OMEGA ALPHA Launch Party

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!

Big news: tomorrow I'm taking part in a launch party for Kristen Landon's book OMEGA ALPHA.

 
OMEGA ALPHA is an upper middle grade thriller, and here's the description:

"What would you do if everything you thought you knew about your childhood, your parents, and your family turned out to be a lie?

Thirteen-year-old Ethan Turner is about to find out.

Ethan survives an environmental terrorist attack, but the toxic gas he breathes during the attack triggers memory flashes from when he was very young. The problem is, those memories don’t match up with the life he knows. He starts to notice and uncover clues that lead him to believe his parents are hiding a terrible secret from him.

With the help of two close friends, Ethan continues to search for the truth—even when it lands him right in the middle of a group of environmental terrorists who are about to release a pandemic-grade virus on the world.

The truth about his family and his past could cost Ethan his life as well as the lives of everyone he cares about. He has to make the impossible choice—save himself and those he loves or save the world."

Sounds good, right?

 

The launch is tomorrow, December 3, at 6:30 pm MST. It's on Facebook. Authors, including myself, will take part in 15-minute Q&A sessions as well as giveaways, so if you want to win a copy of Under Locker and Key, here's your chance!

Who are the other writers, you ask? Well, there's Kristen Landon, the author herself.

E.B. Wheeler, author of The Bone Map

Laurisa White Reyes, author of The Storytellers

 
Janette Rallison, author of The Wrong Side of Magic

And Mike Thayer, author of The Techno Wizard

A great group, and I hope to see you there for questions, answers, and amazing giveaways. I'm excited! Are you?

 

Horror Challenge Responses

Remember that horror challenge, I issued? The one where you use tone to take something mundane and make it eerie or terrifying?

Well, I had a taker.

Here's a response to that challenge, by reader Alana:

The hairbrush's bristles seems a welcoming sea of tentacles, all touched with a globule that proclaims that it cannot possibly cause any harm. Yes, someone has decided to engineer a handle that keeps your hand away from actually being near these things, but, of course, that is merely for convenience, right? The tentacle cluster is so kind, cleaning up the dead cells and hairs of your head so that your unshorn places can be silky and smooth to the touch. It doesn't even consume those negligible parts of you like some living creature might, it merely collects that dead matter on the outside of the tentacle's body as a trophy of its hard work done. And it most definitely deserves that bushy gray trophy. Do not take that dead gunk away from them, it's rightfully theirs. You won't make them give it up by drowning them in the faucet, that will make them all the more determined to keep it. You'd have to attack and steal from each tentacle individually and we all know that you're too impatient for that--we know everything about what goes on in that head of yours.

Anyway, you'd do well to continue your daily hair routine where you move these splendid tentacles across your scalp and into your blind spot where you cannot see what they are doing. And if you hear a crunch of something, that is the brush doing its job. You'd like it if the brush continued to do its job, wouldn't you?

This was great. I got chills at the end, so nice blend of tone to scare, as well as subtle, horrifying details. A hairbrush as a monster. Great!

I wouldn't extend a challenge and not take part. So, here's my offering:

Look in this box.  Theobroma, the food of the gods. The chocolates gleam like polished wood, nestled in the tissue paper red as a beating heart. Care to taste one? Let me show you how.

First you caress the chocolate, admire its gleaming skin. Then, waft it beneath your nose. Smell its alluring aroma, calling for you to sample. How can you not, when such seduction whispers to you, melting in your sweating hands, baring its tender neck for your kiss? Then snap that neck: the best chocolate cracks like a bone. That’s how you recognize its quality.

Then, and only then, you can taste. Feel the warmth as the chocolate liquefies on your tongue, rich and thick, like milk, but deep and sweetly bitter, like blood. Inhale and exhale, tasting with nose, tongue, and body, searching for those secret notes, the plum and wine and leather, hidden in the darkness.

Do you know how those secret notes enter the lush, dark music of the chocolate? Do you know how the cacao tree, drinking water greedily, also takes with that water the flavors of the earth? The soil, the stems, the rotting fruit and putrefying leaves. Then what must happen to the birds and animals blessed, or cursed, enough to die above the cacao’s roots?

Imagine the blood, nourishing the hungry tree, as feasts of blood once satisfied the Aztec gods. Imagine the life, and the death, the fear and the desire, carried with heart’s blood to where a tree bearing the food of the gods gives it new life. Imagine a man, cruel and greedy, a man whose abuse and hunger grew along with his enemies until they struck him down, beneath this very tree. Imagine his hatred draining with his blood, his greed seeping deep into the ground.

If you pay attention, you can taste it, among the plum and wine. Amazing, isn’t it, to think of what part of chocolate survives the rot, and the purging flames of the oven, to hide behind sweetness. The many flavors, souls of the dead, with every delectable bite you take. Snap them in half, rip them apart with your sharp teeth, taste their heartbeats as they melt down your throat. 

The box is empty now, but you are still hungry for that flavor. See around you, the waters of life, selfishly hoarded in the pods that surround you on the street. Smell the life and desire pulsing red, driven by hearts as warm as yours used to be. Inhale, exhale. Taste fear and death as you drink. Be satisfied.

This is the take-off from the comment I made to my student that even a box of chocolates can become horrible. Next thing I knew, I was thinking about vampires. This is still in its roughest forms; I may build a whole story on this.

Feel free to send me your own writing or challenges! I'd love to see them.

Villain Vs. Antagonist: What's the Difference?

One of the great things about being a writing teacher and a writer is that sometimes what I teach in class lines up well with what I'm thinking about during my writing, and this is one of those times.

This week, I talked to my students about writing fiction and we talked about antagonists and villains. At first, things went smoothly. I discussed what a protagonist is ("one who strives") and how your protagonist needs to want something for the story to progress. So far so good.

Then I started talking about antagonists, and how they strive against the protagonist, making it difficult for the protagonist to get what the want.

That's when the confusion began. My students asked if a villain was the same as an antagonist, and the lesson began.

An villain is a kind of antagonist, but an antagonist is not inherently a villain. An antagonist works against the protagonist, sure, but that doesn't make them a villain any more than it makes the protagonist a hero.

I looked up a bunch of definitions of "villain," and I found that although now and then I see something along the lines of "someone who works against the hero," which seems similar to the definition of an antagonist, most of them detail that a villain is someone who does things that are morally, ethically, and legally wrong in opposing the hero.

A villain is evil. A villain is bad. We, as readers, are not supposed to think that the villain is doing good things. They are actively working against the hero with malicious intent or they will do heinous things to further their ends.

One thing my students questioned was if a villain was a villain if we, as the readers, sympathize with them or if we understand where they're coming from.

No.

Even if we do understand, even if we do sympathize, the villain is still hurting people/breaking laws/actively seeking to harm the hero and as a result, they're still the villain.

Loki is a villain, at least in the first few movies he's in. Yes, we know why he's tormented. We sympathize. But he also killed 80 people in 2 days and he's actively working to harm the heroes and all they care about. Therefore, villain.

 

In Hamlet, Claudius feels remorse for his act of killing the king and prays about it. But he still killed the king, and he still plans to kill Hamlet, and he won't give up the things he got from his act of evil. Therefore, villain.

An antagonist, on the other hand, only needs to be working against the protagonist. This only means that they present some kind of obstacle. If Stacy wants the lead in the school play, and Mary wants it too, Mary is an antagonist because she is striving against Stacy. Mary might be an actual saint who likes Stacy quite a bit and would never harm her, but if she's presenting an obstacle to Stacy getting what she wants, she's an antagonist.

Take Elsa, in Frozen. Elsa does not want to hurt anyone, and is not an evil person. But since she's working against Anna's goal of bringing her sister home, by staying away, she's an antagonist in the film.

I also like the example of Javert from Les Miserables. He's not a bad guy; in fact, one may say he's a good guy given his role as a police inspector and keeper of the peace. He just wants justice, which is not bad. But since Valjean is the protagonist, and Javert is working against Valjean, he's the antagonist.

(Using the David Oyelowo Javert because this miniseries is great.)

So what does this mean for us as writers? Well, it means that not all antagonists need to be villains. Your hero doesn't need to strive against someone evil, someone who kicks puppies for fun and kills his lesser minions. Villains are great, sympathetic and otherwise, but you can draw plenty of drama from antagonists who aren't evil, but whose goals and desires conflict with the protagonist. It can be done---the movie Finding Nemo is an example of a kid's movie without a villain, but with plenty of antagonists.

Lastly, can someone please tell me whether this guy is a villain or a more simple antagonist?

Because I know what I think, but the debate has been going back and forth all week.

Writer's Challenge: Horror

This week I have a challenge for you writers.

Horror.

Sure, it comes a little late for Halloween, but it's still November. The winter is coming, and the nights are getting longer. Sounds like the perfect time for some scary stories.

I've been thinking about horror stories, and there are some characteristics that seem to unite horror stories. They often, but not always, link to the fear of death or physical harm. They often create fears out of the Other, Uncanny, and Self. But what I have really been thinking about is how atmosphere and treatment is what causes the feeling of fear, not the subject itself.

For example, a big nasty monster is horror material. Until you can kill it by shooting it in the face. Then it's adventure or even humor. A skeleton is horror material until it dances. Or maybe it gets scarier that way.

Horror, like comedy, is about treatment of the subject and atmosphere. That's one reason I think Doctor Who is so good at making harmless things seem scary; they nail that atmosphere and treatment.

A child asking for his mummy becomes UNCANNY and disturbing. A room full of cubes is threatening. They take the mundane and link it to death and disappearance, and they present threat with it, and suddenly we have horror.

I was teaching this to a student and said that, given the right treatment, you can turn a character opening a perfectly normal box of chocolates into something to fear and dread. I took the challenge myself, and I'm currently writing a short story about some pretty terrifying chocolates.

Hence, the challenge for you: take something ordinary and just not scary. But look at how you treat the subject, how you treat the atmosphere and how you add threat until the subject becomes scary.

This is a focus on language and style as well as an exploration of when something goes from ordinary to scary. In Christine by Stephen King, I'd argue that the car becomes scary when it gets malicious intent and the apparent inability to die.

So, challenge up! If you do it, I'd love to see what you write! Feel free to post in the comments. I'll post what I have as soon as I'm finished with it.

Can We Please Stop?

Life is good, and writing is going well. I'm gearing up for NaNoWriMo, during which time I will be working on a fractured fairy tale middle grade, unless something more pressing comes up. Because, dang it, I have been wanting to write this book for a long time and I'm going to do it!

But I also have deadlines, so there's that.

So, while I'm prepping, I've been doing what I always do: getting into arguments with people or just the people in my head about good writing and bad writing and the problems with fandoms.

I've touched on this before, and you should know by now I'm a fangirl and have no problems with fandom as a concept, or in its best forms. However, there are some things that irritate me about it, and today I want to talk about a big one:

Can we please stop glorifying Nazis? Can we please stop it?

I know what you're thinking: Nazis are terrible, and of course we don't glorify them! We make them the enemies of every story and we have Captain America punch them! Well, folks, I would like to present for your consideration Star Wars and the Harry Potter books. Where we have Nazis, in other forms, and unfortunately, it seems the fans can't get enough.

Let's talk Star Wars, briefly. The Empire is obviously a reference to the Nazis. Look at their uniforms. Look at the fact that the Empire only hires humans, no other races. Look at their blatant disregard for life and desire to spread their Reich everywhere, subjugating anyone who disagrees with fear. And yet I see fans who love the Empire and Dark Side enough to put stickers on their cars. They can't really align with the philosophies here, can they?

This issue compounded with the newer movies, with Kylo Ren. So many people online LOVE this guy, and frankly, I don't get it. He's a neo-Nazi: he is bringing back the aforementioned oppressive regime because he's a fan of them, their methods, and their aesthetic. Might he be an interesting character with nuance and depth? Sure, but I'm sure not going to ship him with Rey, who is strong and smart and can make a much better choice than a guy who literally captured and tortured her because he wants to be edgy and dark and bring back mass genocide. Which brings me to a secondary idea...can we stop glorifying predators? Can we please stop it?

Now let's chat Harry Potter, because this one I really don't get. Let's talk the Death Eaters and how you can buy so much merchandise with their marks and costumes. There is enough of a market that loves these people that Amazon sells tattoos and robes and more (follow that link, if you don't believe me). Why?

Seriously, why? The Death Eaters are Rowling's Nazis. They are terrorists who kill and torture people they believe inferior to them by birth, or people who associate and help those they think inferior to them. Wait, forget the Nazis; they're a fantasy KKK.

I would hazard a guess that if I went to someone wearing a Dark Mark on their shirt and asked them if they supported the Nazis or the KKK, they'd be horrified that I'd suggest something like that. "No, of course not! They're evil!" Well, so are these organizations, these characters.

So why would they wear it? My guess? There's something edgy and cool about relating to the villains. I've seen this attitude that the bad guys are misunderstood, and broken, just like so many fans. That's fine. It's fine to relate to bad guys and to see the good in them, or the relatable. That's often a sign of good writing. But I would suggest to fans everywhere to consider what exactly you see in these villains that makes them relatable to you and to check yourself.

Do you really want to relate to a science fiction version of the Nazis? To the fantasy Ku Klux Klan? Is that who you are? Do you want to wear their memorabilia and marks, and make yourself one of them?

You may be thinking that it's all fantasy. The Death Eaters aren't really out there hurting people, and I get it. It isn't real. If you dress up as a member of one these organizations for Halloween, you're not offending anyone, not even me. It may be fun to do. I'm not here to complain about dressing as something dark and scary for Halloween.

I'm here to talk about the other things, when we put on the costume and start to feel like the person we dress as. When we choose a shirt with a logo or symbol because it's "so us." When we start wearing the team colors of teams whose values we'd never openly say we associate with. And, even worse, when we start emulating the behavior of the characters, calling people racial slurs or turning to violence over peaceable communication.

(Is that not what "mudblood" is, after all?)

Keep in mind, the values that these characters hold are very real. Racism, hatred, fear, and cruelty to other groups of people are very real, and very painful. What I'm asking for is please, can we stop glorifying these characters? Can we stop fanboying and fangirling over these organizations and justifying their actions? Can we remember that they're meant to be the bad guys for a reason? Can we stop buying HYDRA merchandise and remember that they're based on the guys Captain America punches in the face?

Can we please choose to glorify characters and organizations who represent who we, as a society and individually, would like to see ourselves become?

A Darn Good Series of Films

It's no secret that I'm hard on what I call "Mormon art."

I've written blog posts about it. I think that it's way too easy when you have a niche group like members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to start to write lazily, using cliches and tropes instead of fresh writing. It leads to the kind of art that is just...bad, but so full of heartwarming, doctrinal, and, honestly, sappy statements and ideas that everyone just ignores the writing.

Not that there's anything inherently bad about the heartwarming, doctrinal messages. If people need to hear those things, then great. I just want them to be housed in good writing, good art. Why? A number of reasons. I think good art makes the messages stronger, and I am also embarrassed when art comes out by people from my church that is just not great. We can do so much better, and it's lazy not to try.

Ergo, I'm hard on "Mormon art." We should be better and do better.

Good news today: we are.

Guys, we need to talk about the Book of Mormon videos that the Church is putting out right now.

(Here's the first one.)

A few years back, the Church rolled out some videos based on the New Testament. And they were good. Now, they've been releasing videos based on the Book of Mormon.

For those of you wondering, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints believes that the Book of Mormon is holy scripture just like the Bible, and is, in fact, a companion to the Bible. It's the record of the ancient American people and is another testament of Jesus Christ. It's meant to clarify and support the truths of the Bible and clear up errors accrued over time through false tradition and misunderstanding. I have read it, and I believe for myself that it is a book full of light and truth.

So, obviously, I'm excited to see movies based on it, and I was apprehensive that they would be bad. Someone already made a movie based on part of the Book of Mormon and it's widely known to be awful. (No link for you -- it's not worth it.)

When I started watching these videos, I was pleased. They are well-made and well-acted, and they're true to the Book of Mormon events and doctrine. Remember, these are made by the Church, so they have the purpose to dramatize the scriptures, especially the doctrinal messages. That's where the focus is.

But they also tell a good story. They breathe life into the scriptures and remind you that these stories are about real people, in a real family, who behave like real humans. The heroes are not caricatures of themselves or over-glorified, while still shown to be good people. That's one of my favorite traits of religious movies like The Prince of Egypt and The Nativity Story, so I'm already on board.

The story right now is a bit of a family drama. It's worth a watch, especially if you've ever been curious about what the Book of Mormon is, since this is such an acceptable and accessible way to find out. And, the values and messages are good, of course. The videos upload every Friday on YouTube or on the Church website, and I've been following them as actively as I follow the other shows I fangirl over. Seriously, I'm pleased with the quality here.

We need more good art in the world, especially when that art is about good stories (and the Book of Mormon is a really good story and complex literature, beyond being scripture; I can say that without bias) and is made to add a little more light and hope into the world. Here's the most recent (to this day of posting) video:

And here's my brother, as an extra in this video!

Handsome kid.

(Okay, so I might be a little biased! Still worth a watch, though.)

Disneyland's Galaxy's Edge: My Thoughts

I know it's been a long time. It's been interesting, learning to balance life and work and marriage, but I'm getting the hang of things.

Also, I've been busy. I've been on deadline for THE EXPLORER'S CODE, but that's done, and I recently returned from a trip to Disneyland!

It was a good trip, with my husband and our friends and not a care in the world. Our friend Spencer (not my husband) put together the trip a while ago because he wanted to visit the new Star Wars area of the park, Galaxy's Edge. So we all got in on this action and went.

Disneyland was great overall, of course. I went on a bunch of rides that I've never been on before, like Peter Pan's Flight and the Enchanted Tiki Room.

We went from opening to closing, practically, and I got to experience a lot of the park. Spencer (my husband, not our friend) and his family like to play hard at Disneyland, which is exactly how I've been raised to play. If you're going to spend the money, why not get every dollar's worth?

But I'm not going to talk about the rest of the park. It was a lot of fun, Spencer and I rode Star Tours 8 times and broke his personal record for number of rides on that attraction, and I heard a few new songs on the Guardians of the Galaxy ride. I got ice cream and an excellent sandwich, and even did the Void attraction.

Okay, so I did a lot and it was fun. But I want to weigh in on Galaxy's Edge, specifically, and my thoughts on it.

I heard, before I went, that Galaxy's Edge is a storytelling marvel, and that's no lie. The first thing we noticed, when we went into that section of the park, is how isolated it is from the rest of the park. When you walk inside, you can't see the rest of Disneyland, and you can't even hear the rest. All you hear is ambient sounds of Blackspire Outpost. It's like you're in a completely different world.

That feeling continues the more time you spend there. The cast members all are in character as residents of Blackspire. What does that mean? It means all prices are given in credits, not dollars, you can expect to be greeted with "bright suns" instead of "hello," and if you ask where the "lightsaber workshop" is, you'll be greeted with suspicion since lightsabers are contraband.

It's a very immersive place. Even now, when I hear Blackspire mentioned in movies like Solo, I think, "Oh, yes, I've been there." Like I've been to Tatooine. Because I have. This place is a canon location in the Star Wars galaxy but it's also a real place you can visit. It blurs the lines between reality and fiction so that you truly feel like you're inside Star Wars.

One way they do this is with their datapad game. The Disney Play app has games you can play all over the park, and Galaxy's Edge is no exception. This game, though, turns your phone into a datapad that can communicate with other Blackspire figures, like bounty hunters and scoundrels, Resistance agents, and First Order officers. You can take jobs for them all and earn credits and gear, you can hack doors and communication systems, you can scan crates and get what's inside them (virtually, of course), and you can use it to translate the Aurebesh writing everywhere. (Although, I admit, I learned to read it earlier to save battery power. The datapad game is way fun, but you'll want to bring a battery pack to recharge your phone because it will eat your power.)

Another way was the food. I spent a bit of my food money here. All menu items are listed as "Fried Endorian Tipyip" instead of fried chicken, for example. I had roasted Endorian tipyip on a salad and Felucian Garden Spread (kefta and hummus).

The flavors are good, but they mostly just do a good job of providing food that tastes, well, out of this world. It's a new experience.

 My favorite things I ate there were the Oi-Oi Puff (cream puff filled with raspberry cream and topped with passionfruit frosting) and the meiloorun juice (the deep pink juice with the tipyip salad, not the orange juice above - that's the moof juice). As for the blue and green milk, I tried both and liked both. They're dairy free, but they have a good, smooth texture and refreshing tropical flavors. Blue is a pineapple/coconut drink, and green was more like mango.

Okay, I need to talk about the experiences. I'm starting with Smuggler's Run, the Millennium Falcon ride. We rode it three times, and I got to do all three jobs: engineer, gunner, and pilot. Engineer is the easiest job, and pilot is the hardest but most fulfilling. The line moves fast and is interesting (especially if you do the datapad game), and once they put you in a group of 6 to ride (2 of each job), they give you a card with a color on it, and then let you wander a room inside the Falcon. It's great! You're not standing in a boring queue and you can explore the Falcon's sitting area. Then you go in and fly.

As for the ride, imagine Star Tours but as a video game. You fly the ship, you fix the ship, and you shoot at anyone who gets in your way. It's not too hard (kids ride this), but it is possible to fail. We never did, though. We had a good run when I was pilot, which was nice. Even better, I was the pilot that got to jump to hyperspace, so WHOOOOO!


But the highlight for me was getting my own lightsaber. Yes, I spent the money and built my own lightsaber in Savi's Workshop. I don't want to give away what happens, because I went in fresh and unspoiled and I think that's the way to go. But I will say that you decide on one of 4 different hilt styles right at the start, and get one of 4 kyber crystal colors later (red, green, blue, or purple - they determine the blade color). The actual building is an experience that is mystical and emotional, and they do a great job. I built a blue saber and I was feeling goosebumps and actually laughing with the thrill of it all by the end. If you're a Star Wars fan and you've always wanted to be a Jedi, I recommend it. A lot.

That's our friend Eric. He got a LOT of Star Wars merch when we were there. We took this epic picture immediately after getting our sabers.

The saber itself is high quality, with a heavy metal hilt and it's made for dueling. You can pretty easily take off the blade and dismantle and reassemble the hilt, which is good because you can replace the crystal with another one, which will change the color and the sound effects. Seriously, the crystals are pretty legit technology.

It was a really fun place, and it's not even done yet. I look forward to seeing what Rise of the Resistance, their next ride, will be like when it opens. For any of you who are Star Wars fans and want to go inside the world and story, Disney did a great job. I think you won't be disappointed. It has me wondering about the future of the Disney Parks and if immersive lands, like this one, will be a focus in future developments. If it is, I wouldn't mind at all.

I Take Your Requests

A short one today, as school is coming back soon, and I have a lot on my plate.

In recent news, I finally, finally, saw the Star Wars prequels. I hadn't seen Episodes 2 and 3 yet, but now I have. Maybe it's because I saw Clone Wars first, but I really liked them! Get ready for some more Star Wars/Disney parodies in the near future. I'm working on 2 more.

But today, I took a request. A friend and reader asked for a mash-up of Phineas and Ferb and The Emperor's New Groove, so I did that one this week. So, Alana, this one is for you!

Phineas and Ferb – The Emperor’s New Groove

The royal advisor enjoys imperial power
‘Til Kuzco fires her on an ill whim.
So the latest problem for Yzma and Kronk
Is finding a good way to kill him.

Like maybe...

Waking some panthers
Or sending the guards
Or turning him into a llama.

Sending him tumbling down a waterfall (Bring it on!)
For a tremble of extra drama

Putting him in a box
Not as himself, of course,
But a harmless little flea fits (It's brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!)

And when that box arrives
Taking a hammer and—
Or just poisoning him with this! (Feel the power!)

As you can see
There's a whole lot of stuff to do
To make Kuzco take that fall (To the secret lab!)

So stick with us 'cause Yzma and Kronk
Are gonna do it all
So stick with us 'cause Yzma and Kronk are
Gonna do it all!
(Mom! Dad went off to help a talking llama!)
(Guitar downs)

Thank you for the request, Alana! This was a lot of fun to write, and I hope it's fun for you to read!

I know these parodies are silly, but they're a great writer's workout for me. I have to look at words and meaning and rhyme and meter and tone, and there's no foul for a failure. I have so many ideas for stories that I feel a little jammed, and writing these give me a chance to practice with language while I'm still planning a schedule and stories (but I have an idea I'm going to start writing once school starts up again! I'm outlining it now!)

So, if you have requests, send 'em my way. If not, get ready for a couple more Star Wars/Disney mash-ups. Have a great week!