The Noble Pen for Mar 23, 2017

Next Noble Pen Meeting

March 23rd, 2017 at 7 pm

Scott’s Family Restaurant

1906 Blairs Ferry Rd NE, Cedar Rapids

News

Cory Doctorow wants to launch a new model for ebook distribution. (longer article)  Some people are not excited about it.

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These writers think that man and machine will become more intertwined, with some aspects of what used to be science fiction becoming reality.  This author has a gloomy outlook on man’s future use of technology.

Victories

Bill worked on reorganizing his history paper.

Cassie solved plot issues, wrote 10 k words, and did a blurb for her latest book.

Dylan is in the last steps for publication of Sand and Bone with a target June 13 release date.

Education

Fiction gets sliced into narrow genre and subgenre compartments.  Is it science fiction or fantasy?  Is it Mystery or Thriller? [sarcasm]Believe it or not, the boundaries are subject to various interpretations [/sarcasm]. Wikipedia lists many genres, and the AgentQuery site describes several.

Here’s a good look at the Mystery/Suspense/Thriller categories, another, and the Wikipedia discussion of Crime fiction categories.

To oversimplify, a Mystery is expected to start with a crime and the story is the process of solution by a motivated investigator. There are several subgenres.

Crime is sometimes the overall category above Mystery, but may also describe a subcategory of Mystery where the story is usually not so mysterious, but is more about the struggle between the good guys and bad guys, and may ponder issues of morality. Noir is a subgenre of Crime that emphasizes the psychology of the characters.

A Thriller is about how the hero(es) deal with a terrible danger, and tries to drag the reader’s emotions into the struggle. There are subgenres, principally the Epic Catastrophe and its avoidance, Psychological/Suspense where focus is on how it affects the main character, and Supernatural.

It helps an author to market their story to know how it fits (or not) relative to the expectations most have for the genre. Perhaps you don’t want to be pigeonholed, but in a bind, you may need to pick the genre that best describes the story.

Upcoming Schedule

March 23
Dakota
Riley
Ian

March 30
Randy
Cassie
Open slot

Apr 6
Nick
Laura
Uriah

Apr 13
Open slots

Apr 20
Open slots

Keep Writing,
Bill