Ok, so recently I discussed “what” should I write as it relates to genre, and I did some thinkin’ today and realized that I may have been wrong.  A little.

I DO love to read literary fiction, true.  But it is true that I also love to read sf/fantasy.  Problem is, I’m a snob about it. It has to be amazing.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean Hugo winning or anything, Dune for example was pure torture for me.   Anything with time travel that’s GOOD and NOT romance is excellent, but let’s face it, time travel is tricky at best and ugly at it’s worst.  I surely won’t write it!

I can count the books that fall into this category that I love on 2 hands: The Sparrow (not its sequel) and Time Travellers Wife - neither written by sf/f authors.  Solitaire.  Kim Stanley Robinson’s first 2 Mars books (Red and I think Blue).  Neil Gaiman (oh hell anything by Neil).  Harry Potter series.  Used to love Diana Gabaldon but it became too romancy and too historical.  Loved Mysts of Avalon, but much of her books are depressing.  The Historian was fabulous, but it took me forever to read.  (Really I guess that’s horror though, hm more like Goth.)  Hm, what else?  Contact.  Cloud Atlas (not sure of genre with that one.)   Oh yea, and Jack Finney.  Former Anne Rice fan too,

That pretty  much covers it.  I haven’t much liked the other stuff, even the stuff I’m “supposed” to.  But let me give you a list of my ideas for novels:

-my work in progress, which has a 3 novel future, about a people who have race/class conflict over using mind powers - or as they see, them “magic” (fantasy)
-a woman doctor who falls in love with a killer (drama)
-a group of people who keep returning to life throughout the ages (fantasy)
-a woman who finds a ring that grants her the power to save lives (fantasy)

Add to that a few random ideas based on superhero themes (used to be a huge Xmen/Spiderman fan). So there. That’s it, that’s me.  Fantasy with some goth thrown in.  The scales weigh in at 3 to 4.  And if you look at my film and teleision preferences, you’d see more of this same trend times 10.

I GUESS my biggest issue with the fantasy genre is NOT that I don’t like it, it’s just that I can’t find BOOKS in it that I do like, or only rarely.  I don’t really like books with dragons or elves, or dwarves or hobbits or lycanthropes or too much magic - but demons and vampires are sometimes ok.  I like books in there here & now, or something that closely resembles the here & now, and have some twist to them that is fantastical.   If you have any recommendations on this, throw them at me.  Help!  I’m stuck in a genre I don’t read and can’t get out!

(Just kidding)

This weekend, as you can read at mom-blog, was NOT what I expected, but something really neat happened.  My husband caught up with a former colleague of his.  It was really nice, Sean was an a great guy and so it was nice to find that he’d been naturalized (he’s a Brit, love those Brits!), and married, and expecting, and promoted.

The last time I hung out with him, I believe Amelia was already born and a baby, so maybe 4 years ago?  Maybe she hadn’t been born yet, though, I’m not sure.  That night, Chris, Sean and I went out for dinner and drinks and after a few rounds, I told him the plot of my novel.   I believe this was the first time I told Chris the story as well.  It was VERY well received by both of them.

On Thursday night, Sean asked Chris how my novel was going, was I pursuing it, etc.  WOW.  I’m totally jazzed that someone would remember the plot and ask about it AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, especially when these 2 guys apparently had a LOT to catch up on (they hung out for SEVEN hours). This gave me confidence about this story.

Maybe it’s not my preferred genre, but it is one I like (although I’m the fussiest reader EVER), the plot has action, romance, sacrifice, hot hero, flawed woman, and lots of other good stuff, like war and politics.  In fact, to be honest, I’m rather happy with it, and I’m happy with my sequel concepts as well.  So 3 cheers for ME, and my little story 

Thought I’d post on my progress on different things.

1. Joined a local writer’s meetup group today, we’ll see how that goes.

2. Joined a writer’s group at writers.com, still waiting to hear about being accepted.

3. I’m 3 for 3 in terms of editing progress on my major fantasy novel.

4. Just started re-editing (and then need to complete) the serial scifi story I want to submit for pay. Edit what I have to, then continue - or should I just continue, THEN edit? Hmmm… Have to re-read the 8000+ words to get familiar. Maybe I should do my own nanowrimo type progress counter?? Wonder if WP has one??

Well, no, I have NOT been writing. Work and Christmas and kids and sickness and duties have taken up all my time. I know there is a solution, but in the MEANTIME I’ve been giving heavy thoughts to my creative writing projects - my fantasy story and it’s underlying themes, the new novel I’d like to start as a tribute to my mother (who is in advanced stages of Alzheimer’s), and a guy I spoke to today reminded me of an online project I wanted to start where I write a story and visitors log in to read excerpts weekly. Or maybe I should find a place to submit it.

On my 2007 to do list, is finding time to write. Even if it’s only a few hours (yea right) minutes a day. My goal is the DAILY part - daily writing not on my blogs and business, but on my fiction. Habits develop in 21 days, so they say, so all I need is 3 weeks, a few minutes a day at scheduled times. Given my business and my 2 small children, 2007 will be the “year of the schedule”…

Wish me luck.