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.

Fighting for Green Lantern TAS

I had the creative wind knocked out of my sails this morning by the news that Green Lantern: The Animated Series has been canceled.

I’ll admit, I started sobbing. When the tears faded, rage replaced them. The utter unfairness of it shakes me to the core. If a show is bad and gets no views, it gets canceled. If it’s bad and gets lots of views, it lives. If it’s good and gets lots of views, it gets canceled. If it’s good and gets no views, it gets canceled. Anyone notice the unfair pattern emerging? Why does SpongeBob live and Green Lantern get canned? I would much rather have my kids watch Green Lantern than half the shit that’s put up on television. In fact, after watching the first season (packaged as “Season 1, Part 1”), I actually said that I would have kids, just for the chance to have them grow up watching Green Lantern. (And that’s coming from someone who has said on many occasions that kids are the last thing I want.)

To Warner Brothers and Cartoon Network: I can see no reason why Green Lantern: TAS should be canceled. Both kids and adults love it, the ratings have been high, there is a massive amount of fan support, and it was even nominated for Best General Audience Animated TV Production at the 39th Annie Awards. The characters are wonderful, relateable, and interesting. The plots are engaging, well-written, and tightly knit. It has breath-taking cinematography and a neat visual style. (A lot of people complain about the “cheap-looking” CGI animation. Really? It’s stylized, but not bad, perhaps more reminiscent of a video game animation than traditional, but that doesn’t make the emotion less compelling or the action less cool.) The music is beautiful. And we love it. WHAT MORE COULD YOU POSSIBLY WANT?! WHY ARE YOU CANCELING THIS SHOW?! WHY?! IT MAKES NO SENSE! (There is a horrible kind of sense, but it’s so materialistic and sickening that I refuse to acknowledge it.)

Right now I’m going everywhere I can find places to get the word out about this petition: “Cartoon Network; Warner Bros: Bring back Young Justice and Green Lantern: The Animated Series.” Please, if you hate seeing good shows get canceled, please sign this petition and pass it along. If you don’t want to sign it, please just pass it on. There may be friends of yours who don’t realize what has happened and, like me, don’t want to let this go without a fight.

The Fear of Finishing

This year, I made the commitment to complete The Mariner Sequence – Book 1: Ravens and Roses by the end of 2013. I have committed myself to, not only finishing writing it, but also editing it. You’d think I’d be happy about this. And, in a way, I am. I’ve made significant progress. I just broke 180 pages yesterday. This is the point that writer’s work towards, the place where many fall down. The hardest part of any work is finishing it.

And I’m terrified.

Continue reading “The Fear of Finishing” →

Page Counts, Words, Rosemary, and Time

First post of 2013! Here’s hoping it’s better than 2012.

On my last entry, I asked my readers (or any other random passers-by) to ask me questions. What kinds of topics would you like to see me write about? The first is paraphrased as follows:

A) How do you write consistently every day?

B) How do you decide to measure your progress: with word/page counts or time spent? Which is best?

Continue reading “Page Counts, Words, Rosemary, and Time” →

2012: The Year In Review

I can’t believe I started this blog back at the end of June 2011. I thought I’d only started this year! Time sure does fly, doesn’t it? Maybe it only seems like I started this year because I had to step back and write every other week rather than every week. I’m glad that I made that decision, although it seems like I’m still writing my entries the day they are “due.” (No doubt a holdover from my school days when I procrastinated absolutely everything. Even my senior paper I wrote the night before it was due. But I got a “B” so I call that a win.)

I’ve covered a lot of territory this year. In some ways, I wonder if I have anything else to say about writing. Sometimes I look back and wonder, “Well…what else can I talk about?” Sometimes I feel like I don’t really have the authority to talk about some subjects because I’m not good at them, have little experience with them, or simply because “I’m not published.” But I’ve realized that being published doesn’t mean you have all the answers or know what you’re talking about. I might not be published yet, not even by a vanity press, but at least I’m writing. I really took to heart Chuck Wendig’s admonishment of “aspiring” writers: “If you write: you are a writer. If you do not write: you are not.” (Whether you write well is a whole different story.)

Continue reading “2012: The Year In Review” →

A Writer’s Mantras

The first week of National Novel Writing Month was glorious. I was consistently ahead of my daily word count, I had a routine that not only allowed me to write, but encouraged me to write. It got me off to a good start so that when I flagged in the middle of the month, I could still grind through and reach a total 50,065 words. I’m not entirely satisfied because a significant portion of my NaNo entry was fan fiction and various rants about life, but it achieved its purpose: it established habit.

I have never felt quite as focused on writing as I have in that first week. Writing became all-encompassing. My world. My life. And while everything else crumbles around me or changes at lightning speed, I have created some rather intense writing mantras. They may not be for everyone. But these mantras are what give my life structure, my existence meaning, that keep me moving forward when all I want to do is break:

This is my life now. There is nothing beyond this computer in this room.

The rest of my life is nonsense; writing is the only thing that matters.

THERE IS NO LIFE! THERE IS ONLY WRITING!

This is the point. This is it. This is the reason I exist.

Write every day.

Everything else is my life is fluff. It’s extra. This, writing, every day, is what matters. Not my day job, not socializing, not even my family.

Geek La Femme Shout-Out

Hi everyone! Just a short entry this time, since life has been a little crazy. I’m currently a little sleep-deprived after going to see Steven Spielberg give a speech at the 149th Dedication Ceremony of the Gettysburg Address. (My friends and I were within 5 feet of him at one point! *happy nerd dance*). So that was very cool. (And I have the best onii-san EVER! He gave me a Nintendo DS, so now I can play Okamiden! ^_^ Hooray!) So, between that, seeing friends, various life events, and a bad encounter with Pizza Hut food, things have been a little hectic.

The biggest eater of my time has been National Novel Writing Month. Yep, this is my third year and my second serious attempt at reaching 50,000 words in 30 days. I was doing well for a while, but hit some snags this week so I’m about 4,000 words behind schedule. Hopefully I’ll make that up this week. As a result, most of my attention has been on filling my daily word count rather than thinking of topics for The Cat’s Cradle.

However, I do have some good writing news! I am now a weekly contributor to the nerd blogsite GEEK LA FEMME! While my blog is dedicated to writing, Geek La Femme is dedicated to all things nerdy with a mostly-female writing staff. I’ve been enjoying the opportunity to fangirl squeal on Geek La Femme, something that I don’t get the chance to do as often here on The Cat’s Cradle (since this blog is dedicated to writing.) Speaking of which, I need to get back to my NaNo entry. So much to do!

So if you are interested in reading about some awesome, weird nerd topics, like stop-motion animation, fantasy maps, Latin codes, Halo and Skyrim, and weird music videos, please stop on by! You can also follow us on Twitter at @GeekLaFemme. Hope you enjoy!

How To Gain Power

Election Day. Anyone else sick of the endless debates, backbiting, and overall nonsense? I know I am. However, I do think it is a rather appropriate time to talk about power.

I find the politics of reality range from soul-crushingly boring to enraging to utterly laughable. However, I do find the cut-throat politics of fantasy worlds fascinating. (Perhaps that’s because the outcome of fantasy politics won’t have an effect on my own life.) Alas, I am not particularly good at writing about politics, probably because I’m too honest for my own good. It’s hard for me to come up with political scenarios on my own, but if you give me a scenario, I can usually see a couple ways the situation could go and who would benefit most from what choice.

When writing about politics, one must remember this: the goal of any politician is to amass power. That power can be used for good or ill, for the betterment of the country as a whole or for personal gain or any myriad range of combinations in between. Politics is rarely painted in black and white. But in order to change things or have influence, no matter what the intention is, one needs power.

WAYS TO GAIN POWER:

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The Dogs of War

Warfare and fantasy go hand in hand. There is something visceral and exhilarating about medieval-style combat…although I personally would never want to be in one. It may be cool to watch elves, orcs, and horsemen fight each other, but in reality, it was brutal, bloody, and no fun at all. Still, that doesn’t stop writers, including myself, from crafting massive campaigns and emotionally charged duels. What can I say? Humans love to fight.

Now, please understand that I am not a soldier. Everything I know about war I have picked up from reading, watching movies, listening to my dad lecture on history, and plain common sense. If you want to learn what should and should not be done in war, I recommend reading a lot of history books. Human history is littered with good and bad generals, close calls, narrow escapes, massacres, ambushes, traps, intrigues, bad weather, advantageous terrain, underdogs, overlords, battles that went the way they were supposed to and many that did not. History is the best teacher. I also highly recommend keeping a copy of Brassey’s Encyclopedia of Land Forces and Warfare beside your desk. Its focus is on modern armies, but much of the tactics, concern with morale, supplies, terrain, weather, etc. can be applied to old-style armies. And I’m sure there are plenty of other books at the library covering most efficient ways of killing people.

Adding magic and fantasy creatures into the mix can be a little tricky because, obviously, such things aren’t a factor on Earth, so there isn’t an easy answer about how wizards or giants can affect the course of a battle. That’s where your own creativity and judgment come in.

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Pride and Perception

As we approach the November elections and debates, both formal and informal heat up, I’ve noticed a distressing trend:

It’s easy to fall into the mindset that everyone sees the world the way you do. And those who don’t are “obviously” delusional, blind, or just plain stupid.

We all fall into this kind of trap in our daily interactions (moreso when intrinsic bias is challenged), and, since our stories and characters come from us, it’s also easy for them to follow the same pattern. I think that’s actually one reason why flat characters are so pervasive; their creator hasn’t tried looking beyond the obvious or from a different perspective. After all, each one of us is shaped by our experiences, our raising, how we interact with the world and how the world interacts with us. No two people even experience with world in the same manner…literally.

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Preserving Public and Private Libraries

I still have my first library card. Granted, it’s long expired and returning to that library would be an hour commute, but I still have the card. I’ve been going to libraries my entire life, and it baffles me when adults enter the library and ask to get a library card, “but I’ve never had one before.” (And for at least half of them, it’s not like they just moved to the area. They’ve lived here their whole lives and never had a card.) I know I can’t keep the look of surprise off my face, although I do refrain from asking, “How have you lived?”

My family already had a substantial collection of books; both of my parents are avid readers. However, a public library has more resources and more space than a private homeowner, so it’s a perfect resource if you don’t want to break the bank and fill your house floor to ceiling with books. We also never had commercial TV of any kind (never have and never will.) We went to Blockbuster a few times, but it was always so expensive. Why spend $3 to rent a movie for three days when you could go to the library and rent a copy for free for two or three weeks? Libraries allow you to check out favorite books and movies over and over, plus you can sample hundreds if not thousands of new material to see if you like it. And then, if you’re like me and you enjoy something enough, you go buy a copy for yourself.

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