Sunday, December 09, 2007

Alien Romance. What makes us who we are.... (lite)

I was surprised to find myself blogging aloud on live radio with two anthropologists this week.

Why was I surprised? Because I was hosting one of my "Crazy Tuesday" internet radio shows, and my five guests were authors of faery stories. I might not have been surprised to learn that one speculative romance author in five is an anthropologist. Two seemed more than a coincidence. Moreover, two of my guests have a special interest in crows!

Jacquie Rogers, Eilis Flynn, Elaine Corvidae, Roberta Gellis, and Sahara Kelly called in for a sometimes-learned, occasionally hilarious whirlwind tour of the world's magical beings-- both benign and malign-- from the Japanese Kappa that bites unwary waders below the belt if they splash into his river, through the fairies of the Silk Road, to the crow spirits whose task is to cause the sort of accidents that bring a man and a woman together (Crow-Harmony!), to sirens, selkie, and kelpie.

Anthropology, crows, and fairies... And history.

This isn't the first time that an unrehearsed, free-wheeling chat with other authors has turned up surprises. One week, I had two historians discussing mermaids and seafaring males with a roving eye for the odd manatee.

I've heard of the Romvets, former military ladies who now write action adventure, often with a strong sci-fi bias.

Who are today's story tellers?
Do we have more in common than we imagine?

In our personality types?
In our "other" careers?
In what we studied at university?

(There are endless quizzes we could do on MySpace and Facebook, if we had the time, but most of us are always on some deadline or another)

Or, do we run the gamut of former careers, and it is simply serendipity when a few of us get together and discover how much we have in common?

For what it's worth, I'm an INTJ when I'm not an INTP. I read English and Education at Cambridge, and my school majors were English, History, Art, and Greek Literature in Translation. I've had extensive experience of being "an alien". That's why I write .

Best wishes,
Rowena Cherry
Chess-inspired ("mating") titles. Gods from outer space. Sexy SFR. Poking fun, (pun intended). Shameless word-play.

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous4:37 PM EST

    I'm having trouble getting "authority" from Technorati for this alien romances blog.

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  2. I was just talking about how personality influences how we write.

    I'm an ESTJ when I'm not an ISTJ. Depends on the wine and company, usually. I'm definitely a "thinker" rather than a "feeler," though. I think (LOL) this relates directly to my writing in that I get my character's thoughts down first, then have to go back and flush out their feelings.

    I've always loved literature and anthropology, but I have a fondness for gadgets which syncs up nicely with my cyberpunkish writing style.

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