History Literature / BimbosOfTheDeathSun

** ''Zombies'' has another strange example, with Brendan Surn's assistant. She loved his novels and sought him out in hopes of finding an intellectual equal, but all she discovered was an old man with Alzheimer's who needed help. She discusses this with Angela Arbroath[[note]]An "unofficial" Lanthanide, a friend of the main group[[/note]], who had a similar experience when she was younger.

** In ''Zombies'', Malone threatens to reveal the skeletons in the Lanthanides' closets unless they buy his silence, which leads to the entire group being suspects in Malone's murder. To a lesser extent, Erik Giles shows some embarassment at his own past as a Lanthanide.

* TechnologyMarchesOn: The mystery in ''Bimbos'' involves a computer, but the detective investigating the case seems to know little to nothing about them (thankfully, one of his subordinates is more savvy).

* {{Muggles}}: During ''Bimbos'', we occasionally get the perspective of Donnie McRory, a Scottish folksinger who just happens to be staying at the same hotel as the convention. He mostly stays out of it, though he ends up getting roped into playing Scotty at the ''Series/StarTrek'' wedding and joins in on the [[FilkSong filk singing]] at one point.

** ''Zombies'' has another strange example, with Brendan Surn's assistant. She loved his novels and sought him out in hopes of finding an intellectual equal, but all she discovered was an old man with Alzheimer's who needed help. She discusses this with Angela Arboth[[note]]An "unofficial" Lanthanide, a friend of the main group[[/note]], who had a similar experience when she was younger.

* PlagiarismInFiction: Plays a major role in the end of ''Zombies'': [[spoiler:Marion points out the similarities between various stories written by the Lanthanides; Reuben Mistral brushes it off by saying they lived out of each others' pockets in those days and were bound to have hung onto a few ideas from the old times. But then Marion reveals the real point, namely that Erik Giles' writing style is nothing like his supposed PenName C.A. Stormcock's, but Stormcock's ''is'' very similar to the late Peter Deddingfield's writing...]]

* WhiteKnighting: In a way, the murder in ''Bimbos'' can be seen as an extreme example of this: [[spoiler:Clifford Morgan broke into Dungannon's hotel room to sneak a peek at the upcoming Runewind book, only to discover a chapter where Runewind is killed in a gross and humiliating fashion. He deletes the chapter, then returns later to kill Dungannon in order to "save" Runewind by preventing the author from re-writing the chapter in question.]]

* BackFromTheDead: Pat Malone in ''Zombies'', until he reveals the real reason (see FakingTheDead, below).

* {{Cosplay}}: ''Bimbos'' has a costume contest; other than Clifford Morgan incurring Dungannon's wrath by appearing in Runewind costume, we get [[{{Irony}} a Klingon with stage fright]] and a young girl in a really nice [[DragonridersOfPern Dragonrider]] costume, with a handmade plush dragon. But since Dungannon is judging, the prize goes to a Goodwill [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Galadriel]] with [[BuxomIsBetter huge breasts]][[note]]Which causes an angry Marion to promise to buy one of the Dragonrider's plushes ''and'' throw in the value of the contest prize on top of the asking price[[/note]].

*** [=McCrumb=] also wrote in the forward to a later edition of ''Bimbos'' that she could tell which writers were on the outs with fandom based on who fans thought Dungannon was supposed to be.

* OldShame: [[invoked]] Jay views his novel this way due to the treatment it got from the publishers (not to mention the backlash he imagines would come if word got out that he was the author). In ''Zombies'', Malone threatens to reveal the skeletons in the Lanthanides' closets unless they buy his silence, which leads to the entire group being suspects in Malone's murder. To a lesser extent, Erik Giles shows some embarassment at his own past as a Lanthanide.

* DeletedScene: In ''Bimbos'', [[spoiler:Dungannon's publisher reveals that at the end of each book, he would write a chapter or two where Tratyn Runewind is killed and/or humiliated, in order to vent his frustrations about being chained to the series; these chapters would always be removed before the book saw print. However, a psycho fan broke into Dungannon's room and found the chapter without realizing the context, which lead to the murder.]]

* TheKillerBecomesTheKilled: When the killer is exposed in ''Bimbos'', [[spoiler:he]] attempts to kill Jay, only to end up [[spoiler:accidentally electrocuting himself by stabbing a monitor with a sword]]. In ''Zombies'', [[spoiler: "Erik" takes a lethal combination of alcohol and medicine when TheSummation makes it obvious that Jay and Marion are onto him, only revealing the fact after his MotiveRant]].

* [[spoiler:BecomingTheMask: In ''Zombies'', Professor Erik Giles is actually Peter Deddingfield and vice versa; the two switched names decades ago because each had something the other wanted. "Giles"/Deddingfield ended up murdering Malone because he feared that the ruse would be revealed and he would be discredited.]]

* CreatorBacklash: [[spoiler:Dungannon writes every Runewind novel with an "extra" chapter in which the hero is killed or humiliated (usually both), which his editors remove before publishing; the murder occurred because a crazy fan broke into his room, read the chapter, and acted to "save" the fictional hero from an ignoble death.]]

* IAmNotSpock: Appin Dungannon '''really''' doesn't like being associated with the Tratyn Runewind series; he'd much rather become a more serious fantasy author, but is firmly ensconced in the ScifiGhetto, and he certainly doesn't help his case by cranking out more Runewind novels to pay the bills.

* MoneyDearBoy: Appin Dungannon's reason for still writing Runewind novels long after he got sick of the character.

* OldShame: Jay views his novel this way due to the treatment it got from the publishers (not to mention the backlash he imagines would come if word got out that he was the author). In ''Zombies'', Malone threatens to reveal the skeletons in the Lanthanides' closets unless they buy his silence, which leads to the entire group being suspects in Malone's murder. To a lesser extent, Erik Giles shows some embarassment at his own past as a Lanthanide.

* CloudCuckoolander: Uber-fan Clifford Morgan is only really happy when he's at conventions, cosplaying Tratyn Runewind and making use of his encyclopedic knowledge of the series. [=McCrumb=]'s narration points out that when he's working his day job, customers sometimes catch him muttering under his breath in the style of speech used by the novels.

** Appin Dungannon. Short stature, shorter fuse, ego to make up for both, and a DirtyOldMan. [[HarlanEllison Remind you of somebody?]][[note]]Amusingly, Harlan is suggested as a candidate to write Dungannon's eulogy. Maybe [=McCrumb=] explicitly mentioned him so as to defuse accusations and keep Harlan off her back.[[/note]]

* {{Expy}}: One of the Lanthanides is a stand-in for Creator/RichardSharpeShaver, writing incredible horror stories but claiming it wasn't fiction and spending the rest of his life in an asylum.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Appin Dungannon. Short stature, shorter fuse, ego to make up for both, and a DirtyOldMan. [[HarlanEllison Remind you of somebody?]][[note]]Amusingly, Harlan is suggested as a candidate to write Dungannon's eulogy. Maybe [=McCrumb=] explicitly mentioned him so as to defuse accusations and keep Harlan off her back.[[/note]]
** [=McCrumb=] also wrote in the forward to a later edition of ''Bimbos'' that she could tell which writers were on the outs with fandom based on who fans thought Dungannon was supposed to be.

* {{Expy}}: One of the Lanthanides is a stand-in for Creator/HPLovecraft, writing incredible horror stories but claiming it wasn't fiction and spending the rest of his life in an asylum.

* {{Cosplay}}: ''Bimbos'' has a costume contest; other than Clifford Morgan incurring Dungannon's wrath by appearing in Runewind costume, we get [[{{Irony}} a Klingon with stage fright]] and a young girl in a really nice [[DragonridersOfPern Dragonrider]] costume, with a handmade plush dragon. But since Dungannon is judging, the prize goes to a Goodwill [[Literature/LordOfTheRings Galadriel]] with [[BuxomIsBetter huge breasts]][[hottip:*:Which causes an angry Marion to promise to buy one of the Dragonrider's plushes ''and'' throw in the value of the contest prize on top of the asking price]].

** ''Zombies'' has another strange example, with Brendan Surn's assistant. She loved his novels and sought him out in hopes of finding an intellectual equal, but all she discovered was an old man with Alzheimer's who needed help. She discusses this with Angela Arboth[[hottip:*:An "unofficial" Lanthanide, a friend of the main group]], who had a similar experience when she was younger.

* [[MistakenForRacist Mistaken for Sexist]]: Jay is afraid this will happen if anyone learns about his novel; Marion (who is actually feminist) made absolutely certain that it wasn't demeaning[[hottip:*:Jay chose to have women be affected simply because some diseases are linked to sex]], but that's little reassurance for the man who wrote a book called "Bimbos of the Death Sun" with a Creator/FrankFrazetta-wannabe cover.

* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Appin Dungannon. Short stature, shorter fuse, ego to make up for both, and a DirtyOldMan. [[HarlanEllison Remind you of somebody?]][[hottip:*:Amusingly, Harlan is suggested as a candidate to write Dungannon's eulogy. Maybe [=McCrumb=] explicitly mentioned him so as to defuse accusations and keep Harlan off her back.]]

* GoldDigger: Brenda Lindenfeld, a minor character in ''Bimbos'' is an overweight woman who doesn't want to enter the "real world" and hopes to use the promise of sex to land a successful husband so she can continue her hobby instead of having to attempt to get a job. Unusually for the trope, she's neither a villain nor particularly unsympathetic - as the book points out, she doesn't actually have that many other options in life.

* MeaningfulName: Jay chose his pen name because of the significance of ''jω'' -- "jay-omega" -- in electrical engineering.

Award-winning 1988 Whodunit by Sharyn [=McCrumb=] which combines a serious murder mystery with the scariest world of all - fandom.

James Owen Mega is just an ordinary guy, a professor of electrical engineering at Virginia Tech. What very few people realize is that he is also Jay Omega, one-time science fiction author - and that's exactly how Jay wants it. His novel was a serious, hard SF story, but by the time the [[ExecutiveMeddling second-rate publishing house got through with it]], it was saddled with a [[ContemptibleCover Frank Frazetta-esque cover]] and the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. Though he attempts to bury his OldShame, his girlfriend Marion Farley, the college's assistant professor of English, books him as a guest at Rubicon, a local SF convention. There, they meet the onerous Appin Dungannon, author of a [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]-like series of novels and owner of an [[HairTriggerTemper incredibly short fuse]] and [[SmallNameBigEgo colossal ego]]. Some time between the costume contest and the celebrity ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game, however, Dungannon is murdered, and Jay and Marion do a little investigating of their own.

* MeaningfulName: Jay chose his pen name because of the significance of omega in physics.

James Owen Mega is just an ordinary guy, a professor of electrical engineering at Virginia Tech. What very few people realize is that he is also Jay Omega, one-time science fiction author - and that's exactly how Jay wants it. His novel was a serious, hard SF story, but by the time the second-rate publishing house got through with it, it was saddled with a Frank Frazetta-esque cover and the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. Though he attempts to bury his OldShame, his girlfriend Marion Farley, the college's assistant professor of English, books him as a guest at Rubicon, a local SF convention. There, they meet the onerous Appin Dungannon, author of a [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]-like series of novels and owner of an [[HairTriggerTemper incredibly short fuse]] and [[SmallNameBigEgo colossal ego]]. Some time between the costume contest and the celebrity ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' game, however, Dungannon is murdered, and Jay and Marion do a little investigating of their own.

* GoldDigger: A minor character in ''Bimbos'' is an overweight woman who doesn't want to enter the "real world" and hopes to use the promise of sex to land a successful husband so she can continue her hobby instead of having to get a job.

* IncrediblyLamePun: In ''Bimbos'', the narration mentions an animated adaptation of the Runewind novels called ''Dungannon's Dragons''.

James Owen Mega is just an ordinary guy, a professor of electrical engineering at Virginia Tech. What very few people realize is that he is also Jay Omega, one-time science fiction author - and that's exactly how Jay wants it. His novel was a serious, hard SF story, but by the time the second-rate publishing house got through with it, it was saddled with a Frank Frazetta-esque cover and the title ''Bimbos of the Death Sun''. Though he attempts to bury his OldShame, his girlfriend Marion Farley, the college's assistant professor of English, books him as a guest at Rubicon, a local SF convention. There, they meet the onerous Appin Dungannon, author of a [[Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian Conan]]-like series of novels and owner of an [[HairTriggerTemper incredibly short fuse]] and [[SmallNameBigEgo colossal ego]]. Some time between the costume contest and the celebrity ''DungeonsAndDragons'' game, however, Dungannon is murdered, and Jay and Marion do a little investigating of their own.

* DungeonsAndDragons: Deserves special mention since a game of it is integral to solving the murder in ''Bimbos''.

* [[MistakenForRacist Mistaken for Sexist]]: Jay is afraid this will happen if anyone learns about his novel; Marion (who is actually feminist) made absolutely certain that it wasn't demeaning[[hottip:*:Jay chose to have women be affected simply because some diseases are linked to sex]], but that's little reassurance for the man who wrote a book called "Bimbos of the Death Sun" with a FrankFrazetta-wannabe cover.