Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

Hello Ross and welcome aboard. I confess, I don't think I've ever read anything from the Victorian era (at least not that I remember) but I sure love the Victorian houses. Does that count? :P

Hi, thanks for the invite!
I'm Louise and I should've introduced myself earlier but I'm still bumbling around Goodreads and trying to get familiar with it.
I discovered Goodreads by accident when I found that my book 'How We Remember' (Romance/chick-lit, self-pub a year ago) had a couple of reviews on here.
As I mentioned in the 'Worst book' thread, I'm an avid and eclectic reader, and I've been known to read cereal boxes when desperate. I think I've read books in pretty much every genre. I personally don't have a preference - if it's well-written I'll read it!
I've always written since I was a child but kept it a secret (my uncle was dean of English at Edinburgh Uni - Ian Rankin was one of his students.)until I decided life was too short. What the heck, self-publish and be damned!
I've never joined any kind of book club, forum or literary group before so not sure what's expected...

Hello Louise, and welcome to our group!

Finding reviews on a website you know nothing about must have been a great surprise. :) I wish I were that lucky. :P

Ok... I'll tell you what you need to expect. First, you'll have lots to read, but from what you wrote, it's not a problem. Second, you'll make lots of friends and third, you'll have lots of fun.

So as you can see, everything comes in 'lots'. I hope we won't overwhelm you with our 'lots'. :P

Edited: I need to learn how to read! What's expected? About same as I wrote. We expect you to give us stuff to read. We love to read posts. :> We expect to become your friend, and last we hope you'll have fun.

Seriously, just be yourself.

Hi G.G., and thanks :-)
It's always great to make new friends.

Hello all, and thanks for the invite.

I'm not an author, but I am a freelance editor, who likes to do a little bit of everything (including webcomics and graphic novels).

I also do martial arts. Something called bagauzhang. They have shown it on The Last Air Bender. They don't get it quiet right. Feel free to ask me about that :-p

Hello Suzanne, and welcome to the group!

My husband is a fan of martial arts, having practiced many different ones, but I have to admit I've never heard of bagauzhang. What does it look like if I may ask?

My teacher describes it sometimes as something like tai chi, but only more badass. There are some videos out there, but I'm having trouble finding something that screams: "that's what I do!"

There are so many different ones, no wonder can't pin-point the right one. I'll ask my husband tonight if he knows this one. :)

Haha, I found a decent video: http://youtu.be/a8R_frbjD-k

What form do you both practice?

It looks like a dance of death...

I don't practice any, and he doesn't anymore either. He did almost thirty years ago. I remember one of them was Savate, but I don't remember the other two. If I look on the internet the names all seem to blend, so before I risk naming something else, I'd better ask him exactly what it was. All I know is that he won tournaments and was a black belt. He likes to boast about it. ;)
What you do seems perfect self defense. That's so cool! I'd hate to be the other guy in the video. I mean, I know he was careful not to hurt him but you can see that a few times the aggressor got hit in the face.

Hello Louise and Suzanne, I would have welcomed you eariler but I was lost in YouTube watching badass martial arts moves for the last hour :p welcome aboard!

Hey Louise and Suzanne its lovely to meet you both :D

@Jevon: it really is sometimes, but its a lot of fun.

@Bisky: going down the badass martial arts movie rabbit hole gets us all sometimes.

@G.G.: You can also see how far the person flies for a little amount of force. I love that part, and when it happens. I can't wait until that becomes a regular thing for me.

@April: nice to meet you too.

Ok, my hubby's martial arts were savate, karate and jujitsu. And yes I saw that. Like I said, I wouldn't mess with you. ;)

Quite beautiful and very simple moves (once done right) that use minimum force but highly effective.

Hello everyone! Thanks for the invite - it looks like there's some great fun to be had here.

I mostly write stories with a paranormal twist, and I tend to weave between urban fantasy and horror. I had my first novel published last year and the follow up should be out in the next couple of months. I also have a few short stories out there to keep me going, whether they're published or on Wattpad.

Hi Neil. That's so cool I also write Urban Fantasy too. Congratulations on your publishing your novel i'll have to look out for it.

Hello Neil and welcome to the group.
I love paranormal, urban fantasy AND horror. Cool! :P

Pleased to be invited! I'm Steve, and I'm bashing out YA paranormal horrors at the mo, haunted house stories from fresh angles, kids abusing god-like powers, bogeymen as endangered species, that sort of stuff.
I like the look of this place, seems busy!

Hello and welcome aboard Steve. :)
Bashing out YA paranormal? You don't like them? 0_o

hey Steve that sounds really excellent totally new spin on the stories. Look forward to hearing more about them.

G.G. wrote: "Hello and welcome aboard Steve. :)
Bashing out YA paranormal? You don't like them? 0_o"

Probably didn't come out the way I meant it! Should have said 'Got so many ideas I don't dare stop writing in case they all run away,' but went for 'bash' instead. Word choice is so important in this game...

OH! I was wondering because everything you were naming sounded so cool to me. Hey better have too many ideas than none. :P

(Don't mind me, I often don't get English expressions and the thesaurus/internet search doesn't always provide the answer.) :p

G.G. wrote: "OH! I was wondering because everything you were naming sounded so cool to me. Hey better have too many ideas than none. :P

(Don't mind me, I often don't get English expressions and the thesaurus/i..."

Totally agree, ideas are everywhere! Finding the ones that'll fly is the real problem...

Thanks for the invite into the group! I write YA, currently working on a coming-of-age book set in 1987. Which, apparently, makes it a work of "historical" fiction, and makes me feel really, really old.

Karyn wrote: "Thanks for the invite into the group! I write YA, currently working on a coming-of-age book set in 1987. Which, apparently, makes it a work of "historical" fiction, and makes me feel really, really..."

That made me laugh out loud! Then it made me feel old too. Not laughing now.

Welcome Karyn :D

Thanks for the warm welcome!

Hi Bisky Hi April, great to meet you too :-)


1987? *sighs* feeling nostalgic. Also feeling ancient :-/

If 1987 makes us old or ancient, it also makes us valuable. Aren't antiquities worth a lot?? :P

EDITED: Yikes, I replied to welcome you Karyn and totally forgot! ok... being an antique isn't just gold and glory after all... :P

Welcome to the group Karyn!

Thanks for the warm welcome, everybody! Glad to know I'm not the only one who remembers 1987 well (and fondly).

Hi Karyn! Welcome to the group!

Just to make you all feel awkward, I wasn't around in 1987 :P

I'm Tammy. I write mainstream/commercial fiction, I think. Still trying to nail down if I fit into a genre. I write novels and short stories. I've finished one novel that's making the query rounds with lots of nibbles, but no big bites--yet! After a novel, I write short stories for a break before getting in deep with another long work.

Hello Tammy and welcome to the group!

You know, when I think about it, sometimes finding the right genre you write is almost as hard as writing a blurb! ;)

Finding the right genre is like finding out which tribe you belong to. At this point, I don't know what I am. Perhaps, a unique species as in Fear and Loathing, "I'm too unique to live and too rare to die."

"Too unique to live and too rare to die."

LOVE IT!

Hello, I write epic and urban fantasy, some post apocalyptic when the mood strikes. Just self-published my first novel in December. It's the first in a trilogy, so I'm furiously working on #2 - and #3 when it won't leave me alone.

Hello C.L. and welcome to the group!
Congrats on your self-publish and good luck with the next ones. :)

Welcome CL! Congrats ^^ a trilogy sounds like lots of fuuuun :3

Tammy - I had similar issues with genre with my debut. I just wrote it and didn't aim to pigeon-hole it. The one caveat was that it was paranormal. It wasn't until it was published that I discovered urban fantasy, which I'd never heard of before!

Hello Tammy and C.J, welcome aboard :]

I think mine may be faction - fiction based on facts - don't think that's a real genre. It has dual protagonists, 1 child and 1 adult, and occurs during the Bosnian War. It doesn't fit into war, coming-of-age, or murder and it's doesn't happen in a time frame old enough to make it historical so I'm stumped. I'm just staying mainstream/commercial because it's in such a grey area.

Good to meet everyone. Thanks for inviting me, Bisky.

@Tammy and Neil: I run into that often with authors I work with. They are all extremely fixated on what sort of genre it fits into (perhaps fearing that I won't like their particular genre), but I'm of the belief that most genre tags are worked out in the wash. If you have something you can't quite categorize, its probably cause you are doing something different :)

I looked into the paranormal sub-genre a little while ago and it's utterly dominated by paranormal romance. I'd like to label my stuff as paranormal thrillers as it doesn't 'technically' exist, but it might not be thrilling enough yet!

I know what you mean Neil, I write Urban Fantasy and although A Dance With Fury is heavily focused on the relationship between the two main characters in the end I think it's more of an adventure than a romance xP I just assume all PNR has lots of willies and boobies in it. But thats not very fair xP

Well, harken back to paranormal's roots. Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jeckle. Maybe the word you need is urban gothic, to distance yourself from the paranormal romances.

My work is all about monsters, beasts and demons, just with very little romance. I'm not hankering towards it unless it is necessary to the story, so really it's a very slow boil across several books. It's more about who he is, the problems he faces and the decisions he inevitably has to make. I think urban Gothic is much more apt.

Coincidentally there was a UK TV series named exactly that years ago, that dealt with the darker side humanity and of beasts. It didn't continually follow one protagonist though, it was mostly shorts, sometimes with recurring characters. I'd never really thought of it as inspiration, but I did love that programme.

The problem is that Urban means city. What if your story is closer to Urban fantasy than Paranormal, (both are so closely related) but doesn't take place in a city? Countryside Fantasy? Wild Fantasy? (That one sounds more like Erotica to me. :>)

From what I have read, paranormal has HEA and changes protagonist from book to book, but keeps the same environment/world. Urban fantasy had no HEA although can have one, is usually first person pov, and keeps the same protagonist from book to book.

Same strange creatures/phenomena can be found in both genre. However, as stated, I hate the fact that most people will automatically think PNR as soon as they see Paranormal.

All this brings me back to my first statement. Finding your genre is as hard if not harder than writing a blurb. :/

@Neil Your genre seems to be perfect for Urban Fantasy. Of course, as I stated above, it depends if your story happens in the city or not.

What you describe reminds me of The Dresden Files, one of my favorite Urban Fantasy series.

It also could be in the same genre as Supernatural, the TV show... Into what genre is that show classified.