Introducing: William

Full Name: William King

Age: 27

Apparent Age: 24

Height: 6'2" Weight: 165

Clan: Rebellius

William had a rough childhood. Growing up in a rather backwoods area of Tennessee, money was always tight. And it certainly didn't help anything that his father was an abusive drunk. Planning a military career, he spent every minute of free time he had studying military tactics and past wars, reading everything he could get his hands on on the subject. In keeping with his plans, he joined the Army on his eighteenth birthday and was sent to Iraq. 

 During his second tour of duty, his platoon was on what was supposed to be a simple reconnaissance mission. The mission went badly and they found themselves under fire. With a third of the soldiers wounded, a retreat was called, but William and one other soldier chose to stay behind to provide covering fire so that the wounded men could be removed to safety. Both men were mortally wounded , but their actions enabled the rest to make it to safety. They were both awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously for their actions.

One of the surviving members of the platoon was Enthralled toViktor Kovac, a member of the Rebellius Clan of vampires. A Clan known for being warriors, and for being passionate about various causes - each one had their own cause, it was the passion for the cause that defined them. He secretly contacted Viktor and arranged for both of the fallen men to be turned. After hearing how they had died, Viktor turned them without hesitation, and using his vampiric abilities on the coroner and funeral director, he arranged for caskets filled with rocks to be buried.

William was only with Viktor for two and a half years before a mage friend of Viktor's told them William needed to go to Illinois, to Sangue Collina. Not wanting to argue with someone who could see the future, Viktor sent William where he was needed. He arrived shortly before Christmas 2012, with no idea why he was there, but trusting that that was where he needed to be.

About the picture: I didn't actually have Jensen Ackles in mind for William, but I needed a dark and brooding type. This picture isn't quite as perfect as the one I had before, but it's still very "William". Attribution: "Jensen Ackles by Gage Skidmore 2" by Gage Skidmore under license CC BY-SA 2.0

When your family hates your genre

So, I tweeted a comment about my novel and the characters, which also posted it to facebook. My mother, who generally doesn't read anything I write, and has probably never followed a link in facebook to my blog, decided to comment - directly to me, not as a comment on the post - with "another vampire one?" She seemed genuinely disgusted with the fact that I'm writing a book about vampires.

I would say that it hurt, but I honestly don't care what her opinion is. This is what I am currently passionate about, so this is what I'm going to write. What upsets me, is that she can't even pretend to be supportive of the first thing I have ever been truly excited about in my entire life. I mean, it's my mother. Is it really so hard to try to pretend to care, or to be proud of me? (A post for another time, really)

But, it got me thinking. I wonder, now, how many other of my friends and family would hate my books on principle because of the subject matter. I know that my one cousin became disinterested after she heard that it was paranormal romance. But, I have others that I know would be interested, and are actually on my list to ask to be beta readers when I'm ready for reader impressions, rather than editing work. So, I really don't mind having some that might not even be able to bring themselves to read it. That's just the way it is.

An even more interesting thought, though, is the question of how many insanely famous and popular authors have members of their own families that just refuse to read their books due to hating the genre. Not that I have many delusions that I'll ever be famous or popular. But, the idea that this is something that can, and probably does, even happen to the greats is rather comforting, somehow.

I fully admit that my first thought when my mom made that comment was "Really? You can't be bothered to read my blog, or like or comment on any of my facebook posts, but you can give me a hard time about my choice of genre?" So, maybe it did hurt, at first...

So, what about you? Do any of you have friends or family that just refuses to have anything to do with your genre, even if it's something that you wrote? And how do you deal with it when they do?

And that's my weekly ramble. I'll be posting William's biography tomorrow. I know I'm behind, again, still trying to get back in the swing of things and keep managing to forget what day it is.

Being an introvert is not a disease

My mother is an extrovert. She NEEDS to be around people, she tends to get depressed when she's alone too long. Considering she's an extrovert that never leaves the house, you can imagine the effect that has on her.

And yet, she's always on ME that I need to get out more. And the interesting part is that she uses the fact that I'm an introvert as her reason for why I need to get out more. I think that she thinks that getting out more would somehow "cure" me of my introversion. I find this hilarious. The fact that I don't like to be surrounded by a bunch of people, and in fact NEED time alone in order to recharge is exactly why I shouldn't be given that time alone? She also worries about one of my nephews because he's also an introvert.

In her defence, it's probably a case of she knows what being alone does to her, and doesn't quite understand that it doesn't do the same thing to me, or to Justin. That in fact, we are the polar opposite in this. There's also the possibility that introversion could be seen as a form of social anxiety. It isn't, and I'll get to that in a minute. First, I want to explain the real difference between extroverts and introverts.

So, what is the actual difference between extroverts and introverts? It's simple, really. It's a matter of how we get and expend energy. Extroverts are energized by being around other people, introverts are energized by being alone. Being alone is mentally and emotionally taxing to an extrovert. For an introvert, being around too many other people is what drains us. Honestly, to look at it from an introvert's perspective, extroverts are a type of psychic vampire, draining our energy for their own use.

End result? While extroverts need to be around other people, because being alone is tiring for them. Introverts need time alone because being around other people is tiring for us. That's it. If you think of your own energy level as a rechargeable battery, it comes down to exactly how we recharge that battery. My mother needs to talk to people to recharge her batteries. End result is that she talks almost incessantly. Silence is one of the things that drain her batteries. I, on the other hand, recharge my batteries by reading, or playing online. For Justin it's reading or playing his Nintendo DS. One of the end results of this is that my mother's constant chatter just exhausts me. A recipe for disaster, I guess.

Now, back to the social anxiety thing. While social anxiety can be a serious issue, it is not the same thing as simply being an introvert. While most people with social anxiety are introverts, the reverse is NOT true. Being around other people doesn't actually stress me out, or make me anxious, it just makes me tired. And that is really the difference between social anxiety and introversion. The actual effect that being around people has on us.

And while introverts are often seen as shy, that is also not always the case. Though the differences can be much more subtle. And harder for me to explain, since in my case, I AM shy as well as being an introvert. It's a bit harder to explain the differences between two different parts of your own personality than between one thing that does describe you compared to another thing that doesn't. And... I'm not even going to try. If any of you are introverts that are not shy, please feel free to explain the difference in the comments. Or if you're one of the admittedly probably rare shy extroverts, you can also try to explain the difference.

I just want to leave you with a plea to the extroverts of the world. We introverts do not have a disease. We do not have to be "cured". Please, try to think about how you would feel if we tried to make you more like us. Dragging an introvert out into social situations without allowing us to get time alone to recharge is the exact same thing as if we decided that YOU needed to be "cured" of being an extrovert and put you in solitary confinement to force alone time on you.

And that is my Wednesday ramble for this week. (Admittedly a day late, but oops...) Come back on Friday to meet William, who eventually becomes Catie's best friend other than Eli.

It's good to be back

So, I haven't written in a while. Months, actually. Around six of them. That would be about half a year. The reason is quite simple: I was once again without a laptop, and my desktop computer is even more out of date than it was the last time I got stuck on it for a while. But, thanks to my sister and BIL and a gift card to Amazon, I have my laptop back, and hopefully this time it will last until I can afford to replace the whole darn computer.

So, what have I been up to these past six months? I've moved into a new apartment. Three adults crammed into one two-bedroom apartment is... interesting to say the least. I also participated in NaNoWriMo, where I wrote 75,357 words. I could have written more, but... just look at that number. Isn't it pretty? Not all of that was on Eternity's Price. I also started on the prequel to it. Working on them simultaneously was kind of fun, because I'd write something in one that would give me an idea for the other one. I'll write more about what the prequel is all about in another post. And I became an aunt again - twice, in 2 minutes. My youngest sister had twins in August.

I used the computers in my apartment complex's media center to get on and do some organizational work on my blog. I've added some internal links, and things like that. And I'm currently looking (rather unsuccessfully) for something I can use to make character portraits so that I can take down the pictures that I have on my character bio posts. If anybody has any suggestions for free programs, either downloadable software or web applications, that can be used for something like that (and that isn't almost impossible to figure out), I will love you forever. Hmm... How about something of a promotion? Free copies of both Eternity's Price and Eternity's Redemption once I get them finished and in publishable condition to the person/people to offer the best solution to my dilemma.

Anyway, that's where I've been for the past six months. On Wednesday I'll restart most of my regular schedule. Trying to decide if I'm going to go back to Wewriwa or not. But, I'll be doing my Wednesday rambles, and my character bios. And I'm thinking of bringing back Positive Thinking Mondays. (And if there's enough people that want them, I'll bring back the Sunday Snippets, even if I don't do them in the format of Wewriwa.)

Wewriwa 07-14-2013 - Being vulnerable

Welcome back everyone. It's Sunday, again. Which means another snippet from my paranormal romance in progress, Eternity's Price. My poor little idiots have been on quite a roller coaster the past few weeks, and it doesn't seem to be getting easier quite yet. There is probably going to be another scene in between last week's and this week's - but since I haven't WRITTEN it yet, I obviously need to skip it for now.

This is from the next night, after the concert from Hades that resulted in them breaking up. Catie has gone to the arcade to "beat the crap out of the poor little plastic moles" in the Wac-A-Mole game. Eli has tracked her down and is trying to get her to talk to him. She's still hurting a LOT, though, which is causing him to just pour his heart out to her - in the middle of the arcade. This is part of one of his speeches.

"My previous girlfriend died, not three weeks ago. And I turned to you in my pain, and I found you standing there. For the first time in my life, I turned to find someone waiting for me to talk to them. It scared the life out of me. I have been alone most of my life and I have never been so terrified as I was at that moment. I have never been so vulnerable as I am being right now. The whole concept scares me. I don't know what to do or how to do it."

Aww... Talk about someone laying their heart out on the line. The question is: will Catie take him back? I guess you're just going to have to come back next week to find out. ;) In the meantime, check out all the other great writers over at www.wewriwa.com

And finally a little musical inspiration. Here's the song I was listening to while writing this scene:

P.S. For some reason youtube doesn't seem to have the actual Garth Brooks version of this song. Slightly annoying, but this version is decent - even though it's not ACTUALLY what I was listening to...

Wewriwa 07-07-2013 - Nothing more she could do

Welcome back, everyone. Well, it's Sunday, again. And that means another snippet from my paranormal romance Eternity's Price. Two weeks ago, we watched my vampire couple, Eli and Catie break up over Eli really just not being emotionally ready for a relationship. Last week, we saw some of Eli's reaction to the break-up.

This week, we'll see Catie's. This is actually happening at about the same time as last week's post. Maybe even a little before it since it's earlier in Catie's scene than last week's had been in Eli's. She's trying to figure out what went so wrong between their first couple nights as a couple and now. Her own insecurities have gotten the better of her and she'd thinking that maybe he just never really loved her, or wanted her. And here are some of her thoughts on that:

That fear was what had kept her from looking inside his head that second night, the fear that she wouldn't like what she saw. 

Which was stupid, really; what was her own pain compared to his? Except... he had said that he needed that. So, even if it wasn't really what he wanted in the end, at least she had been able to give him something when he needed it. She turned around, leaning against the door and then slumped down to sit on the floor, drawing her knees up to her chest. She considered trying to reach out to him, but then changed her mind. Feeling his pain would do nothing but make her feel worse. There was nothing more she could do for him.

Poor girl. I kind of hate seeing her feeling so helpless and useless. Come back next week where we'll pick up... technically later that day, but the next night. (I have officially decided that time phrases are the bane of people who write about vampires. Since the date changes over in the middle of their "day" things get confusing when you're talking about right after the sun goes down again when it's already after midnight.) In the meantime, don't forget to check out the other great writers over at www.wewriwa.com

And finally, the song I was listening to for this scene. This one is once again in Italian - but I think it may be the last of them.

The Bechdel test

So, an online writing group got into a discussion about the Bechdel test, which is supposed to "identify gender bias in fiction." For those of you that haven't heard of it, here's how it works: A work passes the test if it features at least two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man.

Now, on the surface, that sounds like a good thing, a benchmark to try to hit. And yet, if you think about it, it is at once over-broad and limiting. And I'm going to use my own work in progress, Eternity's Price to demonstrate why I say that. For the record, it DOES pass the test - however, as you'll see, it passing this test is also NOT what makes it not gender biased (which from here on out, I will be referring to as sexism, since I think that's what the test is supposed to be about.)

So, I'm going to start with some of the scenes that are NOT part of why it passes this test:

On two separate occasions Catie stands up, looks a man that can kill her with little more than a thought in the eye (and on one of those occasions, the man in question has not only the physical ability to kill her but the legal right to do so, and on the other the man has already shown that he is not above killing to get what he wants) and basically told them to go fuck themselves. But because she was talking to a man, neither of those scenes make the book pass the test.

She goes off on one of the younger members of her Clan about his impulsiveness. Giving him a solid tongue-thrashing, and is essentially acting as Eli's second-in-command in Clan politics. But because she's talking to a man, it doesn't count.

She and two other women plot serious bodily harm to the father of the youngest girl's child. One thing to keep in mind is that this man is a werewolf. So, nearly as strong as a vampire, but without the biggest obvious weakness. But because they were talking about a man, it doesn't count.

The young girl in the previous example happens to be under the protection of one of Catie's (male) friends, and is worried that when he finds out that she's pregnant he'll make her lose the baby - and then make her forget that she was ever pregnant. Catie's response? "He'll have to answer to me if he does - and trust me, he does NOT want to have to answer to me for that." The older woman replied "He'll only answer to you if there's anything left of him after he's done answering to ME." But because they're talking about a man, it doesn't count.

I could go on and on. Examples of her strength, courage, intelligence, conviction, leadership ability. All extremely positive qualities, and all qualities usually associated with men. But because men were involved in these conversations in some way - they don't count in this test for sexism.

So, what DOES make it pass the test?

A conversation with another woman about the uses of stilletto heels as a weapon - which was really as much for Eli's benefit as anything else.

A shopping trip where she and a friend are looking for dresses. This is probably actually the most sexist scene in the entire book - but because they're talking about clothes instead of men, it passes the test.

There are others. The two examples I gave about the pregnant girl both followed a discussion about what the girl planned to do about her pregnancy. Catie was also acting as her doctor, since carrying a werewolf baby she couldn't really go to a conventional doctor and being under the protection of a vampire made the werewolves' territory off limits to her, so there were the medical exams and such. Probably others that I can't think of off the top of my head.

But what I found amusing is that in a test for sexism - the most sexist scene in the whole book passes, but scenes of women standing up to men don't. I get it as simply a way to get writers to think about their characters and the way they're portrayed. But taken by itself, at face value, it is extremely flawed. Why is a discussion about clothes and make-up less sexist than a woman telling a man to go fuck himself? Or her taking charge of a situation? Why is a woman acting as a man's SUPERIOR sexist, but giggling over clothes isn't?

What are your thoughts on this?