Archive for March, 2009
Kim Falconer on Iaido and The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior
March 29, 2009I open my eyes — ready to train in the traditional Wazas — the forms choreographed centuries ago by Samurais preparing for battle. They readied for the fight. I ready for peace — the ritual bringing me into alignment with myself. Energy swirls in my hara — Tanden breathing — energy builds. Fire up the spine. I am the sea, the sun, the waves, the warrior. The sand beneath me gives way to the universe.
Kim Falconer has given an interview with California Reiki — a beautiful meditation on the practice of Iaido, the development of hara, The Spell of Rosette and more – with Kim’s poetic way of speaking and writing coming through.
Kim Falconer training with the katana on the beach
Poll for ASOIAF
March 27, 2009http://winter-is-coming.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-important-are-age-and-appearance.html
Poll and discussion on age and appearance of actors versus characters – specifically for the most anticipated HBO series EVER (in my lifetime 
) – A Song of Ice and Fire by GRRM!
Kim Falconer: Archetypes, Agents and Oracles—Where Myth and SF Meet
March 27, 2009Flycon, the online speculative fiction convention, offered a chance for authors, editors and fans from all over the globe to meet and discuss SF/F topics. One subject of particular interest was Mythology and Science Fiction, moderated and hosted by Nyssa Pascoe from A Writer goes on a Journey. The panellists were Dave Freer, Amanda Pillar and the transcripts are still up for viewing.
At first glance myth and SF seem opposed. Myths happen in the past and usually involve the numinous where science fiction happens in the future and involves speculative technologies, environmental shifts, space travel, or life on other planets. Amanda Pillar summed it up by saying mythology is the metaphorical framework which a culture uses to understand the world around them and science fiction is basically stories set in the future. But how do they work together?
Dave Freer gave an example. ‘I borrow heavily from the symbolism common in many mythological stories. I think this helps to quietly get under the reader’s skin. Issues like stories beginning at dawn and finishing at dusk. Issues of the trickster – a common myth figure – who is so often the bane and saviour of humankind.’
Joseph Campbell, a hero of mine, used the term monomyth to describe this archetypal portrayal of characters. Monomyths are enduring stories that reach a broad audience, archetypal in that they occur in all places, in all peoples, in all times. These stories touch something inside us—giving us as sense of meaning—something science doesn’t always do.
Star Wars—Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher 1977
George Lucas’ Star Wars is an example of a monomyth/science fiction blend. In Obi Wan and Yoda we see the archetype of the Wise Old Man and spiritual Guide. Luke Skywalker is the young Hero and Darth Vader is the archetype of Death. Swiss psychologist Carl Jung believed these characters emerge from the Collective Unconscious, a deeper level of our personal unconscious that links the minds of every being—even back into our animal past.
He said, ‘This deeper level manifests itself in universal archaic images expressed in dreams, religious beliefs, myths, and fairy tales. The archetypes, as unfiltered psychic experience, appear sometimes in their most primitive and naive forms (in dreams), sometimes in a considerably more complex form due to the operation of conscious elaboration in myths.’
Keanu Reeves in the Matrix plays 'The One', a contemporary interpretation of the savior archetype.
Another film that blends myth and SF is the Matrix Trilogy. Neo is the Hero called to adventure. Morpheus is the Wise Old Man, and the Oracle, like Yoda, is the numinous guide. The animas figure—the sacred feminine that tutors through love (or lack of it) like Medea, Ariadne and Princes Leia—is characterized by Trinity. It’s interesting how the hero’s journey hangs not on strength or knowledge but ultimately on a relationship to love. (Remember what happens to Jason when he rejects Medea?) In the Matrix, Neo is unable to overpower agent Smith until he is awakened by Love—a wonderful mythic theme woven into a post-apocalyptic SF tale.
Do you have a favourite SF/monomyth? Please share it here.
Kim Falconer is the author of The Spell of Rosette (Quantum Enchantment Book 1), which was published in January by HarperVoyager. Kim lives in Byron Bay and runs the website Falcon’s Astrology as well as a website dedicated to the Quantum Enchantment series.
Fallon Thursday: Would you like to be a character in the next Jennifer Fallon novel?
March 26, 2009I’ve been busting to tell you guys about this, and now I can…
As part of the Charity Auction to be held at Supanova this weekend (and again in Brisbane the following weekend) we are auctioning off a character in my next series.
The proceeds will be going to Bushfire Relief from the Melbourne Auction and Flood Relief for the Brisbane Auction.
The details of the prize are as follows:
- Two characters are available (can be male or female) for auction (one in Melbourne and one in Brisbane.)
- Winner will get their name in the book as a character (they will not, however, get to dictate anything else – physical appearance, characteristics and eventual fate are all my prerogative). In other words I can kill off your namesake off if I feel like itJ
- The series is the Rift Runners series. Book 1 – The Undivided is tentatively scheduled for release in 2010.
Now… given that the book is set partly in Ireland (with Dutch overtones… have fun figuring that one out…hehehe), if your name is Ignatious Yanopoporopolous, you probably won’t get to be the hero’s favourite younger brother…
You get to chose the name. I get to decide everything else.
So… if you’re not in Melbourne or Brisbane, how do you bid?
I’m glad you asked… if you want to bid, email me here
We haven’t set a minimum bid, but I will keep you posted as to the progress of the auction (probably on Twitter because it’s faster). Bids for Melbourne will close on Thursday at midnight (ACDST). Any bids for Melbourne than miss the deadline will be offered the option to transfer to the Brisbane Auction.
Jennifer Fallon is the author of the Demon Child Trilogy, the Second Sons Trilogy, the Hythrun Chronicles and The Tide Lords. Normally her posts go up on Fridays … but as you can see, time is of the essence!
This is about Spiderman so it’s relevant to the blog
March 25, 2009Thailand: Fireman becomes Spiderman to rescue a child …
Personally, I’d like a fireman dressed as a fireman to rescue me, but I’d accept Spiderman too, didn’t say the Captain.
Interview with the … Miller
March 25, 2009There’s a lovely interview up with Karen Miller on the Blogging the Muse website. Karen talks about her career as a writer, her inspiration (including music), and gives some good advice to aspiring writers.
Karen’s latest book, written as the mysterious K E Mills, is out now with its supergorgeous cover:
Gerald's baaaaack!
2009 Sir Julius Vogel Award nominations
March 25, 2009Best wishes and congratulations to the following two New Zealand authors, published by HarperVoyager, who have been nominated for the 2009 Sir Julius Vogel Award in the following categories:
BEST NOVEL ADULT
Russell Kirkpatrick/’Dark Heart’
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BEST COLLECTED WORK
Elizabeth Knox/’The Invisible Road’
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The awards recognise excellence in Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror by New Zealanders. The shortlist is voted on by NZ fans and winners are announced at the National Science Fiction convention … this year it is Conscription, to be held in Auckland from 29 May-1 June.
SFFANZ has all shortlists on this site for award nominees
Posted by Stephanie Smith
Lighting the dark: Anne Bishop on The Shadow Queen
March 25, 2009CLICK HERE TO WIN AN ANNE BISHOP BOOK PACK!
Can Cassidy rise above the disappointed expectations of others to be a true Queen?
I have no clever explanation for how a place like the Realms came to be, or how a beautiful shell named Daemon Sadi took on the weight of personality and personal history to become a living, breathing man on the page. That’s magic, a kind of alchemy that happens when the mind and the Muse meet in the land of Story.
It’s a slow magic. Sometimes it takes months, even years, for a shell to become more than a name vaguely connected to a story idea.
Take Theran and Cassidy. Their shells have been around since I wrote *The Invisible Ring.* Then, all I knew about them was that Theran was a descendant of Jared and Lia, and Cassidy had red hair and hazel eyes.
That’s all I knew about them for years. So I explored other worlds, wrote other stories. I circled back to them from time to time, and each time I had a sense of them gaining a little weight, a little substance. And then one day they were ready to have their story told.
But I didn’t know them. We were acquaintances at that point. I knew the wants and needs that compelled them to take this journey, but I didn’t *know* them until I met them on the page and began to tell their story. That’s when I learned that they weren’t who I thought they were, and the story I was telling was so much more than the simple idea I’d started with years ago.
When I begin a story, I promise the characters that I will tell their story without judgment–that I will let them be who and what they really are. I record their struggles, their failures and, hopefully, their triumphs. As I meet them on the page day after day, they become more than the list of details that had shaped the initial shell. They become people who make me laugh, make me cry, make me angry, make me cheer. They take me outside of myself, and by doing so, let me explore another facet of the heart.
And isn’t that what Story is all about?
So here are Theran and Cassidy–shells who came to life on the page. May they walk through your heart as they walk through mine.
Anne Bishop
The Shadow Queen by Anne Bishop is now out across Australia.
Anne Bishop is the author of the Black Jewels trilogy, the Ephemera duology and the Tir Alainn trilogy, as well as numerous books set in the world of the Black Jewels.
Close Encounters of the Best Kind: Maria Quinn bumps into an unsuspecting reader
March 23, 2009
The Gene Thieves
So here I am walking to the post office smiling to myself, not paying too much attention because I’m revisiting the lively debate that cropped up at the crowded launch party for The Gene Thieves. Who should play Dancer in the movie, Hugh Jackman or Simon Baker? Seemed that every one of the hundred or so guests wanted to put in a bid, even though only six people in the room could possible have read the book, as it was just hitting the shelves! Okay, Simon Baker is already a blue-eyed blonde, but there’s always bleach and coloured contacts. Mind you, I knew I was breaking one of the golden protocols of a good screenplay, when I specified Dancer’s hair, eyes and tallness (never restrict the casting possibilities, a dark-haired star might walk away from the script!) but hey, I was writing the novel. Now I’m tackling the screenplay. So, as I said, I wasn’t really watching where I was going.
But then, neither was the man who walked into me.
That’s because he had his head in a book…my book!
As I walked past the station entrance he walked out, turned right and we bumped shoulders. The astonished look I gave him was mistaken for annoyance and he stopped, slammed the book closed and apologised.
“Sorry, silly of me, reading a book while I’m walking. I was reading it on the train and just had to finish the chapter.”
“Must be a good book.” I smiled ingratiatingly, resisting the impulse to fling my arms around him and land a great big kiss on a rather nice face.
“Terrific.”
He turned, anxious to get away from this chance encounter with a talkative stranger.
“That’s me.” I prodded the cover of the novel he’d now tucked under his arm.
“I beg your pardon?”
“The author, Maria Quinn, that’s me.”
He pulled the book out and scrutinized the cover, then looked up at me.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Look inside, there’s a picture.” Now the picture is in black and white and I tend to be pretty much in colour, remnants of red hair and big, bright earrings. Not the world’s best likeness but good enough for a police line up; at least he obviously thought so.
“ That’s amazing, I love this book!”
We stood, blocking the footpath, while passing pedestrians muttered threats. He scrounged around inside his suit coat and pulled out a slightly chewed looking biro.
“Will you sign it for me?
… ‘To Sam, truth is stranger than fiction, even science fiction …’ (name changed to protect the innocent reader).
Maria Quinn is the author of The Gene Thieves, available in all good book shops now … and being read by all sorts of strangers on the street!
