Category Archives: Doctor Who

The Bees Are Disappearing!

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Whenever someone mentions bees, I want to shout, “The bees are disappearing!”

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If you’re a Doctor Who fan, you’ll understand.

But the point now is that I’m illustrating a children’s book about bees. I’ve never drawn bees before, so this is a challenge. This might sound crazy, but most of the time, I don’t actually think I can draw. I do draw. I mean, I draw trees, castles, bunnies, and flowers. But I can’t draw the way I really want to. So many of my lines lie dead on the paper. Then after many dead drawings, something works, and I’m filled with relief. Whew.

But I want to challenge myself and get better. It’s sad when people say they can’t draw, when they tell some story from grade school that killed their inner artist. Why let that person who said whatever it is they said to convince you that you had no talent, why let them get the better of you? Get some paper, sit down, draw. Sure it might be terrible, and it most definitely won’t match the beautiful image in your head, but my art never, ever, matches what’s in my head, but I keep trying. I throw away a lot. A lot. Seriously. Eventually an image turns out right.

I don’t know why people expect instant magic with art. If you’ve never run a day in your life, you wouldn’t expect to run a marathon on a whim. You’d understand that you have to train, and train for a long time. But I’ve seen people draw one stick figure and throw their pencil down. “I can’t draw.”

Give yourself a break. Then train. Practice.

But I went way off topic. All I wanted to say is that I’m trying to draw bees, so I’m trying something new.

What new thing have you tried lately?

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If you want to see the other books in the series I’ve illustrated, go here to Plum Tree Books.

Fandom

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Unfortunately because of the lighting, you can’t read the sign on the door–but if you know the TARDIS, you know what it says. My friend is edited out since I’m posting this late at night and can’t seem to wait to get her permission to use her image on my blog.

Are you a true fan of anything? Ever written fanfic? Worn a costume of a favorite character? Waited in line for hours to meet a singer, writer, actor you love? Or have you ever wanted to but didn’t because you were afraid of the looks you’d get?

In time for our housewarming party, I turned the door in my office into a TARDIS from the long-running British sci-fi show Doctor Who. I have friends who are also fans, and they loved posing in front of the TARDIS. Other friends don’t know anything about sci-fi, and maybe they were baffled, but they were polite and appreciated my enthusiasm.

What is it like to create a story that people love enough to dress at the characters, to bake cupcakes based on heaven-knows-what from your book, to write fanfic, to make jewelry, to start a band, all from something that came out of your head?

Sure, we are subjected to marketing ploys, stories are created around toys, and conglomerates wait for us to spend our money on key chains, tee-shirts, and other nonsense. But not every story is like that.

In 1963 the BBC came up with the idea of a Time Lord traveling all of time and space in a blue box. In 2012 a woman in Texas spends hours of her life copying that blue box in her home. I doubt the BBC of 1963 dreamed of such a thing.

Then again, creating a story that people love deeply–too deeply? Is that possible?–can end up like this.

The Year of the Towel

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Obviously, blogging isn’t everything.

I just turned 43 (The Year of the Towel come to an end without the answer to life, the universe, and everything…), and I didn’t even blog about the day.

I’ve lost my way. A long time ago I told true stories…but that well is empty.

I came across this video series I really like. Here is one episode.

Obsession x Voice (Failed Writer #6) from Yuvi Zalkow on Vimeo.

And now I’m pondering what my obsessions are. Well, writing, art, the brain, Doctor Who and Torchwood, speed skating, and women’s rights. Some things I’ve avoided for fear of upsetting folks…but should I be worried about that? Really?

Lots to think about. Watch the video. Watch the other ones too.

Pondering Killing Hitler

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So finally the Doctor ends up in a room with Hitler. The year is 1938. The Doctor or one his companions could kill Hitler. Imagine. You may think you’d never kill anyone, but would you kill Hitler in 1938?

Imagine Poland never invaded. America never liberating Paris. London never going through the Blitz. And millions of people living the whole of their lives.

What would the world be like today? How would Churchill be remembered? What would’ve happened in Russia? Would the Japanese have bombed Pearl Harbor?

How do you imagine the world would be different and where is this parallel universe?

And I want to add…um, Stephen Moffat? He’s writing (as in writing and/or in charge of) two, TWO, shows with iconic British characters. The Doctor and Sherlock Holmes. Imagine being responsible not just for your characters, but famous and indelible and amazing and loved characters. He’s right when he says it is insane. What am I complaining about?

You Are Not Like Other People

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The garbage disposal was broken. The maintenance guy and I were sharing stories of growing up without garbage disposals. As a kid I carried my plate outside, walked to the side of the house, and scraped whatever was on my plate into the cow pasture. Mr. Maintenance asked me where I grew up. Florida. And he asked what my parents did.

“My parents divorced when I was little,” I said. “I was raised by my dad–a single dad in the 70s.”

Mr. Maintenance looks thoughtful. “I can see that,” he said. “That really makes sense to me because you carry yourself differently than most people.”

I laughed. Other people have asked me what country I was from, and when I’ve said I’m American, they’ve acted surprised. “You seem like you’re from somewhere else.”

A few times I’ve even had people say, “Your English is really good!”

“Well, it should be. I’m American.”

“Really?”

Once when I worked at Barnes & Noble a customer–who turned out to be French–said, “You don’t seem American to me.”

I’ve tried to figure out why some people say these things to me. Might be my name, which isn’t a typical American name. (Sometimes when people hear my first name, they say, “Funny. You don’t look Mexican.” Which proves to me they don’t know that many Mexicans, but still, I’m not Mexican.) Might be my height, but Americans aren’t known for being short, so that doesn’t seem to be it.

Many times in life I’ve felt I was missing some essential aspect of girlness. Not that I could tell you what that is. But I wasn’t one of those girls who got along better with guys either. I wasn’t a tomboy. I didn’t have mostly guy friends.

So when the maintenance guy said I carried myself differently, I wondered what that meant. When he and I had chatted other times–usually when I was walking the dogs–what was different? Maybe it’s that we are both Doctor Who fans. Or maybe it’s that I always stop to chat with the maintenance guys.

I’m probably never going to know.

But I wonder too, of course, when people read my work, what they will think about me. What assumptions will people make?

Wouldn’t someone like VS Naipul guess I was a woman writer? When you read a story without knowing the author’s name, what do you think you can guess about them? Gender? Politics? Ethnicity? Religion? The parent they were raised by?

Have you ever been startled to learn who a particular writer was? Really? A woman wrote this?

Kill the Ones They Love

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a different end for the 9th Doctor

Fans are a mixed blessing. I’ve been reading about True Fans and I’ve been reading commentary by the fans of Harry Potter, Doctor Who, and Torchwood. And it seems there’s a lesson in there about Fan Rage.

Fan Rage may be more prevalent in sci-fi and fantasy genres sicne they’re the genres in which fans dress up as characters–truly inhabiting that character and walking public streets in the character’s clothes and attitude. So the writer who kills off that character may never be forgiven.

Now, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle got sick of Holmes and killed him off–only to have to bring him back to life to satisfy Fan Demand. But I’m not really talking about writers who come to hate their creation and commit murder to liberate themselves. That’s another issue.

No. I mean writers who create a story, see what has to happen to follow their vision of the story, and killing characters accordingly. J.K. Rowling kills off loved characters. Russell T. Davies killed off more than one beloved Torchwood character–and he is still getting grief for it.

Some fans refuse to watch Doctor Who because Rose Tyler was no longer the companion or because David Tennant regenerated into Matt Smith or because Russell T Davies left the show to Steven Moffat. For some fans it isn’t a matter of they just don’t like the show anymore. The vitriol spewed at Davies for killing certain Torchwood characters is amazing. They talk about Davies as if he roams cities to suck the blood of pretty children. They haven’t even seen anything past the death of “their” character because they are so angry.

And Davies wasn’t trying to get rid of anyone. He believed that the death of this or that character made for a stronger story. Fan Rage seems to prove him right, doesn’t it? Who wants to kill off a character and get a big blah, “meh.”

But these fans won’t watch his show anymore.

Are they True Fans? Do True Fans stick by you no matter what? Or do they kidnap your imagination? How beholden are you to fans who love, LOVE, a character?

Or forget characters. Think of stories. How many writers (singers, actors, artists) begin in one genre, change genre, and then must suffer the outrage? How dare you?

Oh well.

Over at The Imaginary Lake I’ve posted a few first chapters of the different novels I’ve written over the years. Some stories I’ve written have magic–I’ll call it magic though I’m not sure that is the word I really want–and some a straightforward stories without one drop of hocus-pocus. One story is a dragon and quest adventure. Another is a dark emotional magical tangle.

Not sure what fans–should I have some expect–but all readers are most appreciated.

Have you ever been angry at a writer for changing their style or killing a favorite character? Did you ever get over it?