shadowkat: (Calm)
[personal profile] shadowkat
I did that whole Female Writer post wrong last night. So trying again. What prompted this is the realization that most people online go on and on and on about their favorite "male" writers. It's Whedon this, or Moffat that, or David Milch, or Aaron Sorkin or RT Davis or Neil Gaiman or Gene Roddenberry, JJ Abhrams, and Ron Moore...but where are the ladies? Surely there are female writers in the film, television, and fan world that you adore?

So trying this again.

If you should happen upon this post - please come up with at least one, more if possible, female writers that you are "Fannish" about. That you adore! They can be novelist, they can be television writers, they can be playwrites or comic book writers. I'm betting most will be novelists. But try not to copy other people's. Yeah, I know everyone loves JK Rowling, but any one else?

Let's Celebrate the Female Writers that we are fans of.

Here's mine - these are writers that I'm a fan of and follow their books or stories religiously.
And railed at, just like I've railed at the male equivalent.

1. Jane Espenson. She's written for just about every science fiction/fantasy tv show on. Started with Star Trek - DS9, Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, BattleStar Galatica, was the show-runner for Caprica and Tru Calling at different points, wrote for Torchwood (although I haven't seen it), and the only woman writer for Game of Thrones last year, has written comic books, and is currently writing the best episodes of ABC's new hit series Once Upon a Time. She can write comedy or drama. And she's down-to-earth. With a blog. I've been known to follow Jane E about, and she is by far my favorite writer of the Whedon series as a person. OR the only one I'd want to sit down and have tea with.

2. Kim Harrison of the Rachel Morgan Bounty Hunter series - yes, a novelist, and while not brilliant always, I adore her characters. And her story which is truly unique in the urban fantasy universe. One of the few that blends science with gothic horror fantasy. And a female noire tale to boot. Start with Dead Witch Walking and go from there. Also in the world-building department?
Few are her equals.

3. JK Rowlings...Harry Potter Books - I doing her, so no one else will. I'm evil that way. But I also adore Rowling's. She created a world. The detail of it is quite extraordinary. It's a child's fantasy world - or a world a child would dream up not an adult, with fantastical candies and jokes.
It also addresses adult and child issues such as classism, bullying, racism, and discrimination in a manner that is accessible to everyone. Rowlings doesn't preach in her novels or tells, she shows you her world and lets you play inside it.

4. Jane Austen - was always a fan of Austen. But yet another novelist. Dang-it. What I loved most about Austen was the banter. She was hilarious. Her books are satirical takes on her time and the manners and etiquette of that time period. They last, because the issues she had with class continue today, along with gender.

5. Anne McCaffrey - another novelist...all of mine are novelists, this is a problem. I've read all of her books, I think or most of them. My favorites were the dragon-riders of Pern series, because hello, telepathic dragons. (Now not so much a fan, so probably shouldn't be listed here...I haven't read her in over 20 years. Sort of how I feel about her male counterpart CS Lewis, who I loved and abandoned in much the same manner).

I can't think of any film writers that I've followed faithfully, maybe Kathryn Bigelow, but she's a director not a writer. Diane English - I loved Murphy Brown but little else. I don't know.
Can you think of female film and television writers that you adored. And watched whatever they did with the same fannish glee that you might fellow male counterparts such as Joss Whedon or Stephen Moffat? Who are your goddesses of the written word?

Date: 2012-02-17 06:07 am (UTC)
katta: Photo of Diane from Jake 2.0 with Jake's face showing on the computer monitor behind her, and the text Talk geeky to me. (Default)
From: [personal profile] katta
Hm, yeah, I still stand by my list on the old post in the sense that I think all of those writers are awesome. But I don't necessarily follow them to the next show, no. Then again, I don't tend to follow a lot of male writers to the next show either, except Moffat.

So yes, I had to turn to novels to find writers I have to read everything of:

1. Diana Wynne Jones. The small way of phrasing it would be to call her a children's fantasy writer. But that depends on one's view of "fantasy" and "children". She gleefully blends genres and creates plots so complex adults have a hard time following them. (Some may actually be easier for children.) She's definitely my favourite author, and I'm very close to having read everything of hers.

2. Selma Lagerlöf. Sweden's most lauded author, with her face on the 20kr bill. She's been said to be the only Swedish author who would have got the Nobel prize even if she'd been of some other nationality. And she's really that good. Though most of her stories are based in some sort of magic realism, there's also a great variety in them, so that the same trilogy (the Lowenskolds) can contain a gothic ghost story, an Austenite story of gentlefolks, and a more rustic story of a young peddler.

3. Agatha Christie. Her books are popcorn fluff (for the most part) and several of them resemble each other, but I love to dive into one and experience that slightly off-kilter English world where people find a corpse and rush to have a cup of tea. :-) I own about 40 of her books and buy new ones whenever the mood strikes.

4. Claque/Anna Lisa Wärnlöf. Another Swedish author, who wrote YA books about 50 years ago. At least two of them have been translated to English, according to Library of Congress: The Boy Upstairs and Fredrika's Children. She has a very wry yet touching way of writing, and unlike most YA fiction, her characters feel utterly real to me. (See also Winnie Holzman in my comment to the other post.) Fredrike's characterization in The Boy Upstairs may be the best exploration of a post-divorce teenager I've ever seen.

5. Pija Lindenbaum. Another Swedish writer, this time of picture books. She has a wild, wonderful use of colours, and her stories are equally wild and wonderful, often with a new aspect on gender roles.

6. Lise Myhre. Norwegian creator of the comic Nemi, which is also available in English. Yes, I know that this is dangerously close to my previous comment of "women who have done one show I love", but since Nemi is so long-running I think following it can almost be called following Lise. Especially considering how much I love it. Nemi likes to party and have one-night-stands (at least before she started dating Grimm), and she also likes (loves!) fantasy in every shape and form. She's into metal, and cute little puppies, and she will steal all the balls from Burger King's ball pits while drunk, because YAY BALL PIT!

7. Oh dear, there are so many Swedish writers that I'd read anything of, but who haven't been properly translated... Barbro Alving, Gun-Britt Sundström... Maria Gripe has been translated, but not some of her best books (The Shadow series! Why no translation? Why?) and I can't claim to be a fan of all of her work. (Definitely read Agnes Cecilia, though, or The Glassblower's Children.) Almost everything of Astrid Lindgren's has been translated, but again, I can't quite claim to be a fan of all of her work.

From the previous post, I'd say I follow Lemhagen and the comedians to about the same extent I follow Whedon or Sorkin: I'll be interested in anything they write, but the premise and reviews will still determine whether or not I end up seeing it.

Date: 2012-02-16 11:23 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
There's film writer Callie Khouri (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0451884/) who wrote Thelma & Louise, there's Diablo Cody (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1959505/) who wrote Juno, there's writer and producer Gale Ann Hurd (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005036/) who is best known for The Terminator & Aliens . And btw, Kathryn Bigelow (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000941/bio) is a writer as well as a director.

Now if we're talking novels... Sara Donati (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sara_Donati) who is really linguist Rosina Lippi-Green, Jacqueline Winspear (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Winspear), Ariana Franklin (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ariana_Franklin) who was really Diana Norman, Ellis Peters (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellis_Peters) who was really Edith Pargeter and Laurie R. King (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurie_R._King).

Date: 2012-02-17 03:02 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Thanks for Kathryn Bigelow...but she's not really a writer. Only wrote two films, Loveless and Near Dark. She's mainly a director. Which is a whole other post and a heck of a lot harder one. Because there's even less female directors out there.

She is a favorite of mine and I've seen most of her films. I adore her films.
Her action films are innovative and character focused. The Hurt Locker, Blue Steel, Near Dark, Point Break, and Strange Days all come to mind.

Date: 2012-02-17 07:46 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
Well, if you do decide to post on women directors - don't forget to include Ida Lupino (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_Lupino).

Date: 2012-02-18 12:45 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
People are using this post to throw female directors out there anyhow. I gave up trying to control it a while back. :-)

Date: 2012-02-17 12:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] embers-log.livejournal.com
1. Dorothy Sayers, although I mostly love her for the Lord Peter Wimsey series of mysteries, I've also read a number of her essays and her writing is always beautiful... The same kind of elegant English prose that makes Jane Austen such a pleasure to read (with the same kind of subtle humor).

2. Louisa May Alcott: I grew up on her, living near Concord, Mass... I read all her novels for girls as a kid, and later on read her published reports from the field hospital where she worked during the Civil War and her lurid mysteries/thrillers that she used to support herself with before the kids books made her famous.

3. Sue Grafton writes the alphabet mysteries with one of my favorite private detectives Kinsey Millhone (she just published 'V is for Vengeance' and I'm afraid I'm in for a long wait before I get 'W'!

4. Mary Stewart: is it horrible if I confess that I don't like her later books? She got way too hooked on magic (in my opinion) when she wrote her wonderful Merlin series, until she can no longer write a romantic suspense novel without a lot of really lame magical stuff (again, just my opinion). But I still adore her early books and consider several of them to be the best romantic novels written in recent years.

5. Laurie R. King who has become most famous for her Mary Russell (Mrs. Sherlock Holmes! LOL) mysteries, but I actually would recommend some of her other books, like 'Folly' (the main character is very insecure about her own sanity so throughout the novel you are never exactly sure if you can believe everything she thinks she sees/experiences).

sorry these are all novelists... and mostly mysteries, it is what I love to read!

Date: 2012-02-17 12:22 am (UTC)
ext_15252: (word)
From: [identity profile] masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com
Camille Bacon-Smith, Tanya Huff, Anne Rice (*sometimes*), JKR, the woman who produced Lois and Clark: TNAOS back in the day (and wrote for it), Jeri Taylor writer/producer of Star Trek: Voyager...

I'm betting there are others but I'm writing this at work off the top of my pointy head.

Date: 2012-02-17 12:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
There was a woman behind Star Trek Voyager? I did not know that.
Thank you..

Agree on Anne Rice...sometimes. I liked her vampire stuff, but she stopped using editors later and went insane. LOL! But her early stuff is pretty good.

I can think of more novelists than tv writers though.

Was admittedly a fan of Lois and Clark : The New Adventures of Superman, in part because Lois had more of a role. Although I think I liked Lois/(John Shea's Lex) more than I should have...LOL!

Date: 2012-02-17 02:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shipperx.livejournal.com
The Hunger Games' Suzanne Collins might make the list.

I also like Allison Weir (albeit she's a historian and I've only read her non-fiction).

Date: 2012-02-18 12:44 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Collins is also a screenwriter and television writer. I think she's co-writing the script for the Hunger Games films.

Date: 2012-02-17 02:36 am (UTC)
liliaeth: (Default)
From: [personal profile] liliaeth
1. Suzanne Collins, I never expected to love her Hunger Games books as much as I did, but Katniss is probably my favorite female character at this point in time.
2. JK Rowlings, goes without saying, her Harry Potter books are still some of my fave books of the past ten years
3. Jane Espenson (probably my all time favorite Buffy writer, I really wish they'd brought her to Angel s5, instead of Goddard)
4. Mercedes Lackey (totally a guilty pleasure but I keep going back to the world she created)
5. Almost forgot, I really suck at remembering the name of tv writers in general, male or female, but I'm really loving Sera Gamble's work on Supernatural. Honestly, I think that s7 of SPN is probably the strongest season since s2 and a lot of this is due to Sera's work as a showrunner.
Edited Date: 2012-02-17 02:39 am (UTC)

Date: 2012-02-17 03:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Sera Gamble's a good one - one of the few genre female show-runners, along with Doris Egan, Jane Espenson. Although I admittedly lost interest in the series, but that's not really Sera's fault.

And agree on the others...loved Suzanne Collins.

Date: 2012-02-17 07:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com
If we're talking TV, there's Jessica Stevenson (later Hynes) of Spaced.

Novelists would be... a long list from me. I can get back to you.

Date: 2012-02-18 12:43 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Hmmm...hadn't heard of Spaced. May need to check it out.

Date: 2012-02-17 07:45 am (UTC)
elisi: Edwin with book (Book Joy)
From: [personal profile] elisi
Dorothy L. Sayers (I know she's been mentioned already, but she's Dorothy Sayers!)

Dianne Wynne Jones (So many of my favourite books I can't even)

Wendy Pini (she and her husband created the Elfquest comics)

And I need to run out the door. Darn. But seriously - Dianne Wynne Jones. The queen of YA.

Date: 2012-02-18 12:46 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
I have Dianne Wynne Jones...Howl's Moving Castle, just haven't read it yet.

Date: 2012-02-17 08:09 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] selenak.livejournal.com
Marion Zimmer Bradley used to be a huuuuuuuuuge influence on my teenage years. "The Mists of Avalon" when I was 13 was one of those lightning stroke kind of books experiences, and then I read everything she'd written (that was available in German - remember, teenager, not yet prone to read fluently in another language), which were the Darkover novels and "The Catch Trap", mainly, and some other sci fi novels. This went on through my teenage years (and led to a fan letter when I was 17, which I got a nice reply to) and subscribing to a newsletter, this being before the internet. In my twenties I stopped being a fan, not least because the late ghost written Darkover novels were terrible, and by the time I hit 30 I didn't buy books anymore that had her name on them. But she was definitely the first female writer I was absolutely fannish about no matter what she wrote (for that decade), and who awoke me to feminism; also the first to present gay and bisexual characters in a positive light in any books I had read until that point. So while it's been literally decades, I'll always be grateful.

Current day female writers I'm following independent of subject: Sharon Penman (my favourite historical novelist), Barbara Hambly (I love both her fantasy and her historical novels), Gillian Bradshaw (ditto).

Date: 2012-02-18 12:39 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
I remember loving Sharra's Exile as a child. Your love of Marion then loss of interest reminds me vaguely of my love for Anne McCaffrey...then loss of interest, although Marion was more feminist.

I need to try Sharon Penman - a good historical novelist is not easy to find.
And I haven't tried Barbara Hambly but heard good things. Thank you for these!

Date: 2012-02-17 09:37 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rebcake.livejournal.com
I have a big ol' crush on Jane Goldman, who wrote the screenplays for Stardust, Kick Ass, and the now-in-theaters The Woman in Black. She really impressed me when I heard her speak at a con 2 years ago. Smart, funny, punky, and a mother of 3. *swoon*

I'd also put Felicia Day on the list of up and comers. The Guild is terrific and all hers.

Cynthia Heimel, a columnist, and Sarah Vowell are interesting writers, although neither does fiction, as such. I am a fan.

I'm also pretty gaga for Anita Loos, an amazing writer of films (starting with the silents), novels, plays, essays, and memoirs. Her book, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, was considered by many of her literary contemporaries to be the first great American novel back in 1925. I adore the movie version, but it barely scratches the surface of the genius of the book. One of her contemporaries was Dorothy Parker, who wasn't bad either, though she's rather too cynical for me.

If I could list the fanfic writers that I would follow anywhere, this would be an exceedingly long list...

Date: 2012-02-18 12:42 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Oh, I did not know Jane Goldman wrote Kick Ass and Stardust and Woman in Black.
Must see Woman in Black. I loved Kick-Ass. Less impressed with Star Dust, although it was good, just can't remember it as well.

Anita Loos? Interesting. I need to look her up. I've seen the film Gentleman Prefer Blonds, but never read the book.

Dorothy Parker was quite sarcastic, but I still adore her suicide poems.

And agree...the fanfic list would be long...

Date: 2012-02-18 01:18 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rebcake.livejournal.com
I'm looking at my list and noticing that I like women who can bring the funny. For me the only memorable bits of Stardust were the silly ghost princes, but that was enough. However, I'm unable to say whether my fangirling of Ms. Goldman is for her work or for personal reasons. Brilliant, beautiful and British are like catnip to me, regardless of gender, apparently.

I'm glad someone downstream mentioned Angela Carter. I'd add A.S. Byatt. Frances Hodges Burnett and Susan Cooper wrote intensely engaging stories for children/young adults. I am a lifelong fan.

Date: 2012-02-18 02:04 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
I remember loving Susan Cooper and Frances Hodges Burnett - whose Secret Garden has been made into a play, film, and musical (believe it or not).
I also fangurled AS Byatt hard after reading Posession. I loved that book.

Date: 2012-02-24 02:00 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] rebcake.livejournal.com
I can't believe I forgot this one, except that she's hiding in plain sight: Tina Fey. She's an amazing writer who'd done film, TV, poetry, and a memoir. She's done it all and makes it look effortless. Really a fan.

Date: 2012-02-17 11:58 am (UTC)
shapinglight: (Default)
From: [personal profile] shapinglight
Abi Morgan. She wrote The Hour, which as you know, I adore. She also did a pretty good script for Birdsong, so I can almost forgive her for hagiographing Margaret Thatcher.

I can't believe no one's mentioned Ursula K Le Guin yet. A wonderful, wonderful writer. Her Earthsea books were a revelation to me as a kid.

In fact, I have a long list of female novelists I love - including Dorothy Dunnett, Diana Wynne Jones, Lindsey Davis, CJ Cherryh, Hilary Mantel, Sarah Waters etc, etc. All of them brilliant, except maybe Cherryh, whose faults as a writer loom large to me these days. But I still love some of her early stuff.

Jane E, of course, though I was very unimpressed with Torchwood: Miracle Day.

Film directors: well, there's Mira Nair, who directed Mississippi Masala and Monsoon Wedding, both of which I love, and Deepa Mehta, who made the elements trilogy, beginning with Fire.

I'm afraid I can't name drop any other women film directors, but that's as much because I don't keep up with films these days as anything.

Edited Date: 2012-02-17 12:22 pm (UTC)

Date: 2012-02-17 07:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] petzipellepingo.livejournal.com
Yes, I forgot to add Lindsey Davis to my list.

Date: 2012-02-18 01:01 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Oh yes, I almost wrote a paragraph on Dorothy Dunnett - I loved her Chronicles of Lymond so much, she created amazing characters and a great story.

And thank you for Abi Morgan - I forgot a woman wrote The Hour...which is quite good. In some respects more interesting than Mad Men.

Ursula Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea series was amongst my childhood favorites - my mother finally gave it to my young niece. They were such a counter-point to CS Lewis and so different. Beautiful novels.

I loved Cherryh's series about Chanur - the cat aliens. I adored them.
Haven't gotten into her other stuff, although I do have Cyteen.

I loved Monsoon Wedding.

It's hard to remember the names of screen-writers and film-directors.
And Hollywood tends to only advertise the male ones for some reason.

Date: 2012-02-17 04:51 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frenchani.livejournal.com
Now I feel bad for none of my favourite writers are female...

Date: 2012-02-17 05:07 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Then it is time to expand your horizons and try someone on the list. ;-)

Date: 2012-02-17 05:13 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] frenchani.livejournal.com
The problem is that I already know many female writers on the list!

Date: 2012-02-17 07:55 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
How about Patricia Highsmith?

*Strangers on the Train
* The Talented Mr. Ripley

Minette Walters?

*The Sculptress (think the female version of Hannibal Lecter)
* The Ice House

Lois McMaster Bujold

*Cordelia's Honor

Give me time...I'll come back with more. ;-)

Date: 2012-02-17 10:28 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] boot-the-grime.livejournal.com
Starting with novelists/playwrights/poets:

- Emily Bronte: I adored Wuthering Heights when I was 12 and I still do, it's a timeless masterpiece and really unique. I like the way the author's voice is never directly present, and she lets the reader decide how they feel about the characters, while framing her larger-than-life, Romantic (as in romanticism, Byron etc., not as in Valentine's Day, though it's sort of romantic in that way as well, but in a really twisted and disturbing and therefore a lot more interesting way) story in the realistic frame of two unreliable narrators with their conventional morality of two different class backgrounds. Besides being so incredibly emotional while also brutal and poetic, it's also fascinating to analyze from the class, gender and race (or ethnicity, since I hate the word race) perspective.

(The Madwoman In the Attic features a great feminist analysis of WH - so if we're mentioning female literary critics, I'm throwing my vote with Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar. )

- Angela Carter: I first came upon her work watching Neil Jordan's 1984 fantasy film In the Company of Wolves for which she wrote the script. That made me read her collection of stories Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, her very interesting feminist psychosexual readings of traditional fairytales, and her other stories. I also really liked her non-fiction book The Sadeian Woman. I don't really feel the desire to read Sade's actual works, but her take on the political and social aspects, gender and power dynamics of his work is fascinating.

- Sylvia Plath: I don't know if poets count, but I'm definitely fannish about her since I first read one of her poems as a part of my curriculum at the university; it was "Colossus", which made me go and read all of her poems. I'm not even a big poetry lover, there are just some poets that really manage to speak to me.

- Ursula Le Guin: I've been a fan of her since I was a child. I used to read this children/youth weekly magazine (actually it was promoted as a magazine for all ages) that regularly published an SF story. I remember reading and loving her story "April in Paris". I only started reading more of her work when I grew up. The Left Hand of Darkness is great. I'm embarrassed that I haven't read a lot more of her work - I'm afraid I don't read as much as I used to when I was in school and at the university, or rather, too much of my time is spent on Internet, magazines and newspapers and on films and TV shows, lately even comics, and I've read more essays than non-fictional lately.

- and here's someone contemporary: Biljana Srbljanovic, Serbian playwright whose work has been popular in Europe
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biljana_Srbljanovi%C4%87 Besides enjoying her plays, a large part of why I've been a fan for years are her columns in magazines, blogs and public appearances; I admire how outspoken and uncompromising she's been (which is why she's been one of the "controversial" people in the Serbian public). I think the Wiki article is wrong in defining her as a politician: she did agree to run for mayor one time for Liberal Democratic Party (not that there was ever a real chance of winning) but she's not a real politician, fortunately.

Some writers whose work I read at the university when I was studying English language and literature:

- Anne Tyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant- great novel, I enjoyed the way she wrote every chapter of the book in 3rd person but from a POV of one of the main characters/family members. I have a thing for POV narrative style over the omniscient narrator or "I" narrator.
- Shirley Jackson: I've only read "Lottery", but it's a really memorable story that made me take notice, I hope I'll get a chance to read one of her novels. (I would have to order them from Amazon, probably.)
- Harper Lee: not an innovative writer or anything, but how can one not love To Kill a Mockingbird.


Edited Date: 2012-02-17 10:31 pm (UTC)

Film and TV

Date: 2012-02-17 10:34 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] boot-the-grime.livejournal.com
On the big screen - though I haven't read any of Marguerite Duras's novels, I loved Hiroshima, Mon Amour, which she wrote the screenplay for.

Out of female film directors, I'd mention Margarethe von Trotta (Das Versprechen/The Promise), Kathryn Bigelow (Near Dark), Antonia Bird (Priest with Liam Roche - not the vampire movie with Paul Bettany) and Dannish director Susanne Bier (In a Better World)... there are others whose work I'm familiar with but I'm conflicted/not sure on how I feel about it, so I won't mention them.

Television:

- Lynda La Plante - creator of several great UK crime drama, including Prime Suspect and Trial and Retribution. I also remember her mini-series Widows I watched as a child, which was focused on four female protagonists on the other side of the law. British crime drama is generally of much higher quality than US (with the exception of great US shows like Homicide: LOTS and The Wire), it's not about detectives solving a case in an episode and everything being fine, it's real drama, bleak and edgy.

- Marti Noxon - She has a very recognizable voice and themes - including dysfunctional relationships, dark urges, gender reversals, exploration of sexuality; a lot of edgy stuff, BtVS wouldn't have been the same without her. Although she also can be really funny, despite being mostly known for heartbreak and melodrama. I love season 6, and some of my favorite episodes she wrote include: I Only Have Eyes For You, The Wish, Consequences, Villains, What's My Line, Forever, and I also have to mention her uncredited work on AtS Dear Boy, that scene is one of my favorites on that show. But even the episodes that are not great or I have mixed feelings overall always have interesting themes and lines that connect to the rest of her work on the show. Sadly, apart from Buffyverse and Mad Men, she tends to work on shows I don't watch, so haven't seen anything else other than Fright Night (which though not Buffy-standard stuff was probably the best you could do with the story and a big improvement over the original; the humor and portrayal of high school dynamics reminded me of the aspects of her work on BtVS that rarely get mentioned).

- Jane Espenson - everyone else has already mentioned her so there's not much new to add; she's one of the best comedy writers for drama shows, and the best thing about her work is how seamlessly she can go from humor to serious drama or explore characters and their issues through humor. Favorite episodes include Intervention, Earshot, After Life, Storyteller, The Harsh Light of Day, The Replacement, I Was Made to Love You. I can't wait to have her back in season 9. I wasn't as impressed with her work on Battlestar Galactica, it was hit and miss but she had some really good moments. Before all this, she wrote a solid episode for one my favorite shows, DS9, wrote a couple of good episodes for Dollhouse, a very underrated show, and was the showrunner for Caprica, a rather underrated show. I intend to check Once Upon a Time> when I find the time.

- D.C. Fontana: one of the pioneers, started off as Roddenberry's secretary but went on to become a better writer than he was and contributed a lot to the show becoming what it was. Episodes credited to her that I love include This Side of Paradise, Journey to Babel, The Enterprise incident, The Ultimate Computer, but more importantly, she contributed a lot to the shaping of the character of Spock and the Vulcan culture.

- Winnie Holzman: deserves a mention for creating My So-Called Life, probably the most true to life teen TV drama I've seen. She also wrote the brilliantly bittersweet finale.

- Honorable mention to Toni Graphia, whose name caught my attention because of BSG Flesh and Bone and Resistance (Flesh and Bone happened to be the first BSG episode I ever saw, and it hooked me up immediately) and went on to write about similar issues on erminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles. Also wrote for another one of my favorite underrated shows, Carnivale.

Re: Film and TV

Date: 2012-02-18 12:27 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Thank you for this. Particularly for mentioning DC Fontana who I'd forgotten and Toni Graphia, as well as Marti Noxon.

What a lot of people don't know about Marti - is Marti was responsible for Dru and Spike. She saw Juliet Landau in a play and pitched the Dru/Spike scenario to Greenwalt and Whedon, and wrote Dru for Juliet.
She also developed their relationship. She was the go-to gal for relationship story bits. Fury had her write the relationship bits for Primeval, and Petrie asked her to do it for Fool for Love and she literally directed the last scene on the porch with Spike and Buffy.
She also is responsible for how the show handled Willow and Tara (not Tara's death - that was all Whedon and entirely Whedon's idea), but Marti pushed for the relationship, pushed for Amber Benson to play Tara, and wrote the relationship based on a friend of her's.

If it weren't for Marti, we probably would not have had Buffy/Spike, Willow/Tara, Anya/Xander or the characters of Spike, Dru, Tara and Anya. Go Marti.

I've read Marguerite Duras ...don't remember her well, but thank you for her as well.

Re: Film and TV

Date: 2012-02-19 04:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] boot-the-grime.livejournal.com
Have you listened to the latest Nerdist writers panel podcast? It features Marti, Danny Zuker and Craig Silverstein. I'm not really familiar with the work of those two, but it's a very interesting panel and Marti was really funny and honest. http://www.nerdist.com/2012/02/nerdist-writers-panel-26-marti-noxon-danny-zuker-craig-silverstein/

Date: 2012-02-18 12:36 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadowkat67.livejournal.com
Anne Tyler: Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant- great novel, I enjoyed the way she wrote every chapter of the book in 3rd person but from a POV of one of the main characters/family members. I have a thing for POV narrative style over the omniscient narrator or "I" narrator.

Very true. Also the Accidental Tourist. My mother thinks I write like Tyler, which is a compliment. I like third person close as opposed to first person, second person or third person distant, omniscient. Ann did 3rd person close very well.

I copied her style in my own fictional writing. She's brilliant and the best of the literary/dysfunctional writers in my opinion.

See the film of Accidental Tourist with Kathleen Turner - it's worth it.

Shirley Jackson: I've only read "Lottery", but it's a really memorable story that made me take notice, I hope I'll get a chance to read one of her novels. (I would have to order them from Amazon, probably.)

Haunting of Hill House is a work of art - get that one.

Harper Lee: not an innovative writer or anything, but how can one not love To Kill a Mockingbird.

She had one story to tell, but what a story. Truman Capote had several books but he never came close to what his friend Harper Lee accomplished. It's a brilliant fictional memoir. The captures perfectly a time period in US culture and the problems of that time period.

Sylvia Plath: I don't know if poets count, but I'm definitely fannish about her since I first read one of her poems as a part of my curriculum at the university; it was "Colossus", which made me go and read all of her poems. I'm not even a big poetry lover, there are just some poets that really manage to speak to me.

My favorite poet. I adored her in school. I loved her one novel - The Bell Jar. Also loved Dorothy Parker. The dark female poets...spoke to my adolescent heart.

Was very fannish about her myself.

Thank you again for this. Much appreciated.




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