As luck would have it, I have my writer's notebook literally in front of me the next time this thread appears. Time to mine the "titles" section for more fun.
Softwere
Wombat Boots
Cybergate Blues
The Peripheral Visionary
Breakfast Surreal
The Apostle Ringo
Impropaganda
Shall I Project a World?
The Three of Crows
Living in Dreamtime
Rambo, Son of Flicka
Skipjack
Breakfast and Armageddon
I Was a Teenaged Warehouse
Summercrime
The Apostle Ringo - a tongue in cheek biography of the author John Ringo
'The Apostle Ringo' The Tombstone/Passion of the Christ crossover epic
(Feel free to imagine Peter Cullen narrating this, for obvious reasons.)
Optimus Prime wasn't expecting to come online again -- that was the reason for passing on the Matrix of Leadership to his trusted friend Ultra Magnus after all -- but online he found himself, with a new, foundry-fresh chassis and
no idea what world he was on. The native sapient beings - humans like the ones on Earth, to the best he could determine - were less advanced, having only rudimentary tube-type electronics and relying otherwise on purely mechanical systems, yet they'd somehow also created piloted robotic weapons to use in their ongoing conflict among themselves. More curiously, he didn't seem to be the only one to have unexpectedly arrived here, though the first meeting with the one human who recognized him as a member of the Autobots was rough to say the least - it seemed being hit by the same model of truck as his new alternate mode was their last memory of Earth, and while untrained had gained a mysterious power in the transition. Still, having awakened together in the blasted No Man's Land between two hostile nations, assumed by both sides to be enemies, and with the few unaffiliated locals largely composed of deserters, bandits, and a few hardscrabble civilian survivors, the only advantage they have is each other as they try to find their way to a safer place, with the help of a traumatized but spirited tomboy they rescued along the way.
Known affectionately by fans as
(06-03-2021, 07:51 PM)batzulger Wrote: [ -> ]Strictly Diesel
or by its full title,
Another world of strictly diesel technology, and I am Truck-kun!? it's a somewhat rambling tale that wanders from action scenes to fluff while circling around the psychological horror of war, at first from their perspective as refugees, with others gathering around them as while Optimus can't fight two entire armies on his own he's perfectly capable of dealing with patrol squads from either side as long as they don't get time to call in too many reinforcements, and later while building a new settlement after both sides of the conflict were exhausted and agreed to form a border state as a buffer between them. There's also a helping of supernatural shenanigans, as both the other insertee and the local girl (and a handful of major antagonists) have psychic/magical powers that are explored and developed on, with some ghost and cryptid encounters along the way. Over fifteen hundred (short) chapters and still ongoing, with between two and five(!) added most days.
(Several of Bob's suggestions could be chapter or arc titles, I expect)
(06-03-2021, 10:14 PM)Norgarth Wrote: [ -> ]The Apostle Ringo - a tongue in cheek biography of the author John Ringo
(06-03-2021, 10:19 PM)batzulger Wrote: [ -> ]'The Apostle Ringo' The Tombstone/Passion of the Christ crossover epic
Well, I suppose those could work, but if I was writing an All The Tropes page for this work, here's how it would start.
We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first – rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me.
-- John Lennon, March 1966
One could never say that the Beatles' apostle was "thick and ordinary". Mr. Starr's own rise to fame (he was never
quite as famous as Lennon or McCartney, but he's never faded away, either) gave him the perfect place to spread the word about others, making them more famous. He added to the fame of the Beatles, he added to the fame of the members of the All-Starr Band, and he added to the fame of Thomas the Tank Engine. Truly,
The Apostle Ringo can spread the word. And this is his story.
The Apostle Ringo is a fictionalized account of the life of Ringo Starr, casting him as a divinely-mandated agent of fame. ...
(06-04-2021, 06:04 AM)classicdrogn Wrote: [ -> ](Feel free to imagine Peter Cullen narrating this, for obvious reasons.)
Optimus Prime wasn't expecting to come online again -- that was the reason for passing on the Matrix of Leadership to his trusted friend Ultra Magnus after all -- but online he found himself, with a new, foundry-fresh chassis and no idea what world he was on. The native sapient beings - humans like the ones on Earth, to the best he could determine - were less advanced, having only rudimentary tube-type electronics and relying otherwise on purely mechanical systems, yet they'd somehow also created piloted robotic weapons to use in their ongoing conflict among themselves. More curiously, he didn't seem to be the only one to have unexpectedly arrived here, though the first meeting with the one human who recognized him as a member of the Autobots was rough to say the least -
Of course, the one human who recognized him as an Autobot was named
Mark Sinclair.
Officially, SSN-585 was decommissioned on April 19, 1990. Officially. And the Department of Defense would tell you that this story never happened. But that's also what they say about the Red October...
Skipjack is a maritime technothriller, in which the titular nuclear submarine is ordered to patrol the coast of Estonia, clandestinely defending the newly-independent country against any USSR submarines that might seek to disrupt their shipping until such time as the Estonians could assemble and deploy their own maritime forces. They have their work cut out for them, since a rogue group within the Soviet military are not taking Estonia's declaration of independence at all well, this group has access to a Red October class nuclear submarine of their own... and there's nobody at all like Jack Ryan aboard the Skipjack.
Reaching across the eight-year divide and grabbing a title...
(11-20-2013, 06:44 AM)classicdrogn Wrote: [ -> ]Stone's Soup
A series of "family values" stories in which Noah Stone walks the Earth, teaching by example (and
by his antics) the merits and benefits of co-operation and sharing. His antics keep the stories from being Anvilicious.
Titles:
Shaken, But Not Stirred.
The Pachinko Diaries.
Of Lab Mice and Men.
(06-03-2021, 07:51 PM)batzulger Wrote: [ -> ]Laissez Faery
Laissez Faery is an entry into that niche (but still more than one show category) of fantasy economics the anime and follows from the background work done with earlier works like
Spice and Wolf and
Maoyū Maō Yūsha. Where
Spice and Wolf focuses on trade and
Maoyu on the capital requirements of production,
Laissez Faery deals heavily with the requirements to organize skilled workers in order to produce any kind of product. Mostly shoes for the story being told.
All of the workers are, of course, very cute fae.
(06-04-2021, 10:09 AM)itsune9tl Wrote: [ -> ]Titles:
Shaken, But Not Stirred.
A short story about customers ordering their drinks from a barman who knows quite well the way they're ordering their drinks is wrong.
Quote:Of Lab Mice and Men.
Brain hires Henchmen to help him Takeover the World. Too bad they are about batman (1966) quality
(06-05-2021, 10:54 AM)Star Ranger4 Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:Of Lab Mice and Men.
Brain hires Henchmen to help him Takeover the World. Too bad they are about batman (1966) quality
Then again, so is Brain.
I suppose this could be a series, in some order?
Stepping In
Stepping Out
Stepping Up
Stepping Down
Stepping Off
Stepping On
Stepping Over
Stepping Under
Stepping Around
Stepping Through
Stepping Forward
Stepping Back
Stepping Aside
Possibly related would be
Careful Stepps
Baby Stepps
Taking Stepps
Running Stepps
Next Stepps
Stepps Horde (or was it Hoard?)
Stepps to Victory!
Definitely a series, with a sampler of title style rather than an exhaustive list:
Mr. Grubbs Takes Tea
Mr. Grubbs on Holiday
Mr. Grubbs in Love
Congratulations, Mr. Grubbs!
The Hooligans and Mr. Grubbs
The Five Burroughs of New York
If we can come up with suitable characters from the Bronx and Staten Island, I could see this as a slice of life story about Marvel superheroes. I think Peter Parker is from Queens and Steve Rogers is a Brooklyn boy. Tony Stark, of course, represents Manhattan (when he's in New York at all). FTM, Doctor Strange also lives in Manhattan.
No, no, no... I said "The Five Burroughs of New York", not "The Five Boroughs of New York".
You know, Edgar Rice, William S., and so on... except that neither of those Burroughs were from NYC as far as I know.
Hmmm.
In that case, it's a family/generational drama exploring about 100 years of New York history.
Actually, you can do that as a Ghostbusters fic, with each Burrough having a ghost and history the Ghostbusters need to deal with somehow.
Now that's one I'd like to see - Ghostbusters seems to get an unfairly small amount of love from the fanfic community, though with a hopefully-not-sucjky movie coming out this year that might change again. That's even the kind of punny title the TV show tended to use.
Looking back at one of Bob's from the top of the page, I'd imagine Impropaganda as a British WWII comedy about the misadventures of a charmingly inept publicist whose campaigns are somehow amazingly effective at raising morale and inspiring participation in the various blood/scrap/etc. drives. Possibly through unintentionally salacious images or innuendo that are only noticed after the fact (in the manner of the famous fases/goblet illusion, numerous old bar or casino matchbooks with trick images, or when the poster is hung beside another) or when put in context of something that happens just as they go to press.
(09-03-2021, 06:39 AM)robkelk Wrote: [ -> ]No, no, no... I said "The Five Burroughs of New York", not "The Five Boroughs of New York".
You know, Edgar Rice, William S., and so on... except that neither of those Burroughs were from NYC as far as I know.
William S. Burroughs lived in a converted YMCA gym on the Lower Eastside from 1974 to 1981 while he was teaching creative writing at the City College of New York. (my brother in law was a close friend of his, and Bill Burroughs was one of the coolest people I've ever met.).
(09-03-2021, 04:23 PM)batzulger Wrote: [ -> ] (09-03-2021, 06:39 AM)robkelk Wrote: [ -> ]No, no, no... I said "The Five Burroughs of New York", not "The Five Boroughs of New York".
You know, Edgar Rice, William S., and so on... except that neither of those Burroughs were from NYC as far as I know.
William S. Burroughs lived in a converted YMCA gym on the Lower Eastside from 1974 to 1981 while he was teaching creative writing at the City College of New York. (my brother in law was a close friend of his, and Bill Burroughs was one of the coolest people I've ever met.).
Well, then, I was mistaken. And you're a lucky person to have been able to meet him.
"Wombat Boots": the mythical second book of the adventures of Ursula Vernon's Hugo Award-winning webcomic character, Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels.
(09-12-2021, 08:20 AM)Duane Peters Wrote: [ -> ]"Wombat Boots": the mythical second book of the adventures of Ursula Vernon's Hugo Award-winning webcomic character, Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels.
I was thinking something along those lines, but I was trying to figure out how to get her into the boots.
(09-13-2021, 02:54 AM)Inquisitive Raven Wrote: [ -> ] (09-12-2021, 08:20 AM)Duane Peters Wrote: [ -> ]"Wombat Boots": the mythical second book of the adventures of Ursula Vernon's Hugo Award-winning webcomic character, Digger-of-unnecessarily-convoluted-tunnels.
I was thinking something along those lines, but I was trying to figure out how to get her into the boots.
I was thinking something more along the old Army/Marine phrase, "boots on the ground." As of the end of the published story, she's trying to get home with the weird trader guy, and the second book would be her trials and tribulations on the way.
If I was *half* the writer Ursula is (and I'm well aware I'm not) I'd be tempted to write it as fanfic, but I just couldn't do justice to the story or character.