November 4, 2014 by

Teresa Edgerton on World Building and the Magical World View

Teresa Edgerton began telling stories as soon as she learned to talk; she began scribbling them down as soon as a teacher put a pencil in her hand;  and luckily for us fantasy readers, sixty years later she is still inventing them.  Teresa has published many short stories and novels full of wit and charm and intriguing creatures and characters. Her latest releases are Goblin Moon (being rereleased by Tickety Boo Press), and The Queen’s Necklace (being released by Harper Voyager on Kindle for the first time and currently available for preorder on Amazon). Also look for her work under the pseudonym of Madeline Howard. 

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World Building and the Magical World View

One thing that fantasy writers often forget is the question of how a belief in magic should shape a character’s world view, and how their culture should shape their ideas on magic. In different places and different eras the answer may differ greatly, or sometimes hardly at all, but here I am going to talk about the Western European Medieval era that inspires so many fantasy settings.

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If real people who believed in magic did not see it as something apart but a natural component of a vastly complicated world, then how much the more would characters in whose world magic is a natural force try to fit it into their idea of the overall scheme of things?  Whether they practice magic themselves or have it practiced on or against them, if they want to buy a charm or a spell, they would want to know at least as much about how it works as the ordinary person knows about electricity or the internal combustion machine.

We can never know exactly how the people who lived in the Medieval period thought or exactly how they saw their world, but we can learn a lot from their writings, their superstitions, and their rituals.  We can pick up details that enrich what we write and lend it the kind of authenticity that makes what we write more convincing.  Although we have been trained to see the world differently than people in Medieval times, many of the same dreams and nightmares linger just below the surface of our minds.  You can call it the collective subconscious or whatever you will, but what it comes down to is that readers will recognize, on some level, that what you are writing is “true.”

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October 13, 2014 by

Con-Volution: This Ain’t Vegas, Baby

After a hard day of conventioning (yeah, all four hours and one panel of it), I needed to get out and hit the night life!  What better place than a SF/fantasy con, because really, who else knows how to party like Klingons?

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Mellow Klingons? I’ll have what they’re having!

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But I wasn’t after the free booze…I was after something more.  Trophies of my con experience.  I was after RIBBONS!  Ribbons are a new part of the con game from when I dropped out of the circuit.  They are a great way to meet people and spread the word about what you are doing and interested in. Shoot, I’m gonna get the super-size ribbon when I get In a Mortal Shadow out the door!  They also appeal to me on a baser plane…she who has the most ribbons WINS!  I didn’t win at Westercon; I didn’t win at Con-Volution 2013; I didn’t win at BayCon.  But Convolution 2014, well that was going to be all mine.  I was going to take home more ribbons that anybody…in my room.  So when Carolyn crawled into bed with a good book, and Denise dragged her hubby off to Karaoke, I went party hopping.

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Oh-oh…there’s the golden lasso. I swear this blog is all true… Alright! Alright! Mostly true.

I went to the party floor and started with the Wonder Woman party.  I got a stamp.  No ribbon.  I hit a couple of more…again, stamps, but no ribbons.  I didn’t know what these stamps were for but as I progressed I feared I might wind up looking more tattooed than beribboned…and I wasn’t out to win the tattoo contest!  Finally I asked, “Why am I getting these?”  Turns out it was so I could imbibe the alcohol.  Well shoot, I didn’t want alcohol…I wanted ribbons!  So that ended my tattooing for the evening.

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Hey look at these cool flyers outside the Star Trek party! Oh wait, what are you–Well they didn’t last long.

I finally get to the Star Trek party…yep, you can always tell.  Every Star Trek party I’ve ever seen has Klingons hanging out by the front door.  These two were uncharacteristically friendly…maybe I should have gotten the tattoo at this stop and gotten happy too!  But I was too distracted…they had RIBBONS!

Just inside the dark fabric-draped party room were a couple of folk who claimed to have ribbons, which apparently were in this man’s pocket, behind the wad of cash that was pulled out entirely by accident, or so was claimed…Hey this ain’t Vegas, babe.  What happen’s at Con-Volution, plays at Con-Volution…and all over the Internet!

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What happens at Con-Volution doesn’t necessarily stay there!

Hmmm…Interesting things happening here.  Maybe I should stay at this party a little longer than the others…

And I did. I hung out with the Klingon’s at the door.  So long as the Klingons are happy, a well-lit hall amids these warrior folk is a nice safe place to be.

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Oh My! Yes, make me your slave!

 

 

 

This is an important consideration.  The con was a dangerous place.  The system lords were about, no doubt enslaving fellow con goers.

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Dear Ms. Blue Conquering Alien, Thank you for returning Carolyn to us. She is recovering nicely.

 

 

Apparently the same goal for this blue alien, who on Saturday carried off my roommate Carolyn, never to be seen again…until after the masquerade.  The alien enslaved Carolyn to do unspeakable acts to her most alien body.  For several hours, Carolyn had to paste tiny little lights all over the alien’s blue skin. Oh, the horror!  But Ms. Blue certainly looked smashing on the stage all lit up!

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Move along everyone…nothing to see here, just your average maniac robot collecting body parts for his evil pet project.

 

If slavery isn’t horrific enough, this robot nearly had me as I wandered the halls.  Looking for brains and body parts in its quest to become a cyborg.

 

 

 

 

 

Fortunately this pit of colorful camouflage was nearby to hide in. Either that or there were higher quality brains to be had (Maybe the system lord’s brain, for instance.  Might explain his sitting in the color camo!)

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You can’t see me ’cause I’m hiding behind my Con-Volution swag bag. Hey, I got an extra ribbon for doing this!

But even as I hid, I was in fear for my life as laser bullets flew rampant over my head…Until this guy in blue and his Incredible red-headed partner disabled the gun in a pitched battle.

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See how well the camo pit is working? You can’t even see me hiding!

Safe at last up here on the party floor in the company of happy Klingons…until the Men in Black appeared.

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September 29, 2014 by

Con-Volution 2014—A “Horrible” Convention

Dr. Horrible.20140926_201153_resizedWho invited Dr. Horrible to ruin Con-Volution?  Oh, wait!  Who is that courageous masked man sneaking up on Dr. Horrible to save the convention?  Oh, dear…it looks like the Uni(tard Photo) Bomber!  Whatever will happen next? I think I’d best run for cover!

 

(Thanks to a Horrible tip and a little follow up from a knit Klingon, I’ve identified the photo bomber as Bill Howard.  Still need a tip on what the costume is.)

Author A.E. Marling makes an awesome Dr. Horrible in the pictures, but in truth, he’s not very horrible in person. Allen is a charming man, with very good taste in jewelry (obviously, since he liked my necklace),  who has taken time to talk with me at a couple of cons (the first time of which, I burbled over with words like a soda poured too fast in a glass.  Can’t believe he didn’t back away slowly that time and run the next time he saw me).

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I was looking for someone else and wound up having a nice conversation with him at his table.  He wound up interesting me in his book, Gravity’s Revenge.  Good work, that!  I’m not a pushover for a sale at cons.  I read slowly and don’t want hard copies of books in my house anymore (I hate to admit that, but it’s part of my 9-step/room program for recovering pack rats.  I’m on step three…er, I mean room three).  I also, being an editor for many years who has worked with some of the big publishers, am working on my big-publisher bias.  I tend to be leery of the indie stuff. Yes, I know—I’m working on it!  So when I tell you that Allen interested me enough to buy his book (in e-copy, must stick with The Program), it was no small feat.  I’m looking forward to reading it.  I’m very much hoping it will be a therapy to my bias.  Can you cure me, Dr. Horrible?

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Dr. Horrible’s prescription for what ails me.

MORE CONVOLUTION PICTURES
AS THE WEEK PROGRESSES

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September 11, 2014 by

Weeding Your Garden

My second grade class started a little vegetable garden in the schoolyard. Our teacher helped us plant tomato seeds which are fairly easy to grow. Every day, we enjoyed watering the dirt and shooing away the beetles and pillbugs. Before long, the tomatoes started to sprout. How wonderful!

One day, a teacher from another classroom came strolling by. She gasped in horror, “Oh, look at all those weeds! They’re going to choke your tomatoes.” She instructed us to pull the weeds—but to be careful not to mess up the tomato sprouts, which she also pointed out to us. Thus informed by an adult Voice of Authority, we little children obediently went to work. We carefully picked out the “weeds” and left the “tomatoes” to grow in peace.

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So proud of our accomplishment, we ran into our classroom to tell our teacher. We carried clumps of dirt and the straggling remains of the offensive weed sprouts to show her.

Now it was our teacher’s turn to gasp in horror. “Oh no, you picked all the tomatoes and left the weeds!”

I like retelling this story because it’s an important lesson I learned at an early age. Sometimes adults are wrong.

This applies to writers critique groups and workshops, because there may be a time when your manuscript is being reviewed by a published author or a renowned instructor. A novice writer can easily feel low self-esteem in a situation like that and tend to internalize every off-hand remark that a professional Voice of Authority may make. Although you shouldn’t develop an ego too early in the game and totally disregard the advice of professionals, at the same time, remember they are only human. They may prefer a particular subgenre that is different from yours. A world-famous author of hard science fiction may not have an insightful critique for an epic fantasy, and vice versa. Trust your gut. When the expert or famous professional tells you to weed the tomatoes, step back and see if it feels right to you. After all, it’s your story.

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August 27, 2014 by

How Did a Math Major Write a Fantasy Novel?

Jax

Moreover, how did she get published?

Keep in mind that I majored in math for two reasons. The first was it was fun. It’s okay…I’ll wait for you to stop laughing. Really. I’m serious. I enjoyed it. I’m a puzzle person, and most mathematics is solving puzzles, which appealed to me.

But I confess that a part of me majored in math because it wasn’t English. It didn’t involve English. To get my degree I needed little more than English 101 to graduate, and that sounded like a good deal. In fact, I put it off until my senior year—yes, I hated English that much. The whole “writing papers” thing…what a wasted of time! And the reading! Bah!

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Interestingly, there was this other part of me, however, that daydreamed. A lot. A lot, a lot. I’ve been guilty of that since I was knee-high to a grass hopper. Music, TV, movies, all of these generated a constant stream of playmates, friends, and distractions. As I got older, these “phantoms” had adventures.

I decided to write these down.

Oh, they were horrible! I really needed to learn how to write. Yes, I could see these people and write what they did and said, but reading it was more like a description of animated robots. The writing was lifeless, colorless, and cumbersome.

Wow. I should have taken more English.

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