#andruevolution
#strongwoman
I don't think there's anything we do in life that someone somewhere couldn't make us feel bad about. By "bad" I mean guilty. Guilty for doing too much of this or not doing enough of that. I'm not talking about petty things, although what's petty to some may not be petty to others, and so I'll try to be sensitive.
For example; when I gave my first finished manuscript (an urban fantasy story) to an editor friend who knew me well, meaning he knew me well enough to know I had suffered some things in my life, he accusingly asked why I didn't write about what had happened to me. There are two implications here. One, he implied I had an obligation to bare my soul. It was my duty. I agree helping people is a genuinely good thing, but I don't think you can guilt someone into it. And what may have been the most galling was that he insinuated that if I write fiction I wasn't imbuing my stories with my truth. And in turn I wasn't being honest to my readers.
He felt my art should reflect my truth inside, (a sentiment I agree with), but he was arrogant enough to assume that because I wrote urban fantasy fiction it didn't. And I'll admit I take offense when people conclude that because I write about vampires and magik there isn't any of my truth in it. There are many people who subscribe to this. Many. And it's infuriating.
But every once in a while you meet a person who reads your writing, and they see you through the pages, because something in your story mirrors something in them. They see the universal truths of hardship and pain and suffering, and also love and friends and family, through the spaceships, the vampires, and the werewolves. They see the external for what it is, a safe place to tell a story of real human emotion through the characters inhabiting those strange places.
It's about the people.
It's always been about the people.
It will always be about the people.
The rest is window dressing, the fantasy part of the story. The part that suspends the reader in a safe cocoon so the horrors and the happiness of the characters can be experienced. That backdrop sparks the reader's imagination into dreaming of bigger and better places, so that maybe one day the reader will become the writer, and write their own truth in whatever way they see fit. That's the cycle of art, like life, round and round it goes.
If I draw a line from the page to the real world — the opposite of the way we usually look at art — but if I do that . . . I think maybe . . . if we all try to remember that life is about people and what's inside of them, not their surroundings, I think maybe we'd all get along a little better; and not judge each other with "have to's" and "should haves," or any other preconceived notions or judgements that plague our own psyche.
Okay, so I just realized I was supposed to tell you where to get organic schleem, as the title of the post suggests. But I'm really late for an appointment, so next time!! ;)
If you'r feeling like you could sink your teeth into a good urban fantasy book about now, go to Amazon.com and read about Anastasia and her truths!
#urbanfantasy
#strongwoman
I don't think there's anything we do in life that someone somewhere couldn't make us feel bad about. By "bad" I mean guilty. Guilty for doing too much of this or not doing enough of that. I'm not talking about petty things, although what's petty to some may not be petty to others, and so I'll try to be sensitive.
For example; when I gave my first finished manuscript (an urban fantasy story) to an editor friend who knew me well, meaning he knew me well enough to know I had suffered some things in my life, he accusingly asked why I didn't write about what had happened to me. There are two implications here. One, he implied I had an obligation to bare my soul. It was my duty. I agree helping people is a genuinely good thing, but I don't think you can guilt someone into it. And what may have been the most galling was that he insinuated that if I write fiction I wasn't imbuing my stories with my truth. And in turn I wasn't being honest to my readers.
He felt my art should reflect my truth inside, (a sentiment I agree with), but he was arrogant enough to assume that because I wrote urban fantasy fiction it didn't. And I'll admit I take offense when people conclude that because I write about vampires and magik there isn't any of my truth in it. There are many people who subscribe to this. Many. And it's infuriating.
But every once in a while you meet a person who reads your writing, and they see you through the pages, because something in your story mirrors something in them. They see the universal truths of hardship and pain and suffering, and also love and friends and family, through the spaceships, the vampires, and the werewolves. They see the external for what it is, a safe place to tell a story of real human emotion through the characters inhabiting those strange places.
It's about the people.
It's always been about the people.
It will always be about the people.
The rest is window dressing, the fantasy part of the story. The part that suspends the reader in a safe cocoon so the horrors and the happiness of the characters can be experienced. That backdrop sparks the reader's imagination into dreaming of bigger and better places, so that maybe one day the reader will become the writer, and write their own truth in whatever way they see fit. That's the cycle of art, like life, round and round it goes.
If I draw a line from the page to the real world — the opposite of the way we usually look at art — but if I do that . . . I think maybe . . . if we all try to remember that life is about people and what's inside of them, not their surroundings, I think maybe we'd all get along a little better; and not judge each other with "have to's" and "should haves," or any other preconceived notions or judgements that plague our own psyche.
Okay, so I just realized I was supposed to tell you where to get organic schleem, as the title of the post suggests. But I'm really late for an appointment, so next time!! ;)
If you'r feeling like you could sink your teeth into a good urban fantasy book about now, go to Amazon.com and read about Anastasia and her truths!
#urbanfantasy
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