Betas, get ready to read!

I am 35 pages from finishing my final read-through of The Misfortune of the Emerald Thief, book 1 of my Keepers of the Emerald Cave series. I can't believe it! In the two days since beginning this final read, I cut out over 200 words, but then added at least that back in toward the end. ROFL! I tried.

Tonight I will be sending this ms off to at least 10 readers, hopefully more. I will cast my net wide, knowing that I will get feedback quickly from at least half of them, and serious chopping criticism from one-fourth of them, which is great. It has to be perfect, so if someone has a problem with even one word somewhere, I need to know. And it is amazing the amount of typos and weirdness those extra eyes always find!

While my wonderful readers are spending time reading through the ms, I will be finalizing the query letter as well as finalizing the list of agents I'll send it to. This is the part the is slightly gut-wrenching, as it's time to put up or shut up -- the initial gatekeeper to this traditional publishing game is the literary agent. But for a middle-grade fantasy adventure, I think traditional is still the way to go, so it's time to knock on doors.

*KNOCK, KNOCK*

Time to make some dinner and feed the troops....
Peace,
Cynthia

Well, hello there 2012

2012.
That doesn't seem real, but here we are. Fortunately, there are no major disasters or John Cusack in sight, so life is progressing quite well considering my house is on the freezing side. But that is sheer laziness on my part; I haven't built a fire yet, or turned on the heat yet today -- that's really lazy. It's flipping a switch! Come on!
But I am holding out, telling myself to go do dishes to warm my hands instead, or perhaps a nice cup of tea.

New year. New plans. Not new plans, but THE plans... no more coffee for me, that's Number 1. I did a test this morning and went to Starbucks to hang out somewhere other than this chair I'm in right now. I ordered a double latte, which is my drink. It's been my drink for years. Double latte, no flavor. (pssst.... coffee *is* a flavor, local espresso baristas!)

It not only made me feel gross, I swear I felt my blood pressure rise. I came home and started flushing whatever that was out of my body! So, no more coffee. The kids and I have stocked up on tea, and that is our new thing.

Eating healthy is also the new thing. I joined Weight Watchers mainly to glean all of their tricks of the trade and recipes, plus to instill the rhythm of their eating program in my brain, because I am in the re-training process and I need all the help I can get. Picture lots of Post-its plastered all over my kitchen -- WHOLE GRAINS ... SNACK ON VEGGIES ... FIVE A DAY ... DRINK WATER ... etc. You get the picture.

My jeans are already fitting nicer, and my kids and I have been planning our lunch and dinner menu plans together stretching out into February already. We check in the morning so we know what's coming for dinner. Teamwork. Excellent.

What does all of this have to do with writing? Well, I'll tell ya... I want to be able to be working on my writing for at least six solid hours a day. Three during the day, three at night after everyone is in bed. For that to happen, I have to get this place on a schedule -- food, errands, bills, chores -- everything. I have to take care of myself so I get enough sleep, have enough energy, and the ability to focus, and really, so far so good. Today was the first day my kids went back to school, so it was a little disorienting, but at least I changed the water in the aquarium -- the fish appreciates that, so that counts!

Another change -- I fired the girls' cheer gym for being total wankers, so now we do not have to run around all over God's green earth and worry about THAT anymore, which is so excellent. We've already worked on sewing projects and tidied up the craft room so we can find things again. We're starting our homemade Valentine's-making soon, too. (All part of our commitment to the 11th Month Project! Now my ding-dong enmbedded link thingy won't work. It can be found here: www.the11monthproject.blogspot.com)

I also had a computer scare on January 2... what a way to begin the New Year! Total virus attack, I had been lazy on updating my virus protection, something slipped through, and BAM -- everything was kerfluffled. Crap. With the help of my most excellent computer-guru friend Kathie, we were able to scare out the little buggers and get our home network back up and running. It was nice to not have to start over with a scrubbed machine, though. I hate that!! And no baby photos were lost, either. Not like last time.
#YeahCarbonite

Tomorrow is the first day with my own little buggers in school for a full day, so I'm going for three hours of revising tomorrow. Maybe I'll hit more...that is the plan!

Current favorite Pandora Station: Bruno Mars
Peace out!

(My normal sig goes here, but I blew it into space accidentally this time. Oops!)

Back in the Writing Saddle

Two weeks ago was Thanksgiving... and now I'm eating healthier, getting more sleep, and have dropped coffee for the more beneficial green tea. Moroccan mint is my current favorite -- it is seriously good and my kids like it, too, although they always have a bit of sugar in theirs.
:-)

Real life is kicking me in the teeth as usual... drowning in school projects, Christmas preparations, shopping, and a bake sale at school to benefit the Beacon Hill Elementary library -- had to do that! They definitely need more money to buy more books! I also started volunteering in my 6-year-old's class once a week, and the girls are having their first cheerleading competition this weekend, so I have been chasing their little cheering butts to and from practice every night.

BUT... I am revising. I am working on Emerald Cave again. I have had enough of my hiatus and am back in the saddle again. The revising is going well... there are so many little things to change on each page, it's taking forever, but I already know when this pass is done I will go through it again. This time I'll print it in a different font, closer together, and read through it for the *POW* factor. I know there are areas where the narrative drags, where I have more tell than show, but it's okay. Another pass is just another pass. It's all good.

I'm also reading again. I had taken a break from that, too, for months and months. But last week I read the entire Hunger Games trilogy, which is just so amazing. I cannot wait for the movie to come out!! Once I finished Mockingjay, I moved on to my self-declared "SwankFest" -- my very close friend Denise Grover Swank went out on her own this year and self-published four of her titles she's been working on for the last few years, and since July has sold over 15,000 books!!

You can find her on Amazon, of course, both in paperback and Kindle. I started with HERE -- her YA which is just amazing. I couldn't put it down, literally. I was reading and making pancakes for my starving children. Read two pages... flip the pancake... read another two pages... flip the pancake...

Next up I will read CHOSEN, then HUNTED, and then 28-AND-A-HALF WISHES. I've been riding through life alongside Denise for the past several years. We know each other because we adopted our daughters from China at the same time, and have stayed friends as we each explored our writing side. She's made it happen her way and is achieving levels of success I know she deserves. She works her butt off and it shows!

Whether I decide to brave the waters of the self-published world or shine up my query and try the traditional route, it doesn't matter, because my books will be out there, too, someday. Although, with the last name of "Moyer" they will be frighteningly close to those certain vampire books. *oh my!*

The good news is, my Christmas shopping was done last week, the bulk of our Christmas letters were mailed on December 2, and so once this cheerleading competition is behind us, we can have a relaxing winter break.

Oh, except for the rest of these revisions that need to be looked over, and then the next read-through... and I wanted to get going on the rough draft of book 2 in my Emerald Cave series, The Curse of the Paisley Clan.... hmmm.....
I might need to rethink that whole no-coffee idea.

Peace.

Thanksgiving is TOMORROW?

Turkey times tomorrow...I am so thankful for so many things, especially this year, but my work isn't done. The last three years were quite the trial for our family, but we have our little ship sailing evenly for the first time in a very long time, and that means I can now focus on getting the rest of our butts in gear -- I am going to get healthier, dang it! We removed the stress, so I shouldn't still feel stress, therefore, I am firing it.

Do you hear me, stress?? I'm handing you you're walking papers!!
YOU. ARE. OUTTA. HERE!!!
*boot!!*

And the day before Thanksgiving is always a good time to reevaluate what you eat, right? ROFL!
But really, it's as good as a time than any other. So here we go... vegetables and whole grains are my new best friends.

On the flip side of that is my creative side, and it is pissed at me that I tried to disrupt everything with NaNoWriMo. I'm done with that -- I'm throwing in the towel, sticking a fork in it, whatever. The good news is I did get 10,000 words into the second book of the Emerald Cave series, not to mention a heavy dose of outlining, so that's sweet. But I need to finish revising Book 1 so I can kick it's little bubbly butt out the door.

So have a fantastic Thanksgiving, or Thursday if you do not do the turkey thang... I will be attempting to relax and let my mind wander over my planning for the future.
Peace,
Cynthia

NaNoWriMo is almost here!

It's nearly November... a little over an hour to go and I am TINGLY just thinking about it! I am signed up and getting plenty of nerve-wracking email pep talks from the Vancouver, Washington forum group... *bites nails*
I don't think I can take the pressure of a big group of folks breathing down my keyboard!

I plan instead to focus on the game ahead -- finish THE CURSE OF THE PAISLEY CLAN's first draft. For NNWM, I need to turn in 50,000 words by the end of November. That's 1667 words a day for 30 days. I'm shooting for an average of 2000 a day, only because I know the novel will be more than 50,000 anyway, but regardless, if I shoot for 2000 the shorter days will be covered.
:-)
At the end of the month, I will have a rough draft for Paisley Clan and I also plan to have the final revisions done for THE KEEPERS OF THE EMERALD CAVE Book 1: THE MISFORTUNE OF THE EMERALD THIEF. The fixes are minor, there are just about one million of them, so it's a matter of "Ass, Meet Chair."

For more information on NNWM click this link here. If you finish, you get a T-shirt and bragging rights.
I'm totally down with that.
:-)
Peace, and I hope everyone had a fantastic and safe Halloween!
Cynthia

My little ghouls and goblin:

Book 2 has a new name and page!

After much juggling of words, I have decided book 2 of the Keepers of the Emerald Cave series will be called THE CURSE OF THE PAISLEY CLAN and it officially has its own tab here on my writing blog, as well as an opening scene just to keep me going.

I am nearly finished with the major revision on The Keepers of the Emerald Cave Book1: THE MISFORTUNE OF THE EMERALD THIEF, and then will be the task of getting all of the corrections changed on the digital copy, but I need to hurry...I have readers who are bugging me for their early copy so they can hack it death.
#ThankGodForBetaReaders

Peace and bubbles and paisleys,
Cynthia

Yeah! Autumn is here!

I feel with the change in the weather upon us, I can finally think. The sun must have magical powers over me, because when it's shining, I am unable to sit still for any amount of time, but now that the clouds and rain and mist and fog have returned to my corner of the Pacific Northwest, I am ready to work.

Revisions for Keepers of the Emerald Cave are going well, and the past two days I spent time plotting Book 2 of the series: The Clan of the Paisley Agate. The books are so connected, I'm finding I must have the story down before I can finalize Emerald Cave.

Now I have a cast of characters who live in Paisley, Scotland, and mini plots, sub plots, and a big arc to cover them all. I have a little bit of rewriting to do in Emerald Cave because of the plotting work I did this week, but it's wonderful -- I love it when a story falls into place.

So Denim the Bubble Ranger and Ravenna the Time Bender will soon be joining their cousins, D.J., Finella and Sally McDonald on an adventure in Paisley. Murder, possibly a kidnapping, hijinks, magic and a history of witchcraft will all take place center stage in a few weeks when I start the first draft. I cannae wait!

Bring on the neeps and tatties,
Cynthia

I have reached *The End!*

This week was a very exciting one for me, because everything on the outside of me, all external forces that touch our lives on a regular basis, went completely beserk.

I had issues with everything from letting the kids ride the school bus home ONCE and they lost my children for nearly half an hour, to their lunch money accounts being completely catterwompy... to my cheerleading girls being volunteered by another mother to perform at a motocross racetrack in the rain on Saturday night where they were surely going to freeze to death (it was all cancelled.... even the race, thank the Jeebus), to mountains of paperwork that never ends and often makes no sense.

Somewhere in the middle of all of that, I finished the final two chapters of KEEPERS OF THE EMERALD CAVE and was able to smack a "The FREAKIN' HELL YA End!" on its butt!
So there, FULL MOON MADNESS!!!!!

Most of the book has already been gone over and over, BUT... I am going over it again. I have notes on some areas that do need attention, and as I go through it this time, I will be looking for places to make in a bit shinier, the sentences more rhythmic, and checking for plot holes, echoes, and words that are missing completely. (It's so weird when you find something like that! You think, "How many times have I read this sentence???")

And now I can do the thing that worked for Claire Cook -- as I sit in the school parking lot for 50 minutes (in order to get a spot where I can sneak out before the buses load up and leave) every afternoon a mere 2-minute drive from our house, I can revise EMERALD CAVE.

And when the revising is done, I can use that time to write Book 2: THE CLAN OF THE PAISLEY AGATE. Denim the Bubble Ranger and Ravenna the Time Bender will travel with their G-Naveen to the misty land of Scotland to help solve a mysterious murder.

I've already began my research for that one... the town we live in has Scottish roots. Who knew!! The Kelso/Longview area of Washington was established even before Seattle, founded by Peter W. Crawford in the 1840's. Mr. Crawford hailed from Scotland, and his relatives still live here today. They were in attendance at the recent Kelso Highland Festival held here at Tam O'Shanter Park, along with 18 other Clans. There was also (GORGEOUS) live Celtic music, Highland games (tossing giant logs and cannonballs around -- pretty amazing), and many, many, many men in kilts.

My excitement for tonight, however, was that I won another autographed book... this time from Susan Wiggs!! It was a caption contest, and I let my old reporter's fingers fly to come in first.
*weee!*

Back to revising!
Cynthia

Finish line is in view...second book on horizon!

THE KEEPERS OF THE EMERALD CAVE :
THE MISFORTUNE OF THE EMERALD THIEF

...is in the home stretch. I am finalizing the last few scenes, and then I will do a big read-through with a red pen and circle anything still needing attention. I am very excited, especially since I am also in the home stretch of summer vacation, which means my children will be heading back to school soon and I will gain back time during the day to write. WHA????

Book 2 of the Emerald Cave series is already being plotted by my brain as it drives my kids to cheerleading practice and kung fu class, and that is even more exciting. As a writer, I always think, "Where is the next story coming from?"

Well... it started coming today, so I am making notes and the working title is:

THE CLAN OF THE AGATE CAVE :
THE CURSE OF THE PAISLEY AGATE

This book is set in the country of Scotland near Glasgow in a little town called Paisley. I cannot wait to take Denim, Ravenna and G-Naveen on a trip to the land of bagpipes, kilts, Scotch whisky and the Highlands for a round of murder, mayhem and witches!

As a family we are planning on a trip to both SW England and up into Scotland in the spring of 2013, as we will have friends living there soon. We can't wait!

Peace.
Cynthia

Silly photos for the hell of it

I normally don't post any funny photos here... reserving all of these things for Facebook or Twitter, but I thought, "What the hell?" So here they are.

Sometimes people have a hard time outlining their beliefs, so someone drew up this brilliant chart to follow and find which path of worship is yours....

According to the above chart, I am either a Wiccan, Muslim, or an Atheist.
All righty then. :-)

This one came through this morning... I believe from Twitter.
I can't stop laughing when I read it, especially since I grew up in Southern Illinois and thought Mt. St. Helens blew her top in the middle of Washington D.C.
(Now I live in Washington State, so I get the difference, I swear!)

What's really funny about these perceptions we have is when I was an exchange student in high school, I went to the Philippine Islands where they kept asking me which coast I was from...East Coast or West Coast?? All year they would ask me this. I'd always say, "I'm not. I'm from the middle. Illinois." I'd get the same response, "Oh... what coast is Illinois on?"
*smacks head*

I would also get asked repeatedly if I knew Michael Jackson, since all Americans know each other. But they also thought he was from Africa, regardless of how often I said he was from Gary, Indiana.
*What coast is Indiana on?*

And this came to me over Google+ ...... hilarious.

Mmmm..... tacos.

Okay. Revising now.

Artsy Fartsy Tuesday

As promised... here is the T-Rex Volcano cake I made last week for a little-ish boy turning 30!
How cute did this guy turn out?

The dinosaur and the volcano/rock structure thingy were made out of Rice Krispie Treat and covered with a light layer of chocolate icing and then marshmallow fondant on top of that. The rocks are marshmallow fondant, and then the grass is buttercream.

The cake is a 14"-round Wilton wedding white cake with a new recipe I made for the first time -- a fudgey chocolate icing. IT WAS SO GOOD I will definitely use it again. *YUM*

This is the reason I will be toning down the number of cakes I do for people outside of my immediate family -- it takes over my kitchen! Because if he's in there, where are our EGGS?

And on a writerly note, tonight the girls had their new cheer/tumbling class -- 2.5 hours of gymnastics, and I was there -- on my laptop. I revised FIFTEEN pages in Emerald Cave, which is just incredible!!! GO ME!!!!!!

Peace and cake,
Cynthia

A Little Something that's NOT About Doctor Who

Hi Those-Who-Breeze-Through-My-Blog-for-Whatever-Reason,

The biggest news this week is.... it is HOT here! Okay, well, we're in the Pacific Northwest (SW Washington) and "hot" for us is 70, 75 or so. The thing is, we don't usually have air conditioning in our homes, because it's rare the weather gets hot and stays hot. Most people just bitch and complain and go on with their day and eventually it cools off again.

Our new house, though, has AIR CONDITIONING. SWEAR. TO. GOD.

But as cool as that is, the issue is....we live in a treehouse. So the upstairs room where the kitchen is, the dining table, my writing desk, my computer desk, and the upstairs living room, STAY HOT. All of downstairs and the bedrooms upstairs? Cold as ice.

And of course I live in the kitchen and at my two desks.

So...I am left with thinking cool thoughts.

The weekend was over-the-top fun. We celebrated Fourth of July until it was worn completely out. I have multitudes of photos posted on Facebook, in case we are friends over there, and if not, they will be posted on my family blog at some point. The kids had a blast and I was exhausted by the end, so it was nice to wake up this morning to a relatively normal day. My only job this week? ---- Making a T-Rex Volcano Cake for a man turning 30.

Seriously! The T-Rex will be made from Rice Krispie Treats and covered in fondant.
Watch me!!

I will post photos on here of that, I promise.

Other than that, I'm getting my kids into kung fu and cheer gym, maybe some more unpacking, more organizing, and of course more revising.

I need more hours in the day or else the Doctor needs to come every Friday and whisk me back to Tuesday so I can get everything done.

Oops. Wasn't going to mention him.

TOO BAD!!! hahahaha

Keep reading,

Cynthia

Part 3 of my Doctor Who Blab Fest

So I finally got to the end of the David Tennant Doctor Who episodes except I find myself TOO EMOTIONAL over all of this to even FINISH WATCHING THE LAST DAMN EPISODE!

I skipped to the end (BAD WHOVIAN!) and that was too much... so there's this whole section in the middle of End of Time Part 2 I haven't even seen... I don't even know how he "dies" so he knows to travel around and see all of his favorite people one last time.... because the whole thing just kills me!

Ahem. Okay. Just a TV show. I get that.

I'm really talking about it from a writing standpoint.
From a storytelling standpoint.

I understand that there were most likely some behind-the-scenes things going on... studio politics, changing of the guards, and Tennant had been doing the show for three seasons plus extra movies, appearances and all that. The show itself was pretty freaking physical -- they were always running and ducking and dodging and being blown up. He's a wiry little guy, but that's a lot for anyone to deal with, no matter how much money they're tossing at you. Plus, Tennant is amazingly talented and most likely got to the point in his career where he could write his own ticket in other projects, so there you go.

But... when it went from Eccleston to Tennant, the Doctor retained his memories, his love for Rose, his tolerance of her mother, all of that. But the people running the show decided to just end ALL of those story lines with David, well, except for River Song. It gets complicated. But when Matt Smith takes over, it basically all changes.

I used to not care what came before. I used to LOVE the Matt Smith shows, but now it's *almost* like I'm watching a different show completely. So now I will make myself watch the last Tennant episodes again (without skipping around) and then I will watch the Matt Smith shows and see how I feel.

TV was so easy when I was little. Fonzie showed up, everyone squealed. Captain Stubing spent his time acting like he didn't want Julie the Cruise Director when he really did, and we all waited with baited breath week after week to find out if Carrie Ingalls would ever make it down that goddamn hill of wildflowers without biting it.

There were no emotional speed bumps to trip over.
All of the endings were happy ones.

But that's not keeping it real, I guess. They kept it real when it was time for Tennant's Doctor to go, though.
*sniff*
He's standing there on the Tardis, knowing his time is up...his hand is beginning to glow, he feels the electricity shooting through his body, he's wondering who he's going to be this time.
"I don't want to go!" he says....and no one else does either!! *ACK!*

So what have I learned about storytelling from watching Doctor Who pretty much non-stop over the last two weeks...
Plenty of emotional depth.
Check.
Have characters we love and want to meet in person.
Check.
Stick them in impossible situations then save them in non-contrived ways.
Check.
If at all possible make sure there is a part in the movie adaptation of your novel for David Tennant to play because then you have a shot of meeting him.
Check.

So I guess I need to get back to work on KEEPERS OF THE EMERALD CAVE because I so totally love my River family and all their magical bubbliciousness. They will never be available to the world unless I finish these revisions! (And I need to figure out if David could pull off playing G-Naveen because he should be in his 50s BUT the River family IS sort of timeless.... or would he just really be better at playing Ladarius -- although Ladarius IS the bad guy, a delicious bad guy, but I don't want David pigeonholed as the bad guy when he's not Doctor Who ....*hello* Barty Crouch Jr....I'll say no more...)

Keep reading, I'll keep writing, and let's all watch some more Doctor Who because we humans only live once...
Cynthia

What I Learned about Writing from Doctor Who: Part 2

Last night in my midnight delirium, I wrote a post that became Part 1 of a rather lengthy explanation on what I have recently learned about writing from watching WAYYY too much Doctor Who over the past two weeks. You can read Part 1 here.

My take-home message from last night:"To say that Doctor Who is merely a love story is not what I'm saying. But the character as portrayed by both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant is so complex... he's basically immortal, but he does eat. He sleeps. He does feel pain. He feels happiness, joy, excitement for life. He revels in science and seeing things in a new way. He has a time machine that can take him anywhere in any time. He saves people, he saves entire worlds, he makes the bad guys pay for what they've done. He has gadgets galore that can do things we couldn't even imagine in the first place, but he is alone. And he hates that.

When I watched Matt Smith as The Doctor ask Amy Pond to travel with him, I didn't even blink. Of course she would go with him, how exciting! But I was looking at the situation through Amy's eyes. After watching the previous actors play The Doctor, I started seeing the show through The Doctor's eyes. I knew why he needs two hearts, because one is forever breaking."

Okay, so the time I have spent over the last two weeks catching up on the first four seasons of the series with Eccleston and Tennant in the role of Doctor Who has expanded the way I think about storytelling, and that is really saying something. I didn't just watch the show, I studied it. I studied the characters of The Doctor, his companions, the people he surrounded himself with and how he reacted to them -- to their help, to their love, to their leaving.

Eccleston's reign as The Doctor begins with a bang. The lovely 19-year-old Rose Tyler is trapped in a mall after hours with dozens of terrifying mannequins who have come to life. There's nowhere to run, if it were me I would have been screaming and I would have peed my pants, but she survives because Eccleston shows up and pulls her out of there just in time. *WHEW!* That was close!

The show begins in a typical fashion. I've watched plenty of TV in my life; I know how it works.... girl is in trouble/world is in trouble/hero saves the day. Wrongs are righted and everyone rejoices. Seems like a simple enough formula and it's one that has worked forever. It's Superman, it's Spider-Man, it's even Curious George. It's Star Wars, it's Star Trek, it's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.

But I loved the first episode and I fell in love with Rose. Played by actress Billie Piper, she is just adorable. Blond hair, giant eyes, dark eyebrows, rockin' the 80s look with her layered torn tops, living in a cheap-ass flat with her bottle-blond mum named Jackie... I wanted to adopt Rose and bring her home and make her a grilled cheese sandwich and make sure she has clean clothes.
I'm a mom. I think like that.

The Doctor liked her, too. In that way. It's so obvious even in that first episode. I was dumbfounded. Sorry, I was gobsmacked (it IS a British show... I can say that here) because I didn't think that was in his agenda!! I barely remember the shows from 20 years ago, and I've been watching the Matt Smith shows and he's SO unresponsive to Amy Pond and her advances, as well as other women he meets on the show, I was beginning to wonder about our dear Doctor.

I chalked it up to just a part of his character in the show -- I assumed he didn't allow himself to become involved with his companions. Otherwise how would it work? He has a companion, they come with him in the Tardis, she never has any real idea if or when she will make it back to her family or her own town again, for what? I am a woman, so I know what the companions get from their experience...adventure with the dashing Time Lord, but no hanky-panky, which makes all of us watching the show say, "Rats!" But it's still fun to think about, especially when The Doctor is so cute.

But what does he get out of it? Why did Matt Smith's Doctor ask Amy to come with him in the first place? He has everything he needs, he doesn't actually need anyone to come with him. And Amy was a little girl the first time, and the second time she had a boyfriend. A fiance. One of the times she left with him was the night before her wedding! Later she went with him and brought her boyfriend Rory with her, and when they were married, Rory the Husband still came with them! Why? And then at the end of the season finale Amy and Rory had a baby!

It started to not make sense as I thought I understood how the show was structured. The only thing I could think was The Doctor doesn't like to travel alone??? I was lost. I couldn't see the point of the big picture here. Why does he have a companion on the first place and how does he choose who he chooses? This is what made me sure I was missing something because I hadn't seen the episodes that came before...

So back to Eccleston's year as The Doctor -- in the first episode, that is when he asks Rose to come with him. She, like Amy Pond later, has a boyfriend. He's right there through the whole episode. They save the day and rid the world of the evil Living Plastic Creatures... but it's time to say goodbye. But The Doctor can't. He's standing in the door of the Tardis on the darkened back alley somewhere in London. Rose and Mickey (her boyfriend) are standing there, too, and Rose is torn. She's attracted to The Doctor because he's so handsome and daring and just out of this world, but she says she can't come...she has her mum and Mickey to care for...

The look on Eccleston's face is heart-wrenching. He doesn't want to go without her, but he tries to play it cool like, "Oh, yeah, you can come if you want," like he doesn't care either way, but we know he does as soon as he says Mickey is not invited. She says no, he resorts to taunts, "You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep or you could go....anywhere." But she says no, he says okay and he leaves in the Tardis.

Rose made her choice, but it's obvious she's not sure it was the right one. She and Mickey begin to walk home. The Tardis comes back just moments later. He came back for her. He couldn't leave without her. He pops out and tells her it's also a time machine, which is code for, "PLEASE COME WITH ME!"
She does and the peasants rejoice.

Through the rest of the episodes in Season 1 the relationship between The Doctor and Rose make the show. They fight the good fight, they fight with each other, they hold hands as they travel through the universe or walk down a quiet city street. He even puts up with getting yelled at by her insane mother when they screw up and Rose is away from home for over a year with no word. Why? He's a FREAKING TIME LORD! Why does he put up with that?

And in the meantime, The Doctor uses classic manipulation techniques on Rose -- his idea of the best way of keeping her with him, but at the same time the joke's on him, because she gives as good he does...she is really in charge of him, telling him to wait for her, to stay, and he does. He'd sit up and beg if she told him to. By the end of their season together I thought, "Holy crap, they really are like an old married couple."

When he regenerates into the 10th Doctor, played by David Tennant, Rose accepts the change and stays with him. Who wouldn't? Tennant is so adorable I want to stick him in my pocket and take him home forever.

But their relationship deepens even more. Tennant is so much more endearing than Eccleston, and we want them to stay together, but it cannot be. He's a Time Lord. He doesn't grow old, he doesn't die. They have adventure after adventure, but there's that final adventure that separates them. Long story short, he has to let her go to save her life. A tear has opened between two dimensions, between two alternate realities of the same world we live in. For Rose to live, she has to be in the one the Doctor is not, and they are parted.
And the Doctor is never the same.

He picks up a new companion, Donna, but she goes back to her life after one episode, then he finds Martha who falls in love with him. Martha eventually realizes she has no real future with him because he will never return her affection, so she decides to stay home. Donna comes back, but she has no interest in him, she just wants to travel the universe with him. As the episodes go by, Tennant's Doctor is never really alone, but he still misses Rose. A giant piece of his heart is missing and even though he still saves the day and cares for the people around him, none of it matters as soon as he sees a flip of blond hair that reminds him of Rose.

Now the story goes on, there are so many levels and details, but my take-home message through all of this is this... this story does not work without what Rose represents -- wholeness. The Doctor will be forever broken without her, even though he knows she is alive and well and living with a man who is part human and part Time Lord, a person who was created with his own DNA. (I told you it was a long story.)

Rose represents wholeness, but Rose is also a theme... a theme running through all of the shows she's not even in. He mentions her, he talks about her. When someone asks if he's ever lost someone, he says yes, her name was Rose. No other show does this. Every other show loses the continuity as the episodes trudge on. Star Trek (AND I LOVE STAR TREK) is classic for doing this -- something horribly tragic happens in one episode, then years go by without it ever being mentioned again. No one pines away on Star Trek for a lost love. They move on. The Doctor moves on, but in footsteps only.

His Chuck Taylors get the job done, but his heart is ripped apart. He wants love, he wants to belong somewhere. He wants a family, someone to be there with him in that blue box. Tennant described him perfectly in one of the episodes... he called himself a "romantic lost prince" which is the most amazing, perfect description of The Doctor.

Romantic Lost Prince. I love that. So. Much.

Now how does this translate to my writing? The light came on when I realized I was watching this series for one reason -- I fell in love with the characters. The story fell away, the science fiction aspects no longer mattered, I didn't care if they ever explained why the pig people were living in New York City... all I cared about was The Doctor. I became engaged; I became a companion. I discovered I was just like them --- I don't want him to be sad anymore, either. I don't want him to be alone, I don't want him to be in that blue box by himself, and I don't want him to miss Rose forever.

The characters pulled me into the story, hook, line and sinker. And then I realized something else. A fatal flaw I hope they fix soon. The latest episodes with Matt Smith as The Doctor have never, ever, never, not even once, mentioned Rose. Ever. Never ever. Not a blink, not a knowing glance, not a passing remark, not one flip of blond hair. Nothing. No Rose.

Not that I think Billie Piper needs to come back from her other dimension so Rose can rejoin The Doctor in this dimension. I mean from The Doctor's point of view they have it wrong... it's like when he regenerated into Matt Smith's Doctor, he developed some kind of emotional amnesia. It's as though he has completely forgotten everything that had gone before, and I don't believe that is being true to the character. He is what he is because of his love for Rose. With her he wasn't alone anymore. His hearts were whole. (He has two hearts, just f.y.i.)

The writing for this series is multi-layered, like I've said. They did everything right -- they take the highs as high as they can go and the lows and low as they can go. Every episode The Doctor and his gang of whoever is trapped and to us there looks like there's no way out, and then something really bad happens. HOW in the UNIVERSE is he going to get out of THIS? we wonder. But he does, and the solutions aren't even really that contrived, which is awesome. It would be SO EASY to have this show resort to cheesy story lines, but they don't. It's solid. Character building...solid. Dialogue...solid. Relationships...solid. World building...solid.

And that is how I want my writing to be -- solid. I want my characters to be the driving force that grabs the readers into the world I create. Keep your highs high and knock those lows even lower! All of this is key to writing an amazing novel, and that is and always has been my goal.

Another thing that happened while watching this show is it showed me that I really can think outside the box as far as my writing goes. Think big! Don't just have bad guys -- have a bad guy who can absorb his enemies into his body! *YUCK* haha

So I would like to thank Doctor Who and the amazing cast and crew that brought it about. These two blog posts are my little tributes to the show. I love, love, love The Doctor and wish him well.

And I also have an idea of how I believe the series should end.... I think in the future, when it's time to put the show to bed, when he is dying for real, I believe The Doctor should travel to the other dimension, and die in Rose's arms. Then he will finally be home.

Peace and fish custard, jelly babies and a big blue box...

What I Learned about Writing from Doctor Who: Part 1

After another three hours of watching Doctor Who tonight, I did what I always do...I quickly checked my email at 12:30 in the morning as usual before stumbling into the kitchen to see the disaster there, shuffled some plates around, cleaned the counter enough so my husband has somewhere to make his breakfast and then came back in to write this:

I came back to the computer and checked Facebook, very normal. Only some friends remained - my friend Kathie laughing at herself for starting up her Farmville farm again....after I scored some mystery trees and tried for a rainbow egg from her I gave up, made some comments, and then shut it down. Checked my Gmail next and noticed Kristen Lamb had posted an article about blogging themes, so I headed to her site to read because I really do want to find a groove with my blog. For a long time now I have felt there is no focus here, that I have four blogs in the world, and like Kristen says in her article, they're all me, so my worlds need to be brought together... (You can read her excellent post here.)

I've been tossing around ideas for regular posting days for this blog, but part of me thinks the idea is ridiculous because I can't imagine sticking to a set schedule of anything. I'm the mother of two 8-year-olds and a 6-year-old...my life is not about schedules. It's more about What the Hell are We Doing Now. But even more truthfully, I don't follow blogs because someone posts about the writing process on Thursdays. I usually only follow blogs because they either always entertain me with their writing or what they do in their lives, or because their blogs contain information on writing or publishing I can't find anywhere else.

Since I have no insight into anything except myself and the world I have created around me, I guess I'll have to stick to that first one....the world I've created for myself and all the things that happen there. This makes sense, since it is the underlying theme of what Heartberry Ink represents -- everything in the world I really love, the creative, the amazing, the fantastical. Those things we humans come up with that give life meaning, and I'm not talking religion.

I'm talking about art, I'm talking about music, I'm talking about the Sand Dancer and those photos from NASA that show up in my Facebook feed every morning. My friends who are the most amazing comic book artists, my friends who are writers. My friends who somehow manage to raise 8, 10, or 15 children and then turn to tell me they are blessed whereas if I tried that, I would be sitting in a corner somewhere eating my own hair, wishing all of those kids would go away. (The laundry and dishes alone would kill me!)

So instead of doing what Kristen says and creating themes for this day or that, setting a schedule or at least thinking along those lines, I'm going with one theme -- just me. What I love and what I think about and how it relates to the world around me. It's all I've got, so it has to be enough.
And I think it is.

So let's start with my current obsession .... Doctor Who.
The Doctor.
My Doctor.
I started watching Doctor Who when it was Tom Baker. Wayyyy back in high school and then in college.

The Doctor wore a long, long multicolored scarf, a ratty old brown hat, and always had a toothbrush in his pocket so he was always prepared. He had a metal dog named K-9 and lived in a blue Police box. I had a Tardis key... and I still have that key. It's on my key chain right now, only it's nearly 26 years old and the metal has worn so thin it's about to fall off my key ring. I don't know what to do...I don't want to lose it, so I may have to take it off and put it somewhere safe. But I like it on my key chain, which means a replacement is in order, but then it will be new and it won't be the same. My Tardis key used to say, "Spirit of Light" on the back but it's so worn down you can't even read it anymore. I guess I'll be getting on Amazon soon to order a new one. *sigh*

Skipping ahead a few decades, my friends on Facebook were all shrieking with joy because a new season of Doctor Who was starting starring a man named Matt Smith. Their continued excitement was enough to get me excited, so much so that I started leaving the TV at night on the BBC America channel. They were showing reruns and specials leading up to the premier of the new season of Doctor Who.

It was a Saturday and I realized the new show was starting. I had planned on letting it run in the background but I would be working on the computer. Well, that didn't happen. Seconds into the first episode and I was hooked. HOOKED. Why? What did it?

Because a box fell from the sky, man fell out of box, man ate fish custard... all accompanied by an adorable little red-haired Scottish girl named Amelia Pond. The opening scene of that episode left me with so many questions -- he crashed the Tardis and smashed a shed -- can the Tardis fix itself? How is he going to fix that?

Then the Doctor himself was just amazing with his floppy hair and face all full of angles... talking so fast, insulting the girl in that way only The Doctor can, grilling her on all kinds of things, being totally insane, and yet she lets him in.

Little Amelia, there in her nightgown and wellies in the night garden, asking this strange man if he came to fix the crack in her wall, while he just starts ordering her about, "You're Scottish -- fry something!" And she does -- she makes him bacon, gives him an apple, yogurt, whatever. He's just regenerated and so he isn't used to his mouth yet, doesn't know what his mouth likes. He keeps spitting it all out. He settles for fish fingers and custard.
*blech*
This is all in the first five minutes! Such an excellent episode! I was so totally HOOKED! I wanted to know why she had a crack in her wall, but more than that I wanted to know why she was alone, in the middle of the night. Where were her parents? Turns out she doesn't have any. Lives with an aunt and the aunt was at work. The Doctor asks if she wants to come with him, and she says yes. He says he'll be back in five minutes and she goes upstairs to pack a bag. This is the point where if this were any other TV show I would have been creeped out -- grown man asking a 10-year-old to leave with him in his magic time machine... but it's The Doctor. He's not like that.

He comes back, but his five minutes were Amelia's twelve years. She's 22 and pissed. She went a little crazy and had to deal with therapy and all kinds of fun things growing up because of course she told people about him, but now he was back and she was old enough to go with him... and that's how The Doctor got his new companion. The rest of the season goes full-steam ahead and I loved every moment of The Doctor and Amy and all of the people getting dragged along for the ride with them, but my friend Kathie kept saying I had to watch the other seasons... I had to go back to watch the shows between Tom Baker and Matt Smith, and that's what I've been doing.

The thing is, Doctor Who is not just a TV show. It's an AMAZING TV show. It is like filo dough, or like the fabric of space-time itself... it is multi-layered with a new story each episode, but also stories running through all of the episodes and by going back to Season 1 with Christopher Eccleston as The Doctor, I began to see what I had missed -- one of the greatest lessons I could ever learn about story arcs and character development. I realized what I was seeing could be put in practice, and should be put in practice, in my writing...in everyone's writing. If more shows were written like this, I would watch more TV.

And I also have realized that the Doctor Who show is falling into a pit with the Matt Smith shows I love so much, so I am really hoping they realize what I discovered on my own and fix it, otherwise their show will fall apart, because they removed the one element of the show that gives it meaning... they removed Rose, the human woman The Doctor is in love with and always will be.

To say that Doctor Who is merely a love story is not what I'm saying. But the character as portrayed by both Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant is so complex... he's basically immortal, but he does eat. He sleeps. He does feel pain. He feels happiness, joy, excitement for life. He revels in science and seeing things in a new way. He has a time machine that can take him anywhere in any time. He saves people, he saves entire worlds, he makes the bad guys pay for what they've done. He has gadgets galore that can do things we couldn't even imagine in the first place, but he is alone. And he hates that.

When I watched Matt Smith as The Doctor ask Amy Pond to travel with him, I didn't even blink. Of course she would go with him, how exciting! But I was looking at the situation through Amy's eyes. After watching the previous actors play The Doctor, I started seeing the show through The Doctor's eyes. I knew why he needs two hearts, because one is forever breaking.

Look for Doctor Who Part 2 in my next post.

Good night, sleep tight... don't let the Daleks bite.
Cynthia