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Welcome… I’m New Here! Human Writes

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Stuart G

Colony Member
Joined
Aug 7, 2025
Location
UK
LitBits
6
Newborn Litopian here, freshly traumatised by a wishlist that I wouldn't wish on my best enemy, courtesy of @AgentPete

Looking forward to burning off people's eyebrows in The Lab and having mine burned off in return.

My goal is to find an agent to represent my science fiction crime thriller novel about a gentleman gorilla detective with bad asthma and good instincts.

I have other projects in development which I plan to prioritise with a lab experiment that may or may not prove to be explosive.

See you beside the fire extinguishers
 
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hello Stuart, and welcome.
I'm intrigued to know what title you've chosen for the gorilla thing - sounds fabulously unique.
xx B
Hello Vagabond, and thank you. Fabulously unique is what I've aimed for. The title is The Killing Skin.
 
From one human to another, welcome to Litopia. Your novel sounds rather zany, and the world needs as much 'rather zany' as it can get.
Thanks Mickle. On the surface the novel might seem zany but the subtext is a social commentary on the class divide, the importance of family, and the flexibility of history when it's told by the winners.

What's your oeuvre?
 
Welcome aboard @Stuart G :) Have you read Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennet? It's a fantasy crime thriller but really unique which sounds up your alley.
Thanks for the recommendation RK. I haven't read that. I'll add it to the list of unexplored alleys.

What's your taste in alleyways?
 
Hi @Stuart G

Welcome to Litopia. I hope you're settling in.

I'm excited to witness your experiments, but please don't burn the Lab down.
There's an instructional video here: How to use the lab and more
Maybe we should have emphasised the use of safety goggles.

Stay safe,
Rachel
Thanks Sedayne. Instructions read and understood: the lab's no use to anyone if someone flames the place.
 
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Speaking of which, I hope you return to your zany alien comedy SF thingie.
Hi @Pamela Jo, good to catch you again. Still making slow progress. I've learned a lot from reading the pieces of others and their attendant critiques. Reworked what I'd previously written, including a snappy new title. I've just about finished 25,000 words (told you I was slow). The novel will be in 3 parts, the first of which I've almost completed. It got bit lovey-dovey in the 2nd half of part 1, so I've introduced some tension... a helicopter, a sinister American and a contingent of NZ marines. I'm hopeful of finishing the novel in the next decade. Take care, Lady Pamela-Jo.
 
Thanks Mickle. On the surface the novel might seem zany but the subtext is a social commentary on the class divide, the importance of family, and the flexibility of history when it's told by the winners.

What's your oeuvre?
Oeuvre is a bloomin' good word. I had to get Madam Google's help with that one.

I write mainly poetry, flash fiction, memoirs, etc, and I've got quite a few publication credits with those... plus I enjoy blogging a lot. I'm also writing a 'light sci-fi' novel, and I'm about a third of the way through that. I'm very slow and pedantic about it all though, and I get side tracked by many other hobbies, interests and activities. Such is life. Hoping to catch you around the Litopia site.
 
Oeuvre is a bloomin' good word. I had to get Madam Google's help with that one.

I write mainly poetry, flash fiction, memoirs, etc, and I've got quite a few publication credits with those... plus I enjoy blogging a lot. I'm also writing a 'light sci-fi' novel, and I'm about a third of the way through that. I'm very slow and pedantic about it all though, and I get side tracked by many other hobbies, interests and activities. Such is life. Hoping to catch you around the Litopia site.
A Mickle of all trades. I love it. See you in the lab.
 
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Welcome. Anything that matches or outdoes Umbrella Academy is copasetic in my eyes.
Thanks Pamela Jo. Dr. Simeon Primate is an academic but he doesn't carry an umbrella: he likes the feel of the rain in his fur.

What do you like to write?
 
Simeon the Simian? Superb! I'll keep an eye out for him.

For flying fingers I like aliens and artificial entities, intelligent or otherwise. Humans are still more of slog.
Well in your blogs I think you write human very well, Laura.

Stuart I like cool stories where illogical stuff happens in a logical Occams Razor way. It is not easy to do. It's easier to write Keystone Cops stuff, harder to make the madness make sense.
I set myself the task of writing 6 books about 6 years ago now and I have kept to the schedule. The first was a black comedy about two women who are suspected of murder when their pets ally with Ireland's fairies facing extinction wo human sacrifices. Spoiler: the worst animal abusers of Co Wexford end up dead or worse and the women go on to a sequel. I suppose everything would fit under "speculative fiction."
 
That black comedy sounds great. I'm imagining a guinea pig possessed by a pixie forcing a grandma to murder the paperboy - but grandma gets away with it by falsifying dementia.
 
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Welcome human. It is a long time since I have read any science fiction even though I love a good sci fi movie like Dune. Perhaps you can make me change alleyways you tease...
 
That black comedy sounds great. I'm imagining a guinea pig possessed by a pixie forcing a grandma to murder the paperboy - but grandma gets away with it by falsifying dementia.
I wrote it because women over 50 are not "grandma's" but actually enjoy YA type books about people like themselves who are far from dementia. My log line is Arsenic and Old Lace meets Thelma and Louise with mustangs and Chihuahuas. Who are the readers you are going for?
 

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