Interviewer narrator, Brenda, a character present in the first half of the series, and revealing the second half due to a separate connection.
3. I have too many books to fit into my room.
4. I have a snow globe in my room I like to play with when writing, or thinking. I have read about writers who have some kind of toy or thing on their desk that they like to have while writing. I always wanted a quirk like that, but never came naturally… until now.
5. I always said I wasn’t writing for young audiences, due to the content of the books I’m writing… I just realised I’m writing Young Adult. Oh, woes me!
6. I can draw seriousness out of the silliest scenes or songs… like a pervert finds sexuality over the most muted. Tell me that’s not weird.
7. I only write novel-length things consistently with NaNo… so I have made plans around it from here to end of next year. Never before have I had the guts to take on WriYe… Just the same as I didn’t have the guts to do NaNo until two years after I heard of it.
I’m afraid I haven’t been on my blog at all this month, and that is because I’ve been focusing all my attention on Camp NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and moving up to Brisbane (which I do tomorrow; I will blog about that later).
For anyone who’s ever read my post on the Trifecta Community, will probably know of the metaphor for writing I wrote about for Question 6:
6. What is the best writing advice you’ve ever been given?
One author wrote a pep talk once in which she compared writing a novel to travelling from Sydney to Perth (on the ground, not by plane, thank you very much).
At first, you’re in the city, and it’s easy, and it feels as though you could keep on going and going. Then the suburbs, and you’re winding down a little, but you’re still writing.
Then you hit desert. And it stretches out for endless kilometres, and you may find yourself crossing paths where other authors have been through, or you may make your own. And you’ll be lost out there for so long, that you may want to head back.
Don’t. Keep going, and eventually you’ll hit the other side. You’ll be moving through suburbs again. And then you’ll hit the city, and you’ll be able to celebrate for a job well done.
I have now read another pep talk that expands that metaphor, which I wanted to remember:
There are two types of road trippers: the ones who leave with a printed and laminated itinerary, an alphabetized suitcase, and six dozen audio books to pass the time. Then there are those who throw some clean underwear in a bag, fill up the car with gas, and head out on the road to see where adventure takes them.
These two road trips might look pretty different on the outside, just as the noveling process changes from the perspective of a pantser or a planner. But the magical thing about road trips and novels is that no matter how you go into them, you end up on a voyage of discovery that you would never have experienced if you hadn’t stepped outside your front door or written that first word.
There are times when you think you might barf if you have to climb back into your car for even one more mile. There are days when you don’t think you can type another word. You get stuck in traffic or blow out a tire in a pothole, or realise that nothing is actually happening in your novel or blow out a storyline in a plot hole.
But then there are the days where you stumble across that spot off the beaten path, where the views are magnificent and the drinks are cold. There are the people you meet in your travels, whether they’re old friends or new ones. There is that daily, hourly, constant reminder of how much world exists outside your front door.
And when you’re writing a novel, there is the daily, hourly, constant reminder of how much world exists in your imagination. So grab that road trip mix CD, and let’s set out on the road to see where our novels take us. The whole world is waiting for us.
Let’s just hope that this doesn’t happen to you on your way… Though it would be a bit of a muse.
Speaking of muses, I just stumbled across something called Musefic. A useful tool unblocking yourself perhaps, but not something I’d publish online or anywhere else. It looks helpful, but it’s not exactly serious prose.
I’ve heard of this. Though I am shocked (but pleased) that I was nominated. So thank you, sphrbn!
Okay…
Here are the rules of this award:
1. I need to thank the person who nominated me.
2. Share 7 things about myself that you still may not know
3. Nominate 15 bloggers.
4. Notify the nominees that I have done so.
5. Put the logo of the award on my blog site.
And now here are 7 things that you probably don’t know about me;
1. I studied Japanese for three years in high school, and then another was tutored in it, but I don’t count that last year, because I don’t think it kept me up to the same speed.
2. I started writing fiction when I was fourteen, but I sucked back then. I just didn’t quit.
3. I have been moving houses since I was kid, as my family has never owned any of the places we lived. I never minded leaving people behind, unlike my polar-opposite sister.
4. I have attended around seven schools in my lifetime.
5. I always wanted to learn surfing in Australia, but my first surfing lesson was in Hawaii.
6. I’m half-American, but I often joke about America, preferring my Australian heritage.
7. I prefer having a fake tree on Christmas, because I think the tradition of cutting down real trees is damaging to the environment and I hate the smell of fresh pine.
We regret to inform you that IndieInk has passed on to the great heavens of the interwebs.
When the site began, its simple goal was to help, and that’s been true for nearly seven years. Our goal was to help people write, be noticed, know each other, treat each other — the community — with respect and kindness and WRITE. You mean something in the community and we’ve always wanted you to know that and feel it.
If at least one person felt better after being a part of this community, II succeeded in its only goal. But, again, everything ends, and, sadly, II has ceased operations today.
We had a great run and we did some great things because of, and with you, the community. Be kind. Keep writing. We wish all the best for everyone who has ever supported us.
Thank you for an amazing six years.
AC
I received this message via email today, and I must say, I’m disappointed.
I participated in one mere challenge of this community, and was looking forward to doing more, of honing my writing skills with it. Even though the result of the challenge isn’t one I’m entirely confident with.
Apparently, the challenge I participated in was the last challenge of Indie Ink.
I don’t know what happened, but I will be mourning the loss of this site, even though I didn’t know it for very long.
But what a way to go out. I’m glad I took up the opportunity while it was there. It just goes to show how fragile and fleeting life is.
I assume you all booked a trip to Japan a couple of days ago, after I told you about the cheap flight Brussels-Rome-Tokyo? Awesome timing! Apparently Tokyo just decided to loosen up on their very strict blowfish rules. For more than six decades, dicing fugu in Tokyo has been the preserve of a small group of strictly regulated and licensed chefs, usually in exclusive restaurants.
A new understanding on an old Simpson's plot. It seems strange now that they served fugu in Springfield when it wasn't even that common in Japan to serve.
And the accuracy of the amateur in the kitchen now sounds like it would have been worse than I thought.
How the hell did Homer survive that?
Everyone loves an anti-hero, let’s face it. They may date back to 1714, but anti-heroes are very much considered to be modern day characters.
1) Lestat de Lioncourt
For a modern character, his age probably dates back to about that same era. Created by Anne Rice in Interview with a Vampire, he was definitely the stand-out character. More ruthless than Louis, his actions turned Claudia against him, forcing us to see the errors of his ways.
When I watch Lestat in that movie, I just can’t help to root for him up until, and even after that point, when we learn how mistaken they were. Even though I know what he advocates is bloody wrong. (Get it? Bloody?)
I love writing vampires, and he is my role model for what vampires should be. Unfortunately, the rest of the world seems to have gone more for Louis. And now look what vampires have become!
I really wish vampires would go back to their badass glory days. Is it any wonder there’s a movie called Vampires Suck with vampires like Edward Cullen out there?
2) Greg House
Let me count the ways that House has captured my mind.
He’s intelligent; I tend to agree with almost any point he makes, not necessarily about medicine, but about real life opinions. Anything from “Everybody lies” to “There is no dignity in death”, and multitudes in between. Besides, I respect intelligence immensely.
He defies social norms; speaking as a person who’s been as rejected as I have, with an Aspbergian mind (something House himself was once suggested of by Wilson, only to have it disproven or else rejected), I tend to revel in House’s rebellion of normal society.
He’s an ass; and he gets away with it. I certainly wouldn’t want to work for him, and few others can handle him. But he gets away with it. Maybe if he can get away with being who he is, then there’s hope for the rest of society’s rejects.
These are the various reasons I love him; these are the various ways he’s an anti-hero.
3) Severus Snape
The serious Potions professor is rather another role model to speak of. Both as someone similar in hygiene to myself (which honestly sounds sad), and as one who is far too often misunderstood, perhaps even to his fans.
Harry Potter certainly was no fan. At every turn, he reveals his common ‘judging a book by its cover’ mentality, despite the fact that in his world, nothing is ever as it seems.
Severus Snape was certainly one of many of those.
There are plenty of reasons why fans adore this character. The stoic strength of his persona, the comedy of seeing him torture the students, and for a lot of time, there was also the question of his true loyalty.
But most of all, Snape is also a representation of the odd bullied school kid with a lifelong grudge. And that is the thing that I think might have drawn in more fans; the fact that he was seen to be a senseless victim in Order of the Phoenix of James Potter and his leering friends (minus Remus).
He clearly wasn’t the innocent one either, though, considering his vast knowledge of the dark arts and his liberty with Sectumsempra, but many people sympathised (and empathised) deeply with him.
And it’s understandable. But that’s why he’s an anti-hero.
4) Dexter Morgan
Dex: cop by day, killer by night.
Dexterously distinct, delightfully dark Dexter takes the cake when it comes to playing the anti-hero. How many of us delved deeply into fantasies of such renegade justice in our youths? I know I did.
An idea transcended into life sums him up pretty well. It’s alright in the safety of our minds, but where is the line?
An anti-hero that really tests the moral strings of our subconscious, Dexter is someone that stands up for the unfortunate in his own dark, twisted, transformed into good but inherently bad-natured way.
PS Something I’ve always wanted to express about House is that I think his story was somewhat derived from Sherlock Holmes. House and Wilson are so similar Holmes and Watson, and that bogus story Wilson once fed to Kutner and Taub… the “Irene Adler” story… that’s a Holmes reference, too.
