Tag: Lisbeth Salander

Fashion In The Novel I’m Developing & Writing


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The thing I’ve learned over the last few years of working on this novel is readers are acutely aware of anything you point out to them on the page. As such, I’ve had some alpha readers take note of how much fashion there is in what I’ve written to date.

I really like fashion as an art form. There was a point when I wanted to be a fashion photographer until it dawned on me how impractical that was given where I was in my life. But I still have a dream that maybe someday, someway, I’ll get an opportunity to prove my photographic chops by taking pictures of models. I have an eye for beauty.

Since the character at the center of this novel is a young woman, I feel what she wears is really important at times in driving the plot along. I struggle to make my heroine as dark and interesting as Lisbeth Salander while also making her more accessible — what she wears at any particular moment helps a lot with that.

Some of this comes from the inspiration for the heroine. The late Annie Shapiro in Seoul was a kook and was a hipster before I even knew what a hipster was. Though, I have to note, some of what she wore at any particular moment while we were working on ROKon Magazine was her reflecting my own wardrobe. But all that was so long ago. So very long ago. A totally different era in my life.

But I’ve been working so hard — and so long — on this novel at this point that I’m kind of tired of being too conspicuous about talking about it. I’m kind of embarrassed, in fact. I need to just throw myself into this thing and get it done, knowing that once I finish this novel, I have another in the series to finish.

I no longer think about who will play any particular character in the film adaptation. All I can about is just finishing the damn thing so I can move on to the next book. B

I Nominate Alicia Vikander To Play ‘Lisbeth Salander’



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Though she’s a bit old as the character was originally imagined, there’s one person who would be perfect for a yet another reboot of the Lisbeth Salander franchise — Alicia Vikander.

She’s Swedish and would have the right accent. She is a bit tall for Salander as well, but, then, Hollywood cast Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher, so, lulz.

I guess the point of all of this is the Lisbeth Salander character has yet to be completely strip mined of any entertainment value. If you had the right script and producer to go along with Ms. Vikander as Salander, then I think you would have a recipe for success.

My Novel’s Heroine Is Shaping Up To Be A Combination of James Bond and Lisbeth Salander



by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

The more I think about it, the more I may have fire in a bottle with this novel. It’s not perfect — it’s just the outline of the first draft at this point — but I do think that about two years worth of development may, at last, be about to come to fruition.

I’ve come up with a heroine with a very, very unique background who is also something of a would-be spy (of sorts.) I really believe in this story, but I also know my limitations. It’s more likely than not that this whole thing is going to be an colossal disaster. And if it’s not a colossal disaster, someone is going to steal a creative march on me, making the whole thing moot.

But I guess I can enjoy what I’ve thought up while I can. It will be interesting to see what will happen to the outline when I finally start to write again.In the past, at least, I’ve started writing and the whole thing has gone haywire and I have to start all over again.

Hopefully, however, this time, at least, that won’t happen. Hopefully, my dream of coming up with an American answer to Stieg Larsson’s original Millennium series will at least come within shouting distance of being true. And, yet, given my age and background, lulz, who am I fooling?

At least I have no one to tell me “no.” As such, I can daydream in a vacuum far, far beyond what I might do otherwise. Generally, everyone wants to tell me I suck, so if I don’t have people telling me I suck, then maybe I might be able to produce the type of novel I know I have in me.

One major problem with all of this, of course, is how difficult it is to come up with a “female James Bond.” By definition, it’s very easy to slide into the “Sexxy Slutty Assassin” trope if you try to do that. But while Lisbeth Salander is a vigilante with Asperger’s, my heroine is far, far more accessible. And, in a sense, the two books I’m working on serve as her spy “origin story.”

But, who knows. Everyone thinks I suck.

V-Log: Of Fleabag, Lisbeth Salander & The #Thriller I’m #Writing

Some thoughts.

Lisbeth Salander & Representation in Mass Pop Art

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

The book I’m using as my guide for my first serious attempt at a novel is The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. As such, I realize that I can probably risk having a bi-sexual character in the novel. But I would need to tread carefully. If I don’t do it right, it will simply come off as a sloppy hack concept by a horny middle-aged man.

But it definitely would facilitate the plot of the novel I’m working on to make two of the women lovers. But it would need to be done tastefully and more alluded to than anything else. There’s a limit to how far mass pop art can have a gay theme to it for no other reason than it will turn off about 48% of your readership. But I think I can pull it off. This concept is maturing as I work to develop it and I am slowly working towards developing my two main heterosexual romantic leads and it would be a nice little shortcut if the woman was bisexual.

Developing a first novel is extremely messy and I shouldn’t even talk about it in such a conspicuous manner given how in flux it all is, but given that I’m 100% extroverted it’s just my nature to talk — and write — about whatever is going on in my life and my entire life is consumed with this novel right now.

We’ll see. Wish me luck.

V-Log: My #Novel, #Hollywood, Lisbeth Salander, Natalie Portman & A Summer Tent-Pole Movie

by Shelton Bumgarner
@bumgarls

As I enter the second act of the scifi novel I’m writing, I’m dwelling on the big ideas this story addresses. The story itself is kind of weighty and cerebral and deals with some issues that don’t see all that obvious to the average person, but I hope if I insert enough drama, action and innate conflict into it that someone, somewhere will find it entertaining enough to finish.

Two books I may read and reference a lot in this novel are The Clash of Civilizations and Harold Bloom’s Shakespeare and the Birth of the Human. A lot of this novel deals with the critique of the Western tradition from both the Left and the Right and how Humanity would deal with the innate conflict associated with an outside force’s decision to “pick a winner” in the clash of civilizations. I have been thinking about this concept for the better part of five years, so really most of my thought is going into character development at this point.

The series I really want to replicate the success of is the Millennium series. That was a really entertaining, really accessible series that you just couldn’t put down once you got into it. But I have extremely low expectations. I’ll be happy if I can just get, like, one person I don’t know personally to read the first book and ask me when the next book is coming out. That’s how low my expectations are at this point.

As it stands, what I’m interested in, what my goal is, is to write a female character as interesting as Lisbeth Salander. My character would be a little bit older, maybe about Natalie Portman’s age, but she still would be compelling. It’s urgent I have at least one character who draws people in given how otherwise cerebral the story is in general.