Archive for May, 2010

Progress

Halfway through the second book of Magic Solutions Inc, ironically due to a computer meltdown. One would think that would set me back, not forwards, but I got through to halfway in a matter of two weeks.

The second book of Magic Solutions, Inc is tentatively called “Magic Resolutions.” I intend this fully as a pun. Re:Solution and resolutions and re-solution… Triple pun attack. This book I describe as slightly less violence more references to sex and sex acts (though no physical sex scenes take place, some of the descriptions are more graphic.)

I plan to send out Magic Solutions, Inc for rejection. I like rejections because they push me to work harder. I’m waiting for last edits from a few people who promised to read it and give me feedback.

I also want to work on the wiki I set up for the book as well. I’m hoping this will become a selling point. I plan to set it up so those who get the book will be able to read special spoilers for the various books, get author notes on the characters and also get a good laugh even if they haven’t read the book. I’m not sure if the publisher would cooperate with that idea, but I know I spend hours getting lost in world wikis, so I thought it would be a great promotional material. Plus, let’s be honest, it’s a great way to waste time away from writing the book when I’m stuck, yet still be writing it. I think I need rehab for being a world building addict. Was Cultural Anthropology the reason I got into world building? No, it was world building that got me into cultural Anthropology.

After Magic Resolutions, then I’ll work on the next book which I already have lined up. The new book is slated to be Epic Fantasy with *gasp* Asian characters. I know, it’s very shocking to find out that an adult fantasy could have something other than Chinese or Native American characters roaming around that’s not LeGuin. I kind of find this state of affairs very sad. Fantasy is not limited by cultural restrictions like other genres–in fact it can show tolerance and build tolerance by the basic premise it has–anything goes, yet I can’t find the books in the genre I want to read. I’m dying to see characters not in a Medieval setting. I love Wuxia and Native American Fantasy that’s accurate. But I also want to read things like Ancient Greek Fantasy, An Urban Fantasy set in Rome (without the Paranormal, thank-you-very-much) I’d love to read something about the African Tribes and a fantasy set in something of that sort. I loved Anansi as a kid. Doesn’t Fantasy give us the chance to branch out of our own myopic worlds and give us a sense of wonder? That’s why I got into the genre (And I admit, Michael Whelan’s covers. I really wanted one made for one of my books in that childish fantasizing way. He quit making covers though.) and also why I stuck with it. I loved the flexibility and ability it gave to expand the human mind beyond our own world and release people’s fears and judgments with wonder. So I find it sad that Fantasy is so limiting in this regard. We can do better.

I have to admit from my end I had to get out of the all characters are white mind set. (George Takazumi, though volunteered to be Japanese long before I became conscious.) I found it weird that as a person of Korean and Jewish descent, I was writing characters that were white and in European settings! This isn’t to go all social justice, but considering the diversity of the universe and world I was writing in Magic Solutions, Inc, I found it impossible that everyone in the company was one skin color and one singular background. So I consciously tried to diversify the characters and the minor characters to not be white. I see this as practice so it comes up a little more naturally that there is more diversity. I definitely don’t want to be an author prejudiced against her own background. That would be weird and wrong.

The last thing I think I want to remind myself of at this point is that I want the publisher NOT to have a table of contents for the first book or the sequel if I get it published. I wonder if I can get that into a contract… I’d be willing to make that an issue.

The Microwave

I plugged in my microwave. It had been in the shop for a week. God, I had missed it. I took out the leftover hamburgers I’d made yesterday. I put on on a plate and then set the timer for three minutes. The turntable spun slowly. I licked my lips in anticipation. I opened the microwave and found that it was still cold. I put it in for another six minutes. I settled down and did other things. I looked into my microwave. There was a pile of flour, an egg, some oil and the hamburger had grown fur.

I stared at it. Cow fur. It wasn’t getting cooked. Thinking I was seeing things, I pounded into the panel twelve minutes. Six minutes in the microwave became bigger and bigger. I thought I heard a moo. When it finished out stepped a cow and a chicken. Wheat and corn grew from the cow’s back.

The cow mooed again.

Angry and hungry, I put the broken microwave on top of the cow. I took the chicken with well placed newspaper under one arm and led the cow by a rope to my local repair shop. I entered into the shop.

“I thought you fixed it,” I said to the repairman.

“Oh… sorry, I gave you the wrong one. Full refund.”

“And what am I supposed to do with the cow and chicken?” I asked pointing to them.

“Give them to that customer over there.”

There was a man in the corner crying.

I tilted my head puzzled.

“I gave him your microwave. His cow and chicken died.”