Blog – Page 40 – Erin Penn's Second Base

Editing Rant: Tied up or only tidied up

August 12, 2025June 29, 2025 Erin Penn

ID 59228595 © 22tomtom | Dreamstime.com

“Tie up all the loose ends.” Conventional wisdom for completing a story, right?

Nope, do not do this. Yes, a plotline, or book, or even a series is ending, but life is messy. Fiction, being a mirror of life, also is messy. Tie up MOST of the loose ends, but leave room. Leave room for fanfic, for “what happens next,” for short stories and “what ifs?“. Maybe even another series.

Tidied up the loose ends, but don’t tie them up.

Have a climax, then ease your reader out of the story by hinting life continues on. Just like at the beginning of the story, when “the normal” is established. The ending has the new normal, just a bit. Maybe a chapter.

But don’t go – this person got a job, and this person had a baby, and this weapon was lost to time, but this weapon is passed down for generations.

Not every question needs answering. Clear out the gore and emotions. Tidied up the tears, and show life continues.

But do NOT tie up everything like a Christmas Turkey complete with a bow. Don’t cook the ending until every last bit of juice is out of the meat of the story.

Don’t tie up all the loose ends.

Flash: Dream a Boy Adventure

August 10, 2025August 10, 2025 Erin Penn

On 8/9/2025, Raconteur Press issued a writing challenge based on a visual prompt. Fifty words, no more, no less, on their substack. The visual prompt is there, and below is my response. There is already a dozen comments – join in if you want.

https://raconteurpress.substack.com/p/50-words-of-boys-adventure

The challenge is related to release of a Boys Adventure “Dreams of Gold and Fire” by Fred Phillips.

Cold moist air alternated with hot ashy breeze as the dragon cave breathed. Within snowmelt ran beside the interior stony spine. In daily youthful forever, Elijah had swum alongside friends inside the cavern’s icy waters, playing make-believe explorers. Today, the cave ceased being make-believe. Today, Elijah dreamed the Dragon Cave.

(50 words; first published 8/9/2025)

Writing Exercise: Main Character, Protagonist, Narrator, Hero, Oh My Murderbot

August 7, 2025August 7, 2025 Erin Penn

ID 125627495 | Hero © Kiosea39 | Dreamstime.com

Often times people lump the Main Character, Protagonist, Narrator, and the Hero together in their head, but these parts of a story are actually all just a little bit different. I recently finished watching Murderbot Season One, and it inspired this post.

NARRATOR: As in the books, SecUnit is the Narrator in the television show. The person whose voice is telling the story. In some books, this is a generic omniscient speaker. Other times, it can be the person outside story, such as the grandfather reading the story in the Princess Bride movie. Fantasy loves telling stories from a historian’s point-of-view, writing the epic centuries after the events.

Much more often, in the present trends of storytelling, the narrator is the point-of-view (POV) character of the story as that is the POV we are seeing everything from, and whose emotional and experience lens the knowledge is being passed to the reader.

Now what caught my interest in Apple+ version of Murderbot is in order to make the story work in a television setting, the protagonist wasn’t SecUnit.

PROTAGONIST: Protagonist meaning “The Player of the first part / Chief Actor” from Ancient Greek dramas. But someone once gave me a definition to help me, as an editor, figure out who the protagonist of the story is: “The person who changes the most in the story.” This is the person the plot impacted; they changed because of the events around them.

These would be the main characters: Murderbot, Mensah, Arada, Pin-Lee, Ratthi, Bharadwaj, and Gurathin. Most of the group are the same people coming out of the story as going in; even SecUnit. Yes, it matured, but at it’s core it is still confused for purpose, a video addicted security expert, and very much a child in terms of understanding and accepting responsibility. It will grow up later; around book 3 or 4, it finally started understanding “adult” responsibilities.

The one who changed on the Apple TV version of Murderbot season one was Gurathin. He started outside the group, hurting and unsure. Jealous of the new member who Mensa had adopted as a new project. Acting out from the pain of isolation. By the end, he is still Gurathin, isolated, but instead of being just outside the circle, he is a step or two inside the community. He has let go of his jealousy, and acted to save his friend-enemy.

HERO: While many story structure analysis says the protagonist comes in three flavors: hero, anti-hero, or villain (again the one driving the story), I am going to say in this case, the hero is different. The Hero of the story is the Good Guy, the one you hope succeed, and aspire to be like. Again, this is very much not Murderbot. It likes killing. The one I would aspire to be is Mensah. She is the hero for all of them. Even for Murderbot. She isn’t its mentor, she is its favorite human. The one it goes out of its way to help succeed. The rest of the group is its humans, but Mensah is its hero.

MAIN CHARACTER: Finally, we have the Main Character (MC). In most stories, especially Urban Fantasies, the MC, narrator, protagonist, and hero are bundles into one person. In the Murderbot TV show, the narrator is clearly Murderbot. When it goes offline, we lose parts of the story. It is also, clearly, the title character. (Note that the title character is often NOT the main character.) SecUnit has the most screen time. In the case of the TV series, I would say Murderbot is the main character.

WRITING EXERCISE: Take a movie, TV show, novel, or story you are writing and figure out who is the Narrator(s), the Protagonist, the Hero, and the Main Character. Write it up on your blog and drop the link below, or just drop the results of the exercise below.

My attempt: Obviously, Murderbot AppleTV was used above. But I recently submitted a short story to an anthology. I don’t know what the final name will be, but the anthology should be coming out soon. In the superhero road-trip story,

NARRATORS: I have three point-of-view (POV) characters: Annie / Freakin’ Angel; Onyx / Fire Orb; and Vicky / (superpower name not chosen yet – nor whether she is a villain or a hero).

PROTANGONIST: The story doesn’t have one. The point of the story is a road trip. Everyone is the same at the end of the story as the beginning. The trip doesn’t change them, nor does their actions change the world. Some genres and story-plot-archetypes just break the rules that way.

HERO: Someone you want to be like, who inspires you. As this is a subsection of protagonist, we don’t have a hero/anti-hero/villain. The characters of this story are superheroes, but not necessarily heroes, not yet. That might happen in the next story.

MAIN CHARACTERS: That is the road-trip pair: Annie and Onyx / Freakin’ Angel and Fire Orb.

If you get a chance to read the novelette, be sure to drop in the comments below if you agree with my breakdown of the story.

Book Review: How Long ’til Black Future Month?

August 5, 2025August 5, 2025 Erin Penn

Amazon Cover

How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemisin

BOOK BLURB ON AMAZON

Three-time Hugo Award winner and NYT bestselling author N. K. Jemisin challenges and delights readers with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption that sharply examine modern society in her first collection of short fiction, which includes never-before-seen stories.

Spirits haunt the flooded streets of New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. In a parallel universe, a utopian society watches our world, trying to learn from our mistakes. A black mother in the Jim Crow South must save her daughter from a fey offering impossible promises. And in the Hugo award-nominated short story “The City Born Great,” a young street kid fights to give birth to an old metropolis’s soul.

MY REVIEW

How Long ’till Black Future Month is a collection of short stories from the amazing N.K. Jemisin. Overall the collection provides insight into Ms. Jemisin’s growth as a writer and provides a wide variety of fantasy and science fiction short stories exploring a variety of topics. Solid writing, but the author is a solid creator. (Bonus points for all the food representation – great inspiration for snacks at my book club meeting.)

Sometimes collections are given in date order, sometimes collections are groups by genre. This collection is grouped by theme – horror, standing against the dark, etc. Sometimes the ending of the previous short story flows into the next; for example – “would it bother with anything so mundane…” flows into “the name of the first entree made me groan” (followed by something very much not mundane). The flow of the stories make it an easy read, but the part of me that likes to study an author growth would prefer things in date order. Still, overall, I think the presentation choice for the collection is perfect.

*** Individual Reviews of stories

The Ones Who Stay and Fight (no date given) – Science Fiction. This is a world-building thought experiment, not a story with character driving the plot. While it doesn’t work as a short story, it does work as a bridge between the non-fiction Introduction and the rest of the collection. (Again, not a short story and therefore the “worse” of the fiction part of the collection.)

The City Born Great (2016) – Urban Fantasy Sci-Fi. I have read “The City We Became” duology. This short story is the novel series original test of concept.

Red Dirt Witch (2016) – Historical Fantasy mixing equal parting submission and rebellion. Acknowledging gravity and encouraging the risk of flying with the same breath.

L’Alchimista (2005) – Fantasy. A man drops off a bag of ingredients for master chef locked in the equivalent of a greasy spoon. Can she still make her magic? (I adore stories with food.)

The Effluent Engine (2011) – Steampunk Spy Romance. The best romance of the collection. As well as a great spy thriller within a steampunk world.

Cloud Dragon Skies (2005) – Science Fiction. This is the first short story Jemisin sold. Those-that-learn pay the price of those that don’t.

The Trojan Girl (2011) – Cyber Punk. What will push AIs from being mere self-aware programs to actual sentience? Is it group survival? Is it the ability to cross into the real world? Or is it something else entirely?

Valedictorian (2014) – Post-Apocalypse YA. Are you willing to be true to yourself if it means isolation from others?

The Storyteller’s Replacement (no date given) – Fantasy (Horror Elements). Some days you eat the dragon … some days the dragon smiles at you.

The Brides of Heaven (2007) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). How far is too far, how far is crazy, when there is no hope for the future?

The Evaluators (2016) – Science Fiction (Horror Elements). Reaching space means space reaches back.

Walking Awake (2014) – Science Fiction. – Some monsters respect bodies, and some are conspicuous users. How much can a human tolerate?

The Elevator Dancer (no date given) – Dystopian. I can see why this one wasn’t previously published, but it has a place in this collection.

Cuisine des Memories (no date given) – Literary Science Fiction. Adored this story for the food. The book club members each discussed what meals we would order.

Stone Hunger (2014) – Fantasy. One of the longer stories in the book. Good characters and amazing worldbuilding in this exploration of a possible novel idea.

On the Banks of the River Lex (2010) – Apocalypse Fantasy. Dreams and concepts survive the fall of man, the question is who will adopt them after we are all gone?

The Narcomancer (2008) – Fantasy. This short story explores the ideas which develops into “The Killing Moon” and “The Shadowed Sun” duology.

Henosis (2017) – Science Fiction Horror. Meh, an interesting experiment in writing out of time-sequence. As Jemisin says in the beginning, short stories gives you opportunities to explore different writing tools.

Too Many Yesterdays, Not Enough Tomorrows (2004) – Science Fiction. A quantum disaster has separated humanity into individual pocket universes. Can a species based on community survive the isolation?

The You Train (2007) – Urban Fantasy. Another experiment of writing tools – this time we see just one side of a conversation – text, phone call, messaging – over a period of time. I think the experiments work – definitely a train to ride.

Non-Zero Probabilities (2009) – Urban Fantasy. This one wins best title in the collection. I looked forward to it the entire time I was reading the collection and the story didn’t disappoint. But considering the author, a complete dud is a zero probability. I love statistical stories, so I adored this.

Sinners, Saints, Dragons, and Haints, in the City Beneath the Still Waters (2015) – Urban Fantasy. New Orleans and Hurricanes deserve a trigger warning. What happens when a storm isn’t the only monster which blows in?

Museum Visit: Borderlands

July 31, 2025October 30, 2025 Erin Penn

Third episode of the Museum of Texas Tech University visit from a spring-time trip. Here are the pictures I took of the “Icon and Symbols of the Borderland” exhibit showing until August 17, 2025, plus things from the main exhibit which caught my eye.

First let me mention, the sculptures from mesquite wood are mindbending in their craftmanship. The mesquite tree is not in any shape or form “straight” wood. I didn’t take pictures of them because the sculptures just wouldn’t have come out well, but I highly recommend going in person (if you are traveling through Lubbock, Texas).

Onward into the Borderlands. Two artists worked with metallic labels to create collages. I took pictures of one of Cesar Martinez’s collages and two from Diana Molina. The use of trash to create Borderland art is, well, shiny.

The museum card reads: Cesar Martinez “Cabeza de Vaca Stele”, 2013 (Collage – on loan from the artist)

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca (c. 1490-1560) was a Spanish explorer and one of four survivors of the 1527 Panfilio de Narvaez expedition that reached Tampa Bay, Florida, a year later. Marooned on the Texas coast, he wrote an account of his eight-year trek across the American Southwest to reunite with his Spanish countrymen in what is now the northwest Mexican state of Sinaloa. In “Naufragios y commentarios” (Shipwrecks and Commentaries) originally published in 1542, Cabeza de Vaca documented detailed descriptions of the many Native American tribes he encountered.

About the icons and symbols in this collage, the artist explains they “are inspired by the Native American rock paintings, petroglyphs, and Mesoamerican visual representations that de Vaca may have seen during his travels.”

Diana Molina “Serape Tecate”, 2013 (Paper collage – on loan from the artist): Depicted here is an iconic trademark symbol of a popular beer brand of the region. The discarded wrappings of contemporary Mexican American consumption form the palette of representation of consumer culture along the borderline. Molina is “drawn to recycle post-consumer wrappings to create work that reflects the cultural heritage, environment, and commercial intake of a binational landscape.”

Diana Molina “Agave”, 2014 (Paper collage – on loan from the artist): The agave epitomized Molina’s passion for the Chihuahuan Desert landscape. Also called mescal, its use is a long-standing tradition among native cultures of the Southwest. Mother of tequila and provider of sweet nectar, the slow-growing desert plant stores water in its thick leaves and produces one magnificent bloom before dying.

Next is a painting of a horse, but the details fascinated me. Do you remember doing doodles in school, then drawing lines around them, expanding out like ripples to fill the space? I did a lot of them; still do if a meeting get boring enough. This reminds me of that, only 10,000 times better and more meaningful.

Richard Armendariz “Tlazoltleotl as a Horse”, 2013 (Oil on carved plywood – on loan from the artist): This work is inspired by the Mesoamerican deity Tlazolteotl. Armendariz describes her as “the goddess of midwives depicted with a black mouth because she eats filth or disease so that the mother can give birth to a healthy child. In my painting, I depict a horse as the midwife deity ingesting drones and missiles on a dystopian future border.”

The rest of the photos are from items in the TTU museum’s permanent exhibit. Let’s start with the beadwork. This exquisite piece was worked on deerskin. I’ve done a lot of beadwork over the years (see The Coif Continues 12/31/2019 for one example), and, let me tell you, working on leather rather than cloth is another level of crazy. You see with cloth, the hole formed by a needle is temporary … with leather, you got a hole for the rest of eternity. You put a bead in the wrong place while sewing on leather, there is no plan B.

“1870 / 1970” by Teri Greeves (born 1970), 2006 (Beads on deer hide)

While I have attempted a couple rounds of basket-making, I have never worked with pine needles, although one of my friends have. Basket weaving, with the constant wet hands, isn’t for me, especially if I want to work embroidery with silk thread. But I do have enough background to appreciate the precision crafting of this piece.

“Untitled basket” by Fran Kraynek-Prince (born 1943), 1979 (Pine needles)

I love woodcrafting, though I haven’t worked in wood in decades.

“Puzzle” by Michael Pat Butler (active 1970-1995), 1974 (Painted wood)

The balance of the photos are works in glass. The delicate shaping while working with high heat items is something I have admired and researched, but never personally attempted. The first picture is a typical multi-color vase, followed by a ceramic sculpture in a mostly traditional manner, and finally some painted abstract clouds.

“Untitled vase” by Kent Ipsen (born 1933), 1976 (Glass)

“Hummer 1” by Annette Corcoran (born 1930), 1999 (Ceramic)

Taking photos of sculptures rarely can capture the complex beauty of the three-dimensional object. Pictures are just not good enough. Nearly always with museum art pieces, I want to take them home (or just make them myself). On the other hand, I wouldn’t want to have this delicate piece in my house. Not with Space-X eighteen miles away regularly shaking the foundation with rocket testing.

“Bountiful Flying Art Clouds” by Ginny Ruffner (born 1952), 1999 (Glass, painter)

Museum Visits