Fantasy Games

To imagine the unimaginable is the highest use of the imagination.

--Cynthia Ozick

Yay! Another romance reader's blog has been added to Romancing the Blog and the sidebar here on this blog: Kristie J.'s Ramblings on Romance etc. A Mystery And for something different: the Voynich Manuscript. As the short introduction goes:

In 1912, the antiquarian book dealer Wilfrid M. Voynich bought a number of mediaeval manuscripts from an undisclosed location in Europe. Among these was an illustrated manuscript codex of 234 pages, written in an unknown script. Voynich took the MS to the United States and started a campaign to have it deciphered. Now, almost 100 years later, the Voynich manuscript still stands as probably the most elusive puzzle in the world of cryptography. Not a single word of this 'Most Mysterious Manuscript', written probably in the second half of the 15th Century, can be understood.

It was my younger brother who brought my atention to the Voynich manuscript. He asked if I knew anything about this manuscript. I didn't but I was curious to know how did he know about it. He held a paperback up for me to see: Indiana Jones and the Philosopher's Stone. *laugh* Bookworm Mysteries It's strange to think that that manuscript is actually responsible for sparking my long-time interest in thriller novels or mysteries that involves books and manuscripts. Or rather, as a friend once put it, "bookworm mysteries". :D Technically these mysteries that focus on decoding antiquated books and manuscripts are 'metafiction'. I have no idea why, though. I think I read quite a few, ranging from Jasper Fforde's The Eyre Affair to Arturo Pérez-Reverte's The Dumas Club. I think the last novel of this type I read is Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomas's The Rule of Four. IMO, Umberto Eco is the King and Katherine Neville is the Queen. Anyway, for some book suggestions, try this fantastic Canadian site: Fictional World of Archives, Art Galleries and Museums. Chaos of Our Own Another type of fiction I love is those that take fictional characters from various classic novels to put them together as a cast for a story. I find this concept fascinating and highly imaginative. Jasper Fforde does this well with his Next Tuesday series. So do Alan Moore [the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen] and Kim Newman [Anno Dracula and many more]. I'd love to see more of this type. Romantic Chaos of Our Own Hm. What if we spin this on romances? What if we were to create a 'house weekend party' mystery for these characters below to appear together [just as how they speak, dress and behave in their own books]?

• Cat [Laura London's American pirate romance The Windflower]
• Vivian [Taylor Chase's Elizabethan historical romance Heart of Deception]
• Eve [J.D. Robb's near futuristic In Death series]
• Miss Jessica Trent [Loretta Chase's historical romance Lord of Scoundrels]
• Clay [Lorraine Heath's Always To Remember]
• Christian "Kit" [Suzanne Robinson's Elizabethan historical romance Lady Gallant]
• S. T. Maitland [Laura Kinsale's The Prince of Midnight]
• Talon [Kristen Kyle's futuristic romance Nighthawk]
• Jenny Jones [Maggie Osborne's American historical The Promise of Jenny Jones]
• Roxy Nouvelle [Nora Roberts's contemporary romance Honest Illusions]
• Lucky [Suzanne Brockmann's military category romance Get Lucky]
• Captain Ryan Calhoun [Susan Wiggs's pirate romance The Charm School]
• Blue Reynard [Ruth Wind's contemporary romance In the Midnight Rain]

Actually, thinking about it, I think it'd be fun to bring various characters from Anne Stuart's books together in a story: James Killoran [To Love a Dark Lord/Georgian historical], Maggie Bennett [Escape Out of Darkness/European contemporary], James Mc Kinley [Moonrise/American contemporary], Ghislaine de Lorgny [A Rose at Midnight/historical], Nichola [Lady Fortune/medieval], etc. Can you imagine what it would be like if they get together in one house? It'd be funny because they would slaughter each other within a few minutes. :D It'd also be fun to have characters taken from various books by Jennifer Crusie, Theresa Weir, Laura Leone, Loretta Chase, Lorraine Heath, Jude Deveraux, etc. and plonk those characters in a town that Pamela Morsi created for her Americana series, e.g. Courting Miss Hattie. Heheheh! Really, with romances, the sky's limitless. It's a pity that all these are still copyrighted. If they were in public domain, it'd be a lot of fun. :D *a-hem* Be good, be bad & be safe.