Tony Stark, Slightly Crazy Inventor-Scientist

So last night my husband and I finally watched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog. Which got me thinking about mad scientists.

[Side note: I have this giant poster of a book cover hanging over my tv:

If you didn't know, I wrote the story introductions to this book, and the cover is AWESOME. But having a giant poster of a mad scientist hanging over one's television makes you think about science a lot!]

Anyway, after watching Dr. Horrible, I found myself full of rage. Why are superheroes always using these innate powers and abilities to save the day, but scientists are always using their gifts for evil? Why are scientists always portrayed as bad guys? After all, in real life every single good thing in the world comes from science!

And then I remembered Tony Stark. Tony Stark! Inventor! Computer scientist! Student of strange physics! Hero! And hottie!

Batman uses technology to save the day, too, but at least in the Christopher Nolan series, it's suggested that he cannibalizes a lot of ideas from his family's company. He's a clever guy, and I definitely approve of his work, but Tony Stark seems to have a much more scientific and inventor-ish approach to his superheroics.

Needless to say, Iron Man is officially my new favorite superhero.

Thought week!

Last week was devoted to that strange post-novel ennui that often hits me after finishing a major draft or revision of a project. This week has been about researching, rethinking, and note-taking. I'm gearing up to revise a novel I wrote last year that I'm really excited about, and after working for Pathfinder--a universe with intense background worldbuilding--I know I need to bone up my worldbuilding for this project. The world that this book is set in has a lot of odd and unique features, and this week they've been blossoming into a much more interesting environment.

I also have to thank my friend Dale Ivan Smith for recommending a great book: Writing Twenty-First Century Fiction, by Donald Maass. I've only just started reading it, but it's really encouraging me to dig deeper into my characters' hearts and guts. I'm super-excited about the project ... although I'm nervous about actually getting to work next week!

With a Bang!

Last week I turned in the manuscript for the novel I've been working on. Hoorah! It was a big, serious push to get the last of the revisions and proofreading done, but it felt wonderful to turn it in.

Something else fun happened last week: I had a poem come out in my favorite online magazine: the Lovecraft eZine! The piece is called "Not With A Bang, But Waves Whispering," one of the first poems written during last year's three months of I'm-writing-a-poem-a-week. I created a lot of poems and poem fragments during that time, and it's fun to finally be able to share one with people.

I've had almost a week off from writing, but I still feel pretty mentally fatigued. I have a short story to revise, but I'm not actually getting anywhere with it--it's a complicated piece, and I'm a bit nervous about wrecking it while I'm in this lunkheaded mode. On the plus side, we've been having a lot of great weather so I've been outside working in the yard a lot! At least it keeps me busy when I might otherwise be frustrated about the whole no-writing business.

This weekend is H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival & Cthulhucon. Is there any better weekend of the year? I don't think so! I can't wait to go catch up with all my favorite Lovecraftians and gorge myself on awesome movies. It's going to be a blast!

Given my obsessions this week, I'm hoping somebody nice will send me a print of this fun painting by Ursula Vernon:

"Garden Cthulhu", by Ursula Vernon

I might just have to buy it for myself, since it's so perfect for me!

Housekeeping

So I've been hearing a lot of people talking about ditching Blogger out of fear that Google will send it in to the same oblivion it's sent Reader and Notebook and just about every other good Google product. What do you think? I've been on here a long time!

Here in Oregon, we've had an unusual burst of good weather. I spent the last week doing work in the garden. I planted a cherry tree, even! Pretty exciting stuff. But now we're back to rain, so I'll be staying indoors.

Trying to keep my chin up this week, but feeling down. Some days the game goes to depression and this is one of them. Here's wishing you a better one!

Gardening and revisions

Roseraie a Wargemont, by Renoir (public domain, via Wikimedia)

As you can see from this magnificent painting, roses demand a certain amount of structure. Having never owned any roses before we bought our house, I knew roses should be pruned, but I thought it was sort of optional. A light grooming activity, like dead-heading.

Then I realized one of our rose bushes was falling over.

It's a big, older rose bush, probably dating back to the early 70's (it's an Apollo tea rose, still bearing the metal tag nurseries used to use in the pre-plastic-everything era), and last summer it looked magnificent. It grew--intentionally, I believe--with a decidedly left-leaning slant, its large branches spreading an arch of yellow flowers over the birdbath. It smelled wonderful, and grew to about ten feet tall. It became my absolute favorite plant on the property.

I did some trimming in February, cutting back about a quarter of its height and removing a lot of canes that were dead or criss-crossing other branches. When we cut out one big, awkward cane, we actually saw the bush stand up taller. It was amazing to see, and very encouraging.

But yesterday, while I was weeding around the bush (the whole back yard is heavily overgrown with crab grass, bindweed, and blackberries, which are now beginning to jump into serious spring growth), I discovered what had been hidden beneath the winter's leaves and dead grass: a fissure running most of the way around the rose's root line. On the side opposed to the lean, the fissure is wide enough I can stick my finger down inside it.

Needless to say, I will stake this rose and do some more pruning. I will try to fill in the fissure with enriched soil to protect its roots from the questing weedy encroachers. I will keep my fingers crossed. But mostly I will feel a bit guilty that I didn't cut it back sooner. I know it was neglected for about two years before I came to live with it, but if I had gotten around to clearing out some of the weeds last summer, I might have realized that a serious problem was developing.

I can't help but see a correlation between rose maintenance and revising my novels. When working on a novel, it's important to establish a larger shape that you keep to, but don't allow to become overblown. Secondary plotlines and confused character arcs can weigh down that structure, and if you haven't made it strong, they can pull the whole story down upon itself. But of course, it's hard to see all of this happening when small issues--badly paced scenes, poorly turned phrases and the like--obscure the bones of the piece.

The novel sitting on my beta reader's desk has a big advantage over the novel sitting on my own: its outline was carefully examined by my editor and tooled into a strong scaffolding for the work. That outline went through several drafts before I even started writing. The other novel had an outline that I developed quickly and revised haphazardly as I wrote the first draft. It has lots of structural problems because of that, although a lot of awesome actions scenes hid those problems from me as I was writing. (What? Actions scenes can really kick up a book. If there are enough cool fight scenes, I might not even notice the vampires are sparkling and the boyfriends all suck!) Now I have a lot pruning, staking, and restructuring to do as I revise.

But at least that novel isn't going to fall down--or be swallowed up by bindweed, which lives on in the soil for 3-5 years. In this case, writing is far, far more satisfying than gardening.

Let's get it started

I have a silly ritual for starting a new short story. I open a new document and I make it look like this:

Yes, before I even start writing my piece, I want it (basically) in proper manuscript format. Why? Because I am a professional writer, and pros don't write things just to lock them up on their hard drives. Pros send their stuff out in the world. Having my story look professional is a good reminder that my piece is going places.

Another thing I do: I give the piece a descriptive title and I put that at the top of the page. Why? Because in Word 2003, which what I'm usually writing in, it automatically generates a file name when you hit the save button, and I'm tired of erasing the words "Wendy Wagner about xxxx words" all the time. It's dumb, but I love having the computer automatically name my story what I'd like the file to be called.

I also set the title line to "Brilliant Title," or "Kickass Title" every single time. This is because I want my story to have a kickass title at least once in its life, and I'm not always great at titling pieces. When I've finalized the story, I will save a copy in my "Submissions" folder that has the title for a file name.

When I hit a hard spot in my story and I'm tempted to give up, I just scroll back up to that first page and see my official-looking first page. It always makes me write harder to try to live up to its standards.

She flies with her own wings*

This is both a Valentine's and birthday ode to the state of Oregon, my home state. As states go, I think it's terrific. Please don't move here. ;)

You know, last year, when we got the news that my husband's job was moving to Kent, Washington, we thought about going with it. I tried to keep my chin up about it, but every night, I got teary because as stupid as it sounds, the thought of leaving Oregon makes me cry. (Honestly, when we bought our house in this little suburb of Portland, I cried for two weeks because I didn't live in Portland anymore. [Sidenote: the boundary between Portland and our town lies less than a mile from my house]) Even though I was born in Washington and lived there until I was five years old, my heart is bound to this place.

What's so great about Oregon? Well, first and foremost has to be the fact that no one can own the ocean beaches here. That's right--the entire coastline belongs to our citizens. That sure makes road trips down Highway 101 awesome.

What else is terrific? Well, Oregon has an amazing variety of different environments packed into its borders. If you check out this USDA hardiness map, you can see ten different colors, representing ten very different temperature ranges that affect plant growth. California has ten as well, but it's about twice as big as Oregon! It's a lot easier to visit our bounty than it is California's. And we're pretty much a rectangle, so you can make your drive pretty efficiently.

Another thing that's terrific about Oregon is that we have a lot of really yummy things to eat. Did you know that Oregon is the world's largest producer of hazelnuts AND wasabi? Daaaamn! Those are two of my favorite snack ingredients! I'm not even going to go into details about Portland's food scene, but you shouldn't forget that our bizarre rules about food carts has caused a veritable explosion of weird, cheap, and greasy street foods. (Jeez, I really need some Whiffies right now!)

But what's my favorite thing about Oregon? Damn, but that's a tough question. I think our overall natural beauty is probably the highest of our West coast neighbors--although I think California and Washington both have more individual "jaw-dropping" locations. I think our biggest city has most overall yummy food, even if Seattle and San Francisco and L.A. have more hot shot chefs. I think our state is just as wacky as those guys, too. And by wacky, I probably mean "packed full of hippies, strippers, and rednecks." Which is great. Because they love Oregon, too!

You know, maybe I don't have a favorite thing about Oregon. Maybe I just like it because it's the right place for me.

*"Alis volat propriis" was made the state motto in 1987. I think it's rad!

Boats

Two novels with boating in two years is just way too much rigging.

I think that if you squeezed me, manila would come out my ears.

Pathfinding

I'm a lucky lady, because my family can appreciate the same awesome stuff I appreciate. How do I know this? Simple! My brother, husband, and daughter just started playing Pathfinder with me! After years of thinking about how fun it must be to play an RPG like Dungeons & Dragons or Mekton, I am finally gaming it up.

What I've loved best about our gaming sessions is the way our characters have begun to develop. At first, I wasn't sure what I thought about creating people based on a few rules and the roll of some dice. But as we play, the characteristics I "rolled up"gradually began to coalesce into a real personality. Dolingra (my dwarf cleric character) isn't just a bunch of numbers--she's a genuine goofball and I enjoy playing her. Moreover, the other players seem to have a good sense of her and can even predict what she'll do and say!

Playing the game makes me wonder about the ways I develop my characters in fiction. I'm not the type to draw up a complicated chart about my character's past or her interests. The vast majority of my characters seem to spring out of my mind completely developed--once I find their voice on the page, I don't usually have to think much about their pasts or the likes and dislikes. I just know them. The characters I've worked the hardest to figure out are the characters that usually fail. But now I wonder if perhaps I should have spent more time watching those characters in action and given them time to develop. After all, it worked so well for Dolingra!

What are some tricks you've used to help develop your characters? How do you find your characters' voices? I'm interested in hearing other people's techniques!

Actual size, but seems much bigger

David Eddings broke me.

Maybe "broke" isn't the right word, but he certainly re-shaped my expectations about fantasy novels, along with his contemporary, Raymond Feist. They made me believe that fantasy should be epic.

Now most people refer to Tolkien when they talk about epic fantasy, but Eddings and Feist were the guys I read in the late 80s when I was shaping my worldview. For a long time, every story I wrote involved a prophecy and the end of the world, and to be honest, I still don't feel right writing a book unless its major premise threatens the continuing existence of life in its universe. These books were like that. They were big! They had casts of entire continents with backstories that ran thousands of years. There were inside jokes that stretched across several volumes and even across series. I loved them. And now I'm hungry to read something as exciting, as delightful, as fun as those books.

I just got George R. R. Martin's books and I recently acquired John Fultz's Seven Princes. Both authors look to write big, exciting, epic fiction. (I also want to read John Joseph Adams's Epic anthology of epic fantasy short fiction, a concept which kind of boggles my mind.) But I'm not sure those books are going to fill the bill. They lack a certain undercurrent of light-heartedness which Eddings and Feist threaded into their  work. (Honestly, how did Feist get away with ending three books with the line "Ah, Arutha, you take all the fun out of life"? And how much did I love it??) Is anybody writing books like this anymore?

So any recommendations? Is there a new David Eddings? Or did that style of fantasy die out in the 90s along with grunge?

The Big Lesson

I spent a little bit of time evaluating my writing production from 2012 and I think I've learned three things:

1. Don't get sick.
2. Don't move.
3. Don't let your kid have days off from school.

I'm still trying to decide how to make resolve those issues this year.

The Road Goes Ever On

I am reading a phenomenal book called Meditations on Middle Earth, edited by Karen Haber (and given to me by my fabulous friendly postman, the single smartest person I've ever known). It's really inspired a lot of thoughts from me, and I hope to discuss it intelligently next week.

Next week.

Because today I am still overwhelmed by the state of the world and the country where I live. This morning four people died in Pennsylvania while the NRA announced a program to train armed guards for the nation's schools. Last week the mall by my house was closed by a madman bent on terror, and twenty-six people were gunned down in their own classrooms.

It's hard to think rationally at these times. It's hard to read an essay on fantasy fiction and write about why it matters. It's hard not to just wish you were a hobbit, living in a snug little hole in the ground.

Brain clearing

I've been thinking a lot on this topic, and this morning the delightful Elizabeth Spann Craig posted on it: The Importance of Doing Nothing. I was so glad to hear her nothing-positive blog, because I am a firm believer in unscheduled time for everyone (and especially kids!). I think time with nothing to do is what inspires creativity and builds a person's character. When you're sitting around mulling over nothing in particular, you sort out a lot of your values and dreams and best ideas!

When I was a kid, we lived too far from anything for lessons or camps or sports. I spent most of my time reading or wandering aimlessly. Sometimes I played in the creek, but mostly I rode my bike in circles and daydreamed. Most of those daydreams turned into stories, about a third of which I started writing down in my early attempts at novels. I never made it more than a thirty pages into a project, but that might have been due to handwriting that even at age ten was pretty abysmal (and that was when my handwriting was at its zenith!). When you work without an outline and your notes are on random scraps of school work, it really helps if you can read them.

In that tradition, my daughter has very few scheduled activities. She's taken a few classes from Parks and Rec, but she's not terribly interested in team sports or music. She wants to be a writer more than anything in the world. Needless to say, yesterday she spent about an hour rolling around on an exercise ball in our living room, doing nothing. I hope its teaching her something important.

2012: A great year of reading!

This year has a been a great year for reading. I have read some really wonderful books! When I read, I typically only read books that I get from the library (both because I have access to a terrific library and because I live on a tight budget), and if I don't like a book, I don't usually bother finishing it. Needless to say, my Goodreads account is populated by a lot of 4- and 5-star book ratings.

Here are some books that really stood out from the rest:

The Pilgrim Hawk, by Glenway Wescott

Amusingly enough, a couple months ago, I got an email from Michael Cunningham via some organization (I pay such good attention to things, don't I?) encouraging everyone to read this book. He wrote the introduction to the edition I read, and I must say, I agree with him--or at least, I think that every writer should read this book. It is one of the most careful character studies I've ever read. Not much happens in this book, but it bristles with a sense of humanity. I would never want to hang out with any of these characters, but Glenway Wescott was probably a cool guy.

The Pushcart Book of Poetry: The Best Poems from Three Decades of the Pushcart Prize, edited by Joan Murray

I'm pretty sure the subtitle tells you everything you need to know about this book. Basically every poem inside it is miraculous. I need to buy a copy so I can read and re-read them.

The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, by Deborah Blum

I think everybody and their dog read this one when it came out, but it's still terrific. It's a wonderful study of the conflict between science and bureaucracy, with plenty of chemistry and gruesome details thrown in.

Meditations on Violence: A Comparison of Martial Arts Training and Real World Violence, by Rory Miller

A riveting discussion of violence and criminal behavior by a corrections officer/search and rescue worker. It will change the way you think about both evil and self defense.

Tipping the Velvet, by Sarah Waters

The poignant story of a young woman's fall from naive but hard-working oyster seller to spoiled, pampered mistress--and ultimate redemption. It also happens to be a wonderfully researched examination of life in 1890's England, and the steamy story of a lesbian learning to live with her sexuality. Hawt!


I did read genre fiction this year, of course! You know me: I can't go more than two weeks without checking out a good mystery or speculative fiction. Here are a few standouts:

The Terror, by Dan Simmons--based on the true story of the lost Franklin expedition, a wonderfully researched story of the terrors of Arctic exploration in the 1840s.

City of the Lost, by Stephen Blackmoore--the noir zombie novel you've been waiting for.

Snuff, by Terry Pratchett--the conflict between racism and law enforcement in Discworld. Possibly the most touching Discworld story so far.

This Dark Earth, by John Horner Jacobs--zombie apocalypse survivor story done right.

Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill--rock and roll, fast cars, and one horrible ghost. A horror classic!

And of course, I'm always looking for book recommendations. If you've noticed, my tastes tend to run to historical and horror (or, in the case of The Terror, both combined), so if you know a good example of those genres, please share!

Working through the blues

Now I know it's not easy or cool to admit, but sometimes even cowgirls get the blues. And sometimes even writers get them. Maybe it's something minor, like that down feeling you get when you've had a cold for a long time. Maybe you've had some lousy times at work. Or maybe you just struggle when winter hits. We all have those down times*, and that low energy feeling can make it really hard to put in the time for our writing. What can you do about it?

First, let yourself off the hook a little. If you sprained your ankle, you wouldn't expect to win a sprinting competition, would you? Well, when your brain is out of balance or feeling low energy, it's the mental equivalent of a strained muscle or sprained joint. It needs rest. Take care of your mind! Get some extra rest and try to relax.

You also want to take a little extra care of your physical health. A lot of the time we feel down because we're not feeling well and haven't really noticed any symptoms of sickness. If your body's running out of juice, it can't provide a lot of energy for creative endeavors. Try to get some exercise into your day, even if you feel tired and cranky. And avoid sugar, booze and excess caffeine. I've tried drinking extra coffee to get my engine revving when I feel down, and it rarely helps for long. In a pinch, I've found that extra Vitamin C (from juices or EmergenC or just ascorbic acid added to honey and hot water) can give me a bit of extra energy, but that can wreak havoc on your gut. (Just saying.)

After lecturing you about health and rest, it seems the next step is counter-intuitive: work. When my husband was diagnosed with tennis elbow, his doctor gave him an armband to help the muscles rest. But the doctor also gave him some exercises that would strengthen the muscles so they could do a better job supporting the joint. When you're down, you need extra sleep and relaxation. You don't need to sit on your butt watching tv. Give yourself time to work on your writing projects, but give yourself permission to produce less. You want to keep flexing your writing muscles without overtaxing yourself.

The best thing about giving yourself that permission to write less is that you'll probably surprise yourself with how much you can produce! This week, I've been feeling a bit gloomy (I always feel gloomy after I take a trip to visit my parents--I just wish I could live closer to them!) and I haven't written very much. But I have written a little every day, and yesterday, I wrote a lot more than I expected. It felt great! And today I don't feel nearly so gloomy, because I have my writing to cheer me up.

One last thing: if you can find an extra scrap of energy, take a moment to do something nice for someone. Write a positive review of a book you liked. Send a friend a note. Catch up with your Christmas shopping. While you do it, imagine how the recipient will feel when they get that nice experience (and if you think a review can't touch an author's heart, read this one at Doubleshot Reviews and check out the nice note from the author!). Making human connections can be a great reminder that you're not alone and that you've got lots of great gifts to offer the world. And isn't that what life is really about?

Good luck writing through your down time. I can't wait to find out what you produce!

*Note: my advice is for short term downturns in mood. If your dark feelings last longer than two weeks, you may have a more serious condition and might consider getting help. All I've got is hugs and puppy pictures, which I am more than happy to share.

Give Thanks!

It's Thanksgiving week! Hooray! Soon I will be eating pie and drinking coffee, which are two of my favorite things. I also plan to make a nice long list of things I'm grateful for this year, which will definitely be topped by getting a house, getting kitties, and working with James Sutter (myclever and delightful editor over at Pathfinder Tales) on the novel that I'm writing. I feel like I've learned so much about stories this year!

What are you most grateful about this year? Have you learned anything that's helped fill your writing toolbox?

Wonderful Weekend

Orycon 34 was fantastic. Getting to be with new friends, make new friends, and show off Portland to some of my favorite out-of-town visitors was a blast. And unlike Orycon 33, I did not get stuck in the elevator and need to be rescued by hunky firemen (although I'm not totally certain that's a win. ;)  ).

Here are a few thoughts from the con:

I've heard a lot about self-publishing and Kickstarter over the last few years, but M.K. Hobson is a lady who is doing an amazing job making it work for her. After a tremendous first novel and very good second novel that were both released by a traditional publisher, she ran a successful Kickstarter campaign and produced her third book herself. The book is beautiful--I can't say enough about the back cover of The Warlock's Curse, because it looks so damn cool, and even the typesetting is terrific. It's a great approach for an author with production skills and a passion for her large, immersive world. Plus, she throws a truly fun launch party!

This convention had some terrific panels, and I'm glad I went to them. I think it's all too easy to get sucked into parties and networking (hey, I love that stuff!) and never get a chance to attend a panel, so I feel really lucky my schedule let me sit in on some good ones. This year I made a point to seek out more information about martial arts and warfare, and I feel incredibly inspired to keep exploring those topics. I am still mulling over some of the information Rory Miller (corrections officer and writer) shared at our panel (the other brainy panelists were the fantastic Kamila Miller and the delightful Jason V. Brock) on "Smut, Gore, and More." I came to talk about body fluids--yay, smut!--and left humbled by this man's experiences facing real violence and true horror.

Everything about the convention kept circling back to the truth about writing: that it's for people. Even when you're writing science fiction and fantasy--heck, maybe especially when you're writing science fiction and fantasy--your writing needs to tap into something true and human. It's critical to use your time not-writing to expand yourself as a human being.

Oh! And one last thing: I came back from the con to discover that my weird tale "American Farmhouse Style" is up at Phantasmagorium's website. It's an oddball and the first piece I ever wrote that spooked me out!

Orycon 34

Hi, friends! If any of you will be in the Portland area this weekend and plan to catch Orycon, I'll be there, too. Here's my schedule:

Friday (11/2):

2 pm, Ross Island Room

Theme: What is theme and how do you develop it in your writing?

8:30 pm, Grant Room

Reading: a dramatic performance of Lovecraftian Madness ... and more.

Don't miss this one, because it's going to be blast!

Saturday (11/3):

11 am, Lincoln

Franchise Writing: writing in other people's worlds.

The other guys on the panel are writers for Star Wars, Star Trek and other big franchises--I can't wait to hear what they have to say!

2 pm, Lincoln

Stalking the Wild Anthology: tips for success in anthology sales

10 pm, Roosevelt

Smut, Gore and More: the challenges of writing sex and violence

Sunday (11/4):

10 am, Broadway

Fantasy Storytime: knights, dragons and princess stories for kiddos

This one's for your little munchkins.

I'm looking forward to this convention so much! My panels sound like a blast and I know the bar at the Doubletree Hotel is a great one for hanging. I'm sure you'll find me there throughout the con!

Influence webs

In 1997, both the book Reliquary and the movie Mimic were released. By coincidence, I read Reliquary just two weeks after I saw Mimic. Both stories involve murderous creatures living far beneath the New York city streets. Now this isn't the first time the New York subterranean world made a splash in pop culture. I was first introduced to that realm in Diane Duane's So You Want to Be A Wizard (1982), and I loved the original Beauty and the Beast tv show. Plus, I know I'll never forget the abandoned subway scenes in 1989's Ghostbusters 2. The old City Hall station was amazing!

But something struck me while I was reading Reliquary. There were two phrases in the book that I'd just heard in Mimic: "mole people" and "track bunny." Mole people meant people who live underground, homeless people taking advantage of New York's many underground structures. Track bunnies meant rats. I thought it was funny that two works could use these exact phrases, and I have a hunch that Reliquary's authors (Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child) might have explained a lot when in the acknowledgements of Reliquary they mentioned the book The Mole People: Life in the Tunnels Beneath New York City, by Jennifer Toth.

There's a lot of doubt about the veracity of this book, but it came out in 1993 and was a huge splash. Did it influence the people working on Mimic? I bet it did. Does it matter that the book might be more fictional than the author claimed? Not really. The things Toth said inflamed the imagination.

I love to see the way literature weaves its way into popular culture, leaving ripple effects across our mental landscapes. There are lots of famous books we can think of that transformed our culture with great ideas: The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin; The Interpretation of Dreams, by Sigmund Freud; The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx. But smaller texts (and movies count as a kind of text) still change our culture. People skipped out on their beach vacations because of Jaws. Wizards became normalized after Harry Potter. And of course, none of these works actually stand on their own. They were spun from thousands upon thousands of texts that created their authors' frames of reference. Some influences just stand out more than others.

The story of the mole people continues threading its way through our culture. You might recognize it if you pick up Guillermo del Toro's The Strain series.

PS: If you are interested in the New York underground, subway enthusiast Joseph Brennan has a fantastic site packed with diagrams and photos, as does NYCSubway.org.

Memento Mori

I'd say one of the great influences on my writing, and heck, world view, is the Gothic. The very notion of The Gothic begins with Gothic architecture, that delicious, overwrought style of construction emerging in the late medieval period. Think of Notre Dame, and you think of the very roots of "goth." The term itself wasn't applied to the style until a renewed interest Greco-Roman Classicism triggered a sneering criticism of these medieval works--the word itself comes from the Goths, a bunch of Scandinavian tough guys who kicked a lot of Roman ass.

Here are some words I draw from that summary of Gothicism: ornate, dark, medieval, anti-classical, bloodthirsty, Catholic Church, afterlife, death, demons, hell, saints, fasting, holidays, law-abiding, punishment, superstitious, supernatural, Inquisition, torture, confession, gargoyle.

For me, those are the flavors of The Gothic. Damn, but they are delicious! Those spices have mixed and remixed over the years to give us some of the lasting wonders of art, literature, and other cultural artifacts. But some of the most delightful creations emerged in the 1800s, when a blossoming scientific scene, a muscle-flexing British empire, and a sudden amoral explosion of industry collided to create the wonderful Victorian period.

If Victoriana makes you think primarily of Steampunk, I'm sorry. It should make you think of ornate houses and cushions dripping with fringe. The Victorian period used wood trim and fringe to achieve the same lacy, overblown wonders that the medieval builders created from stone. And with Queen Victoria's long mourning for Prince Albert setting a sort of standard, the popular culture of the time was focused tightly on the morbid--carrying locks of lost loved ones' hair was pretty much de rigueur, and collecting items associated with death was fashionable. This means Victorian home decorating was a fascinating marriage of your grandmother's doily collection and your deranged uncle's taxidermy collection. I love it. Luckily for my husband, I also enjoy Mid-Century Modern and am allergic to dust, which limits my willingness to collect Victoriana. Nonetheless, someday I will shop Madame Talbot's Victorian Low Brow to my heart's content.

The Victorian obsession with death makes a lot of sense. Medicine hadn't quite vanquished the common ailments, so most people had a much more intimate experience with death. If you made it to adulthood, you were not only  lucky, you had also probably already attended a great deal of funerals. But new developments in science offered up plenty of hope to not just fight death, but actually overcome it. The ground was ripe for greedy pseudoscientists with an interest in the afterlife. Victorians paid good money to attend seances. They adored ectoplasm. And since they collected lots of dead body parts (I don't think it's a coincidence that Egyptology was really taking off during that time period--what good Victorian wouldn't adore owning their own mummy? Or at least visiting one at the British Museum ...), it made sense that the two hobbies might collide. One of the most delightful examinations of Victorian interest in collecting the dead is Colin Dickey's book Cranioklepty. Run, go read it.

All about science. And creepy stuff. Read it.

Part of the beauty of Victorian decor is the memento mori, the small arrangements focused on death that remind us that we, too, will die. Sure, reminding yourself that you will die sounds depressing, but I find that when I think on my mortality, I am more inspired to live well, to spend my short time on Earth as wonderfully as I can. I'm also inspired to do my best to extend that mortal coil as much as possible. That's why I'm going to leave you to go do some writing and to make one of these delicious, healthy kale salads. Because if there's anything that can help you live forever, it's kale. And that's no pseudoscience!