The beauty of mating rituals

Four red eyes sense moon phase light from mates

I visited Lynn Rush at her blog today. The picture she posted reminded me so much of being out to sea, and the many gorgeous and unique sights you can see out there. In the Gulf, I saw the biggest pod of dolphins EVER. There had to be more than a hundred of them. I was so upset I didn't have my camera. I kept it with me from then on, hoping I'd see them again, but I never did.

I saw flying fish and poisonous sea snakes (they looked perfectly harmless, like toys floating on top of the water). I saw whales, though not as up close as I'd wanted. I saw amazing and some very strange sunsets and sunrises. One pitch black night, I caught flashes of light in my periphery. It was lightning, but unlike anything I've ever seen, like big, round blasts of yellow from the cloud to the ocean surface.

By far, one of my favorite sights is the bioluminescence, when the ocean water glows in the dark. Sometimes it's blue or green or sometimes it's somewhere in between. In the wake of our ship, a fireworks display bubbled just under the surface. Along the Pacific SoCal Coast, the green glow is caused by fireworms. Yeah, kinda gross but cool. One underway from San Diego to Port Hueneme, the entire ocean lit up the blackest night. It peaked most on the wave crests where the ocean churned and in the upset from our ship. Such beauty, and all because these little worms secrete bioluminescent goo to attract their mates. Other bioluminescence can come from jellies, phytoplankton, algae, sea snails, bacteria, or a host of other creatures.

Seen anything amazing come from a mating ritual? Anyone been out to sea and want to share an experience? Anyone find where my monster pod o' dolphins went? I really want that picture, darn it! 

In other news, please join amazing blogger friend and writer, DL Hammons of Cruising Altitude 2.0, in the Origins Blogfest. Tell us about your journey as a writer and how your dreams began. Meet some great new people you can identify with and find a bunch of fantastic blogs to follow! I know I haven't signed up yet, but I will. You can also help DL out with his query over at Matthew MacNish's blog The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment (the QQQE). Matt is another amazing blogger who helps others craft queries so they can improve their chances at publishing.

Anyone joining in this blogfest or some other you have coming up?

Creating Characters That Rock!

        The Great Blogging Experiment has arrived today with over 170 bloggers hitting the keyboards to tell you their methods for creating compelling characters.  This is a ginormous event brought to you by the fabulous Blogging Trifecta of Elana, Jen and Alex.  What an amazing turnout!

Do you want your characters like this?  If so, just skip this post.

        Not that plot, setting, pace and other factors aren't important, but it will be the characters who push and pull a reader through your book--guaranteed.  But what is it about your characters that makes you care about them so much, whether they succeed or fail?  It comes to one all-important thing: making the character real. Think about what you love and hate, like and dislike, about people around you, in movies, in books, and then apply what works.

Keep in mind:

Real people are complex and have flaws as well as strengths.

Readers want to like the characters but don't expect or want perfection, just believability.  They want to identify with the characters.  Even antagonists need both.  Most don't believe they're bad at all.

Real people act, live their lives.  They don't wait around for things to just happen.

Give them goals to work for and realistic conflict to overcome. 

Real people are diverse with backgrounds and experiences to make them unique.

Do they talk, act, dress, interact authentically given their background? Do you have too many characters all with different accents or peculiarities?  A little is good, but too much is unbelievable, unless it's relevant to the story you're writing.

Real people are fairly consistent in how they talk and react to situations.

Know your character inside and out.  What motivates him/her/it?  How does the character deal with obstacles?  What flavor would your character order at Baskin Robbins and why?  Paper or plastic?

Real people are reflected in their surroundings.

Physical attributes, body language, clothing, setting and even a name or nickname can reveal character.

Real people grow as they learn and experience new things.

Some don't change, but the ones that really rock do!

Many writers suggest a character analysis or character interviews to get to know the character better.  One piece of advice above all others that helps me the most is to think about how your other characters would describe your character.  What makes him/her stand out from the others?  How well do your other characters know each other?  I hope something in this post will help someone in the blogosphere!  Thank you all for coming by my post.

Book Review: CassaStar by Alex J. Cavanaugh

 

CassaStar by Alex J. Cavanaugh

October 19, 2010 Science fiction/adventure/space opera

ISBN 9780981621067 Dancing Lemur Press LLC

        When I received my ARC of Alex's novel, CassaStar, my first impression was of how beautiful the book is.  I love the cover art.  Well yes, you see it in the picture above but it's even better in person, quality artwork on a 6x9 trade paperback that feels good in your hand.  Here's the back cover blurb:

        They say "no man is an island," but young fighter-pilot-in-training Byron is putting that theory to the test.  He arrives on the Guaard moon base for his final phase of Cosbolt pilot training with a cocky attitude and an underlying need to prove himself and immediately falls under the watchful eye of the decorated senior instructor, Bassa.

        At first, Bassa sees in Byron an uncanny likeness to his own deceased younger brother, another brash, rebellious pilot, and he's determined not to let this skilled young pilot meet the same fate.  After discovering a rare hidden talent (not to be spoiled here!) giving Byron's already ace piloting skills an edge, Bassa takes Byron's training under his wing.

        But the last thing Byron wants is Bassa's attention.  Though he yearns for recognition, he also clings to his solitude, finding it hard enough to link telepathically with his friend and navigator, Trindel.  When Trindel decides he no longer wishes to be a navigator, Byron feels betrayed.  He has to choose now to open himself up to a new navigator or lose what he'd worked for all this time.  Ultimately, he completes the training driven by his desire for accomplishment.

        When he arrives at his prestigious first new command, his jets are cooled by the discovery that Bassa has secured orders as his new navigator.  He resents the man's presence, seeing it as intrusive and controlling.  Their relationship is rough, but to survive the rigors of combat and work well as the skilled team they are, they have no other choice than to rely on each other.  With war against a deadly foe brewing, Bassa must trust Byron's judgment and Byron must open his mind to true communication and trust in their friendship.

        Byron expects the worst from people but learns that others can and will surprise you.  Assuming Bassa's interest in him is fed by guilt over his younger brother's death, Byron is stunned to discover the man's genuine affection for him.  Bassa might have initially seen Byron as he saw his brother, but I believe he later saw a reflection of himself, another soul like him having trouble making real connections with others.

        This friendship is at the heart of CassaStar.  The story drives home that to experience true acceptance and friendship, you have to open up and share yourself, to even be vulnerable, but you'll become a stronger person for it. This character-driven story will widely appeal to even those who don't read sci-fi.  The descriptions give the readers a picture to color in with their own imaginations, not overly-detailed like many sci-fi novels and the action scenes are edge-of-your-seat.  I'd recommend CassaStar not only to adults but also to fans of YA.

        It took a few pages to get to know Byron, but the more I learned about him, the harder it was for me to put the book down.  Byron's a great guy who came from a hard life and grew his defenses well, but still managed to stay out of trouble and always perform at his very best.  I really identify with his fear of opening up.  Who hasn't been there before?  Now when's the sequel coming, Alex?

Minus the Bitchassedness...

I’ve traveled an incredibly long learning curve over the past few months, and what’s helped me the most along the way has been—hands down—the bloggers I follow.  It doesn’t matter to me if they’re unpublished or have no agent yet or already have books out or deals made.  Even teachers can still be students and vice versa.

This business of getting published is pretty darn tough so to me being unpublished alone says nothing about the writing, although I love to see writers I follow get their agent or their book deal.  What counts to me most though is the step up you offer freely to your fellow writers with no signs of backstabby bitchassedness to be found (in public anyway, lol).  I’ve improved my writing incredibly because of what you guys give.

What I’ve personally improved on the most:

 Deeper POV.  I now remove the fat from my sentences to make the action more immediate.  For example:

Okay: She saw him walk through the door.

Better: He walked through the door.

Fewer tags.  I’ve combed through my WIPs to remove all dialogue tags that weren’t necessary.  If it was obvious who was talking, I removed it.  If I thought I needed a tag to identify the speaker, I looked for other ways to ID who it was without using a tag.  I also simplified as much as possible the tags I did need to keep in.  I wanted nothing to distract from the story.

Raise the stakes.  I figured out the plot was too shallow in my first WIP, so I’ve raised the stakes and built a better character arc for my MCs.  If the plot’s too simple, too easy, it leaves to much space for more fat (aka, scenes that don’t advance the plot) in the book.  PS—this takes a lot of work, whew!

 Be careful with the adjectives/adverbs. They certainly aren’t off-limits, but they do need to be used sparingly.  I railed against this at first, but then I figured it out.  If you use a lot, it could be an indication that you’re telling rather than showing, and showing is another way to make action/description more immediate.  For example:

Okay: He walked angrily through the door.

Better: He stormed in, slamming the door on his way.

Don’t navel-gaze.  This can apply to the writing, but I don’t usually have too big a problem with that.  I did learn not to navel-gaze too much when it comes to blogging.  I’m not just blogging for myself.  I like blogging as a way to interact with other writers.  So I try not to be all about my book, my book, my book.

I have to praise the uber-phenomenal Elana J., who was the first blogger I ever followed, before I ever moved to Blogspot to begin with.  She inspired me to completely change my blog, and through her, I found Bethany Wiggins, Suzette Saxton, and LiLa.  These people got me right on the good track with where I should head with my blog.  I’m still really working on it, but I’m getting there.

I haven’t even begun to talk about what I’ve learned about agents, querying, publishing, synopses, pitching, etc., but I’m out of space for now.  What's been most valuable to you?  Does a blogger's advice carry more weight if they're published or agented or does it depend on what the advice is?  How do you feel about offering writerly advice yourself?

My First Guest Post Invitation!

Yep, I will be on Alex J. Cavanaugh's blog this Sunday, August 15 (oops, make that Tuesday, August 17).  Just a lil' intro post on my writing journey to date.  If you haven't been by his blog, make the trip because it's awesomesauce fer sure.  I love sci-fi and can't wait to read his newly published book, CassaStar.

While I'm on here, I also want to publicly congratulate Matthew Rush at The Quintessentially Questionable Query Experiment for winning a major-cool query contest at WriteOnCon.  Here's to you getting your stuff out there. *raises drink to you--cough, cough, it's a lil' strong*

For those of you who may have missed WriteOnCon, it was truly amazing.  Lots of great stuff.  I didn't really get to participate much since I was underway for almost all of it, but I'm still planning on going over the posts now that I'm back in San Dog.  Well, also I don't write YA/MG/PB, but what I've read was educational anyway.

If you're interested in attending an online writer's convention, a different one is scheduled for October, but registration is ending very soon for The Muse Online Writer's Conference.  Check out my sidebar to get more information.

One more thing:  Happy Friday the 13th!