Geek. Pirate. Mom

Last night, Gail Simone (the comic book writer/creator) tweeted the following statements. “DC, we need more female creators, stat. Really. Let’s make this happen.” (In the reboot era, there will be two. Gail and… trying to find the other name. Sorry!) “We all still want comics to be a meritocracy. But there are more than two female creators who are qualified and talented.”

Not surprisingly, this became a hot button issue as male creators and just casual fans added in their two cents. Some people who worked accepting submissions at DC and Image commented that only about 5-10% of the submissions were from women.

Which led me to tweet a bit, wondering about statistics. Usually with a pool of individuals, if you start weeding out the less talented, the percentage of the demographics should feasibly be the same. So it does seem a little odd that in all the books released by DC for the reboot, that only two women are involved creatively.

Bradley Timm (@DoctorFlux) and I started to talk. He wondered if it wasn’t a conspiracy, or if there just isn’t a general interest by women to write superhero books- if they’d rather write indies, pointing out that of the comic reading women he knew, that’s what they preferred to read.

So I looked back on my own pull list over the years. And admittedly, it’s a bit lacking in the capes department. I’ve tended to buy books that reflect what I write- supernatural books, indies, and the most mainstream books I own runs from are NextWAVE, Tales of the Unexpected and JSA. Considering that the Tales of the Unexpected run involves pirates and a Nazi Gorilla, I think that’s still not very mainstream.

Yet, I’m a huge fan of the DC trinity. I have seen every single episode of every Batman animated series (as well as the Superman adventures). I keep up with what’s going on – I just haven’t bought the issues. Why? There’s a lot going on. Both in the books and in my life- at the time I was buying Tales of the Unexpected, I was well, expecting my first son. Which meant I had to cut back a lot once he was born. Having bought the odd collection from webcomics in the time between, I’m easing back into it with the DC reboot.

Would I want to write comic books? Um, yeah. But I admit that my voice isn’t geared towards capes. Well, not unless I’d get to write something either like Tales of the Unexpected/Doctor 13, NextWAVE or Runaways. Okay, Runaways is a bit more mainstream, isn’t it?

I know a lot of women who write. And a lot who read comic books. For some, those categories overlap- and it’s true. I haven’t heard aspirations of writing books. Usually they just buy whatever Gail Simone or Amanda Conners’ are currently writing and talk about how great they are. Which they are. Now, I know there are more women who have created for DC and who write for comics currently still- they just aren’t on the books for the reboot.

So why? Is it a lack of passion? Is it weeded out of us as kids when we’re told to watch Disney movies instead? I bring that up because I know that I’d mentioned wanting to write James Bond novels when I was 14 and was told that nobody would buy a spy book written by a woman. So I wrote a spy novella my junior year and proved – that I wrote like a 16 year old girl who didn’t quite understand what she needed to to write something better. I wasn’t deterred and when I revisited the story years later, realized that it wasn’t that I was a bad writer. I just wasn’t ready for that genre. Now

Digression aside, though, I can see that in the 90s there probably weren’t a lot of people suggesting that girls think about writing mainstream comics. Which would mean that the women who might be sending in submissions for stories might not have been mentored the way that some of the male creators have been. It’s true- you find a lot of female artists in the indie category, and most of them have distinctive voices that don’t fit a typical superhero story. Nearly all the female artists and writers I follow list Disney and anime as the thing that inspired them.

Is it just a perfect storm of circumstances that are keeping women out of mainstream comics? It seems like it’s all part of the larger cycle of issues with Girls and Comics. Publishers complain that women just aren’t buying comics, but they don’t try to nurture all ages books or girl-centric books that would lure in all ages of female readers. And of the girls who read comics, if they’re mostly reading indy books- that’s probably what they’re going to want to write. So unless something changes, it doesn’t seem like the number of women who want to write superheroes are going to increase.

I really would like to hear your thoughts on this. Obviously, this isn’t something that I have the answer for- but something that I really think we should consider more. The more and more I think about it, the more I see the problem as two sides of the same coin. You won’t get more female creators in mainstream comics without having more female readers.

As a writer, I’ve discovered something upsetting. I rewrite television shows as I watch them.

Well, not every television show. If it’s a well-written show like Law & Order Criminal Intent or Mad Men, I don’t bother. But if it’s a good show that’s suffering from inconsistent characterization… well, that’s another matter entirely.

Like Glee. I love Glee. It’s a fun show, punctuated with music and just as over the top as high school seems to you when you’re in it. Really, think back on it – you might not have walked down the hall singing, but I’m pretty sure that having a date to the dance was the biggest thing in the world. And every test failed, every breakup, ever snub seemed like the worst thing that ever happened to you.

And while Glee knocks out a few great episodes a season, the rest waver between good to meh. And usually not because of the overall plot of the episode- it’s the character reactions that make no sense.

Take last night’s Prom episode, “Prom Queen”. (spoilers, if you keep reading) Read More…

If you’re plugged into the blogosphere… odds are you’ve heard about Monica Gaudio and her run in with Cooks Source , a free magazine for distribution in the New England area. A friend contacted her about an article she’d written for it called “As American as Apple Pie – Isn’t” wondering how she’d gotten published. The only problem? She’s written it as “A Tale of Two Tarts” which she had posted in 2005 on a domain that she owns, which clearly has a copyright on it.

So she did what anyone would do. She contacted the editor via email and started a discussion- assuming that of course, the article had simply been wrongly included. It wasn’t plagiarism, it was attributed to her. After a few emails, Judith Griggs (the editor) asked what she wanted. Ms. Gaudio said that she just wanted an apology in the magazine and on the magazine’s Facebook page, and a donation made to the Columbia School of Journalism for $130 (a fair amount to have been paid for a piece of that length). All reasonable, right?

This is what Ms Griggs responded with:

Yes Monica, I have been doing this for 3 decades, having been an editor at The Voice, Housitonic Home and Connecticut Woman Magazine. I do know about copyright laws. It was “my bad” indeed, and, as the magazine is put together in long sessions, tired eyes and minds somethings forget to do these things.
But honestly Monica, the web is considered “public domain” and you should be happy we just didn’t “lift” your whole article and put someone else’s name on it! It happens a lot, clearly more than you are aware of, especially on college campuses, and the workplace. If you took offence and are unhappy, I am sorry, but you as a professional should know that the article we used written by you was in very bad need of editing, and is much better now than was originally. Now it will work well for your portfolio. For that reason, I have a bit of a difficult time with your requests for monetary gain, albeit for such a fine (and very wealthy!) institution. We put some time into rewrites, you should compensate me! I never charge young writers for advice or rewriting poorly written pieces, and have many who write for me… ALWAYS for free!

My first reaction was to groan because she’s one of those people who uses “quotations” to seem smart. (Or should I say- to seem “smart”?) But really- public domain? It’s been proven that publishing something on the internet doesn’t make it public domain. If that were the case, nobody would need Creative Commons licenses for their images/artwork. There wouldn’t be regular stories about Reuters or AP going after people who publish their content without paying the fees. If that were the case, YouTube wouldn’t constantly be pulling down television shows or music videos that have been reported for copyright violations.

Ms Gaudio then blogged about her dismay, and well, it spread like wildfire. Seriously. Not only have I seen a ton of blog posts, but Neil Gaiman tweeted about it (links to his first tweet, but he did comment on it more through the day), Reddit picked it up… and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The tone of the email suggests that this was a lone incident, a mere mistake made in the mad rush to put out a magazine, right? Wrong. The Internet (or rather, those who use the internet) began to look through issues of Cooks Source, and found that not only did she steal the article for her own use, but that she had also taken content (text, not recipes) from NPR, Martha Stewart and Sunset Magazine. As far as the recipes went, almost immediately some were found from Southern Living Magazine, Paula Deen and Giada DiLaurentiis. I’m sure that soon we’ll find out how many of the images were simply taken from other sites as well.

Not only was she stupid enough to not understand that everything on the internet isn’t up for grabs, she stole from people who have ready access to legal teams. Brilliant.

Let this serve as a lesson- if you create a for-profit magazine in which you sell advertising and steal most of the content, you will be caught. Your advertisers will drop you, and likely you’ll be sued. So best to write your own material or give up the magazine idea if you can’t produce your own copy.

This has gotten some excellent coverage, and here are a few links of where I’ve gotten my information from. Marci Sischo, BlogHer, Food For Real, Washington Post, and How Publishing Really Works

Yes, this is a post apologizing for a lack of content. At least it’s better than last week when I forgot it was Friday entirely.

This week’s been a blur. The youngest has decided that he’s going to start acting like a two year old, so much of my time has been keeping the boys from killing each other. My brain’s been buzzing just trying to get the day to day stuff done that any time I’ve sat down, I haven’t been able to think of anything else. (Some of this is extremely personal family stuff that I can’t really get into, sorry)

Number of times I fell asleep in bed with my laptop open: 2

On the bright side, I finally found my DVD of The Mummy Returns. So now I can watch the movies and reiterate that Alexandria is not an Evey clone. Not in the least!

Next week, I’ll start outlining my character process and include a throwaway piece- what I dub the scenes I write and have no intention of including in a project. Usually they’re just to help me establish how characters relate.

Sometimes writing isn’t about what you write.

That sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it? Of course writing is about writing. It should be so easy. You sit down and then… squirrel!

If you’ve seen UP and remember Dug, that’s pretty much what being a writer can be like. I’ll sit down to write and then, suddenly think of emails I haven’t returned. Or realize I haven’t checked Twitter in a half hour. Or decide to make myself a somewhat time consuming meal.

I’m very good when it comes to procrastinating. I’ll sit down and think of a hundred things that I’d much rather be doing, and then do them. Or a show I haven’t seen, and in the interest of emptying my DVR, watch. (With the necessary distractions I have, I’ve managed to forget that I was writing this several times, in fact. 8 to be precise.)

So for now, it’s about writing whatever I can. Whether it’s a tweet, a blog post, or some bit of fiction that I don’t think anyone would care about. That’s why writing isn’t entirely about the content, just about writing.

So what have I written this week in lieu of my still unnamed Adventure Serial Project? I have written 5 blog posts (two of which were deleted), including this one. I wrote twenty-eight pages of a revised draft that I doubt anyone will ever see- unless you really want to.

You see, once upon a time, I ran a Star Wars role-playing game online (along with my best friend). It ran for years and I have some of the transcripts. Sadly, it ended with a couple adventures in progress. Which means, those characters are still active in my mind. When I sit down to write, I usually spend 15-20 minutes placating them, so that I can move on to what I would prefer to work on.

I was in the middle of my daily exorcism, when I realized that everyone’s dialogue was much too long. Much too flowery. I’d been watching Sense and Sensibility and had just finished reading Mansfield Park. Looking at the dialogue, it was as though Jane Austen had been writing Star Wars.

On a whim, I snagged a transcript and rewrote it as a mashup- Regency dialogue and some societal conceits mixed in with the game. It was surprisingly easy, and the rewrite just flowed out of me. Granted, I wasn’t changing much- but even for revising a draft, that was a lot of work to do in one day.

So nothing new on Project X, sadly. Except a bit of a confession about the detours I take. Next week I promise to have something of substance- deciding what types of characters I need.

For whatever reason, I love picking projects that require a lot of research. One is set in so many time periods that I might as well get a degree in history.

So this is my break from that. Since it’s an action/adventure serial similar to Indiana Jones and the Mummy (and all the wonderful novels and radio show that inspired movies like those), I get to play a little fast and loose with history.

It’s the same way that movies like “Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl” succeed. They give you just enough indication of the time period that it seems like it could be realistic without making it a true historical piece. Contrast the first Pirates movie with the third. In the first, it was established that pirates were hunted and the penalty was death. It was established that some groups branded pirates. However, it was just enough to establish some of the stakes that the pirates faced, but didn’t focus on them. It focused solely on the treasure and the Black Pearl. The third movie, on the other hand, became bogged down by details. While there were elements of the fantastic- Davy Jones and Calypso, the majority of the plot was about pirates being squeezed off the seas, trade agreements controlling governments. The series went from being a supernatural movie set in a historical time period to a period piece with supernatural elements. One was successful, the other… not so much. (And for the record, I did love the third one, but I’m a history nut. I don’t think it was as well written as the first.)

This story has a couple things that are tricky. There’s my MacGuffin, which is rooted in a historical time period (go artifacts!). So I have to make it fit without giving so many details that it seems fake- since too many details makes me feel like someone thinks I won’t believe it otherwise. Then there’s the timeline that the story is set in.

I want the location to feel believable, but at the same time, I’m not writing a travelogue.

Things I’m researching:

Alexander the Great
Nazis
South East Asia in the 1930s

The picture for this post is of Amice Mary Calverley, who I discovered while looking for inspiration in pictures from the 1930s. If it weren’t for real women like her, fictional characters from Marian Ravenwood to Evelyn O’Connell (nee Carnahan) wouldn’t have been plausible. I’d never heard of her until this week, but honestly- what an amazing woman!

So this week I’ve been working on characters. Names, rough backgrounds, personalities. But I’m not going to share that yet. Sorry. But you know, there’s a lot of other stuff that I’ve worked on already that I thought needed documentation.

Inspiration comes from a lot of places for me. For the projects that I have notebooks for (and there are several) I have been inspired by television programs, dreams, movies, and even collaborations that fell through.

But this project? This one takes the cake. My inspiration came from a character that I’d worked up for a performance. And not just any performance… an ongoing performance that I did 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for almost 3 years. Read More…

I have something that I’ve been wanting to work on for awhile. A novel, with the first draft to be published serial style online. It’s a pet project, that I’ve been dying to write for almost 9 years now, featuring a storyline that is near and very dear to my heart.

Right now I’m working on the characters and design (there will be some illustrations), and I will occasionally need some help from you, my friends and readers.

So what am I working on? Well, here’s your weekly hint. Right now I have a brainy heroine who was formerly saddled with the last name Tremaine. However, I was looking for a name for an English Lord and his son… and now they’re the Tremaines. Currently I’m looking through French last names, and hilariously, I keep picking ones that I’ve used for characters in other projects. Yikes.

I’ve decided to ditch having the English Lord be an English Lord. Knighting a ficticious someone is much easier than creating a family that doesn’t exist. Sir Tremaine it is!

I admit, I’m not an expert on social media. I didn’t go to school to study it, but I have been on Twitter for 3 years, 3 months, 3 weeks, and 3 days*. I’ve followed people and companies alike, and have seen a lot of tactics that companies and individuals have employed in promoting themselves. These are my thoughts on tips for using Twitter more effectively for promoting yourself or an event. If you disagree or agree, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments- mostly because there are no rules for Twitter Etiquette right now. Everyone has a different idea, and it’d be nice to discuss it openly as an internet community.

Using Twitter is easy. You can send a quick missive out into the ether and it’s so easy to keep following up. But at some point in time, you might wonder if you’re crossing over from having a frequent presence on Twitter to being in danger of spamming those who follow you. Read More…

I suppose I should explain. I have strange dreams. Dreams that not many people I know have- the elusive narrative dream. Not the Alice in Wonderland sort, where things are surreal. But quite frequently, the sort where it feels like it should be a TV or movie, where things are just logical enough to make sense, but odd enough that I know it’s a dream.

For your consideration, last night’s dream. Read More…