Monday, July 21, 2014

Three Things I Write and Three Things I Don't Write

Three Things I Write and Three Things I Don't Write

    A fellow writer, Rhonda Parrish, asked for volunteers to write a blog post in the future. I said 'yes' not quite knowing what I was being asked, so took it as a challenge to come up with something when the time comes. And here we are. Things I write and things I don't write. Rather then a neat list for each, I'll go back and forth.

Things I Write #1
    Urban Fantasy. Not something I started out to write, but I've come to find it endlessly fascinating. There's a challenge to writing magic in a modern setting without having it become an easy crutch to fix everything. You'll not find werewolves or vampires in these stories, but plenty of homages to fairy tales. My longest piece of writing is an urban fantasy novella that I hope to sell some day. At some point it may become a full fledged novel as I expand upon it after each rejection.

Things I Don't Write #1
    Poetry. Not a line or verse. My forays into writing poetry have turned out sub-par product. There's a knack to it that I can't wrap my head around. Part of it is that poetry itself doesn't capture my interest as something I'm inclined to read on a regular basis. Anything that can put me to sleep that easy isn't going on my reading list.

Things I Write #2
    Fan Fic. I played a computer games called City Of Heroes, which closed down in late 2012. For the last 3 years or so I ran with a group from a forum called RPGnet. As you might guess, we did a lot of RP and I wrote a lot of fiction based on my characters. We had a nice group and created a small library of stories. Still in contact with some of them and we still occasionally write about them or dig up old stories. There's some good memories in those words.

Things I Don't Write #2
    Straight up fantasy with dragons, wizards, and a medieval setting. I love reading the genre, but writing hasn't hooked me like I thought it might. My “plan” when I started this was to write sci-fi, fantasy, and post-apocalypse fiction. Two of the three have happened, but the fantasy? Not so much. Mine has guns, cars, and electricity. As a note, I count my fairy tales as they all tie back to my larger urban fantasy universe.

Things I Write #3
    Monsters. I'm a sucker for all those 50's and 60's monster movies with SCIENCE! Shambling things from outer space, giant spiders tearing up the west, and radioactive creatures spawned from atomic bombs. Love the genre. This year's been a great one for those stories and I've had quite a fun time in writing them. I've hit a theme with my “GRONK!” series, though I've only sold one, submitted two others, and need to write a fourth by the end of August. So much potential for good, cheesy fun. I'm not going to spoil the monster reveal, you'll just have to go read it yourself. :)

Things I Don't Write #3
    Violence against children. Call it my line in the sand, but none of that. My list of taboo subjects is pretty short, but they're non-negotiable. I might threaten them, but they'll never come to harm physically. Mental scarring, well that might happen, like when your mom dies in a fire when bullies set fire to your house.


    That's my list of three things that I write and I don't write. As Rhonda noted, it's hard to think of things you don't write against what you do or plan on it. My first sale was a suspense story about a boy and his axe, not a sci-fi, so I've learned to keep my options open. And horror. Never figured that I'd be dabbling in that field, but it's just so much fun. Please feel free to leave a comment or ping me on Facebook or Twitter.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Monsters, monsters, and giant monsters.

    I'm a Godzilla fan. It's a fact. I have a copy of every movie on DVD, even the terrible one that features little kids and baby Godzilla. My star of the collection is a copy of the original movie that Classic Media did back in 2006 along with Godzilla Raids Again [the first sequel]. The only movie missing is the 1984 Godzilla film that you can't get legitimately in the US or Canada. I'd pay many bucks for a copy of the original Japanese version with subtitles and not the terrible American release. My understanding there's rights issues and no one's talking. Bastards.

    Why do I mention this? This summer saw the debut of a new Godzilla movie, which aside from a few plot holes and moments of "WTF?", came away as enjoyable. Giant monsters stomping around and destroying cities? Check and mate in my book. In my book, having more monster screen time is a bonus and I'd watch two hours of Godzilla fighting monsters in a tag team match. That my collection is in storage at the moment makes me sad.

    I've also noticed an upswing of monster related calls, revolving around b-movie, giant, and swarms of monsters. Not saying there's a relationship, but I'm liking what I see. My first giant monster story, "GRONK!", appeared in "ATTACK! of the B-Movie Monsters: Night of the Gigantis" and has since spawned a sequel [Bride of GRONK!] which is out to a call. On top of that, there's three more calls out there that just cry out for me to make additional stories [Attack of the GRONKlings, MegaGRONK, and one as yet untitled]. In the past week, I've struggled with an unrelated call and fell short in a few ways. Today, I put that one aside and worked on Attack, pumping out 3k words in the afternoon whereas I did barely 500 the other day. Just sat down and went at it. I think I found my groove, at least for this month of writing. Tomorrow's goal is to finish up Attack and start the edit process.

    I joked with my friend that these stories would be awesome fodder for a terrible SyFy movie. As she noted there's worse things than being known as the [OMG SPOILER] weird platypus guy. I think I could live with that.