It’s open mic week again! What did everyone get done last year? What are you hoping to get done this year? What do you just want to complain about? Here’s your chance. Go for it.
It’s open mic week again! What did everyone get done last year? What are you hoping to get done this year? What do you just want to complain about? Here’s your chance. Go for it.
Useful? Helpful? Only for noobs?
I’ve gotten a little bit of feedback, but I’d love to have more. What didn’t I include?
https://kevinwadejohnson.blogspot.com/2022/01/lets-write-short-story.html
I like the writing prompt. Not sure what you’re feeling you should have included that you didn’t.
I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you mean here?
Never mind – I should never comment when short on sleep, I got it! :}
I’m planning to keep up “Show up at the page every day.”
In addition to the current novel stuck in lots-of-revisions, I’m hoping to do more short stories/novelettes/novellas.
Food porn: I write about food in my fiction because I’ve had an interest in cooking since I was a sprout. This crops up ways such as the tropical fantasy culture that’s notorious in-setting for including citrus in everything, the extraterrestrial character who loves her peanut butter sandwiches, and the alien planet equivalent of McDonalds, as well as more typical sorts of food-porn descriptions.
I do make an effort to include inedible substances that other people consider food. And I’m amused by LMB’s running gag of those fish planks.
>And I’m amused by LMB’s running gag of those fish planks.
Poor Pen! XD
I’m trying to get the ducks in a row to kick a book out the door.
I think I have cold feet.
Be brave! I’m assuming you’ve had somebody else read it and all that. What’s the book?
The Other Princess. It’s about Sleeping Beauty’s cousin.
Forgive me, but this gave me a mental image of you lining up a bunch of ducks, then kicking the first one, who kicks the next one, and so on until the last one kicks your book out the door!
Sometimes it feels like that.
Got to go to Convergence last year, great Minnesota Sci-Fi convention. Everyone was safe and had fun.
I’m trying to write six days out of seven. Classically it’s supposed to be every single day, but I know I won’t do that. Some people can, and I respect them tremendously, but I have to have permission to be imperfect of I freeze and do nothing.
As long as it doesn’t give you bad habits. Some people have to do every day because one day off leads to two, three. . .
Hi. Slightly random but… The main character in my WIP is a musician, on a world in which music has magical properties. Out of curiosity, I’m been looking around for other fantasy books in which music plays a central role, and have found surprisingly few, and most of those quite old: Lloyd Biggle Jr.’s “The Still, Small Sound of Trumpets,” Anne McCaffrey’s “Crystal Singer,” L.E. Modesitt’s “The Soprano Sorceress,” and more recently Rachel Hartman’s “Seraphina” and Marie Lu’s “The Kingdom of Back.”
Curious if any of you are familiar and can recommend any other fantasy works in which a musician is the protagonist and/or music is central to the plot?
Fortune’s Fool by Mercedes Lackey is the first one that comes to mind. Music also plays a major role in War for the Oaks by Emma Bull, but that’s urban fantasy set in Minneapolis, so I don’t know whether it’s the kind of thing you were looking for.
Thanks for both suggestions! I’m just interested in any fantasies that give music a major role because there are so few; so I’ll go find both of these.
Oh, also, I forgot one other: “Soul Music” by Terry Pratchett.
Patricia McKillip- Riddlemaster trilogy- The Riddle-Master of Hed (1974), Heir of Sea and Fire (1976), Harpist in the Wind (1979). Classic! Music also plays important roles in McKillip’s Song for the Basilisk (1998) and The Bards of Bone Plain (2010).
Anne McCaffrey- Dragonsong (1976), Dragonsinger (1977)- Although Harper Hall plays important roles in many Pern novels, I would say that these are the two in which the love of music is front and center. The first I know of in “girl’s musicianship overcomes sexism” genre. No magic, though.
Diane Duane, Deep Wizardry (1985) – I wouldn’t say music plays a major role in the series as a whole, but in this particular volume the “Song of the Twelve” is at the core of the plot.
Songsmith- Andre Norton & A.C. Crispin (1986)- Entry in Witch World series whose heroine has more music than magic. Or is there more than one type of magic?
Orson Scot Card- The Songmaster (1987)- I logged it as too violent/depressing to consider rereading, but other people have other tastes.
Sarah Ash- Songspinners (1986)- Complex worldbuilding includes heroine forbidden the music of her otherworldly heritage, and at least one sect that considers music heresy.
Mercedes Lackey – The Lark and the Wren (1992), The Robin and the Kestrel (1993), The Eagle and the Nightingale (1995). Vol. 3 has the highest quotient of music used magically in this series, if that is what you are looking for.
Audrey Faye- Destiny’s Song (2015)- First volume in “Fixers of KarmaCorp” series. Title character’s “fixer” gift is musical.
Juliet Marilliar, The Harp of Kings (2019)- Music necessary to save world.
Wow, thanks for all these suggestions. Lots to read!
Don’t forget what has been called McKillip’s one adult novel, _Fool’s Run_, albeit SF rather than fantasy. Music and its effects are essential to the storyline; my favorite bit is when Magic Man uses a Bach melody as a password for the security system.
Try the Bedlam’s Bard series by Mercedes Lackey. Published in the early 2000s.
Thank you!
you might look at Sorrowfish by Anne C. Miles, one half of the story involves people dealing with music magic.
Tolkien, whose world was made by song.
The Chinese book/drama/etc that goes variably by things like: MDZS, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Founder of the Ghost Path… the main character controls the dead with flute music, and others practioner groups can lay souls to rest or summon them to answer questions with music. Avoid the live action – it bears less resemblence to the original novel than Jackson’s Hobbit movies do to their original. I think the animated version is pretty good, if you can bear with subtitles. The novel is just coming out officially in English and the publisher (I gather by what people who read Chinese say) isn’t doing the work justice.
Thanks! I’ll check it out.
Last year around this time, I self-published a non-fiction book that was a series of vignettes about the cemetery where I work. It has three different story lines that I weave together so things don’t get old. I submitted it to Writer’s Digest contest, figuring that even if I didn’t win, I could get a useful review. No such luck.
The reviewer decided that one of the story lines was clearly the “main plot” and was displeased because the “subplots” didn’t support it very well. They were also unhappy at the lack of angst in the story. (It has lots of try-fail cycles but “I was getting pretty discouraged” is about as far as I go in that direction.) Highly annoying. I kept wondering if the reviewer realized that this was a non-fiction book. (The numerous photos should have been a tip-off.)
At any rate, somebody pointed out that the book has a bunch of Easter themes, so I have it up on Amazon and am hoping to market it for Easter.
Ehem.
Title and byline should be included.
Encounters with Rabbits or Critters, a Cross, and a Cemetery by N.C. Thornock.
If you want to find it on Amazon, you will need to use my name or the subtitle. The title by itself is buried fairly deep in the results.
Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan. ST:TOS characters, history contained in old songs performed by cats. What’s not to like?
Thanks! I’m amazed at all the books I’ve missed and now get to hunt down (starting with my local bookstores…)
Thank you! Just finished it.
Great choice for a gloomy day during the season of omicron.
Hi! I’ve loved your books since I was a kid! I was looking for ways to practice my French, and I saw that your book Dealing With Dragons was available in French as ‘Cendorine et les Dragons.’ I snapped it right up, and was extremely excited to read this. Then I opened it up and noticed something I hadn’t seen in the product description: abrégée [abridged].
What a travesty! They cut out all the best bits! All the funny lines, all the great dialogue, all the wonderful characterization, gone! Without the interstitial bits, the pacing is completely off; without the careful breadcrumbs laid along the way, the ending seems to come out of nowhere. It’s also full of unnecessary exclamation marks, sometimes a dozen per page.
And they made Kazul a male dragon.
So disappointing! I don’t suppose there are any unabridged versions of any of your books coming out in French anytime soon?