Friday Night Cap-off: artistic rendering of characters! An awesome community...and the biggest bookstore on earth???

So I will starting a tradition where I will cap off the good stuff that's been happening in my week!

It is now Friday the 13th, 10:48pm Pacific Time.

Highlight of the week!

GOT AN ACCOUNT AT INKPOP. This is an awesome writer's community. Made 10 friends in 3 days. The peeps actually read your work with QUALITY COMMENTS, and everyone has pretty good quality work that doesn't disappoint! The swapping initiative is very useful too. I'll read yours. You read mine. I'm looking forward to more inkpoppin' in the coming weeks.

Plus, I got a professional rendering of my characters! See below.

Read of the week

I'm still on The Passage by Justin Cronin. It's an amazing book, so human, so intense. But it's huge. And I've only read about an eighth of it because of the good stuffs on Inkpop and it makes a good support to stand up my canvas since I'm too poor for an easel :(

Tune of the week

Definitely "Lull" by Andrew Bird. Incredible song.

Sample lyric:

I'm all for moderation

But somtimes it seems
Moderation itself can be kind of extreme
So I join the congregation
Join the softball team
I went in for my conformation
Where incense looks like steam
I start conjugating proverbs
Where there once were nouns
This whole damn rhyme scheme's
Starting to get me down...

I'm also into the extended version of "Butterfly fly away" by (yes) Miley Cyrus and her dad Billy Ray. Don't get me wrong. If she did more of those songs her "mature" image would even be BETTER. It's a mature song. Actually. It's about single parenting and growing up. They guitar is beautiful too. You should check it out.

And I'm into a few Metric tunes. Gold Guns Girls and Sick Muse. Canadian Indie FTW.

Major upcoming event

Will be going cross-border shopping in the States. And going to the biggest bookstore in the world.

Writing Status

I actually started on the 2nd draft of Dancers before finishing off the first draft. As for the first draft, Kain has an exam to pass, a lady to impress, and a battle to win. Kaira on the other hand is finally starting to grow up.

Ok, I have a confession. I actually wrote a chapter and a half of a book idea. About aliens. But I will stop now. All my attention is for Dancers and Dancers alone!

BEFORE I FORGET!!

My fantastic friend, neighbour, no.1 fan, and technically my patron designed her interpretation of the Dancer characters! It's finished. AND HERE IT IS:

She is a good artist, no?

Diggin' deep through the boxers to find hidden treasure. (YA Highway's RTW)

"Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link in the comments!"

This week's topic comes from a prompt at SCBWI:
What does your character hide in their underwear drawer - or other secret location?

My second Roadtrip Wednesday, yay!

Well, the first thing I thought when I saw this topic was - "uh oh, I have no idea what my characters would hide in their underwear drawers! Does that mean they're not developed enough???" *panicpanicpanicpanic-at-the-writer's-disco....*

So I started thinking...

Kain, the 16 year-old socially awkward questor in my current fantasy WIP, has a lack of self-confidence (well, at least in the beginning, before he finds out he makes a cunning thief...) yet dreams big. And since he's looking forward to a rebellion against a corrupt government, perhaps an assortment of secret documents on how to rule the world may be found...once he manages to murder the current leader. Too bad in his era there's no such thing as pictures, but if there was, probably a photograph of the sister he hasn't seen in 10 years. They never had a good relationship though, since she got kidnapped by aforementioned corrupt government because of him... Despite the convincing argument that she is now part of the dark side, Kain still thinks she's family, and only family he's got.

Kaira, the other main character but working for Kain's enemies, probably has more secrets. On the outside, she's an ass-kicker who burns up restaurants she doesn't likes. In her secret chest however, hidden inside a secret wardrobe in a secret room connected by a secret passage, I expect to find a stash of romantic novels. And possibly an assortment of spare battleaxes and scimitars that shoot out if someone gets too close to the drawer...

Wow, this was actually difficult to think about. Guess I have some characters to interview!

Send me any links to your own RTW. And thanks YA Highway for making me think critically today!

Imagination and storytelling can be brought alive by using the entire spectrum of arts.

This is probably gonna be a longer post than usual, and once and for all, I'm going to talk about writing. Actually.

I'm gonna be talking about writing and storytelling in relation with other arts, visual and auditory in particular.

visual arts

I think I started out as an amateur artist before becoming a writer (I'm no artist anymore). When I was a kid I'd make up stories in my head and draw them out. So drawing was a way for me to bring to life my ideas exactly how I saw them, or at least almost exactly, because I suck at realism.

I use art nowadays to meet my characters. I find it's only after you draw them out that the picture in your head comes becomes real and there - like Sam, with his toque and blonde overgrown bangs, skateboard in hand, oversized Tshirt; oh, and he's 5'10" and skinny. I believe drawing your characters, your settings, and even your action scenes seriously help you "get into" your fiction project.

You can use any medium. Sketching is the easiest because all you need is pen and paper. I'm currently working on an acrylic-on-canvas painting. It's the 3rd painting I've ever done in my life and it's not going to well...although I am very satisfied to see the picture in my head elsewhere.

A great tool is Photoshop. The results are fantastic, although it is not easy to use. A good friend of mine (who actually convinced me to write Dancers, my current novel project) is currently designing my characters on Photoshop the way she sees them. I can tell we don't imagine them exactly the same way already, but that's another interesting point in writing, isn't it? Different people have different imaginations. Different people have different perspectives.

Visual arts is a fantastic way to get in touch with your creations. Especially for you fantasy-lovers. My personal project Dancers is a tale of dragons, demon slayers, dangerous quests, and old-fashioned kung-fu fighting set in a background much like ancient China or feudal Japan. (I'll talk more about it in future posts). You don't have to be amazing at art - as the side image shows my lack of artistic ability - but the love and inspiration to do it plays the most vital role.

auditory arts

Another good stimulation of the imagination is music. Music puts you in the mood of the book. Music makes your book look like a movie in your head. Music blares in your background while you hammer away on the keyboard. My suggestion is, find a piece of music, or put together a soundtrack, to go along with your project.

My "soundtrack" of choice for Dancers is a song called "Thousand years of love" (千年之戀) by Taiwanese group F.I.R. (Yes, it's in Chinese and I don't understand most of it, and my book has nothing to do with thousand years of love oddly enough.) However, the music - not the lyrics, the MUSIC - really colours in my imagined setting for Dancers. It reminds me of martial arts films akin to the French-dubbed Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I saw yesterday at midnight TV, and that's the type of movie that's playing in my head as I write Dancers.

Music makes scenes cinematic.

I'm a person who leans more towards music than lyrics, so a few instrumental pieces are lining up in my soundtrack also. Find your preference, and find your soundtrack!

In short, visual art and music breathes life into my characters, paints vivid images of my settings, and adds energy and excitement into the development of my plot.

Of course, it'd be unhealthy to spend too much time in either of these activities, because we all know that WRITING is the most important art in this trio of storytelling!

So share any stories you have as writers who use other tools than writing to incarnate your imagination!

--

Stay tuned. More writing-related posts like this will be coming up. I'm still trying to get a firmer handhold on the cyber writing world and my new computer...

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The Sandwich Arts.

(Nothing to do with literature and plenty to do with feeding the writer).

Want to really experience the amazing? Go to a circus.

Let me tell you of an unforgettable night...

My dad had gotten advanced tickets to Cirque du Soleil's "Kooza" show. We sat in one of the first few rows of the blue'n'yellow tent. It was a bit to the side for my liking, but the show was incredible.

I had seen the Cirque (a Quebec-based contemporary circus company that was started in the 1980s) once before in Vegas (the show was called "Mystere"). However, those performers never cease to amaze me.

http://raphealcrump.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/kooza-cirque-du-soleil/kooza/

Multicoloured lights. Multi-storey sets. Wacky costumes you would only see in a Dr. Seuss books. And, might I add, daring acts.

The most eye-catching of all must have been the first act after the intermission. Get this: a giant rotating contraption with spinning hamster wheels on each arm, with (yes) people in it. They don't just ride it. They attempt all these things like somersaults and backflips on it, and they look like they actually enjoy it...

http://apercevoir.blogspot.com/2009/05/kooza-best-show-ever.html

http://www.hour.ca/stage/stage.aspx?iIDArticle=12077

The next best thing was the tightrope act. Imagine: one tightrope, 2 bicycles, a long pole resting on the shoulders of the two cyclists, a chair on the pole, a third performer ON on the chair...

http://peasandthankyou.com/2010/05/03/my-kind-of-day/

Not the mention the tower of chairs...

http://ravennagirls.wordpress.com/?archives-list&archives-type=months

And don't forget the comedians!

http://www.westender.com/articles/entry/cirque-sends-in-the-clowns

There were 8 big acts in all, but the show was more than 2 hours long. Mystery, theme, colour, art, wonder, MAGIC...I dunno. It's all in there. And at the end of the night you feel like one of those kids in those imaginative storybooks that had just been transported to another world full of adventure, came back to his room, and wondered if it had been real all along...

When reading goes epic! Stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

Location>> bed.

Weather>> sunny/cloudy.

Mood>> like I want to do something..

I think all of us have gone through it before: the epicness of reading a book. (That is, if you're the type of psycho who has yet to discover the dire epicness of reading books). For the last few day I've been spending hours on the couch/deskchair/bed in awkward and uncomfortable positions ripping through all 800+ of "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larsson. Heck, it was one of the most EPIC books I've read!

The rage about it happened about a month or two ago in Vancouver. I have to I'm late in joining the rage...(sadly, missed the trilogy 30% off sale). It's a hit in Sweden and other places in Europe, and has been for a few years. But recently the thrilling movie started a stir and it looked fantastic, so I decided to read the book.

Let me first say: THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR KIDS. I've been reading adult novels for a while, but some of the violence in this one is really shocking...so be ready. The first sections of the book were albeit slow - it discussed the backgrounds of the first two characters. Blomkvist is a financial journalist who's magazine has just fallen apart due to a libel conviction by a big businessman. The other is a somewhat psychopathic personal investigator/hacker (Salander) and she's one of the most intriguing characters I've met. She becomes his sort of sidekick, and just wait till you see what her definition of revenge is. Basically, Blomkvist is hired to ghostwrite a family chronicle for the wealthy/successful Vanger family (owner of the Vanger Corporation) and at the same time try one last time to aid Henrik Vanger to solve the mystery of the disappearance of her niece almost 40 years ago.

The beginning is a bit slow because he cannot find any new leads the police haven't. But once the first breakthroughs are introduced you're swept into a whirlwind of conspiracy, corruption, and violence for violence's sake. The plot is not worthy of any other word except for "ingenious". Also, you can't help but feel a little disturbed by what the rich business folks arereally doing.

Hopefully, along the course of my summer reading, I'll enjoy more books like these. Looking forward to more cramped nights with the rest of the Millennium Trilogy.

What kind of epic reading have YOU done?

Summer so far.

So what have other students been spending the summer so far with? This is about my weekday in a nutshell.

10:00 - Wake up, eat breakfast, watch TV.

11:00 - Read, or do some authoring. Or play piano. Or go longboard. Or jog. Once every two days, remember to water your family friend's garden, because, um...you get dough. And free tomatoes.

12:30 - Lunch. Watch more TV. Slack off.

14:00 - If on Mon, Wed, or Fri, go volunteer for 2 hours at local music school - more like an internship than anything. Make a good impression because you might get hired...

Oh, and remember to record Buffy the Vampire Slayer that runs at 3 because you're finally watching a show and not giving up... If it's a Tues or Thurs, do what you did in the morning.

16:00 - Return home. Watch what you recorded. If feeling studious, do theory homework.

18:00 - Dinner.

19:30 - On Tuesdays, go to Richmond for musical analysis theory class. If not, go biking/longboarding with friends in the trails or whatever. Complain when your butt hurts too much or your knees get busted going uphill.

21:00 - Usually home by now. Go on the computer, read blogs, watch YouTube, contribute to that outrageously long Facebook thread about that weekend outing that seems impossible to plan.

24:00 - Turn on the fan or the windows and sleep.

My life is almost interesting, isn't it?

So...h-hot...

Vancouver's super hot now. As in, it got up to 31 C today. It's going to lower back down for the next couple of days, but still, for us, it's quite hot.

Okay, so you tropical people out there are probably saying "Gee, that's nothing. It's like 50 degrees HERE." But for us, it's a big deal. I mean, for a city that doesn't have AC in residential houses and where people where hoodies for most the year anyways, heat is becoming a larger deal over the years.

http://www.citycaucus.com/2009/07/vancouver-heat-wave-results-in-silence-from-city-hall

Sometimes we get droughts. No, really.

Last year, there was a gianormous heatwave and if it weren't for my mom's study (which is the only room between everyone I know that has AC), I think I could have died. The temp was the highest recorded according to CBC: 33.8 C.

"Vancouver heat wave melts communication lines in mayor's office" --> http://www.citycaucus.com/2009/07/vancouver-heat-wave-results-in-silence-from-city-hall

Not like I don't know "real" heat. I've been to places like Tokyo, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Italy, and the Caribbean, where summer temperatures soar well over 40 degrees. I easily get heatstroke, too.

http://travelblog.viator.com/insiders-guide-to-malaysias-best-beaches/

Hopefully, global warming won't kill us..

http://www.odec.ca/projects/2007/mull7j2/What.html

I shouldn't complain though. I live in one of the best biomes on Earth. This temperate rainforest is a beaut, and I have plenty of ice cream in the fridge to keep me company.

http://www.endangeredecosystems.org/

Only bad thing is, can't go outside to longboard because the roads are BAKED.

So, how's the weather, wherever you readers are?