Public Service Announcements!

We interrupt our regularly scheduled blog posting for these announcements!

We're moving into National Novel Writing Month, and I'm sorry to say this may result in a cut back on my posting habits on this blog. We'll see how things go once the month gets started, and I get a handle on the new book, but I'm planning right now to go with a Tuesday/Friday posting schedule for the month of November. If I happen to have more time, you'll see more of me here, but you can definitely count on me for twice-weekly posting on those days. I hope you will all still follow along with me!

For those of you interested, I'm happy to announce that I'm now a contributing writer for GeekaChicas! I don't have any posts up yet My first post went up today, and there will probably be some cross-posting going on between here and there, but I'm pretty excited to be asked to write for and with the other women who make that blog great! I hope you'll all check it out.

Back to Science! Superbrainpower-palooza

So maybe this statement is going to sound obvious, but research apparently shows that phantom limbs don't HAVE to obey the laws of physics.

Yeah, when I put it that way it doesn't sound that spectacular, but think about what this means for people who are bound by those same phantom limbs, and the pain induced by them. They don't have to hurt. They can will themselves not to be in pain. They can will the phantom limb into a different and impossible position to make it stop acting up.

So maybe this still seems like common sense to you. But the article takes it a step further. This isn't just about phantom limbs, this is about body image. The way we imagine and see ourselves. The way we THINK our  bodies. The study shows that simply by practicing imagining the body in a different way, our brain essentially believes it to be come so. For people suffering from diseases which stem from poor body image-- like anorexia, as the article mentions-- this could be a huge break through. This is proof that if they close their eyes and practice imagining that their body image is something different, their ideal of beauty, perhaps, that they can, essentially, program their brain to BELIEVE it's the truth.

Proving once again that funny trope that keeps popping up in everything--Belief is power.

When I read the title of the article though, I was really hoping that they were going to talk about how Phantom Limbs could actually physically pick stuff up or something. I guess that's the science fiction geek in me...

Is All Mythology Created Equal?

Take a moment and put aside right and wrong, and truth with a capital T, and just hear me out.

Maybe the better question is this: Does all mythology come from one source? One missing link? And is everything else just variations on those same themes? Is that missing link something embedded in our consciousness? Is religion, like some evolutionary theorists suggest, an impulse which we bred into ourselves, therefore making mythology some instinct, some bizarre shared memory with shared meaning, so that the ideas, tropes, stories contain that same thread, no matter where on earth it's found?

Or is it as simple as this: the culture and supposed religion of a megalith people. (And regardless of the title of Wikipedia's entry, this culture stretched all the way to the far east--though there is a bizarre gap in the middle.)

Holding Back

I've been holding off on starting my next book for two reasons. 1) I needed to do research, and 2) I want to participate in National Novel Writing Month.

The idea came to me a couple of weeks ago though, and ever since it's been clawing at the back of my mind. It wants to be written, and it is causing me sleepless nights to keep it contained. To wait to write it. I hate this feeling of fighting against it. Every time I read a new primary source on the Trojan War, or pick up The Iliad, I want to start writing immediately. And boy, do I wish that I could read and write simultaneously! Four arms and two sets of eyes, and one mega-brain that can absorb all that input and turn it immediately into creative output.

The thing is, it's kind of an exercise of discipline at this point. A discipline that will be important to my future career as a writer, because there are going to be times when I need to focus on revisions or editing, and I can't move forward immediately into the next project. And I need to know if holding back until the right time is good or bad for my creative process. If I CAN do it, without messing myself up. When I finally unleash all this creative purpose, this story, will it be better for my having waited to get the facts, or worse? Will I write better? Or will my brain be fogged and overrun by all the ideas to the point where organizing them into coherent sentences and chapters is impossible?

Beta For The Win, and What I Love About Writing

I just got back a copy of my manuscript all marked up in red ink from one of my readers. There is nothing better than sitting down with a copy of my book and seeing all the comments right next to the words and all over the margins. It gets me excited to do revisions, and address those instances where my beta reader wanted more, and I can see why.

I love especially comments that make me see things in a way I hadn't before. A new interpretation of a line that I took for granted that adds depth or meaning. A different perspective on the motivation of a character. I remember once sending a short story out to a reader and having them come back with a response that was completely accurate, but horribly different than the impression I wanted to leave them with. But I loved that element too-- I loved that they saw that emotion, that motivation, that I had missed.

Research-palooza

I had a terrible and awesome realization yesterday. My time is running out to finish my research, and the research I need to do just exploded.

I had been concentrating entirely on the myths surrounding the Trojan War, with a few forrays into anthropology of the Bronze Age . But it occurred to me today (somewhat belatedly) that part of my story will take place in Egypt. And I have not done any research at all into that country during and surrounding the Trojan War.

Ouch.

As a result, my weekend is going to be taken up with power reading and power researching. And again, I'm grateful that my husband is even more interested in history than I am, and has about thirty history books I can sift through for information. From Atlas's of Archaeology to Encylcopedias of Mythology and, perhaps more importantly for my belated realization, a brand new Encylopedia of Ancient Egypt. Let me assure you that my nose will be stuck in that book for the next two days.

All that said, I'm sure you will understand when I tell you I won't be posting anything on this blog on Sunday. I'll be too busy ruining my eyes by reading non-stop, probably in less than ideal lighting, and certainly there is bound to be some small-eye-strain-inducing-print.

Any valuable links to information on Egypt between 1210 and 1170 BCE would be greatly appreciated, if you happen to have them lying around.  Otherwise, you'll hear from me Monday.

Assuming I still have my wits after my intended information overload.

Why my Textbook on Mythology is Trash

I'm going to make a shocking admission, and I apologize if you feel betrayed, but the truth must come out.

In college, I never took a class on Classical Mythology.

In my defense, I did make the attempt. I registered, bought the book, and even attended a few classes. Unfortunately I found out very quickly that I wasn't going to learn well in the course. There were a number of reasons I felt this way that I won't get into here, but the fact is, I dropped the course and didn't look back.

Shame on me.

That being said, I kept the book. Because what classics major can't use another text book on Classical Mythology? Who could say no to keeping a copy of Classical Mythology, Seventh Edition, by Mark P.O. Morford and Robert J. Lenardon? Or maybe I had already unwrapped the plastic from the book and it was too far into the semester to return it--I don't remember. But I put it on a shelf and have been carrying it around with me as baggage ever since.