Words I Cannot Spell, #17

Jeapordize Jeopordize Jeopardize.

I rarely make use of Wordperfect's little "is this the word you're looking for?" box, but man, I need it for that one. Every time.

back on schedule

Today, you again get a Midnight Never Come tidbit, to whet your appetites for In Ashes Lie. (I have to get variety in here somehow.)

This time, it's a look behind the scenes at the relationship between the novel, and the game it's based on.

(It should go without saying, but: DO NOT FOLLOW THAT LINK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK. Spoilers abound. In abundance. Of aboundishness.)

While I'm at it, I'll also link to something that's been up on my site for a couple of days now: the first piece of Marie Brennan fan-art that I'm aware of. (tooth_and_claw -- I don't feel I can count commissioned or Memento-inspired pieces, or you'd be the first.) It's a portrait of Lady Lune, painted by the British artist Mark Satchwill. The original is sitting on my desk as we speak, because of course I'm going to buy it -- what kind of ego-stroked author do you think I am???

Enjoy, and I'll have something else for you in ten days.

Today's ponderable

I'd like to talk about portal fantasies. Or rather, I'd like you to talk about them.

By that term, I mean the stories where people from this world go into another, more fantastical world. Narnia, for example. Once upon a time, these seem to have been more popular; now, not so much. And if I had to guess, I'd say that's at least in part because of the way a lot of them were transparent wish-fulfillment: Protagonist (who is an emotional stand-in for the author, though only in egregious cases a Mary Sue) goes to Magical Land where things are more colorful and interesting than in the real world. And maybe they stay there, maybe they don't.

Talk to me about the portal fantasies you've read. Which ones stick in your mind? What was your response to them, both as a kid and now? Which ones did the wish-fulfillment thing extra transparently, and how so?

(Yes, I actually have a special interest in the bad examples of this genre. In fact, if you approach this entire question as an academic curiosity of the structural sort paired with a authorly eye toward writing a deconstruction -- not a parody -- of the tropes, you'll be on the right track.)

Portal fantasies. Talk to me about 'em. Good, bad, ugly, laughably naive. What's your take?

web help needed

I need the assistance of someone who can code a web-form type thing for me -- basically, something which will ask people for their e-mail addresses, give them the a chance to opt in to a few things, and then send them along to a different URL when all of that's done.

Any takers?

writing-ish things

Important one first: John Klima of Electric Velocipede is looking to move some stock and help out his finances to boot. Head on over there to see what's on offer -- back issues of EV, plus chapbooks. If you're looking for my fiction, issue #13 is the one you want; that has "Selection," which might very well be the oddest short story I've ever written. It also has Rachel Swirsky's excellent "How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth," which I suspect some of you would really dig. (If you perked up at the word "post-human," then yes, I mean you.)

Sillier, but very true: a rant against Strunk and White's The Elements of Style. I've become more jaundiced about that book over time, so it's good to see my jaundice backed up with some evidence.

And a distinct moment of oddity: someone on Amazon claims to be selling a copy of In Ashes Lie for the low, low price of $1,000 dollars. Yes, that's a comma, not a decimal point (and yes, that's American-style notation). No, I have no idea what's up with that. Even if they've gotten ahold of an early copy, a thousand bucks??? WTF, mate.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled whatever you've been doing.