Redefining Established Paranomal Beings

[Noey]

It sounds familiar, and my first instinct is the Night Huntress series by Jeaniene Frost, but I'm tea deficient and weatherpated today, so I'm very likely wrong. That example is exactly the gist of what I meant. It makes the reader perk up and take notice when conventions are challenged like that.

[Priscellie]

I'm not sure of the proper term here, it's in the same vein as 'cacophony'. The sounding of the two words together LOOP GAR-OO sounded out, sounds childish and like babble-speak. It's hard to put faith behind the word, to really fear it. There isn't enough harshness to the sound of the word like the other two. That is why the other two are more widely used and more widely accepted. Try it sometime, mention all three words to a random lay person and see which one they prefer and which one they find disjointed to the genre. There is no hard sound in the word, so it does not agitate the reader into picking up on it, fearing it, symbolizing it. It just sounds goofy. LOOP GAR-OO. /cringe.

From a personal standpoint, since you seem to care for some reason...  lycanthrope and hexenwulf seem appropriate in my mind. They are established terms I've heard of, understand, and can visualize. Though 'LYCAN' by itself is an awful term also.

At no point did I say I didn't know WHAT a loup-garou is. Jim, as you point out, paints that picture vividly. I merely said it was a stupid sounding term. Like Jackalope or the word Neurovore. It just sounds idiotic, like its trying too hard and failing miserably. Someone then mentioned that I should know what it means simply because its a French word. I countered that I don't speak French, I am American... reading an AMERICAN book. At which point that person promptly surrendered. However someone else decided to call me ignorant. I'm betting it was the part where I said I was American, they just visualized the stereotype... Go figure. Hey, did you know French people don't shave their arm pits? Yours, or someone else's, complaint was that it is an established term in the genre. My response is that the argument is crap. I do not read the genre, I was only exposed to it because it was part of the Dresdenverse that I do enjoy reading. So your argument is that I am an ignorant monoglot just because I do not read the same things you do. When addressed with a complaint, you feel compelled for name calling. How mature.

Tard.

/never said I was mature, either.

This goes so far past the line of "unacceptable" it laps the entire globe and crosses it again.  Let's skip straight to strike three:  one more post like this and you're out.

[Mickey Finn]

And, on a further note, saying "loup-garou" is a stupid term because it doesn't have harsh sounds is not unlike saying Darwin had a crap theory because fainting goats exist.

It's a claim that isn't thought through, and highly suggests your own knowledge of the mythology from which all this was drawn needs some boning up.

Your homework for tonight is the explain why the the Beast of Gevaudan may or may not have been a loup garou.

[Son of an Ogre]

Didn't think this post was going to go in the directions it has... It's like I opened up a can of squirming worms. I can understand WHY Jim went in the direction he did with the werewolves. Since each one was slightly different, it was a good way of keeping things from getting confused for the reader while adding more interest. Personally, I liked what he did. Thought it was enjoyable and added much more depth than just say going with one term. Back to the original purpose of this post...Ghouls.

Okay. So, it's obvious that I've learned not a lot of people are as familiar with what a ghoul is as I thought. Unlike say vampires or zombies or, ugh, werewolves. And since most of what I'm doing seems to fit ghoul mythology--don't know what the mythology is? (just look it up on Google or Wikipedia)--I think I'm going to use the word ghoul for my creature. It just makes sense. I see no reason now in changing it.

[Darwinist]

Your homework for tonight is the explain why the the Beast of Gevaudan may or may not have been a loup garou.

I rebel, because I'm a rebel. Revel in my rebelness.

/skips away... tra lala lala lala

[Mickey Finn]

Do you have a flag?

[Sebastian]

In writing, 'tis the knowledge of the teacher, not where they teach that makes a great class to take.

I'm taking a class with some incredible writers, who aren't sci fi readers.  Initially, their comments were "how does that work?" type variety. And i would, "huh?" Assume nothing and describe all.  See other posting here to do it in an entertaining way.

I'm using a time travel device.  I created it and I described it, but from the wonderful sci fi writer was the Star Trek concern---"aren't you afraid they will change the time line?"  UHm, yeah,great question.  I've been using without thought the Crichton Time Line and more realistic in my opinion to assume.  About ten inventers invent the same device at the same time usually--but only one gets the Kudos.  Killing one off isn't going to change a thing.  Another is already there and ready to go.   

So, I need to go back and explain that--dang it!  :-)  Thank goodness for readers who will actually ask you questions and call you on something you missed doing!

Actually, the ”Timeline” version makes precious little sense. If you can only bring yourself, that’s one thing (though I still suspect if you manage to kill both Newton & Liebnitz that’s going to screw over history), but they can bring stuff.
As in, a small library of all the mathematical and scientific advances of the last 300 years. Print a bunch of copies and start publishing them during the enlightenment and see if things progress as they did for real…