How to write a Scottish fantasy novel

[shewhomust]

Last night's offering from the Lit & Phil's Sense of Place series of events: a group of fantasy writers (members of The Write Fantastic) talking about how you set about conveying a sense of an invented - or half-invented - place. It was a wild and windy night outside, and conversation naturally turned to the rôle of the weather. I was very taken by Deborah J. Miller's remark that, as a Scot writing a fantasy version of Scotland, if she ever felt stuck, all she had to do was write "It was raining," and carry on from there.

Comments

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

In case "it is windy" would apply too, I now live in Scotland.

But, unfortunately, this is Berlin and no fantasy novel.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Are there any German fantasy novels? I know several of the novels discussed at the session have been translated into German (people were not happy about the German covers) and I know that Germany has the folk tales and the Romantic tradition - but are there any modern German fantasy novels?

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Quite frankly, I don´t know.
Am not reading fantasy at all and haven´t for years, if I ever did (stumbled on some, but mostly found them tedious, I´m afraid). But there are supposed to be some german fantasy novels too, will look it up for you. Though I very much suspect, they aren´t very worthwhile. Germany is famous for awful covers, as I know from people who write in swedish and who couldn´t defend their dignity against publishers, here.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Not so much awful covers as perfectly good covers which belong to other books and have nothing to do with the one they're on...

[karinmollberg.livejournal.com]

Burglars! Prosecute them. No ideas of their own, apparently? Too sad, that.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

"It was raining."

I love it.

Nine