Charlie Stross
The great thing about writing a Stainless Steel Rat homage is you get to do things like this (in which our protagonists, having returned from a *very* long trip, have found and are preparing to rob a museum exhibit dedicated to ... themselves): #amwriting
1:37pmWeb
Show threadwoe2you12h ago
@cstross They won't win, obviously. That never happens.
Show threadCharlie Stross12h ago
@woe2you Not-a-spoiler: of course they didn't win! (They did, however, come back that night and rob the museum. NB: this is in chapter 2, it's part of the set-up for the main story.)
Show threadComplexity of systems 🏳️‍⚧️4h ago

@cstross @woe2you the whole "Your Costume Needs Work" trope has so much inertia that it would be genuinely surprising if a character entered a look-alike contest as themselves and won

It's also older than most people think Charlie Chaplin losing a contest to look like one of his own characters. The trope is definitely older than that but it only came into its current form after the invention of film/photography before that the mistake would have been more understandable

Show threadwoe2you4h ago
@addressforbots @cstross I suppose by this point it must be ripe for subversion. $protagonist thinks group of $protagonist cosplayers is perfect cover, is unexpectedly dragged up to collect prize...
Show threadmhoye12h ago
@cstross There's a moment in one of the Princes In Amber series where Corwin remarks, "I've pissed on my own grave, I can hardly pass up a chance to light a candle to myself in my own church", which was - Zelazny's gift as a writer - absolutely perfect for that character. You've reminded me of that passage; there might be nothing more perfect for The Stainless Steel Rat than heisting his own museum.
Show threadChris Hoadley11h ago

@cstross I love "The Stainless Steel Rat" books. I am excited to see your take on that universe.

But, now I am going to deliberately forget (again) that you are working on this so that I will not have to live in agony until I can read it. 😆

Show threadMidgePhoto11h ago
@hoadlck
I loved them, but they need a rewrite for the current century now.
Alternatively new slants are keenly awaited.
Show threadCharlie Stross10h ago
@hoadlck It's not me taking on that universe: it's me putting my own spin on the core idea. (I don't think it's feasible to write sequels to the SSR in this day and age that don't look horribly dated.)
Show threadAlan Bellingham11h ago
@cstross There is the tale that Duran Duran liked entering Duran Duran lookalike contests
Show threadCharlie Stross10h ago
@bellinghman Also, famously, Graham Greene entered a competition for the best Graham Greene pastiche run by The Times—and came second.
Show threadPerrin4210h ago

@cstross

"When it came to Parton's turn, she smiled and sashayed across the stage. And lost. To a man. Not only that, Dolly Parton got the least applause. She said she was dying of laughter inside. Little did the contest know they had the real thing in their midst"

https://www.cbc.ca/radio/undertheinfluence/dolly-parton-entered-a-dolly-parton-look-alike-contest-and-lost-1.6848403

Dolly Parton entered a Dolly Parton look-alike contest. And lost. | CBC Radio

Dolly Parton – there's no one like her. Well, almost no one.

CBC
Show threadTimothy Clark10h ago
@cstross I'm curious, for pronunciation does Jum rhyme best with yum or room, or something else?
Show threadCharlie Stross10h ago
@tclark Rhymes with "yum". (We meet him in an earlier book: the language he's named in has undergone a few vowel shifts over the past couple of millennia—he might originally have been a Jim or even a Ghem, but not any more.)
Show threadMitch Wagner10h ago
@cstross Looks great! And as I recall didn’t Timothee Chalomet enter a Timothee Chalomet lookalike festival?