Cat Photo Tax

 

More pet photo spam! Let's begin with our beloved elder enjoying her life. I present: Cuillean blep.

Then there's Arya, she of the endless whiskers. She's having a momentary, but meaningful relationship with her fleece toy.

Then there's the youngest. Peseshet. This is the one who, about a year ago, darted across the street in front of me. She was tiny. She's still tiny, only about six pounds, but she's growing up fast. Two weeks ago at o'dark thirty in the morning, we had an animal come to the lanai screen. All of my big, strong cats scrambled ass over tea kettle to get in the house. This itty-bitty stripey kitten stayed out there, all floofed up, reading the feline riot act at the trespasser. At volume. Very unlady-like language. Whatever critter had come to the screen beat a hasty retreat. (Spoiler: When I set the live trap, I caught a possum. We parted with no damage done on either part.) 

Then, today, this little girl decided to exercise her hunting prowess and catch her own animated cat toy. Naturally, she brought it inside and let it go. I had to get involved at that point and rescue the critter.

 The animated cat toy was ungrateful.

Pets have price tags, y'all. Price tags.

Mental Health and Furry Friends

#Ullrthehuskypup

I love stats, numbers, scientific proof. And I can happily report that in a study done through the University of York and the University of Lincoln showed that pets helped us emotionally deal with the past year’s lockdown by 90%. Their findings also showed a link between how attached people were to their pets and mental health. Also, the UK Mental Health Foundation reported 87% of people believed their pet improved their wellbeing. 

Those are some good stats on pets and mental health. And speaking of…it’s mental health awareness month in America! 

I face my own struggles with mental health and even though I know scientifically what’s going on in my body it doesn’t change the fact that I feel it. And I’ve found that for myself, I can only talk about it when I’m coming out of the deep. I only want to see others and talk to people when I’m past the worst. Which is why I'm able to talk about it a bit today.

If you’re struggling and can’t bring yourself to talk to anyone—it’s okay. As long as you are able to tell yourself you are not alone. Because you’re not. There are so many of us at different stages of dealing with mental health struggles. Please remember that and that when you’re ready there are so many of us you can reach out to for help. Having dealt with my own and some struggles that my children have I am able to look back at my time as a manager and see flags and opportunities I missed. I wish I could go back in time with the knowledge and experience I have now. Which is why I like the premise behind the Mental Health America Peer Program. They have people who have gone through challenges reaching a hand back to help those coming along behind, not just a doctor or motivational speaker who has no first hand experience. 

Back to my stats! And back to my favorite way of coping with depression and anxiety: my furry sidekick, Ullr. 

He’s a goofus. He’s uncoordinated at times (like when he’s sprinting and faceplates because he’s going too fast). He loves to steal my garden veggies (I didn’t get the chance to pickle any cucumbers last season and he ate all the peas). He’s definitely not my Loki boy who always knew when I needed him to sit quietly beside me—I still miss him dearly and will always have his paw print on my heart. 

But Ullr is mine—and he loves me. That’s why we have pets, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how terrible of a day we’ve had. It doesn’t matter how stressed out we are or how many tears we shed. It doesn’t even matter if we have enough time for them. They’re there, like Ullr is there at my side day after day. 

Ullr may not be quiet and stoic, but he makes me laugh—which is probably what I need more of in my life right now. I guess someone upstairs knew I needed a knucklehead like Ullr right now, and I’m thankful. He’s also incredibly soft, which, if you’re the owner of a dog or cat you know, is incredibly soothing, and he’s a husky so snow is a magnet for him and he makes me have adventures outside every day. He even came with me to celebrate the release of The Mars Strain! He loved it—he got to walk and sniff new territory. Win win!

How about you? Would you count yourself in the roughly 90% that say they’re better off with a pet?

Viv pet pic spam

In my household live two overindulged but super sweet Chihuahuas, a PorchBird (wren) with two tiny, starving baby birds in her nest and not a lot of patience with everybody else in the universe because you need to get out of her way so she can feed them kids, and a YardBunny who likes the broad-leaf Italian parsley but won't eat the curly parsley and is on-again, off-again okay with both carrots and the aforementioned little dogs. 

Behold picspam:

We named him Tahiti because he's a magical dog. (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. fans will get it.)

This is how Lily greets the teenagers when they get home from school. When they aren't home, she mostly sits on her heated blanket or beanbag chair (pictured) and judges me.

YardBunny!

If I tried to get a picture of PorchBird or her nest, she'd beak me in the eyeball. Not that she hasn't tried that already. She is a fierce mama, as one should be.

Author Pets: Pi the One-Eyed Husky

Northern Lights Sled Dog Rescue
This rescue org introduced me to Pi.

This is Pi requesting a walk.

This is Pi deciding I'm done writing for the day.

This is Pi saving me from the dreaded treadmill.
I'm totally blaming the "Covid-19lbs" gained
on the mill guardian
not on my renewed devotion to cupcakes.
🧁😇🧁

Jackson Cosplaying a Vulture

This week at the SFF Seven, we're throwing some joy into your timeline by sharing a pic of our pets and a silly thing they do, or our favorite pet meme.

Those of you who follow me regularly are familiar with Jackson, my 17lb Maine coon cat. He has his own fan following, which he considers his just due and he also doesn't care. Unless you have a snack for him. Because Jackson is diligent about maintaining his manly strength, which means acquiring regular snacks. Here he is pulling the Snoopy vulture routine, sitting on the back of my husband's chair while David attempts to eat his dinner. 

Here's a closeup for you.

Sometimes he adds a light claw prick to the head or cheek, just in case we've managed to ignore his looming presence...

Antagonist Defined

 

The dictionary defines Antagonist as a person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something, an adversary. Which strongly suggests a need to comprehend the protagonist to spin up the antagonist.

Plenty of people espouse the idea of the antagonist being a mirror to your protagonist. If the protagonist is sitting on the sunny side of the mirror, the antagonist lives and moves in the shadows.

It sets up the story and the conflict so that everything the protagonist must thwart and overcome to accomplish their goal is not just their antagonist, it’s also a part of themselves. This is the old Western movie where what separated the good guys from the bad guys is the thinnest of lines. At the start of the movie, you get the sense that good stiff breeze could blow the good guy over to join the black hat gang.

But let’s return to that definition of antagonist for a moment. Remember how it specifies a person? If you’re of a certain age, you may recall that your high school English classes listed five different types of conflict:

Man vs Man

Man vs Nature

Man vs Society

Man vs Supernatural

Man vs Self

Only one of those five allows for a human antagonist. So more broadly defined, antagonists are obstacles. They can be anything and anyone standing in our way. But, you know, a wall is an obstacle, but I might not call it an antagonist. Sometimes obstacles are only obstacles and they don’t rise to the level of antagonist. I feel like there’s one crucial piece of the puzzle left – change.

Unless you’re writing literary fiction, protagonists need character arcs. They must change and grow in order to finally achieve their goals. Yet who among us likes to have their flaws pointed out to them, much less likes to have to root out and excise those flaws? Most humans only change under duress – when the pain of the flaw is greater than the pain of change.

It is the antagonist’s job to apply that pain. It is the antagonist’s job to force the protagonist to take a long, hard look at themselves and choose. It’s the antagonist’s job to leave the protagonist with no choice but to change.

How do I pick the right antagonist for my stories? It will come as a surprise to no one – I start with character. Usually protagonists. When a story idea rears up from the deep, an antagonist usually lurks in the idea, already. But as I begin sketching out the proof of concept and doing all the pre-writing character work, the protagonists’ arcs, replete with wounds, faulty beliefs, and flaws takes shape. I get a sense of each protagonists’ greatest fears. The antagonist must then embody those fears and force the protags to face and to overcome them.

In that sense, the antagonist is partially a hero of the story. They are the catalyst that forces reaction from the protagonist who would go on taking the path of least resistance forever and accomplishing nothing.

It’s a big relief to read or see a story where the protagonist is bounced off all the other molecules inside a story flask. Especially when the biggest obstacle most of us face is whether to fold the laundry the minute the dryer buzzes or let it sit in there over night moldering.

No conflict, No story

 No conflict, no story.

Which translates to: no antagonist = no conflict = no story. And that’s what we’re talking about this week, the antagonist’s arc! 

My daughter DNFd (did not finish) a book last night. It had been a book she’d excitedly picked up having been sold on the back blurb. When I asked her why the DNF she said ‘because nothing’s happening’. 

As authors, we want to avoid that kiss of death at all costs. So, how do we do it? I don’t know about you, but I can share my process! 

Interestingly, to me anyway, I realized I go about crafting my antagonists two different ways depending on the genre. 

Fantasy

When I write fantasy I start out with my hero and I see them at the climax of the story, the moment they are most fearful and also the moment they rip through whatever’s been holding them back. Now, I don’t always see what exactly they’re up against, but I observe the character’s emotions and what’s going on around them. 

Since I have a pretty good sense of who the hero is and what's at stake for them I know that the villain has to either want the same thing, with their own twist of course, or want an antithesis to the hero's desires. With all that information I can put together the big evil that must be stopped and then figure out how my hero got to that climax point.

Science Fiction

When I write sci-fi I start out with the antagonist, the big evil that must be stopped. Once I know who, or what, my villain is I can craft the type of hero the world needs to stop it. Whoa, that kinda sounds like superhero stuff. But in a way, sci-fi—the kind that threatens the entire world—needs someone larger than life. And I love making taking a person who sees themselves as only successful in their small corner of the world and challenging them so they grow into a superhero. 

It doesn’t matter what genre, we want strong antagonists. And here’s one tip I’ve picked up over the years:

Keep it Simple. 

Your villain doesn’t need a master plan that requires blueprints and a powerpoint. You only need a conflict that smacks your hero in the face. 

When I started writing The Mars Strain it was during the 2015 Ebola outbreak. I was running a laboratory and participating on a multi-healthcare system Emergency Preparedness Board. Every day I was thinking ahead to what we’d need and what we’d do if there was a deadly outbreak that reached across the world to us. From that real life experience I imagined a new organism, and because I write to entertain, not mimic real life, my organism came from Mars. Boom. There was my antagonist with its one goal: proliferate.

How do you create the perfect antagonist? 

Maybe your hero and villain are the same, only one choice veered the antagonist off to another path. Maybe your antagonist has very little page time but you Al Pacino the Devil’s Advocate and nearly convince your hero to make the wrong climatic choice. I’d love to know! 

The antagonist as the third-act specialist

When you're writing conflict-driven fiction -- which is most Western fiction, honestly -- choosing an antagonist is pretty important. The actions of the antagonist drive not only the plot but also the necessary arc and change in your protagonist. So that's what we're talking about this week on SFF Seven: picking the antagonist that's going to make things hard for your poor protagonist.

I tend to start thinking about stories by coming up with a push-pull struggle for a character or a relationship, then I populate that struggle with characters who deserve it. (All authors are cruel this way. It's what feeds us.) Somewhere within that early thinking-about-it-ness, an antagonist usually emerges sort of organically. For instance, you know that all good protagonists need to have a GMC (goal, motivation, and conflict), right? The way I keep it straight in my head is the pithy:

What does she want? (goal)

Why does she want it? (motivation)

What's keeping her from getting it? (conflict)

That third thing, the conflicty thing, is the antagonist ... presto! That's how I pick my antagonist.

Note that an antagonist does not have to be a villain. It can be, but it can also be an alien invasion, a volcano explosion, a phobia, a busybody matchmaker, or overdemanding parents who want my girl to be a doctor waaaay too much and won't pay for art school.

If you're thinking in acts, specifically a five-act structure (1. exposition, 2. rising action, 3. climax. 4. falling action or digging deep and overcoming, and 5. denouement), I've heard that Act 3 is All About the Antagonist. Which would make sense, right? Just as the protag hits the brick wall of the climax, that's the perfect time to the antagonist to whip back the curtain, announce its fiendish presence, and make things really super difficult for my girl.

But the dirty secret is that the antagonist has been there all along, cooking up obstacles from the very beginning. The third-act climax is just an opportunity to cue the mustache-twirling and bwahaha.

Okay, I'm not sure if this all answers the "how do I pick an antagonist that will complement my protagonist?" question, but it's the best I can do:

Pick the antagonist that is gonna make things as tough as possible for your longsuffering protagonist, get them working at their nefariousness early and often, and have them really bring the hammer to your excruciating but compelling climax.