This post is not about retro shifters

This post is not about retro shifters because I don't actually know that much about retro shifters. They're some kind of shifter-break hybrid thing for bicycles. Apparently they're super-awesome and taking the biking world by storm. And possibly they haven't actually been released yet.

I know about this because my young man is really into bicycles, and while I was spending last weekend surprise-visiting my family and young man, he kept me awake until 1 AM one night telling me about how awesome these retro shifters are, and asking me if I thought it would be a good use of money to buy them when they come out. I was, of course, loopy with exhaustion, and I probably said something incoherent about prioritizing budget savings and that it would be a good investment if they were basically going to last forever. But really? I just wanted to leave so I could go to bed and sleep.

The surprise visit turned out well, despite my insecure fears. Nobody had a heart attack. I rang the doorbell, and Dad answered. He mimed surprise through the door, opened it and waved me in, pointing toward the kitchen and holding a finger to his lips in the "shhh!" signal. In the kitchen, Mom was also surprised. "Callie! What are you doing here?" My sister Cara, who knew I was coming and had made sure everybody was there, high-fived me. SUCCESS. Popped into my brother's room. He looked up, and grinned. We were all excited for Jonathan to arrive. He was still on his way down from Chicago. Cara told me to hide and surprise him. After he'd been there for about ten minutes and had been chatting with my family, I jumped out and shouted "Surprise!" He was sitting on a stool at the counter facing away from me, and I hugged him before he could react. He kept whispering "oh my god" and shaking. I finally convinced him I was really there and not some kind of vivid hallucination, which is probably a possibility when you miss someone and aren't expecting them to suddenly jump out and hug you, shouting SURPRISE!

It was a great time. We went to the Farmers' Market. Cara and Jonathan and I went to a park and walked through the creek.

It was SO HOT.

We played Apples to Apples. We went to the driving range and hit golf balls. There was lots of delicious food. Sunday night was my favorite: Grilled pineapple with mascarpone cheese. Mashed potatoes with cheddar. Fall-off-the-bone ribs with a barbecue sauce Cara made which she said included "everything but the kitchen sink." Blackberry-and-blueberry pie using blackberries Mom, Dad, and I picked in Michigan about 5 years before and blueberries that Cara and Mom picked in Michigan two years ago. Homemade peach ice cream. It was cool enough to eat on the patio. Hanging out on the patio with the family: basically heaven.

It was insane hot and humid all weekend. Nevertheless, Jonathan wanted to go out and do things. Beer-brewing was intended to be an evening activity, but after spending part of the hot and sticky afternoon biking on the Monon Trail with Jonathan, I was pretty much too wiped out to be a helpful participant.

It felt like about 100*F outside. I'm talking about the kind of weather where you step outside and a sheen of sticky sweat instantly covers your skin. And somehow we ended up loading my dad and brother's bikes into the back of Jonathan's Subaru and driving to a bike shop by the Monon Trail to get a new inner tube or something for my dad's bike.

Anyway, Jonathan is super-into bikes.He pretty much has been the entire time I've known him, which is over three years now. He was pretty excited about motorcycles for a year, but I think that's pretty much over, although he still can talk excitedly about them. I'm happier with the bicycle obsession, even if I don't know what he's talking about half the time. He thinks I should become a blogger in the cycling world so that bike companies will send him free stuff to try out, and then I can write about it. I think that, personally lacking his passion for bicycles, my writing about it would probably fall somewhat flat. But hey, stranger things have happened!

So if you are a bicycle company that makes "retro shifters" or "retroshifters" (I am unsure if this is one word or two words) feel perfectly free to offer me a set of Gen 2 retro shifters and I will make sure they get to someone who is ridiculously enthusiastic about them. I know because he won't stop talking about them, and quite frankly I would like two seconds of conversation that doesn't revolve around bicycles.

This week, I won a glass spider charm from Michael Offutt's blog tour for his new scifi book Slipstream. So apparently I am a winner! The spider is now blinging out my bulletin board in my office. (Thanks, Michael!)

Apologies for the fuzziness of the picture, but you get the idea.

The point is that clearly the universe is conspiring to aid me, so it should extend that aid to Jonathan's bicycle obsession. Jonathan is starting his new internship Wednesday, and he plans on biking to and from work basically all summer. Bicycle companies, he will be using his gears and brakes a LOT.

If you're not a bicycle company....
Now You!
Have you ever heard of retro shifters? Do you bicycle? How do you handle the quirky obsessions of loved ones?

Because if I schedule this to be posted on the internet, I will be too afraid of being publicly exposed as a coward to chicken out on my super-awesome surprise plan

Alternate Title: Hopefully this will all work out okay

Alternate Alternate Title: Is this what losing your mind feels like?

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Friday, May 25, 2011 2012 <-- WTF, BRAIN?

Noblesville, Indiana

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11 AM

I am not sure what is happening to me.

I was feeling trapped in Virginia, trapped in my life, trapped far away from my family and my young man. Trapped by hilariously high airfare coupled by the need to meet savings goals. Trapped by not knowing when things will get murderously busy at work.

So when a coworker pointed out that Memorial Day was a vacation for us and it was in two short weeks and asked me if I was going home, I thought I want to go to there. I hadn’t seen my dad and brother and sister since Christmas, a visit that had been abbreviated because I’d promised to visit my young man’s family in California for 4 days before New Year’s. And due to planning to use most of my vacation time for a 2-week writing conference in July, I didn’t know if I would see my family before Thanksgiving. That’s a long time to me. A very long time. And my parents remodeled the kitchen. And damnit I wanted to go home and spend a weekend at home!

So I looked at plane tickets again. $600-$800 for Memorial Day weekend. I couldn’t justify the expense. My parents would probably help me out if I said I wanted to go home, but that would be pathetic. I’m twenty-four years old with a full-time job and one-fourth of a rental, I thought. I don’t want to be relying on my parents to help me visit them, especially as it would probably come out in a totally undignified teary fit of “I wa-ha-hant  to go ho-o-o-ome!”

I’m probably going to cry this weekend.

I am a very ugly crier. I checked once in a mirror while sobbing uncontrollably and decided I should probably always hide my face when I cry or everyone will think I’m some kind of sasquatch snot monster.

I just drove 10.5 hours last night. I went in to work very early so I could leave at 2 pm and sneakily drive west. Maryland. West Virginia. Pennsylvania. West Virginia. (The fuck? Did I make a wrong turn? This is too long a trip to go the wrong way. Where’s Ohio?) Ohio. Oh hello land of a thousand cornfields. Indiana. My friend’s parents’ house in a neighborhood nearby my parents’ house. Sleep. 8am wake up. Drive to Starbucks. Work. Call in to weekly status call. Assure coworkers that I am alive & not still driving & in fact the drive was not so terrible. Hometown public library. Set up in the YA section, where I spent an absurd amount of time in high school. Librarian informs me the kids will get out of school at 2.30. I wonder why she is telling me this. Notice signs saying “Our TeenZone is for Teens!” Feel extremely sad.

I have not told my parents I am visiting. I am pretty sure they would tell me not to drive that far alone. There’s a chance they’d insist on buying me a plane ticket or tell me not to come at all. 

I have not told my brother I am visiting. I do not think he will exhibit extreme shock. We are very alike. When my parents gave me a car, I was so surprised I didn’t react at all & I think they were very disappointed. I am not the type of person to jump up and down and scream until I’ve processed what is happening & at that point people think you’re just humoring them. My brother will not jump up and down & scream. He’ll probably say hello but then later he will show me his latest computer game and we will talk about computers or maybe books and maybe play video games.

My sister knows I am coming. She is my sneaky colluder on this scheme. She thought it was a great idea. I am still not sure. I am thinking about pretending I was never here and driving back to Virginia. I am totally freaking out in the YA section of the library where I used to hang out all the time and read some of my favorite books in the stacks but which I cannot be in after 2.30 because I am not a Teen and Our TeenZone is for Teens!

Now I have to go because I am having lunch with my sister and my friend & they will probably be all “we can’t believe you did this!” in a totally positive way, like I’m liberating myself by being totally spontaneous and driving home to surprise my family. Instead of, you know, possibly having lost my mind. Probably in Ohio. There are a lot of cornfields there.

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3 PM

I’ve already forgotten what we talked about at lunch. Pancakes, maybe. Did I talk too much? Did it make any sense? I hope I wasn't some kind of word-vomiting weirdo. 


My sister is incredibly tanned from working outside last week or something. Today she is doing a parking survey downtown, which I think means she is counting the parking spots in the City of Noblesville to determine how many are in different areas and how many are 2-hour parking, how many are metered parking, etc. She works for the city engineering department in the summers.

After lunch, I went to the local coffee place. Now I am back at the library. Also, I stopped and got the car washed. Because it looked dirty, and I didn’t want my parents to think I didn’t keep the car clean. Of course, I did just drive through a ton of states, so it would probably be understandable if it was a little dirty. Was this carwash here before? And when did the library join the twenty-first century and get free WiFi, anyway?

Apparently my sister is going to text or call me when I should come to the house. I wonder if I should park my car elsewhere and walk up to the house. Should I ring the doorbell? Or just walk through the back door casually? I think my sister has a good plan for letting me know when everyone is there. I was thinking I should just go to the house and be there, but then jumping out at people might cause them to have heart attacks. I’m not sure anybody in my family would actually like that kind of surprise. Surprise! Heart attack!

I said my sister is my colluder. A few weeks ago, I was casually like “I’m thinking about driving home for Memorial Day weekend.” And she was all “Everybody would be thrilled to see you.” And then she sort of strong-armed everybody into a beer-brewing weekend that they all seem relatively excited about. She also told my young man that he is coming down from Chicago to brew beer with the family. He is on his way down now. I think he suspects that something is up. He’s been pressuring me to come home this weekend, like the beer-brewing should be something that tempts me to come home instead of a cover for getting all of them there. Muahaha. My sister is brilliant.

My young man told me earlier this week: “I was kind of hoping I’d go down this weekend and you’d magically be there.” Ha ha. I was hoping that, too.

I’ve been trying to quash this all week because I think he knows. But he doesn’t know know. As long as I don’t confirm it and try to convince him that I am still in Virginia, he’ll still be surprised. He totally surprise-visited me once, and I’m not giving up the effort that this took for this surprise. IT’S MY TURN FOR THE SURPRISE VISIT OK? I put 10.5 hours into this, and I’ve been freaking out all day. I WILL NOT CONCEDE THIS VICTORY.

He’s trying to convince me via text to look into a plane ticket. “I can pay for part of it.” So sweet. “Ask your parents maybe?” Oh dear. I say I have to work in the morning, but agree to look into flights for Saturday night. I don’t look. I’m sure they’re still $600-$800. Also, I’m kinda already here.

God I hope this isn’t a complete flop.

---

3.30 PM

I have had too much caffeine today.

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4 PM

My hair looks terrible. I considered straightening it in the bathroom, but the bathroom in the library doesn't have outlets. They probably don't want anyone to accidentally electrocute herself with a hair straightener, because the library would probably be liable for that and then nobody would want to go to the library because it would be haunted by a crazy ghost lady eternally trying to straighten her ectoplasmic hair. Is ectoplasmic a word?

Where ARE all the outlets in this library? Don't they expect people to need to plug in hair straighteners computers?

You can totally see my roots. I should have gone and gotten my roots touched up earlier this week, when I was still in Virginia. Maybe I should just wear a hat. But then my parents will want me to take it off in the house, and then my hair will look totally worse because of hat-static and also it will draw attention to my roots (since it will look like I was trying to cover them up (which would be exactly what I was doing)) which is the opposite of the goal here people!

When did I become somebody who thought about her roots? Why did I dye my hair?

I should cut it all off.

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4.10 PM

My young man is apparently actually just now leaving Chicago. I claim my mom wants to know when he'll be arriving, and he said he'll know when he is out of Chicago.

"There is a gun man in valpraso"

"Hostage situation"

The internet tells me that there is indeed apparently a gunman who is believed to be holding hostages at an office building in Valparaiso, Indiana.

Apparently this is affecting traffic. I mean, obviously it is.

It's a Prudential Real Estate office building, CBS News online informs me. They also say there are reports he has shot two people. The whole hostage situation has been going on since 10.30 AM apparently.

Insanity: shooting two people and holding one or more hostages in a real estate office building.

Whimsy: secretly driving 10.5 hrs in order to surprise-visit family

Perspective.

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4.30 PM

I hope we have a bonfire this weekend. Maybe I should pick up some firewood. And some beer. Should you pick up beer to drink while brewing beer? Probably. I could get some from the local brewery. My dad and my young man both liked it, and so did I. My sister might like it; I'm not sure if she's had it before.

No. I should get margarita mix. Everyone likes margaritas!

I'm probably not going to get any of these things. Margaritas do sound good though.

I should have eaten the other half of my lunch. I'm hungry again. My sister says they are grilling meatballs tonight. I'm not entirely sure how that will work, but apparently they've done it before and everyone liked it. I'm sure it will be delicious. My mom is an excellent cook. And baker. I mean, my mom makes the best everything. And I know you are probably thinking "No my mom makes the best food" or "My wife makes the best food" or even "Everybody says that about their mothers." NO. My mom would wipe the floor with your mom/wife/whoever.

I will fight you.

You mom might make good food, but in a double-blind taste contest, 10 out of 10 chefs would agree that my mom makes the best food. And I'm really not sure how you would have a double-blind taste contest.

My mom would totally win "Chopped!" And those cupcake war shows. And she doesn't even like cupcakes.

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4.40 PM

I found an outlet. It is in a study room. Wondering if I would get kicked out of the library for straightening my hair in the study room.

Now wondering why I would care about getting kicked out of this library. Especially since Our TeenZone is for Teens! & apparently I am no longer welcome in the YA section.

I apparently am the kind of person who would drive 10.5 hours to surprise-visit her family and young man. I don't think I am the kind of person who would straighten her hair in the library in order to show defiance of being unwelcome in the YA section which is now apparently reserved for Teens!

But then, I didn't think I was the kind of person who would drive 10.5 hours alone for a surprise visit.

Who knows what kind of person I am? I don't even know anymore.

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5 PM

I have to leave the library. Because apparently it's closing or something. Because apparently the librarians don't work late on Fridays.

I guess we'll never know what I would have done with the hair straightener.

Time to go and kill time elsewhere until I get the call/text from my sister to come surprise and/or scare the crap out of my family. I'd say "wish me luck" but by the time you read this, it will have already happened. 

Frankly, I'm surprised you've stuck with it this far. KUDOS TO YOU. You are some kind of awesome person who is full of freakin' awesome. GO YOU. I pretty much only wrote this to keep from completely losing my nerve. So thanks for putting up with the crazy whimsy.

XOXO

Callie.

Painting the Roses Red

I spent the last weekend helping my friends Thomas and Liz paint their new house. It's their first house, and it's all very exciting. Our friends Lauren and Phil were visiting them for about 5 days and we had a painting party: finishing spackling, sanding down rough spots, and painting walls and ceilings. (My new superpower: laying painters' tape. My new nemesis: cabinets.) It was really coming together when I had to leave on Sunday afternoon, and I'm looking forward to seeing the final result, which Liz has promised to document on her blog when it is complete.

I had this song stuck in my head quite a bit of this weekend:

As far as I know, there were not actually any roses. Nor was there any red paint. But there was orange and white, which I got all over myself. (Thankfully, not in my hair.) Unfortunately I missed scrubbing the soles of my feet, which I didn't notice until halfway through my work day when a sandal slipped off. Super stylin'.

Several people seemed surprised that I would drive up to Pennsylvania to help my friends with house work and call that an enjoyable weekend, and I was equally baffled as to why it wouldn't be an enjoyable time. I got to spend time with my friends and with some friends I haven't seen in quite a while. We got things done that needed doing. Also, I've always sort of enjoyed home improvement projects. It's nice to see firm results. It's very unlike pretty much any aspect of my writing. At work, it is often difficult to tell the impact of what I put into any given project; and although in my graduate school writing projects I do receive grades, grades seem rather meaningless in the scheme of things. So yes, sometimes it's nice to say, "That wall has been painted, and that wall looks damn good right now." Although my ankles and shoulders would like it put on the record that this is all well and good so long as it doesn't become an every single day thing.

Also, it involved friends and laughter (never to be under-rated), a new card game, some awesome food, and a trip to the arboretum and to the movie theater to see The Avengers. Because really, I don't think you can see The Avengers too many times. It was even more fun this time because I was with people and we got to do the whole discussing-the-movie-afterwards thing, which I miss out on when I go to the theater alone.

News!

There are several things I want to make sure to mention, hence this section.

1. I wrote a guest post. I mustn't forget to mention to you all that I wrote a guest post for Sarah Allen, who wanted guest posts to keep up her daily posting schedule while she was on vacation. I wrote about why you don't have to be friends with everybody, and why that's a good thing. I'm not sure how to say that without it sounding cynical, but I assure you that I did not mean it in a cynical manner. That went up last Thursday and you can check it out here. 

2. I still owe you all a post on examples of fantasy culture -- it's coming! Last Tuesday, when Jamie Gibbs rocked it with his guest post on fantasy culture, I asked "What is a good example of "adding culture" in something you have read?" Then I mentioned that I'd elaborate on an example of this in my next post. Well, I'm going to have to put you on hold for that one because I am rereading the book again, and it is a bit of a beast. But stay tuned because it's a great book that if you haven't read it will be worth hearing about. Also, I have a new writer-crush, and that is 100% related to all of this. So bear with me while I work on sorting my thoughts out on this one.

3. A resource for writers. I submitted Jamie's awesome post to InkPageant. InkPageant is described as "a parade of blog posts for writers." Basically, it's a collection of blog posts sorted by different categories (events, news, opinion, publishing, reviews, writing) which looks to be a very useful resource for writers. I've found several interesting posts already. Worth checking out if you write. It has been added to my "Resources for Writers" list on the bottom right of this blog, which are resources that I personally use and have found helpful. I periodically update this list.

4. Someone said nice things about one of my posts that I was iffy about. East.Bay.Writer mentioned my post Make New Mistakes in a link list. I was flattered to see it described as a "very well written rant." That is one of the posts I am never quite sure about when I hit the "publish" button and then consider deleting later because I'm just not sure if I said what I was trying to say or not. So thanks to East.Bay.Writer.

Now You!

Do you like pitching in on projects with friends or family? Say it's a holiday dinner: do you organize potluck, or do you do it all yourself?

Guest Post: Adding Culture To Your Fantasy World

I'm very excited to offer my first guest post by book reviewer Jamie Gibbs. Jamie writes incredibly good book reviews (much better than I do) so when I noticed that he was interested in writing guest posts in order to keep his hand in the game while suffering "overwhelming lack of computer," I emailed him immediately. Jamie had several great ideas he was mulling over. One particularly resonated with me, as it's an issue I've been thinking about a lot recently, and I was interested to see what a thoughtful book reviewer would have to say on the topic. So without further ado, I give you Jamie Gibbs on Adding Culture To Your Fantasy World.

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Adding Culture To Your Fantasy World

Guest Post by Jamie Gibbs

When we pick up a fantasy book, we all know the drill. Chances are it’s going to be based on a pseudo-Medieval world, taking influences from English, French or German history. You’ll have kingdoms and village nobles who owe feudal allegiance to their kings. There is a definite two class system - the nobility and the rest of the population. Add a pinch of misogyny, bake for 400 pages and you have a stereotypical fantasy book setting. We’ve become accustomed to the formula and while it’s a good way to start your process of world building and character development, it should never stop there.

Fantasy writers are told all the time to make sure that they know their world and they know their characters. What about how the two interact? Your characters didn’t just fall out of the sky on page one (unless you’re writing a paranormal romance about fallen angels, in which case that’s a very likely possibility), but would have lived in that world all their lives, with their villages, cities and tribes developing over hundreds of years of social evolution. What do you get when you mix people and their environment for that length of time? Culture.

Quirks and customs

One of the easiest ways in which you can inject some culture into your fantasy story is by giving quirks to your characters. Maybe your main character always washes their hands just as the sun goes down, because where they come from the believe that the setting of the sun symbolises the death and rebirth of the world, so washing their hands acts as an offering for the safe return of the world in the morning. A simple act like that can have powerful significance to other characters and adds a level of depth to your story that goes beyond the words on the page.

Curse words are also a valuable resource for adding culture. Don’t just think of a nonsensical word and apply it as a curse in lieu of dropping the F-bomb in your story. That’s a waste of potential. Rather, think about what the word means, and why it’s used in that context. Say your protagonist calls the villain something like ‘hatlock’ That could just be a random swear word with no way of connecting with your reader. Say you imbue that word to also be the name of a particular kind of shovel; the kind used by the peasants who clear excrement off the streets. This insult immediately has a touch of venom to it.

You could extend it further in saying that hatlock is the slang term given to the illegitimate offspring of noblemen, who at one time in history forced into the profession of shovelling excrement as a means of making them disappear. This simple word now has a level of vulgarity coupled with an accusation of someone’s legitimacy, packing far more punch as a curse and hinting at the emotional state of your character for using something to venomous. It all adds to enrich your story and make it that much more immersive.

Get the culture right, the rest follows

One author who does this exceptionally well is Kate Elliott. Her novel Cold Magic is set during the Victorian era, but her history extends back two millennia before that and has its roots in an alternate Roman era. A lot of this missing in between history is never covered, but we get snippets of that rich culture that has been influenced by centuries of cultural exchange. The ways that her characters react to certain situations are natural and make sense because they have that subconscious level of social conditioning, which has built up over many many years and has become deeply ingrained in their own personal beliefs.

Culture is something that often goes on behind the scenes, so it’s generally not the kind of thing that gets published (unless you’re J.R.R. Tolkien, then your fictional culture is so rich and vast that it’d be a crime not to publish it). Instead, you have to know these things and show them in small doses through the way in which your characters interact with each other and with the world around them. World building is important. Character development is important. Sort out the culture and you’ll cover both.

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Jamie Gibbs is the caffeine addled bibliophile from the fantasy book review blog Mithril Wisdom. When he’s not nose deep in a book, he’s usually rocking out to fantasy-inspired heavy metal and playing with Lego like all grown ups should.

Now You!
What is a good example of "adding culture" in something you have read? (I have an example of this which I plan to elaborate on in my next post.)

Make New Mistakes

When I was a child, I didn't believe that discrimination really happened. I thought it was a story out of the history books. If it did happen, it was only very stupid people who were doing it, and all anybody would have to do is ignore them.

Now that I'm no longer a child, I can see that we are not yet a place where everybody is treated equally. Not everybody has an equal chance. Not everybody will treat you fairly. It won't always be stupid people with no power, armed with words. It might be educated people, powerful people, people withholding income or justice.

Whenever I say something like this, someone inevitably comments that "life's not fair." Yes, that's exactly what I'm saying. Life isn't fair. And it should be.

There's been a lot going on in the news this week in the US of A about homosexual rights. In North Carolina, voters passed an amendment to the state constitution that bans same-sex marriage. A CNN article on the topic notes that backers of this ammendment "celebrated by serving wedding cake to their supporters in a Raleigh ballroom." Then on Wednesday, the president publicly voiced his support for same-sex marriage.

Suppressing the rights of one group in deference to the beliefs of another group is disturbingly anti-American, even if our history is littered with such episodes. Our forefathers claimed to found this country on the idea that all men are created equal, even if their vision at the time was somewhat... uh, limited. But we've added clauses to that original idea as time has passed -- equal: no matter their gender, no matter the color of their skin, no matter their religious beliefs, no matter.

To quote a very famous man, I have a dream. 

I dream of a future where even the hot topics of today are so thoroughly incorporated into society that same-sex marriage is hardly worth noting, that "women-owned" doesn't have to be a specially-protected business category, that you can't look at groups by income and see a distinct difference in skin color.

I want a future where those fights are so thoroughly won that my grandchildren can't even imagine a world where there is any question about them.

I want to live in a future where the big debates are something I can't even imagine today--the rights of ameobas, perhaps; or the comparative rights of martian colonists.

I want to be the old woman on whatever the future equivalent is of a front-porch swing, complaining that kids these days don't appreciate what my generation went through, being mildly disapproving of whatever the new social debate is. I'm hoping for the ethics of telepathy. I would love to be grumpily disapproving of telepathic implants.

Let's get on that.

Garret Tour Tuesday: Alex Cavanaugh

Alex's latest book.

Alex Cavanaugh -- blogger extraordinaire, film connoisseur,  science fiction author, and all-around nice guy -- has agreed to talk about his writing space. Alex has a  Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and works in web design and graphics. He is experienced in technical editing and worked with an adult literacy program for several years. Alex lives in the Carolinas with his wife. His second science fiction novel, CassaFire, was released this March.

Alex has a full-time job and does most of his writing in the evenings, jamming out in his office.

"I usually write in my office, sometimes at my computer and sometimes in a notebook. I neither type nor write fast, so it doesn’t really matter! I’m usually jamming to tunes when I write and since a big screen TV occupies my office, it’s often on as well."

"I listen to hard rock, heavy metal, and progressive rock, and while I write is no different. If it’s an action scene, then I’ll put in something really fast paced like In Flames or Pantera."

Alex doesn't find electronic distractions a deterrent to writing, but he does avoid being around people while writing.

"I can write with the TV and stereo blaring, but not with people around. Couldn’t write in a coffee shop, that’s for sure. I do like a bottle of water and box of Hot Tamales nearby."

Alex is a visual person, and says that movies and television inspire him. (I'm not surprised by this.)

"I confess, I’m inspired most by science fiction movies and TV shows. I’m more of a visual person, so I’m more likely to see something that will spark my imagination."

Alex once said that CassaStar was going to be a stand-alone book. Now it is a trilogy. Why did he change his mind?

"My readers and fans changed my mind! They wanted another book. And they wanted to know why there weren’t any women in CassaStar. So, shortly after its release, I started CassaFire."

Alex is currently working on the outline for the third book in his trilogy, CassaStorm. He says he is "looking forward to diving back into it this month!"

Thanks so much for participating, Alex! If you do not know Alex, he is a pretty awesome writer. I met Alex through the April A-Z Blogging Challenge last year. Online he is the Ninja Captain and founder of the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. (I participate in IWSG and have found it to be refreshing and interesting.)  Alex says, "I’ve met a few authors and writers, but the bulk of my support and contact is online. That’s another reason why I started the Insecure Writer’s Support Group." He's a very encouraging person and a great writer -- go check him out!

Now You!

What kind of music do you enjoy playing while writing?

Loki stole my thunder

When I decided to see The Avengers, I wasn't expecting to walk out with the realization that I'd have to re-evaluate an entire major character I've been developing for 7+ years.

I walked into the theater for The Avengers knowing almost nothing whatsoever about the movie. But I had never seen a superhero film that I actually disliked. Therefore, I was unconcerned that I didn't know anything about the plot, the major obstacle that must be overcome by the team, or practically anything whatsoever about many of the major characters.*

*I later discovered that most of the team has their own series of films, which probably provide individual 

back-stories I could have seriously used. Obviously I am an idiot who should have done her homework.

There seem to have been an abundance of superhero movies in the last decade. Was it an unusual amount of superhero movies, or was I just more aware of it than I was in my childhood? I know there are older versions of Batman films. Maybe they just remake them every ten years or so? How many Batman or Spiderman or X-Men movies can you make?

I suppose as long as they continue to draw people to the theater, they'll keep getting made. And perhaps every generation of creatives wants a chance to work with their heroes, whether it's the comic book heroes or science fiction characters such as Star Trek or Doctor Who. Maybe it's more than nostalgia, too. It's often said that there are no new stories, merely the same story told over and over again. 

If so, what is it about superheroes that fascinates us so?

Why are we so entranced by humans with more-than-human powers? These days, their powers are often granted by science rather than by magic, but isn't it the same old story? Are superheroes just modern-day faerie?

I've been thinking about superheroes a lot lately. I'm trying to decide if I want to allow superpowers in my WIP or not. I can see pros and cons, and I've been trying to figure out what the obsession is. That's what I was thinking about before the film started.

Just your average god-taking-over-the-world kind of day.

Enter the villain: Horned helmet, creepy staff with disturbing powers, obsession with enslaving the human race. I think I would probably do whatever a powerful alien super-villain claiming godhood said to do, and that's not a very nice thought. I'd hope I'd stand up to him, but I think I'd do what he said and hope to live long enough to escape or be rescued. I don't think I'd try to be noble or honorable about it, but if he turned his back I am pretty sure I'd try to drive a knife into it. Or knock him out with his helmet or something. Because he is seriously bad news for humanity. Terrible, horrible, no good, very bad news. I can't even explain it very well, but I found a great explanation in a review on FTG: FTG-Nerd Review: Marvel's The Avengers 3d (Movie) 

"The main bad guy is Loki played by Tom Hiddleston. He is more evil and cunning than he was portrayed in Thor. So evil that it takes his master manipulation of the good guys for the team to realize that they must push their egos to the side and work together. As for his Alien Army, the speculation was that it was going to be the Skrulls. In fact it is a different race of aliens called the Chitauri which reminded me of the Locust from Gears of War, but with the collective being of the Borg of Star Trek. Individually they aren’t powerful, but collectively have the strength of hundreds of hordes of zombies."

But it's frustrating. Because I was looking at this screen and thinking, this character is cunning but also incredibly shallow and arrogant and damn it all that's my villain on the screen. Damn it all to hell. I am so glad to see that all the time I've spent writing with my character and trying to understand his background and trying to figure out how he would behave only to discover that he's already been created in comic book lore which is based on an even older ancient god.

So that's annoying.

But also, I guess it could be useful. There's probably a reason I came up with something that's been created before, even if I wasn't aware that it had been created before. My villain emerged from my frustration with the seemingly-vast stupidity of villains I encountered in many books -- how easy they ultimately were for the hero to vanquish simply because they were pure of heart or some such. I was very tired of stupid villains, of villains with glaringly-obvious fatal flaws, whose defeat was ultimately a giant let-down.

So maybe it would behoove me to read up more on Norse mythology because clearly there's something there that goes along the lines I'm already thinking. And once I calmed down a bit, I identified a few key differences between my villain and Loki. A biggie is that mine doesn't think he's a god... but he does have a bit of a god complex. Damn it!

Welp. Time for research and character overhaul.

On the bright side, thinking about how I'd likely handle Loki -- do what he says but knife him at the first chance (Yes, I'd probably end up dead, but let's assume I just think he's some kind of arrogant psycho with a lot of stage tricks and not actually a god-like alien.) -- actually helped me think about my main character in a new way. She has ideas about honor that are dramatically different from mine, and I need to develop that more. 

In the meantime, can I put a hold on Tom Hiddleston to play my villain in the surely-inevitable film based on my soon-to-be-bestselling groundbreaking fantasy novel? Tom, I can't promise it'll be a comic role, but I can promise a low-key* outfit that doesn't involve a horned helmet.

*low-key, as in not Loki. That pun was unintentional, but I thought it was hilarious. I am so funny. I am so sorry.

Please email your world domination plans to me at callieleuck(at)callieleuck(dot)com. This is purely for character research. All submitted world domination plans will remain your intellectual property and will not be used for any taking-over-the-world activities.    
                                             

Now You!

Is there any hope for writing something that hasn't already been written? What have you read that seemed fresh?

Zombie Roundup

For the final letter of the alphabet, I've got a link roundup for ya -- zombie style!

• 5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen
• The CDC + A Zombie Apocalypse + A Grande Latte = Critical Thinking
• The Curious World of Zombie Science
• A game sweeping campuses across America - Humans vs. Zombies
• Zombie walks -- keep an ear out for one near you!
• Zombie 5K Obstacle Course -- seriously, this is for real.

I love zombies as the new "in" monster. For one thing, they're more believable than other monsters. For another, they're just way more fun to impersonate. Not exactly sure why that is. I even participated in a Thriller Performance (I'm the zombie bride, far left, back.)  and wrote a zombie short story. (I know, I know -- I didn't keep to the traditional zombie rules.)

Now You!

Good zombie link? Share in the comments!

Young

As a matter of course for working with people who tend to be 20-30 years older than me, my definition of people who are "my age" has dramatically expanded to a range of about ten years.

But sometimes it still gets hammered home to me how young I am: When I realize most of my stories involve things that happened in college. When I'm working on resumes for a proposal at work, and I realize "Wow, this guy was working his first job when my sister was born" or "Hey, this guy was working on his bachelor's degree when I was in the first grade."

In my graduate school program, I'm easily a good 10 years younger than most of the other students. This is to be expected because it is a part-time night program that seems to attract mostly people who are looking to get an additional degree while maintaining a full-time job, sometimes to facilitate a career move into writing. So yeah, not a lot of people going straight out of undergrad and into this master's program.

The point is, practically everybody I interact with on a daily basis has had several lifetimes between themselves and college. I feel like high school was a lifetime ago.

Is it weird to feel impossibly young?

These are times when we need anthems like this to play really loud in cars with the windows rolled down.

Now You!

Are you ever intensely struck by age differences?

X Ways To Use X As A Symbol

X is a weird letter. I can't even think of 10 useful words with X in them -- ax, oxen, xenophobia, xylem, x-ray... yup, I'm done. It's a really frustrating letter to get in Scrabble, even if it is 8 points.

Frankly, X a bit of a flop as a letter. It gets much more action as a symbol.

I. X is used to indicate multiplication in mathematics. 

II. X is also used as a variable in mathematics. 

III. X is used to indicate that something is incorrect or should be removed. 

IV. There was a time in history where a lot of people were "signing with an X" to indicate a signature when they couldn't sign their name. 

V. Xs and Os are used to indicate hugs and kisses in written form: XOXO 

VI. Xs and Os indicate two different players in Tic-Tac-Toe. 

VII. X is often used as shorthand for "Christ" in Christmas...surprisingly, not because it looks like a sideways cross. But Xmas has always made me think of X-rays and Superman or think that Santa's reindeer should have laser-shooting eyes. 

VIII. X is used to indicate the female chromosome, where XX means female and XY means male. You can also have XXX chromosomes, which is Triple X syndrome, where you get an extra X chromosome. (Happens in 1 of every 1000 female births.) 

IX. X is used in place of eyes to graphically indicate death (or fainting) in cartoons/comics/emoticons. 

X. X indicates 10 in roman numerals.

Now You!
How else is X used?