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Mashups

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Paul Whybrow

Full Member
Joined
Jun 20, 2015
Location
Cornwall, UK
LitBits
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As a safety valve to blow off pressure caused by designing a blog and website, using WordPress, I've been writing a couple of short stories.

Only visiting them once every few weeks has made the characters militant, and they've hijacked the plot, taking it in directions I hadn't anticipated. One story is about a hedge witch intrigued by a newcomer to her village who appears to have arcane knowledge. I intended it to be an unusual love story with spells, curses, blessings and bindings—mild enough to be printed by a women's magazine, but it's strayed into malevolent voodoo territory.

The other story is intended as a giveaway for subscribers to my Cornish Detective website. Featuring an early investigation by my protagonist, I planned for it to be an introduction to his characteristics and how crimes committed on the spur of the moment have consequences through the ages. Instead, a ghost of one of the victims hijacked the narrative adding spookiness.

At least these tales only wandered into a similar sub-genre, but it set me to thinking about how I could introduce bizarre elements into Detective Chief Inspector Neil Kettle's investigations. He's already tapped into lessons his farming ancestors taught him, so I could take things further. Crime writers James Oswald, James Lee Burke and John Connolly use supernatural forces to assist their main character.

I like the idea of writing a stand-alone novel based on a mashup of eras and genres:

Mashup novels - Wikipedia

5 Mashup Novels That Offer Worthy Twists on the Originals

literary-mashups-lincoln-1.jpg


511v-xSc7mL._SX325_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


A mashup of cavemen meeting cyborgs could be fun.

What mashup do you fancy writing?

caveman_spaceship.jpg
 
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