Not All Your Characters Should Look Like You

Something caught my attention while I was looking at a literary agent's page. They wrote that they didn't want books that featured a certain race of people, unless they were written by someone of that race.

Which I get. I'll bet a lot of what she's seen is white people butchering other cultures. 

But shouldn't we encourage people to learn about other cultures? As long as they do it well and respectfully? 

I definitely don't want to write about only white people. I think that's problematic on a number of levels. Especially considering the world my stories are set in.

 Chacoan Peccary

Something something something, we win

Happy Thanksgiving! On this holiday of gratitude, I will give you a completely unrelated post.

Last month I took a long train ride, and wanted to use the time to do some writing. I finally decided to pick up Arith's story. It had been long-neglected as I went off to work on other writing projects. It's a far more complicated story than I expected. It spans a year of more with the characters, and there are a lot of characters. I'd left off writing just before the team was going to do a crazy game, to help boost morale. It's really a turning point for a couple of the characters, with their confidence. And their ability to just have fun, honestly. 

More stuff needs to happen after that, but I don't know what. Instead of sitting and agonizing over it, I decided to just plunge straight into the finale. Well, not exactly straight in. It's a long build to the climax, and it has a couple peaks of varying heights. 

At least now I'll have a much better sense of where the story's heading. I only had the most vague idea of the ending before I started writing it. But as usual, after spending that time with the characters, they've helped me see where they're going. 

I've almost finished. I'm still not sure what to put in some of the blank spaces I've left through the middle. In the last, largest one gap before the finale, I wrote a note to myself. So I'll remember that actual content needs to go in there. What does the note say? "Something something something." And why does it say that? Well, it's a line from Nimoma. "Something something something, we win." 

Meeting the Princesses

Earlier this year, I discovered that some Disney Princesses would be making an appearance at Sacanime. No, not people dressed up as princesses. But the original voice actors.

I'd never been to that anime convention before. It's kind of far away, and I didn't have anyone to go with me. I knew that Sacanime was smaller than Fanime, but that it got more big-name guest speakers. Sacanime has a booth at Fanime where they sell signed prints of some of these guests. I guess trying to tempt Fanime people to switch over to Sacanime? Because of that booth, I knew that they got Disney characters. 

But this time, I couldn't resist. They had two of my favorite Disney Princesses at Sacanime. I'm not sure if I would have made the journey for only one of them, but two was too much to resist. Belle and Pocahontas (technically the singing voice of Pocahontas, but Colors of the Wind is one of my two favorite Disney songs). And as a bonus, there was Jasmine, Tiana, and Ariel.

I left early in the morning and made the long drive. I relied on my phone to give me directions, which luckily worked well (I'm always suspicious of letting the computer guide me - I've had some bad experiences). When I got there, I discovered that Sacanime is very badly organized. I arrived early and got into line. The line ran around the outside of the building, around two corners of the block. There were no signs anywhere. It was only by luck that after half an hour of waiting, I overheard someone walking by. They said you had to go somewhere else to pick up your tickets. Even if you'd preordered them. I would have been waiting in line for over an hour, only to be turned away at the door. The lady in line next to me was in the same boat. Luckily the people behind us offered to save our spot in line. Who knows how many blocks long the line was by now. Except there were no signs telling you where to go. Someone finally pointed us to a building ON A DIFFERENT BLOCK. Inside, there were STILL no signs. You had to go DOWNSTAIRS to finally pick up passes. What a nightmare. There was also absolutely no information about any of this when you booked tickets online. 

We finally made it in. Who knows how many people were turned away at the door. Needless to say, I'm not impressed with Sacanime as a whole. Can you tell by my overuse of caplocks? 

Watch me be really weird and refer to the actors by the Princess names instead of their own names. 

I ended up in line for Belle's autograph first. When Paige O'Hara arrived, she spent a few minutes getting ready. The guy in line next to me had a little girl with him. He peppered her with questions, which she patiently answered. She said that two of her favorite Belle lines are "you are positively primeval," and "some people use their imagination." It turns out that she's good friends with Gaston's voice actor, and had been well before the movie. Which is awesome and hilarious. 

I'd brought a book to read while waiting in line - a Tom Brown Jr. book about tracking. I held it up, joking that I related to Belle because I was always reading. Belle asked what the book was about. I started to say it was a book about nature, then mid-sentence I tried to elaborate a bit more. I ended up saying "It's a nature tracking book." Well, it wasn't a totally nonsensical statement. I'm better at talking in strange situations now that I've given so many tours, but clearly not immune to nerves when meeting characters (aka actors) I love. "I like beasts and books," I told her. 

I'd never paid for an autograph. Not that I've gotten many of them. So I definitely didn't expect autographs to cost so much. And there were tons of different tiers of prices. It cost more if you brought something of your own to autograph, instead of taking one of the prints that were provided. Or if you wanted a figure autographed. Some of them had a full menu of different prices. Including extra costs to take a picture with them. How... complicated. And most of them didn't take credit card. By some remarkable coincidence, I had exactly $1 left after paying the cheapest possible price to meet the princesses. 

I next went to Judy Kuhn. She sang for Pocahontas, but another actress did the speaking voice. There are several instances like that in Disney. It's confusing. I was kinda sad to see that Judy Kuhn's line was so short. I wanted her to be more popular - she's such a beautiful singer. But it meant that I didn't have to wait too long before meeting her. I was surprised to find that she played a version of Cosette. It turns out that I own the stage play DVD that she's in! I never made the connection. But when I went back and watched it, I could definitely hear that it was her. It's the most famous stage version of Les Mis (as far as I know, anyway!) She does an amazing job. And Jasmine/Mulan is in it too! Or at least the person who sings for both characters. She plays Eponine. 

I told Pocahontas that I loved the new movie of Les Mis, but that the Cosette wasn't too great. From her response, I wonder if she misunderstood me and thought I was saying that her version of Cosette wasn't that great. But no! I loved her Cosette. It was the new one that I thought could have been better. 

Then the lines were cut off, because the princesses would all be doing a panel soon. I wandered in that direction, grabbing a little bag of jerky (luckily I'd brought trail mix, because the jerky was the only food I was really able to buy all day). 

I ended up in line for the panel over an hour early. After seeing the line for Kihara-San at Fanime, I knew I'd need to get to this one early. Which was lucky. And it was also good to sit and relax for a little while. I had my book to keep me entertained. 

In the auditorium, they had a row reserved for people who wanted to ask questions. I actually had a question this time, so I got in that row. It was the front row, so that was cool! And as it turned out, I was the second-to-last person who got to ask a question, so it's good that I got there as early as I did. 

The panel was a Q&A session. It's fascinating to hear their insights to the making of the movies. 

Jasmine is the only one who sounds just like her character. She said that they had to change a lot of their script because Robin Williams improved so much of it. From the footage I've seen of him, I believe it. He was an unending well. An amazing guy. It's so sad what happened to him. I'm sure he could have gotten help. 

For my panel question, I asked what it was like to voice act, since voice actors usually have to record separately. I wanted to know if they ever got to know any of the other stars. Belle got them to let her act with Beast. The two of them hit it off and became great friends. Which is so awesome. Tiana, however, was pretty much isolated the whole time. At least from the other actors. There are always other staff packed around during the recording sessions. 

After the panel, I walked around a bit of the convention. It would be a little while before the princesses came back. But finally they did, so I got in more lines to meet them. 

Jasmine recognized me from the panel (Probably thanks to my Haku plush, which I was wearing). She has a really pretty autograph. She used gold ink, and it looked like a tiara on the picture of Jasmine. 

Briefly talked to Ariel.

Tiana's line was the longest. And it was so slow. I realized why as I got near the front of the line. Everyone was telling her what an inspiration she was. As I talked to the girl running the table, she said that now "kids don't have to grow up without a black princess." 

"It took a long time," I agreed. 

Actually, I never got very excited about The Frong Princess. I went back and watched it after this, and realized why. The movie wastes too much time on useless slapstick. And it has one of those speedy romances that Disney used so many times (in the words of Kristoff: "you got engaged to someone you just met that day?") That being said, Anika None Rose is fabulous. And such a good singer. I wish they'd done a better job with her movie. 

She was actually the princess I most enjoyed talking to. She recognized me from the panel too and thanked me for my question. I thanked her for a great panel. One of my story characters is named Noni. I thought I knew the right way to pronounce it, but I wanted to be sure. So I said, "Can I ask the right way to pronounce your middle name?" 

She said that it was pronounced like "no-knee." I was right! And her first name is pronounced "aw-nee-kuh." Not "Aw-nih-kuh." I told her that people say my name wrong all the time too.  She said that my pronunciation made more sense than the mispronunciation. I joked that I was going to tell people that I had her backing. A princess says that this is the right way to say my name! 

The lines took so much time that I could just do a quick walk-through of the convention booths. It was maybe a third or a quarter the size of Fanime. I finished looking around just as the closing announcement played.

A lot of the Sacanime staff were jerks. For example, I tried to take a picture of one of the princess banners. After spending almost all day waiting in lines, I wanted some picture to commemorate it, since I couldn't afford to get pictures taken with them. One guy swept down on me, demanding that I put my camera away. Pissed, I showed him the picture of a banner - no actors in it at all. And he wouldn't even let me take pictures of the banners. Yeah, still not liking Sacanime as a whole, even if they have some great guest speakers. 

I headed out to my car. There was a booth outside selling ice cream. To my amazement, they had cookie cats. So I had to get one. It was really good. I want more. 

I started the long drive back home. There's a bridge that goes over part of the wetland. Earlier this year, I learned that bats roost under the bridge. And to my amazement, clouds of bats were fluttering up from beneath the bridge. Cool!

Since I'm working on my own Beauty and the Beast story (even if it's on temporary hold while I write other stuff), it feels validating to have met the Belle that I grew up with. 

Unofficially Published

Brandon Sanderson is the author of the wildly popular Mistborn series (and a series that I liked even more - Wax and Wayne). He's also released a couple of his unpublished books. One of them he had recorded as an audiobook. Dragonsteel Prime, which I listened to. He wrote it as his honors thesis. It was fascinating to listen to. He said that in hindsight, he was glad it wasn't officially published as his debut novel, because he still had a lot of growing left to do as a writer. I could see what he meant.

I don't think I've ever read an unpublished novel by an author that I'm familiar with. It's amazing to see how their ideas evolved. His writing skill was amazing back then. His plot/characters/worldbuilding were good, but they did leave room for improvement.

I wonder if I'd be brave enough to ever release some of my older stories that I've since abandoned...

Vinny, my la mancha goat buddy.

Holy Crud, I just unearthed a gold mine for Princess Jade. I'm finally writing a bit more of their story, and I'm at the point where I have no idea what's going to happen next. Then Jade stood up and made so much of her character arc fall into place. 

It's amazing what happens when Arith and Jade get trapped in a tunnel with no exit. They really have to put everything on the table.

You go, Jade. You'll do awesome things! We need you in this crazy world.

 I want to comment on the election results... but I'm just too drained to do so. And I really don't want to think about it.

Why?

I have some books of sheet music from musicals, like Coco and Frozen. The music is always for the vocal songs. 

What I want to know is why they don't ever have songs from the soundtrack? In fact, I can't seem to find most soundtrack songs anywhere. I expect that for obscure movies, but not for Disney movies and other big names. The soundtrack music is actually easier to find if the movie isn't a musical. It's like the vocals completely overshadow the instrumental pieces. 

If I want to play them, it means I have to write them out myself, and it's a paaaaiiiin.

Let's Take a Moment to Appreciate Ballister and Bodhi

I recently watched Nimona on Netflix. It had been on my "watch list" for a while. But Nicole recommended it, so I moved it up the list. 

I loved it. 

Spoilers. 

I was at first excited to recognized the voice of the queen as Shadow Weaver (I love her voice).  Kind of sad to see how short-lived that was though. I would have loved more of her. Especially since she seems like a really good queen.

I also recognized the voice of Ballister. My brain worked its way to Star Wars, and all the way to Rogue One. But there it ended, and I had to look up who he was. The pilot, of course! Can we take a moment to go to Rogue One and look at what Bodhi the pilot does? Bodhi risks his life to defect from an evil organization, bringing vital information to the good guys. He ends up in the hands of a paranoid radical, who has an alien suck on his brain. Bodhi then recovers from that, escapes an exploding city, and volunteers to help with ANOTHER dangerous mission to gather more vital information. He is a key person in getting that information out. But then he's killed in the process. Poor guy. Freaking hero. 

So, as usual, previous characters help me get attached to new characters. In a shocking turn of events, my favorite character in the movie isn't the monster, but the knight! 

Maybe because he's the one that befriends and saves the monster. (I like monsters, so I use the term lovingly). Oh man, Ballister gets so tortured through the movie! (In so many ways, including getting beat up a couple times).

The end was so stupid, but I loved it. And I loved the stupid debate about what kind of otter it was. And Nimona has so many cute animal shapes. I love how bouncy she is as a rhino. 

The first time I watched it, I was so concerned for Ballister and Ambrosius's relationship. Ballister gets caught looking so guilty (like shouting about murder). Then Ambrosius frustrated me for a while. He seemed to turn on Ballister pretty easily. But that's not really fair. Ballister also took some convincing to see the truth, and Ambrosius didn't have someone trying to drag him in the right direction. 

Oh man, I think every time I watch it, I cry harder...