Good friend and Fantasy writer, Steve Parker, known to many of you as the man who holds the downstairs desk at Mac’s Fireweed Bookstore–ordering your books, being pleasant, being Welsh–is the proud author of a new book, Skrelsaga, now available at Mac’s. Here are a few photographs of his signing.
This is, I think, the first Fantasy novel published in the Yukon. Yay, Steve!
More on the book in a review that will come later. For now, we celebrate the achievement!
As a science fiction writer embedded now as a science writer at a northern research station, I thought my job was pretty clear: bring northern science to a larger audience through whatever means were at my disposal. Blogs, Facebook, press releases, radio series. But then I found out that a few people there had not seen Star Wars. Suddenly, my best, natural personality came to the fore. I had a new mission: Bring science fiction to scientists.
While science fiction might be easily dismissed by those working in scientific fields, it is often the first place that the average person learns about scientific concepts like graviton waves, geodesic folds, Dyson spheres, and quantum mechanics. It can also be a first introduction to Shakespeare, to history, to world cultures, and to understanding the alien—those different than us. But it is also a huge asset when it comes to igniting the imagination about science and about the future. In this way, fiction about science, or even science writing, aids the cause of science—by compelling the average person to both think about science now, and think about science as part of our future.
Star Wars: a New Hope was aptly named. In 1977, it transformed the movie industry, making possible special effects that matched our imaginations. And it also introduced science fiction to the masses of non-science fiction readers—making science fiction mainstream. Star Wars was nominated for 10 academy awards, and won six of them, including Best Musical Score. Of course, everyone reading this knows this. We grew up with Star Wars.
But Bronwyn Goodwin, age 8, did not, and neither did her mother, Sian Goodwin, both raised at a Research Station.
This is hardly to their disadvantage—imagine having brilliant scientists traipsing through your living room on their way to amazing science exploits, and having your dad be the pilot that takes them up to many of the highest peaks in North America. But they missed what turned out to be a seminal cultural event in Western Culture. Star Wars entered into our collective psyche in the eighties and has re-emerged in many forms—whether it’s Reagan’s Star Wars defense system, or the idea of being “turned to the dark side” as a reference for negative behavior. The characters are well known to us—Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, R2-D2.
But there was a certain glee in bringing Star Wars to two people who had never been exposed to it. And eventually, the audience at the research station grew…
Continued in Part II….
I don’t want anyone to miss this great discussion that Dave Wesley mentioned as a response to my earlier post. He said that we ought to check out the discussion of character arcs in the new reboot of Star Trek
Frankly it’s a great discussion about writing. Here’s KFM (Rogers) initial premise (SPOILERS):
“Captain James T. Kirk, the protagonist of the movie, does not have the development executive’s beloved “character arc.” He has no arc at all.
He starts as an arrogant sonovabitch, and becomes a slightly more motivated arrogant sonovabitch. He does not learn to sacrifice, he does not learn to work well with others — he takes over the goddam ship. He’s right all the time, he never doubts he’s right, and the only obstacle he occasionally faces is when other people aren’t sharp enough to see how frikkin’ awesome — and right — he is as quickly as they should.”
But read the responses and you’ll see a lot of varied ideas on character arcs. Me, I think Kirk has a character arc. (And I actually posted it on the responses to his post)–but in a nutshell:
Yes, he’s a sunovabitch through the whole movie, but he is a listless, aimless SOB at first, and he has to find purpose. He never thought his fighting, his rebelling, his go after the baddies ideas fit in well with tight-shirt Starfleet, ultra PC. And yet, it is a Kirk who transforms Starfleet.
Starfleet needs a person who thinks with his gut, and Kirk jumps into that role. Both old Spock and Pike serve as catalysts to transform brawler Kirk into Captain Kirk.
I like Pike’s speech to him early in the movie: “Have you ever felt you could be something more?”
I think this is one of the lines that resonates for the viewer. Don’t we all wonder who we could be if we had the opportunity? And the line from Spock’s past: “You will always be a child of two worlds, fully capable of living in either one. “ And Spock has to make the decision where to be fully, and which side of himself to favor–Human or Vulcan.
The movie is about Destiny, and it screws around with time travel to ask the larger question about whether destiny is fixed or fixable. I think the movie promotes fixable.
The whole discussion is worth reading, but here’s a great later post:
Both have arcs, and the arcs are definitely related because they are almost mirror images of each other. Even Kirk’s dead father is a mirror image of Spock’s dead mother.
Their arcs also cross each other when Kirk tries to gain control of the starship by picking a fight with Spock. Except this time, he doesn’t try to stage mutiny, but rather talks to Spock to get him to resign his post. Following this fight, Spock realizes that he has emotions and he can’t control them. At the end of the scene, Kirk realizes that if he is to be Captain, he has to stop being impulsive and Spock realizes that he can not be Captain with his spasms of rage, and that he will never be able to ignore his emotions.
The movie is good, but I think there’s a lot to discuss about how the movie moved towards good through the writing of characters we thought we already knew. And character arc is important. I don’t think that Abrams achieved his great story by NOT giving Kirk an arc–because Kirk is not static. Kirk learns. He learns how to adapt t0 and also transform Starfleet protocol to fit him–thereby creating the James T. Kirk of the TOS that we know, and the Starfleet that surrounds him.
In some ways, we learn a lot about how Kirk and Starfleet function with each other, and in spite of each other.
Star Trek has come a long way and just when you thought there were no surprises left, they show up. I’ll admit, the last few Star Trek movies left me cold. Nemesis bombed because the writer tried to copy too much from ST2 but without any of the heart. Insurrection was a trite story line. Abrams’ Star Trek reinvigorizes the franchise by giving us both old and new–it completely satisfies this Trekkie.
If you go, you will get a thrill ride, and you will also be reintroduced slowly to characters you thought you knew. Yes, everyone looks young and the sets look like Apple designed them, but that’s what it means to restart the series. You will get your money’s worth from this movie. Most people know these characters even if they aren’t fans–but they are reintroduced to us here in great detail. And there’s lots in here for fans of the show–little touches that show that the writers know the whole series.
I’ll try to keep out all of the surprises. But you already know that there is time travel involved, and it shows up at the very beginning. And because of that, events are altered. “Our destinies are not what they would have been,” says a young Spock. This is okay. Star Trek has thrived on the “might have been” storylines. The Mirror Universe got a lot of play in nearly every incarnation of Star Trek; Tom Riker was a might-have-been Will Riker; Voyager had the two part episode “Year of Hell” and the Finale which changed and altered timelines. Even ST: First Contact imagined a Borg-filled Earth. So, it’s nothing illegal–it just gives the writers room to wiggle. They got to play a little with the histories–legally –because a villain altered the timeline.
But that’s the premise. The cool part of the movie is not what they changed, but what stayed the same. We get to see some fine actors inhabit these characters and manage to put a bit of the former actor’s style into it. You watch Chris Pine–slowly he becomes a bit of William Shatner; Quinto is a fantastic Spock. I swear I can hear Kelley in this new McCoy! Uhura shows her inner Nichols in a turbo-lift. Sulu, Chekhov and Scotty all have their moments of channeling as well. But the writers also let the actors play—play with these histories and parts.
The plot allows each character to be introduced separately. This is a brilliant maneuver. instead of just dumping them all on the stage at once, we get to know each character in their context. We meet Kirk and Spock as children, Uhura in a bar, McCoy on a shuttlecraft, Scotty in a Starfleet Outpost, Sulu as a pilot and in a fight, and Chekhov in a funny homage to ST4.
I wish Wolverine would have been this good. This had just as much action as Wolvie, but ST had a unified plot, and well-developed characters we thought we knew completely. In the same way Wolvie failed–by being a prequel with no surprises at all–Abrams managed to give us a bit of parallelism in the lives of these characters and the ones we already know. And there are so many great and interesting surprises–what ifs–that are allowed to play out.
This is what revision should be. The series was great, but Myth can revise a story and get to its essence, even if the details have somewhat changed. I can accept both Roddenberry’s original and Abrams’ version–because this isn’t an arbitrary version. It fits in with the timeline because Nero changed the timeline. I’m cool with that. Just as I’m cool with Janeway’s original arrival back on Earth, and “Yesterday’s Enterprise” (a fan favorite).
And J.J. Abrams, a big high-five to you and the writers from a long-time fan! When I was seven, I took my photo with the wax figure of Mr. Spock, my dad on the other side of Spock. I don’t have a costume–but I was once Spock at Halloween. I don’t know Klingon, nor do I collect the series, or any of the paraphenalia, but I loved the stories, and I recognize Star Trek as American Mythos. You’ve done a great job at bringing that to the surface. Well done. Do a sequel.
While Wolverine looked promising, it was a confusing mess of action with never a moment of tension. The problem was established early–in the credits–and this hindered us from caring about the characters.
If you make your characters indestructible, then you eliminate us from caring. It was the problem with Superman many years ago–he had no real vulnerability. So the writers rewrote him. Here with Wolverine and Sabertooth, they are given nearly immortal status at the beginning of the film. They don’t age slowly–they just don’t age once they hit their thirties. And they go through the Civil War, WW1, WW2, and the Vietnam War all in about ten minutes of screen time. They are always frontline, get shot at over and over, get hit, but never get hurt. There is no danger for these guys. None. That is established up front. So why would there be any tension in the film?
The film goes on to try and make Wolverine truly indestructible by giving him admantium bones. But since he was already invulnerable (yeah, he could get slightly bruised in a fight with his brother), the admantium claws gave him no discernible advantage. Ah, yes, in fights with Sabertooth, Sabe’s face was a bit more pained–but he was still walking tall after the fights. Spare me the argument that they can heal. 1) An ability to heal that quickly means there are no consequences. No consequences eliminate plot and choice–both essential to story. 2) Wolverine never healed that quickly in the comics. The point of Wolverine’s healing ability was to protect him in the long run, but he got beat up bad in the comics. Often, it would take him days and weeks to heal. And that’s good—it made him vulnerable, but gave him a slight advantage in the ICU. It made me care. But in this film, immediate healing meant that two shadows were boxing each other. I thought–so what?
The fights were scripted so that either Wolvie or his opponent should fall down so there could be a bit of dialogue, or a change of scene. If Sabertooth met up with any other character, that character was toast. It was just a matter of time. Because Sabertooth was established as indestructible. Worse yet, I am now not sure what Sabertooth is really responsible for–since his main kill comes back to life. The body count might have been high–but a viewer can’t care if the bodies spring back to life or never had much life to begin with.
Working against it too–the movie was a prequel. And if the survival of the main characters is the plot of a prequel, you’ve doomed yourself. The plot of a prequel needs to be another mystery–because their survival is assured. Here, we were told that we were going to learn the mystery of Wolverine’s origins–but there was no central goal for the main character, no puzzle to solve; just event after event happening to the main characters. No choices, no consequences, no mystery.
I was looking forward to Cyclops, to Gambit, Blob, etc. These characters were used more for the trailer than the movie. This movie had no arc, no plot, and characters who needed to wade through two hours of special effects to return them to X-Men 1, where they began.
Everyone, come hear the six Yukon Writers Festival writers read on Wednesday night at 7pm at the Beringia Centre for FREE. Part of Live Words: Yukon Writers Festival and the Young Authors Conference, these six writers will be teaching young adults to write at FH Collins–and this presentation is free and open to the public.
I’ve been asked to be the MC for the evening. As I have nothing funny to say, and you can’t be a good MC without funny material–I need six words from readers of my blog–one per person please–the first six– that I have to fit into my opening short speech. And if I get all six, I should win some sort of prize. Nothing that I couldn’t say in public please–so I won’t accept vulgar expressions.
It’s fun. And if you come, you get to see if I can fit them all in.
Recently saw a rerun of Deep Space Nine where Jadzia Dax is reviewing a possible Trill initiate. Just to clarify: Trills have the opportunity to join with a symbiotic species which will live through many hosts. Imagine a worm that lives off you, but also provides you with the lifetimes of all its previous hosts and the knowledge it’s accumulated. There are millions of Trills, but only a few thousand of these symbiants, so there’s quite a competition for them. It’s an honor to be joined. The host’s personality and the symbiant’s personality alters when they are joined, and they become a new person. “The two become one.” But because the symbiant has lived such a long time, its personality is pretty strong as an influence, and Trills try to choose for a host a pretty strong personality who has defined themselves before joining—not someone who has no personality or desires–someone who offers nothing to the symbiant, nor to society, but who just wants to live off the symbiant (ironic).
In “Playing God” in Season Two, Jadzia finds herself reviewing a potential host. The problem is that he is eager to get the nod from her, but not to add much to a symbiant’s life. He has no passions, no plans for his life. He is living his father’s dream–not his own.
I thought about this. Here was a man who was not doing anything with his life. He was hoping that the symbiant would give him a life….
How many times do we do that in a relationship? We cancel out ourselves to make sure there is room for someone else. We stop living because we want to be “joined” with someone. We’d do anything to be “joined” including becoming what they want…. and yet we forget that we could add to the mix too.
People are fascinating. We are attracted to them because they are fascinating. Even the most “serving” personality has thoughts and dreams that happen to no one else. We all can hear the death knell on a relationship when one person tries to eliminate what makes them “them” in order to get “joined.” And we all hear wedding bells when two strong interesting individuals get together–as two strong people, bringing something to the relationship.
So, what will you do with this life you have been given? And what will you contribute to your joining? How will you contribute to the world? What are your passions? Do this, find this, before you get “joined”—-you will contribute a lot to your joining–whether it’s a marriage, a workplace, a family, a faith.
Hmmm. We forget that sometimes–we Christians. God is not here to hollow out his creation and make them clones of Jesus. He needs something to work with. That’s why you gotta be the best Trill you can be as a host for such a cool symbiant. (Oh my, I’ve surely crossed a line—Jesus as Symbiant….) But I think it works. I’ve met too many Christian young adults who are empty vessels–no personality–save worry about not doing the right thing—who are hiding who they are and I think they get this message from well-meaning folks and colleges. Hey, good men and women, God doesn’t want “you” to be a robot, a device that he manipulates, downloads His thoughts and desires—he enjoys a cool person to talk with, to “join” with.
Give him one. The more interesting, the better.
Northern Writes is pleased to announce the 2009 Yukon Writers Conference, taking place at the Westmark Whitehorse, on April 3 through 5, 2009. The 2009 Yukon Writers Conference is an opportunity for Yukon writers to meet with and learn from six North American editors and one publisher representing a variety of genres.
The conference will include workshops, a panel discussion, individual pitch appointments and an open critique session.
The conference fee of $90 also covers an opening reception, lunches on Saturday and Sunday, and coffee breaks.
The following publisher and editors will present at the event:
Claire Eddy, Senior Editor, Tor/Forge Books, New York
Paula Eykelhof, Editor, Mira Books, Toronto
Lily Gontard, Editor, Yukon, North of Ordinary, Whitehorse
Shawna McCarthy, Editor, Realms of Fantasy and Agent, New Jersey
Lynne Missen, Executive Editor, Children’s Books, HarperCollins, Toronto
Kathleen Scheibling, Editor, Harlequin Books, Toronto
Howard White, Publisher, Harbour Publishing, Madeira Park, BC
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Registration deadlines as follows: February 28 if submitting a writing sample/proposal March 15 if not submitting Registration forms and information sheets will be available at the Whitehorse Public Library starting on February 9, or by contacting Marcelle Dubé at (867) 633-4565, mdube@northwestel.net. Please feel free to share this information.
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This conference is not to be missed if you live anywhere near the Yukon. You can’t see these people up close and personal in other venues in the States or in Canada. But here, in Whitehorse, you have a chance to talk with them personally, submit writing, receive critique, and get to know them.
I’ve said before that it was in the Yukon that I met and really got to know some amazing authors/editors from Outside. These meetings were all through conferences like this one that Barb Dunlop and Marcelle Dubé engineered.
If you believe in that Latin phrase on the book above–“I write”–then you’ll want to prepare for this conference. Have ready a manuscript by the end of February to submit to these editors. Come and join us for a chance to develop your writing and all Yukon writers.
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Photo above is from my good friend, Kater Cheek, whose amazing art can be found here at www.catherinecheek.com
I came across this nugget of writing advice from JK Rowling in an article from the Toronto Star. It’s simple, but important.
Of the “universal appeal” of her books, Rowling said, “I’ve been asked that question a lot. I’ve always found it very difficult to answer. I feel there’s an expectation that I should know what the magical formula was, but in truth I wrote what I liked reading.
“I wrote about characters I was deeply interested in.”
And that is probably the most profound writing advice you’ll get–the part we forget sometimes. Have you ever been writing along on some short story for a contest, a journal, even working on a novel, but you don’t really care about the characters? In fact, you would find them boring if you met them in real life? Or tiresome, or annoying, or bland, or one-sided, or pitiful.
It matters to your readers if you care about your characters. Sometimes, like scribbling gods, we are interested in our Plots–how we can mess up the quiet lives of our characters, or how interesting we can make their situations—but the characters may not matter as much because they are being propelled by the plot. They are riding shotgun to the plot that’s really driving. They can react, white-knuckle the door, scream, maybe even fling the door wide, but they don’t get to drive, and partly because they just aren’t as interesting as the cool plot we’ve given the keys to.
I read that article and interview with Rowling and I left thinking about my own stories, and how many of those characters–on the stories I was working on–were those I wasn’t “deeply interested” in? You could say that for short stories you only have to be mildly attracted to them–it’s a 10 page affair after all. But a novel, you might say–or even a Potter series–you’d have to be interested in the character. Yet, I think we all want memorable characters to follow as we read. As we write. In short stories and in long ones, and in series. Because if we’re interested, then readers will be too.
Time to revamp some of my characters–the ones I’m not currently deeply interested in–and find out how I make them more interesting on the page–so that even in a small story, the characters linger in a big way.
Very ,very sad to announce that Realms of Fantasy is folding.
The news broke yesterday.
Realms of Fantasy has been with us for fifteen years and “was coming up on its 100th issue,” Cleveland said. “We were excited about the special Halloween issue we’d been planning, which would have been our first.” The staff is obviously harried by the news, and that it’s become public so quickly. Cleveland had been hoping to tell the authors and artists the news before it broke publicly.
Realms of Fantasy has been one of the anchors of the Fantasy short story publishing industry. As a print magazine, Realms was billed as “the largest magazine in the world devoted to Fantasy”. It was part of the big four anchor magazines of the industry (the others being Asimov’s, Fantasy and Science Fiction and Analog) partly built on the venue–a large glossy magazine (not a small pulp), its reputation for helping careers begin, the high distribution from subscription, and the amount it paid for stories. Editor Shawna McCarthy was recognized as one of the best editors in the business (and she will be here in the Yukon in April!–I hope!!). Will all venues and markets go web-only? Is that an answer to part of it–or is it about advertising, and since you’d have to have advertising either way, are closings inevitable?
With Fantasy and Science Fiction going bimonthly, Realms‘ closing narrows the market for writers of short FSF considerably. If this is the beginning of the economic crisis, recession, depression, etc., then this isn’t a good sign. Two out of four of the big anchor markets down or downsized? I’m assuming Realms thought of all options–bimonthly, web-only zine, etc.— so I’m not gonna try to come up with suggestions for fixes…
However, now is the time to save a ‘zine. If the economic crisis is just going to get worse, is there a way to help ‘zines as fans and writers? Can we donate money? Tell us. Can we help support in other ways? Tell us. Can we ask universities to adopt a Zine for a short period of time? I was never one to subscribe much–mostly because I moved around every couple of years, and my subscriptions had a hard time finding me, and because I was often broke. When I could I bought from the newsstand. But if I can help by choosing three zines to subscribe to in order to save them from oblivion–let me know. I should have been doing that all along. However, if I thought it was balanced on my subscription, I would have done it earlier. And I suspect many writers would feel the same way—that if people needed to borrow from us, they could.
Is there a way to stop the closing of Realms of Fantasy? Is there a way to stop the decline in markets and venues and places to read great science fiction/fantasy?
Bear Witness 