Dedicated to Neil Gaiman's Death.

Er...what?!

Dedicated to Neil Gaiman's Death.

Er...what?!

I'm assuming the character Death, from The Sandman. You know, the iconic friendly goth girl? Big hair, swirly eyeliner, ankh necklace?

Oh. Okay. Just so long as it is not an announcement of recent news, or a statement of intent....

Yeah, maybe his most popular character. (The Sandman may be the titular title of the comic, but Death is the one who is so popular she became a cliche in Goth clubs for a while, and Goth girls stopped dressing like her. OK, maybe some of his non comic book characters are more popular.) I stole the line "You got what everyone gets - a lifetime" from Gaiman's Death. She uses it several times, once to a baby who complains "that is all I get", once to a guy who boasts of having survived Millenia. I think I'll edit to make it clearer.

Just wanted to express my love for Erika's piece linked in press. I originally did so when she first posted, but unfortunately did not notice I was posting in press. (Sorry ita and Stompies).

This is totally top-quality pulp Noir. If the pulps still existed they would pay her a dime per word until some big Hollywood producer noticed her work, hired her to write for scripts, and she ended up with a tasteful suburban mini-mansion.

Thanks, Typo Boy...yeah, that's me, the second coming of Leigh Brackett. I kid, but that is something of an ambition, well, since I learned who Leigh Brackett was. Don't need the mansion...maybe just a comely minion to pick up the stuff I drop. Maybe some limber young dude, so I can say, like Frank Pembleton, that I keep him around cause I like how it looks.

So I'm reading some old fic of mine from my Equalizer days and being amused by the 80s-ness of it and pleased that the plots and characterization hold up. But my POV is all over the place. I bitch at people when I'm editing about POV, and it really annoys me when other writers can't keep POV straight. Still, when I've tried re-writing these stories, a focused POV just seems cramped. I'm not sure if it's "mustn't change my baby!" syndrome or a case of "follow what's right, not what the rules say."

So, what "rules" of writing do you find yourself chucking out the window when the muse insists? Or is your muse better trained than mine?

I have *no* perspective on my stuff, and the longer I've worked at "perfecting" it, the less likely I am to spot something that needs changing, or to change it when a beta points it out.

Thus, three drawer novels. Any of which *could* be reworked into something potentially saleable. By anybody but me, because I can't see past what is to what could or should be changed for the better. ::shrug::

I don't think about it in terms of rules...maybe I should have.