Month: April 2013

  • *shrugs*

    Ever have a day where you do something and you think, "Why the hell did I do that?!" It usually happens when I land in a bad mood for no apparent reason.

    Tonight, I had kind of a good reason, but it was mostly the usual self-response. (I'd explain myself, but there's no point when no one ever comments on my blog--save to me directly.)

    Unfortunately, this instance isn't something I can easily blow off...I'll have to address it sometime.

  • A Selection from "Backlash"

    Eric tweeted me last night (Saturday) and I was so excited that I immediately reached up and felt my shoulders and said, "This is real, right? I'm awake, right?!"

    At first, I was super confused, because it was a couple of links and "enjoy". Nothing about me thinking he was uber-cute when he was twenty-two (although that's exactly what he was replying to! *mega blush*) Fortunately, Oma was able to get a bar and a half of wifi last night and she told me that the first link was to his favorite charity. The second was self-obviating, as it takes less than a day of following him on Twitter to know that he is crazy for his stepson. (I'd definitely say Eric is Keaton's biggest fan.) So I gave in and watched the video--distractedly, I might add, because his face and a little of his voice reminded me of Gotye. Which led to me watching the video for "Somebody That I Used to Know".

    ~)~

     

    I'm happily putting in time on Backlash--my mind is off shuffle for the moment. (The longer, the better!) Enough so that I'm ready to share a passage.

    One of the things that people used to tell me was that they liked my dialog, that it was so realistic, that it always sounded the way real people talk. Another thing I heard once or twice was that they liked how things from the real world usually ended up in my stories. You'll see that here, when the characters start talking about King of the Gypsies.

     

    A Little Background

    I've taken the three brothers from League of Lost Souls (Meshach, Shadrach and Abednego) and moved them to Backlash. Otherwise, all the other names have been changed. (I don't count the inclusion of Shad as something that would turn Backlash into a Finder fanfic, because we hardly knew anything about him and I opted for the traditional/biblical spelling, besides.)

    Each year, the clans in a geographic area gather for an assembly to conduct business, make announcements, etcetera. Shanna, the daughter of Meshach Cantrell, has recently turned sixteen and is attending her first Assembly. They are rooming with (twenty-five year old) Anka McClendon and her mother, Emma. Shadrach doesn't show up for Assembly because he's a giant ass (that much hasn't changed) and Abednego won't be introduced until later, because--like last time--he has gone English. Meshach and Shanna have dropped their bags in the room and the girls are on their way to go swimming.


    By the time Shanna spoke again, the girls were setting up their chairs at the waterfront.

    "Are you married."

    "Five years. You?"

    "Not ready yet." Shanna surveyed the water, kicked off her sandals and sat down. "You weren't sold, were you?"

    Anka laughed. "Saw King of the Gypsies, did you?"

    "How'd you guess?"

    "Rite of passage up north." [Clan McClendon is from Michigan's upper peninsula.] She, too, took off her sandals, but left her cover-up in place as she sat down. "As soon as you turn sixteen, you have to watch it--learn what not to do and what Hollywood thinks of us.

    "Everyone in Clan McClendon has seen it. Those who were born seventy-seven and before saw it in theaters; then they got it on tape and showed it every year since. Glad they released it on DVD--those tapes wear out too damn fast."

    They talked about the movie at length--how angry they were when Tita was killed, how different Judd Hirsch was from his Taxi days, how cute Eric Roberts was at twenty-two. Anka was surprised Shanna knew about Taxi, but the younger girl pointed out that cable had done wonders for her popular culture education.


    At this point, I don't remember why I wanted to share that particular passage. Maybe to show what they thought of the movie and how they react to popular culture.

    They say that authors put little bits of themselves into their work and I'm no exception. I was upset when Tita was killed, you know I think Eric is/was cute and it only took a half hour (ha!) of watching the movie to remember where I knew Judd from. That wasn't the end to their pop culture discussion, by the way--Shanna says she misses I Dream of Jeannie (as do I) and Anka mentions how frustrating she finds Bewitched. (Same frustration I have.)

     

    ~)~

     

    Anyway, I should get back to the drawing...em...writing board.

     

     

    One of my friends asked me earlier, "How's writing coming along?"

    "A placemat and a quarter? xD "

    Things have been slow the last few Sundays, so I've been using my free time at work to write. ("Progress" is defined as half a placemat or more.) Of course, I gave myself most of a half hour to write today, since I accidentally left the phone off the hook. (Had no idea what happened until someone came in and said, "What is up with your phone?") Oh well! Meant to be, perhaps.

    Now I just have to move the cat that glued herself to my hip! (Not the one I was going to hide under after Eric responding to my "HE'S HOT!" tweet last night, incidentally. *giggle*)

  • GRR!

    I want to smack everyone that says King of the Gypsies is an accurate portrayal of American Romani life.

     

    ARGH!

     

    I don't care if the book was supposedly "non-fiction". In the words of Gregory House (though fictional himself), "EVERYBODY LIES!"

    I don't care if Peter Maas supposedly interviewed real Romani...it's clear that the only thing real about them was the fact that they were motherfucking walking stereotypes! The movie should be rated R not for language, violence or anything but the fact that it drips stereotypes!

    Really, if people weren't so fucking gullible and didn't get so fucking sucked in by the story told, I wouldn't have a problem with it. But since Maas claimed that his book was "real", then EVERYONE BELIEVES IT!

    Damn, damn, damn! DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!

     

    I'm almost tempted to put Southern Withdrawal (old as the idea is and excited as I was by it) on hold, just so I can go back to Backlash, get it published and really fucking rip into the American ideal of Romani life. Yes, mine will be fictional, but you know what? There will be no illiteracy. No thieving (except by the few characters I allow to be stereotypical). No royals (except for that one couple that carries over from League of Lost Souls). Everyone has a decent home--none of this running to escape six thousand dollars worth of parking tickets. And the only one who will propose an arranged marriage will get his ass kicked before the end.

    I'd love to go to work on it right now, as soon as I finish ranting, but I think I need to cool down first.

     

    Watch this space. This isn't the end.

     

     

    P.S.: Eric Roberts was a goddamn cute kid!

  • The Modernista Phenomenon

    Soy una gitana por adopción.

     

    Didn't get that the first time? Okay, maybe in English this time. With big letters:

     

    I AM A GYPSY BY ADOPTION!

     

    That better? *wink, giggle*

    No, this is not a belated April Fool's joke...more like, "I was adopted when I was twenty-three, but it didn't dawn on me until a few months ago and then I thought it prudent to keep it to myself (and a few close friends)."

    Remember how I said last May that I have a Calderón friend? Al parecer, soy Calderón también. (Apparently, I'm Calderón, too.) Interesting conversation we had a few months ago.

    At some point, I decided it might be an interesting idea to change the names in League of Lost Souls and rewrite it as a full-length novel. (Turns out it has a lot more than a few name changes, but you'll have to wait until I get to the Backlash page on Novelpedia to learn more about it.) Anyway, I re-read a part wherein Clea talks about testing her "missing" uncle for romanipen (the Romani spirit) and I asked Tana how one would go about testing for that. (I don't remember the actual conversation we had and I'm too lazy to go through all of my instant messaging archives since I got my new laptop in October/November, so prepare for some massive paraphrasing.)

    Me: Hey, Oma...I was just re-reading League of Lost Souls in preparation for working on Backlash and I just got to the part where Clea tells Abednego that they'll have to test him for romanipen before he can be allowed into Clan Nalachen. How would one go about doing that? ["Oma" is actually German for "grandma", but that's what I call her in generic conversation. I'll call her Mamo for the rest of this post.]

    Tana: Why would you want to test [certain gentleman] for romanipen, sweetie? I'll accept him into the family when you marry him.

    Me: Thank you, that's very nice. But I meant me, since I'm an Outsider and all.

    Tana: Aren't you my daughter?

    Me: Yes...?

    Tana: So doesn't that make you Romani, too?

    Me: Crickets as the realization strikes. But don't I have to go through an adoption ceremony? And don't Tia Juana and Tia Reina have to agree to it? [I refer to my "aunts" in Spanish terms, so "tia" means "aunt"--"Tia Juana" is "Aunt Jane" (I generally refer to her as Tia Jane) and "Tia Reina" is "Aunt Queenie" (Mamo tells me that Tia Reina's name roughly translates into "Queenie", so I call her "Reina", which is Spanish for "queen".)]

    I realized through further discussion that the answer is "no and no".

    On a familial level, it's her child and her choice. No one has a say on who Mamo adopts, especially since she's unmarried. On the clan level, they still don't have a say (though I imagine Tia Jane and Tia Reina have some input), as Mamo is the eldest and therefore became matriarch when Abuela and Abuelo (her parents) passed away. Furthermore, as Mamo is unable to naturally have children, Tias Jane and Ronni don't plan to adopt (as far as I know) and Tia Reina has no children (as far as I know), it's her obligation as matriarch to adopt and provide for the future of the family.

    WHEW!

    So, what does that mean for me? Well, let's run back to that blog entry for starters.

    It's perfectly possible for Romani to live in houses. Forget "possible"! I imagine all of us live in houses now! (And if they don't, they're either foreign or not modernistas. But more on that later.) I live with my biological (Outsider) father, Mamo lives with three Outsiders (can I call them "English" like the Amish do? That sounds much less...harsh...), I plan to live in a house of my own sometime down the road... | But I could see where modern travel trailers would be a positive to Romani life. One part that didn't make it into the fan fic--but may make it into the actual novel--is that every family in Clan Nalachen has a trailer. (Mamo said that traditionally, a hand-decorated vardo would be given to newlyweds, so this would continue that tradition.) When it's hurricane time, the families throw their belongings into the trailer, hitch up and head for safer ground. Why couldn't/wouldn't Romani in hurricane zones do the same?

    Impropriety: purity is a huge, huge thing with my people. I've openly said before that I'm a virgin (in practice) because I'm saving myself for a man I love, that I don't want to cheapen the experience. I don't know about traditionalists, but as a modernista, I will definitely emphasize to my daughter that it is neither prudent nor healthy to have multiple sexual partners. I won't necessarily say "you have to wait until marriage" or "you have to wait until you're in love", but I will suggest that it's best to ask yourself, "Is this something I really want to do?", when you're sober no less.

    Running Roughshod: I was raised by English (and am biologically English, not Romani), so I was raised on an "equality first" bent. However, my adoptive people are matriarchal. Remember how Mamo said (in the other entry) that the women can take a man out of leadership just as easily as they can put him in? Yeah, that stays. I can't see that changing as part of my modernista beliefs. Any man that tried to fuck with my clan like Shadrack fucked with Willa and Timo? Fuck no. In the words of Lady Macbeth: OUT, DAMN SPOT! OUT, I SAY! Have you ever seen King of the Gypsies? (I wasn't going to because I know damn well that every time Hollywood gets its hands on my people, the result is rife with--often laughable--inaccuracies, but Mamo said it wouldn't hurt anything and it would be a good learning experience.) No kings, no queens, no royals, no nobles. Where I'm at? Heiress of a clan that--when I reproduce--contains all of four families? That's as good as it gets, ladies and gentlemen. League of Lost Souls is nothing more than a fairytale. (I can see multiple families gathering together as sort of a community association, but that's few and far between, I'm sure.) No deathbed pronunciation of a new queen (like that scene with Sterling Hayden and Eric Roberts)--my daughter takes over the clan when I pass. (Not that there will be much to take over at that point, but anyway.)

    What else am I missing? (The following are more of my thing as a modernista.)

    • It's okay to marry English. I heard one of the big things on American Gypsies was that the dad wanted the kids to marry other Romani. Really? You think that's going to fly after Hitler killed so many of us? I mean, yeah, we've bounced back globally since World War II, but I would like to restrict my heirs to marrying Romani as much as the Malfoys would like to restrict theirs to marrying mudbloods! (In other words, no!) Same goes with adoption, if it's found necessary.
    • NO ARRANGED MARRIAGES! Willa and Timo doesn't happen in real life (at least not with me). Mamo says that it's necessary sometimes, for the good of the family or the good of the clan, but something is always done to make it palatable between both sides. In the modernista world, the same goes: not unless no other way can be found.
    • You don't have to wear a headcovering if you're married. I saw photos of the mom from American Gypsies and she was just...I mean, that's okay if you're a traditionalist (and they clearly are). But I say "not unless you want to. And then go with something inconspicuous, like a baseball cap or a cloth headband if you're indoors." (I could see wearing a mantilla or some other sort of lacy veil to a formal event, though--that only seems right.)
    • No stealing, pickpocketing, cons, etc. That has to be the number one stereotype among my people. Here's a hint: if you think it's wrong, it probably is. That being said:
    • Stay the fuck away from stereotypes! Mamo had nothing to train out of me, as I was raised English. That's the advantage of selecting a twenty-three year old heiress that wasn't raised to type. Along with the above, the best thing to say is, "If you saw it in King of the Gypsies, My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, The Finder, American Gypsies, Chocolat, The Golden Compass or anything else that features Hollywood's imagery of the Romani, DON'T FUCKING DO IT!!!"

     

    Okay, Dayanara's revelation time is over, everyone, go back to work. Nothing more to see here--at least until I post a review of King of the Gypsies.

    What's that? Would I let actors who have played Romani near my family? Maddie Hasson without a doubt. Toby Hemingway and Brooke Shields, I would really need to know more about. (No, I really don't feel like I know Brooke after all these years, actually.) Eric, honey, you're a hottie with your glasses off, but Mamo and I agreed early on that one of my responsibilities as heiress is to keep you away from my adoptive family. Sorry.