I wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving amid the people who love you most!

Because it is the season of thankfulness as well as the kick-off of the traditionally recognized annual big-gift-giving event, it's time to think about others, and this week here on the blog we're sharing our favorite charities. Here are mine, and why: 

1.)  Veterans of Foreign Wars

I used to be a barmaid at my local VFW. I'm also a lifetime member. Many nights, I've kept the beers flowing while these men who served our country regale the crowd with their tales. Fewer nights, I've served a glass of something harder while someone stared into their glass trying to force some awful image that seemed stuck in their mind's eye. I've seen a vet of the Iraq War who turned to heroine. I've seen men who served and came home safe seemingly unscathed...then lost their whole family to random stateside tragedies, yet they have found a way to carry on despite an ache that will never abate. I've helped vets get their ties and medals just right before a parade, and I've seen a Korean War vet (1950-3) sing karaoke.

Also, the VFW has a variety of community outreach programs and scholarships. Supporting the VFW is supporting good people in your own community.

2.)  Any Animal Rescue / No Kill Shelter

A friend of mine who passed away years ago had a cat shelter. She actively trapped feral cats, got them spayed or neutered and re-released them if they were not tamable. She also took other housecats and worked to find them good homes. I had one such cat come into my life for a while. He was a gray tabby with six toes, a mitten-paw. He'd been a feral cat trapped and tamed and I loved him enough to deal with my cat allergy.  Also, my dog Bela came from a no-kill shelter. For eleven years now, she's been a wonderful addition to our family (i.e. being the floor pillow when the boys watched cartoons, protecting our yard from evil squirrels, keeping us warm on cold winter nights, and the source of much laughter).

I say all that because I know the hard work that goes into a rescue, and the benefits to the animal and the family that adopts.

3.)  The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)

From the internet: For nearly 100 years, the ACLU has been our nation’s guardian of liberty, working in courts, legislatures, and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties that the Constitution and the laws of the United States guarantee everyone in this country.

Whether it’s achieving full equality for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people; establishing new privacy protections for our digital age of widespread government surveillance; ending mass incarceration; or preserving the right to vote or the right to have an abortion; the ACLU takes up the toughest civil liberties cases and issues to defend all people from government abuse and overreach.

Of Gratitude & Grace: 3 Charities to Consider

In this season of gratitude and grace, I'm happy to share the three categories of charities to whom I donate. The specific charities vary depending on personal factors. If any of these inspire you to contribute--particularly at a local level--remember donations typically fall into three groups: money, goods, or time-in-person. Much of which is tax-deductible (for now).

1. Local Dog Rescues
I donate to breed-specific rescues simply because I've adopted from breed rescues; though, shelters and local SPCAs are just as deserving. Remember: if you are adopting a new critter during the holidays, be extra patient. The noise, the amped emotions, and abnormal routines make it difficult for the critter and the new owner(s) to find their balance. Give your adoptee a safe, quiet place away from the commotion and personal-space-invaders where your new critter can claim sanctuary.  If possible, wait until after the chaos of the holidays to bring home a new-to-you pet. Not only are you more likely to be back into your day-to-day routine, but the shelters take in a lot of unwanted "presents" in the weeks following the holidays.

2. Women's Shelters
The quest for safety, independence, and dignity is not easy regardless of the circumstances that bring a woman to a shelter. If she's brave enough to seek help, then help should be there. However, I'm very particular about which shelters receive my assistance because I have very strong beliefs that don't commonly align with organizations that infiltrate shelter management to inflict their version of morality on emotionally vulnerable women. 

3. Literacy Groups
It may seem self-serving for an author to donate to a literacy group, but I'm a firm believer that once a person learns to read, they gain the most important tool they'll need to achieve their dreams. These groups serve more than children. If kids aren't your thing, there are a lot of adults who need the help and who have the drive to succeed.

Thankful

Well, it's that time of year again. for a lot of people that means a time to be thankful. there are exceptions, of course.

I am always thankful this time of year. I have a roof over my head. I have loved ones, I have my health, mostly, and I have my career.

Charities? I have a few of those, too.

First, I like to give to my local library, I give books. I used to have a lot of them. My stack is much smaller these days.

Second I give to the local fire department and police department. Mostly I give when they are doing handouts for other charities. They do that, you know. In addition to the time they spend keeping us safe, they often find the extra time to help a family in need or a children's ward at the local hospital. I tend to give when they ask.

The Salvation Army. I don't always agree with their politics. Okay I almost never agree with their politics. But they actually do more with the donations than most, so I give to the Salvation Army when they are around during the holidays, and I give donations to their stores when I find that I have once again collected clothes I no longer wear, books I have read, kitchen supplies I thought I'd need but never really require.

What does it cost me? I seldom look at the possible profits.

I am grateful, you see, for all that I have.

I was raised by a mother who was doing her best with six children. She did an amazing amount with what little she had and we were never lacking when it came to the important stuff.

I have a roof over my head.
I have a career that I love.
I have friends, and family and loved ones.

I have contracts coming my way and ideas in my head. I am thankful.

May you have endless reasons to be thankful this year and next and beyond that, too.

My Three Favorite Charities

Jackson likes to sit outside my office window and stare at me. I have no idea why. If I offer to let him in, he's not interested. I suspect attempts at kitty mind control.

Before I go much further - and though I don't often mention my contemporary romances here - I thought I should point out that my WITH A PRINCE takes place during U.S. Thanksgiving. Which is this week for us! So if you or someone near and dear who loves romance, are looking for a seasonal read. This is a fine choice. There's cooking, the actual feast - and dinner table drama complete with hashtags. It's very fun.

And because it's Thanksgiving, this week at the SFF Seven we're all talking about our three favorite charities, those ways we give back and share our bounty.

I'm not a big fan of broadcasting how and when I give to charity. I'm a big believer that the only true charity is anonymous, that you're only truly giving if no one knows you've done it. If people know, or if you make a big deal of yourself, then it can be more about ego than actual giving. This is one reason I rarely get involved in book-selling efforts that give a percentage to charity. To my mind, this is using giving as a marketing technique. I think it's fine to funnel proceeds to a worthy cause, but if the core reason for doing that is to increase sales, then I find that squicky.

I do, however, believe in financially supporting the organizations and causes I believe in. As much as possible, I prefer to pick and choose those myself.

Go Fund Me

This is a general bucket for my very specific choices. I like Go Fund Me because I can support individuals who need help. A lot of the time these are older authors who've fallen on hard times - many writers are self-insured, which means they might have crappy health insurance or none at all - and their incomes can be uneven. It's a great way to lend a helping hand and I feel the small amount I can afford goes a long way, with no corporate overhead to support.

Planned Parenthood

I believe that core to women's ability to live and work as free human beings is access to birth control and abortion. Both of these are about control of one's own body and health. Also, I believe all children in a wealthy, technological society should be wanted, planned, and given every advantage, pre- and post-natal. Thus I support Planned Parenthood, which is also often the only source of health care, full stop, for many lower income women. I give often.

Political Campaigns

I was raised in a politically active family, and I donate to the campaigns of the candidates who espouse the values I believe in. With a House of Representatives chock-a-block full of GOP privileged rich kids that just passed a tax reform bill that will hammer the middle class while giving the wealthiest Americans tax breaks, you can believe I'm donating to Democratic candidates across the country. Until we legislate campaign finance reform, the only way to battle money is with money. And it's no longer enough to support only local candidates - if senators and representatives from other states can mess with my health insurance and ability to pay my bills, you bet I have an investment in whether or not they're re-elected.

Unexpectedly political for a Thanksgiving post! But so it goes in the land of plenty, where we've passed the one year mark since Trump was elected and the GOP given free reign to loot as much as they can until we clean house in the 2018 mid-term elections. 

Next Thanksgiving, I'm hoping to be a LOT more grateful!

In the meanwhile, enjoy your own celebrations of gratitude, whether it be with family, friends, or savoring your own quiet. Eat something delicious with joy, get some rest, do something only because it's fun, and give something to someone else anonymously. May it bring you happiness. 

Worldbuilding

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I've got a real deja vu feeling - I swear I've written on this topic before, for this very blog...

OK, so for my science fiction, I don't go too deep into the science because that's constantly changing and what was true today is wrong tomorrow but take a time machine and it'll be correct yesterday. 

So I went with the "Alien" and "Aliens'' kind of future - lived in, people are pretty much the same fundamentally, but with cooler tech...and there are aliens (duh), both on our side and very much against us in my future civilization, known as the Sectors.If I need to add something nifty and complex for part of a plot, I go off and research whatever we have nowadays that will help me make my ship/feature/alien/weapon/civilization feel more grounded in reality for the readers. so I've researched cruise ships, aircraft carriers, sequioa trees, ancient ball games, anatomy of insects, Special Forces training, synthesia, surgical techniques for penetrating abdominal wounds, Legionnaires Disease.....and some aspects of my world building just spring full blown from my own brain.

For my ancient Egyptian novels, there's the entire history of the land along the Nile to look at and draw from. 

I'm not trying to be dismissive, but as I've mentioned here before, I'm not a deep thinker of craft...I'm a story teller who puts in enough background to support the story and my characters, and have it all feel right to my readers. The more books I write, the more my universe becomes fleshed out and the more connecting links there are between the stories. It feels like organic growth to seat-of-the-pants writer me, versus sitting down and developing a Tolkienesque world with maps and backstory going generations into the past. I applaud people who can do that and want to do that and need to do that for their books - it's just not me. (I will not be writing any epic fantasies anytime soon, can you tell? I read them with relish though - give me more Jeffe Kennedy books any day!)

Here's an excerpt from my latest scifi romance, The Fated Stars, where the characters give a bit of world building history I've alluded to in various books but never detailed before:

Larissa swallowed hard. “Another fact you should probably know—most humans can’t even look directly at Mawreg. There’s something about them that can drive a human insane.”

Samell stared at her, even as Pete and Donnie nodded. “When we go on sorties into their camps to rescue people or take the entire operation down, we have to wear helmets with special filter goggles and even then a few guys have lost their minds. Mawreg are bad ass, spooky.”

“And we haven’t got any of those helmets here,” Donnie added. “Not a piece of tech I can whip up from spare parts either.”

“Are you serious? I find this concept hard to grasp—how can merely gazing upon the alien can make a person lose their mind?” Samell’s voice was polite.

“First encounter between our kind and the Mawreg was a peaceful scientific expedition, all excited to have met another spacefaring race,” Larissa said.

“The Peronelle. Learned about it in school, in Sectors history class.” Pete confirmed the tale. “Hundreds of years ago. Luckily the humans already had a few interstellar allies and fairly soon after met the Mellureans for the first time. Now they are badass.”

“The Peronelle survivors the Mawreg spared to tell the tale described in gruesome detail how their comrades went insane when forced to watch their hosts. The ship’s AI had vids to corroborate. The vids also showed the Mawreg eating people alive, and conducting horrific experiments on others. Apparently the aliens thought it would frighten us into surrendering and accepting their rule, but all it did was make us determined to do battle every chance we got. No truce, no quarter given.” Larissa sighed. “And the war’s been raging ever since.”

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What World May Be

In no way can I tell you where I got the bug put into my author brain, but here it is. We can dissect it if you wish.

The bug has many legs. It's tiny and hard to see, but it likes to talk. It says that the way to build a believable world/universe/magic system is to limit your change to one major concept. In UF that's easy. Magic happens. The details of how/why/consequences are where the interesting stuff comes in. In SF(R) the major accepted thing is generally space flight. Then it's a matter of what happens when our heroes encounter aliens or aliens encounter them or what happens when the onboard computer says, "I'm sorry, Dave. I afraid I can't do that."

For the most part, the broad strokes don't need a lot of research in my experience. It's the details that do. Take the space flight thing. We're in a space ship! We're getting away from the bad guys! Until they blow out our engine (right before you take the shot that destroys them - thanks for that.) And now we're adrift. We're inside a solar system. So hey! Solar sail! No problem! Uh. Wait. So. Exactly WHAT can I use as a solar sail? Oh hey look. NASA has a position paper out about a theoretical new kind of sail called an e-sail. Hey. That looks cool! So. How fast could we go with that? How far?

Funny. That summary white paper can't answer those questions. And neither can I. So off to ask people with actual training. You do know there are Reddits and forums and message boards where actual rocket scientists hang out? There're even a bunch on Facebook. A few of them will point and laugh when I ask newbie questions, but 99% of the folks really want the rest of us to be science-literate and will offer encyclopedic answers to questions about what kind of acceleration can I expect a ship to put on with a sail blah, blah, red giant, post helium flash, blah. 

Jeffe saw that question go up in one forum and can attest to the awesome answers I got from a handful of really bright people. Made me wish the solar sail figured into more of the story, but alas. We have aliens to vanquish yet. 

Yes. Searching the interwebs for stuff first is the right thing to do - I do find that I can usually garner a broad base understanding of something like nano - technology, but when it comes to how someone would harness nanotech to weaponize it, I didn't have anyone to ask. I had to read and read and then make some guesses. Guesses that I might have gotten dead wrong (though no one has said anything about it yet if I did.) 

And there's the other thing the bug likes to whisper. Don't get so caught up in the research and in being RIGHT that you sacrifice story. Readers will forgive a lot if they're shown a good time inside a story. 

So sure. Research. But make sure you get out there after those villians at great cost to your heroes and heroines. 

Worldbuilding: Research for Invented Cultures

I've had one challenge that comes up in my worldbuilding process:  How do you research for a culture that doesn't have a real-world parallel?  Or borrows elements from several different ones in a way that makes it its own thing?  And how do you make it work on the page?
Part of the challenge is that, no matter what you do, some readers will bring their own biases to it.  What does that mean?  It means that readers will seek the familiar, and that includes trying to slap on some serial numbers on things that you didn't even scrub them off of.  What does this mean?  It means your readers will sometimes find parallels to real-world cultures that you never intended.
And then ping you for doing it wrong.
Can this be avoided completely?  No, of course not.  But there's things you can do to minimize it.

• Don't make your racial distinctions stereotypical or offensive. Make your secondary words racially diverse, but try to be aware of how you depict that.  I've found Writing With Color to be a great resource to help with that.
• Learn where your culture is coming from, from the ground up.  I'm not saying you have to build it entirely from the bottom. But if you understand some underlying basics-- what they grow, how they use that, what they eat, what they build-- that gives you the tools to guide them in their own unique way.
• Steer their language away from the obvious.  If you're looking at your new culture and think to yourself, "this sounds like Eastern Europe", consider making the language base (and thus how you name places and people) something that is nothing like Eastern Europe.  Vulgar is a great resource for that.

All right, I'm getting on a plane early tomorrow, and plenty to do to get ready, so I'll see you all later.  Or perhaps in Portland!

Topic: What “Doing the Research” Means for a New Fantasy or Alien Cultures

Before I delve into the meat of this post, one short reminder: 

MY MUSIC IS NOW ON SPOTIFY! 

Look me up by artist (Linda Reinhardt) 

or by the album (JOVIENNE).

As for the weekly topic...

I’m going to talk about one admittedly narrow point, but it is dear to me.

LANGUAGE

With my upcoming and as yet untitled fantasy novel, one of the things that I spent a lot of time deliberating with myself on concerning this alien culture was language. Especially the titles of the military, as much of the story takes place around the armed force of the kingdom.

I had a real problem with the word Lieutenant.

It sounds and looks WAY to French to be showing up in my not-even-close-to-Earth-tale. But all the titles seem, in some way, objectionable to me from that point of view (General, Corporal, Chief Petty Officer, etc.)

There are two arguments for using our terminology.

1.)     If I use General, most readers will inherently understand that he is calling the shots and outranks a captain.

2.)   The tale is already presumed by the reader to be a translation from whatever language is native to that world – which would not be English. Use whatever understood words are closest. 

The argument for giving this new culture it’s own terms:

       1.) It feels more immersive.

But there’s a flaw:

       If I make up rank titles, I’m choosing to replace brevity with something that requires explanation – because the reader isn’t going to inherently understand who’s higher ranking, that very likely means I’m using exposition.

An argument specific to #2 above is:

Using obviously foreign-influenced words and modern slang (EX. - having characters refer to their best friends as either ‘chica’ or ‘homie’ which might ‘translate’ perfectly, might jar readers out of their suspension of disbelief because it doesn’t ‘feel’ true.

In the end I used—

Nah. You’ll have to wait and read it to see….