But still, after Write-A-Thon 2007, I can report that I got about 22,000 words in during those five days — not bad! My rough drafts are fairly rough things (and I already see that Stargazer is going to require a lot of restructuring), but at this point, the main thing is to get the whole story down, and I’m a lot closer to that. So far this weekend hasn’t been especially productive, but I hope to make up for that tomorrow.
Today, instead of writing, I went to the Natural History Museum, where they have the “Mythical Creatures” exhibit — dragons and mermaids and griffins and the like. It was pretty amazing stuff, really, and thank goodness I was able to retain some self-control in the gift shop. Not only were there adorable stuffed potbellied dragons and remarkably good phoenix puppets, but there was a book called A Field Guide to Demons. Not only did it list most types of demons from folklore around the world, but it also included the time honored methods for exorcising and/or slaying them. I might have to reconsider, return and buy that one after all; as an urban fantasy writer, I could claim it as a valuable research tool —
Was the Mythical Creatures exhibit sort of an overview of traditional beliefs about them? Bestiaries and old myths and the like? Or was it more of a treatment of them as total fantasy? Either way, so cool. I would have gone in a heartbeat.
We have a 16th/17th century bestiary that one of our professors used for a class on Shakespeare – they picked out mythical creature names in the texts then researched in the bestiary for what particular allusion Shakespeare was trying to make.
It was a little bit of both, actually! But more heavily tilted toward bestiaries and old myths. My favorite exhibits were invariably the vintage books that purported to show true creatures like the Kraken and the unicorn.
might have to reconsider, return and buy that one after all; as an urban fantasy writer, I could claim it as a valuable research tool —
Tax write-off!
Just like this weekend!
Ooooh, how long does it run I wonder? Call me next time you’re gonna go see a killer exhibit, and I’ll show. 😀 😀
It runs through January — plenty of time for you to get there!