Silk & Shadows

Currently working on: New project
Mood: Goal-oriented

I love science tidbits. Even when I can’t understand something, that’s fine with me because it’s a great jumping off point into what-ifs. Stories often start with a “What if…?” And if I can’t understand the complexities, the mental workout must burn off at least a half bucket of cookie dough.

One of my perpetual favorite brain games in science is string theory. String theory suggests that all matter in the universe is ultimately composed of 1-dimensional strings that, based on differences in their vibrations, become different particles.

The thing I like best about string theory is that it could be a solution to the “theory of everything,” linking all physical phenomena with one explanation.

Which I have to think would include an explanation for this one plot problem I’m having…

My favorite book on the topic is Brian Greene’s THE ELEGANT UNIVERSE: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. Part one of the PBS television series with a lot of helpful, pretty, moving pictures is showing here. I watched it again after Greene’s new series THE FABRIC OF THE COSMOS started playing on PBS this month. After reading those books and watching the shows, I ALMOST understand theoretical physics.

Still having trouble with that plot problem though.

Other recent science stuff that has captured my imagination:

Did you know we were almost pulverized by an asteroid recently?

Well, not really almost pulverized. The blast would only have been equivalent to several thousand megatons of dynamite. And those smarty-pants scientists knew it was going to miss us anyway, but still, it got my head whirling. Earlier this month, on November 8, Asteroid 2005 YU55 passed closer to Earth than the moon. I knew it was coming but I forgot about it, which one should never do with a NEO (Near Earth Object) the size of an aircraft carrier. The next time a known object this large will approach Earth is 2028.

I guess it’s a good thing that these things pass us without comment, but I did think about mutant space motes spinning off the asteroid and dusting the Earth with… What? Alien spores? Superpowers? The possibilities spring off in all directions, even if the asteroid itself must follow a predestined path.

Also in space news, the new Mars rover launched on Saturday!

I adored the previous two Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, who in 2004 landed on Mars, tasked with 90-sol (day) missions that turned into years of experiments and exploration. Didn’t hurt that they looked sort of like Disney’s Wall-E. I actually got choked up when NASA lost touch with one rover due to sand on the solar panels…only to regain communications when fortuitous winds blew the panels clean. Though Spirit fell completely silent in 2010, Opportunity is still trundling around the Red Planet.

The new rover launched safety and it will take her eight months to get to Mars. Curiosity (follow her on Twitter! @MarsCuriosity) is the larger, stronger, faster, smarter cousin of the earlier rovers. Nuclear powered instead of solar, with more tools aboard including a rock-vaporizing laser, her goal is to prospect for organic molecules which could provide more information about whether Mars could have supported life. Bon voyage, Curiosity!

And last and almost least...

Only least because neutrinos are very small particles. In September this year, smarty-pants scientists shocked other smarty-pants scientists by announcing that they might have shot particles through the Earth at faster-than-light speeds. (Specifically 60 nanoseconds faster than light. And just to be clear, a nanosecond is one billionth of a second. So not a LOT faster than light.) Since that shoots substantially bigger holes in one of the fundamental understandings of science (that nothing travels faster than light) some scientists believed the findings must have errors. Earlier this month, more tests seem to repeat the findings. How cool is that? We should have our own spaceships by yesterday!

The best part of this story is the word superluminal, which means faster than light. But I also like the idea that something as set in stone as Einstein’s theory of special relativity can change. Okay, maybe it won’t change, maybe there are errors in the findings, but how fun to think about what it could mean if it did.

Were you a good science student? Or did you get the flu on the day you were supposed to dissect the frog? If you have any favorite science moments, do share!

Currently working on: Absorbing leftover Halloween candy
Mood: Sugar bombed

I’m feeling contemplative. (Uh oh, watch out.) Our topic here at Silk And Shadows this week is “what storytelling means to me.” It’s definitely easier to navel gaze after a whole week long evening of bloating on KitKats, Heath bars and Pixie Stix.

I’m in a good place to be contemplative right now. In addition to suffering a serious chocolate head-buzz, I just turned in Book 4 of the Marked Souls last week (okay, yes, I did start eating the Halloween candy last week) AND today I turned in copy edits on Book 3, VOWED IN SHADOWS (4/11). So this is a great time to ask myself:

WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?!?!

I also routinely ask myself that question right around Chapters 7, 13 and 23… Hey, look at that. Something about prime number chapters screws me up. Huh.

Anyway, the obvious answer to the question is exactly what it says in the picture I posted here last week from the sticky note on top of my computer monitor: I AM TELLING THE STORY. (“You fool” is implied.)

But when I’m staggering around in the depths of the storyworld — desperate for a gallon of gasoline and a match, just so I can clear a path so I might have a clue where I am — that’s a terrible time to ask myself the corollary to the above question:

WHY AM I DOING THIS?!?!

I don’t like to ask because… I don’t know why I’m doing this. I suspect the answer is the same as the answer to:

Why did the chicken cross the road?

The first answer to “Why did the chicken cross the road?” is, of course:

To get to the other side.

As a reason for storytelling, I think this makes simple sense. I write the story to get to the other side of the story, which — if you start at The Beginning — would be, not surprisingly, The End.

I think the “writer as chicken” analogy also works because anyone who has tried to drive past a chicken on the side of a road knows that wanting to cross the road is apparently, to the chicken, as natural and inevitable as… well, laying an egg. Which is how it is for writers. (Not the egg-laying part so much as the natural and inevitable.)

Also, chickens wander; chickens peck; and chickens are the butts of many semi-funny jokes — very much like writers — including the following:

Q: Why did the chicken cross the road halfway?
A: To lay it on the line.

Getting a story “out there” and sharing it with others is a thrill-seeking rush. Much like standing in the middle of a street.

Q: What do you call a chicken crossing the road?
A: Poultry in motion.

I like to make art. I’ve painted, I’ve dabbled in photography, I bead. But there’s something about the beauty, versatility, power, and play of words that fascinates me.

Q: Do chickens have belly buttons? (This isn’ t a joke; more of a factoid.)
A: Belly buttons are the scar left by the umbilical cord. Chickens have the equivalent of an umbilical cord in their yolk sac, but the sac is reabsorbed and leaves no scar.

I think a lot of writers are like chickens in that there is no “scar” showing the moment they became a writer. They just absorbed that storytelling energy and pecked their way out.

And lastly, this little amusing story that really has nothing to do with writing except it combines chickens and books:

A chicken walks into a library and says to the librarian “book, book, book,” so the librarian gives the chicken three books and it walks out. About an hour later, the chicken walks in again and says “book, book, book,” so once again, the librarian gives the chicken three books and it walks out. About an hour later, it comes back in and says “book, book, book,” so the librarian gives the chicken three books and it walks out. This time however, the librarian is a little curious so she follows the chicken. She continues to follow it for about half an hour when it comes to a marsh and puts the books on the ground. A frog leaps out of the marsh, looks at the books, and says “readit, readit, readit.”

Do you think it’s a good idea to examine our personal motivations for creative endeavors, or anything else for that matter? Especially under the influence of chocolate? Or should it be saved for professional counseling, a “do not try this at home” kind of thing?

P.S. My short story – very short, like, 25 words short! — is available today in HINT FICTION: An Anthology of Stories in 25 Words or Fewer. Other, way more famous contributors include Tess Gerritsen, James Frey and Joyce Carol Oates (!). The stories have been called “fun and addictive, like puzzles or haiku or candy.” Uh, I don’t want to talk about candy…

Currently working on: Memorizing the lyrics to R.E.M.’s “It’s the End of the World as We Know It”
Mood: “And I feel fiiiiine…”

The temperatures are definitely shifting and the sun is setting sooner every day.  I’m busy writing Book 4 of the Marked Souls.  With the end of summer and deadlines looming, I feel a little bit like I’m going back to school.

This may surprise no one, but I was always a bit of a nerd and a bookworm.  (Well, maybe the “a bit” part would surprise you.)  I was not hot, which was our topic here at Silk And Shadows last week, and I was not cool, as is this week’s topic.  Either one — hot or cool — would have been nice, but instead I settled for a rich fantasy life and a facility with words.

Which brings me to some cool people I want to share with you.  These are some of the cool people I would’ve liked to hang with back in the day; luckily, now there’s the internet, so they can share their coolness with all of us.  (Disclaimer: My definition of cool may have been irrepairably damaged by my bookwormy nerdiness.)

Cool person #1: Allie from Hyperbole and a Half

Not only is she hysterically funny with words, she draws too.  When I feel bad, I like to look at her “Better Pain Scale” strip.  By the end I’m feeling better.  Or maybe I feel like #11 on her better pain scale, but at least she’s given me a way to relate to my feelings.

Then I read various other posts and LMAO and all is well.

Cool person #2: Clay Shirky, smart guy

If you kinda wish you were going back to school, just because it’s been awhile since you stretched your mind, check him out.  Sometimes, he makes my head hurt.  In a good way.  (#3 on Allie’s pain scale, maybe.)  If you ever wonder “What is the world coming to?” you can read the ongoing blog spun off his book HERE COMES EVERYBODY.  It’s not always good news, but always fascinating.

Cool person #3: Modern Toss

Okay, not really a person, but a bunch of clever, cool people.  And I’ll admit up front that I am vastly amused by South Park because I find cursing children hilarious; swearing by Brits is similarly amusing.  Modern Toss’s Periodic Table of Swearing is funny AND wrong, so of course it’s cool.  I daren’t include a snippet since it might offend someone but I’ll just say this… Prat.

Right.  Looking at this list now, I realize there was no way I could ever have been cool.  Oh well.  Were you a cool kid?  What was it like?  If you weren’t a cool kid, which group did you belong to?

It started out perfectly innocent. I just needed a little information, nothing much, just enough to add that touch of realism to a group of scenes in Dark Temptation. My hero wasn’t feeling well and didn’t know why.

Slow acting poison. That was the culprit, and I needed to know about the various kinds and what their effects were. So I turned to the internet and typed in my query.

Holy crap!!!

Suddenly I had images of the FBI banging down my door, confiscating my computer and dragging me off to prison. Because as I perused the website I’d opened, it soon became apparent that this wasn’t an informative description of poisons and how they work, but instructions on HOW TO MURDER SOMEONE! Seriously. I felt as if I’d just descended to one of Dante’s levels of hell, where the real demons lurk and plot their evil deeds. I can’t tell you how fast I clicked off, dropped my computer cookies and decided books were the way to go. Writers Digest has volumes on everything, and I found my answers there. Phew!
So the lesson learned was be careful WHAT you research and HOW you research it.

Anyway, not all research comes second hand. Yesterday I mentioned something about fleas and castles. While in Ireland and touring Ross Castle in Kilarney, I learned a little something that, at least momentarily, blew all my romantic, fairytale concepts about lords and ladies. Seems they had a little system to help combat the vermin crawling in their clothes, which was to hang said clothes along the tiny passage that led to the privy in the lord’s solar. Apparently the acidic stench filtering back up from the cess pit (or moat), was enough to kill anything. I know! I’m sorry! But can you imagine how that clothing must have reeked??? Especially on a summer’s day. Still, I suppose that was better fleas and lice. For the most part I just put it out of my mind. It’s my romantic fantasy, and in MY world, lords and ladies bath regularly and their clothes are clean, anacrynisms be damned!

Another bit of research that blew my preconceived notions? Despite the Victorian Age being one of stuffy traditions and strict family values, it didn’t necessarily start out that way. From what I’ve read, after a grim, sheltered childhood spent in shabby surroundings, Victoria became quite the party girl upon ascending to the throne! But maybe it’s not so hard to believe. Imagine yourself an eighteen-year-old who has been overprotected all your life, and suddenly finding yourself the leader of the most influential country at the time, with a crown on your head, no less, and everyone bowing and curtsying every time you walked by. Might make you want to act out just a bit, huh?

Can we say, Power Crazed? Not that she abused her authority, mind you. She was at heart a sensible girl, but the first thing she did upon moving into Buckingham Palace was relegate her mother to rooms far, far away from her own. Victoria was free, and she intended partying until the wee hours of the morning! It was actually her husband Albert who instilled a steadying, quieting influence on the royal household, but Victoria had no problem going along with it by then because she ADORED him. Which leads me to my final reasearch surprise — her majesty did NOT like babies or young children. I know! In her mind, pregnancy and looking after infants interfered with time that could be better spent with her darling Albert, and she resented it!

So that perfect family image that lent its shining example to an entire era was, well, maybe not so perfect. The good news for me, though, is that while I came away a little disillusioned, it all makes great fodder for romance novels!

How about you? What surprises have shocked you, scared you, or just blew your preconceived notions out of the water?

Research is one of the best parts of being a writer—there’s just so much information out there, especially on the internet. I’ve been known to dive into a subject looking for a single fact only to surface many hours later. It’s a tendency I force myself to control during a first draft, or else I’d never finish.

Sometimes the information I find builds on my romantic notions—King Alexander III of Scotland died when he fell off his horse into a ravine during a storm, while racing to return to the side of his beautiful wife Yolande—and sometimes the information dashes my rose colored illusions—roughly six percent of all murders in the States are one spouse killing another.

Sometimes, the facts are just not as fun as the made up stuff. For example…the image of the trusty Saint Bernard dog rushing up the Swiss mountainside with a keg of brandy under its neck, going to the aid of stranded travelers is heart-warming and theoretically body-warming as well. Truth is the rescue dogs were real, but there was no keg of brandy. No keg at all. The image we’ve all come to know and love seems to have originated strictly from the imagination of an early painter. How sad is that?

Worse, it’s been proven that drinking alcohol in frigid temperatures may actually increase your chances of freezing to death, because it dilates your blood vessels and lets the heat escape faster. Darn. There goes my excuse for slinging a wineskin around my neck on ski trips. Water is far better for you, but not nearly as romantic. Sigh.

How about you? Do you find the internet addictive? Do you click from link to link and get lost for hours? Or do you find the information overwhelming and boring?

Currently working on: Transcribing chicken scratching longhand notes
Mood: Perplexed — I wrote this?!?

I was never much interested in the question “Why do bad things happen to good people?” It seemed obvious to me: Well, s**t happens.

More confusing was “Why do good people do bad things?” As if I could answer that question when generations of theologians, psychiatrists and weeping mothers haven’t. But poking at it was part of the genesis for SEDUCED BY SHADOWS, the first book of The Marked Souls which comes out in October. In the series, my heroes are possessed by repentant demons. I started reading about demons in mythology and the world’s major belief systems as well as the “demons” of purely human cruelty — genocide, serial murder, mental disorders, slavery.

But I thought those demons seemed a little removed from people like you and me. I mean, most of us will (hopefully!) go through our lives without ever needing a Roman Catholic exorcism. (But if you do, check out Malachi Martin’s Hostage to the Devil: The Possession and Exorcism of Five Contemporary Americans. Not precisely a DIY manual and critics argue the veracity, but it’s a fascinating read.) Most of those metaphorical demons feel safely confined to foreign news programs and made-for-TV movies. Then I remembered a psychological study we learned about in high school.

In Milgram’s 1961 social psych experiment, begun just three months after the start of Adolph Eichmann’s trial as a Nazi war criminal, volunteers were told to administer electric shocks in increasing 15-volt increments to other research subjects when questions on a verbal test were answered inaccurately. The shockees were actually accomplices to the researchers and the shocks were fake. But the volunteers didn’t know that.

Shocking (pun intended) factoid:
Despite simulated screams of pain from the “victim,” 65% of the volunteers continued to administer shocks to the 450-volt maximum (labeled ‘Danger: Severe Shock’ on the board the volunteers used). Only one volunteer stopped before 300 volts. A more recent version of the study (updated, ironically, to decrease potential post-experiment stress on the volunteers doing the shocking) found essentially the same percentages of people willing to pull the trigger on their fellows. If everyone tells their friends and family about this study, maybe the next time researchers perform this experiment, I bet we can lower the percentages a point or two.

It was a study about response to authority, to a voice telling you to do something that you know is wrong. What interested me was the quickness and completeness with which people gave up their brains, hearts and souls to someone else. The volunteers weren’t monsters. They weren’t serial killers or sadists or Enron execs in training. They were regular, normal people — people like you and me.

Yale University psychologist Stanley Milgram in his 1974 book about the study, “Obedience to Authority: An Experimental View,” said: Ordinary people…can become agents in a terrible destructive process. If this is so, then perhaps the opposite is true: Ordinary people can become warriors against destruction.

The heroes of my stories wield the power of the repentant demons to save the world. Have you ever had a little voice inside you — good or bad — influencing you? Did you listen?

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