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[larryhammer]

Current research reading, more useful even than Lost Country Life and Daily Life in the Twelfth Century, is The Tough Guide to Fantasyland. This to collect any cliches before they hatch*. I'm skirting the line with my Duke**, but otherwise I seem to be doing well -- though I'll have to watch my Weather and be careful once we reach the Court. (We have to go to Court -- after all, His Nibs works there.) However, the Mountain Pass will not be Blocked, the Ancient Engineering Works will be all but crumbled, and there will be no Siege of the Walled City. Also, no Colour Coding -- everyone has brown hair/brown eyes/brownish skin, so there.

Which is to say, while stomping out cliches was the initial impetus, I'm having fun tackling many head on. Like His Nibs's recent Bath scene. Not only didn't Her Nibs peek and there wasn't any Sex, but I wrote it lightly slashy. (Do not overlook the slashy possibilities of two knights in a hot tub. Just sayin'.) And contra the Rule about female tourists, Her Nibs's period has arrived. See also everything under Warrior Women and Female Mercenary.

Progress continues, despite recent work kurfuffles (half my department was fired last week, and I'm trying to get final doc together for a major release of my product). His Nibs grew much livelier once he finally met Her Nibs -- apparently he needs a strong foil to bounce off. In the next chapter, he'll try to arrest her liege-lord in her hall, which ought to be good for some sparks no matter how it turns out, and soon after we'll hit the road to find the king hi hough.

Maybe she'll kick his ass. That'd be fun.

*I'm also paying attention to limyaael's rants, of course, but it's hard to ping off her wittily.
**He's even over forty. <sigh>

---L.

Comments

[stevendj.livejournal.com]

Do cliches hatch? Judging from the way they propagate, I'd say they were more like germs, infecting everything around them.

cliche vectors

[palomapus.livejournal.com]

I guess I don't read enough fantasy to know what the codes and cliches are. It is LOVELY to read that yours will avoid the whole light=good, dark=low,evil,coarse. Where do I start to introduce myself to your universe? Do you know I only know that you are a successful writer and do not know what you have written? Exposed for the too busy to read sometimes person I am.
T.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've come to realize that fantasy women do not, as I previously assumed, never menstruate.

They menstruate once, at the start of puberty; freak out that they're not going to be able to be warriors or mages or whatever after all; only to never have menstruation ever trouble them again.

[larryhammer]

You've been reading too many YAs.

Points to Tamora Pierce, btw -- Kel doesn't freak, although it's an annoyance when she starts, and every once in a while there's an awareness of it occasionally, including having to carry pads with her into the field.

---L.

Re: cliche vectors

[larryhammer]

"Successful" is relative. A handful of stories and poems, only -- no novels sold yet. Biblio of the recent ones is here.

---L.

[larryhammer]

I was thinking of them as nits -- something we primates need to groom for before they hatch into lice.

---L.

[janni.livejournal.com]

That's cause adult books are about characters who have had this event slip into their past, and so have more or less forgotten it. :-)

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

Remember, some people have darker brown eyes, some people have lighter brown hair... they may look all alike to us, but they'll be very aware of the differences!

:-)

Eeek, on the firings... that can't be happy-making for anyone.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Pads? I thought they used moss and rags, or something.

[larryhammer]

"Happy" is not the word, no.

There are variations, yes. In the back of my mind, I imagine the queen as having hair dark enough to approach black, and on Sunday, I found out His Nibs's beard has red highlights.

---L.

[larryhammer]

That's what Pierce describes Kel as using -- a pad of thick cloth in some sort of loincloth arrangement (she's a bit vague on that).

---L.

[maryosmanski.livejournal.com]

They menstruate once, at the start of puberty; freak out that they're not going to be able to be warriors or mages or whatever after all; only to never have menstruation ever trouble them again.

Maybe that's why the genre is called fantasy?

[janni.livejournal.com]

Nah, that'd be because of the magical, 100-percent-effective birth control.

Which we don't even have in this world.

[larryhammer]

Nor does Her Nibs in hers. She's got medieval tech.

---L.

[galeni.livejournal.com]

Half the department?! Crikey. Sympathies.

[larryhammer]

Thanks. We're down to a group of seven now, to do what 15 had been doing.

---L.