Oh, Then, I See Vespiquen Hath Been With You

Posted on October 23, 2023 by erictaveren

One of the benefits of having a kid in kindergarten is the random bits of inspiration they provide. Sometimes it comes in the form of misused words. Sometimes they make a joke that makes zero sense but it hilarious to them. This time, it came from Bananagrams and Pokémon.

Last night Westley brought the kid’s Banagrams set to the table and organized all the letters and letter combinations (kid’s Bananagrams combines common letter pairings like sh and ai). He then started spelling out Pokémon. First was Ratatta, then Raticate, then Rapidash. He got through the r’s and did Sandshrew.

Here, he made sure to tell me it was a compound word, sand and shrew. The inspiration came from how he said shrew. I can’t really explain his exact tone since my mind was already headed in a different direction, but as soon as he said “shrew” my mind went to Taming of the Shrew, and then to Taming of the Sandshrew.

Now, being an English and Theatre major, Shakespeare is firmly in my realm of interests. Two of my plotted out future novels incorporate The Bard heavily, and I once considered making Shakespeare themed clothing (like women’s underwear that says “Out, Damn Spot!). I also have played Pokémon off and on since the very first games and very first cards (Tyler, if you’re reading this, I hope you kept that first edition Charizard). And I still play Pokemon Go (My 100IV maxed Tyranitar dares you to laugh). Combining the two has more than just tickled my fancy.

Since I only just started thinking about this last night, I haven’t fully mapped anything out (more about that later), but my favorite so far is The Taming of the Sandshrew. I imagine Katherine the Sandshrew being a prickly local Pokemon that all the people avoid. The most unruly Pokémon in town.

Enter Petruchio the Pokémon trainer. He loves all Pokémon and patiently trains them to be their best versions. There’ll be the back and forth you’d expect from this parody, and instead of a romance it’ll be a friendship. Throw in a tournament to keep with the Pokémon world and voilà, Taming of the Sandshrew.

A couple other thoughts that popped into my head were Macbeth in Lavender Town with Gengar as Banquo, Romeo and Juliet but Zangoose and Seviper, and A Midsummer Night’s… something, but with Jigglypuff making people fall asleep. Super fun thoughts, but also super problematic in a budding writer’s world.

As my wife was quick to point out, “there’s no way to make money off this.” There are the obvious copyright issues. Fanfic is a thing, but there’s not a not of monetization with that. And given the amount of time dedicated to getting my novel done and short fictions published, allocating time to this project might be counter productive, meaning this blog post is likely all the attention this idea will receive.

So what to do? Hopefully put a smile on the face of whoever reads this. The Venn diagram of Shakespeare readers and Pokémon players might not have significant overlap, but it’s there. Hopefully this prompts someone else to think of something clever combining the two.

Aside from that? Nothing. I’ve already come to terms with the fact that I can’t write as fast as I can come up with ideas. Since my last post I’ve plotted out two more novels, one of which could easily start a trilogy, and I probably won’t do anything with them for a decade.

Sometimes a fun idea will just end up being a fun idea. But I don’t think I’ll ever not want to see Hamlet talking to a Marowak skull.

PS: The pictures all came from MidJourney. I use it a bunch to come up for visuals for my writing since I can’t picture things myself. It’s super fun, though never give you exactly what you want. Here’s a preview image I’m using for my last short fiction piece before going back to editing the novel:

Exciting News and Other Updates

Posted on May 3, 2023 by erictaveren

Back at AWP, which seems forever ago now, I was going through the bookfair and came upon F(r)iction, a lit mag that caught my interest like none others all weekend. If they select your story, they will find an illustrator to fully illustrate your story. The magazine looks like a graphic novel. It’s amazing. Unfortunately the exciting news isn’t that I’ve been accepted there (though my story has been submitted).

F(r)iction also has an online contest they do twice a year called Dually Noted where they have a singular prompt that people write on each week and each week they publish a winner. The stories have to be less than 500 words. The prompt this round is “god sends out a resignation letter”. I don’t have a ton of experience writing flash, but I thought “why not?” and wrote a story. And they picked it!

A Divine Appointment is about Heavenly HR worker Winston and a particularly bad day at HR HQ. It’s a quick read, so I’ll let you see what happens.

Now for other updates.

This week I had my last class this semester for my MFA. The class was all about POV. You all know the basics of what first, second, and third are, and perhaps you’ve heard of collective and omniscient and objective. It’s all that and more. Infinite possibilities as my professor Sheila O’Conner says.

The end of class is nice in that I’ll get some more free time to write, both on projects and on this blog, but is sad for a couple of reasons. One, no more weekly meeting with fun classmates. Two, Sheila is retiring.

I had her for Novel Class as well as POV, and she’s just super smart and insightful and it’s going to be perpetually drearier on campus without her.

With class done, I’ve decided this summer to focus on short fictions. To get some publications under my belt. I’ve only submitted off and on the last couple years as I’ve written things for class or been inspired, and a 2/20 acceptance rate isn’t the worst. But there are grants and fellowships out there that care about publications, so I’ll be working on that.

On Sunday I submitted a fantasy origin story of sorts for a character I’m planning an eight-book arc for. Today I started outlining a sci-fi romance with a hint of espionage. Next on the docket after that will be re-tooling a literary fiction short I wrote a few years back now that I’ve got some more tools in my belt. One every other week might be too optimistic, but any goal is better than no goal.

Before I sign off, if there are any writing subjects, or not writing for that matter, that you’d like me to talk about, feel free to let me know. The level of expertise may vary, but I’ll try to engage in whatever way I can.

I hope you enjoyed the story above.

Until next time.

PS: Because it’s cute… our new puppy.

AWP 2023

Posted on March 7, 2023 by erictaveren

Way back in 1990 my family moved from the middle of nowhere North Dakota to a Seattle suburb. I grew up there and then went to college in Minnesota where I ended up settling down. Of course there have been trips to Seattle to visit family, but this marks the first time I’ve come back home without family being the impetus.

For those who haven’t heard of it, AWP (Association of Writers & Writing Programs) holds a conference each year and each year a different city hosts it. This year it happens to be in Seattle and so of course I’ll have to work in some family time too (I’ve a new niece not even three months old to see).

AWP has two main parts: the conference, stuffed full of so many panels you’ll never be able to attend all the ones you want, and the book fair, is “the nation’s largest marketplace for independent literary presses and journals, creative writing programs, writing conferences and centers, and literary arts organizations” that’ll blow every other book fair you’ve been to out of the water. In particular I’ll be searching out the Hamline MFA as well as the Great Weather for Media booths as I’ve got a vested interest in each of them.

As for the panels, hopefully my brain doesn’t explode. Here’s the crazy list of sessions I’ll be attending:

Writing about Culture and Place: Techniques for Vibrant and Ethical Worldbuilding
Reading at 24 Frames Per Second: Exploring Cinematic Influence on Literature
Demystifying the Application: Fellowships, Residencies, and Grants
Minding the Gaps and Mining Landscape in Linked Short Story Collections
How to Craft Enthralling Science Stories
The Sentence Is the Story: Reading, Writing, and Revising for Style and Sound
Nine Memorable Moments: Constructing Compelling Characters for the Screen
Filling in the Gaps: Folklore as Antidote to Forgetting
The Twenty-First Century Horror Novel
The Twist: Plot Turns That Make Movie Magic
Conjuring Thisness in Fiction: The Palpable Art of the Particular
Giving Helpful Feedback
Breaking Up with Shame: Writing Romance for Young Adults
Writing the Monster
Playwriting 101: Accessing Emotional Honesty in Storytelling

As you can see there’s quite the variety there. Obviously I’m interested in speculative content, but there revision and business sessions as well because like it or not those are part of the game. I don’t know exactly what I’ll get out of each session, but I’ll be taking copious notes for both my writing friends as well as MFA classmates to spread all that I learn.

I’ll sign off for now (I’m writing in the the hotel room and need to head out to meet up with someone attending AWP), but if you happen to be at AWP give me a holler.

Draft One Complete

Posted on November 30, 2022 by erictaveren

So it’s been a while since my last post… I’ve got to try and make this more of a habitual thing. Whenever I forget to do something my wife asks what the point of the fancy Apple Watch on wrist is if I can’t even set reminders. We’ll see how this goes.

But for the exciting news bring me back: I finished the first draft of my novel yesterday. Yes, nine months into it (with breaks for childcare in the summer and from a literally break of my arm) I’ve finished the draft.

Without giving too much away, the genre is something that I’ve never seen done before, nor have people I’ve talked about it with. That being said, my next step is to read a bunch of genre adjacent books before my re-write. Hopefully I’ll see fun strategies as well as things to avoid.

On the list is The Aeronaut’s Windlass, The Steampunk Trilogy, Boneshaker, The Difference Engine, Infernal Devices, Homunculus, and The Anubis Gates. I’ll probably follow that up with Fairy Tale because Stephen King. Coincidentally enough, I’m just finishing with The Lost Metal, which isn’t too far removed from genre as well. Fingers crossed the re-write will go swimmingly.

That’s it for this week’s update (yes, I’m going to try weekly), stay tuned for more.