infections and novel ponderings

[kippurbird]

Inner ear infection. Whee! Makes turning head to look at book titles/barcodes/what have you a fun and interesting experience. Are there lymph nodes under the jaw, I can't remember. Because something there hurts.



Talking with dungeonwriter last night I came to the conclusion that my Alec novels are not very mainstream. GLBT fantasy with no big bad. Not at all mainstream. So, I shall have to hunt for small presses for that one. On the other hand, I have accidentally started an urban fantasy novel which I think is more mainstream. It was going to be a short story, but you know how it is.

The plot is thus: Theo Sammeth is the heir to a multibillion international company as well as a highly gifted necromancer. His father runs the company and is an ancient ex-god of death. The years have not been kind to his father. Theo also works as a consultant with the FBI's magic police group for things involving the dead and undead.

Someone has started a series of ritual murders that look like they're to bring an ancient god back to power. To be more exact, to bring Theo's father back to power. The question then becomes, should Theo allow this to happen? As his father's always been a power hungry individual and returning to god hood would likely end up with him taking over a good portion of the world. And if he does, how would he stop an ancient ex-god of death who even now is one of the most powerful magical users in the world.

Also, he's going to be getting married soon. And that always causes problems.

A subplot involves a teammate and Theo's uncle. The uncle, Ash, is convinced that the teammate, Trever, is his reincarnated true love. Trever does not. Hilarity ensues.


Character list:

Theo Sammeth: Necromancer and business man. FBI consultant
Rhys Owens: Head of the FBI division, 2000 year old mage.
Adrian Fraser: FBI agent, Ritual Mage
Adrienne Fraser: FBI Agent, evocation mage, Theo's fiancee, Adrian's twin sister.
Adrianna Fraser: FBI Agent, information specialist, healer, Adrienne's twin sister. (they're triplets)
Ash Erikson: Theo's uncle, ex-god of the night, currently powerless for crimes.
Trever Delvar: FBI Agent, animal shaman, Kale's identical twin brother, supposed reincarnated true love of Ash. Straight.
Kale Delvar: FBI Agent, tech-mage, Trever's identical twin brother. gay.
Lan Petrov: Junior FBI Agent, psychic.
Alec Troven: ex-Mage-Thief (which is like a magic user junkie) under parole with Rhys, Adrian's apprentice.


So far the story is called Death God Rising.

And swevene will be doing co-writing duties.

Comments

[swevene.livejournal.com]

Healers are stereotypically female in a lot of media, probably due to being 'motherly' or somethin'.

But I don't see any reason not to acknowledge both the ass-kicking and the ass-healing types of ladies.

[jacedraccus.livejournal.com]

I think part of the stereotype and the reaction to it comes from the old chauvinistic prejudices where men are the heroes and ass-kickers and the women are simply supportive. It happened a bit in the old superhero comic books.

I favor Marvel over DC most of the time, so I can't really speak about DC's early heroines... from my tootling around through Wikipedia and the Toonopedia, it's my general understanding that for a long time women in comics were either sultry and mysterious vixens/black widows, or they were Betty/Veronica or Barbie or Katy Keene, or they were 'support personnel' superheroes who weren't suited for front line action.

Example, the original X-Men and Fantastic Four.

X-Men - All the boys have physical abilities that would in some way be useful in a fight. Marvel Girl (note the 'girl' part of her name, whereas, say Iceman isn't Iceboy...) can read minds. And she's learning telekinesis at the beginning, but it's not exactly her strong suit. So her major power is kinda passive by comparison. Useful, but passive.

Fantastic Four - The guys get cool abilities like fireballs, brute strength, and body-morphing, all of which could be useful in a fight. Invisible Girl ('girl' again, see?) turns invisible. And shields herself. And others. But still, her abilities are all about hiding and being defensive. Passive.

Of course, DC has Wonder Woman, but I'm not sure offhand when she became a front-line ass-kicker. She used to wear a skirt, so she wasn't entirely a breakaway from the old mindsets at first...

Hmm, now I'm wondering if things have really changed... I mean, Storm is super powerful, but it's a long range power... Phoenix/Marvel Girl still mostly reads minds... She Hulk isn't usually a serious character... Elektra is often the bad girl/vamp/vixen as much as a heroine...

[swevene.livejournal.com]

That's a pretty good point, and I agree that relegating all females to back-up is a very bad idea.

In the DC universe, there are also people like Black Canary (my personal favourite heroine) who is one of the top martial artists in the world, as well as having a very combat-oriented ability. There's also Batwoman, Batgirl, and others...

But yeah, on the whole, women do get pushed to just be support all the time. I think that they can be strong characters in spite of that, though.

Not to mention that the vast majority of the mages in the unit do not have combat-oriented powers. Rhys and Adrienne are pretty much the only two with real combat magic. Adrianna may be the only one designated as the healer, but that doesn't mean she's the only one staying away from the front lines.

[kippurbird.livejournal.com]

Things have changed for Marvel's girls. Invisible Woman and Jean Grey are acknowledge to be some of the most powerful people in the Marvel Universe. Invisible Woman has learned how to create offenses disks and things to shove at enemies and things like that. Jean is one of the most powerful TKs in the Marvel U (except she's dead) and then there's reading minds and there's shutting people's thoughts and minds down.

As for long range powers, Cyclops certainly has one as do most energy users. It's only the bruisers like Wolverine and the Thing that get close in combat.

I think I'm going to stop now. However that does give me a good paper idea. >.>