Gotham/Metropolis

Okay, okay. This is going to sound crazy, I know. But hear me out, man. What do you mean, am I high? I don't do that stuff. Yes, I've had a lot of coffee. Now, just listen.

What if Gotham and Metropolis are actually the same place? Like they both exist in the same space at the same time, each completely parallel and unaware of the other side of its own nature, the light and dark of one city.

Gotham is all grit and darkness and Metropolis all shining sunlight, but both are incomplete, each missing the part they hide from themselves, the part that is the "other" city. 

This is why Batman and Superman are both allies and rivals, respectful of each other, but wary. Really, they are each other. Pessimism and optimism; skepticism and belief; preparation and reaction; wariness and openness. The two sides of one complete being. Batman is Superman and Superman is Batman. 

I know, right? Mind blown. Okay. I gotta go. Stopping by Atomic Empire today. See ya, man. 

Meet My Main Character (Blog Tour)

It's time for another blog tour. I love these things. It's like playing a writing game with your writer friends. I learn about so many great writers and great books!

This one is the Meet My Main Character Blog Tour, begun by Debra Brown.This tour asks the authors of works-in-progress to answer questions about the main characters of their fictional novels. I was invited by Ronda Reed. Ronda's novel, The Walking Bridge, is in editing now and Ronda hopes to bring it out early next year. I'm glad she invited me. You can read her answers to these questions here.

So enough about my writing friends, let's talk about my book, His Other Mother. :-)

Like most writers, I hate trying to classify my work, but I'll try. His Other Mother is women's issues fiction, by which I mean it is realistic fiction in a real-world setting featuring a female protagonist with issues to work through. In Sherry's case, the issues are infertility and schizophrenia. The novel is structured in five sections which mirror the phases of schizophrenia.

What is the name of your character? Is he/she fictional or historical?

Sherry Morgan is completely fictional. Like any of my characters, she draws from people I have met and even loved, but, mostly, I don't even recognize the pieces that stem from my own life in my work until after the fact. It's certainly not intentional. I suspect it's my subconscious working through my own issues.

When and where is the story set?

The story takes place in a contemporary setting, for the most part, in roughly 2010. It's set in Hilltown, which is a fictionalized version of my current hometown: Hillsborough, North Carolina. I didn't want to be tied to the actual geography of the town, so fictionalizing my setting allowed me to use things as I chose and ignore things that didn't serve my story.

What should we know about her/him?

Sherry wants a baby more than anything else in this world.

This desire is at the center of this novel. It affects everything and everyone around her, including her husband, Kirk, and Maxie and Corbin, the mother and baby she fixates on.

What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?

Sherry's problems begin when she and her husband, Kirk, decide to have a baby. They struggle with infertility and Sherry, in particular, is a mess over it. When she loses a pregnancy, she suffers a Brief Reactive Psychosis. She fixates on another woman's child and kidnaps him from the scene of an accident at the grocery store. As you might expect, this leads to trouble.

What is the personal goal of the character?

Motherhood.

Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about it?

His Other Mother. I've posted some scenes from the novel on this blog over the year or so since I finished writing it.

Here's the kidnapping.

Here's the bread-baking scene.

And here's one of my favorite scenes: Kirk at the beach.

When can we expect the book to be published?

I'm pursuing traditional rather than indie publishing for this one, which means things like time tables are out of my hands. I really believe the book needs the publishing machine behind it to find its audience. So, it's out there in submission land, waiting for the next response. I've had two publishers ask for more before opting out, so I'm hopeful that the novel will find a home soon. In the meantime, I'm writing my other books (two superhero novels and a piece of historical fiction).

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That was fun.

If you'd like to read more of these posts, check out the blogs of my writing friends next week to see what they have to say about their characters!

Kristin Molnar is an urban fantasy writer and lives in North Carolina with her family.

Chad Clark is an independent author specializing in horror and science fiction.

Elizabeth Hein is a mother, author, and cancer survivor. She grew up in Massachusetts and now lives in Durham, North Carolina. She writes women's fiction with a snarky edge. When not writing, she is trying to raise two young women and a husband.

Summer Reading: Week Five

I'm still having focus issues, so not reading as much as I would like. I've been slogging my way through Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner (A Rose for Emily is one of the best short stories I've ever read), but I don't think I will have finished it in time for my reading group. I'll still go, because I've read other Faulkner and will want to hear what others say. Faulkner's sentences are so lush (and long!), that I find myself getting lost between the beginning and end and rereading one sentence several times like I might a poem. It's beautiful, but slow reading. It also reminds me of Gertrude Stein, where the same idea is woven in and out again in repetition and reiteration.

For example, here's one sentence: "I don't plead material necessity: the fact that, an orphan a woman and a pauper, I turned naturally not for protection but for actual food to my only kin: my dead sister's family: though I defy anyone to blame me, an orphan of twenty, a young woman without resources, who should desire not only to justify her situation but to vindicate the honor of a family the good name of whose women has never been impugned, by accepting the honorable proffer of marriage from the man whose food she was forced to subsist on."

It's the right tone for the woman telling the story. She digresses mid-digression and does not pause for breath, but it's an exhausting read.

As a break from Faulkner, I began a new book that I recently picked up: Mothers (Book One in the Invisibles Series) by Michelle Read. I'm only three chapters in, but it promises to be a lot of fun.  I picked it up because i met +Michelle Read on a community on Google+ and learned we were both writing female superheroes.  Michelle's book is engaging so far. I like the main character and sympathize with a lot of her mommy problems and am already curious about the explanation for some of the strange things she's been seeing.

Other than that, I've been guilty of binge television watching instead of reading. On the up-side, this is because I've been writing a lot myself (2,000 words a day or more), which means that my brain is tired and ready for some more passive entertainment, like the Tube.  My popcorn show right now is Lost Girl, a series about a succubus private eye. I don't do cable anymore, so all my TV watching is on Netflix or Amazon Prime. I'm in the second season of Lost Girl, and so far have only hit two episodes I thought were awful.

NJ continues to read up a storm. She's still on her graphic novels kick. She adored Lilith Dark by +Charles C. Dowd . The morning after she read it, she described it to me in breathless detail and said, that she was actually Lilith Dark. (She's not as rude to her family as Lilith, but she does bear more than a passing resemblance to the fictional child).

Tiny Titans continue to be popular. We checked out all the library had that we hadn't already read. She Adventures of Super Diaper Baby by George Beard and Harold Hutchins. I may have to buy her copies of those to keep because she wants to take them around to show her friends (especially her male friends).

also found them disgustingly charming

She's also been reading recipes from an old Strawberry Shortcake book that used to my sister's when she was small.  We've made Whizzer Fizzers (floats) and Monster Sandwiches (cleverly cut pieces of normal sandwich stuff).  NJ has a baking thumb the same way some people have a green thumb for gardening.

The elder daughter gets home next weekend (hurray!) and I'll find out what she's been reading. For NJ at least, this continues to be the summer of books.

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I wanted to take a moment to highlight the new release of a writing friend. Chad A. Clark will put out a collection of short stories on July 18. It's called Borrowed Time and I'm pleased to reveal the cover today (see below). I've got my pre-release copy and look forward to reading it soon.

Borrowed Time is a collection of six tales bridging the chilling world of horror and the mind-bending realms of science-fiction. Join a young man searching for answers in the wake of a friend’s suicide, who uncovers an evil that proves some questions are best left unasked. Journey with a young artist along haunted back-country highways, hoping to make it home while re-discovering herself in the process. Travel to the distant future where one man breaks free from the safe isolation of his existence and risks everything so that he might learn what lies beyond the confines of his reality. Read these and more in the debut book from this new author.

Storytelling has always been one of Chad A. Clark’s passions. A Midwestern raised author, he specializes in horror and science fiction. Learn more about him at his website, cclarkfiction.net. You can also enjoy a new original work of fiction every week on his website, bakedscribe.net.

#SaturdayScenes No. 10: Independence Day

Independence Day always makes me think of my grandfather who was a WWII vet. This week for #SaturdayScenes, I bring you a poem I wrote about him and his ambivalence about his service.

Loss of Faith

He said loss

was certain in war—

we must all sacrifice for the Greater Good.

Friends, family, even faith—

surrendered like offerings,

head bowed, eyes averted.

Still, he wondered . . . wished

he had not recovered

from the scarcity of his youth.

If he had stayed home

with flat feet—

with polio—

would he still trust

in G-d and Country? 

But he had witnessed the children,

served them bread and thin soups,

their wide eyes solemn over spoons

clasped in hands grown so thin

bones float in slack skin.

If these had remained words in the paper,

pictures in Life magazine,

he could have still believed

in something, held on to his faith—

that G-d cared, that good would prevail. 

The army taught him eighty ways to kill,

but never

to forget that his enemies were his brothers.

He learned to apologize in seven languages,

but never

to look the other way.

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If you would like to check out more scenes by some really great writers, you should search under the hashtag #Saturdayscenes. The movement is the brainchild of +John Ward , who suggested that writers should share their work each Saturday.

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My other #SaturdayScenes contributions:

Week One: Elopement Day from WIP, Cold Spring

Week Two: Linda Makes a First Impression from WIP, Her Father's Daughter, sequel to Going Through the Change

Week Three: Claiming Alex, from unpublished novel His Other Mother

Week Four: Things Get Hairy for Linda, from unpublished novel Going Through the Change

Week Five: a poem: A Clear Day in Kodiak, Alaska

Week Six: a snippet from an idea barely begun, Lacrosse Zombies

Week Seven: Mathilde's Visit, from WIP, Cold Spring
Week Eight: Sherry bakes, from His Other Mother
Week Nine: I Said So, Didn't I? (a scene in dialogue)

#ISWG Posting: The Importance of Support at Home

I've been serious about my writing for a little over a year now. I've bumped it up from a sweet, little hobby (something I did piecemeal whenever inspiration hit, something I played at) into a consuming craft (something I do daily with specific goals and progress expectations). And my family has rolled with it.

My husband has been incredibly supportive. A lesser man might have complained about the time I've devoted to imaginary people and worlds, or about the household tasks that he's had to pick up or that were just left undone. But I'm a fortunate woman with a supportive partner who recognizes how important this is to me, at a soul level. 

When I was struggling to develop a daily writing habit, he took on extra solo parenting duty and let me disappear to a coffee shop or a room with a door. To help jumpstart me, he bought me a writing retreat weekend and took on the extra solo parenting duty that my absence entailed. (If you have children, you know how generous a gift that really is). 

It's hit me only recently how very fortunate I've been. How has it gone for you, fellow writers? Have your families been supportive? What have your struggles been as you became serious about your writing?

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This posting is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group blog hop. To check out other posts by writers in a variety of places in their careers, check out the participant list. 

Summer Reading: Week Four

For a week when I wasn't working, I was working a lot this week, so I didn't read as much as I would have preferred.

I did read a couple of graphic novels, including Bone, which is one that a lot of middle schoolers enjoy and I've been meaning to check out for a while. It was light, and a quick read, but clever and enjoyable as well. I can see why it's popular with middle school readers.

Most of my reading time was focused on another beta read for another writing friend. We're going to have to talk about the ending, but otherwise, it was a really amazing book. She's a very talented writer.

NJ, on the other hand, has read up a storm! We picked up an audio book of Cornelia Funke's Ghosthunters series. We'd already listened to The Incredibly Revolting Ghost and The Gruesome Invincible Lightning Ghost sometime this past year. This one is #4: Ghosthunters and the Muddy Monster of Doom! Like all the books in this series, it features Tom and

his ghosthunting partners Hetty Hyssop and Hugo (an Averagely Spooky Ghost). I enjoy listening to these audiobooks, too. They are longer and more in depth stories, and are well performed by John Beach. I like how important knowledge is in the series. Tom and Hetty always figure something out through research and applying past knowledge rather than by luck.

The series is the right kind of spooky for my seven year old, too. She feels like she's hearing a scary story, but she won't have nightmares. There's plenty of comedy in the series as well. It's also nice that the main pair of ghosthunters are an eleven year old boy and a woman old enough to be his grandmother.

Besides Ghosthunters, Norah has begun to enjoy Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney. She found book one in her sister's discard pile and snatched it up. Just like her mama, NJ enjoys a good graphic novel and Kinney's school situations make her laugh a lot.

She also returned to an old love this week: Mo Willems. NJ loves Mo Willems books, especially Elephant and Piggie books. Currently nearly all our library's collection is in our library book basket. She loves to read them aloud with someone, taking turns playing the part of Pig and Elephant.  There are great fun to read, with wonderful positive messages about friendship without being preachy. And if you read with expression, you'll find plenty to smile about.

M bought something at Barnes and Noble last week, but since she is still with the bio-Dad for her summer visitation, I don't yet know what it was or how she is enjoying it.

So, that's our summer reading this week. I can't believe it's already been a month!

#SaturdayScenes No. 9

#saturdayscenes #samanthascenes

For #SaturdayScenes this week, I bring you a little scene written entirely in dialogue. Hope you enjoy!

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I said so, didn’t I?

So, that’s it then?

            Yep

Really?

            I said so, didn’t I?

I guess I hoped you didn’t mean it.

            Why would I say it, then?

I hate it when you do that.

            What?

Answer everything with a goddamn question.

            Why?

It’s not funny, asshole. Especially not if this is really it.

            Hey, I never promised . . .

Like hell, you didn’t. Everything you did was a promise.

            I didn’t mean—

Don’t give me that shit.  Don’t you try and put this on me.

            I hate when you do that.

What?

Try to make it all about what I did.  You did things, too, you know. You asked me to live here with you. You told me about him.  You told me you needed me.

Yeah, well, I meant what I did.

            Of course you did! You never do anything you didn’t mean to!

What the hell is that supposed to mean?

            Jesus, you really don’t get it, do you?

Maybe I’m just not as smart as you.

            Do I have to spell it out?

Maybe you do. Maybe you should just say it for once. Just tell me what you’re thinking. Stop making me try to guess.

            You say that like it’s easy.

Isn’t it?

I’ve never met anyone as frustrating as you.  You can be right here with me and yet I feel like I don’t have you. You tell me things that break my heart, but they don’t even seem to touch yours. You’re somewhere else, behind your eyes.  I’m leaving because you already left me months ago, if you were ever here in the first place. You just forgot to take your body with you.

Is that what you think?

          I said so, didn’t I?

I don’t want you to leave.

I said I don’t want you to leave.  You can’t just not fucking respond to that. 

Say something!

          Why don’t you want me to leave?

I love you, idiot!

          You love me?

I said so, didn’t I?

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If you would like to check out more scenes by some really great writers, you should search under the hashtag #Saturdayscenes.  The movement is the brainchild of +John Ward , who suggested that writers should share their work with the public each Saturday. 

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My other #SaturdayScenes contributions:

Week One: Elopement Day from WIP, Cold Spring

Week Two: Linda Makes a First Impression from WIP, Her Father's Daughter, sequel to Going Through the Change

Week Three: Claiming Alex, from unpublished novel His Other Mother

Week Four: Things Get Hairy for Linda, from unpublished novel Going Through the Change

Week Five: a poem: A Clear Day in Kodiak, Alaska

Week Six: a snippet from an idea barely begun, Lacrosse Zombies

Week Seven: Mathilde's Visit, from WIP, Cold Spring
Week Eight: Sherry bakes, from His Other Mother