*I* dunnit

[realthog]

Well, finally this afternoon I finished the story that's been monopolizing far too many of my brain cells over the past two weeks -- finished the first draft, anyway: I've no idea how much further editing will be involved.

I had not expected that what's currently called "The 5000 Spirits" (in the hope that everyone will catch the allusion to the way that the story's really an exercise in peeling away the layers of a metaphorical onion, see?) would pitch in at, um, 24,000 words, but I got more and more interested in it myself as I went on, and it sort of Topsified on me.

So, anyone out there want a slipstreamish, vaguely noirish novella . . .?

Yeah. I thought not.

Comments

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Still, hey, 500 Spirits at this time of the year seems, well, timely!

Love C.

Sorry to be so scarse for so long -- life and so on yanno.

[al-zorra.livejournal.com]

Ooops, I did mean 5000 Spirits!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Still, hey, 5000 Spirits at this time of the year seems, well, timely!

Yeah, well, that pun's part of the provisional title's appeal to me as well: the story has an thematic entanglement with ghostwriting.

Sorry to hear you've been scarse. Is it painful?

xxx

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"an thematic entanglement"

Scuse typo.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Your tangled up with the anthem? Taking up a career as a choirmaster are you?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

"Your tangled up"

Ahem.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

There's an inevitability to that sort of thing. I try to be a smart-aleck, I trip myself up with a schoolboy mistake!

[jmward14.livejournal.com]

I feel your pain. Just finished the "blocking draft" (i.e., action, dialogue and logistics, without true description) of the magic pirates story due at the end of the month, and it's over 10K words. That means the story will weigh in around 15K. *headdesk* The editor's gonna kill me. I really, really need to work on plotting for short.
Best of luck with "The 5000 Spirits". Hope it finds a good home before the holidays!
Hugs,
Jean Marie

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Just finished the "blocking draft" (i.e., action, dialogue and logistics, without true description) of the magic pirates story

My, our working methods do surely differ!

Hope it finds a good home before the holidays!

I hope it finds a good home ever.

[jmward14.livejournal.com]

Not my usual either, but the story's set on a Chinese junk in the middle of the Yangtze in 1418. Too many details to track to allow myself to get tangled up in the prose too soon. Don't want to be wasting valuable time mourning over a bit I particularly like.
Hugs and smiles,
Jean Marie

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

The moment I see "magic pirates" I think Tim Powers.

[nballingrud.livejournal.com]

"So, anyone out there want a slipstreamish, vaguely noirish novella . . .?"

I do, Paul. I do.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Aw, you sweet fellow, you.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

Would you please explain slipstream for me in the context of fiction? Because...little ol' redneck me, I always thought a slipstream was the current of air my old Pinto could ride in behind an 18-wheeler doing 80 on the highway. Better gas mileage and speeds the Pinto normally couldn't touch, if a bit of a rough ride.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Well, l'il ol' redneck, you could do worse than check the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slipstream_(genre)

Probably the quickest definition of the term from that entry is: "Slipstream falls between speculative fiction and mainstream fiction."

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

I did (even before I asked here!), and found it...er, full of unhelpful vagueness. What happened to that good old term "crossover fiction"? In what way is slipstream different from magical realism? Or is it just a more masculine term (to differentiate the Bruce Sterlings from the Alice Hoffmans and Mary Doria Russells in the crowd)?

I don't mean to disparage your work at all, BTW. Just looking for a handle on a new concept. Someone's bound to come into the Vortex now and ask for slipstream fiction. It is the Way of the Vortex.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Nothing against the term "crossover"; I think it's just that "slipstream" has come to be the dominant term.

Slipstream/crossover is different from magical realism, though. I'm sure if I thought about it long and hard I could come up with a definitional distinction (or just swipe one from Clute in the EoSF and EoF!), but right now I'm just about to dash to the post office. Essentially, though, the "feel" is totally different.

Someone's bound to come into the Vortex now and ask for slipstream fiction.

I'm surprised they haven't already, to be honest. It's definitely a buzz term.

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

I suspect magical realism leans more toward the lit'ry, and slipstream leans more toward the sci-fi.

I did actually have someone come in asking for a book of flash fiction one day. I am ashamed to say I laughed and suggested he get an iPhone for that.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

I suspect magical realism leans more toward the lit'ry, and slipstream leans more toward the sci-fi.

Not so sure that's a valid distinction. Could it be that magic realism incorporates the supernatural, or the evocation thereof, while slipstream, even if it involves/invokes f/sf elements, is essentially non-supernaturalist?

I did actually have someone come in asking for a book of flash fiction one day.

*laughter*

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Or is magical realism (or lo real maravilloso as we said in Latin American lit classes back when I was an undergrad) a specifically Latin American/Caribbean genre?

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Or is magical realism (or lo real maravilloso as we said in Latin American lit classes back when I was an undergrad) a specifically Latin American/Caribbean genre?

That's a moderately arguable case, except that there are plenty of examples of works from non-Latin American/Caribbean writers that walk like magic realism and, er, quack like magic realism, so presumably are magic realism. One could legitimately regard those, though, as foreign forays into a Latin American/Caribbean genre . . . just as a Brit playing a raga doesn't change the fact that the raga is an Indian music form . . .

Whatever: I think we're both agreeing that slipstream and magic realism are two pretty distinct forms.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Yes, I think we are. I read an essay of John Brunner's, long ago, in whihc he pointed out the affinity between Latin American/Caribbean magical realism (specifically Alejo Carpentier's El siglo de las luces/Explosion in A Cathedral) and science fiction. Appropriate enough since "lo real maravilloso" (the marvellous real) is Carpentier's phrase, drawn from the preface to his novel of the Haitian Revolution, El reino de este mundo ("The Kingdom of This World").

I should add that it's been a while since I read either novel (34-35 years).

[quietselkie.livejournal.com]

And BTW, congrats on the accomplishment. 24K in a story is nothing to sneeze at!

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

Now lemme tell you about the time I wrote a 32,400-word story in two days . . .

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

Pleased to meet you, Mr King.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

That's a ratio of 4.8 words per Spirit.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

How true. How very, very true.

Um . . .

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

When I was a little boy, I used to wonder at the signs that said "licensed to sell wines and spirits." I thought that there were shops in the high streets that sold ghosts. Gave me a real shiver that did.

[fledgist.livejournal.com]

When I was a little boy, I used to wonder at the signs that said "licensed to sell wines and spirits." I thought that there were shops in the high streets that sold ghosts. Gave me a real shiver that did.

[intertribal.livejournal.com]

Congratulations. That's a worthy accomplishment, seriously.

[realthog.livejournal.com]

Many thanks for the congrats, N! Much appreciated.