Lena Corazon

Flights of Fancy

Month: September 2011 (page 2 of 2)

Things I Love Tuesday: Hot Men of Literature

September 13, 2011 / / 15 Comments

For this week’s Things I Love Tuesday, I turn my attention to the hotties of the literary world.  You see, this is another vice of mine: falling in love with fictional characters. Over the years, I’ve fallen for countless characters, like Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, Laurie from Little Women, all of Georgette Heyer’s heroes, Austen’s men… the list goes on and on. However, these lucky guys are the top five who managed to make the cut:

5. Mr. Rochester, from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Timothy Dalton and Zelah Clarke from the 1983 production of "Jane Eyre"

In Mills and Boon’s recent survey of the 100 most romantic heroes of all time, Edward Fairfax Rochester topped the list. I must admit, I also love him with a passion. There’s something about a mercurial, sardonic, arrogant guy that never fails to make my pulse beat a bit faster, especially when his vulnerabilities are exposed.

Rochester, however, is a man plagued by demons, many of his own creation. He’s self-destructive, he can be a bit cruel, and while I always feel sorry for all the hardships he endured, I can’t excuse a man who resorts to locking his wife in the attic, regardless of how psychotic she may have been. If it wasn’t for this character flaw, he would rank higher on my list.

Michael Fassbender and Mia Wasikowska in "Jane Eyre," 2011

However, I will grant him many brownie points for the transformation that he undergoes by the end of the novel. He is humbled in body, soul, and mind, and becomes the sort of man who is deserving of someone as strong and staunch in her convictions as Jane. (I am always so impressed that Jane had the mental and moral fortitude to withstand all of Rochester’s advances, despite how much she loved him, but that is a topic for a future post.)

4. Adam Black, The Immortal Highlander by Karen Marie Moning

Cover art for Karen Marie Moning's "The Immortal Highlander"

No list of literary hotties would be complete without an appearance by a Scottish highlander, and my list has two. The first, Adam Black, isn’t a highlander, per se. Rather, he’s one of the immortal Fae who has the misfortune to anger the queen of the Seelie Court. As punishment, he is stripped of his otherworldly powers, sent to the mortal world, and rendered invisible. However, he meets a young lawyer, Gabrielle O’Callaghan, who was born with the gift to see his kind. Together, they work to stop a plot that threatens both Fae and humankind.

Adam Black is the ultimate bad boy: he broods, he smolders, he oozes sensuality. He sports black leather pants like a rock star, is uber-muscled and chiseled, and yet harbors a heart of gold (and feelings!) beneath all of his male bravado.

Finally, I feel that I have a duty to inform you all that Adam Black has his own official twitter account. My mind, it is boggled.

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Monday Inspirations: Exploring Steampunk Technology, Part 2

September 13, 2011 / / 7 Comments

Due to the untimely intervention of life, Monday Inspirations is a day late, but better late than never! Today, we continue on our journey through some of the more common technological elements of the steampunk world. In many ways, this is the semi-blind leading the blind; I’m brand-new to this genre, and this mini-series of posts doubles as much-needed research. The hope is that you’ll all learn something new (especially since it seems like I have quite a few friends curious to read more about steampunk), and that I’ll have a chance to build up my smarts and write a novel that will more or less fit the genre.

Rosie the Maid from the 1960s Cartoon, The Jetsons

This week, we’re going to take a look at robots and automatons. They are, of course, a familiar mainstay in popular culture. Even if you don’t read or watch science fiction, chance are you can name at least three or four robots from literature, film and television.  For me, the first ones that come to mind are Rosie, the mechanical maid from the 1960s cartoon, The Jetsons; R2-D2 and C-3PO from the Star Wars universe; and the super-scary Daleks from Doctor Who.

Robots are worthy of fascination and awe, for they represent one of the highest forms of human ingenuity, skill, and creativity. In many ways, they serve as a symbol of a world where technology has been harnessed to serve humans, where we can enjoy the fruits of our labor and intelligence, kick back, and enjoy greater leisure time because our mechanical maids and butlers are tackling the chores and other dirty jobs for us.

The "Steambud," designed for Toysrevil 'Steampunk Perspective' contest.

What could be better than the ability to create autonomous, intelligent beings through sheer know-how and a few well-placed mechanical bits, wires, and other such gadgetry? How many mundane tasks could we outsource if we had a fleet of automatons ready and willing to tackle them?

At the same time, robots evoke some of our deepest fears, for what happens if those autonomous machines take on a consciousness that rivals our own? Is it possible for mechanical creatures to attain a semblance of a human soul? And if so, would such an outcome break overarching codes of ethics and morality?

The possibility of such an outcome has inspired countless works of fiction and film, from Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein to the film Terminator and beyond.  Popular culture has simultaneously celebrated robots and warned us against them, giving life to the very real technological dilemmas that we face every day. We may not have robot servants clanking about our homes, but we do have countless automated devices in our lives, devices that have served to displace human workers and transform our relationship with the world around us, and with one another.

Because my interests are historical in nature, what leaped out at me during my research and reading is the fact that human conception of the robot stretches back far beyond the 19th century. According to Wikipedia, the idea of self-acting automata was well-established within the lore and mythology of various ancient cultures, including the Chinese, Greeks, and Hebrews.

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Something Looks a Little Different…

September 12, 2011 / / 22 Comments

If things look a little strange around Flights of Fancy, don’t worry — it’s not your imagination. I’ve done a bit of tweaking here and there to officially introduce my new pen name, Lena Corazon.

I’m utilizing WordPress’s Site Redirect service, which means that you can continue to utilize the old links for my original blog (jamilajamison.wordpress.com), but they will automatically be rerouted to the new site.  The service will last for a year, so there’s not a huge rush to change up your links/RSS feeds, etc.  All the same, you’ll want to update things over eventually.

If you glance over at the sidebar, you’ll notice that I’ve added some shiny new buttons linked to my other social media profiles, including an option for the very nifty Google Friend Connect and a badge for my Facebook author page. Feel free to join my horde of zombie followers merry band of friends, using whichever medium you most enjoy.

The process of exporting my WordPress blog to a self-hosted site has been mostly smooth.  You’ll notice that my old username remains for any comments that I wrote prior to the Grand Renaming — slightly confusing and a little irritating, because I thought I could get rid of that, but whatevs. Otherwise, everything should work the way it’s supposed to function. If there are issues, leave me a comment and I’ll look into it.

Hopefully you all get used to the new name!  I’ll happily answer to either Lena or Jamila, so pick whichever one you prefer. 😀

ROW80: A New Name, and Some Plotting

September 11, 2011 / / 32 Comments

ROWers, the end of Round 3 is almost upon us! Here’s my short recap for the past few days:

  • The Grand Name Change happens at midnight! If you see “Lena Corazon” pop up on your Twitter feed, don’t be alarmed — it’s just me. In order to ease the transition as much as possible, I’ll be using WordPress’s site redirect service. This means that anyone who heads to jamilajamison.wordpress.com will automatically be sent to the new site (which should be lenacorazon.wordpress.com, unless someone steals it from me before midnight). So hopefully people don’t get too confused, but I’ll have a sticky announcement up on my front page with an explanation, just in case. For my Writers’ Campaign folks, I’ll send an announcement to Rach so she can put it on Friday’s announcement board.
  • I’ve returned to edits for TELL ME NO LIES in earnest. I plan to dig into the suspense and thriller aspects of the novel, tweaking the murder plot and adding in the details of the police investigation (this involves research into 19th century forensic techniques — fun!). I’m also putting on my sociologist’s cap, trying to consider the larger political and social ramifications presented by the novel’s main conflict: a serial killer is preying upon “ladies of the stage” in San Francisco’s Barbary Coast. While these ramifications will play out in the background of the tale, they will, of course, have a major impact on my protagonists and their attempts to hunt down the killer.
  • I continue to make time for reading. I’m about halfway through Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age, a book that seems to defy genre. I’ve heard it described variously as “post-cyberpunk,” “futuristic steampunk,” and “math fiction.” I’ll just say that it is speculative fiction at its best, and presents a futuristic world where nanotechnology is the norm, nation-states have been replaced by a proliferation of tiny city-states/semi-sovereign communities, and “Anglo-Americans” have returned to elements of Victorian culture in the form of dress, aesthetics, and etiquette. Stephenson is one of the most amazing masters of world-building, so I am simultaneously taking notes, marveling at his skill, and, of course, enjoying the story.
  • Finally, I’m obsessed with The Civil Wars, an awesome folksy music duo that’s making some gorgeous music. Adele apparently went to one of their concerts and declared that it was the greatest live show she had ever attended. I’ll have a chance to test this claim, as they’re coming to Santa Barbara in November. They’re offering one of their live albums for free download, along with their first single, “Barton Hollow,” is available for free download, but I’m going to share “To Whom It May Concern” with you. It’s my favorite song off the album (the lyrics resonate with my inner hopeless romantic), and I’ve been listening to it non-stop.

I’m also considering the slate of fall writing courses that have surfaced online, including Tiffany Lawson Inman’s The Triple Threat Behind Staging a Scene, and Kristen Lamb’s class on Blogging To Build Your Brand. I’d like to do them both, but I’m trying to be careful with what I add to my plate, since this is going to be a busy fall quarter. But we’ll see! It’s hard to pass up two incredibly amazing opportunities like these. 😀

That’s about it for me. Check in with the rest of the intrepid ROW80 cohort here, and cheer them on as we enter the final stretch of this round.

ROW80 Check-In: Chilling Out

September 7, 2011 / / 16 Comments

Many, many thanks for all of the responses to my last check-in post. All of the support, advice, and hugs were most appreciated. You are all incredible!

In more blog award news, Gene Lempp and Heather over at My Demon Spirits passed the Liebster onto me, and on Monday I also received Appreciated Follower award from Marie Andrews.  Both Gene and Marie have been wonderful friends over the past few months that I’ve participated in ROW80, and I’m quite grateful to them both. Heather is a new friend that I’ve made through the Writers’ Campaign, and I’m looking forward to getting to know her better.

I love seeing all of these blog awards going around — it gives me a really lovely sense of community. Gene’s latest post provides an excellent discussion about the importance of blog awards, which I highly recommend checking out. In addition, Marie’s latest short story, “Iron Butterfly,” is available over at Nevermet Press, so swing by and read that as well. Finally, Heather’s delightfully creepy flash fic for our Campaign challenge is up, and you all must check it out.

I have done my best to chill out over the past few days. Not focusing on the WIP has helped me to feel a little less pressured, though I will admit that I am starting to go through withdrawal. I peeked at TELL ME NO LIES the other night, and had one of those lovely serendipitous moments where I thought, “Wow, I wrote this?” It is raw, it is unpolished, it is a bit like a diamond in the rough, but I might be able to get a decent novel out of it at some point. 😀

Here are some other things I’ve done this week:

Writers’ Platform-Building Challenge #1: “Broken Promises”

September 7, 2011 / / 82 Comments

The first challenge for the Writers’ Platform Building Campaign has been issued, and it comes in the form of a 200 word flash fiction. These are the exact directions:

Write a short story/flash fiction story in 200 words or less, excluding the title. It can be in any format, including a poem. Begin the story with the words, “The door swung open” These four words will be included in the word count.

If you want to give yourself an added challenge (optional), use the same beginning words and end with the words: “the door swung shut.” (also included in the word count)

For those who want an even greater challenge, make your story 200 words EXACTLY!

I went ahead and took the extra challenges in the prompt, just for the fun of it. 😀 This little drabble is a bit different from my usual fare, but it popped into my head when Lady Antebellum’s “Need You Now” came on the radio this evening. The story doesn’t 100% mirror the song, but it is inspired by the broken-hearted, hopeless vibe of the lyrics. Here’s the song, for anyone who hasn’t heard it:

The rest of the entries can be found here. Looks like I’m #231 on the list, so there’s lots of great flash fiction to read through. Keep in mind, however, that only Campaign participants can vote for their favorite stories.

-oOo-

“Broken Promises”

The door swung open on rusty hinges, grating loudly in the predawn stillness. Leila scowled, for it was yet another mocking reminder that Bill Harrison was the worst of liars.

Their house, a tiny fixer-upper that the realtor claimed was “a diamond in the rough,” enthralled him for a time, the same way Leila had once delighted him.  Standing there on the front step, Leila could still hear his voice, echoes from a golden summer afternoon.

“Ignore those weeds in the front yard, baby. We’ll pull ‘em up, plant some roses. It’ll be a real home.” As though to seal the promise, he’d kissed her shamelessly, right in front of the realtor.

Three years later, the memory of that kiss tingled her lips, but the yard was still filled with weeds, withered and brown. Those dreams they had cherished were gone, and so was Bill.

He might have cared for her once, but there were things he’d loved more. Whiskey was one, gambling another, twin demons that stole him from her side.

The house gaped before her, an empty shell, but there was nowhere else for her to go. Leila entered, and with another screech, the door swung shut.

Things I Love Tuesday: Hot Men of History

September 6, 2011 / / 18 Comments

Today’s edition of Things I Love Tuesday is a bit self-explanatory, at least judging from the title. I am a dork for history, and one of the side effects of this affliction is my tragic tendency to crush on men from the past. This is, I suppose, the epitome of unrequited love, second only to that other disorder, falling in love with fictional characters (a blog post in and of itself).

However, I’m not alone in this.  My high school American History teacher, for example, used to talk at length about her undying love for former U.S. presidents John Adams and Teddy Roosevelt, and over the years, my friends have confided their own hidden attraction to prominent historical figures, both famous and infamous. The internet has helped to reinforce my silly crushes, especially blogs like My Daguerrotype Boyfriend and Hotties From History.

For fun, I offer a selection of my Top 4 Hot Men of History:

"Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804) in the Uniform of the New York Artillery" by Alonzo Chappel (1828-1887)

Number 4 on my list is Alexander Hamilton (1755-1804), also known as the gentleman whose face graces the United States’ ten dollar bill.  He was a smarty pants, co-authoring the Federalist Papers with such luminaries as John Jay (the first chief justice of the Supreme Court) and James Madison (the 4th president of the U.S.). The Federalist Papers were a series of essays defending the American constitution, published during the Revolutionary War, and continue to be cited by constitutional lawyers and judges today.

Hamilton was also the country’s first Secretary of the Treasury. As part of his job, he helped to construct the Bank of the United States, the first central bank in the country’s history. He also helped to establish the national mint, which created a single currency for the whole country (as opposed to the hodgepodge of over 50 currencies being used in the latter part of the 1700s). I still haven’t quite forgiven Aaron Burr for killing Hamilton in a duel.

Yes, I hold grudges against historical figures. Don’t judge me.

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Monday Inspirations: Exploring Steampunk Technology, Part 1

September 5, 2011 / / 11 Comments

With 50k of my steampunk WIP, TELL ME NO LIES, under my belt, I return to my weekly Monday Inspirations posts in order to focus on some of the central elements of the steampunk genre. As you can see from the title, I intend for this to be the introduction to a miniseries on steampunk technology, a chance for me to explore a world that I find both exciting and slightly intimidating. Luckily, I have you, dear friends, to accompany me on this journey. 😀

This is more my speed. Credit: Alwyn Ladell, via Flickr

As much as the admission pains me, I must confess that tackling anything related with technology makes me all sorts of crazy inside.  I don’t do technology, or at least anything more advanced than, say, an automatic crossbow or a horse-drawn carriage. I prefer swords to guns, magical staves to anything science-y (unless, y’know, we’re talking about some sort of alchemical process), and flesh-and-blood humans and animals to androids or clockwork creatures.  I’ve never been really intrigued by how things work — I want to press a button on my computer, or turn the key in the ignition of my car, and have it work, period. (There is a reason why I am a sociologist/writer, and not an engineer or a scientist.)

It's all about the pretty, folks. Okay, the train is cool too, I suppose. Source: RocknRollBride.com

Clearly, it wasn’t the excitement over building worlds dominated by airships or great clockwork structures that motivated me to write a steampunk novel. No, I was seduced by the aesthetics (I feel a little guilty about this). I like the 19th century. I like England. I like bustles and corsets and mini-fascinators and top hats. Granted, I also like the dark side of society that steampunk allows me to explore, particularly the social upheaval that accompanied the Industrial Revolution.

Better yet, I love the possibilities that engaging in alternate history provides. What happens if we shift our attention from the stately parlors and fancy drawing rooms of the British Empire in favor of another locale? What sorts of stories can we tell if we move beyond the dominant paradigm of the wealthy European lady or gentleman, the common protagonists of steampunk novels? This is a topic I’ll return to later on down the line, but for the moment, I will refer you all to Beyond Victoriana, a blog where such questions are tackled on a regular basis.

"Into the Far West" takes the spaghetti western, adds tropes from Chinese Wuxia, along with steampunk to break free of the dominant western European paradigm. Source: http://intothefarwest.com/

But I digress. While TELL ME NO LIES currently features a host of automatons, a rakish airship pirate, steam-powered trolleys, and one very awesome mechanical menagerie, at the moment they’re little more than wee references sprinkled in — here a robot, there a steam-powered thingie, and by the way, my main character is wearing a bustle.  See? Steampunk, right?

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ROW80: CampNano, and Learning to Walk Away

September 4, 2011 / / 47 Comments

I’ve never been very good at walking away from things.

I’m stubborn, I suppose, or maybe it’s more accurate to say that I believe in sticking by my commitments. When I dedicate myself to a cause — friendships, romantic attachments, jobs, volunteer positions — I see things through to the bitter end, even if it would be easier to pick up and leave.

Persistance can be a positive trait.  Add a dash of ambition and you have the recipe for the formula that got me through high school, college, and the past few years of graduate school.  Even when things seemed the hardest, when I would find myself sobbing over the mounting stress and seeming impossibility of getting my work completed, I would push myself to keep going.  I wrote papers that way, battled my way through seminars and lectures, propelled myself into the “big leagues” of a PhD program by sheer force of will.

There’s a dark side to all of this, however.  I’ve lingered in toxic, dysfunctional relationships because I didn’t know how to break away. I’ve drowned in jobs that were too demanding, stressful, and overwhelming because I didn’t know how to say no.  In grad school, I piled on the stress, pushed myself to work constantly, guilt-tripped myself for taking naps or reading novels. I developed a mindset that demanded constant productivity, forced myself to eat, sleep and breathe my research, and berated myself when I was unable to work because I was completely drained.

The past month of tackling CampNaNo has made me more aware of this duality than ever.  Some people have trouble forcing themselves to sit down and write; I have trouble forcing myself to leave the darn chair.  “One more word,” became my mantra. One more word, one more sentence, one more paragraph, and then I’ll turn off the computer.  A few hundred more words, and I’ll go to bed.

It’s little wonder that my brain felt like mush on Wednesday, or that on Thursday I was this laughable husk of a zombie, drooping at my desk, aimlessly surfing the web and feeling inordinate amounts of guilt over the thesis that I wasn’t writing.  It was a rough day, with me trying to force words out of my pen, as though the sheer effort would magically outweigh my dragging fatigue.

On Friday, though, it hit me: all of the pressure I was feeling was pressure that I had placed on myself.  Those ROW80 goals that I’ve set over the past few weeks?  Those are goals that I’ve chosen, goals that I decided to pursue.  No one’s holding a gun to my head and forcing me to get things done. In fact, the whole point of ROW80 is the ability to be flexible, to change things up without feeling guilty.

So I’ve unplugged a little over the past few days.  I closed TweetDeck, quit Scrivener, put away my writing notebook and dug out my battered copy of Lois Bujold’s The Curse of Chalion for a bit of light reading.  I took naps and curled up with my cat and spent time with old friends.

CampNaNo has taught me a lot.  I’ve learned that having the drive, the confidence, and the passion to reach my goals is essential.  The burn of competition, along with the desire to see my novel unfold, have acted as catalysts, propelling me upwards and onwards.

At the same time, the ability to maintain that drive is also necessary, and that can only come from balance and a healthy sense of perspective. I can’t endure daily marathon writing sessions, so I need to take that into consideration when I build my writing schedule. I can’t ignore my body when it’s tired and crying out for rest and some healthy food, which means that I have recognize the signs of fatigue. The world won’t end if I fall short of 50,000 words. As Em has reminded me, it’s fun, not fear, that should rule the day.

There are other practical preparations that I will make before November. Outlining and plotting are at the top of the list; churning out 1600+ words a day can only happen if I have a sense of where I’m going with each chapter and what I’m trying to achieve. Plantsing is definitely going to be my technique of choice (Jody Hedlund’s technique is one of my favorites). And hey, I might just break the rules a little and work on one of my WIPs (although ideas for a new stupid story are forming in my head, much to my dismay).  The bottom line is that I want this experience to be a pleasant one, one that allows me to accomplish my goals but without driving me completely crazy.

Any other NaNo vets out there?  Any tried and true techniques that you’d recommend for tackling the monthlong novel-writing gauntlet?  

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