Octopus

I managed to see the new season of OA on Netflix this month.  It was weirder than the first season, with a few graphic scenes I ended up skipping---something I typically have to do with Netflix shows. 

There was a particular scene in which the protagonist establishes a psychic bond with an octopus, and the octopus telepathically talks to her.  He sounded like a sage, wizened creature from the underwater animal world.  It was all at once fascinating and disappointing.  Why disappointing?  Because I'd already written about octopi in the latest book.  Telepathic octopi, no less.

What to do?

This isn't the first time a writer proceeded with a story, only to find out a part of it was conceived by another writer.  Like the many versions of King Arthur, the Marvel multiverse, or the haphazard Star Trek canon, all one can do is proceed as scheduled and hope their own version of the tale out-does other versions.  You continue, hoping your take on it is the superior, most memorable version.  For example, many stories favoring a dragon's perspective are out there, but E.E. Knight's Dragon Outcast is the one people will remember.  (Who can forget a dragon version of Horatio Alger?)

Besides, when you're underwater, you can't talk.  How else are octopi supposed to communicate?

Lean Years vs Times of Plenty

Illustrated by M. MacArthur

The writing has been picking up lately.  This is thanks, largely, to the vision and encouragement of my friend, Mary MacArthur.  Positive reinforcement can do wonders for boosting creative output. 

But lately, I was thinking a little more deeply about these kinds of factors.  That is, I've been thinking about the various things that can boost creative work and things that can work against it.  And it occurred to me that I was able to quickly produce more copious amounts of escapist fiction when my life wasn't troubled.  When things were happy and I didn't have problems to think about, the creative juices flowed.  However, when there were major problems in my life, such as the death of a parent, difficulty at my real-life job, or financial struggles---during those times, I found it difficult-to-impossible to write any kind of fiction whatsoever. 

It's easy to write about the news or about social issues or things like that.  I discovered that I can write non-fiction, even if my life is troubled.   I mean, if I was experiencing something horrible, I still had an opinion.  I still felt strongly one way or another about this or that issue.  I suppose conflict creates opinions. 

But when it comes to world building, character forming, and plot planning...I just couldn't carry on during the dark times.  It was as if my creativity were some sort of a plant being locked up in a closet, deprived of sunlight and water.  I do not know if it is like this for everyone who writes fiction.  But it sort of unnerves me a bit to know that, from my personal pattern, sad times mean lean fiction years, and the good years yield more content. 

If this is how it's going to be, then I really need to be on the ball with my writing during the good months so that I can accomplish what I want to do.  We only get one life, after all.  And I am uncertain I will live long enough to complete every project I have in mind. 

The She-Deer

Bringing Bovodar and the Bears into the visual medium has its challenges.  For example, how shall we portray the Deer Queen and her minions?  Specifically, I'm wondering how the legs will be portrayed.  If the kneecaps are bent in a convex direction, then we no longer have anthropomorphic deer---instead we have deer people with human legs.  On the other hand, if we keep the Deer People 's kneecaps concave, it will be natural in the way a deer's legs ought to be, but how will they walk with such legs?

On the other hand, mythical fauns are portrayed in art without too much trouble.  So who knows?

But as long as I'm bringing up deer people, there actually is precedent for imagining a tribe of hostile she-deer.  I'm referring to the myth of the Deer Women, told by the American Indians in my part of the country.

From Infogalactic.com:

Deer Woman, sometimes known as Deer Lady, is a shape-shifting woman in Native American mythology, in and around Oklahoma, the Western United States and the Pacific Northwest. She allegedly appears at various times as an old woman, or as a young beautiful maiden, or as a deer. Some descriptions assign her a human female upper body and the lower body of a white-tailed deer.

In various folklores, the Deer Woman is described to sometimes be seen as a beautiful woman just off the trail or behind a bush, calling to men to come over. Deer Woman is often said to have all the features of a normal young woman, except her feet which are shaped like deer hooves and her brown deer's eyes. Men who are lured into her presence often notice too late that she is not a natural woman, and are then trapped by her magic to waste away until death.Other stories and traditions describe the sighting of Deer Woman as a sign of personal transformation or as a warning. Deer Woman is also said to be fond of dancing and will sometimes join a communal dance unnoticed, leaving only when the drum beating ceases. 

According to Ojibwe tradition, she can be banished through the use of tobacco and chant others say that you can break her spell by looking at her feet, which are in fact hooves. Once she is recognized for what she is, she runs away.

In local native lore, the Deer Woman is a seductive siren.  But in my story's universe, this tribe of she-deer are more like evil Xena Princess Warriors.  And while native lore has the Deer Woman as a half-woman-half-deer sort of nymph, my deer folk are all  animal.

The Heroes

Work on the Bovodar saga continues apace, hidden from public sight.  That said, we do have some reveals.

Finally, at last, people can now be treated to a visual concept of what Bovodar and his bears look like.  This fleshes out just what the story involves, as well as the tone and direction of the story.  Presentation is 9/10ths of the law, they say.

This would not be possible without Mary MacArthur, over at Snowflake Clockwork.  Her talent and enthusiasm for this project has been a huge boost for what I've been doing.  And it is largely thanks to her that this story project will exceed many expectations before all is said and done.

For now, you can purchase the original novel of Bovodar and the Bears over at Amazon for your Kindle.  So if you're interested in having the digital first edition, now is the time to act, read the story, and get an idea of what it's all about.  There is certainly more to come in the future.  Stay tuned. 

What If It's A Graphic Novel?

Seeing as how Bovodar and the Bears is directed more towards younger people, I suppose it might do to perhaps make it into a comic book or a graphic novel.  I've discussed this idea before.  But the question is: what would this kind of a story look like?  Hint:

 

Getting the Train On Track

Other pursuits for the past few years have diverted my attention from my original passion, which was working on this fictional universe that I write about on this blog.  Those diversions have distracted me on a weekly basis from putting any energy into producing original, fictional content.  Home life, work, the world and its problems--it can all be a huge block for what a guy originally sets out to do.  I feel like the ever-procrastinating George R.R. Martin with this project. 

All that said, I've had a lot of thoughts about getting book two finished, sent to an actual publisher, rather than doing the Kindle-self-publishing thing, and perhaps even getting Bovodar and the Bears illustrated in some fashion.  I think that this story could be better told in a visual medium, truth be told. 

And with that, here is an illustration from a close friend who occasionally helps me along with this vision.  It is a scene in which the great owl, Gabbella, dived down to snatch away Bovodar's friend, Grep Humblemine, the little mole who served as his butler. 

Cheap Heroism and Villainry

Bovodar breaks his chains to fight for his life in the castle of Valemod, the Polar Bear King.

The following comes from a blog post titled, If You're Worried About Story:

I don't believe in either cheap heroism or cheap villainry, as both are the product of mediocre writers with insufficient imagination. While I would consider Captain Europa to be a villain and the Global Justice Initiative to be evil, he most certainly does not.

Nor do I believe that my favored side must always win. After all, the ultimate heroism is self-sacrificial, and I am not even remotely hesitant to kill off even my favorite characters if the story's logic demands it. (The fact that this also helps solve the fatal perspective-character-inflation problem is merely a fortunate side-effect.) Nor do I ever indulge in the storytelling fraud that is so often present in Martin, Marvel, and DC stories; there are few literary devices for which I have more contempt than "bringing back" an obviously dead character. It's not only lame and fake drama, it is unnecessary for the sufficiently skilled writer.

 I also don't believe my favored side should win.  And yes, I'm also willing to kill off my characters for the same reasons as this author outlines.

As for what he calls "cheap heroism or cheap villainry," sometimes there simply is a bad guy and a good guy.  Beowulf vs Grendel, Arthur vs Mordred, Aragorn vs Sauron, Kirk vs Khan.  It's a common dynamic.  I will grant that complex characters make for very interesting stories.

This latter quality--complex characters--I believe, is showing itself in my recent fiction writing.  Bovodar and the Dragons is turning out to be not as simple as Bovodar's first adventure.

Check out Bovodar and the Bears, available on Kindle.