Category: Uncategorized

Writing Medicine in fantasy books

There is a lot of work that goes into creating a fictional fantasy world. And if the characters are going to do anything interesting at all, they’re probably going to need medical care at some point. I know mine do. Some of my characters are healers themselves. 

I’m not a medical professional any more than I’m a swordswoman, princess, police officer or any of the other exciting things my characters are. That’s sort of the point of fiction. But I need my characters to sound like they know what they’re doing. So, I need to know at least a little bit about medicine in fantasy settings.

Not actual modern medicine, mind you. That’s not what we’re talking about today. No, we’re talking about medicine as it’s understood in a fictional world. Because that’s a whole different creature.

Medicine has evolved and changed just as much as the rest of our technology. What was a miracle in the past is standard procedure now. And the more I learn about old forms of healing, the happier I am about this. Humans spent a whole lot of time just not knowing what the hell we were doing with medicine. (We also spent a whole lot of time having women and men who knew a good deal more than others. But we had a bad habit of hanging them as witches. That’s another topic for another day.)

The point is that if you’re going to write about medicine in fantasy, sometimes you’re going to write wrong things. Your character is, with absolute certainty, going to think they need to do something foolish, outlandish or just wrong to save someone’s life.

Maybe it even works! 

The point is that what’s right for your character is not necessarily what’s factually accurate.

You’re not making a medical journal. You’re writing a fantasy novel. 

That being said, the medicine in fantasy might not even be right for the time, depending on the world you’ve created. A great example of this is Tamora Pierce’s Briar’s Book. This story is about a plague that sweeps through the village the characters live near. (Feel familiar?) There is medicine in this book that is far too advanced for an equivalent time. But, it’s not science, it’s magic. 

pablo(8)Of course, as Arthur C. Clark said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” A good point to keep in mind. You can disguise science and medicine in fantasy books as magic if you make sure it follows the rules of the world you’ve created.

And those are the only rules that you do have to follow. 

This is possibly the hardest and exciting parts of writing a fantasy book. You can make up whatever rules you want, but then you have to stick to those rules.

Water on this planet is poison.

This flower makes people invisible when you drink it as a tea.

The air in this valley makes people drunk.

Dogs in this village can heal leprosy with their kisses.

It doesn’t matter what world you want your characters to live in. Just make sure the rules stay consistent.

And please, don’t ever take medical advice from a fantasy book. Ever!

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A review of The Middle Finger Project

I know I’ve been talking about this book a lot, and I honestly don’t think it’s going to stop. Not sorry.

If you haven’t been introduced to Ash Ambridge, let me enrich your life by introducing you to her now. She’s probably my favorite person on the internet. Here’s a link to her website if you need proof.

I preordered her book as soon as it came out. And when it arrived, I straight up squeed.

Now, sometimes books I’m that excited about don’t live up to the hype. Not so with this one. It had all the hype. And if you haven’t read it, you need to right now. I shoved it into a friend’s hands as soon as I was done because I truly think that everyone needs to read this book. Because everyone needs the loving, supportive kick in the ass that it gives.

Now, while this book had a lot of greatness in it, I found that some lessons stuck out more than others. Here are the four top things I took away from The Middle Finger Project.

There’s a difference between being successful and being happy. 

Ash did everything right in her early life. She got a good degree, a good job a good house. All the things we are supposed to want, supposed to strive for. 

But all of that is pretty meaningless if we’re not happy with the life we’ve built. And what makes you happy is going to look different than what makes me happy. And that’s okay! Good, even.

When you have to pick between the two, pick happy.

This one is harder than I thought it should be. Because let’s be fair, most of what we do every day is not to make us happy. It’s not to make anyone happy. It’s to survive. We go to work, we cook food, we clean the house. Maybe we have a hobby that we indulge in on the weekends. If we have enough money. If we feel like we can spare the time.

What is the point of surviving if we aren’t doing anything but continuing our survival? Isn’t there more to the world than that? Aren’t there things to create, to experience? Yeah, there are. And I for sure want to do all that, not just survive.

Being scared is okay.

Ash is clear in her book, and I’m going to be clear here too, that choosing to live happily and take risks is scary. You might find yourself, like her, living out of your car.

Or choosing to work as little as possible so you can focus more on your freelance work and art. Showing up day after day for yourself, doing the work you want to be doing before anyone’s willing to pay you for it. Going out and finding people who will pay for it. That’s all scary. And no matter how brave anyone appears to be online, everyone is scared when they’re recreating their own life. 

But being scared doesn’t disqualify you. 

Doing things differently isn’t just okay, it’s essential.

We don’t live in the same world as our parents. And some of us don’t want to be living in the world as it is right now. Most of us just don’t want to continue with our lives as they are right now.

Well, to get different results we’ve got to commit to different actions. So then why are we comparing our actions to people who don’t live how we want to live? 

I don’t want to own a house. I don’t want to have a career in an office. So why would I follow the life choices of someone who has those things? They can’t help me!

These are just four of the hundreds of awesome things I took away from The Middle Finger Project. If you haven’t read it yet, read it now. And when you do, share it with someone you love.

If you want to support this blog, you can! Hit us up on Patreon and get a bonus short story every month. And you’ll have the joy of knowing that you help make Paper Beats World possible. Much love.

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The gift of an extra day

The biggest complaint I have, that most people have in fact, is that there’s not enough time in the day. There are so many things I want to do, want to experience. Even if it’s just an extra hour to watch Animal Planet, I want that time. I know for sure that if you’re reading this, you’ve thought, “If I just didn’t need to sleep, I could have so much more time. Maybe I’ll try crack cocaine.” 

Okay, maybe that’s just me. Just kidding, sleep is sacred. 

Anyway, once every four years we get the gift of not another hour in our day, but a whole extra day. An extra day to work, to play, to read. To pet our dogs and drink coffee. An extra day to go to the park, get ice cream or catch up on cleaning the attic. 

What are you going to do with your extra day? Will you go to work, make dinner with your kids, watch tv? Whatever you do, I hope it’s good.

It’s a Saturday, so I’ll be at my day job. But I get done early, and I’m going to make the most of it. Because this year we get what we always pray for.

More time. 

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SylverMoon Chronicles Vol.VIII is available now

You can get SylverMoon Chronicles on Amazon right now!

Hey, guys. You’ve been hearing from me a lot this week, but that’s because it’s been a busy week. Like, really busy. Please feel free to insert some nervous laughter here. Taxes and deadlines, doctor appointments and book launches.

Vol VIII & Cyber 2020Book launches!

So, let’s talk about the SylverMoom Chronicles. It’s put out by the Confederacy of the Quill, which I’m honored to be a part of. This year includes a story of mine called Fairy Coin. It’s a dark little fantasy with magic, fairies, and blood. A healthy amount of blood. Beware the Faie, everyone.

Of course, my story is only one of many excellent stories by some fantastic authors. Trust me, treat yourself. Here’s a link to get your e-copy right now.

Have a beautiful day, everyone.

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Splitting books between two movies. Room for detail or a money grab?

Books, especially fantasy books, have experienced a great swelling of interest. Streaming services and cable channels scramble for new content. As they can often offer a long-form setup and give more room to tell a story, more and more good books are ending up there. And they’re doing way better there! For instance, the movie Series of Unfortunate Events with Jim Carey was terrible. But the series from Netflix with Neil Patrick Harris was phenomenal. Seriously, if you haven’t seen it, block out some time and binge it.

As an answer to this, movie companies have started looking for ways to give more space to tell stories the right way. They’re doing this by splitting books into multiple movies. 

Sometimes this works. Sometimes it doesn’t.

I am the first person to complain about books being made into movies. They always leave out the best parts! There’s always some scene or character I was excited to see that just never happens. And why did they never happen? Because they weren’t considered essential to the plot, so they were taken out for time.

Having two movies’ worth of time allows for the whole story to be told. Things that aren’tsplitting movies pic hp essential to the plot but essential to the enjoyment of the story are all there. The directors even have space to add in new elements as well. One fine example of this is Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. There’s a great scene with Harry and Hermione dancing to the radio while on the run. It’s a sweet moment in a dark time, and it wasn’t in the book. I’m glad it was in the movie.

That isn’t to say that this can’t be taken to far. Take, for example, The Hobbit movies. The Hobbit is a fine book, but it’s not a particularly long book. There’s not enough material to span two movies, let alone three. And unfortunately, the team responsible for beefing up the story wasn’t gifted with what I’d call creativity. 

So why do it all in that case? Well, the easiest answer is that three movies will make more money than one. I’m willing to pay that money if the movies are good. If the movie is full of unsatisfying filler, I’m feeling pretty ripped off. 

There’s another issue with the two to three movie system. There is by far too much time splitting movies pic hgbetween the films. Waiting for Mockingjay part two was torture. But then, I’m not a super patient person. 

Like most things, splitting novels between two movies have the potential to be a great choice. It also has the potential to destroy what would otherwise have been a fantastic movie experience. It all comes down to intention as most things do. Is the studio trying to give the story the space it needs? Or are they just after a double return on their investment?

So, what do you think? Are there books you feel needed the two movie experience? Or are there some that would have been better left to one? Let us know in the comments. 

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Dead Like Me, a series review

One thing I love about the modern way we watch tv is the ability to binge-watch old shows. Can you believe I’d never seen Seinfeld? We sure fixed that now.

Another show we recently binged that took a depressingly short amount of time was Dead Like Me.

Originally a Showtime show, we found it on Amazon Prime. 

Dead like me pic oneThe show centers around an eighteen-year-old girl named George (Ellen Muth). She’s killed by a toilet seat falling out of the sky.

Upon dying, George is chosen to become a Grim Reaper, as the Reaper who took her soul has now moved on. 

On where? No idea, that’s sort of a thing. None of the reapers know what’s waiting on the other side. They just know that they have to take the souls of those who have passed on to where they’re going. 

George is greeted by Rube, played by Mandy Patinkin. He dispenses sticky notes with a first initial, last name, date and time. 

This show was brilliant. We watched both seasons in no time at all. Let me break it down for you.

The show isn’t shy about hitting the hard issues in the first episode. Or any of them. The people who are dying aren’t bad. They’re children, beloved husbands, parents. Innocent, happy people who simply have an appointment.

For example, in the first episode, George has to take the soul of a little girl who dies in a train accident. We also take a good long look at what the loss of a child does to George’s parents. What losing a sister costs her little sister, Reggie.

This isn’t to say this show isn’t also funny as hell. I mean, George is killed by a falling toilet seat. She ends up working at a temp agency because being a grim reaper doesn’t pay. Literally, she’s not getting paid for this gig, and she still needs to do things like eat and pay rent.

Dead Like Me seems to go out of its way to not answer any big questions about the afterlife. The reapers don’t know. They only know that it looks different to every person and it looks fantastic. It’s like that episode of Are you Afraid of The Dark, Station 109.1. Near the end, Roy (played by Gilbert Gottfried) tells the main character that the afterlife is only terrible if you’ve led a bad life.

“If you’ve led a good life, it’s the best thing going.” 

One thing that I always like to see is well-written characters. Characters that feel like they could be people walking through my own life. And Dead Like Me hit that on every level.

Not a single character on this show was exactly good, bad or frankly sane. They’ve all go dead like me pic twotheir thing. They’re selfish, lazy, thieving, angry. Nothing is clear, really, about any of them. For example, the darling husband and I watched every episode together, and we couldn’t agree on whether George’s mom is a good woman trying her best, or a self-centered bitch who verbally abused her husband. I consider the fact that two people who tend to think alike on most things were so conflicted by this person.

So, that was all the good. Now, on to what wasn’t so great. 

The show ended after two seasons. And it ended with far too many questions unanswered. I feel I need to warn you now, a lot of questions just don’t get answered. It doesn’t end on this big awful cliffhanger. But you never find out how Rube died. You never find out what happened to Betty when she followed a dead person into the light. You never find out why one dead person turned into a graveling. You just don’t know. You don’t know if Mason ever gets clean if Daisy finds the fulfillment she’s looking for. You just don’t know.

And if you were hoping that the movie was going to answer any of these questions, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.

Let’s talk a little about the movie. Because while it wasn’t Serenity, it wasn’t what it could be.

The story starts with Rube finally getting his last reap and heading into whatever awaits Reapers after they’re done. He’s replaced by a slick Reaper named Kane. He encourages them to break all the rules, including saving people from their death, stealing from the dead and visiting family from their previous lives. Hilarity, and lots of pain, ensues.

But the whole thing is super convoluted and rushed. It was hard to follow everything as it was going so fast. I won’t say the ending wasn’t satisfying. But it wasn’t what it could be.

Would I say it’s not worth watching? Absolutely not. I loved every episode. Do I wish it was more satisfying? Yes, of course. But then, I imagine that George wishes the answers that waited for her after death was more satisfying. So maybe the show did exactly what it was supposed to do.

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Carry Dr. King’s lessons into the Lunar New Year

Image by John Hain

Monday ways MLK Day, the day we as a nation set aside to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His lessons on equality of race and economic status, as well as his calls for peace, are ones that we should honor every day, not just once a year. 

Maybe not with a giant gun rally that included several organizations with ties to Neo Nazis. But that’s another issue for another day. 

Tomorrow is Lunar New Year. Also known as Chinese New Year, it’s a celebration of new beginnings, cleaning out the damages of our past and moving forward into a new year. Kind of like the one we just celebrated at the start of this month. If you don’t know, we are leaving the year of the Boar and entering the year of the Rat. 

I love rats. I’ve had several as pets over the years and I can tell you it’s basically like having a really smart puppy you can perch on your shoulder. 

According to Chinese Zodiac, people born under the year of the rat are clever, successful, thrifty and highly likeable. So anyone having a baby this year, get that kid a savings account. They’re also the first animal of the zodiac, so this year also marks the start of the newest cycle. So that’s pretty awesome. (This information curtesy of Chinesenewyear.net.)

I’m bringing these two things up because I think it’s a sign that MLK Day is the same week as the Lunar New Year. And as this is the start of a new decade, and a new 12 year cycle, it seems like a time to make some significant, long term changes in our lives. 

Instead of making a promise to get your finances in order, or start using that gym membership, how about we all make a resolution together?

Let’s make a resolution to carry the lessons of Dr. King into this new cycle. Let’s all make

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Image by Adam Clay

an effort to speak up for those around us. Hell, for those around the world who are being persecuted. Let’s speak out against hatred, bigotry. Let’s stop seeing The Other. Let’s work towards seeing everyone as us, not them.

 

Today, right now, make a list of ways you can be an advocate for your fellow man, to stamp out hatred and foster peace. If we all do that, maybe the next time the Zodiac Wheel turns back to the year of the Rat, we can make Dr. King’s dream a reality. If not now, when?

And now I’d like to leave you with one of my favorite Dr. King Quotes.

“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

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A review of Girl, Stop Apologizing by Rachel Hollis

I first heard about Rachel Hollis when I saw the cover of her first book, Girl Wash Your Face. 

That title is a case study in why choosing a good title is so important. Hollis got that title spot on. Of course, I had to find out what this was all about. And of course, I had to read her book.

After reading it I had to get the next one. Because the first one was so great. I did a review of it before, you can read it here.

Now, if you read Girl Wash Your Face, you know that it was half self-help book, half stop apologizing pic twoautobiography. That’s what I would expect from any good self-help book. If someone hasn’t lived through Hell, I don’t believe they can help me get through it.

There wasn’t much of the biography experience in Stop Apologizing. There are little snippets of her life, sure. But not the full-fledged stories like before. That was alright, though. We got all that in book one.

What this book focused on was being, fully, unapologetically you. and you know how I feel about that. I’ve all but removed ‘sorry’ from my vocabulary. Unless I mess up, of course. In the past, I’ve literally apologized when other people ran into me! 

I’m working on it. 

Stop Apologizing is broken into three parts. The first part, and the longest, is the list of lies we tell ourselves to stand in our own way. And, most importantly, why they’re all bullshit. 

I think this is the foundation of any real, honest change you’re going to make in life. Start with weeding out the lies and bad habits. It’s like cleaning, you can’t start until you get rid of the clutter.

Next, we move onto habits to adopt. These are not hard habits, but neither are they easy. For instance, Behavior number five hit me right between the eyes.

Build a foundation for success. 

Mind you, I didn’t start reading this book until I’d already picked out my word of the year. You know, Foundation. So this chapter struck me right between the eyes. I love it when the universe lines up like that for me.

Finally, the last part is skills to acquire. Some of these seem like the sort of thing you’re born with or not, but the truth is that there’s little to nothing you can’t learn. 

I appreciate that the first skill listed is planning. No surprise there, it’s my favorite thing. But guess what? The only reason I’m able to get done what I get done is that I plan shit out. Do you think I could hold down a full-time job, take care of a mother in law recovering from hip surgery, host this blog, work for another blog and still put out at least one book a year if I didn’t have my life planned down to the half-hour? No, never. At least not if I wanted to, you know, sleep. And I do, I really do. Sleep is sacred.

I loved this book, and I hope that Rachel Hollis keeps churning them out. I love following her on social media, and I’m excited to see what comes next.

Did you read Girl, Wash Your Face or Girl, Stop Apologizing? What books have you read so far in 2020? Let us know in the comments below.

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The price of war

I often spend time sitting at my local Dunkin, just people watching. I do something I call sketching, but what I mean is writing out little descriptive paragraphs about the people in the place with me. It’s a writing exercise.

There’s a lot of kids, of course, drinking smoothies and soaking up the free wifi. Cops and people stopping in for a coffee before or after work. There are all sorts of people, just looking for a sugar fix.

There are a lot of older men who come in. They get small cups of coffee, and they sit around making conversation with anyone who catches their eye. Many of them are not well. Some are homeless, filthy. Some are just angry. Pretty much at everything.

These men are a common sight in my hometown. They’re Vietnam vets. And once or twice a year they all get together and march in the parade. But between those times, Veterans Day and Memorial Day, we pretty much ignore them. They go into stores, sometimes causing trouble, sometimes just making people uncomfortable.

Not me, though. Well, that’s a lie. I get uncomfortable too. But I do my best to not show it. 

I do my best because these men were sent into a nightmare situation. They came backpablo(2) damaged, in body and mind. The best of them came back with night terrors. The worst of them could be said to not have come back at all. Their bodies did, and they walk around in the world. But their minds are still in the jungle. 

This generation of broken men has surrounded me my whole life. I was taught by them in JR ROTC. I had friends who were the children and grandchildren of them. My first father in law was a Vietnam vet. He once almost planted a knife in his younger son’s throat because he accidentally startled him in the middle of the night. I and many women and men of my generation have sat at the knees of these Veterans and learned well the price of war.

And yet, it never ends. My generation has sent its share of young men and women overseas. One buddy of mine had a panic attack at New Year when people started popping balloons. 

Another one killed himself last year. He left a wife and a bunch of kids. The terror of war finally got to him.

In a few decades, this town will still be full of men walking around, maybe homeless. Maybe just broken. They’ll be from my graduating class of ’05 or later years. We’re too late to change that.

But damn it, if we keep beating the drums of war, we’ll just keep breaking these kids. We’ll weaken generation after generation, not in service to our country but service to the rattling of useless sabers. We aren’t any safer. We’re just poorer.

And the next wave of broken men drinking coffee in Dunkin will be from the graduating class of 2020. 

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Join me in helping the people at the American border

Some time ago I wrote a blog post in defense of the immigrants seeking asylum at the American border. 

Seeking asylum isn’t illegal, but they’ve been shoved into cages and forced to exist in inhumane conditions that I, as an American, am ashamed of.

It’s monstrous, and I’ve had enough. I bet you’ve had enough, too. 

That’s why I’m hosting a fundraiser for the groupImmigrant Families Together.

If you haven’t checked out this organization yet, you should. It’s committed to helping immigrants detained at the border post bail, get homes and be reunited with their families. This is work that I want to be involved in.

indexI hope you do too. So I’m hosting a fundraiser for Immigrant Families Together, from January 31st to February 2nd. During that time I’ll be posting a link to donate directly to the organization. 

Of course, I want to thank you for giving to this worthy cause. So, screenshot and send to me the confirmation of your donation, and I’ll send you a free e-copy of any Station 86 book of your choosing. You can do that on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or, you can just use #PBWIFT on those platforms, and I’ll keep an eye out for you.

Now, the PBW community has never done a fundraiser before, but I bet you guys are going to shine. So I want to set our goal at $1,000 over three days. We can do it, I know we can.

If you feel the same way I do, please share this post, and the social media posts I’ll be doing over the next few weeks. We need to raise awareness not just that there are still people imprisoned at the American border and that there’s something we can do to help.

See you then, have a great day.

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