Throwback Thursday – Thanksgiving Thoughts

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family, life, perspective, philosophy, thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a great holiday.  We all take the time to stop and appreciate the wonderful blessings we have in our lives.  Historically speaking, the nation I live in is blessed like no other nation in the modern history of the world.  We live in such a time of unprecedented wealth that not only do our wealthy citizens enjoy the highest standard of living in the world, but the poorest 10% of the people in our nation have a higher standard of living than the wealthiest 10% in many “civilized” countries according to many economists.

Some folks view Thanksgiving as a day for feasting, some see an opportunity for great bargains at stores, and others see an opportunity for a brief vacation from work.  For me, it has always been about family.  When I was young, we would celebrate Thanksgiving with my first cousins, second cousins, aunts, uncles, and great aunt.  My family has scattered during the ensuing years, but my appreciation of them has not.  The folks with whom I used to celebrate Thanksgiving live in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania (maybe more places that I am not aware of, too).  In spite of that, I have had the opportunity to see many of them throughout the years and reminisce about old times.

I won’t have the chance to see my side of the family at Thanksgiving this year, but I will get to see my wife’s side of the family.  My side of the family gets together at New Year’s, but there’s another blog post in that story.  I hope that as we pause to enjoy a home cooked meal with all the traditional fixings (at least, the traditional ones from my family and my wife’s family), we all appreciate how blessed we are.  I hope you get the chance to pause and appreciate that as well.

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Modern Mondays – Colorful Characters

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books, Duck Dynasty, vergrinn, writing, writing process

A collage of colorful characters can make anything enjoyable.  My wife and I have recently started watching “Duck Dynasty” (beginning at the beginning – we are in the third season now).  Ultimately, it’s the story of Willie (as much as Jase would hate to read this).  Willie is surrounded by a cast of colorful supporting characters that includes his nemesis/brother Jase, his crazy uncle Si, his dad Phil (who has the right answer for every problem they run into) and several others including my wife’s personal favorite, the slow-talking “Mountain Man.”

I always wonder how “real” reality television is, but this seems a little too convenient.”  Maybe it is genuine, and the reason that the show is so popular is because of its genuineness.  I must admit, I would rather watch this reality television show than read or watch many works of fiction.

As I have written the Vergrinn War, I have attempted to weave a complete tapestry of characters.  You start off with Amundr, the focus of the series.  You add in his best friend Saegrimr, and then you layer in multiple rivals and mentors as you journey through Alarr.  The characters interact and grow in interesting ways, and then I added in womenfolk and monsters.  That takes the dynamic to a whole next level (especially the women).

What kind of things do you enjoy about your favorite books, shows, or movies?  What are some examples of great interplay between characters?

Throwback Thursdays – Fantastic Finishes and Flops

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books, greatest american hero, seinfeld, series finale, star trek, TV shows, vergrinn, writing

I find the finale of things fascinating.  On television, some series finales are planned well in advance and some happen just because a show gets cancelled unceremoniously.  Whatever the reason, all series (books, movies, television) come to an end eventually.  The important thing is how well the creator planned for that eventuality and how well it flows together.

Take Star Trek: The Next Generation.  The finale of that series is handled in such a way that you find that the entirety of the series was a test that began in the very first episode.  Q, who appeared in that first episode, told the crew of the Enterprise that their trial was not over and he would be watching them.  He showed up in the blockbuster finale with one final test of the Enterprise crew’s worth.

Contrast that with Seinfeld.  In Seinfeld, the finale was turned into an opportunity for a meandering clip show that brought back popular characters from throughout the series.  Was it mildly entertaining?  Yes.  Could it have been better?  I think so.  Imagine what it would have been like if the plane they were on had crashed instead of landing safely for repairs.  You could have killed off all the characters in a tragic and memorable episode, and you could have irreverently poked fun of the afterlife or nostalgically recalled incidents from the past.  They could have been stranded on an island and become Gilligan and company, which would have allowed for even more comedic folly.

Now compare the two of those to The Greatest American Hero or the original Star Trek.  Both of those series ended abruptly after several seasons with no warning and no fanfare.  Viewers of Star Trek were left with the unpleasantness that is Turnabout Intruder for their final taste of Trek.  Viewers of the Greatest American Hero have to swallow the bitter pill that is Ralph and Bill being told they are a special team and being sent back for more work just before the series is cancelled.

All of these have convinced me that I should never start a project such as a book series until I know what the end will be.  When I sat down to write The Vergrinn War, I knew what the climax of the fifth and final installment would be.  I knew what the beginning and end of each book would be.  I knew who will live and who will die (and yes, folks will die).  I have even arranged with a good friend (who is one of my beta readers) to have the series finished should I die before I can finish it (how’s that for morbid?).  He has a copy of my outlines for the fourth and fifth books and has promised me that if I kick the bucket, he will make sure that they get written.

While the beginning of a book or series draws folks in, the conclusion is the reader’s reward for their efforts.  Can you shock them one last time?  Can you make them laugh or cry?  Can you make them want to stand up and cheer?  Will you make them curse your name?  I imagine my conclusion will cover all of those bases with some readers.  What’s the best or worst finale you’ve ever encountered?

Modern Mondays – Bonus post

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amazon, ebooks, kindle, pearls before swine, publishing, self publishing, stephan pastis, writing process

I am a big fan of Pearls Before Swine.  Stephan Pastis is a funny guy who doesn’t mind pointing out his own flaws either in his comic strips or in his commentaries on his comic strips contained in his anthologies.  It is one of the three comics I always want to read in our Sunday paper (it used to be four, but the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette dropped Get Fuzzy, so I am left with Baby Blues, Dilbert, and Pearls Before Swine).

Anyway, this past Sunday there was a great Pearls strip and as soon as I read it, I knew I had to share it here in case any of my fellow writers missed it.

Anybody who has ever had a book out there for sale on Amazon will appreciate this.

Modern Mondays – Splitting the Party

Tags

books, chronicles of narnia, chronicles of prydain, harry potter, lotr, star wars, vergrinn, writing, writing process

Yes, I have been away from my blog for a while.  Actually, I have visited occasionally and started a post, but I kept finding myself unable to come up with a decent post, and abandoning it mid-stream.  This is in keeping with my philosophy that I don’t put junk out there for the sake of having put something out there.  After several abortive attempts, though, I am fairly certain that this one will be seen through to fruition (but if it isn’t, you’ll never know).

I am working on Book Four of the Vergrinn War series, and I am in the process of splitting the party.  Book One followed Amundr and Saegrimr almost exclusively, while Book Two had brief flashes of what was going on elsewhere.  Book Three split our main characters into three different groups operating in two theaters of the war.  Book Four will break our main cast of characters (Amundr, Saegrimr, Aoalbert, Gisl, Stigr, Bjarni, Aesa, and the rest) into at least four groups and follow them through their adventures in the war.

When I first realized I was splitting the party so thoroughly, I hesitated.  After all, if I look at the Chronicles of Prydain, they only rarely follow the exploits of more than one group at a time.  Eilonwy is sent off to learn about her heritage, but that action happens off screen.  Similar things happen with Gwydion and Fflewdur, as the action stays centered on Taran.  Occasionally, the action is split temporarily, but the characters come back together quickly.  I looked to the Chronicles of Narnia and the Harry Potter stories and noticed that they didn’t make a habit of splitting the party and following the action of multiple characters simultaneously.  They do split the party, but action once again happens off screen and is simply referred to by characters when they rejoin.  Thinking about the Hobbit, I realized it followed a similar pattern.

This had me really worried, but then I started thinking about Star Wars.  In Star Wars, you end up splitting the party almost constantly.  In the first (real) movie, you have Leia split off from Luke and the rest, then you have Luke and Leia, Han and Chewbacca, the droids, and Obi Wan in the meat of the movie.  In the second movie, it is Luke off with Yoda while the rest of the crew flees from Vader.  The lion share of the final movie has Lando (and Ackbar and the rest), Luke fighting Vader, and Han and Leia on the moon trying to drop the shields.  This helped ease my mind.

Finally, I thought about the Lord of the Rings (the real one by Tolkien, not the Peter Jackson farce).  By the end of the first book, we had three groups:

1. Samwise and Frodo
2. Aragorn, Legolas, and Gimli
3. Merry and Pippin
4. (technically, you have Gandalf, but you think he’s dead and all his action is taking place off screen).

For the remainder of the trilogy, the groups of heroes are briefly reduced to two in front of Isengard and again after the battle on the plains of Pelennor, but mostly they are broken into three or even four groups until the conclusion of the war.  This left me feeling much more comfortable with my decision to split the party.  I think it will have the same adventurous feel of LOTR and Star Wars, but ultimately the readers will have to judge that for themselves.  Next week I’ll update you on where Book Four stands.