February 27, 2008 | Writing

The book I’m writing at the moment (A Blaze) has given me the opportunity to work on some writing concepts that I believe in whole-heartedly, and that I’m nowhere near mastering. In this instance, I’m using the idea of Carl Jung’s Shadows - the part of us that is wholly unconscious but that drives us in all our actions. As it pertains to the book, I’m editing with an eye to catch all instances where the conflicts in the characters are stated blatantly and changing the scene to have the same message come through using only actions. Making all of it subtext. I’m not finding this easy. It has forced me to really understand my h/h history, but to veer away from stereotypical behaviors. In essence, put the characters in situations that trigger deep emotions, give them something to do that (in theory) give clues to the deep emotional issues but that are never stated, and leave the conclusions, and therefore the final makeup of the characters, to the reader. Oh, and it needs to be kind of funny.

February 25, 2008 | Uncategorized

In A.O. Scott’s NYT review of the new Michael Gondry film BE KIND REWIND, Mr. Scott discusses the premise of the movie - how a couple of guys from Passaic wipe out all the tapes in the video store they work in, and replace them with homemade, wildly abbreviated, and wildly inventive remakes of the originals, calling the process Sweding. I haven’t seen the film and therefore have no opinion about it. What I did was read the review and this particularly stuck out for me:

“And yet at the same time that stuff is capable of inspiring a deep and durable sense of ownership. The movies we love belong in some profound way to us, and part of us lives inside them. Sweding is Mr. Gondry’s way of making that rather abstract sense of connection literal, of suggesting that even if we are not strictly speaking the owners and authors of the movies we like, well, then, perhaps we should be.”

So I got to thinking. I’ve always had a sense of ownership over the movies and books I’ve loved. I “own” characters whom I love, and when they are screwed-around with, my rage isn’t mitigated by the fact that they are Not mine, will Never be mine, and of course, they are Fictional. I’m not talking about the characters I’ve created in the books I’ve personally written. I’m talking about Harry Potter, among others. Logical, no. Emotionally satisfying - of course! That’s the thing about art. It hooks me emotionally and makes me feel not only included but attached. Character love is one of the purist emotions I can think of. When I ruminate about, say, Buffy, it’s an incredibly intimate process. We are, in my head at least, friends. I care about her and what happens to her. With some male characters, it gets a little messy, so we won’t go there. It’s enough to admit that, just as most of my real life relationships happen in my head, the fictional relationships are sometimes as vivid and consuming as with those people I can touch.

Before you say, come on, you’re just psycho (which may be true, but a topic for another day) I happen to see this same phenomena over and over again. Just listen to people talk about their favorite books. They become invested. Sometimes tragically so. Sometimes endearingly. Always passionately.

Is this the root of fan fiction? Is all fan fiction at its base Mary Sue? Is all character love Mary Sue love?

The reviewer of BE KIND REWIND looked upon “Sweding” quite favorably. He suggested it would be a cool thing to do and expected to see some revisionist tapes on YouTube.

Do those of you who feel fan fiction is not okay feel Sweding is not okay? Does the story always, only belong to the creator? Does media interaction need to change right along with the new back-and-forth the internet brings to our lives?

My life would be a shadow if I didn’t have my books, my music, my movies swirling in my brain. My passion for “my” characters led me to write. It is one of the most sacred things in my life, and has been with me since early childhood. I am forever imagining, whether it be about characters I create or characters I borrow.

Chime in here, please. I want to talk about this more.

February 21, 2008 | New Releases

I’m not sure about the stores but you can now get your copy of COMING SOON, the latest book to take place at Hush Hotel from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. As a reminder:

Posted by Jo Leigh @ 3:36 pm | 1 Comment  

February 17, 2008 | Linkage

Laurie Gold tagged me….

The rules are:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Share six unimportant things about yourself.
4. Tag six random people at the end of your blog entry.
5. Let the tagged people know by leaving a comment on their blogs.

Six Unimportant Facts About Me

1. I would rather be in water than almost anywhere.

2. The older I get, the more I cry over stupid things.

3. My preference is to go to sleep to the sound of the TV, but so soft I can’t distinguish the words.

4. Although I have nothing in my universe that speaks of fashionable trends or fashion at all, I’m secretly (well, I guess not any more) addicted to Project Runway.

5. I always feel as if I’m facing North.

6. I rather like being tagged for memes and such, but I feel too guilty about tagging others and therefore, I rarely participate in memes. Which leads to…

I won’t tag anyone, but if you want to do this lovely meme, please let me know. :)

February 8, 2008 | Uncategorized

You are The Devil

Materiality. Material Force. Material temptation; sometimes obsession

The Devil is often a great card for business success; hard work and ambition.

Perhaps the most misunderstood of all the major arcana, the Devil is not really "Satan" at all, but Pan the half-goat nature god and/or Dionysius. These are gods of pleasure and abandon, of wild behavior and unbridled desires. This is a card about ambitions; it is also synonymous with temptation and addiction. On the flip side, however, the card can be a warning to someone who is too restrained, someone who never allows themselves to get passionate or messy or wild - or ambitious. This, too, is a form of enslavement. As a person, the Devil can stand for a man of money or erotic power, aggressive, controlling, or just persuasive. This is not to say a bad man, but certainly a powerful man who is hard to resist. The important thing is to remember that any chain is freely worn. In most cases, you are enslaved only because you allow it.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

February 5, 2008 | home life, Writing

This month, Turner Classic Movies is having their annual 31 days of Oscar, which means a bounty of fabulous films for these writers-strike days. I went to the monthly schedule and sat down with my DVR and programmed a whole slew of old favorites like Topper, I Married a Witch, the original Born Yesterday with Judy Holliday, The Awful Truth, A Thousand Clowns, My Favorite Wife….well, you get the picture.

I still haven’t finished all my RITA books yet, but some are very good. Then of course I have a book due end of Feb, and wouldn’t you know, that’s kind of occupying most of whatever brain cells that I have left. Oddly on this one, I seem to be in a weird pattern of writing the chapter, then dreaming revisions that night, then re-writing the chapter, and moving on to do the same thing with the next chapter. Usually I don’t dream my revisions (I actually don’t think it’s fully dreaming. It’s that space where I’m not completely asleep but not really awake) until I’m at the very end. Hm.

How’s it going with you guys?