Author Archives: Colette Black

Dashti The Book of a Thousand Days by Shannon Hale is one of my absolute favorites. I’ve spotlighted it before, because of Hale’s amazing prose and ability to turn what might be considered a mundane story into something amazing and beautiful. As in many of Hale’s books, Dashti, our heroine, is from humble circumstances and doesn’t think much of herself. She is also self-sacrificing and loyal. These are traits that are never stated, but portrayed so well and so often that we gain a deep understanding of her character.

Dashti is also a bit of a condescending snob. That seems counterintuitive with everything else I’ve said about her, but that’s part of the beauty of Hale’s complex characterization. Though Dashti thinks little of her beauty or social standing, she inwardly scorns the princess she serves. As the narrator, Dashti’s thoughts reveal her confusion at the princess’ lack of basic survival skills, her mental instability, and her selfishness. This character flaw fits Dashti, makes her more real, and more interesting. As with any good character flaw, Dashti eventually learns to temper it, seeing the world from the princess’ point of view.

What I particularly like about Dashti is her strength. It’s a different kind of strength than we typically read in our fantasy and science fiction novels. With so much emphasis on strong female characters, we sometimes forget that inner strength and be even more definitive than physical prowess. Now, I tend to write a lot of female characters with kick-butt fighting skills, but that’s a two-edged sword. There’s usually a reason they felt it necessary to focus on this aspect of their skill set, and those reasons leave them somewhat damaged. My books focus a great deal on how they create healthy relationships in spite of their emotional scars. In Thousand Days, Dashti doesn’t have this physical prowess or fighting skill. She has some small amount of magic that helps them survive, but her real power lies in her determination. The fact that she will not give up, that she’s willing to do hard things, and that she is so religiously loyal is what eventually saves them all. This is the kind of strength that makes for interesting characters, if not the most flashy.

There are a couple of moments in which I think Hale almost made Dashti a bit too loyal to her princess. There are times when it’s a bit ridiculous that such a strong character would let another woman, no matter how royal, push her around the way the princess does. That is somewhat justified by Dashti’s strong moral and religious dedication, but a woman of her character would probably push back a little more. All in all, those moments are far overshadowed by Dashti’s rich personality and Hale’s ability to get us so emotionally attached to the character that we forgive her every mistake.

I love my kick-butt characters, but sometimes inner strength without physical prowess can make for an even more admirable persona. I strongly recommend reading some of Hale’s books for a look at a more down-to-earth kind of heroine.

Colette Black Bio:

Colette Black lives in the far outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona with her family, 2 dogs, a mischievous cat and the occasional unwanted scorpion. She loves learning new things, vacations, and the color purple. She writes New Adult and Young Adult sci-fi and fantasy novels with kick-butt characters, lots of action, and always a touch of romance. Find her at www.coletteblack.net

Finding Your Cheerleader

March 7, 2016

Colette Black

superdad-1 Considering the subject of this post, I’m pretty sure to earn myself some flack so let’s just cover the “role” biases right off. For over fifteen years of my marriage, I chose to be a stay-at-home mom. Because my husband worked long hours earning his Ph.D. and working, I did what I could to save money and I did most of the housework–which isn’t saying much because I’m a horrible housekeeper–and took care of the day-to-day activities with the children. My husband was always willing to help, but we ended up with rather traditional family roles. I was good with that.

Then, I took a chance with my writing and realized how much I wanted to become an author. My husband was on-board, but to be honest, it took a while. Change rarely occurs like the flip of a coin. It’s a gradual process. I often felt like the words of encouragement coming from his mouth didn’t match the expectations that still went on with our family. I couldn’t write all day while the kids were in school and still get the laundry, cooking, errands, etc. done and not have more help from my family. It was tough. On everyone.

As my husband realized my struggles, the dynamics started to change. He never complained about a messy house before; he’s not that kind of guy, but I could often sense his irritation. More and more, I noticed him evaluating my time and progress as an author against the discomfort of some clutter and un-done projects, and I won out. When I got down, instead of saying that taking the time to write was okay, he started reminding me that it was important. Despite his heavy work load and long commute, he started taking more time with the kids and the house. Recently, family circumstances required that I get a regular paycheck.

Now, I find myself trying to juggle the house, kids, job, and writing. No matter what people say about the modern world and modern women, we still tend to feel responsible for the grocery shopping, meals, laundry, and the activities of our children, even if we can divide up all the housework. I still take those responsibilities on myself, but again, my husband stepped up. He works from home twice a week and started taking care of many of the family appointments on those days, often working late into the night to compensate. With our change in schedule, he’s had to take the kids to school every morning and picks them up twice a week, which is a fair chunk of his work time. I often write at night and he works on his computer, making up for what he couldn’t get done during the day. He also does the dishes every day, even when I’m not able to lift a finger in the house because of other responsibilities and writing time. Last week, I made the list and he did the grocery shopping. I think we work as a team better than we ever have before in our 20+ years of marriage.

Often, when I consider how much more money he makes compared to me, it doesn’t seem fair that he bends over backward to help me with my work and goals when the return is so comparably minimal. And then I remember, that it’s not about my work, or his work, or money. It’s about goals, and each other, and the things in life that matter to us and the fact that we have always put each other first.

As we talk this month about making time to write, I’m glad that my husband and I took time to communicate, to be patient with one another, to learn how to be supportive, and to never give up. So, how do I find time to write? I make time, in part because I owe it to those who have supported and encouraged me for so long–my family. I think we all need our close family to be cheerleaders and if you don’t have that, I suggest some understanding talks and perhaps some counseling. Making time for writing is important, but working with your loved ones to balance that time and to understand one another will make all the difference in the world, both in your writing and in life.

Colette Black Bio:

The Fantasy Librarian

February 16, 2016

Colette Black

The Writing Life No Comments

guy librarian The year was…well, never mind that. Let’s just say that it was Jr. High and whenever the word “fantasy” was spoken among the pre-adolescents in this particular community, nobody thought of books. But, we had an amazing librarian. No, he didn’t look like the guy in the picture to the left. He was tall, gangly, and to my twelve-year-old self, he was old. I believe he wore glasses, but he had a ready smile, seemed to love hanging out with obnoxious pre-teens and teens, and loved literature in all it’s forms. Our library had romance books, fantasy, science fiction, classics, mystery, non-fiction, and a wide variety of all of the above. He knew where every single genre and title could be found, precisely. He also had a wide array of “disallowed” books and encouraged students to get parent permission to read them.

But I digress. What this particular librarian did for me was invite me into a new world of literature. The above-named, never spoken, fantasy genre. And he was sly about it. I was one of those sappy, love-animals, readers. I went to him and asked for a book that fit into my narrow criteria. He spoke with me for a few minutes–not an easy task since I was extremely shy–and then took me to C.S. Lewis. Once he placed The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe into my hands, I was hooked. Despite the snickers of classmates, I claimed fantasy as my genre from thenceforth. This amazing librarian also taught a “presentations” class where I learned how to write better non-fiction and a touch of photography. Teachers are amazing people.

Now, I know that the focus this month is on experiences that we use in our writing, and this might not seem quite on track with the theme, but my experience with that one librarian has shaped my reading and writing more than any other moment. I’ve lived in foreign countries, learned foreign languages, suffered the death of loved ones from age and disease, felt rejection, and experienced success. All of those experiences have found a place in my ability to express myself, but the influence of that one person in my young life helped me focus those experiences into writing that I love.

Just a quick shout out: Thank you to all caring and involved teachers everywhere. And thank you to the few schools who still employ certified, full-time, librarians.

Colette Black Bio:

The Portability of Google Docs

January 27, 2016

Colette Black

The Writing Life 1 Comment

Gdocs As you might guess by the title, I’m using google docs to write this post. I’m also manning the phones where I work and eating lunch. I have half an hour. So, why am I adding this to my busy afternoon? Because this is one of those moments I can steal to write and google docs is the best tool for my schedule.

I’ve used Gdocs for writing groups and family shares, but I was never comfortable using it for my writing until I found a way that works for me. I don’t know about anyone else, but with a busy job, a family, and all of our activities, making the time to write can be a challenge. It helps when I can squeeze in time between activities, during a lull at work, or like now, during my lunch break. In the past, I tried bringing my laptop, but by the time I set it up, log in, and start working, it’s often time to log out and unplug.

WARNING: If you’ve heard people say that Gdocs is less than secure, I think they’re right. It’s probably not that hard to hack into. I haven’t had issues myself, but I’m aware of them. But since I don’t only write at work–I’d get fired–and I don’t do the majority of my writing on Gdocs, then I’m able to make hacking pretty useless on my account. I don’t write a complete novel on the thing. In part, because that would be such a pain. I love my Scrivener software. Gdocs doesn’t cut it by comparison, but it gives me portability. For example, lunch break is over, so I’m going to save this, share it with my home account, and finish it later. See ya in a few.

And that’s the beauty of Gdocs. I can download this to my home computer–onto Scrivener or in this case, to the wordpress posting page–delete the written content from Gdocs, and then when I’m done writing at home I put the last sentence or paragraph into the Google document folder and I’m ready to write during downtime at work.

If anyone has any other how-to-work-a-full-time-job-and-make-time-to-write tips, please share. My progress has been slow, but I’m finding ways to manage the job and the career. And I’m loving it.

Colette Black Bio: