Twas the week before Christmas...

So seriously, if I was going to write the list of things yet to do I'd still be here at Christmas, writing.  So just little short takes tonight-- some stuff that may be of interest to you...

*  Re: The newsletter. It's a learning curve. Everybody who's entered their name for the newsletter by Dec. 26th should be getting one on January 2nd (or thereabouts-- Ambrosia is in Atlanta for Christmas so things are very long distance.)  If you entered your name on the page on my website, you'll get a notice on that page immediately that says you're entered--so don't panic. The names have to be entered by hand and it's Ambrosia's baby-- she'll get to it. (She's the one with the OTHER baby, the adorable one that shows up on my blog from time to time ;-)

*  Watch this space and my social media--I wrote a lovely sized ficlet for Dex and Kane and Christmas--it's going to show up on LITERARY ESCAPISM sometime in the next week!

*  So, Mate and I went shopping on Friday--and we did accomplish something, but we also had a little bit of fun.

Because Mate.

*  We went shopping this morning with Squish and Zoomboy and dropped a load of cash at Hot Topic. The worst part of that was wandering through Hot Topic going, "Oooh... gonna get this and this and this..." and then turning around to one of the kids going, "So, Mom, what are you getting?"

This was usually met with "AUGH YOU SUCK!"

"But why? Why do we suck?"

"Never mind. Walk away from the Pusheen and Overwatch sections. Now."


*  Also, while in line at Hot Topic, someone behind me said, "You're Amy, right?"  It was Mate's cousin, whom we hadn't seen in years.

So that was fun, and she's lovely and grown up. Like, a real grownup. I mean she was three when we met, but that was thirty years ago.

*  The dogs were feeling neglected today, and I didn't realize how much until I sat down to write and Geoffie started to headbutt my knee. She has to jump in the air to do this, so it usually means she wants something.

I thought she wanted a dog snack.

What she really wanted was for me to pick her up and lavish attention upon her as she deserves.

Of course she does.

* I'm crocheting a simple area rug with a yarn made of fabric selvage (called Fettuccine by Lion Brand) and I thought I'd share cause it's coming out sorta cool.


* Yes, we saw the movie. THE movie. And I refuse to give spoilers, but I am going to voice an observation I made.

After the movie the question came up about character sacrifice.  Now this can apply to any movie, really so again, no spoilers.

But the person I was talking to was complaining that the sacrifice didn't have to happen because they could have done this or this or this instead and even if they didn't know if it would work as well as the sacrifice they could have tried.

And I found myself getting really passionate about arguing against this until Mate had to calm me down, and then he asked me why this bothered me so much.

And what I came up with was this, which I posted on Twitter:

For people who continuously search for plotholes as a reason for a character to not make a sacrifice, you are missing the meaning of what character IS. You can't technicality your way out of the Kobayashi Maru. You have to face it, or it isn't the Kobayashi Maru.

And I think we should all thank Star Trek for the Kobayashi Maru reference, because both timelines made us think about this in a really excellent way.

It's just that finding tiny plotholes as a reason a character sacrifice didn't have to happen is looking at storytelling in a really superficial way.  The best stories are universal, which means the plot vehicles that carry our characters to the universal choices are inconsequential. What matters is that EVERY SOUL can identify with the most basic of human dilemmas. To invalidate that choice because HooHa X doesn't necessarily work with HooHa Y and the Squirliedoo could be jimmyrigged into a Whoosiwhatsit is to completely overlook the fact that someday WE might have to make a decision in which we put the needs of the future generation--or even a person we love--over our own powerful self-interest.

And that making that sacrifice needs to be worth it, and it's our job to choose well.

Anyway... my thing to think about.

And I was going to go on, but hey, long enough already!

I'll DEFINITELY let you know when Dex is posted :-)

Amy