Fantasy writer Lev Grossman wrote an article for the NY Times (read it here) in which he talked about how becoming a fantasy writer unleashed his creativity. He found his writing voice in the magical world.

Literary critics probably won't acknowledge that even the grandest fiction is, in a way, fantasy fiction. In order to create, writers go to a special spot in their imagination and it is from that place that their stories emerge.Whether writers create a town withering in the recession, send a boat down the Mississippi River, or fill a land with dragons, we mentally live in that world while we write about it.

I write murder mysteries. My heroine, Kyle Shannon, does not have physical form but she is very real to me. As I move her through the story, I fantasize about her. I feel her emotions. I hear her voice. I am aware of her hopes and dreams. What happens to her, happens to me, and then to my readers.

In creating Kyle's world, I examine my own. What she experiences is distilled from what happens around me. The great thing about being a fiction writer is that Kyle isn't bound by the constraints of the real world. She can survive on temp jobs. She can go places I would never go and she can know people I am not likely to meet.

No matter where a story is based or how the hero moves through it, fantasy plays a role. Relationships, wants, and needs form the centerpiece of all plots no matter where the story is set. A woman solving a murder, an explorer on Mars, or boy waving a wand each face a challenge and must somehow overcome it. The genre is where the writer finds a home but all fiction is fantasy and all writers live in a fantasy world.

Great Wall Graffiti Shouts Look at Me

My mother had a saying: Fools names and fools faces always appear in public places. She referred to graffiti. Not the artistic work we see on rail cars or viaducts but the "John loves Sally" or "Sam was here" kind of stuff you find in bathrooms or on historical monuments.

There wasn't so much of it when I was a kid. Now it seems nearly everyone is painting their name onto something.  Why? Do we feel so important that our names deserve to be on the Great Wall of China (read more about that here) or do we feel so ignored that we deface great works of art in order to draw attention to ourselves?  What does scratching our names onto surfaces say about us?  What are we trying to tell others?

The news story about the Chinese reserving a section of the Great Wall for graffiti saddened me. It implies that we are so focused on self that we feel entitled to destroy a centuries-old marvel. The problem exists elsewhere of course. Look at the bridges in Paris that are covered with padlocks, rusting away and destroying the lovely views. Those locks are not an expression of love, which is selfless. They are another form of ego. They say, "Look at us, we're a couple."

Communication is a funny thing. There is more and more of it today than ever and perhaps that's the problem. Does our ability to communicate with the whole world make us feel small and insignificant? Do Facebook, about.me, Twitter, and all the others somehow rob us of our sense of self? 

Let me ponder that while I carve my initials into this rock.

Village Secrecy Creates Angry Citizens

The citizens of a nearby village, we'll call it Anytown, are about to vote on a very hot topic: whether or not to save a crumbling relic that was the original high school. For several years, a committee attempted to raise money to buy it from the school district and rehab it into a community center. They haven't been successful. That should have said something to the committee but it forged on, pushing the village board for support.

A neighboring town broadcasts its board meetings on local cable.  While the discussions are hardly on par with a new episode of NCIS, most citizens are interested in the new businesses that come to town, what the mayor has planned for the 4th of July celebration, and how the budget looks. Citizens feel knowledgeable when they go into the voting booth. They know exactly who stands for what because everything is in the open.

Anytown does not televise its meetings.  The mayor claims there's no money in the budget for it. I suppose those in charge fear what the citizens might hear in an unguarded or heated discussion moment. Certainly if their citizenry had known about any consideration to fund the building rehab, the board would have heard an outcry two years ago. Anytown could have saved itself a lot of expense.

The voters made their position clear when they did not attend the fundraisers or donate to the committee. Low participation was a visible demonstration of the lack of support.  Sometimes silence says more than an entire speech. 

Now Anytown is holding informational meetings and the politicians see how angry the voters are. Apparently the village board members were taken by surprise; something that would not have happened if Anytown broadcast its meetings.  It's all about communication and, in this case, important ears haven't been listening. It could be a costly mistake in more ways than one.  This is an election year.