Tag: Lisbeth Salander

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.