I’ve read numerous articles on how to make your character (pro- or antagonist) more believable by knowing the symptoms of various psychological disorders.  Some people take their research seriously and will invest a great deal of time by reading up, asking around or interviewing to get just the right information they require to write.  I tend to just rely on what I’ve read, experienced or watched in a movie or on TV.  That will probably change as I continue to grow as an author.  Even Fantasy writers need to do research.

My last entry in which my father discussed PTSD reminded me of an article I read that tackled this issue when it comes to writing fiction and using PTSD as a plot device. That first article in the series basically spells out what people get wrong when using PTSD as a way to move the plot in the direction they want.

Perhaps your protagonist suffers from PTSD. You can certainly use that as a reason for said character to go ballistic at the drop of a hat. The problem is, “losing it” is an extremely rare symptom of PTSD sufferers.  Most of the time they simply react differently when they have memory flashes, they may be harsher, more stubborn, whatever. The point is, they aren’t acting like themselves, but the change isn’t hugely dramatic in most cases. Yet authors will time and again use PTSD as a justification for a normally “good” character to do something totally out of character.

The other problem with using PTSD is that an author may use it to move a plot forward, but then once that part is over, the character suffering from PTSD will go back to normal.  PTSD is an on going condition. One does not simply have it some of the time. And truly this can be said of any plot device. You can just pick something up and then ignore it because it’s no longer needed. Your readers will know and they will call you on it.

The second post the author, Arachne Jericho, wrote on PTSD describes a few instances where she believes authors mostly got PTSD right. Mostly.

I’m unfamiliar with her first example, which is from Babalon 5. However, I am a Lord of the Rings lover from the word go, so I know exactly what she’s talking about when she mentions Frodo and his inability to return to his life after being the ring barer and returning from the Ring’s destruction.

Ms. Jericho writes:

The type of “fit” that Frodo has is more usual to PTSD sufferers; it’s outwardly quieter, but no less consuming than the Set Piece version that has people rampaging through corridors with weapons. Indeed, Frodo is so despairing and not at all psychotic that people who know only the stereotypes of PTSD would say that he’s more depressed than traumatized. Especially since everyone knows that he endured; these days it’s all too common for people to forget that those inflicted with PTSD have it because they endured in a situation others might have committed suicide over and did not, in fact, break entirely.

I think many of us forget that psychological disorders effect different people in different ways.  Frodo was not just depressed, he was distraught and unable to resume his life.  He was, when the Fellowship of the Ring began, a carefree and curious hobbit.  Not so when Return of the King comes to an end.

In the third installment of PTSD articles, the author tackles two more cases of PTSD in fiction that she believes are even more realistic.  The first being a book called World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks, which is a fictional documentation of what would happen if the world really were over run by zombies.  This book is on my to-be-read list because I’ve heard a great many good things about it.  And this is simply another push to get me to read it.

The author of the article writes, in regards to WWZ’s mention of PTSD:

A zombie invasion raises an interesting question: is such an event a force of nature, since zombies are without sentience (in most literature at least, including World War Z)? Or, because zombies used to be living people, still look like people, and in the worst cases are actually loved ones, is this perceived by the human mind as being violence with human intent, even betrayal? Whatever the answer, PTSD is as guaranteed to be involved with a not insignificant portion of the human population, just as hundreds of WWI veterans suffered from PTSD.

The book also tackles a new form of PTSD, Apocalyptic Demise (or Despair) Syndrome (ADS).  I can certainly see how this might be a possibility.  You aren’t directly involved yet the fear of the total annihilation of your species would be a huge shock to many.

The other piece of fiction she mentions is the West Wing. I’ve never seen an episode of this, but I’ve heard some good and bad reviews. It’s just not my cup of tea. However, if you’d like to read more on her evaluation of how the West Wing handles PTSD, her article does a wonderful summary.

The final article on PTSD by Ms. Jericho tackles a character she believes was well written and handled PTSD as an on going condition.  The character is Lord Peter Wimsey, written by Dorothy Sayers.

In the article, the author mentions that the first Lord Wimsey novel, a detective novel, is in the public domain. So I believe I’ll be reading Whose Body? within the next few months.

Obviously there is a great deal on PTSD and most psychological orders that I do not know.  However, it wouldn’t take much, especially in this day and age, for me to do a simple bit of research to find out exactly what the symptoms of PTSD are.  Articles like the ones Ms. Jericho has written are excellent in that they give us examples of what’s good and bad to reference.  If you’re like me, you require visual examples. Even if those examples are the written word and not tv or movies.  If I have something I can go over, something tangible to work with, then I can better understand a subject.  And Ms. Jericho’s articles do just that for me in regards to PTSD.

And, with that in mind, it’s not hard to see why my father’s friend took his own life ten years ago.  He struggled with it for many years, since the early 70s. And he was never properly treated for PTSD.  It’s a tragedy.  But it’s also a lesson we can learn from.  And one writers can apply when writing.  I know I’ll think twice before I give a character an affliction again.  I certainly don’t want to fall into the trap of using something as a plot device only to simply drop it later on with no thought.

(My apologies for the lateness of this article. I’d meant to write and publish this much sooner.  However, I still believe it needs to be shared, so here it is, late though it may be.  Enjoy.)

Tags: Research, Sci-fi, Writers, Writing

A very happy new year to all of you.  My apologies for my lack of updates to this blog.  With the end of the year looming it seemed everything hit me at once and somethings I wasn’t entirely expecting, including an unexpected move.  Luckily my mother showed up for Christmas and we had a good time together.  It was nice to have a loving presence when my daughter wasn’t there to fill the void.

A few wonderful things have happened to me since my last post, including getting a new place that has more room for my daughter and myself. A promotion that came complete with a pay raise that allowed me to pay for the new place.  A wonderful Christmas gift from my mother in the form of a new couch and new bed for my daughter.  And finally, I started a webserial.

The serial in question is named the Deep Underground.  The serial is, as the site banner (done by none other than the lovely Nancy Brauer of Strange Little Band fame)  states, Bladerunner meets Tank Girl.  Take a dystopian future complete with mutants and cyborgs and throw in a woman who is blue from head to toe and loves to blow stuff up and you have the Deep.  Though I suppose the Smurfs fit in there some where too.  Of course the main character, Ada Kaze, would likely blow me up if she knew I said that, so let’s just keep that amongst ourselves, hmm?

Along with a prologue and a part one of chapter one of the Deep being up. I’ve also posted the beginning of a Universe hopping escapade that’s slated to span two months, with lots of time between posts for all the respective authors to have time to interact with the bad guy who is the glue that will bind all of these universes together.  And that bad guy is none other than the leading antagonist from my webserial, the Deep: Aaron Waldgrave.  The Strange Little Band LJ Commuity will be hosting all of the posts to allow for authors to interact via comments once the initial scene is set.

Along with that I’ve been taking a gander at another web serial by a very talented woman named Lyn Thorne-Alder.  Her web serial is titled Addergoole and it is all together engrossing.  I’ll be doing a review of it once I’ve actually caught up on it. I’m about half way and I have to say, it’s been hard to put down.

I have a half finished entry just waiting for me to finish regarding psychology in literature.  I’ll do my best to get it spruced up and ready for public consumption soon. And then, really, it’s back to my genre review. No really!

Tags: Webserial, Writers, Writing

First, I’d like to apologize for my lack of updates.  Two weeks ago I took a fall, that I’m blaming on my lack of coordination, and injured my right wrist and fore arm along with my left leg.  There were roots involved and some mild swearing that I kept to myself because my six year old was with me.  Needless to say, I wasn’t really up to writing anything that wasn’t mandatory.

That said, one week ago (over Labor Day Weekend 2009), I participated in the 3-Day Novel Contest.  I believe that even had I not been injured and taking several hundred milligrams of ibuprofen for pain, this contest would have been a major challenge.  As it was, I’m just thankful I finished the novel I planned to write and was able to do at least some editing before the deadline Sunday night.

I started the contest at 12:04 am on Saturday, September 5th.  When I sat at my computer in the dead of the night, I felt awake and charged with the desire to write.  Not having felt that desire in awhile, it was a relief.  If nothing else, I’d at least get something down for this novel by the end of the weekend.

Between napping, short breaks for working out stiff muscles and grabbing more food or drinks, I managed to write, all told, 26,000 words in 72 hours.  The final page count was about 101 pages.  That I was amazed I’d done it was an understatement.  I was practically glowing on Tuesday when I was back at work.  Monday was spent regretting I’d done it because I was in so much pain.  I slept most of that day.  And when I wasn’t sleeping,  I was medicated and icing down my injuries.

The contest rules state that you can write an outline before you begin the contest.  I made sure I did because I feared that if I didn’t have a general direction for my novel, I’d never get anywhere with it.  I deviated from the outline in a few places and added a new character when I started the second chapter, but beyond that, I actually used the entire outline.  I do believe that outline, combined with my determination to finish despite my injuries, is what got me to the end.

Though during the entire process I felt the pressure of time, I also realized that 72 hours can also feel like the shortest and longest amount of time all in one.  As the deadline loomed I worried I wouldn’t get to the end in time.  Once I did get to the end, it felt like the hours dragged as I waited for the time to finally expire.  Talk about a surreal 72 hours.

Now, two weeks after I mailed my manuscript, I’m having a hard time believing I actually did it.  Though 26,000 words is technically only a novella, it was still a great deal of work.  The contest gave me a brief glimpse of what it’s like to be an actual writer.  I’ve written thousands and thousands of words  in my life, but never that much for one story or subject.   It was an eye opener.  One I’m thankful for.

I’m proud of the story that I wrote.  Whether it will actually be a blip on the judges raidar, who knows.  I’m certainly hopeful.  I’m also realistic and just a little bit pessimistic.  And if I don’t win, I can always go back, edit and try entering it somewhere else or perhaps even make it a full length novel then find an agent for it.

The one thing, as far as the judging goes, that I’m curious about is the editing of the novels.  Seventy-two hours is a short period of time to write a novel.  If editing is lacking because of this time constraint, is that an automatic disqualification?  I admit to not being as up to snuff on all grammar and punctuation rules.  I tend to just write then hit spell check and let it pick out the things it thinks I’ve done wrong.  Obviously that’s not a very good practice if I want to be a professional author, but for this contest is it more or less important?  I don’t really see anything on the site that tells how the novels are judged.  I suppose I’ll find out once they announce the winners in January.

All in all, I  glad I did this contest.  This contest was an opportunity to get something written and to prove that I could do it in a small amount of time.  If I can write that much in 72 hours, how much can I write, using only an hour a day, in a month? Two months?  Perhaps I should find out.

I won’t commit to anything for next year, but I can see myself doing this again in the future.  Hopefully the next time I decide to enter this contest, I’ll do it and remain healthy at least until after the contest is over.

Punk Art Catalogue front cover: Miller, Ringma & Hoppe, "Smashed Mona," 1978

In a side note, the next post should be about the other “punk” genres and I’ll try to get it posted before next week.  And I hope to begin a weekly schedule of a post each Monday, though I can’t guarantee a specific time.

Tags: contests, submissions, Writing

What a post-industrial dystopia just might look like. Only cleaner.

Cyberpunk seems, to me, to be one of the more widely used science fiction genres.  There are so many books, short stories, comic books and movies that use cyberpunk.  The general setting is usually a post-industrial dystopia.  Basically you have lots of cheap technology (cybernetic implants, etc.) that everyone has access to while the majority of the cities are slums and the majority of people struggle to eat on a regular basis.

So why is this such a popular genre?  Most likely because it’s a situation that so many people fear we’ll find ourselves in very soon.  If technology continues to develop as fast as it has in the last half century, we’ll have cybernetics within a century or less.  And if that happens, what will happen to humans and their happy, shiny lives?  Technology makes things easier, but that tends to go hand in hand with a relaxing of work-ethics and morality.

At least, that’s what many people fear.  It certainly seems to be the case if you compare a farm of today with a farm from fifty years ago.  Then again, farmers still work hard, they just have machines to make things easier and allow them to do 20 or even 50 times the production their forefathers did.

The first cyberpunk story I encountered was Bladerunner.  Yes it’s a movie, but movies still tell stories.  And this movie just happens to be based on a story named Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick.  I have yet to read the novel (I know, I’m terrible), but even reading the wiki entry of the novel tells me right away that there’s things lacking from the movie that are important in the novel and to what makes the story uniquely Cyberpunk.  I won’t give spoilers, because I hate spoilers myself.  But I will say that the movie shows a great deal about how humans may and likely will deal with androids if we get that far with technology.  Exploring the difference between a human and a robot who looks human can at times be both fascinating and depressing.  In the end, one has to wonder if we aren’t just squishy robots who learned empathy.

Cyberpunk has always struck me as uniquely depressing because of the dystopia element that is almost always present.  But people (I include myself among that catch all word), tend to enjoy depressing settings for the stories they read or the movies they watch, but only if the ending is satisfying.  Let’s take the Matrix as another example.  The reality of what humans had become was monstrous and shocking.  And yet, Neo, the protagonist, was still willing to fight and in the end he prevailed.  His reality outside of the Matrix wasn’t the best, but at least he was free.  So the end was satisfying in that there was hope things would improve for Neo and the other free humans.

Humans, while generally pessimistic, still have that sliver of hope inside that tells them to fight no matter how bad things seem.  And to read (or watch) such a struggle is fascinating to us.  Obviously we don’t want to experience such a thing first hand, but we certainly like the entertain the idea that if we were in that same position we’d do the same thing.  Or maybe that’s just me.

Psion - The first of Three Cat Stories

The first book I read in regards to cyberpunk was Psion (1985) by Joan D. Vinge.  That book was one I couldn’t put down, I was simply fascinated by it.  The story is about a vagrant boy who gets taken into an institution and shown how to use his telepathic powers.  Of course said institution wants him to do their dirty work and he does because of his affection for a particular woman who took him under wing.  I was in high school when I read that book.  It didn’t occur to me at the time that the story was cyberpunk because the main focus wasn’t on the technology, but on the extra abilities of “Cat” (the main protagonist) and the others at the institute.  And yet, it still had the same kinds of themes as the other cyberpunk movies and books.

While sci-fi isn’t my first love, I do have a “world” and a character who is uniquely cyberpunk.  The character is a genetic mutation with extra powers at her disposal, though she tends to rely more on guns and explosives to do her mercenary work.  I have to say that my attachment to her is in part because I created her first as a roleplaying character on a roleplaying forum and I have fond memories of the people I played her against.  The rest of my attachment simply stems from this cyberpunk character being such a unique character to me.  She’s my one indulgence in pure science fiction.

This entry was more rambling than I would have liked, but I thought I’d try a more stream of consciousness style for this entry.  Cyberpunk is one of the many reasons that I love science fiction.  And while I rarely delve into the deeper meanings, it’s still interesting to take a peek into them now and then.  Cyberpunk is one way for us to examine our humanity in a world grounded in reality.

My next entry will focus on the sprinkling of off-shoots the “punk” movement has caused.  Dieselpunk, biopunk, even elfpunk!

"Or my tigers will eat your brains!"

Oh and as a side note I received an e-mail confirmation of my registration with the 3-Day Novel Contest.  So it’s official, I’m dedicated to do this Labor Day Weekend.  Keep your fingers crossed for me.  I need to find someone around here who’d be willing to be my witness for the contest.  Perhaps I’ll ask one of my writer friends or a co-worker.

Along with the e-mail confirmation they sent this nifty little graphic.  I like the caption.  They should add “Or my tigers will eat your brains.”

Never mind, I added it for them.  Ha!

Tags: contests, Cyberpunk, Research, Sci-fi, Writing

So what do you do when you just can’t find the motivation to write?  That’s not a rhetorical question either.  I’m honestly curious to know what other people do.  That is, if writing is your passion.  If not, what do you do to find motivation for something else that you love, but that has turned into a chore?

I’ve found in the past that I do oddly well when I’m under pressure.  It forces me to focus I suppose.  I can’t think of much more pressure than being charged with writing a 100 page novel in the span of 3 days.

That’s right ladies and gents, I am biting the bullet and entering the 3-Day Novel Contest.  And the story I’ll be writing is Little Washue’s adventure.  I’ll have to choose a new beginning because I can’t use something already started.  Luckily I can always use that opening for her next adventure.

So what should Washue’s adventure be?  I’m taking suggestions until the last day in August, so feel free to toss out as many as you like.  If I use yours I’ll be sure to make a note of it somewhere.  And, if by sheer, dumb luck, my story wins; I’ll see about putting your name on the dedications page.

For those of you who don’t know Washue as well as others might, see prior entries I have in regards to Washue and her faithful wolf, Squirrel.  Basically she’s a happy-go-lucky young girl who is a genius at taming animals and making mechanical creations.  Though the animals and machines occasionally explode for unknown reasons.

Wish me luck.

Oh, and if I don’t win, I’ll still repolish the novella and see about getting it published anyway.  Or maybe I’ll self-publish.  Who knows?

Tags: contests, Fantasy, Sci-fi, Steampunk, submissions, Writing

I’ll be the first to admit that I am no literary scholar.  I enjoy Tolkien stories and  C.S. Lewis adventures and even Lord of the Flies. But I don’t enjoy them because they have something to teach me about life.  I enjoy them because they’re fascinating, engaging reads that allow me to see things in my minds eye that I’ll never see with my real eyes.

So what does this have to do with Steampunk?  Well, I’ll admit only a very little.  There are some who believe Steampunk has a philosphy that is an “aesthetic technological movement.”  Now I don’t disagree with their assessment.  The forum post I linked to was actually a very intriguing read.

However, I simply don’t care.  I love steampunk and the idea of steampunk because it’s a mixture of all things fantastic.  All the things that I love, fantasy, sci-fi, different eras of the past; they’re all rolled into one with steampunk and it tickles me to no end to see this in work and with such harmony.  Although Fantasy and Science Fiction are often lumped together, I also see the two genres claim sides and rarely do I find people who read both kinds of stories with equal fervor like I do.

The first encounter I had with Steampunk was through another medium that I adore for its ability to show me fantasy and make it amazingly beautiful:  anime.  The show, Robot Carnival, was recorded by my older brother at college and then brought home for us to ogle to our hearts content.  I probably would have worn that VHS tape out if he’d let me, I watched it so many times.  Robot Carnival was made up of nine different short segments done by different directors.

There were only a two shorts that reminded me the most of Steampunk. Presence, directed by Yasuomi Umetsu, about a man who creates a robot girl in order to gain affection he feels he is lacking from his wife and family, then destroys her, but is still haunted by memories of her forty years later. A Tale of Two Robots — Chapter 3: Foreign Invasion, Directed by Hiroyuki Kitakubo, which is set in the nineteenth century and is about two robots powered by humans inside of them. While each had robot elements in them, I still think they were steampunk in style and execution. They just had a feel to them.

Of course, at the time, I didn’t even know what steampunk was. Not until I came across Castle in the Sky a few years ago.  And after doing some reading, I came across that term.  And eventually remembered other things that I’d seen that had Steampunk elements to them.  A more recent movie is the Golden Compass, which I admittedly haven’t seen, but the books certainly have a steampunk feel to them.  Though obviously steampunk isn’t the main theme to the series.

I admit that most of my experience with Steampunk has been through movies.  However, I’m rectifying this currently.  I’ve read HIS DARK MATERIALS in its entirety and will soon be cracking open the shiny new copy of Steampunk I recently acquired from Barns & Noble.  I’m almost giddy with anticipation and even partly reluctant to start because I know it has an end and I truly have a love/hate relationship with endings.

And so why do I bring this all up?  Because I’m going to try my hand at creating a steampunk novel.  Like I said in my last post, I’ve got the beginnings of a story that I hope will develop into a novel that’s both fun and exciting to read.  And if there are humorous parts in it as well, that’s clearly by accident, because whenever I try to write comedy it falls flat, but if I let things flow, they tend to come out on top.

Though I’ll be writing steampunk, I’ll continue to cover some other subgeneres on this blog that I love,  including cyberpunk, dieselpunk and perhaps take a peek into what clockpunk is all about.  And then I’ll move on to other sci-fi and fantasy subgeneres. (Which apparently includes *gasp* elfpunk!)

So little time and so many books to read.

Tags: Fantasy, Research, Sci-fi, Steampunk, Writing

Washue and Squirrel

In a previous post I mentioned that when I converted a short story blurb to not reference WoW, that I ended up with a somewhat steampunk like story.  Well, the idea intrigued me so much that I just couldn’t resist.  I’m going to create a story with “Little” Washue and her wolf friend Squirrel.  I’m not sure where the story will take me, but it will most certainly have adventure, intrigue, explosions and at least one case where Washue gets to satisfy her urge to punch her nemisis, Elsie.  For this story, Washue will be a human girl.  I think, regardless of how I roleplay her in WoW, that I can take the essence of her, put it into the body of a gangly teenaged human and still come up with an adorably loveable character.

And just like with WoW Washue being based off of my daughter, “steampunk” Washue will be based off of her as well.  And I’ll even go one step further to dedicated the story to my daughter in hopes that she’ll continue to be bright and out going just like Washue, no matter what life throws at her.

In my next blog post I’ll be discussing all things Steampunk.  This post I’ll simply share a short blurb from my rough draft with the working title of The Adventures of Washue and Squirrel.  If you enjoyed it let me know.  And if you didn’t, most definitely let me know.  See story after the cut!

Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Fantasy, Sci-fi, story excerpt, Writing

I came across an NPR story contest they are naming Three Minute Fiction.  The contest is to submit a work of fiction that can be read in three minutes and can be no longer than six hundred words.  I came across it via a twitter post from a fellow WoW player, who also has a blog about writing and wow.

I submitted a story that I’d originally written for a very good friend of mine in WoW whose character, a orc warrior, has been like a big brother to my tauren hunter.  He expressed concerns about my character changing because she was suddenly interested in a boy.  I wrote the story to assure him that even when she’s old and gray with many children and grand children that she’ll still be the same person.

Obviously I can’t submit a story with World of Warcraft elements and claim it as my own so I edited it to remove any reference to WoW proprietary story elements.  What surprised me by doing such is that it reads a bit like a steampunk story.  Perhaps I can write Washue stories after all and simply create a steampunk world for her to live and thrive in.  The idea appeals to me a great deal and I just may continue in that vein of thought as I move forward with developing my writing.

Tags: contests, Fantasy, submissions, Writing

Maltese Falcon Movie Poster

I’ve been fascinated by Film Noir since I was an early teen.  My first glimpse of the genre was “The Maltese Falcon” starring Humphrey Bogart.  I can remember sitting in my basement with my father and being riveted by the movie.  Black and white films have this quality about them that is hard to come by with color films.  Perhaps because with black and white it’s all about the lighting.  With Noir films the lighting is even more important because of the lack of bright scenes; most of the film is dark to fit the mood of it.

The term Noir has always fascinated me as well.  Noir, the french word for black, was first used by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, when discussing some of Hollywood’s films.  From then on, Noir grew and expanded in curious ways.  No two people can seem to agree what exactly constitutes a Film Noir.  Though there are some themes that seem to be universal through out.

• The Average Joe Protagonist – Average Joe as the protagonist allows us to use his eyes to see the darkness of life and to bring it into plain sight.  Average Joe is just that, average, nothing special, he could be any of us and that’s why the people watching identify with him and the terrible things he sees as the story unfolds.
• The Femme Fatale – A woman who isn’t afraid to use her charms to get what she wants.  Sometimes the Femme Fatale is doing it on purpose because she can’t see any other way to get what she wants.  Sometimes she gets her way without realizing it’s because she’s so good at seducing men. (Though how you could be unaware of this is truly beyond this non-femme fatale.)
• The Seedy Plot – Whether it’s extortion, murder, sex crimes or any other number of despicable things, the plot of a Film Noir is all about Average Joe being hired either by the Femme Fatale or someone else and getting in over his head in a situation that he’s usually woefully under prepared to deal with.  Be it a dead body in his place, a Femme Fatale tempting him to do the wrong thing even though it feels so right, extortion by the highest bidder or all of the above, Average Joe has to use his average wits to get out of the seedy plot he finds himself mired in.  Some Noir end on a tragic note, with no real justice done, while others end with a more positive take, like Average Joe getting the non-femme fatale as a prize for finally exposing the bad guys to the authorities.

Film Noir were usually taken, at least in part, from Hardboiled detective novels from around that same time period. Hardboiled novels are just that, stories that show you the hard truths of the criminal side of things as viewed by a protagonist who isn’t a hero, just someone trying to live life without going under.

All of this, is leading somewhere in my mind, which is usually full of twists and turns.  And that is, of course, the title of this entry, Fantasy Noir.

The Fantasy genre is one of magic and other things of myth that are of a fantastic nature.  Basically anything that isn’t possible in our world is fantasy. (Science Fiction being things that could be possible through science and technology, if given time for us as a race to achieve those things.)

So what do we get when we put together Fantasy and Noir?  Why we get a sword wielding mercenary who gets hired by a Femme Fatale to recover her lost magical artifact and instead gets imprisoned by a blood thirsty warlock who is going to use him as a sacrifice in order to summon forth unimaginable powers, of course!

I only recently came up with that lovely combination myself.  Sadly I wasn’t the first to do so, however, it would seem that Fantasy Noir isn’t something that many others think to do with their writing and film making.

Blade Runner Cover

Though Blade Runner was hardly fantasy, it is certainly a new spin on the Noir Genre, something they call Science Fiction Noir. A futuristic setting, but a similar take on a bleak world with an “Average Joe” protagonist who ends up in the middle of a struggle that he really never intended to get involved in. The twist of the main character, Rick Deckard, in Blade Runner was that he originally worked to put down rogue synthetic humans and yet he finds himself, after retiring, being asked to do it again and in the process falling in love with a woman that he can almost believe isn’t a synthetic. Blade Runner was even more progressive, I suppose you can call it, because it is also labeled cyberpunk due to its technology driven yet slum-like atmosphere.

Now back to Fantasy Noir. The idea came to me on a whim when a friend teasingly challenged me to write something for a World of Warcraft character that would be set in a rainy, steamy atmosphere with lots of bluesy, saxaphone music as a back drop. How could I resist such a challenge? I wrote a short story about my night elf rogue trying to drown her sorrows in a bottle of whiskey while it poured rain outside. The setting was a jungle port and the tone of the story was more sexual than bleak, mostly because as the story progresses, my character reveals she almost slept with a total stranger because he intrigued her but ends up drinking alone because the local enforcers show up to cart the man away for the extortion of pretty women.

I liked that story so much, I wanted to write more. Sadly, unless I feel like never publishing such stories ever, I couldn’t continue to use World of Warcraft as my setting. So I ripped my character out of that setting, made her into a “jungle” elf, and started up a story I’m currently calling “Five Finger Discount”. I might change the title, but the gist of the story is my character dealing with being used as a pawn and she doesn’t know why and likely never will know why, even at the end.

I was curious to know if anyone else had ideas like mine, so I started doing some research on Fantasy Noir. I came up with a two blog posts discussing Fantasy Noir as it applies to Urban Fantasy. I even stumbled on a post discussing making a D&D game using Noir in a fantasy setting. And then I finally stumbled upon something that was almost exactly what I was looking for.

An author by the name of Alex Bledsoe, has written a high fantasy noir book by the name of The Sword-Edged Blonde.  I’ll be getting my hands on this book as soon as I can because I am truly curious to see just how he combined High Fantasy and Noir.

Though my story won’t be an exact take on noir/hardboiled style, I’m hoping it will at least give that sense as I plunge my readers into a world of elves and wizards and average people who don’t look too closely at the otherside for fear they see themselves all too clearly.

Tags: Fantasy, fantasy noir, Writing