Messages in a bottle

Social media is a like a message in a bottle. It's posted, written, created and then shared out into a sea of networked sites. Some messages get picked up and read, but I wonder how many are just out there bobbing around in the Internet? How many people have sent out a message that no one's read?

Is it useful to write something down that no one might read? Journals and diaries have been used by individuals for years to write about what is going on and how they feel about life and what they see around them. Journals and diaries weren't meant to be read by others, but they are written down by individuals anyway. The usefulness comes for the writer of the diary: it helps solidify ideas, make thoughts concrete and physically malleable.

When diaries are shared, it's an insight into something that is often very personal, but was never meant to be shared.

A message in a bottle is meant to be read. It's written with hopes that someone, somewhere will see it, find it and a connection is made. But the writer doesn't know who, where or when it will be read or if it's ever read.

Our social media messages in a bottle are meant to be shared. Many of them are as personal as a diary, but really, we tweet, blog, share status updates and locations because we want people to find us, know us and connect--even if the connection is asynchronous. We want to be "heard." To read a thought is to keep it alive.

Oh... and happy NaBloPoMo!

What's up with female characters and.... gasp... their periods?

So I was just reading The Comet's Curse by Dom Testa. One of the main characters is the captain of the star ship, the Galahad, and also, a young woman. After I was done reading the story, I was thinking about this young woman and I remembered that the story never talked about her period.


Then I was thinking of my favorite trilogy, The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins. Katniss Everdeen is the narrator of the story and she's thrust into several survival situations. But never in the story does she seem to have her period.


I am always wondering why authors leave menstruation out of their stories. We all know it happens. We all know we can't stop it (without getting pregnant, having a hysterectomy or taking hormones) so why not talk about it?


Does the publishing industry prevent this frank discussion? I agree that in some stories it really is a non-issue. In realistic fiction, most characters live in a modern life and we have conveniences to deal with Aunt Flo coming to visit. However, a girl like Katniss might get her period at the worst time: during the games. But that never seems to happen in stories. Girls just magically don't have to deal with their periods.


Yes, I know some "coming of age" stories deal with periods, even if it's just to mention them. However, think of any other kind of story. Did the girl get her period at all? Probably never once.


I wonder sometimes, how a character would deal with getting her period if she was trekking across the wilderness. How would a girl feel dating a vampire if she got her period? Would it attract or repel werewolves during "that time of the month?" Who knows, but I wish that we wouldn't ignore that we all get periods. Women have to deal with this fact of life and it would be neat to see it reflected creatively in fiction.

The author's voice

Currently, I'm reading Alvin Ho, Allergic to Girls, School, and Other Scary Things by Lenore Look. Earlier in the month, I read Bud, Not Buddy. Both books are fun to read and most of the time, I find myself getting drawn into the characters' interactions and adventures. However, sometimes, I feel like I am listening to the author and not the narrator. I am wondering how the "break through" happens, because I don't like being kicked out the experience of reading. I want to stay in the story. Sometimes, I think I am seeing the author because of how the story is broken up. When I read Bud's rules, I loved them, but sometimes I felt broken out of the story. With Alvin Ho, sometimes I feel like the author has lost Alvin's voice and put her own in. On the other hand, sometimes it feels very much like a boy is telling the story, even though I know a woman wrote the book.

I wonder if anyone reading this has ever felt "kicked out" of the story by hearing the author's voice. It's not a terrible thing, but it does interrupt the action, which I always want more of!