The Awesomeness of Home by Beth Cato

This week's 'The Awesomeness of . . .' post comes from Beth Cato, author of The Clockwork Dagger series from Harper Voyager, which includes her Nebula-nominated novella Wings of Sorrow and Bone. Her newest novel is Breath of Earth. She's a Hanford, California native transplanted to the Arizona desert, where she lives with her husband, son, and requisite cat. Follow her at BethCato.com and on Twitter at @BethCato.

THE AWESOMENESS OF HOME by Beth Cato

I grew up near a naval air station in the smack dab middle of California. My mom told me, "Never date a sailor. If you marry him, you'll end up living far away." As it so happens, I met a man when I was just shy of turning nineteen; we fell in love; my parents approved of him; THEN he joined the United States Navy.

My mom's early warning was apt. During my husband's Navy years, we lived in South Carolina and Washington state, and we have now been civilians in Arizona for nine years. I have been away from my hometown of Hanford, California, for sixteen years, but a deep sense of homesickness has not abated.

Sure, there is a lot to complain about when it comes to California, especially my part of the state. I'm from the Great San Joaquin Valley, hundreds of miles of some of the richest, most diverse agricultural land in the world. It also ranks among the worst in the world as far as air pollution; in the summer, smog smothers the valley in murky brown. Many people are poor, working class. The racial divides are clear and tragic. Unemployment remains at a steady high.

But it's still home. My home. If my husband could find a job there, I'd move back in a heartbeat. As it is now, I'm lucky to make the long drive back once or twice a year. I delight in the faint yet bold wall of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the distance. I smile as we drive past row after row of walnut trees, orange groves, and raisin grape vineyards. I delight at the sight of lush fields of corn, and even the fragrant clusters of dairies.

I can't go back often. I can't live there. So I do what any writer does: I live vicariously. I write myself back home.

My new novel Breath of Earth isn't set in the San Joaquin Valley, but it's close: San Francisco. My version of 1906 features not-so-mythological creatures, geomancers who harvest the overflowing energy of the earth, and airships that traverse the skies. My heroine, Ingrid Carmichael, doesn't look like me in the slightest. We have different skin tones, cultures, and histories, but we do have a major thing in common: a fierce love and longing for our homes.

Home is awesome. A shared home in California, even more so. We both have roots in the central part of the state. We appreciate the diversity of our neighbors. Our home cities are a few hundred miles apart, but that's not far at all in the scheme of things.

The beauty of being a writer is that I can imagine myself into far away realms. Sure, I would love to see castles and moonscapes and alien civilizations, but when it comes down to it, most of all, I want to be home.

My house, husband, son, and cat may be in Arizona, but the home of my heart is some 500 miles northwest. For all its flaws, Hanford is an awesome place. No matter how many years I live away, it remains part of me, and will continue to inspire my writing . . . and a lot of homesickness, too.


You can find Beth's books here: Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Beth-Cato/e/B006S84MNO

And here: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/breath-of-earth-beth-cato/1122785052;jsessionid=890BB5DEF8138CDC71875B7AAF03D71E.prodny_store01-atgap02?ean=9780062422064

The Awesomeness of Steampunk in Film by Brooke Johnson

Today's 'The Awesomeness of . . . ' post comes from guest author Brooke Johnson, creator of the wonderfully imaginative The Brass Giant and The Guild Conspiracy (Harper Voyager). Brooke is a stay-at-home mom and tea-loving author. As the jack-of-all trades bard of the family, she journeys through life with her husband, daughter, and dog. She currently resides in Northwest Arkansas but hopes one day to live somewhere a bit more mountainous.

Brooke's blog: http://brooke-johnson.com/
Twitter: @brookenomicon

THE AWESOMENESS OF STEAMPUNK IN FILM

This might be blasphemy as a steampunk author and reader, but my favorite medium for the steampunk genre is film--hands down. There is nothing quite like seeing a beautiful mechanical sculpture come to life on the screen, whether it's the steam castle in Steamboy, or something as a close-up of the gear makeup within the Jaegers of Pacific Rim.

That ratchet and clank, the hiss of steam, the grungy aesthetic of greased up gears and tarnished boilers, paraded across the screen in gorgeous cinematic CG glory. In my opinion, nothing brings steampunk to life better than film.

But the absolute pinnacle of steampunk in film has to be the 1999 film version of Wild Wild West. That movie holds a very special place in my heart, whatever that may say about my taste in cinema.

I think that film was my first real glimpse at the steampunk genre, and I probably owe much of my fascination with the genre to it. I was ten years old when it came out and absolutely mesmerized by all the machines and inventions. And as absurd as many of the gadgets in the film are--the dead-man's-last-vision projector, the locomotive steam tank, the giant mechanical spider, the rocket-powered flying bicycle, and the mustache-twirling villain Dr. Loveless's multifunctional wheelchair--these weird and marvelous inventions embody such creativity, exploring every avenue of what if. It was that unabashed sense of "Why not?" with regard to the technology that made me love it so much. To this day, it's my favorite steampunk-inspired film (and yes, I even re-watched it recently to make sure. Its pinnacle status still stands. Haters keep hatin'. I don't care).

Other films have successfully incorporated steampunk elements as well, and many of them have offered varying levels of inspiration to my steampunk novels. The steam castle in Steamboy lends its enormous engine chamber, with its gargantuan gears and colossal pistons, to the subcity beneath Chroniker City, and the mechanical soldiers in both that film and movies like Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Hellboy II, and even Sucker Punch had an impact on my automaton design in The Brass Giant, and the designs of the mechs and war machines I wrote into The Guild Conspiracy.

But Wild Wild West probably offered the most inspiration, with its widespread integration of all things mechanical into every possible gadget. It gave me the courage to delve deeper into my steampunk world, to think beyond the more obvious and exciting applications of mechanical technology and dare to build even the most mundane machine out of clockwork and steam engines.

Chroniker City has steam rickshaws instead of automobiles or carriages, automated venting systems along the city streets, a cross between a trolley and a vertical lift combined into one multidirectional mode of city transport, and a mechanical theater that employs an orchestra of musical automatons instead of musicians. These things are unimportant to the larger plot, but I feel like they bring the steampunk element to life, just as important to the steampunk aesthetic as the war machine the main character designs and builds over the course of the story.

I only hope that my words bring these machines to life with the same visual wonder and imaginative creativity as the best computer-generated graphics of the big screen. If not? Well . . . get on that, Hollywood. It's high time for a steampunk blockbuster.

You can find Brooke's novels here: https://www.amazon.com/Brooke-Johnson/e/B006OOGR9O

How To Create A Girl

Have the heroines of YA fantasy overtaken the heroes? I began reading fantasy when there was a true Renaissance of female protagonists: The artistic young women of Charles de Lint's Newford series; Neil Gaiman's Goth girl Death; the sword-wielding heroines of Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword, C.J. Cherryh's Gates of Ivrel series, and Barbara Hambly's Time of the Dark; P.C. Hodgell's trickster Jame in Godstalk.

I also read about the bad-ass girls of myth and folklore: Tokoyo, daughter of a Samurai, who took the place of a sacrifice and killed a dragon; Janet of the Scottish ballad 'Tam Lin,' who defied a faery queen to save her lover; the heroine of the fairy tale 'The Robber Bridegroom,' who outwits murderous thugs; the Russian Vassilisa, who escapes the terrifying witch Baba Yaga; Maeve, the Irish warrior queen, who is somewhat of an anti-hero; the Australian Wawilak sisters, hunters and keepers of wisdom; and clever Scheherazade, who convinced a mad sultan not to kill her by telling him stories.

The idea of writing a YA heroine as a blank slate so that readers might place their own personas upon her is no longer the standard. YA books are filled with young women who have distinct personalities. The steampunk tough girls of Marissa Meyer's Lunar Chronicles and Kady Cross's The Girl in the Steel Corset. The cutthroat trickster girls in A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows. The inquisitive and introspective Blue of Maggie Stiefvater's The Raven Boys, and Karou in Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone. The rebels Katniss Everdeen in Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games, and Lada in Kiersten White's And I Darken.

When creating a young female protagonist, an archetype is a helpful way to lay the groundwork. Archetypes are not stereotypes, but traditional roles in storytelling throughout time. Beginning with an archetype helps understand a character's function, what part they'll play, and how they'll change throughout the story. Books explaining the meaning of Tarot cards are a fantastic way to find an archetype for a heroine, as well as lists of attributes.

But a hero is a person, not an archetype. And building on this is where the real work begins. Finding a face and a personality for the female protagonist can be done by leafing through magazines, checking out Pinterest, watching movies or TV. It helps to visualize her as flesh and blood. Adding a quirk, habits, and hobbies makes her memorable. These must be important to her character. Listing her likes and dislikes and any daily rituals also helps give her an identity--sometimes these won't even be seen by the reader, but kept in a character journal. And what kind of upbringing has she had? What sort of culture was she raised in? Fantasy opens up doors to imaginative alternatives in diversity. A family and choice memories create a rich background from which to extract emotional information.

Remember she's a teen. Remember what it was like to be a teenager, with all those passions and insecurities. This is a part of who she is. Add some heroic or anti-heroic qualities--a negative trait makes her easy to relate to (temper, pride, selfishness) and a fault she aspires to conquer. This fault can also get her into trouble and ratchet up the tension. Rational contradictions and unexpected attributes also add depth.

Think of the heroines that came before. The adventurers, Nancy Drew and Alice in Wonderland. The survivors--the true life pioneer Laura Ingalls Wilder and Frances Hodgson Burnett's Little Princess. And real life girls who have overcome great odds.

Romance or not? It depends on the story. If it's a fairy-tale like narrative, a heroine can be the adventurer and still find true love. Romance doesn't have to be the major focus, but it can be a development that complicates matters. It should be organic, something that helps grow the story.

People are complex, but a character full of foibles and personality traits is weird. Just a few distinguishing characteristics will create a protagonist whose emotional and physical journey is unforgettable. Overcoming stereotypes, even fun ones (such as the kick-ass heroine), to create a girl who is on her way to becoming a unique young woman, is a challenge, but results in a fascinating hero readers will adore and follow anywhere.

So, who are some of your favorite heroines and why?

Summer Giveaway #3 Thorn Jack

For the third Night & Nothing giveaway this summer, the prize is listed below:

A signed trade paperback of Thorn Jack
The Spring edition of Faerie Magazine
A journal
A one-of-a-kind, hand-crafted Fata journal

A flower fairy bookmark

There will be one winner. All you have to do is answer a question and leave a comment here, Tweet about the contest or follow me on Twitter, or visit my author page (where you can get news of upcoming projects).

CONTEST OPEN TO U.S. & CANADIAN RESIDENTS ONLY




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