Thursday Thoughts

Quick bit of non-writerly news:  for those who might have missed it, I will be starting culinary school in less than a month - first class, September 30.  I am hoping to be able to blog about the experience, so please feel free to check out Evil Overlady In The Kitchen.

Back to the topic at hand, I am currently tackling the FWO monthly challenge:  write a story in one of the "punk" genres.  Well, how could there possibly be a question?  I'll be writing a mannerpunk story.

I'm fairly fascinated by this subgenre and have even credited it with influencing Journal of the Dead - though truth be told, that is probably more of an intrigue novel.  I love the idea of political and societal manuevering and the matching of wits as the driving plot force of a novel.  It also happens to fit very well with my interest in fantasy mysteries, positively made for labyrinthine motives and alliances.  Unnatural Causes, the fantasy/mystery novel that is on hold until I get Who Wants To Be A Hero? in shape (yes, I have novel overload) is based on a fine web of conflicts and consequences ... and my two outsider detectives, the familiar and the apprentice, are doubtless going to have their clashes with society.

Assuming I ever get a chance to write it, but that's another story (pun intended).

I suppose even the culinary is good practice for all this:  in what other subgenre would it be appropriate to lovingly (but briefly!  I am not a flowery writer) describe food?

Ironically, I was rather turned off by Swordspoint, the alleged originator of this subgenre, but I will recommend a few mannerpunk books I enjoyed:  Patricia C. Wrede's Mairelon The Magician and sequel; and Barbara Hambly's regretfully standalone Stranger At The Wedding.  Galen Beckett's The Magicians and Mrs. Quent has most of the hallmarks of mannerpunk (indeed, it often feels like fantasy Jane Eyre!), but it wasn't a book I can wholeheartedly suggest.   (Check out my review here if you're curious.)

So it's off to the mannerpunk ball with me ...