Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

I picked up Station Eleven because the sample was rife with Shakespeare quotes and references, and I'm a sucker for those. (See Tree/House if you don't believe me.) After the sample, the relation to Shakespeare is mainly the fact that he lived in a plague-ridden world, like the one in this novel. By the time I got to the sentence explaining that everyone at the theatre would be dead in three weeks, I was hooked on the great writing and a need to know how it would play out.

The novel is constructed around a series of coincidences that center around the actor who dies of a heart attack in the first chapter. Employing dramatic irony to excellent effect, the characters are unable to put all the pieces together, but the reader can. It's for the reader to decide whether the coincidences mean any more than a coincidence normally does simply because of the decreased probability that these artifacts and people could come together in a decimated world. The many characters are lovable, but what I take from the book is a meditation on the meaning of "civilization." Like some other readers, I wondered for a while what the author was doing spending so much time in flashbacks about the actor's life before the end of the world. But it turns out that the vanished civilization is what gives the new supposed wilderness meaning.

What would you miss about civilization? I found the examination of the nasty things left behind to be the most illuminating. Things like the lack of communication all these communication gadgets cause, paparazzi and the culture of celebrity, and going to work every day. The meditation on "work" especially affected me because whether the people enjoyed their jobs or loathed every moment, they became zombies of routine.

Civilization itself is something of a routine. We perpetuate it with our smaller routines, which add up to cultural movements. At one point, one of the characters, in denial about the gravity of the pandemic, says, "Are we supposed to believe that civilization has just come to an end?" The other replies, "Well, it was always a little fragile, wasn't it?" It's a great point. But what they're both missing is that the end of civilization is not the end of the world. Most of the surviving characters settle into communities or tribes that help each other along in this business of living. When, near the end of the book, a ghost in a comic book describes death as having awakened from a dream, I thought he might be describing the common thread in all the characters' experiences of the end of civilization.

The main tribe, a troupe of actors and musicians, has a motto: "Because survival is insufficient." This novel has convinced me that just surviving is unlikely if not impossible. Humans will always make culture, whether it relies on the past or focuses on the present. Station Eleven is a well written, thought-provoking, and memorable novel.

Novels I've Read in 2015:

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell

Along the Far Shores by Kristin Gleeson

New Year's Resolutions

The Roman god Janus is literally two-faced, but not because he is a double-crosser. His biological peculiarity comes from his lordship over the month that bears his name: January. Living at this month when two years meet, he simultaneously looks back at the past year and ahead to the new one. He is both ending and beginning.

The tension of ending an old year while also starting a new one has inspired people through the ages to make a break with the past and promise to change their ways in the future—New Year's resolutions.

The Babylonians did it, the Romans did it, and medieval knights took the peacock vow. The nature of the promise of self improvement tells us a lot about what's valued in the culture. Have you ever resolved to give more to the poor? Or have your resolutions been more along the lines of losing weight or being more assertive?

My priority is writing. My goals for 2015 include completing revisions on my first two novels, publishing Awash in Talent (the second one), making as yet undefined progress on the third, and writing two short stories (one fantasy and one historical).

Blogging regularly is also on the horizon. Once a week, here we come! (I never thought it would come to this, back in my days of two, three, and four posts per week.)

I received a generous gift that will enable me to make another resolution of utmost importance to me: to read more (without editing). For 2015, I'm going to aim for ten books (mostly novels). Or maybe I should shoot for five and consider anything else a bonus?

I have some ideas already, but am open to suggestions. If my two goals in this are to enjoy the written word and to improve my writing by osmosis, what books would you recommend?

A Second Glimpse at My Exciting New Project

The cathedral at Burgos, constructed 300 years after our story takes place. 

Although my novel's pitch didn't win first prize or the reader's choice award for the Pitchapalooza thing, I was glad just be reviewed. Thank you very much to everyone who voted for me! Here is a revised version of my pitch for The Seven Noble Knights of Lara. Let me know if it makes you want to read the whole thing.

No one can safely ignore doña Lambra. Her need for revenge leaves the plains of tenth-century Spain stained red with the blood of her seven warrior nephews. That same blood rises up from the rich soil of Andalusia in the form of Mudarra. This knight of noble lineage can bring meaning to his life only by exacting revenge on doña Lambra and her pawn husband.

In an age of superheroes and superpowers, this book returns to a simple hero, a mere mortal born with a special purpose. The setting is exotic, but the complicated web of rivalry and admiration between the cultures means that it fits seamlessly into our multi-ethnic, multi-denominational, and multi-problematic world.

I hold a PhD in Medieval Spanish literature. This historical tale brings together the violent family culture of Mario Puzo and the rugged realities of medieval Spain of María Rosa Menocal. Gleaming silks spill out of treasure chests. Heavy, rough coins are traded for taken lives. Diners turn the goblet to avoid drinking from the same spot as their neighbor. Our young hero holds his hands out to catch falling almond blossoms as if they were snowflakes, then takes his glittering sword to the throats of his betrayers. Can Mudarra bring balance to the feuding families? Will he be satisfied with a simple revenge?

Inside the Great Mosque at Córdoba, finished around the time of our story. 

This novel is based on a medieval Spanish epic, thought to have been sung by minstrels, and which now only survives prosified in history books, primarily Alfonso X el Sabio's Estoria de Espanna. It has never completely faded from the popular imagination through the ages. Most recently and notably it took the form of films and comic books in Tagalog in the Philippines. Bringing together my knowledge of the era and of the craft of writing, I make it a compelling story for todays' readers.


This year, I had several smaller writing projects to complete, and with the help of critique partners and set deadlines, they are done. Because I mentioned in my New Year's resolutions that I would make good progress (okay, I said I'd finish a first draft!) on a big project, there's now nothing for it but to get to work. The daunting part is strictly the assembling together more than 50,000 words.

It's time to get my specialty, medieval Spain, back into my writing. Who doesn't love a little exotic adventure with castles and palaces, knights and battles, desire and hate? I hope you will be as excited about the new project as I am. Tune in to this blog for periodic updates and teasers. 

Guest Blog Today!

Check out my short and sweet musings on inspiration at Dixon Rice's very worthwhile blog here!

Farewell, 2010! The Year in Review

There's a wonderful Mexican New Year's song that starts, "Yo no olvido el año viejo, porque me ha legado cosas muy buenas" (I won't forget the old year, because it's left me some nice things). The things I pledge to remember about 2010 all have to do with writing. I don't think anyone would argue that my husband and I had any luck or success with money this year. Twenty-ten is the year we avoided complete bankruptcy and living on the street solely by the grace of my husband's sister. In 2010, we sold a gorgeous deluxe fold-out desk for $100 in Pennsylvania and spent the money on folding chairs, TV trays, and an air bed in Arizona. All we're really left with for 2011 is the love we have for each other, and a dogged determination to be successful again soon.

Great Things of 2010:
1. 15 pieces published in literary magazines. Click on "Good Reading" to your left for a full list, with pictures and links! The indescribable thrill of having Fiction Collective accept my humble "Justine" has still not abated through all those other acceptances. The idea that some few people somewhere on the planet have read some small part of my work has made a lot of really awful twists of fate this year much more bearable.


2. In November, I got my second royalty check from Tree/House and Dusk Before Dawn. They wait to accumulate $20 before they send it to me, and I got it! Twenty dollars doesn't begin to compensate for the time, effort, and money I've invested in their promotion over the year and a half since I got my last royalty, but again, the idea that someone, somewhere, is reading my work makes up for a lot. Thanks you so much to anyone who purchased either book! They're still highly enjoyable, affordable, and ready to be shipped to your home in paper or digital formats.

3. I started this blog, which has had a modicum of success. Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope to see you and get your feedback in 2011!

4. I found Duotrope. I'll keep the trade secret from those of you who don't know what that is. Those of you who do know will agree with me that it's possibly the single greatest tool for a writer in the digital age. Please contribute $5 a year if you're a user and keep the dream afloat! Without Duotrope, I would have a lot of inspiration and not much else when it comes to writing.

5. I'm now a GoodReads author! Check me out!

This time of year, people talk a lot about resolutions. Resolutions are an especially handy tool for the writer, who can so easily get bogged down by anything from other demands on her time to a funny sound or a fly on the wall. So, in 2011, I resolve not to let anything get in the way. Not my exhausting temporary job and the difficulties in getting to and fro, not the ongoing job search and distracting hopes for the future, not the dire lack of furniture in our new apartment, not the worries about money. Specifically, I resolve to finish a certain story to my own satisfaction and find someone to critique it, rather than sending it out to the publisher all raw, as I've had to do with a few too many pieces this year. (My husband is wonderful, but far too appreciative of my vision to be any use as a sounding board.) I also resolve to get serious about at least one of my book projects. (Stay tuned for those!) By "get serious," I mean take a look at the all the resources I've already gathered and managed to bring with me to Arizona, and make a decision about which to do first. And then write. Come up with a concrete, doable goal and stick with it. In the land of my resolution, at least one book will be completed this year for the enjoyment of literary agents and publishers in 2012. Wish me luck!