This came up recently, so I thought it would be interesting to see what areas of special expertise some of us may have. Something you are familiar enough with to be considered a "subject matter expert" in.
For myself, that is probably primarily military topics. As in, that has been my career for over 20 years. First enlisting when President Reagan was in his first term, and still serving today under my seventh President. In two branches of service, four countries, and on bases of all 4 branches of service. Infantry, Missile Defense, and Computers were my main areas of specialization there, but also security, weapons and urban combat techniques, supply, logistics, as well as working in field hospitals.
And as a large believer in what George Santayana said about learning from history. As such, I am an expert in WWII history, but also well researched on other things from the Neolithic to late 20th century. Human Migrations and how one civilization forcing another to move has been a particular interest there. I believe in the axiom that what has happened before will happen again, and try to spot trends in past events to see what may happen in the future.
Computers is another one, comes from having a mother that was a programmer in the 1960's and growing up with the things. Still very active in this field, but the demand has largely died as people ditch computers for other devices. Finally closed my store 3 years ago when all people brought in for me to fix were cheap netbooks that were not even worth fixing in the first place.
And a bit more esoteric, being a DJ. Started that professionally in 1981, everything from skating rinks and teen dance clubs to more modern dance clubs and even strip clubs in five states and two other countries. Want to know what it was like trying to use a guitar mixer before the "modern DJ mixer" came out, or the best way to match tempo and do the old-school "DJ Music Wave" along with transitions between genres, feel free to ask. I no longer do it as hearing damage (permanent tinnitus) prevents me from perusing this professionally anymore, but I still keep my finger on the equipment and trends from personal interest.
And as a side into that, broadcasting. Mostly at a small defunct UHF TV station in the LA area, but doing it for many years (mostly as a show lead, researcher, and equipment operator). One thing about working at a small TV station, not many people there so everybody gets to do almost anything. "Hey, there is a 30 minute hole in the schedule, wanna do a show?" "Hey, we got nothing scheduled from midnight to 2 in the morning. Go drag one of those public domain horror movies out of the archive, you got an hour to make and film the skits and sketches to open and close it with."
What kind of expertise do others in here have, and would be interested in sharing? Either for helping background in writing stories, or just to learn more about different things.
I can write as either one. But that all depends on the story I am trying to tell.
There really is no firm rule in my writing, it mostly depends on the point of view I am trying to capture. I even had one where the POV character changed genders, and that was interesting because I had them first appear as male, and even describe scenes with an "old boyfriend", that left many confused as they were told from the female perspective by a male (at that time) narrator.
One other thing, that I have written into a few different stories.
Accidental .
Now I myself readily admit I find nothing sexy about , and it has never had any kind of interest for me.
But in 2 different stories, because I enjoy "twist endings" I have had what I call "Accidental Incest". Either where the individuals at the time are not even aware that they are related. Or in another where disguises are involved they do not know who they are actually having sex with. In the latter, I threw in a twist where the male became aware when he saw the female in a different costume the next day, realizing to his horror who he had actually been with the night before.
In these, I consider it a very different sub-genre, because there is no real attraction sexually between the individuals because they are related. Son not chasing after mom, or sister after brother. Just 2 people who have sex, not even being aware until afterwards that they had committed (and only 1 of the 2 may even know that).
This is a little story I wrote up recently, and felt I should share it in here. And also comment a bit about how it came to be. And a few minor spoilers are below.
In short, it is a romance. As recently I have been wanting to write more "period pieces", one of the decades I had never before written about was the 1940's. Being quite literally one of the "Last of the Baby Boomers" (I was born 4 days before that era ended), it of course had a big influence on when I myself grew up. And always having a love for the music and other things of that era, I spent some time immersing myself into it. Researching clothes, movies, and other things.
And having been both stationed in the Bay Area and having lived there myself I was more than familiar with the landscape. What bases were where, the ships made and where the construction was located. Both of my grandmothers were among those that when their husbands or fiancée went off to war, they went to work to support the effort as they could. One in Seattle, the other in Long Beach.
But although there is obviously elements of nostalgia in the piece, I also try to prevent some aspects more or less as they were, "warts and all". And there are things that may make some uncomfortable in reading some segments. I also knowingly took some artistic liberty in the writing. During WWII, the US Navy was still mostly segregated. Blacks normally served as either messmen, or as stevedores (dockworkers loading and unloading ships). And not to put any down, after all Doris Miller was such a messman on the USS West Virginia when he won the Medal of Honor. But I did not want some of my characters to be messmen, so I made the choice to put them into supply.
Additionally, I did want to make it as accurate as I could, but blacks were also largely segregated to Carriers and Battleships, occasionally Cruisers. And this was a problem, as the loss of one of those ships was a huge deal during the war. So I had one of the ships be a Destroyer. We lost over 80 of those, so it was not unusual for the loss of a Destroyer to go almost unnoticed when it went down.
And also, realize the year and age at the end. When Sally gives her prayer at the end, it is 1969. Which means that her grandson is of the perfect age where if he also takes up the "Family Tradition", he will likely be in the service in 1989. Just in time for the Gulf War. So while it does try to end on an optimistic note, knowing in realty that her prayer was ultimately not answered in a way she wanted.
Mine kind of goes all over the place. But mostly it tends to be "coming of age". And no, that does not always involve young characters, but can also mean people who go through a major change in their life and finally "grow up". The 25 year old slacker that finally gets a purpose in life for example.
I have written long romantic stories. I have written short stories about streetwalkers in LA. I have written several that are superhero stories. And quite a few that I call "Dark Tales" that are often rather dark, but have twists at the end (akin to Twilight Zone). And more recently, I have started to take on period pieces. I have covered the 1990's, 1980's, 1960's, 1950's, and now the 1940's like that. Mostly single short stories, but where I try to immerse the reader completely into that decade I am writing about. Everything from the music (big band), the clothing (bullet bras), and TV shows and movies.
I have done space sci-fi with robots, fanfic, chemical sex change, even one anthology series where the title and part of the plot comes from a song (so far only 2, The Who and Tom Lehrer). One based only on a title as part of a challenge, even a semi-horror where it was an "outside looking in" on a character reliving a "Groundhog Day" life, and their interaction with somebody else.
Mostly, I just go wherever my muse leads me. I often joke I have little actual input on where my stories go. I just put onto paper whatever my muse whispers into my ear. And sometimes to be honest even that surprises or shocks me in the end.
Unless a story is obviously plagiarised, it's assumed when a story is submitted on Lush that it's the author's own work. Hope that's helpful!
