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

[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.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

Yeah exactly, this is why I can't buy into the RPIT being underfunded, ridiculed, and people don't know about silver bullets given that they deal with extraordinary circumstances every single day. But at the same time, enough is known for people to teach preternatural biology courses in college. The MG books suffer from the same problem only twofold because the fairies are a cultural vacuum and largely ignorant of 21st century human social norms and apparently no human has sat down with a fairy to have coffee and talk about libraries or where they grew up. (Then again, why bother with conversation with anyone you don't want to sleep with?)

Your theory seems legit.