The 13 Days of Doctor Who: Must Love Doctor Who

22 Thursday Dec 2011

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It’s Day 11 of the 13 Days of Doctor Who blog hop! Whether you arrived here via Ryann Murphy’s post about the music of Doctor Who or by some other means, welcome. Be sure to comment to be eligible for two fantastic prizes!

Must Love Doctor Who: An Open Letter to Potential Companions

Hey, you: lattegrrl75, k1ttyl0v3r, twizzlerama, reading my profile, deciding whether I’m cute and clever enough to message. You love baking cookies and downhill skiing, hoppy beers and unagi, Amélie and Haruki Murakami, not to mention solving crossword puzzles on rainy Sunday mornings whilst wearing flannel pajamas and fuzzy bunny slippers…but do you love Doctor Who?

I’m sure you’ve gotten an earful of online dating advice. Stick to the positives. Write in actual words rather than LOLZ. Be honest, be funny, and, for the love of Clom, don’t mention your exes. And remember: some Cybermen are best left in the closet.

But I refuse to conceal my fondness for the Doctor. Why admit something so geeky on my profile? It’s like the Eleventh Doctor and his precious bow ties. He’ll never stop wearing them, insisting, with just a hint of defensiveness, that they’re cool. If you can’t respect my Whovianism, I’ll tell you right now: mutual passion for fish fingers and custard or no, we’re going no-where, no-when.

Now, maybe you haven’t met the Doctor yet. That’s okay. No one is born knowing that 900-year-old, double-hearted, universe-saving Time Lord from Gallifrey. I’d never heard of him before college, when I made a friend who wore a Tom Baker scarf and a Dalek T-shirt, and it was years later that I met the Ninth Doctor and began working my way through the rest of the show.

So, before you click that button to message me (because, after all, I am extremely cute and clever), watch a few episodes. Try the gripping, creepy, and ultimately joyful duet of “The Empty Child” and “The Doctor Dances,” or “Blink,” a mind-bending, breath-taking thriller. Or perhaps the first episode with the Ninth Doctor, “Rose”—the episode where I first stepped into the TARDIS for myself.

See, Doctor Who fans aren’t merely viewers; they’re the Doctor’s Companions, adventuring through the universe across time and space as surely as Rose and Mickey, Martha and Donna, Amy and Rory. The TARDIS has room aboard for you, too—trust me: it’s bigger on the inside—if you can meet a few simple conditions.

Strange people and places should excite you, rather than frighten or bore you. You should enjoy having silly conversations and solving mysteries and pondering big questions. You must not be afraid to be ridiculous. And you should believe people can rise above greed and violence, selfishness and apathy, to create a better universe.

I guess you could say I’m looking not for a companion, but rather for a Companion, in the Whovian sense. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trapped in a banal, soul-sucking job like Rose or Donna, or whether you’ve nearly lost hope of regaining the magic and wonder you experienced as a child, like Amy. What matters is that if the Doctor suddenly appeared in his blue box and unfolded the universe at your feet, you’d go with him. Because that’s what I want: a Companion to have adventures with, across time and space.

So, watch Doctor Who, and ask yourself: are you Companion material? If so, fantastic! Brilliant! Allons-y!

But if not, don’t bother writing, no matter how cute and clever you are. It’ll never happen between us—unless the Daleks have exterminated everyone in the universe but you and me.

And even then, probably not.

Fantastic Prizes!

Grand Prize Drawing

For the grand prize, The Complete Sixth Series on DVD, please leave a comment with your name and email address. You may enter once at every stop on the blog tour for a total of thirteen chances. The grand prize giveaway is limited to the US and Canada, due to regional restrictions on the DVD. Entries will be accepted until midnight CST on December 24th. Erica and Eliza will post the winner on December 25th and notify the winner via email.

ETA: Grand Prize Winner
Erica reports that the grand prize winner is Mrs. S, who commented on Phoebe North’s post about the Doctor as an anti-hero.

Bonus Raffle

Commenters on this post will also be entered to win a signed copy of The Wee Free Men: The Beginning, by Terry Pratchett. This paperback volume collects the first two Tiffany Aching adventures, The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, about a gutsy young witch who falls in with a clan of drinkin’, fightin’, stealin’ folk known as the Nac Mac Feegle. If you love Doctor Who, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy the excitement and humor of Sir Terry’s Disc World. Shipping is limited to USPS. Contest closes at midnight CST on December 27th. I will post the winner on December 28th and notify the winner via email.

ETA: Bonus Raffle Winner
The random number generator has spoken! Saskia is the winner of the bonus raffle.

Next Stop!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to visit Pamala Knight’s blog next for her discussion of Neil Gaiman and the allegory of the TARDIS! And if you’ve missed any stops along the way, consult the blog hop’s Wibbly Wobbly Schedule.

*13 Days of Doctor Who banner by Studio D

Retreat-o-rama

16 Sunday Oct 2011

Posted by Lisa Jenn in writing

≈ 5 Comments

Last week, I went on a personal retreat. By this I mean that I went off the grid, alone. No Internet, no phone, no running water. No companions, no guest speakers, no workshops. Just me and my laptop in a cabin in the Wisconsin woods.

Peace Cabin at Stargazen Women's Retreat. The owners kindly cut me a deal on rent since it was the off-season.

This was my second personal retreat of this nature. The previous one was a six-day stint at SuBAMUH in southeastern Ohio, two years ago. Six days in near-solitude turned out to be on the long side for me, so this time I tried four days at Stargazen Women’s Retreat. I think next time I’d split the difference. Considering travel time and settling-in time, four days didn’t feel like quite enough.

Peace Cabin, from the inside. Bed, couch, kitchenette... just about everything but running water.

I totally lucked out in terms of the weather. All week, it was sunny and in the 70s. It could have proved distracting, but I managed to stay more or less on task. There was a big, grassy hill near my cabin where I took my notebook, my books, my guitar, and even my laptop to work and rejuvenate. Spending hours undisturbed in the warm sun, in October no less, made the retreat worthwhile right there.

Squirrel outside my window. I eventually saw some deer, too, farther off in the woods.

My goals for the retreat were basic: to get away from my regular day-to-day life (especially that great time-waster, the Internet) and work on my current writing project. When I set more specific goals, I find I constantly have to reevaluate and revise them. It takes longer than I thought to write a scene; I thought I could plow ahead with the plot, but it turns out I need to go back and revise first; etc.

And spending several hours per day writing, rather than my usual one or two, forces me to confront problems that I may otherwise spend days dancing around. On this retreat, I discovered that something I’d considered a central plot point late in the story just didn’t make sense; the story as I was writing it did not lead to that place. It was time for me to stop trying to force it and accept that the characters had other plans.

Another view from my window. I was the only person on retreat that week, so mainly I saw a lot of trees.

I went a full 48 hours without human interaction, but I broke from my retreat one afternoon to meet up with Julie Bowe, fellow writer, Chudney Agency client, and friend. We met up at Norske Nook, a Scandinavian restaurant known for its pies. They didn’t disappoint. I tried lefse (“Norwegian burrito!” Julie said), the sour cream raspberry pie, and locally made root beer—yum. Even better was the conversation with Julie.

Today's specials: Julie Bowe and me at Norske Nook.

When and where will I retreat again? I don’t know. The larger question for me, as I think it is for anyone who’s been on retreat, is how to carry home the openness, reflection, and diligence I experienced in the woods and not to slip back into the day-to-day. I fear it’s already too late—that it was too late the minute I walked back into my apartment and checked my Facebook account—but it’s something to strive for.

Fall Journey

24 Saturday Sep 2011

Posted by Lisa Jenn in life

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

photos, transitions

Fall can be wrapped up in one word: transition. Transition from hot weather to cold, lush foliage to bare limbs, long days to short.

Arguably we’re in constant transition as the Earth circles the sun, yet winter and summer somehow feel like destinations, as concrete as Breckinridge or the Bahamas. Spring and fall are the journeys between.

Live Monarch

Transitions are exciting. They spark the imagination. Hopes and fears flare as vividly as the leaves of a sugar maple a week past the autumnal equinox.

Everything is certain at the extremes of the year. We are guaranteed sweltering heat and humidity in July, ice, snow, and bitter wind in January. But in spring and fall, each day is a question. Will it be T-shirt or sweatshirt weather? Will I need my sunglasses, umbrella, scarf—or all three? Will today bring green buds to the trees, or will those same leaves, now brittle and brown, finally fall?

Maple Leaf

This fall seems to be full of transitions in my personal life, as well. My supervisor is retiring, and I wonder who will replace her. (I’m not applying for her position, but I’m on the interview committee.) I’m hoping to adopt a dog soon; it’s been four months since Carly died. But when and how will I find the right companion?

Sea Gull

I’m struggling with transitions in my writing, too. This summer I finished a major revision of a “new” project, and now I’m waiting to find out if my editor wants it. It’s hard shifting gears to work on something else. I’m free; I can do anything. The possibilities are tantalizing yet also overwhelming.

Dead Monarch

But today, I put aside my hopes and fears for a while to journey around town and enjoy the fall splendor. To appreciate the “getting there” without worrying about where “there” is.

Yellow Beach Flowers

lisa jenn bigelow

~ ya author & youth librarian