Welcome to the homepage and (somewhat) serious blog of Christine Lucas, writer of historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction and their occasional blend-ins. Oh, and cat stories too.
She was born and raised in Athens (of the country of Greece). The English language found her when she was five years old via her mother with an English Lit background, and stayed with her ever since, insisting on daily sacrifices of poetry and prose. She grew up in a pre-Internet era and in a society where the aspiration of becoming a writer attracted many funny stares. Very much like telling people that you’re off to Hollywood to become a star. Yeah.
So a career in the military seemed like the sane thing to do. Well, not to Christine, but let’s not go there. Long, painful story.
Twenty years of service later, with a honorable discharge due to medical reasons (that ‘sane’ thing mentioned above) she decided to start typing the stories that played on inside her head (‘sane’, you said?). She even joined writing workshops and took writing lessons.
Hmm, cat stories, you say? Fantasy cat stories? Hon, you’ll never get published writing that sort of stuff.
She heard that comment, and variations of it, many times, from many people. Thankfully, there were editors out there who thought otherwise. Or, perhaps, editors with cats that thought otherwise. Including awesome editor Ellen Datlow, who chose Christine’s short story “Dominion” (from ASIM #37) to feature in her cat-themed anthology “Tails of Wonder and Imagination” for Night Shade Books (out now – February 2010).
And Christine never regretted her choice to write fantasy, historical fiction and science fiction. Oh, and cat stories too.
And that was the sane thing to do.
Little Shorty (Stumbos in Greek) is currently on my lap while I’m trying to finish that darned story. He is, of course, purring at road construction level. What do you think this purring can mean?
a. You saved me from the gutter and certain death! I love you, Mommy!
b. You saved me from the gutter and certain death! Now it’s your DUTY to pet and cuddle me and give me noms and pet me again, until the End of Days! (Yours, not mine. I have nine lives. NEENER, NEENER.)
…yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s #b.
*headdesk*
One of my goals this year is to be more consistent with my writing. Moreover, I aim to rediscover the Lost Fun of Writing. And, by goal, I don’t mean a New Year’s Resolution. My kittehs laugh at those. And then pee all over them. Which what generally happens to them, by the end of the year, figuratively speaking. Or not.
Anyway, I’ll give another go to this Write 1 Sub 1 thing. I tried it last year, and then Life happened, which included computer woes, sick cats, health issues and ongoing financial troubles. On the other hand, a large part of 2011 consists of empty days: I cannot recall what I did during those times, especially from February to May. But I do recall how every one of my stories came to be, even though it was painful at times: I had to endure heat without a/c, my back and shoulders hurt, I came out of my study (or back from my coffee shop) to find kitteh chaos but, in the end, I had my stories.
I don’t want any more empty days.
So I’ll give that W1S1 thing another go. Pretending, of course, that Week One did not exist.
Week 2:
Write 1: Expanded a Liberty Hall Flash from 1000 words to 4000. Historical Dark Fantasy, based on a mix of Aegean myths and inspired from the works of Greek poet Nikos Kavadias. It was a challenge to write: First Person POV, present tense, and a male POV at that. The setting was also a challenge: early 16th century Barbary Coast. I had to research a gazillion little things for every other line: food, spices, currency, clothes, expressions, evil eye traditions, naval terminology (shoot me now), and many more. But I loved the outcome. 
Sub 1: The above-mentioned story. But I won’t say where. All this research about the Evil Eye rubbed off some superstition on me. I fear that if I say more, I’ll jinx it.
Anyway, off to work on my Week 3 assignment. And I hope I’ll be able to keep it up.
Until, that is, Diablo 3 comes out. Oh, hello there, Black Hole of my days… :/
In one of my writers’ forums, there’s an ongoing game where one replaces word(s) from films and books with ‘bacon’. The results are quite often hilarious.
And, last night, my Muse (Mews) came up with this:
On a skillet hot and greasy, cooking eggs just over-easy,
Adding bacon and sausage, breakfast for my sweet Lenore,
By my stove I’m almost napping, suddenly there was a tapping,
Clawing, scratching, mewing, rapping, rapping on my kitchen door.
Cats and kittens came a-lolling, rolling on my kitchen floor.
Tails erect and claws expanding, lolcats bacon demanding:
“Can haz bacon! Fry sum moar!”
(With my sincere (not) apologies to Mr. Poe. The cats made me do it).
An update om random (but not trivial) new things:
1. I now am an Associate Member of SFWA. *purr*
2. I can haz Interview in a friend’s blog. *moar purr*
And this is one of the wittiest comic strips I’ve seen in a long time: Non Sequitur by Wiley Miller. Just in time for NaNo. 
The last couple of weeks have been of the “Writing? What writing?” type, due to a number of factors, mostly health issues. And now we’re entering heatwave season here, so writing won’t be as easy.
And I have three deadlines in June, including WOTF. I have no story for them. Unless something fitting comes back, I might have to sit this quarter out. As for the other two, one story is researched and outlined save for a few details, and the other has a 1000-word opening that I may or may not keep.
On top of that, RBE is having their annual fundraising challenge (details here, check it out!) with a cool theme and awesome art, and I’ve already been bitten by a plot-kitten for that one. At least the deadline for them is far in the future, alongside next quarter’s WOTF, so I have time for this. I hope.
Oh well. At least I flashed (sort of) this week over at Liberty Hall. I’ve given up hope that my stories will remain at flash length.
- Death to Courier New. Standard Manuscript Formatting should be done in Comic Sans.
- Refreshing the Duotrope “Recent Responses” page every fifteen seconds won’t get the editors to get back to you any faster. No, really, it won’t.
- More cover letters should be written in Standard Lolcat. “O Hai. U can haz sabmishun. I can haz contrakt nao?”
- If you’re not already owned by one, get a cat (or more). Then you can blame your typos on them. Like misspelling your own name. And especially when you misspell the editor’s name.
- When all else fails, remember that most good editors are cat-owned. Have your cats contact them through mew.com, provide the appropriate brib-, um, offerings of catnip and tuna, and sit back and relax while the editing kittens purr hypnotic suggestion into their humans’ brains.
This works with d*g-owned editors too, but you’ll have to contact the Paw Hammer branch of Interpurr for them.
Back to my poor, neglected story now. Ooh, look, catnip!
Submitting and getting published in 2011 has been quite challenging, so far. In the last six months, I only sold two stories, but both to good homes (the Assassins anthology and Murky Depths). That’s probably a result of being more picky regarding where I send my stories to, but still… I also have a story on hold to another anthology I’d love to get in, although I’m not very hopeful about that once, since the competition in fierce.
This morning, however, I woke up to good news: a new spec-fic magazine, Arcane, has accepted a story very dear to my heart.
The setting: Samothrace, an island of the Aegean Sea imbued with ancient lore, during the Byzantine period–the Macedonian Dynasty. Ancient deities, the power of the Little Things and an old, blind woman, comfortable in the privileged life of the rich and noble, rediscovers the meaning of Duty and Sacrifice. If all goes well, it will appear in the second issue of Arcane.
I’ll go squee moar nao.
And I can’t believe I haven’t posted about this already!
“On Marble Threshing Floors”: the last battle of an Amazon past her prime, who burns her apron and dons her breastplate to defend home and family from new–and old–enemies. Inspired from a Byzantine folk song, this story is very dear to my heart.
And it’s now published on Cabinet Des Fées here. So, go read! (It’s free).
And while you’re there, amidst all the great stories and poems, there’s Athena Andreadis’ story “Though the Moon Be Still as Bright,” a little gem of a story.
(There’s a joke somewhere in here about Greeks bearing stories, but the cold has killed my wit today).
When I’m sitting down to write, the cats line up to sit on my lap.
They watch the cursor blink and the letters appear with great fascination, occasionally pawing at the screen (spellchecking?), purring and kneading my thighs. Ouch. During my last check-up, the doctor thought that those scars were from cutting myself. *sigh*
What really fuels the Muse, though, is when they start to purr. Then I know I’m doing something right in the story, that the setting has come to life, my characters’ motives make sense, and that the plot holes are filling up. Or, perhaps, a cat just crossed the story’s background.
And then I got last Fall’s kittens, especially Purrpurrita and Brunhilda. Those will purr at road construction level, giving me a much needed boost to write more. They’ll lie belly up, kneading the air, purring… and then they’ll fart. Plump, exposed bellies, and hind legs that work as gas-releasing levers. Oh, and yes, kitten farts smell like lavender.
Not.
And I have no idea what those Editors-on-lap are insinuating about my writing.
