Heroes

          A week or so ago I picked up The Geek Feminist Revolution; its a book of essays dealing with (you can probably guess) feminism and pop culture. It's a good book thus far, and I heartily suggest you pick up a copy. Despite that endorsement, I can't say I agree with the entire book.

          In particular, one of the essays titled Hero (I think, my book is a few feet away) is about how the hero that people get in their mind when you say the word is a male, white, Greek-Adonis type of character. Hercules, Conan the Barbarian, Captain America (not the Hail Hydra version) and Superman (Justice League rather than Justice Lord) are all examples of this character. Hurley suggests that we need to change that.

          While I agree with the theory, the practical isn't so clear cut. First of all, when I was asked that question, my first thought wasn't Captain America and the like. The first thing I saw was a feminine face filled with determination and kindness. When I realised that she wanted a view of somebody, I saw my own heroes. While I do admit that one of my heroes, Jocelin, fulfils that stereotype, the other heroes that came to mind for me were Richard, a dark-skinned man, lithe and intelligent and Kuzunoha, an Asian woman who is slim, tiny, and doll-like.

          Obviously, I was not the type of person she was expecting. Since I like asking the hard questions, I put it to my Facebook page as well thinking that maybe because I'm an author and don't generally differentiate between hero and heroine in my own mind that perhaps other people would give the more expected answers.

          The first thing I realised is that, like me, most people (or at least everyone I have following me) do not see an image of a hero when you say that word. They don't see anything, or they see an expression on a blank face that encompasses qualities they espouse in a hero. If pressed, they see their heroes.

          Some of them see the face of Tsukino Usagi (otherwise known as Sailor Moon), or they see famous people they respect (Margaret Bulkley and Elizabeth Gregory MacGill). Some of them did see Superman (heroic preferences include dark hair over blonde hair apparently) and one person said "Baymax sacrificing his big plump robo body to push Hiro and the ship to safety."

 

 Pictures used as example only and are owned by their respective and awesome companies.

          So no, I don't agree with her. Or at least, I don't think its anywhere near as bad as she thinks it may be. I think it's clear that while there are many white, muscle-bound heroes, there are also many heroes that aren't. What do you think? What (or more correctly who) do you see when you think of a hero? And is that the same as your favourite hero? If not, why/what do you think the difference is?

Netflix And Honour Seem like Odd Bedfellows

          Yesterday, I finished editing chapter 15, which is awesome. Today, I just about half finished chapter 16, though I'm hoping to get a bit more done tonight. It might be difficult since I signed up for Netflix, though.

          Okay, so I'm exaggerating. Even when I was a kid I tended to read more than I ever watched television. Still, after working a full day at work on 5 hours of sleep, I must admit that the siren song of my pillow is strong.

          I can hear the question that is probably most on your minds... if I don't watch television, why would I ever pay for Netflix? Well, my completely honourable reasons are the documentaries. I am one of those people that actually enjoy watching documentaries and since most of my novels and stories pull on myth and history for inspiration. The less than honourable reasons are, of course, enough awesome shows (like Young Justice and more than a few anime shows) that I want to watch are on it that its worth it for me to pick it up.

           Anyways, I'm going to see what I can get done and hopefully I'll have some good news for my next post.

And The Realness Just Keeps Coming

I found out yesterday that if you look on the When Words Collide website, I'm at the top of the presenters (that aren't special guests) list. A nice colour picture of me, though I'll certainly have to get an actual official photo done eventually and it even has a link to my website. I was a bit flabbergasted when I first saw it. It still has a feeling of not-quite real when it happens, like I must be looking into an alternate universe, rather than my own. Realizing that it is my own is an even stranger sensation. There is a lot of power in those situations. I've heard it called the "moment of change", and some ascribe intense power to it. You only need to budge the stone of power to make it fluidity itself. It will always return to stone later, but for that instant, you can do anything.

I suppose it will all become old hat eventually and seeing websites mention me or have my picture up won't send me into a fluttering mess inside. In the meantime, its pretty darn amazing and I sincerely hope that it won't get old quickly. In the meantime, please jump over there and take a look!

I haven't heard back from When Words Collide yet about the other workshops I was hoping to take part in, but I'll let you know when I hear something. I can tell you that I will be presenting during the ARWA meeting in October with a few of the other girls there. Once again, I'll give you more information on that when I have it!

Also, I have decided that I do need a newsletter. It will be delivered monthly and much else besides that is still up in the air about it. I think I will have a mythology section, where I will talk about a specific story, mythological creature, or in some cases, historical person if the two overlap. I will have a section for where I am in my writing/editing and what I'm currently working on. Occasionally it will include a short story (most likely under 5k) on a variety of characters, some that will be in my books and some that may have stories to tell that I won't end up writing a full book about. 

I will point it out when it is up and ready to go at any rate. I'm hoping to have it up and the first one ready to go for the first of July, so keep your eyes peeled for it, eh? Let me know if there's anything else that you would specifically like to see in a monthly newsletter beyond what I've mentioned here (or what you don't want to see if any of this makes you not want to sign up at all). 

Avast Ye Matey's; Yo Ho!

          A few days ago a friend of mine, Starla Hutchton, brought to my attention a woman online who had been asking for sites to pirate digital books from. I was appalled but didn't think much of it at the time. It sucks but aside from agreeing that these people are dirt, there wasn't much I could do. I will admit that I thought this woman was especially an idiot as she's a photographer and I'm pretty certain that she would be up in arms if I called her up, arranged a photo shoot, and then said I wasn't going to pay her but still want the pictures since I like her work.

          Today, I found out that this blew up online. Authors got involved commenting, she made fun of the authors and started banning people. The whole story is told pretty well right here, so I'll let you read it and make your own decisions. What flummoxed me though was the amount of people who agreed that pirating is right.

          I'll admit that when I was younger and I was making quarters above minimum wage that I torrented stuff. Nearly everyone did when Napster first came out. I never felt entitled to that music, but it didn't seem any worse at the time than waiting for that song to come on the radio and recording it from there. Since then I've gone to some pains to buy the music I listen to, I pay for a Crunchyroll subscription for my anime & buy series when I can, and I make a point of buying all my books.

          So why do I do it? Well, first off, it makes me feel good. Knowing that I am supporting my artists and the things I love makes me feel like I'm making a difference; like I'm letting the author know how much I appreciate their work. Usually I accompany that purchase with an email telling the author why I love their work, since as a writer myself, I've found that being told that somebody loves my work or has suggested my stories to someone else makes my day. But more than that, I do it because they deserve it. Writers and other creative people deserve to make money on the things they create.

          I will add a caveat here. Lending someone a copy of your books to give them a taste of a specific authors work is something that I totally agree with. In my experience it leads to more sales for the author. I've turned at least a number of people into fans of SM Stirling's Emberverse series by doing so and all went out and not only bought that book, but they usually continue to buy the rest of the series as well.

          However, somebody once said that people don't appreciate something they've received for free. And from what I can tell that is true. Whether its a tarot card reading, a book you've written, a picture you've drawn, a song you've made... whatever it is, you deserve something for your time. If its your first attempt that might be as simple as a compliment. But as you work on your craft, you'll get better and better at it, your skill will increase, and you deserve to begin getting paid for your work.

          You don't see CEO's saying that they work at 7-11 on the weekends to pay for their love of working for their corporation, or lawyers saying that they work at Wal-Mart 9-5 because they just can't give up defending people in court. Even priests, generally expected to be the epitome of nobility, are expected to make enough to pay for their expenses through tithing at their parish.So why are people who work in creative pursuits expected to be even more noble and give away what they do for free?

An Announcement!

So, I can now officially announce that I will be on at least one panel at When Words Collide 2016. The one panel I can tell you about right now is titled Mythologies Around the World. I suggested this because I was thinking about different ideas that I wanted to see books written about and I really wanted to see mythology and creatures that we haven't seen yet.

We started with European monsters and went from vampires to werewolves. After that we got a run in shifter stories, which simply based on the diversity of creatures has been enjoying a long popularity. We've also seen more than a few books based on witches and native mythology. But I noticed that there isn't much from other areas of the world. I thought having four or five people to talk about a different country or set of countries each that weren't often talked about would be really interesting and informative, especially if you write.

I was considering doing Japan; its a country that I'm very interested in and that I've done a lot of independent study on already. However, I decided that taking that route would be the easy one. Instead, based on my interest in the tales of the lara, a mermaid-type of creature from South America, I decided to choose Brazil.

It's a more difficult route, since I'm going to have to fit in study on a number of different creatures before I decide on exactly what to do the report on and begin planning my part of the presentation. Still, I don't regret my choice. Once I decide what I'm doing the presentation on, I'll let you know in what I'll be doing. In the meantime, if you know of a Brazilian myth, monster or tale that you think I would find interesting, please email the story and creature name to me at InkedFoxPress@gmail.com or just respond in the comments below! Also, share your favourite cultural story or critter you grew up with and where you're from... we're one world and even just a few miles makes a huge difference to the beliefs a group will hold.