As some of you know, “Harvest Moon” debuts in a couple of weeks (insert screaming and rotating head). So, I wanted to share a bit about the world of Dancing Cat and her family.
- Harvest Moon is set in Northern Alberta. Somewhere between Edmonton and Fort McMurray, to be exact. I wanted a different setting. There are so few stories featuring Canada’s First Nations peoples. It was important for me to include them in my work.
- Yes, Saskatoon berries are real.
- There is no bannock in Harvest Moon. (Pauses to allow the collective gasp of Western Canada to subside). Bannock is a traditional native food around these parts. When I worked at the Mustard Seed, I included raisin and cranberry bannock with my Thanksgiving meal for the homeless. Sadly, this traditional food was only developed after the white arrivals. I can’t find any evidence for it pre-European and a lot against it. So, I left it out. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make yourself a good batch of it before reading Harvest Moon. hint hint shameless promotion
- Yes, there is a bisexual character. And, yes, there is historical evidence showing that some cultures accepted homosexuality and bisexuality. So, I included a character that was.
- No one swears or drinks in Harvest Moon. I was too embarrassed to ask my Cree-speaking peers about swear words in Cree. So, those couldn’t exist in the story. Add to that the general lack of alcohol pre-Europeans in Canada. So, Dancing Cat is the most straight-laced character I’ve ever written. It’s no wonder I made the girl change genders. Things were going too smooth for her!
Trunk stories are the unsold, oddball stories that sit on your hard drive. Rumour has it, every author has a few and the longer one writes, the longer the list grows.
Right now, I have two in mine. “Heaven, Inc” a fun story about a meeting in Heaven. I’ve gotten lots of good comments on it; it just doesn’t quite fit with the magazines that I’ve been submitting it to. The other is “Second Anne” a literary story about a young woman who’s life resembles Anne of Green Gables. I haven’t submitted that one yet because I haven’t even found a place to send it yet. It’s just that odd (not to mention most YA markets aren’t interested in girls with prostitute mothers).
In November, I plan to set aside the month to work on short stories, novellas, and flash fiction. I am aiming for the usual 50,000 words during the month (NaNoWriMo), but I want to expand my trunk. After all, I always feel like I haven’t been productive enough if I don’t have a dozen stories sitting aimlessly on my hard drive!
Anyone else have a hard drive of stories?
I do all of the time. When I do it, it’s on purpose. On my Facebook fan page (shameless promotion – Here is the link! Join now!), I often put out “casting calls” for people who want to be servants, corpses, the blond woman who screams, etc. In “Flying Kite, Crashing Ship,” my friend and former co-worker, Laurel, becomes the obedient maid servant. In Road to Hell, several of my friends and family become corpses during a planetary invasion.
It’s been so popular that I often think of the minor roles in my stories and see if I can feature a “real” person in it. Now, I caution folks that you aren’t guaranteed to be written as you are in real life. In fact, you most certainly will not. An inner-city pastor asked me to write her into a story one day. I told her that she’s going to be in charge of a brothel (she said as long as it was an all-male club 
). Poor Laurel had her freedom of expression taken away (though she did laugh at being called obedient).
Writers, do you include names of friends and family in your works?
Book lovers, what do you think of the idea?
I posted about favourite characters a couple of months ago. It’s a popular subject for us authors, after all. It’s always easier to talk about the things we love to do. But today, I want to talk about the characters we just can’t write.
I’m sure that there are writers out there that can write any kind of character. I’m not one of them. I really struggle with passive female characters. Mine always come out as whiny. Not all passive women are whining in real life, I know. However, put me in charge of one and she’s guaranteed to be a whiny, sniveling, annoying thing.
Likewise, I find it hard to remove snideness from the attitudes of anything I write in first person. I am naturally snide and that inherent attitude creeps into the voice of characters. It’s one of the reasons I rarely write in first person; I can’t keep my voice out of it.
Writers – what characters do you struggle to write?
From Lea Schizas, MuseItUp’s Senior Editor, CEO, and person to whom I suck up to on a regular basis 
It’s time, dear readers, to announce what we have in store for you…one surprise at a time.
Beginning October 1st, and on the first of each month, one lucky reader will win a FREE e-book.
The rules you ask?
Continue reading “Win prizes! Chat with Authors!” »
