Myth, the Universe, and Everything

It used to be that on Tuesdays, I'd open my LJ feed and get bombarded with teasers from the various authors I followed. I don't know that Teaser Tuesday is still a thing, but after chatting with the other Substraters, we decided we'd promote that old tradition with our own Tuesday Tidbits. Each Tuesday (we hope!), we'll be posting a tidbit over at the Substrate blog from our various works. This week, Vlad Barash kicks us off with an excerpt from his current WIP, LukOL. I hope you'll check it out, and if you're not already subscribed to our feed on LJ, you can do that here.

Other folks are also making new appearances online -- I just discovered that Baeg Tobar writer friend Daniel Tyler Gooden has a facebook page for his writing. He's currently promoting his recent self-published novel, Cinnamon, Cayenne, and Fire.



My PW editor for SFF reviews, Rose Fox, who blogs over at Genreville, is soon to be editing a Kickstarted anthology, Long Hidden: Speculative Fiction from the Margins of History. They've just hit a stretch goal that will be opening them to more submissions, and if they hit the next stretch goal ($9000 away with 12 days left), they'll be increasing the art to go in the anthology. I'm very excited about this book, and I hope that more folks will consider contributing, especially if you appreciate multicultural speculative fiction.

Clearly I'm promoting more Kickstarters than I used to -- what Kickstarter projects do you think deserve some extra love?

It's one of the wonders of the age that I have never met most of my coworkers in person. I realized when reading one of the science fiction stories about people living in an online reality that actually, that's not too far different from what my life as a writer is like. I contract with, network with, and hang around virtual water coolers with other freelancers who work in bubbles like I do, or editors with whom I'll never share a real world cup of coffee. The really amazing part about this, however, is that you actually do get a feeling for these people you may never meet, and you get to know them about as well as you know coworkers the next cubicle over. Some you know better than others.

It's been my tremendous privilege to get to know Daniel Tyler Gooden in this way. He's a wonderfully talented writer (he's the author of the BT novel The Unmade Man and cowriter of the main storyline web comic, The Torn God), a great editor, and an ace with keeping continuity in his head. As the Baeg Tobar content editor, he worked pretty closely with lyster and me when we first started fleshing out Blood and Tumult, and once our draft is done, I imagine we'll be chatting more frequently again. I'm also hoping we'll start talking parenting: his son sounds just a bit older than Bug, and it's always exciting to watch kids just a bit older than her do momentous things -- like take their first steps -- when I know that's in Bug's near future.

Without further ado, here's a musing from Daniel on my favorite subject: mythology in fiction.

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I had been mulling around the importance of mythology in fiction when Alana asked me if I would like to guest blog. Knowing she is a fan of the topic, it seemed destined to be the subject of the day.

Two works recently had me thinking about mythology’s importance in fiction, specifically for world building. I read Patrick Rothfuss’s The Name of the Wind. In the same week, I ran across an article in Analog, September ’09, by Richard A. Lovett, "From Atlantis to Canoe-Eating Trees: Geomythology Comes of Age."

Rothfuss has a well-developed world, much of it due to his main character, Kvothe, being born into a traveling group of entertainers. Stories spill out in every direction, as Kvothe performs with his family and learns of the legends and lore that are the core of the troupes’ trade. Rothfuss takes it one step further with Kvothe’s father's quest to writing an accurate song around the world’s greatest boogieman, the Chandrian. What I liked best about the Chandrian is that they are so feared that the only place you hear their name not whispered is in the play songs of children. Needless to say, the Chandrian take a big part in the storyline as it develops.

The use of bards, minstrels and storytellers to flesh out a world certainly is not new. For me, though, Rothfuss used it so well that the importance of mythology for building solid back-story really drove home. I felt I had a solid sense of not just the history of Rothfuss’s world, but why its people were who they were.

Lovett’s article further shored up the great value of mythology with a number of excellent examples of our own legends explained through the study of Geology and science. The story that stuck with me is from the Indian legends of the Pacific Northwest.

Twin sons of the Great Spirit, Wyeast and Pahto, spent their time feuding from opposite sides of the Columbia River. The cause of their spat was the beautiful woman Tah-one-lat-clah. Tired of the sons throwing fire and rock at each other, the Great Spirit intervened. To honor the brother’s truce, the Great Spirit built a stone bridge over the Columbia, near present day Bonneville Dam. Long story short, the brothers couldn’t keep the peace, accidently set the woman on fire, and all three retired to be later known as Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood, and, as Tah-one-lat-clah, Mt. St. Helens.

It is a good myth -- just a good story -- until you look at Louis and Clark’s journals. They found tall trees submerged in a slow section of the Columbia. It was figured that a large landslide had blocked the river. Geological studies of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood show evidence of eruptions several hundred years ago, and Mt. St. Helens somewhere in the late 1400s. Dating on the tree trunks in the Columbia put the landslide early to mid 1400s, right in line with the legend. Lovett produces many more such examples, and if you like this kind of detective work, hunt down this article.

For myself, I have used mythology a handful of times in a world-building project, Baeg Tobar, Alana and I are involved with. Needing a legend surrounding a tall natural stone tower, I wrote of a curious boy who wished to see all the world. Climbing for days, he reached the top but found his curiosity unabated. Following the gods' advice (everyone knows you can hear godly voices better from high altitudes) he casts himself off the tower. The boy hits the ground, shattering into hundreds of crows who spread their race around the globe, ever watchful and curious. The best part of writing this as fiction is it might be a story wrapped around a more plausible event, or maybe it is just true.

Thanks for lending me your time, even though, if you are a writer as well, you know you should be writing.

I'm paging through all the e-mail in my inbox that can't just be archived and realizing that I've been keeping some of it around to post here in a link soup edition. Things are looking up, as far as finally getting caught up is concerned, but I'm taking it easy, because I think everyone needs a day or two, now and again, to just breathe.

On to the links!

• I did an interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith (cynleitichsmith) about the autobiographies project. It's at her lj and associated other places (like her main blog) that she syndicates to. I hope you enjoy reading about the project as much as I enjoy talking about it!


• Egyptian author Marwa Rakha, whom I met over at SheWrites, has uploaded a new English edition of her novel, which she's released independently due to troubles with Egyptian publishers. She's giving it away for free, so if you're interested in Egyptian fiction, check it out!


• The big Baeg Tobar relaunch is scheduled for October 2nd. I'm really excited to see the stories that I've been working on come into existence in a public sphere -- along with tales by Max Gladstone (lyster) and Daniel Tyler Gooden, among others. The art work previews are, as I expect from the BT artists, stunning, and I'm excited to see the project up and alive again.


• cinda_cite did a great entry about how books you're reading influence each other by proximity, mentioning her contest win from here at Myth, the Universe, and Everything. I've not had the time to actually comment on it over there, but I hope you'll pop over to read it.


• C. E. Murphy also had a great blog post up recently about how she never noticed a lack of women in fantasy, which I think is a nice counterpoint to all the discussions about how strong women aren't present in the genre. Like Murphy, I've always been able to find strong female heroes in my fantasy novels, but I acknowledge that this is because I grew up in the era of Alanna the Lioness, Lady Aerin, and Harry Crew. In younger books, there was almost always a mix of girls and boys as heroes (Narnia, Edward Eager's novels, etc.), and by the time I was reading YA fantasy (still a new genre), there were scores of girls taking on traditional boy roles to be their own heroes. This isn't to say that there isn't a lack of women heroes, written by men, in epic fantasy (which seems to be part of the argument), but that I find Murphy's perspective on the thing refreshing, and pretty reflective of my own experience. (She doesn't mention Robert Jordan's women, who are politically the power of the world [and include some admirable heroines, despite the weird love trinity that forms around the central hero], nor Brandon Sanderson's (mistborn's) women, who show up as capable, independent heroines with as much meat as his men [at least in what I've read so far -- he has books out I haven't had the chance to read yet]. I think the gender work of those two epic fantasy writers are at least worth noting.)

Now, off to convince the day that I've begun, and to prepare for my pre-natal exercise class in New Haven. I've been itching for some new Nalini Singh, and she's among the authors featured in Must Love Hellhounds (as is Ilona Andrews/ilona_andrews, who I'm always glad to have more fiction from), so I may stop at the B&N downtown and pick up a copy, to further encourage relaxing alongside catching up. :)

As the first Sunday of the month, today was Mythic Greece day, and I had a lovely time in the company of heroes. This was my first attempt at presenting one of the well known heroes of the Trojan War as a child (we're just enough before the Trojan war that these characters are all around, but are youths and young teens). I'm finding myself fonder of Odysseus as an eleven-year-old than I was of him in The Odyssey, but I suspect that's because I'm trying to make him likable to the players (since they'll be traveling with him starting next session, if all goes well).

This was my first attempt at running a 4e session without any combat, and I was roundly thwarted. The players wanted combat, and the 4e rules are really designed so that combat is an important focal point of any adventure. The skill challenges are great, and we had a lot of good role play--but all the cool stuff the PCs can do really revolves around their combat stats. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this. Combat is certainly imperative to this type of adventure game, and I pretty much like the 4e rules that have been created for it. But I also like adventures where combat can be avoided, evaded, talked around, or otherwise handled--or at least those in which combat is neither a major focus nor necessary to the plot. That said, as a 4e player (my main 4e PC at this point is a fighter), I know I'd be disappointed if there was no fighting in a module, simply because that's really what my character is good at.

That said, it took me all of five minutes to piece together a combat encounter that was not only appropriate in challenge and to the plot, but was also exactly the right amount of xp to get four of the players to 2nd level. I think that's really a great strength of 4e: the speed at which impromptu encounters can be created.

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In other, completely different news, a short story I wrote awhile ago for a Dark Quest anthology, Crown Tales, edited by dqg_neal, is up for order online. I got this gig through Empty Room Studios, and while I didn't work directly with the Dark Quest editors, I definitely enjoyed having the chance to play in their world. Their material is very rich, and they're playing with some really neat religious concepts--which I made heavy use of in my short story, "Choosing Fate." The anthology also features fiction by Mark Adams and Daniel Tyler Gooden, ERS compatriots of mine. (Mark worked on Steampunk Musha's most recent incarnation, and Daniel is a Baeg Tobar writer.) If you enjoy short fantasy fiction, go ahead and peek over at the sale page and give it a look. :)

Just had a new review posted over at the Tangled Muse forums (which are related to Empty Room Studios, Baeg Tobar, and new forum partner Bean Leaf Studios). There's a lot of fun stuff going on over there, including this review of Into the Reach by Daniel Taylor Gooden.

(Daniel is the writer of the Baeg Tobar online novel The Unmade Man. At the bottom of the review is a link to his homepage, where he has a lot of great short fiction posted.)

A big thanks needs to go to everyone who advised me to expand the villains in Into the Reach (which includes my publisher, editor, and first reader: Arielle Kesweder), because at least two of the reviews I've gotten have mentioned Mordyss and been very complimentary about his development. This is where I say it: You guys were right. Thanks!

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Quick question for the other writers out there: Do you sometimes find that one of the characters you weren't as interested in either really needs to be expanded during the editing process, or is one of the favorite characters of your readers?

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In other fun news, Julie Kenner added me as a MySpace friend, which is exceedingly nifty. I may have added her first, but I honestly don't remember. Either way, it was exciting to find her on my pending list! (Julie Kenner is the author of Carpe Demon, a novel about a demon-hunting soccer mom, and its sequel, California Demon. Must reads for Buffy fans!)

Speaking of Buffy, I got my copy of Season 8 #1 at one of the local comic shops yesterday. They still had a stack of them, so if you haven't found your copy yet and you're in New England, try New Haven's Alternate Universe.

I'm still catching up on livejournal, but actually met a couple of deadlines, so I'm feeling a lot more in control of my whole schedule. I don't expect this feeling to last... but I can hope!