Week Three: A CHALLENGE!

I just finished reading Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise and Magic's Price, all by Mercedes Lackey. So. Freaking. Good. O___O
This doesn't happen much, but I knew pretty much as soon as I started reading the first book that I HAD. TO. HAVE. THEM.

I have griped (vocally, and often) about the lack of LGBT characters in fantasy novels. The Last Herald-Mage (LHM) books are indeed fantasy with a gay protagonist. YES! Oh, thank whatever-you-want-to-thank. Anyway, it's just nice to have a main character who's not your normal "hero(or anti-hero) goes on journey, finds self worth, destiny and opposite gendered lover along the way" type.

Seriously, if you haven't read the LHM books, then do so NOW. It was to the point where I was walking around with my nose in the book so far that I nearly walked into a wall. Maybe more than one.


Anyway, in other news my life is going well. Reading a lot lately, which is good. I had gotten away from reading tons, mostly due to watching un-godly amounts of Doctor Who and Torchwood (I REGRET NOTHING. SUCH PHENOMENAL TELEVISION.) and am back on my usual book-crazed path, and with a vengeance at that.

Because of that, I've been thinking about fictional characters lately, and not just in the "hey, I really love Remus Lupin, 'cuz he's a cool guy" kind of way. No, more in the "these characters are fictional people who I grew up with. Who I admire, in some cases."

So, I invite all of you to make a list of your top 5/10/20/30/you pick the number of favorite fictional characters, what books/movies/tv shows/plays/whatever that they're from, and why they're so cool. Why they stuck with you.

Here's mine, in no particular order.

1: Arthur Dent.
He's the last human from earth. He belongs to Douglas Adams, the creator of the fantastic Hitchhiker's Guide books. Arthur (by the way, having a hell of a time trying to spell his name properly) is just an ordinary guy, living his ordinary life and then all of a sudden, WHAM. He's off on a multi-dimensional space adventure, trying desperately to keep his mind, his towel and Ford Prefect by his side. What I like about his is that he's very HUMAN, he rolls with the punches (something that I don't do that well, for the record) and he tends to do what any normal person would do after being thrown into some very abnormal situations.


2: Holly Short.
She's from the Artemis Fowl books, written by Eoin Colfer. Holly is one of the toughest female characters that I know, and she's not even a HUMAN. She doesn't do the typical I-Am-A-Woman-So-I-Need-Saving-All-The-Time schtick, and I love her for that. She's incredibly smart, creative, compassionate, and she doesn't take any nonsense. That being said, she's also not perfect, like some authors can tend to do when creating a main character. She doesn't do well with authority (a trait we share) and tends to do things her own way, even if they stray a bit over the line of lawful. She tries to do her best, no matter the circumstance.


3: Paul. (Just googled it, and he hasn't got a last name. O__O)
Paul is the main character in Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan, a book which I absolutely ADORE (and if you know me, I've probably talked your ear off about it, and tried to make you read it). There could be a whole blog post on why I like the book, but this is focused on the character. He's very whimsical, sweet, open minded, and yes, he is gay. I think the best thing about Paul is that he's so supportive of his friends, whoever they are. He's also quite the romantic, creative, and he marches to the beat of his own drum, no matter who is judging him.


4: Jacky Faber.
Opinionated, liberal-minded, gutsy, and overall one of the strongest (and still very much HUMAN) female characters I have had the pleasure of reading. Jacky is from L.A. Meyer's Bloody Jack books. I mean, the girl is a PIRATE...amongst other things. For living in the 1800's, she is about as rebel-tastic as it gets. She's impulsive, but clever, and the way she will always stick up for her friends, and for the anyone who's weaker and smaller than she is. She starts out as the lowest of the low (as a street rat) and works her way up the ladder through her own guile and wit. Did I mention that she's British? Yeah.


5: Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Longstocking, by Astrid Lindgren is THE quintessential book about an unschooler EVER. (In my very biased opinion, that is.) She may be about 10, but that girl is a genius. The best bit about her, is she will give it back to whoever dishes it out, be it police, a schoolteacher, or whoever. She knows who she is, what she wants, and isn't afraid to go and get it. She's self-sufficient, creative and more than a bit crazy. She does things her own way, and 9 times out of ten, it ends up turning out okay. Despite the fact that these books are clearly written for young kids, (and translated from the original Swedish, which makes for interesting grammar sometimes) Pippi is fantastic.


Honestly, I can't pick who I want to do next*, so I'll leave it at five, for now.
Maybe I'll do this again, sometime. There are just SO MANY I'd like to discuss, and I don't want to give you a wall of text. ^___^

SO, If you made it through to the bottom of this, I challenge you to do your own. I stuck to books for mine, but that's just ME.


So with that, I leave you. I have to go dig out my copies of Hitchhiker's Guide, Artemis Fowl, Boy Meets Boy, Bloody Jack and Pippi Longstocking. I have reading to do.


Yours in books,
Whimsy

P.S.
If you have a book that I MUST READ, tell me. I'm always looking for new books.\

P.P.S. If you've read any of these books, let me know in a comment what you thought. I love comments. (I mean, you don't know how excited I get when I read that I have a new one. It's hilarious.)





*The list includes,
Jim Tanner (Treasure Island), Puck (Midsummer Night's Dream), Roger Davis (RENT), Joon (Benny and Joon), Severus Snape (Harry Potter), Alanna (Song Of The Lioness), Daine (The Immortals), Lani Garver (What Happened To Lani Garver), Meg Murry (A Wrinkle In Time), Jazz (Define 'Normal'), Jo March (Little Women) among others...


Also, I tried to keep it to ONE character from each book series. That's why there's not a TON of HP characters on there.

Exerpt from last NaNoWriMo. (bonus post!)

So, NaNoWriMo has come and gone, and I am left with a 50,000+ word manuscript that is in desperate need of editing.

What am I to do? Start editing, of course.

So, that's been taking up a good deal of my time lately, what with fixing all my poor grammar and screwy word choices. Not to mention the stilted dialogue.
Oh, stilted dialogue, why must you plague me so... >.<

That being said, I do have some interesting words in there that for the life of me, I can't recall typing during November. I re-found my choice of "soliloquizing" at one point, and I am pretty dang pleased with that. Overall, I like how it turned out, I really do. The plot arcs in a pleasing way, and my characters (overall) are original and non-Mary-Sue like.

Now, you all, as the readers of my blog, get the dubious honor of reading the first fixed-up bits of my book.

The following is a letter, written from my main character's mother to her lover. It's one of the first bits of the book, and I'm really proud of it.

March 20, 1461

My beloved Carys.
Here I am, living with Tavis now. I miss having you next door, or the next room, or the next chair. If you could only know how often I think of you...

I am so lucky to have a husband who understands me. Tavis is wonderful, he truly is. Never pressures me for anything...as well he shouldn’t! He knows I’m already promised to you, if not in law, in heart. Oh, my beloved, if you and I could only live and marry like I can with Tavis. I long for that day.

How are your parents? How is your sister, Serilde? Is the village missing us? To be frank, I don’t miss them at all. Too many voices saying “No, no, don’t do that. Do it this way, the proper way, our way”. It’s wearing. You aren’t, of course. I miss you so deeply, and I wish...

Oh, if you could see the sunset from our house. All these fiery reds and oranges mixed with the cool purples and blues. I think of you as I watch it every night.
When do you think you’ll have enough money to join us? Another six months? A year? Two years? I’m so impatient, but I can’t help but say hurry, Carys. We’ve been building a small home next door, and then all will be as it used to be. I can’t say “how it should be” since “how it should be” would have us living together in the large house, and Tavis living in the small one next door!

You are still wearing the ring I gave you, am I right? Has Colin asked why you’re wearing another man’s ring yet? I don’t see why you can’t just tell him you aren’t interested. He’ll stop asking when you tell him once and for all that he hasn’t got a chance, but until then, he’ll keep plodding along like the ox that he is.
The air is so crisp and cool up here. Some mornings, it’s like breathing ice. Really wakes you up.

Tavis knows I miss you, and sends his love as well. We talk about you often, and we both miss you terribly. I hope you’ll recognize me when we meet again. Tavis says that I’ve grown paler, if that’s possible! It has to be the mountain air.
I must go now, my love. Thanks be to the gods that we have these letters to exchange. I don’t know what I would do if we didn’t have this.

Wishing you here with me,
Ziska Riedwyn Bronwy


If you liked it, let me know! If not, tell me why, if you would. If you're interested in hearing/reading more, let me know that as well, because I'll have other bits as I go along editing.

Cheers and all that wonderful stuff,
Whimsy

P.S.
If you did NaNo, how'd it turn out? Are you doing it this coming November?

P.P.S. Putting this out here for anyone to read on the internet is really quite nervous-making.

A Really Epic Idea...or so I think...

So, I have an IDEA.

How cool would it be to keep track of your year, and join other people on thier year long journeys?

I want to be able to look back, this time next year and be able to read the story of my life in 2011. Interesting things will happen this year, and I want to remember every step of the way.

This brilliant idea came to me in the shower one morning, (as good ideas are wont to do) and I quickly decided that it shouldn't be JUST ME, that I should see how many other people want to do it.

The idea was spawned from doing @MaureenJohnson's BEDA - Blog Every Day August, (which, if you have read pretty much ANY of my previous posts, you can tell was TOTALLY EPIC).

Blog Once Weekly in 2011, or BOW'11 (or hashtag'd on twitter as #BOW11) will be a project where the goal is to blog at least once a week for an entire year. That's it. Simple as that.

SO, without further ado, I would like to ask you this. Do you want to do BOW'11 with me?

(Thinking about this now, it means that I shall have to write blog posts ON TOP OF NANOWRIMO. What am I thinking?)



Because of all of this whatnot, I've been thinking quite a lot about BOW'11, and I've come to make up some rules (for me at least, if you'd like to follow along, that's fine by me).

Here they are:

One: One post per week AT LEAST.

Two: A week shall be defined as Monday through Sunday.

Three: A post shall be defined as some bit of writing...just a bit.

Four: Anyone who wants to join in is MORE THAN WELCOME.

That's it!
Happy boxing day!

Until next time,
Whimsy

On writing.

When do you go from being a person who likes to write, to a writer?

From there, when do you go to being an author? Do you have to be published? Is that the rule, authors are published, writers are not?

Do you have to have written a full book? Does an anthology of poetry count as a book? What if you've written just a few lines of verse, yet those have been published in a magazine? Does that count as being an author?

Does your plan have anything to do with what you can call yourself? If you plan to get published, but you haven't written word one as of yet, are you an author?

If you have finished an entire novel, yet you have no desire to do anything with that manuscript barring having it sit on your shelf, are you an author?

Just something I was musing about.

I have written a full length novel, BUT have no plans to get it published...right now. Does that make me an author, a writer or someone who likes to write?

I'm interested in hearing what you have to say.

~Whimsy

P.S. It's either feast or famine with me. You get no posts for nearly five months, and all of a sudden two a few hours apart.