‘We Have to Take License’: ‘The Woman King’

https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-have-to-take-72243948?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator 

‘Woman King’ Stars Viola Davis and Julius Tennon Talk Box Office Victory and Defend Film Against Historical Critics: ‘We Have to Take License’ 

by Clayton Davis

This says it well. Taking a sliver of history and growing it, buffing into something anyone can find enjoyable. When I worked in cinema theater, whites always asked "can I see this movie?", if it was a "black movie". I https://www.patreon.com/posts/we-have-to-take-72243948?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator  

 

Writing POC Historical Fiction / Nonfiction: References are Scarce, You Say

 https://www.patreon.com/posts/references-are-72202224?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

That may be true; but you can theorize from the limited material you receive, and run with it! You know a few people, or have seen them on TV. Some are sweet and stay that way, others are sweet sometimes and horrid under certain conditions and pressures, while others are never sweet.

Theorizing. It's a little bit of math, not complicated math, usually, just this emotion or desire plus another equals this other thing; except when this https://www.patreon.com/posts/references-are-72202224?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator

 

Neale Sourna's Writer's Tidbits Creating Creative Writing/Research _ POC/Black Historical Fiction (BHF) Patreon.com/NealeSourna

About Neale Sourna's Writer's Tidbits

People of Color (POC) / Black Historical Fiction (BHF)
POC / Black Historical Fiction / Literature / Romance / Erotica and More
https://www.facebook.com/groups/163627582322721
https://www.patreon.com/NealeSourna

MISSION: To SHARE Historical Black, African, and People of Color (POC) Fiction author historical research references, story prompts, writer hacks, and links for writers and readers of People of Color Historical fiction and nonfiction.

Providing you with writing trigger topics and bits of history you never considered were a possibility. Or "someone" said it never was / never could have happened like that. They're wrong. And probably actually existed, was forgotten, ignored, or cast aside.

Plus, I'll be giving brief personal analyses on: character, a writer’s journey, and more that may prove helpful in creating your own colorful characters, in-depth stories, and completed published works.

NEED HELP:

• How to build an idea into a story?
• How to create interesting characters?
• How to keep your writer sanity sane?
• How to see or feel a writing trigger or a character trigger and what questions can get you to where you want to go.
  • Like always remembering Depeche Mode: "People Are People"

WHY? WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU?

• Finding relevant reference materials remains scattered and haphazard. Searching for historical information for People of Color isn't just as easy as digging out your old school history books.
        Most often we aren't mentioned, well, not as thoroughly and heroically as European males.

• Writing historically about People of Color to bring something new to readers' minds and emotions about People of Color in History is the plan.
  We are people, with the same or similar wants, drives, hopes as everyone else.
        Ethnic cultures are the unique seasoning for the people we were, are, and want to be and I hope to help you find thought and feel points on cultural points of view (POV) you never considered.

• Finding material that gives us a mental or emotional writing prompt, an urge to build it into a scene, one story, or an entire series.

Maybe its a tapestry image of an African Brit trumpeter for Henry VIII of England, a notice about a foreign black officer soldier who fought for King Henry VIII and his son, Edward—a man of African descent Knighted (Sir Pedro).

Or ... hm, what time periods of historical films do you love and want to see yourself in?

To be blunt, those of European descent, usually male, write themselves into the history of the Great Wall of China, Polynesia, and running with Mongol hordes. 

If Europeans "might" be there, why not Africans, like Yasuke, the "Black Samurai / Black Ronin" or "African Samurai / African Ronin"?

• Plus, marketing and making connections outside of the larger African American Book Clubs, when "lists" for Black Historical Fiction and Literature, because most are only rearranged rewrites of the SAME lists of older / classic African American or Black American tales. 
  • For example. Try searching for "African British Historical Fiction" sometime and see what limited material comes up. Even just African British, when Africans have been in Europe since, at least, Roman times. 
  • Or look for "African American Historical Fiction" that's not Z. N. Hurston, A. Walker, etc.
  • Yes. Some newer books get listed but, you have to scroll and scroll to find the newer stories about older, more varied, or different tales.

NOW. WHO AM I…?

Neale Sourna (www.Neale-Sourna.com), an award-winning author / publisher - screenwriter - game story narrative writer, based in the Greater Cleveland, Ohio, USA area. My novel and short story writing grew from self-prescribed short story exercises to work out ideas for TV scripts and feature screenplays.

My first published work was the short story "Hesitation" for PLAYGIRL, May 2002. 
“Characters should have depth and reality, and be unique in their own way.”

Some awards include my first published novel HOBBLE which won Best Romantic Erotica of the Year from BlackRefer.com; screenplay FRAMES which ranked as a New Century Screenplay Finalist; and Best storytelling @ White Nights Conference Game Narrative Awards for online video game METROPOLIS: LUX OBSCURA. http://www.neale-sourna.com/scriptgateway.html

I am a member of the Writer's Guild of America - West (WGA-w)'s Video Game Caucus.

I also edit and design (ebook and book covers plus interior layouts) of the character-driven stories published through PIE: Perception Is Everything (www.PIE-Percept.com), which is my author-publishing company.

EVER HEAR OF "WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW”?

A little bit of everything in my life goes into my writing, because I believe in building characters who have unique depth, freshness, and reader memorability. So, they get some degree of my thoughts, emotions, and experience or that of someone I know directly or by observation.

Plus, with a lifelong love of learning and with life experience as a temp and perm employee in various fields besides writing; including: retail, business banking and wealth management, accounting, engineering, live theatre, cinema, music (vocal, instruments, and radio), erotic photo modeling, historical and cultural research, and even a little microgravity research at NASA.

You never know what comes in handy for writing characters and plots.

EDUCATION:

• Cuyahoga Community College’s Digital Film & Editing, Game Design Building; plus studies in Music Theory & Harmony. 
• Graduate level Film & Video writing and analysis at American University, DC. 
• A Performing Fine Arts Bachelor Degree from Lake Erie College, OH in Music, Photography, Painting, and Live Theater Stage Management and Theater Management. 
• An undergrad-intern semester at Mount Vernon College with the National Endowment for the Arts Opera-Musical Theatre Financial Distribution Program. 
• And an academic term alone abroad in Vienna, Austria just living, making friends, and learning.
  

A MISCELLANEOUS FUN FACT.

I share a birthday with sensual and sensational authors the Marquis de Sade of France and Thomas Hardy of England.||

_BUY STORIES online at your usual bookstores (BN and Amazon). Or get mobi / kindle / epub versions banned by Amazon Kindle or other vendors available at: https://payhip.com/NealeSourna 

https://www.patreon.com/NealeSourna

• 
  

Video games can bring older family members’ personal history back to life; September 18, 2019 12.06pm EDT

https://theconversation.com/video-games-can-bring-older-family-members-personal-history-back-to-life-123065?utm_source=pocket-newtab

It is one thing to learn about history in a classroom. But as any visitor to a living museum or historic site can tell you, a fantastic way to learn is to connect by making a personal connection.

In early 2019, media entrepreneur Mati Kochavi and his daughter Maya brought the stories of Eva Heyman, a Hungarian Jew who was murdered in Auschwitz, to social media with the simple question, “What if a girl in the Holocaust had Instagram?” “Eva Stories” was a one-day project told through Instagram stories that amassed 200,000 followers before the morning it began and reached 1 million by its end the next day.

Regular people care about the past, and can now engage with it in new ways. As a researcher of games and aging, I’m noticing a trend emerging that has the potential to build even more powerful emotional connections with its audience, through the crackling voices of people who lived through important historical times and events. My fellow game designers and I refer to it as “gaminiscing” – using the tools of video games to share personal history. 

These projects, including my own, combine audio recordings of their subjects with modern gameplay, letting players explore a virtual environment to hear – and sometimes even experience – meaningful life stories that are told to them by the older adults who lived through them.

Connecting generations

In general, few video games portray older characters accurately. Often they’re presented as a cartoon, or an over-the-top caricature or in a dehumanizing way. Before gaminiscing, there was almost no opportunity for older people to use their own voices to tell authentic, personal stories.

An early trailer for ‘Grandma Game.’ 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-JXslq_6Muc#action=share

“Grandma Game” is the working title of an intergenerational game by brothers and media artists James and Joe Cox, in collaboration with their grandmother, Barbara. The game is a walking simulator, a popular genre of video games in which players trigger stories by exploring 3D environments. In “Grandma Game,” players find themselves inside the watercolor paintings done by Barbara and her grandsons, while hearing her tell stories of what the images and places mean to her.The game intentionally limits a player’s interaction, to make it more fun for Barbara herself to play it. 

“We want the game to be playable (and enjoyable) to her, so we have to design the controls and play around what she can understand and handle,” James told me in an email. “She sees it as a way to preserve her family’s history and as an opportunity to share skills with, and learn from, her grandchildren. Both our watercolor painting sessions and audio recording sessions have given us the chance to spend … quality time with our grandmother – time focused on creating work together as artists.”

Looking at history

Other games have emerged that take on more expansive historical topics, though still using very personal experiences. 

“Memories of Manzanar and Tule Lake” is the working title of a game aiming to recreate the stories of the game designer’s Japanese American grandparents during their time in an internment camp following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. In the game, players will be able to direct their own journey, interacting with other internees and learning about personal experiences with pivotal events in history, like the infamous loyalty questionnaire, and joining the U.S. Army.

Similar to the Cox brothers, game designer Brent Shiohama wishes to honor his grandparents, the bravery of interned families, and the Japanese Americans who served in the 100th Infantry Battalion/442nd Infantry Regimental Combat Team.

A virtual reality game explores one boy’s experience of World War II in France.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q6tqg__x2P0#action=share 

“La Peur Bleue” tells the stories of the creator’s grandfather in World War II France. The artist states, “By focusing on specific, emotional moments from my grandfather’s past, you are given the opportunity to experience the context of the war and empathize with the emotions my grandfather felt.” Players interact with objects in recreated locations and hear a grandfather reminisce about his past, adding another layer of historical immersion by using virtual reality rather than just a computer screen.
My own game, the forthcoming “Brukel,” uses recordings of my grandmother’s own voice, to tell stories of her childhood growing up on an occupied farm in Belgium during World War II. 

As the player, you enter the Brukel farmhouse equipped with your smartphone camera and a vague list of topics that your grandmother told you about. By photographing items that match well with each topic, you unlock audio recordings in which she reveals her past to you. 

However, when it eventually gets dark, you find yourself trapped in the house as the ghosts of the past come to life. Through a series of survival-based vignettes, you must try to outlast some of the horror stories that my grandmother lived through as a teenage girl, while slowly learning about how the war deeply affected everyone in the family.

A Belgian grandmother tells the story of her childhood in ‘Brukel.’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9P-alvHXGnc#action=share 

A welcoming response

Even before the release of “Brukel,” I have been able to showcase it, most notably at an event at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in early August 2019. So far, playtesters have told me they appreciate its ability to engage the player through the use of modern technology.

Because of my own research, I had anticipated that older gamers would appreciate “Brukel” for its meaningful engagement and mature story. Those are two qualities that my research has shown are paramount to older gamers. In particular, for my qualitative work, I met a number of older adults who deliberately sought out games that would meaningfully contribute to their interest in the post-World War II era.

For example, an 82-year-old Belgian man told me, “I barely remember the Second World War but I was a child back then. What I remember is extremely vivid, though. The lights, the bombings, the noise. Airplanes flying over our house and being shot down. I can still see it. It was an adventure, and I relive that adventure by playing games about it.”

Similarly, another Belgian man, aged 62, explained, “I recently went to Normandy; it is amazing to visit places in games that you can later on visit in real life. You have never been there but you know the place from the game. They can be so realistic.”

However, I had not expected the response that “Brukel” received from children. At the Smithsonian event, people from all age groups – including pre-kindergartners and octogenarians – played “Brukel.” As a group, pre-teens turned out to be most engaged with the game, spending the most time playing it and even returning multiple times over the two-day event to play it again.

When I spoke with the parents of these young gamers, the general theme of their response was that they loved how engaged their children were with “Brukel” while learning about history. One parent told me, “They’re going to play video games regardless, so it’s great that they’re drawn to something educational.” Another parent who said his child was on the autism spectrum and had trouble concentrating in school praised “Brukel” for its ability to engage with his son. He said his son was more comfortable learning through playing the game because he was familiar with using a keyboard and mouse, which he found far less stressful than being in a classroom.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that many of these gaminiscing projects are centered around war. The 75th anniversary of the end of World War II will be in 2020; as those who faced its terrors firsthand die, the stories of their experiences are fading away. The risk – and my concern – is that society collectively will forget the lessons and the promises of “never again.”

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Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman

Sex with Kings: 500 Years of Adultery, Power, Rivalry, and Revenge by Eleanor Herman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Excellent reference for writers and history lovers, excellent and amusingly told.

View all my reviews

Rock 'n' roll great Jerry Leiber [half of Leiber and Stoller] dies at 78

Rock 'n' roll great Jerry Leiber dies at 78

Los Angeles - Rock 'n' roll pioneer [and Rock Hall legend] Jerry Leiber, who wrote some of the genre's most timeless hits from Hound Dog to Jailhouse Rock, died Monday [Aug 22, 2011] at the age of 78.

Leiber died of cardiopulmonary failure at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles surrounded by his family, his publicist Bobbi Marcus said.

Leiber, a lyricist, rose to fame with Elvis Presley's 1954 [remake] release of Hound Dog, which he co-wrote with his longtime partner Mike Stoller. Among their other iconic songs were the Ben E King [co-written] classics Stand By Me and Spanish Harlem and the Drifters' On Broadway. The song-writing duo had 15 number one hits for 10 artists.

'Together, they were an extraordinary team that generated a rich and diverse musical catalog that leaves an indelible imprint on our cultural history,' said Recording Academy president Neil Portnow.