Bisky's Twitterling's Scribbles! discussion

What is it?

A real book or an ideal book you wish someone wrote?

Good question... if I knew I'd have read it!

Adrian wrote: "A real book or an ideal book you wish someone wrote?"

kinda both

Michael wrote: "Good question... if I knew I'd have read it!"

Ohh there must be something :p

I mean, I have yet to find a well written supernatural fantasy novel that explores relationships beyond heterosexuality, monogamy and traditional gender roles without sounding heavy-handed or preachy... or the characters who support alternate lifestyles dying.

(If you know of one, please recommend it to me!)

:O I'd want to read that too! I'm kinda building up to exploring those kidna of themes in the second installment of my first novel (Urban Fantasy ((shapeshifters)) but it keeps getting rejected so I'll have to look for others for you lol :x

Adrian wrote: "I mean, I have yet to find a well written supernatural fantasy novel that explores relationships beyond heterosexuality, monogamy and traditional gender roles without sounding heavy-handed or preac..."


The latest novel I read is 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson. It is not supernatural fantasy, and is long winded and low key. But I don't think there was one monogamous heterosexual relationship in the entire book.

I am still looking for the perfect mash-up between trashy airport thriller and epic fantasy. If anyone knows of one, I'd love to hear about it.

If there is a book that you want to read that doesn't exist, then you have to write it. #unknown#

That's why I started my fantasy/young adult/neil gaiman-kinda story. It is a fun story but tedious to write it down.

Thats what I like to hear :3 If it doesn't exist write it! You know it might be exactly what some other people have been looking forward too :D (also your book sounds right up my street I might add)

I can tell you the story and you write it down for me? LOL :D

Jonathon, that sounds awesome!! I'm in on the "let me know", please.

OK- fair to say I'm writing some of the books that I want to read... I often find that I'm writing to see what happens next.

Jonathan, J.M.: why not collaborate and come up with what you are looking for yourself? Those projects are the most fun.

What if someone - let's call him Matt, shall we? - Matt parks his car at the airport to go on a business trip but somehow the plane takes him to a fantastic place he would never even have dreamt of? With house sized flowers - the more beautiful the more poisonous - and a people living there that are beyond any description?!

You mean that kind of story?

What a great idea this topic is - a repository of challenges to authors! I'm loving it.
My debut was written as "te book I wanted to read"... I've never read it in its final, fully-editted version, though... kinda sad, but I just can't -- all I see is what still needs improvement! Now I see why people ask OTHERS to write the book they'd like to read...

Deb wrote: "What a great idea this topic is - a repository of challenges to authors! I'm loving it.
My debut was written as "te book I wanted to read"... I've never read it in its final, fully-editted versio..."

Challenges is what it takes! We can write books for each other! That's a wonderful concept! Let's start... like... NAO!?!

Oh - gosh! So many IDEAs running around in my poor little head. That's the problem, isn't it? Finding time to write the book(s) I want to read, and to read the books others are writing...

I'm working on one now that's unlike anything I've read or written, but I see a lot of the NA spec fiction heading where I'd like to see more books go: strong heroines who are ready, willing and able to fall in love but don't find it essential to obtaining HEA.

I think the most important part of writing is discovering what you 'want' to read. I think its alot harder than it sounds :3 I also like the idea of collabs, mentioning things you want to read to people who write different genres to you. When I do this as my day job I shall start something big with it me thinks :3

I've always wanted to read something SF/Fantasy that has the perfect mix of humanity, science/magic and/or politics/world-building, and every time I find a book that I think will do it, it disappoints. So far, Dune is the closest I've come, and even still, I find that the balance skews a bit more towards politics than the science/magic.

Like most people, I then decided to try to write something that would perfectly capture that balance in my head. Not sure how it works for other people though...

@Adrian so glad that someone else has that too, and as a gay man, I am so sick of reading (and watching) stories where an LGBT character is "the quirky friend" or something (and then dies.) But...even more than this, I actually loathe books, characters and shows where such characters are almost defiant in their refusal to comply to society's norms...because they were born this way *clicks fingers* Again, it's one of the things I've tried to address in my own stuff, with a character that just happens to be gay, but is one small facet of his personality and story. That said, his boyfriend dies a year before the book starts (but that's more to do with a theme of the book rather than his sexuality.)

"I actually loathe books, characters and shows where such characters are almost defiant in their refusal to comply to society's norms...because they were born this way *clicks fingers* Again, it's one of the things I've tried to address in my own stuff, with a character that just happens to be gay, but is one small facet of his personality and story"

I feel like I've touched on something I didn't really give much thought about in its implications. I have a gay couple in my story series I'm trying to get published who one dies half way through and the other has to deal with it. Didn't really think anything more about it than it would be a classic love lost plot, they just happen to both be dudes. I like to match up most of the characters (is where the gender roles thing comes in too) in my stories like a stupid fan girl :p Now that I think about it I guess its not really that common. I just happen to have alot of love around me in 'non conventional' forms in real life that I don't really think of it anymore as anything more than well, 'normal' lol.

I feel like we're opening a can of worms here, and I might need to qualify myself lol. I've also changed my mind about how to say this about three times too.

I like characters getting paired off: it happens in real life too (sometimes...probably far more often than we admit.) And what you've described, Bisky, is a story where sexuality doesn't matter because there is a character journey there. And I like those sorts of characters and journeys, so this definitely isn't directed at you.

But so many books, TV shows, movies include an LGBT character for the sake of being inclusive, and then aren't really sure how to deal with them. They'll end up miserably single, or they'll be the outrageous friend who moves from one one-night-stand to the next. And quite often, because they're a secondary character, they end up the victims in crime/SF/fantasy/horror. (Or else a villain.)

That's a massive generalisation, and there's a lot more to it, but it's a pretty common trope. It's in the process of changing too. But...just once it'd be nice to read/watch a straightforward romantic comedy between two LGBT characters where nobody's in denial or against them; or something where the gay cop catches a straight serial killer, or where your starship captain has to go to the sickbay every few days/weeks for their testosterone shots as part of their treatment.

Haha it can be a touchy thing to write about I think as its something people can get really offended by, and because I always say stupid things to people too so I know what you mean about rewriting the message :p Tbh those shows annoy me as well, and even though you said its a generalisation, I know exactly what you mean. Its clique, but I find alot of 'popular' stuff really is. There are moulds that people stick to because its what they know as being comfertable and anything that variates has noses turned up at it unless it goes viral.

I like how these converstations are going :3 Its making me really glad I did this group, so many ideas haha

I am too, but mostly because I think I've posted more here in the last 12 hours than in most other groupd combined, just because they're so big and unwieldy!

I think that's also high on the list of "the book I want to read." Someone (or something) that breaks the mould. That does something a little bit differently. Even if it's not successful, they've tried. And that can be a much better read than the 'popular' stuff.

I tried other groups and no one would talk to me because I'm nobody and unpublished :(

I think thats where indie publishing really comes into its own. It doesn't matter if someone else doesn't like it. I can't help but think of all the undiscovered work that was wasted before the interwebs came about.

We were all there once. Funny how some writers forget that...

So true :(

I just wanted to scream at them "YOU ARE ALL OLD!" cackle manically and run away.

:p

HEY! Some of us ARE old! :D

hahaha Its why I didn't :P Sowwy [:

A good contemporary narrative poem. I'm an unabashed fan of Gilgamesh. People like me who write poetry need to figure out how to reimagine this ancient form. I'm working on it by trying out voices and styles in short (2+) narrative poems as well as incorporating poetry into traditional fiction prose.

One of the problems with becoming a writer is that it seriously eats into my reading time. I actually get to read fewer of the books that I want to!

@Carl Gilgamesh <3

@Micheal I know what you mean :x

I'm searching for a book involving supernatural in an urban world. A character has a supernatural ability but with limitations.

Some anime have this: Death Note: Light has a notebook in which he can write names to kill people, but there are oodles of conditions--he must know the person's name and face. Code Geass: Lelouch has his geass power with which he can look into someone's eye and command that person to do something, but there are also limits-he can use it only once on a person.

I haven't found a novel that has this sort of concept. I'm trying to apply this limited supernatural power concept to my work-in-progess. :3

@Josh - I think there is definitely a market to adapt some of the anime-inspired ideas into urban fantasies or other types of story-telling. Anime is chock full of interesting story quirks that have enough universal themes to really be put into any genre or culture.

As an aside, Death Note and Code Geass are great animes.

Ooh, that's an interesting one, Josh. And try as I might, I can't think of anything like it myself: there are the usual "I'm a vampire, so weak in the sunlight" and other such tropes, but nothing quite so complex.

That said, have you read Lukyanenko's Night Watch series? There's an interesting explanation of powers/abilities in there. It's not as directly connected to the plot as Death Note would be, but is still interesting. (It also deals with bystanders and witnesses and such.)

@Kay - I've read part of a Code Geass novelization, but I didn't care too much for it. I agree, anime shows have plenty of unique concepts. :3

@Ken - No, I haven't. I'll have to check those out. Thanks for the recommendation. :)

*points at her first novel* Night watch was a huge inspiration for it! Go and bug the agents who keep rejecting me :p I am a huge anime fan I think it influences my writing alot. There are those elements in it. If its not taken up in another year I'm gonna self publish. Any Anime fan who reads A Dance With Fury will see the anime influences, I originally scripted it to be a manga.

@Josh - Never read the novelization, just watched the anime. One of the things I liked about it was that no character was the hero. Death Note is similar in that. You have protagonists, but they were just as prone to doing terrible things as the antagonists (and sometimes did things worse than the antagonists). There were no "good guys" and I think that's a really fun idea to explore. Both stories also have elements of really complicated best friend/worst enemy elements which is something I love to see in stories.

*will order it the instant it's released*

When I get done rewriting it, you'll have to let me know what agents. xD After I read the first chapter of my first novel (which I plan to scratch and revive the character) at a open-mic reading at my college, one guy said my story had an anime-feel to it.

My first novel was similarly planned out, but as a computer game (2D game w/ graphics made in Paint.) The story become too much for a little game, so I started to write it. :3

@Kay I liked that about them, too. That's kind of what I'm applying to my story. No character is a "goody good" guy/gal. I never thought of the best friend/worst enemy concept. It's something more to think about.

@Kay didnt know there was a novel either :x I love evil rivialry :3

@Josh :D! I'm looking forward to seeing your writing :3

I hope to get something up sometime this fall. :D

Yeah! :D

Ulysses by James Joyce. I've tried to read it twice and failed.

Ken, I read Ulysses on the third try.

Ken wrote: "I've always wanted to read something SF/Fantasy that has the perfect mix of humanity, science/magic and/or politics/world-building, and every time I find a book that I think will do it, it disappoi..."

Ken and Bisky, as for a SF/Fantasy with a mix of humanity, science/magic, central LGBT character -- you might look into The Prospect of My Arrival. It's about a human embryo that's allowed to preview the world before deciding whether to be born. The main character is tasting the world and meeting its eccentric inhabitants. He also explores the range of sexuality, class, politics, ethnicity, etc.

@Dwight that does sound like a terrific idea for a book. But I have to be in a good mindset to read books like that or I end up feeling quite depressed :3

Ah, it's not depressing so much as provocative and satirical of our modern world. But dystopian novels TOTALLY bum me out. Never Let Me Go bummed me as a book but loved the movie. I love Margaret Atwoods poetry but I need some hits of prozac to get through her books.

One of my favorite books is The Cure by Sonia Levitan. I would love to read another book that made me feel the same way. It is a dystopia, but it is also a gripping historical fiction. Anyone else read The Cure?

Never got around to reading Proust, or much French lit in general. Bad prom date with a foreign exchange student...

There are still a few Rex Stout, John MacDonald, and Terry Pratchett I haven't read.

I've got to crack open the Catharine Asaro pile.

The to be read list is quite long lol