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Re: Fiction



> At 09:27 AM 2/19/97 -0500, tons@ccs.netside.com wrote:
> >Dinosaurs are fantastic.  People are entralled by them.  You don't 
> >see as many people go nuts over giant sloths(apologies to those who 
> >study ancient mammals).
> >
> >If you try to write a story about an extinct creature, you will 
> >understand you have to "invent" a lot of that animals behavior.  
> >Also, the people that BUY stories don't give a crap about facts.  
> 
> Not entirely true.  If someone put a ring around Mars, or had Abraham
> Lincoln a woman, or had an elephant with twelve legs, or had a character
> watching "Leave it to Beaver, starring Michael Jackson as 'the Beaver'", it
> would be pretty damn jarring!!  Unless that was the POINT of the story
> (i.e., an alternate history story, which incidentally is one of my favorite
> subgeneres of SF), these errors would certainly detract from the enjoyment
> of the characters, storyline, etc.
> 
> Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.
Well, I'm trying to write one and my mentor and editor is screaming 
at me to anthropomorphize my Rex.  Hell, someone wanted another 
Watership Downs.  It's terribly hard to tell a story that is 
interesting and will sell to the masses about a gigantic creature 
that can't really think much less have dialogue.  To create a story 
you have to have drauma and with dinosaurs that's action.  And 
you can't narrate much or you will bore a lot of people outside of 
this list.  I have to constantly stand by my theme of being 
relatively scientific without being edited into oblivion.  If I'm not 
careful I'll have a nice narrative about a T rex that is 
scientifically sound, very very boring, and worthless to anyone I can 
sell it to.  It's a fine line and I really don't know if I can do it. 
 If you interested I just got back from talking to him.  He doesn't 
give a damn how T rex stood up, lied down, used its forelimbs, where 
it lived, what grew there, etc.  He wants action.  

Michael Teuton