Therianthropes away!

[mrissa]

alecaustin and I have our first published collaboration for public reading today! Brief Interviews With Therianthropes is live at Daily SF. It is not perhaps the most serious thing either of us has done together or separately. We had fun with it, and we hope you will too.

Comments

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

What a crackup! I loved it!

I also want a were-puma.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

...is this a Smothers Brothers joke?

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, talk about a blast from the past!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The Smothers Brothers fixed the book I'm writing right now. No, seriously. There are pumas. In the cravasses.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

That sounds awesome!!!!

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Folk performance is my secret weapon when I don't know what to do. My Orpheus story has mice in because that's what I know about hell (dark, deep, full of mice). And this novel was missing elements, and I thought, "It's full of holes! Fissures! Swiss cheese! Cravvasses!.......well, we know what's in cravvasses......."

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

This is WAY better than the zombie or explosion rule. ("SOmething missing? Insert zombies. Or explosions.")

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, instead of "insert," I tend to ask myself, "What do I know about this situation?" or, "What do I know about these people?" And sometimes it's mature stuff like, "Well, she and her mother have this thing in their relationship where they have these random late-night talks about what they want out of life, and that really hasn't come out in the book yet, so this would be a great time for them to do that and for it to get interrupted by this other plot point event." And sometimes I'm like, "I know that there are pumas in cravasses! But these are not regular pumas!" The knowledge does not always have to be, like, mature erudition.

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

*total nod of comprehension"

This completely meshes with my understanding of the messiness of novel composition.

[aedifica]

"Hundreds of years ago..." and then I forget what comes between that and "the nations!" etc.

Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Here you go (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfl2o44zb0): "the railroads started in America." And a great deal else. Including the vast bosom of America. Where maybe some came over to visit.

Re: Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[aedifica]

Oooh!

That's a slightly different version than I know! In mine I think the vicious beasts were eventually identified as mountain lions who looked a lot like pumas.

Seeing that inspired me to look for their song "Chocolate".

Re: Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

The summer before Grandpa got sick, my dad and I sat with him and the laptop and just watched Smothers Brothers videos on YouTube for ages once. It was one of those great things that you can't put on some bucket list or to-do list.

Re: Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[aedifica]

Oh, I'm glad you had that experience.

I suppose you could put it on a list ("Item: watch Smothers Brothers videos with beloved relatives [chose two]. Check.") but it wouldn't be the same thing at all, no.

Re: Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Well, and "[choose two--have others wander in and out and holler advice]" is even harder to quantify. So yah.

Re: Sure look like pumas. But they weren't.

[aedifica]

Yeah. (And I just IM'd Christopher "Mris sent me pseudopumas!")