Brittany Maresh

writer

I know nothing will ever top the Hyrule Pie I made a few months ago, but today is Pi Day. 3.14 inverted spells Pie in L337. This cannot be coincidence, and so, I have taken up the quest of Epic Pie, yet again.

Much to my family’s dismay, I made four pies.

Two are in the oven, but here are the other two:

An Apple Pi (gross use of pun, I feel like I should apologize in advance, except that we all know I think it’s brilliant).

Before I put it in the oven.  I free-handed, and I think you can probably tell. Oh, well!

You can’t see it, but the juices from the pie are running into my oven mitt and burning my wrist hardcore. Gotta love the “oh god I am burninating” expression.

At Matt’s request: Chocobo Pie! It’s a “black” chocobo, because it’s blackberry — I guess that means it’s good for all terrain except the ocean, at least in the VII-verse.

At least you know you can get to Phoenix Tower?

I wonder where the Carob Nut came from.

It’s a good thing we’re not on the Ozmone Plains, or they’d be agro.

True to Tactics, the ‘bo has a purple tint.

There’s no good picture of it, but it says “Chocobo” underneath, in round, Chocobo Dungeon-esque letters.

But hey, at least it’s not Papyrus, (totally did not just go there).

“I am the Chosen Pie!”  Harry Pietter: The Pie That Lived. Per request, with Little Brother “assistance.”

Happy Pi Day!

-Brittany Maresh

When I was little, I was so excited about Thanksgiving Dinner. I loved it — everyone gathered around, we all talked, the whole family was there, and we had all my favorite foods, including home made pie and whipped cream from a can. Before that, we watched the parade on TV and feasted on orange danishes. We watched the dog show, after, and everyone was together, and laughing, and really happy.

Now, I see another side to Thanksgiving: the hours spent in the kitchen, the frustration of overcooking something, of having to wait for one thing to make another, of having to do endless dishes because really, who has twelve mixing bowls? It’s about trying to find room for sixteen people around a table designed for six, and a lot more frustration in trying not to hurt anyone’s feelings.

For me, the night before Thanksgiving is a lot better, now. I watch movies with my family while pies bake, we discuss what we’re thankful for, we have a different sort of fun.  This year, my mom made four pies completely from scratch: two pumpkin, two apple. She made a fifth, cherry, but the filling for that came in a can.

Tonight, my brother and I were watching Doctor Who, the New Adventures, season four finale. There was this quiet moment where the character had to decide how much he was willing to give up to get what he wanted, and my brother pointed out that those were the moments that Russell T. Davies and Joss Whedon were so famous for. There’s this moment where sacrifice has to be made, where the character has to give as much as he’s willing, in order to get what he wants.

It’s heartbreaking, and beautifully done, and something a lot of writers just don’t have the skill to pull off.  Some of my favorite books work because the author is able to push the main character into that crisis moment, and find a resolution that involves a high sacrifice, and a higher pay-off.

In television, Whedon and Davies are the two writers I see that insane mastery from the most (and that’s a good thing — if more writers played on that balance, I’d watch way too much television).  They’re a lot better than I am, better than I hope to be.  In books, I can name a good half-dozen examples, including masters like King, and this year’s most inspiring (to me) new author, Seanan McGuire.

I’m pretty sure the apparently instinctive awareness of that balance is something I’ll always admire, and something I’ll always struggle to work towards, myself.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be good enough to get it right, even most of the time, but it’s something I try to look out for in my own work and something I try to remember to comment on when I’m doing critique work for other people.

I was really glad my brother pointed it out — having something to keep striving for, and writers who keep inspiring me, is something that I am thankful for.  I really hope that some day my own work can make people want to be better, too, and I’m thankful for the chance to try and achieve that goal, too.

But mostly, I suppose, I’m thankful for the quiet moments with my family before the insanity of all the baking starts in the morning.

Much love and a happy Thanksgiving to you all.

Sincerely,

Brittany Maresh

P.S. It’s 1:00 a.m.  I’ll try to remember to edit this for coherency and grammar and what not later, but I make no promises.

Today I saw the cover for Rachel Caine’s second Outcast Season book, Unknown. (I love Rachel Caine). There’s a blond girl in black on a sportsbike on the cover.  She’s nothing like Alexis—high heels? And no helmet? And blond?—but it evoked New Rochester so strongly that I was stopped dead on my Forever Fifteen progress, possibly for the whole night.

I went to my webpage (oh, that’s here!) to consider updating it, since Forever Fifteen wasn’t going well, and I saw the fall colors, and what little non-New Rochester thoughts were left disappeared. It would be winter in the city just now, and their holiday seasons are spectacular. I was daydreaming but still intent on doing something other than writing a New Rochester holiday short, and then Alexis’s song came up on the radio.  I won’t say which song, beyond it being Linkin Park, though, for fear of being laughed off the internet.

To get to the point, a New Rochester Holiday Short is in the works. I don’t know what will become of it, but if you ask nicely, it might go up on my website as a holiday gift for you all.

I guess holidays are home time, and for me, that includes New Rochester.

Sincerely,

Brittany Maresh

It’s the holiday season so I’m thinking about…

summer camp.

I live and work out in the woods, surrounded by trees, small children, and the constant buzz of mosquitoes, all summer. Some of you might consider it torture, but I like to think of it as novel fuel.

I’m the archery instructor and director of the archery program at a Cub Scout camp during the summer and programming details are due at annual camp staff new years party.

Our theme for Summer 2009 is knights with the general leaning towards an Arthurian legend, horribly romanticized dragons-and-castles, princesses and princes fantasy novel perspective. I’m not complaining—it means I’ll get to teach archery in a princess dress.

My boss-and-mother decided that since women weren’t traditionally knights and our armor pattern isn’t designed for women, we’d be better off as damsels in distress. I’m good with this. I’ll be the awesome damsels who can shoot a bow and is only distressed if it rains enough that I’m knee-deep in mud, like it does every year. Plus, new princess dress. I can handle that. I love a good sewing project.

I’m having one problem with my program: we can’t shoot at anything exciting, like a dragon or a chimera. No, it can’t be an animate object or a facsimile of an animate object. Must be purely inanimate.

In the past few years, we’ve done candy for the seventy-five years of scouting, hoops for Ancient Greece (trials of Hercules), and mountains (Alaska-themed, complete with a gold mine bulls eye).

I’m thinking something about apples (William Tell), but I’m not sure. Who really wants to shoot at apples? And isn’t that something better for our Folk Tales theme, coming up next year or the year thereafter?

Better ideas, that’s what I need!

I’ve been re-reading Miss Snark for help on my dread query letter. So far, not so good.  The story’s there, I’m just not putting emotion into the query.   It’s harder than I thought, especially while trying to keep a quick and fun tone that will stick with you.  I like to think my main character has that kind of voice, where you can almost start to hear her just reading the first few pages.  I suppose that’s what every writer hopes they’ve accomplished, actually.   Something that will haunt you until you finish it, and then make you want to read on even more.  Thanks to the MSVWA I’m feeling particularly jazzed and ready to get some real work done.  Two of them are at least playing with the idea of working on a piece for a 2008 query submission, which makes me want to get mine done and out even more.

I’ll be working on my favorite dystopic novel,  tentatively titled Imperial Judges, during November.  I’m going to write the whole darn thing, along with two other stories, assuming my course schedule will allow for it.  It’s not insanity, it’s NaNoWriMo.  Possibly my favorite thing on the planet, or at least my favorite thing in November.

The weather up here, because it’s fairly noteworthy, overnight went from warm and sunny summer hit in August to that cooler dry leaves and rustling winds of crispy autumn air.  I’m pretty well flipped for All Hallows, Hallowe’en, All-hallow-even, Harvest, whatever you wish to call it.  I love orange forsting cupcakes with little pumpkins imprited, dried Indian corn and ghosts.  I’m already excited to start making popcorn balls, and even if it’s not as good as the real thing, some semblance of apple cider.  I suppose it’s proably too soon to actually buy a pumpkin.

Needless to say, All Hallows is my favorite holiday.  I want to carve a turnip or rutabaga lantern to go with my pumpkin, this year.  Scaring away all the little goblins, just like I tradition dictates.  Maybe I’ll cover all the mirrors, this year, too.  Tradition, or some such, honest!

I have a huge collection of Halloween books, too.  The Halloween Tree, The Littlest Witch, Jack the Pumpkin… plus the ghost stories.  I wish more people wrote ghost stories so I was not always tempted to do so!

Which reminds me, I need to get the Worst Witch series at some time.  I loved the show as a kid, and I hear the books are an enjoyable read, too.

In that vein, I can’t be the only one who misses the Disney Halloween special.  I don’t mean the cartoon specials, like Mickey’s Halloween or whatever. I mean this one and this one, though you can only get the shorter one, anymore.

I’m off to continue writing, for real this time!

-Brittany Maresh