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Hey.
Do you know what day it is?
Yes, it’s a Tuesday. What else?
Okay, the date is October 13th. What happens on October 13th?
Why, the birthday of one of my favorite fictional characters:
Author: Kat
I have been writing stories since first grade. Speculative genres are my passion, although high fantasy and classic science fiction hold special favor. In my freshman year of college, I was introduced to anime, manga, and cosplay, and enjoy going to geek and anime conventions like (Re)Generation Who and Katsucon. I have a B.A. in English from Penn State and works as a public library assistant and freelance editor. From October 2012 to October 2013, I was a content contributor to Geek La Femme. I've also written several articles for the comic book e-newsletter Scoop.
My various amateur talents include sketching, swimming, sword-fighting, and playing the ocarina.
I post new entries on The Cat’s Cradle and upload a new chapter of fan fiction on alternating Mondays (unless otherwise stated on Twitter). I currently live and work in Pennsylvania with two brothers and six felines.
How do they do it?
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As a writer currently slogging through her second round of editing, the light at the end of the tunnel looks farther away than ever before. I guess everyone starts to flag at the end of the race, but I can’t help but wonder: am I taking too long? How to other authors do it?
Go to Fantastic Fiction, search for a popular modern author, and take a look at their publication dates. Nora Roberts, Janet Evanovich, Debbie Macomber, Fern Michaels, John Sandford, David Baldacci, James Patterson + Another Random Author… all of them release at least one book a year. Some release two or more! And I end up sitting there, jaw on the floor, asking, “HOW?!”
Long time, no see
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Um… hi?
*waves*
Wow. I… haven’t written an entry in a while. In fact, I haven’t really posted anything online for at least a month. No blog entries, no Audio Editions, no #ThrowbackThursdays, no new fanfic chapters… I regret that last one, especially since I’d made a point to say I wouldn’t make my readers wait years for the completion of a fanfic.
But, obviously, I haven’t kept up with much of anything online. Because reasons:
2015 Summer Reading (and Writing) Program from Nerd in the Brain
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Hello all!
Sorry, I know I haven’t been keeping up with most of my online writing, but I promise it’s because I’ve been hard at work editing Ravens and Roses. But I did want to share something fun that I’m doing at the same time: the Summer Reading (and Writing) Program from Nerd in the Brain.
I only found out about this challenge a few days before it started, but I’ve been enjoying it. There are 30 reading challenges, 10 writing challenges, and 10 “other” challenges. I’ve been reading like a madwoman, since now I have added motivation to get through the pile of library books I’ve been hoarding for weeks. The reading challenges are really easy to write a small summary for, but the writing challenges are (for me) a little harder to tackle. I didn’t want to just write a little summary of something I wrote, but I also didn’t want to post the entire response to the challenge in that small space. It could be done… I just didn’t want it to be inconvenient.
So I decided to post my writing responses here on The Cat’s Cradle, as well as a list of the books I read for the reading challenge. I’ll post a summary and a link for Nerd in the Brain, so I won’t take up all that space, but folk can see what I did if they want to. So check back throughout the summer to see the results of the challenge.
Here goes!
Continue reading “2015 Summer Reading (and Writing) Program from Nerd in the Brain”
Slouching Towards Despondency
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Hi all.
I’m sorry that I’ve been so bad about keeping up with The Cat’s Cradle, the Audio Editions, the #ThrowbackThursdays, the fanfiction chapters… pretty much everything that I somehow managed to do in the depths of depression but now find almost impossible to focus on. Part of this is because I have been doing a lot of editing work on Ravens and Roses. Any free creative time I have goes towards that. The other part is because of a lot of tension at home which I find difficult to mentally detach from. So pretty much anything creative has fallen by the wayside, and I apologize for that.
I don’t know how long this funk will last. I really want to get back into the groove and get all these things done, plus transcribing my dad’s stories for publication and writing more short stories of my own… I think music by David Arkenstone is the only thing keeping my muse around at all. (Absolutely gorgeous.)
Anyway, yeah. Updates will be sporadic, if they happen at all. I will make every effort to keep up, but Ravens and Roses has top priority.
I hope to have better news and more inspiration soon. Thank you very much for your patience.
Where Are the Ladies? Female Protagonists in Fantasy
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One of my friends mentioned that, when she was a kid, she couldn’t find any female characters she liked or could relate to. In fact, she became misogynistic herself for a time because the only examples of women were weak, whiny, helpless bimbos. Not exactly the best role model for a growing girl.
But oddly enough, I don’t remember there being a deficiency in heroines during my childhood years of reading. But then again, I read fantasy and it seems that fantasy has a higher prevalence of female protagonists (and women in general.)
I’ve heard about several studies that speculate on the lack of female characters in children’s and young adult literature. Granted, this has been changing over the last few years, especially in teen literature, but I still find that female characters, when they are present, tend to fall into the emotional/romance category. There are fewer examples of (dare I say it?) “strong” (or rather, “well-rounded”) female characters in children’s fiction.
Since my last entry, “Character Charisma,” was so heavily skewed towards male characters (9 men to 1 woman), I wanted to explore some of my favorite female characters in fantasy novels. Unfortunately, in the video games I’ve played so far, there are very few, if any, female characters who left much of an impression, and even fewer who were the star of the show. The only two that come to mind are the sun goddess Amaterasu (Ammy) from Okami and Aurora from Child of Light. (Both of these are beautiful games with unique designs and gorgeous musical scores, and I highly recommend playing them.) Or maybe I just haven’t played enough games, but either way I’m going to focus on books that I read with interesting, unique, or kick-ass protagonists… who happen to be girls. (I apologize in advance for any mispronunciations.)
WARNING: THE DESCRIPTIONS BELOW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!
Continue reading “Where Are the Ladies? Female Protagonists in Fantasy”
Character Charisma: A Collaboration with R.E. Myles
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Readers, you are getting a special treat this week. Rather than having me ramble aimlessly, you get to have two of us rambling aimlessly! Yup, this is my first ever writing collaboration. The awesome co-author this week is my good friend and fellow writer, R.E. Myles. She suggested exploring why we are drawn to certain characters and types of characters in books and video games. We decided that the Q&A format with seven questions would be the best way to answer this so you can get a clear idea of what (and who) we like in stories. For the record, both Myles and I read a lot of fantasy, and when we say “video games,” we’re primarily referring to third person roleplaying games. With such similar tastes, there is some overlap in our answers. We apologize to the authors in advance for any mispronunciations. Enjoy!
Continue reading “Character Charisma: A Collaboration with R.E. Myles”
Reflections on Star Wars
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Happy Star Wars Day everyone!
I’m sure many folks are tired of seeing Star Wars-related posts, videos, pictures, sales, and general internet celebrations by now… but I don’t think I’ve ever shared my own formative experience with these films. I’m not old enough to have seen the Original Trilogy in theaters (Episodes IV, V, and VI), but I was one of the young people who went to see the Prequel Trilogy on the big screen (Episodes I, II, and III). Children growing up after the release of the Prequel Trilogy will never experience a time, like I did, when there were only three Star Wars films.
I don’t remember exactly how old I was when I first watched Star Wars. Probably seven or eight years old at a guess, maybe even six. I don’t remember my very first viewing or my initial reaction to them. I don’t recall ever hearing or seeing anything about Star Wars before this point. (I was shy, home-schooled, and far more interested in My Little Pony and Grand Champions than with space ships.) One of the earliest memories I do have is of holding the VHS tape of The Empire Strikes Back, entranced by the cover. I’m not sure if this took place before I actually watched the movies or after; I was fond of sneaking peeks at films and books that were outside my age range. (I used to slink over to the Adult Fiction section of the library like a little wanna-be ninja. It felt so… illicit; I always expected to be caught and booted back to the children’s area by a librarian.) In any case, I must have liked A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, because I watched them again.
And again.
And again.
Back from (Re)Generation Who!
I’m back!
Sorry for the delay, but it took a while to write everything up and sort through the photos I wanted to upload. Also, I will update this entry with links to any of the panels that were filmed and put on Youtube or another video streaming service, if I can find them. If anyone else finds one, let me know, send me the link, and I’ll add it! Photos from the con are going up on my cosplay DeviantART account if you want to check those out.
The last weekend in March was absolutely amazing! I went to my first non-anime convention, a Doctor Who con called “(Re)Generation Who” in Maryland. It’s a brand new con, and man, I was blown away with how awesome it was. Even better, I got to debut my favorite and most comfortable costume to date: Donna Noble in her outfit from the episode “Journey’s End.”
THE COSTUME:
Donna Noble is my favorite Companion of the “New Who” (as the 2005 reboot/continuation of Doctor Who was called while I was at the con.) She’s older, curvier, sassier, and just an all-around wonderful character. The actress who plays her, Catherine Tate, is amazing. Her body type and clothing choices are very close to how I look and what I like to wear, and I think the outfit from her final episode as a companion, “Journey’s End” is the most iconic. So I decided to do that for my costume:
Updates On The Fly
Greetings all!
My apologies, but the Audio Editions of The Cat’s Cradle, including #ThrowbackThursday, must be put on hold for a while. I’ve (finally) started taking anti-depressants, and a pernicious side effect is not being able to read text, any kind of text, for more than a half hour without getting a nasty headache. (Sometimes I can’t even manage five minutes. So far painkillers don’t touch it.) And even though I am ecstatic about the arrival of spring, the changing season wreaks havoc on my sinuses. I tend to be out of commission for a week or two, trying to keep my head from exploding.
As a result, I must be very careful with my time, and finishing Ravens and Roses is more important to me than anything else. So, it may be a while before I write another substantial blog entry or record an Audio Edition. Depending on whether or not this side effect diminishes, I may not do another month of LeNoWriCha for a while either.
The upside is, having a limited amount of time to write has really focused my attention. A scene that has been eluding me for over a year has finally been written! (I knew what needed to happen, I just… hadn’t bothered to actually write out the scene.) Less really can be more. I am more motivated to do things, so I feel like life is starting the long, slow slog towards improvement.
Thank you for your patience and understanding. Stay awesome, read often, and keep writing!
The Cat's Cradle : On Hiatus! 