Urban Fantasy Characteristics #IWSG and News

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Tonja Drecker, Victoria Marie Lees, Mary Aalgaard, and Sandra Cox!

DATE question - October 5

What do you consider the best characteristics of your favorite genre?

"Urban fantasy combines selected imaginary/unrealistic elements of plot, character, theme, or setting with a largely-familiar world - combining the familiar and the strange. Such elements may exist secretly in the world or may occur openly." - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_fantasy

"Urban fantasy describes a subgenre of fantasy in which the real world collides with the decidedly supernatural or magical world." - https://blog.reedsy.com/urban-fantasy-definition/

"The most necessary element to consider in the plot of an urban fantasy is the unanswered question. It’s usually not enough in an urban fantasy for your protagonist to have a strong driving goal; there should also be a huge, possibly frightening unknown that gradually unfolds throughout the story," - https://www.writersdigest.com/write-better-fiction/5-elements-urban-fantasy-novels-must

"A protagonist with a foot in both worlds: The main character of an urban fantasy is typically savvy to the real-life ways of their urban environment yet can also wield or exploit magical powers." - https://www.masterclass.com/articles/how-to-recognize-urban-fantasy

I felt I should first share the established characteristics before just saying that I love the way urban fantasy blends with real-world settings, making it feel plausible. Urban Fantasy is a subgenre of Speculative Fiction, and it's the one I've opted to pick to answer this question. 

Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.

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🎬 Let me tell you about two cool movies I recently enjoyed watching.

Lou on Netflix. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5315210 Allison Janney as an action-thriller star. She's a fantastic actress, but seeing her like this is mind-blowingly good. If you're in the "why don't we see older women kicking butt in movies" group, here you go!

Three Thousand Years of Longing https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9198364 A content writer is granted three wishes by a Djinn. While she tries to think of a wish, he absorbs knowledge from everything around him, and then tells her stories from his life. An excellent movie for writers. (Content- Rated R for scenes with female concubines lounging around nude.)

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https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/10/wep-october-2022-challenge-thriller.htmlFlash fiction contest and community this month.

Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.com

Please spread the word! Share this.#passorPAGES #query contest
Enter this week only for a chance to get feedback, and maybe page requests, from two agents on your ADULT FANTASY query.
The entry window closes on Friday, October 7 at 6 p.m. Eastern. https://t.co/Ga4oMKffzp pic.twitter.com/Zjnj77noEn

— Operation Awesome (@OpAwesome6) October 5, 2022

Pass or Pages! Adult Fantasy query letters entry window is open this week. Five lucky winners will get feedback from agents, and possibly requests for PAGES! Please spread the word.

Happening at the A to Z Challenge

http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/2022/09/zip-thru-autumn-atozchallenge-event.htmlA laid-back blogging event.

#IWSG Original Story - Plus News about #WriteClubDFW and #AtoZChallenge

InsecureWritersSupportGroup.com

Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today:

Tara Tyler, Lisa Buie Collard, Loni Townsend, and Lee Lowery!

Aug 3 question -

When you set out to write a story, do you try to be more original or do you try to give readers what they want?

Original. 
And I have been rejected by dozens of agents because of it. Which is one reason I self-publish.
I've found a few accomplished writers in the speculative fiction world who have read parts or all of certain stories I have (mostly Fractions of Existence), and agreed that it is unique and unlike most other Speculative Fiction or Urban Fantasy novels out there.



Part of why it's killing me that WriteClub2022 was canceled is that I actually entered this year. 

I have a story of Royce, a 21-year-old Incanter who isn't using his magic because it has been predicted he'd destroy millions of lives. Not using magic makes him an outcast. As he's dying, he considers magic, and it not only brings him back to life but sets him on the path of destruction. The real question becomes, in a male-only country that's mostly eradicated diversity, is destruction evil or heroic? 

He learns that his persecuted father worked for the department that handles artificial insemination. There are women in the world, but they're kept in pods in a permanent vegetative state. His father's true crime was waking a woman, learning magic from her, and creating a child without permission. Royce's magic would wake them all, and absolutely destroy the lives of their captors.

Does that sound interesting?

Have you read something similar? 
Is that story something original or something you, as a reader, would want?

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#WEP is coming later this month. https://writeeditpublishnow.blogspot.com/2022/08/wep-august-2022-challenge-moonlight.html
But for the Moonlight Sonata prompt, I have something special planned. An origin story of sorts. The inspiration came due to last month's #IWSG posts. I realized that several people wish they could live in a fictional world where I am a villain. That's an ideal world for some people. A world where killing me would be both legal and encouraged. (Obviously, not everyone picked such worlds. Lots of Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fans out there.) Eh, that's just how it goes. A little story about two parents fleeing from the world to birth a baby safely is coming later this month.

Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.

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Woo! Celebrating myself.

📜

Tune in later this year to find out if I'm still legally married.
"Respect for Marriage Act will enshrine and protect marriage equality and make sure legal, same-sex and interracial marriages are recognized."
My spouse isn't a Native American. 

🤔 Err... my person to which I share my life and devote my highest love isn't a Native American.        

https://twitter.com/DL_H/status/1554084086830039040 "Due to a profound lack of interest...there will be no WRiTE CLUB contest this year. #WRiTECLUBDFW" https://www.dlhammons.com/2022/08/write-club-pulling-plug.html
I was really hoping to get in this year. I wanted the raw feedback on my latest project. It's hard to imagine, with the success of so many winners, that not enough people entered this year.

boutofbooks.blogspot.com I'm participating in #BoutOfBooks 35 starting August 15. The Bout of Books readathon is organized by Amanda Shofner and Kelly Rubidoux Apple.

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https://t.co/vAYHKbmDOL
A second challenge is coming!

What do you think of the possible new graphics? Tell us on the blog comments, please!#atozchallenge -- PLEASE RT / Share pic.twitter.com/jd8cbqQ70G

— AtoZChallenge (@AprilA2Z) July 28, 2022

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by A to Z Challenge (@a.to.z.challenge)

The A to Z team is hoping for feedback about our possible new graphics. Things are happening at http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com, so please take a moment to check out the latest posts.

Check out Operation Awesome on Thursday, please. We have a question for writers! operationawesome6.blogspot.com/

#SFF #AtoZChallenge #Reflection 2022

 Another round of the A to Z Challenge is OVER! My theme was:

A speculative fiction short story from a dreamer

The story outline started with a dream I had. (I'm the dreamer.) It's a dystopian setting.  

Writing a short story on the fly sounded like a *good* idea. I would not do it again during A to Z. The first week went okay. I had time to write the story as well as comment on 50 blogs. 

But then things went wrong in my life. Regular followers know that, after L, I fell behind. My friend is doing much better. Thanks to everyone who cared and gave prayers, good vibes, and well wishes. 

We were sitting around waiting for him to get out of surgery number two. (We had food with us this time. Unlike surgery number one, where we scrounged a nearly empty vending machine and ate my supply of pocket jerky. Fun fact about J, I almost always have jerky stashed in my pocket.) 

He came out fine, and then we left. In the parking garage, I heard an engine rev. Hairs on my neck and arms stood up. I shoved my spouse to the side before getting grazed by the truck and slammed into a concrete post. 

Yes, they caught the driver. He claimed it didn't happen. And he doesn't know how some of my hair was hanging off his SUV. Oh, the security camera? Whoops. Didn't think about that, did you? 

Anyway. So I didn't die on April 30. But it was closer than I'd like. I'm a little injured but I will be fine. My spouse is fine, but is less than thrilled with the idea of my going on vacation (hiking alone in the woods) by myself in a few days. 

Hey, wanna see a funny? https://twitter.com/JLenniDorner/status/1520638145691324416 How I named the last character. 

Here's a review of all the prompts I was given (comments, tweets, dm, email, and WEP). 

• J's dystopian dream ✅
• wormhole ✅ (several)
• time/space travelers arrive on a planet that has been settled by space pioneers or an alien race ✅ (Letter Z) 
• time travel (x2) ✅ (May's students time traveled. It also comes up several times.)
• another species on Earth suddenly got the upper hand ✅ (The overlords put species on Earth, and they all have the upper hand now.)
• an alien who's on the run from an overlord race prepared to take over earth and who falls in love with a baker who just happens to be working undercover for the Dept of Homeland Security ✅ (O'tien and Piers)
• a storm system that isn't exactly weather ✅ (Hurricane wormhole travel)
• 'Implants'? Memory implants, for example. Or vitamin implants. ✅ (Language implants)
• something underwater for your setting ✅ (Humpback whale travel was underwater, in a hurricane wormhole thing.)
• pansexual couple hooking up for the first time ✅ (May and Jade)
• tardigrade ✅ (Overlord Shell and his kind)
• shapeshifting ✅ (Piers becomes a humpback whale. 🐋 )
• electricity isn't working, something crucial for the protagonist isn't working but something they never thought they needed, does? ✅ (Letter S. Even I didn't know they'd need the Jay-Aid until I got there. Ha ha ha.)
• girl's name: Jade ✅ (Love interest character.)
• dream of things like grass, and running through fields. ✅ (Jade dreams this while in the whale.)
• Guinea Pig World ruled by Biggles ✅ (Letter Z. Hinted in J, among other posts.)
• chimera hermaphrodite or sexual organ ambiguity main character ✅ (May Rose)
• An alien society (or character) that travels only within mind-space dimensions ✅ (O'tien and Az'es)
• Palio di Siena, in an alternative universe where the occupants of the Contrades are the animals after which each Contrade is named ✅ (J, K, L posts)
•  ✅ (Q post.)

Fun facts:

I did very little planning. I knew I wouldn't show the world as a setting until I made the WEP post. I did not know that Quintilis would be in the Q post. I came up with that the day I wrote and posted it.

The "catch up" posts that were posted a few hours apart? I wrote them, did two edit passes, and posted. That's "live" writing time.

May Rose, July Ice, and Quintilis Cave -- May is so named because I looked at the names of months. "After Caesar's death, the month Quintilis was renamed July in honor of Julius Caesar in 44 BC" 
And then I decided last names would be from vague descriptions of places. Rose is, of course, a joke, because the place has no roses and smells absolutely terrible. 

During the I post, May talking to the reddish stone was still going to just be an inside joke. As people are the pets now, they don't really have domestic pets, so... pet rocks are cool again! But later I figured out that I could use the stone to help with the alien in the mind-space travel prompt. 

I forgot about needing a shapeshifter. I didn't want to add another character at that point. None of the students could be shapeshifters because that would have come in the mind scans. So Piers got one more tool. He was already a baker who worked with the Dept of Homeland security thanks to a prompt. But what kind of shapeshifter could be useful? Well, I also needed an underwater scene yet. And then I found the story of a whale ingesting a guy and spitting him out elsewhere. But I also needed a storm that isn't weather, so yes, I added a hurricane that contains a wormhole. 

Biggles was always getting the happy world at the end of the story. I dropped foreshadowing all over the story, but was very careful not to say Biggles or mention guinea pigs until the final scenes. The Chavín people were real! And lived in the same place that guinea pigs are said to originate from, the Andes area of South America, around what's now Peru. 

I planned from the start that Jade would be Jade X, because that solved a title for a difficult letter. And I knew it would be "X" because May was to train an "alphabet worth" of classes-- because it's the A to Z Challenge and that amuses me. But, omg, using that as one last cliffhanger in the story by telling you that Jade X can't come to the new world... 😆

May starts off selfish in a way. She's grateful for what she has. She'll do anything to keep what she has. And if that means dozens of virgins from another timeline get turned into pets for alien overlords to breed, so be it. This could have easily been an erotic story if you consider the actual teaching that was going on. Anyway, by the end, May gives up everything for Jade. None of what she was so grateful for matters to her anymore. Does anyone notice the lack of a mention of plumbing on Biggles' planet Yeovil?  

🚽🛀🚰🚾🐹

There were a LOT of great comments on my blog this month. I'm going to share a few favorites:

(I LOVE how many of you could relate to being ignored by motion sensors for lights, faucets, and doors, by the way.)

Please follow J Lenni Dorner:

#SFF #AtoZChallenge Zinulya

A speculative fiction short story from a dreamer

A continuous #sff story during April. May Rose Chavín is the main character (🧑🏽 they/them pronouns).

Yevtsye and May held hands once the ship took off. They watched Earth shrink from view, from planet to blue marble to tiny light in the sky. As the ship passed Mars, the light grew brighter for a moment. Then dimmed. Once they passed the asteroid belt, the ship went from light speed into a wormhole. 

"It took hours to get this far. How long do you think it will take to reach the new world?" Yevtsye asked.

Piers leaned closer. "A few minutes. Here, let me show you. Trace the shortest path between the tip of my thumb and the tip of my pinky finger."

Yevtsye traced it, going along his palm. 

"That was like the route we just took from Earth to Mars and then the asteroid belt. It seems the shortest, because a straight line is what you've been told is the shortest distance. But watch this." Piers pressed his thumb and pinky together.

"Wait, but that's cheating."

Piers smiled. "No, that's wormhole travel. Skip the line. The shortest distance is a fold. Press the starting point and destination together."

"It curved your hand though. Why do we not see the universe move when there's a wormhole?"

Piers shrugged. "Maybe people aren't that perceptive. Only one planet away, Earth was nothing more than a dot, no bigger than most other stars in the sky. And wormholes that move through time? Humans already lack the eyes to see time. Oh sure, the effect of time is perceived in the process of aging. But time itself isn't seen. Humans barely understand it. And are terrible at measuring it."

Yevtsye tilted her head. "Hi, O'tien."

"Hello. Yes, sorry, I forget that it's unclear that I am me when I speak through Piers."

"Is time measured differently in your mind-space dimension?" May asked.

"Absolutely. As you will need to measure it differently on your new world. Basing anything on how long it took the Earth to move is useless. You'll need something constant. Of course, that's if you measure it at all. The overlord of this world has little use for it. That is part of why my species had to be involved. As wild and free as this world is, knowing the countdown deadline for Earth was not easy to translate."

Docking directions were given. Upon boarding, the language implant chips had all downloaded the language of the guinea pig overlord and that species. Of course, that wasn't what they called themselves, but the chip used it, so words all came out sounding right. Otherwise, Yevtsye would have danced in her seat, as she had with every word she heard from their language before. Now, it just sounded like normal words. Still, the greeter who came to the shore to welcome them was sitting in her lap for the journey. She hadn't stopped petting the new friend. 

The ship opened. Cheers of welcome came from the outside. Fuzzy little creatures reunited with each other. Some humans found other humans they knew. 

Yevtsye looked around for her twin. May pointed in the distance and took off.

"Nope. Walk away." May stated while making shooing waves.

"What?" Doña Marina batted her lashes. 

"Might I ask what is going on? Why is this one forbidden from speaking with me?"

Yevtsye caught up. "Because she was going to kill me and my love. Hi, Zinulya."

"How did you make it here? I was told our family had perished." Zinulya wrapped her arms around her twin sister. 

"It's a long story. This is May, the love of my life. And this is Piers, who can turn into a humpback whale." Zinulya squealed and clapped when Yevtsye said that.

"Never thought about there being two of them, aye Piers? Greetings, I am O'tien, speaking through my darling Piers."

Zinulya touched the reddish stone earring she wore. "Pleased to meet you. And might I introduce Az'es, my closest friend and a young one of your kind."

"Lame. Who wants to hang out with you losers anyway. Bunch of chumps with aliens in your heads. I don't need this." Doña Marina stepped backward as she spoke. As she turned, she slammed into a fuzzy foot. 

"Everyone, this is Overlord Biggles. Welcome to Yeovil," Zinulya said, motioning to the gigantic fluffy overlord. Biggles picked up Doña Marina and dropped her on the other side of the nearest mountain range. 

"I'm going to like this world," May said with a smile. 

Question: Would you want to move to another planet if it was the only way to survive?

Thanks for reading this month!
J Lenni Dorner (he/him 👨🏽 or 🧑🏽 they/them) ~ Co-host of the #AtoZchallenge, OperationAwesome6 Debut Author Interviewer, Reference& Speculative Fiction Author, Uncle J to Biggles 💗🐹

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#SFF #AtoZChallenge Yesterdays

A speculative fiction short story from a dreamer

A continuous #sff story during April. May Rose is the main character (🧑🏽 they/them pronouns).

Jade's eyes widened as tears spilled out. "What?"

"You are not my student. Nor are you a pet with the designation of X. And, though I was born in Rose, that place is no longer my identity. Those names belong in our yesterdays. The overlord who is saving us was a friend to the Chavín people. I wish to be known as May Chavín as we go to the new world together. What about you, my love?"

"My true name is Yevtsye. If we find my twin sister, that is what she will call me."

May kissed her neck. "What about Yevtsye Chavín?"

"Share a name?"

"Is that not how people of your time show an unbreakable bond?"

Yevtsye kissed May. "It is part of how we form and grow families, yes. So we will both go to the new world?"

"Together. And we shall remain as such."

They hugged. Piers clapped.

"And what will become of me?" 

May looked at Doña Marina. "You will stay away from us. The Chavín family is ours, not yours. Is that clear?"

"I understand."

Piers looked at May. "You trust her not to make trouble?"

May wrapped an arm around Yevtsye and moved toward the path. "I trust that if she fails to keep her word, her body will die just as certainly there as here. I trust in my own skill."

Natica's stone was thrown at the blood-stained sand. Doña Marina struggled to retrieve it. Piers, Yevtsye, and May hurried up the path.

Question: The name Yevtsye is the Ukrainian form of Eve, and also means life.
Name meaning (click)
Do you think this name suits Jade's character?

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#SFF #AtoZChallenge Jade X Cannot Go to the New World #romance #shortstory

A speculative fiction short story from a dreamer

A continuous #sff story during April. May Rose is the main character (🧑🏽 they/them pronouns).

Overlord "Shell" Tardigrade's shadow grew larger as he landed on the shore. Natica climbed out of his harness and marched over to Doña Marina. 

"You have something that belongs to my overlord and me."

Doña Marina and May cast confused looks his way.

"You asked for the Miyoko Murex seashell I had worn at the Palio di Siena. You still have it. In fact, you brought it here."

Nightingale's beak clicked, unable to form speech while being choked by Jade. 

Doña Marina looked at May, who still had a weapon pointed at her chest.

"What? Natica wants his shell. Give it to him."

Nightingale clicked again. Doña Marina nodded, and threw her weapon instead of getting the shell.

The weapon landed at Nightingale's feet. A scream came from Jade. May turned to see what was going on. Doña Marina wrapped her leg around May, who fell on their injury. Blood sprayed the sand and Natica. Jade crawled to May, reaching out. Nightingale wielded the weapon with her large feet, aiming it at Jade.

Overlord Tardigrade rose up and, with one blow from his bearlike claws, split overlord Nightingale in two. 

Doña Marina looked wide-eyed at May. "Mercy."

"Hand over the shell," May replied, aiming again at Doña Marina's chest. 

Jade moved behind May, resting her head against their shoulder, and cried. Overlord Tardigrade scooped up Nightingale's remains. 

"What will happen to the people Nightingale had as pets? Class X has suffered losses, but my former students?"

Natica conversed with his overlord. "They become the pets of Shell. He is giving them to another overlord though. I believe it is the one you have come to meet."

Doña Marina moved to her knees, pleading to Natica. "Please, I will be Opal again. Allow me to be your mate."

Jade growled, poking her head out from behind May. "Just because O'tien moved and spoke through me, do not think I was deaf. You're pining for my May!"

Doña Marina pulled the shell out, pushed it to Natica's feet, then hung her head and cried. "I want to live!"

Natica took the Miyoko Murex seashell. He shook and spun it several times. A reddish stone fell out. He presented it to May.

"You know what this is now."

"I do," May confirmed, looking from the stone, to Doña Marina, then back to Natica.

"I have had it for most of my life. Because of the alterations my overlord gave me, I have not needed it to converse with our friends in a long time."

"Yes, but do you need it to get to the other world? I killed Quintilis Cave to get a stone for Jade."

Natica chuckled. "I could have saved you that trouble. A shame Piers didn't realize that. Well, here we are. You could kill this human. No one here would stop you. Or you could give her this stone, which is the only way to save her life."

Natica placed the stone in May's hand. Then pointed to the sky, where a red cloud was breaking open. "That is the last transport. It will land and fill with the final passengers. Once it clears Mars, the clock will run out on Earth. Absolutely no life will survive. This planet will start over. Perhaps, in many thousands of years, microorganisms will appear. Even the youngest of the overlords will not be around then. So, if you leave this person here, it is the same as killing her."

Jade hugged May from behind while addressing Natica. "What about you? Don't you need it?"

Natica shook his head. "Shell is taking me. Though I will no longer be his pet on the other world, I will always be his friend. We plan to live out our days there. Tardigrades too small for human eyes to see already play in the waters of that world."

"It's hard to imagine your overlord on a microscopic scale," Jade said. 

They watched as Natica climbed back into his harness. He waved the shell as overlord Tardigrade took off.

Doña Marina threw herself at May, facedown in the bloody sand. "Please let me live."

"And watch as you interfere with our relationship forever?" May asked.

"O'tien and I vote you kill her so we can be on our way. The ship will land soon." Piers said, his eyes on the sky.

"My love?" May leaned against Jade. "You were so displeased to know I had killed for your stone. You said you do not like this side of me."

Jade frowned. "I also don't like the idea of her killing me in hopes of stealing you. Of that, I am deeply ashamed."

"Piers? Hold these." May handed the weapon and stone to him, then looked at Doña Marina. "Don't get any ideas. Not only is Piers exceptionally skilled with that weapon, but he's got an alien in his head who was about to defeat Nightingale using Jade's body."

"Sorry about that, O'tien," Jade said. "My hands weren't sufficient. Then again, I'm grateful my body didn't kill."

May took Jade's hands. "Even now? Even knowing Nightingale and Doña Marina came here intent on killing us. Still, you would not wish to be the one to end their lives?"

Jade looked down. "No. It isn't right. As grateful as I am that you are alive, and as willing as I was to let O'tien use me as a vessel, I am glad there is no death on my hands."

May lifted Jade's chin. "You are as beautiful inside as outside. I love you."

"I love you too."

"But Jade X cannot go to the new world," May said.

Question: Would you save Doña Marina?

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