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Dec. 11th, 2008 06:32 pmTeaching has stopped and I'm still frantically busy. I wanted to be in deeply contemplative mode by, oh, last week, which would lead to much world-building, plot-construction and to much writing (or at least much writerly mode). Instead my life is full of meetings and editing and sorting out things for next November when I run into people by happenstance. You know, busytime.
The trouble is that everyone else wants time off for their holidays in a week and a bit. They do. This means that stuff for Masques must be done and stuff for CARE Australia must be done and stuff for all sorts of places must be done.
I'm enjoying it all now. I wasn't this morning. What happened between this morning and now? A return to cortisone. It turned out my miseries and whinges were due to the inflammation getting gradually worse and it finally reached the stage where I needed some assistance.
And I was going to say something truly intelligent about all this, but I keep thinking about werewolf stories.
There is no way that those first three paragraphs were a lead-in for my astounding revelation that most urban werewolf novels belong in the same universe (or very similar ones). Urban paranormal novels with werewolves and vampires form (when put together) a really good example of the strength of an uncontrolled shared universe. What I love about this thought of mine (I don't care if it's not very original - I treasure all my thoughts) is that the shared universe works because of the differences in how writers have constructed their particular werewolf/vampire universe. Instead of the simplicities that most writer-constructed universes feature, it has the complexity and lack of solidity that real life tends to possess.
I had a second thought today. I give you permission to reel in horror.
I want to know how Baxter's universe would work if he had taken his ideas one step further, language-wise (he uses very conservative language for some quite extraordinary ideas) the way Elgin does. It would be almost impossible to read, but wow, what a book it would make.
The trouble is that everyone else wants time off for their holidays in a week and a bit. They do. This means that stuff for Masques must be done and stuff for CARE Australia must be done and stuff for all sorts of places must be done.
I'm enjoying it all now. I wasn't this morning. What happened between this morning and now? A return to cortisone. It turned out my miseries and whinges were due to the inflammation getting gradually worse and it finally reached the stage where I needed some assistance.
And I was going to say something truly intelligent about all this, but I keep thinking about werewolf stories.
There is no way that those first three paragraphs were a lead-in for my astounding revelation that most urban werewolf novels belong in the same universe (or very similar ones). Urban paranormal novels with werewolves and vampires form (when put together) a really good example of the strength of an uncontrolled shared universe. What I love about this thought of mine (I don't care if it's not very original - I treasure all my thoughts) is that the shared universe works because of the differences in how writers have constructed their particular werewolf/vampire universe. Instead of the simplicities that most writer-constructed universes feature, it has the complexity and lack of solidity that real life tends to possess.
I had a second thought today. I give you permission to reel in horror.
I want to know how Baxter's universe would work if he had taken his ideas one step further, language-wise (he uses very conservative language for some quite extraordinary ideas) the way Elgin does. It would be almost impossible to read, but wow, what a book it would make.