Jake turns 5!

Happy birthday to my baby boy, Jake!  He turns 5 today...5!!!!

From the moment he entered the world, Jake has encouraged smiles and left laughter in his wake.  He is amazingly smart and beautifully empathetic.

AND- he shares a birthday with none other than Agatha Christie, who would be 120 today.

Happy birthday, Jake & Agatha...but mostly Jake.

OreGUN or OreGAHN?

Follows the perception post nicely, don't you think?  And here's the gist: say what you want, someone will always disagree.

Do you say toMAATo?  No, I sa toMAHto.
Do you say PILLow?  No, I say PELLow.
Do you say MOHNster?  No, I say MUNster.

Does this mean we can't get along?

Unfortunately in life, small differences like these often mean people can't get along.  Small differences can be the last straw in a political debate or the final word in a family argument.  Small differences can be huge.

And in writing, small differences can mean big changes for a character.  How your characters pronounce words can show readers where they're from, from which economic class they hail, and even the nature of their job. 

In addition to pronunciation, you can also express these things in choice of words.  Does your character use words like "obfuscate" and "propensity?"  Or do they stray toward "fuck" and "turd?"  (I know you're all laughing right now--I sware those are the first two that popped into my head!)

Regardless of your choices, what your characters say and how they say it say something.  It's part of the characterization of your protagonist, antagonist, and supporting players.

How do you use language in your writing?

"Terrorist-Coddling Warmongering Wall Stree-Loving Socialistic Godless Muslim ____"

As you can probably guess, the title of this post is a reference to President Obama, the 44th President of the United States.  But this post is not about him, or even the government.  It is about perception.

The title is a quote--the cover of the September 6th edition of Newsweek.  It began with "The making of" and ends with the word "President."  The magazine then goes on to paint Mr. Obama as 'The Illustrated Man,' a reference to Ray Bradbury's 1951 book by the same name in which a time-traveling witch covers the man's body in images.  Those images tell tales and make it difficult for the man to hold a job.  He says, "I'd like to burn them off."  But he can't.  Newsweek makes the analogy to President Obama in that "his enemies...have been busy for three years painting Obama as some kind of alien threat," and, just as the Illustrated Man struggles, the President cannot seem to shake the accusations.

Regardless of your political persuasion or feelings on the questionable adjectives given to the U.S.'s current President (though I will state for the record that I don't believe in the Kenyan birth certificate and I also don't think calling him a Muslim is an insult--the latter being a real sticking point for me in all of this controversy), you have to admit there is a problem with perception.

What is True or Factual is not necessarily what is Believed.  Rumors aside, multiple people can read an article about the President and take away many different things.  The same is true in life--witnesses don't always report the same observations about one event.  For example, we attended my son's soccer game Saturday and will readily admit he had trouble listening to the coach.  That being said, it's the U5 league and we aren't that concerned about whether he really learns the game, so much as that he has fun and enjoys exercising for sport.  At one point, Jake and another boy ran down the field behind a boy from the other team.  We saw them all swinging their little arms, but it didn't appear to us that they were actually fighting.  The coach then lifted Jake up, squeezed him to his body and carried him away, holding him in that position while he spoke with Jake.  Once he was set down, Jake ran to us on the sideline in tears.  To our perception, the coach's reaction was far from acceptable and did not fit the situation.  But, as my husband and I discussed how to deal with it, a parent next to us pointed out that the kids had been hitting each other and the coach was just separating them.  Our eyes widened.  We hadn't seen it that way at all!  We were ready to admit our child's fault in not listening (and had seen the coach react strongly to this in the past), but the swinging arms by three children did not constitute a fight in our minds, especially given the happy looks on their faces and the lack of furrowed brows.

I did not write this post to make my case in the soccer situation, though it feels good to write it all down.  My point is that perception may or may not be reality, and how this impacts what you write.

When you write, do you take into account how it might be interpreted?  Do you ask yourself, "Will making the MC a bit slutty insult readers to the point of not reading my book?" or "Does this joke go a bit too far, even though the character saying it is not supposed to be liked?"  Or, do you write what you want regardless, and hope the critics and the public will swallow it all?

Perception.  Truth.  Facts.  Believing.  These are all loaded words.  And there is no Right Answer, just your perception.

Ugh

My apologies.  Sick today and just can't eek out a post.  Again, apologies.

Getting it together

Ok.  I have the weekend to organize my posts for next week...Promise!  Some good stuff will come your way.  I took tons of photos on my drive back (between Nashville, TN and Raleigh, NC) that will inspire some interesting discussions.  Plus, I have some other topics brewing up there in the 'ol grey matter.

I didn't blog hop at all this week, so don't expect a Sunday roundup post (even though I know that is a favorite for some of you).  I'll come up with something else for Sunday...But that's tomorrow's burden!

I hope you all had a wonderful week.  It's Friday night and I am preparing for the Discount Tire Friday Night Final--the live high school football show I produce at News 14 Carolina.  So, back to it!  And thanks for your patience!

Vaca/Catchup Day

Another travel day for us, but hoping to be back to normal next week on here.

Wednesday...the latest family reunion photos came out, so I wanted to share them with you:

All cousins and spouses/offspring!  Hindmans, Rogers, Emraths,
Powells, Steves, and Williams!

All the cousins, in our traditional congo line

Balancing on our dad

And don't forget...
Southern City Mysteries' first birthday is September 24th.  In honor of one year in the blogging biz, I'm hosting my first ever Blogfest--the Happy Birthday Blogfest.

Prizes!
First Prize: 3 of my favorite books + Amazon gift card
Second Prize: 2 of our fellow authors' books + Amazon gift card
Third Prize: Amazon gift card

Happy Birthday Blogfest

Sept. 24th

Rules:
1. Spread the word. Tweet or post or place the announcement in your sidebar. Add the link to any of these in the comment forum below. (3 pts. for sidebar, 2 pts. for post, 1 pt. for tweet)

2. What's your favorite? Don't just tell me how #1ed, tell me about your favorite post or topic Southern City Mysteries has done in the past year. No rules here. It can be anything--a guest post, a series, or a subject I touched on briefly. (2 pts.)

3. On Sept. 24th, Southern City Mysteries' 1 year birthday, post your Happy Birthday Blogfest story! Who said birthdays are fun? They can be creepy or dangerous or dramatic or even fatal. Write a short story (why limit the word count? Gimme what'chya got!) involving a birthday in any form and something mysterious, dangerous, dramatic, creepy, or deadly. The latter event doesn't have to take place in the story, but can instead be alluded to. It's your choice. Actually, the birthday can be alluded to as well--free form! (3 pts.)

Leave your point total in the comments at the original announcement post, and link to your Blogfest post on Sept. 24th--oh, and sign up through Mister Linky!  And we'll be all set.  I promise I'll put together something special for the event.  Hope you all help me celebrate!

Family in Writing

Cousins at reunion '06

Family.  We all have one.  We may not like them all, we may not be close to them all, but we all have them in some form or another.

Over the past weekend, I have had the unique opportunity to observe the personalities and interactions between members of my extended family.  As I mentioned Tuesday, everyone from the newest to the oldest members of the Hindman clan converged on Nashville, Tennessee for my grandfather's 93rd birthday/family reunion.  It was a mixed bag of craziness, fun, and emotions.

My cousin Jeanne, courtesy
my aunt's Facebook page

I spoke with my cousin Jeanne (pronounced Zhahn, as it should be) about researching my Great-Grandma Jeanne's story.  (Dez so kindly recommended I write about her after this post, and a complete outline popped onto paper out of no where.)  Her work will be more of a factual, memoir-type piece, whereas mine will be (I hope) more based-on-fact fiction.  A fast-paced, historically accurate glimpse into the life of a young girl with dreams of the stage, who meets murder and betrayal along the way.  With dark twists and...Alright, so I'm getting ahead of myself.

Regardless of how you feel about your own family, how do you include family in your writing?  Do your characters have children or spouses?  Do they interact with their family in your works?  Or are they loners, grabbing onto strangers for comfort and pushing away those who want to get close to them?  Do you intentionally not write about family, or the opposite?

Family.  We all have one, of some kind.