“MidSouthCon is an American science-fiction convention held each March in Memphis, Tennessee, since 1982, evolving from similar events in the late 1970s. Focusing mainly on science fiction literature, it provides basic programming geared to other genres: fantasy, science, comics, horror, and gaming. It is also the event at which the Darrell Awards Jury presents its annual Darrell Awards.”[2]

The best part about attending is that I was given an honor by the Arkansas Art Council and the Department of Arkansas Heritage: Sally A. Williams Artist Fund.

“In memory of Sally A. Williams, who served as the Arkansas Arts Council’s Artist Services Manager for 25 years before her passing on April 20, 2010, the Arts Council has established the Sally A. Williams Artist Fund. Funding for this program includes donations from Williams’ family and friends, proceeds from the sale of Williams’ artwork following her death and Arts Council funding. The Arts Council is announcing the first round of grants in October to celebrate Williams’ birth month. To date, the Fund has raised more than $33,000.”[3]

The grants are available to Arkansas artists in the literary, performing and visual arts. Artists must be at least 21 years old and must have been an Arkansas resident for at least one year at the time of application.

I am humbled and excited to a one of this year’s recipients. Without the grant I would not be able to attend. There is the main conference and a writer’s conference with the grant I am going to be able to stay for both. I am truly looking forward to meeting others in the Science Fiction and Fantasy publishing fields.

On a more personal note, those of you who follow me on Facebook know that I have a deep and abiding love of all things Star Wars. This year at MidSouthCon the Author Guest of Honor is Michael Stackpole, author of the popular X-Wing series.[4]

To say that I am a little pumped about that would be an understatement.

So make sure you check back here after the Con in March to see all my photos and notes.

Happy New Year…Now I wonder who will win the Super Bowl?

Shadows

The train shuddered to a stop and Della breathed a sigh. Five towns down since Seattle, maybe she would stay here. Della disembarked quickly and headed through the small lobby. Stepping into the sunlight on the deck, snow crunched beneath her feet.

“Welcome to Essex, Montana. Don’t forget if you are not planning to stay overnight, you will need to be back on the train in fifty-five minutes.” The intercom blared.

Della breathed in a sharp cold blast of glacial air and slowly exhaled as she surveyed the town. It was nice, quaint even.

“This could be the place,” she thought.

Exploring was one of Della’s favorite things. She inherited that spirit of adventure from her late grandmother, Deanna, along with three quarters of a million dollars. Now Della was looking for a new home—an idea bred from Grandma D’s journal entries from her college days at Vassar in Poughkeepsie, New York.

“The moment I stepped foot on the lawn at Vassar I knew that I had come home. No one anywhere would be able to take me from this place. Vassar was in my blood and, she and I are one.”

Della stepped down onto the sidewalk and hailed the only taxi in Essex, a bright blue SUV with the word, taxi, stenciled on the side with yellow spray paint.

“Hi ya, where ya headed” the driver asked.

“Izaak Walton Inn.”

“Righty-oh. You’ll be toasty warm by the fire in a jiff.”

The Izaak Walton Inn was mentioned in Grandma D’s journal. During a road trip west to see her sorority sisters at Berkley Grandma D stayed there. Grandma D and her friend Kimberly took the train from Chicago in the exact opposite pattern of Della’s trip. Since the journal had a vague entry about meeting a man by the massive stone fireplace in the lobby of the inn, Della thought she would visit the inn.

“Here we are miss. I hope you have great stay.” The taxi driver said pulling Della’s bag out of the back.

The inn was out of a Grimm’s fairy tale, with wood trimming and multi sloped roofs. Entering the lobby the soft glow of the fireplace and the burnt orange rays of the setting sun lit Della’s long red hair like it was on fire.

“Welcome to the Izaak Walton. How may I be of service?”

“Thanks, I would like room 30 if its available. My grandmother stayed here once and I would like to stay in the same room if possible.”

“Well let me check the book…You’re in luck. Here is the key card all I need is your credit card.”

As the night auditor slid the card Della looked over at the dining room. It was dimly lit and only a handful of diners were scattered about. Della locked eyes with a man, but quickly looked away. She could sense that he was still looking at her, but she turned toward away toward the elevator.

Della made her way down the low slung hallway and stopped at room 30. She felt a chill run down her spine as she slid the card in the lock.

“Really girl, grow up. You’ve stayed in hotels by yourself before.”

Della threw her bag on the bed and pulled out a basic black dress. It was made of a soft fleece that felt warm against her skin. After refreshing her makeup she went down to the dining room.

There were a few more people in the lobby since the bar had opened at eight. Della ordered the house specialty of grilled lamb and mushroom risotto, and the evening ticked away she began to watch the people in the bar more closely. Some of the men and women began to pair off, a few disappeared, but the others situated themselves around the room in order to take advantage of the fire.

Della ordered a bottle of red wine and had the distinct feeling that she would not be alone for long.

Around midnight a new group of people entered the bar. Everyone seemed to acknowledge the presence of the three men and two women. Della tried not to stare, but one of the men was so striking. He was exactly how she would have created a man if God had given her divine power for a day. He appeared to be completely oblivious to Della’s interest, so after nearly polishing off the bottle by herself Della carefully rose to go back to her room.

Della made her unsteady way back to the elevator, she reached out to press the button but a strong male hand pressed it first. Startled she looked up into liquid steel eyes.

“You seemed a bit wobbly, so I thought I would see you safely to your room. My family owns the hotel and I would hate for you to get hurt.”

“Oh, thank you. My name is Della.”

“I’m Nick, Nicholas Stone.”

They entered the elevator and rode up to the third floor in thick silence. Nick placed his hand on the small of Della’s back. Gently he led her to #30.

“Would you like to come in?” Della blushed, she had no idea what made her say that.

Nick smile kicked up on one side, “Sure, I’ll just check to make sure everything is secure.”

Nick slid past Della and went over to the closet and bathroom checking to see if they were empty. Then he stepped out onto the balcony. The cool breeze made the sheer curtains float upward like clouds.

Della slipped her grandmother’s shawl around her shoulders accidentally knocking the journal to the ground. It opened to the pages about the Grandma D’s stay in Essex. Della picked up the journal.

“He had steel gray eyes that seemed to pierce my very soul.”

Grandma D must have met one of Nick’s family members. Della was reading the description when Nick came up behind her. He had shut and locked the balcony doors and in Della’s alcohol haze it hadn’t registered that she no longer felt the breeze.

“What are you reading Della?”

Spinning too quickly for her condition, Della fell into Nick’s chest.

“It’s…it’s just my grandma’s journal.” Della stuttered.

Nick held Della firmly and carefully took the journal out of her hand and placed it on the dresser.

“You seem tired Della, perhaps you should go to bed.” He said stroking her hair. “Good night and sleep peacefully.”

Nick let her go, placing a kiss on her forehead, he left. When the door clicked locked behind him Della stripped off her clothes and snuggled down into the covers. As the alcohol haze overcame her, she thought of the last journal entry made in Essex.

“The night I found myself in his arms was the night the shadows came. I used to be afraid of the dark, now I relish every moment of the night.”

Communities have an on-going dialogue.  Members of a community speak the same language, share interests, and have a collective body of knowledge.

What would it feel like to be at a meeting where the only language spoken was Japanese or Icelandic?

What would it be like to have dinner with a group of people who only talk about fishing, nothing else just fishing?

How about attending a sporting event for curling?

You might feel uncomfortable because you are not a member of the communities that share these interests.  Finding community is one of the ways that God shows us new friends and avenues to bless his people.  If you are reading this, then I am going to stick my neck out there and say that you are either interested in writing or my Momma asked you to read this.

The idea of community might be new to you, but you already belong to several communities, as a member of your family, city, school, office or place of worship.  I think, as writers, it is important for us to join together in community to support and encourage one another.  Participating in dialogue with each other and as a whole, we grow in our understanding of audience and our message becomes clearer and more profound.  Together we see a larger whole than we do alone, and let’s face it; writers spend plenty of time alone. Together we use our collective knowledge to go beyond audience and meaning to begin to understand ourselves and the world around us.  This sense of community will take your writing into a new level of effectiveness; every aspect of your work will be enhanced.

Amazon is excited to announce four new products: the all-new Kindle for only $79, two new touch Kindles – Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G – for $99 and $149, and a new class of Kindle – Kindle Fire – a beautiful full color Kindle for movies, TV shows, music, books, magazines, apps, games, web browsing and more, for only $199.

I mean who wouldn’t want an e-reader that fits in your back pocket?

Oh, and don’t forget the 6 inch with keyboard and the 3G version too!

Earlier this month I discussed point of view and my reasons for recommending the first person point of view (POV) to new writers. You can read that post here.

This time I want to discuss using third person point of view (POV), and the best ways to use it in your storytelling.

Definition of third person:

Basically, Third person has sentence structures that use “he”, “she”, “it”, or “they”, but never “I” or “we” (1^st person), or “you” (2^nd person). That is to say, third-person POV is a narrative mode where the main characters are referred to by their names or relative pronouns. The narrator observes the main characters but does not actively participate in the story.

In my opinion, and that of many, using third person gives the author greater flexibility for creative storytelling.  That is likely the reason it is the most commonly used narrative mode in literature. Examples of third person books are Jane Austen’s novel, Pride and Prejudice and Harry Potter (third person limited).

The third-person POV is usually divided into two types of storytelling, subjective or objective.  Subjective narration describes one or more character’s feelings and thoughts.  Objective narration does not describe any of the characters feelings or thoughts. (I have not read a modern story that is written in Third person objective narration, if you know of one please post the title and author. For the remainder of this post we are talking about Subjective Narration.)

Also third person POV is also divided by the knowledge that the narrator may access.  These distinctions are called omniscient and limited. In an omniscient mode the narrator has knowledge of time, people, places and events for everyone in the story.  In limited mode the narrator may know absolutely everything about a single character (usually the main character), but cannot know things about anyone else.

Third Person Limited in Harry Potter:

In the story we only know Harry’s thoughts and Harry must be present to overhear information or see the actions of others.  One of the ways the author allows Harry to be present in scenes where Harry is not interacting is with his invisibility cloak. The author had to create a device that we, the readers, would believe or accept in context, in order to give us information that we needed to move the story forward.  A great example is when Harry is under the cloak and learns that Sirius Black was his father’s friend, and betrayed his father.  Technically, Harry should not know that information, the adults had been keeping information from Harry, but we the readers need to know. (Interestingly enough Harry overhears false information that spurs his actions in the story)

Now that you know the various ways that you can use third person look over one of your first person stories, and try to rewrite a scene into a (subjective) third person POV.  Decide if your narrator will know everything (omniscient) or just one part (limited).

One source says, “The subjective perception from which a story is told.” Another says, “How a character sees the world and his or her place in it.” There are many definitions for this literary element.

I define POV this way: The view from where the reader experiences the story.

But, leaving all the definitions behind, a crisp clear point of view in your work will not only make your stories more compelling to read, it will help you sell your work.

Here are my POV ground rules:

1. Use scene breaks whenever you move from one person to another, or change the time or place of the action. Breaks allow your reader to mentally shift, expecting a variation in the story.  Without a break the reader will stumble and they will lose the story.
2. Always establish the main point of view (POV) as early in the first paragraph of a chapter as possible.  This is done by various external/internal dialogue or action.  Usually the reader will assume that the first person that speaks in a paragraph of a new chapter is the main POV.
3. All of the words in your story/novel need to go though the POV test.
1. If your POV character cannot see, hear, taste, touch, smell, or feel the action check your POV, because something is off.

One thing that I have seen writers do to try and get around writing a tight POV is to skip back and forth between 3rd person (he, she, they) and 1st person (I, we).  Head-hopping (flip-flopping POV) is bad enough, but switching gears on perspective can get really tricky.

Generally, keep with one perspective, and keep one or two main POVs.  Like in a romance novel you may have two very legitimate POVs, the hero and heroine, but in other genres you may only have one main POV character.  My personal rule is if a main character is in a scene the POV will be theirs. [In a romance if both main characters are in a scene, decide if the action will be more powerful from the male or female perspective or who has the most at stake. Then go with that POV.]

If you are having trouble with the concept of POV try writing from the 1st person perspective. Put yourself in the action.  What do you see, hear, taste, touch, smell, or feel?  At each point that you add action to the scene can you, personally, be involved in the action?  If not then who has the POV?  Rewrite the scene until you keep the POV all to yourself.  Once you get the 1st person POV down you will more clearly see how to keep the POV clean in your 3rd person work.

 I also get inspired by urban tagging and muscle cars.  What do you think art is & what have you seen that inspires you.

I wanted to let all of you know about some recently published essays of mine.

During December my essay about a memory of kindergarten…Undercover Santa.

In Feb two more essays were published in the Dead Mule of Souther Literature. One is called Green Persimmons it is rather dark, I was in a mood! The other is considered my Southern Legitimacy Statement, and it is called I Like Pie.