I admit it. I’ve fallen prey to a cultural phenomenon. I just purchased my first Webkinz®. Not for my children – they each have several. For myself. I purchased an adorable tan cocker spaniel that I just had to name Joe. Get it?
OK, I hear you. What is a Webkinz®, you ask? Anyone out there with children under the age of 13 already knows what a Webkinz® is, but for those less educated, let me explain. This is a rather expensive ($12 - $15 depending on the store) small stuffed animal that you don’t purchase for the stuffed animal. You purchase it because of the secret code attached to the animal. Each of these adorable toys comes with a code that allows you access to a wonderful online world known as Webkinz World. Here, your stuffed pet comes to life and interacts with other stuffed pets owned by people all over the world. You can earn Kinzcash – virtual money that you can then spend on virtual products for your pet, such as decorations and accessories for your pet’s room, food for your pet, clothing, enrollment in classes at Kinzville Academy, even a virtual back yard and a garden where you can plant and grow your own food. You can earn Kinzcash in a number of ways. Get a job – you can work a different job every 8 hours. Play a game in the arcade or tournament area. Go to Quizzy’s Corner and compete on his game show. Even compete in the Webkinz Stadium against other pets in beauty pageants or other competitions. There are also opportunities to get cash by completing weekly surveys or just by telling your pet you love it every day.
My kids got Webkinz® from their grandparents earlier this year, and they wanted us to help them earn Kinzcash so they could save up for large purchases like a bathtub (this is in interactive room accessory where your pet can use shampoo, bubble bath, or even play with a toy boat). So after they went to bed, my husband and I would log on to their accounts and play the game show or one of our favorite arcade games to earn them money. We got hooked on it. So while on our vacation this year, when the girls decided on Webkinz® for souvenirs, I gave in to the silliness of the whole thing and bought my own.
I’m usually the last person you find jumping on board with the latest cultural craze, but here I am, guilty of one at last, and loving every minute of it.
If you haven’t gotten one of these for your kids yet, get one. Get several. It’s good clean fun, it will entertain the kids in a safe internet environment for hours, and you will get hooked too, if they let you play. And, if you’re adult enough to admit it, you might even have to become a kid again and get yourself one.
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Friday, June 27, 2008
Living in a Dream World
My husband recently insulted me. He didn’t mean to, and I’ve come to the conclusion that he was correct, so I’ve forgiven him, but at the time, what he said insulted me. He called me weird. Let me give you the background.
I came upstairs to bed crying. He was already in bed, half asleep, and he rolled over to me all concerned and asked me what was wrong.
“Nothing. I’m making revisions to an emotional part of my novel. Dodie just turned down Chris’ proposal.”
He snapped on the light. “You’re crying because of something two FICTIONAL characters, in a story YOU made up, did?”
I grabbed a tissue and wiped my eyes. “Yeah.”
He turned the light back off and rolled over. “That’s just weird.”
OK, so he didn’t say I was weird, he said I did something weird, but it all amounts to the same thing in the end. And I took offense at it. I asked why it was weird. He said they weren’t real. I told him they were real to me. He said that was why it was weird. When he realized he’d hurt my feelings, he tried to back peddle.
“I didn’t mean weird. I just meant that it was unusual. Maybe eccentric. ”
“I don’t think so. The author cried in ‘Stranger than Fiction’.”
“That’s because she knew that a real person was going to die.”
“OK, the author cried in ‘Romancing the Stone’.”
“Well, movies paint authors as eccentric, then.”
“The other authors on my forums talk about their characters doing things they weren’t prepared for. I think it’s natural for the characters to take on a life of their own.”
“Well, then all authors must be weird.”
That’s about where I gave up and decided he was right.
Of all the art forms in the world, the art of story-telling, whether it be orally or with the written word, comes closer to the true definition of “creation” than any other. We truly make something from nothing. When we weave our tales, our characters come to life, not only for us, but for all who hear or read our story. They become real because of the emotions they stir in us, and because of the way they change us and our behavior.
When I read the story of Job in the bible, I react differently to Job’s character depending on the stage of life I am in. As a young person, I could not relate as well to Job’s struggles. Once I became a mother, the grief Job must have felt at the loss of his children became very real to me. I could not relate to his financial losses until I suffered a bankruptcy and lost my home. I could not relate to his health crisis until a heart condition meant I could no longer enjoy all the activities I once did. As individuals with unique experiences and perspectives, we each relate to characters in stories differently. Never having been in the military or been touched by it in my family, I cannot relate to the soldier or the soldier’s wife the way another woman might be able to. But my unique experiences will give me strong emotional reactions to other characters that woman may not understand.
As a story-teller, I may be weird, but I’ve decided that is ok. It’s my job. I have to live in a dream world where fictional characters become real, because if they aren’t real to me, I can’t make them real for my readers. And if they aren’t real for my readers, I can’t reach my readers in that deep emotional part of their spirit where my characters become teaching tools or catalysts for change. After all, isn’t that what story-telling is all about?
I came upstairs to bed crying. He was already in bed, half asleep, and he rolled over to me all concerned and asked me what was wrong.
“Nothing. I’m making revisions to an emotional part of my novel. Dodie just turned down Chris’ proposal.”
He snapped on the light. “You’re crying because of something two FICTIONAL characters, in a story YOU made up, did?”
I grabbed a tissue and wiped my eyes. “Yeah.”
He turned the light back off and rolled over. “That’s just weird.”
OK, so he didn’t say I was weird, he said I did something weird, but it all amounts to the same thing in the end. And I took offense at it. I asked why it was weird. He said they weren’t real. I told him they were real to me. He said that was why it was weird. When he realized he’d hurt my feelings, he tried to back peddle.
“I didn’t mean weird. I just meant that it was unusual. Maybe eccentric. ”
“I don’t think so. The author cried in ‘Stranger than Fiction’.”
“That’s because she knew that a real person was going to die.”
“OK, the author cried in ‘Romancing the Stone’.”
“Well, movies paint authors as eccentric, then.”
“The other authors on my forums talk about their characters doing things they weren’t prepared for. I think it’s natural for the characters to take on a life of their own.”
“Well, then all authors must be weird.”
That’s about where I gave up and decided he was right.
Of all the art forms in the world, the art of story-telling, whether it be orally or with the written word, comes closer to the true definition of “creation” than any other. We truly make something from nothing. When we weave our tales, our characters come to life, not only for us, but for all who hear or read our story. They become real because of the emotions they stir in us, and because of the way they change us and our behavior.
When I read the story of Job in the bible, I react differently to Job’s character depending on the stage of life I am in. As a young person, I could not relate as well to Job’s struggles. Once I became a mother, the grief Job must have felt at the loss of his children became very real to me. I could not relate to his financial losses until I suffered a bankruptcy and lost my home. I could not relate to his health crisis until a heart condition meant I could no longer enjoy all the activities I once did. As individuals with unique experiences and perspectives, we each relate to characters in stories differently. Never having been in the military or been touched by it in my family, I cannot relate to the soldier or the soldier’s wife the way another woman might be able to. But my unique experiences will give me strong emotional reactions to other characters that woman may not understand.
As a story-teller, I may be weird, but I’ve decided that is ok. It’s my job. I have to live in a dream world where fictional characters become real, because if they aren’t real to me, I can’t make them real for my readers. And if they aren’t real for my readers, I can’t reach my readers in that deep emotional part of their spirit where my characters become teaching tools or catalysts for change. After all, isn’t that what story-telling is all about?
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
God Never Wastes A Hurt
When I am going through the middle of a trial or a period of suffering, it is often hard to keep in perspective that my trials and sufferings are temporary, while the results produced in me are eternal. I have a tendency to forget that Christians are "more than conquerors" and act like I have been defeated.
In the last four years, I have undergone a significant period of testing, with trials against my family, my finances, my health, even my life. I have to confess, I have not always lived victoriously through these tests. I remember once I called my pastor to moan and complain, looking for a little sympathy, and instead I got a verbal spanking. He was gentle with me, but among other things he said, "God never wastes a hurt."
What he meant by that was that God uses for His eternal glory the temporary sufferings we go through. All of them. I have become convinced that I may never understand why I have gone through certain things in my life. When I read the book of Job, God tells the reader about the scene in Heaven where Satan convinces God to test Job's faith, but He never explains the test to Job. I am beginning to see in my own life and in other's lives though, that often when I go through testing and come out victoriously on the other side, the lessons I have learned are there so that I can take another believer through those tests later. The hurt I felt wasn't wasted, it was there so I could walk hand in hand with someone else that was also hurting and help them see God in the battle.
As a writer, I feel a special blessing in that I can share the lessons I've learned through the lives of my fictitious characters and perhaps help many people walk through the same trials with victory. I also feel a burden to do so. But even outside my writing, I have opportunities to reach out to others every day; at work, in my neighborhood, in my church, among my children's friends' parents; and walk with others who are hurting the ways I've hurt in the past so that my pain is not in vain.
So my challenge to you is, don't let your hurts go wasted. See what God wants to do with them!
In the last four years, I have undergone a significant period of testing, with trials against my family, my finances, my health, even my life. I have to confess, I have not always lived victoriously through these tests. I remember once I called my pastor to moan and complain, looking for a little sympathy, and instead I got a verbal spanking. He was gentle with me, but among other things he said, "God never wastes a hurt."
What he meant by that was that God uses for His eternal glory the temporary sufferings we go through. All of them. I have become convinced that I may never understand why I have gone through certain things in my life. When I read the book of Job, God tells the reader about the scene in Heaven where Satan convinces God to test Job's faith, but He never explains the test to Job. I am beginning to see in my own life and in other's lives though, that often when I go through testing and come out victoriously on the other side, the lessons I have learned are there so that I can take another believer through those tests later. The hurt I felt wasn't wasted, it was there so I could walk hand in hand with someone else that was also hurting and help them see God in the battle.
As a writer, I feel a special blessing in that I can share the lessons I've learned through the lives of my fictitious characters and perhaps help many people walk through the same trials with victory. I also feel a burden to do so. But even outside my writing, I have opportunities to reach out to others every day; at work, in my neighborhood, in my church, among my children's friends' parents; and walk with others who are hurting the ways I've hurt in the past so that my pain is not in vain.
So my challenge to you is, don't let your hurts go wasted. See what God wants to do with them!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
Metaphorically Speaking
It is interesting what you discover about yourself and your thought life once you start writing. I have just begun my second work in progress, an inspirational romance I've tentatively titled "Building Love". In this story, my hero, Andrew, begins the story unsaved and running from his past. The story takes place in a small town in Nuevo Leon, Mexico in the Chihuahua Desert in the shadow of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Andrew owns a motorcycle, and when his painful memories become too great for him, he takes off on the bike and rides into the desert to try and escape his pain. In the climax of my story, Andrew will have an accident on his bike and become injured, as well as the bike becoming damaged, so he is unable to ride back into town. As he struggles to survive and tries to make his way back home, the words of faith of the heroine will come back to him, and he begins to call out to his Creator for help and a new beginning. What I found interesting about this was that I did not intentionally set out to create a metaphor with the desert in my hero's life. The desert just happened because that was the setting I chose for my story. It wasn't until I was outlining the plot for some friends that I realized I had created a "desert" experience for my hero. It made me wonder how many other metaphors exist in literature that the artist did not intentionally create. We read classics and study them in school, and we read so much into them. What if the metaphors we assign to them were accidental? That's not to say that these metaphors are not excellent teaching tools. I'm thrilled to find that I've got this accident in my story and intend to use it to its full advantage as I develop my story further. But it sure got me thinking.
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