Category: Musings

Musings

[Blog] One Year

Faith Hakimian

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Last week, WordPress sent me a friendly little message congratulating me on the one year anniversary of this blog, which left me simultaneously wondering where the time had gone and how it had only been a single year. To everyone who’s run across my adventures and stories and random musings during the last fifty two weeks, thank you all so very much. I can’t even begin to say how much your support means to me.

Going forward, I definitely plan to continue posting weekly on Fridays, but I’d love to hear from all of you regarding what you’d be interested in seeing. More writing prompts? More stories (I’d like that too…)? Book reviews? Thoughts on what it’s like for a former English Major to embark in a career in the medical field?

Please post your thoughts below! I’d love to hear from you, and I look forward to another year of sharing my nerdy speculations and silly adventures.

Writing Prompts

[Blog] Writing Prompts Round 2

Faith Hakimian

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Last week I asked for writing prompts and you guys delivered! Here’s the stories.

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Is it supposed to make that sound?

Given that we lived on a border space station in the middle of nowhere, it was fitting that we opted for a robotic guard dog as opposed to the flesh and blood sort that put more of a drain on our limited resources. It wasn’t the cuddliest of options, but then, we didn’t need R-0ver to be cuddly. We just needed him to look fierce and help us scare off the occasional pirate gangs who assumed we’d be an easy target. We’d managed well enough on our own so far, but the last time had been a little closer than we’d wanted it to be, and when the traveling salesman came by with a discounted model, it seemed like a no-brainer.

At least, it did until 3am the next morning, when the eeriest squeaking filled our entire space station. And when your home is a tiny layer between you and the void, you are painfully aware of each and every weird noise it makes. So it was actually a sort of relief when the source of the metallic whine turned out to be our brand new R-0ver. We found him in a corner, looking sadder than it should have been possible for a robot to look, and the only way I can describe it is that he was crying. He perked up when he saw us, too. It was cute, sure, but I don’t think it’s quite the best sort of behavior for a guard automaton.

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That’s it, I’m telling Mom about the dragon egg you have hidden in your closet!

“No! Wait! Jackie!”

Eight months of planning, and if I didn’t beat my sister to the stairs, it was all going to be for naught. But she was younger than me, smaller, and faster, and it was going to take something like a real miracle for me to get there before her. She was three yards from the bottom step, and my socks weren’t getting purchase on the linoleum. And she was opening up her mouth to yell.

“Mom! MOM!!”

And then my miracle happened. Dad came to the top of the stairs instead, and I knew it was going to be alright. Because I wouldn’t have had the surprise dragon egg for mom in the first place if he hadn’t snuck it in there with me at the start of all this.

Writing Prompts

[Blog] Writing Prompts Open! (Round 2)

Faith Hakimian

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I think it’s time for another round of writing prompts! (She says, shamelessly levying everyone else’s imaginations for ideas.) Same deal as last time: all you lovely people give me prompts– a song, a word, a phrase, a whole darn premise, whatever comes to mind– and I respond with a bit of flash fiction (100-200 words). Post your prompts in the comments!

Also, as it’s the middle of the month I have a full(er) length short story due. It’s mostly written and on its way, and I should be posting it over the weekend, so keep an eye out!

Musings

[Blog] Just Add Dragons

Faith Hakimian

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I’ve talked a bit in the past about the stories– books, movie, video games, et al– that have helped develop who I am today, but I haven’t said a lot about the books I’m currently reading. And in the hope that some of you might find it interesting (and also to give some well deserved plugs), I’d like to talk about the ones I’ve been enjoying recently!

Oddly enough, there’s been a bit of a Napoleonic Wars theme, between Bernard Cornwell’s Sharpe’s Eagle and the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik. Sharpe’s Eagle is the first (by publication order) of a series of historical novels that follow the adventures of Richard Sharpe, a British soldier in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. With apologies to any history buffs reading this, I don’t know a whole lot about that era and the Napoleonic Wars, but my understanding is that the books are well researched and accurate to actual events. I’m about halfway through Eagle at the moment, and so far it’s been highly entertaining, if not the sort of thing I’ve read a whole lot of in the past. Given the snark and the audacity of the main character, I may well have to fix that in the future.

As for Temeraire, the series bears some similarities to the Sharpe series, in that it’s also well researched, follows the adventures of a soldier in the British military, and takes place during the Napoleonic Wars, with one addition. The fact that the addition is dragons just makes it even more fun. I’ve currently read the first four books of the nine book series, and I’ve enjoyed each new book more than the last and definitely plan to read the rest.

I’ve also been reading Luke R. Mitchell‘s The Harvesters Series. Starting with Red Gambit, these are post-apocalyptic high adventure, complete with monsters, mech suits, and magic, and they’re an absolute hoot. If you’re looking for something that’s full of action and just a whole lot of fun, I’d definitely recommend checking them out.

What about everyone else? Any books you’ve been enjoying lately?

Musings

[Blog] New Steps

Faith Hakimian

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I’d forgotten how much energy it takes to adjust to a new situation– which, given my recent travels, I find a little amusing. At the same time, everything I was doing in Armenia was something that I had done before in one form or another, and the fact that I was volunteering for a set and limited time definitely took some of the pressure off. With this new job, that’s not the case. I’m hoping that this job will be a first step towards a continuing career in the medical field, which means that I’m rather invested in it going well. Which it is!

That being said, there’s a thousand and one things to learn, a million tiny details to keep track of, and a faster pace than I’ve kept in the past, and I can feel myself growing as I’m pushed and stretched. And I’m loving it. I’m also a little scared by it when I have time to think, but I hear that’s perfectly normal. And I can’t help but be excited too.

Musings

[Blog] Resistance is Futile

Faith Hakimian

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One of my favorite tropes for fantasy or sci-fi stories is when the big bad has a penchant for assimilating its enemies. Well. I say favorite, but it might be more accurate to say that I find it to be thoroughly compelling and a great way to raise the stakes– it being a fate worse than death, and all that. Something about collectives of cyborgs bent on galactic conquest or races of giant AI spaceships intent on harvesting all organic life just gets under my skin and does a great job of making me root for their ultimate demise.

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Resistance is futile.

Oddly enough, my feelings regarding zombies and vampires aren’t as strong, which leads me to suspect that what unsettles me the most is the fact that their victims end up helping them realize their schemes of total conquest, not so much the loss of humanity of each individual victim. Dying’s bad enough, but if I could avoid joining the dark side and trying to kill my friends and doom the world in the process, that would be much preferred.

And given how effective these sorts of villains can be, it’s probably no surprise that I’m trying to do the same thing with my villain for The Seven. The obvious problem with this being that I have a very distinct idea in my head of the feelings I want these creatures to evoke, and I don’t think I’m quite there yet. I want them to create a feeling of dread in the people that have to fight them, and I want that feeling to go beyond just fear for their own survival. And if I want that feeling in the characters to be believable, they need to evoke that feeling in the readers as well.

Forgive the musings of the author neck-deep in worldbuilding questions. Or, if it strikes your fancy, ask me more! It’s harder to stick with the silly ideas when I have to explain them out loud.

 

Musings

[Blog] Balancing

Faith Hakimian

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It’s been one heck of a week in the best of ways: I started a new job, with my first full day being this past Monday. Which basically means that the past five days have been absolutely nuts, filled to the brim with a billion new things to learn, new responsibilities, and one ridiculously excited Faith. Unfortunately, what it hasn’t been filled with is disciplined writing time. And for this week, I’m okay with that. Mostly.

Because as far as excuses for not writing go, starting a new job and keeping an 8ish to 5ish schedule for the first time in… a while is a brilliant one. It’s also a really good way for writing to drop to a back burner, and I don’t want that to happen. Which mostly just means that I’m going to have to find a balance. The hours are there, after all. I just need to use them.

Musings

[Blog] Threads

Faith Hakimian

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It’s funny how certain things can end up having such a great impact on our lives. I realized a little while back that if I had found my way into a job as an EMT before I went to Armenia, there’s every chance that I wouldn’t have gone at all. At least, not until later, and perhaps not for as long as I did. That in and of itself is interesting enough, but it goes so much farther than that. I got certified as an EMT more than three years ago with the intention of finding work with an ambulance company or in a hospital, but as I already had a steady job with wonderful people, I was less than motivated to move on. That job itself was the one I’d gotten straight out of college that I more or less fell into after working various jobs in the same department as a student, mostly (at first) because I knew they were hiring most any student looking for work, and that was exactly what I was doing.

So really, you could say that I went to Armenia in the fall of 2017 because I was a student worker in the custodial department of my college. And you wouldn’t be far off. There is, of course, a whole lot more to it than just that, and probably a thousand other factors that I don’t know and will likely never know, but the connection remains. And I find that absolutely fascinating.

Musings

[Blog] Overpromising

Faith Hakimian

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Despite copious amounts of evidence, I haven’t wanted to admit it. I’ve bitten off more than I could chew. But another month has streaked on past, and I haven’t managed to finish the one short story I’ve been working on since March, let alone anything else, and even I’m starting to realize that trying to hold tighter to my ideal schedule as it slips away is going to end up backfiring in a spectacular way, because much as I wish it would, stubborn willpower doesn’t actually add more hours to the day.*

So! Instead of throwing my metaphorical back out by pushing against something that clearly isn’t moving, I’m going to try something a little different. Starting this month (May?!), I’ll just be aiming for a single short story, to be posted up on the 15th or whatever weekday is closest to that date and not a Friday. The rest of my writing time will be spent on my novel. Because the darn thing desperately needs to be written. I desperately need it to be written.

My hope is that the specific schedule will help me keep on track and make better progress, and that the drop from two (or zero, I know, I know…) to one story per month will help me stay better focused, which will in turn let me get more done without getting caught in the cycle of panic that I’m not getting enough done. Theoretically. We’ll see how it goes! And to those of you who have stuck with me, thank you so much. Your support means the world to me.

 

 

* Being more carefully disciplined would help me make the most of the hours I do have, but it’s still only a stop-gap measure. I think. I may just need to figure out how to better make time for writing during this migratory time of life.

Musings

[Blog] Green to Gold

Faith Hakimian

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The mountains where I live are starting to fade. The last good spring rain was weeks ago, and while the hills haven’t yet grown brown and dry, they’re also not as bright and giddily green as they were at the beginning of the month. It changes the way I look at the landscape and reminds me that I do live in a desert of sorts.

It’s also part of why I know that the setting/weather can be an incredibly effective tool in writing. One that I’m usually really bad at using. Not so much in short stories (mine, at least) that take place over a shorter period of time, but when you get something novel-length, having the seasons or the climate change over the course of the story can add some awesome depth to the themes and conflict.

Think The Lion King and the way the Pridelands change. You might argue that it’s a bit heavy handed (not sure I could argue against that, per se) but it’s definitely effective. If I remember right, that particular example also works within the framework that used the state of the kingdom to reflect on its ruler; if the ruler was wicked or ill, the land itself would be sick and poor. Like I said: maybe a little heavy handed, but it certainly gets the point across.

All this is to say that I think I’m finally starting to understand what my high school English teachers were trying to say when they said that a good setting is like another character in the story. It’s got its own arc and it affects the story itself. And if you think about it, that not so far fetched. I dare any of you to tell me that you’ve never had things changed by the weather.