I don't often write characters from cultures I'm unfamiliar with - and by that I mean that most of my characters are American. I know American culture well, and I feel I can write from this perspective in an authentic and respectful way. But what to do when you have a really amazing story idea set in another country? How much should you research? How much of your research should you include in the book/story?
There's a contest I'm writing for that has a Soldier's theme, and I want to maybe write about soldiers from another country. I know I'll have to do research on military culture and rules for the country I choose, as well as the national and regional cultures of the country, but I'm wondering how much detail - and which details - will be overwhelming for readers.
Guess I'll have to do some research on that, as well.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Supernatural - Season 8, Episode 10 - Torn and Frayed
I'm a huge non-fan of the Amelia Richardson plot tumor, and I make no apologies for it.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a die-hard Sam Girl and I want Sam to be happy. But his entire year away from Dean with this woman just strikes me as completely ridiculous and unbelievable, and it started from the first scene together back in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
So Sam walks in to a vet's office with this dog, and Amelia is there. They have an extremely awkward conversation about the dog, with him intending to leave the dog there, and her making some non-sequitur saying if "[Sam] was really so great, [he] wouldn't have run over the dog in the first place." After he agrees to take it, she says "There's my hero," in a tone of voice completely devoid of emotion and wearing a Bella-Swan-like facial expression.
I chalked it up to her being new to the cast at first, but it became clear in subsequent episodes that she is just a terrible actress. She and Jared have no chemistry, and their scenes are so painful that I have to fast-forward through them. Even the quality of their flashbacks is abysmal - they'll be talking about cheating high school boyfriends or bladder infections and Sam will get this dreamy look on his face and we'll flash back to Amelia, looking at Sam with her dead, expressionless eyes.
Their scenes appear to be ripped out of The Young and The Restless, with the pair of them discussing their forbidden love (Amelia's married to a Marine who she believed was dead but miraculously wasn't and returned; yes, you read that right) and making plans to meet up for secret rendezvous. It gets particularly egregious in this very episode, wherein they have sex and Amelia walks around in his shirt, and they have this ridiculously inane conversation about how to decide to stay together.
Her acting is spectacularly bad during this scene, and she looks so KStew that I just can't even. I couldn't even focus on Shirtless!Sam.
In addition to the bad acting, we have no history between the two because their story is told in deliberately vague terms and the full story is meant to stay a secret until later; this works okay for Dean's Purgatory adventures, but it really hurts when you're trying to build a romantic relationship. The writers are trying to keep Sam's activities during the year a secret for a later reveal - I get it - but it's killing this story arc even more than the soap opera flashbacks.
Anyway.
Samandiriel has been kidnapped by Crowley, who's torturing him for...information, I guess. Castiel recruits Sam and Dean, they go after the demons, yadda, yadda, and Samandiriel's free. He knows what Naomi's up to, but before he gets a chance to tell Castiel, Naomi gives Castiel orders to kill him, which he does. We end with Sam and Dean back on good terms, and Amelia walking into the empty room where she was supposed to meet Sam.
All in all - this episode is something I think of as Bridge Episode - light on plot itself, but furthering the season arc. We learned that Naomi is guarding the ANGELS tablet and that Crowley is after it, and the Amelia sublot is shelved for now. I predict (hope) they'll get back to hunting and perhaps even discuss what they've been doing the past year in detail, which they are steadfastly refusing to do, despite how much sense it would make.
Don't get me wrong - I'm a die-hard Sam Girl and I want Sam to be happy. But his entire year away from Dean with this woman just strikes me as completely ridiculous and unbelievable, and it started from the first scene together back in We Need to Talk About Kevin.
So Sam walks in to a vet's office with this dog, and Amelia is there. They have an extremely awkward conversation about the dog, with him intending to leave the dog there, and her making some non-sequitur saying if "[Sam] was really so great, [he] wouldn't have run over the dog in the first place." After he agrees to take it, she says "There's my hero," in a tone of voice completely devoid of emotion and wearing a Bella-Swan-like facial expression.
I chalked it up to her being new to the cast at first, but it became clear in subsequent episodes that she is just a terrible actress. She and Jared have no chemistry, and their scenes are so painful that I have to fast-forward through them. Even the quality of their flashbacks is abysmal - they'll be talking about cheating high school boyfriends or bladder infections and Sam will get this dreamy look on his face and we'll flash back to Amelia, looking at Sam with her dead, expressionless eyes.
Their scenes appear to be ripped out of The Young and The Restless, with the pair of them discussing their forbidden love (Amelia's married to a Marine who she believed was dead but miraculously wasn't and returned; yes, you read that right) and making plans to meet up for secret rendezvous. It gets particularly egregious in this very episode, wherein they have sex and Amelia walks around in his shirt, and they have this ridiculously inane conversation about how to decide to stay together.
Her acting is spectacularly bad during this scene, and she looks so KStew that I just can't even. I couldn't even focus on Shirtless!Sam.
In addition to the bad acting, we have no history between the two because their story is told in deliberately vague terms and the full story is meant to stay a secret until later; this works okay for Dean's Purgatory adventures, but it really hurts when you're trying to build a romantic relationship. The writers are trying to keep Sam's activities during the year a secret for a later reveal - I get it - but it's killing this story arc even more than the soap opera flashbacks.
Anyway.
Samandiriel has been kidnapped by Crowley, who's torturing him for...information, I guess. Castiel recruits Sam and Dean, they go after the demons, yadda, yadda, and Samandiriel's free. He knows what Naomi's up to, but before he gets a chance to tell Castiel, Naomi gives Castiel orders to kill him, which he does. We end with Sam and Dean back on good terms, and Amelia walking into the empty room where she was supposed to meet Sam.
All in all - this episode is something I think of as Bridge Episode - light on plot itself, but furthering the season arc. We learned that Naomi is guarding the ANGELS tablet and that Crowley is after it, and the Amelia sublot is shelved for now. I predict (hope) they'll get back to hunting and perhaps even discuss what they've been doing the past year in detail, which they are steadfastly refusing to do, despite how much sense it would make.
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Supernatural - Season 7, Episode 15 - Repo Man
Let me just start of by saying how much I love love love this show.
I started watching mid-season six after a series-long boycott of the show. I was a huge fan of Smallville at the time Jensen Ackles showed up, and his entire storyline pissed me off so much I refused to watch his new pilot. I really hate myself for that stupid decision now. If you haven't heard of the show or its concept, you can read about it here.
I was reading some back posts over at Ars Marginal that discussed the treatment of homosexuality in fantasy and science fiction media, and it made me think of how the topic is treated on Supernatural. The show has an enormous, and infamous, slash fandom that is often alluded to in the show, and the stars often make jokes about it during interviews and on the gag reels of the DVDs. (Yes, I have watched them all. Don't judge me.)
In universe, however, there are definitely some problems with how LGBTs, particularly gay men, are treated. Though egregious homophobic comments are nonexistent, the Bury Your Gays trope is prevalent (see All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1 and Ghostfacers), and with the dearth of gay characters on the show, it seems like everyone who is gay ends up dead, often involving and/or as a direct result of their homosexuality. (One exception to this is Charlie, a season 7 character, portrayed by the fabulous Felicia Day, of Eureka fame. She's slated to make a return this season.)
Today, though, I want to focus on the Season 7 episode Repo Man, in which a burgeoning serial killer named Jeffery who had been possessed by a demon takes steps to get the demon back, since he misses the powers demonic possession gave him. In my opinion, it was one of the best episodes of the season, and Jeffery's actor was fantastic. The episode alluded to an event that happened off-screen during Season 3, presumably between episodes of the show, and this is done successfully and without noticeable retconning of previous events. Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) put in a hilarious performance, and the pace of the episode was perfect. All of these things made me very happy.
What was troubling, though, was the quality of the interaction between Jeffery and his Demon. Though we as the audience know that he's referring to demonic possession and supernatural power, he calls his demon "the love of his life" and speaks about how he misses their "connection." When the demon is summoned from hell and inhabits the body of a guest character's son, he and Jeffery slow dance, and Jeffery professes his love for the Demon and tells it he wants to be together again. The Demon responds by smacking Jeffery to the ground and telling him "we don't do 'no'" after Jeffery expresses disappointment at the thought of going on to continue the Demon's work alone. By the end of the episode, the demon is back in hell and Jeffery is dead.
Now, this ending is fairly common for this show - it is Monster of the Week series, after all. But in light of the way homosexuality has been mocked, dismissed, and literally killed on the show, Jeffery and his Demon's relationship casts very negative aspersions on the concept. Think about it - Jeffery is a serial killer. He meets the "love of his life," and together they killed and torture a dozen women and indulge in all manner of evil. Two other men come along and break them up for the public good, and when they try to get back together, more people nearly die. In the end, they're both killed or in hell, and the world is better for it.
Even the interaction between the two of them is problematic, and plays to a host of offensive tropes about gays - that they abuse one another constantly, that one partner is always dominant and makes all the decisions, that homosexuality is a gateway into depravity. Though Jeffery was a bad dude before the Demon came along, meeting him and being together brought out the worst in both of them. His Demon/partner beats him when he expresses affection and is overly controlling. They even kill a puppy during the episode.
Anyway, as I become more media literate, I find myself noticing these things in many works that I love, especially since I started writing M/M romance.
I started watching mid-season six after a series-long boycott of the show. I was a huge fan of Smallville at the time Jensen Ackles showed up, and his entire storyline pissed me off so much I refused to watch his new pilot. I really hate myself for that stupid decision now. If you haven't heard of the show or its concept, you can read about it here.
I was reading some back posts over at Ars Marginal that discussed the treatment of homosexuality in fantasy and science fiction media, and it made me think of how the topic is treated on Supernatural. The show has an enormous, and infamous, slash fandom that is often alluded to in the show, and the stars often make jokes about it during interviews and on the gag reels of the DVDs. (Yes, I have watched them all. Don't judge me.)
In universe, however, there are definitely some problems with how LGBTs, particularly gay men, are treated. Though egregious homophobic comments are nonexistent, the Bury Your Gays trope is prevalent (see All Hell Breaks Loose, Part 1 and Ghostfacers), and with the dearth of gay characters on the show, it seems like everyone who is gay ends up dead, often involving and/or as a direct result of their homosexuality. (One exception to this is Charlie, a season 7 character, portrayed by the fabulous Felicia Day, of Eureka fame. She's slated to make a return this season.)
Today, though, I want to focus on the Season 7 episode Repo Man, in which a burgeoning serial killer named Jeffery who had been possessed by a demon takes steps to get the demon back, since he misses the powers demonic possession gave him. In my opinion, it was one of the best episodes of the season, and Jeffery's actor was fantastic. The episode alluded to an event that happened off-screen during Season 3, presumably between episodes of the show, and this is done successfully and without noticeable retconning of previous events. Lucifer (Mark Pellegrino) put in a hilarious performance, and the pace of the episode was perfect. All of these things made me very happy.
What was troubling, though, was the quality of the interaction between Jeffery and his Demon. Though we as the audience know that he's referring to demonic possession and supernatural power, he calls his demon "the love of his life" and speaks about how he misses their "connection." When the demon is summoned from hell and inhabits the body of a guest character's son, he and Jeffery slow dance, and Jeffery professes his love for the Demon and tells it he wants to be together again. The Demon responds by smacking Jeffery to the ground and telling him "we don't do 'no'" after Jeffery expresses disappointment at the thought of going on to continue the Demon's work alone. By the end of the episode, the demon is back in hell and Jeffery is dead.
Now, this ending is fairly common for this show - it is Monster of the Week series, after all. But in light of the way homosexuality has been mocked, dismissed, and literally killed on the show, Jeffery and his Demon's relationship casts very negative aspersions on the concept. Think about it - Jeffery is a serial killer. He meets the "love of his life," and together they killed and torture a dozen women and indulge in all manner of evil. Two other men come along and break them up for the public good, and when they try to get back together, more people nearly die. In the end, they're both killed or in hell, and the world is better for it.
Even the interaction between the two of them is problematic, and plays to a host of offensive tropes about gays - that they abuse one another constantly, that one partner is always dominant and makes all the decisions, that homosexuality is a gateway into depravity. Though Jeffery was a bad dude before the Demon came along, meeting him and being together brought out the worst in both of them. His Demon/partner beats him when he expresses affection and is overly controlling. They even kill a puppy during the episode.
Anyway, as I become more media literate, I find myself noticing these things in many works that I love, especially since I started writing M/M romance.
Friday, January 4, 2013
First Time Out
So, I'm new to this whole blogging thing.
I read a lot of blogs, and most of them look a lot better than this.
I wonder how many other romance writer bloggers chose the roses picture for their background. I mean, I love it, but I can't help feeling as though it's unspeakably cheesy and lame.
I hope readers don't think this.
Anyway.
I'm a writer, primarily of M/M romance. I don't have a book out with an e-publisher (yet *fingers crossed*) but I am pretty far into a manuscript. I think it's going to end up Novella length by the time I'm finished editing, but that's always been my favorite length to work with. If I can stop writing so much Fan Fiction for Supernatural, perhaps I can actually complete one.
I'll be posting excerpts and whatnot here from time to time, as well as writing about LGBT and POC issues in literature and media in general.
And I guess that's it...
I read a lot of blogs, and most of them look a lot better than this.
I wonder how many other romance writer bloggers chose the roses picture for their background. I mean, I love it, but I can't help feeling as though it's unspeakably cheesy and lame.
I hope readers don't think this.
Anyway.
I'm a writer, primarily of M/M romance. I don't have a book out with an e-publisher (yet *fingers crossed*) but I am pretty far into a manuscript. I think it's going to end up Novella length by the time I'm finished editing, but that's always been my favorite length to work with. If I can stop writing so much Fan Fiction for Supernatural, perhaps I can actually complete one.
I'll be posting excerpts and whatnot here from time to time, as well as writing about LGBT and POC issues in literature and media in general.
And I guess that's it...
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