SciFi and Fantasy Book Club discussion

Navigator wrote: "Okay, I smell like rain and seasalt."

Rain is the last thing you ate? :D

Anna wrote: "Navigator wrote: "Okay, I smell like rain and seasalt."

Rain is the last thing you ate? :D"

Lol, swallowed a couple of raindrops by an accident - I went out to get some fresh air and then lo and behold XD

But if we take the last normal things I ate that would be apples and aspirine.

I would love to smell like rain! I always sniff any perfume that claims to smell like rain, but they never do :(

Or rocks.

Or rocks after rain.

Or right after it rains in the desert 🏜

I haven't experienced rain in the desert, but I can imagine it is (and smells) lovely!

I love the smell of rain on rocks! I thought it was just me and that I was strange or something :)

The fact that I love something doesn't make it not strange! We'll be strange together! ^_^

There used to be a cafe in Helsinki that had really good Italian gelato, but it's now closed for good because of covid. They had a pink grapefruit flavor that I really liked. The first time I tried it I was still standing next to the cashier, waiting for my coffee. Spoon in my mouth, my eyes go wide, I swear my ears perked up and the barista asked "How is it? :)" and I exclaimed "IT'S LIKE I'M LICKING A ROCK!!!!" After an uncomfortable silence, I realized my mistake and clarified "That's a good thing! I like it! :D" Lime and grapefruit scented things also sometimes smell like rocks, and when that happens, whatever that thing is, I buy it!

For anyone wanting to know what chemicals produce the smell of rain exactly: it's a mix of ozone, petrichor and geosmin. There, now can mix yourself a rain perfume! 😁

It's not really a trope but I just read a book where the main character "shook herself" 24 times. In the next book in the trilogy it was 28 with an additional 3 "shook herself awake".

Is she a dog?

Anna wrote: "Is she a dog?"

You'd think so, right? But no, ordinary human who gets scared a lot and has to shake herself to snap out of it.

Maybe there's a surprise twist later in the series and she's a werewolf!

Give her a bath and you'll find out!

A character let out a breath they didn't know they were holding, on the second page! That's gotta be a land speed record. (It's A Song for a New Day, which I am enjoying).

If I got a brain implant today, the first tweak I'd implement would be to ignore any breath holding related information trying to penetrate my consciousness.

(And then a lethal gas leak would occur and I wouldn't be able to hear instructions to hold my breath and would die happily oblivious.)

I have become hyper-sensitive to that particular trope.

I think this thread really brought our collective attention to breath-holding and smells! I mean, I had noticed the smells thing, but I was able to gloss over it before. Now these two tropes have the subtlety of a klaxon when I come across them!

Michelle, yeah, the more we talk about it, the more we notice it, and the more it annoys us :/ At this point when someone breathes normally my teeth start grinding.

I also started recognizing the cousin of breath-holding, that is when someone hears a weird, loud noise (often a shrieking or screaming) and then realizes they are the one making the noise. I read a short story where the MC did both the breath-holding and the noise-making things. Sigh.

Meredith wrote: "I also started recognizing the cousin of breath-holding, that is when someone hears a weird, loud noise (often a shrieking or screaming) and then realizes they are the one making the noise. I read ..."

At the same time?

A dog barking in an otherwise silent night is another good one.

Meredith- I just read that trope about 20 minutes ago! And I hadn't really noticed it until you just pointed it out. Oh no, another one...

Meredith/Michelle, I also read that today! XD It hasn't annoyed me before, but I bet it will now :P

Leonie wrote: "Meredith wrote: "I also started recognizing the cousin of breath-holding, that is when someone hears a weird, loud noise (often a shrieking or screaming) ...
At the same time? "

No, but it was a short story, so the one was pretty close on the heels of the other.

Michelle wrote: "Meredith- I just read that trope about 20 minutes ago! And I hadn't really noticed it until you just pointed it out. Oh no, another one..."

Sorry! Welcome to my world. ;)

Beth wrote: "A dog barking in an otherwise silent night is another good one."

Ooh, yes.

Aaaand there it is again- the trope Meredith just had to point out to us 😭 This makes me wonder how often I had seen it but it hadn't registered!

SorryNotSorry.

How about taste/flavor to describe someone? Also from Soulless, mid-smoochies:

...she could definitely learn to love the taste of him, like one of those expensive French soups, dark and rich...

Now that I think about it this is probably quite common in erotic scenes, so uh maybe I shouldn't have mentioned it

We'll just pretend that you didn't, Beth :)

I don't know... Soup?

The ultimate aphrodisiac.... Soup. Onion and cheese soup at that.

That's exactly the soup I was thinking of! 😆

This made me laugh: "[They] let out the breath they’d held for several years"

Strange Beasts of China

Epic breath-holding!

At least they knew they were holding it!

Are the authors in this group and reading this thread?!

If only!

Michelle wrote: "Are the authors in this group and reading this thread?!"

Yes, but I'm holding my breath to see how it ends - without realizing that I'm doing it . . .

LOL!

I need to find a tavern, an ale and some bread so I can properly ponder.

maybe with a nice lad who smells of musk and soap?

Oooh.

Faces in the Crowd

"Novels need a sustained breath. That's what novelists want. No one knows exactly what it means but they all say: a sustained breath. I have a baby and a boy. They don't let me breathe. Everything I write is - has to be - in short bursts. I'm short of breath."

Michelle wrote: "Are the authors in this group and reading this thread?!"

*Shy hand raise* At least one.

Tomas wrote: "Michelle wrote: "Are the authors in this group and reading this thread?!"

*Shy hand raise* At least one."

LOL!

Well, I think that learning what not to do by exaggerated examples is a good thing + I've seen a couple of such cases myself. I think I mentioned some as well, though I'm not going to scroll through all the 240-ish previous posts to check :)

🙋🏽‍♀️Also reading, and hoping frantically that no tropes have been used...but...not completely certain. 🤦🏽‍♀️

From next month's "Bouquet of Roses" selection, Fever Dream (bolded text mine. no spoilers):

"I think I'd stopped breathing for that entire time. When I started again..."

"The sound of the trees, the cars on the road every once in a while, and the barking of a dog confirmed that the country spread out immensely to either side..."

This is by no means a haphazardly written book, and Schweblin does put a more creative twist on these.

Caillen wrote: "It's not really a trope but I just read a book where the main character "shook herself" 24 times. In the next book in the trilogy it was 28 with an additional 3 "shook herself awake"."

This reminds me of Tom Hanks in Turner and Hooch where they are doing a stakes out and he shake himself lol.