  Fantasy
This week: Coasts Edited by: Robert Waltz  
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The larger the island of knowledge, the longer the shoreline of wonder.
-Ralph W. Sockman
We can never have enough of nature. We must be refreshed by the sight of inexhaustible vigor, vast and titanic features, the sea-coast with its wrecks, the wilderness with its living and its decaying trees, the thunder-cloud, and the rain.
-Henry David Thoreau quotes
And the three men I admire most: the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost - they caught the last train for the coast, the day the music died.
-Don McLean |
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Coasts
There is something about boundaries. They can represent barriers, of course, but they're also about transition and change.
Most of the boundaries we think about are political - city, state / province, or country boundaries. Those are, ultimately, artificial, even when they follow natural features such as mountain ridges or rivers. Recently, I followed a route that took me from Pennsylvania into New Jersey and then back into Pennsylvania, and apart from having to pay a bridge troll (or was that toll?) once, I couldn't tell the difference. (New Jersey jokes aside, the northwestern part of the state is identical to the northeastern part of Pennsylvania).
But at least one boundary is real, and that's the coastline. (Yes, I'm aware of the concepts of maritime rights and coastal waters, but again, these are legal fictions.) At its simplest, the coastline represents the border between the known (land surface) and the unknown (under the sea).
It's commonly accepted by the scientists who study these things that life on Earth began in the oceans. The actual timing of this is unknown, but is something on the order of 3.5 to 4 billion years ago. Life continued to flourish in the oceans for a very long time, but it wasn't until about five hundred million years ago that the first evidence of life outside the oceans - on land - shows up. In other words, there has been life something like 7 to 8 times as long as there has been land life. This transition from marine to terrestrial life is itself a kind of boundary, an event that eventually led to us being here and able to learn about these things, and it probably happened along the coasts. Thus, the coast can represent a radical shift in life itself.
Perhaps the most common experience with the coast, for us, is the ever-popular beach vacation, where folks who live somewhere inland flock to somewhere warm to sit on the beach, play in the ocean, and annoy the locals while giving them our money. Yet beaches are relatively rare coastal features (which may account, in part, for their popularity) - much of the coast is rocky, swampy, or otherwise inhospitable.
Even in this age of airplanes and cruise ships, standing on a coast and looking out to sea can still evoke a sense of timeless wonder. The vast expanse of ocean, seemingly limitless; the wide, straight horizon; an ocean sunrise or sunset; the occasional glimpse of marine life such as dolphins or seals - all of these things are outside the normal experience of those who dwell inland.
In fantasy writing in particular, a coast can be an important jumping-off point for the story, or a significant point of transition. Keep in mind what it can signify, what its ultimate meaning is in your story, because used properly, it can be a powerful metaphor. |
And, perhaps most appropriate for the topic of this week's newsletter,
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Last time, in "Fantasy Newsletter (October 26, 2011)" , I talked about modern fantasy, and got a few responses:
Legerdemain  : Great newsletter! Contemporary fantasy...modern mythology...write it! I know a lot of people would love to see that on the bookshelves. Anything to drown out the sparkly vampires...please...
As of now, the first draft's done... and needs severe editing 
T. Williams  : Actually, the novel Water for Elephants, which is also now a movie and, ironically, stars Robert Pattinson, (Edward in the Twilight movies) started as a NaNo novel. Here's a link from the NaNoWriMo site that lists published NaNo authors!
http://www.nanowrimo.org/en/publishedwrimos
Good to know - thanks!
jim1184  : Nice Job,on a very interesting news letter. The topic is one I've thought about off and on. I really enjoyed your conclusion. Much of my writing seems to be in multiple genres. I will just plow on. Thanks
Thank you! And there is nothing wrong with writing in multiple genres. It might even multiply your potential readership!
Mike : A quick correction: Tony Faville recently published Kings of the Dead. It was a feature novel at this past ZomBcon. He was a winner at NaNoWriMo with the same story.
Sounds like my kind of novel 
Caledonia Lass : Not trying to brag, but the first book in my trilogy was written during NaNoWriMo and will be published this spring/summer.
And Twilight certainly killed the vampire genre for me as well. Excellent newsletter!
Hey, that's something to brag about - congrats!
noheart: Percy Jackson & the Olympians... Is kind of "Modern mythology", isn't?
I'm not very familiar with that series, but from what I can tell, yes.
Midnight Dawn  : I think the vampire craze may be reaching its peak very soon. I know I am boycotting all vampire stories, since they are all starting to blur together into a mess of sameness. Instead I am looking into steampunk, which I think may be the next big trend. I am also slowly being coaxed back to traditional epic fantasy via Brandon Sanderson, Glenda Larke, Jim Butcher, and a few others, after the never-ending series craze nearly killed my love for epic fantasy. Authors should not take so long to finish a series that they die in the middle of it, IMO.
Your urban fantasy without vamps sounds like a nice variation with some originality that is badly needed right now. I think you have a more marketable idea than you believe. May you have a happy and productive Nanowrimo!
Some people (not me) think steampunk has already jumped the coal-powered mechanical shark. I highly recommend Sanderson and Butcher, though I've never read Larke. And I did finish my NaNo - thanks for the encouragement!
atwhatcost: Urban fantasy only about vamps? My stories are about stuffed animals living in Philly. (See my list of modern mythology below for other examples of urban fantasy minus enlarged canines and stakes.)
Has anyone ever sold a novel that started out in NaNoWriMo? I know of two. Can't name them, but I "talked" to one on some writing site online.
"Modern mythology" in the bookstore? Like most American comic books, the Percy Jackson series, "Goddess Boot Camp," or the Cronus Chronicles series? Nope, but only because I don't walk to bookstores, I wander online ones. lol
Don't sell yourself short. It may not be mainstream fantasy, but you're not the only one to indulge in the unobvious. I'll even admit to loving Buffy and Angel, but hating romanticized vamps, too. (Angel doesn't count; he broods. lol) Face it. You're writing for a newsletter aimed at folks who admit to some form of love with sci-fi and/or fantasy. Not one of us can lay claim that we're 100% mainstream. (-:3
Yeah, my comment about modern mythology not being a section in the bookstores is because it's always lumped in with fantasy and science fiction - not having a section of its own (okay, comics have a section of their own; again, I really need to do a whole newsletter on them sometime). Neil Gaiman is an excellent example of the type of thing I mean. As for Buffy - well, I do like Buffy, mostly because she kills the dang vampires. I have a shirt that reads, "...and then Buffy staked Edward. The End." It never fails to generate comments, but sometimes fails to generate spittle.
Loreli : I totally understand your dislike of vampire stories. I myself write vampire stories, but would stop writing all together if I had to write a romance version of them. lol. I used to LIKE vampire stories until Twilight came out. I wrote a synopsis of one of my novels and stated specifically that my vampire do not sparkle and never will. :)
Hey, I'm all for people writing what they like. And if you can put a different spin on it that will make people forget the sparkly parts... go for it.
And that's it for me for November - a happy Thanksgiving to readers in the US, and for everyone, a reminder to
DREAM ON!!! |
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Fantasy: November 22, 2011 Issue [#4731]
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