Month: February 2009

Research is fun!

~ meg ~ 8 Comments

I’m in the swing of editing my first manuscript, and feel the time is right to start developing the story idea for my second book. You know what that means… research!

And now my blood is roaring like a cannon. On the way home from work in Brisbane city, AKA Brisvegas/Brisrael/Brisbados , I impulsively stopped by a construction site. I climbed four flights of rickety scaffold stairs to lob into the site office. I was wearing a skirt and open-toed sandals, and carried a shopping bag holding pumpkin, bread, and toilet paper. A total pro!

I had to face my fear of mocking stares from blokes in hi-viz shirts, vertigo, and possible rejection. I turned around to leave half a dozen times before I cranked up the courage to JFDI. And you know what? The site manager was helpful, his wife is a fan of my genre, and I am now in negotiations for a tour of deep excavation work under a high-rise building!

This bit of research may even top the monster-truck experience for my first book…

Plum genre-bender

~ meg ~ 6 Comments

Crime fic is at the top of my reading lovelist, no doubt about it. But spec fic is a close second. Usually hard sci fi, but fantasy sometimes does it for me, too.

So I’m very interested to see Evanovich’s brave experiment in crossing the streams. I’m halfway through Plum Spooky: I’m loving her intentions, and the execution ain’t half bad! Fantasy has just that floaty softness that crime fic doesn’t usually deliver. A tasty read indeed–and this from a palate suffering Plum-fatigue!

Of course, there’s the whole hard sci fi tradition of genre-bending with the time cop, space cop, continuum cop, et al. And TV audiences are familiar with the joys of the psychic detective. But these stories tend to take themselves So Very Seriously! Evanovich’s dash of riot grrrl – lipstick feminist slapstick – makes for a new breed. She puts the lovechild of Kinsey Milhone and Bridget Jones into the Forbidden Forest, with pleasing results.

The dash of genre-bending also helps overcome the dramatic gridlock of the Plum series. Now that Stephanie’s slept with both Ranger and Morelli , do we really care if she ends up with either of them? I’m afraid the cork has popped on that one for me. The pressure for bigger and better crimes has made for weaker plots, too. But “between the numbers” there is space to open up new love interests, and new spooky plotlines. Brilliant!

Can anyone offer other examples of feminist crime fic fantasy?