Friday Five

[jimhines]

1) After spending all that time working on Red Hood’s Revenge, it’s amazing how quickly the short fiction goes.  One week from short story seed to finished first draft?  I could get used to this!  Now to go back and make the whole thing coherent and cohesive.  (Right now it’s 3700 words of themeless mess, but that’s okay.  It’ll get better.)

2) A

Comments

Re: FYI

[jimhines]

Thank you! Very much appreciated, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!

"...and who is a good judge of the good crack."

Ha!

[samhenderson]

Four is frightened because seven ate nine.
Oh gosh, I'm sorry.

One of the reasons I like the protagonist of Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series is because she's big -- more muscular than anything else, obviously, as she's training for a knight -- but it's pretty clear that she can't just eaily fit into some tiny medival dress very easily. There's no big deal made of this except, IIRC, some oblique comments by other characters, but it's certainly there.

[jimhines]

In some respects, I like that approach better. Trying too hard to write a Message into your story doesn't always work for me, whereas simply making it a part of the character feels like it can go further in helping people toward acceptance, if that makes sense?

[anasteuart]

Tammy addresses the issue a little more bluntly in Cold Fire, where her smith-girl Daja is congratulated by a chef on 'eating to suit her body, rather than starving herself.' I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the book in front of me.

[cathschaffstump]

Short stories. Why can't we live on short stories? They are *so* much easier.

Catherine

[jimhines]

Quicker, at least. Though to be fair, this draft needs a LOT of thematic work before it will be ready to go out.

[georgmi]

4. There is no four. Or is there?

Is that a _Leisure Suit Larry_ reference?

[jimhines]

Not intentionally. I've heard of LSL, but know pretty much nothing about it. Does it have a 4 thing going?

[georgmi]

After LSL3 came out, somebody asked Al Lowe (the creator of the series) whether there was going to be a fourth game. He said "No."

So when the next game *did* come out, it was branded "LSL5", and contained in-game references to the events of LSL4.

[jimhines]

Ah. Got it, thanks!

[jonxarn]

A Fistful of Sky by Nina Kiriki Hoffman explores some weight issues. It's a fantastic book, one I've given my mom, sisters and wife.

[melissajm]

Oh, I love that one!