When characters take on a life of their own...

I have been speaking to an agent (squee) about my WIP Misbegotten and he strongly suggested I put together a biography of my main character--paracrimes journalist Kira Simkins. I had bits and pieces of her in folders and files and notebooks and sticky pads, but when I started pulling it all together, I realized that she had taken on a life of her own. I invented two true crime books for her and Joy Sillensen, my go-to-gal for covers, whipped up a couple of dummy covers for me.
I like the covers so much that at some point, I might actually write the books that go along with the covers. 
I never actually intended for my paranormal Los Angeles to be the setting of so much of my fiction. Kira was just a character I conjured up for a story I wrote for John Donald Carlucci's Astonishing Adventures Magazine.
There's a comfort zone there, though. I've lived in Los Angeles longer than I have lived anywhere else in my life--though for an Army brat who moved every year as a child, that's not much of a boast. My first job here was working at Los Angeles Magazine at the same time I was a cityside reporter for the now-defunct L.A. Weekly.  I know my adopted city and am inspired by it every time I leave the apartment. Putting the magical overlay on top of the city amuses me, and the settings I use the most often--Griffith Observatory, Hollywood, Malibu Creek Park--have a magic of their own even in their mundane state. 
When Patricia Cornwell first started writing her Kay Scarpetta stories, she disguised details of the Richmond, Virginia setting. (They were thinly disguised and it was easy to pick out the neighborhoods where the crimes were taking place.) By her second book, Cornwall's depiction of the city was so accurate a reader who found herself stranded in the city would not have needed a road map to get to downtown, where the Medical College of Virginia (location of the morgue) is located.
I can think of other writers who have picked a city and made it their own--from Matthew Funk's New Orleans stories to the adventures of Janet Evanovich's quintessential Jersey Girl Stephanie Plum.
I'm curious--how often do other writers return to a favorite city? Is it their own city or a place they consider their spiritual home town?  Do they ever set a story in a particular city but leave it anonymous?

The Summer of Shakespeare is coming!

I am newly excited about the bard. And a conversation I had with a friend has  fired me up. He's never read one of the plays and believes he's not the poorer for it. A screenwriter, he is full of suggestions where Will could "show not tell" in filmed productions of his plays. He says when he goes to a Shakespeare movie  it's like listening to a foreign language and he needs subtitles.
He is convinced that no one in high school even studies Shakespeare any more and that "things have changed since you were in school."  (He's only five years younger than I am, so you can imagine how well that comment went over!)  He said listening to me talk about the beauty and the richness of Shakespeare's  language gave him new appreciation for the geeks who love to learn Klingon. 
He is convinced that I am operating with a different set of cultural references than most people and even when I pointed out that practically every single news article on the Nicole Brown Simpson/Ronald Goldman murder referenced Othello somewhere, stood firm.
"Why do you think William Shakespeare is the greatest English writer?" 
I told him why but didn't convince him.
So, I started thinking about the question. I started thinking about how falling in love with Shakespeare informed my writing and enriched my life.  And the result is going to be a summer long obsession with Shakespeare.  No matter what else I post, there's going to be a whole lot of shak3-spearing goin' on.  Hope you can join me.

Patti Abbott's Drabble Contest

Over at her blog, Patti Abbott has posed a challenge--write a drabble using one of several photographs for inspiration. (A drabble is a story that is complete in exactly 100 words, a fiendish literary form.) The links to the entries are posted at Pattinase, check out the others.

Here's mine.

Image of Unknown Cultural Artifact

The T’andoor’ii explorers had not thought it likely they would encounter any standing structures remaining in the explora-zone, so they were thrilled when they came across a ruined building that still had an intact roof.

There was much debate about the purpose of the building, which was too large to be a single-family dwelling but too small to contain a whole community. The youngest of the explorers suggested it might be some sort of house of worship but his-her suggestion was dismissed. From what the explorers knew of the dead civilization they were studying, it had been a godless one.

A Tempest in a Multi-plex

Christopher Plummer conjures a tempest

I have a friend who has season's tickets to a series of filmed entertainments (concerts, plays, operas) running one and two-night only at the local multiplex. Last night he treated me to a filmed performance of The Tempest staged by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival with Christopher Plummer as Prospero.  I don't know if this is a one-time only thing (the Festival's site notes that the movie will be playing on June 14, and no other dates) but if you love Shakespeare, you owe it to yourself to hunt this production down.
The Tempest is my favorite of Shakespeare's plays. I love the spectacle of it--the sea storm, the fanciful interpretations of Ariel and Caliban, the fabulous language. "You really  like this play don't you?" my friend said, which was my first clue I was saying some of the lines out loud along with the actors.
Christopher Plummer is the best Prospero I've ever seen and I've seen some Prosperos. Anthony Hopkins played the role here in L.A. opposite Stephanie Zimbalist as Miranda. Ellis Rabb starred in a production he also directed at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego. The set, I remember, was a beach with several huge seashells scattered about. Rabb played the magician in a very patrician manner that was interesting but not engaging. Plummer's performance was ... magical. 

Soelistyo and Plummer plot

I was a little leery of the idea of a filmed play--I've seen some really static ones. And in the opening storm sequence, the sound was really muffled and muddy, which made my heart sink. But once everyone was on the island, those technical issues faded away. And let's just say, filming a play has come a long way since the days my father was recording that production of The Fantasticks from half a mile away in a school gymnasium.
The Tempest was part of the Stratford's season a few years ago (I think Plummer did King Lear last year) and I've always wanted to  go up there for a week and see as many productions as I can. This season they're doing Henry V, everybody's favorite history play, Much Ado About Nothing (my favorite comedy) and Cymbeline, which I can't even remember, although I know I read it.
This version of The Tempest was directed by Des McAnuff.
I really liked McAnuff's conception of Ariel. The tricksy spirit was played by tiny (4'10") Julyana Soelistyo  whose naughty giggle was a reminder that spirits aren't human and find different things funny. (McAnuff definitely played up the humor in the text and made the most of the subplot involving Caliban and the two comic drunkards, Trinculo and Stephano.)
Geraint Wyn Davies played Stephano and he was so hilarious I wish I'd seen him playing Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream when it played in rep. If you caught his turn as  pompous Shakespearean actor Henry Breedlove on the wonderful show Slings and Arrows, you have some idea of what he can do.  The man was born to speak Shakespeare and not everyone in the company was up to his and Plummer's level. (The young woman playing Miranda, for instance, sounded like she'd learned her lines phonetically at times.)
I haven't seen the Julie Taymore version of The Tempest starring Helen Mirren, but now I have to go track it down. Because really, can you think of a better way to spend a few hours?

One picure is worth a thousand words

This has been floating around the blogosphere. Not sure where it came from, or I'd tell you, but seems appropriate to post it here on Feminist Fiction Friday.

Happy Birthday Rob!

It's my brother's birthday. I hate that he's 3000 miles away and I can't bake him a cake. And razzing him about his age is not as much fun on email as it is in person.

Feminist Fiction Friday--bits and pieces

There's still time to get in on Patti Abbott's "drabble contest." She supplies the prompts, you write a story in exactly 100 words.

Huzzah--Gillian Flynn has a new book out. Gone Girl. About a marriage gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Coming at the end of the month is a debut novel called The Age of Miracles by  Karen Thompson Walker. It's a combinatin of science fiction, thriller and coming of age story. 

in July, there will be another entry in Tana French's excellent Dublin Murder Squad series. It's called Broken Harbor.