The Oft Maligned Orphan

And no, I’m not talking about this blog, although I certainly could be. I always forget the sheer number of tasks I have to catch up on once I cross a deadline—so much of my real life gets put on hold while I meet it.

But I have been thinking about orphans in kid lit for a couple of weeks now, puzzled by how strongly some adult reviewers react to that archetype, calling it a trope or stereotype, bemoaning yet another orphan in childrens’ literature, weak storytelling, etc. Frankly, I am puzzled by this. (And I’m not so much talking about my own books here, or even solely as a writer of kids books, but more as a reader.)

Wild and exciting adventures simply do not usually happen to kids with two loving, responsible parents. They just don’t. Furthermore, orphaned heroes are not all Harry Potter wannabes—people trying to hop on that road to bestsellerdom. The tradition of orphans in kid lit goes back much farther than that. Two of my most favorite books in the world when I was a child, The Secret Garden and The Little Princess, involved orphaned girls, and they were written a hundred years ago, well before Harry Potter.

From a logistical standpoint, just as some claim there are only three or seven or twenty one plots in the entire world, so too are there only a certain number of ways to deal with parents in kids books:

1) Kill them off.
2) Get them off screen in another way—business trip, illness, long hours at the office
3) Have them present in the story unaware of what’s going on
4) Have them present in the story involved in what’s going on
5) Have them be part of the story problem itself

While children’s books are not a genre per se, they are, like many genre books, written with a particular reader in mind—kids. And as such, authors need to speak to those readers needs’, not the adults around them. Sure, some kids will get tired about reading about kids with no parents, and yes, there may be a higher number of them in certain genres of kids books, fantasy say. But they are truly not the only books out there. And just as westerns are expected to feature The West, or romance a happy ending, kids books need to feature kids front and center, making choices, operating in big theaters, acting independently, solving their own problems. Loving, responsible parents get in the way of all that.

I wonder sometimes if adult readers have forgotten that operating in the world without parents is both a child’s greatest fear and greatest longing, usually at the same time. As a kid, we are terrified of losing our parents. What will happen to us if we do? Who will take care of us? And yet, we are fascinated by that possibility as well, especially if they have recently punished us unjustly or curtailed desired activities in some way. ☺ That worry and fascination is even stronger if we have a more complicated, unhappy relationship with our parents, as so many children do.

Childhood is about moving toward independence. Even as young kids, on some deep level, we know we are traveling toward a state of being that will not involve living with our parents, where we will have to operate in the world without them by our side. What safer way to try that on than through books? What better place to see that our lives will still be filled with richness and adventure, in addition to that horrible aloneness we all fear? Throughout the ages, stories and myths have codified behavior, values, and societal expectations; taught us how to be, provided a framework for our lives. Does it not make sense, then, that a large number of books for kids would deal with this enormous step kids are moving towards?

As any parent knows, part of our job as good parents is to ensure our kids will not need us anymore, to help them to grow to independence, to assure them that they can and will live in a world that will not include us by their side—and they will thrive. It seems to me that kids books featuring orphans are simply helping to codify and reassure kids about this basic truth.

I’d be curious to know what you all think. Are orphaned kids like nails on a chalkboard to you? A treasured convention? How do you feel about them?

Popping Back In--At Last!

You would think, having finally met both my deadlines, I would have been back in here, trumpets blaring with the announcement. And I meant to be, truly. But I posted over on Shrinking Violets (for the first time in months) and got busy being carried by my momentary euphoria at having finished.

The crash came the next day. I suppose it is inevitable, but it always surprises me, that absolute emptiness that follows finishing a book. It makes sense, as my life has usually been consumed with the book. It—or they, in this case—have loomed large in my life for months now. Then suddenly they’re gone. The odd thing is, my emotional wet-rag state is always accompanied by a cleaning frenzy, as if scrubbing traces of the book from my life is part of my re-entry into reality. I need to reacquaint myself with the real world and remember how to live in it.

Plus there were always a hundred things I let go of as I neared the deadline. I simply had to get to those before they became emergencies. Galleys had to be reviewed and returned to my editor, I had a pile of bills on my desk, taxes to get started on, a child who graduated from college and deserves much celebrating, etc.

But now I’m back, more or less. The Best Editor Ever already has revisions back to me on Nathaniel Fludd Four, so I will dive into that starting Monday. Best news? The revisions are minimal, which shocks me to know end. (I never have even a drop of perspective on a book once I’ve finished it. Not one lousy drop.) I was afraid she’d say, Um, could you start over, from scratch, please?

But she didn’t, which is just one of the things that makes her The Best Editor Ever.

I also have some appearances coming up that I’ll be posting about in more detail, but for now I wanted to let people know I’ll be attending TLA and speaking on a panel with Grace Lin and Suzanne Selfours. I’ll also be doing some school visits in the Austin area the day before.

Then in May I’ll be coming to the east coast! I’ll do signings in Washington DC, New York, and Boston. The rough dates are DC the 17 and 18, New York the 19, and Boston the 20th, but I’ll have to confirm those as plans firm up.

I’ll also be doing a signing at Chaucer’s in Santa Barbara, again, date to be announced. So lots of lovely opportunities to get out and see people after being sequestered in my writing cave for so long!

The Countdown Begins...

Okay, I'm in the final stages of Finish-The-Book-Fever. Seven more days until this puppy is off my desk and onto my editor's. Phew! Can't wait.

It's coming in longer than I had planned (now there's a surprise) and going in a hugely unexpected direction in one of the plotlines, but there you go. One of the truly great things about writing--having it surprise you.

Because I don't have much to talk about, (or more correctly, I don't have the time to talk about anything) I am going to link to Kelly Murphy's blog, where she is giving a sneak peek to some of the illustrations for Nathaniel Fludd, Beastologist: The Wyverns' Treasure. (Gawd, I love her drawings!!) Enjoy!

It's Aaa-live!!

Last week (yeah, I’m waaay behind on my blog reading) Nathan Bransford raised an interesting question, talking about writing characters and the claim that some authors make that characters come to life and take over the story. Between Gaiman’s talk a few weeks ago, the workshop I was preparing for, and the books I’ve been writing, I’ve been thinking about this a lot, especially as I hanker after those writing sweet spots where the characters DO come alive and write themselves.

Because for me, there absolutely are moments when they do. (And I don’t even have to entreat them to write faster!) And when that happens, it is so much more than having my characters react and behave in a logical manner that is true to themselves.
So I’ve been trying to analyze that and pay attention when it does happen, and what I’ve come up with is this:

When we experience those moments when characters write themselves, what’s happening is that we’re circumventing our conscious, thinking brain and tapping directly into our subconscious, intuitive brain and bypassing our own circuitry to create something we haven’t consciously thought about yet.

The truth is, most of my great ideas come from that place, and I have been known to look at these ideas in surprise and think they’re awesome, NOT because I’m patting myself on the back. It’s exactly the opposite. It’s because I feel like I’ve had absolutely zero part in creating them. I feel like the girl in the fairy tale who opened her mouth and was unbelievably lucky (not to mention thunderstruck) when diamonds and pearls fell out, rather than the mundane, everyday toads. It is also why I loved Liz Gilbert’s talk about genius and and the Greek concept of daemons so much. It completely resonated with me. Some of this stuff just feels like it comes out of nowhere.

Now if only I could figure out a way to get diamonds and pearls on purpose (instead of by accident) when I opened my mouth, I’d be happy. ☺

Living In Our Own World

I went to hear Neil Gaiman talk a couple of weeks ago, (for a great recap of his talk, check out Sherrie Peterson’s blog) and I was struck by something he said.

Someone had asked him if his characters wrote themselves, and his answer was something to the effect of, “No, but I would love to live in a world where they did.” And then he had this hilarious riff about forcing them to write faster. (And boy, do I wish I could run off the cuff like that; I would have thought of that comment two hours later on the way home.)

Anyway, it occurred to me how much we do determine what sort of world we live in; sometimes in a good way, by consistently seeing the good in people or being hopeful in spite of the odds, or sometimes in a bad way by denying reality even when it is smacking us in the face.

That really resonated with me, both on a personal level to pay attention to how I’m perceiving the world that I live in, but also as a huge reminder of how critical it is to really put our character’s filters on and view the story world through their eyes; do they see it as a scary place or a hopeful one? Do they feel that they have any control over their world or are they powerless within it? What are they afraid lurks in the shadows? What do they hope is waiting for them around the next corner?

Even two siblings raised in the exact same family with no changes in parenting protocol live in different worlds; the first born having experienced a world where once only he held his parents' affection, and the second born child always living in a world that included other children.

It is also one of the reasons why I write fantasy; the world I live in feels too full of joy and sorrow, contains too many dark shadows and moments of incredible magic to ever be explained my mere reality.

Ahhh!

That sigh of relief felt around the world last Monday was me meeting one of my deadlines and getting my all day workshop behind me. For the first time in about three months my pulse slowed down from a gallop to a mere trot level and my blood pressure went down about 15 points (my doctor will be so happy!). I had made it; I had crossed two finish lines and had only one to go. And the thing is, having only one deadline now feels like a cakewalk.

I find it incredibly galling or fascinating, depending on my mood, that during this time of the highest professional stress in my entire working life, my family got hit with mini-crisis after mini-crisis, from health issues to academic set backs to major life decisions, they all came tumbling down at the same time I was trying to juggle all these deadlines. And boy, was that a perfect illustration of plot layers! A perfect demonstration of how our lives don’t stop when we are presented with a huge new challenge.

It also made me grateful that I am a writer, because I could recognize a Supreme Ordeal when I saw it and act accordingly. But mostly, it's just a wonderful thing to be on the other side of some of those things!

Watch Out Bakersfield!

Here I COME! Armed and ready for an all day workshop! Can't wait!

But before I go, I wanted to share to amazing quote I discovered this week (via Kate Coombs) because they really made me aware of fantasy's long-reaching arm and I wanted you all to have a chance to mediate on them, too.

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales. --Albert Einstein

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking. --Albert Einstein

Don't those rock?? From EINSTEIN, no less!

Have a great weekend!

Treading Carefully and Raising Stakes

So one of the things I was struggling with over the last couple of weeks was unicorns. The fourth Nathaniel Fludd book centers around unicorns, and as I began to collect my unicorn lore for the the Fludd Book of Beasts, I became aware of just how tricky a thing it was that I was dealing with.

When dealing with something like unicorns, there are a number of people who adore them and their mythology (a large portion of them in the 6-10 year old girl population who will be reading the book.) Then there are others who find unicorns tedious or ho-hum or too rainbowey for their taste. However was I to accommodate both camps?

What I ended up doing was going back to all sorts of early accounts and mentions of unicorns in early literature, from the 4th century BC to the early 1700s. I combed through all of those readings, looking for common threads and strains and studied the data as if I were a beastologist. Then I took all that data and classified it as if I were a scientist. (For example, I determined that when broken down, it appears as if there are eight distinct species of unicorns.)

Then I had a little fun playing with some of the unicorn conventions and turning them a bit on their head.


The other thing was, no matter how I dealt with the unicorns, they simply weren't as threatening as basilisks or wyverns. They lacked a certain inherent danger and dramatic stake that those other beasts brought with them to their respective books.

This is where the notion of raising the personal stakes as a way to bring drama to a story became infinitely helpful.

For this book, it wasn't so much the beast that was fueling the dramatic tension, but rather Nate and the choices and actions he was forced to deal with. I hadn't consciously planned it this way, to have one of the less ferocious beasts be paired with one of the more highly emotional and dramatic phases of Nate's journey, but I'm guessing my subconscious did because it sure made for a nice balance. Or that's what I think today. I might have a totally different opinion once I reread the thing. :-)

Hooo-RAY!!!

Yes, that joyous shouting heard round the world today at 3:00 p.m. pst was ME! I finished the fourth Nathaniel Fludd book. Hoo-rah! I have now put it aside where it will stew and simmer for five whole days, then I'll pull it back out for a quick polish on Sunday and Monday. Then I will email it to the Best Editor EVER.

I gave myself a whole two hour break this afternoon, then began fiddling with Theodosia Four while dinner was cooking. :-) No rest for the wicked. But it feels awfully good to have one down and only one to go.

AND, we have a winner for last week's drawing! The lucky number was 2:

So Karen, email me with your snail mail address and I'll get your copy of THE LOST CONSPIRACY out to you. I think you'll really enjoy it.

The Queen of Napping

This afternoon, as I was contemplating just how slothful it would make me if I took a second nap of the day, I had an epiphany.

You see, everybody should have at least one area of expertise, and I've decided that mine is napping. The thing is, I'm a World Class Napper. I excel at napping sprints, long distance naps, and even endurance napping. I'm queen of them all.

The really cool thing is that being a champion napper dovetails very nicely with being a writer. It is absolutely 100% true that napping helps my writing. I can often squeeze out an extra few pages after a taking a nap. And even if I don't quite manage to produce pages, I always end up with some inspired plot point or scene development.

And I have to say, there is no greater satisfaction in the world than to be able to tell someone to leave me alone, I'm napping. And it's work. Love that.

Napping is also great for nipping the frisson of an anxiety attack in the bud. Slow deep breathing, emptying one's mind, and boom! Calmness is achieved.

I'm a hugely versatile napper. I love me my twenty minute cat naps, as well as the more common, hour long versions. Sometimes, I even go for those deep, two and a half hour, bed-hair type naps, although those are usually only when I am fighting a migraine.

The other thing is, my bedroom is the Ultimate Napping Room. And it's not just me who thinks so. People (okay, family members mostly, who shall remain nameless) come from miles around to nap on my bed. There is just something about the slant of afternoon light and the quiet outside the window, the very stillness of the air, that makes it the perfect napping room.

And really, if one has been given a perfect napping room, then it would be highly ungrateful to not take full advantage of this gift, no?

So how about you guys? Are any of you nappers? Leave a comment and tell me about your napping practices, or lack thereof, and I will enter you in a drawing for a copy of Francis Hardinge's THE LOST CONSPIRACY, a book I am reading right now. When I'm not napping. (Or meeting my deadlines.)

It's an amazing book that I highly recommend and would love to share with someone. All you have to do is talk about naps and you're entered! :-)