Margaret Fieland: Poetry and Prose » blog

The State of Black Sci F week 4: Giveaway and something about my novel

Administrator — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 01:18:29 +0000

Back in 2010 I decided to participate in Nano for the first time. National Novel Writing Month, Nano for short, happens every November, and participants attempt to write 50,000 words in a month. I decided to write a sci fi novel, because I love the genre, have read it for years — many — but had a phobia about writing it.

Being, perhaps, terminally crazed, I decided I would participate in Robert Lee Brewer’s November Chapbook challenge as well, and to produce 30 poems which would form a chapbook.

I decided to make the poet part of the universe of the novel. That way I could include the poems in the 50,000 word line count and use some of the poems in the book.

I did far more world building than I did plotting — I had an outline with about a page of notes and a fifteen point plot line. Many of the specifics went right out the window when I started writing, but my world building remained.

My aliens form relationships involving four people (or three, or, very occasionally, two), and they’re all lovers. I choose what I hoped would be alien sounding names, made their society based on personal responsibility, lack of coercion, respect for the environment, rather than rules and laws. I made up stuff about their art (my mother was an artist who specialized in portraits in oils), and, later, a bit about their music (I play the flute and the piccolo).

And because I (warning, spoiler alert) wanted my 14-year old main character to be a “cross” — part human and part alien — and be believable, in terms of appearance, I wanted to choose among the naturally occurring human skin tones for my aliens, and I needed my aliens to look distinctive, but not too, too alien.

I made them Black. Very, very dark skinned. And why? Because I didn’t want them to be white. First of all, white is too, well, bland and predictable. And by making them Black, I added a source of conflict to my story, and stories are all about conflict. And, face it, too many of the good guys, in my opinion, are white. I wanted to play against type, so the good guys in my novel are dark skinned.

I’d be thrilled to learn I’ve made my readers squirm, to twist in their seats as they come up against their prejudices and unconscious assumptions. Hopefully, I’ll find I’ve succeeded.

And here are a couple of poems from my imaginary poet, Raketh Namar, the namesake of my main character, Raketh Frey. Because the poet was a revered spiritual leader, and his poems are one of the Aleyni’s sacred texts, I found myself writing in a way that I, as myself, would not have, and writing a good number of what might be taken as poem-prayers.

Poems of this type, written in a voice other than that of the author, are called persona poems. You can learn more about persona poems here
//poetic-muselings.net/2012/01/11/persona-poems/

Here are a couple of Raketh Namar’s poems that don’t appear in the book

Looking For My Fears

Muted buzzing in my ears
resonates to hidden fears.
Drag fears forward into light.
Exposed to air, see them take flight.

Fear’s seeds sprout best deep in dark
so let cleansing sunlight mark
paths for spirit’s shining light
to cleanse my mind, root out fear’s blight.

Who Will Play Music?

Who remains to play the music, now musician’s dead?
Which lips set bright brasses blowing? The man’s cold in his bed.
Whose hand renders strings a strumming now the fiddler’s gone?
Whose hand genders drums a drumming as night turns to dawn?

Our hands start the drums a drumming as dawn turns to day,
ours the fingers on strings, strumming,. We’ll sit down to play.
Our lips put to brasses blowing, knowing he will hear.
We will keep his music going, from us to his ear.

And now, {drum roll}, for the winner of a copy of the Poetic Muselings’s, (of whom I am one) poetry anthology, Lifelines:

Kathryn Scannell. Kathryn, I’ll be emailing you. Congratulations.

Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:

Check out my awesome fellow members of this Online Black History Month Event:

Winston Blakely, Artist/Writer– Fine Arts/Comic Book artist, having a career spanning 20 years, whose achievements have included working for Valiant Comics and Rich Buckler’s Visage Studios. He is also the creator of Little Miss Strange, the world’s first black alien sorceress and the all- genre anthology entitled – Immortal Fantasy. Both graphic albums are available at Amazon, Barnes and Nobles and other online book store outlets. Visit him: http://blakelyworks.blogspot.com/
or http://blakelyworkstudio.weebly.com/

L. M. Davis, Author–began her love affair with fantasy in the second grade. Her first novel, Interlopers: A Shifters Novel, was released in 2010, and the follow-up Posers: A Shifters Novel will be released this spring. For more information visit her blog http://shiftersseries.wordpress.com/ or her website www.shiftersnovelseries.com.
Milton Davis, Author – Milton Davis is owner/publisher of MVmedia, LLC . As an author he specializes in science fiction and fantasy and is the author of Meji Book One, Meji Book Two and Changa’s Safari. Visit him: www.mvmediaatl.com and www.wagadu.ning.com.

Ja Ja (DjaDja) N Medjay , Author—DjaDja Medjay is the author of The Renpet Sci-Fi Series. Shiatsu Practitioner. Holistic AfroFuturistic Rising in Excellence. Transmissions from The Future Earth can be found at: www.renpetscifi.com or on Facebook – www.facebook.com/RenpetSciFiNovel or on Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/Khonsugo .

Margaret Fieland, Author– lives and writes in the suburbs west of Boston, MA
with her partner and five dogs. She is one of the Poetic Muselings. Their poetry anthology, Lifelines http://tinyurl.com/LifelinesPoetry/ is available from Amazon.com Her book, “Relocated,” will be available from MuseItUp Publishing in July, 2012. The Angry Little Boy,” will be published by 4RV publishing in early 2013. You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com.

Valjeanne Jeffers, Author — is an editor and the author of the SF/fantasy novels: Immortal, Immortal II: The Time of Legend and Immortal III: Stealer of Souls. Her fourth and fifth novels: Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds and The Switch: Clockwork will be released this spring. Visit her at: http://valjeanne.wordpress.com and http://qandvaffordableediting.blogspot.com/

Thaddeus Howze, Author-- is a veteran of the Information Technology and Communications industry with over twenty-six years of experience. His expertise is in re-engineering IT environments using process-oriented management techniques. In English, that means he studies the needs of his clients and configures their offices to optimize the use of information technology in their environment. Visit him: http://ebonstorm.wordpress.com or http://ebonstorm.weebly.com

Alicia McCalla, Author—writes for both young adults and adults with her brand of multicultural science fiction, urban fantasy, and futurism. Her debut novel, Breaking Free will be available February 1, 2012. The Breaking Free theme song created by Asante McCalla is available for immediate download on itunes and Amazon. Visit her at: www.aliciamccalla.com

Carole McDonnell, Author–She writes Christian, speculative fiction, and multicultural stories. Her first novel is Wind Follower. Her short fiction has appeared in many anthologies and have been collected in an ebook, Spirit Fruit: Collected Speculative Fiction. Visit Carole: http://carolemcdonnell.blogspot.com/ or http://writersofcolorblogtour.blogspot.com/

Balogun Ojetade, Author—of the bestselling “Afrikan Martial Arts: Discovering the Warrior Within” (non-fiction), “Moses: The Chronicles of Harriet Tubman” (Steampunk) and the feature film, “A Single Link”. Visit him: http://chroniclesofharriet.wordpress.com/

Rasheedah Phillips, Author–is the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair in Philly. She plans to debut her first spec/sci-fic novel Recurrence Plot in Spring 2012. You may catch her ruminating from time to time on her blog, AstroMythoLosophy.com.

Nicole Sconiers, Author-is also a screenwriter living in the sunny jungle of L.A. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and she recently published Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage. Visit her: http://nicolesconiers.com/index.html

Jarvis Sheffield, M.Ed. is owner & operator of TheDigitalBrothers.com, BlackScienceFictionSociety.com & BlackCommunityEntertainment.com. Visit him: http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2stjwb1h216fd

The State of Black Sci Fi, week 3: Why Is it important to show race, culture, minority politics or ethnicity in SciFi?

Administrator — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:11:20 +0000

Why Is it important to show race, culture, minority politics or ethnicity in SciFi?

Are you kidding me? I mean, come on. Race, culture, minority politics, and ethnicity all play a huge role in the real world. Why would I ever want an imaginary world that fails to reflect such an important part of everyday life? Why would I want to gloss over something so large? Why make the sci fi world dull, boring and bland?

Sure, not every novel is going to focus on race and the like, but I want my science fiction to stretch my mind. I want it to boot me out of my comfort zone. I want it to make me realize all the possibilities there are for different points of view and explore ways in which we might make our real world different and better. I want science fiction that does all that. I don’t want it to gloss over the hard stuff. Please don’t leave me in the middle of my comfort zone. Shock me, surprise me, make my jaw drop.

I wish I could come up with examples of books that don’t address race, ethnicity, and cultural differences, and how they fall short because of that, but unfortunately I can’t. Readers, if you can, please leave a comment. I can put them on my list of books NOT to read. When I come across a boring book, I either don’t start it in the first place or, if I find it boring, I put it back down. Life is too short, and my reading time too limited, for me to stick with a book that doesn’t grab me. Not without some kind of compelling reason anyway, and compelling reasons for that are few and far between.

And here’s another question: Is it fair to hold a writer’s — or any kind of creative artist for that matter — to account for their personal views?

How do you, reader, feel about this? Do you listen to Wagner in spite of the fact that he was an anti-semite? Do you read Orson Scott Card in spite of the fact that he was a bigot? Me, I don’t want to support Card, and hence, IMO, lending credence to his views, by buying and reading his books.

And why am I willing to listen to Wagner but prefer not to read Card? Perhaps it’s because, IMO, Wagner’s views didn’t taint his music, but Card’s views do taint his work. {Grimace}. I don’t have the answer to this, but, readers, I am interested in your thoughts.

As to science fiction books, books that do take on the hard issues, what do you, reader, find are at the top of your list?

The one that comes most readily to mind, because we’ve mentioned it in the course of this blog tour already, is Walter Mosley’s 47, a novel that attacks the issue of slavery head-on. Another is Tananarive Due’s “Blood Colony,” which is about a hidden race of African immortals taking on the AIDS pandemic. Octavia Butler is another writer who takes on these issues.

Black writers can’t help but be aware of these issues, and to bring them to the table when they write. We need more books like these.

I can understand that many white writers are unwilling to take some of this on. I can understand not wanting to “get it wrong,” to do an inadequate job, to fall short. But is this any reason to sweep the whole race and class thing under the rug, to pretend it doesn’t exist, to never even (or rarely), put any Black faces into a fictional world? I don’t think so.

Here is an interesting blog post that talks about white writers including Black characters.

http://www.stacylwhitman.com/2010/06/10/is-my-character-black-enough/

The reader who wrote in focused on speech patterns. Personally, I’d focus on cultural values and personal experience. I live in the Boston area, and I still recall an appalling in which a Black athlete was stopped by cops in Wellesley simply because of the color of his skin.

As my father used to say: nothing ventured, nothing gained. Better to have tried and failed, than never to have tried. Writers, whatever the color, please don’t shy away from the hard stuff. You’ll do yourselves and your readers a favor if you do.

And readers, do please comment. What are your views?

Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:

Check out my awesome fellow members of this Online Black History Month Event:

State of Black SciFi 2012: Why I love Black Sci Fi?

Administrator — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 02:17:42 +0000

I was already a die-hard sci fi fan by age 10. A self-confessed book addict, by the time I was a teen ager, I haunted both the local library and the drug store looking for new reading material. Books were considerably cheaper then, and the particular store I remember looking in most often was a couple of blocks north of our apartment. There I came upon a copy of Samuel Delany’s first novel, “The Jewels of Aptor,” published by Ace books. I was hooked.

Delany, by the way, was a fellow New Yorker and was married to poet Marilyn Hacker.

I’ve continue to read Delany in the years since His explorations of language, race, class and sexuality continue to fascinate me.

I no longer remember my first Octavia Butler novel — I started to read her sometime in the mid to late 1970′s, but I remember my fascination with her “Lilith’s Brood” trilogy and her three-sexed aliens. The trilogy explores issues of both class, race, and sexuality. And “Fledgling” has to be my all-time favorite take on the vampire theme.

I love science fiction, and I read it from an early age Now, I’m as fond as the next guy of a good spacee battle as the next reader, but at bottom I am much more interested in personal interaction, in clash of values, than in the sweep of empires That’s one reason I pick up novels written by women before those written by men

Cavveat: back when I was in grad school — in computer science — we used to quote the following: All generalizations are potentially dangerous, including this one.

Note “potentially.” So, yes, if you disagree, if you have counter-examples — or if you agree — l;eave me a comment.

What I like about Black Sci Fi is the variety of voices, of points of view, of subject. The willingness to tackle difficult subjects And including race as a factor in a novel opens up a whole bag of oppression, exploitation, clash of values. I remember Samuel Delaney’s “The Fall of the Towers” trilogy, which I read in the single-volume edition It involved three races of humans who co-existed. I found it both completely absorbing and very confusing. I’ve requested it from Inter-Library loan. I’ll tell you all what I think of now after I finish it — providing, of course, that I actually get hold of it.

I have a stack of five novels by Black authors on my bookshelf at the moment (thank you, public library): Tananarive Due’s “Blood Colony,” about a group of African immortals is the one I’m reading now. Tananarive Due may very well be my new favorite author. The main character is seventeen, yet this is an adult novel, as far as I can tell.

I’d love to see more books by Black science fiction authors actually in stock in book stores and on the shelves in our local libraries. When I was younger, I discovered many authors — including Delany and Butler — by browsing through my local bookstore or my library. I was fortunate in my library, as I haunted the Donnell branch of the New York Public Library when I was in high school. Not many teens are so lucky.

And I’d love to see more science fiction by Black authors for young adults. And I’d love for it not to be so hard to find.

So, readers, what do you love about Black sci fi? What was the first science fiction book you read by a Black author? Did you realize they were black? Keep those comments coming.

Here, again, are the links to my fellow bloggers.

Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:

Check out my awesome fellow members of this Online Black History Month Event:

The State of Black Speculative Fiction

Administrator — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:17:26 +0000

I am excited to participate in a seven-week online event celebrating the State of Black Science Fiction 2012. Each participating writer will blog once a week on a common topic. Today’s is “The State of Black Science Fiction.”

There will also be giveaways. Our first giveaway will take place on Monday, February 6, 2012. Each time one of my blog readers leaves a comment here or on my Facebook page (my handle is madcapmaggie), they will be entered for a chance to win.

I will be giving away a signed copy of the Poetic Muselings anthology, Lifelines. The winner will be announced on February 6th. And you can go on over to another author’s blog for a chance to win there, too.

And now on to The State of Black Speculative Fiction

I have been reading science fiction for a long time. I’m 65 now, and I was already a fan when I selected Robert A. Heinlein’s “Farmer in the Sky” for my tenth birthday. I read Samuel Delaney’s “Dhalgren” when it first came out. I’ve read reams of Octavia Butler and smaller amounts of Steven Barnes, Sheree Thomas, Walter Mosley and Nalo Hopkinson. I’ve sampled Charles Saunders and Tananarive Due. Still, in my opinion, we need more black writers, more readers, and better press.

My first love is poetry, and I’ve read a lot of poetry by black authors. I have a book of poetry by Rita Dove and another by Michael S. Harper on my nightstand. Gwendolyn Brooks is another favorite. A mention of Robert Hayden’s poem about Frederic Douglas made it into a poem of mine. Somewhere in my mess of books is an anthology. And I borrowed another from my local library. My local library is small and old. It’s so out of date that our town is building another.

Just for grins, I searched on Amazon for “African American poetry anthologies” (1244 results) versus “African American science fiction anthologies.” (174 results).

That’s sad. If any of my readers is interested in a list of Black poets, email me – or check one of the many anthologies out of the library and start reading. Your librarian can probably furnish you with a list of names with no difficulty.

If you’re interested in Black speculative fiction, you won’t be so lucky. Of the three librarian at my local library, only one, in her 20′s, had read any at all. The other two were both, I think, over 50, were at a loss. Neither was a fan of speculative fiction, much less heard of Black writers.

I didn’t fare much better at my local Barnes and Noble. There was indeed a novel by Walter Mosley on display, but it was one of his mysteries. The only Samuel Delaney they had was a single copy of Dhalgren, and they had nothing by Charles Saunders, Tananarive Due, or Steven Barnes. I would have found this much more frustrating if I hadn’t just borrowed several novels by Steven Barnes from my local library using inter-library loan.

What about Black characters by white sci fi authors? The only one who leaps to mind is Robert A. Heinlein. The main character in Tunnel in the Sky, Rod Walker, is black, as are a couple of the other characters. And Sergeant Jelal in Starship Troopers is black as well — a fact Heinlein, who loved to jolt readers out of their comfort zone, doesn’t reveal until half-way through the book, well after readers have had time to form an opinion about the character. Tunnel in the Sky, by the way, was written in 1955, and Starship Troopers in 1959.

As to me, I’m tired of the good guys always being white. That was a big part of the reason the alien Aleyni, my main character, Raketh Frey, and his father in my upcoming novel, “Relocated,” are all black. Another character who proves sympathetic, Major Brad Reynolds, is of mixed Native American heritage. The bad guys are white, and yes, it was a deliberate choice.

I’d like to see readers, regardless of race, be more open to reading about multi-ethnic characters, and I’d like to see more writers putting them in their fiction. I wish more we had more Black writers of speculative fiction, and more white writers with who are willing to take a risk and include Black characters in theirs.

Call me naive, but in my opinion, “I didn’t think about the race of my character,” is a cop-out. We live in a race-conscious world, a world that still marginalizes Blacks. I don’t want to see that continued into our vision of the future.

Do leave a comment for a chance to win a copy of Lifelines. Who is your favorite Black poet? Who is your favorite Black speculative fiction author?

And be sure to check out my awesome fellow bloggers and support them by buying their novels. And keep reading.

Check out the other members of this Online Black History Month Event:

L. M. Davis, Author–began her love affair with fantasy in the second grade. Her first novel, Interlopers: A Shifters Novel, was released in 2010, and the follow-up Posers: A Shifters Novel will be released this spring. For more information visit her blog http://shiftersseries.wordpress.com/ or her website www.shiftersnovelseries.com.

Milton Davis, Author – Milton Davis is owner/publisher of MVmedia, LLC . As an author he specializes in science fiction and fantasy and is the author of Meji Book One, Meji Book Two and Changa’s Safari. Visit him: www.mvmediaatl.com and www.wagadu.ning.com.

Margaret Fieland, Author– lives and writes in the suburbs west of Boston, MA with her partner and five dogs. She is one of the Poetic Muselings. Their poetry anthology, Lifelines http://tinyurl.com/LifelinesPoetry/ is available from Amazon.com Her book, “Relocated,” will be available from MuseItUp Publishing in July, 2012. The Angry Little Boy,” will be published by 4RV publishing in early 2013. You may visit her website, http://www.margaretfieland.com.

Valjeanne Jeffers, Author – is an editor and the author of the SF/fantasy novels: Immortal, Immortal II: The Time of Legend and Immortal III: Stealer of Souls. Her fourth and fifth novels: Immortal IV: Collision of Worlds and The Switch: Clockwork will be released this spring. Visit her at: http://valjeanne.wordpress.com and http://qandvaffordableediting.blogspot.com/

Alicia McCalla, Author- writes for both young adults and adults with her brand of multicultural science fiction, urban fantasy, and futurism. Her debut novel, Breaking Free will be available February 1, 2012. The Breaking Free theme song created by Asante McCalla is available for immediate download on itunes and Amazon. Visit her at: http://www.aliciamccalla.com

Rasheedah Phillips,Author–is the creator of The AfroFuturist Affair in Philly. She plans to debut her first spec/sci-fic novel Recurrence Plot in Spring 2012. You may catch her ruminating from time to time on her blog, AstroMythoLosophy.com.

Nicole Sconiers, Author-is also a screenwriter living in the sunny jungle of L.A. She holds an MFA in creative writing from Antioch University Los Angeles, and she recently published Escape from Beckyville: Tales of Race, Hair and Rage. Visit her: http://nicolesconiers.com/index.html

Jarvis Sheffield, M.Ed. is owner & operator of TheDigitalBrothers.com, BlackScienceFictionSociety.com & BlackCommunityEntertainment.com. Visit him: http://www.blacksciencefictionsociety.com/profiles/blog/list?user=2stjwb1h216fd

Poetic Inspiration: Other People’s Poems

Administrator — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 19:06:32 +0000

Check out my post on the Poetic Muselings blog on being inspired by other people’s poems. Read Mark Wyndham’s poem, and the one I wrote in response.

Blogfest week 2 story chain

Administrator — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 01:02:20 +0000

My assignment: subplot closure
my words jail, concubine, heave

Dio remembered how her stomach had heaved from the feeling of Tony’s hand over her mouth. Who was Tony, and who was Sandy? Dio grimaced. If she could, she’d whisk the two of them off to jail and let the blankety-blank police figure out who they were. As she twirled a lock of hair around her finger, she remembered the name of a club back home. The Concubine. That’s where she’d seen Tony – tending bar at the damn club. She’d look up the phone number as soon as she got home. Right now she had some flying to do.

previous post: http://steph-wordbyword.blogspot.com/

next one: http://www.taylyeerose.com/

April VBT Writers on the move schedule

Administrator — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 12:12:14 +0000

http://tinyurl.com/4wyknhr

Words Matter Week 2011 challenge: day 5

Administrator — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:43:50 +0000

Words, like moths, are captured by writers who pin them to the page in various forms. What writer’s work most deftly captivates you? Why?

O’Henry. I started reading O’Henry as a young teen. I thought I had a pretty good vocabulary, but he sent me to the dictionary every couple of sentences to look up new words. I fell in love with words, and the love affair continues to this day.

Another favorite writer I read as a teen was Damon Runyon. He wrote about New York, about Broadway, and as a native New Yorker, born and raised in Manhattan, I enjoyed reading about my city. He’s another writer who sent me to the dictionary, or to my father when the dictionary proved inadequate.

Words matter week 2011 challenge: day 4

Administrator — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 13:38:45 +0000

Thursday, March 10

Words can be mangled, misused, or misunderstood. What is your funniest example of mangling, misuse, or misunderstanding?

Due to not enough coffee, I can’t think of anything …

But, if you want to mangle, here is a neat site:
http://wordmangle.com/

You can paste in any text and it will mangle it but still, it claims, leave it readable.

Thuardsy, Macrh 10

Wdros can be magelnd, meussid, or modroetnuissd. Waht is yuor fseiunnt explmae of mglnniag, msiuse, or mrsniantiddeunsg?

Due to not enoguh cofefe, I cna’t thnik of annyhitg …

But, if you wnat to mlgnae, hree is a naet stie:
a hef=rtth”p://wnmorgdlae.com/http://wranomdlge.com//a>

You can ptsae in any txet and it wlil mnlgae it but slitl, it camils, levae it rleaabde.

www.wordmangle.com

Words Matter Week 2011: day 3

Administrator — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 21:22:48 +0000

Today’s topic: What is your favorite quote about words? Why?

Here’s one:

Substitute “damn” every time you’re inclined to write “very;” your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be. ~Mark Twain

And here’s my fave:
The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. ~Mark Twain

Because it’s so, so true. The thesaurus is your friend. Visit it often.