Posts Tagged ‘fantasy’

  1. Erfyl fantasy novel submitted to publisher

    21 October, 2011 by Alexa Chipman

    An ancient race of beings has conquered Earth, and can influence our minds by mere thought—the only problem is—we don’t know it. When Erfyl discovers their secret she is marked for death, unless she can reclaim a mysterious island that bears her name.

    Yes, after several months of going through alpha and beta reader stages (special thanks to all who participated) I have sent the manuscript off to start the proofing process. Usually that takes a few weeks—and I have a final group of readers who will be looking at actual physical proofs of the book before it is released to the public.

    Release date goal: December 1, 2011

    I finished the final edit to the manuscript this afternoon at a cafeteria in Berkeley’s Graduate Theological Union in an atmosphere of some lively discussions. To one side, there was a packed table loudly arguing about the legitimacy or heresy of Arianism, at another area were a few with laptops out having a group meeting about theological language and its impact on child development. There were amusing drive-by style discussions, such as this gem I heard at the soda machine:

    “Chronicles? Are you crazy? Leviticus is so much better.”

    “What? Who in their right mind would willingly read Leviticus. Chronicles is awesome!”

    “Seriously? Who wants to read about a bunch of dead kings ‘who did evil in the sight of the Lord’ I mean seriously, man.”

    I did not hear the conclusion. I hope it did not come to blows.

    Category Fiction, Writing | Tags: ,,, | No Comments

  2. Religious Orders in Fantasy – Buffy the Vampire Slayer

    27 August, 2011 by Alexa Chipman

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer
    Images thanks to: http://www.screencap-paradise.com

    Summary of episode “Triangle”: Buffy has just been dumped by her boyfriend and is feeling depressed, so she goes on a hunt for some Vampires to slay. She tracks some to a convent and saves a nun, before asking a series of amusing questions about religious life such as, “how’s the food?”

    While there are multiple examples of convents and monasteries in both Angel and Buffy, this scene is a classic Joss treatment of religious life: helpless nun chased by monster to be saved by hero/heroine, over-the-top old creepy monastery look, superstitious sisters, and topped off with a classic cloistered habit look. Yes the show is a campy look at Vampire slaying, so no big surprise, but what I find ironic here is that Joss has said elsewhere how he does not like portraying women as helpless and prefers they save the day themselves before some guy comes running in. Listen to some of the Dollhouse commentaries to see what I mean—he actually objected to one scene where a hero had to come in and save the girl.

    So question: why are sisters/nuns always portrayed as being helpless idiots in his works? They spend most of the time either staring with their mouth open, making silly comments like, “was that demon?”, and/or easily being killed by monsters without putting up a fight. I’d like to see just once a Joss nun pick up a shovel and knock out a Vampire. Is that too much to ask? Or maybe not live in a creepy spiderweb/dust-filled convent? Don’t they know how to clean? Pay for electricity? How about an episode of Buffy going into a normal house style convent (maybe even with indoor plumbing!) and taking out the Vamps? Or even Buffy saving a nun who seems actually intelligent?

    I’ve noticed this pattern in most Vampire related series’—Forever Knight has the same problem. You’d think with the crosses everywhere, Sisters would have less of a Vampire problem. To sum up Joss’ opinion of religious orders of any type is Spike’s comment in “Blood Ties”. He blurts out, “Brown robed types are always protecting something. It’s the only way they can justify giving up girls.” Earlier in the episode, Glory rants on about monks being afraid of intimacy as the reason they joined a religious order. For some reason, Joss can’t seem to see past the chastity vow—which is pity considering he has other excellent features to his writing and is usually a strong advocate for powerful, intelligent female characters. The very premise of Buffy would indicate that deep down he does agree with the idea of community. Think about it—most Slayers before Buffy died very young and had only their Watcher to help them. She changed all that when she first brought in friends to fight with her, then created the first community of Slayers when she released the power to all potential Slayers. The theme that last episode ends with is that a close-knit group of Slayers did what a single Slayer throughout the centuries could not—that we are stronger as a community.

    Category Film/Telly, Geek Culture, Religious, Reviews, Vocation | Tags: ,,,, | No Comments

  3. Fantasy Writing: Do Not Start With Exposition

    by Alexa Chipman

    In the fantasy (and science fiction!) it is easy to start writing a boring beginning. Unlike regular fiction, genre fiction is based on world-building. After spending years creating geography, culture, and often languages, an author is ready to introduce the reader to that world and often starts with lengthy descriptions of the political situation, kingdom the story is set in, or even obscure cultural references. Why is that bad? Because nobody cares yet.

    Example A:

    Amortensia was the largest government on the planet Iago, and the center of inter-stellar trade. It was ruled by a series of elected governments chosen during the stormy season ever since the pact of 1898.34 put together after a series of fishermen revolted against the monarchy of the time. Over 98% water, Iago has many micro-climates that create pockets of breathable bubbles beneath the surface known as “ahalents” in the ancient tongue of the druidians—mystical priests of the Logiano religion.

    Are you yawning yet? Was that way too much information at one time? Yet this type of intro is far too common, especially among new authors to the genre. Let’s look at another possible intro to the book in question:

    Example B:

    “We’ve been breached!” Sarah screamed as alarms erupted on all sides, blanketing the interior of the submarine with pulsing red. She did not need to glance at the control panel to tell where the leak was coming from—cold ocean water drenched her uniform and threw itself at her knees with powerful fury. In the semi-darkness she blindly fumbled for their only chance at survival, but her hands blundered against the emergency hatch without feeling the thin metal able to put an end to the waves of arctic ocean filling the craft.

    This tells us that there are submarines and some sort of military or organized civilian organization, but more importantly it throws the reader directly into the action. We may not know much about Sarah or what planet she is on, but already you might be feeling a bit worried for her and maybe hoping she won’t drown.

    Don’t shove information down reader’s throats—later on in the book they will be begging you to tell them. A good example of this is Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule when he refuses to tell the reader what is going on, preferring to drop hints until close to the very end. It keeps readers guessing and excited. The trick with that is being careful not to be too cryptic and frustrate people. Find a balance between boring unwanted info-dumping and vague confusing references. Usually a fantasy book will be part of a series, and even if it is not, write down a series of main “crucial” facts a reader needs to know to get by.

    To return to the pretend book example:
    - Ocean planet
    - Troubled government
    - Ancient religion priests power struggle

    Think about the best way to introduce those concepts without hitting your reader over the head or boring them to death with exposition.

    - Ocean planet (set opening chapters in a submarine, have them discussing being excited about the mission to the only dry-land, maybe about the drinks people will buy them to hear about it)

    - Troubled government (don’t bring it up until something directly affects the characters, or maybe have them listening to the news)

    - Ancient religion priests power struggle (again don’t hit people over the head with it, allow the story to unfold and introduce them through experience– maybe have someone on the submarine who is ultra religious? maybe they are attacked?)

    The last thing you want to do is open your fantasy book with a long explanation of stuff people don’t care about yet. First concentrate on creating a story and characters people will love, then worry about the rest. Think about the opening to Legend of the Seeker—the two beautiful women on the run for their lives and willing to die for a cause we still don’t understand. If the action had paused for a long dialogue explaining everything I would probably have turned off iTunes and never watched again. Even though the writing of the rest of the pilot was terrible, that opening visual was enough to get through it and wanting more.

    Category Fiction, Writing | Tags: ,,,,, | No Comments

Older Entries