Cow Pies

Cow pie castle walls

Research for my Hattusa book is going interesting places. Like cow pie castles.

"Bleh!" You say.

In the winter, when trees are few and far between, cow pies do the trick. They're a good fuel source for heating or for a cooking fire.

July is the time when Anatolian peasants are out molding the dung into squares, and creating the cow pie reserves that will get them through the winter. They stack them in seemingly decorative patterns, but the reason for the design is simple: cow pies need to dry. Different villages have different ways of stacking. Some make round towers, others create walls.

Just another neat detail I hope to incorporate in my book, when I get around to writing it.

In the meantime, I'm off to revise the Nemrut sci-fi some more.

Fermata

Fermata

I used this F word in a yahoo writing group and it caused an uproar. Apparently, I've stumbled upon something interesting and I should share.

Editor Cheryl Klein uses the term: Fermata.

It's a musical symbol she borrows to explain how to end a chapter, scene, short story, novel, or any piece of writing that doesn't use the cliffhanger. (I'm sure I don't need to explain that one.)

So what is it?

In terms of music, it means to hold the note.

Lot's of cute things floating around the internet with the phrase: I'm a fermata. Hold me. plastered all over them. Coffee mugs, onesies, t-shirts. Very clever.

There's a band named Fermata, a book titled FERMATA; it's a popular concept.

Fermata is nicknamed the bird's eye, but the history of the symbol goes back through the middle ages all the way to the Assyrian's design for a crown - as in a crowning moment.

If we take this symbol back to the realm of writing, it means we're ending with an idea that embodies the purpose of the piece, in way that resonates with the reader. They hold the note, if you will, because it carries with them after they finish the chapter. It makes them keep reading to find out what other truths your character will discover. And I'll bet lots of fermatas are e-reader highlights.

I also noticed that when a writer takes me 95% of the way there, ends without a good cliffhanger, and skips the fermata, I toss the proverbial yellow Volkswagen at them. I stop reading.

Granted, crafting the fermata is a tough job. I'm guilty of the 95% crime myself.
(See confession below.)

After learning about the fermata, I went back to my manuscript and looked at each scene. There was always logical progression, but nothing to tie the ideas together at the end. I was missing the opportunity for some serious interiority.

I'm revising.

Any thoughts you'd like to add about the fermata? I'm thinking somebody called this concept "The Good Tell", but I'm not sure where I read it.

Chelonia Mydas: Mersin's Green Sea Turtle

Chelonia Mydas via EVS Mersin

It's sea turtle nesting season!

My sister-in-law was enjoying the beach near  Mersin last week and she uploaded some nice photos (below). She even posted a link to the Mersin sea turtle protection organization, EVS Mersin, a volunteer-run part of the youth Third Eye Association of the Mediterranean (TEAM). (Thanks, Pascale!)

Kids come from all over Europe to help. Maybe another good excuse to send my boys over there AND get something for the ole college application? (Double Bonus!) Maybe next summer.

Meanwhile, I've posted about the Caretta Caretta of Dalyan, so it would be logical to think those are the ones I wrote into the BURNT AMBER scene at Kizkalesi.

Ha! They were, but the EVS Mersin site drew my attention to another species that makes it's home in the eastern Mediterranean - Chelonia Mydas, the green sea turtle. And now I'm not sure which kind I saw when I was there. Next time I'll have to stop a turtle and ask. (Or find an EVS Mersin volunteer!)

Sea Turtle Nest - Please, Let's Protect Them

Flipper tracks...

leading back to the sea. :)

On War & Independence

Washington Monument

This week, Americans celebrate Independence Day, marking the Declaration of Independence of July 4th, 1776. Not so long ago in the history of the world, I know, but a big deal for me and mine.

I'm part of the Daughters of the American Revolution. My qualifying ancestor, Edward Adams, fought in the Battle of Lexington. (One of the first battles - Lexington and Concord -"shot heard round the world" and such.) Grandmother said we're somehow cousins of the other more famous Adams family men, Samuel & John.

More recently, my grandfather fought in WWII, my dad monitored the radar on the Indochinese peninsula for the Air Force, and my brother was enlisted in the Navy.

Yup. We're patriots.

I'm laying this out there because I think I'm probably more like The Patriot myself. Reluctant.

I've got two teen sons of my own now, and I don't like to think of them ever participating in armed conflict that could be avoided by some other means. But, like the movie (based on the Charlotte, NC Revolutionary War area battles) life isn't so cut and dried.

As a writer, I read plenty of fiction dealing with independence. I don't disagree with the principle, but some of it really glamorizes the fight, so when I sat down to revise my action-adventure/overthrow-the-megalomaniac manuscript, it gave me pause. How to portray ALL of the costs? How to show training for war, actually being at war, and avoiding war?

I've got The Art of War by Sun Tzu for the training part, and The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli for the megalomaniac part, but what about the conflicted soldier?
First, I grabbed my son's copy of Fallen Angels by Walter Dean Myers. Then local author and  former Marine, Rye Barcott, was slated to speak at a Charlotte Mecklenburg Friends of the Library event.

His memoir It Happened on the Way to War- A Marine's Path to Peace touched on all of these topics. And what do you know? He really reminded me of one of my key characters - the one who fights the fight, and beats himself up about it too. (I wonder if that would be me?)

He planned to be a peacekeeper- even started up Carolina for Kibera to curb ethnic violence in an African slum. But then there was September 11, and he found himself chasing the opportunity to engage, craving what he called the "ecstasy of danger".

His book was an interesting stop on my quest for authenticity. I have to read for inspiration. Otherwise, my manuscript will turn into another episode of School House Rock in my head.

Do you have any other book recommendations? Movies?

Happy 4th!

Lampron Castle, Namrun

Lampron Castle

It's hot and humid, so it's about that time of year for many Turkish families to head up to their high country homes, called Yayla. Our family has a shuttered little limestone farmhouse in Gozne. Lonely, because it is never used.

Sometimes I wish one of the local djinn would move in at least. I've had news that someone chopped down the large fir in the side yard, since we weren't there to stop them.

Our Mersin neighbors were from Tarsus, so their yayla was the village of Çamlıyayla (yayla with pines). It's very picturesque, set high in the Taurus mountains, overlooking the Cilician Gates of Pozanti.

Perched even higher above the town is Namrun or Lampron, a crusader castle that was once home to a branch of Armenian princes, and part of my main character's heritage.

It's a spur castle complete with a lower ward, upper ward, and some stairs cut into the side of a craggy peak. However, if you didn't know what to look for, you might mistake it for a pile of rocks, but for the one a barrel vaulted hall left standing.

I've heard the only inhabitant there is a squirrel named Ozymandias.

The Cryptic and Creepy Title of Mystery

The Raven Boys

I noticed a lot of the good books I've read lately have really, really long titles- with acronym aliases.

The Girl of Fire and Thorns - GoFT
Daughter of Smoke and Bone - DoSB
The Masque of the Red Death (<3, )  -MoRD
For Darkness Shows the Stars - FDSS
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer - UMD
The Knife of Never Letting Go - KoNLG

I could go on. All the cool kids are doing it.

Maybe my titles need some embellishment? Let's see.

Burnt Amber could be The Amber of Burntness ess ess

No?

Mist of Kavala could be- I guess I'm sort of guilty with this title, unless I want to add a Grey maybe- but there are too many Greys on the market these days. *ahem*

At the very least, I've noticed there's a "The" in just as interesting titles, as in The (insert mysterious nouns here).

Example of a great title with The:

The Raven Boys  TRB?

...which is on my TBR for this fall, or as soon as I can get my hands on a legal copy. Just look at that gorgeous cover! And the amazing trailer!



“There are only two reasons a non-seer would see a spirit on St. Mark’s Eve,” Neeve said. “Either you’re his true love . . . or you killed him.”It is freezing in the churchyard, even before the dead arrive.

Every year, Blue Sargent stands next to her clairvoyant mother as the soon-to-be dead walk past. Blue herself never sees them—not until this year, when a boy emerges from the dark and speaks directly to her.

His name is Gansey, and Blue soon discovers that he is a rich student at Aglionby, the local private school. Blue has a policy of staying away from Aglionby boys. Known as Raven Boys, they can only mean trouble.

But Blue is drawn to Gansey, in a way she can’t entirely explain. He has it all—family money, good looks, devoted friends—but he’s looking for much more than that. He is on a quest that has encompassed three other Raven Boys: Adam, the scholarship student who resents all the privilege around him; Ronan, the fierce soul who ranges from anger to despair; and Noah, the taciturn watcher of the four, who notices many things but says very little.

For as long as she can remember, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love to die. She never thought this would be a problem. But now, as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she’s not so sure anymore.

So, now that you're all excited by Maggie Steifvater's awesome. Yeah.

Anyway, I'm not married to my titles. I refer to my books by their main character, as if they are real people that I care about. Which is a little bit scary.


PS. I'm scaling back to one post per week for the summer.

Istancool

Istanbul Arts and Culture Festival

Istanbul International Arts and Culture Festival is a fascinating and unique cultural experience bringing together some of the world’s most talented writers, designers, editors, actors, poets, filmmakers, dancers and musicians to the city of Istanbul. The festival is committed to creating a dynamic arts diplomacy programme in the world and forging greater cultural relations between Turkey and the international artistic community. (istanbul74.com)
Vogue magazine touted the festival as "Eastern Promise"
Style.com billed it as "The Fashion Set Touches Down in Istanbul"
Harper's Bazaar sent Derek Blasberg in for the details.

Istancool is an artist's whos-who mashup of gallery exhibitions, and educational experiences. This year they changed the name to Istanbul '74, but it's still, apparently, very cool. (Please, let me know if you find a plausible reason for the name change. It can't just be that 1974 was a good year. Can it?)

Celebrities and reknowned artists are on the must-see list, and the social events are extravagant. This year it was Boom Boom Room (from NYC), set up in the steel and glass inside of burned out 200 year old mansion, Esma Sultan Palace, on the Bosphorus - with a view of the suspension bridge. These guys know how to throw a party! The Standard dishes on the awesome here. 

I can't think of a more appropriate place to explain Istanbul's mix of old and new, can you?

Esma Sultan Palace, Istanbul, Turkey

FYI, my MC references Istancool because her roomate is a design student, and it's all in the details. ;)