Author Bloopers?

[polishgenius]

A LOT of expressions tends to be carried over without thought, I know I've seen "The writing on the wall" at least once, for instance. (Which is of course a biblical reference)

Sometimes though I think you have to forgive it because it's so ingrained in the language that there isn't another way to say it that carries the meaning as well, and often although it comes from religion most people wouldn't link it to that, certainly not isntantly.

Just pretend you're reading a translation and they've translated an equivalent phrase or idiom into that...

[VarysTheSpider]

Several years ago on this forum there was a thread about a guy who was notorious for hilarious gaffes, and was very candid about admitting to them.

One among many stories that I vaguely remember is how he said in an interview that the publisher had already decided on the cover art of his next book before he had finished writing it's prequal. So he had to completely change his ending and use a very bad plot device so his characters ended up in South America or somewhere, just so it would match the cover art of the sequal!

Unfortunately I can't remember his name or find it using google. Anyone know who this legend is?

[DanielAbraham]

That probably sounds very garbled, so see here for a quick diagram.

Thanks all for correcting me. It's always bugged me in the book, and I'm fairly delighted that the problem was me. So much easier to correct, you know . . . :)

[Guest Other-in-Law]

Incidentally, I recently picked up Tigana, as a result of this thread. Haven't read any Kay yet, but they always looked interesting.

[WrathOfTinyKittens]

Some English phrases bother me, but there's really no way around it; I mean, it's a constructed world, but if you built a full set of languages and such and then wrote in that language then no one would understand, obviously. I always try to think of fantasy works as being translated works, like Gene Wolfe state's in the intro to the Book of the New Sun. Makes suspension of linguistic disbelief that much easier.

The only example I can think of right now that actually bothered me was the interior of a room being referred to as "spartan," an adjective that has no business existing in a constructed world.

[MinDonner]

Several years ago on this forum there was a thread about a guy who was notorious for hilarious gaffes, and was very candid about admitting to them.

One among many stories that I vaguely remember is how he said in an interview that the publisher had already decided on the cover art of his next book before he had finished writing it's prequal. So he had to completely change his ending and use a very bad plot device so his characters ended up in South America or somewhere, just so it would match the cover art of the sequal!

Unfortunately I can't remember his name or find it using google. Anyone know who this legend is?

Oh, gods, I remember that thread, though only vaguely. Wasn't it some fantasy series about Marines getting transported to a fantasy world, or something? (no, not the time travelling Navy SEALs/Vikings one!) *racks brain*

[red snow]

I'm about halfway through "fevre dream" by GRRM and it's bugging me how vampires kill their mothers during birth. By that logic the vampire race would be heading towards extinction regardless of humans killing them. At best they would have a constant population if they were all female and there was a single male. This gap in logic will hopefully be addressed before the end of the book or i will just have to pretend that the vampires mutated at some stage in recent history.

[Spring Bass]

The only series I've seen that really addresses the "language dispersion" issue in a serious fashion is Greg Keyes' Kingdom of Thorne and Bone (made easier by the fact that one of his major characters is a linguist). Other authors do occasionally throw a bone in that direction, like

Tyrion's comment in the ADWD chapter about how the Valyrian of the Free Cities is really 9 different dialects turning into separate languages

in the ADwD spoilers.

[VarysTheSpider]

Oh, gods, I remember that thread, though only vaguely. Wasn't it some fantasy series about Marines getting transported to a fantasy world, or something? (no, not the time travelling Navy SEALs/Vikings one!) *racks brain*

I have incorporated "marines" into my list of increasingly surreal and desperate google searches without success. Sigh.

[williamjm]

I have incorporated "marines" into my list of increasingly surreal and desperate google searches without success. Sigh.

I had vague memories of the anecdote you mentioned being something to do with Aztec gold and then finding he'd set the book in the wrong part of the Americas. Searching back in this forum for Aztecs finds this post:

Once again, the cover art is really cool, especially with the F-4 Phantoms wearing Nazi insignia. But I actually ran into trouble with the text on the back cover. In those days, I was writing the books so quickly, the publisher frequently had the cover jackets printed up even before I even finished the book. In this case, I had told them that the Nazis were after Inca gold. Only when I got to the last part of the book did I realize I should have said "Aztec gold," as the Aztecs were from Central America, and the Incas were way down in South America. But a zillion covers had already been printed up. That's why, in the last few chapters, I had to pick up everything and everybody and move them all a thousand miles south, to Bolivia, where they could finally end the adventure by finding all that freaking Inca gold.

The series in question seems to be called Wingman by Mack Maloney.

[VarysTheSpider]

I had vague memories of the anecdote you mentioned being something to do with Aztec gold and then finding he'd set the book in the wrong part of the Americas. Searching back in this forum for Aztecs finds this post:

The series in question seems to be called Wingman by Mack Maloney.

YEAH!! Thanks!

That's why, in the last few chapters, I had to pick up everything and everybody and move them all a thousand miles south, to Bolivia, where they could finally end the adventure by finding all that freaking Inca gold.

LOL. Better than I remember.

ETA: From his website:

On the first book: There is also lots of sex in this one as my editor at the time told me that Hawk should lay pipe at least four times a book...

...And on the fourth book: There are also a lot of lipstick lesbian scenes in here, this because of a letter I'd written to my editor. I'd told him that having Hawk can get his oil changed four times a book was really slowing things down. I asked him if Hawk went to bed with two women twice a book, would that fulfill the requirement. He agreed, and that's why from this point on, there are so many girl-on-girl scenes in the books.

Slightly off the point of the bloopers but excellent nonetheless.

[williamjm]

LOL. Better than I remember.

The plot summaries on his website are amusingly odd. For example,

This story is really about him being sick of being a super hero and wanting to settle down with Dominique, which is what he does in the first few chapters. He has a hay farm on Cape Cod, and that’s all he wants to do, grow hay, whatever that means. But his dream lasts only a few pages or so before the country is attacked by – who else? – the Vikings.

or

Again this is a story where Hawk doesn’t show up until about halfway through the book. Instead we live through Japan’s invasion of South America as seen through the eyes of the enemy, that being one of the Rising Sun’s top generals, a guy named Hiro Wakisaki.

Hawk and his men are ghosts to Wakisaki, and taunt him as such until he finally goes mad and kills himself – at least I think that’s what happens. It’s been a while since I wrote it.

Then the action switches to the Falkland Islands, the most unlikely place on Earth to fight a war, where Hunter and his friends have to defend a small outpost of good guys stationed there to protect a secret that’s a real mind blower, even to Hawk himself. Or something along those lines.

You've got to admire the honesty of an author who admits on his own website that he can't really remember what actually happened in his previous books.

[Shryke]

His "Whatever, I'm just pulling shit out of my ass here" attitude is refreshing.

He KNOWS he's writing crap.

[Howling Mad]

I'm about halfway through "fevre dream" by GRRM and it's bugging me how vampires kill their mothers during birth. By that logic the vampire race would be heading towards extinction regardless of humans killing them. At best they would have a constant population if they were all female and there was a single male. This gap in logic will hopefully be addressed before the end of the book or i will just have to pretend that the vampires mutated at some stage in recent history.

I just finished Fevre Dream and I had the same thought. GRRM never does address the issue so I guess the orgins of the vampire race was just lost to time. One of the possibilities for this occurence that GRRM could have explored is the vampire race's evolutionary change to blend in with the humans. As the VR bred to enhance human appearence thier ability to naturally have children was lost. Similar to the current condition of pure bred English Bulldogs.