Lure of the Fox: Month of Blood

Remember when I said that "Lure of the Fox" takes place in the colder months?

Well, as of now, I know exactly when it takes place.

Which is cool, considering what month it is right now...for the next five days anyway😛.

Ha ha.

Back in the Middle Ages, though, it wasn't called "November"--very much.  It was more commonly known as:

Blotmonað


Yeah, I have no clue how to say that, but that is how you spell it. 

And it means "blood month" or "the month of blood sacrifices".

See, back when the Anglo-Saxon calendar was a big deal, November was the time of year when it was likely that animal sacrifices were made so that the inhabitants could have a safe a relatively mild winter.

And stockpile for the winter as well.

Because, you know, food. 

These animal sacrifices were likely made when the leaves started to change color and fell off the trees, and it got stupidly cold.

But the sacrifices likely didn't begin until after the harvest was brought in, which was usually after All Saints Day.

Aka November 2.

Hence "month of blood".

November was also a time for bonfires and mischief, particularly because the previous holiday, Samhain, was when the veil between the living and the dead was thinnest, so it's also possible that the animal sacrifices were to appease any lingering spirits in addition to protection from the upcoming weather. 

Of course, Malbete would have his own twisted definition for "month of blood".

And he uses it. 

Especially when it concerns Jean-Luc. 

Because he's so very twisted like that. 

Lure of the Fox: Reflection of Personality

It's NOVEMBER!!!!

Which means it's NANO!!!!

Which means I will use this as an excuse to finish this draft of "Fox" by November 30th, so help me!!!!!

Meantime, here's another tidbit.

One of my favorite authors--Lauren Willig(who I talk about so much both on an off this blog I'm surprised people aren't sick of hearing it yet) said something somewhere about how the atmosphere and plot of a story/plot line can reflect the personality(ies) of the protagonist of said story/plot line.

(Lauren says it a lot more eloquently than I just did and I rooted around on her website for like an hour trying to find that exact quote but to no avail. Grrrr. But I got the gist, soooooo)

You guys, I'm finding that this is absolutely true.

Confession: when I started out writing what is fondly becoming known(to me, at least) as the Sherwood Cycle, I didn't intend it to be more than one show.

But, as it usually the case, I fell in love with so many of the characters(as is my wont) that I had to write more of their stories(and I'm repeating myself, I know).

Wolves of Sherwood took place in the summer.

Wolves of Sherwood was super swashbuckling.

There were 11 fights

(more in the Utah production, because we had three fight choreographers--one main choreographer and two fight captains/assistants--rather than one. Which was cool.)

 And, while there were some dark things that happened in the plot,

for the most part in Wolves of Sherwood, everything was light and frothy and gave you warm fuzzies.

However.

Lure of the Fox is not Wolves of Sherwood.  And not just because the title is different(ha ha).

It's darker.

Fox takes place in the autumn/early winter(the most important part is that there is no snow, cause I hate snow).

It's not frothy and whimsical and dappled sunlight and all of that.

There's shadows and cold and broodiness and darkness--both atmosphere and people-wise.

 It's grittier.

Fox's events occur in a war-torn country,

complete with mercenary thugs and the like,

and, it's me,

so of course there will be combat.

Just not as much--

and those fights are shorter, harsher, bloodier...

because why not(ok, fine, there is a legitimate reason, but still)....

It's heavier.

Stakes are higher.

Consequences are more dire.

Themes are more mature.

Get the picture?

It's sexier.

We get to see what happens when a tiger and a fox-bear get together.

Because yes.

'Nuff said.

It's more cerebral.

There's plenty of emotion and sword fights and the like,

but it's less swashbuckling,

and a lot more internal

 with a heist type plot line, rather than straight up action/adventure.

 Also, it's becoming a lot more character driven,

which is interesting,

as WOS was mostly plot-driven.

Also, also, there's more French.

A lot more French.

All of which actually fits Jean-Luc's personality to a T.

He's cerebral(an emotional cerebral, but still),

he's dark and broody,

he's gritty,

he's incredibly sexy (in my mind anyway, because y'all know how I feel about Dark Horses and their personalities, and it doesn't help my romantic heart that he still looks like Harry Richardson--who is Drake from Poldark--in my head:)

And he's like a dormant volcano,

with thoughts and emotions bubbling beneath the surface

that will explode if not released sooner or later.

But explosions always have consequences.

And it's always really fun to watch those play out!

NANOWRIMO B/V: Riley and Deac

November is almost over and I'm behind in the NaNoBlog!

Ok, fine, not really, but I should have posted about NaNo last week but was so crazed I forgot, so this week y'all get a twofer because--I'm awesome. Yeah.

The leading lady in any show I write tends to be both a firebrand and have the ability to be vulnerable. Because, let's face it, this two things are built into feminine DNA and there's nothing we can do about it. That's my opinion, anyway.

When the world does eventually blow up, it's nice to have someone who can always make the day a little brighter, fight for all she's worth, and never ever give up, no matter how much others try to break her.

Yes, that is the type of person Riley is. One of those amazing people who believes in things with every fiber of her being, and will do whatever it takes to do the right thing. And of course, she has to have a celebrity model who can carry that personality out.

Last year, I saw a movie called "Tracers", which was about a heist carried out via parkour. If you know me--or you've read this blog for a while--you know one of my weird obsessions is parkour...probably because I don't have the hand-eye coordination or athletic ability to do it, but whatever.  And one of the stars in this movie was Marie Avergapolous:
                                                                  

 Truthfully, I really wish I could see more of her work(I know she's in "The 100", but I mean things besides that). She has the ability to be fierce, fun, and fiery, yet also vulnerable when the occasion called for it. In other words, the perfect fit for Riley.

Besides a friend(Riley) the other thing a protagonist inevitably has is a mentor. Someone who can tell it like it is, and has seen what's happened--or what's going to happen--and prep the protagonist for whatever's to come(thank you Joseph Campbell). In the case of "B/V", he also has a dry sense of humor and a streak of sarcasm a mile wide. I'll even admit there are pieces of his persona that belong to some of my relatives, which adds to the fun. His name is Deac, and he's also one of my personal favorite characters.

So who's the best celebrity candidate to portray this character in my head? Actually, it wasn't that difficult to figure out; because about the time I pulled "B/V" out of my head and began putting it on paper a film got released, with an actor I had never heard of before. This film was actually this guy's film debut. He blew people away--and not just because of who he's related to. Who is this guy?  O'Shea Jackson Jr.

 

                                                                         Deac has been hurt in more ways than one. He's lost people, so he's ultra protective of those he's still got. The one thing he has no doubt about is the hatred be feels for the Agency who started tagging people in the first place.  Sarcasm is his defense mechanism along with dry humor. Based on what I've already seen, there's not doubt in my mind this guy could pull off Deac--if, that is, pigs could fly and he'd ever say yes. A girl can dream, right?

NANOWRIMO B/V: Jason

Those of you who have followed me for a while know what this means. Every NaNo, I get to share with y'all the celeb models I have in my head for each character. Because that happens to be my writer's quirk.

At the center of every story, you have the protagonist--the one who asks the questions and is a conduit for the readers and the audience members. Jason has grown up in a world where every thought, action and word is known by the Agency. Jason is actually being trained as an Agent, but he has questions that aren't answered by the Agency, so they'll have to be answered by someone else.

Once upon a time, I saw a film called ATL. It was your typical coming of age story, and being a sucker for these kind of things, of course I bought it. In this film, there was an actor--who is also a singer(and married to a singer). ATL was his first film, followed by According to Greta and....MOCKINGJAY. Know who it is yet? Does this help?

                                                      

This is Evan Ross. And yes, he's the perfect match for Jason. He's fiery, he's got that awesome glare down, and, his smile isn't too bad either. Plus, I'd love to see him with the rest of my cast--which is forthcoming. I promise!

NaNoWriTakeover: 2017: B/V

IIIIIIIT'S NANO TIME, Y'ALL!!!!

                                                         

What with being and adult with and adult life and all, this poor little blog has been neglected, except during NaNo time. This year, I also find myself in an interesting position: I'm a little bit cheating. Yes, yes, I know that NaNo is supposed to be written completely from scratch, but:

A) I  have this habit of "half-finishing" things that lie untouched for eons; and sooner or later I have to finish them and, 

B) Last year my life was so crazed I didn't even do a NaNo--or rather, I did, but I never posted about it.

Back in college, I overheard an interesting conversation between three friends of mine: one was a political science major; one a history major; the third was--well, he was someone with interesting ideas. PolySci was writing a paper about government officials and power (I forget exactly what) and she was asking History for advice on the paper--and Interesting Idea and I were eavesdropping. The gist of the conversation went something like this:

Hist: It’s kind of terrifying, the lengths officials--or anybody really--will go to assert their power.

PolySci: You know, if someone really wanted to takeover the US right now, they’d start                              

   with technology and social media. You take that over and everybody’s in trouble.

Interesting Idea: OR they could get rid of technology altogether--put it inside people;

            because you can’t hack human beings as easily as you can hack into

            technology.

PolySci: Can they can do that?

History:  What if they could?

Interesting Idea: Then the world as we know it would come to an end.

Me: That’s creepy.

Me: (That’s an interesting idea!)

Me: (That’s a VERY interesting idea)

Me: puts idea in back of head, then plays with it off and on for the next five years

Me(flashforward to 2016): Finally puts idea on paper and submits it to short play festival

Here's the REALLY interesting part--it JUST KEPT GOING!!!! I could not get the story out of my head! By the time the short version had premiered, my "long version" was just over ninety pages--granted, they were rough pages, but still! 

                                                   

That is what I will be sharing with you this time around--I can honestly say it's one of the most interesting pieces I've ever written(see conversation above). And because this is what I do every time I have a new project, y'all get to see the character sketches and tidbits that went into this thing.

The project for NaNoWriMo 2017:

B/V 

NANNOWRIMO TAKOVER Tidbit Tuesday Bucket List: Plays

This week is nuts.

First, because THANKSGIVING!!!! which means probably no blog on for the rest of the week(thank you Squash-hunting and turkey and Black Friday insanity).

The other reason is that NaNoWriMo is coming to an end. Sad face.

Getting off NaNoWriMo is a bit like getting off an adrenalin rush.

In other words, less than a week from now, I won't know what to do with myself. At all. I call it the NaNoWriMo Crash--the thing all writers deal with at one point or another and have to get over to move on to the next project.

And it's NaNoWriMo makes this harder.

The upside is, I know when this happens, I can turn my second hobby: lists.

So I have a list for y'all.

When I was in high school, I was a "closet nerd". I knew about things("Supernatural", Marvel, TMNT, etc) but I never talked about them. Ever.

In college it got a little better because of the people I spent time/lived with("oh, you're going to do a "Supernatural" binge instead of study for midterms? Cool! Me too!").  I read nerdy books, saw nerdy movies, etc. etc.

And then I discovered nerdy plays.

I blame Qui Nguyen for this one.

I found one of his plays--"She Kills Monsters"--and devoured it.

DE.VOURED. IT.

I found something that appealed to my nerdiness; something I could relate to. And it didn't stop there.

Guys, there are more.

So many more!

In other words, the perfect cure for NaNoWriMo Crash 2015. Check this(re-reads included in list just because):

1. She Kills Monsters by Qui Nguyen
    Set in the 90s(when I grew up) and it's about RPG. And nerds. Yeah......
    I've seen production stills, I read the script, but have I been in a production? Not yet...

2. Clown Bar by Adam Symkowicz 
     Think film noir, but with clowns. Like, red-nose-wearing-polka-dot-sporting-crazy-wigged-
     legit-circus clowns. In a bar. With guns. And it's immersive, so it's supposed to be performed
      in a bar. Not on stage. In a bar. Oh my glob!

3. Toothpaste and Cigars by TJ Dawe and Michael Rinaldi
      Ok, so it's not exactly nerdy, but it's a sweet little relationship story with characters that are---    
      really quirky. Like, I saw the film version and...shall we say gained a whole new respect
      for Daniel Radcliffe? Yes.

4. Superstudent and the Case of the Missing Water Pistol
    I stage managed this show years ago, and can't for the life of me remember the playwright
    or how I got it(which is why no link, so sad). BUT--it's a sixth grade superhero battling
    a supervillain who has a water pistol that freeze people! Um...YAAAASSSS

5. R&J&Z by Melody Bates
    Guys, "Romeo and Juliet".
    With ZOMBIES.
     The end.

6. Soul Samarai by Qui Nguyen
    Ok, so I haven't even read this one. BUT I WANT TO!!!!!