Cold

This week in the Cold, we talk about THE END. Because the weeks after finishing a novel can be sticky. It’s a time of fits and starts, frustration, and lack of focus. Even if you've got a dozen story ideas tucked away for just this occasion, there’s this feeling of depletion. You've given all you've got, and while proud of the work and relieved the story has made it to the finish line, a pervading sense of detachment and disorientation creeps up. You might feel like starting a new novel is a skill you've lost, like doing the splits, and you might not be able to master it again.

And if you do feel that way...this week in the Cold is just for you, because we're going to do something about that!

But if This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/05/20/a-plot-twist-worthy-of-a-coming-of-age-novel/

This week in the Cold, we talk about what we want to be when we grow up. Or at least, what we wanted to be when we were kids. This past week was also Carol Burnett's 89th birthday, and when I was a girl, more than anything in the world, I wanted to be Carol Burnett. That didn't happen, obviously. I became a novelist who writes some pretty serious books (although I'm still funny, damn it). But Carol has without question left a huge mark on my life. The truth is, whether we fulfill them, absorb and repurpose them, or reject them outright, childhood dreams give so much more than mere career direction. 

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2016/06/08/from-movie-stardom-to-baseball-childhood-dreams-leave-a-mark-on-our-lives/

Sounds crazy, right? But in a way, it's true. That's why this week in the Cold, we're talking about the ways in which we, as humans, and our favorite fictional characters, as people imagined by humans, process, interpret, and express pain and difficulty. We dive deep, we go to the roots of resilience and survival. You don't want to miss this one.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2015/12/09/scary-roller-coasters-are-as-bad-as-cancer/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the night, and what it brings to our creative and spiritual lives. I've had a complicated relationship with the dark all my life. Truth be told, I'm afraid of it - always have been. Yet, when I'm awake in the middle of the night, I often find it to be a time of potent magic. It's when my best ideas come, and I find myself immersed in a world of wonder and fantasy...and yes, sometimes fear.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/04/08/you-up/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the importance of music as an inspiration in our work, and our lives. The way it can change a mood - have us get up to shake and groove, make our hearts race, or curl up into a ball and let the tears flow. It can focus our thoughts, and help us reimagine our futures. Music can, quite literally, be the conduit for a shift in our destinies. This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2018/09/14/face-the-music-and-dance/

Manhood. It almost feels archaic to write the word, because it’s become so muddled, seeming to have as many definitions and contradictions as there are coffee beverages offered at Starbucks. But manhood has been on all of our minds of late - you know it's true. As the Ukrainian conflict continues to unfold, and we watch (mostly) men leaving their families to fight the Russian invaders, as we ponder trans issues, as we try to sort out just why children who are raised without fathers are so at risk. That's why I think it's worth revisiting a clear map of manhood that has been right in front of us all along. It's one that was first drawn by the ancients, and fleshed out over millennia by various scribes who to the time to think about what it means to be a man, and wrote down their conclusions in the form of legends, novels and films.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2021/01/08/a-fictionistas-map-of-manhood-from-antiquity-to-james-bond/

It's been hard for me to consume news the past couple of weeks. For someone with my family history - two generations of political refugees, a mother who was an actual political prisoner and Enemy of the State - the crisis in the Ukraine has a very familiar ring, an awful, pit-in-my-stomach feel. I know I should at the very least be reading the front page of the paper, but I just haven't been able to bring myself to do anything but...pray. 

While I can't even pretend to have a workable grasp of the intricacies of the geopolitical forces at play in this conflict, all of this has the feeling of a "ground shifting beneath our feet" moment. I don't know what NATO should do or not do, or what the American President should be saying to the world. I do know, however, that people are suffering.

And that's why I want to share a few words about prayer, and my continuing faith journey from Catholic to atheist to agnostic to shaky, often crappy, humbled, confused believer.

It's not a strident piece that's trying to tell anyone what, if anything, to believe - and if you have no interest in my ruminations, I won't be offended.

What it is is a sincere, if clumsy, explanation of why I even bother with this faith business. Why, despite my best efforts, I haven't been able to let it go.

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2014/09/09/a-long-days-journey-into-light/

This week in the Cold, we talk about the art of conversation. There is a reason why in so many ancient cultures, the written word is synonymous with destiny. "It is written," they say. It's because words - written, spoken, exchanged - can have a profound effect on our lives. Conversations with lovers or strangers, even fictional parleys in a novel can adjust our perspectives, pull us away from a precipice we didn’t even realize we were standing on. They can remind us anything is possible, and that most of us don’t fit neatly into the slots we’ve been assigned by birth, media narratives, political plots, and traditional mythologies. We are all bundles of potential ready to be realized, firecrackers yearning to be lit. 

"Breath" (Historical Fiction/Fantasy/Epic) by Victoria Dougherty: https://www.amazon.com/Breath-Victoria-Dougherty-ebook/dp/B08927XDZ2

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2022/02/25/conversations/

Stories of love and forgiveness compel us in both literature and life. They help us examine our own behaviors, and understand the motives of our loved ones. They offer hope. Today in the Cold, I have just such a story to offer you. It's a magnificent, damned near miraculous story of love and forgiveness, and it is so much better than a mere Valentine. This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2015/10/13/love-and-forgiveness/

This week in the Cold, we're talking about sex and love and how to make it burn in a story - lighting a fire that spreads from page to page. It's easier said than done. Because one of the hardest parts about writing a love scene is the simple act of letting go. Allowing yourself to experience the same feelings of bonzai-passion, trembling-fear, vein-popping love, and button-exploding lust in which your characters are awash during their most intimate moments. So, please, slip into something more comfortable and join us.

Also, there a historical fiction and historical romance audio book event going on this coming Friday and Saturday, the  11th and 12th of February, on Facebook. This is your chance to win some wonderful audio books, including my own novel, "Breath" which is the first in an epic and romantic historical fantasy series. Don't you want to have sweet nothings whispered into your ear for hours upon hours? Join right here:  https://www.facebook.com/events/289526993161348/

This episode is also available as a blog post: https://victoriadougherty.wordpress.com/2017/09/23/love-at-first-write-on-the-tricky-art-of-writing-a-love-scene/