Zombies, anyone?

[First an announcement. My contest ends on MONDAY at midnight, Eastern time. If you haven't entered, you should, because MATCHED and BEAUTIFUL DARKNESS are two really quality reads--trust me when I say you don't want to miss out.]

Are there any zombie fans out there? I have a bit of an affinity for them myself, since my steampunk features reanimated corpses--not quite zombies, but similar. Plus, I love the zombie spoof movies, like Shaun of the Dead and Zombieland.

At a party last night, a friend of mine told me about an article she ran across about why zombies would or would not be plausible.

I thought, my goodness, I must read this immediately.

I found said articles, and holy hilarious. I need to share them with you, my bloggy friends. (A warning to any young readers out there, or readers who prefer clean things, these are a bit vulgar. There are some graphic pictures and they don't hold back on the cursing.) I laughed all the way through reading both of these.

First we have "5 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Apocalypse Could Actually Happen."

(I'll give you a moment to read. Lalalalalala *dances around like a loony*)

So if you're like me, you read that and went "oh... my... CRAP!" Seriously, some of those diseases are megascary, right? Especially since my Biggest Fear is actually a virus that kills everyone. (Not lying! I feel like anything else I'd be able to fight my way through. How am I supposed to fight a microscopic virus when I can't even see it?)

This second one might make you feel a little better. "7 Scientific Reasons a Zombie Outbreak Would Fail (Quickly)."

(I'm assuming you're reading. Which means you're not paying attention as I waltz with my cat. Twirly... twirly twirly and diiiiiip. Ahem.)

So I'll just chill here in my apartment until nature takes its toll on the zombies and all the hunters kill them off and the dogs eat them. Sweet. I can catch up on Bones and Top Chef.

And just in case that's not enough, I so totally call dibs on Bear Grylls for my apocalypse team. Yeah, you wish you thought of it first.

;)

gendered words?

I was editing something (when am I not?) and I looked back at it and noticed that I'd typed in the word "hero" to describe a woman. I don't really like the word heroine, it makes me think of drugs. But then I realized that I don't use gendered words as a rule. I don't like to denote that someone is a man or a woman based on an -ess, an -er, or lack thereof, attached to a word.

But then I realized that because I don't use the female gendered word, that means I use the masculine (with the exception of "widow"... which is the only word I can think of that has a female root and a male-denoting suffix).

Which do you think is better? Using words like "actor" and "hero" to describe both men and women, even though they were originally the male word? Or using "actress" and "heroine" and other female words, and not using the male word to describe women?

OR, am I thinking waaaaaaaaayyyy too hard about this?

"I'm Wicked Through and Through"*

Is it blasphemous to admit that I like the musical Wicked a lot better than I like the book? It's not that I dislike the book in any way. It's just that I lovelovelove the musical with a passion that probably borders on unhealthy. Though really, they don't have a whole lot to do with each other--the farther the musical gets in plot, the more it deviates from the book.

Anyway, I went to see Wicked a couple nights ago (could you tell?) and it made me think about the sympathy I usually have for evil characters, and the desire to hear the story from their point of view. So Gregory Maguire gets major props for executing this idea (in several novels--not just in Wicked.) Admittedly, part of why I like Elphaba (musical Elphaba--book Elphaba actually does become wicked) is because she's totally misrepresented. It's not really her fault. Even if it is (like in the book) I always wonder "what could possibly have to happen to someone to make them that awful?"

Yes, I even have sympathy for Voldemort. Because, really, poor little Tom Riddle, even if he was a sociopath.

I guess you could say I just have a penchant for those people who inhabit the gray between good and evil (not that Voldemort counts, but Elphaba certainly does, and I'd argue that so does Agent Smith, Dexter, Dr. House, and Spike (from Buffy).)

What "character type" do you like best? (Ignoring the fact, of course, that every character is unique. Just generalize with me for a moment :-P)

*The title of my blog post is one of the lines in "No Good Deed" by Stephen Schwartz in Wicked. Holy awesome song--check it out.

Reading Aloud

I've been reading my manuscript aloud to myself (cringe) to line edit. I've realized that I'm a terrible narrator; my voice either always sounds flat and bored, sarcastic, or melodramatic. So if when I'm published, I will not be narrating my own audio books (if I have any.)

But, it does help me see (hear?) the manuscript in a new way, rather than wasting paper and killing trees to print out over 350 pages just so I can see it on paper. (Plus, I've done that before, and I always hate typing in my edits after I've already done them on paper.)

Do any of you read your stuff aloud to yourself?

Bones

A couple days ago, Talli Roland made a really great blog post about writing, and the TV show Friends. It reminded me of a post I'd meant to do a couple weeks ago about something similar-ish, namely, how I solved a characterization problem by watching the show Bones.

I have a character who is not particularly emotional and who prefers to look at everything rationally--not unlike Bones/Dr. Brennan (though my character doesn't have the social weirdness that Bones has.) I realized while watching the show that even though Bones isn't very emotional, she's still a sympathetic character, and in each episode, the viewer is able to see emotions in Bones that she may not recognize herself.

I thought, why can't I do that with my writing? I'd (pretty idiotically) thought that my only option was to make her more emotional, but now I see that instead, I just have to display her emotionlessness in a way that makes the reader identify--because everyone has had feelings that we didn't want to recognize or admit to, and everyone has been in situations where not feeling anything was just easier than feeling whatever unpleasant emotions were there. And when she does have emotions that she can't stomp on (which happens more frequently as her situation gets more dangerous) I get to make those into something special. :)

Also, has anyone heard the new Taylor Swift song? I feel like I'm turning my back on my metal and classic rock fandom by admitting this, but I sort of love it... :-P

By the way, the paranormal YA anthology Kiss Me Deadly just came out a few days ago and one of my friends and one of the nicest people I've met in the writing field, Karen Mahoney, has a story, "The Spirit Jar" in the anthology. I urge you all to check it out, because Karen is a fantastic writer, and EVERY author featured in the book is just amazing.