Featured Video: Peter Fox – Alles Neu

He’s the best thing you’ve never heard. (Make sure you stick around to the very end!)

 
What did you think!? Do you have any foreign music you like to listen to?

Wandering Bard: Spain (Córdoba)

Back in May, I did a post on La Alhambra, a group of palaces built by the Moorish people in Granada, Spain back in the mid to late 1300s. My awesome blogging buddy Julie Glover left me a very excited comment – I had mentioned Córdoba, she said. Apparently, her aunt was from there and Julie would love to visit some time.

Your wish is my command!

Here’s something to gaze at while I give you a little history lesson. Córdoba is a city in southern Spain and was – at one point in time – one of the largest cities in the world in terms of its population. Having been under Islamic rule for quite a while, it was only in the mid 1200s that it came under Spanish/Christian rule.

Shortly after, new churches were built within the city. However, some mosques were actually converted into churches, such as the one that goes to this bell tower.

This is called the Great Mosque of Córdoba, and it actually has a more interesting history than that. It was first a pagan temple. Then it was turned into a Christian church. Then it was converted into a mosque, and later a new mosque was built on the same site. Following that, it became a Roman Catholic church.

Whew!

Talk about an eclectic building.

Maybe you’ve never heard of this building before – at least you think you haven’t. Chances are, if you’re into architecture or art history, you’ve seen this shot at some point in your life:

This building has what is called an arcaded hypostyle hall. That sounds complicated, but it’s not. “Arcaded” simply means arches (as you can see in the picture), and “hypostyle” just means that the roof is supported by columns (hypó meaning ‘under’ and stŷlos meaning ‘column’). The famous red and white striped arches are made of limestone and brick, except for the section you see above. They were a little short on cash, apparently, so they just painted the red parts in here to make it match.

The columns are made of jasper, onyx, marble, and granite. In the picture below, you can see that one of the artists signed his name on this one!

Our guide then took us to the Street of Flowers, which provides a classic view of the bell tower.

And that was a little slice of Córdoba for you! Hope you had a great time!

There you go, Julie! Hope you enjoyed it. Can’t wait till you get to go there for real! Did everyone else enjoy the trip? I know I did. I don’t want to go to work now.

Fan-fiction on a Whole New Level: Fan-made Videos

On Friday we talked about fan-fiction and whether or not it was a form of flattery or a form of infringement. If you haven’t seen that post yet, please go check it out and add your voice to the comments. I’d love to hear what you have to say.

Today, I just wanted to share a couple of videos with you. This is fan-fiction on a whole new level – it has gone from the written word to the spoken word. Below you’ll find two videos, both of which are based off of The Hunger Games. The first is about Annie and Finnick, while the second details what happened during the second Quarter Quell (the one that Haymitch was a part of). (WARNING: The second one is a little graphic in spots. Nothing horrible, just a good dose of fake blood, but I thought I’d warn you anyway!)

 

 
I have a few questions. First, would this be considered fan-fiction? We know that these things happened, though the specific actions and dialogue were obviously made to fit Collins’ vision, even if they weren’t written specifically by her.

Secondly, do we enter a new territory here? Is this a similar form of infringement (if you consider fan-fiction to be that, of course), or do you think it’s somehow worse? (I have no basis for that argument, I just want your opinion!)

Lastly…what did you think!? I really like these videos and I think they did a fantastic job. The Quarter Quell one is beautifully done. It’s really neat seeing something like this come alive for a fan. You know that this happened, but you don’t get all the details from the original source(s). This way, we can read about and/or visualize what actually went down, step-by-step. It’s just one more way to continue to live in a world that enjoy reading about so much.

Do you have any fan-made videos that you enjoy watching?

#ROW80 – R3C1 – Perfection

I did it, you guys! The first week is down and it was a PERFECT one! I completed all my goals and I feel great about it. There’s nothing like getting stuff done to make you feel like a million bucks.

Here’s what I’ve accomplished:

MAIN GOALS

These are the daily goals that won’t change throughout the round.

1. Exercise for half an hour each day, five days a week. 5/5 Total win on this front! I’ve been running for half an hour every day, and I’ve started doing sit-ups as well. I’ve also been eating healthier – cutting as much sugar as I can, no soda (big weakness for me), and no red meat (and steak is my favorite!). I weighed myself this morning and found out I hadn’t done that in 42 days (I use Wii Fit, so it keeps track for me). Not good! Hopefully tracking my progress will give me more motivation.
2. Write every day. 7/7 I managed to finish up “Death,” but I don’t like it. I’m shelving it for now. I also began and finished another story called “100 Deaths.” I like this one quite a bit, and I’m excited to go back and edit it. I also started another short story in my faerie tale series, but it’s slow going.
3. Read one chapter every day. 7/7 I’m trying to finish a critique of a book that is looong overdue. Forcing myself to read a chapter a day is making it go by much more quickly, and I’m finding that I’m a lot more interested in the story now. I’m about halfway through, so it should be done in a couple of weeks. Whoo hoo!

FLUCTUATING GOALS

These are the goals that will change from week to week.

1. Finish writing “Death.” Done! I lost the original vision for this and ending up taking it in a whole different direction. I just don’t like it. I won’t delete it, but I’m just going to forget about it for now. Maybe some other inspiration will hit me in the future and I can take another look at it. My new goal will be to edit “100 Deaths.”
2. Get caught up on my writing e-mails. Done! Although I have to admit that I’m already backlogged again. I’m keeping this goal for another week and hopefully I can stay on top of everything this time.

ROUND GOALS

I like knowing what I want to accomplish over the course of this round, as that will help determine what my weekly goals will be.

1. Finish The End, my horror collection. Get some beta readers. (Anyone interested?) We’re still at about 80%. I’m struggling with the concepts of the last two stories. I have some that are about death, but they’re not exactly in the horror genre. I’m not sure if they would fit in with the rest of the collection.
2. Begin editing Lifetimes, the novel I’m focusing on right now. 0% I’m waiting until my beta readers get back to me, then I’m jumping into this one head first!
3. Enter at least one competition or submit at least one article to a magazine. 0% Once I can get on top of those e-mails again, this will be easier…
4. Read at least four books this month. 0% Still working on the first one. I’ve also started on the second, but have completed neither yet.

Extras

I also want to start sharing other things each week. I’ve got a nice surprise coming up soon, which will be featured here just about every other week. These are things that don’t warrant a full post, but are definitely items I’d like you to check out if you’re interested.

1. First up, I always have to plug Hypable. If you don’t remember, or you’re a new subscriber, this is the website that I copyedit for. They’re motto is, “For fans, by fans,” and it’s so true! It’s a fan-run site that features articles about nearly any fandom you could ever be interested in. They’ve got the big ones like Harry Potter, Twilight, and The Hunger Games. But they also got things like The Vampire Diaries, Doctor Who, and The Walking Dead, just to name an extremely small fraction of their content. Music, movies, video games, TV shows, and everything in between. Not only do they share the news, but we have a bunch of podcasts and we have a team of writers who create original content (columns, fun lists, etc.) for the site. They even have a feature called “News By You” where you can submit your own articles and columns and get published on the site if that’s your thing. Here’s a link to the Weekend Reading feature, so you can check out all the best articles in one place.
2. I saw The Amazing Spider-man, and you know what? It was amazing. Andrew Garfield was just phenomenal. And, you know, so was Emma Stone. Like that’s anything new.
3. I got my first TeeFury shirt in the mail. This makes me feel witty and invincible. I love it.
   

   Le Chat Noir meets Sailor Moon!

That’s it for now. Did anyone else have a perfect week? Do share! And even if you didn’t – what was the most amazing thing that happened to you in the last seven days?

Fan-fiction: A Form of Flattery or a Form of Infringement?

I’d heard of fan-fiction before, being the Harry Potter nerd that I am, but I never read any of it. I never dabbled in it either. You’d think, as a writer, that I’d start there before I decided to write my own stories. I mean, I can see the appeal – the world, the characters, the conflicts are already established. You just have to figure out which story to tell, and then write it down. It’s great practice for beginners.

But I’ve always had too many voices in my head. I’m constantly caught in an onslaught of new ideas, new characters, and new stories. I’d love to write fan-fiction, but there just isn’t any room left in my brain.

I was officially introduced into the world of fan-fic late last year when I read Dalton, a story about two of the main characters from Glee. It was a sort of spin-off show to the main storyline. Honestly, the writing was sub-par and some of the mistakes were those you learn to avoid in Writing 101. But the story? The story was beautiful. It had me hooked. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I’d come home from work and sit in front of the computer for hours reading it. So, no – maybe the author wasn’t the best writer. But she was one heck of a story teller.

And let’s face it. There are plenty of “professional” writers who are impeccable when it comes to language, grammar, and punctuation. But they can’t tell a story. They give you no reason to keep reading. It’s much easier to break someone of the habit of putting commas in the wrong place than it is to break them of the habit of writing bad stories.

What I want to know is this: Is fan-fiction a good thing or a bad thing in relation to the original author and their work(s)? Let’s look at some pros and cons:

CONS

I’m going to start with the negatives because I think they’re a bit more obvious. First off you have the clincher – the fact that a person other than the author is using the characters, setting, and ideas that have already been established to create new stories. Essentially, that’d be like writing a sequel/prequel/spin-off series to an already established book without having the rights to do so. I can see the problem there.

Another major point is that fan-fiction can often cause negative, or at least unwanted, portrayals of characters, which can in turn affect the actors who portrayed them on the silver screen. Just do a Google images search of “Draco and Harry Fan-fiction” and you’ll get a very quick idea of how it might not be well received.

And, of course, fan-fiction writers don’t gain much experience writing in this way. They don’t often get helpful critiques, it doesn’t help them to get better at characterization, and becoming a well-known fan-fic writer doesn’t exactly earn them acclaim and respect in the writing world.

PROS

So, what the heck could be good about writing fan-fiction? Well, a lot actually. For one thing, it helps to perpetuate a story that people don’t want to see finished. Who here actually wanted Harry Potter to end? Fan-fiction not only allows characters to continue living, but also brings about the stories of characters who may not have gotten a lot of scenes in the original work. A great example of this is the Trio’s kids at the end of HP7 – we don’t know much about them and we’ve never seen them at school, except in fan-fic forums. These places allow fans to gather and continue to live in this universe.

This perpetuation also leads to something that most authors wouldn’t mind having more of – word of mouth. Sure, it probably isn’t a big deal to people like J.K. Rowing and Stephenie Meyer, but what about authors who have a very die-hard, niche audience? Authors like Cassandra Clare and George R.R. Martin who are beginning to grow in popularity but haven’t hit that mega status yet. I can imagine a great piece of fan-fic could drive a person to delve into a series if they were previously hesitant about reading it, just so they can discuss the other stories with their friends. I’m sure it’s not a frequent occurrence, but it’s got to happen on occasion.

The last reason is, in my opinion, the most important of all. It gets people to write. Have you ever read a book that was just so good that you immediately sat down and started to type out your own story? I have, but then again I’ve been doing that since the fourth grade. I’m hardwired to write. But what about those other people who thought about dabbling but never got around to it? Then they read that one book that changed everything. Sure, maybe they won’t become published authors, but they’re still writing and adding their creativity into the mix. They’re putting new ideas and stories out into the universe and how can we do anything but benefit from that?

THE BIG QUESTION

But there comes a point, right? There has to be a line. When has it gone too far, when is it not okay to write fan-fiction?

Let’s just point out the elephant in the room: Fifty Shades of Grey. If you haven’t heard of this book yet, I’d be pretty surprised. But for those of you who might not know, Fifty Shades is Twilight fan-fiction that got a face lift. Basically, the author (E.L. James) wrote a story about Bella and Edward and their bedroom escapades (which were quite a bit heavier than the original story would leave you to believe, IYKWIM). A couple of things happened between here and there, but in the end James decided to pursue publication and turned the fan-fiction into a story of its own, replacing Bella, Edward, and vampires with Anastasia, Christian, and a billionaire.

It’s common knowledge that this was originally fan-fiction. And recently it became the fastest selling paperback novel of all time. There are two other books that round out the trilogy. And it’s being made into a movie, and a BIG movie at that – B-list actors need not apply. Let’s face it, she’s making a lot of money off of this. But, is that legal? Well, yeah, I guess. I’m sure there’s going to be plenty of speculation and a lot of people are going to discount her for its origins, but Meyer hasn’t slapped James with a lawsuit yet and at this point I doubt she will.

What does Stephenie Meyer think about it? She’s okay with it, actually. She said in an interview that it isn’t her genre, but that it’s good that James is doing well with it. She also said that obviously James had a story in her, so if it hadn’t started out as Twilight fan-fiction, it probably would’ve surfaced in another way. J.K. Rowling has also said she’s flattered by fan-fiction and glad that people write it. (And, yes, Dan Radcliffe and Tom Felton are aware of certain plotlines and they don’t seem to mind much either.)

But what about authors that do mind? Anne Rice and George R.R. Martin are apparently quite against it. Both of them consider it copyright infringement and Martin thinks it’s a bad exercise for want-to-be writers.

I believe fan-fiction is a good thing. I like being able to find a story I’ve never read before and read about characters that I already know and love. Maybe the writing isn’t the strongest, but these are written by die-hard fans, so you know that the story will be solid and that most details will be canon. I think that as long as it doesn’t leave the world of free publishing on the sites that host these sorts of things, it’s fine. I’m still not sure how I feel about Fifty Shades, knowing that the original intention of the story was a reproduction of the material found in Twilight.

But what I really want to know is what YOU think. Do you think fan-fiction is a good thing or a bad thing? If someone wrote fan-fiction about your characters, would you be flattered or would you call it copyright infringement?

Alternative Art: Put down the Brush and Pick up the [Insert Weird Medium Here]

If you’ve been hanging around here for a while, you might remember that I mentioned Phil Hansen a while back. He’s my favorite contemporary artist. I think the guy’s a genius. And the best part about him? He doesn’t usually bother with silly things like paint or clay. He’s a little more creative than that.

So, in honor of Phil (since I’ve already done a post about him), and because I can, here are a few videos of people creating art using not-so-common mediums.

Enjoy!

 

 

 
What did you think? Have you ever created art out of something strange?

Rising Stars: World’s Worst Musical

It’s been a few months since I added to this particular series, but the wait has been worth it. If you’ve been following this blog at all in the last few weeks, you’ll have learned all about my Starkid obsession. I promised I’d go about a week without talking about them, and I’ve held up my end of the bargain. Now it’s no holds barred.

Sort of.

See, I’m not exactly talking about Starkid this time around. I’m talking about something else: The World’s Worst Musical. It’s actually a web-series created by Molly Scanlon, Marty Scanlon, and Corey Lubowich. (Corey has been working with Starkid for a while, mostly as a set and costume designer, but also as other things. He wears a lot of hats.)

The premise of this 10-episode web series is this:

World’s Worst Musical is an original musical webseries that follows one writer struggling through his terrible ideas to write an amazing musical. As his ideas come to life he reaches the same conclusion again and again… this is the worst!

The idea is kind of cool, but the execution is even better. I’m always wary of webseries because I’m afraid I’ll waste my time watching something filmed on a cell phone and acted out by twelve year olds with no thespian bones in their body.

Not to worry! These videos are in “glorious HD” and are full of really funny and wondrous moments, all brought to you by people who can act, but can also dance and sing as well.

Here’s the first episode, in case you’re interested:

 
Some of the episodes are a little hit or miss for me. That’s not to say that they aren’t good and weren’t put together with love and attention, but I just didn’t connect with all of them. Hey, it happens.

But, here’s the redeeming episode. Episode 2 is by far the best (in my opinion of course). Every other day I have to watch it again because it’s just so good. And it helps that one of the newest Starkids, Jeff Blim, knocked this role out of the park just as well as he did playing Sweet Tooth in Holy Musical B@tman!.

 
I really do need to download this song.

If you want to watch the rest of the videos, simply go here. Half of them are out and more are coming soon! I can’t wait to see the rest of them, as I’m sure there are some more gems in store. I’m particularly fond of episode 4, because I wish I had a singing driving instructor when I was trying to get my license (especially if he was Dylan Saunders in disguise!).

But, honestly, coolest thing about this is the fact that these people are just regular Joe Schmoes. They’re pretty popular on the web, but they don’t have international stardom or anything. They’re normal people. They’re artists who make art simply because they want to. They even had a Kickstarter campaign to help them raise money in order to film. They’re connected with their audience, who in turn is incredibly loyal to them.

Hey, doesn’t that sound like something that we as writers get told to do all the time? This is just one more example of how it works. (And if you’ve never heard of Kickstarter before, Google it! It might just become your new best friend.)

Check them out all across the internet, if you’re interested:

Website

Twitter

YouTube

Facebook

ROW80 Round 3 Goals

I can’t believe I’m already entering my third ROW80 round. It truly seems like it was just yesterday that January rolled around and I sat down to type out a similar post about what goals I wanted to accomplish over the next few months.

That round turned out to be a pretty solid one. It started off great, got a little away from me somewhere in the middle, but finished on a high note. I got a lot of things done. The second round didn’t quite turn out so good. Life got in the way on more than one occasion and I felt like each week my completed goal counts got lower and lower. But even at the end of that one, when I counted up everything I accomplished, I realized that I did a lot more than I thought I did. That’s success.

So, for this round, I’m taking on a no-nonsense attitude. I have to. I have too many things I want to accomplish and not nearly enough time to get them all done. It was nice to take a little bit of a relaxed position during the last round, especially after working so hard on the previous one. But we’re already more than halfway through the year and it’s time that I started concentrating on the things that are going to move me forward in my writing career and life in general.

That’s right, I’m going for the dreaded, the elusive, the all-comsuming…

Perfect Round.

All goals completed, no exceptions. This may be the writing challenge that knows you have a life, but this is the round that knows you have a life, hands you a machete and some lighter fluid, and tells you to take no prisoners.

So, here’s what I have planned:

MAIN GOALS

These are the daily goals that won’t change throughout the round.

1. Exercise for half an hour each day, five days a week. Yep, this one is coming back with a vengeance. It’s being paired up with better eating habits, so hopefully I start seeing some serious results.
2. Write every day. This is really the whole point, isn’t it? I have to write and I have to do it every day to get better and meet my goals. Blog posts don’t count.
3. Read one chapter every day. It doesn’t matter what it is or what book it’s from, but I have to do this every day, no matter what. We’re half way through the year and I think I’ve read a measly three books so far. That’s unacceptable. Last year I read 50 books. This year I decided to cut that number in half (and decided to only count books I hadn’t read before), so I have no excuses not to do it.

FLUCTUATING GOALS

These are the goals that will change from week to week.

1. Finish writing “Death.” This is story eight out of ten that I want for my short story horror collection.
2. Get caught up on my writing e-mails. I keep a list of competitions and other writing related things in an e-mail, but I’m horribly behind. I need to cut the competitions that are over and add new ones to look into. It’s high time I started trying to market my writing skills to magazines and other outlets that will help me gain experience.

ROUND GOALS

I like knowing what I want to accomplish over the course of this round, as that will help determine what my weekly goals will be.

1. Finish The End, my horror collection. Get some beta readers. (Anyone interested?) We’re at about 80% right now.
2. Begin editing Lifetimes, the novel I’m focusing on right now. 0%
3. Enter at least one competition or submit at least one article to a magazine. 0%
4. Read at least four books this month. 0%

I’m going to add and take away from these goals as I see fit, but these are the things that I truly hope to accomplish. This round is going to be brutal, especially since I have so many other responsibilities at the moment, but I need this kick in the pants. I’ve been serious about my writing for a while, but now it’s time to show you guys what I’m made of.

(P.S. Well-wishers are always welcome. It’s so nice to see you guys cheering me on each week. That’s a huge reason why I love ROW80 so much!)