Category Archives: Music, Movies, and other Muses

A line from a song, an image from a film, an unexpected moment of beauty in everyday life – my mind absorbs them all

3 Reasons Why I Love Beatrix Potter

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses, Writings about Writing by

A few days ago I re-watched one of my favorite movies of all time—Miss Potter. In case you haven’t seen it, the film is a reasonably accurate portrayal of a span of several years in the life of Beatrix Potter. It covers her journey from a single woman bored with life with her parents and their pretentions at aristocracy to her life as a published author and wealthy community leader. The film stars Reneé Zellweger and Ewan McGregor (that should be reason enough to see it, with that line-up…)

Number 1: I love Beatrix Potter because she wrote some awesome stories. For a hundred years now, children have read and loved the stories about Peter Rabbit, Tom Kitten, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, and all the rest.

One of my personal favorites was The Roly-Poly Pudding (or The Tale of Samuel Whiskers, depending on the edition). There was something about that story that was creepy but fun, like ghost stories around a campfire. In the story it was chillingly cool that the house was so big that Tom Kitten could get lost for days before anyone might find him and that the walls were three feet thick.

In reality, if I lived in a house where I could hear dancing and partying inside the walls, and there were rats big enough to run off with things like rolling pins, I’d move. But Beatrix Potter turned it into an adventure story, complete with the thinly-veiled moral of “always obey your mother.”

Number 2: I love Beatrix Potter because her life inspired the Miss Potter movie. Did I mention that this movie is one of my all-time favorites?

One of the things I love most about the movie is the way that the director brings the audience not just into Beatrix’s life, but into her creative process and into her mind. There are little moments—just a few, and very subtle—when Beatrix’s drawings come to life and respond to her. These moments are not long or overt and don’t interfere with the stodgy Victorian setting—they’re just little animated tweaks that let the viewer know how deeply Beatrix was involved with her characters and art. How real they were to her.

As a writer, I can readily identify with this concept. My characters are my friends; I enjoy spending time with them, and sometimes we even argue. For example, right now one of my characters (Teija is her name, and she’s normally a somewhat timid girl) is loudly banging on my mind to remind me that I left her last scene hanging much too long ago and when am I going to finish it already.

There’s a scene in Miss Potter when Beatrix is trying to cope with a sudden tragedy in her life and she stays up all night sketching—only to have her beloved Peter turn away from her as she’s drawing. Peter Rabbit, frightened by his creator’s sadness and anger, flees from her, running away through the various drawings scattered across her desk.

The pencil sketch of Peter Rabbit hides behind some flower pots in one drawing and peer out at her, as if to give her firm instructions: “don’t you dare try to paint me or tell my story until you’re in a better frame of mind.” Peter may be a troublemaker of a little bunny most of the time, but in that instance, he is giving his creator some sorely-needed guidance.

Any other writers or artists out there besides me and the movie Beatrix who have experienced this? Have you ever felt guided (or even pushed) by your characters, instead of the other way around?

Number 3: I love Beatrix Potter because she achieved every writer’s dream. No, not every author or artist wants to live on a farm in the country raising sheep, but she did that because she loved it and she was making enough money with her books to live the lifestyle that she wanted. Control over their own life is every person’s dream to one extent or another, I believe. Not everyone will achieve this dream—and not every writer will get rich with their books—but the way I see it, if even one person did it, then there’s a chance that someone else can, too.

Beatrix Potter not only gained control of her lifestyle with her books, but she accomplished what is perhaps an even deeper universal dream—she created a legacy. She wrote something worth reading long after she was gone. More than 50 years after her death, and her stories and drawings are still bringing joy to children everywhere.

I’d love to hear your thoughts! Any other fans of Beatrix Potter out there? What author’s life story has inspired you?

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Some legal disclaimers, just in case…

Frederick Warne and Co owns all rights and copyrights to Beatrix Potter’s works

Miss Potter, 2006 by Phoenix Pictures, directed by Chris Noonan

The Devil’s Horse

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses by

I’m taking the title of this blog from the title of a book I’m re-reading: The Devil’s Horse: Tales from the Kalevala by Keith Bosley. Published in the 1960s and intended to be a children’s book, it’s a translation and re-telling in prose form of the Finnish epic poem called The Kalevala. This epic poem is actually a compilation of folk songs and oral tales gathered from the country people of rural Finland during the 19th century.

Since I’m not quite proficient enough in Finnish (yet!) to read the original Kalevala, I have to settle for English translations. This children’s book by Bosley was my first introduction to the world of Finnish folk tales and mythology. Bosley’s witty prose and often snarky dialogue add a touch of humor to this translation of ancient tales of heroes, evil witches, the land of the dead, and other mythological adventures.

Now, this actually does pertain to my writing habits, not just my reading habits. I’ve always been very inspired by ancient tales, mythology, and folk songs so old that no one knows when they were written or by whom. The fantasy trilogy I’m currently writing draws very strongly from The Kalevala. It’s not a re-telling of any of the stories found in The Kalevala; but in my novels, just like in The Kalevala, the reader will encounter a magic kantele or two, characters with names like Iku-Turso, and maybe even the ever-mysterious Sampo. And there’s even a fiery horse–the “devil’s horse” of the title.

The Kalevala still influences modern Finnish life, especially in the areas of art and music. In my story, some of the characters muse about this very fact. The story begins in modern-day Finland (and then fantasy adventure ensues from there). The characters (being Finnish, most of them) note the various parallels between their fantastical adventures and the cultural literary icon of The Kalevala. This is why I call my story “inspired by The Kalevala,” rather than a re-telling of it, like Bosley’s The Devil’s Horse.

Whether you’re wanting a story that’s “inspired by” or a “re-telling of,” I do recommend delving into the world of The Kalevala, if you have any interest in folk tales or mythology. A lot of Finnish music (both past and current) falls into both categories of “inspired by” and “re-telling of,” as well. A lot of my inspiration and writing motivation has come from Kalevala-influenced music; I’ll be blogging about that some in the near future.

And finally, a quick disclaimer of sorts–I am not Finnish, I have not been to Finland (yet!), and I am by no means a Kalevala scholar (there are such people as Kalevala scholars, and I have no wish to offend them by making any pretensions of being one). I’m just a big fan of mythology, epic poems, and folks songs in languages I don’t know. And I’m a writer who is greatly inspired by all of these things.

However, if someone reading this is a Kalevala scholar and can tell me exactly what a Sampo really is, that would be appreciated…

My imagination

Posted in Music, Movies, and other Muses by

I’m new to this blogging thing, but I’m not new to writing. I know that no one has heard of me as an author, but I’ve been inventing stories since I could talk, and writing down stories ever since I could spell. I have what many might call an over-active imagination; but even during bouts of low self-image attacks when I tried to squelch my imagination and live like “normal” people, I found that I never could manage to turn it off.

So here I am, finally deciding to embrace my run-away mind and all the worlds it creates. So now the question is, how well will that translate into a blog that people actually want to read? Or, better yet, books that people want to pay good money for and read? Well, I’ll never know till I try…

To start with, I should probably talk a bit about what I’m currently writing (besides this fabulous blog, of course). I’m working on a fantasy trilogy—just finished the first draft of book one, and now I’m in the first re-write phase and have started book two. Four hundred-plus pages and 175,000-plus words of fantasy adventure…so now my goal for the re-write is to shave it down by about 50,000 words or so. I’ve trimmed off about 1,000 words (i.e. about two pages) of unnecessary fluff so far. A good start, right?

The term “fantasy” can encompass a lot of things, so to briefly describe this trilogy, I would call it either cross-world fantasy or just straight up plain fantasy (as opposed to urban fantasy, high fantasy, etc). It’s set in Finland, and involves the northern lights, reindeer, some musical instruments, and a dose of Finnish mythology. Sound interesting?

I hope so! I’ll be blogging in the future about some of the research that I’ve done for this series (yes, research for a fantasy story), and some of the things that have inspired me. And maybe I’ll even show a few excerpts from the first book. Time will tell…