The Wordsmith's Forge

I just posted three new verses of the ongoing epic "RUT?" in which an old man finds his old cell phone, and odd things begin to happen.  These were sponsored by the_vulture and janetmiles.

Good ones and bad ones, with discussion.

Well, the followup poll was determined to stay tied, so I put $2.50 into each of the two open epics.  This is enough to fund the next verse of "RUT?" which you can now read in the original post of that poem.

This poem came out of the July 6, 2010 Poetry Fishbowl.  It was inspired by a prompt from rhodielady_47.  She gave me the beginning of a story and its mood:

An old man takes an old long-obsolete cell phone out of his desk drawer and remembers what his life was like back when he and the cell phone were both young and the "top of the line". Should be quite sentimental.

... well, it got a little racier in places, but it's definitely still sentimental, and it gave me a chance to play with some favorite motifs.

This microfunded poem is being posted one verse at a time, as donations come in to cover them. The rate is $.50 per line, so $5 will reveal 10 new lines, and so forth. There is a permanent donation button on my profile page, or you can contact me for other arrangements. So far sponsors include: the_vulture, janetmiles.

FULLY FUNDED!
102 lines, Buy It Now = $51 
Amount donated = $45.50
Amount remaining to fund fully = $5.50
Amount needed to fund next verse = $.50

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Paranormal romance is surging.

My hypothesis?  Women have decided that men are jerks and wish to fantasize having a relationship with something else.

... what it means to publishing.

If you are a Torn World supporter, you can now read my story "Owlheart."  It came out of the May Torn World Muse Fusion, inspired by a prompt from tonithegreat.  This story is rated Spicy Content for adult relationship dynamics; for general reference, Spicy Content is for registered members only.  Here we see that homosexuality is an ordinary part of Northern life for those so inclined; on the other hand, monogamy is more of a challenge...
Tekura shares a bead with Osro at the summer gather.

Do you like this story and want to see more such?  Do you want to support my Torn World work in general?  If you're a registered Torn World member (which is free) then you can leave comments and/or Karma.  If you're a supporter then you can leave Credits.  Any of this stuff can be directed at the author and/or patron of a story using Torn World's crowdfunding features.  If you're not a Torn World member but still want to pitch in, I have a PayPal button on my profile page.

This poem came out of the April 6, 2010 poetry fishbowl.  It was inspired by prompts from janetmiles and siege.*  It was sponsored by janetmiles.

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I don't read or write a great deal of romance, but it can be fun as a subplot.  Recently I happened to be reading some, and I noticed something: the #1 conflict between hero and heroine seems to be a misunderstanding in which he thinks she doesn't love him and she thinks he doesn't love her, so they don't get together until the end of the book, when the truth is revealed and magically solves most or all of their problems.  This is true even in several books where other things should be causing more of the conflict.  I am wondering how widespread this is across the romance genre, because I suspect it goes a long way towards my usual feeling of "Nothing is happening, this is stupid."  (I rarely enjoy romantic smalltalk from live people, so it tends to bore me in fiction too.)  I'm also interested in alternatives.

I can think of a few books with romantic plotlines where something other than a misunderstanding played a major role.  Shards of Honor, for instance, featured a star-spanning culture clash erupting into warfare.  Some other possible conflicts:

* The characters were raised so differently that it creates many differences in how they do everyday things, so that they have a hard time fitting together.
* The characters hold deeply opposed religious/political/other views that spark interpersonal disputes and make their relatives uncomfortable, and which cannot easily be abandoned.
* The characters live far apart.  It is difficult for them to spend time together, even though they both want to.
* The characters live in a context where extreme social disapproval makes it difficult or even dangerous for them to be together, which will continue as long as they are in a relationship.  Or even alive, for some cases.
* The characters don't have a language in common.  One or both will have to learn a new language, which for most people is exhaustive and frustrating.
* There is an inherent physical risk to them being together, especially in a sexual way.  This is most prevalent in speculative fiction with a vampiric or lycanthropic or alien partner but there are other possibilities.
* The characters have opposing professions, which they are unwilling or unable to change.
* One character wants children and the other does not (or cannot have them).  No matter how much they love each other, they want fundamentally different things from life in that regard.
* One character is handicapped.  The other is not used to working around that and feels uncomfortable.

Once in a while, I see one of those other factors played as the prevailing conflict that the characters must come to terms with before affirming their relationship.  Most of the time, though, even when these very big issues are on the board -- these things that frequently lead to breakups -- they are usually overshadowed by Misunderstanding #1, as if love solves everything.  It doesn't.  It really, really doesn't.  It can make you determined to solve everything, but that's a different story.

That's a different story, and that's the kind I want to read, and write myself.

One of the other things that got me thinking about this was the planned relationship between Fala and Rai in Torn World.  She's Northern, he's Southern; relationships are strained between those cultures, but they can't easily ignore each other anymore.  Their everyday lives are so different as to have almost no overlap.  Social support for the relationship is variable; some of their relatives are okay with it, but the expectations are so wildly different that even "support" can spark outbursts.  Their homes are very far apart; they have to figure out where or when they could be together and whether they can stand to separate sometimes.  At the time they meet, they are both handicapped: Rai was born blind, and Fala lost her legs in a wilderness accident.  It doesn't help that he's relatively comfortable with his handicap and she isn't with hers yet.  Their languages share a common root (Ancient) but have evolved differently for Fala (Northern) and Rai (Southern).  The grammar and function words are similar, but a lot of the content words are very different.  That puts a drag on the conversation.  They're lucky that both of them are smart, fast learners -- and Rai has a stupendous memory. 

Do they love each other?  Once they get over some initial awkwardness, yes, they both understand that part just fine.  It doesn't help much with problem-solving.  It just keeps them in a place where they need to solve those problems.  Sort of like the difference between holding someone over a fire vs. giving them a fire extinguisher.

A friend was visiting today, and mentioned that her mother's eyesight is fading, so they are looking for audiobook entertainment.  I suggested podcasts as an option too.  Favorite genres were romance and westerns.  A quick search turned up some useful resources, which I thought other people might enjoy seeing.

Romance Podcasts
http://www.podfeed.net/tags/romancehttp://www.podfeed.net/tags/romance
http://www.eharlequin.com/store.html?cid=749
http://www.podcastblaster.com/directory/Romance/
http://www.romancepodcast.com/

Western Podcasts:
http://western.libsyn.com/
http://www.podbean.com/search?k=tag&v=western
http://www.otrwesterns.com/category/western-podcast/

Multiple Genre Podcast Directories:
http://www.podiobooks.com/
http://www.podcastdirectory.com
http://podcast.com/
http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_directory.php
http://www.nybooks.com/podcasts/