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Messages - The Corvidian

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136
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: January 31, 2008, 10:06:24 PM »
Quote from: Quantus347 on January 31, 2008, 08:44:07 PM

From GP:
Looks like magic to me.  And how Michael isn't a big fan of magic that God isn't behind, which is a distinct difference than him being against all magic.

Ive been meaning to post a thread on the supposed difference between faith magic and normal magic, so ill do that to not derail this one.

Couldn't was Micheal does be called Theurgy, as opposed to Thaumaturgy, which is was Harry does?

137
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: January 31, 2008, 10:04:58 PM »
I will admit that magic might be a religion, as it grew out of the rituals used to appease gods and spirits, its just as time went by, the religious trappings where change, or fell out of use. Some types of magic systems did grow out of religion, look at the folk magic of the Pennsylvanis Dutch, or Hoodoo(an outgrowth of Vaudaun). I'll admit that I have been colored by many things that I have read, and said they are source, but sometimes there are bibliographies in the backs of some of those books. I should find a version of the Golden Bough, and read it. I guess, Bulfinche's Mythology could be a source.

Here are a few scientists who were also wizards.

Dr. John Dee
Sir Isaac Newton
Roger Bacon: magical works were attributed to him
Giordano Bruno

138
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: January 31, 2008, 05:50:47 AM »
Quote from: Magus Dresdenarus on January 31, 2008, 05:41:46 AM
One thing I really want to see less of: Attempting to make magic a form of "science."  (Sorry, Mr. Butcher. That's the one thing I dislike about the Dresden-verse.)  Magic(k) isn't science. Magic is religion.

When magic is assumed as science, it also assumes that, like science, magic is dispassionate towards mythology, culture, and tradition.  In short, the urban fantasy axiom is "Magic is the same everywhere. Culture and tradition are just 'flavorings.' "  In the real world, that just isn't true.  Not all magic systems fit into the Egyptian/Golden Dawn/Wicca template.  (Disagree ?  Try plugging in the ancient Chinese, Babylonian, or tribal New Guinean magic systems into that template.)

It seems to me that all modern urban fantasy takes a magic-is-science approach because it is dispassionate and, as a result, won't offend anyone.  In short, magic has become politically correct.

If your character is a Catholic, give him a Catholic viewpoint and make his magic match it according to Catholic tradition; If your character is Wiccan, give him (or her) a Wiccan viewpoint and make his magic match it.

Sure, it takes a LOT of extra research.  But it makes magic less homogenous; As a result, you gain real-world verisimilitude and lose that "I cast a ninth-level fireball. Roll your saving throw" feel.

According to some sources, magic grew out of religion, and that at one time, the wizard and the scientist were one and the same.

139
Author Craft / Re: Vampires, Werewolves, and Elves as Evil Beings
« on: January 31, 2008, 05:46:37 AM »
Quote from: Magus Dresdenarus on January 31, 2008, 04:59:19 AM
Well, folkloric werewolves aren't cursed with a disease but are Satanic sorcerers who use magic to shape-shift.  In other words, they *want* to be that way and went through the effort of learning magic and making the necessary sacrifices to the Devil to gain the ability.

The belt-using werewolves in Fool Moon are an example of the Satanic sorcerer variety (even though Jim's cosmology doesn't posit Satan as the ultimate source of evil.)

There are other ways, like being born on the wrong day; sleeping in an open field, under a full moon; drinking water from a cursed spring; drinking water from a wolf's foot print; being the seventh son of a seventh son. It depends on the source.

140
Author Craft / Re: Vampires, Werewolves, and Elves as Evil Beings
« on: January 31, 2008, 12:42:01 AM »
With the Elves, take a cue from Rob Thurman and Karen Marie Moning. In Moning's latest series, the Fae see humans as little more then monkeys, and in Thurman's novels, they are a race of psychopaths.

141
Author Craft / Re: Ideas for a story
« on: January 13, 2008, 01:25:36 AM »
Write down any dreams you have, and then try to create a story from what happened in the dream.

142
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: January 04, 2008, 04:29:56 AM »
Hey, Jami, check out C.E. Murphy's Heart of Stone for a regular human heroine.

143
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: December 18, 2007, 06:16:42 PM »
Quote from: JamiSings on December 18, 2007, 03:24:47 PM
Well I say that if an author wants to make it work an ordinary person CAN defeat the bad guys and it's boring and over-done to have them turn out to be half fairy or half vampire or whatever. I'm sorry you disagree but it CAN BE DONE.

You'd have to have a bit of supernatural ability to do that. Perhaps the person in question has a piece of jewerly that allows them to do that, but the rest of the time, they are a vanilla human.

144
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: December 17, 2007, 05:32:52 AM »
Quote from: JamiSings on December 17, 2007, 01:16:05 AM
No, but I've seen people checking out his books. I don't have time to read everything.

Well, if you get a chance, and a bit of time, check out some of his Newford novels. Most of his characters are not "Beautiful People". They are outsiders, and eccentrics.

145
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: December 17, 2007, 01:03:56 AM »
Jami, ever read anything by Charles de Lint?

146
Author Craft / Re: What do you wish would be done MORE in urban fantasy?
« on: December 16, 2007, 03:21:34 AM »
I kinda like the stories where the outsiders are the heroes. Rob Thurman is good about this, as both of the Leandros brothers are outsiders.
(click to show/hide)

I could see a fat woman, though I prefer the term "big woman", give vampires whatfor. I think it would be best for a YA novel. A young woman, who doesn't fit into the popular crowd, and who ends up saying everybody because of her hobbies, and because of her genetic backround. She'd be the descendent of the Jotunar (Ice Giants).

I'd also like to see more technomagic. Now the Dresden Files are good, but I'd like to see a series where you have thaumaturges who use computers like magic mirrors, TVs like crystal balls, and Blackberries like wands. You would later find out that magic and science work very well together.

147
Author Craft / Re: Zombies?
« on: September 28, 2007, 04:14:52 AM »
Quote from: Yeratel on September 28, 2007, 03:45:32 AM
Sheesh, nobody is writing anything but "George Romero zombies" anymore. It was creative when Romero did it originally, but now it's just derivative. I'm getting really bored with all the zombie armies raised by cosmic rays, or hazardous waste, or germs, and going on a rampage for brains, turning anyone they bite into another zombie.  Jim Butcher was a lot closer to the original zombie lore with the dead being raised by necromantic sorcery, and under control of the one who raised them. For a change, I'd like to see the old traditional zombies, being raised by a bokor using invocations to Damballah. They didn't eat brains, either. In fact, traditionally, if they ate meat or salt it would break the bokor's hold on them. In Haiti, where they were supposedly used as field slaves, they were alive enough to need to be fed, and given a diet of unsalted cornmeal gruel.

If you gave them salt, the spell would be broken, and they would be dead again.


148
Author Craft / Re: Are Vamps and Werewolves too overdone?
« on: September 28, 2007, 04:12:23 AM »
Did anyone know that Anne Rice's sister, Alice Borchardt, is trying to do for werewolves what her sister did for vampires? ;D

149
Author Craft / Re: Are Vamps and Werewolves too overdone?
« on: September 22, 2007, 03:43:23 AM »
Quote from: Kiriath on September 21, 2007, 09:58:18 PM
There's more Fae than that! :)

How about Holly Black's Tithe and its sequels.
Laurell Hamilton's Merry Gentry...
Melissa Marr's Wicked Lovely, which had a lot of advertising on Locus's website for a while.

EDIT: Or do you mean fae that's not young adult? That's more rare to find...

I would also recommend Yasmine Galenorn's Daughters of the Moon series. I like her version of the Otherwold, and that there is more then one race of Fairy.

150
Author Craft / Re: Are Vamps and Werewolves too overdone?
« on: September 21, 2007, 12:01:04 AM »
Most of the ideas I have with vampires and werewolves have them being the trouble makers. They have come to believe their own PR that they are the "Lords of the Night", something that many of the other supernaturals like to dis-abuse them of.

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