Uberness and Pain

"We will tell the sun
In his jealous sky
When we walked in fields of gold...

when we walked in fields of gold..."



Ah, my Michelle.





Well, Olympic fun just went out the door ;-/. I was soooo looking forward to seeing my girl in her final quest for the gold. I had told my friend that she ran the risk of injuring herself somewhere else because one tended to favor different parts of the body while rehabitating, but that if she could avoid that, she would do great, even with the new system of SeKret MarKeeng.

This comes from my own uber-roofing injuries experiences, which had been extreme in the past. Never had a groin injury, though, thank God. Last year, I had that wrist problem which still lingers, partly because I have to swing the nailgun during the day and believe it or not, use the keyboard at night. Different tasks but both requiring the wrist. Binding it with support bandaid helps, but the injury is still there. And you can't really rest it because of workload. I started typing with my right elbow in an awkward position and had sore arm muscles for a week after that. Then I decided to stand up while typing. An injury, no matter how small, can really diminish one's abilities.

I want to dedicate this week's posts to my favorite athlete, Michelle Kwan. Soppy as hell, yes, but it's from her that I've learned many key emotions that are the salt and pepper that make the characters in my book more real--the highs and lows of BIG experiences.

Today's painful lesson: Giving up the dream.

The point in a story when a character gives up his ultimate dream is charged with darkness and light. I write about uber-spies. There are plenty of things/dreams they have to give up as normal people.

There has to be consequences in giving up one's identity. There has to be loss in giving up the things that make one "human" in the ordinary world. It is up to the uber-author to identify her characters' secret dream and weigh how that particular nugget is lost/hidden inside them.

Take Alex Diamond, for instance. He lost a very important dream when his wife was killed. When exactly, though, did he give up? And will that bring light or darkness?

On the opposite end of the spectrum stands Rick Harden, who NEVER gave up. His search for his dead wife went on for years, and he never quite believed in her death even though he tells himself and others that she was dead. The uber-author's task, then, is to question how that had motivated or affected Rick's life.

Different circumstances for both male characters, of course. And certainly, a totally different circumstance for the real life painful decision that came from my girl, Michelle, today. Rest, uber-athlete, there is another goal on which to focus--the 10th National Championship ;-).

As the writer, you have defined the pain of loss. As a romance author, the fun is bringing back the light. The next chapter awaits.

And oh, thank goodness I didn't follow my decision to buy tickets for Torino next week! You would have heard my uber-scream of dismay all the way from Italy.

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