George R. R. Martin is my favorite author.  Like many of his readers, I have particular admiration and affection for his epic fantasy series, A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.  These are, without question, my favorite books in my favorite genre in my favorite sub-genre.

They are my (ongoing) bible of literature.  To anyone who doesn't care for these books, scoff at this statement if you wish.  I really don't care one whit.  This story has given me more entertainment than I could ever put into words (ironic, no?), and for that I will be forever grateful to this man.

George Martin has had a literary career anyone would kill for.  Awards, the # 1 spot on the NY Times Bestseller List, the respect of his peers, an ongoing series of books that has spawned a franchise, a fanbase as passionate as any, and countless opportunities that continue to offer themselves as a result of his hard work, talent, dedication, and imagination.  On top of this, it's not an outrageous statement to say that after George passes on (and I hope it won't be for a long, LONG time), these books could very well continue to grace the shelves of bookstores everywhere.

Pretty good, right?

And yet, right now I feel bad for this guy.  Why?  Read this.  He's posted a lot today, something like 13 times, so right now I'm referring to the last two posts.  If he continues to post beyond this, I'm referring to the posts that deal with A Dance With Dragons, what will be the next book in A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.  I'm a regular follower of his blog, and I've been following these books since the first one.  I'm even lucky enough to own a signed first edition of the first book in the series, which is now worth quite the pretty penny.  I purchased this book through his website some years ago, back when he was selling them for cover price and the series had yet to become a phenomenom.  I was in my early 20s at the time, and had just realized I wanted to be a writer myself.  When I saw this offer on his website, I wasted no time in cutting him a check and sending it off.

I also sent him a letter, briefly introducing myself and asking a few writerly questions.  It didn't take long for the book to come back, along with a page-long letter from George, answering my questions.  That letter is still tucked into the dust jacket of that book, which I consider one of my most cherished possessions.  And do you know how he signed the book?  "Dear Douglas, May all your winters be short, and all your books bestsellers."

Anyone who reads these books will understand just how cool of an inscription this is.  All I was hoping for was a signature and maybe a quickly scribbled paragraph in answer to my letter.  That I got so much more tells me that George is not just a writer to be admired ...he is a person to be admired.  He remembers his roots.  He remembers what it's like to be a fan, to be a writer wanting to break in and then working his way up the ranks.  He loved and still loves the genre, which is why he went the extra mile for me.  He was paying it forward. 

So can you imagine how it must feel when the very people he tries to be so kind to start attacking him because the latest book hasn't come out soon enough for their liking?  I'll tell you how it must feel.  It feels like he's getting stabbed in the back.  He doesn't deserve this.  Is the book taking a long time?  Yes.  Do I want to read it?  Yes.  Am I anxious to read it?  Yes.  But so fucking what?  He's doing his best.  Do you think your criticisms and attacks are helping?  Do you honestly think he's going to write faster because you bitched and moaned?  He is only human (even if he is secretly God--all hail George!)

If someone is taking the time attack him, it's quite likely they're passionate about his books.  I would imagine many of these people consider themselves his most ardent fans.

Well, they're not.  If you're one of these people attacking the poor man because the next book isn't out, you're not a fan.  You're a fucking nitwit who needs to get a life.  You're a little too obsessed with these books, and it isn't healthy.  Honestly, I'd respect you more if you wrote him hate mail, expressing your contempt for how violent his books are.  I'd respect you more if you wrote to tell him he's the most overrated writer in our genre.  You'd be wrong, but I'd still respect you more.

Go a read another book for Christ's sake.  Better yet, take a look in the mirror and reassess your life, because you clearly have issues.  How dare any of you tell him to not take on other projects, to not go to conventions, to not watch football.  It's his fucking life, not yours.  But you don't want him to have a life.  You want him chained to his desk, slaving away.  It doesn't work that way, and nothing you say will change that.  If his timetables are that unacceptable, stop reading his books.  Otherwise SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!  

When this series is done, I pity the lot of you, because you'll have nothing left to live for.  

Rock on, George!!!
         

Let's shift gears a little bit from recent events.  Last Sunday I had a chance to see Afro Samurai: Resurrection.  Even more recently, I had a chance to read The Watchmen, the graphic novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons.

For those of unfamiliar with Afro Samurai: Resurrection, this is an anime movie.  It's the sequel to Afro Samurai, which happens to be one of my favorite anime movies ever.  In a nutshell, imagine a world dominated by two headbands.  If you own the Number One Headband, you're like a god.  If you own the Number Two Headband, you have the right to challenge the Number One.  But if you own the Number Two Headband, anyone has the right to challenge you.  In the first movie (STOP READING RIGHT NOW IF YOU FEAR SPOILERS IN THE FIRST FEW MINUTES OF THE MOVIE), it follows the life of a samurai known simply as Afro (and yes, he has an afro).  At the beginning of the movie, Afro is a child, and his father is the Number One.  The Number Two comes along, challenges him, and wins, resulting in dad's death.  The Number Two takes the Number One Headband, and as he walks away he tosses the Number Two Headband to young Afro, telling him to come challenge him, when he's ready. 

It's a very graphic movie, featuring gorgeous illustrations, excellent battle sequences, and some really interesting characters.  Fans of Ninja Scroll & Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust should love this one.  The voice of Afro is played by Samuel L. Jackson, and the movie carves its own niche by successfully intergrating a hip hop sensibility throughout the tale.  I can't recommend it highly enough.  

I have mixed feelings about Resurrection.  I loved everything about this one except the climax's resolution.  As far as I'm concerned, it sabotages a great deal of the first movie.  In all fairness, the version I saw was on Spike TV, so there were commerical interruptions.  Also, the director's cut of the movie has yet to be released.  Perhaps watching the movie with the additional scenes and without commericals will leave me feeling differently.  I certainly hope so, as right now I'm feeling a little betrayed. 

Anyone else see this one?

And as to The Watchmen ...

It's brilliant.  I certainly hope everyone planning on seeing the movie (I know I am) finds the opportunity to read this graphic novel first.  There is a reason it won the Hugo Award, and it's with good reason that Time Magazine lists it as one of its 100 Best Novels.  It's easily the best graphic novel I've read.  But it's more than that.  It really is a piece of literature.  It was published in 1986, and while there is a lot of reinvented history going on, it's still so accessible to today's audience.  I'd also venture that it's the most realistic take on superheroes I've ever read, this from someone whose favorite superhero is Batman.  I'm really hoping the movie does the graphic novel some sort of justice.  And if you watch the movie before you read this book ...shame on you.  SHAME.  ON.  YOU.  I am truly in awe over the genius that Alan Moore brought to this story.  And for all you Watchmen fans, I just had this pointed out to me today.  I haven't watched them yet, but it looks pretty damn cool.              

Feel free to share your thoughts on The Watchmen (and Afro, of course) in the comments thread, but I won't say anything more here in the post.  I don't even want to take the slightest risk of dropping the tinniest spoiler!

This is the first book I've read in 2009.  I've decided to keep a count this year, something I've actually never done before.  I was going to keep count last year, but decided it was a bad year to keep track of books read because I was so engrossed in reading all the stories ever published in Realms of Fantasy (btw, I haven't forgotten about those retrospective posts, I swear!)

Anyway, I've been looking forward to reading this one for a while.  And not just because of the buzz, of which there has been much.  The abridged version for those unfamiliar with the reason for my anticipation: back in 2005, I pulled a story from the ROF slush called "Of Metal Men and Scarlet Thread and Dancing With the Sunrise."  We published it in 2006.  It was the first story Ken wrote in this world.  Now he has a book called LAMENTATION coming out from Tor Books this February, part of a five-book series.  LAMENTATATION is set in the same world as "Of Metal Men" and actually incorporates portions of this story.

So yeah, I was pretty excited to read this.  I've seen a lot of people calling this book epic fantasy, but I'm going to continue thinking of it as science-fantasy, which is how I also think of the short story.  Once I see robots (and some other technological tidbits mixed in) alongside the swords and the magic, I can't help but think of it as anything else.  But that's me.  Regardless, it incorporates many elements of epic fantasy and is told on an epic scale.

Considering the source, anything nice I say about this book will probably seem biased.  But being as objective as I can, I do think this novel is something most fans of secondary world fantasies will appreciate.  The prose is clear, the pace is brisk, the stakes are high.  The characters are clearly drawn, the world isn't quite like anything I've read before, and there are a number of unexpected plot twists.  In the end, I was most reminded of Frank Herbert's Dune and George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, but Ken's work is not derivtative.  The world and story are entirely his own.  And I'll add that the last fifty pages or so strike me as the strongest part of the book.  I do love it when authors finish strong.

I'm sure most of you have pretty big reading lists and only get around to trying so many new authors each year.  You might want to put Scholes on this year's list, because I think there's a decent chance you'll enjoy LAMENTATION.

My two cents.              

So as I do almost every year on Christmas, I did what lots of Jewish people do and went to the movies.  This year's viewing feast was I AM LEGEND.  I have read the book, so just based on the commercials I knew there were some obvious differences:

Book's protagonist: white
Movie's protagonist: black

Book's setting: California (I think?) in the late 1970s
Movie's setting: NYC a few years from now

Book: Dog brought into the household for the space of a week before it dies
Movie: Dog has obviously been with the protagonist some years

Book: Talking vampires
Movie: Beasties that seemed none too intelligent


So these were the big differences I noticed before ever seeing the movie.  None of them really bothered me, either before or afterward.  I thought Will Smith gave a great performance, and I enjoyed the directing and special effects.  As some people have said to me though, they really enjoyed the first two thirds of the movie, but the last third wasn't quite up to snuff.

I'm forced to agree.   I knew they would Hollywood up the ending, because the book's ending (the last man is in a cell, waiting to be executed) is much too grim for commercial Hollywood.  So I could accept that a cure for mankind is found at the end.  In fact, I expected it.

What bothered me were the coincidences.  I mean, fine, the mother and her kid heard Will Smith's broadcast message and went to meet him at the appointed spot.  I can accept that.  But gee whiz, it's a really good thing they happened to be there just when Will Smith was about to die.  And double gee whiz, it's a good thing that even though they waited for him to show up all day, they decided to stick around outside at night.  Yup, I can totally understand why these two jokers survived this long.  And nothing personal to the God-faring among you, but God told the woman about the survivor camp in Vermont?  God, who had nothing to do with the movie until the scriptwriter needed a way for her to know about the survivor camp while Will Smith didn't?  That God?  Come on.  And hey, how come that survivor camp wasn't broadcasting their message like Will Smith did?  Maybe because then Will Smith would know that the camp did in fact exist?  Ya think?

And there was also one plot point that I considered to be either a red herring or an oversight.  Will Smith captures one of the infected with a snare so he can conduct his latest round of experiments on her in the hopes of finding a cure.  Okay, cool.  Then one of the other infected momentarily follows him into daylight before retreating back into the safety of the darkness.  Fine.  Later on, Will Smith theorizes to his video journal that the infected ventured into daylight because they've de-evolved so much that they're no longer paying attention to their own survival instincts (in this case, sunlight=very bad).

And at this point, I shook my head no.  I decided the screenwriter was being sneaky, that the infected was in fact paying attention to its instincts, a latent one, that of love.  If Will Smith had captured the creature's mate, then back in its regular life it would have tried to rescue its loved one.   So I figured the creature was reacting to this latent instinct, but was forced to retreat because of the sunlight, and Will Smith's character didn't pick up on this.  This would have worked for me. 

Then, a little later on, Will Smith falls for the same snare trap he used to capture his latest specimen.  At first I thought this was really cool.   But then my love theory never materialized, and I thought about this scene a little more.  So these creatures have become so stupid they'll venture into daylight, but remain smart enough to successfully set up and spring this snare?

Riiiiight.  Can you say misdirection?

And at the end of the movie one of the creatures is smart enough to rip a hole in the ceiling to allow its brethren entrance, but yet these creatures decide to ram their heads against the unbreakable glass instead of hitting it with, I don't know, a chair?

And why didn't Will Smith drop the grenade and hide with the mother and her child?  The thing took long enough to go off.  He could have done both.  The mother even said there was room for him.


But if I ignore all this stuff it was a fun movie. :)

The book was better though, no contest.  And as cool as the dog was in the movie, the way Richard Matheson used it in the book was far more powerful.  Successful horror stories are usually explorations of fear  in one form or another, and in the book, Matheson captures a dog's fear perfectly.  I truly believed the dog was scared.  It's definitely one of the most powerful scenes I've read.  That scene alone made the whole book worthwhile.

So my recommendation?  Go with the book over the movie, but if you're willing to overlook the occasional logic jump in the movie, you'll probably enjoy it.


Oh, and the trailer for THE DARK KNIGHT looked really good.  Can't wait for that.

And the next movie I'm interested in seeing in the theater?  CLOVERFIELD.  I want to know what the hell is going on there!

So I finished reading the fiction to Interzone 212 a few minutes ago.  I must say, this magazine is edgy.  Taking my own story out of the equation for the moment, every story herein pushes the boundary of speculative fiction in one way or another.  Perhaps my own story does as well, but I'm not about to make that declaration.  Let someone else (or not--heh).  Either way, the way IZ pushes these boundaries is very much to my liking.  It does so with an eye toward story.  The styles may be nice (and often are), but the true edginess for me comes in other areas, such as thematic content, interesting settings, fascinating reinventions of old ideas, etc.

So last night I went over 60,000 words.  Sheesh.  I read these blogs where people have 60,000 words to their novels and this means they're done or almost done with the draft.  I'm not even halfway! (profuse apologies to the agent, but I've been giving her fair warning from the jump).   The good news is I've recovered from that  nasty hiccup that forced me to go back and fix stuff, which interrupted some of my momentum.  It's all new material I'm writing.  The words were coming slow for a little while, but steady.  Now I'm like a streak shooter in the NBA, meaning some days I'm managing nothing but minor output, but other days I get hot and the words start flowing.

I'm at interesting point in the story.  I'm juggling a lot of plot threads here, and for a while most of the characters were sharing the same setting.  But the chapters I'm writing now are causing many of characters to start drifting from each other, geographically speaking that is.  The geographical drift is leading  to diverging plots and subplots as well.  Makes for a lot of interesting (and sometimes difficult) juggling, but it also shows me the story is evolving into its next phase.  That's exciting, watching the story evolve, writing chapters that have been hanging out in my head for months.

So there's still a lot left to write, but I'm getting there.  It'll take a few more sessions of writing but page 250 is in my sights, which will definitely be nice when I reach it.

In terms of Arthurian material, I finished Merlin and the Grail by Robert de Boron.  Some interesting stuff, and definitely one of the more accessible texts I've read as far as the old-school material goes.  These days I'm reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (not the Tolkien translation).  There are other texts I need to read that are more important/fundamental in terms of Arthurian literature, but I want to delve into Sir Gawain's character a little more, and the text is already proving useful.  And I also happened to already have this one in "the stacks," meaning I didn't have to order it, like I've been doing with these other texts.  It's not a terribly long book, so sparse as my reading time has once again become, I imagine it'll be done come the next time I provide an update.

That's everything for now.  Onward! 

Again, it's been a while since I've posted one of these.  Last time I posted here, I was up to page 200.  Now I'm up to page 195.

???

That requires some explanation, I think.  Two "Arthurian Updates" ago I mentioned the need for some revisions, things like splitting one chapter in two, and making Merlin more proactive instead of reactive.  Seemed simple enough.  But then later on I realized that two other characters were also being entirely too passive/reactive.  If you've ever seen the movie THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT (love, love, LOVE that movie), you may recall the idea presented of "change one thing, change everything."

Well, here it was a case of change three things and change a whole crapload of other stuff.  Barring three chapters, because of the changes made, every chapter required anything from tweaking to complete overhauls.  Now, I could have kept writing new chapters, pushing forward.  Some would argue I should have (perhaps many).  But here's the thing.  This is going to be a long book.  And it's the first book of what I imagine to be a five book series, all long books (I must keep it to five, because if it gets any longer I'm quite certain I'll give my poor agent a heart attack).  So I'm working with a very large scope.  And these first 200 pages are very much the foundation of the story.  While I don't need every word to be perfect, I needed to feel as if all the basic story bricks were in the right place.  Otherwise as I continued writing I was absolutely certain I'd get farther and farther off the beaten path.  With such a big story, I wasn't comfortable with that at all.

Unfortunately, I usually write & rewrite slow, so this took longer than I would've liked.  At one point I had as many as 211 pages, but yesterday I finally finished this round of corrections, and it brought me down to page 195.  Next time I sit down to write "the Monster" it'll be brand-spanking new material I'm creating, and I'm at a very interesting point in the story, so I'm pretty excited about this.

Oh, and here's the kicker.  Yesterday, on page 195 of 195, with just a few sentences left to the "finish line," I had a new revelation about a different character.  Damn!  Thankfully, it was something the character has kept a total secret from everyone.  So it didn't require as many adjustments as I feared.  I went back and made all the necessary tweaks in about an hour.

And now finally, FINALLY, it's back to plunging ahead.  I feel like it's a much stronger story now.  I know that some of the chapters I've written still require work, but the difference now is that I'm comfortable pushing ahead.  I also find it interesting how all the biggest problems traced back to characterization issues.  It was not strictly a case of reactionary characters, but this was the most predominant problem by far.  I shall forever after be wary of making this mistake again, and I'm going to have to be more attentive concerning my characterization in general.  Live and learn.

As to the classic reading, I've finished The Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes.  Easily one of the driest works of fiction I've ever encountered.  It's funny, but as stilted as Thomas Mallory's Le Morte D' Arthur is in terms of its language, it blows the other classic works I've read out of the proverbial water.  I guess there's a reason it's the most popular work of the old Arthurian literature.  As to de Troyes, I'm still glad I read it, because it's so fundamental in the evolution of Arthuriana.  De Troyes introduces a plethora of Arthurian characters into the mythos, most notably Lancelot and Percival, and he also gave us Camelot and the the Quest for the Grail.  Oh, and he also invented the courtly romance.  Quite the contribution, even if every page was like sand in my eyes. 

The sacrifices we make for our writing.

These days I'm reading  Merlin and the Grail, a trilogy of prose romances attributed to the French writer, Robert de Boron.  In the introduction, the translator notes that Bobby's chief contributions to Arthuriana are combining a series of narratives to create the first cycle of Arthurian tales, and also for telling the history of the Grail in Biblical terms.  In The Arthurian Romances, De Troyes made the Grail part of a chivalric quest, but didn't touch upon the Christian aspects of this artifact.  These two contributions make this volume worth reading, IMO.

Thankfully, the prose in this is rather accessible.  So far I like it.  Currently I'm reading "Joseph of Arimathea," which skillfully reinvents the Biblical figure's history, tying it into Arthurian Britain immediately before and after the death of Christ.  Good stuff.

Anyway, that it's for now.  Onward!

         

So it took a little longer than expected, but last night I hit 50K words for my Arthurian novel.  Lots of interesting (to me) developments are taking shape.  As I mentioned in my last update, I was close to writing my first classic scene from Arthurian literature.  I've now done that.  I was uncertain what attempting this would be like.  I mean, I'm writing something that has existed for centuries.  No pressure. :)  Actually, it was a lot of fun to write.  It was a battle scene, which are always tricky, so I know I'm going to have to clean it up later, but I had a lot of fun writing it.  And I'm relatively pleased how it turned out.  Plus, I'm that statistical oddity who seems to enjoy writing battle scenes.  I hear a lot of writers complain about how difficult action scenes are to write.  Sure, they're difficult, but I cut my speculative teeth on Robert E. Howard, creator of Conan.  So I'm all about the action scenes.  Love 'em.  My first story coming out in Interzone has three separate action scenes.  Of course, it took countless revisions to get those scenes right. But I still love writing them.

What else?  I'm deep enough into the story where the unexpected is happening as I write.  About a week ago I was writing a certain scene, spooling out some background.  After about a page, I stopped, looked at what I had and decided it was completely wrong.  So rather than write more drek I deleted what I had and started over.  It's one thing to struggle through writing a tough scene, and it's quite another to keep writing something that is just plunging you deeper in the wrong direction.  So I went back, and without thinking about it I started creating a different background.  And what came out took me by complete surprise.  By changing this one piece of background an entirely new subplot suggested itself to me, one that I believe adds another layer of richness  to the tale.  I can't speak for other writers, but I love these moments of surprise when I'm writing.  They let me know I'm falling into the rabbit hole that much more, and that gets me all the more excited about what I'm writing.  Before this point, there were little surprises happening here and there.  "Oh, I can do this instead."  Or: "What if X happens as opposed to Y?"  Or: "Of course!  Why didn't I realize this sooner?"  But this was the first idea that came completely out of left field.  To me, this sort of milestone is every bit as important as reaching 50K words.  Perhaps more.

Also, I'm loving my internal editor.  Once upon a time he jabbered in my ear with every sentence I wrote, like a damn monkey strung out on crack.  He made writing awfully difficult at times.  Then I started working at Realms of Fantasy.  Suddenly my internal editor got to indulge himself through another outlet.  Because of this, over these last two years he's learned to relax.  To work with me.  These days, he even knows to shut up when I'm writing new material.  Whenever I sit down to write, I always like to start by looking over/tweaking the material written from the last session, so this does let the editorial monkey have some say, which keeps him happy.

Another reason the editor no longer bothers me  I write is because he's learned to jabber when I'm not writing.  For example, I have some early chapters through Merlin's viewpoint.  Somewhere along the way I realized Merlin was being entirely too reactive to events, as opposed to being proactive.  But the writer in me had no idea how to fix this.  So Jabber (yes, I've named my internal editor "Jabber") chewed on this for a while, until one day he said, "Stupid, look.  All you have to do is make Merlin do X.  You already have it set up because you did Y.  See?"

And Jabber was 100% RIGHT.  Now I'm not big on the idea of going back and endlessly tinkering when fresh material is in need of writing.  In the past Jabber made me go this route, and it led to some unfinished stories as a result.  But this time, Jabber made a very eloquent case.  Not only is tinkering involved, but entire chapters of fresh material need to be written.  And since this promises to be a thick book juggling multiple plot lines, it made sense to have my working model right early on, so I don't go take any storyline too far in the wrong direction.  So when my current chapter is finished I will be going back, but at the same time I'll be adding new essential material.  It's more like writing out of sequence with some revisions thrown in as opposed to true rewriting.

And meanwhile, Jabber continues to prove himself invaluable.  In the current chapter I'm writing, it struck me that I'm putting entirely too much material into this unit.  But I couldn't see how to fix it.

Then Jabber started screaming like the primate he is.  "Split it in half," he told me.

"I can't do that," I said.  The very notion was ridiculous.

And Jabber had the audacity to smirk.  "Why not?" he said.

And I found myself struck speechless.  So Jabber pressed his advantage.  "Look," he said.  "Finish the chapter.  Then make the break right here.  You can even shave a few lines around the break point, because you can fast forward the starting point of this second half to right here.  Then you can take the first half of  this chapter and stick it right here in the manuscript.  See?"

"I love you, Jabber."

So all in all things are progressing nicely.   As to the classic literature,  not too much time for reading lately, although I did finish another tale in Chretien's Arthurian Romances, this one being Cliges.  In terms of creative story fuel the first two tales (the other being Erec and Enide) have provided me precious little, but Chretien uses all sorts of mundane world-building details that are proving rather invaluable.   And the next  tale I'm up to is The Knight of the Cart, which marks the first Lancelot tale in Arthurian literature.  Reading this should prove useful indeed.

Well, that's everything for now.  Onward!

Once again it's been a while since I've provided one of these updates.  Progress on the novel continues.  Tonight I passed 40K for my word count, and also passed page 150.  I still have a lot left to write, because this promises to be a thick book, but little milestones like these are nice, because I can look at what I have and say "Progress!"  It helps me push on.

Also interesting is the point in the story at which I find myself.  The scene I'm up to will be the first one I write that comes from the classic tales.  Everything to this point has been new material bringing my own slant to things and/or filling in spaces between some of the classic scenes.  But now I'm actually up to one of those classic scenes.  It's pretty exciting to tackle it, and it's also another reminder that the story is moving along.

Only 10K away from 50K words.  Cool.

I'm also still reading the classic literature.  I finished History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth.  Very interesting stuff, and it sparked more than a few ideas.  These days I'm reading The Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes.  These tales are also rather essential in the evolution of Arthuriana.  Troyes introduced several key Arthurian characters, most notably Lancelot.  He also created the whole courtly romance aspect of Arthuriana, and contributed lots of other fun stuff to the mythos.  In many ways he's done as much for Arthuriana as Geoffrey of Monmouth has.  He has a real eye for detail, which is really imparting to me some choice tidbits to use to capture the flavor of the time I'm writing in.

So I guess that's everything for now.  Onward!


      

A lot of time always seems to pass between these updates. Let's see. Shortly after my last update about the research for the novel, I got a bit fed up, realizing that if you're not careful this is the sort of topic one can keep researching forever. So I said enough is enough, and I started writing. Yesterday I finished page 100. The agent person (Jenny Rappaport) has read through about page 70 so far, and she seems relatively pleased with what I've come up with (more than I expected in some respects). Some thoughts to make stuff better concerning the female pov characters, which was great, because that was why I asked her to take a look at what I had in the first place.

I'm enjoying writing this (although it's a bloody BLOODY challenge), but unfortunately I haven't had the time to write as much as I want lately. I blame it on the new job. They always manage to suck out a lot of your energy early on, even when you like them (as I do this one--the people at McIntosh & Otis are great). But even though I've been tired every day this week, I've still been writing. The problem has been balancing the schedule. There have been a million things to do each night when I come home, and by the time I start writing, it's almost bedtime. But the good news is that with each night I've been able to start writing a little earlier. Same goes for tonight. I'll be starting the earliest I have all week. And there's still room for improvement. I'm definitely learning to balance my schedule, so the future here looks good.

In the meantime I continue to provide fuel for the novel by reading more Arthuriana. The morning job--not the agency!--has lots of downtime where I'm actually allowed to read. Usually I'll slush and then read the book-of-the-moment. So I finished the non-fiction book, ARTHUR'S BRITAIN, which deals with the time period of the historical Arthur. Dry, but certainly helpful. These days, I'm about halfway through HISTORY OF THE KINGS OF BRITAIN by Geoffrey of Monmouth. For those unaware, this was written during the 1100's, and it started the Arthur craze over the next few centuries that created the mythological Arthur most of us are familiar with. There were stories around before this, but in many ways HISTORY can be considered seminal, even if Arthur is only one king among many in this psuedo-history.

So that's it for now. Hopefully the schedule will continue to balance out and more writing will open up. I think it will.

It's been ages since I've provided any sort of update about the research for my Arthurian novel(s). Previously I was e-rambling about reading TRISTAN. Well, that book is finished. Very boring, and out of the whole book I think I squeezed out about five pages of useful material. So it goes.

I've also been reading the story of King Arthur in BULLFINCH'S MYTHOLOGY. It basically follows the story as it's presented in LE MORTE D'ARTHUR, but this is a condensed retelling and it does draw on some other sources. It's a good refresher and it's also provided some really useful nuggets.

I still have a lot of reading left--some non-fiction reseach & a few more reinterpretations--but I did reach a major point in my preparation today. A few minutes ago I just finished putting together a rough timeline for my version of Arthuriana.

It traces the mythical foundings of the isles of Britain (or Samothea, as it was called way back when) and Ireland (Ireland is done in broadstrokes, while Britain's is rather detailed) all the way to when my story starts, around twenty years into Arthur's reign. There are some variances as to when and how these isles started and how their histories unfolded, but based on my research + the versions of pseudo-history I most relied upon + whatever tweaks I found necessary to make everything to fit together, the timeline stretches from 2375 BC - 517 AD.

Putting this together was difficult. In many respects Irish & British pseudohistory don't compliment each other. Not to mention that based on the existing materials I've read to date, Arthuriana doesn't really integrate smoothly with the Tristan mythos. Obviously "concessions" had to be made on all sides in order to make the timeline work for my purposes. And since the focus of this story is Arthuriana, the Irish pseudohistory definitely took the biggest hit.

So it goes. But I tried to integrate as much of the richness of Eriu as possible, and did my best to literary tapdance around the spots where many of the strongest contradictions between pseudohistories occur.

Overall I'm very happy with the initial result . . .and thanks God it's done. The damn thing runs 20 pages, much of it single-spaced. While putting it together I was amazed how much Arthurian information I had retained, and also how much I had forgotten. The timeline will definitely make things easier.

So, next on the agenda: finish the Bullfinch version of Arthur and start putting together some character sketches. I'm not a big fan of the latter, but for something this complex (not to mention these characters aren't mine), I think some brief sketches will prove awfully helpful.

Onward!

I received a lot of responses when I posted about LE MORTE D'ARTHUR, so I thought I'd update everyone about the latest tidbits concerning my research. LE MORTE is finished. Slow at points, tedious at others, but overall the story carries some wonderful resonance. Those of you familiar with LE MORTE know that Tristan's tale (or Tristram, as he's referred to in LE MORTE) is basically left unfinished, with only a brief summation of how the Tristan/Isolde/Mark triangle ultimately plays out. So currently I'm reading TRISTAN by Gottfried Von Strassburg in an effort to fill in the blanks/enhance my knowledge. This book also includes the Tristan of Thomas sections, written by one of Von Strassburg's predecessors. I'm about 115 pages into a 375 book, but the tale is considerably different. Not complaining though, as reading this tale has so far helped me fill in some of the blanks for my Tristan's history. The language is far more accessible in this too (even if it was written centuries earlier), but it lacks the flare of Mallory, thus making it a drier read. This version also isn't a part of Arthuriana. The original versions were independent of Arthur & co., although there is a brief reference to Arthur in here.

It's absolutely amazing how much research is required to write an Arthurian novel. The good news is that my schedule has settled down. No more cons or radio interviews or workshop appearances in the forseeable future. And no more Yankee baseball. I'm kicking butt on my slush. So hopefully I can take some serious chunks out of this book in the next days so that I can get to the next one.

So I came up with this idea a while back for a King Arthur novella. But I figured it would be a good idea to read Thomas Mallory's Le Mort D'Arthur before I try to blindly reinvent the wheel. It seemed like a good idea at the time. And it was and is. But . . .

Dear God, the language! Thee this. Thou that. He brast his spear. Me soar repenteth. Methinks the language be killing me! And the damn thing is a slightly oversized hardcover weighing in at 900 pages. Sob. But I kept reading, telling myself that fighting through this edition would help enrich my own version, because I would be able to pick out useful details.

And I was right. I've been jotting down notes as I go along and I'm now up to page 350 or so (of the book, not my notes). I've even gotten used to the language. And then it happened. I came up with so many cool little ideas from reading this murdeous book that I started wondering how I could possibly fit it all into a novella. "Uh-oh," says I. "Methinks a volume of considerble heft be thrust upon me to compose."

So suddenly I find myself with a novel of an idea. But that struck me as fine, because I'm more of a novel boy anyway (said the assistant editor of a short story magazine). So all of the short stories percolating in my head get put to the side in one fell swoop. Keep my inventory out on the market, sure, but other than that it was TIME TO FOCUS ON THE NOVEL. If I was going to do this I wanted to immerse myself in the world of Arthuriana.

And so far so good. Many of the ideas for the novel are becoming clearer as I read further into Le Mort, which is as I expected it to be. But oh my dear God, as interesting as many parts of this book are, this thing is driving me crazy. And it has nothing to do with the language anymore.

Mallory's edition of King Arthur is like a precursor to today's soap oprah . . .people falling in love with their soul mates only to marry someone else 50 pages later . . .knights trying to kill each other only to become best friends 25 pages later . . .knights sleeping with earl's wives only to be friends with such earls later and make them lords of islands . . .and the redundancies! How many goddamn mythical swords are there? But this is like a soap oprah also, as the same ideas become rehashed over and over.

So this is a bit frustrating. But the book is also quite eye opening. I've read my share of Arthurian literature . . .none of it is like this. The majority of the characters are terrible TERRIBLE people. Many of the Knights of the Round Table were or are murderers and thieves. When he was young King Arthur slept with almost any woman he came across. And he had a son besides Mordred! (say what?) Many of the women in the courts are very promiscuous, which goes against how they're normally portrayed. And don't even get me started on Tristam, who is absent in most of the retellings of the Arthurian legend.

But as I kept reading I came to realize something. If you tried to portray THIS Camelot the reader would never believe you. He'd roll his eyes and say "Yeah right. This guy doesn't know what the hell he's doing." Because the behaviors of many of these people with their warped mixture of barbarism and chivalry is so different from today's norm. Sometimes I feel like I'm reading about chickens running around with their heads cut off, because their logic makes so sense by today's standards. And yet people were eating this up with a spoon back in the day!

It's really quite fascinating . . .and the level of detail becomes frightening when you start taking notes. So now I find myself faced with the challenge of reinventing the Arthurian legend, but not in the manner of one of those dime-a-dozen garbage paperbacks. I've too much respect for the genre to go that route. It becomes a very delicate balancing act. And I'm loving the challenge! I love how the plot threads are snaking out in countless directions only to come together as I keep reading, only to snake out again because I've read further along. And I still have more than half the book left to read!

But I don't think I'll ever be able to look at the King Arthur mythos the same way again. All the warped and twisted stuff we know about--Mordred, Lancelot/Gwenevere--is really just the tip of the iceberg. These people are SCREWED UP.

Writing this book should prove lots of fun. :)

So I got tagged by JJA for a book meme, and I thought I'd share my answers:


1. One book that changed your life?

Just one? Let's see. I suppose I'll single out The Eye of the World in The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan. I was part of that ravenous horde of geeky teenagers in the early to mid 90s reading each volume in a matter of days. The Eye of the World was basically my introduction to epic fantasy, which is my favorite form of fantasy (when done properly). Those early books really took me to another world, and set me on the path to reading many other works of fantasy, both epic and otherwise, and ultimately played a huge role in setting me down the speculative career path.

2. One book you have read more than once?

As JJA so eloquently put it in his answer for this meme thingie, "I tend to be more interested in what's in that next book, than revisiting what I've already read." Still, I did manage to find the time reread A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. I only meant to reread the first chapter, but those pages are the tastiest potato chips ever . . .


3. One book you would want on a desert island?

Well, if you're smart you'll opt for something thick. That makes my choice easy: A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. It really is #$!% brilliant. This is my bible of fantasy, as it shows what the modern epic form is capable of when it reaches its absolute heights. Characterization, plotting, world-building, pacing, themes, style, imagery, tension, and great battle scenes. It's all there, baby!

4. One book that made you laugh?

I'm a tough sell with funny books. I tend to seek my comedy through visual mediums. That said, I can recall passages in both A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and The World According to Garp that made me burst out laughing. Neither book is a comedy, but both authors have a solid understanding of humor.


5. One book that made you cry?

I've never cried because of a book. The closest I ever came was when I read the novel version of Flowers For Algernon, because that truly is a heartbreaking story. :(

6. One book you wish had been written?

Easy. The final book in the Dune series by Frank Herbert. I'm quite aware that his son Brian Herbert will be co-authoring the two-book finale of this series with Kevin J. Anderson, and I understand that these books will be based upon Frank Herbert's detailed outline for what was supposed to comprise a single volume. There's a good chance I'll read them, to get some closure on the series as a whole/see where Frank Herbert was going/be exposed to his ideas/etc. But--and no disprespect is intended to either Brian Herbert or KJA--even if they do a superlative job it won't be the same as reading Frank Herbert. It was his series and his creation and it would've been nice to see him write it to its conclusion. I'd like to think that both authors can understand my position (if for some wacky reason either ends up reading this).

Also, I have to throw a second book into the mix. I always wanted to read a sequel to David Gemmell's novel, Quest For Lost Heroes. The last page is so powerfully brilliant, in the space of a heartbeat it sets everything up for wonderful sequel I imagine he would've called War of the Twins (and yes, I'm aware that Weis & Hickman already wrote a Dragonlance book by this name). Unfortanately, Mr. Gemmell died less than a month ago (RIP), so this will never come to be.

7. One book you wish had never had been written?

Alos easy. Bullet Park by John Cheever. I had to read that during my senior of high school, and I absolutely hated it. I recall something about a dude in the suburbs shooting a giant turtle that had wandered onto his lawn, and the author playing it up as a primal battle between man and beast. The book should have been called Bullet Brain, because I wanted to put a bullet through mine.

8. One book you are currently reading?

Currently I'm reading Le Morte D'Arthur by Thomas Mallory. There's a King Arthur story I want to write, and I've already finished a detailed outline. But Mallory's edition of Arthur is probably the definitive edition abuot the great king and his court, so I wanted to read this before I tackle the story. My reasoning is simple. The best King Arthur stories tend to be those that take the existing mythology and reinvent it in interesting ways. But how can you expect to reinvent the wheel without understanding how the wheel works? You can't. So I decided to read the book in the cause of research, and I've been taking notes as I go, picking out details that will help enrich my story. The problem is that although this is an interesting story, the language is really old, so it can get boring at times. And it's 900 pages! But reading this is proving more helpful than I ever imagined, because in addition to the little details I'm picking out, there is also a huge plot twist that came about for my story from my plodding through these pages. So I shall continue unto the end, occasional boredom and all.

9. One book you have been meaning to read?

Steven Erickson's Gardens of the Moon. I've become rather picky about what epic fantasies are worth reading, but based on the tidbits I've heard this sounds like something I could really enjoy.

10. Now tag five people.

Bill Shunn

Bob Howe

Ken Scholes

Jay Lake

Deanna Hoak

Check out their LJ's for their answers!

I'd like to recommend a book to everyone. I recently finished AZTEC by Gary Jennings, and quite simply, it's one of the best novels I've ever read. In terms of historical fiction it's as ambitious as James Clavell's SHOGUN (and almost as long). Speculative fans should appreciate this one, just for the world-building alone. It's also the only book I've encountered that rivals George Martin in terms of sheer bloody mindedness. Definitely not for those with delicate sensibilities. The Aztec were a brutal people, and so were those that ultimately conquered them. The author doesn't skirt these details. He captures them. Go read it!