The Myth Made Me Do It...

Subject: The Myth Made Me Do It... Fri Jan 02, 2009 8:13 pm

The myth made me do it....

There's nothing new under the sun. What goes around comes around. If you live long enough, you can be original. Every story ever told has already been told (in other words, there are only two, or twenty, or thirty-six plots –depending on which plotters' manual you prefer-- and someone has already explored them.).

Fairy tales, the Arabian Nights, Arthurian legends and classical myths are popular inspirations for authors today (including me), just as they've always been since the days of the unknown author of Beowulf, and of Chaucer, and of Shakespeare.

By the way, one of my best friends is the niece of the late Sir Richard Burton (the adventurer and formidable swordsman who translated the Kama Sutra). She's quite a bit older than I am.

"Fractured" fairy tales were the fashion when I was a schoolgirl. In those chaste days, the big surprise was that Red Riding Hood shot the bad wolf. Last year, fractured fairy tales were all the rage all over again in my daughter's school. Now, Red Riding Hood is streetwise, and talks to all the animals… as in "Hoodwinked" (the cartoon).

Regency faery tales were hot (in more ways than one) fifteen to twenty years ago.

Moreover, these timeless tales of magic, morality and universal truths adapt very well to most genres of Romance fiction. Obviously, in Fantasy the faeries may or may not have wings, and the Elves may be tall and royal and very Legolas.

In Erotica the dragons may have the hots for smooth-skinned maidens, and the dungeons come with beds. In Paranormal and Goth and Dark the old morality of the fairy tales turns on its head, and the horrors become the heroes.

I was chatting on the radio with Cindy Spencer Pape last weekend, and I fastened with great tenacity and glee on a thorough modern twist she'd given to one of her werewolf heroes in "Curses". He'd had a vasectomy, but there was a problem.

Oh, joy! I love that stuff. Biology is one of the three sciences. My idea of sci-fi romance embraces biology with enthusiasm…. that, and forensics. Cindy's werewolf had preternatural powers of regeneration, so his body re-grew the vas deferens, and he became potent with alarming rapidity, and got someone into trouble.

To think I thought it was cooool when a vet (Josh Artemeier, "Pet Hates") told me that werewolves can't –or shouldn't—eat chocolates! It isn't good for their tempers or their irritable bowels.

And then, not last, and not least, (I haven't touched Time Travel, or ghostly cowboys, or Wagon Train in outer space --ie Battlestar Galactica) there's science fiction romance and futuristics, which is what I write.

Which myths have you retold, or seen used well?

The myths from which I've borrowed include The Abduction of Persephone (Forced Mate), Helen of Troy (Mating Net and also Knight's Fork), Perseus and the Gorgon's Head (Knight's Fork), Perseus and Andromeda (Knight's Fork), Tantalus (Knight's Fork). There are more, of course.

As for which myth made me do what…?

Can you guess? queen

KNIGHT'S FORK by Rowena Cherry

"Carpe Scrotum. Seize life by the testicles!"

The Queen Consort of the Volnoths needs a sperm donor, and only one green-eyed god has the right stuff….

Subject: Re: The Myth Made Me Do It... Sat Jan 03, 2009 3:16 am

Hi Rowena,

Great to see you here and thanks for the myths! ... or should that be memories? In 2007, I wrote a short story, Leo's Daughter: Mistress of the Web, based on Greek mythology that was published in Universe Pathways -- a Greek sci-fi and fantasy magazine.

Leo is Zeus, whose daughter, Athena, turned Arachne into a spider. In the story, Leo's daughter is a highly successful business woman who eventually owns a search engine company (with spiders that search the web).

I hope we see more of you this year. I will look forward to it!

Subject: Re: The Myth Made Me Do It... Sat Jan 03, 2009 6:26 am

Yes, Rowena, keep coming back. Your presence has been missed.

Subject: Re: The Myth Made Me Do It... Sat Jan 03, 2009 1:40 pm

Red Riding Hood shot the big bad wolf? Boy, you just never know about girls, do you?

Subject: Re: The Myth Made Me Do It... Sat Jan 03, 2009 2:00 pm

How wonderful to find another mythologist! I hope you will take a look at my website, and see how I apply mythology to writing.

Ann

Guest

Hi Rowena! I saw your post and it rang a bell. Sometimes the myth does indeed just kind of take over. I have tried my hand with a book based on the Arthurian cycles, as you see by the post heading. Its only been out for a few days, so I dont know how it will be recieved yet. I had to do a lot of research on Arthur, and decide how I wanted to portray him. I chose to make him believable by minimizing much of the fantasy stuff.
In this one, I made it a modern day quest to find Excalibur by using the clues hidden in plain sight within the prose of "The Canterbury Tales". I found that it was a more involved project than I had envisioned when first I started it. I originally set out to write a book of around 300 pages; but I ran into mission creep with it. The thing wound up being nearly 700 pages, and I was exhausted by the time that I was finished. Yes indeed, the myth kind of took over on that one! It even started to tie in with other myths...it was scarry! affraid

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