No. no no no.

[erastes]

Dear Author.

PLEASE. I will take your “Winter”s and your “Aurora”s in Victorian times (after Victoria was named, the “mad naming craze” really took off here,) but I’m NOT going to swallow you calling your heroine SIERRA.

In 500AD.

Thank you. And no love.

Erastes

ps. Gehayi would like to add that Britannia didn’t exist either.

 

Dear Publisher

If you are:

“seeking short stories for an anthology retelling Greek myth re-set as urban fantasy.  The stories should be between 5 and 20k in length, and should be YA friendly”

That’s a bit of tall order, I’d say.  I shall be interested to see what people come up with!!!

Intrigued,

Erastes

Comments

[copperbeech.livejournal.com]

Agreed. I fret over accuracy in my writing. It smacks of laziness when a writer doesn't do thorough homework. I know you miss *some* things... But still.

Hope you're well!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

But Sierra. In post roman Britain, WHO would think that was normal? argh!

[beckyblack]

LOL, Sierra. Wouldn't it still have been Cortina back then? ;-) ::apologises now for lamest and most obscure joke of the day.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I have snorted diet coke through my nose.

:)

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

vroom.

[crawling-angel.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting for an Erastes post all day and that was worth waiting for, lol!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

:)

Have you seen the funny nature segues on BBC 1 with the gopher and the lizard? BRILLIANT. I need icons of a gopher saying STEVE! STEVE!!

[wildestranger.livejournal.com]

Not that I want to stop your righteous wrath at the face of anachronisms, cause really, they do deserve to be smacked out of writers' brains, but...Aurora Raby is a virtuous heroine in Byron's Don Juan, published in 1824. Considering the popularity of Byronic names for girls in the decades after his death (countless Medoras, for example), Aurora is quite a plausible name for a young woman in the second half of the nineteenth century.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Definitely - as I said - after Victoria was christened (in 1819) names started to go bonkers.

[spindriftdancer.livejournal.com]

That just makes my teeth itch. It's SO EASY to find appropriate names on the 'net. Really, it is! Blargle.

Is someone on the lookout for something like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lightning_Thief

I didn't know that the Greek myths were becoming popular again. At least, the printable ones... ;p

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was a little tongue in cheek, but off the top of my head, the only Greek myths I could think of consisted of mass murder, parricide, matricide, incest, rape, bestiality, homosexuality...

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

Sierra? I'd be interested in the book it came from. Sierra, in Italian, is 'mountain range'. In Spanish I think it is the same, but context would be all. Hmm!

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Have fun!

http://www.amandamcintyre.net/tortured.html

another character is called Dryston!

[chris-smith-atr.livejournal.com]

Actually sierra is not in Italian - catena is mountain range in italian. or montangne.

[lareinenoire.livejournal.com]

seeking short stories for an anthology retelling Greek myth re-set as urban fantasy.

Argh! Why urban fantasy? I have something that would be perfect aside from the Regency setting. Bah.

Also, Sierra? ::sporfle::

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Well, it doesn't say contemporary urban fantasy....

*tempty *

[upstart-crow.livejournal.com]

I love the name Sierra! Though no, not in that time period.

And I know the publisher of that anthology very well! I bet it will be a nice book. (Though I suspect most of the stories will average 5K-10K and she's put the 20K option there in case a few run long or she gets a novelette (novella?) she likes).

[treva2007.livejournal.com]

Perhaps it is meant to be similar to Percy Jackson and the Olympians. My daughter likes that series very much.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I like the name too, in a western or something!

If I did urban fantasy, or know how, i'd give it a go. I have a perseus fetish at the moment.

[semioticwarrior.livejournal.com]

WTFH? Sierra? Why not Madison for crying out loud?

[kittymay.livejournal.com]

I like 'Britney'. My novel is set in the 18th century and it seems the perfect time to use that name.

[anderyn.livejournal.com]

Sierra? In 500 ad? Good lord. I've seen some stupid names in Romancelandia, but that one is pretty much the worst yet.

Baby naming books are not that expensive. And even though they can be WRONG WRONG WRONG on etymology and origins (do NOT get me started on the idiots who say Twila/Twyla is from the Middle English and means twisted/woven thread -- not!) at least they would prevent really stupid mistakes like this.


In re: YA fiction and Greek myths... There are all sorts of pretty explicit YA out there, ranging from Robin McKinley's retelling of Deerskin , which has graphic parental rape/beating, incest babies, some pretty gross recovery scenes, and all, which I bought because I auto-buy everything McKinley, and it is good, though graphic... to the book Neil Gaiman was recommending recently --- Tender Morsels , which is apparently a retelling of Rose Red and her sister, with the mom having been raped by her dad and then gang-raped by the village boys, then somehow migrating to a fantasy world, and her daughters are raring to go into the real one, which is not SAFE, you see.... I haven't read that one yet, since I just bought it today via Amazon, but I hear it's pretty graphic and ends with "sodomy". Then there's the Kimani Tru girl's imprint which has books about the young adult African-American experience, which has a book that's been ranted about for having girls giving head to their mom's drug-dealing boyfriends, giving head to teachers, drugs, penis veins, more drugs.... you get the picture. YA is not all snowy white and innocent any more. If it ever was. Greek myths would probably fit right in.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

That's very interesting, hun - thank you! I definitely should read more YA.

[emeraldsedai.livejournal.com]

I'm still looking forward to your meta_writer post about personal names and historical accuracy.

Some people can't feel the subtle differences between typefaces. Some people can't tell when a singer is flat. Some people just don't have an ear for names. It's sad when two of them get together--writer and editor--and make a sixth century Sierra.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Now, if she'd used Serra, I would have allowed that, as that's the Latin word. it would still have been ridiculous, but I would have been more impressed.

[nagasvoice.livejournal.com]

Was Sierra's mother Spanish?
Oh well, I do try to be tolerant, but there's limits.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

It's a latin word, apparently - SERRA - but still, early Saxon? I don't think so!

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Greek myth can be morphed into almost anything. A horny god pursues an innocent nymph and Hera turns her into a tree... a horny dude pursues an innocent Driver's Ed student and she turns into a lamppost. Easy.

As for the name... the pun on "See Error" is just about irresistible.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

I suppose I'm lucky (and the authors) that I don't review het historicals...