Least favorite film by a favorite director

Jackie Brown (1997)



That’s absolutely not to say it’s not a good film. Jackie Brown is still a good movie, it’s just my least favorite of Tarantino’s movies. Why? Well, I don’t know, there was something odd about the pacing. I just felt like the movie kept going on and on. I’d have to really break it down and analyze it before I could tell you exactly why I thought that was. (Very likely a good idea, but I’d like to sit on the movie for a few days before I try to dissect it.)

Once again, Tarantino has a kick-ass female lead. Jackie Brown (the movie, not the character) has an anti-romance streak running through it that I totally bought into. I’d love to use that kind of relationship in my own stories. Overall good movie, but when you place it next to his other amazing films you just can’t say it’s his best.

A movie that disappointed you

9 (2009)



“Disappointment” is a good word for this movie. It sounds kinda harsh but it’s true, I was sorely disappointed. The trailer was excellent. Energizing, intriguing, it made me want to see the movie. I’d also seen the short film the movie was inspired by, so I thought it would be clever too.

Unfortunately it wasn’t. This movie is one missed opportunity after another. Such a rich and intriguing world and I never felt like it was exploited. The story was dry and predictable and the dialogue equally as much. What got me visually was that the textures didn’t hold up on closeups. When they did an over the shoulder shot, the weaving on their body looked like a low-res image, which I bet it was.

If only they’d spent more time figuring out what they wanted to say. The movie would have been great if it had a point.

Great performance in a film

Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)



This is the movie that made me fall madly in love with Al Pacino. I seriously can’t get enough of this guy. He’s energetic, he’s confrontational, he a smooth-operator, he’s a bad guy. Al Pacino is everything bad for you that’s oh so good.

The character Sonny is a bit neurotic but intelligent. I spent the whole movie flip-flopping if I liked him or not (rather, if I should be rooting for him or not.) Regardless if you want him to win or not, he’s the star of this show and I guarantee you’ll have a blast as you slowly uncover his motives.

I Like Orange!

Actually, my favorite color is red, but when I saw this orange blog background I got really excited! It's such a fun design~

How often do you think about writ­ing?

The easier question might be when DON’T I think about writing, to which the answer is… Um, never? Probably when I’m concentrating on work? Maybe?

I always think about writing, to the extent that I quite easily identify it as obsession. Everything I do, everything I see, everything I hear, I always end up asking myself “How can I use this?” “How can I make this better?” “What is the most entertaining part about this?” “What happens when I try to stuff it into such-n-such world?” “What character of mine would most likely say this?”

The questions go on and on and on. My gears are always turning and the only thing that drives me insane about this is that I can’t find anyone else to talk to about it. More than anything I want to find at least one person who is so blatantly obsessed as I am so that we can ramble on together and help develop each other’s ideas and relate to someone.

I’ve come across a few individuals on the internet who are very likely in the same category of “storynut” but I want to find someone I can actually interact with on a daily basis. Face-to-face.
In the meantime, I’ll have to settle for the one-way road.

Best source of inspiration?

The best source of inspiration is any source of inspiration, I always say. However, my most reliable source of inspiration would be my dreams.

Usually I get an idea from somewhere- anywhere. Something I see, something I read about (odd newspaper articles mostly) and then I just let my brain sit on it for a while. Then, eventually, these things start to collide while I’m dreaming, and voila! I get the premise for another story I want to write.

Actually, it’s been happening so frequently lately that I’ve started to pick up short-story writing simply so I can use them all. It’s hit or miss, but sometimes I get something fantastic. It’s just a matter of write write writing every day until a gem appears.

Have you ever written a character with physical or mental disabilities?

Yes, I have but it’s usually pretty limited because it’s so hard to write. This is largely because I’m fortunate enough to be healthy myself, and my friends are as well. As a result, I have little experience in dealing with disabilities and therefore don’t trust myself to write it effectively.

I have one character who lost his leg in an accident when he was very young. By the time the story opens he’s already largely healed from the trauma and learned how to live with his condition, so the story doesn’t actually focus much on that aspect of his life. I chose to give him this condition for metaphorical reasons rather than drama.

As for mental disability, one character of mine is a blatant sociopath. However, he’s only affected by this in the beginning of the story, since the turning point is that due to supernatural reasons he’s given a conscience, and thus the rest of the story is about him dealing with the horrible things he’s done to others in the past, their reactions to that, and his mission for self-redemption.

Other than that, I haven’t really dabbled too much in disabilities. I’ve toyed with addiction before, mostly side characters who are alcoholics or have the desire to quit smoking or are dependent on some medication. Recently after reading Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, I’ve become interested in asperger syndrome, but I don’t know if a character will come out of it yet.

Do appearances play a big role in your stories? How you go about designing your characters.

A big role? Not generally.

Since I like to write a lot of action sequences, my main characters are usually pretty fit so that they can reasonably handle the torture I like to put them through. A character of mine is usually only exceptionally good looking if there’s some kind of story construction behind it (or if my target audience expects/demands it.) The same goes for a character that isn’t attractive.

My view on the issue is that characters all start in the same place “average” and according to the story’s need, should be adjusted. I try not to waste time on descriptions that aren’t going to be used later on, so I generally let the audience fill in the gaps with their own defaults, which likely makes the character more likable in the long run.

At some point, I almost always draw my characters. This is when I work out details such as particular hair-style, specific fashion notes, certain facial features and body proportions. Then, depending on what I come up with there, I can go back and edit written details later.

How will­ing are you to kill your char­ac­ters if the plot so demands it?

I’m extremely serious when it comes to character death.

When a reader picks up my story, I feel like I enter into a contract with that reader. In exchange for their time and attention, I will provide them with a satisfying experience. These satisfying experiences come directly from my characters and the situations they’re in. By killing a character, I kill an opportunity to transmit certain experiences to the reader, and if this is sloppily done, the reader will be unsatisfied, the contract will be void, and they are free to stop reading.

There is almost always a better method to transfer an idea to the reader than killing a character. The sense of loss can be felt through interrupted relationships, injury, separation, missed opportunity, mistrust, and denial. The sense of futility can be felt though powerlessness, destruction, restriction, and oppression. If I kill a character when there’s a different, possibly better way to get the same reaction from the reader, then I will consider myself a failure if I chose the easy way out.

Because "the easy way out" is usually what character death is. If I get a character deep into a heaping pile of stinky poo, then it’s my responsibility as an author to see them through to the end. The audience has pledged me their trust, and if I let the character die, I let the audience die, and no one wants to feel that kind of betrayal.

Exceptions do not exist; however, character death can be a useful tool. I reserve death almost exclusively for side characters who are used as a catalyst for the main character’s action. The death of a main character can be useful in certain stories, but my personal preference is to save that for short stories, where the reader doesn’t have to devote as much time and emotional investment.

It’s tricky and, in my opinion, extremely easy to screw up. My question ultimately is this: Why kill a character when there’s so many options worse than death?

Do you draw your char­ac­ters? Do oth­ers draw them?

I draw my characters all the time and I absolutely love it when others draw my characters too. A good number of my stories are presented in comic format, so the character is always described visually in those cases. But even for stories that are meant to be written, I draw the character.

Drawing helps me figure out more about the character. It makes you think differently. Through drawing, I learn the specifics of their appearance. Do they have a prominent chin? How wide are their shoulders? Do they wear earrings or other accessories? What about facial hair? Body language, habits, economic status, social status, education, occupation- all of that can be depicted visually, so I consider drawing my characters to be an extremely important part of my process.

It’s also great for inspiration. When I get down on my story (and we all have those “this sucks” moments) I can look at my drawings and feel recharged. It’s also a great way to get others excited about what you’re working on. A good illustration from a story is one of the best ways to sell an idea since people can take in so much more information visually.

Do any of your characters have children? How well do you write them?

Oh snap, not many of my characters at all have children. Let me ponder this…
I’ll restrict it to main characters (parent side-characters don’t count) and that leaves me with, I believe, one character of mine who has canon children. Kieran from Raise Holy Hex is a child in the first story, in the second story she’s a teenager, and in her third and final story, she is a mother of three (one daughter and twin boys.)

Due to my extensive babysitting experience, I like to think I’m pretty good at depicting children in my stories, though these particular children haven’t been written yet. It’s not the children that make me nervous though- it’s the mother-child relationship that I’m hesitant to write.

Since I’m not a mother, the closest experience I have to mother-child relationship would be with my pets. (When I say mother-child relationship, I place the perspective character first. So a character with the perspective of a mother would make it mother-child, as opposed to my experience with my own mom, which is a child-mother relationship.) Children are not pets. And babysitting isn’t exactly a good basis for mother experience since being full-time responsible for children is, I imagine, so much more complex.

Perhaps that’s why I’ve only plotted the third story rather than sat down to write it. Kieran’s relationship with her children is very important to that story.

Tell us about one scene between your characters that you’ve never written.

Okay, there is no situation between characters that I have actively avoided writing. If the story leads there, I write it. So I’ll interpret this question as “a scene that you’ve planned for a story but have not yet written.” Because I’ve got lots of those!

One scene I haven’t written yet is the climactic moment in story “Bound” where the heroes confront the big baddie and pull a classic switcharoo on the audience. I plan for the audience to think that the characters have lost, when it turns out that the main characters have not only deceived the audience, but the people the big baddie is controlling. Then it’s revealed to the reader that the main characters outsmarted the baddies and now have usurped the power.

It’s an epic fight scene with the heart of a shonen comic, complete with explosions and likely some swearing. Pretty fun.

How long does it usu­ally take you to com­plete an entire story?

Depends on several factors: my interest, time available, if I know the ending or not, desire, deadline, length, and which draft stage?

If I had to give an average, my long stories take about a year to complete. Usually I spend a few months and get down the whole first draft, and more often than not that’s where it remains. I have too many ideas to dawdle on one for too long. Occasionally I come up with something I like to see through to the end so I do a couple more runs on it.

I don’t generally write my stories for publication. I do it because it’s insanely fun to do. My stories could almost be considered my journal. Through my characters, I can explore all kinds of situations that I want to better understand. The stories that I come up with often reflect something that’s going on in my life at the time. A friend of mine passes away, I write a story about the afterlife, exploring people who are left behind, and the attempt to get them back.

Almost never do I notice the link between a story I come up with and what’s going on in my life at the time. It’s not until years afterward when I look back on it can I notice where the story came from. At the time of a story’s creation, it’s just me writing down whatever I find most interesting. If I leave a draft alone for a couple years after I’ve written it, I can come back later and figure out what it was I was trying to say with that story, and then it can be rewritten into something worth sharing.

Do any of your characters have pets? Tell us about them.

Pets almost always don’t play a prominent roll in my stories. In my experience, they tend to get in the way. If a character of mine has a pet, I forget that it’s there half-way through the story and then have to figure out what the heck is going on with it later. A lot of my stories involve travel of some kind, so a pet generally gets in the way of a character’s ability to follow routs I want to take.

The exception to this is when the pet plays a story role. For example, Garret from My Sylvan Weed has a pissy black cat that he doesn’t get along with. Later on in the story, the reason for this interaction is discovered and eventually rectified. The relationship between Garret and the cat is a basic reflection of other relationships going on in the story. These are the kind of things I like.

What are your favorite character interactions to write?

Quite easily, my favorite interaction to write is argument.

Story has no purer form than an argument. One character wants something, the other character wants something that conflicts. Arguments are intense and can be depicted in so many different ways.

Arguments change depending on their context. A pair of lovers will bicker differently depending if they’re in a restaurant, at their in-laws, or home alone. Best friends have different kind of weapons against each other than strangers do. They can be completely cool and cerebral, or physical and heated.

I love arguments because they often represent turning points in stories. When two characters argue, it means they’re finally addressing something that is not working, and the outcome of the argument could affect every event that comes afterward. Characters are defined in arguments- they all have different tactics, morals, lines to cross and are willing to cross. Characters and readers alike learn from arguments, and a well-constructed confrontation can be extremely entertaining to follow.

Favorite minor character that decided to shove himself into the spotlight.

Syaoran, hands down.

Sy was a minor character that appeared about thirty pages into the story. He’s a shy, kind individual with a twisted past. He wasn’t particularly good-looking or talented, or even particularly useful, but for some reason beyond my knowledge, the main character Raz hit it off with Sy and since that point they became the dynamic duo right to the end of the story.

What I love about Sy is that his movement from minor to major took me completely off guard. I had entirely intended him to be a fleeting moment in the background, but somehow he just clicked. His story wasn’t over yet, and better than that, his story perfectly intertwined with the main characters.

I like him because he’s got some controversial themes surrounding him. First of all, Sy’s gay, and before I wrote Sy I didn’t much dabble with gay characters. It’s not a focus of his character, just one of his many elements. His character also deals with abuse and how to overcome it. That’s his primary character point and with him pushing his way into the main cast, it altered the course of the story dramatically. It was really fun.

Favorite antagonist

FF, I love all my antagonists… I… I love badguys.

A favorite? How about I talk about my favorite type of bad guy to write. I love to write bad guys who have no conscience. Every time I create a character like this, I try to depict it in a different way.

Bade is completely suave, but prone to sudden violent outbursts. He also tends to be impulsive and particularly cruel, but his overwhelming amount of charisma has given him a powerful following which makes him even more dangerous.

Allan is the mad-scientist type. Extremely intelligent but without any social morals- a dangerous combination for anyone who happens to fall into his clutches. He’s the bad guy who’ll smile politely while he opens your skull with a chainsaw.

Xer is quiet and calculating. There’s something eerie about him, but the main characters dismiss the oddity due to cultural differences. Not until it’s too late do they find out that Xer is seriously capable of anything because he simply doesn’t value human life. Unlike Bade and Allan, Xer prefers to keep his hands clean and instead wages psychological warfare while his underlings handle the less pleasant tasks.

Please don’t think I’m crazy, though. These are bad guys, after all.

Favorite protagonist

I have a whole bunch of favorites. Actually, as a rule, my protagonists are always my favorite character of the story because if I don’t care about the character, my reader wont either.

I have a particular affection for badasses- specially female badasses. I know this contradicts my tendency to have male characters, but seriously, can anyone deny a Sigourney Weaver? I think not.

Of my female-badass collection, favorites depend upon my mood. I have different shades of badassery. There’s the girls-with-guns, robbers-in-ribbons, the classic-tomboy, the undercover-chick-discover, kills-in-frills, hot-but-horrifying, the curt-flirt, bombshell-with-actual-bombs, famous-n-dangerous, among others…

Lighting TAs

This is a picture of the TAs (plus Gina) earlier this year! Top-bottom, left-right

Gina, Svetla, Xristos
Jinyi, Heather, Hae Sook, Tridip, Kingsley, Brandon, and me!

Xristos was a temp, so he no longer works here (but hopefully will return as a lighter ;D) Heather left Blue Sky and Brandon got promoted to Lighting TD. Miss ya’ll!

Do you write romantic relationships? Are you good with those? Do you write sex scenes?

Of course I write romance. I’m a chick, it’s practically a requirement that I indulge. Really, I think any good story has a whole range of relationships, and among the range would be romantic relationships.

It’s not always the main characters involved, though it usually is. The romance is not often the focus of the story, with the exception being stories You Too & Stuff and Strings n’ Ribbon.

Romance just adds another dimension to the interactions. The thing about love is that you can love someone and be driven absolutely insane by them at the same time. You can be completely incompatible with someone and yet still be in love with them, which is excellent story fodder since story’s heart is rooted in conflict. Love defies logic, and if used properly can become a believable and powerful motivator.

As for the sex scenes, sure I write those too. They don’t often make it to the final cut of the story, but if you can write it, why not? It’s fun to write too and can sometimes help develop a better understanding of the characters. Never can tell what can come of it.

As for the question if I’m any good at writing intimate scenes- I’m not really sure. I try to treat it like any other scene I write- there’s a point behind it and a result that affects the next scene. At least in construction, I know it’s solid.