hildy89: (cuff)
So it was back to the Thursday writing group again. I've been on hiatus because of my foot injury. It was good to see everyone again. I'm hoping to get back into the swing of writing, especially original stuff. With my focus on the archive and graphics lately, I haven't really written much.

[livejournal.com profile] whytcrow handed out some markets, including one for Paradox's Alternate History contest, which is quite tempting. I was ruminating over ideas on the way home. It's almost a pity I don't live with my parents anymore. I would love bouncing ideas with my father on this one. Part of my problem with AH is I tend to think small. Every writer seems to want to write the South winning the Civil War or the Germans winning WWII. I still have my AH skating story where the 1961 plane crash never happened. But it's a little obscure by science fiction standards. So I went back to my usual hunting grounds in Tudor-Elizabethan times. Keith Roberts had Elizabeth I assassinated in Pavane. I started going a step further and wondering what would have happened if Henry VIII's brother Arthur had survived. Still not sure what if anything that train of thought will bring forth...

For Thea Gilmore fans, Compass Records has released a two disc version of her "Songs from the Gutter" with a bonus 11 track disc.

Seeing red

Feb. 4th, 2005 08:58 am
hildy89: (fairy)
Today is National Wear Red Day is promoting women's heart disease awareness. I'm wearing more of a burgundy today, but I hope it's close enough.

Apparently WHFS wasn't the only station to turn to the Latin beat. My mother reports that her usual Orlando oldies station WBEG has turned from Motown and Simon & Garfunkel to salsa and merengue. She's none too pleased about this change.

My knitting friends would not be at all surprised by the AP article about men who knit. It's no different really than the ones who cross-stitch. One of the best blackwork specialists from Britain is male, Leon Conrad. He turns out the most intricate stuff, including the Elizabethan chessboard.

The CVS meeting last night featured some newcomers and a couple of workshops. For the first one, I need to reread "Scene and Structure" a little. I was reminded of the second one today when reading a review of the Official Movie Plot Generator. [livejournal.com profile] whytcrow used the Evil Overlord's list to great effectiveness with her exercise based on Teresa Nielsen Hayden's Stupid Plot Tricks. I still don't know why mine turned into a western saloon. Too much Firefly maybe?

Debra Doyle and James Macdonald have a new journal, [livejournal.com profile] mist_and_snow, which will contain notes and research for an alt-historical novel they're doing for Eos, featuring the American Civil War at sea.

Lord Darcy

Jul. 6th, 2002 10:54 pm
hildy89: (Default)

Alternate history is a subgenre of science fiction that asks "what if" with history, that something didn't happen the way we know it happen. What if the Germans won WWII? What if an assassination attempt on Elizabeth I succeeded? What if Richard the Lionhearted didn't die in 1199?

Randall Garrett's Lord Darcy series, recently reprinted in full by Baen Books, supposes the last idea. Instead of dying, Coeur de Lion went on to form a large stable Plantagenet empire. And that magic has been codified and explained as a science. The series focuses on Lord Darcy, the chief investigator for Duke Richard of Normandy, and his master sorcerer assistant Sean O'Lochlainn.

My father is *not* a fantasy fan. He is an old school science fiction of the first stripe, having old issues of Analog in his collection. He even tends to avoid alternate history fiction that strays too close to fantasy. The only reason he accepted Lord Darcy's universe was because they explained them in scientific terms.

And then there's me, the girl who never quite left Oz all together.

[P.S. For the record, a *lot* of alternate history books focus on the Germans winning the war, most notably "The Man in High Castle" by Philip K. Dick. And Keith Roberts' collection "Pavane" shows a Catholic dominated world after the early death of Gloriana.]

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