Multiple Points of View

The first book I read with multiple points of view was Cornelia Funk’s Inkheart. At that time, I was new to the whole read books if you want to become a writer philosophy, so I didn’t understand the reason I had a hard time enjoying this novel. I would come to understand that different perspectives meant different points of view from the minds of two or more characters.

In Inkheart, character points of view flip from Meggie, the protagonist child, to her father, then to the villain, etc.  I found the reading experience jarring because the perspectives switched suddenly, and often happened within the same chapter.

In Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies, author Deborah Halverson explains, “They [writers and editors] say it’s asking a lot to expect teens to emotionally connect with that many narrators. It’s also a lot of work for the writer. Mastering a single, distinct narrative voice is a full plate; creating three, four, or even five distinct voices for the same story is a tall order.”  

Emotionally connect.

Hmmm. For me, that’s it.

In a novel, if I don’t bond with a character I’ll set the book down and choose another. In one book I read with duel points of view, I found myself skipping ahead to find out what happened to the secondary character over the protagonist.

JK Rowling had a unique way of getting around the multiple points of view with Harry Potter. She was able to put Harry at the scene of every important event that might have,  just as easily, used a second or third point of view.

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry had Tom Riddle’s diary to transport him back in time to experience the events when Hagrid was expelled.  In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Harry saw the world through Nagini’s eyes when Mr. Weesley was attacked at the Ministry of Magic.

Many times, Rowling used the pensive to enter other character’s memories. This technique let readers watch alongside Harry and decide for themselves what they thought of certain characters. For example, the reader saw Snape getting picked on by James and Sirius; the reader was pulled inside the courtroom trial of Barty Crouch, Jr.; and even tagged along with Dumbledore and Harry on their visit to see Tom Riddle at the orphanage.  And what about Harry’s scar? Harry’s scar was the reader’s connection into Voldemort’s mind.

Throughout the whole series, although not directly put inside the heads of these characters, I felt as if I knew them. Didn’t you?

I am an equal opportunity book reader, and just because a book offers several points of view doesn’t mean I’ll discard the novel. I loved both Newbery Medal books, The Underneath by Kathi Appelt and Splendors and Glooms by Laura Amy Schlitz. Each of these novels also had an adult narrator. So, what made those novels different, at least to me?

In Writing Young Adult Fiction for Dummies, Deborah sums up my feelings about multiple points of view in three suggestions:

1. Make clear breaks when switching from one POV to another.

2. Be diligent about making the voices distinct from each other.

3. Be sure that each character adds something that the other characters could not—information, important opinions, and so on.

I have no doubt choosing this writing style would be an enormous challenge, and I’m excited to find out if, as a writer, I can divide my narration into a horcrux without destroying my story’s soul.   

Happy Anniversary, Lorne!

Thank you for the last twenty-two years. I love you more with each passing year. It's been particularly nice to have couple time with Lucy in California. It's good to know that you and I will be fine when our nest is empty.

I love you and I'm looking forward to growing even older with you.

Deep Point of View

A member of a critique group I used to belong to became frustrated when, in my critiques of her work, I suggested that she write using deep point of view. She expressed that I was trying to change her writing style. 

For me, writing in deep point of view isn't part of my writing style, as she suggested. In my opinion the concept of deep pov is mechanics, and can be a learned writing technique, like learning where and when to use a comma. Deep point of view makes a story active and eliminates much of the dreaded "show don't tell" comments I would receive when I'd submit to first chapter for critique at a conference. 

I finally understood this concept after reading a writing craft novel by Jill Elizabeth Nelson titled Rivet Your Readers With Deep POV. This concept is often explained by guest agents and editors at conferences and on many professional blogs, but Jill's book broke it down for me. 

I advise every writer I met to read this book, yet I'm surprised how many writers don't bother. Maybe writers in general are a stubborn breed. After all, writers have to be thick skinned to handle the dreaded rejection letter. But, having thick skin is different than having a thick skull. 

In the introduction of Rivet Your Readers with Deep POV, Jill asks the reader: 

"Have you ever read a book that melded your mind with the main character's psyche? No vague sensation of an invisible narrator inserted itself between you and the point-of-view character. Line by line, scene by scene, you lived in that central character's head. Even if the story was not written in first person, the hero or heroine's every experience became yours, and your reading pleasure intensified."

Yes! Yes! Yes!  These are the books I love to read, and if, after the first few pages, I don't feel this way, I set down the book and pick up another to read.

If these are the books I want to read, how could I not want to write in this way? Isn't that my goal as a writer? To make my readers bond with the characters I create? 

The answer to my question is Yes! Yes! Yes!

A Booger Biography

To prove Booger Red was not a chunky nasal excrement here is his obituary:

Texas Nachos at Booger Red's

On our visit to Fort Worth last month we ate a a restaurant called the H3 Ranch, aka Booger Reds Saloon.

I had more fun looking at the scenery than I did eating my meal--the food was good, but the atmosphere was fantastic. This is where I drank Buffalo Butt Beer, although I didn't saddle up to the bar. 

In the far right there is patron who's back in the saddle again. 

No, really. I watched him return from the restroom. 

Anyway, we ordered nachos and here's what they looked like: 

In California we call these tostadas (sorry it's crooked, I couldn't figure how to rotate the photo)

Nothing like a little bedpan music in the upper right corner. 

Patchwork Road

Our street is off of a road that leads to a major Texas interstate. Semi-trucks are not supposed to use this road, but the local police do not enforce this rule. Thus, the heavy load the trucks haul leaves indentions where their tires trek up and down the roadway. This road had become so bad just driving on the street could throw out a car's alignment.

For the past year, the city promised to repave the street. Here's what my three mile drive to the interstate looks like now--bless their hearts.

 Pulling out onto Bear Creek

Approaching the interstate

These Boots Are Made For...

Plants? 

 

According to the Elements...

I was revising my first novel for submission, and I added the sentence: "Since I can’t borrow Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak or slip on Bilbo Baggins’[s] ring, I bow my head to avoid eye contact..."

When I reread the sentence I started wondering if the ring that Bilbo Baggins owns needs to be shown as a possessive with an extra  s  or just an apostrophe after the  s  in Bilbo’s last name. To find my solution, I searched the internet and found conflicting answers. 

Microsoft Word advised me that Baggins’s was incorrect, and when I removed the  s after the apostrophe, MSWord removed the ugly red underline under Baggins'. 

Even more perplexed than when I started, I consulted with good ole’ William Strunk and & E.B. White in the book The Elements of Style. Right there on the first page, rule one says:

“Form the possessive singular of nouns by adding 's. Follow this rule whatever the final consonant.”

Hmmm... whatever the final consonant? That means, a noun or proper noun that ends in  s  must be followed by 's  when writing the possessive object to follow. Thus, my sentence should read Bilbo Baggins’s  ring. 

I could have avoided everything if I would have deleted Bilbo’s sir name entirely, but what then would I have learned?

Maria Cisneros Toth's YouTube Channel

My fellow writer and critique partner, Maria, has a really fun YouTube channel. Besides being a published writer, she is major crafty and posts how-to videos on her channel. But in the clip below, she's featuring the band Innermix as the perform a song in her living room. Here's the link:

Innermix singing "Midnight Calls"

A Grammar Lesson

Weird Al's spoof on Blurred Lines. What else can I say?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Gv0H-vPoDc

Okra Flowers

Can you find the budding veggies?

Going to Seed...

Update on our asparagus. As the vegetable grows, the gardener covers the trench with dirt. When the little plants grow through the level, another pile of dirt, manure, and mulch is poured on top, eventually creating a mound for the little plants to grow. Right now they are seeding little ferns. Next year we should expect our harvest.

Somehow, we have a renegade tomato plant safely tucked trying to hide in the ditch.

I've Got A Bone To Pick With You...

Every payday when I go to Track Supply to grab the doggies food, I get them a special treat. Each of my boxers retreats to a corner of the rug to gnaw on their bones.

How About An Ice Cold Brewski?

The sign to the left of the Buffalo's Ass says, "Only in America."

My New Wheels...

            

My Hoveround is on layaway. Only twenty years, than he's all mine.

Time With My Daughter...

Back to our trip to the Texas State Cemetery. Despite my hatred of getting my photo taken, I have to savor the moments when my daughter and I still get along. I've been lucky thus far because as at almost fifteen year's old, she and I are still best friends.

Okay, I'll admit that after an hour-and-a-half of me reading all the headstones and memorials, Lucy was sick of posing and wanted to leave.

Why Did The Geese Cross The Road?

To make my husband late for work.

My husband's office overlooks Las Colinas Country Club's beautiful golf course. There is a part of the course's lake with a bridge overpass so the lake can continue to the other side of Decker Drive--the street my husband's office building is located. 

Over the past year or so the geese population seems to be growing. And despite the cold, the geese have decided to make the golf course area their home. There are probably about a hundred that have no problem stopping traffic to walk across the street to visit the other side of the lake. If you can enlarge the photo you will see a fraction of the geese on either side of the roadway.

The Future of Us by Carolyn Mackler and Jay Asher

I just finished reading The Future of Us. Since I’ve started writing, I’ve noticed I read novels differently than I used to. Now, when I read, I dissect and analyze the author’s writing style. This leads me to the first reason I enjoyed this novel.

The story is told in two distinct characters: Josh, written by Jay Asher, and Emma, written by Carolyn Mackler. Often books with multiple POVs are written by the same author and, although there are two view points, the underlying style is the same. But this doesn’t happen in The Future of Us because both writers have completely different writing styles.

It is only my opinion, but I enjoyed Josh’s voice better than Emma’s because of Jay’s writing style.

Jay Asher is the bestselling author of Thirteen Reason’s Why. He’s a fabulous writer and his characters always reflect a deep point of view which melts me into the character’s plight more than a writer that doesn’t completely exercise this skill.  

For character depth, however, Emma wins hands down. Carolyn deserves mucho kudos for layering her character’s behavior.

Although, a teen may be able to relate to Emma, an adult reader is able to notice the reasons behind Emma’s actions, which made me deeply sympathize with Emma’s character.  

For example, without giving a spoiler alert, Emma’s mother is on her third husband. Emma’s father moved away, remarried, and has a new baby with his second wife. How can this family dynamic not affect a teenager as she develops dating relationships? Wouldn’t any girl want to find a boyfriend, aka future husband, that she will be happy with until death do they part?

As I got older, that was my dating goal. Luckily, twenty-two years later my husband still puts up with me. Or maybe it’s because I’m a technotard and have never bothered to open a Facebook account. 

MY First Blackberry!

Not the THE first blackberry on the bushes. 

It’s the first blackberry I've been able to eat. My husband, and all of his ten green fingers, takes care of our garden. Whenever, I go out to help—okay, I’ll be honest, to watch him work—I notice the blackberries are always missing from the bush.

When I’d ask what happened to all the berries, he replies, “Stupid birds.”

Birds, nothing! It was his green thumbs that picked those berries, and his lying tongue that ate ‘em.

But now that he’s on a business trip, the blackberries are all mine. 

Muahahaha

Madder than the Mad Hatter...

Tea party anyone?

Opps! The March Hare forgot to remove the empty tea container from the fridge.

(Those are tea bags in the bottom of the container, not the Dormouse and family.)

Follow up to A Posing Question...

Aside from the obvious butter beer, the drink of choice for children after age eleven, I emailed this question to some of my friends and here is some of the answers:

Marijuana flavor Bertie Botts Beans.

Chocolate Frogs, since for many chocolate is their favorite addition.

And since all Hogwarts students take Potions, maybe they can whip up a stimulant of their own.

A Posing Question...

My fourteen-year-old daughter Lucy likes to play the "Posing Question" game. She’s done this all her life, starting when she was two-and-a half and she asked me, “Do you want me to live or do you want me to die?”

All these years later her questions keep coming. Offering me weird insight into the mind of a child who examines life so different from me. Some of the questions border on the ridiculous, as if she asks them specifically to see my reaction, amused at the possibility I'll actually answer her question. For example, I’ll redirect this question to you.

Do you think the students at Hogwarts ever got in trouble for drugs, and if so what drug of choice would be most common in each house?

WKOQIT? (What kind of question is that?)

Got any answers for her? 

In remembrance of those who died...

Chin Chillin'

One thing that our chinchilla's love is to run around free. In our Texas home we have room to let them, so every once in a while we block off the hall. After fifteen minutes of chinchilla chaos, they usually settle down and sleep next to my husband. 

Top left is Quinn, is a standard grey and can sell for around $70. He was our first chinchilla.

Bottom right is our first female, Sugar. She is a beige and can sell for $125. My husband liked the idea of breeding so we purchased a second female. White chinchillas can sell for $160. Can you guess the name? (Lucy picked it out when she was twelve.) If you guessed Snowball, you're psychic. Last we have Stormageddon--Stormy for short. He was born Feb 11, 2014. His mom is Sugar and we kept him to bread with Snowball. He loves to bathe.This morning, I forgot to pull out his bath and he fell asleep. When I tried to remove the bath he bit me... the litter smucker.

 

Chinchilla's take a dust/ash bath because the dust gets in their fine fur and absorbs both oil and dirt.

Our first breeding experience. Rocket and Sweet Pee.

Since that time Sugar has birthed four babies. The double chins (pun intended) and two other boys.

Snowball produced a mosaic, white with grey spots, which we named Patches. Mosaic chinchillas can sell for $225

Chinchilla babies are born with open eyes and all their fur. Within an hour or so after birth they can hop around the cage. Should any parent be interested in these lovely, sweet, and soft boogers heed my warning... chinchillas can live up to twenty years.

Fort Worth Cattle Drive at the Stock Yards

In December, we brought our son to see the World Famous Fort Worth Stock Yard Cattle Drive and there were only six or seven steers that marched past us. Yesterday, our 4th of July visit was much more exciting... we watched the cowboys parade about thirty steers down the two block march. The longhorns make their trek at 11 am and 4 pm daily. What I love most is the reaction reaction from the crowd: Is that it?

All kidding aside. A trip to the Stock Yard is a fun way to spend the day. The shops are blast, street performers entertain the crowds, and the restaurants are fabulously fun. It's a great experience. 

A Text Conversation with My Daughter...

June 27, 2014 11:12 am

     Lucy:  Dezzy peed and sh*t in my room. [Dezzy is our nine year old boxer]

     Me:  Pick up the sh**.  I will scrub and sanitize your carpet when I get home.

     Me again:  Do you think it was last night when she was locked in your room? Or after you went back to bed this morning? How do you know it was her? [We have two other possible canine suspects.]

     Lucy:  It was her. 

     Lucy again: It was on one of my good bras.

The Bionic Man of Texas... Stephen F. Austin

Well, maybe not the Million Dollar Man, but to Texas he is the Founder of the Lone Star State.

A Jingle Bells Parody...

Visiting all the graves, on a somewhat cloudy day.

  Over the grass we go,taking photos all the way.

Author of the beloved children's book Old Yeller

Flowers loved ones bring, to graves all shapes and size.

Baseball player and manager in the Negro League.

Oh, there's lots of things to see at the Texas State Cemetery.

All jingles aside, spending a few hours at the State Cemetery made a lovely afternoon for my both Lucy and me. The grounds are beautiful and the atmosphere peaceful. It is a humbling experience. Many Confederate soldiers rest here along with other war memorials dedicated to those who died for our country.

                          

Albert Sidney Johnston Memorial Tomb

In the background is Confederate Field

Poppies... Poppies. Poppies Will Put Them to Sleep.

One of the most beautiful sights in California is seeing the state flower lining the hills along Interstate Fifteen. I love California's wild poppies and I was soooo happy to see that the seeds from my California past can grow here in my Texas future.

Oh My God...

When I was growing up, I attended a church whose number one message I interpreted was: You must act and do things that would earn God’s love. I had a belief that God would love and bless me only if I kept his commandments.

Somehow, I came to believe that God holds grudges and keeps score of what he will do for me against what I’ve done for him. I believed I didn’t deserve to ask him for anything because I wasn’t keeping up with my end of all the chores listed in the bible. I did not see him as the loving and forgiving being like his Son, Jesus Christ.

However, I've come to believe that my perceptions of God were wrong. I was unable to understand or believe Christ when he tried to explain that He, himself, was like God: “…Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing in himself, but what he seething the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.” (John 5: 19 KJV) This concept is restated to the apostle Thomas, also known as doubting Thomas, in John 14: 8-10.

I also felt this way about my earthy (biological) father. I love him and I know he loves me. But somewhere deep in my heart, I feel he would love me more or be proud of me more if I would only be an active member and raise my children in the religion in which I was raised. How sad and guilty I feel knowing I will never live up to his expectation.

How often is it said that children copy the behavior of their parents? When children become adults, they often pass patterns of discipline, love, and acceptance from how they were treated as children onto their kids. 

Do I want to be the kind of parent who makes my children feel like I don’t love them because they are not doing what I expect? If I behave in such a way, am I not taking away their freewill? I’m I limiting the kind of person that they were destined to be in order to fit my mold? 

If Jesus copies the behaviors of the Father, would not GOD be as loving and forgiving as his Son?

And what about my relationship with other people? And their flaws or beliefs? Jesus hung out with, loved, and accepted sinners. Therefore, God does also.

Who then am I to emulate?