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Due to their appreciation for the recent two posts about hockey on this blog, the NHL has decided to do me the honour of starting the Stanley Cup Finals today. I know, I know, what an epic honour! I’m pretty impressed too. When they first called* to tell me, I nearly fell of my chair.

So, why am I bothering you with it? Well, it’s only likely to be the best matchup all year. Let me give you some background.

At the end of the 07/08 season, these two teams met in the finals. Pittsburgh was the younger team — their two biggest stars hadn’t been to the finals before. Detroit was the veteran squad. And you could tell. Detroit won in six games. Pittsburgh acquitted itself nicely, though… to go six games of a possible seven is impressive, especially when your two biggest stars are not only experiencing the pressure of the final for the first time, but also both injured or recovering from injuries.

The season ended. One of Pittsburgh’s other top players (a gentleman named Hossa), decided to jump ship and go to a team with a better chance of winning a cup. Where’d he go? Detroit. Blech. Pittsburgh’s brightest star did an advertisement in which he stated that he never wanted to experience losing the Stanley Cup finals again.

So, now, at the end of the 08/09 season, it comes down to these two teams again. Pittsburgh, more experienced, healthier, and featuring a great, big chip on their shoulders. Detroit, most experienced, a juggernaut really, looking to hoist the cup again.

This is going to be great hockey. While I would absolutely love for the Penguins to win four games in a row and sweep the Red Wings out of the final, I know it’s unlikely. This is going to be a battle. I hope the Pens come out on top. Either way, it’ll be the best hockey to watch all year.

*they didn’t actually call. I made it up. But it was really convenient timing.

Andrew Osenga is the default setting on my MP3 player, Itunes, and in the CD player for when the little guy goes to sleep.

Andy writes great songs. They are accessible, awesome, and typically filled with imagery that makes me want to laugh, cry, or do something about it. I honestly cannot think of a musician whose work I enjoy more.

If I had to pick a favorite among his work, I’d say it’s probably The Morning. Luke Bruce bought it for me at a concert we went to and Andy signed it and everything. It’s a solid album. It moves like an album ought to, and it closes with two of my favorite songs ever.

The great thing about Andy is, he’s into trying to figure out this internet thing. He’s created two EPs in the last couple of years specifically for the purpose of giving them away. You can download the second volume by clicking on his goofy picture up at the top. After you download that one, if you click the “free” tab on his website, you can find the first one. Go! Listen!

I feel as though I’ve read more writing advice than I can possibly parse together and make sense of. You want the reader to feel comfortable, like the style is familiar. But it needs to be unique. But if it’s too out there, no one will want to read it.

Then you start to try to figure out how to pitch your book, and it’s more of the same. Your pitch needs to establish that other books like yours are being published. Be careful to express what makes your book unique, though. Again, not off the wall… no one wants to publish off the wall.

All of this because writers are aiming to get their product published via a business model that is challenged by modern technologies and marketing schemes and other forms of media. I think the only position more difficult to be in than the writer’s is the acquisitions editor.

“What are you going to do today, Mr. Editor?”

“Oh, I’m at a conference listening to pitches. Some won’t be in my genre, some will be out there, some I’ll like the sound of but will be terrible on paper. Maybe, just maybe, if I’m lucky, I’ll find one that I can acquire. Oh, and everyone I say no to will be upset.” Tough job.

Anyway, this is just me, crystallizing some of my thoughts on this whole process. And, I have a secret weapon. I have figured out exactly how to make readers, editors, and agents all immediately stop and take notice of my manuscript or my pitch. I’m going to start it with the most familiar phrase in all of North America, currently.

“Warning… your automobile’s warranty may have already expired.” And then, when I have their attention, I’ll tell them how great a book I’ve written. Or sell them a warranty. Or something.

I recently had Eric Flint recommended to me by a local librarian. (Yes, the local library staff are just that good.) I read it because a) I’m always looking for new things to read and b) alternate histories are an intriguing concept to me, and I like it when they’re well done.

Setting aside the Pro-American bias (doesn’t anyone else know that Canada won the war of 1812? Gee whiz), this was a neat little book. I don’t want to give too much away, but he really does stick to the rules he lays out in the back quite closely, and it’s fascinating to watch how events turn a little (and a lot) differently than they did in history.

Content-wise… well, this is definitely geared towards adults. His battle scenes are intense, the language is intense, and his characters are not without their flaws. I wouldn’t recommend that you send your twelve-year-old out to pick up this book and read. On the other hand, if you yourself have an appreciation for well-written period pieces about war, especially in the early 19th century, I’d recommend the book to you.

Real quick, on the value of Fantasy as a genre: There are, I’m sure, vast tracts of the fantasy genre that are somewhat-to-very short on merit. It’s not my intention to get into specifics of “Well, I think that so-and-so’s work is useless.” Two reasons: One: I haven’t read them all. Or even most. Two: Of course you’re going to find things that aren’t worth reading. You’ll find them everywhere. In bookstores, on Amazon.com, on blogs and news outlet webpages and on and on and on.

There is some intrinsic value to the fantasy genre. It tends to feature archtypes with characteristics that are desirable and worthy of emulation, as well as archtypes that underscore evil and make us run from it. Insofar as the fantastic helps the reader to grasp ahold of deep truths, I cannot imagine a more useful genre.

There’s a more-than-healthy dose of cynicism in North America today. Think of how many times today something you’ve said honestly has been responded to by sarcasm? If you’re having a good day, you might only be able to count them on one hand. Fantasy is a wonderful antidote to this cynicism. In the place of sarcasm, we find wit. In the place of doubt, we find faith. In the place of anger over useless things, we find righteous anger over injustice. In the right context, fantasy can help its readers to see the things in life that are truly valuable.

I plan to come back to this topic, especially to cover some of the dangers of the genre, but for now, I’ll leave you with thoughts of Samwise Gamgee, the faithful friend of Frodo, there with him to the end.

(edit as of 6:00 pm, 5/26) It’s been pointed out to me that my last sentence was poorly worded and didn’t make a lot of sense. I was trying to leave you thinking of Sam Gamgee, not with a thought from Sam Gamgee. Having failed miserably, here is a quote from Sam Gamgee to fulfill the promise I made but didn’t follow through on:

It’s like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn’t want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it’s only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it’ll shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you, that meant something even if you were too small to understand why. But I think Mr. Frodo, I do understand, I know now folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going because they were holding on to something.

Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?

Sam: That there’s some good in the world, Mr. Frodo, and it’s worth fighting for.

So there… and it was even super relevant. Wish I’d thought of that this morning.

In Flanders Fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Continuing the theme of a totally irrelevant topic, I’m going to pick up on another topic from the wide, cold world of hockey.

(Aside: did you know that in a large part of the world, if you said “hockey,” you’d have them thinking field hockey? Apparently the more specific term “ice hockey” is appropriate when one is in climates featuring average temperatures of “ridiculously hot” all the way up to “no, seriously, you could die out here just from standing still.” Suffice it to say, I’m talking about the ice version. Beauty, eh?)

I remember the first time I watched a hockey game with someone new to the sport. The referee whistled the puck dead, and I muttered “Offside,” not thinking anything of it.

“Why’d they stop the play there?”

“Oh, he was offside.”

“Well, what does that mean?”

It was then I realized that there was a whole world of hockey mystery waiting to be unfolded for the uninitiated. (I later came to realize the reason for this: most of the unititiated don’t care.)

Adding to the confusion is the popularity of soccer (football to the rest of the world, you know, where smashing into each other in a large suit of pads doesn’t seem like sport). In soccer, the player on offence is offside if he doesn’t keep a defensive player from the opposing team between himself and the net until he takes control of the ball. It gets downright confusing, trying to sort it out.

Hockey’s version is a lot simpler (in my mind, anyway). There’s a blue line that distinguishes each team’s zone. When you are entering the zone on offence, the puck must enter before any member of your team. If it does not, you’re offside.

Why? Well, it keeps you from parking a guy by the opposing team’s goalie, getting the puck and passing it all the way down to him so that he can dump it into the net without any defensive presence (known in street hockey as “cherrypicking.” I was really good at this in my younger years). It makes teams work harder for odd-man rushes (Two on one, three on two, etc.). I guess, in general, it sort of keeps the game a little more balanced.

If they ever remove the rule, I’ll be a lock for a pro spot as a cherrypicker. But, since it seems unlikely, I’ll keep on submitting you, dear reader, to the literary experience of a body check every chance I get.

And I don’t even know what that means.

James A Owen is the author of Here, There Be Dragons. If you haven’t read the book or its sequels yet, I recommend them. They’re a fun, intriguing read.

He keeps up with his blog pretty consistently. The other day, when I pulled up his blog, I found a short post he wrote about his research method. It was interesting to me for several reasons:

First, there’s a definite method to his system. I feel like I’ve been pretty disorganized as far as the research thing goes. I think it’s a place that I need to develop my abilities.

Second, he’s ever so right when he talks about research as a necessity. One place that I feel like my current effort fails somewhat is in how well fleshed-out the world I’m writing is. Clearly, that’s my fault, probably tracing back to not researching enough.

Finally, I loved one particular sentiment in his post:

yes. Much research will be necessary. Because You have to know the world you write, even if you only show a grain of sand on its beach.

Wow. The man is dedicated. I hope I can show that type of passion for detail. I think I have a tendency to be more interested in characters than detail. Not necessarily the worst trait, but some of that detail (the guys at Writing Excuses would probably call what I mean by detail “world-building”) is essential to selling the reader on the experience.

So, research… just another area that a good writer has probably already mastered. So, another area that I’ll need to work on.

This post was going to be about research for writing projects. Really, that was what I was going to tackle. I had some resources lined up, I had some clever thoughts. Then, I read an article on the cost of poverty from the Washington Post that broke my heart.

Here’s the thing: we all know what it’s like to feel as though the system is working against us. I’ve been there. You know, the days where it seems like even the libraries are trying to get their hand in your pockets. (They aren’t, by the way. You really just have to look at the date on that little sticker).

This article details how much tougher it can be… the added cost of not having a washing machine or the cost of not having a car to get to a big grocery store.

From page 1:

Like food: You don’t have a car to get to a supermarket, much less to Costco or Trader Joe’s, where the middle class goes to save money. You don’t have three hours to take the bus. So you buy groceries at the corner store, where a gallon of milk costs an extra dollar.

A loaf of bread there costs you $2.99 for white. For wheat, it’s $3.79. The clerk behind the counter tells you the gallon of leaking milk in the bottom of the back cooler is $4.99. She holds up four fingers to clarify. The milk is beneath the shelf that holds beef bologna for $3.79. A pound of butter sells for $4.49. In the back of the store are fruits and vegetables. The green peppers are shriveled, the bananas are more brown than yellow, the oranges are picked over.

(At a Safeway on Bradley Boulevard in Bethesda, the wheat bread costs $1.19, and white bread is on sale for $1. A gallon of milk costs $3.49 — $2.99 if you buy two gallons. A pound of butter is $2.49. Beef bologna is on sale, two packages for $5.) (© 2009 The Washington Post Company.)

That is heartbreaking. To never be able to get ahead, because you’re always getting knocked down a little more — how much of that can a person take?

What an opportunity for people to help out. People of faith need to step up and assist. A great opportunity exists in my hometown — the grocery store in town closed a couple of months ago. The population that doesn’t have vehicles is stuck buying consumables at the gas station or convenience stores. The situation, in essence, has gone from bad to worse. Here’s an opportunity for some group, anyone, really, to set up some sort of a weekly or monthly shuttle down the road five miles to Wal-Mart to help these folks out. You know, give them a hand.

I was reminded this evening that you’re to give as you’ve been given to. As those who have been given the most on an eternal level, we have the highest calling to give back. So lets get to it!

Some days nothing seems to go your way. I’ve posted thus far about my writing habits and how effective it’s been to have a word count goal and to be structured about my writing life.

Then along came Tuesday May 19th. It kicked my butt, that’s for sure. Baby isn’t feeling well — mom and dad become emotional wrecks.

Then, right as I move to make my transition from working on learning some rudimentary web design skills into writing, the router decides that it doesn’t want to play nice with the cable modem any more. (For what it’s worth, the router says that the modem started it. I sent them both to bed.)

45 minutes later, I’m sitting her trying to motivate myself to write. It’s times like this that I remember some great advice I got in college: “Have a schedule that is set in stone. That way, when something goes wrong, you at least can see where you’ve lost and where you might be able to make it up later.” Sometimes the best thing to do is to cut your losses and try again the next day.

Tuesday, May 19th, you’ve beaten me temporarily. But, I’ll be back. You may have won the battle… wait, I’m trying to avoid cliches.