Good morning everyone, I'm afraid there is only tea or coffee and fresh croissants this morning, the 'facadiers' have been here for the past two weeks re-renderering the entire house and it's absolute chaos.
I have two questions for you this week, firstly can someone explain to me in words of one syllable where all these blogs are stored. I know this is not entirely a writerly question but it is relevant considering how much blogging and the internet impinges on our writer's lives. I find it very difficult to imagine the storage facilities required for the thousands no millions of blog posts. Is there a planet BLOG with a Grand Blog Master and thousands of clerical Bloggers filing all these words of wisdom???? Are there millions of filing cabinets stretching across the landscape? Now that sounds like an idea for a Fantasy novel - I think! Which leads me to my second question ----- the matter of Genre.
You will probably think this an unbelievably simple question but I'm not at all sure about all the different genres and sub-genres and what they encompass. If/when I try to find an agent and or publisher for my wip it would be useful no imperative that I know what genre my work falls into!!!
So perhaps you can all tell me what genre[s] you write in and what they cover, and any others that you know about. It will help me and let us all know what depth of work we Racers encompass. In the meantime I must brace myself for another day of total disruption, ah well it will be good when it's done.
11 comments:
I keep the majority of them in the shed at the bottom of my garden where they are carefully filed by the fairies.
*chuckles*
Blogger is owned by Google, of course, which means they're handed out to journalists looking for page 7 filler stories.
I write paranormal fantasy, cozy mystery and erotica. I tried writing romance once, but the heroine fell down the stairs and through a plate glass window. Meh. She was happier as a ghost.
I must admit the whole genre thing is something I struggle with as well. I usually say that what I write is 'women's fiction but not romance', but I know I'll have to pin it down better than that for submissions. There's some quite interesting stuff on deciding what genre your book is on the BubbleCow blog.
(and LOL to both of Leatherdykeuk's comments!)
And, I have no idea about the Blogger thing, just thinking about it makes my brain want to explode.
The blogs are all stored on your computer, Sheepish, so I hope you have a good backup policy ;o)
Seriously, Rachel is right, Blogger is run by Google who have enormous amounts of storage in their server farms. I'm sure the other popular blogging platforms, e.g. WordPress, have similar arrangements.
Interestingly, the SF book I'm reading has an artificial intelligence that's so big and powerful it needs its own planet.
Genre is always a difficult question, at least for me. My take on it is that it helps publishers and customers to categorise/sell and find/buy books. I'm not sure they're such a help to authors though, particularly ones who want to write in multiple genres or cross-genre novels. Multiple pen-names ahoy.
If I had to name my genres, I'd say: Sci-fi, thriller, crime and occasionally horror. Occasionally I throw in a bit of romance but it's not my genre as such. I've yet to attempt children's, YA nor comedy. Never say never though, right?
My house needs re-rendering, but I was already scared at the prospect. You have my sympathy!
I thought I was happily in the science fiction genre, till a couple of people (who really should know what they're talking about) told me the current novel is a bit of a crossover. Bugger. I think I'm going to stick with calling it SF because it just gets confusing otherwise.
As for all those blogs my Dad is one of the people that happily benefits from all that data floating around. He runs a data centre, though sadly google haven't come calling as a customer yet!
Good evening - as it is here. It's not often I'm so delighted to see Friday...
Hmmm, I've been calling mine commercial women's fiction but I heard somewhere recently that that's what chick lit is now called. I have no problem either with the name chick lit or with the genre but it's not what I'm writing. Maybe I'm writing mainstream fiction but I don't know. I'm kind of making that up.
I do hope you are joking Captain Black otherwise the blogosphere is in for a nasty surprise!!!! I am much happier with DOT's fairies and definitely not Rachel's Fleet street hacks not that they would find much of interest in my blog. I am glad I am not the only one with a genre identity crisis!
I've no idea where anything is stored and hope that there area fairies to keep any eye on it all for me. Although (just because Captain is watching) I will admit to backing up on laptop/computer and memory sticks.
As for genres I write historical (early 20th C, and I'm not quite sure what exactly 'historical' includes), also Young Adult (14-17 year olds, though could be wrong there too), and romantic fiction (could it be chick lit?). You see, you're none the wiser with my comment. It's all rather confusing.
Good luck with the re-rendering, brave woman.
Oh dear! I did intend to take an active part in this community, but since I joined I haven't seen a topic I feel I know enough about to answer. I'm reading everything, though... ~Miriam
Sorry I'm so late. I'm so glad that others get twisted up about genre as I do. I feel normal!
Yuck. Genre. Double yuck. What was once a convenient way for book stores to order their stock seems to me to have become far too rigid an influence on the marketing bods in publishing houses. A friend of mine recently had his book rejected in the US by an agent who explained it stood no chance of being published as it didn't fit an easily defined genre or genre mash-up. It makes you hanker for the days when the only genres were: prose, poetry and drama.
Genre has become such a complex issue that they teach it at graduate level in universities.
I tend to pick the best vehicle for the story I want to tell and hang the rest - which is why I am not sitting in a luxury villa somewhere warm dictating my latest blockbuster to one of my assistants.
PS - I have finished my sabbatical year a couple of months early and I'm currently working on the final draft of 'Thin Reflections' - the front cover of which can be seen here: http://charliecornelius.blogspot.com/2010/10/blog-post.html
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