Josh Lanyon Interviews Jake Riordan

So this is what a character interview should look like! Josh Lanyon captures the agony of Jake's conflicted feelings about Adrien and about his marriage in just a few understated lines.

Creative Draw of the Day: Nine of Swords

I can't decide if the character in this card is male or female. Either way, it's someone experiencing nightmares, insomnia, depression and despair.

Cheerful card, huh?

As Isabel Radow Kliegman points out in Tarot and the Tree of Life,  the quilt on the bed features red roses and zodiac signs. Meanwhile, the bed  itself looks as narrow and hard as a coffin.

Really cheerful card, huh?

Perhaps the zodiac signs are there to remind us that everyone experiences despair at some point--it doesn't matter what sign you're born under. And the red roses? They're often associated with desire. I don't think, in this case, they represent only romantic desire. I think they represent an overwhelming desire for anything we can't have. The figure might be despairing because a friend is desperately ill--or because they're worried sick for a child. Or maybe the figure is facing his or her own mortality.

Once again, I'm not sure which character this card will end up representing for me. And, once again, it reminds me that I can't shelter my characters from pain. I'm not a big fan of angst--a little bit goes a long, long way. But if I try to avoid it altogether, my characters will be the poorer for it.

Creative Draw of the Day: Three of Swords

Confession: I didn't draw this card at random. It just exemplifies how I feel today. A beloved pet died this morning and I'm grieving her.

Some interpret this card to represent three separate sorrows that stab the heart. I don't think that's the case, and I've never been a believer in the idea that bad news comes in threes.

To me, this is a card of mental anguish. (Swords represent the element Air, which represents our minds. Hence I don't think there's any physical pain involved in this card.) That anguish is brought about, most likely, by loss--but the cause might also be betrayal or heartache.

I'm not sure how to weave this into one of my stories yet. But it reminds me that sometimes the stakes need to be high--each of my characters, at some point in their lives, have to face genuine anguish. The worst thing I can do as an author is protect them.

The Arkham Cafe, Part One

Author: J. Rosemary Moss
Genre: Character Exploration
Warnings: None
Feedback: Welcome!
Summary: The Arkham Cafe is a place for all my characters--no matter what story, series or genre they're from--to hang out. (See this post.) In this part, Ross Edmund from my Roxbury stories runs into Zev Moscowitz from my upcoming NaNo novel, Not So Safe.


The Arkham Cafe by J. Rosemary Moss is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

~oOo~

Ross unbuttoned his coat as he ducked into the café. He assumed it was new, as he had never laid eyes on it before--but nestled between the pharmacy and the Verizon store, it was easy to miss. Either way, though, he’d be able to sit down and figure out what the hell to do about his family.

He paused on the threshold and glanced around. It was an eclectic crowd; some people appeared to be in old fashioned, costume-like clothes, even though Halloween was another three weeks away. Others were wearing short sleeves and shorts, as if it were still summer.

Ross shrugged and looked around for a place to sit. There were no empty tables, so he walked up to a man who was sitting on his own. The guy looked safe enough: no costume, and his clothes were appropriate for the weather. As a bonus, he was about Ross’s age: late twenties or so.

“Are you saving this seat?” Ross asked.

The guy glanced up from his menu and smiled. “Not at all. Sit down.”

Under Construction: The Arkham Cafe

I read an excellent post today on the Sticky Notes Stories blog. The author takes a new character and plunks them down into a 'cafe' with her established characters, regardless of whether they're from the same story or even the same story world.

I love this idea! Has anyone else tried it? I've never allowed characters from different stories to hang out in a cafe and chat (or fight or debate or argue or flirt or . . . well, you get the idea.)

In honor of this brilliant notion, I'm going to open the Arkham Cafe on this blog, hopefully by Sunday. (Yeah, even if I opened up a cafe in real life I'd name it after the Arkham Asylum.) I'll allow characters from different stories to hang out and interact, and hopefully I'll get to know all of them better in the process.

Creaitve Draw of the Day: Eight of Wands

I love this card. Eight wands flying through the air--either about to collide with something, or about to ground themselves. Either way, it's good news; perhaps a character will be slammed by the creative spark wands provide. Or maybe her seemingly out-there ideas will finally come down to earth.

Ok, ok. It's not always good news. A character can be slammed by someone's explosive temper--wands represent the element fire, after all. Or she can be slammed by a flash of insight that forces her to confront some unsavory truth.

In fact, I think I'll take that last option with this card, and apply it to Ross Edmund. He can experience a shocking revelation about his family . . .

Creative Draw of the Day: The Chariot

Although I've never seen any book on the Tarot mention this, I believe this card is based on Plato's chariot allegory, found in the dialogue Phaedrus. Plato describes a charioteer who is trying to control two horses. One horse is a well behaved white steed, the other a troublesome, stubborn black steed. The charioteer represents the intellect and reason of our souls, the white horse represents the best of our passions, while the black horse represents the dark, dangerous aspects of our passions. The allegory ends up explaining how a soul incarnates.

I like to connect this card to the Jewish teaching of the good impulse (the yetzer ha-tov) and the evil impulse (the yetzer ha-ra). We all have both--and we all need both. The good impulse is our moral compass and moral sensitivity; the evil impulse is our ambition, willpower and chutzpah. The evil impulse is dangerous--if we don't strenuously regulate it, we become monsters. But without it, we'd never have the gumption to accomplish anything.

An old Star Trek episode--The Enemy Within--illustrates this. Kirk is split into two people, one exemplifying his yetzer ha-tov, and the other exemplifying his yetzer ha-ra. His 'good' side is benevolent and compassionate, but incable of making a decision or leading effectively. His 'evil' side is proactive and determined but a thorough bastard. See Sum of His Parts by David Holzel for a more detailed analysis of the episode and its (accidental?) relationship to the teaching of the good and evil impulse. (A nice Jewish boy like Shatner must have made the connection, right?)

The lesson I'm going to take from this card is to examine my characters and see how well each balances the two impulses. They'll be more intriguing, I suppose, if they haven't got the balance right . . .

But that's my take on The Chariot. As I said above, I've never seen a book that links it to Plato's chariot allegory. I've never seen a book that links it to the Jewish teaching of the good impulse and evil impulse either--although some have said essentially the same thing without mentioning the yetzer ha-tov and yetzer h-ra. But I'd like to hear other interpretations. What's your take on the card?

My Characters Want to be Polyamorous

Not So Safe, my NaNoWriMo novel, was supposed to be a Male/Male love story, with a bit of a triangle. But then I scanned the romance section of the NaNoWriMo forums, and I spotted a Poly Romance thread under the Romance topic. That's all my guys needed to see.

Now, instead of a triangle between Zev, Marc and an as yet-to-be-named high school fling of Marc's, Zev and High School Fling want to agree to a truce. They can share Marc--as long as they can convince him that this is a good idea.

I'm not opposed. But I don't know if Marc will maintain separate relationships with both men, or if the three of them will end up together. Zev and High School Fling will need more than a truce for the latter to work, so I'm thinking the former is more likely. (Plus it leaves the door open for more tension.)

Sigh. So this is what happens when you let your characters boss you around . . .

The NaNoWriMo Blog Chain

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development

Kohlberg's theory of the stages of moral development gave me a lot to chew on. I saw the link to this article on Alexandra Sokoloff's blog--she claims a knowledge of Kohlberg's theory is indispensable to writers. She has a point; I can see how this theory can heighten our understanding of our characters. Especially the characters who, for whatever reason, never develop past a certain stage . . .

Book Rec: Writer's Guide to Character Traits

This book provides profiles of different personality types, such as the Adventurer, the Conformist, the Creator, the Flamboyant and the Manipulator. It also covers stuff like criminal styles and the traits associated with psychological disorders.

Profiles like this can lead to lazy and stereotypical characterization--but only, I think, if the writer in question is lazy. I'm not slavishly following these profiles, but I'm finding them helpful. I've got a character brewing right now who owes a good deal to both the Adventurer and the Manipulator . . .