From the Plot Bunnies... with Love

In spite of a lot of DIY (that I really had to deal with) and of my being back to my rent&bills-paying job, I managed to keep tickling the bunnies.

I haven't forgotten the short story I promised you. It is written, but not edited yet.

My second story in my Muff&Sherly universe is about half-way through and it's already novella-sized. Changing the character who tells the story was a good idea as it gives the tales another taste, perspective, and kind of fun within the world that I'm building brick by brick (more "paragraph by paragraph", but you get the drift).

I'm having a lot of fun with that universe.

Last week, something funny (and weird, and inspiring, and lovely) happened as I watched again Mr Pullman's interview on the BBC DVD of The Ruby in the Smoke. I was reflecting that the fact that the two ladies who are helping Sherly and Muff and teaching them to be private investigators are wives may make a few people growl.

When the idea first came to me, I wanted to have one stable, loving couple, and the gals won that lottery, and since I know that "love is love" and cannot see differences in people as long as they don't bug me and tell me how I should live, that detail came naturally to me. As well, growing up with the tolerant world of Star Trek in my head, it was perfectly normal for me to opt for the only possible configuration for the happy couple I wanted in my story (that was basically going one step beyond the Trek message).

I've already written one novel with that "cast", and I'm half-way through the second tale, and I only realized that my "normal" may disturb a handful of readers, and so, when I heard Mr Pullman say that he doesn't write for an audience, I started nodding like mad. What happens in Muff&Sherly describes my hopes for the future, and if my two happily married lesbians disturb anyone, I don't care. They're good, lovely, and role-models. I'd like my readers to like them, but my love for them isn't proportional to their future success.

My fantasy novel is a chapter (plus an epilogue) away from its conclusion. After working on it for years, that's strange, but I'm about to give birth to a lovely story.

Geography provided me with details that made the plot better, and History was also on my side.

I discovered many things whilst doing my research, and the story was made much better.

I always have a "work" file where I keep the plot ideas I have for my stories. Last night, as I read again a few of my initial ideas for this story, I got to realize how much that plot had mutated over the past few months. It's a fascinating phenomenon.

Like many Fantasy stories, it's a big bunny, but I think it's smooth and flowing nicely.

That's about it for the plot bunnies.

I've got paint bunnies in the oven, but that'll be for another post (all the more since my current work is composed of five "scenes", and I'm just about to finish the very first one).

There you go.

Drusilla, over...