Cathedrals and Wasted Perfume

I've continued to consider the subject of Tuesday's post: are cathedrals beautiful monuments to the God who created art, or are they wasted riches that should've served a more practical function? To me, this ties in with the issue of art in general. When it comes down to it, I write because I want to say worthwhile things, to ask important questions -- but also, and perhaps more-so, because I just want to tell stories. I believe that crafting stories honors God. I believe in the power of beauty, and I believe that God is honored through art.

Is this wasted? Is a fun, fictional story - or an ostentatious cathedral - a futile pursuit in misdirected resources?

While I was reading the Bible yesterday, I came across Mathew 26:6-14. It's a poignant passage. In a way, it's the heartbeat of silence before the battle lines smash together. In the coming days, there will be accusations, legal proceedings, betrayal from Jesus' followers, denial from his staunchest supports, silence from God. Finally, He will endure the horror and the power of the Cross. But at this simple supper, a woman named Mary takes expensive perfume and dumps it on Jesus' head. Judas, always the financial-minded disciple, declares angrily that this perfume should've been sold, and the money given to the poor. Surely that would've been more God-honoring stewardship than this transient waste of purposeless emotion.

But Jesus rebukes him. He does the unheard-of: defends a woman over an educated Jewish man. He says that what Mary just did was beautiful, that it was symbolic, and that, while helping the poor is good, beauty that honors God is never wasted. More than this, He tells the disciples that Mary's action will last through the ages. Her moment of art has become immortal.

That is why so many writers write. They want to achieve immortality. Personally, I don't think this motivation will ever bring true completeness. I agree with Woody Allen:

“I don't want to achieve immortality through my work; I want to achieve immortality through not dying. I don't want to live on in the hearts of my countrymen; I want to live on in my apartment.”

Clearly, I'm taking Allen's quote out of context. But, while immortality is not why I create art, it still ties in with it.

I think there are two reasons why Jesus defends Mary's actions. Firstly, He appreciates the spirit behind it. It is a spirit of love for Him, greater love than Judas demonstrates in his desire to serve the poor. Judas' ideas are good, but his heart is in the wrong place, much like the sacrifice of Cain versus that of Abel.

Secondly, there is so much symbolism. What Mary has done is a symbolic act. In the ancient world, corpses were anointed before burial. Jesus is about to die and be buried. The analogy is as poignant as the perfume.

Jesus appreciates symbolism, and a capacity for symbolism is one of the ways in which art, specifically writing, I believe, is powerful.

Any piece of art, from perfume to architecture to literature, can be done in the right or wrong spirit, and any piece of art can provide potent symbolism and deeper meanings. Look at the statues and crosses that cover cathedrals.

Just like perfume, I believe that art doesn't have to be transient. Art has the potential to endure. I believe that God can be honored through our art as much as through our charity.

A view of the York Minster Cathedral. Visiting it is what sparked these thoughts that I had to write down, if only for myself.

Cathedrals and the Forgotten

Hullo again, friends. It's been awhile. Some of you know that I'm now living in the city of York, in the U.K. I'll be here for three months; it's a gorgeous city, cram-packed with history and traditions, culture and kitchens. The alliteration works, and it's also true.

Today, I finally visited the inside sanctuary of York Minster Cathedral. It's an immense, cavernous space, filled with kings and saints keeping vigil, gargoyles clambering the channeled walls, arches meeting like the limbs of a great forest in the top reaches. A hallowed place, I thought, and surely God is pleased with it. Didn't He delight in the Israelites pouring their craft into Solomon's temple? God desires beauty. He takes honor in our art.

Sorry for the quality of my ipod photos. Fun fact about the Minster: various apprentices have been brought in on the restoration projects, and each one adds a tiny face from Star Wars or Star Trek in some out-of-the-way crevice.

But at the risk of sounding overly-millennial, what else could those resources have been used for? Who starved while the elite built their church? And, after all, were the cathedrals really built as true monuments to the Lord of lepers, or as idols to the pride of human wealth and ostentation?

I don't mean to come across as all "Churches-should-send-money-to-Africa-rather-than-buy-new-pews." I'm also well aware that the building of cathedrals probably spawned entire miniature economies and generated settlements, not to mention the education, culture, and preservation of knowledge that they provided. These are just my thoughts of reflection, and I'm glad that the cathedrals exist. If they didn't, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to visit the Minster at sunset. The light smoldered behind the stained glass; in a way, the beauty provided by God was completed by the beauty that man had created to honor Him. As I left with my friend, the organs were beginning to boom, and people were just gathering for Vespers.

Alexa​ and I wandered our way through the nearby sidestreets after leaving the Minster. She pointed out a little bookshop in the shadow of the cathedral. Several mythology books penned by Tolkien snagged my eye, which I intend to return for. There was also a copy of Neil Gaiman​'s Neverwhere! With the possible exception of Patrick Rothfuss, Gaiman is my favorite author, and the book was well-priced, so I bought it. The cashier wrapped it up in brown paper for me; I've always wanted to buy a book like that. :D

Over the summer, I listened to a story that's something of a sequel to Gaiman's Neverwhere (although Gaiman technically doesn't do sequels). It was called How the Marquis Got His Coat Back, and can be found in the Rogues anthology edited by George R.R. Martin. I listened to it as an audiobook, as I did with my first perusal of Neverwhere itself, so I'm looking forward to returning to the actual book in a written-word format. If you've never entered the world Gaiman created under London's streets, let me implore you to do so. It is the world of people who've slipped through the cracks. The Marginalized. The Lost. The Forgotten.

In a way, that is what a cathedral represents to me. It is a grand monument, a city unto itself. But in the sacrifice made for Faith and beauty, what -- and who -- were forgotten?

And who are we still forgetting?

Deadlines, Details, and Other Dead Things

Recently, I've tried my hand at some some flash-fiction horror, with the intent of submitting to Havok Magazine's Halloween issue. I intentionally didn't look at the specific content requirements before writing these stories. This is because, while I did want to submit them if they were good, I mostly just wanted to write them. I figured I could always go back and write more if they didn't fulfill the issue requirements.

Because of my summer factory job, I have a lot of time to think through stories and ideas. I even write large parts of them in my head while folding towels. The first story I wrote was called Double Tap. It's really hard to judge my own writing, and horror isn't my strong-suit, but I think I did manage to create something that was creepy at the very least. After getting it written and polished up, I finally glanced over the content requirements to see if I'd need to tweak anything. If it was an easy fix, I would do that and then go ahead and submit. If not, well, I'd write another story and get more practice!

You've probably guessed that I had to take the latter option.

It turned out that among the requirements, stories for this issue had to feature traditional Halloween monsters. You know the kind: zombies, vamps, werewolves, poltergeists. I considered changing an element of the story to include a zombie, which wouldn't have been uber hard, but it would've required me to take out a detail that I really liked.

No.

Rather than make this change, I went back to work the next day and dreamed up another story. What about a court case where Doc Frankenstein is on trial for creating a monster without a license? And Dracula is the judge! And Frankenstein uses the precedent of Jekyll and Hyde to defend himself! Yeah!

No.

That story didn't work, either. While I had now incorporated traditional monsters into it, it was funny but no longer scary. At least I hope it was funny. It was funny to me.

The Frankenstein's Trial story had no scariness-potential whatsoever, as in, on the scariness meter, it was rated at Powerpuff Girls. So I wrote one more story. This would be the masterpiece to end all stories! The terror to frighten all other terrors!

It had bumps in the night. It had murderous suits of cursed armor. It was told in the Epistolary form, via the case log of a Scotland Yard Detective Inspector in 1855. I just finished it, and I quite like it.

But it will not work for Havok's Halloween issue. Why? Because the deadline was the 24th of this month, which was before I even wrote the second of the three stories!

I need to check my deadlines, people. My writing professor has a saying about them: "Deadlines are literal! As in, cross this line and you're dead!" I'm usually pretty good at this type of thing. This mistake isn't a waste, because I enjoyed writing the stories and I gained practice from them. Still, getting published is always a nice feeling, and is nice for the wallet and the portfolio.

I'll probably hunt around for some other submission venues for these as well as other stories I haven't gotten around to submitting yet (shame on me!), and then possibly post them to this blog if that doesn't pan out. Sorry for the pause in my advice for writing conferences. I really will get back to that. Hey, ain't ya proud of me for updating more regularly this summer?

Have a good evening!

Haystack Livin'

Wasup, y'all? It's ya boy Lil Pig! Check out these lyrics from my new album, It's all Good with Little Red Riding Hood.

I built my house of straw, my brother used brick--
The wolf blew mine down real quick.
Now I'm snatching at straws, just trying to stay grounded--
But the wolf's still around, you could say I feel hounded.
I used a camel to rebuild but the straw broke his back--
I got poked in the foot by the needle in the haystack.
The camel tried to crawl through the tiny needle's eye--
So I guess I'll make hay while the sun still shines.

Editor's Note: There's a reason Lil Pig isn't that well known.

Soulless Publication

No, that title is not a subtle slur on the publisher. Havok magazine is wonderful and I love it.

Here's a wee bit of self-promotion: I just got a story published in the aforementioned Havok magazine, a flash-fiction magazine for speculative fiction. This happened to be a contest issue. The featured author was Patrick Carr (A Cast of Stones), and the winner was Tina Yeager for a chilling sci-fi ghost story, Time Echoes. [SHAMELESS ADVERTISING INCOMING:] You guys should really consider buying the issue and reading it for yourselves!

I wasn't runner up or anything, just one of the finalists who got printed in the issue, which I'm quite happy with!

So the reason I called this 'Soulless Publication' is because Soulless was the title of my story, about a rogue who transfers his soul into a coin. Hopefully I'll get around to eventually posting it on this blog, but for the moment there would be some copyright problems with that. Thanks for reading my tidbit of news!

-Luke

Comfortably-classy Gentlemen-spies: opinions on Craig as Bond

This is mostly because I haven't updated in a few days and I feel guilty, but don't have time for a proper post. So, here are some random thoughts:

Why does my Bond look more grumpy than classy? Well, his name is Craig. I suppose we should expect him to have a craggy face.

In his iteration of Bond, Daniel Craig has given us some good and some bad. Let's not forget Quantum of Solace, folks. Even if Skyfall and Casino Royale were both fantastic movies, my opinion is that Quantum is a smear on the enterprise's good name. The thing is, Craig isn't classy. He's Bond for a generation that likes her spies rugged and serious, and that just isn't supposed to be (entirely) Bond. What happened to Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan, suave and stylish and popping quips faster than the bad guys could pop bullets? And give me back my freaking invisible car!

One of the reasons I loved Skyfall so much was the references. As a dabbling fan of classic Bond, I cheered with every wink and head-nod to the roots of this fifty-year-old franchise. Skyfall had an outlandish villain, it had gadgets, it had a rocket-launching car, it reincarnated Q. and other mainstays! The themes of old-fashioned patriotism and golden old-age were very fitting for this classic tribute.

Don't get me wrong: I'm glad Daniel Craig gave us another spin on the world's most famous spy. But the writing for him almost feels like a Jason Bourne wannabe, and they clearly picked a rugged, tough-guy actor to go along with that, rather than a suave one. In my opinion, it's time we returned to the gentleman spy. After all, Craig wears Polos. I happen to like Polo shirts, but not on my Bond. Put him back in a tux, and let's find an actor who looks comfortable in one rather than stiff no matter what he is (or isn't) wearing.

Part of all this musing comes from my anticipation of the Spectre movie releasing in November in the U.S. Looks like it'll also acknowledge Bond's roots, but no time for an analysis here (although I've never felt good about Bond movies doing direct sequels -- remember what happened when Casino  became Quantum?) Another part of my musings come from recently watching Kingsman: The Secret Service. Again, no time for much of an analysis, although there were so many things I did and did not like. But most of the references were wonderful, to everything from Bond to Bourne to the old Get Smart show! And it really captured the over-the-top gentleman-spy, in all his pinstriped glory.

I think people are right to love Craig: he makes a legitimately awesome character. But the character he portrays is not the character of James Bond, or even a version of James Bond, in my opinion. Maybe I'm just grousing, but to reiterate, Craig isn't comfortably classy. I'm excited to see who's next, hopefully soon! Let's put the classy back in Bond!

(Just for clarification, Craig is the Bond actor in Spectre. I just hope they eventually move on).

There. That's better. True class.

Writers Conference Advice #3:Materials!

Some of the materials I took with me to Write to Publish

I've been going into specifics with business cards and the like, but haven't yet provided a list of overall materials it's good to have at a writers conference. As always, my organizational skills are flawless. Here are some of the most essential materials:

Business Cards: 

Already discussed. I can't remember how many copies I had printed, but it was like forty, and I used almost all of them.

First Page of Manuscript:

In both my meetings with editors, I was asked for this. I had five copies prepared. Make sure it's as polished as it can be. I've heard that many editors don't even read past the first paragraph!

First Chapter:

Again, I had multiple copies of the first chapter prepared, although I probably killed several saplings with all the paper I used. Both editors asked for and skimmed this chapter, which is what got me requests for an emailed full manuscript proposal. Also, I marked up the chapter copies during critique groups. They say that the first chapter is what sells the book, and the last chapter is what sells the next one!

A "One-Sheet:"

I think I'll get into the particulars of this in a later post. Basically, this is a quick review of all the pertinent info about you and your novel. Word count, contact info, author bio, brief summary, how your book is relevant to and distinct from current marketing trends (basically how it will sell). Some people get really fancy and put pictures on it, but I think it's best to be careful to avoid cluttering. For mine, I left a space where I could staple my business card at the bottom, which had a picture of me and all my contact info. I printed multiple copies of the one-sheet.

Marketing Plan: 

If nothing else, this shows an editor that you've done your homework. I also intend to do a separate post on this topic, because I had opportunity to talk to some people who offered helpful suggestions. So I won't say anything specific here, except that editors really do like this -- I had some comment on it -- because it's a chance for them to see that you have a platform and have good ideas to actually sell copies. In the modern publishing industry, authors do most of the marketing!

Full Proposal: 

Going back to the conference, this is one thing I'd change. I thought I'd be fine not having an updated proposal, since I could theoretically put it together afterwards and email it to the various editors. But then an editor asked if I would be attending her proposal critique group, and I hadn't been, because my proposal was several months old! I had to stay up that night -- with a headache, while my roommates slept blissfully -- and stitch together some of the other things I've mentioned in order to make an approximation of a proposal. I intend to update this proposal soon, because I received tips in one of Rowena Kuo's classes on good proposal elements and a good order for them. I'll post some of the things I've learned about proposal making to this blog at a later date. But if I was going now, I'd be sure to have one physical copy with me!

One Page Summary:

Make sure it's polished! This is a chance to impress the editor both with your plot and your writing quality! Have several copies.

Actual Manuscript:

This is certainly not a necessity. In fact, I doubt many people bring full manuscript copies with them, especially since they should already theoretically have copies of the first page, summary, and first chapter. But when an editor saw that I had a full hard copy of the manuscript with me, she said she really liked that, and she asked to borrow it overnight! Boy was that a terrifying evening.

Disclaimer: never ask an editor if she will take a physical copy of your manuscript/proposal/chapter/etc. Said editor will not like you if you do such, as she is already getting similar offers from all sides, and as her packing space is probably limited. When I suggested taking multiple copies of certain items, that's more a just in case thing. I had editors ask to look at those copies, but they always gave them back, which is the norm. It was also helpful to have multiple copies so that I could mark them up with notes and suggestions. And when editors do offer suggestions, make a show of writing them down, even if you already know those things! I think they probably like that. At least, I would.