Friend and fellow author C.C. Finlay’s third book in his (presumed) trilogy on magic in the American Revolution goes on sale today. All three books are available in mass market so they’re ideal for summer reading (but really, you can enjoy them all year round 🙂
Ah, yes, the pain. So, I start physical therapy today on my road-running damaged legs. I’m assuming it’s going to be painful, but perhaps sore would be/will be more appropriate in describing the experience. I’ll know by tonight.
Chris!
Thanks for the good word on the books. And good luck with the physical therapy. They’re also perfect for reading while you’re stuck on an elliptical trainer….
I might try that, but they hooked electrodes up to my legs so I was a bit twitchy the whole time. Makes it hard to focus.
Wow, that’s kind of wild. Are they creating some kind of bionic prosthetics for you? Because that would be worth writing about…
You Know…
Back over a decade ago, in the original version of the Dark Sun setting for AD&D2e, part of the background involved halflings (nee Hobbits, but don’t tell Tolkien Enterprises), who used a sort of magic based bio-tech.
This talk of bionics by a pair of fantasists gave me an idea: Bob suffered a badly broken leg. Shattered the bones in fact. Bob underwent surgery to have an experimental rig implanted to stabilize the leg, and tie the bone fragments together. A magical, living rig meant to grow into a scaffolding that promotes bone growth and repair. Small problem, the lab that developed the rig cut a few corners, leaving out a few details. Details that were supposed to restrain the growth and development of the rig itself. Further to the cost cutting measures, the basis of the rig -though such usage is illegal- involved an animal with natural magical regenerative abilities. Poor Bob is slowly turning into one of these creatures. Even worse, the rig has metatasized.
What would you do with such a scenario?
Re: You Know…
A more interesting question might be “What would you do with it?”
Clearly, something in the premise — reliance on a technology that transforms you into something else — speaks to a theme that has meaning to you (the stories that we come up with always do, particularly in fantasy and science fiction, where metaphors can be made literally true). Some writers would go one route, exploring how Bob slowly loses his identity, all the things that made him Bob, as he is transformed. Other writers might explore how Bob becomes fully realized, truly himself for the first time, as his new self is a reflection of the inner self that was always there. And other writers might go a different direction, exploring how Bob grows and becomes transformed in positive ways by his change. Each variation reveals something about the author.
So which way would you go with it?
Re: You Know…
CC, no cheating here. The question is, what would you do with it? When I pose a question for other people, I pose them for other people. I’m strange that way.
Your suggestions do give me some idea of how you would handle such a scenario. So handle it.
BTW, what about dealing with it as a straight forward medical story? For that matter, how about a story about the outbreak of a multi-dweomer resistant bacteria?
Re: You Know…
While I love watching House, I’m not drawn to writing straight up medical stories. I’m not sure why.
The scenario you describe lends itself to personal identity: Bob is being changed and no longer knows who he is or is becoming because of changes on the inside. I tend not to write stories about personal identity in that way: I’m much more interested in how people define themselves against others. So, if I was writing this story, I would probably add another element to it: Bob’s role in a community, either of similar or (more probably) dissimilar people, and then I would explore how the changes going on within him affect his external relationships, depriving him of something that was valuable to him and forcing him to find new values or goals.
But I won’t say anything more than that, because I’m not writing the story and I don’t know where a story’s going to go until I write it.
Re: You Know…
Ah, a challenge. Good way to expand your writing chops and do a little research. Ask odd questions of doctors and surgeons. So, when is the first book of the Witch Doctor Kildare series coming out? 🙂
Slightly more seriously. It’s been a few years, but did Traitor to the Crown start out as a D20 setting?
It’s an interesting question to be sure. It definitely sounds like something very well suited for science fiction. My creative focus right now is more fantastical so I’ve been exploring the rather curious parallel with my injured legs and that of one of my characters, Private Alwyn Renwar. In his case he receives a magically-crafted wooden leg after his own is irreparably harmed by a cursed arrow. The new leg causes him no end of problems, or pain, but the magic involved isn’t sufficient to subsume the much stronger oath that binds Alwyn to the regiment.
Cheers,
Chris
Already applied. Feel free to put in a good word for me
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