Inspiration – Michele Lee

Squeecore and Serious(TM) Authors

I’m not terribly involved in the writing community much anymore, but one of the people I will always follow is Jason Sanford (who I met when we were both baby authors and I got to read an early version of his novel Plague Birds, which remains one of the best books I’ve read, so go buy it.) Jason writes a comprehensive monthly SF/F genre column and the January edition just came out. One of the major events is the budding genre discussion of “Squeecore”. Jason begins by saying:

“The discussion started after a Rite Gud podcast in which R. S. Benedict and J.R. Bolt offered “A Guide to Squeecore.” When I say the original take felt condescending and simply a way to attack fiction you don’t like, this is what I’m referring to. I agree with Marie Brennan who said squeecore appears to be defined as “books the person using that term doesn’t like.”

In this world of global, instant interconnectiveness the discussion quickly expanded. From Jason’s column:

As Camestros Felapton said in a must-read summary and analysis, according to Benedict and Bolt’s podcast squeecore “tends to be very uplifting and upbeat. It is didactic. It has a young adult fiction tone to it, even when it’s supposed to be for adults. Central characters can feel weirdly young, like they always think and act and feel as though they’re in their late teens or early 20s. They’re kind of inexperienced, naive, still very full of wonder. It has notable influence from films and a lot of influence from mainstream commercial narratives… One such influence being three-act structure screenplays and the ‘save the cat’ style narrative. Central characters can feel like they are intended to be reader-inserts like video-game RPG protagonist.”

I’m starting to feel the weight of my time in the writer world. This debate has been going on for a very, very long time and “Squeecore” is just a new term to set people off.

As a baby writer there seems to be a point in your career where you have to choose between two major paths. (Of course, for some people there is no choice because they know what they want.) Do you want to be A Genre Writer, one of the people who influences the arch of the genre, embraces the concept of literary arts, confronts human truths, advance knowledge…(and win awards)? Or do you want to be The Escapist Author, whose works are usually more profitable, more forgettable, flash in the pan, and tend to appeal to more readers versus more industry people. See, there are two kinds of readers, The Readers and the Reader-Authors. All authors *should be* voracious readers. But a lot of authors who are readers crave a different kind of book, one that has a higher artistic value, be it in concept or prose or theme. Author-Readers are drawn to Books That Change Lives. (And this is a beautiful thing. I love a lot of authors like this.)

Readers aren’t always though. The majority of readers want escapist fiction, entertaining fiction. A lot are expressly looking for stories that are the same because their lives are already changing so much that they find peace in the stability. For my most solid point I present: The Entire Romance Genre (and the long, sexist and frustrating history of completely crapping on it as a “valid” form of reading, something I have been guilty of myself.)

There is a lot of leeway for authors to appeal to both. Neil Gaiman is not a poor, broke, unknown author after all. Speculative fiction (SF/F/H/R) went through a bit there where it was looked down upon to read them. They were considered trash books and gatekeepers, like professional reviewers, literary awards, historians, and college level writing programs, dumped on them. In college I was told I would be a great writer if I dumped the genre trash. Gods love all the beautiful writers out there who have proven in the last 25 years that a book can be a beautiful work of art *and* genre.

So what we see here is that for some reason (higher education crisis, pandemic, wage crisis, housing crisis, political division, threats of civil war, etc.), I can’t imagine why, SOME readers and writers are shifting away from the darker takes. Urban fantasy has been waning for a while. Zombies and post apoc stories are played out. Grimdark has found its audience and isn’t adding many new readers. Story consumers have enough dark dark horrifying awfulness. Their tastes are changing.

Sometimes escapism comes from whimsy. Amusingly enough Jason and I met at World Fantasy Con and the theme was “Whimsical Fantasy”. So we see characters that aren’t stalwart survivors of horrors or magic. We see characters who “feel younger”. Not to mention that YA has not been written just for young adults for the entirely of the time I’ve been doing this. I will be forty two this year and I never stopped reading YA. I run a review blog on it. And I’ve seen some of the stories I loved that got me into reading and writing become more books, movies, t.v. shows and hook new people. The young adults who started on more recent YA like P.C. Cast and Suzanne Collins and Scott Westerfield are most definitely adults now and therefore looking for new stories on new shelves.

The reader base is shifting away from those of us who started fandom on message boards and zines and fan fiction, and toward readers who always had the option of that kind of interconnected, immediately validated fandom.

Personally after trying for 10 years to be that serious writer taking a serious role in the community I burned out, started focusing more on taking care of myself and part of that was writing stories that were less about contributing to the artistic aspects of the genre and stories…I just had fun writing. Some people can do both. I enjoy writing short stories of that style still. I love reading stories like that.

But, honestly…

In the last week I’ve assisted with eight euthanasias at my day job. One of my daughter’s friends moved in with us because he {and his dog) was being heavily emotionally abused by his parents and they were trying to add financial abuse onto it. Being in the vet field we have been busier than ever and while the world quarantined and struggled with isolations and pandemic stress, The people in my field not only never stopped working, we’ve been busier than ever AND taking lash outs because of the anger and panic of societal stress for our current culture. I’m fucking tired, y’all. I’m sad. I’m trying not to be burn out. I held a dog who was nothing but love and joy while the doctor injected her to stop her heart because her leg bones were literally disintegrating from cancer last week. I have heard seasoned doctors say “Oh my god” and “Oh shit, I haven’t never seen anything like that before.” Too many fucking times.

So I revamped my Instagram to share pictures of all things I find beautiful, from street art to architecture to plants and, yes, food. And I buy a lot of erotic romance that I would have dismissed as totally cliche and “well written, but predictable” before. And I write sexy vampires go back to college books. Because while I completely value art that questions and changes the shape of things and confronts deep truths and believe the world definitely NEEDS those stories, we need escapism too. We need happy endings, and whimsy, and main characters who still have a sense of wonder. I need the cat to be saved.

A way, way long day ago, when I was first trying to be a writer for the public I read a quote that I have long since lost, where in an author said that a woman being treated for breast cancer read her books during hospital stays and the books helped her cope. The reader wrote the author to thank her for “being there for her” and to tell her what the books meant to her. And the author said that is why she writes.

Me too. I’m not writing for the bros who want to see the art being taken seriously and tackling big topics anymore. I’m writing for the person who just held another beloved pet as it passed and desperately needs to be outside her own head for a few hours. And there’s nothing fucking wrong with that.

Category: Inspiration, Publishing, Writing | Comments Off

December 27

Oh, Carrie Fisher

I didn’t know what Star Wars was for a long time, but I’d been watching it. Way back when, when my mom was divorcing my dad she’d take us to his apartment for Saturday visits, but he often couldn’t be bothered to spend much actual time with us. Sometimes this hurt a lot. But it wasn’t all bad, because it was the most free, unsupervised time I ever had. He didn’t care what we did as long as we didn’t wake him up. (she would drop us off at 6 am. He would go back to bed until non or one–at the earliest.)

And he had cable. So I’d watch my Saturday morning cartoons with no worry that my mom would find out and disapprove. Then, after those were over I’d look through his VHS tapes (we did not have VHS at home. Tv and movies were not encouraged at all. I only begrudingly was allowed Saturday morning cartoons, and sometimes I wasn’t allowed to watch certain cartoons, like She-Ra or Jem. Apparently they were ungodly, something I really do not understand as an adult because She-Ra was a hero who helped everyone and Jem and the Holograms ran a freakin’ orphanage.) He didn’t have a lot for kids. There was The Smurfs and The Magic Flute, which I watched almost every week.

And there was this tape that had “From Star Wars to Jedi” an HBO special about the making of Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. I didn’t actually see Star Wars until it was remastered and released in theaters again. That’s probably why it is my least favorite of the original trilogy. But I watched the making of special almost every week. And I watched Empire occasionally (it was dark and scary and so sad. Darth Vader wasn’t the scary part. Luke finding out that Vader was his father, that the force he’d been fighting this whole time was his blood…that was scary. Being tempted by the dark side was scary. Han being frozen and everyone being upset and sad. That was depressing.)

But Return was…I adore that movie. Luke finds his footing, his calm center and tries to save Han. But, and I can’t even tell you how much I loved this, Leia was already there, SAVING THE MAN SHE LOVED. Whaaa? Women aren’t supposed to save the men. But she did. She was strong, smart, lovely and didn’t depend on anyone else to get things done. And yeah, she gets captured, but she’s irritated by that, not scared. And, as I’ve said before, the penultimate scene where she kills Jabba, she has been stripped of her weapons, her clothes and he attempted to strip her of her dignity but she never gave in, and in the end killed him with the very chain he tried to contain her with. That was amazingly powerful to me. (Clearly I was not raised to believe in a woman’s independence and agency over her own body and life.)

When I got older, after my mom had died and we were living full time with my dad, those feelings stuck around. I had a complex mental relationship with Leia because while I adored her strength and cleverness, her determination and fierceness, I also struggled with the ideals my mother and extended family had tried to instill in me and felt like I *shouldn’t* be so attracted to Leia (she was another Jem, a She-Ra for sure, and my very literate, always reading mother once threatened to cut up my library card for checking a She-Ra book out of the library, so surely there had to be something very wrong with strong, clever, independent princesses, right?)

Also, there might have been a bit of burgeoning self awareness because I was actually ATTRACTED to Leia as well. I imagined being Luke, but I wanted to be with Leia.

I got bits and pieces of who Carrie Fisher herself was. But there was always a bit of self distance there, because I WANTED, desperately, to maintain my idolization of her, and I needed her to remain the luminous, beautiful person she was. She was bold, in her personal life. She never seemed to let aging or the crush of reality, or Hollywood culture rule her life. She never obeyed. She was always bold and clever, strong and beautiful.

She was and always will be one of my few lifetime idols.

Rest, well Carrie.

Category: current events, Inspiration, Personal | Comments Off

November 15

5 Coping Techniques I Learned From My Autistic Son

Coping, communication and calm down are incredible skills for many mentally disabled kids to learn. Sometimes it’s real easy to forget that it’s not just them that need these skills. We all do. So I decided to work out a few tips that we can all use in those angry, panicked or dark moments in our lives.

1. Take a break.

To Mister, this means literally. It means move away from where you currently are and what you are currently doing to allow your brain to reset itself out of the anxiety cycle. It’s not take a rest, it’s turn whatever is causing your stress off for just a little bit. Physically moving is a great way to do this. So is closing your eyes.

Count to ten.…Or twenty. Or whatever. Give yourself time to respond so you respond to what was is/has actually happened (or what is being asked) rather than responding to the emotions it spikes in you.

In the extreme early days he used to run out of the classroom to “turn off” the stress. It panicked the teachers until they realized why he was doing it and gave him the means to “turn off the room” while staying in the room.

2. Distract yourself if necessary.

We made glitter bottles one day in group therapy. We took small plastic bottles, filled them with water and glitter glue and sealed them. Give it a few minutes for the glue to break down. Then shake it up and make yourself take a break until all the glitter settles into the bottom.

Don’t have a glitter bottle? Skywatch for a few minutes. Listen to a song. Watch a funny YouTube video. Actively engage in a completely different activity for a short period of time.

3. Build Momentum

There’s this thing we use called momentum learning. You start by reviewing a topic that’s fairly easy, then get progressively harder. That way you build up some confidence before getting into frustration.

Outside of school maybe you can arrange your day to take care of some small things (cleaning off your desk, picking up a room, reading a chapter in a research or how to book) first then move into the progressively harder things (getting a broken computer working, mowing the lawn, writing 5K). Even if it doesn’t feel completely possible, like in my case I walk into work and a giant hairy dog is waiting for me, you can often take a moment to better prepare yourself (like in my case, putting all my tools in order/in the right pockets and reviewing which services the dog is getting). Or outright bathing the chihuahua first and the German Shepherd/Newfoundland mix second.

Sometimes it just helps.

4. Reward Yourself.

While stickers and Youtube breaks might not be big motivators to us, a favorite lunch or a good book on break, or a stop at a drive through for a shake on the way home, can be motivators. And yes, sometimes even the tiniest of accomplishments, like getting that desk cleaned off deserve self-recognition.

5. Don’t be afraid to turn the whole world off, for a little bit.

Sensory issues are common in autism. They’re not so uncommon in the rest of us. We often just train ourselves to ignore them. But yes, feeling uncomfortable because of that chair, or that lighting or you’re in your third month of holiday music, absolutely CAN affect our moral and performance.

It’s okay to sit in the dark and wrap yourself up completely in a blanket until your sense calm down. It’s okay to admit that that bright light, or sensation of “being on” (when maybe you aren’t a true extrovert, but you have to pretend to be one on the clock) wears you out. And it’s okay to indulge in a little of the absolute opposite to recharge.

Bonus: It’s okay to admit you aren’t perfect.

Working in the adult world I feel like I am expected to be perfect. To do my job beyond perfectly, also efficiently with 100% cheer and 0% drain on others.

But I’m not perfect. I get angry. I get discouraged. There are some things I just cannot do.

And yes, it’s okay to admit that. Especially to yourself.

Category: Business, Inspiration | Comments Off

July 30

Writer’s Crash Course #1: Guinea Pigs

I’m reading a book and the complete lack of author knowledge about guinea pigs is driving me crazy (and ruining several metaphors.) So I’m introducing a new random series to my blog. Writer’s Crash Courses are designed to be short information sheets for those who cannot be bothered to research, or are like me and end up spending hours researching something that’s mentioned in one scene in one book that I might write someday. And I absolutely invite YOU to write a crash course on something you are knowledgeable about and email it to me at theothermicheleleeATgmailDOTcom.

Writer’s Crash Course #1: Guinea Pigs

-Also called “cavy” and they have their own breeder/fancier association.

-They get their names because when first imported in the 16th century they cost a “guinea” and squeaked like pigs.

-They and their wild relatives are still very important to culture in Peru and they are both a pet and a food animal in South America.

-They average 1-3 lbs, 8-10 inches long and live an average of 4-6 years, but can live up to 8-10.

-They are fairly docile, diurnal, vegetarian grazers. Easy to tame with food.

-Keeping a guinea pig in a cage with a wire floor can be very bad for their feet. They can get caught in the grid, be broken, scraped or suffer pressure sores. Or bumblefoot.

-They can suffer from vitamin deficiencies pretty easily, including Scurvy. They also require coprophagy, or feces-eating, for proper digestion and make special soft, bacteria-heavy pellets for that use.

-They are very social (with many kinds of vocalizations) and come in many, many, many, many breeds.

-Guinea pigs are best kept in same sex pairs, in warmer environments and will chew on almost everything.

-Guinea pig babies (pups) are born after 60-80 days, year around and can run, eat solid food and live independently of their mother immediately. They have all their hair and eyes open.

-Guinea pigs can swim. Pretty well.

Category: Business, Inspiration | Comments Off

May 21

What makes you pick up a book?

Start here, with Chuck Wendig’s awesome blog on the topic. But it’s a week old, which is ancient in internet time. So here’s mine.

I’m a sucker for paranormals. If it has a paranormal look, I’ll pick it up and read the back.

Excerpts sell me books. I read the first paragraph of Ilona Andrews’ book and bought the whole series.

Irony, satire, snark. Not meanness, which can be across a very thin line. But I like quiet satire. I like playing with tropes and expectations. I like cliches–as a launching point. I love Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman and the way they twist reality and fiction and emotion and snark into a story.

Short stories sell me books. I don’t read a lot of magazines or collections or anthos these days, but I have discovered a number of great authors I wouldn’t have picked up otherwise through their shorts.

Knowing an author sells me their books. Not one a lot of readers can say, but I have discovered a number of good and great authors because I met them, liked how the talked about their book, or got excited about a concept or I wanted to support them and got a happy surprise. “Knowing” via reading their blog is the same thing.

Reviewing sells me books. I have absolutely bought print copies of books I got as limited-time ebooks for review. Or kept up with a series because I got one to review for free and loved it. Or started following authors because of a review book I got of their work.

A unique setting, character etc. Like the Africa-themed urban fantasy of Seressia Glass (or Alliette de Bodard’s Aztec urban fantasy series.) Or steampunk set in China. A certain trilogy of King Arthur-in-the-ghetto books. These do pique my interest if it seems just completely and utterly different. S.P. Somtow’s werewolf western Moondance is one of my favorites. So is Alice Borchardt’s Dark Ages Rome werewolf series.

Um, did I mention I’m a sucker for almost anything paranormal?

Category: Inspiration, Not My Work | Comments Off