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Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Interview with Kersten Hamilton


In November I reviewed Kersten Hamilton's Tyger Tyger, a story steeped in Irish mythology. (You can read my review here.) Kersten has kindly agreed to an interview. To read more about Kersten and her writing, check out her website.

JC: Tyger Tyger has a Great Lakes setting with scenes in Michigan,Indiana, and Illinois. Why did you choose Chicago as the primary setting?

KH: Chicago has been very important to the Irish-American saga, of course. But the neighborhood Teagan lives in actually bled over into Tyger Tyger from a series of Christian MG historical novels I wrote—Caleb Pascale and the Peculiar People. When one of the characters was killed in a circus-on-circus rumble in the stockyards of Chicago, the logical place to lay him to rest was Rosehill Cemetery on North Ravenswood Avenue. The dearly departed could be carried to Rosehill along a spur of the railroad tracks, and lowered from the raised track into the cemetery by means of an elevator. I visited Rosehill to see the coffin elevator for myself, and not only fell in love with the cemetery (I adore old cemeteries. They are chock full of stories!) but the neighborhoods all around it. The atmosphere of the place came instantly to mind when I thought of Teagan’s house. So, although the street on which Teagan lives is completely fictitious, it certainly intersects North Ravenswood Avenue somewhere in my mind.

JC: What led to your interest in Irish mythology?

KH: My own roots are Celtic, and everything Celtic draws me—from the music to the mythology. The creatures in Tyger Tyger are a mix of Celtic mythology and reality. At one point in Tyger Tyger Teagan’s father quotes Hamlet: “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your
philosophy.”

That’s true, and deep inside we know it. There is more to us and to the world around us than meets the eye.

JC: I like the way you weave Christian elements into the story. The family prays, attends church, and Saints Drogo and Patrick are mentioned. What do you consider the role of Christianity to be in this story?

KH: My spiritual roots are deep in Christian literature. Like C.S. Lewis, J.R.R Tolkien, Charles Williams, and many, many others, my imagination was baptized by the writings of George MacDonald. Tyger Tyger is not a Christian allegory – but what Lewis called the “Deep Magic from before the dawn of time” certainly does inform the worldview.

JC: You made at least one nod to Beowulf. (Roisin's cat-sidhe is named Grendal.) What other mythologies did you draw on for your source material?

KH: Beowulf, yes! I also love the heroism of Nordic mythology. Gods and heroes who know they will not win, standing shoulder to shoulder against monsters just because it is the right thing to do….

JC: Where did the idea for Tyger Tyger come from? How long have you been working on it?

KH: The seed that became Tyger Tyger was planted when I was a child. A goblin crept out of the dark and slipped her paw into my hand. The creature’s name was Lina, and she came to life in a book by George MacDonald. Lina was a dog–like beastie with green eyes lit by amber fire, and a huge mouth with icicle–like teeth. Curdie, the hero of the story, could feel the real hand of any creature inside its flesh glove, and when Lina put her paw in his hand: “a shudder, as of terrified delight, ran through him…instead of the paw of a dog, such as it seemed to his eyes, he clasped in his great mining fist the soft, neat little hand of a child! The green eyes stared at him with their yellow light, and the mouth was turned up toward him with its constant half grin; but here was the child’s hand!”

When I read those lines I felt it. I felt the child’s hand inside a rough paw glove, and I knew I wanted to pull a child out of a goblin one day. Through the years, many stories, poems, myths and legends lent elements to the story growing inside me: the song of Tam Lin, a girl who musters all her courage to save her love who had been taken by the Sidhe; "The Lords of the White and Grey Castles," a fairytale by Frances Browne, Ireland’s blind storyteller; and even a hint of the goblin from Harold Monro’s poem, "Overheard on a Salt Marsh."

I have been working on the concept for many years – I actually first wrote it as a picture book called Loveleaves and Woodwender.

JC: Promises made in Mag Mell are different from those made in our world. Why the difference?

KH: Promises should be powerful and binding. Magic. And all magic is stronger in Mag Mell.

JC: Tyger Tyger is a single-plot narrative with Teagan as the sole point-of-view character. I can imagine the story with parts from perhaps Finn's perspective. Please talk about your decisions regarding the novel's narrative structure and point-of-view.

KH: You can tell a brilliant story in first person, but you do lose the subtly of inference and empathy, and the ability to play off of more than one character at a time. Third person is more difficult to write – you must ‘show’ what the characters feel, rather than ‘telling’ through internal dialog. But it’s fun because it has so many sub categories to pick and choose from, to mix and match.

I chose Teagan as the viewpoint character because she changes the most through the story arc.

I might tell a story from Finn’s pov one of these days – the story of the two old men who helped him learn how to live on the street, perhaps.

JC: When Finn, Teagan, and Aiden journey to Mag Mell for a second time, they discover that not all Goblins are irredeemably evil, and Teagan and Aiden learn that they are part Goblin. What did you want to communicate through these discoveries?

KH: I’ll let Tea and Aiden’s grandma, Mamieo Ida, answer that:

“All creatures,” Mamieo said, “from the moment they exist, set about becoming through their own free will. Some are becoming more of what they were meant to be, and some becoming less. The Dark Man . . . he’s had half of eternity to become less than he was meant to be.”

JC: When the novel ends, Teagan and company still have a lot of problems left to resolve and Fear Doirich is going to be one mad devil when he gets free of all that duct tape. Are you already at work on the next book? Any teasers?

KH: I am just finishing it! These books, like Blake’s poem "The Tyger," ask hard questions about the nature of good and evil. Let’s just say writing this has been very, very hard— and Tea will need all her courage to get through.

Friday, January 14, 2011

An Acceptance

I received a note from the editor at Golden Visions Magazine this week informing me that my story "The Wand" will be appearing in the Summer (July 2011) issue. I'm not sure if it will be in the print or online edition. My story "Esme's Amulet" appeared in GVM's October 2010 print edition. I'm excited to be in Golden Visions Magazine for a second time.

Summary:
Orville buys a strange-looking wand at a pawn shop. He and the narrator are hucksters and incorporate the wand in their scheme to sell toy wands. All is proceeding according to plan until a girl who seems to know how to use the wand attends their show. She wants to buy it, but Orville, sensing the wand is truly magical and potentially of great value, refuses. The girl hisses some strange words at Orville and stomps off. Now Orville is dying of a fever and the narrator must spring to action.

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Word of the Week: Wyvern

The Golden Wyvern, associated
with the House of Wessex.
The wyvern (sometimes spelled wivern) is a mythical beast related to the dragon. It features a dragon's head, a barbed tail, wings instead of forelegs, and hindquarters resembling a snake (no legs) or a lizard (two legs). Artists sometimes depict wyverns with bird legs and eagle's feet. Other depictions add beady red eyes and enhance the tail with a poisonous stinger. The modern form of the word, first recorded in 1610, is an alteration of the Middle English word wyvere (meaning viper), from the Anglo-French wivre, from the Old French guivre (meaning snake), and ultimately from the Latin vipera.

Wyverns frequently serve as mascots for sports teams or in heraldry—adorning shields, banners, and crests—in which they symbolize strength and endurance. Wyverns also appear in literature. Dante's description of the monster Geryon in the eighth circle of hell resembles a wyvern. It has wings, a reptilian body, a barbed tail with a poisonous stinger, and hairy paws and legs. The major difference is the head, which is human. Dante's beast mixes human, bestial, and reptilian traits.
"Behold the monster with the pointed tail,
Who cleaves the hills, and breaketh walls and weapons,
Behold him who infecteth all the world."

Thus unto me my Guide began to say,
And beckoned him that he should come to shore,
Near to the confine of the trodden marble;

And that uncleanly image of deceit
Came up and thrust ashore its head and bust,
But on the border did not drag its tail.

The face was as the face of a just man,
Its semblance outwardly was so benign,
And of a serpent all the trunk beside.

Two paws it had, hairy unto the armpits;
The back, and breast, and both the sides it had
Depicted o'er with nooses and with shields.

With colours more, groundwork or broidery
Never in cloth did Tartars make nor Turks,
Nor were such tissues by Arachne laid.

As sometimes wherries lie upon the shore,
That part are in the water, part on land;
And as among the guzzling Germans there,

The beaver plants himself to wage his war;
So that vile monster lay upon the border,
Which is of stone, and shutteth in the sand.

His tail was wholly quivering in the void,
Contorting upwards the envenomed fork,
That in the guise of scorpion armed its point.
(from Dante's Inferno, Canto XVII)
Saint Michael and the
angels fighting the Wyvern,
from Liber Floridus (1448).
Like their cousin, the dragon, wyverns are said to live in caves in forests and to collect hoards, although they are not as discerning as dragons and their piles contain as much refuse as treasure. Legend warns that they are aggressive and will eat anything edible that comes within range. They have been associated with Satan, war, pestilence, and the Black Death.

Image Attribution: The Golden Wyvern, attributed to Sketchy Berd and licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

CSFF Blog Tour: The Wolf of Tebron Day Three

The Wolf of Tebron is clearly a quest tale, but how many quests? I count at least three, and Joran is not aware of the other two until the tale's conclusion. First, Joran is on a quest to rescue his wife. That's the obvious one. It begins when Joran mistakes another woman for Charris and jumps to the conclusion that she has been unfaithful. Mistaken identity is usually the stuff of comedy, but Lakin turns it to adventure and near tragedy. When Joran concludes that Charris is unfaithful, he feels a rush of negative emotions with anger, despair, and fear--the three keys--leading the way. His anger burns at Charris's betrayal. He despairs at the shamble of his marriage and fears what the future will bring, certainly nothing good. Joran's journey transforms him by forcing him to confront and subdue these emotions which, left unchecked, would overpower him. He cannot forgive Charris, forgive himself, or truly love until he looses the keys.

The second is Joran's quest to find himself, to discover who he is. Lakin leaves many hints along the way for the reader and Joran that Joran is not whom he believes himself to be. The prologue tells the story of a wizard who returns home from battle pursued by some malevolent force. It captures the wizard's wife but he manages to save his infant son. The wizard enlists a bear to hide the child. The Goose Woman, who has such a particular interest in Joran, refers to him often as a bear cub. We learn much later in the narrative that the bear took the infant to the Goose Woman who took it to Joran's "parents." The South Wind gives Joran a vision of his dying father beseeching his brothers to keep the secret from Joran. When the dead wolf Ruyah transforms to the wizard, Joran fully understands his identity, the source of his gifts for mindspeaking, and his ability to trap his wife with his anger. The death of Ruyah and his resurrection as the wizard is a novel look at patricide. It appears that Joran must let go of or release his father in order to find him, a concept that meshes neatly with the loosing of the three keys.

The third is the wizard's quest to acquire a sunstone, which he believes he can use to defeat the dark, malevolent force that has captured his wife. Sola tells Joran that the sunstone contains all the Sun's light, but the "stone can only be wielded by a pure heart void of all anger. A heart with no darkness. No human has ever been able to unlock its power" (p. 134). As the wizard explains to Joran at the tale's conclusion, he now has a new heart since his original heart, which had been darkened like all human hearts, was given to chase away the Moon. The wizard will therefore be able to wield the sunstone. The wizard seems to now be a Christ-like figure, a sinless being who can rescue humanity from the evil that assails it. It is not clear if that is the interpretation that Lakin intends. I find this quest troubling. The focus of the story has been Joran's psychological growth and transformation as he overcomes his weaknesses. Up to this point in the story, Ruyah appears to be acting selflessly for Joran's benefit out of parental love. Now we learn that Ruyah has another motive, the acquisition of a sunstone, which is of no use to Joran in his quest. In Lakin's defense, I assume the wizard and the sunstone play a part in subsequent books in the series and it will appear integral once she assembles the entire story.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

To read more about C. S. Lakin and her writing, visit her web site at http://www.cslakin.com/ and her blog at http://cslakin.blogspot.com/.

To learn what the other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below:

Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse

Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour: The Wolf of Tebron Day Two

Joran's quest begins with a dream, a recurring nightmare in which he struggles without success to free his wife from an icy prison in sandstone cliffs next to the sea while the Moon mocks his efforts. He has recently sent his wife Charris, whom he believes is unfaithful, home to her parents in a distant village, but rumors suggest that she never arrived, that she disappeared on the road. Joran's quiet, orderly life as a blacksmith's apprentice has been turned on its head. He is too ashamed to ask his family or friends for help and knows that eventually no one in the village will believe his story about Charris's departure and whereabouts. Lakin's tale thus begins with several mysteries: what has befallen Charris and what do Joran's nightmares signify? Lakin also subtly lays the groundwork for another mystery when she depicts Joran's interactions with his brothers. They are burly men, lumberjacks. Joran looks different. He is leaner and has the ability to mindspeak with animals. Who is Joran?

The "Goose Woman," an eccentric old woman who lives alone in the forest with a flock of geese, sends Joran on his quest. She often refers to Joran as a cub (think bear cub) and appears to have a special interest in him. Joran dismisses her as crazy but she is the only person who appears able to help with his nightmares. In answer to Joran's questions, the Goose Woman says:

"You have put her there, don'tcha know? Your anger has trapped her. Your dreams." Her eyes widened, sparking with recognition. She lowered her voice to a raspy whisper. "We see your dreams." She turned away from him and spoke distractedly. "You must loose the three keys and open the lock to get her out. Sand is seeping out." she turned back to Joran. "You will never have peace from those dreams until you free her" (p. 33).

The Goose Woman tells Joran to journey to the house of the Moon.

"Oh, it is very far, little cub, far beyond imagining. Your dreams will point the way north, but it is beyond the ends of the known world, and the traveling perilous. You will wear out three pairs of shoes before your journey ends. Yes, you will" (p. 33).

Having no other options than to go mad from his nightmares, Joran follows the Goose Woman's advice and sets out to find the house of the Moon somewhere north. Not long into his journey, he comes across a large, impressive wolf caught in a trap. Joran has seen this wolf before, watching him at a distance. Joran and the wolf are able to mindspeak. He frees the wolf by slicing off part of its paw. In thanks, it appears, the wolf joins Joran on his journey and tells Joran his name is Ruyah. Joran and Ruyah journey to the house of the Moon (where he meets Cielle, the Moon's sister), the palace of the Sun (where he meets Sola, the Sun's mother), and the cave of the Wind (where he meets Noomahh, the South Wind), facing many perils and hardships during their travels. Cielle, Sola, and Noomahh each provide Joran with provisions to continue his journey and gifts: a moonshell, a sunstone, and a silver circlet. Joran wears out three pairs of shoes. By journey's end he is barefoot.

Lakin shows a great sense of humor during Joran's stay at the Sun's palace. Sola introduces Joran to various modern inventions: recorded music, rubber flip-flops, and suntan/moisturizing lotion. The library in the palace of the Sun contains all the knowledge of the world. Lakin suggests that the Moon, Sun, and Wind are timeless, eternal, at least relative to any individual human. These beings have access to all time at once.

Joran makes use of two of his gifts, the moonshell and the silver circlet, to free Charris. At Ruyah's direction, Joran kills Ruyah with the silver circlet and places the wolf's heart in the moonshell. This act drives away the Moon and saves Joran and Charris from drowning. (Throughout the narrative, Lakin implies the Moon's power over water through tides.) The moonshell then becomes a boat. The dead wolf Ruyah ultimately transforms into a wizard whom Joran learns is his biological father. Joran also looses the three keys (anger, despair, and fear) during the course of his quest. It is not clear if the final key is fear. Ruyah says, "The heart is the key" (p. 214), but that does not fit with the other keys which are negative emotions. Later in the scene, Ruyah says, "Joran, you must loose your fear and trust me" (p. 216). The movement from casting aside fear and picking up trust fits with the previous keys. For example, overcoming despair allows Joran to love.

A comparison of the story elements from Lakin's plot and "The Enchanted Pig" demonstrate Lakin's subtle and masterful use of the "The Enchanted Pig" to craft a new story. Some parallels, such as the gifts, shoes, and journeys to the Moon, Sun, and Wind are obvious. Others are more subtle and Lakin puts her own stamp on these. The Princess and Joran both climb something to finally reach their spouses. The Princess must cut off her finger to complete her ladder while Joran must cut off the "fingers" of Ruyah to gain the wolf's assistance. Without Ruyah's help, it is doubtful that Joran would have succeeded. Both stories also feature shapeshifters. The husband of the Princess is a pig part of the time and Joran's father takes the form of a Wolf. The Princess ties a rope around her husband's foot which causes her to lose him and set off on her quest. Similarly, Joran loses Ruyah when he kills the wolf with the silver circlet but regains him when the wolf transforms to his father with two fingers missing. In the case of the shapeshifting and the rope, Lakin takes a negative element from "The Enchanted Pig" and gives it a positive element in her story.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the resolution of the various quests and mysteries at play in The Wolf of Tebron.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

To read more about C. S. Lakin and her writing, visit her web site at http://www.cslakin.com/ and her blog at http://cslakin.blogspot.com/.

To learn what the other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below:

Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse

Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

Monday, January 3, 2011

CSFF Blog Tour: The Wolf of Tebron Day One

The Wolf of Tebron (Book1) in The Gates of Heaven SeriesThis month's tour selection is The Wolf of Tebron by C. S. Lakin. She identifies the story as a fairy tale on the title page. I am a fan of fairy tales so I have been looking forward to reading Lakin's novel and commend her for boldly tapping into the fairy tale tradition. Fairy tales are much maligned by some as trivial children's stories that are overrun by faeries. In his introduction to Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrous Fairy Tales of Western Culture, Jack Zipes notes that "mature men and women have been the creators and cultivators of the fairy tale tradition" (p. xi). Zipes links the literary fairy tale tradition to early oral tales which "fostered a sense of belonging and the hope that miracles involving some kind of magical transformation were possible to bring about a better world" (p. xii). The concepts of belonging and magical transformation are particularly relevant to Lakin's story. Hopefully The Wolf of Tebron will change some minds about fairy tales.

In the endnotes to The Wolf of Tebron, Lakin cites elements from "The Enchanted Pig" as an inspiration for her story. (Lakin is mistaken to attribute "The Enchanted Pig" to the Grimm brothers. "The Enchanted Pig" is a Romanian fairy tale, first collected in Rumanische Märchen and later by Andrew Lang in The Red Fairy Book.) "The Enchanted Pig" does a bit more than inspire. It provides the structure for much of Lakin's plot.

"The Enchanted Pig" relates the journey of a woman in search of her lost husband. The story begins when a King goes to war, leaving his three daughters in the castle. He tells them they may enter any room except for one. The sisters eventually grow bored and enter the forbidden room. They find nothing in the room save for a table and an open book which says that the oldest shall marry a prince from the East, the second a prince from the West, and the youngest a pig from the North. The youngest is horrified, but her sisters convince her that such a union is impossible. When the King returns, his youngest daughter's unhappiness arouses his suspicions and they confess when he questions them. Eventually, a prince from the East marries the eldest daughter and then a prince from the West marries the middle daughter.

The youngest becomes distressed. A pig from the North arrives and asks to marry the youngest daughter. The King plans to refuse but learns that his city is filled with pigs. The King suspects the pig was not always a pig. He suspects magic is at work and convinces the Princess that marrying the pig might bring deliverance. The daughter marries the pig and discovers that every night, he changes into a man then returns to the form of a pig each morning. One day she asks a witch what befell her husband. The witch tells her that she can free him by tying a thread to his foot. Her husband wakes while she is tying the thread. He tells her that the spell would have ended in three days, but now he must remain in this shape. He says he must leave her at once and that before they meet again, she will wear out three pairs of iron shoes and blunt a steel staff.

The Princess acquires three pairs of iron shoes and a steel staff then begins her search. She wanders until arriving at the house of the Moon where she meets the Moon's mother and gives birth to a son. The Moon's mother tells her that the Moon does not know where to find her husband. She advises asking the Sun. As a parting gift, the Moon's mother gives the Princess a chicken and advises her to keep every bone. The Princess dons her second pair of shoes and makes her way to the Sun's palace where the Sun's mother hides her from the Sun who is always ill-tempered on returning home after watching the evil deeds of men all day. The Sun's mother tells the Princess that the Sun knows nothing of her husband but advises her to ask the Wind. The Sun's mother gives her a chicken and tells her to keep all the bones. The Princess puts on her third pair of shoes for her journey to the Wind's house. She faced many hardships on this leg of her journey, including mountains of flint, fields of ice, and a wood in which no human had ever trod. Eventually, she arrives at a cave in the side of a mountain. The mother of the Wind takes pity on her and hides her. The next morning, the mother of the Wind tells the Princess that her husband lives in a dense forest in a house made of tree trunks tied together. She gives the Princess a chicken as a parting gift, warning her not to lose any of the bones, and advises her to follow the Milky Way to her goal.

Her last pair of shoes wears out before she reaches the wood in which her husband lives but she continues on barefoot. She eventually finds her husband's house and uses the bones from the chickens to construct a ladder to reach the entrance. Finding that she is one bone short, she cuts off her little finger to complete the ladder. Inside, she and her child await her husband's return. When the pig returns, he is moved with such great love and pity that the spell is broken and he becomes a man.

If you have read The Wolf of Tebron, much of the above summary should sound very familiar. Lakin makes changes and additions to add more psychological complexity and alters the quest from a wife searching for her husband to a husband searching for his wife. However, the stages of the journey and the ultimate importance of the gifts received from the Moon, Sun, and Wind remain. Tomorrow we'll review the plot of The Wolf of Tebron and discuss the differences between the stories in more detail.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

To read more about C. S. Lakin and her writing, visit her web site at http://www.cslakin.com/ and her blog at http://cslakin.blogspot.com/.

To learn what the other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below:

Noah Arsenault
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Justin Boyer
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse

Becca Johnson
Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Dawn King
Shannon McDermott
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler