Thursday, November 17, 2022

The Purpose of Horror

What is horror fiction (whether in print or on film) good for? My parents certainly took a dim view of my fervent interest in the genre, beginning at the age of twelve with my first reading of DRACULA. A familiar physiological or biochemical hypothesis proposes that reading or viewing horror serves the same purpose as riding a roller coaster. We enjoy the adrenaline rush of danger without having to expose ourselves to any real risk. Personally, I would never get on a roller coaster except at gunpoint, to save someone else's life, or to earn a lavish amount of money. I'm terrified of anything that feels like falling and don't like any kind of physical "thrill" experience. Yet I do enjoy the vicarious fears of the horror genre. Maybe real-life thrill rides or extreme sports feel too much like actual danger for my tolerance level, whereas artistic terror feels controllable.

H. P. Lovecraft famously asserts, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear is fear of the unknown." Therefore, horror is a legitimate subject for art, even though he believes its appeal is restricted to a niche audience. We might link Lovecraft's thesis to the physiological model, in that the feared unknown becomes manageable when confined within the boundaries of a story.

In DANSE MACABRE, Stephen King suggests that all horror fiction has roots in our fear of death. Embodying the threat of death in the form of a monster entails the hope that it can be defeated. I think it's in 'SALEM'S LOT that a child character says, "Death is when the monsters get you."

In an interview in the October 2022 LOCUS, author Sarah Gailey maintains that "horror is designed to put the reader in touch with an experience of the body, where that experience is one that they typically would not wish to have." Our culture separates body and mind from each other, while, Gailey says, "Horror serves to remind us that those things aren’t separate. The ‘I’ who I am is absolutely connected to the physical experience of my body and the danger that body could face in the world, and horror does an incredible job of reminding readers that we live in bodies, we live in the world, and we are creatures."

This comment reminds me of C. S. Lewis's remark that the truth of our nature as a union of both the spiritual and the physical could be deduced from the existence of dirty jokes and ghost stories. Bawdy humor implies that our having fleshly bodies is somehow funny, shameful, or incongruous. No other species of animal seems to find it funny just to be the kind of creature it is. Supernatural horror highlights the sense that separation of body and soul, which should form a single, unified entity, is deeply unnatural. Hence we get the extremes of zombies (soulless yet animated bodies) and ghosts (disembodied spirits).

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sunday, November 13, 2022

Emails Are Forever, Forever, Forever

The best line of the week in all the copyright-related legal blogs (in my sole opinion) was that from Charlotte K, Newell who wrote, "Emails, like diamonds, are forever."
 
By the way, emails may also be subject to copyright. An alien romance author (or any other genre of author) cannot take other people's emails and weave them into an epistolary novel. Publish someone else's email, and one might be sued just as much as if one publishes someone else's letter.

Slightly off topic, and by the way, the Lulu blog has a really good article of advice to authors on avoiding a defamation lawsuit.

The self-publishing school has another helpful article specifically for authors of memoirs --but it might also apply to alien romance authors-- written by Chandler Bolt.
 
This is all getting away from the imperishability of emails, and the reference to James Bond film theme songs sung by Shirley Bassey.
 
Charlotte K. Newell, blogging for the law firm Sidley Austin LLP, discusses the importance of using the appropriate email address for correspondence (legal or otherwise) if there is a future possibility that one might be involved in a lawsuit and need to claim attorney-client privilege.

Authors who have a day job might take note.
  

The Who -or Whose-, What, Why, and How of intellectual property and emails generated during the work day as regards New Zealand law are comprehensively discussed by legal bloggers Joseph Harrop and Helena Scholes of the NZ lawfirm Lane Neave.

"In a world where content is king, intellectual property (IP) rights rule supreme. So, a key question in the employment relationship relates to when these rights arise and who is entitled to them. This article discusses the what, why, who and when of copyright in employment relationships."

Write or draw something while at work, on the clock for someone else, and it might not be yours.

The article focuses on New Zealand law, and on precautions that the employer should take, but it is always good to know.
 
All the best,


Rowena Cherry 
SPACE SNARK™ 
EPIC Award winner, Friend of ePublishing for Crazy Tuesday


 

Friday, November 11, 2022

Karen Wiesner: Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms: The Witcher Series

Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms:

The Witcher Series, created by Andrzej Sapkowski


by Karen Wiesner

In this article series I'm calling "Fiction Series So Big, They Cross Multimedia Platforms", I plan to explore supernatural fiction series that sometimes had their beginnings as books but branched out into other types of mediums, like videogames, movies/TV series, board/card/role-playing games, and music. In each individual article that I hope will introduce entertainment connoisseurs to some incredible fiction or components of similar themed stories they might have otherwise missed, I'll discuss the origins of the series elements as well as my individual experience with the various types of media, which will be presented as a kind of review of the series. Let's start with a particular favorite of mine: Polish bestselling author Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher Series.

In Poland, The Witcher Series has a cult following and is so popular, a garden square in the author's hometown was renamed Witcher Square and a mural (the largest in Poland!) of the main character, Geralt, was painted on a local skyscraper. Americans didn't get translations of the book series for 17 years after the first story was published in Poland (and a couple of them still remain untranslated). The popularity of the videogames no doubt gave rise to interest in the books, which in turn incited the TV series that's become a favorite among fans of the supernatural.

Which Came First?

Sapkowski's The Witcher book series has everything a lover of the supernatural could want with the cool twist of a "genetically engineered" hero designed to hunt monsters of lore using melee combat, alchemical potions and decoctions that would be poison to anyone without the witcher mutagen, and some magical abilities called signs. Geralt of Rivia is one of several other Witchers. In the past, the word "witcher" translated from the Polish was "hexer" or "spellmaker". Witchers are a dying breed, to be sure, in this series, and they're frequently aided by sorceresses like Yennefer of Vengerberg and Triss Merigold (male witches also exist in this world). Bards are popular in this world as well, whether a help or hindrance, especially Geralt's best friend, Dandelion (or Jaskier in Polish, which is what he's called in the Netflix series to much confusion for those who have read the English translated books or played the games).

The series is set on an unnamed continent settled thousands of years earlier by elves who came from overseas. War broke out between the elves and the dwarves who dwelled on the continent. Other beings existing at that time are gnomes, halflings, and dryads. Humans arrived after this time (500 years before the events of the series) and dominated all other races. Humans war amongst themselves as well. Like the author, the main character despises politics and tries to remain neutral, not always successfully. After a magical event called the Conjunction of the Spheres, werewolves, vampires, and a whole host of mystical creatures (taken from existing lore as well as unique creatures invented by the author, or hybrids thereof) spilled onto the continent.

Previously a traveling fur salesman with a degree in economics and a lover of fantasy, the Polish author wrote a short story called "The Witcher" that he entered in a competition held by a Polish sci-fi and fantasy magazine his son liked. Though he waited a year for the results (taking the 3rd place prize), readers of the magazine spurred the author to write more short stories with their approval. Positive reception quickly led him to undertaking a fantasy saga complete with novels. The Witcher Series was published in Poland between 1990 and 2013 while the first wasn't released until 2007 in the USA. Spin-offs include stories (written by other writers) set in the world of The Witcher featuring its characters. Comic books of The Witcher were published from 1993 to 2014. 

Early screen adaptations were an overseas 2001 film and a 2002 TV series (titled The Hexer). Netflix adapted the series to television in 2019 along with an animated film in 2021 and a live-action prequel series is also in the works.

The first Witcher videogame was released in 2007, the second in 2011; and the third and final of the trilogy, in 2015. The games, particularly the latter, are bestsellers and have received countless awards. A remake of the first game is in the works, along with a second trilogy.

In 2001, a tabletop role-playing game based on the books was published. Another was released in 2018 based on the videogames. Board games, available in physical and digital forms, are currently available. Additionally, card games based on the videogames are in circulation.

Soundtracks for the videogames contain breathtakingly beautiful music. A rock opera and a musical based on the series were produced by a Russian symphonic rock band between 2009 and 2012.

A Review of the Various Medium Components Available

I became intrigued with the Witcher Series when I watched my son playing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. I bought myself a copy, and my fascination with the series became absolute. I've played it countless times, many times a year, and the Blood and Wine DLC is some of the best bonus game material I've ever encountered. Every award this game won was well-deserved. This game is open-world and non-linear (you can do the quests in any order, for the most part), and much of the outcome is directly based on choices the player makes throughout, which is my favorite kind. As a gamer, I'm also a completionist, so I tend to do nearly every quest available (at least the first time), giving me a good two hundred hours of gameplay with this one. For the similarly obsessive type, I have an alphabetized, complete quest checklist uploaded here:  https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/witcher3questskarenwiesner.pdf.

After I played The Witcher 3 (and prior to playing The Witcher 2, which I'll talk about soon), I bought all Sapkowski's Witcher books and read them compulsively, more than once. They're phenomenal. Truly, some of the best books I've ever read. Below, you'll see the titles available in The Witcher Series (presented in chronological order--as they should be read--rather than in publication order):

1)    The Last Wish

2)    Sword of Destiny

3)    Season of Storms

4)    Blood of Elves

5)    The Time of Contempt

6)    Baptism of Fire

7)    The Tower of Swallows

8)    Lady of the Lake

9)    The Lady of the Lake

Next, I played The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. The gameplay is a bit trickier than 3, requiring the player to be prepared and anticipate monster attacks in advance with oils for the sword and potions designed to aid defense and attack (death otherwise, meaning multiple saves are necessary in case you die and need to reload to a previous save state). I'm so glad they changed this in the third game! Witcher 2 also has the unfortunate annoyance of forcing the player to (somehow) know the exact order each quest must be played in order to avoid missing out on anything. I designed my own "ideal order of quests" checklist to ensure I don't miss anything important in the 25 hours plus of gameplay this installment boasts. Gamer completionists can find my fairly thorough console version walkthrough here: https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/uploads/2/3/5/5/23554234/witcher2walkthroughkarenwiesner.pdf.

I enjoy this game immensely, though not quite as much as The Witcher 3, in part because it's a hybrid between a linear and a non-linear game. You're forced to complete certain of the quests (i.e., main quests) at a certain time, usually advancing you to another location in the game. Once those major quests are completed in the order they're required, you can settle in for a bit and complete location questions in a more non-linear manner. Again, the player's ongoing decisions affect the outcome of the storyline.

I do own the videogame The Witcher 1 on Steam and computer disk. Though it was supposed to be released on console back in the day, it ended up available only on PC. I find it much harder to play anything but point and click games, like Nancy Drew, on PC. A complicated combat game like The Witcher works so much better, in my opinion, using a game controller instead of a keyboard. In any case, I'm hopeful I will get to play the remake of The Witcher 1 in the coming years, if the promise of it comes to fruition--and that it's available on PC and consoles at the time of release.

Another media component of the videogames for this series are game soundtracks. I fell in love with the incredible soundtracks from each of the games, particularly the one for The Witcher 2. The gorgeous compositions created for the games have carried me through endless hours of writing sessions. Check them out here:


The Witcher 1 Soundtrack:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFIbVqHOOIU

The Witcher 2 Soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=witcher+2+soundtrack

The Witcher 3 Soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=witcher+3+soundtrack

As if all this wasn't enough to embrace concerning a series with so many multimedia components, I love the mini-games that are played within each of the videogames. Specifically, Gwent in The Witcher 3 is a favorite card game of mine. I own all the physical decks along with an authentic game mat. I also enjoy Kings Dice from The Witcher 2. I've heard that in The Witcher 1, the player has the option of collecting "naughty" playing cards that are somehow related to Geralt's many sexual conquests. He must have a huge deck, if it's based on that, lol. This is one amorous hero, and the ladies (regardless of their race) love him.

I was thrilled when I heard about the Netflix adaptation of The Witcher Series, but I've found the results mixed, thus far. First, I strongly question the choices for some of the actors in the show, though they're growing on me, despite my qualms, a bit more after two seasons. Also, the first season whipsaws through time shifts so even a veteran reader of the books could easily become confused. The second season changes the series radically from the books with a new vision. I do admit, though, if I didn't consider the books canon, I might like the series more than I currently do. Those unhindered by the books will probably love the TV series. 

Whether you're a supernatural book reader, gamer, lover of TV and movies and music, I highly recommend The Witcher Series in all its multimedia facets. They're worth whatever time and monetary investments made on their behalf.

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150+ titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/karens-quill-blog

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor


Thursday, November 10, 2022

Corporate Bullies and Copyright

Cory Doctorow's article for the November 2022 LOCUS discusses the ever-increasing reach of monopolies that prey on the work of writers and other content creators, in terms of a parable about bullies stealing lunch money. If the victims get more lunch money, they don't get more food; the bullies get more money. No matter how much artistic creators produce and theoretically earn, the greed of the rights-grabbers will never be sated:

Structural Adjustment

Doctorow reminds us that only five (maybe, soon, four) major publishing conglomerates exist and that the realms of physical bookselling, online retailing and e-book sales, book distribution, and music production are each dominated by one mega-corporation. "Publishing and other 'creative industries' generate more money than ever — and yet, despite all this copyright and all the money that sloshes around as a result of it, the share of the income from creative work that goes to creators has only declined." In book publishing, unless an author chooses to self-publish (or go with small independent presses, which he doesn't mention in this article), "Contracts demand more — ebook rights, graphic novel rights, TV and film rights, worldwide English rights — and pay less." And of course the major online retailers exercise their dominance over self-publishers' access to markets.

He summarizes in terms of his parable, "We’re the hungry school kids. The cartels that control access to our audiences are the bullies. The lunch-money is copyright."

Asserting, "Cartels and monopolies have enacted chokepoints between creators and audiences," Doctorow recommends a book, CHOKEPOINT CAPITALISM: HOW BIG TECH AND BIG CONTENT CAPTURED CREATIVE LABOR MARKETS AND HOW WE'LL WIN THEM BACK, and gives an example of one of the strategies recommended in it.

While I understand his points and recognize the dangers he often cites in his articles, as a reader (and online consumer in general) I would have trouble getting along without Amazon. It's a great boon to be able to find almost any book, no matter how obscure and long out of print. I value being able to acquire the complete backlist of almost any author I'm interested in. I enjoy having purchases delivered to our doorstep, since the older I get, the less I want to go out searching for items —- especially given the not-unlikely frustration of not finding what I want in stock locally. And I trust Amazon to fill orders reliably and handle credit information securely, rather than my taking the risk of buying from websites unknown to me. As an author, if I decide to self-publish a work, I like being able to upload it for free on the most popular e-book seller's site, plus other retailers through Draft2Digital. At the same time, I realize Doctorow isn't wrong that by embracing convenience and economy, we put ourselves at the mercy of the provider's whims. For one thing, buying a product in electronic form (e-book, music file, movie, etc.) means the seller can make it evaporate from the consumer's hard drive or tablet anytime. So what's the ideal solution? I don't know.

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Sunday, November 06, 2022

DARK PATTERNS, DIRTY TRICKS

Two days ago, tech support deleted two weeks' worth of research with one over-confident, permissionless click of an X in the upper right corner of a tool bar that came up after a restart. 129 tabs were erased and 120 of them could not be recovered. Lesson learned. I should have bookmarked them all! 

So, I return to the deep and dirty well of so-called "Dark Patterns" because they are top of mind, and the FTC is (sort of) on the warpath about them.

In a nutshell, "dark patterns" are hidden tricks that companies deploy to trick users into making choices that they would not otherwise have made, or spending more than they might have intended. 

Strictly speaking, I am not sure if "browsewrap" and "clickwrap" count as a dark pattern, but I came across a doozy this week. A homeowners' association management company has a specialized, automated website that they want all homeowners in the association to join. First, one must click one of those "I Agree" boxes to prove that one has read all the terms of use and other contractually binding terms and conditions. 

That is "clickwrap". You at least have the opportunity to click a link and read the TOU before clicking the box. "Browsewrap" is worse. You are deemed to have agreed to all the terms simply by visiting the site.

The terms on this site included a Miscellaneous Clause that gave the management company the right to change the contract without telling the users, and we users agree to be bound by the contract including by any unknowable changes, and accept full legal responsibility for not knowing what we'd agreed.

Also this week, I spent some time looking at pricey apartments and reading the reviews written by residents (or so they claimed). Somewhere in the very low-starred rankings, a residential whistle blower disclosed that the apartment management gives rent discounts and awards lottery prizes to residents who write glowing reviews.

That is surely shady. 

It would be a whole lot less shady if the residents disclosed --as part of the review text-- that they had received valuable compensation as payment for writing a five star review.

Here is a selection of articles about the FTC and deceptive reviews.




The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has published a report titled, "Bringing Dark Patterns To Light" which gives useful guidance to website owners about what sorts of manipulative dirty tricks the FTC might take a dim view of. (Apologies for the non-ACT grammar!)

Link to the .pdf 

Legal bloggers Christine Lyon and Emily Parfitt for the A Fresh Take blog run by the lawfirm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP summarize the report and explain the very interesting, four main categories of dark patterns which are: to induce false beliefs; to hide or delay disclosure of important information; to obscure or subvert privacy elections; and to add on extra charges without clearly disclosing them.

A Fresh Take link:
 
Lexology link:
 

Friday, November 04, 2022

Karen S. Wiesner: Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 6 Conclusion

Writer's Craft Article

Fiction Fundamentals: Writing Elbow Grease, Part 6

Conclusion

by Karen S. Wiesner

Based on Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2: 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

In this three month, in-depth series, we went over what could be considered the grunge work in building a cohesive story. Revising, editing, and polishing require a little or a lot of writing elbow grease to finish the job and bring forth a strong and beautiful book.

In Part 5 of this series, we went over editing and polishing tricks and tips. Let's conclude this series with one last thing to consider. 

The revision layer of a story involves the finishing touches to make your story shine. With these elements, you'll create an extremely strong layer--something that will allow you to send your novel out with confidence to the people who can publish it. However, I do like to add one additional step to the revision process, and this is one I consider mandatory.

The final read-through

Following all the grueling revision we've been doing, many authors may feel ready to send the story out, either to a publisher who’s waiting to release it, or in a submission to find a publisher or agent for the book. A couple situations prompted me to add one last read-through of the story before I considered it done. I think even savvy, confident authors might want to complete this before submitting. We'll go over the whys and wherefores of doing this soon, but first, a couple of side-tracks here.

1. I strongly believe a final read-through needs to take place on a hard copy of the book--in whatever form, a printed version. Yes, I know we live in a digital world. Everything is done on the computer. But the very real and inescapable fact is that human eyes are fallible. They aren't capable of seeing everything on a computer (or something similar to this) screen and, frequently, what you see on the screen isn't necessarily what's in the hard copy--spacing, formatting, and other issues may crop up from one medium to the other. We need the hard copy to truly catch everything that demands our attention (like typos and "Track Changes" errors) in the final draft of a manuscript. Our eyes can only see some of these things on the printed version of the book. This is essential, and I guarantee if you're not getting this hard copy (from your own printer of the final proof after edits, directly from you publisher or from another means like the one I'll describe in a second), you're missing a tremendous amount of issues that readers are going to catch. Do yourself a favor. Get a hard copy to do your final read-through from.

2. Second, the current state of the industry--exploding with indie publishers and self-published authors--requires another stage in which to find the errors that seem to creep into our stories like lice. The fact is, there are very few legitimately professional editors and/or copyeditors working at publishing houses these days, especially at smaller publishers, and authors who are self-publishing their own works may even skip the professional-editor-input altogether. For that reason, it’s even more crucial to have a stage where the writer sees his book in this final form (and this is true even if the book is only released as an ebook without a paper component), where he can catch (probably not all but most) typos. While you can always print a copy from your own printer, I highly recommend utilizing a publishing service like Amazon, Lulu, or any other you like to set up an inexpensive hard copy of your book to serve as an advanced reading copy. In this form, you'll see your book in a state that's close to what readers will see it in after it's published (if a print edition will be made available). That's valuable. This is really just for your own use so try to find a cheap way to do this. You don't need cover art for this copy, but you're there so there's no reason not to, since you might want to access how that comes out as well. I'll also add that I don't recommend buying actually "proofreading" copies from most printers, like Amazon. Those copies can ruin the actual book so you can't see parts of it that you need to evaluate because the printer adds huge banners over portions of the wraparound around cover, covering up the text, etc. below. How ridiculous! I recommend purchasing a regular paperback copy of the book, just like readers will get if they buy it, that's not specifically for what these services deem proofreading copies.

3. If for no other reason, providing yourself with this final read-through is your very last chance before your editor sees it to make changes. You want her to find the finished product almost perfect, right? 

Back to the whys and wherefores of doing a final read-through of a book before it's considered done. During this final read through of the book, you shouldn't need to do much beyond exterminating typos and formatting errors, and doing that is a great case for adding this step to the process. But the final read-through serves another valuable benefit: It's a neat way of putting yourself in the position of being the first reader for the book. Naturally, this means you want to put as much time as you can afford into staying away from the book and not reading a word of it until you're ready to complete the final read-through (i.e., if you're sick to death of the story, you can't see it objectively). As much as possible, ignore the fact that you have a very personal affiliation with the book and simply read it--both in a critical and savoring mind-frame. Take your time reading to evaluate how the story goes over for you in this state. Do you love the story and your characters? Are you wrapped up totally in their worlds? How are you emotionally while you're reading it--removed and unsympathetic or invested wholly? Have you captured everything authentically? Or do you think you might need to do more work anywhere? Keep a tablet handy during this time so you write any notes you might need for fixing issues.

When I get to this stage in the process, I usually find very little is required and I may not add more than a thousand words during this time, which is still a nice, "gilding" layer. The story is brimming with life and there’s almost nothing left to stumble over or smooth out. Most importantly, though, in nearly every case I come out loving the story more than I ever have before. It exceeds the expectations I had for it when it was little more than the spark that incited me to write the story. Truthfully, I don't consider that conceit. I'd worry if I didn't have that reaction. If you don't love your own work, don't become immersed in the worlds and characters and conflicts contained in your stories, how can you expect readers to?

In the past few months, we've talked in-depth about the "grunge work" involved in completing a book. Each of the stages add a layer of your story--very strong layers that, for career authors, should be the necessary steps in ensuring multidimensional writing. Each time you add something new during these stages, you're creating another vital layer that makes the whole story stronger, richer, and more three-dimensional. Doing so also allows us to see another perspective of our story and can fuse in more and more details to forge three-dimensionality. Don't neglect the crucial elbow work involved in "decorating" your book since it's what makes your story not only a thing of beauty but a source of personal pride.

Happy writing!

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of Cohesive Story Building, Volume 2 of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

Karen Wiesner is an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150 titles and 16 series.

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

http://www.facebook.com/KarenWiesnerAuthor

Thursday, November 03, 2022

Living in Alternate Realities?

In Philip Wylie's 1951 novel THE DISAPPEARANCE, an unexplained phenomenon divides Earth into two separate, parallel versions. In one reality, all human males instantaneously vanish; in the other, all women and girls vanish. The all-male world predictably devolves into a violent dystopia, while in the parallel world women have to cope with running society in an era when, compared to today, relatively few females held high public office or were educated in other professions dominated by men.

For a while it has seemed to me that the United States split into two alternate realities in November 2020. Instead of diverging into physically different planes of existence, though, the two realities exist side by side on the same planet while nobody notices what's happened. We talk at cross-purposes to inhabitants of the alternate world under the impression that the other person lives in the same universe, and therefore we can't figure out why they don't see things that look so obvious to us.

This impression hit me afresh during a recent conversation with a person who holds political beliefs opposite from mine. The bishop of our diocese had published a message that, among other topics related to the upcoming election, warned of the possibility of violence. The person with whom I was talking dismissed the warning on the grounds that my party would have no reason to resort to violence locally because they're likely to win the majority of electoral contests in this state, as usual (which is true). And members of his party, he said, "don't riot." I inwardly gasped in disbelief. I wouldn't have said anything anyway, to avoid useless argument, but in that moment I literally could not think of a coherent answer. It seemed we were living in two distinctly different versions of this country, which somehow overlap without coinciding.

The internet and social media, of course, go a long way toward explaining how citizens can inhabit the same physical world but totally disconnected mental universes. Before the internet and cable TV, we all got our news from much the same sources. Fringe beliefs stayed on the fringe; if my memory is more or less accurate, there was a consensus about the general nature of political, historical, and social reality, regardless of vehement conflicts about details. Now, as has often been pointed out, people can stay in their own "bubbles" without ever getting undistorted exposure to opposing beliefs and concepts.

I don't have the skill to write it, but I think it would be interesting to read a science-fiction novel about a world that contains two overlapping dimensions without the inhabitants of those dimensions realizing they're not even in the same universe.

Anyway, on a brighter note, as a former co-worker of mine used to say, "Vote early, vote often."

Margaret L. Carter

Carter's Crypt

Saturday, October 29, 2022

Trick or Treat? Copyright My Gourd!

"Trick or Treat? Copyright My Gourd" doesn't rhyme and it does not scan, unlike the original threat, "Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet..." which, by the way, seems to me ought to be punctuated as a question.

Trust the highly creative people of the copyrightalliance to come up with something highly entertaining, seasonal, and copyright-related.

Writer Sydney Blitman discusses a question on every pumpkin carver's mind at this time of year: can I copyright my jack-o-lantern?

Apparently, you can make an argument for it. 

Follow the link to read a most excellent blog that deals with sketches, carvings, originality, fixation, mold and more...but not deer or bears. 

All the best,

Rowena Cherry

Friday, October 28, 2022

Writing Holiday Stories: Tricks (and Treats) by Karen S. Wiesner

 Writer's Craft Article by Karen S. Wiesner

Writing Holiday Stories: Tricks (and Treats) 

Who doesn't love to read chilling tales at Halloween that embed inside readers deeply enough for them to bite their nails, shiver, or even scream out loud?

Holiday stories have always been popular. Scrooge and those life-altering ghosts of goodwill in A Christmas Carol have been giving readers pause for reflection in the 179 years since it was first published; An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving by Louisa May Alcott is all about family and gathering together grateful hearts; Emma, with its matchmaking namesake, is an unexpected tale custom-made for Valentine's Day; not to mention Ichabod Crane and the Headless Horseman thundering through the chill autumn countryside in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Whole hosts of fiction give us reading adventures that embody the spirit of the holidays they're set around. But what distinguishes a holiday story from all others? In this article, we'll talk about three tricks writers can use to craft authentic holiday fiction that will give readers a treat year in and year out.

1          1)    Prominently Feature the Holiday Itself

Just because there's a romance alluded to somewhere in the story doesn't necessarily mean it's a Valentine's Day story any more than any old garden variety of frightening tale is specifically a Halloween one. Before embarking on a specific type of holiday story, write down what defines the particular festivity you're writing about and what you want to highlight in your unique take on it. While countless stories have become holiday favorites unintentionally, if you want to write something that could become seasonally beloved, starting with a plan is wise. Be specific about you want to accomplish using this season in your story elements because in some ways you're actually making the holiday a character that needs to be developed fully and consistently throughout the tale. The more preparation you do in advance, the more your readers will exult in how you've captured the essence of the holiday.

Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has become an annual All Hallows' favorite since it was first published in 1820, although the author may not have specifically intended it to become such a Halloween haunt. Based on a 1790 Dutch settlement, the secluded glen of Sleepy Holly depicts a quaint, autumnal countryside in which the community is fascinated by tales of the supernatural. His vivid descriptions are the driving force behind this treasured yuletide yarn:

"From the listless repose of the place, and the peculiar character of its inhabitants, who are descendants from the original Dutch settlers, this sequestered glen has long been known by the name of Sleepy Hollow, and its rustic lads are called the Sleepy Hollow Boys throughout all the neighboring country. A drowsy, dreamy influence seems to hang over the land, and to pervade the very atmosphere... Certain it is, the place still continues under the sway of some witching power, that holds a spell over the minds of the good people, causing them to walk in a continual reverie. They are given to all kinds of marvellous beliefs; are subject to trances and visions; and frequently see strange sights, and hear music and voices in the air. The whole neighborhood abounds with local tales, haunted spots, and twilight superstitions: stars shoot and meteors glare oftener across the valley than in any other part of the country, and the nightmare, with her whole nine fold, seems to make it the favorite scene of her gambols...

"On all sides he beheld vast store of apples; some hanging in oppressive opulence on the trees; some gathered into baskets and barrels for the market; others heaped up in rich piles for the cider-press. Farther on he beheld great fields of Indian corn, with its golden ears peeping from their leafy coverts, and holding out the promise of cakes and hasty-pudding; and the yellow pumpkins lying beneath them, turning up their fair round bellies to the sun..."

2)    Set the Mood for a Seasonal Tale

The second thing that distinguishes any holiday story is mood (or tone). Mood is a carefully constructed means of building layers of tension and suspense, and the tone almost always fits the genre. Romance stories capture the tender feelings of swoon-worthy, appealing main characters that readers will root through obstacles to see share a happily ever after. Mystery stories tend to have an escalating sense of drama and the certainty that something is just not right; only by unraveling the confounding threads and clues can peace and order once again prevail. Gothic leans toward a suffocating feel of atmospheric foreboding. Horror should have the hairs at the back of your neck standing on end and you have to fight the constant need to look back over your shoulder to see if there's something unnatural lurking there.

In the same way, Christmas stories tend to be merry, festive, nostalgic, filled with hope and cheer and benevolence. Valentine's Day stories are frequently romantic, passionate, and rife with promise for the future. Easter tales usually personify grace, redemption, and joy. Thanksgiving yarns are overflowing with the gathering of loved ones, images of feasts and bounty, the good things to be grateful for in our otherwise mundane lives. Each holiday has evocative sentiments that tend to be universal.

Sensory descriptions that evoke the individual seasons should be used in holiday stories at their most potent times. Vivid descriptions bring the reader directly into this kind of story. Using these, you give something tangible in your vision. Your reader moves and uses his senses right along with your characters. The most effective way to capture mood is by using all the senses, as Washington Irving did so effectively in his Gothic tale that contains the epitome of all things spooky:

"It was the very witching time of night that Ichabod, heavyhearted and crest-fallen, pursued his travel homewards, along the sides of the lofty hills which rise above Tarry Town, and which he had traversed so cheerily in the afternoon. The hour was as dismal as himself. Far below him, the Tappan Zee spread its dusky and indistinct waste of waters, with here and there the tall mast of a sloop, riding quietly at anchor under the land. In the dead hush of midnight, he could even hear the barking of the watch-dog from the opposite shore of the Hudson; but it was so vague and faint as only to give an idea of his distance from this faithful companion of man. Now and then, too, the long-drawn crowing of a cock, accidentally awakened, would sound far, far off, from some farm-house away among the hills—but it was like a dreaming sound in his ear. No signs of life occurred near him, but occasionally the melancholy chirp of a cricket, or perhaps the guttural twang of a bull-frog, from a neighboring marsh, as if sleeping uncomfortably, and turning suddenly in his bed."

3)    Immerse the Story in the Setting


Setting is a critical foundation to immersing characters in a world that's directly tied to the holiday you're depicting in the story. In A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting: How to Enhance Your Fiction With More Descriptive, Dynamic Settings, Mary Buckham says, "Setting can create the world of your story, show characterization, add conflict, slow or speed up your pacing, add or decrease tension, relate a character's backstory, thread in emotion, and more… Setting can add so much to your story world or it can add nothing." If you're writing a Christmas story, for example, you're literally at the mercy of your imagination when it comes to crafting prose that floods the senses with Christmas songs, scents, tastes, sights, sensations, and the sheer multitude and range of emotions that can accompany each.

In fiction, settings should be less about objective reality (impersonal) and all about subjective experience (highly personal), especially when you're writing a holiday-specific story. Settings may provide the backdrop for festivity events to unfold, but they do much more than that by creating the context of each scene. Settings can suggest conflicts, personality, memories, goals, and motivations. The connotations are endless. What does the setting reveal about the character’s state of mind, preferences, desires this holiday season? What does the setting reveal about relationships? What in the setting means the most to the main character and/or brings the most regrets? What internal conflicts and motivations can be drawn to describe holidays more tangibly as a result? Are there ways in which the current holiday setting has been influenced by something that happened in the past, and what associations can be made with past events to deepen the present? How can this setting be used to establish the foundation for escalating conflict and suspense in the course of the holiday unfolding?

When you relate all of these things to the specific festivity you're highlighting in your story, amazing prose can homogenously emerge, as it did in Irving's haunting language that screams and embodies Halloween:

"All the stories of ghosts and goblins that he had heard in the afternoon, now came crowding upon his recollection. The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal. He was, moreover, approaching the very place where many of the scenes of the ghost stories had been laid. In the centre of the road stood an enormous tulip-tree, which towered like a giant above all the other trees of the neighborhood, and formed a kind of landmark. Its limbs were gnarled and fantastic, large enough to form trunks for ordinary trees, twisting down almost to the earth, and rising again into the air... The common people regarded it with a mixture of respect and superstition...

As Ichabod approached this fearful tree, he began to whistle: he thought his whistle was answered—it was but a blast sweeping sharply through the dry branches. As he approached a little nearer, he thought he saw something white, hanging in the midst of the tree—he paused and ceased whistling; but on looking more narrowly, perceived that it was a place where the tree had been scathed by lightning, and the white wood laid bare. Suddenly he heard a groan—his teeth chattered and his knees smote against the saddle; it was but the rubbing of one huge bough upon another, as they were swayed about by the breeze. He passed the tree in safety, but new perils lay before him.

About two hundred yards from the tree a small brook crossed the road, and ran into a marshy and thickly-wooded glen, known by the name of Wiley's swamp. A few rough logs, laid side by side, served for a bridge over this stream. On that side of the road where the brook entered the wood, a group of oaks and chestnuts, matted thick with wild grapevines, threw a cavernous gloom over it. To pass this bridge was the severest trial. This has ever...been considered a haunted stream, and fearful are the feelings of the schoolboy who has to pass it alone after dark.

As he approached the stream his heart began to thump... Just at this moment a plashy tramp by the side of the bridge caught the sensitive ear of Ichabod. In the dark shadow of the grove, on the margin of the brook, he beheld something huge, misshapen, black, and towering. It stirred not, but seemed gathered up in the gloom, like some gigantic monster ready to spring upon the traveller.

The hair of the affrighted pedagogue rose upon his head with terror. What was to be done? To turn and fly was now too late; and besides, what chance was there of escaping ghost or goblin, if such it was, which could ride upon the wings of the wind?"

Readers love holiday stories for good reason. Using these tips, you can help your readers get in the mood for the season with a timeless favorite they can look forward to returning to each year.

What are some of your favorite holiday stories? What elements make them timeless reading on those special days of the year?

Happy writing!


Just in time for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas!

Adventures in Amethyst Trio of Holiday Romances by Karen Wiesner
 
Three holiday novels in one volume including:

Halloween: NEVER A BRIDE, Book 11: When Charlize met Ben, he was in a committed relationship--the last thing she wanted. She returns at Halloween to find that Ben and Layla have broken up, but his ex- is having a change of heart. Despite the complications, the solution could be as simple as a kiss.

Thanksgiving: UNLUCKY IN LOVE, Book 12: Layla and Adam find themselves jilted at Thanksgiving. Heartbroken and wondering if there's anything left to redeem, they re-evaluate life…and love.

Christmas: SHOTGUN WEDDING, Book 13: Right out high school, Trevor and Eden married for the baby on the way. Years later at Christmas time, she finds herself competing with the other woman he'd been interested in back then, and their shotgun wedding is called into question.

Find out more here:

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https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/adventures-in-amethyst-series.html

Karen S. Wiesner is the author of the 3D Fiction Fundamentals Collection

http://www.writers-exchange.com/3d-fiction-fundamentals-series/

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/writing-reference-titles.html

She's also an award-winning, multi-genre author of over 150+ titles and 16 series. Visit her here:

https://karenwiesner.weebly.com/

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