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No, seriously. Angel vids are a key component of my Super-Duper No, Seriously Really Real Plan to Take Over the World And/Or Write a Novel.
I'm not that sure why. My novel has no vampires, and is not set in L.A. -- Angel vids are generally chock full of vampires and L.A. My protagonist isn't especially Angel-like, except inasmuch as he's a big guy who can kick your ass but still feels pretty out of his depth among, well, people, and in, you know, situations. (Actually, now that I think about it, if David Boreanaz were to become the nexus of some horrible reality-sliding event and suddenly Seely Booth was the fearless leader of Angel Investigations, *that* would bear a certain resemblance to my novel. Ponderous....)
I don't really know, except that Angel is a good example of dark contemporary fantasy that lives in that grey zone between Dreadfully Epic and Excruciatingly Personal -- and that's what I'm trying to write.
Most books in this little mini sub-genre (the Urban Faerie Novel) seem to founder in that zone somewhere -- and I say this on the strength of having a Great Wonking List of Books (84, actually) within that sub-genre that I'm in the process of reading this year (the idea being that at least now if I peck out some horrible cliche, I'll realize I'm doing it -- the hope being that I'll get so pissed off at Those Things Everybody Keeps Doing that I'll dig up a better way to do it: and yes, I learned that trick from fandom). They either become these big sturm-und-drang bloodsoaked behemoths (I'm talking to *you,* Blood and Iron), or else they stay kind of weirdly private to the point where, you know, I hardly like *anybody* enough to care that much if they get to marry their elf boyfriend or not. (Another thing I've learned: chicks dig elves. What the fuck *is* that all about, anyway? Other than a massive promotional obstacle for my novel, where all the romantic leads are more your axe-wielding trollish barbarian type. What, I like guys who like to hit stuff. Is that so wrong?)
Anyway, my point is. Angel was good at that -- for all the utter incoherent sloppiness of a lot of the later seasons in terms of plot, it always managed to be very much about the characters while not descending into that kind of silly soapiness of bad fanfiction and bad television medical dramas, where I'm supposed to care about whoever's feelings more than I do about anything else in the fictional universe. So maybe I'm drawn to it right now for that reason.
Also, it always had great fight scenes. And I would just like to say that it is clearly MASSIVELY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE of me to have chosen fantasy as my primary genre, because you almost have to have, you know, action sequences. Which are really fucking terribly difficult to write, which is why I normally write slash, where you can just start at the part right after the action sequence that someone else kindly designed, scripted, blocked, filmed, and edited for you. However, after looking around in vain for some kind of ringer that I can bring in to write all my fight scenes for me, it seems I'm going to have to write them all myself. I had two in the last two chapters, which is why it took me THREE FUCKING WEEKS to write the last two chapters. Thank Christ I'm onto the part now where they all sit down and go, "What the hell just happened back there?" Standing around talking, woot!!11! The only way it could be better is if they were talking about their feelings. Which they aren't. They're pretty much still stuck back on, "Hey, remember when that guy stabbed me? WTF was up with that?"
You know what else helps me write? Chai lattes. It's pretty much chai lattes, Angel vids, and my seething sense of superiority to the people who are already writing these books -- like, wtf, Herbie Brennan and Laurell Hamilton, these are seriously what I'm up next to? Grrrr, arrg.
I'm not that sure why. My novel has no vampires, and is not set in L.A. -- Angel vids are generally chock full of vampires and L.A. My protagonist isn't especially Angel-like, except inasmuch as he's a big guy who can kick your ass but still feels pretty out of his depth among, well, people, and in, you know, situations. (Actually, now that I think about it, if David Boreanaz were to become the nexus of some horrible reality-sliding event and suddenly Seely Booth was the fearless leader of Angel Investigations, *that* would bear a certain resemblance to my novel. Ponderous....)
I don't really know, except that Angel is a good example of dark contemporary fantasy that lives in that grey zone between Dreadfully Epic and Excruciatingly Personal -- and that's what I'm trying to write.
Most books in this little mini sub-genre (the Urban Faerie Novel) seem to founder in that zone somewhere -- and I say this on the strength of having a Great Wonking List of Books (84, actually) within that sub-genre that I'm in the process of reading this year (the idea being that at least now if I peck out some horrible cliche, I'll realize I'm doing it -- the hope being that I'll get so pissed off at Those Things Everybody Keeps Doing that I'll dig up a better way to do it: and yes, I learned that trick from fandom). They either become these big sturm-und-drang bloodsoaked behemoths (I'm talking to *you,* Blood and Iron), or else they stay kind of weirdly private to the point where, you know, I hardly like *anybody* enough to care that much if they get to marry their elf boyfriend or not. (Another thing I've learned: chicks dig elves. What the fuck *is* that all about, anyway? Other than a massive promotional obstacle for my novel, where all the romantic leads are more your axe-wielding trollish barbarian type. What, I like guys who like to hit stuff. Is that so wrong?)
Anyway, my point is. Angel was good at that -- for all the utter incoherent sloppiness of a lot of the later seasons in terms of plot, it always managed to be very much about the characters while not descending into that kind of silly soapiness of bad fanfiction and bad television medical dramas, where I'm supposed to care about whoever's feelings more than I do about anything else in the fictional universe. So maybe I'm drawn to it right now for that reason.
Also, it always had great fight scenes. And I would just like to say that it is clearly MASSIVELY SELF-DESTRUCTIVE of me to have chosen fantasy as my primary genre, because you almost have to have, you know, action sequences. Which are really fucking terribly difficult to write, which is why I normally write slash, where you can just start at the part right after the action sequence that someone else kindly designed, scripted, blocked, filmed, and edited for you. However, after looking around in vain for some kind of ringer that I can bring in to write all my fight scenes for me, it seems I'm going to have to write them all myself. I had two in the last two chapters, which is why it took me THREE FUCKING WEEKS to write the last two chapters. Thank Christ I'm onto the part now where they all sit down and go, "What the hell just happened back there?" Standing around talking, woot!!11! The only way it could be better is if they were talking about their feelings. Which they aren't. They're pretty much still stuck back on, "Hey, remember when that guy stabbed me? WTF was up with that?"
You know what else helps me write? Chai lattes. It's pretty much chai lattes, Angel vids, and my seething sense of superiority to the people who are already writing these books -- like, wtf, Herbie Brennan and Laurell Hamilton, these are seriously what I'm up next to? Grrrr, arrg.
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Date: 2007-02-25 09:48 am (UTC)From:And Angel vids definitely kick ass. Two Words, man. And, um, Cowboy. Heh.
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Date: 2007-02-25 06:02 pm (UTC)From:Two Words is one of my, let's say, probably five favorite vids in the history of ever. God, I'm in awe of it.
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Date: 2007-02-25 10:05 am (UTC)From:Also, I am beyond thrilled that you're writing more of the novel, and I agree with you about elves. I actually hate elves and I have this thing where if I ever see the words "elf" or "elves" used in a query letter in a non-ironic way, I pretty much automatically throw it out. (The example I like to give of what would work for me is the friend of a friend who swore that if she didn't get into grad school she was going to move into her parent's basement and spend the next year learning to speak Elvish, because if she did that and wrote a novel about it I would TOTALLY request it). Of course then I took on an urban fantasy by an amazing writer with, you guessed it, ELVES, and naturally the elf is my favorite character in the whole thing, which is just like the universe mocking me or something. Every time I talk about this book I'm still like, wow, she got me to like elves, how did she DO that?
Finally, the less said about LKH the better.
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Date: 2007-02-25 06:08 pm (UTC)From:I would totally read that book, with the failed grad student who spoke Elvish!
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Date: 2007-02-25 10:54 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 06:10 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 06:56 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2007-02-25 11:35 am (UTC)From:& I'll join the list of folks who'd be interested in hearing recs from your extensive reading. My Urban Fantasy knowledge pretty much stops and starts with Charles De Lint.
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Date: 2007-02-25 06:14 pm (UTC)From:I'll type up my list and post it, by popular demand. You know, I'm less of a De Lint fan than some people are, primarily because all of his books sound the same to me. I've read probably eight or ten of them, and I have literally no idea which was which, and that irritates me. And they just have this slow pace and this kind of quiet philosophical tone that is really not my thing, you know? I'm always like, This would be a great book if someone would get laid and someone would die violently.
I'm a simple girl, really. *g*
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Date: 2007-02-25 01:32 pm (UTC)From:There's a successful fantasy author named Herbie?
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Date: 2007-02-25 07:59 pm (UTC)From:dragonball z hentai porn
Date: 2007-06-16 05:32 pm (UTC)From: (Anonymous)