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Guest Post - Michelle Scott

Good evening, chickadees!

Please welcome the fabulous Michelle Scott! She's going to talk to us today about world-building.

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Last summer, I chanced to visit one of those historical parks in which citified tourists such as myself can see a ‘real’ turn-of-the-century farm, watch a game of baseball played according to the rules of 1867, or ride in horse-drawn carriage or model T Ford. Many of the buildings at this particular park were the genuine article, and despite the fact that I still carried my Blackberry and all of the bathrooms were completely modern, it was possible to at least get a glimpse of a different kind of life. It’s the kind of thinly-veiled educational experience that my children hate, and I love.

On the day my family and I visited, several craftsmen and women were using tools from previous centuries to create beautiful pieces of art. Among my favorites were the glassblowers who, using only a thin metal pipe and a blob of melted glass which glowed like a tiny bit of the sun, made fragile glass spiders and snakes.

I write a lot of fantasy fiction set in a pre-industrial age, such as my recently released book, An Anthem for the Battle Lands, and at the time of my visit to the park, I was working on a young adult novel in which one of the characters worked for a blacksmith. Because my books are set in a world where technology is not permitted, I was fascinated by the old-fashioned forge. How on earth, I wondered, did pre-industrial people manage to get their fires hot enough to melt glass (let alone iron). Fortunately, the docent was able to answer my question (it has to do with air flow and the design of the furnace.)

This wasn’t the first time that I’d looked to history to help me in my world-building. I enjoy reading nonfiction, especially historical nonfiction, and have learned a great deal about such things as medicine in a pre-antibiotic world or the proper way to plant corn or even how to navigate a barge upstream. I also love to visit national historic sites and monuments (much to the dread of my children). A trip to the visitor’s center provides a great deal of information that can help me imagine and understand what life would be like for people who lived before electricity was harnessed or even steam engines were invented.

One thing I’ve learned from my visits is that so much of what we see in the movies or on television is just plain wrong! A few years ago, while taking a tour of Mammoth Cave by the light of kerosene lamps, I learned that it is never a good idea to hold your lantern up to eye level in order to see better. In fact, raising your lamp this high will impede your night vision. And when you are spelunking in a strange cave or wandering a dark woods, the last thing you want to do is accidentally blind yourself.

For a city girl like myself who never leaves the house without her cell phone, it’s easy to become divorced from such concerns as how dark it can really get outside at night, how difficult it is to carry large amounts of water long distances or just how uncomfortable sleeping on the ground without benefit of a sleeping bag is. And I’ve found those bits of historical information are crucial when I want to build a believable world.

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Lots of food for thought. I know one of the reasons I never stuck with writing fantasy of the non-urban variety was that I disliked that area of research--I could read about religion all day, but every day historical stuff wasn't my forte, and my world building really suffered because of it. My hat's off to the great fantasy writers I know who inject so much realism into their fantasy worlds by putting in the work ahead of time and drawing from our own history.

Would you like to win one of Michelle's titles from Mundania Press? Just leave a comment for her and include your name--if you win, I'll send you a PDF of either The Dragons of Hazlett or An Anthem for the Battle Lands. I'll draw a winner on Sunday at noon. (And if you already have her books, please stop by and say hello anyway!)

Thanks, Michelle!

If you'd like to visit her website and learn more about her work, please head here: http://www.mscottfiction.com/

Side note: I totally love that cover for Dragons of Hazlett. I wonder who the artist is...

I'm Not a Ballerina

When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a ballerina.

I had a lovely ballerina Barbie (the 1986 My First Barbie ballet one, if you must know) and I was watching some movie with ballet in it. I'd never taken a dance class, had no idea what ballet entailed, but ballerinas were so graceful and lovely that I wanted to be one.

I told my mother.

She "gently" (as gently as a woman with no tact or filter can be) explained that I couldn't be a ballerina. I didn't have the right body type or skills. It just wasn't in the cards for me.

I had one hot, flaring moment of, "I'll show you!" with tears in my eyes. But she was right. I could've taken dance classes, but I wasn't going to be a ballerina. Not everyone can be or do everything.

Just like not everyone can be a writer.Read more

Another Book DED - And Some Thoughts About Writing

Friday night (okay, Saturday morning) I finished my third book of 2010...and I'm ridiculously proud of myself because I didn't write at all for about six months earlier this year. I spent years getting myself in the habit of writing nearly every day and those months off--while ultimately good for me--hurt like you wouldn't believe. Writing is a muscle that has to be worked all the time; it was *so* hard to get back into writing daily after that because I was out of shape.

But after I finished Wounded I swore I wasn't going to start the next book right away. I did, ultimately...about three or four days later. It's been a tough couple of months getting the third done, mostly 'cause I'm always busy. A few weeks went by when I had only the weekend to get any writing done. But I did it.

Which brings me to a couple of points I want to make.

I've written three books this year; three books that, when I started the first one in January, I had no intention of writing. I woke up one morning in January with Abandoned in my head--or at least the plot of a five book series and most of the first in my head--and I just sat down and wrote it.

But I'm not magical. I don't have special powers*. I have no cybernetic parts.

I just make time for writing.Read more

Sunday Post

Well, it's been a busy month. I wasn't around for a chunk of it--physically, as in I wasn't home and away from my PC, and mentally/emotionally as in I retreated from everything.

Yesterday I watched Amelie. It would likely surprise no one that it's one of my favourite movies, however it probably would surprise people to know that of all the movie characters that ever were, I probably identify with her the most. Not that I do good deeds for people (eww, no--I'm evil), but her inability to relate to others and build relationships. My social circles consist of people who are friends with each other, and then there's me, off to the side, stuck in her own head and not really a part of things.

Which is probably why I'm okay with uprooting my life and moving in a few months to a place where waitresses stare at me funny when I request a meal that doesn't include meat. I'm going to be a distant hermit no matter where I go.

And you know, I don't really have a point in saying this; it was just on my mind and I've been silent for weeks, so I thought I'd ponder it 'aloud' on the blog. I feel Amelie-ish a lot of the time. Only with less awesome hair and sans the cute, quirky guy to borderline stalk.

Stuff I Did This Week:

* I let everyone know I am not dead yet.

* Did some arty stuff called Wild.

* Facebook has changed their "Become a Fan of" button to "Like." So while initially I kind of ignored my FB page and never really invited anyone (as the number of invites I get to things often drives me batty) because I didn't want to force them to be a "fan" of me...now I'm kinda insulted that more of my friends' list doesn't "like" me. Is it because I'm distant and Amelie-ish? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyla-Dawn-Cameron/9912704791

Stuff I Sorta Contributed To:

* Friend J.A. Saare dealt with piracy again--she was quite disheartened when her latest release was uploaded to a pirate site. So of course I jumped on board to play Veronica Mars and help her find this person. 3 hours on the phone later... Well, here's the saga: Part One: Wherein She First Discovered the Piracy, Part Two: Portrait of an E-Pirate, and Part Three: Update.

This story did have a somewhat happy ending, which has gone to show that it IS possible for authors to reach the people illegally uploading their work and, in some cases, nip this problem in the bud. (Of course, a few months ago Jaime also spoke to one Sarah Sandford from Australia--specifically, from the Wangaratta area, I believe--who had requested illegal copies of her work...Sarah assured Jaime she wouldn't do it again, and then just last week tried to steal one of my books. She had no excuses or apologies for ME when I asked about it.)

Stuff I Tangentially Contributed To:

* Well, I acquired and edited the book, so...that's where my contribution begins and ends in this case. But I love the book so much that I want you to purchase it and love it too, so behold Sarah-Jane's fabulous trailer for Thief!

Stuff I In No Way Contributed To But Dig:

* Lili Saintcrow talks about how she's not the enemy in ebook pricing (and how neither is her publisher). Besides the fact that her post is AWESOME and very right, something interesting comes up in the comments that I think about a lot.

Sometimes it seems, as writers, that we can't say anything without readers perceiving us as insulting them. What I don't think people understand is that...you haven't seen an author's inbox. Most people wouldn't BELIEVE some of the stuff "fans" say to writers. I'm a nobody, and I get everything from backhanded compliments to hatemail. Saying "Please don't complain to me about something out of my control" isn't being disrespectful to readers; it's a request for respect and a showing of transparency about the business.

(Tangent: I'm also sympathetic because in my job I *constantly* get yelled at for Shit Out of My Control. And then I explain how and why it's out of my control and *still* get yelled at.)

* In a similar vein, Jaime pondered how to respond to negative reader letters. (My opinion? If it's angry/insulting/provoking, I don't answer it. Sometimes I try, but if an email ticks me off, it gets starred for a later reply and then I tend to forget about it. Moral of the story: expressing your displeasure with a book is fine, but try to be nice if you're writing to an author personally. We are actually people.)

* 50 Things You Can Control Right Now.

* The Writing Style of Twilight. All I can say about this is...TRAITOR TEARS!

* And on the subject of Twilight, Translating the Eclipse Trailer.

* I attended Boobquake.

* via ICAHK, UK Gov't "too busy" to stop a woman from being deported to her death.

* April 20th was Random Act of Kindness Day for friend Rissa Watkins to honour the baby she never had.

* Jim Hines on Authors Behaving Badly. If you missed the whole Rejection Queen saga, Fandom Wank has the detes. Get some popcorn.

And here's a random Amelie fan vid that I found and LOVED. Yes, I watch fanvids and am a total nerd.

link in case the embedding doesn't work

And that pretty much sums up the past few weeks in April. Did you guys read/do/watch anything totally awesome? Leave a link!