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Introducing…Athena Voltaire!

31 Aug

This isn’t exactly “writing” stuff (more like inspiration), but…yesterday I was trying to hunt down this movie that, several years back, I saw either a trailer of or movie stills for (at least I thought I did) which involved either a Chinese or Japanese spy around the WWII era (I know! I can’t remember which)…and she was wearing this pilot helmet, and…that’s all I remember.

Not much to go on, I know.  That’s why I couldn’t find it!  (If it even exists.)

But that’s okay–because I accidentally came across something infinitely more amazing!

She’s a pilot, she’s handy with a pistol, she can kick some Nazi butt… Who is this chick?

Introducing: Athena Voltaire!

Athena Voltaire started out as an online web comic which, after earning a nomination for an Eisner Award and becoming a big success, carried over into print (available here).  In the creator Steve Bryant‘s own words during a Critical Mess interview in 2010, “Athena Voltaire is a book about a 1930s globetrotting aviatrix who fights Nazis and supernatural creatures. That’s the book in a nutshell.”  It was inspired by the likes of James Bond and Indiana Jones, as well as the real-life aviatrix Florence Lowe “Poncho” Barnes, and is described as a pulp adventure.  (Originally she was to be a space ranger, though I, for one, am glad for the change.)

Seriously, what’s not to love!  (Okay, she is portrayed as an obvious feast-for-the(-male)-eyes with a cleavacious 36-24-36 figure, but the concept is cool enough that I can get over this.)

You can check out some of the comics here (just click the images to progress through the story).  To learn more about the comics and the illustrator, check out these interviews on Westfield Comics and The Mighty Crusaders Network, as well as Bryant’s own blog.  (Interested but don’t feel like reading?  Well, check out this MTV Geek! video interview with Bryant instead.)

Lastly, here is a teaser video for Athena Voltaire: Flight of the Falcon when it first came out in ’06:

And if you really love it, you can even “like” it on Facebook. :)

In The Meantime…

I should get back to editing.  Though, coming across this while working on a rough spot in the manuscript was pretty inspirational.  A reminder of the kind of thing I’m working towards: good, old-fashioned adventurous fun.  Complemented by moments of introspective character study, of course.  I enjoy a bit of both.  (I also came across some really cool information about earlier aircraft models as well as modern-day fixed-wing VTOL aircraft, but…I won’t go into that.)

How About You All?

Have you come across anything recently that has inspired you with ideas or just provided that bit extra motivation you needed to push through something that wasn’t working out?

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So I’m Supposed To Post Today….

29 Jun

…and I almost forgot, lol.

I got an email this morning telling me, “Hey, we can’t award your diploma yet because you haven’t met the requirements–surprise!”

WTH are you people talking about???  I went over my req’s forwards and backwards with my advisor and you have my transcripts, so what’s the deal?

I think this may be another case of “we changed the course req’s again at the last minute without telling you,” which has happened before.  And the fact that I’ve been enrolled in three different colleges/universities and have transfer credits out the wazoo doesn’t help; it only complicates things.  My usual advisor is out-of-town, so I had to talk to a general advisor.  Hopefully she can tell what’s what and we can get this ironed out.

Way to start off the day: stressed and mildly depressed.

But I’m not going to sully this blogging experience anymore.  I do have something that’s potentially useful to some that I can share today.

Life in the Early 1900s

I was editing this scene yesterday where my protagonist is having a phone conversation, and I realized that I was making some general assumptions about the way telephones worked in the late 1930s, which is the era I’m deriving a lot of my worldbuilding inspiration from (both American and European).  I just wanted to double-check myself (and ended up spending way more time than I needed to looking into 1930s telephones in general).

Rare Vintage Western Electric 202 Phone. Posted by user laushustell on Ebay.

Anyhow, I came across a really neat site called 1900s.org.uk where a woman by the name of Pat Cryer shares her mother’s recollections of life in London during the early 1900s.  She mentions so many little details that I feel just really bring that city to life while reading about it on the page.  I was quite ecstatic when I discovered this, haha, because I’ve never been able to find this kind of information before.  Additionally, I found another site with vintage clips and footage called archive.org.

Since I’m a very curious little monkey and just couldn’t resist, I wanted to compare this to life in America, as well, so I got a book called (and it’s a long title): Daily Life in the United States, 1920-1940: How Americans Lived Through the Roaring Twenties and the Great Depression.  Anyway, I just bought it yesterday with my free two-day shipping through Amazon, so it should be here by tomorrow.  (Yeah, I could have it now if I were an e-book reader, though I’ve discovered there are certain things I just must have–with actual physical pages.  I like to highlight and underline and make copies and notes or whatever, basically just use my hands and have a direct connection to whatever I’m engaging in.  It just isn’t the same on the computer, for some reason.  I guess it’s just a tactile/kinesthetic learning thing–which makes sitting down for hours on end to write/edit a novel kind of challenging for me, actually.)

That’s the thing about doing research: there are different levels you can go into.  Some things I’ve researched more than others in my story, and others I kind of take what I need/want and just say “what the hey!” to the rest.  I guess at the end of the day it simply comes down to whether I’m satisfied with what I’ve written.  If I see a way to improve something, I’m going to improve it or else it’ll bug me till Kingdom come.  (Though, admittedly, seeing room for improvement and nitpicking are two different things…)

So yes, maybe this is all a bit OC of me, considering I’m writing secondary world fantasy, but I do care about whether there were dial and ring tones on telephones in the late 1930s and whether speaking to an operator was always necessary to place a call. (And maybe that kind of thinking is why I’ll never finish this book!)

J/K.  I will.  I’m going to.  You’ll see.

[Quick update: I just got a call from the advisor, and they totally just fixed my problem--yay!  Diploma's on the way, at last.]

So anyway, I wonder what you folks have been up to recently?

Making headway on your projects?  Encountering any speed bumps?  And bonus, if you’re bold enough: do you think I am maybe just a little bit crazy?  (Or normal–for a writer, anyway.  I’ll take that, too.)

Yesterday I got pretty distracted, to be honest, so today I plan to do better.  (If there’s one downside to having to type up and edit your manuscript on a laptop with Wi-Fi access, it’s that the Internet is always riiiiiight by your side… But oh!  Aren’t the discoveries wonderful? ;) )

P.S.: the random patch of light grey text at the beginning is…yeah, not intentional.

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Chiaroscuro: What Edward Hopper, Film Noir & Interwar American Literature Have in Common

5 May Hopper-1942-Nighthawks3

Nighthawks.  Edward Hopper, 1942.

Gee, I’m just on an art kick this week!  (Sorry, no post yesterday.  Busy day.)

I’ve been looking at some more art and remembered an American artist I learned about in school a few years ago: Edward Hopper.  And then a million thoughts started floating around in my head, which happens a lot when I’m browsing the internet.  Though, a couple of words and phrases kept popping up: black and white, stark, depression, momentary blindness, and chiaroscuro.

In order for me to make sense of the word soups my brain sometimes generates I either have to (a) talk myself through it, or (b) write myself through it.

Today, I feel like I’ve got to write my way through it.  Let’s see if I can’t make sense of this.

First, let’s define a term that may or may not be widely understood.

Chiaroscuro

Etymology: From Italian, from chiaro (clear, light) + oscuro (obscure, dark).  From Answers.com.

Chiaroscuro is an artistic technique in which the artist uses a stark contrast of bright lighting effects in combination with areas of deep shades.  It makes for an interestingly bold effect and lends itself well to both photography and cinematography (B&W especially) and other mediums, to be sure.  Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange is famous for her “stark” photographs (though not necessarily chiaroscuro):

 Here’s a famous example of chiaroscuro in a B&W film:

I think Edward Hopper used it fairly often in his work, as well–like in Nighthawks above.  Here are some other examples:

 Okay, now on to why I’m writing about any of this. Stark Opposition: Understanding the World through a “Black & White Lens”…So to Speak The world is clearly not black and white, but I find it difficult to understand without at first filtering it through this approach.  I think of the story of Adam and Eve and have wondered what it might have been like to never known sin, or that which was not deemed “good.” Complete innocence and ignorance.  (In their case, ignorance was bliss…until they sought out knowledge, right?) To understand the value and meaning of good, you must first be exposed to that which is not, and I don’t think Adam or Eve understood this so clearly as the moment they ate from the Tree. It moments like this that are so stark in the human experience, so clear in one’s memory, that they forever define the way a person looks at the world. You are almost blinded by the contrast between what you once knew and what you know now.  They are particularly powerful experiences. In a flash of a bright light you are momentarily blinded; it is impossible to perceive shades of grey during that time. I think this is what chiaroscuro is all about: capturing moments of stark (first) impressions–truths in their most naked forms.  Only, as a viewer, when you experience it in a painting as opposed to real-time media you actually get a still snapshot of the moment and therefore have ample time to really process it and consider any “grey” aspects in the artwork, as with Hopper’s Nighthawks (why does it seem so empty there?)–though, you do still experience that “momentary blindness” at first sight because you can’t take everything in all at once (and this is true with any complex, multi-layered piece). I happened to write most of these thoughts up to this point in a moment of ”stark impressions,” but as it settles in (and as I edit this) I find I want to explore those shades of grey as it pertains to fiction. Can Chiaroscuro Be Achieved in Literature? I think so. The Great Depression (or even just depressing themes) made an excellent backdrop for the practice of chiaroscuro in literature, thematically especially.  Two novels that inevitably come to mind, here, are The Great Gatsby and The Grapes of Wrath.  At one moment in The Great Gatsby Nick Carraway was looking forward to life in the big city; look how that turned out.  (Edit: I should acknowledge that this book wasn’t set during the Great Depression, but you still got this feeling of something rotten and corrupt happening in the city, a feeling of ruin and grit with references to ash, etc.  It was depressing, in a way.)  Similarly, in The Grapes of Wrath it started out as, ”We’re going to California–yahoo!”  Though, that excitement soon dissipated once they arrived and took in the reality of the “opportunities” out west. Blind, or perhaps just innocent, optimism (chiaro), met with stark reality (oscuro)…followed by disillusionment (grey–or grigio, as it is in Italian, according to Wiktionary, haha). I think another way to apply “chiaroscuro” in literature is using foils.  What better way to show the difference between good and evil than to have characters which personify both in complementary ways?  You can also have a chiaroscuro of setting versus context, where the setting reflects an opposite atmosphere or mood to what is actually happening in the story (a happy couple out on the town, having a pleasant stroll when two violent thugs come out of nowhere–an experience they’ll always remember afterwards); or a chiaroscuro of character (an ongoing internal struggle between two desires met with a moment in which the character is forced out of their “grey” understanding and expected to take a decisive stand). Of course, it could be executed literally, narrating how certain objects or persons are in shade and how others are illuminated in bright or harsh light.  (A nefarious interrogation room, anyone?)  It could also be accomplished with the clashing of themes: life versus death, hope versus despair, sanity versus insanity, truth versus lies… In the end, it’s about dichotomies: exploring the relationship between opposites and their effects on everything they touch.  It’s just one way to look at conflicts in stories. In any case, I do think chiaroscuro works best when darker, more serious themes are being used, but it doesn’t necessarily have to end on a negative note.  You could have a story that focuses mostly on despair and ends on an up-note, for example.  Switch things around. Why I’m Drawn to These Things As I mentioned, sometimes I have trouble understanding certain things unless I can compare them to their exact opposites.  “This is a boy; this is a girl.” “Ah…” Not that I’ve ever had trouble understanding the difference there, though if I were, say, a sexless alien I might have trouble grasping this simple concept until I saw it with my own eyes. I think as children we learn a lot this way.  “This is good; this is bad.”  Only difference is now that I’m older I don’t always say “okay” but sometimes, “Why?” *sighs* Yeah.  Life was much simpler as a kid.  There wasn’t a whole lot of room for greys.  Though, I’m pretty sure life would be boring if it were all black and white. So anyways… No writing prompt.  Not sure what I’d ask, to be honest.  Comments are still welcome, though, if you have any.

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Interwar Pilot Finds & the Psychology of Leather

16 Apr

I have to warn you, folks: Today I have no insights into the writing process, only interwar period finds and musings on the possible mentalities of some of the earliest airplane pilots in history.

So I was doing some random browsing on the internet the other day…

…as is my idle habit at times, and came across these photographs of a French leather flight helmet from the interwar period (1918-1939).  I think they’re simply beautiful:

French Airaile flight helmet from the Interwar period (1918-1939). Source: militaryheadgear.com

 

French Airaile flight helmet from the Interwar period (1918-1939). Source: militaryheadgear.com

Idk, there’s just something about leather, folks.

…Whaaa?  What is this?  Why are we talking about leather?

People, I love leather.  Let me tell you: I’ve got three pairs of leather boots, a sweet leather jacket, leather belts, several leather purses and handbags…and yes, even leather gloves to top off the collection.

Brazilian leather boots--bought during a ridiculous clearance, of course! (They look black here, but they're actually a dark green.)

Do I wear them all at once?  Of course not.  That would be silly.

>_>

(I don’t wear them often, though.  The boots, I mean.  I get the “are you a model?” question when I do, and sometimes with my jacket, as well.  And since I don’t model, it’s kind of annoying because people don’t believe me!  lol)

The Psychology of Leather

What is it about leather that makes certain folks go batty for it?

They say it’s a symbol of masculinity and power.  So what, does that make women who wear it power-hungry?

Maybe.

Maybe it’s just that being wrapped up tight in leather can make you feel all warm and comfortable and safe–invincible, even.

Maybe it’s a little of all these things, and something more.

For some, like me, you could say it’s almost a kind of fetish–not in the weird, kinky way that I’m sure Western society has ingrained into many minds.  (Okay, this is getting weird…)  Just a particularly strong liking for it.  Perhaps even in the mystical way that it is imbued with superpowers.  (Why else would a leather suit be associate with superhero status?)  And wouldn’t you know, it’s just one other thing that’s leaked over to my heroine and will pop up in my writing every now and then.

I can’t help it.  Leather–real, organic animal hide–is a beautiful material.  Plus, it just feels good.

It’s a quality thing.  Maybe it’s even a little bit primal.  It’s stylish, classic…and even when worn down by time, it remains timeless.

Maybe you understand; maybe you don’t.  (Though, I’m not-so-secretly hoping you do!)

I betchya Amelia Earhart understood it very well, as she was sometimes clad in it:

Amelia Earhart in Newfoundland (1928). From Topical Press Agency/Getty Images.

I could only imagine how good it must feel for a pilot to pull a nice snug, leather flying cap onto his/her head. *sighs* It makes me wonder how Amelia felt in her flying gear.

The Psychology of Individual Articles

Here’s what I think: Hats, leather or otherwise, can make you feel safe; so can a leather jacket.  The jacket can also give you a sense of assuredness, that things will turn out all right.  Gloves (I’m guessing Amelia wore some while flying) are kind of an official statement; they say, “I’m ready to take on this mission put before me.”

And the boots…well, those just finish it all off, don’t they?  A good tug on those laces and you’re set to go.  If anything is a sign of power, a message that “I can do anything,” it’s a good pair of knee-high leather boots.  (Thigh-high?  Well, there’s a difference between “check me out” and “pick me up.”  The difference is but inches.)

Of course, there’s a practical side to all that gear: It protected pilots who flew in open cockpits from brisk winds.  Even so, leather on its own is simply amazing.

Enough about leather!  What about flying?

Well, what about it?  Closest I’ve been to planes are airliners, and I obviously didn’t get to play pilot.  And I won’t be hopping into the cockpit of a biplane any time soon.  In the meantime, I will be checking out this nifty little flight simulator (probably after I graduate and have some more time to get lost in it).  See how that goes.

This game has been around for a while now, but that won’t keep me from trying it.  Here’s the blurb about it off Microsoft’s website:

The year is 1937. The United States has shattered under the combined weight of the Great Depression, regional Prohibition and mounting isolationism. The transcontinental railroad and the budding highway system have become useless as they now cross hostile borders. Commerce and trade leave the ground as air travel now becomes a vital lifeline connecting allied countries — and a national obsession — while daring air pirates and valiant air militias battle for control of the skies. Giant zeppelins crisscross the skies, carrying both passengers and cargo. It is a time of gunship diplomacy and airship piracy. It is the age of the fighter pilot and a time of daredevil adventure and sinister intrigue. It is the world of Crimson Skies…

I mean, why wouldn’t you want to play something like that?

The game’s plane models are more advanced than I was looking for, but oh well.  Still looks like fun.  Too bad this isn’t on the Xbox 360, as that’s how I like to roll…

Oh, snap–they’ve got it on the regular ol’ Xbox!  It’s a date.

Okay, so before I go…there’s actually one other little reason why I think leather is amazing:

Introducing U.S. Air Mail pilot William C. “Wild Bill” Hopson--striking a cocky pose before a flight from Omaha to Chicago in 1921. Source: Amazons link to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: An Autobiography.

Bottom line: There is nothing like a man in a suit.

Note to self: one day I’ve got to base a character off that man…

(Okay, you know how they say not to judge a book by its cover?   Well, I confess: I am 100% guilty of doing this.  The first time I encountered “Wild Bill” was in Mavericks of the Sky: The First Daring Pilots of the U.S. Air Mail, and I probably picked up the book because he was smack-dab on the cover–entirely pwning the cover, to be sure.  But really, I promise: It was a wonderful book!  Lots of insights into the dangers that pioneer pilots faced when scouting out the first airmail routes.  Those folks were crazy-brave.)

So, I guess the real question is: Does anyone else have an insatiable craving for leather, or am I just weird?

Or maybe it isn’t leather for you.  Maybe it’s fluffy pink things.  Or white tennis shoes you can’t stand to get dirty.  Or…maybe you’re just normal.  That’s cool, too.

I guess. :P

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