My Town: the art of urban fantasy

Read Dresden Files?

And not doing Urban Fantasy for this NaNo, but a comic I've been working on takes place in Vegas. So much room to hide things and so many ways to distract from the truth!

~"Everything is idiocy if viewed in the proper light."~
Same can be said of fantasy, right?

2007: Antihero story... Fail >.<
2008: In The Gods' Time...WON!
2009: Some Random Roleplay...Hoping!

Are you saying that you are setting a fantasy story in Chicago?

...

That sounds like wicked fun. I'm at a loss for a plot, so I might do something like that.

Anyway, I don't live too far away in the love it/hate it city of Kalamazoo. I think it would be a great place to set a story up in. Heck, with a name like Kalamazoo, where can you go wrong? It's a huge theater town too, the whole place is built around plays and performance. I think we have like...seven theaters or something. There's a big music scene too, tons of art galleries, festivals, events, and a great library. During the day it's busy with walkers and shoppers, wandering around the outdoor mall, eating fine foods, and enjoying life in an art town. During the night, however, it can be a pretty dangerous place. I know too many people who've been mugged to feel good about going out after dark. Another downside is that the city is really snobby about parking. It's really hard to find parking downtown, especially since the city has a delightful period of four hours during the night at which no street can be parked on whatsoever. It makes it really hard to entertain visitors with cars.

Oh, it's also a college town, so there are a lot of students about. A lot of activists and hippies too. There tends to be a lot of picketing on the street corners. There's also a lot of homeless people around, too, so you'll get asked for money a lot. Um...I think that's about it. Welcome to my town!

2006: The Red Raven (Pure Fantasy) - 6k
2007: Kismet Knot (Fantasy/Adventure) - 30k
2008: The Scarlet Twins (Fantasy/Parody) - 10k
2009: To Paint a Butterfly (Short Stories) - See Wordcount

Kalamazoo, MI?

I have family there! What a cool thing.

And yes, I'm going for an Urban Fantasy, which is a fantasy that draws as much of its power from its setting as from its characters. I'm really excited about it, because I love the city of Chicago. I no longer live there, but the years I did have in that town were utter magic.

Here is my victory over depression, that I may do a thing and find joy not just in the completion, but in the doing itself.

Second the comment on the Dresden Files - awesome fantasy book set up in Chicago.

I'm doing urban fantasy in Los Angeles this year. Mainly because I live in LA and it's easier to write that way, though I am starting to think I might set it in San Francisco, because I think it might fit a little better. I'm having some rough times making the decision. I probably know LA better, but I used to live in the SF area for most of my life and know that city pretty alright as well. No matter what I choose, it'll be in California, and it'll be one of those two.

Anyway, nice to meet some other UF writers. I think I'm going to make another topic asking what we're all writing exactly, since I'm not sure that's what you want here. :D

I'm writing an urban fantasy set in my current home of Hong Kong, if only because it suits my plot and it'd be easy for me to find actual places for scenes.

Kalamazoo, Michigan indeed. It would be hilarious if I knew someone in your family, but the chances of that aren't very good as I don't get out much, haha. Still, that's cool.

2006: The Red Raven (Pure Fantasy) - 6k
2007: Kismet Knot (Fantasy/Adventure) - 30k
2008: The Scarlet Twins (Fantasy/Parody) - 10k
2009: To Paint a Butterfly (Short Stories) - See Wordcount

This thread is for anyone who's writing urban fantasy to share anything at all. I do want to hear what people are going to do about putting their town's unique flavor into their story, but you can also talk about plot points, techniques, or other novels you like.

Here is my victory over depression, that I may do a thing and find joy not just in the completion, but in the doing itself.

I've got one set in Seattle's Pioneer District where the old Seattle Underground, tourists and winos all mix together in a weird sort of harmony--perfect for urban fantasy and probably even steampunk, since the buildings are of the Victorian era. There's even a cobblestone 'square'. But I hold a major magical explosion there that turns several ordinary citizens into wizards and opens a portal down in old Seattle (the underground part). This year I'm working on the second novel in this series. I did the first last year's Nano. But doing a city I live and work in is perfect for me. I mean how easy can it be? If I need research, I just go downtown!

Don't leave the artistic side of you out! Do Drawmo, double the challenge of Nano AND keep your art skills honed! You don't have to be crazy to do both, but it helps.

I'm writing an urban fantasy set in Canterbury in England. It's a very historic city, with a huge number of preserved building dating back to the Tudors, and has a huge cathedral with wonderful gothic themes which was built in 8th century, I believe. As well as these though, the city was bombed quite badly during WWII so there is a lot of modern development, even stuck right in with the oldest parts of the city, giving a really nice juxaposition of these historic buildings and the new glass and steel constructions. There's a real sort of mingling of ages that allows things like a Starbucks that if you just saw it could be any Starbucks anywhere, but if you take a few steps back you can see it's built right next to a grand, stone, two story archway and is actually embedded into the three or four story medieval stone wall that surrounds the cathedral grounds.

The cathedral is also the seat of the head of the Anglican church, which means a decent religious presence in the city, and as I'm writing a story based around angels and demons and one of the themes is sort of traditions vs progress, the city works really nicely.

2009 - Angelborn - Urban fantasy

I suppose my story will be urban fantasy. I don't think the story is going to explore the setting a real lot, which is going to be Sydney because it's what I know, but it's going to be an internal character story. Even toying with the idea of writing it in the first person...

Sydney has all the areas I need - a town with a good nightlife & bar scene, university, and pretty much anything else I might need but not know I need at this point.

I've been writing urban fantasy for years now. (Okay, two. Shut up.) Of my potential NaNos, one is set in Pittsburgh -- my city -- and one, I have no idea; it might end up in a made up city.

It made sense in my head, I swear.

2008: Won, at expense of actually having a plot

My NaNo will probably be based in London (or at least, in some imaginary city that looks remarkably like London).

I visited my uncles in London this summer, and I completely fell in love with the city. It's amazing. I think I want to live there when I'm older - or at least spend long holidays there! The atmosphere is amazing. *swoon*

And, of course, it's got enough history that I can pick something up and just run with it ;) Never eat the food they sell on Westminster Bridge, by the way.

My uncles don't mind me pestering them with questions about it, either! One of them is a tour guide and knows absolutely loads about the city. He's like a gold mine.

They also live in a house designed by the same architect who designed the Tardis telephone boxes. Everything about London is awesome, srsly. *fangirls over London*

And, to stop gushing about London for a moment, I have the first Dresden Files book but have never read it. I really need to, I think. I'll go do that now.

I don't have a specific city in mind for my plot yet - I'm thinking of going slightly futuristic. But it seems like every time I write urban fantasy, I resort to using New York City as the setting.

I'm doing yet another urban fantasy this year and am excited to see so many others taking this track!

My novel's town is actually going to be quite small. I'm currently thinking of basing it on Madison, Indiana, which at around 12.000 is bigger than the nearby town I'm currently at! The things that make Madison appealing to my story is it has an oddly active arts community for such a small place (my main character is a quilter), it is within a fairly easy drive of some larger places in case I need to send my characters on a road trip, and somehow the fact that it is located right on a large river seems to make it even more magical.

My main challenges will likely be 1) Keeping my faery characters from standing out too much and 2) The main plot revolves around the fact that the quilter's customers are being kidnapped/murdered/driven insane (haven't nailed that down exactly) and in such a small town people would realize fairly quickly that something strange was happening! (I don't want to keep killing off people in Cabot Cove if anyone here remembers "Murder She Wrote" ;) But for my 2nd problem, I'm thinking several of my MCs quilts were shipped out of town as commissions or gifts, so hopefully that will take care of the issue.

Yah, know that feeling ;)

Read it! Write it! And repeat!

Me!

Urban Fantasy this year, woot!

I'm doing urban fantasy set in a fictionalized version of the medium-sized town where I live. Write what you know, right? :)

"When writing a novel, that's pretty much entirely what life turns into: 'House burned down. Car stolen. Cat exploded. Did 1500 easy words, so all in all it was a pretty good day.'"
-- Neil Gaiman

I suppose I'm writing rural fantasy, as my MC lives out of town. And the in-town scenes will be in a small town too.

"There's an old folk saying that goes: Whenever you delete a sentence in your NaNoWriMo novel, a NaNoWriMo angel loses its wings and plummets, screaming, to the ground.

Where it will likely require medical attention. "

My story is set in the fictitious analogue of my hometown of Toledo, Ohio. I elected to go with the name of one of the former settlements in the 19th century, Port Lawrence. I wish I could elaborate further but so far I don't really seem to have much of a plot.

I think I'm setting mine in a city like Paris. I just love the arrondissements (each with its own personality), and the fact that you can get anywhere at all by metro, and the Seine, and the general atmosphere of cobblestone streets and . It won't *be* Paris - it'll be a fantasy city that is based on Paris, and that's riddled with the characters of myth and faerie - but Paris is definitely the inspiration.

Sweet! I'm glad to see someone's turning the Windy City into an urban fantasy - it deserves it. I would have used it myself, but I was going for a warmer atmosphere to my story, and four years of Chicago winters have made it *impossible* for me to think of Chi-town as "warm."

I was thinking a few different places for my urban fantasy (I'm planning both this and my potential Chick Lit out since it contains a paranormal element to go with one now and the other later) and one was Austin as that is where I live, but I don't think the feel of the city fits for what I want. Primarily I can't take my mind off St. Louis or Chicago, two other cities I am familiar with. But in the end, I have a feeling I'll end up with St. Louis...hmm, maybe Denver. I do have family there and visited.

Hey, no plot no problem, right? ;D

I'll be writing an urban fantasy set in NYC, too. It's surprisingly underused in the genre, for being the city that it is. I've read a metric crapton of urban fantasy novels (far too much of the time with the emphasis on 'crap') and New York is usually skipped over. The Big Three of current urban fantasy (Jim Butcher, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Charlaine Harris) write stories set mostly in Chicago, Ilinois; St. Louis, Missouri; and fictional Bon Temps, Louisiana (and various other Louisiana locales) respectively.

I tend to count Repairman Jack as urban fantasy, and those're set in and around NYC but frankly I think F. Paul Wilson tries too hard to make it "feel" like New York. There are too many specific references. It reminds me of writers who want you to know someone has an accent, so every single word is mutilated rather than just a word here and there.

I'm doing urban fantasy, but I'm avoiding Chicago like the plague because I feel like I'd be following too closely in Jim Butcher's footsteps.

But by 2109, it's quite likely that Omaha and Lincoln will have both expanded into one large twin-city metroplex, at their current growth rate. And the midwest is a surprisingly fertile ground for crazies. :D

"There is a technical term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot.'"
-- S.M. Sterling

I might briefly set a story in Manhattan, but then I'm blowing it up, so... But if I go with my other idea, it'll be set in Toronto and surrounding area.

Running with Urban Fantasy this year. Last year, while I got the word count, my full-out fantasy novel was total crap. This year's idea is a prequel story to some collab work that I was doing with C Ravenlocke. Had this posted in the Your Novel thread as well.

Working Title: Witchery

The Pacis Custodis have been safeguarding humanity for more than a thousand years from the machinations of the Immortals who still live amongst them in secret. Ian McAllister, a modern day thaumaturge and supernatural investigator, is one of the rare few of the order who can wield magic. Thrust into his life is Rhiannon O'Brien, a woman with a gift for witchery who witnesses a crime that he must protect from the local vampire mafia. To make matters worse, this witch sets her sights on him and hinders his attempts to protect her by charming him every chance she gets.

Fortunately for Ian, there are some individuals who do have his best interests at heart: a fellow Peace Keeper vampire hunter codenamed "DeathStalker," a unicorn posing as a doctor at a children's hospital, and his Leaffle familiar "Cricket." One is his rare friend, one is the forbidden woman he holds in his heart, and the last was a drunken accident.

Will Ian manage to protect Rhiannon from the vampires while keeping her and her magical charms at bay?

~ Mish

"I don't merely write a story. I slit the wrists of my soul, bleeding it out in a readable form and hope that someone else can make sense of it."

~2008 - Dragonrise 50,562
~2009 - Witchery

I'm still debating where I am going to do for my novel this year, (gah! city block!) but for my long-term novel series that I have been working on, it takes place in my hometown of Richmond Virginia. It has a bonus of being very historical, and fairly important since it was the capitol of the confederacy... though most people like to gloss over that fact. I say it adds to the symbolism in my story, so not many complaints here. Oooh, and it has AWESOME perfect architecture for a urban fantasy city. So big bonus there.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original.

I'm doing a fantasy in a fictional 60,000 population town west of Portland, Oregon. Hopefully the werewolves involved will like the national forests nearby and the witches and other supernatural beings living in my novel will shop in all the small downtown stores that I have planned.

I'm another one thinking of doing an urban fantasy set in NYC. Or else I might just make up an entirely fictional city, I haven't decided yet. I've never actually written urban fantasy before, so this should be interesting.

NaNo 2009: To Forswear the Dead (working title, subject to change)

Add another one to the NYC list!

Actually, my initial plan is to write an urban fantasy based in a small town in the mountains of Northern California (which is... ok, my hometown, oh well.) but I am also working on a spinoff storyline based in New York City (which is... where I'm going to school. Psh)

Haven't quite outgrown that "write what you know" stuff. That's where the fantasy part comes in.

Also, if anyone wants to discuss specifics of New York geography or culture, I'd love to collaborate! Thanks.

I'm doing modern fantasy. It's not set in any specific big city, but it is set in the modern day, so I'm loath to call it urban fantasy. The adventure will begin in a fairly small Southern California town, though.

*
Fourth year writing; hoping for my third year win.
This year's novel: Herald of the Eye, modern fantasy with a sci-fi fan's twist.