Wednesday writing wire - rat's ass edition

What I'm reading

I'm coming to the tail end of Katy Bowman's Move Your DNA, which is a great book about human biomechanics and how to reclaim your body's mobility from the "full-body cast" that modern, indoor, chair-bound, sedentary existence has placed upon us. Indoor life has even restricted our eyes, causing us to focus most of the time on objects that are close-up; when was the last time you gazed off into the distance? (I'm now trying to make "eye breaks" a regular part of my day.)

Lest anyone fear that I'm not reading enough science fiction, I'm also about halfway through The Female Man by Joanna Russ. This is one of the books that have been on my TBR pile forever and I really should have read a long time ago; a classic of feminist SF. It's written all non-linear like, from multiple characters' POVs in multiple scenelets and vignettes, and is full of humor, anger, and satire. I can't say I'm quite enjoying it as entertainment--but I am finding great meaning and importance in reading it. 

What I'm writing

I've been continuing to make pretty decent progress on The Free City. I've just gotten to one of the "shit hits the fan" parts of the story--wherein my main character (who lives in a repressive dystopia) realizes that she is abnormal and a criminal--they just haven't caught her yet. What fun!

What else I've been doing

Playing shows with my band, DRILLING FOR BLASTING, which is a two-piece consisting of me (drums & vocals), and my husband (guitar, vocals, harmonica, & bass trickery). Here's a review of a recent show, with photos.

What's inspiring me right now

I got tired of "social media", y'all. I got tired of "liking". I got tired of scrolling through the endlessly scrolling page, and I got tired of feeling like none of the words I read or post were worth the electrons they're 'printed' with ;) So I recently decided to resume an activity I used to enjoy a lot when I was younger: writing letters. On paper. I made a post (on Facebook, ugh. But it was the logical place to do it) thinking I'd be lucky to get one or two takers, and was totally surprised at how many people wanted to exchange letters. I've written and mailed out most of "round 1", and even ordered some preprinted (with return address and postage) envelopes from the good old U.S. Postal Service. Clicks, likes, and electrons are cheap--but when somebody takes the time to write a personal letter, it means they really give a rat's ass!

Wednesday writing wire - arranged marriage edition

What I'm reading

I'm about halfway through biomechanical scientist and alignment practitioner Katy Bowman's Move Your DNA, which is a super-duper eye-opening book for anyone interested in health, fitness, and how the human body works. The terms "movement" and "exercise" are often used interchangeably, but this book explains that "exercise" is but a small subset of "movement". Human movement encompasses every move we make, and the forces exerted upon us by our movements and positions and by gravity, even when we're asleep. It doesn't just use our muscles, but every part of our bodies right down to the cellular level. This concept has profound implications for human health; we often talk about "disease" as being "genetic" (often used as a synonym for "predetermined"), but disease can also be seen as the result of the human body reacting normally to the unnatural and sub-optimum conditions we've placed upon it. 

The bad news is that the bodies of most modern humans are terribly compromised by the way we live: sedentary lifestyles and workplaces are the norm and movement has become optional. It's like we are wearing a cast on our entire bodies. (How many hours a day does an office worker spend with his or her arms, hips and knees bent at a 90 degree angle? Not just while working, but driving, watching TV at home, etc?) The book explains in detail why an hour of "exercise" at the gym does not cancel out 23 hours of immobility. 

The good news is that there are things we can do to help restore full mobility and health. The author gives a wealth of strategies for this. Some of them do resemble "exercises", but this isn't an "exercise program" to be done for 30 minutes or an hour and then forgotten as we return to a long day of stillness--this is a new way of looking at what we do and how we move during our entire day (and night), and how to get that immobilizing cast off our bodies.

Egads, I ended up writing a lot more about this than I thought I would--and I'm not even done with the book yet. So there may be more blabbing next week! 

What I'm writing

My rewrite of The Free City is proceeding at a decent clip. Main character #1 has been betrothed in an arranged marriage (as is the norm in her society, a super-religious dictatorship). At the same time, she's gotten involved in a very intense friendship with another girl at school. Her friend is one year older, and will soon leave school to get married. It's unlikely they'll see each other again after that--and my main character is just realizing that she finds this prospect intolerable--and will soon take drastic action! I'm really excited about writing these scenes--channelling my inner angry teenager, hehe! (It ain't that hard...)

Side tangent: I don't think arranged marriages are necessarily bad. My grandparents (on my father's side) had an arranged marriage which was by all accounts a happy one. Thought it should be noted that they did have some choice in the matter (unlike my fictional characters). People warned my grandmother not to marry my grandfather, that he was way too much older than her, that he would take her far away from home and she'd never see China again. She ignored the advice; they married and moved to Hawaii, where they raised five children, farmed and made salt from the sea. Many years later, my grandmother had this to say: "See, you told me not to marry him... and now my son is a U.S. diplomat." (My father, that is!)

What else I've been doing

I went to a meetup for writers at a local coffee house. Never tried doing that before. It was sorta like an arranged marriage... OK not really! The way it worked was, we all wrote on our own first, then got together for introductions and discussion of our writing progress. There were about ten or twelve people there & they all seem like nice folks. Not sure I super "clicked" with anybody, but it was fun & I'd definitely go back.

What's inspiring me right now

The book I'm currently reading (the one I already blabbed so much about above). A camping trip that my husband and I will be doing this weekend. And hmm, a paper bag from Chipotle that has this printed on it: "Often in life, the most important question we can ask ourselves is: do we really have the problem we think we have?" --Sheri Fink.

Wednesday writing wire - cat in the bag edition

What I'm reading

I've been a little preoccupied and haven't read a damn thing this past week other than the newspaper. I know that deserves a few writer demerits. (Ayup, I'm one of those freaks that still likes to read a physical newspaper. I also lock my house with a skeleton key.)

What I'm writing

I finished my outline for The Free City last weekend and now I'm doing actual writing! I'm working from a previous draft, but making a point not to do any cutting-and-pasting; everything's getting typed in brand new. I'm into the second chapter and so far, it's going really well. Of course, the stuff in front is the most recent and polished; I expect the going will get harder as I move into shittier-first-draft territory.

Thoughts on condensing three books (two and a half books, really, since I removed some gigantic digressions) into one volume: the trend today is towards longer and longer books, but I don't think that's my style. I'd like this book to be dense (as in lots of stuff happening in a smaller space), and paced on the faster side, more towards how a YA novel would be paced--though this is definitely for adults.

I've also brushed up the final version of a short story, The Collapsing Hills (post-apocalyptic stuff)--then discovered that all the places I want to send it are currently closed to submissions until September or beyond. They can't keep up, now that every single human being on planet Earth, and their dog,  is a writer. Yep--you, me & the rest of the rabble! Hahaha...

What else I've been doing

Ninja training. Working. Petting the cats. Exciting, I know!

What's inspiring me right now

I recently discovered the work of Katy Bowman, a biomechanical scientist (one who studies human movement). She blogs at Katy Says and also does a podcast of the same name, and is the author of several books including Every Woman's Guide to Foot Pain Relief and a brand new one called Move Your DNA which I can't wait to sink my teef into. So on her podcast she discusses  how today's humans are "casted" (which means having our movement restricted, like having your arm in a cast ) in so many ways by modern society-- sitting too much is just the tip of the iceberg. One thing she talked about which I had never heard anywhere before, was how living indoors and spending a lot of time in front of computer screens, is like putting a cast on your eyes. When you're indoors, you are only looking at things up close, or at the most 20 or 30 feet away. The long-range part of our vision isn't getting used. What does that do to our brains, to our bodies, to our perceptions of the world?

As writers, we spend an awful lot of time with our vision focused up close on computer screens or books. Not that these things are bad in themselves. But writers: don't forget to look at faraway things. Don't forget to gaze out towards the horizon--whether it's filled with buildings, trees, mountains or water. Don't forget to look at the sky.

Random cat in a bag!