Weird Weekend – Vampires, Werewolves, and Bestsellers, Oh My!

So I’ve got to work on the consistency thing, but it seems that for the first time in a long time I’ve bitten off way more than I can chew.  Getting the garden going, managing feeding, watering and cleaning up after 29 chickens takes up the little time I have after work.  I found myself falling asleep at my computer!

But with the weekend comes extra sleep and some free time, so here is my next Weird Weekend installment.

Source: http://www.dvd-ppt-slideshow.com/blog/get-free-twilight-saga-new-moon-powerpoint-backgroundstemplates/

On my breaks at work, I’ve been reading New Moon.  I’m sure this will cause legions of girls to hate me…but I was not impressed with Twilight, and didn’t get its appeal.  There must be far too many years between me and my angst-ridden teens.  And while I was deep in their throes, yes, I fantasized about odd things, but nothing about snuggling up to an icy cold, sparkly dead guy sounded awesome then or now.  So I mostly yawned through the pages, irritated by Bella perpetual klutziness and self-deprecation and Edward’s arrogance and obsession.

I picked up Twilight in the spirit of research.  I’ve written my own urban fantasy novel about werewolves, and for the two years I was constructing my own world, I avoided the genre.  I’m a hardcore geek, former RPG’er, and life-long sci-fi fantasy reader, watcher, but by the time I came up for air and looked around, I was astonished by the sheer volume of choices out there.  It is staggering, and I decided to start with this vampire/werewolf series, and try to figure out what was Twilight’s ‘IT’ factor?

Is this hot, or not? Source: http://digitalcitizen.ca/2009/12/30/twilight-and-new-moon-wallpapers-1024-x-768-pixels-part-1/edward-cullen-poster-1024×768/

I finished Twilight a few months ago and was baffled by ‘IT.’  A friend told me that the devotion Edward had for Bella was the hook for her, “I just wish I could find someone to love me like that.”  To me, a stalker-ish dead guy with control issues is not sexy, it’s scary.  To tell the truth, I found his character unlikeable, and Bella irritating.  I was somewhere between 30 and 50 pages into New Moon when I realized ‘IT.’

I guess I am on Team Jacob, because he is so much Edward’s complete opposite; Stephanie Meyer emphasizes his warmth and Bella calls him the ‘sun.’  I never understood Bella’s attraction to Edward, but Jacob is another story!  And somewhere in Bella’s mental maunderings I began to hear echoes of my 16-year-old self.  I realized that if I were 16 right now, I would be devouring these books whole again and again.  I wouldn’t have been into Edward, but I would have been all about Jacob.  I too, would memorize every word, and treasure them up like gems.  I was in a fair way to disliking the series, and somehow Stephanie Meyers managed to connect me to a person I thought I’d left far behind, my teenage self.  I got ‘IT’!  In Bella’s self-talk I could hear echoes of the young girl I was, sifting through every word said and expression change.  What teenage girl has not thought that she was nothing special?  Not pretty enough, not graceful, and always managing to say or do the wrong thing?  Bella does all that and more and yet she still manages to get two (well, ONE, in my opinion) awesome, not to mention legendary guys to fall for her.  How can that not cause hearts and minds to race, and imagine, just for a little while that you are that one, who, as my friend said, is so utterly loved?   I even felt a little guilty that a declaration of devotion from a teen pre-werewolf could make my heart beat a little faster.  I guess shapeshifters are just my thing.

Source: http://www.fanpop.com/spots/twilight-series/images/17273251/title/jacob-black-wolf-wallpaper

What about you?  Are you Team Edward or Team Jacob?  Do you get ‘IT’ or do you not understand the appeal of these books?

Eleven Questions

Just when I was needing some inspiration for getting back into my blog, I was tagged by the talented Rachel Funk Heller for the Eleven Questions Game.  You will definitely want to check out her blog and read the answers to her eleven questions.  Here’s her answer to number 4; I want to be at this dinner:

“4. You can invite any three people in the world for a dinner–anyone alive. Who are your guests?
Bill Moyers, Rachel Maddow, and Sting”

Here’s how the game is played:

1.    You must post the rules. 
2.    Answer the questions on your blog. Create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3.    Tag eleven people and link to them.
4.    Let them know you’ve tagged them

So, here’s what you’ve all been wanting to know about me:

What is your favorite cruciferous vegetable?  None.  Really, I am not a fan of broccoli, cauliflower, etc. and so don’t eat them.  I even tried broccoli sprouts once, thinking to get the health advantages, and had to feed the bitter things to my hens.  And they weren’t thrilled with them either.

At what age did you realize Santa Claus, might not be real?  I was under the age of 10 because by then I was desperately in love with Han Solo and Santa was definitely a kid thing.  I don’t remember though if I was 8 or 9 when I realized that Santa used the same wrapping paper as Mom.  Hmmmmm.

Where is the worst place you have ever made whoopee?  In a very prickly thicket, with only a thin blanket on the ground.  Ex-boyfriend thought it was ‘romantic’ to do it outdoors.  Sure, fine, but fewer sticks underneath would’ve made it a lot more comfortable.

What is your favorite rodent?  Rats.  Really, I’ve had multiple pet rats.  They are very affectionate if raised right, and highly trainable.  Pet rats come in lots of varieties and color schemes.  I mean come on…isn’t that cute?

 

List your five favorite letters of the alphabet.  In no particular order:  H, I, J, K, and L.

If you could be a Spice Girl, which one would you be?  Probably Sporty Spice, I would love to be able to do backflips.

If you were a super hero, what is your super hero name and your special power?  My special power would be talking to animals, and my name would be Chatterbox.  I would wander the streets chatting up the pets of your favorite celebrities and then blog about all their deepest and darkest secrets.

What is your Drag Queen name? Take the name of your first pet, and the name of the first street you lived on.  Inky Regatta, which conjures up all sorts of images.  Hmm, I feel a new character coming on…

Boxers or Briefs?  Boxers all the way.

You’ve just made an embarrassing fast dash into an elevator car, after you make it and the door closes, you are panting and out of breath, you look up and there is your favorite celebrity of all time: what do you say?  “Quick Han Solo, tell me again what a scoundrel you are!”  You notice that’s the second time I’ve mentioned him?

What is your favorite Halloween costume of all time?  The chain mail bikini a very old friend made for me one year, worn over my leather bikini, with a swirling cape and trusty sword at my side.  Then I wore it to a Renaissance Faire the next year.  Oh, what fun that weekend was!

So now it’s my turn!  I get to ask the questions, here’s what I want to know about all of you!

Dream vacation anywhere, and I mean anywhere; here on earth, out in the cosmos, favorite fantasy realm or time period, and why?

When did you first realize you were a writer?

How would you like to reach bestselling author status:  traditional publishing, with agent, editor and one of the big 6?  Or go it alone, a-la Amanda Hocking style, self-published all the way?  (If you are already there, which route did you take, and how’d that go for you?)

Last movie you saw, and what’d you think?

You can no longer write!  Gasp!  How do you express your creativity now?

If you could wave a magic wand and fix just one thing, anything you like, be it pollution, politics, or maybe just the way your hair frizzes when there’s too much humidity, what would it be and why?

Is there life after death?  Do you want there to be?

Favorite ice cream flavor?

Who’s on your list?  You know, the exception list, as in:  “Honey, yeah, Han Solo just called and he’s good to go.  You know he’s on my list.”  (Ok, so he’s my favorite example)

You can take a trip, and find out 100% absolutely without a doubt that there is a God, but the process of finding out takes a couple weeks, and involves some risk and personal physical sacrifice and pain.  Would you take the trip?

What was your favorite Saturday morning cartoon as a kid?

Inquiring minds want to know:

Emma Burcart 

Pat O’Dea Rosen

Coleen Patrick

Alica McKenna Johnson

Louise Behiel

Jansen Schmidt

Kara P. Flathouse

Jessica O’Neal

August McLaughlin

Diana Murdock

Deborah J. Hughes  

I look forward to reading all of your answers!  Happy Easter to all, may your day be filled with love, joy and the blessings of your family.

And because I just couldn’t resist:

 

 

Werewolves? What’s Not to Love?

At first glance, why would anyone want to be a werewolf?  Does anyone really want to be able to change their shape, to have to hunt and kill?  Common legends do not paint them as very congenial creatures, and how comfortable can it be to grow hair and have to run around on all fours?  How many hands up out there?  Ok, mine’s one of them.  Guilty!  But I’ve always found shape-shifting endlessly fascinating.

The origins of the werewolf legend trace back to the ancient world.  The Epic of Gilgamesh, out of Sumeria, relates how the hero refused to knock boots with the Goddess Ishtar, because she’d turned a former lover into a wolf.  From Greece we have Lycaon, King of Arcadia.  The basic tale has Lycaon killing his son, cooking him and offering him up for dinner to Zeus, King of the Gods.  Zeus is understandably angered by his host’s menu choice and transforms King Lycaon into a wolf in punishment. I guess the lesson from this is…don’t piss off a deity!  It’s from the King of Arcadia that we get the word lycanthropy.

The wolf has had a bad reputation for a very long time.  In early European cultures the wolf was a dangerous enemy, a threat to livestock and humans both.  Not surprising that someone who did damage to the community would be characterized as a wolf.  Werewolf legends abound throughout Europe of men changing into wolves and terrorizing the countryside.  Retrospective analyses have offered us a multitude of explanations for this creature, it’s motives and behaviors; ergotism, hypertrichosis, porphyria have all been suggested.  Superstition and suspected witchcraft have also contributed.  It’s been suggested that the werewolf legend sprang up to explain the actions of serial killers; a supernatural cause to a horrific act would have made sense to religiously bound ideals of the Middle Ages.

How did we make the transition then, from serial killer to superhero?  Today, we have Jacob Black, Richard Zeeman and Alcede Herveaux to name just a few.  Hundreds of thousands of women now lust for these guys, and yeah, I’m one of them!  The literal and virtual bookshelves are crammed with paranormal romance featuring everyone’s favorite shapechanger.  Now, they’re devastatingly attractive, powerful men (or women!) who are as irresistible to us as to the heroine (or hero!) of the story.

Obviously, numerous factors have contributed to this change, but as our understanding of wolves and their environment has grown, so has our love affair with the werewolf.  It’s only fairly recently that human perception of the wolf has turned.  With a better understanding of wolf behavior that has come from research, we now know that, instead of being slavering mindless killers, the wolf is in fact a dedicated family animal.  Wolves are loyal, and live in loving family groupings.  They act together as a team, cooperating to provide food and protection for their pack.  Pack dynamics can be harsh, involving growling, lunging and slashing teeth, but looking closely at these interactions shows that these fierce displays are usually just that, display.  Physical conflict is typically brief, and injuries rare.  More commonly, pack members are physically affectionate with each other, offering grooming, cuddling and playful behaviors to the members of their pack.   Yes, they do kill other animals, but for food, not excessively or wastefully.  They do not kill solely for the joy of killing.  Seems to me humans could do a little more modeling of their own behavior after the wolf’s.

The modern werewolf  has grown to fill a much-loved niche in our world.  Striding confidently out from the fearful fringes of superstition, the werewolf has gone from terror-inducing villain to mainstream hero.  But, the modern shapeshifter has also allowed us to reconnect with an often-forgotten part of ourselves, the part that is wild and animalistic.  In our frenetic, technology-driven world, we often lose sight of the fact that we are natural creatures.  A part of us mourns a little when we are cut off utterly from the earth that sustains us and seeks to reconnect with it.  And it’s a little bit like rediscovering the divine when you do find it.

The werewolf walks in both worlds, the human and the natural, giving us that outlet, that connection.

I cast the werewolf into the protagonist’s role in my novel, Becoming Pack, to show that humans are inextricably bound to the natural world, and our actions have consequences.  We need this bond, to remind ourselves that we are not alone, we do not exist in a vacuum.  We require the wild, open spaces and the animals that live there.  Evidence mounts on evidence that each ecosystem is linked to the other, what affects one affects the next and damage to one eventually harms all.

The wolf is an icon of how man can affect the natural world.  In North America, the wolf was the object of a sustained program of eradication, and they nearly succeeded.  It wasn’t until 1973 that the gray and red wolves received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.  Wolf reintroduction programs began in 1995 in Idaho/Yellowstone.  Today, wolf populations are growing, and their resurgence has helped restore their native habitats.

I  have a very close bond to wolves; I used to work with them, well, two to be specific.  In Becoming Pack, I’ve tried to bring you into the world of the wolf, and what it would feel like to be able to experience the world through the senses of another.  Ultimately, that’s what the werewolf protagonist does for us, gives us a glimpse of the natural world through the eyes of one immersed in it.

Who is your favorite werewolf?  What’s your fascination with the werewolf mythos?  Leave me a comment and tell me about your love of lycanthropy!