Wishy washy

[jhetley]

Well, I'm reading that Dresden book, and I can see some strong parallels with what I intended to do. Also some strong differences. I don't know if I'm just playing pretend with myself, but I think MOST of the parallels come from us both riffing off the hard-boiled detective noir genre and throwing magic at it.

Should I dump the project? She loves me, she loves me not, she loves me....

Meanwhile, this is playing hell with my digestion. Wife thinks I'm too delicate for the writing business, and she may be right.

Comments

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Ever read Glen Cook's metal books?

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't. I shall have to research the library catalog.

I've got them

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

Picked them up as paperbacks from used bookstores. They're in boxes down in the basement. If you can't find them in your library, give me an e-mail/comment and I'll try to find them and get them to you.

Re: I've got them

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

Well, the Ursus Catalog (State O' Maine library listings) once again draws a blank. The only Glen Cook they recognize wrote non-fiction.

[ccfinlay.livejournal.com]

The tone and voice of your writing is so different than Butcher's. If you make a change in setting, I would do it in a way that emphasizes those natural differences and makes the most of the parts that are unique to you.

Remember when Butcher came out with the first book, he was seen as doing a riff on Laurel K. Hamilton (!). But he found the unique elements in his own voice and pushed them to the limits.

Fwiw.

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

I've kinda sorta decided to stick with what I'm doing -- will swap the beginning around some to avoid a mirror image, even though what we both were doing _is_ hard-boiled riff. But that damned character is not prepared to just vanish, now that I have something over 10K words of him nagging at me. I'll wait on investing more until I've read the whole Butcher thing, to know what I'm dodging.

And I'm renaming the magic-cop unit. Now it's the Department of Professional Regulation, tossing wizards in with the architects and beauticians and oil-burner technicians. I know several folks on the architectural registration board who would love to have pretty maroon uniforms and big guns...