I have accidentally found out that Sichuan pepper, which has some mouth numbing qualities, is a lot more effective in getting rid of the pain associated with aphthous ulcers than the special tincture I normally use. This is worth remembering, particularly if I should get one in a place where the tincture does no good, e.g. on my tongue.
Meanwhile, I have a new post up at Pegasus Pulp about why we still need print books and mass market paperbacks.
I’m feeling somewhat out of sorts today, as if my body is struggling with an infection. I’ve been feeling like that a lot lately. Probably a combination of the onset of autumn and the cold/flu season and the fact that school hasn’t been running long enough for me to have developed a protection against all the bugs flying around yet.
So instead of reading a new post by me (though you’re welcome to read my old posts), why don’t you hop over to Shanna Swendson’s journal and read her post on how to create a character – or not.
I must confess that I’m guilty of basing a character on another fictional character. However, in my defence it was clear that the creator(s) didn’t know what to do with the character and didn’t particularly care for that character either, since they never exploited the possibilities. And since they didn’t want him, I figured it it’s only fair if I adopt him. Never mind that I thoroughly filed off the serial numbers.
I’ve been feeling very out of sorts and worn out these past two weeks.
Partly this is because of a translation job, which mainly requires translating a lot of e-mails sent back and forth at every time of the day and night between people who utterly fail to communicate. Any time I switch on the computer there’ll be at least one of those e-mails, maybe two or three waiting to be translated and passed on. Everything is always super-urgent and still you know that there’ll be only more e-mails and yet more, because those people couldn’t possibly understand each other less if they didn’t bother with a translator at all.
What is more, one of my classes this year is full of deeply troubled kids. There are kids from broken families, kids whose parents are just going through a divorce, even a girl who has been in foster care since she was a baby and whose foster parents are old enough to be her grandparents. Mostly, these kids need someone who’ll listen to them and who takes them seriously, because the adults in their lives can’t or won’t do that. Whenever I’ve taught that class, I feel emotionally exhausted.
Plus, I have two aphthous ulcers at the moment, which is normally a sign that my immunity system is out of whack. And trust me, if you work in a school on a regular basis, you don’t want your immunity system out of whack.
In the meantime, there seems to be something in the air, for John Scalzi, Jay Lake and Elizabeth Bear have all posted about ideas, where they come from and why there’s never any shortage of them.
For me, ideas can really come from anywhere. A snippet of overheard conversation, a song, an image, a “what if…?”, a juxtaposition of random words, thinking “Hey, I’d like to write genre X, maybe with a dash of Y and Z”, an intriguing blurb for a book I’m not going to read or a film I’m not going to watch, a books/film/TV show that had a marvelous idea hidden somewhere inside and squandered it, etc… The most vivid and most promising ideas are those where an entire scene pops into my head with setting, dialogue and characters and I just have to transcribe it and see where it goes.
However, there is always one thing that an idea needs to graduate from idea to possible story and that is at least one character who speaks to me, metaphorically or sometimes even literally. Without a character, all I have is setting and maybe plot. It’s Frankenstein’s monster without the spark of electricity that brings it to life.
I have given up on Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior, when I realized that the sniper in tonight’s episode could have shot every single team member save Garcia and I wouldn’t have cared.
How can the spin-off be so mind-bogglingly bad, when the original is so good? Spin-offs and originals sometimes vary in quality, for example it’s always a contest which CSI I like best this week. They can also differ in tone, for example Doctor Who, Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures are all very different from each other and particularly Torchwood seems to have divorced itself drastically from its Doctor Who origins from season 2 on.
But I’ve never experienced a situation where I liked the original show and flat out hated the spin-off.
So the 2011 Emmys have been awarded on Sunday. Several wins for Mad Men and Downton Abbey, neither of which I like, as I’ve stated before.
There have also been wins for Boardwalk Empire, which I haven’t seen, because it doesn’t run in Germany yet (though I would give it a chance, because it hits several of my story kinks), Friday Night Lights and Modern Family. I don’t even know what the last two shows are, though the first is apparently a drama and the second a comedy. A remake of Mildred Pierce (They remade Mildred Pierce? Really? Why, for heaven’s sake?) also took home a few prices.
In short, a lot of blah and the few shows and people I was rooting for mostly lost. The only thing that really makes me happy is that Peter Dinklage got to take home an Emmy award for playing Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones.
Though it’s telling that Downton Abbey, which presents fantasy Britain as Americans like to see it, won several Emmys, while it was snubbed at the Baftas in favour of Sherlock (which was nominated for only one Emmy and lost). The second British production nominated, the crime drama Luther*, lost out as well, which is a pity because we hardly ever get TV drama with a black leading man. Now I thoroughly enjoyed both Sherlock and Luther and found Downton Abbey incredibly plodding and dull, but the Emmy voters apparently felt differently. I think it’s also very telling that of the three British productions nominated, the two contemporary set productions did not win, while the history theme park costume drama did win. For that matter, several of the other winners, Mad Men, Boardwalk Empire, The Kennedys, Mildred Pierce, have historical settings as well. All shows seem to be well researched and the set and costume design looks top-notch. But it’s still slightly alarming that America seems to be losing its taste for contemporary stories and instead prefers to retreat into more or less fantastic historical settings.
And now for some other links:
Jay Lake has a great post on writing advice and how to take what works for you and learn to ignore what doesn’t. There’s also a follow-up post, which goes further into the filters a writer needs to develop.
At Terrible Minds, Chuck Wendig lists the twenty-five virtues every writer should possess.
Finally, I’ve got a new post up at the ABC Buhlert blog about the perpetual oil crisis and possible alternatives.
*Though watching Luther is very weird, if you’ve ever been a Doctor Who fan, because we have Indira Varma a.k.a. Suzie Costello from Torchwood as Luther’s estranged wife, Paul McGann a.k.a. the Eighth Doctor as her new lover and Sean Pertwee, whose father Jon Pertween was the Third Doctor, as a villain in one episode.
Arr, it be International Talk like a Pirate Day and at least in Germany, pirates have gone respectable and even entered the Berlin city parliament, as I blogged yesterday.
As for our political pirates, Der Spiegel, National Public Radio and the Washington Post all offer profiles of the new party, though the Washington Post mistakenly assumes that the Pirate Party has entered the German parliament when it’s really just the Berlin state parliament. Arr, there be a difference.
Deutsche Welle also has an interview with Pirate Party chairman Sebastian Nerz.
From political pirates to fictional ones: I’ve long had a soft spot for fictional pirates, which was likely caused by growing up with the legend of Klaus Störtebeker and watching way too many vintage swashbuckler films on TV. And of course, I’ve also written pirate stories as well as an (still incomplete) novel about science fictional pirates.
Two of my pirate stories are available again in e-book form, the fantasy pirates of Rites of Passage and the Errol Flynn inspired 16th century pirates of Hostage to Passion. Both are short reads, perfectly suited to bring a bit of pirate flavour to International Talk like a Pirate Day.
Teen pirate passion under the light of two moons
Buy it for the low price of 0.99 US-dollars, Euros or Pound Sterling at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, OmniLit/AllRomance ebooks or XinXii
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An infamous English pirate and the beautiful Spanish hostage who touched his heart like no other
Buy it for the low price of 2.99 US-dollars or Euros or 1.99 Pound Sterling at Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, OmniLit/AllRomance ebooks and XinXii.
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This weekend’s state elections in Berlin were interesting, to say the least. The full election results with wins and losses, vote distribution, etc… are here by the way. There’ll be some analysis and neepery about German politics behind the cut, so just skip if that doesn’t interest you. I also have a few writing and SFF related links, so you may want to scroll to the end. Continue reading
Today was the harvest festival in my particular rural village turned suburb of Bremen. German harvest festivals consist of a parade with floats decorated by local clubs and organisations, a religious service and a big party with dancing, drinking and merrymaking. Usually, there’s carousel for the kids as well.
This year, the parade passed through my street, so I got to wave at the floats and take a few photos. Unfortunately, the parade was quicker than expected, so I missed the riders, the marching band and the harvest crown, which is always on the first float along with the Lutheran pastor. But I still saw the majority of the floats and groups.
So, without further ado, have some photos behind the cut: Continue reading
It’s a small world, exhibit A:
A few days ago, I stopped at the local Aldi store after school to pick up some groceries. The lady at the cash register was not one of the usual employees. As I waited in line, I glanced at her nametag and thought, “I know that name from somewhere.”
So as I waited for the lady to scan the purchases of the person ahead of me, I wrecked my brain trying to remember where I knew the cashier’s rather unusual surname from and whether she is someone I should know and remember. As she started scanning my purchases, it finally hit me. A lady of that same surname used to take care of my invalid grandmother some twenty-five years before.
I looked at the cashier and her face did not ring a bell. But the age definitely fit. So I asked her, “Excuse me, but did you by any chance work as a geriatric nurse about twenty-five years ago?”
The cashier gives me a very strange look and says, “Yes, a long time ago.”
“I think you took care of my grandma”, I said, “Mrs. Buhlert. She lived in Huchting and had only one leg.”
“Oh yes, Mrs Buhlert. Yes, I remember her”, the cashier said, “And you’re her granddaughter? Do you live here now?”
We chatted a bit, while she scanned my groceries, and I asked her about her daughter. She seemed surprised that I knew she had a daughter, but I remembered because the daughter had been about my age at the time.
So I ran into my grandmother’s nurse at the cash register of the local Aldi mart. Small world indeed. Still, at least I have something to tell at my aunt’s birthday next month. My aunt knew the nurse better than we did, because she was the one who hired her.
It’s a small world, exhibit B:
Yesterday, I was at my parents’ after school. I’d bought some cake at the bakery next to the school and now my Mom and I were eating the cake and drinking tea. I talked about school and also mentioned a few students by name.
Suddenly, my Mom gets this weird expression on her face and says, “What was the name of that girl again?”
Now the girl in question has a very unusual first name. So I repeated the name and said, “No idea how she came by that name. She’s not from an immigrant family.”
“I think that girl is the granddaughter of my friend E.”, my Mom said, “All her grandchildren have these very unusual names and I think the youngest was named like your student.”
E. and my Mom used to work at the same insurance company in the 1960s and stayed in touch afterwards. They write each other Christmas cards and telephone a few times per year and maybe meet in person once a year or so. I’ve met E., though I wouldn’t recognize her on the street if I saw her. I do know that E. now lives near my school, because my Mom always refers to the school as being located “in the neighbourhood where E. lives”.
“Huh”, I said, “Does E.’s daughter live near the school as well then?” My Mom didn’t know much about E.’s daughter or her family except that the children all had unusual names. “This one is the baby of the family”, she said.
“Well, the ‘baby’ is fourteen”, I said, “But she told me she had two older siblings, so that fits.”
Next time I catch the girl in question alone, I’m going to ask her if she has a grandmother named E.
Over all the other craziness, I almost forgot to post that I have a new e-book available, a novelette called Hostage to Passion. It didn’t hurt sales, though, since I already sold two copies without any advertising whatsoever. This story has it all, pirates, battles at sea, swordfights, some ripped bodices, a five page sex scene and lots of romantic conflict. Hostage to Passion is the first part of a two-part story. The second part will be coming later this year.
En route from Spain to the New World, the ship carrying Doña Rosaria is attacked by English pirates under the command of Sir Nicholas Harcourt, the infamous Black Falcon. Rosaria fears the worst, when she is taken prisoner, but Sir Nicholas proves himself surprisingly courteous – until he places a noose around Rosaria’s neck and threatens to hang her, should her wealthy uncle fail to pay a ransom in exchange for Rosaria’s life and virtue.
Sir Nicholas Harcourt has a reputation of being the most merciless pirate to prowl the Spanish Main. But his beautiful prisoner Doña Rosaria both manages to touch his heart and stir the fire of passion in his chest. Nicholas is resolved to have her by any means. However, he has also sworn to hang her on the deck of his ship, should her notoriously stingy uncle refuse to pay the ransom.
Can Rosaria resist her growing attraction to a man she knows is a pirate and a heretic? And would Sir Nicholas really hang the woman who has captured his heart?
For more information, visit the dedicated Hostage to Passion page.
Buy it at for the low price of 2.99 US-dollars or euros Amazon.com, Amazon UK, Amazon Germany, OmniLit/AllRomance ebooks and XinXii.
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