OH HEY YOU GUYS · 1:52am Mar 11th, 2013
Hey! Been a couple of months since I've posted here, hasn't it? And what the hey, why not hammer out a few paragraphs to let all twelve of you following this let me know how I'm doing and/or to ramble on about other subjects entirely? This is what happens when nobody reads Livejournal anymore.
Anyway, so yeah. Once again, I've been a bit remiss in my writing- I've the vague rudiments or at least two or three pony stories in mind, but I've yet to really sit down and hammer anything promising out on this shiny new laptop I picked up about a week ago. An Asus, for the record- it runs well, but the speakers are fairly crappy and Windows 8 is seriously horrible.
Anyway, in other boring, day to day news, I swung by a used bookstore today. It was a rather fruitful run, as I managed to snag Jeff Smith's Bone: One Volume edition, along with the Exalted: Siderials splatbook (1st edition, woo!). Visiting bookstores always makes me think about writing- as someday, I think it'd be pretty neat to have something gracing the shelves. Preferably in the 'bestseller' section, as long as I'm daydreaming about it, but I digress.
Anyway, I figured a fun blog post might be to talk about some various authors I enjoy. Call them influences on my own work, or just people who are a lot better at writing than I am, or whatever. So, here we go!
Jim Butcher: Mostly, I'm a huge fan of the Dresden Files novels. And to be fair, there's a bit of bad in with the good- they've got a kind of...odd sort of treatment of gender/sexuality, and Harry Dresden himself really can be an insufferable asshole sometimes (which, to be fair, is a feature, not a bug). This said, I still get a kick out of the books- I describe them to my friends as 'What if Harry Potter grew up to be Sam Spade.' Which is kind of a strained analogy, as Harry Potter is kind of lame as a character, but I digress.
George MacDonald Fraser: Here's an author you probably haven't heard of before- I happened to stumble across his work in college, and I've been enamored of his work ever since. His most famous works are his Flashman novels. They star the titular Harry Paget Flashman- womanizer, coward, bully, and general hero of the English Empire. The novels are a pastiche of old Victorian adventure novels- and the fun part is seeing Flashy blunder through various battles and fiascos throughout history: The Charge of the Light Brigade, The Opium Wars, Roarke's Drift, the Sepoy Mutiny, Little Bighorn, etc. So it's educational! The novels are deliciously written- if nothing else, they're a really fun demonstration of an unsympathetic protagonist. Unfortunately, some of Fraser's other work isn't quite as good: The Pyrates is fun, in a sort of shameless way (it has pirates!) but The Reavers mostly retreads the jokes from The Pyrates, only with Scots instead of pirates- and it sort of just resolves itself at the end. Then again, there's something to be said for shameless comedy. Oh! And on a side note, they actually made a movie version of Royal Flash, starring Malcolm MacDowell, and it's a rather fun watch. The movie and novel both are takes on The Prisoner of Zenda, which is kind of a classic (if lesser known) story these days. Which reminds me, I should totally write a ponys story called "The Prisoner of Zebra," sometime, because why not?
Arturo Perez-Reverte: A Spanish novelist, I first encountered his work in high school, when I was supposed to read The Club Dumas for English Class. It's a fun novel- one that was kind of hamhandedly adapted into "The Ninth Gate," but that's not what's really hooked me. Rather, it's the "Captain Alatriste" series of novels that have really hooked me. They're set in 17th century Spain, so it's all rapiers and big hats and swashbuckling and such. At the same time, the books are also a bit gritty- I once heard someone describe them as 'noir with swords,' and that's a fairly good fit. The one thing I'd say against them is that there's a major theme of decline- every couple of pages, the narrator will remind you how corrupt yet proud Spain was in "those days." But yeah, I absolutely adore the Alatriste novels- and again, they made a movie! And even better yet, the movie's been posted on Youtube. It stars Viggo Mortensen and he has a moustache and he stabs everybody. Go watch it!
I'm sure I'll think of some more authors to talk about at some point. Or heck, maybe I'll get really ambitious and start posting links to various bands I like to listen to as I write and stuff. So, y'know, stay tuned!
I follow you. :D *Waves*
O hai! Keep up the good work, I love you! No homo (and/or all of the homo, your choice).