Blue Eyes II

Last year I posted a bit about the significance of blue eyes in my fictional world, and gave the short answer that it's basically a plot device to help identify magi.

There's more to it, of course, much more. Early on I was toying with the notion of giving my magi an unusual feature that would set them apart from humanity, but couldn't come up with something both convincing and consistent. So I settled on blue eyes as being quick and easy. As I thought about it some more, though, I realized it's not a half bad concept. I was taking something normally regarded as beautiful and attractive and making it an object of fear and hate.

See, things in my world haven't gone well between mundanes and magi. There was a war - a really, really bad one - and one of the things some mundane governments did was to round up magi and put them in camps before they could get really strong. One of the ways they identified magi was the blue eyes. In the process, of course, thousands of innocents were taken away as well, but it was all in the name of "national security".

Of course, we know that could never happen here, don't we?

Don't we?

Guilty Pleasures

Okay, I admit it. I'm a fan of vampire fiction. I suppose this shouldn't be anything to be ashamed of, given the proliferation of such brain candy in recent months, but for an aspiring novelist attempting to plumb the depths of the human psyche, actually admitting to reading the stuff whilst working on said novel is a bit embarrassing.

But there it is.

I have not yet experienced the joys of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series, though I certainly plan to in the near future. No, my latest excursion into the world of the macabre has led me to the Night World, a series of nine books by L.J. Smith. As I write this, a tenth is due for release in 2010.

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much when I first picked them up. They're basically teen romance novels with vampires, werewolves and witches thrown in. The world is fairly well-developed, and the story revolves around the aforementioned creatures and something called the "Night World", a sort of shadow society that exists alongside normal humanity. A bit like J.K. Rowling's wizarding world. The creatures that inhabit this world interact with human society, but their laws forbid them from letting humans know anything about the Night World, including its existence. Vampires, werewolves, and witches especially aren't allowed to fall in love with humans. Doing so means death for the human and possibly for the Night Worlder.

Which brings us to plot device #2. We're basically talking about romance fiction here, so of course this means in every story, these laws are violated. Another big story point is the concept of "soulmates." In this world, everyone has a perfect match for them that the souls immediately recognize when they meet. Once again, this isn't supposed to happen between Night World people and humans, but of course, it does, in every story.

No problem. Lots of writers work from formula; in fact, many of my favorite authors wrote little else. Edgar Rice Burroughs, for one. Formulas work, that's why people use them. Ms. Smith seems to have found a good one, and she uses it very well.

The first volume, containing the rather unsubtly titled stories "Secret Vampire", "Daughters of Darkness", and "Spellbinder", may be a bit too formulaic for some. Each story revolves around the basic plot point of finding the soulmate, learning about the Night World, and making the choice to join the soulmate or not. The stories are over quickly and fairly predictably, with a few loose ends left and more than a few unanswered questions. For the most part, everyone gets what they wanted in the end and everything's packaged nicely. Stick with it, though; it gets better.

In the second volume things get a bit more complicated. Deception, deceit and violence are the order of the day here, and soulmates are found in the most unlikely of places. In "Dark Angel", a girl dying of hypothermia is rescued by a spirit calling itself an "angel". At first having a guardian angel seems like a blessing, but things go from good to very, very bad in short order. The second story, "The Chosen", is about a vampire hunter bent on destroying all vampires who learns her soulmate is, in fact, a vampire Lord dedicated to doing the same to humans. Finally, in "Soulmate", a girl who has visions of past lives learns that she has been reincarnated through thousands of years and in each of them has been the soulmate of an ancient and powerful vampire.

I haven't gotten to the third book, which contains the stories "Huntress", "Black Dawn" and "Witchlight", but I look forward to it. This is good stuff. You won't find deep philosophy here, but what you will find is good action and entertainment. Oh, and a little romance as well.

Now for the guilty part. I have to admit, what drew me to the series was not the titles, or the genre, or even a recommendation from anyone else. It was the girl on the cover of Book 2.

There, I said it.

Press "pause"

Once again I've put my actual writing on temporary hiatus. I have a couple of reasons for this; first, even though I have the basic story arc planned out, I'm not liking the situation so far. My MC isn't as developed as I need her to be (a character with no past still has a past), and I'm not sure her reactions to events fit my concept of her. Second, I realized I also don't know the world as well as I should. The world your characters in habit should be as well developed as the characters themselves, and an author who doesn't know his world doesn't know the story.

So, I'm taking time off from writing to do some serious world building and character development. Unfortunately, this may result in a complete rewrite of the story opening, but so be it. I'm not on a deadline or contract anyway, so this is just for fun.

Harajuku

Japan is one of the most beautiful places in the world. Wherever you go, you get a display of light and color that's almost overwhelming in its beauty and variety. Nowhere is this displayed more beautifully than in the bizarre world of Harajuku fashion.

You have to admire the artistry and dedication that these girls show in their fashion and makeup. When you start with canvasses this beautiful, you can't help but get incredible results.

Meet Sophie Andersen

In today's post I'd like to introduce Sophie Andersen, the MC of my current work. Sophie is about 23 years old, with dark skin, blue eyes and light brown hair she usually keeps in dreadlocks. Picture is courtesy of the Sims 2 Body Shop. She's the latest hot talent in the European art community, and no one knows the slightest thing about her, even Sophie herself.

In fact, she's a witch (or mage, haven't decided which terminology to use yet), but has no memory of her past and isn't aware of the talent she has. She knows there's a vast chunk of her life missing, so she paints in order to remember.

In a few days' time she will be commissioned by a wealthy patron of the arts to produce a series of five paintings, each with a different theme, as a sort of "war memorial." Of course, there's more to it than that, but telling you would be giving away too much. Suffice to say, the artwork will form a powerful magical artifact when complete (she doesn't know that yet, so don't tell her).

Oh, and she also has tattoos covering her body from neck to ankles, everything but the hands, head and feet. However, they've been magically "erased" like her memory, and will begin to reveal themselves through the course of the story.

Aside from all the weirdness, she's pretty normal - likes hardcore metal, doesn't smoke or drink heavily, has a flat in London's West End, and enjoys rock climbing.

New month, new project

Okay, so the NaNoWriMo thing didn't go quite as well as I'd hoped. Still, 10,500 words isn't bad, considering I've never written more than about 3,000 until now. If you include term papers, my highest word count is 6,500. The end result of all that work is that I started and restarted the same story four times from four different POVs. It would have been a good start if I'd been more confident about which direction the thing was going to begin with.

Oh well. Time to move on. The effort wasn't wasted, though. I have several good characters developed with some good back-story. Lately I've been spending time on milieu development, since that's what was seriously lacking.

The new project is an urban fantasy, kind of Harry Potter meets Neuromancer with a little Philip K. Dick thrown in. A psychodrama of self-discovery in a world of magic, technology and repression. The MC is a gifted artist and witch with a tortured past that she's suppressed so deeply she doesn't have the slightest clue she has any magical powers or memory of what happened 17 years ago during a war between mages and mundanes.

Oh, and her body is covered with tattoos that have been magically "erased", but begin to appear throughout the course of the plot. This in a world where being strange or unusual is a stigma.

My goal is to write about 2500 to 5,000 words per week, with no upper limit. Should be fun.