So, hypothetically speaking . . .

[truepenny]

I have a head cold, which I am blaming for the following weirdness.

mirrorthaw put in Peter Gabriel's greatest hits album, Hit, this evening, and as I always do when I hear it, I thought, "Man, 'Solsbury Hill' so has a story in it." But this time, the other songs ganged up and gave me one.* It's a YA sf semi-dystopian thriller/romance/bildungsroman (reluctant psychics! teenage soldiers! true love!), and my question to you is:

[Poll #1476892]

Of course, I reserve the right to ignore the poll results completely, but I'm curious.

---
*For the record, the playlist is:

"Jeux sans frontiers"
"Shock the Monkey"
"More than This"
"Solsbury Hill"
"Burn You Up, Burn You Down"
"Digging in the Dirt"
"Growing Up"
"Don't Give Up"
"Sledgehammer"
"More than This" (reprise)

Comments

[unavoidedcrisis.livejournal.com]

I love that playlist and I am certain I will love any story that is inspired by it.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

How about "it'll depend on the characters, but I'm tired of traditional m/f gender roles."

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Well, that's pretty much my feeling. (It's weird that they didn't come with their sex and gender already decided, because usually my characters do, but again with the head cold.) I only put the straight straight option in for completeness' sake.

[txanne.livejournal.com]

<3

I forgot to mention that I agree with you about "Solsbury Hill." I suspect the story it contains is going to be Really Good.

[matociquala.livejournal.com]

I happen to know that several editors (and a number of readers) are of the opinion that there's not enough YA with lesbian characters in it out there.

Whatever it is...

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

I will certainly love it. I'm in the mood for romance.

Have some tissues and a nice hot cup of soothing tisane.

[ckd]

Hmm. Thinking about this in terms of cover versions is kind of interesting.

For "Solsbury Hill", if we go with Erasure m/m seems almost required; the Sarah MacLachlan version might lean to het with reversal. "Don't Give Up" is fairly solidly het/traditional in its lyrics, though if we go with the Willie Nelson/Sinéad O'Connor cover that might give us room for reversal there as well.

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

If I could double vote, I would vote for both m/m and/or f/f. Mostly because, well, there's so so so much straight romance out there, and I love a lot of it, but I also like different things. (More queer or genderqueer romance plz.)

Though I'm still waiting for a realistic three person romance. I don't care what the combinations are.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

I've found a lot of three person stuff out there in the romance/erotica world that I really like, but your tastes may differ.

Lots of dire stuff too of course.

Several of Emma Holly's books - I'd say Demon's Fire (Although it's way richer with the backstory from The Demon's Daughter and Prince of Ice).

Fairyville also.

Menage - hmm - can't quite address it without spoilers but it certainly should be included in queer romance in my opinion.

http://www.racyromancereviews.com/2009/06/18/polyamory-menage-erotic-romance-and-culture/
is an interesting article on the subject in "genre romance" and the comments discuss a range of books that might work for you as three person romances.

[britmandelo.livejournal.com]

I've found plenty of erotica, but less regular SFF that includes three-person romance. I was in one of those once and while it didn't work out in a fantastically awful way, I still find it sweet and different.

(Secret confession: I totally wrote three menage erotica books under a penname last year in between Regular SFF Books.)

[(Anonymous)]

Vigilant by James Alan Gardner has polygamy as the normal, traditional definition of marriage. The main character marries like ten other people, and it works fairly well for her.

Wouldn't really call it a romance, though. I actually liked that aspect: she has a functional, happy relationship and so it doesn't greatly enter the story about her job.

[romsfuulynn.livejournal.com]

It wants to be whatever it is. That said, I'm mildly inclined toward het with reverse gender roles, although I'd be really interested to hear what you would construe that to mean in romance tropes. Then f/f.

I find that having m/m romances that are successful as romances without being about being m/m rather than being about being a romance has some challenges. Elizabeth Bear's Carnival did it brilliantly.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I don't actually mean romance in the technical sense (which is to say, I'm not interested, in this particular instance, in romance tropes). I mean that part of the story is the two main characters learning to love each other.

[ashnistrike.livejournal.com]

As I scrolled down to this post on our flist, Solisbury Hill started playing on my (extremely large) playlist. This sort of thing does not ordinarily happen to me. (And I voted for f/f because I have been noticing a dearth of successful f/f romances in my fiction reading lately.)

-Nameseeker

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I voted f/f, because I have run into fewer lesbian romances than any other kind, at least among main characters. However, I'll take anything nontraditional.

(Also, I hate to say it, but the vote also was influenced by your own comments about women in your own writing.)

[lenora-rose.livejournal.com]

I was also going to say, my brother felt very much like his particular teenaged epiphany pretty much *was* Solsbury Hill, even more so than "No, I'm not going to just follow the crowd/my parents/what I've been told" was for most of his fellows. For him, it was his story all along, and he just didn't know it until most of the way through. So for me, it always simultaneously had great story possibilities, but not ones I could tell, so much as ones I read or was told.

I'll be happy if more stories come out of it as it happens.

And yes, that is a great playlist.

[clhollandwriter]

I have that album, and now I have to listen to try and work out how you get to "reluctant psychics! teenage soldiers! true love!" from it. :D

Although I have to confess, I've always thought there was a really creepy story lurking in Digging in the Dirt. I guess it's the line "Shut your mouth, I know what you are" that does it for me.

[(Anonymous)]

In the category of non-traditional geekiness: http://offbeatbride.com/2009/10/lesbian-gamer-wedding

I'm not sure what I love more, the Companion Cube cake or the shot of playing DS with the bridesmaids

[tsubaki-ny.livejournal.com]

So gorgeous.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Solsbury Hill is one of the things going on in Among Others too.

[jaspreetpink.livejournal.com]

Lesbians! Lesbians! Lesbians! Please?

Second choice would be nontraditional f/m.

;)

[grass-angel.livejournal.com]

I chose m/f with gender roles reversed, but really, I'd be more than happy with whatever it ended up being as long as it wasn't constructed of tropes and didn't feel forced.
That being said, I'd kind of like to see how f/f would pan out, especially if there wasn't any school-girl type infatuation. Which is what most YA 'discovering oneself' stories with a f/f pair end up doing and which is so throughly irritating.

[adelev.livejournal.com]

I adore Solsbury Hill and I have always thought there was an amazing story there too. I was never going to write it of course, so I am delighted that someone else might! :-)

I am not as familiar with all the other songs on the list, but I always pictured Solsbury Hill as m/m so that's what I voted for. Of course, the reason I always pictured a m/m relationship in that song (a few different m/m relationships actually) is because I picture a m/m relationship in every song where it is remotely possible, so there was never any doubt what my vote was going to be. ;-)

I'm sorry you're not feeling well and I hope you feel better soon!

[alamaris.livejournal.com]

I voted for f/f, because there are not enough well-written lesbians in fiction these days. Especially in the YA world.

[pitselly.livejournal.com]

Seconded DX

[maki-to13.livejournal.com]

This. Very very this.

[dracoprncs1310.livejournal.com]

Jeux sans Frontiers is one of my favorite songs...

I heard it on the radio and had to have it. I'd be totally stoked to see a writing piece based on that song/album....

[maki-to13.livejournal.com]

I voted f/f but I'd also vote het with reversed gender roles if I could. Less because those two are what I want to see, and more because I want to see how you write both. I think in the end f/f needs to happen more on the YA sphere in general.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

I feel that I should point out, although it is egotistical of me, that I have already written a role-reversed het romance, in "A Gift of Wings" (novella published in The Queen in Winter ISBN: 0-425-20772-2). So, you know, you can probably assuage that particular curiosity via judicious use of the library. :)

[maki-to13.livejournal.com]

!!!!!! *FLIES TO READ*

[girlpunksamurai.livejournal.com]

Awww -_-

Isn't there a way to select all but the traditional male/female romance? I like 'em well enough, but you're better at writing romances outside the box. I'm selecting the non-traditional m/f roles but I want you to know that lesbian took 2nd place for me :]