The No News is No News Purgatory Thread, Volume 9

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CalebJMalcom

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Okay so whited out portion for the squeamish

Saturday was a play party. People have finally gotten comfortable with having a blood fetishist around and want to play with me more. I take extreme cautions: gloves, emergency room grade disinfectants, sharp containers, on and on... Saturday while doing a blood cupping scene on a lovely young woman the owner of the dungeon comes up to me and wraps her arms around my waist and whispers in my hair in a very calm voice "Just to let you know. There are cops outside. I don't know if they are coming in. (the other owner's name) is talking to them now." M was assisting me in the scene. I leaned across the table and told her "We are shutting down now. Police outside." Then I leaned down to the young woman and said nicely, "I'm sorry but we are going to have to end your scene short. There are police outside and naked girl covered in blood equals a really bad night for Caleb." They didn't come in. The other owner was honest about what the establishment was, honest about how it was legal and offered to show the paperwork that the lawyers had prepared for just this occasion and they went on their happy little way.... My gro0ve was disrupted after that.

Now for something nerdy that leads to a bit of a rant. So we are rewatching the Matrix trilogy. I had a realization last night. Never once in the movies do they mention what city they are in or even that it is Earth. They make the references of the matrix, the machine world, the real world. Which then got my brain churning. I conjecture that the world they are on is a human colony on an alien planet that fell apart.

Now for the rant. I read literary fiction and genre fiction. I've found that my writing style no matter what I try to write leans more towards lit fic. Every time I've had someone from AW give me a read over on my longer work I always get called out on the fact that I never name the city my stories are in... This was always a frustration of mine and it wasn't until having this nerdy rambling in my head that I realized why I was getting frustrated and why I always get called out on that by the people from here.

It falls back on that in lit fic it's common to have whole novels and never know where the hell the story is happening. I love it. LOVE IT LOTS. BUT the majority of you beautiful people here are genre writers. In the genre world this is a HUGE no no.

Why is this? Why is the vague notion of a place is acceptable in one part of the writing world but not in the other? It confuses me. Especially with the realization that a scifi triology that never once gave a name to anything was extremely successful. So it just leaves me with a huge WHY.....

Anyway that's where my brain has been today.
 
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Tasmin21

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Did almost an hour of weight lifting tonight.

Hi, I'm Tas, I'm made of jello.
 

CalebJMalcom

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That's called pudding.
eating.gif
 

Maryn

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Good morning.

Sounds like the club's owner is solid, and that protected our Caleb, even if it did jar the mindset completely out of place.

Weights, I love weight work. It's the one physical activity in which my body type is a plus. (I'm a fire hydrant with boobs.) Yeah, you do get that Jell-O thing at first, but progress is really rapid in the early months if you do it two or three times a week, and you can get really strong. Make sure you watch your form carefully to protect your joints, of course.

Maryn, lacking a clever sign-off
 

Tasmin21

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Maryn - yeah, I was really into lifting a couple years ago, and loved what it did for my body. Hoping I get the same results this time. It's frustrating, though, dropping my lifting weight back down to my starting place instead of being where I left off at.

Also, in the ongoing adventures of Jello- Tas, even my hair hurts today.
 

Maryn

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Nine? Is that all?

Maryn, with a small push
 

Fuchsia Groan

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Now for the rant. I read literary fiction and genre fiction. I've found that my writing style no matter what I try to write leans more towards lit fic. Every time I've had someone from AW give me a read over on my longer work I always get called out on the fact that I never name the city my stories are in... This was always a frustration of mine and it wasn't until having this nerdy rambling in my head that I realized why I was getting frustrated and why I always get called out on that by the people from here.

It falls back on that in lit fic it's common to have whole novels and never know where the hell the story is happening. I love it. LOVE IT LOTS. BUT the majority of you beautiful people here are genre writers. In the genre world this is a HUGE no no.

Why is this? Why is the vague notion of a place is acceptable in one part of the writing world but not in the other? It confuses me. Especially with the realization that a scifi triology that never once gave a name to anything was extremely successful. So it just leaves me with a huge WHY.....

Anyway that's where my brain has been today.

Hmmm, that's interesting, Caleb. I've never seen it as a literary vs. genre distinction, more that some stories need to take place in a specific place and others don't. In the latter case, it could be generic or iconic or what-have-you. There's definitely lit fic like that (Kafka jumps to mind), but in, say, a Franzen novel, he always IDs the city. Maybe it depends on the degree of strict realism vs. hyperrealism like The Matrix.

Anyway, I think I've run into the attitude you're describing. I have one ms. that is set in a fictionalized/satirical version of the town where I live (sort of like "Portlandia," only not Portland). I renamed it because I didn't want anyone to confuse it with the literal place. My former agent thought I should give it its proper name, but I still don't understand why. My town's not even that well known...
 

Maryn

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Sorry to be so absent. I'm in a grouchy mood and figured you all didn't need in on it, right?

I treated myself to a miniature shopping spree at Goodwill, where I bought a skirt and tops and sweaters--all for our kids. Nothing for me today. Figures, huh?

Maryn, not to be worried over, since this is neither dire nor unusual
 

Tasmin21

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I can't. I just can't do it.

I can't let an entire day go without ANYone posting on this thread.

So there. *plants self in the corner with a picket sign* Hell no, we won't go! Hell no, we won't go!

Er....

Something.
 

Tasmin21

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Being an adult is overrated.
 

Calla Lily

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:( I can't always get here during the day anymore.

ETA: If any Purg has a cozy mystery languishing on their hard drive, my new pub, H3n3ry Pr3ss, is having a FB pitch event for cozies only. They're royalty only, no advance, but they're great to work with and they're pimping the hell out of NTS, exactly like they promised. IOW, I recommend them. You have to follow them on FB to see the event.
 
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Maryn

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Lily, I shared that with my tiny writing group which once wrote only mysteries. The best writer among us--not me--has a cozy for which she was unable to get an agent. Maybe she'll give it a shot.

Maryn, hopeful
 
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