Writing Mysterious Paris

Was that a movie?

2008-06-07T12:59:01Z

Last night I went to see Flight of the Red Balloon (Le Voyage du Ballon Rouge). It seemed promising, an homage to The Red Balloon, starring Juliette Binoche, directed by someone from Taiwan, and with good ratings and quotes on Rotten Tomatoes.

The movie starts with a reference to The Red Balloon, but quickly the balloon is left behind and it's occasional appearances later in the film have nothing to do with the the rest of the film. Much of the film is set in a small cluttered apartment in which Song (an asian nanny), the boy, his mother, and occasional visitors live moments in their ordinary lives. The characters make meaningless chit-chat in what seems like unedited real-time conversations. There is a small amount of conflict, but it is too slight and peripheral to save this film.

I might have forgiven the movie if I could have enjoyed Paris. However, the shots of the streets of Paris are too few and dreary.

At Ad Astra

2008-04-02T12:02:42Z

I picked up the coming Schlock Mercenary. I never heard of it before I saw the book at the con, but it's too funny! Almost every strip makes me LOL. And really out loud.

More fun at Ad Astra

2008-03-31T03:09:43Z

Today was the last day at Ad Astra. I went to a few panels, and in the final session found out the results of yesterday's flash fiction competition.

My entry, Bounty, didn't win (or place), but with a rating of 8.5 (out of 10), I think there's hope for this little story. I also learned a lot from this flash exercise, which I hope will improve my future writing.

We had to write to a theme, and had a list of themes that could be expressed in a single word (and were able to add our own preferred theme to the list). Although other writers have mentioned the importance of theme, it didn't really click with me until this exercise.

What was amazing to me is that by writing to theme (or at least a particular theme), my main character seems more interesting than many of my other characters - even from her 250-word appearance. I think I want to write more stories with her... maybe even a novel.

Entered writing contest at Ad Astra

2008-03-30T04:45:18Z

I had a lot of fun at Ad Astra, but it's late, so I'll keep this post short.

I entered the flash fiction contest. The session about the contest was 2:00 - 3:00. The competition was very open-ended... to write on a theme from a list - but it was a list that all the participants brainstormed, so we were free to add whatever we wanted to write about before 3:00. Stories were due by 6pm and were supposed to be no longer than 250 words - although the judges also said that they were only looking for something approximately 250 words max, and not to worry if we went slightly over.

I didn't have have 3 hours of writing, however, as I went to a panel on developing character before writing the story. On my first attempt, I realized I was way over.... and counted almost 350 words. I edited out words, and then cut out still more as I copied my entry to fresh pages (this was hand-written).

Sunday I'll find out the results.

Yes, I am alive and sometimes writing

2008-03-28T03:43:06Z

I know it's been ages since I posted, but at first nothing much was going on, and then, as I got used to not posting, I felt less and less urge to writer an entry.

Finally, I have some small writing news. Last weekend I entered the flash fiction challenge at Liberty Hall. The trigger was fairytales. I wrote "A Huff of Wind" inspired by the three little pigs. I didn't win best flash, but I did tie for first on both best characterization and best hook. :-) I also received good feedback and have ideas on how to improve it for the next draft.

This coming weekend, I'm going to Ad Astra, Toronto's SFF convention. They have a flash fiction competition, which I plan to enter. :-) This will be tough. Liberty Hall's competition is timed, but unlimited word count. Ad Astra's competition is probably timed, but is limited to 250 words. I naturally write terse, but "A Huff of Wind" was over 500 words.

Dancing with the Stars - the game

2008-03-03T04:49:48Z

Today I picked up Dancing with the Stars for the PS2.

I was getting a little tired of Dance Dance Revolution (DDR), as I've hit a plateau, which means that I can't seem to unlock new songs.

Dancing with the Stars is a bit like DDR. I'm using my DDR mat with it, although there are some minor problems with that setup (more later). I played for almost 2 hours, as the game kept me entertained while helping me work up a sweat. I just played on single-player mode, as this lets me unlock songs to play in the other modes. Also, because I like to feel that I'm making progress.

When the game starts, 2 couple are unlocked, and the rest are locked. Each couple has their own set of four songs and dances. When you play, it's as if you're part of Dancing with the Stars (at least to someone who only watches occasionally). The announcer introduces the couple, you do the dance, the judges make comments, the judges show their ratings, and then you see a breakdown of how you performed on different aspects. If you receive 20 points or more, you can continue. When you succeed on the fourth song/dance, you receive a trophy, and another couple is unlocked.

Dancing is somewhat similar to DDR. However, instead of having arrows coming down from the top, arrows come from the left and right. The intention is for you to use the indicated foot to tap on the appropriate arrow. Sometimes it's best to use the indicated foot (or the next arrow will be super-challenging), but sometimes it's easier to ignore the indicated feet (like when the same foot is indicated for three different arrows when the character is turning).

On amateur mode (how I've been playing, to start), the footwork is simpler than DDR, but most of the songs are high-energy. I can complete most of the dance routines, and only have problems with the slower dance routines.

Dancing with the Stars is intended to be used with it's own dance mat, but can be used with a DDR mat with one small issue. The problem is that Dancing with the Stars includes shapes in 4 corners, and uses the triangle to back out (not for canceling or quitting, but for backing out of the current mode or out of options). From what I've seen, you can play through a mode with no problems on the DDR mat, as you only need to step on Star, the arrows, or X. When you complete a dance routine, a dialog box has selections to continue (on success), retry, or quit, and the following screens give you yes or no choices. However, to get out of the current mode, you must tap the triangle. I'm not sure if having a controller plugged in to player 2 would help. When I got stuck in Options, I reset the box. Fortunately, you can save whenever you successfully complete a set of dance routines, so the lack of the triangle on the DDR pad seems like a minor annoyance.

On Vox: Dear Gabriel is gentle and unusual

2008-02-23T18:04:55Z

Dear Gabriel

Halfdan W. Freihow

Dear Gabriel is a memoir of the author (Halfdan Freihow) and his autistic son. Together, Gabriel and his father (along with his mother, sister Victoria, and dog Balder) live on the edge a of small Norwegian town, almost north of the tree line.

Unlike For the Love of Anne and some other nonfiction parent-child stories about autism, this is not the saga of a struggle to overcome the problems of autism.

This book intersperses descriptions of the harsh yet beautiful Norwegian scenery with episodes from the life of father and son. Most of the scenes take place over a few months, although a few flashbacks recount earlier stories, such as when the author and his family first moved from Oslo.

If you are familiar with autism, it will seem that Gabriel is high-functioning. He is able to go to school and seems to communicate a lot verbally. During his treasure-hunting expeditions with his father, playing pirate, it is easy to forget he is autistic. Until the next scene in which he might start screaming inconsolably.

His parents (at least his father - the mother is barely mentioned) is tender, sensitive, and loving. This book could almost be about any tender father-son relationship.

This short book is a quick enjoyable read. I recommend it to anyone interested in autism, to people interested in the non-tourist areas of Norway, and to fathers and sons.

Originally posted on mmarques.vox.com

Writing workshops

2008-01-16T04:18:04Z

If you're considering a writing workshop, you might want to check Fantasy & Science Fiction editor johnjosephadams's article listing writing workshops.

Not quite as good for fiction

2008-01-10T04:23:05Z

I've been revising my writing group exercises on paper (with the Digimemo) and uploading them. The OCR software seems to work better for non-fiction. It's not the individual words, because the errors are on words in the dictionary, but perhaps there's some smarts about context that doesn't work for fiction.... at least for the stuff I was trying out. Or else, my handwriting is different for fiction. But there's nothing I can do to improve the recognition training, because the training is with a writing sample that it provides.

Still, in a short piece, it is easier to make a few corrections than to type the whole thing. And I have been writing almost daily.

Writing resolutions for 2008

2008-01-01T21:05:06Z

With the new year, it's time to set goals for the coming year. I'm still experimenting with how to establish a regular fiction writing habit. My other goals are all centered around getting work into submissions. I'm trying to keep my goals to something I can accomplish - but which will require effort on my part.

Write every day. Technical writing doesn't count, but the following writing does: revisions of fiction, new fiction, writing exercises, and blog entries for Write On (corporate blog) or Writing after dark (mostly book reviews).
Enter 6 challenges at Liberty Hall. This is the same number of challenges I completed in 2007, and is reasonable for 2008.
Revise and submit at least 5 works of fiction. Poetry submissions with multiple poems count as one submission.
Do not let the number of pieces submitted drop for more than one month. This means that any time a piece is rejected or accepted, something must go out. Right now I have one piece out (a couple of poems). Ideally, I will have 5 pieces out for consideration at year end.
Complete and send out one of the versions of Mysterious Paris. This could be the novel, the novella, or the short story.

An optional goal is to participate in Nanowrimo this year. It's something I'd like to do, but not at the cost of my other goals for this year.

How did I do on my resolutions for 2007?

2007-12-31T15:36:12Z

Clearly, I should have looked at my resolutions more often, because I'm feeling off-track.

* Write 3,000 words per week (or revise an equivalent amount. Regular writing has to become a habit. - I don't think I ever met this goal, but even worse, I have done very little fiction writing in the second half of the year. I definitely have to make regular writing a habit!

* Send out five short stories for submission, and keep sending them out until they find homes. This includes: "Blonde Bimbos on the Moon" (currently out), "I am Brave" (about to undergo further revisions), the to-be-named story I'm working on for the Liberty Hall contest, and two yet unwritten stories. I did quite a number of submissions, but mostly "Blonde Bimbos on the Moon." I finished the Liberty Hall contest, but did not re-submit ("Lily") yet. "I am Brave" only went out once. I submitted a couple of poems (as one submission), but am one shy of my goal. And I had really planned to have stories that were ready to send out repeatedly.

* Complete draft of Starved by the end of February (end of January is now unrealistic). I'm trunking Starved, at least for now.

* Enter one "flash fiction" contest at Liberty Hall each month.I didn't enter every month, but there was a month in which I entered several weeks. In the end I wrote 6, which is half the number I planned.

* Complete my next draft of Mysterious Paris by September 1. I did some revision on Mysterious Paris, but didn't really complete the draft.

* Write another novel (or a rewrite of A Science Fiction Fantasy) in November. I didn't write any fiction in November, except for exercises with my writing group.

In early 2008, I'll post my resolutions for 2008. I have ideas, but have to ponder. I want to set up goals that will help get me back on track. I felt like I did pretty well in 2006, but slipped in 2007.

If you want to see how well the OCR works

2007-12-28T15:54:12Z

on my new Digimemo, check out this entry on my talk.bmc blog, and then click the link, which shows a picture of the same post hand-written. I did fix the few errors, which were:

Interpreting the crossed out words
Wrong guesses for 2 words not in its dictionary ("blog," which I added to the dictionary, and "favorite," because I was using the UK English instead of US English profile
Misread one period as a comma

That's quite impressive, especially when you see the quality of my hand-writing! I did go through the training exercise, but I didn't expect the OCR to work this well when I wasn't writing neatly.

Fun with music

2007-12-27T17:13:49Z

maryrobinette recently posted a link to a free online utility that generates music from text. You type in a bunch of text, and the program maps each letter to a bunch of notes. You can see the sheet music (and print it), and can hear an instrument (you pick the midi instrument) playing your piece.

It's pretty funny. I had fun figuring out how to get more melodic pieces.

Mysterious Paris in 1000 words

2007-12-10T02:51:57Z

Why couldn't the Liberty Hall Writers end-of-year challenge take place during the final week of the year? Or be two weeks long?

Despite it being a super-busy week for me, I was thinking about the trigger. And it made me think of Mysterious Paris, except with the alternate way of telling the story that I once considered. I'm not sure if I could keep it at 1000 words, but it could definitely be a short story. But I don't have time to finish this... not if I also finish a couple of chores and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

But at least I've started it. And now I'm loving the short story version and thinking I should finish it. Because it would be good to get down to the essence of Mysterious Paris. And, also, it's helpful to explore Georgia's point-of-view. Will I want to go back to the novel?

Oh, and the short story has a different name. But perhaps that's just the trigger giving it a temporary name.

I've been spending most of my time doing technical writing

2007-11-17T04:42:33Z

And when I'm not writing manuals, I'm doing chores or relaxing. I'm hoping that things settle down at work soon, so I don't feel so tired in the evening, and get back into the swing of writing fiction.

At least I have my local writing group. Recently, I've taken a different turn in our writing exercises, and have switched to poetry. Ironically, the very same day that a new member joined our group - and in our introductions I said that I don't really write poetry. hmmm.

Perservering

2007-10-08T17:49:24Z

"Blonde Bimbos on the Moon" hasn't found its home yet, but the most recent rejection included suggestions on how to improve it, along with encouragement to keep writing and submitting.

I have to think about the suggested improvements. But in the meantime, I should polish another story and get it out. I'm thinking of a rewrite of one of my Liberty Hall flashes ("Lizards and Blonde Ambition"). If I rewrite and polish soon, I can get it in the polish challenge, and get some feedback before sending it out.

Short stories

2007-10-07T03:17:20Z

This evening I've been going on a short story binge.

I just finished reading las's In the Shadow of the Fryolater at The Town Drunk and couldn't help laughing.

The complete absorption of Emma's boyfriend Benny in his multi-player computer game reminds me a bit of one of the main characters of "Save Me Plz," which I heard today courtesy of EscpaePOD, after having read it recently in Realms of Fantasy. The reading was well-done, but having read the story so recently, the ending was still fresh in my mind. "Save Me Plz" is a cute story, but it only partially worked the second time.

I also listened to "Neils Bohr and the Sleeping Dane," (also on EscapePOD)a really unusual story about World War II, golem, and Neils Bohr. My only surprise was that this wasn't held for the upcoming PODCastle, their sister fantasy site. Although there was some discussion of science in this story, it didn't seem to be a science fiction story - at least to me.

In which Facebook gives me some wild ideas

2007-09-29T04:39:57Z

No, I'm not suddenly becoming a party girl. On my talk.bmc blog, I started writing what I thought would be a short post on what documentation might look like using the Facebook platform. But it turned out I had a lot of ideas!

You can read the article here.

And if you have any ideas about how Social Media could shape documentation, blog about it, then let me know. I'm hoping to read other people's thoughts and post a round-up.

Oops

2007-09-28T12:15:55Z

I made a typing error in a mark-up tag a few days ago. I didn't notice this, as Firefox is forgiving - but yesterday I found out that my entry wasn't displaying fully in Internet Explorer.

If you use IE, you can now fully read this entry about my writing "Not a Fairy Tale." In other browsers, the fix means that the links will work.

Several writing exercises make a first draft

2007-09-26T03:53:40Z

I recently realized that my Liberty Hall Writers flash "Forgotten Fairytale" would make a good start to the earlier flash "Solstice." I had also written a couple of expansions to Solstice as exercises with my local writing group. (To my LH friends - the local writing exercises are usually only 15 - 20 minutes.)

Yesterday I applied the LH revision comments to Forgotten Fairy Tale, and today I merged it with my other Solstice pieces, wrote some new scenes, and notes for additional scenes. OK. Maybe it's not really a first draft of the longer story, as it's incomplete. I'm hoping that tomorrow or on the weekend I can complete the draft.

I'm toying with a new title: "Not a Fairy Tale"

Web 1.0

2007-09-19T01:56:45Z

Recently, I realized that I haven't updated my static web site in perhaps two years. That's because, of course, most of the information I'm putting on the web is here. And on my Vox page. And on my corporate blog (Write On). With other bits at <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/mmarques>LinkedIn</a> and FaceBook. So, I made the other page into a map of my Web 2.0 presence, and I tried to make it look like an old-fashioned static page. I'm not sure how well that works, but at least by pointing to dynamic places that I frequently update, it will re-direct people to move along to more current stuff. One of these days I'll have to host the articles I wrote for DigitalEve (back when they were WebGrrls). Or maybe I can re-blog them. I felt sad looking at the old list of links that the information I wrote about getting started in various digital careers is no longer available. Of course, it's so ancient, that maybe those articles aren't applicable any more.

On Vox: If you might be interested in starting an art teaching business

2007-09-09T00:04:47Z

Start & Run an Art Teaching Business (Start & Run a)

Tanya Freedman

Check out Start & Run an Art Teaching Business by my friend Tanya Freedman. She ran a successful art teaching business for several years. In her book she shares not only ideas for different types of art teaching businesses, but also entrepreneurial advice that can be so helpful for creative people who haven't thought about the business side of things.

You can find out more about the book, and read an excerpt on her web site.

Originally posted on mmarques.vox.com

Adventures in PODcast listening: Escape POD

2007-09-05T02:50:30Z

I just recently subscribed to Escape POD. I've never listened to audio books, and barely listened to broadcast fiction on the radio. But with my recent forays into short fiction (thanks slushmaster for the impetus), I decided to give it a shot - after all, I saw that Escape POD had previously carried stories by the likes of Mike Resnick and Nancy Kress.

My first story was James Trimarco's "The Sundial Brigade." I'm now hooked on Escape POD! Great story and reading. The story is set in the distant future. Floods had ravaged Earth, and Martian colonists had come back to rescue Earth and the remaining people. But now the Martians want to experience what Earth was "really" like, and have set up museum cities to show what it was like to live in a certain place and time from Earth's past - and all the residents have to live "true to period" while always being under observation by the Martians.

The story-line drew me in and kept me listening eagerly until the end. The characters were well-motivated and plausible. Sufficient description made me feel like I was in the city with Antonio, without dragging down the story. I could probably read a novel set in this world!

I'm looking forward to my next listen from Escape POD.

On Vox: Don't miss out on Crystal Rain

2007-09-01T20:48:59Z

Crystal Rain

Tobias S. Buckell

Tobias Buckell's first novel is an awesome science fiction novel, full of: swash-buckling adventure, steam punk, nanotechnology, and even a star ship.

More importantly, the characters have depth, seem plausible, and captivated my interest. And they're not all white! Actually, most are shades of brown (being either Aztec or Afro-Caribbean).

The preface to this book intrigued me, but then the first thirty pages seemed to drag. I started wondering if this was really a fantasy novel, and a bad mish-mash of cultures. I kept reading, however, for the promise of the preface, and was rewarded in spades, as the steam punk kicked in, adventure kicked into gear, and explanations that made sense were provided.

I'm looking forward to reading his second book, Ragamuffin.

Originally posted on mmarques.vox.com

Inspired

2007-08-29T11:32:11Z

This weekend I read an article in Realms of Fantasy (how did I purchase the October 2007 issue in August) about the orphan as archetype, when I was struck by an idea for Mysterious Paris that ups the conflict and stakes - and I hope will eliminate the need for some of the less exciting bits.

I already wrote a new draft of one of the scenes (last scene of the first chapter), but now I'll have to work through how it plays out in the rest of the book! I also rewrote a couple of scenes (but not so drastically) early on, to make the attraction a little stronger at the start. This change also means scenes will play out differently later on.