Question - when reading a book with a large cast of POV characters, do you, as a reader, ever resent the second and third POV characters for taking time away from the first POV character you meet as a reader?

I'm just wondering if I'm unique in this.  I always consider the first POV character I meet in a series to be more..."alpha", or "better", or "THE main character".

If you do feel this as a reader, does it affect the way you write?

I don't think this one has been asked here before.  How do you guys make up titles for your works?  Do they come first, or last, or does it depend on the story, or are you going to leave it up to your editor (if you eventually get the thing finished, out there, and nibbled upon) because they'll just change them anyway? (a la Jim's Semiautomagic => Storm Front or Jacqueline Carey's Elegy for Darkness => Godslayer and Banewreaker)  (Semiautomagic and Elegy for Darkness I think both rock as titles, so I'm unsure why the editors in question changed them!)  Do you follow a set procedure for making them up?

Me, I like titles, but they come very haphazardly.  Some stories I make have titles early on, some take some dedicated brainstorming.  One thing I do try to do however is make the feel of the title fit the story--ie, urban fantasy needs urban-fantasy-like titles.  Epic fantasy needs to be a bit more epic. 

Here's a few of my titles...

Daughter of Lilith, Son of Eve - This is a riff on C. S. Lewis's "Son of Adam, Daughter of Eve" phrase in his Narnia series.  The story basically has two major characters that are half demon, one that's more humane than the other (Son of Eve).  Lilith, in mythology, is Adam's first wife, the one who would not obey his commands and was punished by being turned into the mother of demons, a large number of which are slaughtered by angels over a certain amount of time.

A Mother's Sins, Sin & Hex, Hexagramicon, and Baphomet's Icon are four titles in a dark urban fantasy series I'm working on.  They all sort of came at once, after more than a year of wrestling with an unflattering working title for the first story.  The first one refers to the fact that the main character's situations are mostly the direct result of his mother's prior actions.  And the second two refer to a hex that plays a major role in those two books.  Fourth is there just because I think Baphomet is cool.  I had a fifth silly one of Baph Water but...it's silly.  So.  Not really a title.

The Dragon King's Wife sounds sophisticated, like my Dragon King, less like an urban fantasy, and is directly about who the book is about--his wife! (This story is actually science-fantasy coming from the fantasy side of things)

The Dragon King's Daughter follows the same layout.

I have several other stories that just haven't dredged up appropriate titles yet...one of those stories is 12 years old!  The Dragon King's Wife came pretty much with the start of the story itself.  Daughter of Lilith, Son of Eve took a couple of years.  So I don't really have a set anything when it comes to titles.

How do you guys work it?

Subgenres!  Just like the title says.  I was wondering, what subgenres do you make distinctions among in your SFF?

Fantasy subgenres:

Urban fantasy - Magic happening in the real world.  Examples: Jim Butcher's Dresden files, Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series, Mercedes Lackey's SERRAted Edge books, Charlaine Harris' Sookie Stackhouse books, Touch the Dark by Karen Chance, etc.

Dark fantasy - Fantasy that has dark themes--vamps, demons etc.  and presents them in a sympathetic light.  A lot of urban fantasy these days is dark urban fantasy, and has traits of both.  Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy is a good example of dark fantasy, without the urban element.  Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake and Merry Gentry series are dark urban fantasy.  (I don't consider Harry Dresden to be dark urban, because, at least at this point in time, Harry is still striving to be Good, and for the most part fights against Evil.)  This genre can also include horror/fantasy crossover work.

Comic fantasy - fantasy set on a world that's largely made up to be funny and/or poke fun at fantasy.  Terry Pratchett's Diskworld, Piers Anthony's Xanth, Patricia Wrede's Enchanted Forest Chronicles

Fantasy (aka Low Fantasy) - Not all people make this distinction, but Low Fantasy, for me, is fantasy that has all the trappings of fantasy, but doesn't quite have the Epic-ness of Epic/High fantasy.  Difficult to explain.  Mercedes Lackey's Valdemar series is here for me, so is Jim Butcher's Codex Alera books (I know some will disagree, but Harry Dresden feels more Epic then Codex Alera does to me).

Epic fantasy (aka High Fantasy) - Fantasy that's...Epic!   Fantasy that has over-reaching world-affecting plots.  If the good guy doesn't kill the bad guy, the world WILL be destroyed.  Swords and sorcerers.  Fate of the world depending on the choice of one man.  That type of thing, in a way that makes you, the reader, believe it's true.  Examples: Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series.  Raymond E. Feist's Riftware books.  Harry Dresden seems to have a good dollop of this too, but not quite enough to make me firmly catagorize it.  I may change my tune after book 23!

Paranormal romance - Fantasy where the main theme is romance.  Distinct from fantasy where romance is a sub-plot.  I can't think of any true blue examples right now, but the Luna imprint caters to this.

Paranormal erotica - Fantasy where the main theme is sex between paranormal/supernatural beings.  Distinct from paranormal romance.  Laurell K. Hamilton's Merry Gentry series is an example of this, as is post-Obsidian Butterfly Anita Blake.  You could also probably put in Jacqueline Carey's Kushiel series here.  There's probably more examples I'm not aware of.

Zombie fantasy - fantasy that has died but still is ALLLLLIIIIIIVVVVEEE!  Ok, this isn't a real genre, but one of the series that belongs in here DOES have zombies...technically...but I won't name names.  Fantasy that is still going on even though the series is dead, dead, dead and the author should stop molesting the corpse.  Often applies to Epic fantasys that keep on going...and going...and going...

Sci-Fi subgenres:

(Note...some people object to the word "sci-fi", as opposed to "science fiction".  I personally make no distinction between the two.)

Science Fantasy - Stories set on worlds that technically were settled by a sci-fi starships-from-earth manner, but for whatever reason degressed in technology to an often pre-industrial culture.  Anne McCaffrey's Pern, Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover, C. S. Friedman's Coldfire Trilogy, Joan D. Vinge's Summer Queen and Snow Queen books, Robert Silverburg's Majipoor books.

Space Opera - sci-fi that focuses more on inter-character conflicts then the technology.  (It's a play on "soap opera".)  Anne McCaffrey's Tower and Hive series (The Rowan, Damia, etc.).  Some of Robert A. Heinlein's stuff.

Hard Science Fiction - sci-fi that focuses on the science.  Stephen Baxter's Evolution (or generally almost anything by Stephen Baxter).  Pretty much anything by Issac Asimov.  Some of Robert A. Heinlein's stuff.

Military Sci-Fi - sci-fi that focuses on the military.  I don't read much of this, so bear with me if my examples suck.  Karen Lowachee's Warchild series.  Anne McCaffrey's Sassinack books (sp?).  The publisher Baen puts out a lot of military Sci-fi (I hate the coverart though so I generally don't read Baen books.  Shallow, I know.).

I'm sure there's some subgenres that I'm forgetting about...let me know what they are.

While we're talking about Baen...

What trends have you seen in the SFF publishing houses/imprints, as in what they tend to publish?

Baen - Baen is an independant publisher, as in, they're not an imprint of an international book publishing company giant (most SFF publishers are).  They tend to put out a lot of military sci-fi, and they use the same coverartists for nearly all of their books, so it's easy to spot a book put out by them.  I don't know the quality of their books; the coverart puts me off so I don't buy them.  Heh.

Tor - Tor is the BMW/Mercedes Benz/famous luxury car maker of the SFF publishing world.  They're damn hard to get accepted by, and the books they publish always show a very good command of both writing in general, and writing SFF in particular.  Their authors tend to be top-tier.  Orson Scott Card is published though them, Jacqueline Carey's first Kushiel trilogy is through them, Joan D. Vinge goes through them, etc.  They take pretty much any type of fantasy and sci-fi, so long as it's written very well.  I think, due to the popularity of Jacqueline Carey's Kuahiel series, they're looking for similar books, but that could be a lie, and a few years out of date to boot.

Roc - Roc's quality is uneven; they tend to take chances on authors much more then Tor does.  Some books they put out are really good, some mediocre.  They have been putting out a lot of good dark, and urban, fantasy lately, though.  I think Harry Dresden is put out through Roc?  Anne Bishop's Black Jewels Trilogy was put out by Roc.  Also Alan F. Troop's Dragon Delasangre books.

DelRey - lots of old Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey books were put out by them.  I haven't seen any significant new series put out by them, though, so I'm unsure what they're looking for these days.

Ace - I don't know too much about Ace these days, either.  The Codex Alera series is put out by Ace.  I also see Patricia Briggs, and Charlaine Harris when I look at my incomplete bookshelf (I moved recently; most of my books aren't here at home).  They seem to me a lot like Roc, in that they like urban fantasy, and the quality can be uneven from author to author, except they're not as dark.

Spectrum - Spectrum has Robin Hobb, David Brin, and a lot of other good authors.  They tend to put out high-level and polished SFF...or at least I don't recall books I really disliked from them.

Daw - not sure what they're putting out recently

Aspect / Warner Aspect - Karin Lowachee came out through them, as did Jacqueline Carey's second Kushiel trilogy.  Octavia Butler as well.  Seem to have good quality books.

Luna - Heh, this is a new romance/sff crossover imprint put out by Harliquen (sp?  More known in the Romance section).  Quality is VERY iffy...some books are good, some not so good.  I read one series I liked a lot, but a friend hated.  Then I read another book which I hated and never finished.  Which is a pity, because I like a bit of romance in my SFF.

Did I miss any major imprints?  Anyone else have more/better info to add?

I was working on one of my stories today, world-building away, and one thing came to mind is that some readers get jarred around if you mix and match different ideas for your world.  It don't happen to me--I like to be exposed to new ideas, I don't care if everything is 100% historically accurate--but some people get out of sorts if they see some sort of technology that was present in whatever-era England portrayed at the same time with a different technology that didn't come into existance until fifty years later.  I mean, it makes sense to be upset about this for serious historical fiction, in my opinion, but what about SFF that's not necessarily set in our world?

When you build a new world, how careful are you about historical accuracy, and/or the culture a particular idea comes from?  As a reader, do you get angry when an idea from Ming Dynasty China is tossed into a world that has Rennisance Italian whatevers?  As a reader, how much attention do you pay to this sort of thing?

See, I was pillaging Glyptodons from the Pleistocene Epoch.  These are gigantic megafauna mammals the size of a VW Beetle.  And putting them in the same world with some quasi-victorian cultures, and post modern cultural musings.  And Atomics, and a space-faring race.  I'm pleased with the combination, but I'm wondering what's the general spread of readers' responses to that sort of worldbuilding?

Edit: Fixed bbcode.

So, the age old writer's edition of the my-you-know-what-is-bigger-than-yours question--what's the wordcount of your current baby?

Poll time!

For the record...my current story is hovering around 43,000 words.  I say hovering, because I've done some chopping block stuff to it recently, so it's been bobbing up and down.

So, whenever I see the original "People Watching" thread, I keep thinking of "How do you feel when people watch you write" instead of "Do you like to watch people for inspiration?".

So...People Watching II: When the Watched Watch Back!

How do you feel when people watch you write, or look over your shoulder?

So...I think it's a given that most people starting to write SFF for the first time have a bit of what I call "Aeloiua" (or any other word with lots of a's, e's, i's, l's, k's, and y's) syndrome.  Where all the names have entirely too many vowels, strange puncutation, l's, and k's, and are attempting to look "elvish".

How did you guys get over it?

Or are you one of the ones that didn't have it to begin with?

I had characters called Kayla/Kayra (twins, of course), Anya, Aquaitine (I find it amusing Jim has characters in Codex Alera named "Aquitaine"...assuming I'm spelling that right...), Lance, etc. when I first started out.  I was in middle school, so about 12 at this time.

Eventually I realized all my names sucked, so I turned to baby name books.  Which got me really weird looks at the grocery store when I purchased those little baby name books when I was 16.  "No, I'm not pregnant!"

Then I got tired of baby name books, because if I wanted the name "Jessica" I could find it by looking at the people I worked with, and turned to mythology.

And after that, I said what the hell, I'm going to make my own.  I started this around when I was 20.

So now I take English words, and chop them into syllabls, then re-assemble the syllables into new names.  I got Oginokomis, Bregomaw, Oriax, and a whole mess of others this way.

How do you guys pick names for your characters and places?

Just curious...how dark of a writer do you consider yourself to be?

I just re-read a draft of something of mine, and it just hit me how...subversive it is.  It surprised me, and I generally consider myself a fairly dark writer.

So naturally I'm wondering how others rate themselves on the spectrum.