(no subject)

[shadowkat]

I've moved from anxiety to a kind of numb apathy. Also aggravating back lower back pain - possibly due to how I'm sitting at work, and digestive issues? But hey, at least my blood sugar is lower.

Watching "Glee" is reminding me of how incredibly annoying some of the characters, plot and writing was in this show? I'm close to strangling Sue Sylvestri and Will Shue. And Rachel Berry. Yet, there are stand out musical performances and moments - that I'd forgotten. Also the satire is good in places. And Episode 9 of S1 is actually pretty good. I think it is Episode 9. Where we get a series of dance numbers with Morrison who plays Will Shuester. And that man can move. He break dances, does a comedic dance with Sue Sylvestri, and a waltz of sorts with Emma.

Saw on DW:

Extinct humans survived on the Tibetan plateau for 160,000 years.

That's interesting.


Bone remains found in a Tibetan cave 3,280 m above sea level indicate an ancient group of humans survived here for many millennia, according to a new study published in Nature.

The Denisovans are an extinct species of ancient human that lived at the same time and in the same places as Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Only a handful Denisovan remains have ever been discovered by archaeologists. Little is known about the group, including when they became extinct, but evidence exists to suggest they interbred with both Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.

A research team led by Lanzhou University, China, the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS, China, and involving the University of Reading studied more than 2,500 bones from the Baishiya Karst Cave on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, one of the only two places where Denisovans are known to have lived.


oracne on DW asked what a Cozy Mystery or Horror novel would be.

And I read the comments, and realized most people have no idea what it is?
I know - because I had a literary agent ask me to turn a gothic horror mystery into a cozy mystery, and I find cozies boring. Also I've worked in book stores, and read a ton of cozy mystery novels in my early twenties - while my mother worked in one and brought them home.

Cozies are basically, the young woman working in a museum investigates a fraud and catches the culprit. It's the book version of "Murder She Wrote".
Miss Marple falls within it. As does the Ladies Detective Agency. They aren't necessarily gender specific. But often are.

Horror? I'd say T Kingisher's horror novels fit within the definition. They tend to be light books, everyone gets out okay, no one dies. The situation for the most part is resolved.

A Cozy is a light and fluffy.


Need to go to bed. Have to get up at 5:45 am. And I'm not getting nearly enough sleep.

Comments

[oursin]

My take on cozies is that they happen in places that are not The Big City (but nonetheless have a surprising number of murders & crimes!) - the series hawkshaw, who is probably not very young and may even be quite old, usually is an incomer who moved there to set up some kind of quirky business (yarn store, themed bookshop) after being divorced or losing partner, or having work issues, burn-out etc. Though the one I recently read involving a middle-aged C of E male vicar in a country parish would certainly count.

[shadowkat]

I've read a few here and there that took place in London, Paris, and NYC. Usually a museum curator, an editor, a bookseller, the owner of a Korean deli, etc - stories like that. (Don't remember the titles - but I know I've read them here and there. They tend to be humorous.) The agent who had read my novel - wanted me to change it to a cozy that took place in NYC. But generally speaking, I agree, they tend to be small town mysteries or horror stories.

Often serialized.

The Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum books kind of fit into the Cozy category. As do a lot of Christie's novels. Usually the detective is a Vicar, a Bookstore Owner, an Academic, a Writer, or someone who owns a shop. They generally speaking do not work in law enforcement. I did read one that took place in South Africa, I think it was called the Ladies Detective Agency, also made into an HBO series about sixteen years ago?

[oursin]

I vaguely recall a couple cozy-ish series set in NYC and SF involving women lawyers; a lot of wise-cracking humour.

Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, set in Botswana. I read the first few of these but did not persist.

[shadowkat]

Alexander McCall Smith, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Series, set in Botswana. I read the first few of these but did not persist.

I think I read one? It's really not a genre of fiction that I enjoy. I rarely get through them.
I did like the television series though - which I thought was better.

There's a bunch of WWII era mysteries that take place in London, which kind of fit the cozy description.
Jaqueline Winspur's books, and I think maybe the Maggie Hope series - also not my genre. (Not a fan of WWII books or cozy.)