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EPISODE 4 BONUS: A REALLY GREAT AX

Posted on February 7, 2023 by Kristin McFarland
Reply

> Check it out! Not only am I podcasting again, I wrote a (very short) thing!

A Strange Mood

In memory of Vabok Kadolsigun
Born 40
Went missing in the year 111
Slayer of Clovenfish the Faded Sadness
United with black bronze





The pinkish rock salt tablet seemed woefully inadequate to the bearded man that
had changed Kol Copperleopard’s world.





They hadn’t noticed each other at first; on the long, cold journey to the new
fort, in the lean early years of Ragdreams, when all had been dolomite dust and
cold berry mush for dinner, he had been simply another dwarf in the mix. He was
an adequate miner, a decent conversationalist, but not really noteworthy in any
respect. Unlike many of the others, however, he didn’t yell at Kol. Somehow he
had recognized that being expedition leader did not truly make her the arbiter
of the fort’s fate.






View original post 1,237 more words


Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a reply


EVANGELION AND SHARDS OF IDENTITY

Posted on March 25, 2016 by Kristin McFarland
Reply

> I wrote this post for Spellbound Scribes, but it’s something I’ve been
> thinking about for a long time.

Spellbound Scribes

I’ll talk about Evangelion. I promise.



We see the word identity a lot these days. “Self identity.” “Cultural identity.”
“Identity politics.” “I identify as…” It’s part of the human condition to
constantly question who we are as individuals, as a society, as creatures who
live linearly but exist non-dimensionally.

Any one of us can name a number of roles and characteristics that define us for
ourselves and others: male, female, agender, parent, person of color, spoonie,
bisexual, candlestick maker, superhero, whatever. Each of us is some
amalgamation of descriptors that can only start to sum up the who and what of
the stuff between our ears. And as intersectionality becomes a more widely
recognized and emphasized facet of politics and personality, our society is
coming to realize that each of us is more than our nationality, sexuality, or
vocation.

But in spite of that recognition, most of us have one…

View original post 746 more words

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THINGS I TELL MYSELF SO I CAN KEEP WRITING

Posted on March 18, 2016 by Kristin McFarland
Reply

I’m not going to lie. Writing is hard. For a long time last year, I thought I’d
given it up forever. I knew, deep down, that I probably hadn’t, but sometimes
you have to quit for a little while so you can keep going in the long run.

I’m drafting a new book now. It’s not easy. I just started, so every day, I have
to give myself a little pep talk to get started. If you’re like me, it’s
difficult every single time. It doesn’t exactly get easier: people say we never
learn to write books—we learn to write this book. Every time we begin, we really
are starting at the beginning. It would be so much easier not to try than to
start all over again every single time.

But we writers are masochists, and sometimes not trying isn’t an option.
Instead, we torture ourselves with our own perceived inadequacy, the book’s
general suckiness, the difficulty that is this art. We don’t write, but we spend
our time agonizing over the not writing, and the end result is a miserable
writer with no words on the page.

Luckily, we can conquer those feelings. I’ve learned few things that help me get
going. I’ve been known to write these on Post-Its and put them on my bulletin
board. Maybe they’ll help you, too.

 1. It’s just a first (or second or third) draft. If it sucks, you can rewrite
    it later. But you have to write something now if you’re ever going to
    rewrite it and make it better.
 2. No one will write this book but you. You, right now, sitting there at your
    computer. The you who will write it ten months from now isn’t the you who
    is compelled to tell this story as it is in your head right now. If you want
    it to exist, you have to do it. Now.
 3. When you’re putting words on a page, there’s only so much that can go wrong.
    Typo? Big deal. Comma splice? Who cares. Saggy midpoint? Fuck it. Yes, it’s
    your dream, but the truth is, you’re moving pixels on a screen. If it’s bad,
    you can fix it.
 4. You WILL fix it… later.

Now go get to work.

Posted in Writing | Tagged kristin mcfarland, writer's block, Writing | Leave a
reply


NINE FUN FACTS ABOUT SHAKEN

Posted on October 14, 2015 by Kristin McFarland
1

Since SHAKEN came out yesterday (and a HUGE thank you to those of you who
pre-ordered and ordered yesterday — you guys made my day!), I thought I’d share
a few fun facts about its inception and creation. Wheeee!

 1. The San Francisco where Mitzy lives is pretty significantly different than
    the San Francisco in this world. I won’t go into too much detail about this
    here, since I wrote about it on Spellbound Scribes last week, but Mitzy’s
    San Francisco includes some fictional locations and some cemeteries that are
    no longer in use. Because magic is a part of the physical landscape of
    Mitzy’s world, I needed to restructure San Francisco to reflect how that
    might have shaped history.
 2. I worked as a reporter in Berkeley, covering Oakland and a little bit of San
    Francisco, too, and the Bay Area is one of my favorite places in the
    world. My very first job out of graduate school was working as a reporter,
    first as an intern and than as a police-beat reporter, in Berkeley. That
    job was difficult and fun and exciting and terrifying, and I think it shaped
    the trajectory of my entire career. I’m not a newspaper reporter anymore,
    but working as a reporter in Berkeley and elsewhere made me a significantly
    better writer than I could have been without that time of strict word
    limits, careful research, and tight deadlines. It also instilled in me a
    love of that area and its residents that I’ll never get over.
 3. When I first thought of SHAKEN, it wasn’t an urban fantasy: it was a
    straight-up detective novel. And it didn’t involve a serial killer.
    Actually, it had almost no resemblance to the book that you can now read. I
    thought I’d try writing mysteries to get the hang of plot and structure, but
    I kept getting stuck on the lack of magic and fantasy elements. I didn’t
    want to be a mystery writer. I wanted to write fantasy. I’ve always wanted
    to write fantasy, and I don’t think I’ll ever not write fantasy.Somewhere
    along the way of writing SHAKEN, I got the idea of a world where everyone
    has magic. Urban fantasy was peaking right around then, and, well, put those
    elements together and you get the odd little book that is SHAKEN. I’ve since
    gone on to write a cozy mystery (no magic! really!) and thoroughly enjoyed
    it, but fantasy will always be where I live.
 4. I set out wanting to write about a female addict. This was a part of my
    vision for the character of Mitzy from the beginning, pre-magic, pre-urban
    fantasy. I knew she would be from a privileged background and be forced to
    deal with letting go of the advantages given to her by birth. The
    addict-detective trope is actually pretty familiar to anyone who
    likes Sherlock Holmes, but that character is usually a man, not a woman.
    Women are addicts, too, and have to face the consequences of the choices
    they make while under the influence. Mitzy is my exploration of these
    issues.
 5. I have a Pinterest board where you can see a bit of my vision of the novel.
    I used it to collect faces and items and locations, and sometimes I like to
    peek at it and remember back when I was a baby writer and hunting for the
    perfect pictures of Eva Green and Nestor Carbonell. I never found my Li,
    sadly, but I’ll bet she’s out there somewhere.
 6. There’s also a Spotify playlist of music I listen to while writing in
    Mitzy’s world. This list has evolved since I wrote SHAKEN and includes some
    of the tracks I listened to (on a loop!) while writing DIRTY, book two of
    the series.
 7. I finished SHAKEN as a NaNoWriMo project. I distinctly remember starting the
    book in the summer–this was in (gulp) 2011?–and then it languished for a
    couple of months around the midpoint. I decided to buckle down in November
    and get it wrapped up. I’m pretty sure it took me a month or so into
    December, but “cheating” at NaNo and writing 50,000 words on a project I’d
    already started gave me a HUGE boost. You absolutely can’t beat NaNoWriMo
    for giving yourself an exciting, encouraging environment in which to write,
    and I try to at least dip my toe in every year. I suspect I’ll be NaNo-ing
    again this year with my current work in progress.
 8. SHAKEN isn’t my first novel. Or even, technically, my second. But it is the
    first book I wrote to completion and recognized as worth editing for
    readers. The first book I really completed is a 250,000 word monstrosity
    that takes place in a pseuo-steampunk fantasy world. It’s about a pair of
    thieves who get mixed up in a political conspiracy. Someday I’d like to
    rewrite it, but I have too many new projects I want to pursue.
 9. You can get SHAKEN now from Amazon!

Posted in Books, Writing | Tagged books, fantasy, kristin mcfarland, shaken,
urban fantasy, Writing | 1 Reply


WHY IT MIGHT ACTUALLY SUCK TO LIVE IN THE HARRY POTTER UNIVERSE

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Kristin McFarland
9

Some of you may regard this post as rank heresy, but I assure you, it’s all
meant in good fun.

My husband and I like to play a silly and very geeky game I affectionately call,
“Would You Live In That Universe?”

Okay, I don’t actually call it that, and it’s not really a game, just an ongoing
discussion we pick up every few weeks or months, usually when we’ve read or
watched something new and interesting. It basically just involves analyzing
whether or not we’d live in a particular universe and why. Neither of us would
live in the Puella Magi Madoka Magica universe, for example, but we’d both
consider living in the xxxHolic world. We’re iffy on the Star Wars universe, and
we’ve agreed to steer well clear of Westeros. I’d pick up and move to Hyrule,
though, and Drew would probably tag along.

But the Harry Potter universe is a point of contention.



I, with my Deathly Hallows tattoo and yearly reread of the books, would
obviously be down with living there—at least, if I got to be a witch and not a
Muggle. My husband isn’t really in favor of it, though, and after my most recent
reread… well… I’ll admit he has a few points.

 1. Wizards have a shockingly lackadaisical approach to basic education and real
    world skills. How on earth did someone like Ron learn to read? And Mr.
    Weasley can’t even identify basic British currency by the numbers written on
    the notes? That’s some frightening ignorance, right there. We get the
    impression that wizard children don’t have much exposure to the Muggle
    world, and while I’m not a huge fan of public education, I can admit it has
    its values. Socializing children and teaching them to recognize basic
    numerals and, you know, LETTERS, is pretty important.
    
    
    
    And it shows, guys. It shows.

 2. Every single witch and wizard is packing. Seriously. Think about it. Wizards
    describe guns as a sort of metal wand that Muggles use to kill each other.
    Wands = guns. Every single person in this universe is carrying concealed (or
    waving the damn thing around in the air). At any moment, someone could hook
    you into the air by your foot or stupefy you or silence you or much, much
    worse.. If that’s not a recipe for disaster and serious bullying, I don’t
    know what is.
    
    
    
    “Oops.” Yeah, right.

 3. Animal cruelty has been institutionalized and is taught in schools. We don’t
    hear a lot about what happens to those hedgehogs that are getting
    transfigured into pincushions, but we do know they feel pain—a poorly
    transfigured pincushion will curl up in fear. How sick is that? And what
    happens to the disembodied rat tails and vanished kittens? How do we know
    that tail isn’t feeling unbearable pain? I don’t know about you, but I’d
    feel really uncomfortable transfiguring another living creature without its
    consent or a confident, scientific assurance that it’s not feeling any pain.
    
    
    
    Killer chess pieces? Barbaric. Disembodied rat tails? Totally fine.

 4. A huge percentage of wizards are classist or ableist or racist. Okay, this
    one isn’t that much different than our world, but it’s still disappointing.
    Ron is constantly bullied for being poor. Hermione is called Mudblood how
    many times? Squibs are essentially disowned and banished to the Muggle
    world. And Muggles are regarded as precious oddities at best and disgusting
    animals at worst. I’ll admit that our heroes are far kinder to these
    subgroups, but a huge number of wizards we encounter take a very poor
    attitude to people who don’t look and act exactly as they do. Birth is
    everything in this world. Pity the Mudbloods, man, but pity the Squibs even
    more.
    
    
    
    Manners matter, Malfoy.

 5. The government is everywhere. Everyone is magically tagged until they reach
    the age of 17, and after that point, the magical government is still
    watching to make sure you don’t take one step out of line. Characters are
    imprisoned at the drop of a hat, or just to make people feel better (Hagrid
    in Azkaban? SERIOUSLY?), and the government has a hand in everything from
    education to medical care to journalism. I know the books are set in a time
    of war, but the whole question of the Trace makes me feel a little iffy
    about just who would be watching me.
    
    
    
    …because we’ll sure as damn hell be listening!

 6. Everyone seems to get married, have kids, and die really, REALLY young. Lily
    and James were, like, 20 when they had Harry. And in the epilogue, Harry is
    36ish with three kids. That’s awesome, and great if it’s what you want, but
    where’s the magical birth control? Are witches and wizards at least being
    taught how to practice safe sex? And while it seems like Hermione and Ginny
    go on to have interesting careers, we don’t hear a lot about what other
    generations are doing. What’s Fleur doing after her marriage to Bill? What
    did Lily Potter do? And where on earth are Harry’s grandparents? Life
    expectancy in this world can’t be much more than about 50—and that’s with
    people like Dumbledore and Bathilda Bagshot throwing off the curve. I’d be a
    little concerned about burning the candle at both ends, if I lived in this
    universe. I’m 30 and I’m not an Auror OR a parent yet. What am I even doing
    with my life?
    
    
    
    With middle age comes… bags under the eyes?



See what I mean? Would YOU live in this universe?

Posted in Books, Fantasy, Goofiness | Tagged books, harry potter, kristin
mcfarland, movies | 9 Replies


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