Here be dragons

[owlmoose]

I've just come back from a reading by Naomi Novik, author of the Temeraire series, and I am officially a puddle of fangirly joy.

It was a joint event with Novik and epic fantasy writer Eldon Thompson, who was new to me. Novik kicked off the event by reading a short story set in the Temeraire universe about the first dragon to be tamed in the West

Comments

[heyheyrenay]

This is so great! I am so happy I frothed at you about this! Clearly I need to do this more!

I love that she totally pwned (but er, politely) the other dude about the training wheels analogy that mostly drives me batty. I always love to see her thoughts on fanfic/profic because damn, she's so insightful about it and writing advice, too! I am SO JEALOUS you got to sit in a room and hear her TALK oh god why do I live in the sticks.

ALSO NINE BOOKS. I am at once thrilled but also like "HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT THAT LONG I WILL DIE."

[owlmoose]

She really did. Although I wonder how the folks in the audience who aren't fic writers thought that exchange came off.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WAIT THAT LONG I WILL DIE."

Plus, she said she is going to work on other books in the meantime, which means waiting even longer! *quivers in a corner*

[heyheyrenay]

I read on her LJ a line about a Secret Garden inspired YA novel!

HOLY CRAP NAOMI NOVIK WRITING YA YES PLEASE.

[owlmoose]

Yes, she mentioned that as one of the two projects she's considering next! The other was some urban fantasy idea, I forget the details.

[first_seventhe]

That analogy makes perfect sense. Even classical musicians, often considered the "pros", still usually only interpret the works of others. I'd never thought about it that way, but I really do like it.

[owlmoose]

Doesn't it? Every new performance of a piece of music is going to be a little different, the performer bringing their own talents and feelings about the work, and I think what we do with fanfic can be very much like that.

[waterowl]

Cool! I've never written fanfic, but the covers analogy sounds much more accurate to me than training wheels. I just read a book of essentially a fanfic of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

What's AU?

[owlmoose]

AU = Alternate Universe, and it means something that's different from the canon. In this context, it means taking the characters from a story and putting them in a completely different setting. Elizabeth and Darcy in space, or modern-day New York, or Ancient Rome, would be an AU of Pride and Prejudice.

It's funny how copyright laws have created a two-tier system of fanfic, depending on when the original was written. One is publishable and socially acceptable and the other is not, all by a trick of our legal system.