Blogflog - The Four of Us

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: The Four of Us
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.



We’re getting ready for Halloween and have just finished carving pumpkins. Our foursome is complete and under one roof, Genevieve and Spike have moved in with us! We are forming a household together. One of the interesting things that’s been happening is that we aren’t getting to sleep until very late. Yes, sometimes it’s for fun and nefarious reasons, but more often it’s just that the conversation that started at dinner keeps going until late. We talk like people who don’t see each other often and have to catch up, but we’re doing it night after night. This is after celebrating four years of dating long distance.

When we first started talking seriously about moving in together there was an afternoon down at Spike and Genevieve’s house where we’d talked about everything from biology – birds, migrating geese, Monarch butterflies, dragons; video games – Shadows of Mordor, Assassins Creed, Dragon Age, to Star Wars. We’d talked for at least two hours and the far ranging conversation showed no signs of slowing down. The conversation had gotten quite silly with Jon and Spike taking turns doing lines from one of their shared geeky interests and making both Genevieve and me laugh.

Spike said, “This, if we couldn’t do this together I wouldn’t have agreed to trying to move in.”

“Me, either,” I said, “if we couldn’t do this it wouldn’t work.”

All four of us have what they used to call lively minds, which means we’re quick mentally, verbally, and all of us can hold our own in topics from heavy to light. You never know if we’ll be talking philosophy, religion, science, guns, weaponry in general, childhood memories, favorite movies, games, politics, places we want to visit together, places we’ve been, and just sharing the chemistry of four people who have found that they never bore each other.

I can show in my novels the sex and kink, the romance, the conversations that are pertinent to the character development, or plot of a given book, but I can’t show you the conversations that are utterly necessary to being a great “couple” because they would have nothing, or very little, to do with any plot. In real life it’s both more silly and more serious than I ever get to show on screen. All serious conversations in the writing must serve the larger purpose of the novel it’s in, but in reality there is no plot, no overarching plan for the “season”, or the series. You spend a lot of time winging it in real life, but in a mystery series you really can’t do that. I love any time I’ve been able to show the silliness that is absolutely necessary for me to be in a happy coupleness. I’m never going to be able to discuss politics, or philosophy on stage unless it relates directly to the book I’m writing. I slip in a few geeky happy moments, but mostly it’s all editing the fiction down to serve the purpose of the plot. Real life doesn’t work that way, it is far messier, surprising, even shocking, the turns that your world can take when you say, yes, to the adventure before you.

J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan said, “To live would be an awfully big adventure.”

It really can be if you’re willing to believe in the magic of the people around you, and understand that it’s not all romance and hot sex, that sometimes you have to plan menus and decide who does the dishes, but if you do it right, even that is part of the adventure. After all, if you don’t have dinner you never get to desert. Yeah, *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* Laughs!

Comments

[fangedsekhmet.livejournal.com]

Look at her, living life better than the rest of us mere mortals.

My expression? Second pumpkin from the left.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

I think she is the bland expressionless one on the left.

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

if you don’t have dinner you never get to desert

I would like to desert this self-congratulatory, smug blog now, please. The lively minds are too much for me.

[foxfire74.livejournal.com]

All serious conversations in the writing must serve the larger purpose of the novel it’s in,

Madam, I see your dreck and raise you the Cal Leandros books, in which very few conversations are serious and all of them are awesome. And serve valuable characterization and worldbuilding purposes while still sounding like things that would actually come out of human/demihuman/ohGodwhatISthat mouths.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be over here in the corner growling about subject/verb agreements.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

the conversations that are pertinent to the character development, or plot of a given book,

LIES! You need to have character and plot before you can develop them!

And don't tell me that having a Very Serious Conversation about the cultural significance of the sidhe having long hair is totally relevant to anything when Merry's supposed to be going down on a dude.

[rodentfanatic.livejournal.com]

Yes, sometimes it’s for fun and nefarious reasons
You could have just said that we stay up all night talking to each other, but noooo, had to work ~omg sexxx teehee~ in there, huh? Also, "nefarious reasons"? What? LKH seriously is a teenager that still thinks sex is this naughty wild crazy thing only the bad cool kids do, I swear.

All four of us have what they used to call lively minds, which means we’re quick mentally, verbally, and all of us can hold our own in topics from heavy to light. You never know if we’ll be talking philosophy, religion, science, guns, weaponry in general, childhood memories, favorite movies, games, politics,
IS ANYONE ELSE READING A LOT OF SMUG IN THIS?

but I can’t show you the conversations that are utterly necessary to being a great “couple” because they would have nothing, or very little, to do with any plot.
Actually, if you had the skill, you could indeed work that in just fine. Maybe make room for it by cutting out the pages and pages of absolute NOTHING that you currently use as filler that makes up the better part of the book? After having sporked everything between Skin Trade and Kiss the Dead, I can tell you, she has NO problem writing whole chapters about completely plot-irrelevant bullshit that's totally boring and does nothing to advance the characters. So when she says she can't put ACTUAL CHARACTER-BUILDING STUFF IN THERE it's clearly not because of plot-relevance, it's because she's just shit at character development. Like this "oh, I can't put it in there, if it doesn't serve the plot" excuse is such a blatant lie IT'S ACTUALLY MAKING ME KINDA MAD AFTER EVERYTHING I'VE SPORKED TO THE CONTRARY

Also? Make it serve the plot, then. Again, a good author could do that.

J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan said, “To live would be an awfully big adventure.”
Didn't hey say to DIE would be an awfully big adventure?

After all, if you don’t have dinner you never get to desert. Yeah, *wink, wink, nudge, nudge* Laughs!
OH MY GOD LKH GROW UP

also "Laughs!" wtf

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Peter Pan says 'to die' etc. She's quoting from Hook.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

Which is also worth quoting, imo, but it's not JM Barrie's Peter Pan. It feels like LKH wants to "prove" how literary she is but gets the damn quote wrong.

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

I'm literary! I read books! I enjoy the classics! That means I'm better than others!

[snarky-imp.livejournal.com]

I couldn't make it through the smug, actually. I tried. I really did, but I started to choke and then the lights dimmed, and finally the cat told me to stop being so damn melodramatic and walk away. :P

That and the rage at her thinking that there's no point in including the fun/fluffy parts of a relationship because she's got so much important to the PLOT stuff to shoehorn in when we all know there's no damn plot to be found.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeeeppp. And she wants to be seen as a special snowflake for doing exactly what everyone else does with friends, family, partners etc. Laurell does not live as we mere mortals do!

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Wait, you mean people who like each other have conversations and share their opinions and interests? Why am I just now learning this?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that sometimes people have conversations about various topics, sometimes even in one sitting. I could be wrong! I don't think I have this lively mind thing happening either, but that could be because I've taken precautions with a lot of foil.

(It's disturbing how much sense this all makes if LKH were an interdimensional lizard?)

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

Lizard K Hamilton: discovering human behaviour for the first time. They talk to each other! They share experiences! They engage in social activities! I must tell everyone!

[dwg.livejournal.com]

"This lively mind must be a telepathic bond they forge between individuals to strengthen their interpersonal relationships. I shall partake of this."

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

I actually find the idea of a lizard person devouring wikipedia entries on Nietzsche and Silent Hill so he always has something to talk about with the humans really adorable. "Human, I hear there is video games! Let me tell you about the symbology of the Pyramid-Headed One."

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Awww! That's pretty adorable. I sorta hope the lizard person would have nights of "there are so many browser tabs!" over their wiki exploits and report to one of their lizard buddies. "I started reading about uses of beeswax and somehow ended up learning about transmutation of metals, a man who is also a bat, and mysticism during WWII."

[dagonista.livejournal.com]

"DID YOU KNOW that at certain times of year the humans take seasonal produce and carve them into new people! AND THEN THEY EAT THEM."

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

"The lively mind bond is solidified with lots of good sex." (insert the giggle of children at mention of s.e.x.)

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

LIES.

We only talk about stuff we read on TMZ.

It is known.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Like this "oh, I can't put it in there, if it doesn't serve the plot" excuse is such a blatant lie

For serious. There is, at least, a major disconnect between what LKH does and what she claims she does.

Also, yes, she is incredibly immature about sex. I can't remember her ever making a sex joke the way other adults do -- or even most teenagers. She begins and ends with "teehee sex aren't I naughty!"

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

Peter Pan says "To die" for sure, Typical LKH, completely missing the point, getting her references wrong, applying something that reflects a very particular place and era to something unrelated and having it fail miserably.

[txvoodoo.livejournal.com]

All four of us have what they used to call lively minds, which means we’re quick mentally, verbally, and all of us can hold our own in topics from heavy to light. You never know if we’ll be talking philosophy, religion, science, guns, weaponry in general, childhood memories, favorite movies, games, politics,

"IS ANYONE ELSE READING A LOT OF SMUG IN THIS?"

More like she's trying to humble-brag and utterly failing.

Translation "We're all REALLY SMART, smarter than you are, rest assured. In case you didn't understand "lively minds", let me paraphrase in language a 5 year old would get. Also, here are all the things WE talk about, while you're only discussing football and Beyonce. And my books, right?"

[jessica collett (from livejournal.com)]

Those are really boring pumpkins. They're nice and all, but I thought that Mss. Darkity Dark would have something out of the ordinary.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

Kurt Vonnegut said that every line in a story should have to do with plot or character. It does NOT have to directly relate to the plot. But the most important thing is not to waste the readers' time.

As for LKH saying this... what plot? That 50-page Very Serious conversation/argument with Richard directly relates to the plot of Danse Macabre, does it? So what is the plot of that book then? I'm more than halfway through, it's taken me an obscenely long time to get there, and I still have no clue what the damn plot even is. And this is usual in her books.

You need to develop characters if you have half a hope of developing a plot. Otherwise there's no point to anything in the story -- who cares if stuff is happening to cardboard cutouts? Plot and character are interdependent.

Well, at least when she talks about writing, we can clearly see why she's so bad at it.

[magdalen77.livejournal.com]

I can answer that for you. Danse Macabre has no plot. It's just about a pregnancy scare and a vampire dance troupe coming to St. Louis. Other than that I've got nothing.

[wilma howe-bennett (from livejournal.com)]

Don't know about the rest of y'all - but I am starting a betting pool as to just how long this "menage a quatre" is going to last . . .

My best estimate is 12 - 18 months.

JUST because you're a pretentious horse's patoot, lkh (and yes, the lower-case IS deliberate because only a registered Dom/Domme gets capitalized), doesn't mean that your l "long distance dates" are going to put up with your garbage forever. BoyToyTheGigilo HAS to - he can't earn a living any other way except to worship at your vajayjay. One hopes that G. and Spike {and how pretentious is THAT???} eventually get away.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

the lower-case IS deliberate because only a registered Dom/Domme gets capitalized

...what?