Follow the White Rabbit... where?

Welcome to 2010! Better late than never.

I'm working on a lot of things these days. Between two school programs and a novel, ARG plans and work, life is certainly busy enough -- but it's all lots of fun. :)

At school I study genre fiction and the evolution of texts in today's technology-driven world. Though they're separate programs, much of what I learn in each class overlaps with the others and helps me address my own goals and interests.

One of my favorite classes is a course in which we read and analyze several titles from the fantasy genre to see what its core elements are. The first text we explored was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll. Has anyone else read this recently? I was a little disappointed, actually. Not terribly disappointed; it's a fun story. But I was somehow expecting more.

Being a big fan of Carroll's poetry, I assumed I was also a fan of Alice, though admittedly I'd never read her story before. (that's a pretty big admission coming from a puppet master, I realize). It's true; I'd only seen the films and TV adaptations, though I had read a few of the poems from the novels. Now that I've read the original text, I'm feeling a bit deflated, and I hope someone can help me out. I know there are important layers to this story that I'm missing or failing to appreciate after only one read.

Here is (some of) the paper I submitted for my class. I'd love to know whether others think I'm off the mark. If I am, please pick me back up and put me on track. :)

Lewis Carroll is a wonderful poet. Long ago, I memorized “Jabberwocky” just for fun, and I laugh every time I read his version of “Father William.” Those casual fan activities do not make me, however, an expert on Lewis Carroll.

That said, I must admit I did not enjoy Alice’s story as much as I thought I would. While the world he created was funny, interesting, and weird, I kept encountering other problems that lessened my appreciation.

Throughout the story, Alice exhibits what I took to be two important personality flaws: she is passive beyond what can be considered normal, and she is rude to the other characters.

Alice’s passivity can obviously be attributed to the fact that her entire experience is a dream. Few dreamers, after waking, can explain logical motivations for their imagined actions, and I don’t expect them to. However, as a reader, I am expected to go along with Alice’s adventures in Wonderland for a total of twelve chapters, never questioning why she isn’t terrified at being trapped inside a house or why she eats and drinks nearly everything she sees, or why she doesn’t feel the least bit frightened at not knowing her way home. Dreams may be illogical, but action and fear still exist in them.

Her rudeness is another flaw that unfortunately stood out as one of her truly memorable qualities. Time and time again, Alice makes the mistake of frightening animals with talk of her cat hunting them, or with talk of Alice herself cooking and eating their young. This is, of course, a joke from Carroll, who is pointing out the absurdity of the situation. However, it was also an introduction to a protagonist who was impolite to the point of being cruel.

It is important for characters to experience personal growth throughout stories, and so Alice’s flaws seem well placed at the start. She is positioned to learn to take control of her own life, all the while getting a handle on her manners. And yet, I saw very little change in Alice as the story progressed – and then ended abruptly with her waking up. Toward the end of the story, the reader is meant to be surprised that Alice is called to the witness stand (judging from the dramatic break at chapter 11), but Alice readily takes her seat, though she knows “Nothing whatever” about the case.

I do not wish that Carroll had provided us with a heavy-handed lesson on morality; I simply would have liked to see the protagonist gain something from her journey. Her lack of growth left me feeling that the entire adventure had been pointless, which, of course, many dreams are. And yet, I assume upon picking up a book that there is a purpose to the story I am reading, whether it is a dream or not.

This leads me to my other problem with the novel, which was the lack of any logical connection among the various events. Alice simply goes from one location to another, encountering odd creatures and learning strange information, and though some characters reappear later on in the text, none of their stories hold any importance, and none of Alice’s experiences prove useful (apart from her ability to grow and shrink at will, the logical rules of which are completely thrown out the window by the story’s conclusion).

Again, I want to clarify that I like Lewis Carroll, and that I recognized his humor throughout the story. I also understand that the book is meant to be surreal and dreamlike. In this, I believe the author succeeded. Alice’s inability to properly recite any of her lessons felt very true to dreams.

That's the basic point of what I wrote. I got some feedback in class, but I'd love to hear more from Alice fans (or haters!) about this story.

The next book we're exploring is Titus Groan, and I'm nearly done with that. So far, I absolutely love it. In fact, it was difficult to make myself put it down to write this blog.
...
Actually, come to think of it, I need to go. Gormenghast is calling me. :)

NaNoWriMo 2009: How It All Went Down

Well, I did it. Things were pretty touch-and-go for most of the month, and at one point I seriously considered giving up on NaNoWriMo, but in the end, I pushed through and hit that 50,000-word goal.

To give you an idea of how close I came to losing, here’s a rounded (up?) number for my word count three days before the end of the month: 16k.

When I looked at that number with only three days left to go, I hung my head in shame. I was going to lose. For the first time ever, I began to accept defeat in one of the things I look forward to most each year, like the holidays or my birthday. It was all over for me, and it was still just November 27. There would be no champagne. No winner’s certificate. No 50k words.

Then, feeling glum, I opened my email and read Chris Baty’s “Homestretch pep talk." This was by way of punishment, really. I figured his words of encouragement would make me feel poorly about my lack of progress, but instead I felt, well, encouraged.

I changed my mind.

What the Great Chris Baty did to encourage me was simple. He broke down NaNo participants into three different categories:

“Group One: The Superheroes.” These were the WriMos who had worked diligently all November and had already won or were going to win with no problem. According to Baty, these made up only 3% of WriMos.

“Group Two: The Come-Back Kids.” These were the participants who were still pushing through the 20s or 30s and would make a final push for the finish to win at the last minute. They had had some fallbacks, but the end was in sight, and November 30^th would be a day of success.

“Group Three: The Go On Without Me's.” This was my group.

I’ve never been in that group before. It’s not the worst thing in the world, I realized. In fact, after reading the pep talk email, I remembered what an incredible undertaking NaNoWriMo really is, and how impressive it is to give it a shot at all.

And then I read this note from Chris Baty to the Go On Without Me’s:

"This is going to sound really weird, but you're in the best shape of all three groups. You're off the map, but that's the point of this escapade. NaNoWriMo is to there to put you in such an impossible situation that you can stop worrying about perfection and achievement and just savor the thrill that comes with making and doing. Think of the remaining days in NaNoWriMo as an anything-goes creative retreat. You sacrificed your novel to the world around you this month, and the world around you appreciated it. But you now get some time for you. You may not write 50,000 words, but you still have plenty of time to create something smaller and equally wonderful. Return to the page—there's still a beautiful adventure waiting for you.”

That’s exactly what I did. Suddenly I felt as though anything were possible. I’d already given up, so what did I have to lose? I pulled out my calculator and did some minor division (yes, calculators are necessary; I’m a writer, not a mathematician). In order to reach 50,000 words in three days, I needed to write over 10k per day. Impossible? Of course. But if I was going to lose, I was at least going to aim high.

And so, instead of losing, I won.

Yes, I wrote over thirty-thousand words in three days. During that time, I also worked and did research for the class I’m taking. My mind is officially mush, but I exceeded my personal goals, and I’m exhausted but elated. This NaNo win has turned out to be the sweetest of them all because I tried to do something impossible, and it turned out to be possible.

At 11 p.m. on November 30, I validated my word count, and there it was:

Victory is a lovely thing. Sometimes it even comes with graphics of fireworks. :)

Several of my WriMo buddies won this year, too, and I applaud them! In fact, I applaud anyone who even attempted NaNo; it’s an amazing experience that has turned November into the favorite (or least favorite) month for writers all over the world. Participating in a challenge to create 50k new words within 30 days shows exactly how dedicated we all are, and we should be proud. Or locked up.

Either way, congrats to every WriMo out there.

Did you participate? How did it turn out for you? And have you dontated to NaNoWriMo yet?

NaNoWriMo

Because September is nearly over, I find myself looking forward to the usual things: cooler weather, Halloween, candy, and writing fiction until my eyes cross.

That’s what Fall means to me.

A little while back, my husband (then fiancé) and I went to San Francisco on vacation to visit friends. These friends are very special to me because I “met” them online during NaNoWriMo, and we’ve grown very close since then.

NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is an annual challenge in November for writers to create at least 50,000 words in thirty days. If you succeed, you win. If not, at least you have some words!

But it’s not only about writing at an insane pace, locked alone in a room. NaNoWriMo is (well, it can be) a very social activity. In fact, two of my buddies met online during NaNo, and later they started a relationship and moved in with each other! Another friend drove into town to play the violin at my wedding.

Writing together can really bond people. We joke about our ridiculous plots, we war over word counts, and most of all, we encourage each other to keep going. When I write at other times of the year, I feel myself missing the flurry of excitement that comes each November and the friends who will commiserate with me over characters gone astray.

So, now that NaNo’s in sight, I’m starting to count down the days. Let’s get ready to write! ☺

Fiction eBook Review - From Light to Dark by Irene L. Pynn

"Irene has an excellent writing style that will draw you right into this one from the start."
Fiction eBook Review - From Light to Dark by Irene L. Pynn

Check out this cool review of my book, From Light to Dark!

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Late birthdays, Abandoned

This morning, as I was surfing the Internet for things about speculative fiction, I found this site. It’s an interesting read. KV Taylor blogs her thoughts about various spec fic writings she has found, and what she thinks about them.

Then, as I clicked back and back through her archives, jotting down notes about one writer or another I’d like to check out, I found… myself!

Here is what the blogger had to say last year about my short story “God Corp.,” which appeared in The Opinion Guy’s issue 13:

“Next up, sci-fi. I was going through the current issue of OG’s Speculative Fiction, and in spite of the fact that it’s a poetry issue, was struck by Irene Pynn’s God Corp. [link goes to .pdf] Look for it on pg 7. This made me particularly happy because it has a lot of classic sci-fi themes happening, but they don’t feel like a rehash. She’s making you care. Plus, it has time travel, god, and Shakespeare. I mean, what more do you want?”

That was some nice praise I had totally missed when the story was first made public. It was great to see today! Like a late birthday present.

After that, I continued avoiding my necessary plot work by narcissistically Googling myself. Only I wasn’t Googling. I was Pipling myself. I suppose that’s what we’ll call it. Twitter was all abuzz today about this site, and for good reason; it’s a fun tool.

The thing that really made me laugh was that, as soon as I Pipled myself, I clicked through a few pages and found (you guessed it), our blogger friend whom I mentioned a few paragraphs above. That was enough of a coincidence to make me send her a thank-you email for brightening my day… twice.

The fact that all my web surfing kept bringing me back to information about my own writing meant – I decided – that I really ought to be plotting instead. So I made some final decisions about the book I’ll be doing in February, grabbed some late breakfast, and then talked to myself (yes, out loud) about my protagonist while I drove across town.

And now I feel very happy to announce that, on February 1, I will begin writing a book I tentatively call Abandoned.

That is all.

Pets and Books

Well, the vacation at the beach is nearly over, and I’m actually a bit glad. It’s been lots of fun, but I woke up this morning half-expecting my dog to jump up on my belly and lick my face, asking to be let outside.

Then I felt homesick.

My pets amount to one dog, two cats, and two goldfish.

Our dog is a maltipoo (Maltese and toy poodle mix) named Sprocket, after a character in Fraggle Rock. He’s just under two years old, and his best friend is –

Coretta, our kitten. She’s a little calico we rescued from the streets, and the most loving animal I’ve ever met. When Sprocket goes outside, she cries as if her heart is breaking, and when he returns, she leaps on top of him – paws outstretched – to play. They’re absolutely perfect together.

Watching over them is our other cat, Othello. He looks like a miniature panther, and he can usually be found lounging on the couch or the tile floor, observing playtime between the others, once in a while even jumping into the fray himself. He’s my little soul mate from the animal kingdom, so we spend a lot of time together. Sometimes he sits on my keyboard to let me know it’s time to snuggle!

Frida and Pituka are our goldfish. Coretta loves to watch them from the floor. She looks up with calm interest and tilts her head from side to side, as if trying to understand why they’re in the water all the time.

So today, though I’m having a wonderful time getting away from it all, I’m starting to miss home a little. I’ll be happy to see my pets when I’m back!

I’m also getting ready for February, when I plan to do my own, personal NaNoWriMo. My goal will be to finish a first draft of my next novel before March. So that means I need to start plotting now!

If you have any thoughts about From Light to Dark that you’d like to share, I’m always happy to hear them.

Also, be sure to take a look at my silly meme answers to Heidi Ruby Miller’s “Pick Six” interview. You’ll get to learn all about my obsession with cartoons.

It's cold outside!

Today I’m battling a spotty hotel Internet connection and watching classic movies on mute. It’s a brief, chilly vacation, but there’s something about being away from everything for a day or two that helps recharge the mental batteries.

Because I’m evidently out of my mind, I’ll be enjoying the Florida beaches – in windy January weather. Wish me luck!

The response I’m getting to From Light to Dark is fantastic. I’m so pleased to hear from people who enjoyed it.

If you haven’t yet been over to Heidi Ruby Miller’s page to see my “Heidi’s Pick Six” interview, give it a look! Let me know what you think.

In other news, today is my fiancé’s birthday. Happy birthday, Rob! ☺

Now, to find a sweater in my luggage so I don’t freeze on the beach…

From Light to Dark

Finally I can update again!

Welcome to the new-fangled, redesigned, risen-from-the-ashes-of-webwork-oblivion, irenelpynn.com. It’s good to have a change once in a while, I say. How do you like the new look?

There’s more to announce, so I’ll get right to that and try to keep my post short and sweet this time:

First off, the wait is over for my fantasy novel, From Light to Dark. It has been released and is available right now from Wild Child Publishing!

The people of Light World and Dark World live in fear of one another, blindly hating what they don’t understand, until Eref leaves Light World and meets the beautiful Caer—in Dark World. Suddenly, the worlds are thrown into chaos as Eref and Caer struggle to do what is right.

Marked for death, the two teens must work together against an evil institution that has kept Light World and Dark World apart for hundreds of years.

I hope you enjoy it. Please feel free to send me your thoughts.

It’s very exciting to be able to announce that fellow Seton Hill University grad Heidi Ruby Miller has interviewed me for her “Heidi’s Pick Six” author series! Come learn a bit more about me here:
http://heidirubymiller.blogspot.com/2009/01/heidis-pick-six-irene-l-pynn.html

Also, I was recently honored to be the Featured Author at Golden Visions Magazine, and my short story, “Mind Reader,” was published in their print edition toward the end of 2008.

Here’s hoping that 2009 welcomes you in with open (if chilly) arms, and that you realize something wonderful about yourself this year. Happy reading, and Happy Inauguration Day!