Coyote Con

Scheduling confusion resulted in having two moderators and no speakers for this hour. As a result, we enjoyed a bit of light-hearted conversation regarding urban fantasy, paranormal fiction, and our favorites. Read below for the salient parts, and enjoy the recommended reading. Edits may be made in future to add more content and tidy up or add to the reading list.

Facilitators: Gillian Polack and Deena Fisher
9PM Eastern, May 22, 2010

Recommended Authors (ranging from lighthearted to grim; and from UF to PR; if nothing else, this list will give you a good idea of what people think is UF or PR, which can vary from from reader to reader. Read below the list to see why they were added.)

Authors
Seanan McGuire
Lucy Snyder
Gerry Bartlett
Mark Henry
Marjorie Liu
Lilith Saintcrow
Keri Arthur
Narelle Harris
Terri Windling
Charles de Lint
Steven Brust
Jim Butcher
Charlaine Harris
Kim Harrison
Ilona Andrews
Yasmine Gallenor
Karen Chance
Kimberly Rae
Michele Bardsley
Rob Thurman
Lisa Shearin
Simon R. Green
Stephanie Meyer
C. E. Murphy
Jenna Black
Laura Bickle
Diana Rowlands
Kat Richardson
Lynn Viehl
Faith Hunter
Lori Devoti
Ellen Guon
Dianna Wynn Jones
Holly Lisle
Robin McKinley (Sunshine, for specifically PR fiction)
Gail Carriger
Nathalie Gray
Laura Anne Gilman
Wen Spencer
Deborah Grabien (marketed as a mystery writer, but many of her books have a paranormal component)

Specifically Drollerie Press Authors
Elena Murphy
Rachael de Vienne
Rachel Olivier
Nora Fleischer
Angela Korra’ti
Meredith Holmes
Cindy Lynn Speer (Her Zumaya published works. Her DP works are strictly fantasy.)
Edward Morris
David Sklar
Tim Mulcahy
Connie Neil
Michael F. Stewart
Heather Parker
Sarah Avery
Angela Cameron
C. G. Bauer (dark urban fantasy/horror)
Michael Boatman (humorous horror/dark paranormal fantasy)

Anthologies
Inked, with Yasmine Galenorn and Marjorie Lui (among others)
And Happily Never After
Bordertown
Bump in the Night (DP horror/dark urban fantasy)
Scary Kisses

[Gillian Polack] 9:06 pm: First of all, let me talk about Seanan McGuire.

[Gillian Polack] 9:07 pm: Seanan has been shortlisted for the Campbell – and with cause. I just read my Hugo package and her book makes me want more

[Gillian Polack] 9:07 pm: it’s a perfect example of how the paranormal interfaces with urban fantasy

[Gillian Polack] 9:09 pm: I know some good things about Lucy Snyder’s work thorugh her involvement in Book View Cafe, but I haven’t had the oportunity to read it yet (Australia is a very long way away sometimes) so I’m going to ask if someone would like to explain her to us

[Deena] 9:09 pm: I’ve read it, so maybe you can be Seanan and I’ll be Lucy.

[Gillian Polack] 9:10 pm: If you could tell us about Lucy’s work, that would be awesome

[Deena] 9:10 pm: I can, I think I’ve read everything she’s written, and published one of her short stories.

[Gillian Polack] 9:10 pm: You like her writing, then    

[Deena] 9:11 pm: I do, yes, though I originally started reading her work because I met her at a con and liked her, and her husband is frequently featured on my husband’s website.

[Deena] 9:11 pm: I was surprised by the novel.

[Deena] 9:11 pm: Do any of you mind spoilers?

[widder's ghost] 9:11 pm: not at all

[Gillian Polack] 9:12 pm: If there are spoilers here, they’ll appear on the transcript

[Deena] 9:12 pm: I don’t need to give the complete story away, but I want to talk about why these books in particular are different, and maybe we can figure out what that means in relation to upcoming urban fantasy.

[Deena] 9:12 pm: we could remove them? Or warn people at the beginning.

[Gillian Polack] 9:12 pm: only give them where they’re totally essential?

[Gillian Polack] 9:12 pm: And put a warning at the top of the transcript.

[Deena] 9:13 pm: Okay. I’m generally anti-spoiler when I’m looking for someone new to read, but when I’m dissecting a work, I want all the information I can get. My two selves sometimes come to blows.

[Deena] 9:14 pm: In Seanan’s book, the protagonist is turned into a goldfish in the first chapter, and loses 14 years of her life. I don’t think I’d ever before read something that looked like a sort of paranormal/urban romance cross before with that kind of punch right at the beginning.

[Deena] 9:14 pm: In Lucy’s book, the protag’s boyfriend is sucked into some hell dimension in the first paragraph, and then she suffers some seriously grievous bodily harm soon after.

[Deena] 9:15 pm: I think those huge losses in the very first pages are a great part of what makes these books unusual.

[Gillian Polack] 9:15 pm: That’s interesting – I was reading several paranormal/urbans of the Gerry Bartlett variety recently, where life is a lot lighter

[Deena] 9:16 pm: Does that seem like a trend to you?

[Gillian Polack] 9:17 pm: Liz Gorinsky calls it “Vampire porn” [Editor's Note, actual term: vampire slut fiction]- but Seanan’s book was neither vampire nor porn

[Gillian Polack] 9:17 pm: I think we’re getting a wider spectrum of books

[Deena] 9:17 pm: No, it wasn’t at all. It was quite grim in some places.

[Gillian Polack] 9:17 pm: And it’s because there’s a wide spectrum of readers

[Gillian Polack] 9:17 pm: So at one extreme there is the grim and dangerous – Marjorie Liu is another writer who does that

[Gillian Polack] 9:18 pm: And at the other end is Vampire porn

[Deena] 9:18 pm: It reminded me of the feeling of some epic fantasy, where there’s huge loss for the MC, and then the redemption.

[Deena] 9:18 pm: Agreed, absolutely. And Lilith Saintcrow. My goodness I wouldn’t want to be one of her heroines.

[Gillian Polack] 9:18 pm: The thing they all have in common is a focus on women

[Gillian Polack] 9:18 pm: And, lots of the time, on inner dialogue

[Gillian Polack] 9:19 pm: That’s why I’m interested

[Gillian Polack] 9:19 pm: I see them as women’s novels – from the grim to the bubbly

[Deena] 9:19 pm: In Liu’s Kiss series, and in Saintcrow’s series, the women have had a long back-history; they’ve been beaten and abused and crawled their way through life and they’re living.

[Deena] 9:19 pm: In Seanan’s book and Lucy’s, there’s a different tone, I think.

[Deena] 9:20 pm: Only I’m not sure I can put my finger on it.

[Deena] 9:20 pm: Part of it may be the setting. Lucy’s book is set in Cincinnati, I believe, which is… unusual.

[Gillian Polack] 9:20 pm: What struck me about Seanan’s was that there is a punch at the beginning, but it still has the lighter tone of older urban fantasy – I’ve only read the Hugo bit, though, and it might change after that. it was telling me that grim doesn’t always have to be dire.

[Deena] 9:21 pm: It reads a little like those early books set in the PNW. A normal place that’s suddenly become strange, though I can’t remember where Seanan’s is set.

[Gillian Polack] 9:21 pm: Thinking about it, 30 years ago there were only about 4 possible settings

[Deena] 9:21 pm: Yes, with Seanan’s, that punch mixed with lighter, older urban fantasy. You’re exactly right.

[Gillian Polack] 9:21 pm: Even 5 years ago, if I set a book in Canberra it would not have been publishable

[Deena] 9:22 pm: It might have been more publishable in the US than in Australia, because it’s exotic.

[Gillian Polack] 9:22 pm: I totally love it that we can read books that aren’t all set in NY, London or LA – I love all those places, but I want to read about Cinci or Winchester

[Deena] 9:23 pm: Yes, me too. I like that bringing it to the neighborhood.

[Deena] 9:23 pm: Have you read Mark Henry? http://www.markhenry.us/books/

[Gillian Polack] 9:23 pm: I haven’t

[Gillian Polack] 9:23 pm: Actually, let’s take advantage of the strange absence of our guests

[Deena] 9:23 pm: His books are intended to be satires of the vampire chick lit phenomena. [Editor: not vampire chick lit, paranormal chick lit. He does it very well, too.]

[Deena] 9:23 pm: Okay, I’m with you…

[Gillian Polack] 9:23 pm: And get everyone to list their favourite new paranormals so we all end up with a reading list to die for.

[Deena] 9:23 pm: Awesome.

[Deena] 9:24 pm: (not literally to die for… I don’t want them that realistic)

[Deena] 9:24 pm: Peeps, what are your favorite urban fantasy or paranormals?

[Deena] 9:24 pm: I don’t actually like the Mark Henry books I mentioned. I find the protag so incredibly unlikeable.

[Deena] 9:25 pm: We’ll have some of one, some of another. It’ll work out.

[Gillian Polack] 9:25 pm: Keri Arthur writes paranormal set in melbourne, where I was born, so does Narrelle Harris

[Deena] 9:25 pm: I think other people might like them, though, if they like Jackie Collins, or the Mary Janice Davidson queen vampire with the shoe fetish.

[Deena] 9:25 pm: Titles, too, Gillian!

[RooRooMEB] 9:25 pm: can we just give authors or do we need the book titles?

[Deena] 9:26 pm: Whatever’s easiest for you, Roo

[Gillian Polack] 9:26 pm: If you don’t know the book then just the author, but I’m going to google for titles for the ones I just gave.

[Deena] 9:26 pm: Caras, who do you like to read? Ymoinda?

[Gillian Polack] 9:27 pm: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/a/keri-arthur/

[Deena] 9:27 pm: http://www.keriarthur.com/books also here.

[Gillian Polack] 9:27 pm: Narrelle Harris’ vampire book (vampires in Hawaiian shorts) is The Oposite of Life

[Frances2] 9:27 pm: Patricia Briggs

[Gillian Polack] 9:28 pm: The Opposite of Life is probably better    

[Deena] 9:28 pm: How would you characterize her work? Vampires in Hawaiian shorts sounds like humor.

[RooRooMEB] 9:29 pm: Jim butcher, charlaine harris, kim harrison, ilona andrews, yasmine gallenor, karen chance, kimberly rae, I like all these guys books also Michele bardsley, Rob Thurman, Seanan Mcguire, Lisa shearin

[Gillian Polack] 9:29 pm: My typing is worse than usual – I meant shirts. A lot of Aussie writers have seriousnessness mixed in with humour – Narrell’s novel is definitely that

[Deena] 9:29 pm: I love the angsty stuff, so Lilith Saintcrow and Marjorie Liu is on my list–and if it’s of any interest, I started reading Liu after reading an unrelated novella in a collection, so don’t be afraid to get your work out in other ways.

[Frances2] 9:29 pm: Liu’s Soul Song is fabulous.

[Deena] 9:29 pm: I do love Ilona Andrews and Patricia Briggs.

[Gillian Polack] 9:29 pm: Are there any paranormal/urban books that you associate with specific places?

[RooRooMEB] 9:30 pm: patricia briggs and simon R green

[Deena] 9:30 pm: I enjoy Jim Butcher, Charlaine Harris, Kim Harrison, but I haven’t read a few on your list Roo. I’ll have to take a look. Thanks.

[Ymoinda] 9:30 pm: Stephanie Meyer. (Twilight series, of course.) I’m not crazy about her writing style (and I know she’s YA writer for most part), but her ideas are great.

[Deena] 9:30 pm: Charles de Lint is Canada/the PNW to me.

[Frances2] 9:31 pm: Briggs is local for us, so definitely associate with location.

[widder's ghost] 9:31 pm: Definitely Charles de Lint

[Gillian Polack] 9:31 pm: It’s funny – I no longer think about Charles de Lint as urban fantasy, though his Newford books totally are

[Deena] 9:31 pm: The books on my keeper forever shelf are most Charles de Lint; Wood Wife by Terri Windling, Deerskin by… McKinley(?), and The Sun The Moon and the Stars by Steven Brust.

[Deena] 9:32 pm: How do you think of him then?

[RooRooMEB] 9:32 pm: Michele bardsleys are paranormal romance, i also like C.E. Murphy

[Caras Galadhon] 9:32 pm: Honestly, I read all over the place, and I’m sort of a newbie when it comes to Urban Fantasy, so I’m here to learn more. Other than Charles de Lint, I can’t come up with a favourite UF author on the spot, unfortunately.

[barblucas] 9:32 pm: Some writers I enjoy people haven’t mentioned Jenna Black, Laura Bickle, and Diana Rowlands.

[Deena] 9:32 pm: That’s okay, Caras!

[Deena] 9:32 pm: Oh, CE Murphy! I’d forgotten her, Roo. I’ve not read Michele Bardsley.

[Gillian Polack] 9:32 pm: There’s a new paranormal anthology in Australia – Scary Kisses

[Deena] 9:33 pm: Barb, I don’t know them. Jenna Black I haven’t read, but heard of. I’ll have to check them out.

[RooRooMEB] 9:33 pm: i forgot one I think her name is kat richardson [Editor's note: Author of the Greywalker series].

[Gillian Polack] 9:33 pm: For those who like short bites (I don’t believe I made that joke)

[Deena] 9:33 pm: heh.

[widdershins] 9:33 pm: yes you did!

[Gillian Polack] 9:33 pm: How about other anthologies or good short fiction?

[Deena] 9:34 pm: I haven’t read a lot of good anthologies. In fact, most of the recent ones have been wall-denters for me.

[Gillian Polack] 9:34 pm: Scary Kisses was well-enough received that it’s collecting for a second volume (writers might want to note this)

[RooRooMEB] 9:34 pm: I only read anthologies when forced to by my fav authors to know whats going on in the next book in their series.

[Deena] 9:34 pm: I’m reading one by Holly Black, Shiloh Walker, Meljean Brooks and someone else, I can’t recall who… most of them are about men as highly-sexed beast/not-human creatures. [Editor's note: I found the premise disturbing, but the stories themselves, for the most part, well-done]

[Gillian Polack] 9:35 pm: There really is a lot of good novels to a very few good short stories – is this because the the nature of the subgenre?

[Deena] 9:35 pm: I think it’s because there aren’t enough markets for the short works.

[Gillian Polack] 9:35 pm: That’s really interesting

[Gillian Polack] 9:35 pm: In Australia there are zillions of markets for short works – not many for long

[barblucas] 9:35 pm: I’m working through Inked, with Yasmine Galenorn and Marjorie Lui (among others). And Happily Never After.

[Deena] 9:35 pm: Most short fiction magazines, ‘zines, etc., don’t want paranormal romance, or that seems to be the feeling I get… though I wouldn’t characterize half of these as romance.

[Gillian Polack] 9:36 pm: Writers here still talk about getting their apprenticeships through short fiction

[barblucas] 9:36 pm: Most the anthologies I’ve seen tend toward paranormal romance rather than UF.

[Deena] 9:36 pm: There are lots of markets for short fiction, just not women’s spec fic, I think.

[Gillian Polack] 9:36 pm: Lynn Viehl – why haven’t we mentioned her yet?

[Deena] 9:36 pm: Though, Bordertowns is being revived!

[Deena] 9:36 pm: I’m really pleased about that.

[Deena] 9:36 pm: It, and Charles de Lint, were my first introduction to urban fantasy some..oh, 20 or so years ago.

[Gillian Polack] 9:36 pm: She’s at that exact crossover point between paranormal romance and urban fantasy

[Ymoinda] 9:37 pm: Short works also make it more difficult to establish a place that you are trying to introduce an audience to. I mean, I feel like I know Forks, Washington as well as my own hometown!

[Deena] 9:37 pm: Bordertown is a series of anthologies of short fiction about a border between our world and faery in Canada.

[Gillian Polack] 9:37 pm: So Bordertown works because it’s a series in a place?

[Deena] 9:37 pm: Lynn seems more SF to me.

[Gillian Polack] 9:38 pm: She does that as well – though she does tend to have SF premises underlying her paranormal

[Deena] 9:38 pm: I think that it worked at the time because it was kind of startlingly new. I don’t know if it will work now.

[Deena] 9:38 pm: Ymoinda, I could certainly find the auto repair shop in Forks.

[Gillian Polack] 9:38 pm: But if we cut out all the vampires explained scientifically, we’d lose most of them

[Gillian Polack] 9:39 pm: I didn’t think of the Borderotwn stuff as startlingly new – I gew up on Hope Mirrlees – it was just the natural and logical consequence

[RooRooMEB] 9:39 pm: illona andrews new series is kind of like a border town

[Deena] 9:39 pm: The one set in Atlanta, Roo?

[Gillian Polack] 9:39 pm: I love it, though, that we’re seeing place as important – as important as the characters, maybe?

[RooRooMEB] 9:40 pm: no the on the edge one its her new series

[Deena] 9:40 pm: Oh, there’s another couple of series I suddenly remembered. A vampire hunter who rides a motorcycle and is hunting in N. Orleans. [Editor's Note: Faith Hunter. The other series was lost in the search to find the author of this one.]

[Deena] 9:40 pm: I haven’t seen that one Roo, thanks for mentioning it.

[Deena] 9:40 pm: (I’m really terrible about names of books and authors. My husband usually tells me what I’m reading.)

[Deena] 9:41 pm: Perhaps it was where I lived then, Gillian. It was the first thing of its kind I’d seen, I think.

[Deena] 9:41 pm: Let’s take questions, for a bit, shall we?

[Gillian Polack] 9:41 pm: Australian reading often tends to broader type stories, so when a good one comes out, we get pushed that way, I think

[Deena] 9:42 pm: I sometimes wish I could browse one of your bookstores.

[Gillian Polack] 9:42 pm: Good idea – questions it is – but if anyone thinks of another book or author – just say!

[jaleta] 9:42 pm: I read Amazon Ink. Can’t remember the author. {Ed.: Lori Devoti] The book was okay, but I’m not much of an UF fan.

[Deena] 9:42 pm: Jaleta, what do you write?

[jaleta] 9:42 pm: Space opera and silly horror.

[Gillian Polack] 9:42 pm: I love silly horror

[Deena] 9:42 pm: (both awesome) What did you hope to learn in this session?

[jaleta] 9:43 pm: Just hoping to find some new authors to try and to see why people enjoy UF and Paranormal Romance.

[Deena] 9:44 pm: There’s such a broad range, Jaleta, one of the great things about this sort of genre umbrella, I think, is that there’s something for everyone.

[Deena] 9:44 pm: I especially like the darker ones, but that’s me. I get high off the angst.

[Gillian Polack] 9:44 pm: And the umbrella’s getting bigger

[Frances2] 9:44 pm: I see science fiction romance lumped into the paranormal category in houses and as far as online awards etc. Is that just because there isn’t much of it?

[Deena] 9:44 pm: It is, yes. It’s really all spec fic written from a more feminine perspective, I think.

[Deena] 9:45 pm: Frances, I don’t know why, for sure, but that seems logical to me.

[Frances2] 9:45 pm: the big umbrella. Thanks.    

[Gillian Polack] 9:45 pm: I think a lot of people are struggling with classifications because the genre is growing

[Deena] 9:45 pm: Yeah…

[Deena] 9:46 pm: If you guys have things to add to the booklist, will you email me? I’ll tweak it a bit before I put it up.

[Gillian Polack] 9:46 pm: I love the thought of this booklist

[Deena] 9:47 pm: And you can always add when the list is up.

[RooRooMEB] 9:48 pm: I dislike the fact that they lump urban fantasy in with paranormal romance when urban has little or no romance in it, does anyone else share this opinion?

[widdershins] 9:48 pm: she [Jaleta] wanted to understand what the attraction to para romance was i think

[Gillian Polack] 9:48 pm: That’s an historical problem – and will resolve over time

[Deena] 9:48 pm: Roo, yes. I start typing in Pooh case when discussing that subject.

[Gillian Polack] 9:48 pm: Paranormal romance and UF are both analysed in different categories to hard SF so people think they belong together

[riversway] 9:48 pm: pooh case?

[Deena] 9:49 pm: When One has Decided Opinions, one sometimes Types Them Large.

[Gillian Polack] 9:49 pm: LOL

[RooRooMEB] 9:49 pm: lol

[Deena] 9:49 pm: It’s a pooh story thing, and also sometimes was done in Victorianish fiction.

[Gillian Polack] 9:49 pm: Can I state the obvious?

[Deena] 9:49 pm: go!

[Gillian Polack] 9:49 pm: I shall anyway. One of the reasons people like reading PR and UF is because a lot of it is very well written.

[Gillian Polack] 9:50 pm: It uses tropes and some unfamiliar readers confuse those with bad writing

[Deena] 9:50 pm: My husband is a Patricia Briggs fan.

[Ymoinda] 9:50 pm: @Roo I think that Urban Fantasy may or may not have romance, but the difference is in the focus on the setting. It is more about the place…Does that make sense?

[RooRooMEB] 9:50 pm: i think its because the female charaters are often strong, and not dependent on men

[Gillian Polack] 9:50 pm: You have to want that set of tropes – but if you do, then there’s some very gifted writers working in the field

[Deena] 9:51 pm: I think there’s a bar to entry. Just like if you didn’t grow up reading romance novels. You might be disagreeably surprised to find the nice young thing ending up with the caveman at the end.

[Gillian Polack] 9:51 pm: roo – that’s one of the drawcards – the same things that keep some readers out, lure others in

[Frances2] 9:51 pm: Um, Deena, can I just LOL for a minute.

[Frances2] 9:51 pm: caveman.

[Deena] 9:51 pm: Every genre has particular tropes, though UF and PR do blur the lines and borrow from others, especially fantasy, romance, and horror.

[Frances2] 9:51 pm: lol

[RooRooMEB] 9:52 pm: mystery as well i like a good uf mystery

[Gillian Polack] 9:52 pm: And that’s another thing that causes some people to look askance at it – some readers require that their tropes be unsullied, ie they’re uncomfortable with crossover

[Deena] 9:52 pm: Ymoinda, you think Urban Fantasy is more about place, but Paranormal Romance is more about the relationship?

[jaleta] 9:52 pm: Now that I think about it (which is difficult considering the benadryl I took earlier), Dianna Wynn Jones wrote some urban fantasy. I’m thinking of the book where they are at a hotel at an SF con and it intersects with another reality.

[Gillian Polack] 9:52 pm: I love that book!

[Deena] 9:52 pm: Dianna Wynn Jones is a good gateway drug.

[Ymoinda] 9:52 pm: Yeah. That is why I was interested in this particular session. I wanted to learn more about writing spaces. I have a hard time describing places to where you can actually visualize them.

[Gillian Polack] 9:53 pm: One of our National Conventions was unofficially named after that book because the corridors did that strange thing

[jaleta] 9:53 pm: Dark Lord of Derkholm is one of my favorite books.

[Deena] 9:54 pm: Ymoinda, I think when you write about a place, you do it by giving atmosphere. How does it smell? Orlando will always be orange blossom, sand and salt. Oregon will always be green things. When you brush up against a person in the street, how do they react? Are they as friendly as a Vancouver resident, or more like a New Yorker?

[jaleta] 9:54 pm: Is there UF that isn’t dark, gritty, and angsty?

[Gillian Polack] 9:54 pm: Ymoinda – I build up street maps and things (some of my writing is a strange kind of UF) – sense of place is really important and I treat it as a character and don’t write until it’s that real.

[Deena] 9:54 pm: UF, yes, but not as much PR.

[Ymoinda] 9:54 pm: Twilight is obviously all about Edward and Bella, but there is such a focus on the space surrounding them that you feel part of the book.

[Deena] 9:55 pm: In my mind, urban fantasy is about characters intersecting with an unusual/hidden magical space. Paranormal Romance is about that space intruding on the real world, being uncovered, and finding that the monster in the closet is real, and then finding you like having sex with it.

[Gillian Polack] 9:55 pm: Jaleta – Yes! Sorry, I have a weakness for important and deep meanings treated lightly or as adventure. It’s Charles de Lint’s less gritty work that won my heart as UF

[RooRooMEB] 9:55 pm: hahaah @deena to true that

[Ymoinda] 9:56 pm: @Gillian: That sounds great. I am going to try that!

[Frances2] 9:56 pm: choke, snicker.

[Deena] 9:56 pm: Ellen Guon wrote UF about elves who built race cars.

[Gillian Polack] 9:56 pm: I lke to think of UF as a palimpsest – something that could be around us but that we couldn’t see until the author alerted us, invisible in everyday life

[jaleta] 9:56 pm: I’m getting a very disturbing mental image of Monsters Inc. and some hooker T&A movie…

[RooRooMEB] 9:56 pm: lol

[Deena] 9:56 pm: unless we were special, like Jilly. Or .. Sophy? I think.

[Gillian Polack] 9:57 pm: I’m getting disturbing images of Deena’s mind

[Deena] 9:57 pm: Hey, stay outta there!

[Gillian Polack] 9:57 pm: Right, Deena – gateway characters or trigger characters

[Deena] 9:57 pm: I haven’t cleaned up in a while.

[Gillian Polack] 9:58 pm: We’re nearly at the end. Where did that time go?

[Deena] 9:58 pm: Anyone else not have answered something they wanted to know about this subject?

[Gillian Polack] 9:58 pm: Does anyone have last thoughts, last recommendations?

[Deena] 9:58 pm: Anyone want to throw more book recs at my head (thank heavens the husband is a librarian!)?

[Gillian Polack] 9:58 pm: What I want is a way of bribing you to clean up my typing…

[RooRooMEB] 9:58 pm: Whats a gateway or trigger character?

[Gillian Polack] 9:58 pm: I could offer to do the transcript.

[Deena] 9:59 pm: Oh. Dear.

[Gillian Polack] 9:59 pm: Virgil in Hell is a gateway

[widdershins] 9:59 pm: I would like to know when the scheduled authors turn up…. and is it possible to reschedule?

[Deena] 9:59 pm: Roo, I haven’t heard it put in quite that way, but I’m guessing the one you can relate to who is having that extra-ordinary adventure in an ordinary place.

[Gillian Polack] 9:59 pm: A guide – someone like Sophie, who moves in both worlds

[Deena] 9:59 pm: Virgil, yes, the one you travel with.

[Gillian Polack] 9:59 pm: The trigger one is the one who starts the ball rolling so that changes happen

[Gillian Polack] 10:00 pm: And they’re not regular terms – I make up terms all the time and it bugs *everyone*

[Deena] 10:00 pm: naw, I do that too, but at least yours sound like English.

[Gillian Polack] 10:01 pm: I can make up non-English terms if it would sound better

[Deena] 10:01 pm: Widder, I’ll try to reschedule them.

[Ymoinda] 10:01 pm: When I was younger, I read a Sci-Fi series that would fit this. I have tried for years to remember it, but haven’t. The mysterious place was Flux and the characters were Carrie(?) and Suzlette… Anyway, if anyone has read it, it is so out there that it is just a great creative genius. And if you have read it, and remember title/author…

[Deena] 10:01 pm: Mine are like, flibbertigibet and whatsamazoo.

[Gillian Polack] 10:01 pm: Deena – subject to my availability and time of day, I’m happy to moderate again, since really, I did nothing this time.

[Deena] 10:02 pm: Okay, Gillian, thanks!

[Deena] 10:02 pm: Jack Chalker, Ymoinda?’

[Gillian Polack] 10:02 pm: Say nice things to Deena, because she’s here despite great fatigue and she’s done a wonderful job

[Caras Galadhon] 10:02 pm: @Ymoinda: If nobody here knows the name of that series, you might try whatwasthatbook over at LiveJournal.

[widdershins] 10:02 pm: nice things

[Deena] 10:02 pm: * Spirits of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1984 (ISBN 0-8125-3320-   
* Empires of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1984 (ISBN 0-8125-3329-1)
* Masters of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, January, 1985 (ISBN 0-8125-3281-3)
* The Birth of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, 1985 (ISBN 0-8125-2292-3)
* Children of Flux and Anchor, Tor Books, September, 1986 (ISBN 0-8125-2340-7)

[Caras Galadhon] 10:02 pm: http://community.livejournal.com/whatwasthatbook/profile

[Deena] 10:03 pm: I think that’s them, they have Flux and Suzlette in them.

[Deena] 10:03 pm: Thanks, Gillian.

[RooRooMEB] 10:03 pm: very very nice things @ deena lol

[Deena] 10:03 pm: I’m much funnier when I’m tired.    

[Frances2] 10:03 pm: Deena is our new favorite person. thanks to both of you!

[Ymoinda] 10:03 pm: Thank you both!

[jaleta] 10:03 pm: Thanks! I appreciate the suggestions.

[Deena] 10:03 pm: new? Who was before?

[widdershins] 10:03 pm: you both did good

[Gillian Polack] 10:03 pm: I’m looking forward to that list…

[Ymoinda] 10:03 pm: And, Deena, YOU ROCK!! Thanks for the titles!

[jaleta] 10:03 pm: I think we’re all funnier when we’re tired.

[Frances2] 10:03 pm: uh… you caught me.

[Deena] 10:04 pm: I think Gillian was splendiferous.

[Deena] 10:04 pm: Welcome!

[Frances2] 10:04 pm: Lucius Malfoy?

[Deena] 10:04 pm: damn. Always losing out to the cool bad guys.

[Gillian Polack] 10:04 pm: My typing’s worse before midday. It’s now 12.04 and suddenly everything’s readable

[widdershins] 10:04 pm: no-one was before Deena.. you are the one …always

[Deena] 10:04 pm: oooh, Widder, got a manuscript you want published?

[Deena] 10:04 pm: I know someone who knows someone…

[widdershins] 10:04 pm: the witching hour for Down Under!

[Gillian Polack] 10:05 pm: Midday!!!

[widdershins] 10:05 pm: Can I crawl or can I crawl!!!!!

[Deena] 10:05 pm: Okay, I’m gonna grab the transcripty thing and see what happens.