April 4, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: Fictional Favorites, Day 4

D is for — Dustfinger and D’Artagnan — from the Inkheart series and The Three Musketeers.

Reading a character out of a book… or reading yourself into one… Who wouldn’t want to be able to do that? Such adventures to be had! I can’t count the books I’ve read myself into in my imagination. But it only works if you can put the characters and/or yourself back where they belong when you’re done. If you can’t, things get messy.

In Cornelia Funke’s trilogy: Inkheart, Inkspell, and Inkdeath, Meggie’s father Mo reads Dustfinger out of the story and into their world. The problem is, Mo can’t put him back, leaving the “fire dancer” stuck here in this world. For ten years, Dustfinger yearns to return to his family in the Inkworld. I empathized with his desperate need to go home and cheered when, in Inkspell, he finally made it back. To me, he is by far the most interesting character in the series, and I was immensely glad for the turn of events that allowed him a happy ending.

When I originally read Alexandre Dumas’ The Three Musketeers, I never realized the story was based on a real person — Charles de Batz-Castelmore, Comte d’Artagnan. The real D’Artagnan lived from 1611-1673 and was Captain of the Musketeers under Louis XIV of France. Dumas’ D’Artagnan Romances, including the Musketeers, were based on the partly-fictionalized memoirs of D’Artagnan written by Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras.

I always loved the adventure, the swordplay, and the camaraderie of D’Artagnan, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis. Of the many movie versions of the Musketeers — and I confess I haven’t seen them all — my favorites are the Richard Lester productions: The Three Musketeers from 1973 and The Four Musketeers: Milady’s Revenge from 1974. The wonderful chemistry of the heroes, played by Michael York, Oliver Reed, Frank Finlay, and Richard Chamberlain drives the story. Add in plenty of sword fights, derring-do, and slapstick humor, and you’ve got one fun afternoon at the movies. By the end, I’m ready to add my voice to the rousing shout: “All for one, one for all!”

Paul Bettany – Dustfinger
in Inkheart, 2008
Photo Credit: Inkheart Wikia

Inkheart series

From Left to Right:
Athos/OliverReed
D’Artagnan/Michael York
Porthos/Frank Finlay
Aramis/Richard Chamberlain

April 3, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: Fictional Favorites, Day 3

C is for — Sidney Carton — from Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities.

I first read this story many years ago. Amidst the horror of the French Revolution, the characters sprang to life for me, their struggles so vivid they still haunt me. Lucie Manette, the loving innocent; her husband Charles Darnay, the French aristocrat who denies his birthright and tries to make good on his own; Madame Defarge, the Revolution personified; and Sydney Carton, the drunken lawyer who feels himself worthless. Carton falls in love with Lucie, and his noble feelings for her allow him to transcend what he considers a wasted life and give the ultimate sacrifice. The triumph and sorrow of the Tale’s ending stayed with me for days.

At the time, my own novel was still in its early stages, and I had no idea where my characters’ adventures would take them. There were a few characters I didn’t know very well, yet — one important character, in particular. But after reading A Tale of Two Cities, I had a sudden epiphany. I could see quite clearly in my mind the path this character was meant to follow. And as my story progressed through Book I : Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, and later, Book II: Trouble By Any Other Name, he grew to be one of my favorites, and he did indeed follow the foreseen path to a hopeful and tragic and fitting end.

Ronald Colman as Sydney Carton
A Tale of Two Cities, 1935
Photo Credit: imdb.com

April 2, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

A to Z Challenge: Fictional Favorites, Day 2

B is for — Bilbo Baggins and Belle — from The Hobbit and Disney’s animated film, Beauty and the Beast.

Bilbo Baggins, the unlikely hero from J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, has always been one of my all-time favorite characters. The way he goes from timid, complacent stick-in-the-mud to spider-slaying, dragon-braving adventurer inspires those (like me) who hesitate, and encourages us to go forth out our doors and into the wild.

Many times I watched the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated Hobbit, living Bilbo’s journey with him, persevering even though I’m arachnophobic and not nearly as good with riddles. One of my favorite moments from this movie is when the Dwarves are singing — “Far over misty mountains cold…” — and Gandalf and Bilbo speak:

Gandalf: “There’s a magic in that music.”

Bilbo: “And it moves through me.”

Gandalf: “You feel the love of beautiful things.”

Bilbo: “To go and see the great mountains and hear the pine trees and waterfalls.”

Gandalf: “To wear a sword instead of a walking stick.”

Bilbo: “Just once…”

Another favorite moment is when Bilbo climbs the tall tree in the middle of Mirkwood and sees all the butterflies fluttering in the sunshine and feels the breeze on his face. He doesn’t speak, but shares his thoughts: “There are moments which can change a person for all time, and I suddenly wondered if I would ever see my snug hobbit hole again. I wondered if I actually wanted to.”

Those moments always stir in me a yearning to take that step out my door and go.

Belle, from Walt Disney’s animated classic, Beauty and the Beast, is another such inspiration. The “odd” girl with her nose in a book could so be me. I admire her spunk, her courage, and her cleverness. She’s not afraid to stand against the crowd.

When I first saw this movie when it came out in 1991, I was entranced. Everything about it was magical — the exquisite colors in the opening sequence, the engaging heroine, the wonderfully quirky denizens of the enchanted castle, the rousing and romantic songs, and the Beast — a cursed prince who needed someone to find enough good in him to love. Add to that the scary scenes with the wolves, a frighteningly charismatic antagonist in Gaston, and the hilarious battle between the ensorcelled castle servants and the villagers and you get a movie that immediately became my #1 favorite Disney movie, ever. It still reigns today. Not even the excellent Tangled or Frozen could knock Beauty and the Beast from its pedestal.

Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in
Peter Jackson’s Hobbit
Photo Credit: LOTR Wikia

The Hobbit!

Belle from Disney’s
Beauty and the Beast, 1991
Photo Credit: Disney Wikia

March 28, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

The A to Z April Blogging Challenge!

I’m excited and a little nervous. This will be my first A to Z Challenge, and for someone who only started blogging less than a month ago, it seems like a huge undertaking. To blog every day for a month. I think I can do it, though. I’m going to give it my best try.

I know I missed the official “Theme Reveal” day, so I’m going to do it today instead. My theme for the Challenge will be “Fictional Favorites.” Each day, I’ll choose a fictional character or two, from books, movies, TV, etc., that start with the appropriate letter and write about why I like them and/or what makes them special to me. It’s been fun coming up with a list, though that in itself has been a bit of a challenge, too — there are just too many characters from which to choose!

Only three more days to go. I’ve got to get writing!

March 20, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

The Turning of a Page

At the end of March, the proofreading will be done on my fantasy novel, Lady, Thy Name Is Trouble, and all that will be left to do in the writing phase will be one final going over to correct any mistakes the proofreader noted on the manuscript. Then the novel will be finished… complete… ready to move on to the next phase of the publishing journey. Once the formatting begins, there’s no going back. The words must stand as they are.

Strangely enough, I’m still trying to figure out how I feel about that. Excited — definitely. Hopeful, of course. Nervous — very. And a little sad — or maybe nostalgic would be a better word. This story has been building and growing for almost thirty years. I don’t think I’ve ever reread it without changing something — replacing a word, tweaking a sentence, or sometimes, in the earlier stages, rewriting whole passages. Soon, I won’t be able to do that anymore. The story will go beyond me, into the world. I’ve often read that to authors, the publishing of their books is akin to giving birth, and I would have to agree it’s an apt comparison. In the not-too-distant future, my book will leave the nurturing home of my imagination and take its place on solid and cyber bookshelves everywhere, out there for the masses to read and hopefully enjoy.

All the typical insecurities gnaw at me. What if no one buys it? What if people buy it, but then don’t like it? Or what if they buy it and do like it and it becomes a best-seller and someone makes a movie out of it and things get crazy and… Okay, okay, I know only a few ever get to that point, but hey, I can dream. Whatever the result, I will be happy — and proud of myself — for having reached way out of my comfort zone and accomplished what had always seemed an unattainable goal. I’m almost there.

March 13, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

To Kill A Character

In a recent interview, J.K. Rowling dropped two bombshells on the millions of fans of her Harry Potter series: one — that Hermione really should have ended up with Harry rather than Ron, and two — that the author had seriously considered killing off the character of Ron Weasley. I have to say I was shocked on both counts. I, for one, enjoyed the unlikely pairing of Ron and Hermione and laughed and cried along with them as their relationship progressed. The final scene in the last book where the two are sending their daughter off to Hogwarts I found immensely satisfying.

But it was the second of Rowling’s bombshells that surprised me the most. Killing off Ron would have been like killing off one of the three musketeers. Quite frankly, it would have ruined the story for me.

I’ve always been a proponent of happy endings. I read and write for pleasure, and if I’m going to go through a gut-wrenching wringer with characters I care about, I darn well want to be smiling at the end. Life is filled with enough heartbreak. I don’t want to spend my limited amount of free time bawling my eyes out over the painful ending of a story. Because character deaths are painful. Very painful. I’ve cried over the deaths of my own characters. I realize that sometimes they don’t make it to the end. They must go where the story takes them, and that can be very hard to deal with. But I could never deliberately plan to kill a character off, particularly one of the heroes. That would be like consciously pronouncing a death sentence on a friend.

March 6, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

What I Love

I write fantasy adventure. That’s what I love best — stories with lots of action, strong female characters, a bit of levity, and sighs of romance. Not the jump-into-bed-every-five-minutes type of romance, but the kind where the attraction builds into a true, caring relationship that, if given the chance, can transcend all the challenges the heroine and hero must face.

But love is not what the heroine of the story wants. Tara Triannon and her sister Laraina are swords for hire whose exploits across the Westlands are legendary. The one time Tara let her heart be touched, love burned her badly, and she has no intention of getting caught again by love’s fickle ways. However, when things go terribly wrong, the one man whose help she needs is the one man who can threaten her resolve. Jovan Trevillion, though, is a man of many secrets and accepting his help may be even more dangerous than keeping to the perilous path she and her sister already follow. But with the Butcher on their trail, their choices are limited.

Captain Natiere, the Butcher, an assassin with a tortured soul and the heart of a wolf, pursues them relentlessly. Harboring secrets of his own, the Butcher wants only to kill Tara and her companions to discharge a debt, and then he will be free to return to the wilds and perhaps find some way to fill his empty existence. Much to his surprise, his fate becomes more and more entangled with Tara’s with every passing step.

I never think of Tara and Laraina, Jovan, or Captain Natiere — or any of the other people in my book — as characters. They are as real to me as if they were made of flesh and blood. I love sharing in their lives and adventures, and it will be fun bringing them to a larger audience. Hopefully, they will be as inspiring to others as they are to me.

March 2, 2014 by Lori L MacLaughlin

It’s Time

Writing has always been a part of my life. It began with creating stories in my head for fun when I was young. Or rather, creating characters who wrote their own stories. I never told them what to do. My characters took care of that themselves. They lived their adventures, fought, loved, and sometimes died, in my mind. It was like watching a movie in my head, seeing and hearing the characters as if I stood beside them, holding my breath, along for the ride.

As I grew older, my mother suggested I write my stories down. Such euphoria ensued, sparking a dream of one day being a published author. To hold in my hand a book of my own making would be the greatest nirvana. But life being what it is, with the necessities of having a steady income to pay the bills, and later the beloved obligations of family, the dream stayed just that — a dream. Writing remained a hobby, though in my head my characters’ stories still clamored for release.

Until now. Now, circumstances are such that my dream might actually be within reach. I am going to self-publish my novel. There… I said it. I’m going to self-publish my novel and set my characters free. Wow. Just writing the words and putting them out there is enough to make me laugh and cry at the same time.

I know this will be a huge learning experience, and there will be bumps along the road, but I will persevere until I hold my book in my hand. It may not be the best book ever written, but that’s okay. It will still be nirvana to me.

This is my journey. I invite anyone who wishes to share it with me.