Well yeah. I stole it from a Hawiian friend of mine. But someone complained not that it was unoriginal, but that it was clumsy. Hmm, but following the link it is really a cliche, so maybe lame from overuse rather than clumsiness.

So, this is kind of tumbling around in my head:


It started in California.

The elders would say it started in New York, or New Orleans, or even Chicago. Cities steeped in tradition and lore. The historians might even trace it back to Eastern Europe, or the jungles of Haiti. The places where traditions begin.

But this? This started in California. Specifically, it started in San Francisco, home to transients and romantics, most vibrant at night, where no one will look twice at anyone else, no matter how lurid or outlandish. It spread through the underworld and spilled up into the bars and clubs, places packed with beautiful people looking for the next fun thing.

It's so easy to disappear in San Francisco. Easier than you think.

No one knows how it started. It could have come from the Jiang Shi, from the mandurugo, or even from Camazotz. It could have been here all along, in the form of Jumlin. San Francisco’s history as a port means that many origins are lost in time. All that is known is that they are faster, stronger, better than their Eastern brethren. The first time the children of the East came out here, they were laughed at for their weakness, for the effete way they feared to walk abroad on a foggy day, for their single-minded view of humans as prey.

Ohh, that is excellent! Very evocative.

Ohh, that is excellent! Very evocative.

Thanks! It's been rolling around in my head for a while. I think it'd actually be easier to write as a script, because that's how I think, but eh.

The slick prompt is now closed.

This week's prompt is by the book.

Oh, FUCK.

I just read the review of Victory of Eagles over at the Dear Author blog...and I'm really afraid I'm going to have to stop writing my alternative history, because it's just too damn close to what Novik did, only mine doesn't have dragons.

Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck.

I knew this could happen, and I've been fretting over it ever since I saw the teaser blurb for VoE at the back of the last Temeraire book...but, dammit, I had no idea it would be as close as it is. I mean, I'm also using Scotland and Wellesley in pretty much the same way she is, and....dammit dammit dammit dammit DAMN IT.

I love my story. I love my cranky snobby brainy blue-eyed general of a protagonist. I've already given over a year of my heart and soul and energy to this story, and I want to give it more. I don't want to stop writing it...but why would anyone buy the same damn story only without the dragons!?

t cries

but why would anyone buy the same damn story only without the dragons!?

Maybe they don't like fantasy or dragons. Maybe they don't like Novik's writing. Maybe they love the period and are happy to read anything set in it.

I hope you're right, but at this point I can't imagine an editor saying anything but, "Already read this," and if no editor will buy it, it doesn't matter what readers will think.

Sigh. I should've known this would happen. I love my story, but I don't know what to do. And, damn it, I wasn't trying to be derivative of Novik, except insofar as I'm writing Napoleonic-era alternative history. I have no delusions of being perfectly original--I completely admit that at least one major plot line in my story is hella derivative of the Sharpe series, to the point I actually wrote Bernard Cornwell to make sure he'd be cool with it (and he was, pointing out that he doesn't have a patent on any character types or plot devices...advice I may actually find reassuring once I climb down from my current ledge). But it's one thing to do something like that on purpose, and even as something of a homage. It's another to have it hit you in the face just as you're finishing a rough draft and thinking of where and how to market a story.

I mean, maybe this is OK. The similarities probably aren't as big as they seem. If nothing else, Novik's Napoleon is completely unlike mine, so it stands to reason her Wellesley will be too. But it does mean I've now lost whatever points for "unique, clever, and original high concept plot" I had.

pointing out that he doesn't have a patent on any character types or plot devices...advice I may actually find reassuring once I climb down from my current ledge

Back away from the ledge, Susan. The cool thing about alternative history is that there are so. many. alternatives. You've written one of them. Similarity to someone else's is only by virtue of the people/time period and that is what you are all tinkering with. In your own, unique, way.

Personally, I'm tired of Novik's dragons. I had a very hard time reading the third book and bailed less than half-way through the fourth. I'll take a peek at five and see if I want to go back and finish up four. Four just dragged so damn much, but if five picks up the pace again, I may go back just so I have any necessary details in mind while reading five.

"Already read this WITH DRAGONS" is really a whole different animal than "already read this." Even if Novik was selling at JK Rowling levels, which she's not, so there's a much larger category of people who won't have already read it. I would imagine most of the alternate history audience wouldn't read fantasy, anyway.