"Dragonfly," by Julia Golding

Dragonfly is my genre!  An elusive, inexplicably uncommon genre:  like fantasy with no magic, no strange creatures.  It's a world that follows our laws of physics but has its own culture.  Not bound historical fiction truths.  It allows for great world building and effective social commentary.  I love writing this genre, and would love reading it if I could find more than a handful of books like this.  One reviewer described it as "fantasy cultures written in a realistic fashion."  Exactly.  Others described it disparagingly as "lacking any fantastic elements."  Sharon Shinn's General Winston's Daughter is one of the few other books I know that really fits in this category, and I remember people on Amazon grousing, "Where's the magic?"  I find it very refreshing and fun to read.  

That said, this book does have a few issues.  The head-hopping disoriented me.  In writers' terminology, head hopping means changing point of view from character to character within a scene, so that we know the thoughts of multiple characters.  This is different from books that switch the point-of-view character from chapter to chapter or scene to scene, like Game of Thrones.  Head-hopping is usually quite unbalanced:  we know mostly one or two characters' thoughts, but a minor character sticks his in here and there when convenient for the plot.  This is actually quite a standard style for older books, but most modern novels are limited omniscient, so I found it distracting.         

Some of the changes in Tashi's character are too abrupt.  She goes from formal and restrained to wild and emotional a bit too soon, but I could allow it.  The change I couldn't swallow was when she loses her faith—a major my-world-is-destroyed, who-am-I sort of state of mind.  Then Ramil talks to her for a minute and is like, "Maybe this is the Goddess's plan for you, even if it doesn't feel like it.  Don't lose heart."  And instantly she's faithful and happy again.  It would never be that simple.        

There is also a lot of modern language in Dragonfly.  The worst example, from page 71, goes like this:  "I'm sorry you feel like that, Prince, because it's no use getting all hot and bothered about her."  Hot and Bothered?  

However, I liked the story.  I enjoyed the fast-paced adventure and I really loved the culture clash.  It's a premise I like, no matter how many times I read or watch it:  characters forced into a marriage of convenience, who don't like each other at first, but who then fall in love.  It was fun to watch some of the minor characters, especially the endearing circus strongman.   

I love alternate world fantasy.  I hope more people write and publish this genre in the future. 

My rating:  3

Click for Julia Golding's website

Tikal Sunrise

The Expeditioner, a great travel e-zine, has published my article, Tikal Sunrise. 

Ever wanted to hike through pyramids in the darkness?  Watch the jungle wake up?  Play with a tarantula?  If so, read my article about Tikal, Guatemala's most famous Mayan ruins. 



Please leave a comment on the article.  Thanks. 

"The Story Sisters," by Alice Hoffman

The Story Sisters, by Alice Hoffman, was interesting enough, and literary, with some very beautiful pieces of writing and many fascinating details.  Often the style, however, struck me as choppy.  Example:  "The heat had settled on Claire's skin and she looked flushed.  She was drinking a glass of vodka and soda.  She was a nervous wreck.  She didn't know if happiness would suit her.  She wasn't prepared for it." (pg 320, hardcover edition).  There are many examples like this.  Lots of sentences of the same length and structure, starting with "she" or "they" or a name, all in a row.   I also hated having to read through the fake language of the sisters.  I knew they were speaking in their own tongue.  I didn't need to see it every page.

The story was dark:  one tragedy or loss after another.  Drugs.  Abuse.  Emptiness. Death.  I really got involved in the characters' lives, though sometimes I wished there was a little less dwelling on past wrongs and past errors.  They dwelled and dwelled and dwelled, and let this dwelling ruin their lives, until at some points I wanted to tell them, "Get over yourselves and try to be happy!"  But this was probably the message of the book, and a something a lot easier to say than do. 

It was a book that held me in its world, even if I didn't completely love it.  From reviews I've read by avid Hoffman fans, this may not be the best example of her work.  Explore Alice Hoffman's website for more information about this and other books.   

My rating:  3

Literature Tropes #4: This is My Story

I love tvtropes.org.  I was browsing there today and found another trope that annoys me:    This is My Story.  I highly recommend clicking on the link to read their original explanation, because it brilliantly uses the trope itself, sickeningly enough that you'll probably never read one of these stories the same again. 

Personally, I think it's a weak opening:  "My name is John Smith.  My story is important because blah blah blah."  Or, "You may have heard my story, but everything you've heard is wrong."  Or, "You won't believe this story, but it's mine, and it's the truth." Or, "My name is blah blah and I'm famous for blah blah."  Sometimes this works, like in The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold: "My name is Salmon, like the fish; first name, Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973."  It works because of the shock value.  It's not what you're expecting from a This is My Story opening.  Most of the time, however, I want you to show me that your story's interesting or important or unbelievable.  Don't tell me. 

Moby Dick famously starts this way.  "Call me Ishmael."  TV Tropes also mentions The Name of the Wind, which people raved about but which I couldn't get into.  The narrator there starts with his name and all the fantastic things he's done and why you as the reader will have heard of him.  All I could think was, "Great, another wordy braggart who just won't shut up about himself.  That's all I need in my life."  But it obviously worked for a lot of people.  Mark Twain began Huckleberry Finn thusly:  "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter."  A variation on the theme, with a little added product placement.  Other classics start similarly, as if writing a boilerplate introduction paragraph to a five paragraph essay:  Robinson Crusoe, Great Expectations, various others.  I've seen Asimov and Heinlein do it in third person.  It extends to kids' books too, like Because of Winn-Dixie.

I found this example on the internet, from Giles Goat-boy, a book I'd never heard of:  "George is my name; my deeds have been heard of in Tower Hall, and my childhood has been chronicled in the Journal of Experimental Psychology."  Okay, so I kind of like this one, though it doesn't just go for the "my name is" bit; it goes full on with the "why I'm interesting" bit.

The Good Soldier begins, "This is the saddest story I've ever heard."  That's like writing a query letter to an agent and saying, "This is the best book you'll ever read."  Automatic reject.  

This one's cool, but chiefly because it plays with the trope—and intrigues the reader:  "In a sense, I am Jacob Horner."  John Barth, The End of the Road.  So, in a sense you're not?  Makes me want to read.  

TV shows use This is My Story a lot, especially in the opening credits.  In fact, I was just walking past a TV in the other room and heard the beginning of Person of Interest, which did just what I'd been writing this post about.  Ringer, Desperate Housewives, Burn Notice, etc. are just a few examples.  Keep your eyes open and you'll find many others.

I would challenge you, as a writer, to never start a book this way unless you can give it a clever twist.  Even then, think twice.  Overused is…well…overused.    

Phoenix Heat

Phoenix, Arizona, USA:

• 
  Currently: 116°F
  Mostly Cloudy
  116°F | 93°F
• 
  Tomorrow
  Sunny
  119°F | 93°F
• 
  Sunday
  Sunny
  116°F | 91°F

Search results

Prague, Czech Republic:  

• 
  Currently: 54°F
  Fair
  65°F | 48°F
• 
  Tomorrow
  PM Showers
  67°F | 49°F
• 
  Sunday
  AM Showers
  66°F | 51°F

Search resultsP

weather.yahoo.com

Need I say more?  Actually, I probably do, since I just heard on the radio in Phoenix:  "I hope you're enjoying this wonderful weekend weather."  WHAT?  Seriously, how can ANYONE call 119 degrees "wonderful?"  "Not as bad as it could be," maybe, or "a bit toasty," or "a good time to be thankful for air conditioning," but "wonderful?"  Of course, that weather in Prague right now sounds wonderful to me, but many of people here would say it looks cold and miserable.      

Literature Tropes #3: Red Shirts

This is one of my favorite tropes to mock:  the poor doomed Red Shirts.  Originally from Star Trek (the original series), this refers to the hapless extra crew members (usually wearing red) who were invited on dangerous away missions for the express purpose of becoming cannon fodder, because somebody has to die, and it can't be any of the main characters.

Now, I love Star Trek in most all of its reincarnations, but the Red Shirt trope is so bad that whenever someone we don't know gets involved in anything, we all go "uh-oh.  He's toast."  You see it a lot in other science fiction and in fantasy, thrillers, action movies, horror, etc.  It's also cleverly spoofed in many good parodies.  

I have to admit, though, that I prefer the "Red Shirt" problem to the "Everyone's a Red Shirt" phenomena in grim works like Game of Thrones or Shakespeare tragedies, where no one's safe and anyone can die.  Readers and viewers grow attached to their favorite characters.  They don't want them dying all over the place, even if it's more realistic.      

Click on  tvtropes.org to see their classic photo of a Red Shirt in its natural state.  And as this great website warns in its entry on Mauve Shirts (those Red Shirts who have had good lines or enough personality for us to get slightly attached), whatever you do, if you're a Red Shirt, don't show anyone a picture of your baby.  You'll die for sure then.

Why on Earth do I live in Phoenix?

I hate the heat.

I love wearing scarves and gloves and walking to work through the snow.  I like having to carry my jacket with me on summer evenings.  I love rainstorms.  

So why on Earth--with its many places that aren't as hot as Phoenix--do I live here?  

It was 96 degrees Fahrenheit this morning at 9:00AM.  June 2.  Pretty soon we'll begin our 93 so so consecutive days of 100-118 degree temps, where it never gets anywhere near cool even in the middle of the night.  I have a friend in Colorado--the Rocky Mountain part--and it snowed there last week.  In late May.  Oklahoma's been terrorized by deadly destructive tornadoes lately.  I remember weeks on end in Poland where the daytime highs never rose above freezing. 

Everywhere has its pros and cons, and everyone has different tolerances.  I have friends here in Phoenix who are like, "yeah, it's a little hot" while I'm struggling to even breathe through the blast-furnace heat, and would literally die if I had to work outside in it for 8 hours at my job.  These same people think they're going to die when it dips to 55 degrees Fahrenheit, while I'm skipping around happy as a lark, walking around in short sleeves.  When it rains for two days in a row here, the newscaster are like, "When will this EVER END?"  They should spend a few months in Ketchikan or Seattle.  

I think the trick is to try to find a place where the bad things about the weather are the things you personally don't mind so much.  Give me five months of sub-freezing temperatures over 5 months of 100 plus temperature any day.

I need to move.