Playing hookie

I took the day off of work today. I caught a cold this weekend while walking in the rain with my husband. It was a little romantic but there is nothing romantic about a stuffy nose and fever.

So I'm sitting at home, wrapped up in my favorite sweater and an embarrassingly comfortable pair of lounge pants. And I've got the best medicine.

No its not the tea and honey I'm drinking from my TARDIS coffee mug.

No its not my puppies curled up next to me.

Its the unreal eyes of James Mcavoy. Every time I get sick, I reach for two movies: The Last Station and Penelope. There is just something about his twinkling smile and humble nature that just soothes all the aches and pains in my head.

These two movies not only speak to my complete adoration of Scottish men (I'm not allowed to go to Scotland by myself- husband's orders), but also to my story teller. The Last Station documents the last months of the great writer Leo Tolstoy. More importantly, its about his relationship with his wife, which apparently wasn't all romantic walks in the rain. It is a sweet look at love and life through the teal eyes of James' character. Penelope is a modern fairy tale about a girl who needs to love herself before she can be loved. I'm a sucker for a fairy tale and James plays the piano in it.

Sometimes its the simple things that make you feel better. A sweet movie, a cup of tea with jam (they drink loads of it in The Last Station), a warm blanket and some quiet.

What makes you feel better when you're sick? When you've had a rough day at work?
Hopefully its reading about your favorite Supernatural authors.

So I'm going to go back to the couch and watch a movie. Hope that this post finds you all happy and healthy and looking forward to this Halloween season.

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Amanda Arista
Diaries of an Urban Panther
www.amandaarista.com

All About… The Awesomeness of Story!

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on the writing life and what keeps me going through the long stretches that aren’t book launches, or blog tours, or the wildfire excitement of winning awards. Because in between those times there are prolonged periods when the only thing you are doing, as the writer, is sitting at the writing desk every day and hangin’ — or more often than not, wrasslin’ — with your characters and whatever excitement or frustration or derring-do is coloring their world.

And that — to use an Olympian analogy — is no sprint: it’s a long distance endurance event.

So how do we, as writers, stay motivated to keep going no matter what: not the motivation of paychecks and contracts, which however essential and real is still the stuff of the mundane world. No, I’m talking about sustaining the passion that will keep the magic of story spinning “no matter what.”

For me, writing is all about the magic of story, of reaching into the air and pulling out something shining, a rainbow thread that will — if I do my work well — make people I don’t even know not only laugh and cry, but struggle and curse and sweat with my characters, as well as rejoice and love and perhaps even, like Malian in The Gathering of the Lost, feel “wonderfully and gloriously alive.”

The most important thing for me, especially when I’m in the middle of the long distance endurance event event (and both the starting post behind me and the finishing ahead are completely out of sight) is staying connected to that sense of magic. Partly that means staying connected to my own writing. Another, really important part is staying in touch with the magic of other writers — because one place you’re almost always certain to find at least a pinch of enchantment is between the covers of other authors’ books.

So a few days back, on a cold, dull, rainy sort of afternoon when I had to wait an hour or two for an engagement and the “only” place to wait was a book store — I quote mark “only” because of course it’s absolutely the best sort of place to mooch when you have time to kill; and yes, dear Supernatural Undergrounders, I do mean a for-real, bricks-and-mortar bookstore which is, naturellement, a physical place where bona fide hanging out (and what’s more, mooching!) can really, actually  happen — I found myself looking for books which might provide that little pinch of enchantment.

I walked out with three in my bag. (I review that last sentence and hasten to add that I did pay for them before putting them in my bag!) But the books—the books, dear Supernatural Undergrounders, were Diana Wynne Jones’ Power of Three, Robert Graves’ Homer’s Daughter, and a new edition of that wonderful classic Tales from 1001 Nights (the translation is by Malcolm C Lyons and Ursula Lyons.)

I have read all three books before so I know “for sure” they contain the very best sort of writing magic. Consequently, I am very much looking forward to rediscovering all three, and also having them in my own personal library to dip into “at will” hereafter.

Currently, I have only dipped into Diana Wynne Jones’ Power of Three—but what a wonder of magical-ness it is. It isn’t just the actual magic given Wynne Jones’ was (and is!) a pre-eminent Kids/YA Fantasy author. It’s her use of language, and the way she captures people in all their humanness, as well as "nailing" a kid’s eye view of the world, and the delight of telling life — as Emily Dickinson would have it — “slant.”

Perhaps most of all, as a reader, it’s the sheer awesomeness of putting yourself into the power of a master storyteller — and knowing you are in safe hands.

Even just dipping my reading toe into Power of Three, I know there’s going to be plenty of magic on hand to help sustain me through the long distance endurance event of writing my current book. And I am sure that Homer’s Daughter and Tales from 1001 Nights will provide equal awesome story goodness, in due course.

So taking one thing with another, dear Supernatural Undergrounders, I feel I shall be OK. But how about you? What are the stories that weave the magic of awesome for you? What keeps you going in the midst of your long distance endurance events, whatever they may be?

If you feel you can bear to do so, I would love to read your comments.



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Helen Lowe is a novelist, poet, interviewer, and a 2012 Ursula Bethell Writer-in-Residence at the University of Canterbury. The Gathering of the Lost, the second novel in her The Wall of Night series, is just published, and she has recently won the Gemmell Morningstar Award 2012 for the first-in-series, The Heir of Night. Helen posts every day on her Helen Lowe on Anything, Really blog, on the first of every month right here on the Supernatural Underground. and occasionally on SF Signal. You can also follow her on Twitter: @helenl0we.

These Blazing Days of Summer.

At least, here in Michigan, it's blazing! And what better thing to do in the heat than to read a good book by the water...or in the water.

It's a little harder to read in the water with an e-reader, but I put mine in a Ziploc bag and voila! I can read anywhere, even on the boat.

When I read in the summertime, I go through phases. I start by reading good summertime romances--ones with hot nights and scenes by the campfire or under the moon and stars. Then I get so disgruntled by the heat that I move on to wintry stories--Christmas ones in particular. I figure maybe it'll cool me off if I'm reading about blizzards, etc.

Then at that point, I move on to my comfort reads because I realize that summer's nearly over and I haven't read as many books/relaxed as much as I'd wanted to, and I'd better get working on the relaxing part.

Sometimes I go back and read my old standbys from when I was a child--the Little House on the Prairie books, The Three Investigators, even an old YA romance by Phyllis A. Whitney called Step to the Music. Maybe it's the element of summer that makes me want to revisit old childhood reads.

What about you? Do you have a rhythm or a rhyme or reason for your summer reading? Do you find you actually get any summer reading done, or is it filled with schlepping kids, outdoor activities, and vacations?