Proven Guilty

Finished The Dresden Files “Proven Guilty” yesterday (which reminds me, note to self: remind brother to tape first TV ep tomorrow!!!!). I have to admit, I do love this book series. The action! The snark! The supernatural coolness! The morally ambiguous arciness! Thanks to buffyannotater for reccing it.

I am moving on now to a book called “Dreamchild” by Hilary Hemingway and Jeffry P Lindsay. It’s one of those little paperbooks I found in the basement of some used bookstore somewhere–either Guerneville or Santa Cruz–that’s been sitting on my shelf for a while. I thought I should read those before getting into any of my flist recs.

This weekend, I’m in. Polishing up TD 206, contemplating talking to the Mom about the Phoenix thing. And at some point, starting my L Word season 4 reviews. But right now, I’m off to Walgreens. Later, dudes.

Books of 2007:

“A Wizard of Earthsea”, Ursula Le Guin
“Proven Guilty”, Jim Butcher

Argh!

What *is* it with all those “How-to” books on writing Fantasy assuming that you want to create an all-encompassing Medieval world? Isn’t “Buffy” fantasy? Isn’t “Harry Potter” fantasy? Both of those happen in the contemporary, “real” world? Where are the books that help you structure a fantasy story that takes place in the here and now? That gives you info on magic, the occult, mythological creatures, etc.?

Myth-taken

I’ve decided I need to read more mythology and folktales. You know, the classic stuff from various cultures. I can’t help feeling that that’s where my next novel’s going to come from. It will be fantasy, but not historical fantasy. It will take place in the contemporary world, but will be about opening your eyes to the fantastic that’s all around us–or, at least that’s all around in the world of my fictional characters. The best fantasy, I think, builds on the classics, the way Mutant Enemy built on classic horror tales of our own culture and other cultures to create the rich landscape of Buffy and Angel. But oh, I haven’t read mythology since I was in Jr. High. I was one of those Greek-Roman-Norse myths freaks at the time, and I even forayed into Native American mythology before “real life” stepped in and I got more interested in gay and lesbian romance novels.

Now I hardly read anymore at all, which is like, doom, if you want to be a writer.

So I need to read stuff. Mythology, folktales, contemporary, ancient, fantasy. Anybody got any good recommendations to re-start my education?