Brittany Maresh

writer

Based on a day of watching bad horror movies and reading “real life experiences” from a variety of paranormal magazines and books (research, I swear).  Don’t take this list too seriously, because “Are You Afraid of the Dark?” is my idea of research

1. Before you buy a house, do some research!  Find out what it was before it was a home. Make sure it’s not built on old Native American burial grounds or a moved cemetery, an old prison, or the site of a particularly horrible catastrophe, like a fire that killed 15 people, or that girls don’t mysteriously disappear from the home.  Find out how often the house has changed hands. If it seems to be plagued by bad luck, and people abandon it or leave it all the time, I’d be wary. It might just be that the neighbors are bad, but maybe it’s not the neighbors you need to worry about. Maybe it’s the former occupant who didn’t quite leave.
2. Make sure the house passes the “small child” test.  Get a kid, say, ages 3-8, and ask them to find all the “scary” parts of the house.  See if they notice any people that aren’t there, or identify rooms they won’t go in to.  Or you can do the mini version, the pet test – like the “small child” test, except done with a cat or dog. Are they chasing invisible things, barking at nothing?  Did your goldfish go belly-up overnight?
3. Talk to the neighbors – and I mean all of them, even the creepy house to your right.  Have they noticed anything funny about the place?  Do they think there was ever a witch there? Have they had any strange incidents in the area? Are they living in a haunted home, themselves? Where is the local haunted house?   Are you living over an abandoned silver mine? Don’t leave out the local children – with parental supervision and permission – to find out if they think the house is haunted. Do they avoid it on Halloween?  It might just be for a reason. Also remember to check up with the area paranormal agencies, to see if the place has any reports of activity. Sure, the odds are someone might have told you, but maybe not.  People don’t want to look crazy.
4. Invite a pack of young adults to test the house out – if they survive the night, you’re good. Ghosts and demons can’t resist the lure of the young adults. Alternatively, if they flee before dawn, you might want to pass on the property.
5. Do a walk-through of the house, on your own. How does it make you feel?  As in all good horror movies, sometimes you just need to trust your instincts.

Infinitus 2010 was a bit like walking on a white, sandy beach that just happens to have a thriving knife population–overall fantastic, but not the sort of place you want to walk without some thick shoes.

I’m not going to talk about the programming or the structure anyone’s ability to cope or communicate- – they’re all knife blades, left scattered about at random.

But the other people, strolling along on that same sunny beach? To quote Bartok, the Magnificent: “Wow! I tell you what, wow!”
Before the convention, I’d befriended a hodgepodge of interesting characters. We’d banded together to form a group, calling ourselves “The Lemniscates.” Pretty much fulfilled my life-long urge to join a secret club, without having to actually join one. We even have a hand sign greeting and matching t-shirts, and in-jokes, like a real secret society.
Of the characters, the most notable was Cee, from Spain, with her silent partner, Debbie. Cee’s a musician, of the broken heart string variety. Beautiful, slightly exotic, and absolutely self-depreciating. Debbie was a dark-haired enigma, someone talked of but less real. I had no concept of her. Together, they were exotic, beautiful, and a bit distant, not just in miles but in feeling.

In reality, they are much as they were online, only more inclined towards kissing and hugging people. Still, I can now snap my fan open, all sharp and feminine.

Which is how I’d describe Cee, knowing her better.

She’s also got this spark. Think Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium, Molly Mahoney—that little prickling of talent, that interior light that alerts you that there’s something more there, and even if all it ever becomes is a sad girl playing her harp alone in her room, it’s there, and you can see it, waiting for a chance to really come to life.

And then there’s Chel. A pink-haired theater kid with a thing for Wrock. She’s a flittering sort, and so much more brave than I’ve ever been. She was there with her family (who I adore) and within five minutes seemed to know everyone, and every thing, but not in a bragging sort of way. So casual, as though she absorbed things from the air and just happened to come upon ideas like that.

I can’t not mention Bree. She was a strange sort, with an inclination towards “creeping.” I’m not sure it was appropriate at all, and probably borderline stalker behavior, actually, but she had guts. She wasn’t afraid to walk up to people she liked and say “hey, take a picture with me,” or “hi, I love your CD!” Which, well, I am. Way too shy. Like, really.

There’s Bonnie, who was my co-conspirator for AVPS in Ann Arbor, for Infinitus, and especially for organizing the Lemniscates. I wish I’d seen more of her, because I miss her like mad and feel that my having four roommates to schedule around really impacted our ability to hang out. On the other hand, she brought Vernor’s and Michigan chips, and she made me smile when we WERE together.

There are so many others. Ashley, who had a Deathly Hallows tattoo and works an awful lot. Joe, who is Sonic, whose team won the Quidditch match. Agostina from Argentina, Beverly who was so excited over the HPA winning $250,000, Zach from Florida, Megan, Sarah, Lindsey-with-a-sonic-screwdriver.

That’s them. The Lemniscates. And I really hope it is “To Infinitus, and Beyond!” with them, because they’re that beach party that welcomes any random passerby, and sometimes I do feel a bit like that’s me, some sort of drifter.
And there were many a non-Lemniscate passerby worth noting, too–Marina, and Gretchen, and dozens of others that didn’t stick around nearly as long. They were just out having fun, and knowing each of them made the trip happier for me. Christina, Volunteer coordinator, was so sweet. I was alone a lot, and she always stopped to exchange kind words. It was a relief, since I was really actually a little bit afraid to BE in Florida.

Team StarKid gets mad points for being there, too. They’re always fun to watch (and with A Very Potter Sequel recently online, I recommend doing just that: http://www.teamstarkid.com ). Major props to them for being that amazing treat that just makes everything better, like snow cones on the beach. And especially to their costume guy, Corey L-not-even-going-to-try-to-spell-it, because $5.00 hasn’t brought me that much amusement since the days of play dough, glow-in-the-dark army men, those foam “grow your own dinosaur” pills, and bouncy balls (alternatively: pogs, warheads, and pokemon cards).

To kill the beach analogy, since I’ve never actually GONE to the beach, I’m back home and settling back into the whole camp/archery thing.

One week until I’m cut free from that, and then who knows?

Semester starts soon enough, but if things go according to plan, it’ll be my last. The novel’s in pieces, my focus is shot, and NaNoWriMo is creeping up on us, slowly but deliberately. The people I care about are thousands of miles away, and before I know it, snow is going to be choking out all the sun and green and color. And I think I need to find a real job. You know, the sort that pays regular wages and sucks out your soul, or something.

But really, who knows? At this point, the future is a blank piece of paper, waiting to be filled with words. And even if I don’t know where my story’s going, right now at least, it’s going.

Long nights and late mornings to you,

Brittany Maresh,

Over on Rath & Ruins we were discussing character flaws–specifically, what our favorite character’s biggest flaws were. How did these relate to each of us, individually? Why were these flaws important? What made them stick with us?

Many of us chose people we identified with. Characters of a certain type that spoke to our own faults, be it overemotional reactions, easily hurt feelings, or lack of courage. These faults become the character’s strengths, or something to be overcome. If we can overcome our faults alongside a book character, does it make us feel like we’ve accomplished something, too?

Is that why we like dynamic characters the most? Because we grow and change with them, as we read?

-Brittany Maresh

Even before the movies came out, Draco Malfoy was one of those characters that people split two ways on — love or hate. He was a foil to Harry Potter–even though they were the same age, their upbringing was polar opposites. He was rich instead of poor. Pureblood instead of mixed. Raised with magic instead of as a muggle. Light hair instead of dark. And he chose to go to Slytherin, gladly, instead of to beg his way into Gryffendor. There was all this potential there, and people loved it. Or hated it, if they were solid with Harry.

It wasn’t that Tom Felton was hot (though that plays a huge part in it now, I believe), it was that he was such a 2-D character compared to everyone else that people were forced to believe that somewhere in there, he had to have some depth. They could see the potential that J.K. Rowling couldn’t show since I have decided to believe that it was Harry’s prejudices and not her own that muddled our perspective of the Slytherins.

I think a lot of controversial characters work like that. People like them because there’s just enough there that they can see the potential, and not enough there that they have to if they don’t want to.

-Brittany Maresh

What makes my online writing group so awesome?  None of us know each other, very few of us have ever or will ever meet one another, and yet, so often, we’re still all right on the same page.

If I’ve heard of an agent, so often, one of them has, too, or they want to hear about it and get a link to their blog, website, twitter, and so on.  We follow the same general circle of interest–agent blogs, writer blogs, similar websites, writing events, contests, read books along the same vein, so on and so forth.

And (here’s a big and) I trust their opinion.  If I hear from three or four of them about something particular, it tends to be true.  I can trust them to say “your vocabular is entirely too weird” or “these characters are beyond wooden, they’re like faded chalk outlines left on the pavement.

Yeah, they’re all pretty awesome.

-Brittany Maresh