July 13-6: All Star Break

I've been so busy.

Most of my busy time was creative. I kept thinking of Neil Gaiman's annual New Year's instruction: "Don't forget to make some art." There may not be any words to report for the past few days, but art was made.

The stripes are gone.

The hallway was primed

and then painted feather gray.

The hallway looks enormous now - and I can decorate it for the first time.
That means shopping. Yes!

I like it. It's mellow.

The bathroom, a rich chocolate brown that borders on a deep #2, has been mocking me since I built this house. It will soon be wolf gray, two shades darker than the hallway's color. You can see a slice of the bathroom wall through the door on the right in the "after" picture. For me, my house is a palette. Rethinking and redecorating is art.

Also, I burned through a set of AA batteries in my mouse (recharged overnight) as I fulfilled a commitment for two other artsy projects. It was 13 hours over two days of hunching over the computer and right hand crampiness, but they're done. Shutterfly photobooks are on their way.

While busy with these other creative projects, I had time to think through two nagging Summer of Kings problems.

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The first problem is romance.

Although there are lots of potential hook ups within my cadre of characters, I don't want this to be a "getting a boyfriend" story. Plus, I want to pass the Bechdel Test. Because real life.

So the question that swirled around in my head as I was rolling on paint and tearing off tape and making 6000 mouse clicks was this: Can a book about high school girls without romance as the central goal and driving force even exist?

I have little patience for Twilight-type stories which posit that life without "the one" is worthless. Not that Meyer invented the meme. And not that I don't enjoy romance. I adore Austen. I blissfully read an old Jude Devereaux paperback one afternoon last week. Romance is wonderful. Still, I do think books about teen girls (and even boys, thanks to John Green) lean toward "how to get a partner" overall and over all. Even when they deliberately present something else, here comes... Peeta. And Gale.

Teenage girls do have boys on the brain. It's a biological imperative. But I think a lot of those obsessive thoughts are also self-worth related (thanks to a culture of "life without 'the one' is worthless" on television, especially). Gals think, "Having a boyfriend proves I am worthy of love." And conversely, "Without a partner, I am rubbish."

Meanwhile, books about boys may have secondary plots that are romance related, but so many of them are allowed to be about other things. Friendship. Survival. Ethics. Following a dream. Success. Relationships with a parent. Their girls usually show up as tower princesses, mostly motive/prize. These are not new thoughts. I've read Campbell. I've read Woolf.

So...

As I was completing my art these past few days, I spent a lot of time thinking through the books I teach, the books I've read, and books being read by teens these days. I also spent a lot of time imagining different roles -- roles other than potential love interest -- for the main male characters in my story.

I finally figured out exactly who two of the main male characters need to be. They already had names. Now they have purpose. And that purpose is NOT to fall in love with Sarah.

I think.

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The second problem I had was related to theme.

I'm in the writer zone. Everywhere I look, everything I do, it all seems symbolic.

e.g. Oh, I'm using my left hand to weed this garden plot. My left hand works better than my right, as it is weaker and pulls the weeds more slowly. I have a better chance of pulling up the weeds by the roots if I'm patient. Or slow. Or simply weak. That works with people, too. An older person (principal) who blusters into a situation and pulls at a problem (unruly student) with his or her "right hand" (yelling, punishment) will only break off the problem. It'll grow back. It is the softer, weaker "left-handed" solution (talking out why the misbehavior occurred, alternative punishments) that truly solves the problem.

This thinking is useful and entertaining. I enjoy making mental leaps. It is also dangerous. Without fetter, it leads to garbage. See: the stupid windblown plastic bag in American Beauty.

I have a long list of possible symbol and theme ideas. Until yesterday, I didn't know which one was dominant. I suspected none of them were. Most importantly, I didn't see how any of them related to my title. Once I figured out "V.S." and how he fits into the whole story, I found my thematic direction. It turns out he's the key to it all (the mystery, the rising conflict/complication, the climax of the story).

Drum roll...

This will be a book about power.

Side note: I'm currently reading Wolf Hall (about power in Henry VIII's England) and Brutal (about power in a high school). Accidental good timing.