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What book is everyone writing now?

Just make sure the Monkey Planet is the most fabulous of all, and their space armada of banana-shaped ships armed with rail guns that fire poo is the mightiest.
 
CriticalSock said:
Thanks RobRoy! Redwall in space is how I describe it, but aimed at a slightly older age group. I've got the story outline, two possible first chapters and some key incidents written. I've stalled like a numbskull though!

In case you're interested, I've got two beginnings because I'm not sure whether to start low-tech on a planet as if it was a redwall style book or to start high-tech with a running space battle so the reader knows the score. I like the first idea but can see publisher types binning it without realising it all kicks off in space, with explosions! :)
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Suggest you write what you want to begin with, but keep the other as an option should it be necessary. I had one agent who actually looked at my writing and provided me with suggested changes, basically that I remove a whole series of flashbacks from the story and concentrate on the “current” version. I pulled it all out, then redrafted it, using a first-person voice which actually worked out very well, I thought. Apparently, the agent forgot all about me, and her advice and rejected my work out of hand. :(

But now I have two versions of the same story, plus an entire “back story” that I could turn into a third book-length story if I wanted. I’m actually pleased with all three.

And again, I would be happy to read what you have, if you're interested in sharing.
 
TragicMonkey said:
"Horrors!" cried Lady Basingdale-Dasingbale, fainting dead away at the sight of the mysterious Mr Ravensdime biting Miss Finchley in the bustle.

Sir Reginald made a valiant attempt to stake the unholy vampiress through the heart, but unfortunately Lady Bloodpenny's corset easily absorbed the blow. Languidly she opened her eyes and smiled up at him. "Why, Sir Reginald! Fancy you showing up fourteen hours early for the tea party!"

The innocent young lady trembled before the undead menace. "Please, don't hurt me!" she cried. "Silence!" growled Queen Victoria, advancing with her fangs gleaming in the gaslight. "I needs the blood of ye, that I mayeth live forever!"

eta: feel free to use and expand on these exciting clips.
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Use them? I wrote them! How dare you publish my copyrighted material on the interwebz! You must have hacked into my computer, you obstreperous cad!

I hereby demand that you forthwith surrender any and all copies of "The Fangs of Queen Victoria, or Blasingdale vs. Ravensdime vs. Finchley vs. Reginald vs. Bloodpenny and the Royal Tea Party of Darkness" by Noah D. Henson currently in your possession! :mad:
 
I suppose you're also going to claim as your own work my epic saga, in verse, about robot hamster demons battling ninja angels from the future, set in Rome in the fifteenth century? I am particularly proud of this work; as far as I am aware, it features the first robot/angel/giant frog rape scene set in the Pantheon during the plague and written in pentameter in English.
 
I'm working on a Steampunk novel, centered around a German Zeppelin crew, but I have recently been distracted by 53 cm of joy (i.e. my wife and me have recently become parents).
 
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RobRoy said:
Suggest you write what you want to begin with, but keep the other as an option should it be necessary. I had one agent who actually looked at my writing and provided me with suggested changes, basically that I remove a whole series of flashbacks from the story and concentrate on the “current” version. I pulled it all out, then redrafted it, using a first-person voice which actually worked out very well, I thought. Apparently, the agent forgot all about me, and her advice and rejected my work out of hand. :(

But now I have two versions of the same story, plus an entire “back story” that I could turn into a third book-length story if I wanted. I’m actually pleased with all three.

And again, I would be happy to read what you have, if you're interested in sharing.
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I'd be happy for you to read what I have so far. More than happy actually! I'd welcome feedback and criticism. I'll bring my netbook with everything on to work tomorrow. :)
 
The Plague Nurse which takes place in London in 1666 during the plague that preceded the great fire of London. The main character is a compilation of true stories and rumors, an ex-prostitute hired to take care of wealthy plague victims who "curses" them with the bedding of the dead in order to steal their valuables. Sort of Sweeney Todd meets Misery.

The research is delicious, but who really needs an excuse to read Boswell and Pepys?
 
"I'm Only In It for a Minute"

A mockography about the iconic 70s singer, agitator and sometimes administrative assistant "Supahfreak" - a whistah with attitude.

I'm thinking something between The Jerk and a Janis Joplin biopic. I'm thinking Sarah Silverman in the adaptation. I'm thinking cameo by Leonard Cohen. I'm thinking I really ought to get back to deriving those sodding statistical variables now.
 
TragicMonkey said:
I suppose you're also going to claim as your own work my epic saga, in verse, about robot hamster demons battling ninja angels from the future, set in Rome in the fifteenth century? I am particularly proud of this work; as far as I am aware, it features the first robot/angel/giant frog rape scene set in the Pantheon during the plague and written in pentameter in English.
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Not at all. That one is yours to claim in all its puerility and unrestrained dream-logic.

However, it is clearly derived from my own master work, in which android lab-rat archangels combat samurai werewolves from the Bronze Age, set in Washington DC in the 24th1/2 century. Your pride in your own juvenile sex fantasies is heartily misplaced, considering that my work depicts what is unarguably the first and only instance of an android-werewolf-miniature dachshund orgiastic gangbang taking place atop the dome of the US Capitol building in the midst of a Jurassic-sized meteor shower, transcribed in Latin prose directly from the mind of God.

:cool:
 
bookitty said:
The Plague Nurse which takes place in London in 1666 during the plague that preceded the great fire of London. The main character is a compilation of true stories and rumors, an ex-prostitute hired to take care of wealthy plague victims who "curses" them with the bedding of the dead in order to steal their valuables. Sort of Sweeney Todd meets Misery.

The research is delicious, but who really needs an excuse to read Boswell and Pepys?
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Ya know, because you post so seldom, I always forget how smart and well-read you are, much more than I am, and then I read a post like this and I’m back in awe.

The fact that you don’t need an excuse to read Boswell just makes me smile both with envy and delight. Your book also sounds very interesting to me. I love historical fiction of this nature. Cornwell is one of my favorite authors. Just be sure to include an author’s note at the end which details which facts were actually facts, and where you deviated for writer’s convenience. Truth being more interesting than fiction, I look forward to reading those as much as the actual story.
 
RobRoy said:
Ya know, because you post so seldom, I always forget how smart and well-read you are, much more than I am, and then I read a post like this and I’m back in awe.

The fact that you don’t need an excuse to read Boswell just makes me smile both with envy and delight. Your book also sounds very interesting to me. I love historical fiction of this nature. Cornwell is one of my favorite authors. Just be sure to include an author’s note at the end which details which facts were actually facts, and where you deviated for writer’s convenience. Truth being more interesting than fiction, I look forward to reading those as much as the actual story.
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Thank you. And thanks for picking up on my fondest dream - that someone, somewhere will buy the book for it's bibliography.
 
Loss Leader said:
It's a sci-fi book about an alien who kidnaps a human child for ranson, but accidentally kills the baby's parents in the aftermath. The alien courts sentence him to raise the child himself which, as far as they're concerned, is justice. Humans, being human, disagree. Lots of legal arguments, violence, and general uproar follow. If two races can't agree on the basic meaning of justice, can they even coexist?
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This sounds interesting.
 
bookitty said:
Thank you. And thanks for picking up on my fondest dream - that someone, somewhere will buy the book for it's bibliography.
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I’ve been enamored of historical fiction for about five or so years now, but I always feel cheated if there isn’t at least a set of author’s notes, or description of how the author went about their research. I mean they must have read something, so I’d like to know!
 
I have also started, and several times abandoned, a mock non-fiction book called Bisque: The Soup That Changed The World"

Part of my fear is that the source material which it mocks - books like Salt, The Map That Changed The World, and A Short History Of Nearly Everything - have been read by maybe thirty people. And they're all here.
 
31. I have read ASHoNE too, and so has husband and he is not here, so already you are in the black.
 
Loss Leader said:
I have also started, and several times abandoned, a mock non-fiction book called Bisque: The Soup That Changed The World"

Part of my fear is that the source material which it mocks - books like Salt, The Map That Changed The World, and A Short History Of Nearly Everything - have been read by maybe thirty people. And they're all here.
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Actually, books like these sell pretty well on the used book market. If I'm scouting, I'll always pick up a clean hard cover of books like Rats: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City's Most Unwanted Inhabitants , The Strawberry; History, Breeding, and Physiology or Sundials: An Illustrated History of Portable Dials. Even though you can find tatty used copies for pennies, there are still people willing to pay decent cash for a nice copy.

The niche non-fiction market is tricky because you need to reach outside that core of collectors who will find the book but it's getting easier. I've been seeing a shift as more people tap into internet-related resources for recommendations. Eight years ago if I sold a book on a very specific subject, I might get an email asking if I had more of the same. These days even the horologists (not just collectors but notorious completists) are finding stuff on their own.
 
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