Friday, April 21, 2006

Eating emails

Much to my annoyance, I've been having an email problem lately.

So, I get literal duplicates of some messages. Others, I'm not getting. And same going out. Some people aren't getting emails, they're getting them eons late, or they get them in triplicate.

I'm not sure who the lucky ones are. But suffice to say that if you sent me a businessy email that I didn't respond to within 24 hours, I didn't get it.

Now, on down to today's real post. And then yesterday's bonus post, in case you missed it. And the debate goes on about women and men and noir...

13 comments:

Tracy Sharp - Author of the Leah Ryan Series said...

Your story ROCKS!! I loved it!!

Sandra Ruttan said...

Thanks Trace! And thanks for the link!

You can see where I got the name 'Rickards' from. This is John before the sex change.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Noir is the french word for black. Get with it Boy Kim!

Sandra Ruttan said...

Okay Kim, noir is... Ian Rankin and (much of) Val McDermid's work, Simon Kernick and Stuart MacBride... it's a label used to refer to dark crime fiction. You won't find it listed on a subgenre page with a definition but these days, everyone seems to be a style of "noir". Someone could likely come up with a much better description, but the trend these days is to brooding, dark books.

Sela Carsen said...

The stereotypical noir story involves an anti-heroic main character, often involved in some not-quite-on-the-up-and-up sector of law enforcement, i.e. the seedy P.I. You know the story -- some dame with great gams walks in and says, "I think my husband is trying to kill me." The P.I. falls for her but she either dies, goes back to her husband, or runs off with a lover.

Again, let me emphasize that that's the *stereotype* of a noir story.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Sela, it would be interesting to discuss when it goes beyond the stereotype. For me, the first "noir" I read was Rankin and McDermid (Wire in the Blood) and neither are the seedy side of the equation, which I think has compounded my confusion with some of the generalizations made about it.

Of course, reading Dublin Noir, if there's one thing I'm convinced of, it's that the range of what is "noir" is now almost as broad as the range of what can be "crime fiction" which is not a bad thing. It's interesting to see how it evolves over time.

Anonymous said...

Sandra,
First off, let me say your story in Demolition is wonderful.
I wish I could define what noir means to me. The detective fiction is often labeled noir, I agree about McDermid. It seems the definition is changing, the language expanding beyond the typical. But in my mind, the very best noir, written and acted, is the short that opens Frank Miller's SIN CITY. That wa,s without a doubt, the epitome of noir, in my mind.
Great conversation, BTW.

Sandra Ruttan said...

Thanks JT - I shall have to check out SIN CITY! And maybe bring this up again when I feel I have a better handle on it. How do you write something you can't really define?

That's a topic for a whole new day!

Sela Carsen said...

I loved SIN CITY! Definitely noir of the seedier type, but sooo well crafted. If, er, you don't mind a bit (a LOT) of gore.

Sandra Ruttan said...

I don't mind gore - now I really have to see this!

JT Ellison said...

Oh Sandra, you will LOVE it. Trust me.
Light noir. Isn't that called gray?

JamesO said...

That would be grey, BK.

Noir is more a state of mind, and I think a spill-over from the movies - though it may be that the two different media have fed into each other to create the ill-defined beast we know today.

I've probably had one martini too many (but is that not itself noir?)

Anonymous said...

Sandra, you will love Sin City. Trust me.
As far as light noir -- isn't that called gray?