Congratulations to Sharon Ashwood for her 2011 RWA RITA: UNCHAINED, the third book in her Dark Forgotten series, won for Best Paranormal Romance. Yay, Sharon!
Currently working on: Finding the worst white elephant gift Mood: Hunting
Too much butter and sugar is slowing me down. I only have a few days left to find a white elephant gift for my tribe’s annual Christmas Eve bestest party in the whole wide world. As a stereotypical introvert, I’m not usually into parties, but this party is one of my favorites and I want to do it right. Or wrong, as is the right way to do a white elephant.
A good white elephant is, of course, a bad white elephant. For those who aren’t familiar with the tale, the term white elephant came from a story that Siamese kings gave these giant, hungry, pooping, occasionally rampaging animals as “gifts” to people who really “deserved” them. Horrible art, eye-searingly ugly clothing and excessively large items of any sort are perfect white elephant gifts. But I’m having some trouble this year.
At my day job white elephant exchange, one woman got a can of Spotted Dick. There was much adolescent snickering. (Yeah, my day job isn’t too worried about sexual harassment cases, apparently.) Since I do marketing work in my day job, I was horrified to read the instructions on the can and snapped a picture to share with my Twitter friends.
(What? You don’t follow me on Twitter?! Find me there and say hey, so I can follow you back.)
Now you can snicker at Spotted Dick too. I mean, seriously, who uses “spurting” in ad copy?
I thought about getting a can for my giveaway, but it seemed like a cop-out. I need something worse…
So while I was researching/surfing the web for white elephant ideas, I found porcupines instead. So for your Christmas cookie-eating pleasure, here’s Teddy:
I’ve decided to get a talking porcupine in a Santa hat for my white elephant gift. Perfect, don’t you think?
But if you have another suggestion, please feel free to share and save my friends from either of these terrible gifts.
Currently working on: Last bits of Christmas prep Mood: Festive
Last week, my XY who had been gone, out of the country, for two months finally returned home. And there is joy in Whoville!
He was touring Europe — Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy and Poland — as Rainstick Cowbell. Just a boy and a guitar, wandering narrow alleys to dive bars, literally singing for his supper. He hates the dry sound of club recordings, but here’s a glimpse of the life of a touring musician:
He got home just in time for the holiday madness. We went and cut our Christmas tree on Friday. And it was actually a sunny day in the Pacific Northwest!
I have almost completed our transition for regular tree lights to the new LED lights, which are super-trippy when I shone them on the walls. (Uhm, yes, there might have been spiced cider spiked with Hot Monkey Pepper Vodka involved.)
Since we don’t have much room in our house, we get the classic table-top Charlie Brown skinny tree. (Yes, the tree is slightly crooked; again, I blame the vodka cider.)
Having my sweetie home, my holiday madness under control, and a pretty tree decorating my picture window is reason enough for joy. What’s yours? Besides vodka cider
Currently working on: Enjoying being done (again) with revisions on sci fi rom novella Mood: Self-congratulatory
Every once and awhile I get contemplative. It usually happens when I’m between deadlines, which is yet another reason why deadlines are good things. I also have a mean self-help streak which I try not to indulge too often because I don’t think it’s helpful, to myself or anybody else. I’m sorry to say these two bad habits have come together in a brutal session of navel gazing lately.
Why do I write?
I’ve been asking myself this ever since I attended a writing workshop years ago where the presenter told us to answer this question and I had to cheat off the writers next to me. And then, only a few days later, I read a writing craft book that demanded an answer to the question too, and I decided the universe was making fun of me and even the answers I stole weren’t good enough.
When forced into a corner, my usual answers to the “Why do I write?” question are:
Money and fame
Casual dress code
Free books (cuz I write ‘em myself)
You see why I’m not exactly winning self-help prizes with these answers.
But recently, in the midst of wrestling with this question once again (I don’t even know why it’s important! I just remember that the workshop and the book both talked about it so it must be important) I was listening to some self-help podcasts (somebody stop me!) and heard the question posited a slightly different way. Instead of asking “Why do you _____?” the question was this:
“What do you get out of doing ______ that reinforces the desire to continue?”
Yes, yes, I realize this is just a slightly warmer, fuzzier wording of operant conditioning, but I’m going with it for a moment.
What do I get out of writing? What is it about writing that fulfills something in me?
And after mulling it over on a few dog walks, I decided that, for me, it’s about creating something out of nothing. There’s something amazing about taking words that have no measurable atomic density, no visible wavelength, no smell even, and creating…whatever — and by amaze, I mean “a maze” where there is a sense of mystery and discovery and adventure and even the danger of getting lost. Storytelling requires nothing but an idea, really, and from there you build a world that goes on to live in other people’s minds.
Which I guess is a slightly warmer, fuzzier way of saying: “Why do I write?”
Delusions of godlinghood
Still, I like the idea of the question “What do I get out of doing ______?” I’ve been applying it to my characters, my unsuspecting friends with questionable love lives, my snack choices, my moments of procrastination, vacuuming.
Is this helping my writing in any way? Not that I’ve noticed, to be honest. Although I have discovered I’m not particularly fulfilled by a clean house and I don’t even need a deadline to justify the impromptu dog-hair carpet under my desk.
I knew this contemplative self-helping wasn’t good for me. Do you have a force you know motivates you, for good or ill? Do you try to encourage or fight it? Have you had any luck?
Currently working on: Finishing my Halloween candy Mood: Bouncy!
This fall, two new series started, both using fairy tales as their jumping off point. As a reader, I’ve always ADORED fairy tales! Some of my first books as a kid were fairy tales books, many of them illustrated. I’m also interested in these series as a writer since I’m curious to see how the shows differ (or don’t) in handling the fairy tale elements.
GRIMM is about a cop who discovers he has inherited the ability — courtesy of his last name, Grimm — to see creatures no one else can see and now has the responsibility for destroying the bad creatures. So far, we’ve met big bad wolves (some of whom aren’t so bad, we learn) and werebears. There’s an overarching thread about a faction with witch-beasts seeking to destroy the Grimms forever.
The overall tone is dark. Probably because it’s filmed in my town of Portland where you have to bring your own sunlight. Basically, it’s a police procedural with fairy tale elements woven in.
The other series is ONCE UPON A TIME where the adult daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming must rescue the fairy tale people who are living amnesiac lives in “the real world” under the rule of an Evil Mayor/Queen.
Lighter in tone than GRIMM (at least the cute kid hasn’t been kidnapped YET) OUaT is more of a straight-ahead ensemble drama.
Is TV big enough for two fairy tales shows? They are so different, I hope they both survive. Not that any show I like will survive In a way, I think GRIMM will be easier to watch because every week can be a fun new creature. But what I like best about fairy tales is that they are meant to teach us lessons. Lessons about true love, following your dreams, not eating poison apples. And so far, ONCE UPON A TIME appears to be more faithful to that story behind the stories in fairy tales.
I think there are good reasons fairy tales are forever popular — namely, cute princes! But also the adventure, the overcoming of adversity, the cute princes… Hmm, sounds a lot like romance novels
If you haven’t gotten your fill of fairy tales, here are a few books I’ve loved based on fairy tales I’ve loved:
BEAUTY by Robin McKinley
This is a “classic” retelling of Beauty and the Beast — a story I never, ever tire of reading — but we get to learn more about the heroine. And she’s a nerd! No, that’ s not quite true, but she isn’t beautiful, she’s actually plain and rather bookish (hmm, remind any of us about who we feared we were?) and actually very strong inside.
WICKED by Gregory MaGuire
If you’ve seen the musical but haven’t read the book based on a retelling of The Wizard of Oz (which technically isn’t a fairy tale, I guess, but it DOES have munchkins which are relatively fairy sized) now’s a good time. The last in the series is out now. Although less a classic retelling like BEAUTY above, we still get to learn more about the “heroine” in this version of the tale.
THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Hmm, I guess this one isn’t really a fairy tale either, but the stories of King Arthur have the same mythopoeic power so I’m counting it. I read this before I read the “real” version of Camelot and I’m afraid I could never think of Morgan as evil again.
All three of these books are especially fabulous for young readers because they twist and turn what we think we know of old stories into something new and wonderful and thought-provoking.
And THAT is a lesson worth learning.
Do you have a favorite fairy tale? Which favorites haven’t been retold enough?
Currently working on: Revising sci fi novella Mood: Spacey!
The idea of demonic possession freaks me out. I know that’s kind of strange, considering my Marked Souls series is based on my characters being possessed by demons. But I write romance, not horror, so my demons learn their lessons — thanks to true love — and everyone/thing lives happily ever after*, I promise.
I’ve decided I can’t watch American Horror Story, the new FX series about an evil house, because there isn’t the promise of goodness and light winning out anytime soon. (‘Cuz then the series would be over.) I need my horror in manageable doses. I have to read Dean Koontz only when I have a full day to read the whole book in one sitting because I have to get to the ending where evil loses and goodness overcomes.
I don’t know if demons are real or if evil is “just” another angle of humanity’s many-faceted expression, but as my dad once told me as he handed me money to put in a Buddhist prayer jar, “It’s good to cover your bases.”
Most people know that pumpkins — and in older days, turnips — carved into scary faces were meant to ward off evil that was able to more easily move around our world at this season. Pictured is our blue hubbard squash, carved earlier this year. Stars are often used as a symbol of protection and good luck.
Other instances of apotropaic magic (apotrope being Greek for turn away or avert) include charm bracelets, the gargoyles on the peaks of buildings, painted eyes, and scattering salt.
My personal favorites, though, are old horseshoes, mirrors, and hag-stones — river pebbles with natural holes worn through them. I picked up almost a dozen new hag-stones walking at Ruby Beach in Washington earlier this month, so I have extra wards for this Halloween. What are you using to keep the ghosts and goblins away? (Besides turning off your porch light and scattering empty candy wrappers in the driveway?)
For all the warding, though, it IS Halloween, and while I am freaked out by wandering unrepentant demons, I don’t mind a good evil movie (that ends in 2-ish hours with me rushing out of the theater on a sugar high and preferably with at least ONE of the characters alive). I don’t know how many characters survive in the upcoming movie The Devil Inside, but the preview certain freaked me out.
Wishing you a safe, sugary, as-many-scares-as-you-like Halloween!
My parents were in town this weekend and the weather was that gorgeous secret of the Pacific Northwest: the sunny week in October. See, right before the rains close in, nature gives us one more week of glorious blue skies and balmy temps. A cruel taunt? A promise? Whichever.
So we headed up to the Olympic Peninsula for a bit of walking, then back down Hwy 101 to the Oregon Coast.
While we walked, I thought about the new story I’m working on, and it seems to me, that our hiking and my story have a lot in common.
1. The stuff
When I start a new idea, I am excited and overwhelmed by all the stuff I might stuff in the story. Secondary love triangle! BB guns! String theory!
Much like my car has five doors for stuffing, I figure my story has many, many openings to be filled. But as you can see, Monster Girl is concerned about where she will fit. So it goes with my story; I have to ask myself — fun though it might be — whether I really need a talking, one-armed octopus.
2. First steps
I love the beginnings of hikes and the beginning chapters of a story. Both are so filled with promise. I feel strong and confident, with plenty of chocolate in my backpack.
The way ahead doesn’t necessarily look easy. There are barriers to be surmounted, but the adventure calls.
3. Lost
This part is less fun, but it seems to be true of hikes and stories, at least for me. Okay, I’m not EXACTLY lost, but there comes the moment where I definitely want to sit down, where the way seems a little more hazy and bleak than just a few steps or chapters ago.
This is where hikers and writers are made, I think. To quit? To continue? Walking out into the waves isn’t really an option (not on a Pacific Northwest beach, at least, not without a dry suit!) but I could parallel the shore on a new path.
Or build a boat of driftwood and dreams.
4. The view
I must continue — somehow — because I know — somewhere — I will come to the point where I can SEE the point. THIS is why I am here.
5. Panting fun
I’ve said before, I love love love The End. Whether writing or hiking, coming to the end (in mostly one piece with relatively few debilitating blisters) is a great feeling of satisfaction. But the satisfaction does seem relative to the exertion. Some of our best hikes (and by best, I mean make the best stories, of course) have been the worst technical hikes. Too long, too wet, too ridiculous, waaaay too much panting. But in The End, totally worth the reliving.
Especially if there’s a little chocolate left.
Do you find a certain pleasure in some kinds of hard work? Got any favorite hikes I should try someday?
We’ve had a couple winners on Silk And Shadows lately with a little help from Random.org. Congrats to tmaranville who, as a subscriber to the Silk And Shadows, won a prize pack of books from Erin Kellison, Laurie London and Elisabeth Naughton. And congrats also to the winner of last week’s giveaway of Erin Kellison’s SHADOW BOUND, Denise Quiroz. Thanks for commenting!
Currently working on: Plotting a new story Mood: Wildly distracted by shiny things
“TV is gooder than books.”
–One of my favorite bumper stickers of all time
Last week we talked about our summer reading, so I thought — since autumn is the return of new shows on TV — I’d see what’s on the tube. I don’t watch a lot of television because all of my favorite shows* get canceled. You can still make me cry just by whispering “Firefly” in my general direction. But every fall, I peruse the new and returning shows to see if there’s anything of interest. You know, for something to watch while I’m reading. Oh, admit it, you do that too.
(*Since I don’t have cable, I’m limited to network TV or shows that I can pick up later on my computer. )
Terra Nova
Anything that promises even hints of paranormal, fantasy or science fiction catches my attention. So when I heard about this show — time travel, mysterious etchings, dinosaurs! — I knew I’d check it out. My first impression: Where’s the love story?!
I know, I know, not every story needs a romance in it. But I think you’ll agree that every story is BETTER with a romance in it Actually, the cast in general is sadly lacking in hot males. I know, I know, not every story needs a hot guy in it. But I think you’ll agree that every story is BETTER with a hot guy in it I thought Hollywood understood this. Very strange.
Reviewers have sort of grumbled about the Land of the Lost/Jurassic Park/Lost overtones, but I think the show has some promise. They set up some interesting questions anyway.
Which means they will probably get canceled. Fox has a history of dabbling in sci-fi flavored stories, only to ax them in the first season, so maybe I won’t get invested until I know they are going to stick around.
House
Of course this is a long-running show that doesn’t need my help, but to be honest I had grown a little tired of its disease-of-the-week focus and stopped watching. Until last year when I heard that the sexual tension with the bad doctor was going to be resolved (with at least a HFN — or happy for now — since a HEA — happily ever after — seemed out of character; or maybe it was a HFH — happy for House).
Most series — television or book form — know that resolving the sexual tension can be the death of the chemistry between the leads. But House is such a tortured hero, I knew that consummating the relationship would be even harder for him than dancing around it. And sadly for his heart, torturing the hero makes such a great story.
Even though the love story came to a crashing end in last year’s season finale (if you watched it, you know I’m being funny when I say crashing) I’m eager to see what — if anything — the writers do to pick up that thread, especially when the love interest character is not coming back to the show. Will the bad doctor find a new love? How crazy will she have to be?
Revenge
I don’t even know why I watched the pilot of this new show. I think somebody mentioned it on Twitter and said the characters seemed interesting. So I found a rerun on Hulu. And I think this heroine could be House’s new girlfriend!
She’s one of the heroines I like: almost as tortured as a hero and not shy about torturing everyone around her too. See why she’d be so good with House?
But I guess I really want my paranormal story line AND my tortured hero AND my kick-ass heroine all in ONE story.
My summer started with a family road trip to bury my grandfather with full military honors at Arlington Cemetery. He has a lovely spot next to an apple tree with a peek-a-boo view of the Washington Monument.
Although the reason for our gathering was somber, we had a wonderful reunion with the whole clan where we spent several days at a cottage on a back channel of Chesapeake Bay, harassing the blue crabs and eating Maryland Madness ice cream (lemon ice cream with raspberry swirl, chocolate chips and white chocolate; yes, sounds like madness, but tastes like summer).
Speaking of tastes of summer, I returned home to the first cucumbers of the season. Being a lazy homemaker, I invented this great pickle recipe:
Take 1 cucumber.
Slice it thin.
Put it in an empty jar of store-bought pickle juice.
Let sit for three days.
Eat.
This only works two or three times before you leach all the flavor from the pickle juice. As lazy recipes go, I think I’ve hit a new personal low.
The pickle juice had only just gone bland when I departed for two reader conventions: RomCon in Denver was a laff riot with events like Build-A-Hero (pictured below, where I contributed the rippling abs, thankyewthankyewverymuch) and Authors After Dark in Philadelphia.
AAD, which is geared specifically for paranormal readers, is in NEW ORLEANS next year! On Bourbon Street! A seven minute walk from Cafe Du Monde beignets! You’re coming too, right?
Scarcely had I returned home (again) when I left (again) on a long weekend writing retreat up in Washington state.
To prove I was working reeeelly hard (shuh, right):
And now I am back at my computer (again) ready to work hard (really, this time). As a welcome home present — to you! – we’re giving away some book treasures from my travels and from some of my favorite book friends.
At the end of the week, Random.org will choose a winner from our newsletter subscribers. If you are already subscribed, just say hey. If you aren’t signed up yet, you can do that from the upper left corner, right up there, see it? One winner will get a party pack of Laurie London, Erin Kellison and Elisabeth Naughton. And I bet I can find some goodies for two more winners too, so go sign up.
We’re glad to be back! How about you? Eager for the change of seasons, or are you clinging to summer with both hands and all ten summer-pedicured toes?
Currently working on: A new world Mood: Adventurous
So I’ve been writing hard for awhile. This is not noteworthy, really, since writing is what writers do. But because I’ve been writing hard, I’ve let a few other chores slip.
This is one of three dust-apatosauruses I found under the bed. I’m not proud of my lax housekeeping skills (actually, I am, kind of; you think just ANYbody can manage a herd of dust-apatosauruses?) which is why I finally dragged out the vacuum cleaner (pictured here for scale) to tame the beasts.
[Editor's note: No dust-apatosauruses were injured in the cleaning of this house. All dust-wildlife was released into the wild.]
Is it just my imagination — which I admit runs rampant on occasion — or does it seem to you that we’re all busier than ever? My brain is constantly humming with to-do’s and deadlines and wish-lists.
Really, the bees in my poppies got nothing on the buzz in my head.
Which is why Silk & Shadows is taking a summer vacation. We’ll be back the first week of September, fresh and spunky, maybe with new notebooks and first-day-of-school shoes.
In the meantime, we will be frolicking in the misty fields like Nils Blommer’s Meadow Elves:
Nah, actually, we’ll all probably be writing like fiends. Because that’s what writers do.
The first season of HBO’s new series Game of Thrones (based on the books by George R.R. Martin) came to an exhilarating end on Sunday night.
I have to say, they have me hooked. It’s grim, violent, and full of graphic sexual content … and I’ll be waiting with bated breath for next season, which won’t happen until Spring 2012.
For those of you who haven’t seen the show, I’ll avoid spoilers as much as I can, but I’m going to list some of the reasons why I think this is a great series:
1. Conflict. There are masses and masses of it. Yes, there are also masses of characters, but after the first show, I had a pretty good handle on who was who. The conflict exists on a number of different levels: between ousted royalty and their replacements, between houses (or clans), between members of families, between duty and family, between societal dictates and individual preferences, between old beliefs and new beliefs, and so on. Very deep, very interesting.
2. Characters. The characters are revealed through their actions, both good and bad. They make choices we like, we hate, and we wince over. Bad things happen (see item #1) and the characters are forced into situations they’d really rather avoid. People scheme, lie, and make promises they don’t keep. What does all this mean? It means the characters that are vivid and complex. You want to spend time with them, week after week.
3. Mystery. The world unfolds slowly, with each show providing more and more detail. The people change as events influence their lives. The political landscape shifts, creating turmoil for all. And through it all, you’re left wondering. Not in a frustrating way, but in a curious way. What will happen to the characters? How will the characters react to events? How will the political intrigues play out? Who is trustworthy, and who is not? What better way to engage the audience than to have them wonder and hope and question?
As a storyteller, I’m filled with admiration for George R.R. Martin. As a viewer, I’m just plain enthralled.
At my day job white elephant exchange, one woman got a can of Spotted Dick. There was much adolescent snickering. (Yeah, my day job isn’t too worried about sexual harassment cases, apparently.) Since I do marketing work in my day job, I was horrified to read the instructions on the can and snapped a picture to share with my Twitter friends.
Other Posts by Jessa Slade 
GRIMM is about a cop who discovers he has inherited the ability — courtesy of his last name, Grimm — to see creatures no one else can see and now has the responsibility for destroying the bad creatures. So far, we’ve met big bad wolves (some of whom aren’t so bad, we learn) and werebears. There’s an overarching thread about a faction with witch-beasts seeking to destroy the Grimms forever.
The other series is ONCE UPON A TIME where the adult daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming must rescue the fairy tale people who are living amnesiac lives in “the real world” under the rule of an Evil Mayor/Queen.
In a way, I think GRIMM will be easier to watch because every week can be a fun new creature. But what I like best about fairy tales is that they are meant to teach us lessons. Lessons about true love, following your dreams, not eating poison apples. And so far, ONCE UPON A TIME appears to be more faithful to that story behind the stories in fairy tales.
BEAUTY by Robin McKinley
WICKED by Gregory MaGuire
THE MISTS OF AVALON by Marion Zimmer Bradley
Terra Nova
Actually, the cast in general is sadly lacking in hot males. I know, I know, not every story needs a hot guy in it. But I think you’ll agree that every story is BETTER with a hot guy in it 
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