L.T. Getty's Blog, page 11

Fantasy Settings – Beyond the Medieval

I’m going to start with other works, and then discuss mine in another post.

What do you think of when you hear ‘traditional fantasy’?

Lots of folks think castles and knights, dragons and princesses with the funny dunce caps (they’re called hennin). I love traditional fantasy, and don’t think we need to put the fantasy in the here and now to make it relevant to today’s audience. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought Underworld was great because it was bringing the fantasy to the mod...

Summer Wind Up, Goals for the Rest of 2020

I don’t know what the weather was like where you live, but we had a beautiful summer. I miss seeing some of my friends, but I made the most out of the COVID related restrictions by enjoying the great outdoors. I’m planning on at least one more kayak trip, weather permitting, it’s supposed to warm up later this week but there was frost on my car yesterday morning after night shift, but it was warmer this morning, so my tomatoes and other veggies have a little bit more time.

I know I said I was...

Cover Reveal: Witchslayer’s Scion

What do you think? The first in a proposed Sword and Sorcery series, I’ll give a definitive release date when I know it.

Titan Slain / The Dreaded Hump

So I was going to post a month ago basically saying, “Yeah, the novel’s basically roughed, I just have the handful of scenes to rewrite and like two to write but I basically know what happens” and here I am, sitting at a 162k rough draft, realizing I’m really going to have to reign in the B Plot (again) but acknowledging it’ll be fine. I’m a better writer than I was even ten years ago. This time, though, I’m not touching the manuscript for at least two weeks short of Ron asking for a swap.

I lik...

To Split or Not To Split?

Growing up I hated cliffhangers. It usually wasn’t a big deal if I could get the next book in the library, but it wasn’t always the case. The best example I can think of was how in this old Conan the Barbarian Comic, Conan, Belit and their sea-faring army are drugged by the leader of the people they just saved, and we’re told that they’re going to be sacrificed. I didn’t know how they got out of it for years, because it was my dad’s old comics and he’d have a good run of sequential issues with m...

When Words Collide – Online 2020

So I’m not sure when I’m going to be around for WWC online, because I’m on nights s so I need to rest some time. Yeah yeah, ‘Sometimes you go sometimes you don’t!’ I wasn’t planning on this year because one of the guys in my station has major seniority and he always takes time off in August. The rotation has to really work out or all I get are nights off, and I could go on abut scheduling and how I never get the stats I want, but it’ll sound like kvetching. I don’t mind working through the pande...

Focus

Don’t you love memes?

So despite or maybe perhaps because of quarantine, my niece is writing a book and now she’s told me that she has another idea for a different book. She tells me she’s writing a page a day (sort of) and is torn between what idea she’d like to do.

I’m encouraging her with both projects. That way if one’s feeling dry, she’ll have something else to dabble with. Maybe one’ll spark and she’ll write a ton, then get tired of it and go back to the other one. Maybe she’ll have so ma...

Summer Holidays and Writing Update

Time flies when you’re on vacation! It wasn’t like the usual where I had the entire block off – I live in an area where I can do On Call from my house, but I’ve also picked up two easy shifts and did a trade to help out a coworker. That being said, I feel like I got a lot accomplished. The first ‘day off’ was pretty much me cleaning my house and getting stuff in order so that I could enjoy the days off, and I’ve been able to keep it mostly clean with maintenance. I’ve been out kayaking at least ...

Get your Subgenre Right: IN SPACE

Yeah yeah this took too long to follow up. It’s nice out and I spent the last three days kayaking, camping, and haven’t had my computer on or done any reading besides audiobooks. OTOH, Monday I made big headway in the current WIP; but I’m anxious because I think this one might be a bit longer than the previous two novels. I guess I’ll have to write it then try to knock it down a bit.

This post is shorter, and I’ve mentioned certain science fiction stories already in Part One. I felt like I shoul...

Get Your Subgenre Right

Now I’ll be the first one to point out that fantasy is an incredibly inclusive genre. Not only can stories with magic realism mean that yes, literature can include fantasy, other genres such as romance or western novels often contain supernatural elements, and if you’re honest about what you’re selling, often times you can find mass appeal to different demographics.

Know what bugs me? Someone rejecting, reviewing, or marketing a novel incorrectly on the basis of getting its classification wrong....