Thursday, January 21, 2010

Crossing the Lunatic Fringe

OK, I think I’m a real loon. I’m not sure when I crossed over from simply interesting to sweetly quirky to totally bizarre. But as I write stranger and stranger stories, I’m coming to the realization that…in Sin’s dear words…I ain’t right.

Course my ain’t right is different than her ain’t right. I seldom create scenarios involving the demise of innocent characters just for the heck of it. (I’m not denying envisioning numerously painful ways for the twit in front of me at Starbucks to die when he pulls out a list of 45 drinks that have to be made before my single little caffeine fix is done… Nope, not denying that.)

My ain’t right involves the directions I find my stories taking once I get going. I recently started a new book… (Needed something to entertain myself between editing duties. Once I’m actually doing the editing, I’m fine. It’s the thinking about doing or the break I need once I’ve spent some time doing it… I long for something light and frothy and fun.)

So, I started the book I’ve been talking about to myself and to the blog. I wanted to write a nice sexy loves story staring two not so young people. Like a woman in her 50s, a man in his 60s… It would be sweet and sexy and fun… I’d make it a pirate adventure, but nothing too wild…

Well, maybe a little wild. No magic, just some fantasy stuff. Friendly… No time travel. Well, maybe a little time travel. And a touch of magic. Ok, a curse and a wicked ice queen. Absolutely no vampires…

But I’d have i-pods and good drinks and toss in the kraken. An albino kraken! Oh, damn. Vampires snuck in…but they aren’t really sexy or alluring. They do, however, know how to waltz.

At this point I figured what the heck. I added a swamp and some zombies wandering around. And what’s a romance without a pack of werewolves racing around the forest? And a voodoo queen who can mix up a cure for hangovers…

Toss in some pirate ships, and maybe some goggles, for the steampunk fans. No aliens. (So far.) And no dukes! (Or viscounts, or duchesses, or royalty of any sort.)

You know, this stuff just happens to me. I’m writing and my mind just takes this detour somewhere strange. But…come on! Doesn’t this sound like a party?

I do believe that sometimes, the muse just needs to chug that pitcher of margaritas and dance the wild one on the bar. Is it marketable? I have no idea… I don’t even know how long it’s going to be. But the sexy love story is central to all of it. I got a heroine who longs to become the sexy woman at 53 she’s always dreamed lived inside her. A tortured hero who starts out a villain but eventually redeems himself and teaches her that she sure the hell is that sexy woman. And he sure the hell deserves her!

I actually have a plot in the midst of this madness. I have motivation, goal, AND conflict. Internal conflict and external conflict. (Remember the curse?)

Actually, it’s one of the first MS I’ve ever worked on with all of these things pretty well established before I’ve reached the editing steps. I know this isn’t really…normal.

Maybe it’s normal for me. Because I ain’t right.

But I’m not necessarily wrong either. I’m just a bit…different.

OK, a lot different.

Unless, maybe I’m not!

Here’s your chance. Another confession Friday! Who else has decided to try it all, toss your hat into the stew pot, in fact, jump in and have a hot tub party? Or maybe a little less wild…mix just two odd elements together? Or what would you like to see put together? I mean, we had Jane Austen and zombies… Of the current trends…your passions…what would you like to mix and match?

74 comments:

Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe said...

Oh, let's see...shape-shifting cougars/panthers in an island resort, a cursed-to-live-forever 18th century woman who bakes cookies to reverse the spell so she can marry her boyfriend and then die...this is getting me nostalgic. :) I doubt there's any hope for publication, but you never know.

Bosun said...

Maggie - When I got to the "throw in the kitchen sink" part, I thought of you. LOL!

If this is what "ain't right" means, then I'm "too right." Nothing cool and fun and adventurous like this ever pops into my head. Maybe if I keep hanging with you, that'll change. LOL!

The albino Kracken thing is cracking me up. No idea why. But this sounds like a damn fun romp.

Melissa said...

Is it possible to be half crazy? I think I'm always drawn to "crossing the lunatic fringe" since I write paranormals, but always have to have a "sane" character going "what the heck?" in the the midst of the craziness. Eccentric characters can be a lot of fun, but what's more fun to me is the contrast and the reactions of the "normal" characters.

Great to hear you're having fun with your new story!

Sabrina said...

Currently my mind is stuck on visions of writing a story where an appraiser and a mortgage broker have to run an obstacle course in hell until they get my paperwork done!

Marnee Jo said...

Melissa - I love that too, the sane character amidst the insanity. LOL!!

As for me, I've gone the other way for right now. I'm following this Regency idea, but there's nothing paranormal this time. I think maybe the main character might be a little bit on the fringe, at least as far as I know. But besides that, I'm going to be tamer for the next few months than I was last year. :)

Hellie said...

I'm not saying I write conventional stories. I'm completely not right in a different sort of way. Like my idea of writing something that's not on the market is writing about a heroine who falls in love with a married man. OR being blasphemous and suggesting that Adam & Eve were not a love match. OR contemplating if there are any circumstances where Lucifer could be redeemed; and if he's not redeemed, is it because of him or because of God?

But I don't have interests in vampires (for the most part), shapeshifters (except maybe Jacob), zombies, sea monsters, voodoo witches, or aliens. (NEVER aliens.) This is like the Stephen King discussion yesterday; I don't have an interest in horror because I already know I'm crazy. I don't exactly need an outlet. These things aren't my fantasies.

Though I always wanted to be a princess when I was a kid--so the Princess Diaries are right up my alley. And I always thought my childhood was horrible and tortuous--so I really liked Harry Potter and like the idea of discovering you are someone special. (In Harry's case, he's a wizard.) And that your friends can mean so much more than family. (OK, that's what I took away from the book; his mother's sacrifice clearly means family is important.)

Or when I wanted to be Laura Ingalls Wilder--here was a kid who didn't really like her sanctimonious older sister or the little snotty rich girl. She felt mean-tempered and hateful, even when she knew other people didn't deserve it. *LOL* But she defended the weak--like her little sister Carrie--and she was tough as nails. And she didn't want to settle into marriage with some farmer, just because everyone thought she should--and told Almanzo so (to a point). Those issues are practically modern day.

*shrugs*

I'm far too conventional for this game. The closest I'd come to it is if I finished my "Highlander" story. A Highlander (circa 1460) comes home from battle and discovers his wife is dead; he takes her body to the witch to sacrifice his life for hers--because he can't bear to live without her (you see why I didn't finish this Nicholas Sparks crap, right?). The witch does it; he dies; and the true love lives--and then marries his best friend and has 12 kids. Now Highlander is holding a grudge and doesn't think women are loyal. As part of his curse with the witch, he is sent forward in time to present day--to the great-granddaughter of the witch, who is the only person who can break the curse. He has no understanding of the modern world and tries to kill a microwave with his sword (which I think has been done in every Sandra Hill time travel Viking novel, so clearly I can't do that.) Of course, love is what breaks the curse and they live happily ever after. Without microwaves.

Hellie said...

Currently my mind is stuck on visions of writing a story where an appraiser and a mortgage broker have to run an obstacle course in hell until they get my paperwork done!

I would buy this book.

Maggie Robinson/Margaret Rowe said...

Oh yeah, Terri, I forgot the book w/5 couples and every conceivable romance cliche, LOL. I still love that one!

Hellion, your Highlander thing sounds really good!Have him stab a toaster oven instead. :)

Sin said...

I crossed the lunatic fringe a long time ago. I can't even see the jumping point from where I'm at now. lol

Your package is shipped, Chanceroo. You should have it mid-next week. Skulls and music. Happy listening, babe.

I'm always up for a hot tub party. I'm not as happy about getting naked anymore but damned if I won't chime in for a hot tub party. Or take a random shower with my best friend. Or well, do other naughty random things. Random combinations in life are my speciality. It's a part of the lunatic fringe society.

Hellie said...

A toaster oven! Why didn't I think of that!? There is so much fun you can have with a Highlander from another time. You can send him to the store for midol and tampons; you can have him cook her dinner when she is sick and he thinks she's going to die; have him freak out at the jets in the bathtub--and run up her water bill when he falls in love with the shower. And gets over his paranoia that bathing too much will kill him.

2nd Chance said...

Maggie - Cookies! I need cookies!

Well, I always need cookies, not sure this MS does, but I'm always in favor of cookies.

I don't know about the lack of demand for publication. I've got a few jewels on my shelves that must have been as long a shot. Like Carmen Miranda's Ghost is Haunting Space Station 3 and Bimbos of the Death Sun...

2nd Chance said...

Bo'sun - Someone has to stay sane to steer the ship and mix up the hangover remedy...

Now, the albino kraken is the elder kraken. When young the kraken is green and a bit slimy...

2nd Chance said...

Melissa - Me heroine falls into this world and is convinced she's just gone insane... When she hears about the vampires who live in the castle on the hills, she says, "And there is a graveyard for the zombies and wolves in the forest, right?"

Only to be told that don't be silly, the zombies live in the swamp and the forest is where the werewolves live.

I love it when the 'sane' character is the one everyone looks at oddly...

Not that I'm looking oddly at ya, Bo'sun!

2nd Chance said...

Sabrina - The appraisor and broker in hell... Sounds like it has possibilities to me!

There is a real release in writing these bits of fun... You channel all that frustration into devising challenges...

2nd Chance said...

Marn - Yer incubating, keeping it a bit tame may be just yer course right now... But I hear tales of dreaming pregent women crossing over into the worlds of Alice in Wonderland...

No Cheshire Cats dropping in on you?

And even the romances I read usually feature one less than usual sort of character...

2nd Chance said...

Microwaves! I'm missing a microwave in this story! I think what I like about this story is that no one blinks at all these odd anachronisms...save for the woman who knows they are anachronisms!

Yer twisted in yer own way, Hellie. Ya challenge what you knew as the norm growing up... I grew up reading of worlds that danced on the edge of reality, so I write further afield.

But I always loved the episodes, for example, on tv that push the third window. Where the characters are nearly talking to the watcher... I'm sure there is a similiar concept in the written word. The wink, wink, nudge, nudge of enjoying what is strange...

2nd Chance said...

Sin - I do like toying with the random... And I think, for me, it's all about limitless possibilities...

This book is fun to write and I hope it will be fun to read...without getting snarky. I enjoy satire and thought I might be writing a satire, but it's all done with love, so not sure satire is the fit...

Looking forward to the mail! Sweetaroo!

2nd Chance said...

Hel - I do love to toy with the whole 'bathing will kill me' stuff...

And the other way, 'I'll die if I can't wash' stuff...

Highlander in Spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-ce. Think what he'd do with aliens...

Hellie said...

Now, the albino kraken is the elder kraken. When young the kraken is green and a bit slimy…

Like unicorns and palominos? You know they're a different color when born and change color as they age...not the slimy part.

Hellie said...

Where the characters are nearly talking to the watcher…

This is a device used in nearly EVERY comedy on TV now. I can't stand it--it's like developing a new language. I think it's pretentious. Actually I think it rips me out of the "veil"--because here the character is letting me know this is all fake.

I *think* they might be trying to pretend it's a sort of FIRST PERSON, but it feels more like author omniscient (SMUG AUTHOR SYNDROME I call it). I don't like it. Rips me out of the story.

But it works so well for The Office and Modern Family. People can't get enough of them.

2nd Chance said...

Word of the day. Pretentious.

I'm not for the broad Benny Hill sort of no third wall... But, for example, when Buffy the Vampire Slayer would drop in the tidbits that the fans would recognize...love that stuff.

On NCIS, when asked what Ducky looked like when younger, Gibbs thought a moment, then replied, straight faced, "Illya Kuryakin."

Those are treasures for the deep fans and I will always adore them.

I think when my character finds herself with the uncontrolled giggles at zombies in the swamp, vampires at the castle and werewolves in the forest, I'm presenting a gift to the reader. Who gets it.

The last thing I am is a smug author.

I need a smily face that sticks out his tongue...

Hellie said...

Inside jokes I enjoy. Geeky trivia only a true fan would know--that's funny--it's when characters (on TV) do the Ferris Bueller thing. Talk to the camera, like you're walking with, filming this bit of documentary.

When Ferris did it, it was classic. Everyone else is a copycat.

2nd Chance said...

Everyone else is a copycat.

Ah, the lord god Hellie has spoken.

So, things can only be done once? That's it?

Hey, you can't have a HEA, it was already done... Time travel? Nope, already done... Highlanders...nope.

I must disagree...do it again. Do it a million times. And sometimes it will be good and sometimes it will be bad...

Janga said...

Eccentrics! I can write eccentrics--and ghosts (but my ghosts have to be benevolent). I have an unfinished novel about a girl growing up in Peace Mountain, Alabama. She has two grandmothers, one a fishing fanatic and one a grande dame with illusions of grandeur, and two best friends, the spirit of her dead brother and her grandmother's Black, blind gardener. I worked on it back in the days when I was convinced I was going to write the next Great Southern Novel, and I think it's a commandment carved in stone somewhere that Southern novels have to have eccentrics or ghosts-or both.

Marnee Jo said...

Chance, hon, I won't even tell you the insane dreams I'm having. Maybe that's why I've got to keep it tame. Trying to keep the insanity from waking me at all hours.... LOL!

2nd Chance said...

Janga - I've noticed that trend! Does the south have the lock down on eccentric relatives? Eccentric benevolent relatives?

Sandra Hill has that nutty aunt who fixes everyone's love life...

I wonder...is it truth? Are there really eccentric benevolent relatives for southerners?

Not in my family. Darn it.

I really like the name of your town, Janga. Peace Mountain just sounds so...peaceful...

Bosun said...

Janga - I'd read that. That sounds like great fun!

I have one story idea that involves a ghost. And oddly enough, it came to me in first person and it sort of RS as well since it involves PI's and solving a mystery. The heroine's grandfather was a PI and killed while working on a case. His ghost comes back and tells her she has to finish the case for him. Which means she has to work with his apprentice who has now taken over the business, a young, hot PI.

Now that I think about it, I'd really like to write this story. LOL!

2nd Chance said...

Marn - I have a niece-in-law who comments on Facebook all the time about her strange and interesting dreams... You think pregnent women dream for two?

Would be a fascinating story to write!

Julie said...

How did Hellion say it? Ahh yes , I’m far too conventional for this game.

I am. But my mind does wander … This morning my mind was wandering whilst I was doing dishes … and I wondered … Could you make a Brain Condom?
That way someone could be mentally intimate while remaining emotionally distant.

My wandering mind answered my inquisitive one with “ Yes you could. Just repackage some Depends in a box that says Brain Condoms. If a potential customer asks if Brain Condoms really work , then you can answer … Quite Honestly … Depends.”

I believe that almost anything can be marketable. IF it is carefully packaged and marketed properly to a properly targeted audience/consumer. IMO

Bosun said...

Julie's comment needs to go into the Pirate Comment Hall of Fame.

Janga said...

Hellie, two of my favorite scenes in romance are in Teresa Medeiros' Breath of Magic: (1) where 17th-century Arian goes looking for a chamber pot and discovers the modern bathroom; (2) Arian's shopping trip. I sometimes read just those scenes when I need a laugh.

Hellie said...

I had to Google to see why the Illya Kuryakin is funny. That is funny. *LOL*

Doesn't usually work that way in books. Though there are two instances with Sherrilyn Kenyon that cracked me up. Her heroine in her Darkhunters series is reading a Kinley historical. (I didn't get it at the time, but Kinley McGregor is her historial writer name.)

Then on her Kinley McGregor "Camelot" series (I loved that series, gosh I wish she'd write another book in that series!), there is an "author" endorsement on the cover, from Sherrilyn Kenyon. THAT I got and I thought it was hilarious.

Hellie said...

A BRAIN CONDOM?

Yes, I agree. That totally needs to go into the Pirate Hall of Fame.

2nd Chance said...

Julie - I must mix a drink in honor of that bit of brilliance. And I bow in your general direction...my mind wanderings have never been so brilliant...

Lift yer tankards ta Julie! Because, as with everything in life... It DEPENDS!

2nd Chance said...

She didn't know who Illya was... I am so old.

2nd Chance said...

Bo'sun - I'd read that!

There's a mystery series out there, where the woman opens a bookstore and discovers a resident ghost. A PI who died on the site while on a case... He helps out the owner as she, of course, stumbles on murder after murder...

2nd Chance said...

Janga - I'll have to find that book. I do love watching/reading the fish out of water stuff. If it's done with love and a sense of mischief...nothing better to read for a smile on the face.

2nd Chance said...

OMG! It stopped raining! I have to go and get Bonnie out before it starts again!

Be back soon!

Hellie said...

Janga, I'll have to read those books again. *LOL* I did enjoy those two books a lot! (I might dig out Jill Barnett's Bewitching. That one was very laugh out loud too.)

Bosun said...

I've never heard of Illya either. Not sure if that makes you old or me just out of the loop.

I never watched NCIS because I KNEW I'd get sucked in. Caught a marathon the other night and COULDN'T TURN IT OFF. Man, that show is addictive.

This is also the reason I refuse to watch Burn Notice. I'd be sucked in in a nano-second. My TV addiction is bad enough already.

Bosun said...

I googled, now I get it. Sorry, that was before my time. :)

2nd Chance said...

It's not like I was a teenager mooning over Illya, but I certainly did watch the series... David has aged well, don't ya think? ;-)

Come to the dark side, Terrio...just one little episode of Burn Notice...let me see, I'll find a really good one for you... Just one...

See, I love the printed labels they throw up on the screen in Burn Notice... And the narrated scenes... Is that breaking the third wall? It's subtle, direct...amusing...

Bosun said...

I did watch one episode. I think it was his birthday and he was off catching a bad guy. Or rather, tied to a chair by a drug dealer and getting beaten up to catch the bad guy.

Way too easy to get addicted.

2nd Chance said...

You need a good romance driven angsty episode... Like when he thinks Fiona died in the fire...

Bosun said...

That should be de-cluttering? Maybe? You know what I mean.

Bosun said...

Have you missed the part about me trying to break my TV addiction so as to actually write a book?!

I'm moving my desk back out of the living room this weekend. I'm hoping uncluttering and exiling myself from the living room will help. I've had no willpower this week.

Hellie said...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34952559/ns/entertainment-movies/

2nd Chance said...

I do have a name for this little bit of whirling dervishness I'm writing... The Kraken's Portal. And it's nearly 10k at the moment. Not bad for some basic filler writing...

2nd Chance said...

Thanks, Hellie! I just hope they don't add a kid. I am just full of dread that they are going to add a kid...

Hellie said...

Do you mean an actual kid? Say someone 16 or younger? Or some hotshot in his mid-20s who's NOT Orlando Bloom to replace Orlando Bloom? Someone who will be the placecard for the audience who is looking for a hottie and doesn't find Barbossa attractive and think 40-something Depp is a bit squicky to be lusting over?

Because if it's the latter, you'll probably be out of luck.

Hellie said...

Oh, and if it's the FORMER, I hope they don't add a kid either.

Though I am trying to imagine Zac Efron in a pirate outfit....

2nd Chance said...

No, I mean a real kid. Like a plucky sidekick sort of kid, ala what they did in the second Indiana Jones movie.

I agree, they will likely add some stud of the month for the young crowd.

Probably a vampire.

Hellie said...

And if they bring in a hottie placecard vampire, I will laugh my ass off.

Hellie said...

Nah, this is Disney. With any luck, if there is a kid, they'll do with him what they did in the last movie and hang him.

2nd Chance said...

See? I could really do some fun stuff with PotC...toss in some seafaring werewolves, an albino vampire, a few toaster ovens...

2nd Chance said...

No, it's Disney...he'll be an orphan, probably lose his mother in the first scene...

Uh, the kid, not the vampire.

Though...!

Bosun said...

Was Spike from Buffy an albino vamp? I never watched but he kind of had the look. Though I'm guessing you won't see many tan vampires either way.

Rumor has it this hottie might have a new part POTC4.

http://tinyurl.com/y8rn2gh

Hellie said...

That guy is wearing the right necklace. Who is he?

Hellie said...

There's George Hamilton. He was a tan vampire.

Hellie said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Stranger_Tides

Did you see this? (For one, it looks sorta like the historical fantasy Chance would write...without aliens or zombies though; and two, I don't think they have the right main character linked with Jack Sparrow. I don't think Jack would a match up to the role of Jack Shandy, who has to be forced to be a pirate and wants to rescue girls in distress. Neither of these qualities are ones that Sparrow has.

I think the placecard hottie is going to be the Shandy fellow and he's kidnapped by Barbossa or Jack. Or both.

Bosun said...

That's Clive Standen. He played the illegitimate brother of Robin and Guy on the last 3 episodes of Robin Hood on BBC. Completely adorable. That outfit actually looks like he could wear it right over to the POTC set.

Bosun said...

The only thing I recognize is the Fountain of Youth as that's what Jack has a chart for at the end of the third movie. The middle part he skiffed from Barbossa.

Bosun said...

I just noticed the film is being directed by Rob Marshall who directed Chicago and Nine. POTC - The Musical?

Hellie said...

It would save with outfitting him. I would hope they'd do something less anachronistic with his hair though. He looks like an Axe commercial in that Robin Hood outfit.

Good to know if they trashed the last year of the series, they're at least putting in some serious eye candy.

2nd Chance said...

Rob Marshall...Penny's brother? Well...didn't he direct The Princess Bride?

Who knows?

I suppose Spike was close to an albino vampire. I tend to think of those creepy twins from the second Matrix movie...

I hope they follow the whole Fountain of Youth plot, but in Hawaii? Then again, Hawaii can stand in for other places...

Bosun said...

Rob Reiner directed Princess Bride. And this is a different Marshall, not related.

Yeah, Hawaii is just the place they are shooting. It's still set in the Caribbean.

2nd Chance said...

Ah, typical of me! To mix up Rob's!

Is it a certain that my fav, Barbossa, will be in the next pix?

Bosun said...

The article only said Johnny Depp is signed on, the rest of the cast is unknown. Who knows who will be in it. But if Jack is searching for the Fountain of Youth and he took the chart from Barbossa, I don't see how they could write him out.

2nd Chance said...

I actually read an updated press release... YES! Here's to my favorite villain!

Janga said...

Gary Marshall, who directed Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, The Princess Diaries (1 & 2)(also Happy Days), is Penny Marshall's brother. Rob Reiner is Penny Marshall's ex-husband.

2nd Chance said...

Well, no wonder I get them mixed up! And any of them ever work with Kevin Bacon?

Now, with that game in mind, why not albino kraken and e-pods?

2nd Chance said...

e-pods? Hee. hee. i-pods...

Bosun said...

Actually, my kiddo's iPod Touch emails, so it could be an ePod.

If Marshall directed Princess Diaries then he worked with Ann Hathaway who worked with Meryl Streep in Devil Wears Prada who worked with Kevin Bacon in that movie where he was the bad guy and made her shoot the rapids.

Ha! Less than 6 degrees.

2nd Chance said...

I KNEW IT!

And somewhere, I bet I could tie a kraken to Kevin Bacon...but I'm lousy at the game...

Do you think they'll resurrect the kraken in the fourth movie?