Blogflog - A few of my favorite things . . . from Ireland and England

[blogfloggery.livejournal.com]

Link: A few of my favorite things . . . from Ireland and England
Disclaimer: This blog entry is verbatim, as originally posted on LKH's blog. Copyright belongs to Ma Petite Enterprises.

A month long trip to Ireland and England and the most asked question since we returned to family and friends in the states is this: What was your favorite part? I’ve answered it differently, by simply throwing out whatever first comes to mind like a word association.

What was your favorite part of the trip?

The Wicklow Mountains in Ireland.



One of the many waterfalls we saw in Glendalough, in the Wicklow Mountains.

What was your favorite part?

Writing in Dublin. (I wrote better there than anywhere else.)

What was your favorite?

Introducing Spike and Genevieve to pate in Dublin. They have dubbed it smooth, creamy, spreadable meat butter.

Your favorite?

Eating at Gordon Ramsey’s flagship restaurant, Restaurant Gordon Ramsey, in London. It has three Michelin stars and now I know why. An amazing experience and will likely get a blog of its own later.

Favorite?

British Museum. Jonathon summed it up, “Every little emperor’s dream of avarice.” It was beyond amazing. It will also be getting it’s own blog later.

Fav?

Glastonbury Abbey, where the calling of crows led me to my first ever badger sett hidden under a huge oak tree. It turns out I followed the birds in the wrong end of the path. If I’d come in the proper way there was a sign to tell me the badgers were there, but honestly I prefer having found it the way I did. I followed the birds trying to see what they were fussing about, and then suddenly, badgers! I often find the most magical moments are the unplanned ones.

?

That moment when I stood in a town I’d never known about, at a ruin I’d never heard about, and knew that my muse had been right. This was the place to put the monster. My imagination had whispered the name of this place to me when, to my knowledge, I had never known it even existed. I haven’t had that happen since the ninth Anita Blake novel, Obsidian Butterfly, when Edward insisted he lived in New Mexico, even though I’d never visited the state. I remember arguing with him, “I created you, how can you live somewhere I know nothing about?” I lost that argument, because he was absolutely right and I knew it the moment I stepped off the plane in Albuquerque. He still lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Ireland took me longer to get my research feet under me, and I’ll be blogging in more detail about that process later, but once I got into the swing of things it was like that moment in New Mexico – this was it. I know where the monster is, where the bodies are buried, where the crime will happen, and who Anita follows to Ireland.

Are the above really my favorite moments of the trip? Yes and no. They are some of my favorite moments, but not all of them. I’ll be blogging about more highlights and moments of inspiration, craziness, research, and sheer happy accidents over the next few weeks, but this gives you a taste of the trip. Yes, I have been deliberately vague about where the Irish book, as I called it for a long time, is set, because I’m not ready to share exact locations yet. I have a book to finish writing and it feels like if I give too much detail now on the blog that it will derail some of the energy that is driving the book forward. I need to be immersed in the fictional version of the town, countryside, ruins, etc . . . before I discuss the reality too much. In fact, I have pages yet to write today, a scene to complete, a fight to finish, but first, the reality of dogs and breakfast for them and myself and then back to my fictional world where dogs never interrupt and breakfast rarely seems to happen.

Comments

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

Just a second, didn't Anita have fish, way back in the day? Back when she collected penguins and actually had something of a personality and hobbies and a life that didn't revolve around her ever-expanding collection of interchangeable penises?

I don't want to know what happened to those poor fish. I'm just going to imagine someone with compassion and a love for animals adopted them and is taking proper care of them and they are the happiest little fish ever.

[suzycat.livejournal.com]

She did!!!

[dwg.livejournal.com]

The fish just vanished when Anita moved out of her apartment and have never been mentioned again. Which is probably just as well because she's not even at the house she moved into anymore.

Unless this is what Damian does in the basement? Adjusting the PH in the aquarium may be the highlight of his weekend.

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

That's part of the problem with these latest ones, I think. The things that made Anita seem like a human being have been forgotten entirely or traded in for high school-eque drama and endless circular descriptions. I don't recall the fish ever being talked about in detail (or the penguin) but the fact that they were there made her more interesting and likable.

I honestly don't recall which one Damian is, but I'm certain I can say with reasonable confidence that those poor fish deserve better.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

I agree! Specially since Anita made a point of saying she didn't have a tv in the beginning of the series, she just had the fish and it was soothing to watch them swim around. Now she still doesn't have a tv but will get condescending about how what she does is REAL not like on tv or in movies (which also begs the question as to how pop culture in this universe has evolved - if vampires and werewolves and magic have always been real, that's...that's going to change what knd of tv shows and books and comics we have. What we call paranormal romance would most likely just be "romance" in the Anitaverse and who knows maybe there's a niche genre for All Human AUs? Or since Anita and Richard are into musicals, how do having opera singers that have been around for hundreds of years or Cirque du Soleil with shapeshifters work???SORRY FOR THE EPIC TANGENT!) nor any other hobbies/interests aside from having sex or going to the gym. Even if Anita had an interaction with one of her partners (or a random person) that wasn't antagonistic, just a "hey I got you coffee," would go a long way imo to making her a wee bit less awful and shallow as a character.

But that would mean LKH would be showing things rather than dumping huge slabs of text to tell us exactly how happy and well-rounded Anita is even though nothing else in the text supports this.

Damian's the redhaired Viking guy in Anita's neglected second triumvirate. He's got a girlfriend now and last I heard, Anita was considering using the ardeur to force him to be more "heteroflexible" with the other dudes because he doesn't seem to be into the whole group sex thing. The rest of the time he kinda gets ignored and was previously living in the basement of Anita's house.

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

Your tangent is a really great point, actually. I think the world-building is one of the things I really miss. There was something about an all vampire ballet company, but it felt really shoe-horned in and not expanded upon in any interesting way, and that had real potential. I would love to know what pop culture has become in that 'verse. Even period pieces could benefit from the point of view of a vampire who had been there and could speak to accuracy. I do think that all-human aus would basically be a kind of cultural white-washing, though, since vampires and lycanthropes would still be a marginalized minority. Or were, last I paid attention. I'm still very unclear on the legality of a lot of things in Anita-verse, to be honest.

Well, I'm sure he's better off being ignored, the way things are going. He can chill with his gf instead of putting up with the rest of the nonsense. If you would, remind me, was he the Viking that got turned unsettlingly young, or am I thinking of someone else?

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Same with Cynric suddenly being in an all-therian football team when a) there's still plenty of discrimination everywhere against shapeshifters, specially in the workplace and with human kids and b) several states still have the shoot on sight varmint laws. Therian sports teams sounds cool until my brain trips over "but how does that even WORK in the construct of this universe?" Which is something that I find endlessly fascinating and love thinking about.

Yeah no Damian's an adult, I think you might mean Byron? Who was turned as a teenager and is flamingly gay except for that one time he had sex with Anita due to the ardeur. She keeps mentioning that even though he's a vampire, he can still work out to give himself some muscle and not look like jailbait.

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I would assume that, with their enhanced speed/stamina/power, etc, all-therian teams would almost be a necessity, since them playing against a human team would be a massacre. But it does bring up the question whether teams made up of different 'species' would play well together or if it'd be a mess.

Oh, yeah, thank you! It does absolutely say something that I literally can't remember which harem member is which anymore. Also, am I the only one who is disturbed by this weird fetishization of youth thing LKH has going? In another author, one who could be trusted to separate their kinks from their characters', or one who could write a thing while still making it clear that the thing is wrong or immoral, I'd be a tiny bit more inclined to be lenient, but between Byron and Cynric, this is really starting to look unsettling and gross.

Didn't she also write something to the effect that vampires' hair can grow? This whole damn universe can't even keep it's own internal laws straight.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

between Byron and Cynric, this is really starting to look unsettling and gross.

Don't forget Matthew!

On second thought, forgetting Matthew is probably a good plan for one's digestion.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

You're not alone in getting members of the harem confused or being disturbed by LKH's youth fetish - I mean, really, it started with Nathaniel being 18-19ish when he first met Anita. Anita's now 30, Nathaniel was teaching Cynric how to lap dance for her, and while she's weirded out about going to Cynric's PTA meetings as one of his legal guardians while she still has a sexual relationship with him, she's not so skeeved as to cease sleeping with him. And then there's Hit List where Edward casually mentions his stepson is now sexually active and wayyyy too rough with his girlfriends but Edward thinks it'd be great to take the kid camping with Anita for his first lycanthrope hunt. I'm pretty sure one of the mermaid dudes was borderline statutory too.

That LKH put so much research into the age of consent across multiple states creeps me out to no end. There's no reason for the character to be this young. Hell, there's no reason for the character to exist at all because it's not like he adds anything to the story other than to be a sulky teenager who insists his name is Sin and he wants to show off Anita as his girlfriend.

The whole vampires growing their hair thing gets really goofy when it's later revealed that Jean-Claude is draining power from all those bound to him so he can grow his hair long the way that Anita likes.

[rebootfromstart.livejournal.com]

The whole "Sin" thing bugs me so hard, because Cynric isn't pronounced with a soft c. If you're going to give characters unusual names, it behooves you to know how they're pronounced so you won't look like a dumbass.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

The whole "Sin" thing annoys me to no end - both for what you mentioned about how it's pronounced, but also the further justification is that oh he's got a brother who abbreviates his name to "Rick" so that's taken and can't be used. But we can have at least three different Nickys, that's fine.

Then again this is the same woman who pronounces "Doyle" as "Dole" and "noir" as "noor" so of course she's going to mangle Cynric.

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

A teenager who calls himself 'Sin' and tries to show off his older, darkety-dark gf sounds basically like the type of teenager who shops exclusively at Hot Topic. "IT'S NOT A PHASE MOM, IT'S WHO I AM." And the fact that Anita is legitimately attracted to this child and has a (completely inappropriate/immoral) relationship with him says a whole hell of a lot about Anita. And LKH, by extension. Goddamn.

That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard, and I am suddenly thankful I missed that book entirely. To be fair, I think the last one I actually read was either Burnt Offerings or Blue Moon, after that I've kept up entirely from book-flogs and this community, though that's been sporadically enough that I've missed a great many discussions, very sorry.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I can see therians being marginalized minorities in the Anitaverse (particularly since they are given zero protection from vampires), but not really vampires, no matter how hard LKH tries to claim it. They can and do mind-control people constantly. They run everything in their culture on rape, and whenever a group of vampires wants to break away from the enslaver/enslaved dynamic, we're supposed to think they're wrong. They've set up their own evil fiefdom within the U.S., with which the government is okay because... uh...

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

You bring up an excellent point. The vampire society (subculture? Whatever they qualify as, my brain is not functioning after the day I've had, very sorry) seems to operate on the same lawful evil principles as Anita herself. "It's not TECHNICALLY illegal, so we're cool."

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

I think "society" because they don't answer to broader society's laws or mores on any point ever. Or "massive cult."

I just can't get over the fact that in Kiss the Dead, the "villains" were basically normal people who happened to have been vamped and didn't want to be enslaved by someone who stole their energy in order to grow his hair. And Anita saw not wanting to be enslaved as utterly evil and worthy of torture and murder (including of a sleeping child.)

Vampire society works on the principle of might makes right, period. It's constant rape and abuse and more rape, and Anita likes to go off on how "prejudiced" anyone who doesn't embrace this is. Not only is this disgusting, but it's utterly unworkable. A society in which the so-called leaders were THIS self-absorbed and controlled by their crotches would self-destruct in no time.

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

I definitely missed Kiss of the Dead, because I think I would have remembered that (if only out of absolute horror). The more we talk about this, and the more I remember the tone of the initial couple of books, the more I feel like this is some kind of parallel universe. Now I look back, there are a few hints of what it'd turn into, but they are now flanderized beyond belief, it's like bad fanfic. LKH is writing her own bad fanfic.

[openidwouldwork.livejournal.com]

And she's nearly drained him dry several times, because, you know, she just can't take care of herself. Things like eating regularly are just too difficult...

[dwg.livejournal.com]

NGL it genuinely disturbs me that Anita's gone from being self-sufficient in her own place to needing constant reminders to simply eat a sandwich. And that she can no longer pick out her own clothes to wear, that's Nathaniel's job so of course he gets the blame when she wears inappropriate clothing to work situations. And then there's the desperate need to have someone literally hold her hand or massage her because she may fly into a violent rage for no reason. I'm surprised Anita doesn't have Nathaniel following her around all the time to remind her to breathe in and breathe out.

[leigh stevens (from livejournal.com)]

You bring up an interesting point. just looking at the evolution of movies:
Think of all the people who are interested in history when they watch a period piece. Speaking from experience, my brain explodes when the film makers get something wrong. With vampires, you always have an expert. How about vampires using their abilities for special effects. Or lycanthropic animal trainers to make sure that the animals do what the director needs the first time without, I don't know, killing the lead.

I haven't read the newer Anita and I think I might be glad for that...
heteroflexible indeed.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

OH GOD YES I GET LIKE THAT TOO. And oh man, you could have lycanthrope stunt performers who can lift a car without injuring themselves, or fling themselves out of a building safely. Or you can have vampires on set who were Roman gladiators back in the day so they know how this fight is supposed to go down, plus they have a friend who was a pirate in the 18th century and she's excellent at both shooting AND fencing. Or there's witches for outdoor shoots to make sure they have nice weather or providing protective charms during fight sequences.

I also have to wonder how much fairytales and folklore may be true in this universe. Like, were Hansel and Gretel really imprisoned by a witch? Dragons appear to be more like cryptids than magical creatures, maybe Bigfoot and chupacabra are too. Mermaids are canon and can walk on land, so the Little Mermaid may well have actually happened.

(Also in this universe, there's proof that a higher power exists in that holy items will glow and burn vampires in accordance to faith - and it's not limited to Christianity, Graham the werewolf is a Buddhist, one of the HAV people had a Torah charm because he was Jewish. Demons are real! Possessions do happen! An angel had some kind of presence in Skin Trade. Surely religion in the Anitaverse would be incredibly different in light of there being evidence of God(s) being real.)

[point-earedpain.livejournal.com]

This, all of this, is fantastic and EXACTLY why I am so frustrated with this series. In the hands of someone competent, it could have been so good.

[alondra-del-sol.livejournal.com]

I think the problem is that LKH wrote herself into a lot of corners and realized that when the shoe didn't fit there wasn't a way to back gracefully out of it. Like having to deal with religion and create a whole mythos for it, which I don't think was something she was up to even pre-downhill turn. Like if she had continued to focus on the detective part of it there wouldn't be an issue, but considering she powers up more frequently than a magical girl in an anime she made it more relevant. There's also the fact that the author obviously has a lot of condescension for religion and she can't even make her OC believably Episcopalian anymore or whatever she had landed on previously. Like I think she could have folded the power of belief into her system of magic if she had been more careful about it, but she just kind of shoe horned it in without even really considering it.

There is frankly a lot of cool stuff she could have done, but well... here we are, lol.

Also I kind of always got the feeling that while vampires were newly legal the public consciousness of them was also kind of fresh. A lot of people rightly mention that there is a lot of consideration to be taken regarding so many various aspects of the world being changed by the existence of these creatures, but I think LKH forgot the part of the back story somewhere along the way where they weren't in the public consciousness until recently and only after being legal did some of these facts, some more disturbing than others, come to light; however, I think that would be too much like Charlaine Harris for her to admit to it now so she will probably continue to be clueless about it. Especially too if you consider where the books started and how the internet was only just starting to be a thing or whatever.

Ugh, the more I think about it the more of a mess it is and the more frustrating it all becomes.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't think she even thinks this much about it. She just runs with the Rule of Cool and to hell with it making any kind of sense in the narrative, let alone how it fits into the established worldbuilding. She's A-OK with retconning whatever she feels like which is why everyone's age and height fluctuate wildly and we suddenly have zombies who are murder victims going on a vengeance murder spree when previously they'd been raised to testify in court without any issues.

I totally agree that it'd make more sense if vampires were only recently out of the coffin! Or even something like Kim Harrison's The Hollows where there was a tomatopocalypse and turns out vampires are immune. It definitely fits with how LKH talks about "what if you woke up tomorrow and monsters are real? How would you deal with that?" Because yeah, the more I think about having vampires, zombies, and werewolves always being known, the more I think about how things should be incredibly different. But at least it's a good exercise for my own worldbuilding so I can avoid falling into the same traps.

[lliira (from livejournal.com)]

The entire world would have been completely different. Not only are there vampires and fae and etc., but magic and psychic powers are real and known to be so too. Faith works as a direct weapon, people are known to have souls, and there are human beings who have complete power over those souls. Magical mind control is a common thing. The world would have to be re-built from the ground up, and it would be nothing like our world.

I have a theory that Anita Blake is a Ravenloft Darklord, though. That's why nothing makes sense; she's constantly reshaping her domain based on her passing whims.