hate those books with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns

[bedlamsbard]

Oh, yes, Meyer, set it in my state. Yay for Forks, I suppose, but god, I hate those books an enormous amount. Every time I think of them I want to get back to writing my high school urban/rural fantasy novel, which is also set in smalltown Washington -- on the east side of the mountains, also known as the SIDE WITHOUT RAIN.

There are no vampires in that town, by the way. My main character is the teenage scion of a British magical family who runs a paranormal genetic engineering company in Seattle. His best friend is a boy next door type. Other characters include the six-fingered Seer, the immortal ancient Greek hero who got deaged down to a baby about eighteen years back by his deranged ex-wife and doesn't actually remember this fact, the other scion of a different British magical family, the crazy ghosts (okay, I lied, one of them got killed by a vampire; I'd forgotten), the pair of identical twins named (god help us) Fury and Grace d'Alessandro, and I believe there's a werewolf somewhere.

Oh, yes, and almost all the high school characters are in the band, because did I mention I came up with this in high school? So much more awesome than Twilight. Although. A little bit like Buffy, in some ways.

Comments

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

See, now I'm curious. Because this sounds like the kind of thing I read when I finally get a weekend without homework and have the whole "God help you if you try and make me be serious!" attitude. Except perhaps the Fury and Grace bit.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

I haven't actually worked on it in a while for a couple reasons, one of which is that I came up with too many characters to concentrate on any single plot (which is part of the problem of the greater universe this takes place in; everything connects), and the second of which is that I was writing it while I was actually in high school, which kind of kills the mood of writing a novel set in high school.

Fury and Grace d'Alessandro are actually completely awesome; they just have soap opera names.

[westingturtle.livejournal.com]

Oh, I don't mean to impugn Fury and Grace and all. But sometime in high school I got really picky about names after reading a lot of bad high fantasy, combined with the fact that I have a ridiculous soap opera name in RL. I'm sure they're wonderful people. All of my people just come out with names like George and Richard and Bernadette. (I have a special love for the 1930 Census, I'll admit it)

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I get that. They've probably got the worst names out of the bunch, except for the British magical families, some of whom have names like Procyon and Antares and Salla. The main character is named Alan, and the best friend is named Joey, and the Seer is Kyle and the Greek hero is Jason (my favorite Greek hero. *rolls eyes*), and unfortunately I don't have my character lists with me, goddamnit.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

I heard it was set in Forks and I kind of laughed because, really, even if they think the cold cloudy rainy Olympic Peninsula is romantic in a book, they would never want to be there for long. It is so wet. SO wet. ugh. I have bad memories of camping in three-day rain near Forks.

But you live in Eastern Washington? That is kind of cool! I live in Puyallup, when I'm not at school in Chicago.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

Yay, another Washingtonian! I am from Ellensburg (home of Central Washington University and the Ellensburg Rodeo), but I'm at school in New Orleans right now.

I hated the West Side so much. I went to look at the UW, and it started raining as soon as I set foot on campus and stopped as soon as I got off. I took that as a sign.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

oh cool! I've been there a few times, for orchestra things, and I have a few friends going to Central right now. One of them is telling me that the prairie winter is gorgeous. I suppose you don't get much winter in New Orleans; do you miss Ellensburg weather?

I'm not a huge fan of our weather either. At least wetness is better when there's nature around you; living in Seattle would be so depressing with the grey cement and water and sky. yuck.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

...I wouldn't really call Ellensburg the prairie. I just started at Tulane, so I don't really know what it's going to get like around the actual winter time, but just now I'm absurdly pleased about the fact that it's most likely not going to snow here at all. (I applied to colleges last winter, which was a time that had me going, "I NEVER WANT TO SEE SNOW EVER AGAIN ARGH DEATH." There is a reason seven of the ten schools I applied to were in the south, Arizona, and California.)

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

OH such stories of youth, THE GOOD OLD DAYS. when i was in late elementary and early middle school i wrote a series of self-fics where my classmates and i, um, pretty much get kidnapped by the armed forces and are trained to be super child soldiers.

...I KNOW, it's kind of a sketchy idea, reading the description now and knowing about child soldiers in africa. but back then, i just watched 'independence day' and 'men in black' too many times. we fought aliens and, um, i think chased some bad guy through disneyland. and then there was the one that was never written but my friend and i have discussed, where my classmates and i are kidnapped to work at a labor camp in cambodia, and land mines and brothels were involved. uh. YEAH I DUNNO, what was wrong with me?!

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

My elementary friends and I were totally, uh, military spaceforce types. Wait. I think I've come full-circle. (FIRST FANFIC WRITTEN THEN. I think it was the one where I novelized (ha) The Mummy, but with all the characters as dogs. I KNOW. SHUT UP.)

And in middle school there was the secret world with the magic and the glowing amulets and I fondly ripped off my friends, but with permission.

[lassiterfics.livejournal.com]

i cannot judge because OMG I WROTE ABOUT TALKING DOGS TOO. i mary sued myself into a runaway who can talk to dogs, and me and my pack of talking dogs lived in this abandoned warehouse by the harbor. i forget if there was actual conflict or if it was just me and my dogs hanging out, breaking into butcher shops. uh, yeah. i was inspired by Homeward Bound 2.

i had a couple of fantasy universes, none that much interesting. except for the one where the spice girls were characters. um, not singing, just, you know, starring in an unfinished scifi/fantasy story. I WAS TEN, DAMMIT. (and then there was hanson...)

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

You are smart. I only wish I had picked a school with warmer weather, but I fell in love with the University of Chicago in 10th grade and nothing could make me say no to it, not even god-awful Chicago winters.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

There are a ton of people from the Chicago area down here at Tulane. *bemused*

The funny thing is that I had my heart set on going to a New England school -- preferably in the Boston area -- up until about last year. And I turned down $44K a year from Wellesley to come to Tulane, so I know what it's like to fall in love with a school. *also bemused*

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

If I were from Chicago, I would definitely want to go south to escape those winters.

I am glad you're in love with your school! It's so great that it's almost scary; I'm terrified of the possibility of having to go to a cheaper school and leave U of C. it would be very hard not to ruin those years with mourning. You would think that sort of worry stops once you get into college, but no, it just morphs.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

There are also a lot of people from New Jersey and New York. I think they flee.

Oh, man, I know. My grandparents are paying for me to be here, which wouldn't have happened if I'd gone to Wellesley -- but I was crying and my mom was on the phone and they felt bad because I was crying? It is good to have rich grandparents, although it doesn't really help my guilt complex.

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

I am on the other end, financially, the one where it is good to have rich nobody so the school gives me pretty okay financial aid. well, they did last year. then my dad made money and who knows where that went. It makes me feel better to think about having a spartan lifestyle after college, because the simplicity of it really appeals to me and I know I can do it.

off topic, but, have you seen this? narniaexchange. it just popped up and I'm kind of excited. for me it would mean mixing fandom and school, which starts next week, but oh boy! I can't help myself.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

No, I'm totally on that end. I pretty much got the maximum amount of financial aid that Tulane can offer, and the same with Wellesley. (Forty-four grand in GRANTS. I seriously don't know what I was thinking when I was weeping about not coming to Tulane, just because of the money issue.)

Of course, when I was applying for financial aid from Emory, they kept asking me questions like, "On 0-30K a year, how do you live?" (YOU THINK I AM KIDDING. I AM NOT. That was a quesiton. *shakes head*)

Huuuuuuh. Fic exchange. *considers*

[zempasuchil.livejournal.com]

Oh god, "how do you live?" What don't they understand? It reminds me of that McCain quote they keep joking about, drawing the boundary between upper and middle class at 5 billion or whatever. Middle class, by the way, is always how I thought of myself until I went to UChicago, where most say they are middle class yet most families make about three times what my mom makes. I have no perspective on what wealthy and poor are.

I have a thing for fic exchanges. I usually am no good at story ideas, so I like it when I get to mess with other peoples'.

[bedlamsbard.livejournal.com]

It is so very, very bizarre. I mean, yeah, I thought I was, you know, normal or middle-class or whatnot, then I did summer programs at Stanford and Brown (paid for by my grandparents *sigh* and we wonder where I get the guilt complex from) and everybody is all, "Oh, my Ivy League prep school," "oh, my vacation in France. Why? For FUN," and, "oh, my brand new car."

I've done fic exchanges before, but hmmm.