Friday...

One of the things I hate being told is that "This is the way X is so you will just need to accept it."

It's a bullshit statement and if everyone just accepted the way things were we'd still all be living in caves banging rocks together. Change happens because people want to move beyond the constraints of the now into something better. Women got the right to vote because a small group demanded change and started a movement that we are still fighting for to this day. Slavery was abolished, religious freedoms are more widely accepted and so on but all these changes came about because someone somewhere said hey hang on a minute this isn't right and fought against the status quo.

Telling me to accept things the way they are, telling me that my fight is useless because things are the way they are and they won't change no matter what I do is a red fucking flag.

You know what it's a bullshit statement from a scared majority who don't want things to change because they are perfectly happy with the way things are, they way things run in their favour and change scares the shit out of them.

When I played Star wars Galaxies I railed vehemently against the "NO TRADE" aspect of the game and time and again got told I should just give it up it's never going to change. Well I and the group of people fighting this with me didn't give up and eventually we won. The no trade items were reverted back to tradable. It may have only been a game but what it showed me was that no matter what other people say if you, as a human, want change to come, you have to fight for it and you have to be stubborn and persevere.

And this is how I feel about sexism and the objectification of women. Yes sex sells, though not as much as it used to. Women,  well people actually, are slowly growing tired of this. And men, smart men see through it. I get that some males of the species are led by the lower brain but I and many others don't buy into this BS that this is THE ONLY way to sell stuff, to entice guys to read books or get them interested in a particular subject / object / etc.... I think most men are actually smarter than that.

In the world of Sci-fi and Fantasy the myth that it's a totally male dominated arena is slowly being busted. Girls and women are a huge force to be reckoned with and while it may be that the jocks with cocks think they rule the roost I think they'd be surprised. Women spend a lot of money on books, clothes and toys and if there were more items available I think they'd see how much more they could make if they start marketing and catering to the female market as well. Until then I will fight for it. I will push against the norm. I won't accept that I have to take what's given even if it puts women down or marginalizes them simply because (some) men prefer tits and ass to well written, well thought out, strong female characters. I get this is an uphill battle, I get I may not see significant change in my lifetime but that doesn't mean I won't rail against it anyway.

So telling me that this is the way things are and it's never going to change is only going to strengthen my resolve to initiate and fight for change.  I know change is scary but it's worth it in the end.

ps. I also tend to get testy when people say I can't do something because I'm a girl and I've fought this one long and hard as well but this would be another post for another day. 

What if... ( a rant about Star wars books)

@Tosche_Station (twitter) asked the twitterverse what #SWEU books would we love to see. You can check out the page with some of the answers here: https://t.co/vCEsTCnS 

But it got me thinking about Star Wars books in general. First off I have to admit that I stopped reading most SW novels after I finished the NJO. It sucked. Sorry to all who loved that series but I didn't. In fact with the exception of 1 book (Matthew Stover's Traitor )I don't even remember most of what was written although I do recall wanting to toss at least one of the books in the series out the hotel window I was staying at when I was reading it, I couldn't actually tell you which book that was now. My biggest problem with it all, I think, was that it was essentially a huge rehash of the original movie stories with a larger than life set of bad dudes and a whole bunch of lightsaber waving. I'll probably have to re read it because everything deserves a 2nd chance.

I'm a hellishly picky reader. I LOVE to read but I find that I get bounced out of books easily when author intrusion or just bad writing ensues. If I read a book and find myself going...eh hang on a sec that's not right.... then for me this is NOT a well written book and in the star wars universe of books this happens A LOT.

I don't really care much for the Jedi of today. When Star wars first came out they were mysterious and magical, they had powers but were not supermen/ women in bathrobes. Now we have it all explained, the force is actually microscopic beings that invade  symbiotically live inside a person's body. Midichlorians . When this tidbit of info was dished out during The Phantom Menace I remember sitting there going wtf? Really? To this day I do not really get why we needed an explanation at all. People believe in a form of God every day and as far as I know there's still no actual proof he /she/it /they exist but we still believe. But I guess George felt an explanation was important so we got one. meh.

(where was I ...oh yeah jedi...and books)

This universe, this Star Wars universe is vast and full of very cool characters most of which get bit parts and maybe one or two lines then exit stage left or worse get offed so that the holy three and their offspring get to live another day. ( Unless your name is Anakin then you're screwed)  Yet repeatedly we see the same characters doing the same things over and over again. I read the reviews of the new books that come out and I am glad I don't spend any more money on them. One of the few ( I thought) cool stand alone books that came out, Tatooine Ghost was referred to by the author as chick lit, why? Because it was a predominantly Leia oriented story, charcter driven, not so much warfare and shooting and had more than just a hit of romance in it.  My mind kind of boggled at this. Club Jade does a nice write up here about the whole thing and says it better than what I can about how I feel about the whole deal.

Really if a SW book features a mostly female and or character oriented story it's chick lit? How dismissive and narrow minded. As a woman, I don't need a book full of "I love yous" although George did see fit to put a bunch of this soppy puppy love BS in the prequel films, but I get insanely tired of war, conflict, lightsaber waving super jedi. And don't get me started on the whole giant bug theme. Tell me a story do not give me a giant blow by blow narrative on war.

What I wanted in Star Wars books I could not find ( so I wrote my own - a whole other blog that is). I wanted well rounded, meaningful stories about people. Real people. I wanted to see all sides of the galaxy not just the all Imperials are stupid, evil or maniacal mustachio twirlers ( Thrawn being mostly the exception). I want to read about non jedi characters and their lives and how they entwine through the already established galaxy. Give me a full on book about Soontir Fel and Syal Antilles.  What an amazing love story that is, what an amazing war story that is as well. combine it in a well written, thoughtful manner I'd buy it in a heart beat.

I am so tired of all the clichés. Watching all 4 seasons of TCW back to back is a form of hell. Really who the fuck writes this stuff? The stories are on occasion okay but the dialogue is PAINFUL.  My husband's theory is that it's actually a computer programmed with all the movie dialogues and it just randomly spits out a script on a weekly basis using only these lines. Now, when we watch it, we play a drinking game with having to take a drink every time a character utters a line from the original films. Thank god we are drinking water or else we'd be in a hospital suffering from alcohol poisoning.

So yes I have more than a few ideas about what I'd love to read / see in the star wars world of books etc... I want character driven stories that are well written and make sense.  I want strong female leads that don't wind up marrying or becoming a jedi only to be killed off because they are expendable.

Some of the best stories are actually to be found in the comics, along with some of the coolest characters as well. I'm trying to track down the Omnibus collections now since that seems to be one of the best ways to collect them all. And as for the books well, I'll borrow them from friends I guess, because I'm loath to support something I think has been turned into nothing more than a money making machine with no thought towards what the fans really want.

So my last words to all the Lucas Arts peeps out there if you are listening is dare to be different. Take a chance on new authors and new stories that break the mold. Step away from the same old- same old, cast of thousands, super jedi waving light sabers muttering about their bad feelings.

I'm looking forward to see what Timothy Zahn does with his new stand alone Han Solo novel but as for the rest...it doesn't look promising but as a die hard Star Wars fan I keep hoping.

On the subject of fanfic writing....

"Thrawn Legacy" by Grant Gould 

(you can buy a copy of this print here sale of prints)

I'll be upfront and say I hate the term "fanfic".

That word brings to mind badly written fantasies and stuff better left to the darkest regions of some people's minds.

Now before the avalanche of hate mail begins let me also say I KNOW this is not always the case and there are some amazing people out there writing fanfics. And I don't hate the fiction itself I'm just pretty indifferent about it.

I don't write fanfics in the general sense of the term because until I started Daughter of the Empire I actually wrote my own stories with my own characters and I still do. It's not that I can't see the value in being a fanfic writer but mostly it never ever appealed to me. I never wanted to mess with other people's characters so much I felt driven to write stories with them and about them. The honest truth was it never really occurred to me and the few times it did I recognized it for what it was ( a teenaged crush on a fictional character) and stepped away from it. That being said I almost never read it either. I don't tend to go actively looking for "fan-fictions" although I have on a couple of rare occasions and even more rarely been pleasantly surprised because there is a lot of very badly written stuff out there and it's scary.

I started writing Daughter of the Empire, I was writing "merlyn's story" and that came about from a clash of many things.
1. It was in my brain. The what if you were Darth Vader's personal assistant stuck like old porridge.
2. the general amount of really great star wars fiction out there is very limited. Seriously I stopped reading after the new jedi order.
3.Once I started I wanted to finish but I had no idea it would take me 3 books worth of words to do that.

I am certain that in the fanfic world there are some absolutely amazing writers. Writers who care about their craft, rewrite and edit until their fingers bleed so that their stories are perfect. I know that there are fanfic sites with lots of rules, grammar and spelling regulations, profanity and sex filters as well as awards and everything else you can think of. The world of Fan fiction is huge vast and difficult to navigate without a guide.

One of my friends who does read a lot keeps throwing out terminology to me expecting me to know what it means. When I ask for explanations the other day she said "you know for writing fan fiction you sure don't know the lingo." my immediate response both in thought and in reply was "that's because I don't write fanfics."

And I don't.

Which leads me to ask if I don't write fan fiction then what the hell is Daughter of the Empire?  Because it certainly classifies as such. I don't really know. I call them novels based in the Star Wars universe which they are but I add a hell of a lot of stuff that's not Star wars. There are a ton of original characters, situations, plots etc.. that are totally mine and it's all based around existing stories without interfering in the existing stories. I use some of the most beloved Star wars characters to tell my character's story not the other way around. It was my way of keeping that Star Wars love alive ( hey wait a sec isn't that what fan fiction does????)

The biggest complaint ( if you can call it that) that I've read in other people's comments on their own blogs and forums is that it's long ( very long) hell yes it's long because they are novels not short stories. And while now during the massive edit rewrite I'll drop a lot of the fill and redundant stuff, they are still going to be long ( around 500-800  pages 1.5 spaced)

And yes there are some pretty hot sex scenes in there. It's not suitable for children under the age of 16 / 18 depending on what country you live in but I wouldn't call it pornographic either. There is a big difference between porn and erotic writing and I'm not all that interested in the former since it seems to be more about a step by step how to manual than using words in a delicious manner to arouse. People who had had sex already know what to do ( most of the time) and people who have not yet entered that delicious arena of indoor sports don't really need a complete step by step of every single boring detail. Because really the how to's are dull it's the how it makes you feel that's interesting and for that one doesn't need to get too technical. In fact most of the best erotic fiction I have ever read never mentions the words vagina or penis or any of the funky pet names for those anatomical parts at all. ( this includes the ever popular "flaming rod of manhood" or "moist flower of womanhood" ..erm yeah)

I've been asked once or twice why I never posted the dote on a fanfic site. and there are a couple of reasons for this.

1. I didn't know most of these places existed when I began writing these books
2. Once I did find them I discovered TOO many rules and I hated the format.
3. I liked having complete control over the site and the contents.  ( as much control as anyone can ever have with their stuff on the internet)

So I will reiterate what I have said elsewhere before. This was never ever set up to be a Thrawn or Vader fanfic, not ever. I know people read it that way but it was never the intent.  In fact in the very first drafts of the books waaaaaaaaaaaaay back when, Thrawn didn't really exist in her world and she had a boyfriend on Tatooine ( not Jyrki) and Vader was just a boss. It grew over the space of about 15 or so years and blossomed when I began to play Star Wars galaxies and write because it was either write or go mad.

So here we are X number of years later and I've finished what I set out to do which was tell the story of a girl who got the worst job in the Star wars galaxy. Now I'm doing what all good writer's should do. I'm going back over it with a fine tooth comb and clearing out the clutter, editing for spelling, typos and grammar and then handing it off to a proof reader/s so that the final versions can be hosted and left alone.

There will be short stories because they are just fun to write and those few in the circle of silliness also get to read the ones that don't get hosted on the webpage or the facebook page because they really are too hot and not something I want up on a public access site at all. But they are fun to read and write.

I have more stories to write and  they have nothing to do with Star Wars. ( or any other established world out there)

I assume people will read these books because like me they are looking for more and I assume they finish them because they enjoy them. At least I hope so. It was a great project and as a writer I learned so so much from doing it. I also got great satisfaction of being able to run through some fairly wild plots and manage to tie it all up. I was surprised by that because there were days when I was like oh my god how am I going to deal with this... that's part of the beauty of writing.  Stuff comes back to haunt you and it's usable.

So yes, the books are long. Yes they take place in the Star Wars universe. Yes they contain Thrawn and Vader and a few other wonderful established Star Wars characters but is it fanfic? I don't know and in the end I guess that doesn't matter.

but I still dislike the term.