This thread is for the people who want to discuss stories which have to do with the supernatural. I summarized some of mine in the Welcome thread, so I'll copy from there.

One work is an SF/F hybrid which is intended to mix epic fantasy with the fae and myth, as well as the Cosmic Horror Story genre (you know, the one Lovecraft kicked off); a sci-fi series featuring elves (that Thranduil will not approve of), angels (that Snowflake will not approve of), werewolves, vampires, fish people, and dragons - and all are science-based and more in line with the original myths, except the elves; high fantasy story that slaps the "chosen one" narrative in the face; and a high school fantasy that presents a decon/reconstruction of superhero stories with a helping of cosmic horror story.

So this can be about stories you intend to write, had an idea for, or have read. In short, about the tales that have lead you to the realm of the Other.

I once considered writing about some merpeople I once saw in a dream. They were a mix between the creepiest deep sea fish you have ever seen mixed with a humanoid torso. Two of them took me by a hand and they dragged me several fathoms down into a chamber where they kept their dead. The chamber looked like an ancient greek or roman temple, and the dead floated between stone flats along the walls. Each wall had about three bodies a piece, each divided by a stone flat. And then they left me in there, alone.

That sounds like an excellent creepy dream, though it probably didn't feel so good to experience. Were they anglers?

Hm. We need more discussion in this thread. Anyone want to hear another of my story outlines?

Please post one!

No, they weren't anglers, but they did have the freakishly sharp teeth. The fingers on their hands were also long and skinny. I also forgot to mention that their skin tone was a blue/gray and reminded me of gargoyle statues.

Sorry. I would've posted sooner, but I'm working on writing up my own story idea, and it's a doozy. I'll post it when I'm done.

That does sound intimidating.

Now that I offered that, I have no idea which one to do. The first one was a standalone, so it was easy to summarize. Since the other two involve a ton of explaining, I think I'll stick with the high school story - Villain. This spoils pretty much the entire book.

The way she confessed is pretty trippy.

Sounds like a brilliant book, Hugbug. I always love an alien race/entity with an agenda, which goes around destroying civilisations.

Feel free to share any other ideas you've got that fit the theme. I think we'd love to hear them.

I have quite a few myself, including the one I have the most interest and confidence in. I will warn you that it does make use of the whole "chosen one" trope, at least in the large-scale plot, if not the small (I'm not sure how smart it is to write with a series in mind, but it's kind of hard not to).

I don't really like romances in general, but that sounds like something I would be interested in, ewenk.

For similar stories, there is the one where humanity brings down the wrath of the star gods - and I mean the gods the stars worship, to loosely describe it - and an otherworldly race based on the Sidhe is hanging around playing puppetmaster. And there's another race which humanity tried to destroy completely, though they weren't exactly a civilization.
And my sci-fi series's backstory has one woman pretty much crash several empires because all the dominos were lined up neatly and she felt like it - and the effects of that are still occurring in the main timeline. She's not entirely alien to the races she crashed, but she's definitely not one of them.



Damned by faint praise, eh?

That's pretty much half the tone for the book. She's going around in other peoples' minds, sometimes not knowing whose thoughts are whose, and she continually gets flashes of non-verbal thoughts. For example, images in the mind, concepts packaged right into the brain, sensory perceptions, and so on. And then she can control peoples' minds, which generally causes her to identify completely with that body instead of her own. I originally conceived of this as a book that could have a First-Person Omniscient narrator, which is not actually a POV category.

ewenk7 — I am not sure what a yuri is, but I'll have to look it up later. I lol'd that Sanna managed to get herself into that much trouble.

hugbug993 — I have never commented on anyone's writing on a forum before. I have to dip my toe in first.

Thanks. I'll get around to explaining more later. See, with me, I pretty much need romance. I mean, I can and do enjoy works without it, but I always prefer it to be there. It's important to me to such a degree that if the story has an overall happy ending, if the romance arc ends badly, I will generally feel that the ending was bittersweet, at best. That's just how I am.

Do you have any further plans for the high school super villain story? It sounded quite good; I might even be inclined to read it, something I can't say for the other one, as high fantasy doesn't generally interest me unless it has an overlap with contemporary/urban fantasy, with a grounding in the real world.

I wonder how much discussion of sci-fi is appropriate in this group? That'd be fun to discuss, too, but I don't want to wander off-topic.

EDIT: @~MadameButterfly~ Yuri is a Japanese term for female same-sex romance. Anime snobs will tell you that it only applies to Japanese works, and I see where they're coming from, as I'm sure the Japanese have their own conventions for the genre, but there's no real good English term for it, and I'm really of the opinion that most genres should be more universal than that. The male equivalent, incidentally, is yaoi. On the internet, both terms often have an association with porn, but that's just the internet being its usual, stupid self.

Okay! Well I am glad you explained it before I googled it. Who knows what I would have turned up by accident!

Yuri is a story centered around lesbian love. It's a Japanese term. The male counterpart is yaoi, which you might have seen more often.

I wrote a post on constructive criticism for the novel writer/reviewer. Maybe it could be helpful?



Heh. You're going to be very out of luck with my works, then. I pretty much don't write romance at all - in fact, I seem to write stalkers who think they're having a romance as often as actual romance - and when I do, it ends badly half the time. Villain is the only one that takes place in the "real world", though I'm toying with putting part of the sci-fi series on contemporary Earth. You'd still have to suffer through the non-Earth novels, though.

My plans pretty much revolve around getting it written. I tried to do it for NaNoWriMo last year, but then I spilled paint on the kitchen floor and spent weeks trying to clean it up. What little I did have written was then killed when my hard drive crashed, as well as one completed draft of another story. I don't have any plans to write a sequel for it, because I don't think I can add anything else to it. Might change when I actually write it, but I don't have any ideas right now.

I guess you could count sci-fi as supernatural. After all, there's a reason sci-fi and fantasy are twin sister genres.

I don't have a problem with constructed settings if there's some link to the real world (preferably a character), but otherwise, I'm not always a fan of them. It just depends.

Yeah, honestly, I don't really see much point in making a big deal about the line between sci-fi and fantasy. Personally, I think a story is best with a bit of both. I'd just refer to spec-fic all the time, but I doubt people would know what I was talking about. Plus, the sci-fi ghetto ticks me off, and I like referring to sci-fi and fantasy just to spite those people.

On the topic of sci-fi, I have to admit I totally have been in the mood lately for a retro planetary romance sort of thing. You know, the kind of thing Burroughs used to write. Probably because of the recent arrival of New Horizons at Pluto. It's reawakened the space nerd in me, not that it ever really slumbered. I've long wanted to do a cheesy soft sci-fi space opera where there's intelligent life native to every major body in the Solar System. I actually have an idea for that, though the writing is kind of dormant. Maybe I'll talk about it sometime.

Actually, my other major fantasy idea does have romance, but it's not as central. I should talk about that sometime, too. The problem I have there is that there are no major mundane characters in the story, which is something I like to have for the same reason I have mixed feelings on constructed worlds.

I don't even have that. It's just characters living in the world they were born. Frankly, I really don't like most stories where a character from the mundane world is thrown into another, because 99% of the time, the reactions just feel so unrealistic. The same if they were, say, thrown back to the Middle Ages and absolutely loved staying there despite the lack of hygiene, the rampant plagues, and the fact that they would probably be accused of witchcraft if they said the wrong thing. Did you know that in Medieval Paris, body lice was rampant? In prisons, the prisoners would often pick up enough ticks to infest the entire courtroom where they were being sentenced. But of course, the modern character doesn't care, because TWU WUV conquers body insects.

Speaking of which, I should write some posts on genres.
But yeah, I do wish speculative fiction was a more commonly-known term.

Is your problem with constructed worlds about the way information is conveyed about them, or because you don't feel that they're grounded in reality, or something else?

Heh. I can understand that. History is pretty horrifying.

I'm not really sure, to be honest. I think it's the need to identify with the characters. It takes slightly more effort to identify with a character from a fictional culture, and it has to be really well-written for me to want to put in the effort. Mind you, that's mostly just in literature. In other media, I hold things to a lower standard in general, because with literature, there's just so freaking much of it out there that in order for me to want to commit the time to it, I have to find it really interesting. It's not that I have a problem with constructed or otherwise alien settings, but I do find it more interesting if there's a source of explicit and extended textual contrast with the familiar. I have the same problem with futuristic settings, except I have had more luck with those.

It's also possible that a lot of authors just really suck at worldbuilding. I do get really sick of settings based on medieval Europe and/or Tolkien. What is it with writers cribbing off what's been done instead of being original? I mean, I understand if it's attempting to expand on the original concept, but most of the time, these people treat the previous works in the genre as if they were some kind of default. It's especially annoying with mythology, but I've ranted about that way too much already, so I'll resist the urge.

I mean, Avalon in the story concept I was discussing isn't based on Medieval Europe. I mean, yes, there's something vaguely like a monarchy, the government is theocratic, and they're essentially going through their equivalent of the dark ages, but at the same time, the society is matriarchal, the theology is mostly inspired by neopaganism, romantic taboos are practically nonexistent (at least in comparison to most Medieval European analogues), the technological level more closely resembles that of modern Earth (though in the past, it was more like Kardashev type two, and they still have much of that tech operational), the history involves large-scale planetary engineering and a war with interuniversal aliens… I mean, honestly, it's much more fun to do something original, unless the whole point is to expand on what previous writers have done.

I hear you on the worldbuilding. Oof. I can understand if some people want to pay homage to Tolkien, but at this point it's grown old and tired. If you want to show how much you love Tolkien, why sponge off of his world when the thing he loved most about his stories was creating the worlds themselves? He didn't write a story because he loved the plot, he wrote because he made a world and wanted to show it off by having things happen in it. Granted, he sucks at storytelling, but he paid attention to small details in his world and showed why people would not want to lose it.

Frankly, I'm rather sick of elves and dwarves and orcs and whatever else. That's why my hybrid story doesn't have any of those. Well, okay, the Sidai are close to elves, but they are based more on SE Asian culture than Western, aside from the obvious Sidhe parallels. Also, they have metal, stone, or glass growing out of their bodies (depending on their diet), their breeding cycle is based on a combination of Vulcans and cats, and they have tails which can inject you with a paralytic venom. The males carry the babies. And there is absolutely no possibility of hybrid babies. The sci-fi series has elves, but... well... they're Space Nazis. And I still put more thought into that than most people do with their hippie elves. (I actually looked into what Nazis believed and amplified it through genetic engineering, though they are a matriarchal and polyandrous society.) And for the half-elves? They can breed with other races, but the children will be heavily deformed. One of my characters in that setting is a second-generation hybrid, and she has duplicate adrenal glands, which make her much more likely to have a heart attack when she stresses out, which is often, because paranoia is a side effect of overdosing on adrenaline. She had more problems at conception, but she was produced as a genetic experiment, so most of those were ironed out as a zygote. Her mother, a half-and-half, is nearly unable to walk because her skeletal structure is deformed from contradictory genetic information, and it's a miracle that she's alive in the first place. Hybrids aren't special and they aren't romantic. In the SFF hybrid story, it's completely impossible to have a hybrid child between any of the three major humanoids. Ironic, I know, but that's the way it is and will stay.

Can you pinpoint one concept that I don't particularly like?

But I do enjoy the process of creating a new world. It's like solving a logic puzzle, except you get to write about it afterwards and let it interact with the characters and try to horribly maim them all.

Ouch. There's a sci-fi concept I've got that you would hate. The plot is decent and the worldbuilding is elaborate, but the protagonist is suspiciously reminiscent of an over-the-top mary sue, being a three-way hybrid child of a woman who basically revolutionised culture in the Milky Way. Believe it or not, that's not strictly my immediate fault; that's the logical result of making said story concept a sequel to another story concept which was much less absurd.

Anyway, another idea I've been toying with that might be worth mentioning here came to mind. Not one of my major ideas, but it definitely fits the theme, despite the recent transference of the setting to a futuristic sci-fi context. I didn't intend for the premise to be comedic, but what I found myself writing here was so insane that it might have to be. Seriously, I thought it was a good idea, but upon actually writing it down, I'm having trouble taking it seriously.



Just be glad that technical limitations prevented me from using this nonsense as a Scumthorpe storyline.

I don't entirely object to the concept - I mean, I have hybrids in my own stories - just the unrealistic way in which they're portrayed. Often it seems like they have all the advantages of their parents species and none of the disadvantages. And sometimes, it just doesn't make sense for the two species to be able to breed. That's why there's absolutely no hybrids in one series; all three races reproduce in such different ways that it's impossible for them to breed with each other.
I wouldn't object to something more realistic. Not that a three-way Hybrid Sue sounds like it is.

I think that could actually turn out to be a horror story or a black comedy. Stripping out the love-at-first-sight thing - because, really, love has to be requited or it's not love - and replacing it with an immediate obsession would help a lot. Instead of a romantic comedy, you would have a supernatural stalker who is causing horrific actions to occur, and they escalate as the demon tries to prove her love. Imagine waking up one morning and finding the entire population of one country dead, looking on the news, and seeing chopper footage of blood on the ground, a mile wide, spelling out "In the name of the Dark Lady [your name]. I am yours, [your name]."
Not only would that be horrific, but it would probably get her in some sort of trouble with the authorities. If there's any sort of demon-fighting force, that would probably get them involved, and she could team up with them to get rid of her stalker. You'd probably have to sacrifice the hot demon-on-human action, though.

For the demon thing, I've actually seen concepts along those lines. One Star Trek novel used something similar with sentient stars that lived and died in the first moments of the universe.

Well, to be fair, the hybridisation in this case was by way of genetic engineering, so it made a little more sense, but it was still excessive. Honestly, the bigger problem with that plot concept is that even with substantial editing, the aliens in the story are pretty much blatant ripoffs of StarCraft's zerg.

I'm not sure if I follow or agree with the notion of unrequited love not qualifying as actual love, but in any case, I do find the whole notion of "love at first sight" kind of weird. I mean, unless you're invoking either telepathy, precognition, or past lives, it just doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. This one is pretty much the only story concept where I've ever invoked it, though.

And yeah, I have to agree it would make a pretty entertaining black comedy.

I'd like to say more, but I'm feeling kind of lazy right now. Anyone besides hugbug and I got any story concepts they'd like to share?

Actually, wait. There was something I wanted to bring up. Hugbug, you might have liked the story I wrote as my part of a collaborative project back in high school. It was a pretty blatant pastiche of Lovecraft (to the extent that I was casually using highly obscure and somewhat technical polysyllabic terms for absolutely no good reason), but I think it was decent for something I basically scrambled together in one day.
Basically, this guy wakes up one day to find that the world has turned into a horrifying, hollow, dreamlike parody of itself. He pretty much wanders all over the town trying to figure out what the heck is going on and where everyone else has gone, finally going out beyond the edge of town to a water treatment plant, where he starts to remember what happened before he woke up. He remembers hiking in the Pacific Northwest and coming across a strange stone gate with an odd shimmer in the air within it. He investigates the plant further, and then the illusion breaks down and it turns out he's been abducted by fairies, who are tormenting him for their own amusement. He escapes back through the portal, but one follows him. A fight ensues, there's a deus ex machina as it turns out that this guy just happens to carry an iron horseshoe around, which he uses to smack the fairy over the head. Then, the gate collapses, sealing off the portal. Except during the fight, the guy got a nasty gash on his arm, which is now leaking some kind of black aethereal mist-like substance. As he wanders off in search of civilisation, there's the implication that he's either going to die horrifically or become one of the fae himself.
I put that together myself, because my writing partner was taking forever to respond (I went to high school in a virtual setting, you see). She finally did at the last possible moment, the night before it was due, so I sent it to her and let her add on to it, with the understanding that we'd present whatever she wrote.
Her main changes were toning down some of my Lovecraftian loquaciousness, altering the fairies' introduction so that it specified that they were the evil kind of fairy, and tacking on a somewhat over-the-top "all just a dream" ending.

Yeah, that does sound like something I'd want to read. Except the ending. Seriously, writing partner?
If you wanted to explain the horseshoe, he could have been on a horseback trail. If one of the shoes on his horse looked a little questionable but still in mostly good shape, he could have brought a spare horseshoe with the equipment to replace it.

I'm only referring to romantic love, there. I mean, romantic love is love that builds through a partnership, not a one-way street. Sure, you can love someone in a way more than friendship, but if it's not a partnership, it's not romantic.

I don't particularly like the concept of love at first sight because of past lives, either, probably because of the fact that I also don't like soulmates. I know I did the soulmate thing in that other story I described, but I also poked it in the eye. The chosen husband does not want to be a part of it, actually turns the chosen one in to the authorities, and in the end only agrees to knock her up as long as she leaves him alone for the rest of his life. The fates of the other chosen husbands is that they're taken away from their families and raised in a place designed to train them for being the prince consort and to love the chosen one.

I think the problem I have with the everything is that it boils down to the concept of TWU WUV. There is one person out there for you, who you will meet and fall for, but then there will be a terrible misunderstanding or other point where the relationship becomes unfeasible. However, this is overcome by the end of the book and everything gets better.
What makes it worse is that everyone always writes about the beginning of a relationship. They're missing the entire point. Romantic love builds over years, so when you show two people beginning a relationship, you're only getting the shallowest depths of it. And often, those people only get together because one is hot or wealthy or their blood smells like bacon. Or all of the above. *coughTwilightcough*

Shallow. That's what the romance genre is to me, because it's a cookie cutter plot about trying to represent a wading pool as the deepest ocean.

Ah. We're just talking semantics, then. That's not how I'm sure I'd define it, but I see where you're coming from.

The horseshoe actually was inspired by the fact that I carry around an old railroad spike I got a garage sale once, for no real good reason. It's cool-looking, and I like to fantasise about using it to ward off evil or whatever. I thought that something that hopelessly dorky seemed unrealistic, so I changed it to a horseshoe in the story, because at least a horseshoe is considered lucky.



Hmm. I really should contribute something more on-topic. Let's see…

I will get into some more traditional supernatural stuff in my Scumthorpe fan stuff, once I get past all the super hero nonsense. I guess going into detail would be spoilery, though. Hmm…

Okay, here's a question for you. Do you ever read much urban fantasy? If so, what do you like? If not, maybe I can make some recommendations. I've sure read plenty.

That sounds interesting so far. So why did the priests curse Cludthrope? Did they steal some sacred stones?

Ewenk: I think I'm the last person who can complain about your ranting.

I also see where you're coming from. You might like one of the romances I actually wrote: Vei and Nal. They've been in an open relationship for a few thousand years by the time the story begins (they're immortal). They're also telepathically linked, which means that they're pretty blase about finding murder fantasies or sex fantasies in each other's minds and really can't hide anything from each other. She (Vei) is a warrior and he's something like a prophet (he can see the future, but there are a lot of rules to that), and they work together very well. He also has a pretty sensitive heart condition, so that's a big concern for the two. The only reason they're in the main action is because they're working to stop the universe from getting destroyed (that is literal, by the way), and they've both decided that that's more important than risking his death on a long, stressful journey. Really a big problem for her, because she's fiercely loyal, but wants to respect his desire to put the world first.
'Course, they're also siblings, so you might not like it. The incest thing is normal for their species.

I haven't read much, but mostly because I'm bored with vampires and werewolves and angels. Know any that have other creatures? Big bonus if you have any with non-Western creatures.

Harlequin is indeed bad. Did you know that they actually put it in authors' contracts that they have to use phrases like "pebble nipples"?

"Pebble nipples"? Seriously? I knew they were forced to used plot formulae, but that's even worse. Gah.

Your story actually sounds interesting. I'd read it.

Let's see… this was surprisingly difficult. I warn you that most of what I've got includes the more well-known stuff, among other things.

-My best recommendation in that area is Rachel Caine's Weather Warden series, which features djinn front and centre, and has no vampires or werewolves or angels that I know of. I warn you, though, that I haven't read much of it; I was starting the second book when I went in for a major surgery, and haven't been able to pick it up since, due to the association.

-My recommendation from the group's other thread for Kevin Hearne's Iron Druid Chronicles stands. It has a nice selection of world mythology, and the more common supernatural beings are more on the sidelines. Plus, it's a frigging amazing series.

-I think you'd like Rob Thurman's Cal Leandros series. It does have more normal creatures, but it has obscure ones, too. It's also quite dark. The first book has as the villains an original race of fae which are basically elves, except they look more like drow, and they have a backstory more like Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Old Ones. Actually, the series, despite its quality, is dark enough that I couldn't stand to read more than one book, so my commentary there is mostly in response to the first one.



-The Mercy Thompson series has a skinwalker protagonist, and though it includes vampires and werewolves, it also includes a prominent depiction of the fae which is very faithful to the mythology.

-J. A. Pitts' Sarah Beauhall series is mostly based on Norse mythology, and it does a great job of it.

-Nancy Holzner's Deadtown and sequels have a take on zombies which are basically revenants.

-While I haven't gotten around to reading it, I believe that Throne of the Crescent Moon is a medieval-Arabian-inspired fantasy involving djinn and whatnot.

I swear I had others, but my mind is going blank. I did ask my mom, though, as she has similar taste to me, and she recommended a few:

-Apparently, Wen Spencer's Tinker and sequels has youkai in addition to elves.

-Dead On the Delta and sequels has an interpretation of fairies which are basically killer mosquitoes.

-Nicole Peeler's Jane True books include a selkie protagonist and a conflation of vampires and fae. Nāgas make an appearance in the first book, too, as I recall (it's the only one I've read).

-C. E. Murphy's Urban Shaman series apparently has little in the way of mainstream stuff.

-Michelle Sagara's Chronicles of Elantra is also among the things she recommended.

-She also recommends Diana Rowland's White Trash Zombie series, as well as the Kara Gillian series by the same author.

-Angie Fox's Immortally Yours and sequels. She says it's a romance, though.

I haven't read all of the above, so I'm taking her word on this.



Tsyokawe, your world there is pretty cool. Particularly the architecture. Almost makes me want to revisit my old CaW Otherworld project.

Thanks. I'll have to check those out.

That's actually only a little of what's going on in the story. Vei and Nal are both POV characters (well, technically just Vei, but the telepathy thing means that the narrative drifts between the two) and they're both very important to the plot, but they're deuteragonists.

Might as well talk about the whole thing, but be warned: this will be a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong infodump and will still not cover everything.