When you write a novel it’s like a boat-load of short stories, with the same characters, and they tie together, right? So how would someone with great ideas get them onto paper if they don’t have the time to sit down and write? Me, for instance.
Hi, T.! That’s awesome that you want to write (a novel or short stories), and that you have some great ideas. You have some very good questions.
Let’s take this one at a time.
1) No, a novel is not really like a boatload of short stories, even if the short stories have all the same characters and are interconnected. Short stories are their own discrete items that exist unto themselves.
This is a short story:
This is a bunch of connected short stories:
This is a novel:
A novel is a great big complex thing that all needs to hold together, so it is a lot harder to do than a short story. At least, for me. I have friends who would much rather write a novel than a short story, because then the get to put all those flowers and such together, whereas their short story would topple over under the weight and actually not exist as the bite-sized confection it ought to be. They have different needs, novels and short stories.
But if it’s easier for you to think in terms of writing small things rather than big things, then do so. Because that wedding cake up there? Was decorated one flower at a time. The first time I wrote a novel, I was very scared that I wouldn’t be able to finish it, even though it was going to be a very short (60,000) word novel.
(I say “short” now. At the time when the most I’d ever written was a 25 page college thesis, that seemed enormous. But now I’ve written 120,000 word novels, so 60k seems like nothing by comparison.)
How did I do it? See below:
2) Novels are not written in days or weeks or even, necessarily, in months. Some people take years. There are novels that I have been working on for years.
The first time I wrote a novel, I told myself that all I had to do was write one page every day. That’s it. Just one. If the page had a lot of dialogue, so much the better. And I made myself a deal. I really, really wanted to join a writing organization, but the dues were $100, which was an enormous amount of money for a poor, underemployed college graduate living in New York City. So I told myself if I finished writing a book, a whole book, then I had proved that I was serious enough about this writing thing to deserve to spend the money on that organization.
Maybe your “carrot” is something different. Maybe you just want to prove to yourself that you can do it. All you have to do is write one page a day. At the end of the year, you’ll have a whole book.
Don’t tell me you don’t have time. You have time to write one page a day. When I did this, when I first graduated from college, I had two jobs plus I was trying to get freelance work from newspapers. Set your alarm clock for 20 minutes early. Choose not to watch TV in the evening. Use your lunch period not to talk to friends, but to go sit somewhere quiet and write while you eat your sandwich.You have to make sacrifices.
If you don’t have time for that, then no, you can’t write a novel. There were periods in my life when I didn’t have time for that. When I had a newborn baby, for example. Maybe you’re going through a time like that. Maybe you’re caring for an ailing parent, or currently in combat, or working four jobs to keep a roof over your head, or you’re on a reality TV show that requires twenty-four hour surveillance, or you’re in a coma in the hospital. That’s okay. Don’t beat yourself up.
One page a day is 250 words. If you can do that even five times a week, by the end of the year you’ll have over 65,000 words. That’s a novel. You’re done. If you’re writing a long novel, well, bump it up to 7 days a week, or do it for 18 months.
Using this method (and, I’ll be honest, some cramming) I have written TWELVE novels, SIX short stories, FOUR longform non-fiction essays, half a dozen unfinished novels and proposals, four newspaper features, dozens upon dozens of food reviews, and hundreds of blog posts since 2002. And I’m lazy. I know a lot of people who have done like five times that much.
So if I can do it, so can you.
This year, I’m doing NaNoWriMo, which is a fun project in which I promise to write 50,000 words in 30 days. It’s not going to happen. But I’ll have fun trying. The last time I did NaNo, I did 10k in a week, and then had to put it aside to work on another project. But that’s 10k I didn’t have before.
But you don’t have to do it like that. Start with asmall goal. One page a day. You can do it!
It’s been a while since I shared some Rampant Fan Art, so I moseyed on over to the Killer Unicorn Club on Deviantart to see what they had…
…and then I fell over in shock and awe from the wonderful drawings that people have done. Seriously, fan art is the Coolest Thing Ever.
For instance, take Emilia Argon’s drawing of an einhorn from the Battle of Jutland:
The beard! The fangs! The braided horn dripping blood! Everything is to love. She really nailed the look of the classic sweet white unicorn with the killer twist.
And what about this gorgeous digital color rendering of a re’em, by ShadowKissedAngel:
Doesn’t it look like it just walked out of Rampant: The Animated Movie? I am completely in love with the appaloosa coloring. This is totally the kind of body I was envisioning.
Here’s another pencil sketch, this one from EmoAngel1122:
As you can tell from the text, this drawing depicts the close-up horror of Bucephalus.
And it’s not all unicorns. I’m particularly fond of this rendition of Astrid, from the end (!!!) of Ascendant, by xiao-tsubasa:
Isn’t this incredible? I just keep staring at it. I’m so stunned by the level of detail. Look at her hair! Her scars! The crescent in her eye. I’m also deeply impressed by the way this artist took Astrid at her absolute worst and managed to make her look so strong and capable. Well done!
One more Astrid from Emilia Argon (this one is entitled, “Astrid gets Gored and Stuff”):
Blue hair! Pink blood! The alicorn knife being wrenched from her hands!
Also, Emilia thoughtfully includes the best plot summary of the end of Rampant that I have ever read:
“Astrid gets whacked by an evil unicorn, spends three days lying in a pool of her own blood, her mum goes bonkers, she gets rescued by a giant talking elephant unicorn, then kisses Giovanni a lot. After that she pretty much kills everything.”
True that.
I hope everyone has an extraordinary weekend, filled with Halloween parties and costumes and way too much candy. I am super excited about next week — Queenie’s first Halloween costume, the start of NaNoWriMo, a giant contest announcement, and oh yeah…
The reveal of the cover of For Darkness Shows the Stars.
A fun review of Ascendant. I’ve said it before, but there’s really nothing like a review where the reader nails and loves what you were trying to do with the book. The killing of an endangered species like unicorns is not just a gray area — it’s a downright charcoal black one, and it was important to me in Ascendant that it’s not just Phil whining about it and everyone patting her on the head (as so often is the case with people ignoring totally rational points made by conservationists), but also that the main character, Astrid, really starts to question the role she’s been handed and is expected to fill. I think teens are doing that all the time — the adults in her life are telling her this is what she’s supposed to do, but she looks at the evidence before her and goes, wait, this doesn’t add up.
I know with the killer unicorns series I’m working against the tide of most modern fantasy fiction. The magic in these books is an unfair magic, and in some cases, it’s even an evil magic — a magic that it would be totally rational and acceptable — even preferable — to reject. That is not the case in most fantasy fiction — in most cases, it’s “non-magical people don’t matter” or “non magical people aren’t as good.” Why would you be a Muggle if you could be a wizard, goes the trend. The Harry Potter example is especially illustrative here. Though much is made of how it’s okay to be “Muggle-born,” actual Muggles are shown as being clueless, ineffective, or easily discarded (one of the saddest parts of Book Seven is how Hermione “erases” herself from her parents lives). The takeaway is clear. Muggles < wizards.
The same is true in another mega-hit of the genre, Twilight. Author Stephenie Meyer is on record saying that she’s “anti-human” in the series, as it’s obvious from the way she’s constructed her world that vampires and werewolves outclass the human race on every possible level. Bella realizes it — she wants to be a vampire from day one. Who wouldn’t? There’s no downside. You live forever, young and ridiculously beautiful, and with a little willpower (i.e., the way the Cullens act) you don’t have to eat anything but venison and polar bear. The only possible downside is the predilection the Cullens have for eternally repeating high school. THAT doesn’t sound fun. The rest of vampire life is peachy, though. (In fact, one friend of mine is fond of pointing out that it’s the Cullens, and not Victoria, who have a moral imperative to spread vampirism around.)
So readers understandably come to a fantasy series going magic = good. Having magic is better than not having magic. I get emails every week from readers who wonder “what Phil will do now.” And I always think about Astrid, who would probably rather be in Phil’s position (she wouldn’t like to have had Phil’s experiences, but she would like to be freed from her hunter duties). Phil’s world is wide open, and she chooses to be part of the killer unicorn thing. She doesn’t on any level have to be, which, indeed, is the choice you see Marikka make in Ascendant.
However, most readers of fantasy are coming to fantasy because, you know, they LIKE magic. Thus it is very rare for a fantasy series to focus on how the acquisition of magical powers is something to be avoided — two prominent examples are Justine Larbalestier’s Magic or Madness series and Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone (though even in that one, the character judiciously uses it). It’s an interesting paradigm, to be sure.
Here I am at the NINC Conference in sunny-but-cold Florida. And, last night I ran into none other than MJ Putney herself, which reminded me I had yet to pick a winner for the DARK MIRROR giveaway contest, so I asked her to pick a random number, and she did, and that number was seventeen, which makes VIRGINIA our winner.
Virginia, I know you’re out there. Email me.
In other news, there’s an interview with me up at Reading Underground, the teen blog of the Charleston Public Library (So excited for YALLFest, Y’ALL.) Did I mention I’ll have a For Darkness Shows the Stars ARC there?
What, you say? You want a For Darkness Shows the Stars snippet? Well, okay, since you asked very, very nicely:
Olivia’s song ended, but Donovan merely turned his music into something wilder, a more obvious dancing tune. A cheer went up from the assembled crowd. Several couples even rose from their picnic blankets to dance beneath the glowing lanterns. Kai gave his hand to Olivia to help her down from the porch steps. She tugged him toward the dancers, and after a moment, he joined her. Elliot stared down at her lap.
See more here. Free food, book giveaways, and a panel with 4 YA authors (and an editor), including yours truly. If you’re a teen who loves to read, check it out.
The other night, after tucking Queenie into her crib, Sailor Boy and I sat down to watch one of the many, many superhero films we missed in the theater last year while we were busy caring for a newborn. This time, it was the Kenneth Brannagh-helmed (geddit?) THOR.
I will say right up front that I am not familiar with most of the Avengers. Indeed, when I heard that Joss Whedon was doing an Avengers film, I thought it was the kind staring Mrs. Emma Peel (to which I say, go for it, Joss. I love how you did kickass women, and the Ralph Fiennes/Uma Thurman one was not up to par).
(In passing, do y’all know I was named for the actress who played Mrs. Emma Peel? True story.)
Anyway, I did not know until recently that Thor was a comic book superhero. Indeed, my only familiarity with him was the books on Norse mythology I read in my youth.
Which is okay, apparently, because ComicBookSuperhero!Thor actually is a version of the Norse God. This was the coolest part of the story to me. Apparently, the whole idea here is that the Norse Gods as we know them are actually stories about super-powerful (and immortal???) aliens from a planet called Asgard who at one time used to visit Earth, where the locals were like, “Wow, your sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable to us from magic!” (And in case we SF folks missed, it, Natalie Portman actually quotes Arthur C. Clarke for us in the film.)
The film opens with Natalie Portman, Stellan Skaarsgard, and Kat Dennings sitting in a van in the middle of the desert. Natalie Portman is a Very Smart Astrophysicist. We know this because all of the characters, including Natalie, say she is, and Natalie Portman repeats the phrase “Einstein-Rosen Bridge” about forty-seven times throughout the film. Kat Denning is a disaffected intern, which we know because she talks about “Facebook” and “twitter”, and Stellan Skaarsgard is Scandanavian, which we know because he’s Stellan Skaarsgard. There is a big flash of light in the sky, which makes Very Smart Astrophysicist Natalie Portman very happy, and then Kat Dennings hits a dude with the van.
And that’s the last you see of any of them for at least half an hour. Because then there’s this Loooooooong introductory sequence where you learn all about the alien nature of the Norse gods. And then we go straight to Asgard.
Which, I don’t mind, because Asgard is gorgeous. It’s like the bastard stepchild of Oz and Coruscant. And in the middle of it is a giant shimmering highway that looks like it’s made of black opal. And while Natalie Portman and Kat Denning are very pretty, I preferred this to the inside of their van. YMMV.
Okay. So, Thor. Thor is a giant hot blond dude with a hammer, who smirks and winks at enough space babes in the first five minutes of the film that even James T Kirk would think it was over the top. I was getting all these weird Captain Kirk vibes from him, even with the breastplate and the long hair, and then I realized it was because the guy who plays Thor also played Kirk’s dead dad in the Abrams Star Trek reboot. So there.
Thor’s parents are a one-eyed Anthony Hopkins and Rene Russo, and his brother is a skinny guy with dark hair, which is the only way we know he’s evil, other than the fact that he frowns on the day that Thor is winking his way up the aisle in the throne room to get crowned as heir.
The brother’s name is Loki, which would be another clue even to people who do not know the comic book but are familiar with Norse myths, except they never do mention his name for like 15 minutes.
Anyway, right as Thor is about to get crowned, a bunch of Orcs break into the Asgard Weapons Museum where all the really dangerous weapons are kept sitting out on pedestals for people to take as they please. Luckily, Anthony Hopkins has put Gort in charge of guarding them, and he burns the Orcs up.
(At this point, I’m very much enjoying the way Kenneth Brannagh has not only retrofitted Norse mythology into his alien world, but also The Day the Earth Stood Still and Middle Earth, too.)
Apparently, Thor does not find Anthony Hopkins’s Gort-based defense system sufficient, however, and he throws a temper tantrum. At this point, his evil/skinny/dark-haired brother (now’s when I find out his name is Loki) realizes that he can TOTALLY get his big brother in trouble by convincing him to go attack the Orcs’ home planet.
Which he does, along with Loki, and a bunch of his frat buddies. (One of the frat buddies is a girl, and I think she has the hots for Thor.)
I’m not sure what Loki gains by going along, but he does.I mean, other than the fact that this is really the only opportunity to introduce what all their superpowers are. Thor’s superpower are mostly hammer-based. Loki can create false images of himself. The frat buddies are super strong warrior types.
Anyway, in order to get to the Orc home planet, they have to gallop on horseback (I assume it’s alien horseback) very quickly across the black opal highway to a giant planetarium guarded by Stringer Bell.
Hubba hubba, Heimdall.
There, they dismount and then ask Stringer Bell if they can go to the Orc home planet, wherupon, Stringer Bell dials in the location and shoots a beam at said planet, and off they teleport.
As Loki intends, things on the Orc home planet do not go well, the frat buddies all get their asses kicked, Anthony Hopkins has to show up to save them, and when they get home, Thor gets a whuppin’ from his pa, who promptly strips him of his hammer, his (immortal???) powers, and banishes him to Earth.
Where he promptly becomes the dude Kat Dennings hits with the van. See? Full circle.
Anyway, thus commences a long digression in which Very Smart Astrophysicist Natalie Portman is like “whatever, drunk wandering hobo we just hit, I have no time to deal with your strange injuries and raving, I have Very Important Astrophysicist Work to do” and then, oops, realizes her mistake (with the, I’ll grant you, rather clever line of “I left something at the hospital”) and hurries off to retrieve him so there can be a bunch more scenes wherein Ancient Gods-Who-Are-Really-Aliens Say the Darndest Things (including my other favorite line from the film, which is “This mortal form has grown weak. I need sustenance.” — I am so teaching Queenie to say that instead of “Mommy, I’m hungry.”).
And the Shield folks show up, led of course, by Agent Caspar. That’s not his name in the Avenger movies, but he plays a federal agent, and so he’ll always be Agent Caspar to me.
But all of that is very boring, compared to the cool crap still going on in Asgard. And frankly, no matter how pretty the mid-century retro-futuristic gas station/diner thing where Natalie Portman et al. have set up their very important Astrophysics Research Station is, it doesn’t hold a candle to Asgard. I am so glad they decided to go Full Cheese with the set design here.
And the costumes. You guys. You guys. The costumes. I wish I could find a better picture of Loki’s costume once he drops his barely-evil green casual wear and goes Full Loki. Because Full Loki is the best costume since Leia donned a metal bikini. Observe:
I would literally wear this every single day.
And that picture doesn’t even do it justice. Here’s a full length, with a drawing of what Full Loki looks like in the comic books:
Also — ALSO — in searching for a halfway decent picture, I discovered that this actor is going to be playing Cinna in The Hunger Games. I approve. I also think Cinna would completely and totally approve of the Full Loki.
Say what you will about this new trend of toning down some of the outrageous stuff they do in comic books (a’la The Dark Knight and all), I will take Full Cheese and Full Loki, please.
Speaking of Loki, when we are returned to Asgard, it is to follow Loki and see the extent of his “evil.” I mean, that’s the intent. But I was turning to Sailor Boy at this point and saying, “I actually don’t see what Loki has done wrong.” Because, yes, he (vaguely) suggested to Thor that Thor should sneak out to the Orc planet and mess shit up. And as a result, Thor nearly got his frat buddies killed and started a war with the Orcs. But Loki’s point, to illustrate that Thor is an immature hothead who has no business ruling Asgaard was totally on point.
So now the frat buddies are all sitting around recuperating and trying to figure out a way to ask Anthony Hopkins to let Thor come out and play, and Loki is all like “How weird is it that when I got attacked by the Orcs, I was totally fine?” So now we know why Loki tagged along when he was trying to get Thor in trouuuuuuble. Because otherwise he would not have known that he was mysteriously immune to the Orcs’ FrostbiteTouch.
So then Loki completely rationally goes down into the Weapons Museum to pick up the evil Orc Frost Ray in the spirit of experimentation, and as soon as he touches it, he turns into an Orc/Frost Giant.
And his Dad, who has sneaked up behind him is like, “Oh, yeah, meant to tell you, you’re really a Frost Giant. I found you, abandoned to die because you’re scrawny, and I thought, wow, that’s cruel, so I adopted you and brought you up as my own. I kinda hoped you’d be a means of uniting our warring peoples, but that didn’t work out great, no thanks to my constantly pitting you and my real son against each other all your lives.”
So, what would your response be if you were to discover, as an adult, that you were not in fact the son of the all-powerful ruler of the universe, but instead an abandoned child of your mortal enemy? Exactly. Loki totally rationally gets angry and yells at his dad, who had previously stood up just fine against Thor and the armies of Frost Giant Orcs, but who decides suddenly to have a heart attack (they call it the “Odin sleep” but it looks like he has a heart attack) and collapse.
And then Loki, quite rationally, calls for a bunch of guards to take his dad off to bed for medical assistance.
So far, I’m still Team Loki. Who can blame him? Yeah, he yells at his dad, but wouldn’t you under those circumstances? He doesn’t hate his dad. He calls for help when his dad collapses. He’s just momentarily confused and angry, and really, Odin is to blame for that. Kids should be told they are adopted long before they grow up and learn it for themselves at the hands of an evil alien weapons system. That’s all I’m saying.
Anyway, back on Earth, there’s a whole lot of boring blah blah blah about Thor trying to get his hammer back from Agent Caspar and the stone it’s apparently stuck in, King Arthur style — including this long sequence where he fights his way through all these biodome tunnels and almost gets shot by Hawkeye (I think this is because they need a scene with Hawkeye and he’s not worth a whole movie?)
Then he and Stellan Skarsgaard get drunk and talk about Norse mythology and then he and Natalie Portman cuddle and talk about astrophysics. Kat Denning does not get chummy time, but she does get to post pictures of him onto Facebook. Because she’s a hip disaffected college intern.
Then, on Asgard we find out Loki is really evil, because he was the one who sneaked the Orcs in during Thor’s coronation and he goes back to the Orc planet to tell the King Orc that he will sneak him in to kill Anthony Hopkins while he’s sleeping. Stringer Bell tries to stop him and Loki uses the Orc Freeze Ray to freeze him. Apparently, Gort only stops you from taking it out of the Weapons Museum if you’re not the Prince of Asgaard.
Speaking of Gort, it’s around this time that Loki decides that the best way to cover all his bases is to send Gort to Earth to kill Thor and the frat buddies who have gone to Earth to retrieve Thor because they have rightfully begun to get suspicious of Loki and his ram horns.
This is their suspicious face. (Girl not pictured.)
This leads to my third favorite line in the movie, which is when Agent Caspar sees Gort, and it like, “Oh, this must be one of Tony Stark’s.” Ha. Because it’s an iron man. Geddit?
Anyway, Gort is awesome, and he’s almost succeeded in achieving Loki’s goals, when Thor finally proves himself by offering to sacrifice himself for his frat buddies and Natalie Portman and is thus regranted his powers and his Hammer, which conveniently flies right back into his hand. Then he saves the day and he and the frat buddies go back to Asgard to confront Loki.
And the Very Smart Astrophysicist Natalie Portman makes out with Thor. Because apparently they are in lurve. I’m not sure why. I guess it’s because the Very Smart Astrophysicist finally found a cute guy willing to talk about wormholes with her? But I’m not sure what he sees in her. The girl frat buddy back on Asgard has more personality, no matter how many times the Very Smart Astrophysicist Natalie Portman finds a way to work Einstein-Rosen Bridges into the conversation.
See? Way more passion and just, you know, a longer acquaintance in general, than he has with the Astrophysicist.
MEANWHILE, the Orc King has arrived in Anthony Hopkins’ bedroom, where Rene Russo gets her second line in the movie, throws one punch, and then gets knocked out. The Orc King goes to kill Anthony Hopkins, and Loki jumps in and kills all the Orcs and is like, “Wow, I’m SO a savior,” and Rene Russo agrees wholeheartedly.
But don’t worry. She gets one more line in the film, when everything’s over and she and Sif the Warrior Girl talk about how down in the dumps Thor has been of late. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Point is: this movie, not so much on female characters.
Where was I? Ah, Loki. You are so clever. I honestly did not see that double-cross coming, because I had fallen hook, line and sinker into the idea that, you being willing to freeze Stringer Bell and kill your brother and your friends, you were totally evil and also genuinely interested in having your dad knocked off, too. Oops.
And everything would have worked out just FINE had not Thor showed up at that time and revealed that his adoptive brother was actually evil all along, and what else could he be, since after all, he’s really an Orc, which means he could never be as good and strong as the blonde, blue-eyed Thor could which is why Anthony Hopkins could never REALLY make him king, even though they were supposedly raised just the same.
This is when I turned to Sailor Boy and was like, “I am not sure I approve of the message of this film.”
Anyway, Loki runs off down the black opal highway to the planetarium, whereupon he immediately engages a death ray meant to fry the Orcs’ home planet, thinking that if he destroys them, it will finally prove he’s better than Thor. (???)
Thor tries to stop him and they have a big hammer-and-multiple-Loki fight on the black opal highway, and eventually Thor realizes that the only way to stop the death ray is to hammer through the black opal highway.
Yes, you heard that right.
It made no sense to me, either. But apparently, the black opal highway is like the root of the giant rainbow bridge (“Einstein-Rosen Bridge” — and apparently there’s a reason they kept having Natalie Portman go on about it) that the planetarium can sort of focus and shoot out with help from Stringer Bell. And if you break off the bridge at the point of the planetarium, the planetarium will go tumbling away into the giant black hole abyss of nothingness that APPARENTLY EXISTS RIGHT ON THE EDGE OF THE CITY OF ASGAARD.
Please note: there is no discussion of this elsewhere in the film.
So then Thor starts pounding away at the bridge, and then Loki is inexplicably like, “No! If you do that, you’ll never be able to go back to Earth!” which is supposed to be heartbreaking, because Thor supposedly loves Natalie Portman, but it doesn’t really hit, because we all know he’s going back to Earth for the Avengers movie, and plus, NO ONE believes he loves Natalie Portman, who he spent like a day flirting with.
It’s not like Captain America, who was frozen for 65 years and thus his sweetheart, who he actually knew pretty well, is ancient. Anyway, bridge breaks, he and Loki end up dangling over the side, Anthony Hopkins tries to save them, and Loki’s all, whatever, bitches, you never loved me, and lets go of Thor and goes tumbling into the abyss.
Which also doesn’t really hit because Loki is coming back for the Avengers movie too. And I am really glad of that, because he was my favorite character in this film. Plus, he’s the kind of Big Bad that Joss can actually work with. Clever, funny, unexpected.
And then it’s over. Natalie Portman is on Earth, Thor is in Asgard, everything’s kind of normal again. Which…huh. I’m not sure what was gained from that other than discovering that Loki is the bad guy? This is an interesting post about why it was the wrong ending of the film, as it requires us to buy completely into a doomed romance not in evidence (maybe it’s a big deal in the comics?) and doesn’t end up changing anything. But maybe the whole point of the Avengers will be that Loki is on Earth being difficult and the Avengers really really really need Thor’s help so they move heaven and Asgard to try to get him back to Earth?
I often receive emails from teen readers who want to travel abroad like Astrid — though maybe without the corresponding bow and arrow — but can’t afford it. I thought I’d pass along this information about scholarship programs for high school students to study abroad — there doesn’t seem to be anything in Italy from my quick perusal, but there are other European countries, as well as a lot of programs in Asia, South America, and Africa.
Applications are being considered now, so if you’re a highschool student (there seem to be a few open for college kids, too) who wants to travel and learn other languages/cultures, check it out:
Youth Exchange Scholarship Opportunities for U.S. High School Students
The National Security Language Initiative for Youth (NSLI-Y) offers merit-based scholarships to U. S. high-school aged students to study seven critical languages in countries where these languages are spoken. Recruiting for 2012-2013 programs is underway and applications are due on November 3, 2011. The application and more information about the program can be found at nsliforyouth.org. The NSLI-Y program is part of a multi-agency U.S. government initiative launched in 2006 to improve Americans’ ability to engage with people from around the world who speak Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi, Korean, Persian (Tajik), Russian and Turkish. Academic year programs will be offered to study Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Korean and Russian, and six-eight week summer programs will be offered for all seven languages.
The Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) Abroad Program offers scholarships to American high school students to spend one academic semester or year in Bosnia & Herzegovina, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mali, Morocco, Oman, Thailand, and Turkey during the 2012-2013 academic years. The application period for academic year 2012-2013 is now open. The application deadline is January 11, 2012. Visit yesprograms.org for eligibility criteria and information on how to apply. YES Abroad program participants live with host families, attend high school, engage in activities to learn about the host country’s society and values, acquire leadership skills, and help educate others about American culture while learning about their host country’s culture.
The Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX) was established in 1983 to celebrate German-American friendship based on common values of democracy and promotes lasting personal and institutional relationships through an academic year school and a home-stay experience. t -school students, ages 15-18, live with host families, attend school and participate in community life. Another part of the program is dedicated to young professionals (undergraduates) and high-school graduates of vocational studies ages 18-24 who study and participate in practical training. Prior German language skills are not required. Recruiting for the 2012-2013 programs is underway. For more information and application deadlines visit the organization in charge of recruitment for your state at USAGermanyScholarship.org .
The American Youth Leadership Program offers opportunities for American high students and educators to travel abroad on a three- to four-week-long exchange program to gain firsthand knowledge of foreign cultures and to collaborate on solving global issues. ECA has partnered with several different organizations to implement this program, and each of them has organized an academic and experiential educational exchange focused on dialogue and debate, leadership development, and community service. In 2012, more than 300 selected participants will be able to travel to Bangladesh, Cambodia, Japan, Kenya, Mongolia, Norway, or Panama and Costa Rica. Recruitment areas and application deadlines vary, so please check the American Youth Leadership Program website for links to the partner organization’s program information.
It’s gorgeous and sunny in DC today (for once) and I am home with Q, who is making lots of noise as I type this. She is a big talker, this baby. (I wonder where she gets it from?) She has a few words: Dada, Rio, uh-oh, and hi. Sailor Boy insists she says Mama, too, but I only hear it when she’s crying, and gosh darn it, I don’t think that should count.
Right now, Rio is scratching at the back door to be let in, and Q is standing on the other side of that door, going “Rio! Rio! Rio! Rio!” They have a beautiful love, my two girls.
Hey, guess what? I got my cover for For Darkness Shows the Stars. Is v. pretty. I shall show it to you very soon.
Also, I’m getting a lot of questions about the unicorn in my last post. This one:
And why it is standing so calmly near sheep. My guess is it’s full?
The picture, non-photoshopped, was taken by my agency sister, G Marie Merante, at a vineyard near her home.
Yes, there are unicorns. What, you think I’m writing fantasy? Ha!
In other news, I’m catching up on my reading. I’m headed to the NINC conference next week and there are all these books I want to have read before I go — like the newest series by Julie Leto, and Dark Passage by MJ Putney.
Speaking of Putney, have you read DARK MIRROR? That’s the first in the series. It is an awesome time travel fantasy that takes place in a magical Regency England AND World War II.
When was the last time YOU read a WWII book?You should totally read this one. It’s magic and Dunkirk and Mary Jo Putney. What is not to love?
That’s why I’m giving away a SIGNED copy this week.
Leave a comment here to enter. Goes through the weekend.
One of the most common questions I receive about the unicorn series is in regards to the way the world at large responds to the rediscovery of unicorns. At the beginning of Rampant, people don’t think there are any such thing as unicorns (including Astrid) — kind of like the world we live in. But throughout Ascendant, you see that knowledge about the existence of unicorns has moved into the mainstream, and the ramifications of that, such as a pharmaceutical company exploiting their special properties, fringe environmental groups devoting themselves to the species, and Astrid’s mother Lilith making her living as a unicorn expert commentator on cable news specialties.
However, the existence of unicorns does not cause the world to grind to a halt. This strikes some readers as odd, though it’s actually the most realistic reaction. About five years ago, they confirmed the existence of giant squid, another heretofore mythical monster best known for its literary exploits (hello, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). When I was a teenager, I had a book of mythical monsters. This animal was in it, despite the fact that there had been occasional sightings of dead giant squids or pieces of dead giant squids found in the bellies of whales. (People have things called unicorns horns, too, and there are “created” unicorns like the kind that used to tour with the Ringling Circus.)
But slowly we learned more and more about real giant squids, and now we have videographic proof that they are real. Sixty foot long squids, totally real !There were articles about it in every paper, and people talked about it on the news for like a week. But I still got up and went to work that day. The metro didn’t stop running because there are actually giant squids in the sea.
What happened with giant squids is similar to what happens with unicorns — there are articles about them, researchers can get grants to study them, people who are fascinated are still fascinated, and people whose lives aren’t so much touched by the whole situation go on with their lives as they did before — to them, it’s a curious article in a newspaper, a “Huh, isn’t that cool. Pass the coffee,” kind of moment. If it happened today, it would probably trend on twitter, and then the world would move on.
Now, with unicorns, it’s a little different, because, generally speaking, giant squids aren’t a danger to anyone except sperm whales and Captain Nemo, whereas the unicorns in my books attack campers in wild places and children in public parks. Indeed, in “The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn,” which takes place at the same time as Ascendant, a unicorn attack has caused the closing of all the parks in Wen’s town.
And yet, the world still goes on. To imagine otherwise is a statement about how sanitized most of our lives have become — most of us are lucky enough not to live in a place where we are in danger of being attacked by wild animals. Again, my concept of how real people and towns would react to this danger is based in reality — in how rangers in National Parks respond to bear attacks, or, on a more personal note, how the people on the beaches in my home state of Florida responded to a mysterious uptick in shark attacks about a decade ago.
Namely: there were lots of articles about it, lifeguards warned you about sharks, in places where there were heavy shark sightings or reported injuries, they closed the beaches… and yet people still went to work and school, and let their kids build sandcastles on the shore… even if they didn’t let them go in the water.
Of course, as Mark Twain once noted, the difference between fiction and reality is that fiction has to be believable, and to some, it’s just not as fun if the average accountant or pastry chef or soccer mom hears about unicorns on the news, then continues to pay their bills, make lunch, and drop the kids off at school the way they do when they hear about shark attacks or the reality of giant squids.
Except, not everyone does that. My books are about the people who don’t. (If they weren’t, it wouldn’t be very interesting to read!) The people who put their entire lives on hold and devote themselves completely to the unicorns. Before there were unicorns, Neil Bartoli was a law student, Philippa Llewelyn was a volleyball player, Lilith worked odd jobs and Astrid went to high school. And you don’t have to be a unicorn hunter, either. All those environmentalists camping outside Gordian Pharmaceuticals — they have jobs and lives and families, too. But to them, unicorns are more important. There are people like that, and there are people who just watch the TV shows Lilith stars in and then go back to being bank tellers and car salesmen and pediatricians.I don’t talk a lot about those people in the books, though.
There are also people in the middle. People like Giovanni, who indeed had close encounters with unicorns, and now has a nice story to tell his friends at college. One imagines that when there’s a unicorn story in the news, Giovanni’s friends say, “Hey, aren’t you dating one of those unicorn hunters?” the same way I might read a story about the space shuttle and say to a friend, “Hey, isn’t your cousin an astronaut?” Giovanni can say, “Yeah, I got attacked by unicorns once. I hid in a van and this girl I was dating kicked their ass.”
Actually, I know exactly what Giovanni says. One of these days, I’ll write that story.
Getting her new present, which is an awesome candy apple red piano. Q loves music. She’s such a rock star. Drums, guitars, music boxes, pianos, maracas, this cool, jazzy music-making play table from LeapFrog — if it makes music, she’s in. She sings, she dances, and she claps along.
In light of that, we had a music themed party for her:
I made those cupcakes myself. Which means Q also learned the joys of beater-licking when it came to mama’s homemade cream cheese frosting:
Why yes, she is wearing a ghost shirt with space explorer pants. Because my baby is going to be a total SFF nut, if I have anything to do with it.
(She actually owns three entirely different sets of space explorer pajamas, though only two of them glow in the dark. Priorities, people.)
Wow, guys. A year. How in the world did that tiny little thing get from there to here? Oh, right, I remember:
In other news, I’m catching up on my reading. I’m headed to the NINC conference next week and there are all these books I want to have read before I go — like the newest series by Julie Leto, and Dark Passage by MJ Putney.
But slowly we learned more and more about real giant squids, and now we have videographic proof that they are real. Sixty foot long squids, totally real !There were articles about it in every paper, and people talked about it on the news for like a week. But I still got up and went to work that day. The metro didn’t stop running because there are actually giant squids in the sea.
And yet, the world still goes on. To imagine otherwise is a statement about how sanitized most of our lives have become — most of us are lucky enough not to live in a place where we are in danger of being attacked by wild animals. Again, my concept of how real people and towns would react to this danger is based in reality — in how rangers in National Parks respond to bear attacks, or, on a more personal note, how the people on the beaches in my home state of Florida responded to a 
