Writing Excuses 6.24: From the Ridiculous to the Sublime

Andrew P. Mayer joins Howard, Mary, and Dan at Dragon*Con 2011. Andrew's has one book out, The Falling Machine, and the second book in this "Society of Steam" series, Hearts of Smoke, comes out on November 22nd. Andrew describes them as "steampunk superhero" novels, which nicely takes us into our topic, which centers around taking a ridiculous, over-the-top concept and using it to create brilliant and realistic literature. We discuss a number of concepts which seem, at least on the surface, to be completely ridiculous, and which have been turned into wonderful stories, books, and series of books. We also talk about how to pull this off, and what writing skills we need to bring to bear. Audiobook Pick-of-the-Week: Mainspring, by Jay Lake, narrated by William Dufris Writing Prompt: Give us a story about a character who discovers that there exists a pill to grant you the powers of a god. This episode of Writing Excuses has been brought to you by Audible. Visit http://AudiblePodcast.com/excuse for a free trial membership*. *Note: From the Audible website, here are the terms of the free membership. Read the fine print, please! Audible® Free Trial Details Get your first 14 days of the AudibleListener® Gold membership plan free, which includes one audiobook credit. After your 14 day trial, your membership will renew each month for just $14.95 per month so you can continue to receive one audiobook credit per month plus members-only discounts on all audio purchases. A very small number of titles are more than one credit. Cancel your membership before your free trial period is up and you will not be charged. Thereafter, cancel anytime, effective the next billing cycle. Any unused audiobook credits will be lost at cancellation.