Jeff Chapman's Writing

Story of the Week: Invasion

2012-02-03T15:11:00.000-08:00

Grace Bridges's "Invasion" mixes scenes of Kafkaesque despair with ecstatic redemption. In an unnamed city, beams of light are coming from seemingly nowhere out of the sky. (Although the setting is never defined explicitly, references to the Southern Cross constellation place the story in the southern hemisphere.) Some suggest an alien invasion but "on clear days it was paramount to idiocy to suggest there were ships of metal in the empty blue sky. The light-shafts shining golden bright eclipsed even the glory of the sun." No one knows from where the beams come but they clearly originate in the heavens. Everyone puts their hopes in the scientists who are investigating the mystery and who will surely solve it for "science could answer any question."

Although no one is injured by this new phenomenon, Emil finds the light shafts terrifying, questions his sanity, and like many other residents seeks to avoid them. Bridges's description of the mental state of Emil and the city's residents is reminiscint of Kafka's landscapes of alienation. Consider the following passage:

[Emil] had fled to the city to seek normality in the noisy streets. There had been few people. Those he saw scurried along in the shadows with their heads bent down just like his. Everyone was running scared, and no one ever spoke of it. Secretly, they avoided talking about it. They feared being mocked, even though they shared the same fear.

On his way home from the bus stop one evening, Emil struggles but can think of nothing else but the lights. Memories of his past crash into this thoughts. He recalls his mother's grief when he left the church as a teenager. In another scene of Kafkaesque despair, Bridges writes:

[Emil] dropped to his knees and lay as one dead before the fence. He tried to crawl on towards home, but couldn't see where he was going. Reaching the middle of the quiet street, his mind worked overtime trying to figure it all out.... Against all better judgment, he opened his mouth and in desperation moaned, "God!"

Unlike Kafka's characters who never free themselves from the machinations of bureaucracy and industrial society, Emil's act of desperation turns his night to day.

Bridges's prose is clear and precise, well-suited to her subject matter. She evokes an atmosphere of alienating despair and pulls off a convincing description of Emil's redemption in this story of internal struggle. It becomes increasingly clear as the story progresses that Emil runs not from any external threat as from the truth within himself that he wants to deny. The only point at which the story seems lacking is when Bridges's glosses over the myriad decisions that messed up Emil's life without naming them. Extended flashbacks would interrupt the story's flow but giving these decisions some solid form would flesh out Emil's character and situation.

Words of the Week: Slough and Slough

2012-02-02T13:23:00.000-08:00

What does a snakeskin have in common with a swamp? (I know. Some snakes live in swamps, but we're talking etymology here not environment.) The answer is slough, one of those odd words whose pronunciation determines its meaning and whose path to modern English is the convergence of two distinct words of Germanic origin.

Slough, pronounced like slew, refers to a marshy place or mire. As a verb, it can mean to plod through mud or for a slough to engulf something. The word's origins are appropriately murky. It derives from Middle English sloughe or slo, which comes from Old English sloh, meaning muddy ground. After that the origins are uncertain. It could derive from Middle High German slouche, meaning ditch, or from Proto-Germanic *slokhaz.

Figuratively, slough describes a state of moral degradation. John Bunyan made use of this meaning in The Pilgrim's Progress with the "Slough of Despond," a deep bog into which Christian sinks under the weight of sin and guilt.

Then I stepped to him [Help] that pluckt him [Christian] out, and said, Sir, wherefore, since over this place is the way from the City of Destruction to yonder Gate, is it that this plat is not mended, that poor travellers might go thither with more security? And he said unto me, This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended; it is the descent whither the scum and filth that attends conviction for sin doth continually run, and therefore it is called the Slough of Dispond; for still as the sinner is awakened about his lost condition, there ariseth in his soul many fears and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place: And this is the reason of the badness of this ground (The Pilgrim's Progress, The First Part, paragraph 53).

Diamond Python sloughing.

Slough, pronounced like sluff, means to shed or cast off skin, to separate dead tissue from living tissue. As a noun, it designates the dead tissue that has been cast off, particularly snake skin. The modern word derives from the Middle English slughe or slouh, which means the skin a snake has shed. The Middle English words are related to the Old Scandinavian sluk and Middle High German sluch, both of which mean snakeskin.

I think it's fascinating that words with such different meanings would converge on the same spelling but retain different pronunciations. Here's a fun exercise. Use the word slough in a sentence multiple times touching on its different meanings. Then read the sentence aloud, matching the pronunciation with the meaning.

For example: The snake was sloughed while sloughing in a slough. [Read as: The snake was slewed while sluffing in a slew.]

Photo Credit: Peter Ellis. Image used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.

Story of the Week: Snow Angel

2012-01-27T08:02:00.000-08:00

Angel in the snow from St Mary's church yard.

Joanne Galbraith's "Snow Angel" is a ghost story about terror and revenge that comes not from the ghost but from a source that's very much alive. Emma has suffered several losses when the narrative begins. Her parents have died and most recently her husband has died in an automobile accident, wrapping his car around a tree after drinking at a bar with his father. Emma is now left to raise her daughter Marley alone. Dealing with the loss is bad enough, but every night at 1:02 in the morning, Marley wakes Emma to tell her that she has been talking to her father who makes snow angels outside his daughter's window and scratches hearts into the frost on the window pane. At first, Emma assumes her daughter is fantasizing, too young to comprehend the finality of death. But the physical evidence builds and Emma becomes convinced that someone from her past is stalking her, most likely a fellow student from her high school days who harbored an unhealthy obsession over her. Marley tells Emma that Daddy has a message for them.

“Daddy says be careful.” Marley snatched her favorite dolly from the floor beside her and cuddled it, sleep tugging at her eyelids. “He says somebody’s coming to visit.”

“Who’s coming, Marley?” [said Emma.]

“Somebody bad.”

Emma doesn't believe in heaven or the supernatural, nor do her sister or her parents, but when Emma learns that her husband died at 1:02 AM, her worldview begins to crumble and somebody bad does come to pay a visit.

Galbraith tells a suspenseful tale that immediately grabs your attention and holds it. Details, such as the smell of Emma's husband's cologne, create vivid word pictures and turn up again and again to add depth to the narrative.

A tiny voice drew Emma from a dark corner of sleep. She groaned and rubbed her eyes. “It’s your turn, David.” When he didn’t move, she rolled over and patted her hand along his pillow. She found nothing but cold cotton. Blinking in the darkness, she sat up and looked at the clock on his nightstand—1:02 a.m.

Pain tore through her heart.

David would never again crease his pillow or steal the covers as he turned in his sleep. Tears crested her lashes as Emma crawled to his side of the bed and crushed her face against his pillow. His scent lingered, a mixture of Clive Christian cologne and his unique masculine aroma.

The mystery over the identity of the "bad person" is also well done as Galbraith drops clues that fit together at the end. A longer story might have delved more into the antagonist's personality and motivation, but this is Emma's story. The ending masterfully brings together many of the narrative's threads in a powerful, heartwarming denouement without being sentimental.

Joanne Galbraith now writes as Jocelyn Adams. To learn more about her work, check out her blog at http://joceadams.wordpress.com.

Picture Attribution: Bill Nicholls. This image is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

Interview with Kat Heckenbach

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-08:00

Kat Hechenbach is the author of Finding Angel and a lot of great short stories. For my review of Finding Angel, go here.

Chapman: In some places you provide scientific explanations for the magic that Angel and Gregor perform, describing the transformations at the molecular level. Most writers leave the nuts and bolts of magic a mystery. Why did you take a different route?

Heckenbach: I suppose the obvious answer is that I'm a science geek (I have a B.S in Biology), so I like scientific explanations for things. However, it's never bothered me that most fantasy novels don't include that stuff. Magic is fun, and it doesn't have to follow rules. I wanted mine to be different, though. I wanted magic to be an innate ability which could truly be extrapolated from what humans are capable of. And each of my characters has a Talent that is a magic power stronger than the rest, with each person's being unique to them. I wanted it obviously representative of our unique talents here in the real world, so I wanted magic in general to be "realistic." Oh, and I'll say more on this when we get to question number five :).

Also, I can't help but mention that your question reminded me of what Professor Snape says in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: "There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class...."

Chapman: Finding Angel contains several mini-chapters interspersed with Angel's narrative. These mini-chapters feature conversations between two scientists who are obviously up to no good. What did you hope to add to the story with these chapters?

Heckenbach: Quite simply, a villain presence. For reasons that become obvious at the end of the book, I can't have the villain make a bunch of face-to-face confrontations with my main characters. Finding Angel is as much a mystery as it is a fantasy. But there needs to be a sense of peril--Angel may not know everything that is going on, but the reader can be clued in to some of it.

Chapman: The novel begins with a wall of fire. I'm reminded of a couple of your short stories, "Fire Wall" and "Prism", which also feature walls of fire and trees, respectively. What do these walls mean to you?

Heckenbach: Oh, wow, psychoanalysis. Eep. It's funny you ask, actually, because I've noticed that I use fire in a lot of my stories and I've spent time trying to figure out exactly why. So far, I've not had any success though. I think it must say something about me! I'd love to hear some hypotheses on what that is :).

The wall part may be a little easier to figure out. It's an obstacle--one that blocks the view of what is on the other side. So, the character doesn't necessarily know what he is in for. In both "Fire Wall" and "Prism" there is a belief that what lies beyond the wall is something terrible--and in both cases it's true for some, but not for others. The outcome relies completely on the character's convictions--and one story shows wrong convictions while the other shows right convictions. Same obstacle, different result. Maybe that is related to the fire--it is something that contains incredible power, both positive and negative depending on how it is used.

Chapman: Angel discovers a prophecy about mid-way through the novel that informs the remainder of the story. Did you come up with the story line and fit the prophecy to it or dream up the prophecy and build the story around it?

Heckenbach: That is actually a harder question to answer than you'd think. Yes, some of the prophecy was written to match plot events I'd already planned out. But some plot events seemed to actually develop naturally to fit the prophecy. I remember having moments when I'd write a scene and it would hit me that I'd just "fulfilled" a line in the prophecy without even realizing it while I was writing!

Chapman: Is there an origin story for the magical people, those with gifts? I suspect it's in some of Gregor's history tomes.

Heckenbach: And now we are back to your first question about science and magic. Yes, there is an origin story. It will be told in the second book! :D It's not the main plot of the next book, but Sir Benjamin will be telling one of the characters the story of how it all happened, so I suppose you'll just have to wait and see. If you're not that patient, I'm sure much of it is in some of Gregor's history tomes...if you can find the island and get your hands on them...

Chapman: Dawric is cast out of the Realm Beyond and swallowed by the earth. What makes him so evil that he is undeserving of forgiveness?

Heckenbach: Now normally, I'd shake a finger at you for giving a spoiler, but really everyone knows bad guys get it in the end, and in some ways this particular thing is incidental to the "real" event happening in this scene (of which I won't give spoilers). And this is a really good question, deserving of an answer.

Dawric is not so evil that he is undeserving of forgiveness--no one is. But he has set his mind to refuse it. You cannot force someone to accept forgiveness.

Chapman: Can you give us a preview of what's coming next for Angel? She has a wish to use. Will she be visiting her adoptive parents again?

Heckenbach: Yes, her wish. Of course that is a big part of the second book. Wishes don't always unfold the way we think they will. It's not like rub a lamp, and poof, you're a prince. The timing is not necessarily immediate, nor is what we wish for always what we expect. And, sometimes you get more than you ask for. (What other cliche shall I add to this list?)

And Angel is going to come face-to-face with some of the consequences of her choices in the first book. You don't just run away and everyone you leave behind is hunky-dory. So yes, her foster family will appear again, but Angel is in for a few surprises there.

A couple of new characters are added to the cast in the second book--which, by the way, is titled Seeking Unseen. And the point of view doesn't stay solely Angel's. There will be a shift, and partway through the book the pov will begin toggling back and forth between Angel and another character.

Seeking Unseen is due out the second half of 2012.

Stories of the Week

2012-01-20T12:34:00.000-08:00

The Sick Child, Edvard Munch (1907).

Here are three flash stories that caught my imagination from the December 2011 issue of Apollo's Lyre. All address the relationship between parents and their children.

Madeline Mora-Summonte's "Silent Night" tells about a family Christmas palpably silenced by loss. The writing is beautiful and subtle. The running comparison with Christmas past is powerful. Don't read this if you're already feeling depressed. I particularly liked Mora-Summonte's description of death:

[Death] slunk into her room, the house, our lives. He slithered under her skin and into her blood. He wrapped himself around her small bones, hugged her heart, and squeezed her lungs until she gasped her last breath.

Stephanie M. Lorée's clever science fiction tale "Three Winters" tells of loss and silence in a family separated by light years. She tells her story in three sections, each with a different point-of-view from a different generation. The section headings spell out the oft-used phrase: Home Away From Home.

Shane Gavin's "Climbing ‘til Doomsday" describes a young boy's struggle to escape from the dark. It's at night, when he's in bed, that his parents fight and he can hear the screaming. If he can reach the sky, he believes he can rip it open and release the day hidden behind the blackness. His efforts to reach the sky are comic at first, but then turn tragic. I don't think I'll ever look at the night sky in quite the same way again.

I didn’t hate mom and dad, though, no, I hated the dark--the sky outside that hid the day and brought on the screaming. But the sky outside was broken and punctures in the black shroud revealed glimpses of the day hidden behind it.

For more on these writers and their work, check out their websites: http://www.MadelineMora-Summonte.com, http://stephaniemloree.com, and http://shanemgavin.wordpress.com.

Finding Angel: A Review

2012-01-17T22:25:00.000-08:00

The title of Kat Hechenbach's first novel, Finding Angel, is intriguing and becomes more so after you've read the book. One might even argue it's a bit of a misnomer. You expect the story to be about someone looking for Angel and discovering her, a kind of missing person story. But no one is looking for Angel in the story. Angel is the protagonist and point-of-view character. She knows where she is but not necessarily who she is. Gregor is looking for a girl named Anna but finds Angel, who used to be a little girl named Anna. So why isn't this book entitled "Finding Anna" or something else entirely? Finding Angel is Angel's story. She was found wandering a rural road and adopted by the Masons, who also have several other adopted children. Angel's only link with her past is a silver charm bracelet that she was wearing at the time of her discovery. One charm is a heart inscribed with a strange-looking beetle. The other charms are letters: A-N-G-E-L, which the Masons assume spell her name. (We learn later in the story that the E and L charms are out of order.) Gregor takes Angel back to her childhood home on a magical island that is invisible to the rest of the world. She learns that she has magical abilities and that she is a Finder, someone whose most developed magical talent is finding things. But Angel is no longer Anna, not after living with the Mason's for several years. Angel/Anna must discover how she fits into the past and future of her homeland as she forges an identity and finds out who Angel is. Oh, I almost forgot. There is also a homicidal maniac named Dawric who will stop at nothing to find and kill her so he can steal her talent.

Part mystery and part fantasy, puzzles occupy center stage in Finding Angel. The first mystery is Angel's past. She learns that Dawric nearly captured her when she was a young girl but that Gregor used his talent for Gating--creating passages through space to other parts of the world--to send her away from Dawric. Unfortunately, Gregor was not able to follow her through the gate and did not know where he had sent her which is why it took him years to track her down. When Angel returns with Gregor, her parents are gone, looking for her in some other part of the world. The next puzzle is the significance of the charm bracelet, which Gregor tells Angel is a family heirloom that is passed from one generation to the next through the first born. But what is the bracelet's significance? What does it do? Angel finds a vague prophecy in an old book that she believes relates to her as it mentions something about a Finder. Gregor, who is going through a type of Romeo-and-Juliet personal crisis about which he is exceedingly reticent, dismisses her obsession. Casting a shadow over the other mysteries is Dawric, whom Gregor insists is gone, but Angel suspects is closer than Gregor thinks since the prophecy appears to relate to him as well. And finally, there is the jigsaw puzzle that Angel helps Sir Benjamin--a retired professor--assemble in his bookstore.

Magic is commonplace on the island. There are magical items, such as an interpreter lens that renders text in any language. Angel learns to use magic to take care of mundane chores, such as washing the dishes or cleaning up after her puppy. Magic is also put to more dramatic uses, such as Gregor's Gating and Angel's Finding. A professor at the university on the island can make himself invisible while another can tame animals and people. Fantastical creatures abound, including unicorns and various types of dragons which many residents keep as pets. Elves--the Tolkien variety--also inhabit the island.

One of the unique features of Finding Angel is the relationship Heckenbach depicts between magic and science. In most fantasies, magic occurs and is taken for granted. We're not given much explanation of the nuts and bolts of it other then where the power to perform it comes from. Heckenbach delves into the science behind the magic. Gregor alters the appearance of Angel's hair color by "magically adjusting the surface's absorption and reflection of wavelengths" (p. 83). Invisibility comes from bending light rays. When Angel asks Gregor why the left over food on the dishes cannot just disappear, Gregor explains:

"Things don't just disappear. They have to go someplace. First law of conservation of matter. Matter cannot be created or destroyed; it can only change form" (p. 49).

As Heckenbach describes it, magic, like everything else, is answerable to the laws of the physical universe. Magic acts within those laws and uses them, rather than contradicting or stepping outside of them. However, just as Gregor and Angel can magically work within the laws of the universe, those laws can also impinge on their magic. Gregor says that technology interferes with their magic, which is why daily life on the island is so low-tech.

"It's all the waves and particles released by electronic devices. They suppress our magic" (p. 47).

Heckenbach has created a strong cast of characters to complement Angel's story. They have their own concerns and their lives have trajectories independent of Angel. Gregor, for instance, is involved with a young Elven girl named Siophra, whose father has forbidden their marriage. Kalek, Siophra's brother, is caught between his father and Gregor. Angel is more an observer than a participant in Gregor's subplot until Siophra is drawn into the machinations of Dawric and his partner. We even get a sense of Dawric's hopes and dreams although his desires have consumed any sense of morality he may once have possessed and transformed him into a cunning maniac. However, Finding Angel's narrative structure and single point-of-view character limits our exposure to and understanding of some characters. While Angel meets Kalek numerous times, her meeting with Siophra is fleeting. Like Angel, we have to rely on second-hand reports to form an opinion of her. Siophra's father undergoes a transformation from a cruel and unbending patriarch to a damaged and repentant father in the novel's final chapters, but Angel only has contact with him after the transformation.

The story breaks from Angel's point of view in a few mini-chapters that report conversations between an unnamed scientist and an unnamed man whom I assume to be Dawric. I suspect Heckenbach wants to foreshadow the dangers that are encroaching on Angel, but in a fantasy novel, the reader expects danger to be lurking without being told. I would rather see those chapters expanded so that the reader has a lot more information than Angel or cut.

Finding Angel is a good read with a complex story line and enough twists and turns to keep the reader off balance. The final chapter hints at a continuation of Angel's story in a sequel. I'm looking forward to it.

Come back next week for an interview with Kat Heckenbach. While you wait, check out her blog and all things Finding Angel at http://www.findingangel.com/.

Story of the Week: Her Long Hair Shining

2012-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

If you like historical mysteries about the people history has forgotten, you should read Simon Kewin's "Her Long Hair Shining" at Abyss & Apex. Kewin has penned a ghost story that is poignant and tragic. It's not scary, but it certainly has plenty of creepy imagery. Consider the opening paragraphs:

Water ran down the walls, staining the stonework in triangles of green like a child’s drawing of a Christmas tree. Smith had to step around pools of water on the floor. The place hadn’t been used for years. Decades. Smashed windows let the wind and rain inside. It was colder inside, somehow, than it was out on the streets. The air tasted damp.

It was, he thought, a lonely place for a ghost to live.

That image of a child's drawing washing away sets the tone of loss that pervades the story. Every character has lost someone.

Smith is wandering through an abandoned textile mill on a mission to save a ghost. That's what he spends his time doing, rescuing ghosts, giving them some closure so they can fade away peacefully. He receives assistance from Tom, whom we later learn is the ghost of Smith's son who died in an automobile accident that may have been Smith's fault. Once they find a ghost, Smith and Tom attempt to gain its trust so they can learn something about it, such as its name or the circumstances of its death. Kewin's ghosts are shy and skittish. Armed with a few scraps of data, Smith heads to the library to track down accounts of the ghost's death and the fate of its survivors: children, spouses, fiances. The ghosts Smith encounters are trapped, struggling to find someone who is no longer there.

The ghost in the mill is a teenager named Sally, a beautiful girl with bright and shining golden hair. She died in a horrible accident at the mill, a victim of its machinery. Her beau was going to ask her to marry him that day. She was to wait for him outside the factory. It appears to be a standard case for Smith and Tom, but Sally proves to be something special.

Kewin's prose is vivid, punctuated with details that bring the dead to life.

A circle of breath bloomed on the inside of the mirror with each word, only to evaporate away immediately. He could see nothing of her save for a quarter of her face, a tangle of golden hair and the corner of her mouth, hidden behind the patches of tarnished silver.

Kewin tells a sad story in "Her Long Hair Shining" with a surprisingly happy ending, all the while avoiding any lapse into sentimentality.

For more about Simon Kewin and his writing, visit his blog at http://spellmaking.blogspot.com/.

Minor Works

2012-01-12T14:07:00.000-08:00

Ever heard of The Cricket on the Hearth? It's one of the Christmas books that Charles Dickens wrote following the success of A Christmas Carol. The story is sentimental and features a cricket who acts as a guardian angel and a miser who is transformed by the Christmas season. The novella is divided into "chirps" instead of chapters. Although commercially successful at the time, the story receives little attention from critics today. Most commentators, I suspect, would call it a minor work if they bother to mention it.

Critics often refer to some story or novel in a writer's oeuvre as a minor work. I assume the critic means that the work in question has flaws in execution or concept that render it less satisfying than the author's major works. The minor work is not as important. So minor is a relative term to distinguish great works from less-than-great works. Or maybe it's a nice way of saying this one sucks. Or maybe the ideas presented in the story are no longer relevant to or popular among critics.

From a critic's perspective, it makes sense to distinguish minor and major works. But from a writer's perspective, the idea seems odd. Looking back over my stories, I can admit that some are less successful than others and I can learn from the "failures" maybe more than from the shining successes. However, I never think of any story as a "minor work" while I'm writing it, even if I know the concept is less ambitous. I don't care less about the characters or put less thought into the descriptions of time and place. Orson Scott Card writes in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy that a writer must simultaneously believe:

1. The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in English.
2. The story I am now working on is worthless drivel (p. 109).

In other words, you have to have enough confidence to send it out and be ruthless enough to edit it. If you think you're writing a minor story, will you ever believe it's worth the risk to submit it? In fact, if you think you're writing a minor story, you should stop working on it. Move on to something else, because it will certainly never rise above minor status and most likely won't rise to any status at all. I suspect that when Dickens finished The Cricket on the Hearth, he thought it the best Christmas story ever written.

W1S1 2011 Report Card

2011-12-31T19:00:00.000-08:00

It's the end of 2011 and the W1S1 challenge for 2011 is coming to a close. Somehow I managed to keep up and produce at least one new story per month. November and December were particularly unproductive. Burnout, I think. Bottom line: I wrote 15 stories and 13 of those are published or forthcoming. Thank you W1S1 for pushing me.

For next year, I want to stay with the story a month challenge but put more energy into some longer works, that is a novel and some novellas. Time to reload for 2012.

Month	Story	Word Count	Status
January	"A Mother's Gift"	2900	Published in Silver Blade Magazine
February	"Why the Squonk Weeps"	1300	Published in Digital Dragon Magazine
March	"Shafts to Hell"	1300	Published in How the West Was Wicked (Pill Hill Press)
April	"The Crooked House of Coins"	3700	Published in There Was a Crooked House (Pill Hill Press)
	"The Fletcher's Daughter"	1500	Published in Residential Aliens
May	"Tapestries of Betrayal"	4000	Published in Greek Myths Revisited (Wicked East Press)
June	"Blood and Beauty"	4680	Forthcoming in A.J. French's Songs of the Satyrs (Wicked East Press)
July	"Wilson's Thicket"	4200	Forthcoming in Beneath the Pretty Lies (Wicked East Press)
August	"Sixpence and Rye, and a Snake in a Pie"	2400	Forthcoming in Father Grim's Storybook (Wicked East Press)
September	"A Creature of Words"	670	Published in Avenir Eclectia
October	"A Daughter for a Daughter"	10,500	Forthcoming in Tales of Suspense (Wicked East Press)
	"Under the Bridge"	975	Published in Apollo's Lyre
November	"Soul Thief"	1015	Rewriting
	Chapter One--City of Souls	1570	Novella in progress
December	"A Fortuitous Stumble"	670	Forthcoming in Avenir Eclectia
	"The Hermit's Cache"	tbd	For Avenir Eclectia
	Chapter Two--City of Souls	tbd	Novella in progress

Image Credit: Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com.

Word of the Week: Gun

2011-12-30T22:52:00.000-08:00

Big Bertha.

In the interest of sending 2011 out with a bang, the word of the week is gun, a weapon that fires projectiles at high velocity with a relatively flat trajectory. The modern word derives from the Middle English gonne or gunne, first used in the fourteenth century. The Middle English word is possibly a shortened form of the feminine name Gunilda. Middle English sources use gonnilde to reference cannon and a Latin document from 1330, giving an inventory of Windsor Castle munitions, references a specific gun as "...una magna balista de cornu quae Domina Gunilda ...". Gunilda derives from the Old Norse feminine name Gunnhildr, which is a combination of gunnr and hildr, meaning battle-maid. Both parts of the name mean battle or fight. The name was often shortened to Gunna. A couple well-known Gunhilds from tenth-century Viking history include Gunnhild--the wife of Eric Bloodaxe, King of Norway from 930-34--and Gunhild of Wenden--a Slavic princess who married Sweyn Forkbeard, King of Denmark from 986-1014. Both women appear in Icelandic and Norse sagas. Gunhild of Wenden was the mother of Cnut the Great, who ruled England from 1016-1035.

It's not known why a woman's name would be associated with a weapon, but the practice is not uncommon. Big Bertha refers to a super-heavy howitzer used by the Germans during World War I. Mons Meg is a medieval bombard which fired twenty inch caliber cannon balls.

Stories Out

2011-12-28T14:08:00.000-08:00

A couple of my stories have been published in December. "Why the Squonk Weeps" appears in The Winter Issue of Underneath the Juniper Tree. This online magazine combines custom illustrations and stories in a beautiful and sometimes stunning layout. The overall feel of the magazine is macabre. My story appears on page 49 and features illustrations by Elizabeth Rose Stanton. "Under the Bridge" is out in Apollo's Lyre as part of the magazine's focus on the Write One Sub One challenge.

Return to Mag Mell: A Review of In the Forests of the Night

2011-11-28T14:33:00.000-08:00

Kersten Hamilton's In the Forests of the Night picks up where Tyger Tyger (see my review here) left off. The Wylltson household has become a kind of zoo or maybe an animal shelter for the sick and wounded would be a more apt metaphor. The Wylltson residence now includes Finn, Mamieo, Thomas, Roisin, Grendal the cat-sidhe, and Lucy the sprite. And Abby has moved in, permanently. Abby and Roisin's presence has transformed Teagan's bedroom into a dorm room. Thomas, Highborn Goblin and shape-shifter, is recovering from his wounds and sometimes transforms into a raven. He's also trying to rekindle Roison's affection. Mamieo is struggling with her desire to rid the world of Thomas and can't understand why God would allow Raynor the angel to dump a Highborn Goblin at her feet. Mr. Wylltson is struggling to recover the memories that Fear Doirich stole from him, and Teagan and Aiden are coming to terms with their mother's death and their goblinness. And then there's the budding romance between Teagan and Finn, as if Teagan didn't have enough problems.

The first half of the book fleshes out the new home life at the Wylltsons'. Hamilton has a lot of fun with the quirky characters and their interactions and suggests that sworn enemies don't always have to be at each other's throats.

"This place shouldn't be called the Wylltsons'," Thomas said....
"It should be called the Widdershins'. Everything here is backwards. A sprite and a cat-sidhe"--he waved at Lucy and Grendal--"eating together. They're deadly enemies. And Finn, the purest Fir Bolg blood left in this world, made to mend and tend. But what do you do? Fight!"
"That's what Doirich's curse does, then, isn't it?" The corners of Mamieo's mouth turned down. "Forces the boyo to be something no Fir Bolg should be."...
"Curses and covenants I can understand," Thomas said. "But not the Mac Cumhaill living in a Highborn's nest. Teagan, you are at least part Highborn--made to rule and reign, gather destroyers and bend them to your will. And what do you do? Tend beasts. It's completely un-Highborn" (p. 183).

Although I enjoyed the humor, the first half of In the Forests of the Night lacks the urgency and sense of direction that permeated all of Tyger Tyger. It seems that all the characters are taking a chance to catch their breaths before the next round of action begins. The story kicks into high gear with the arrival of Kyle, who mascarades as Mr. Bullen, a substitute teacher at Teagan's school. Fear Dorich wants Teagan to bring Aiden to him. A cat-sidhe and later a Highborn give Teagan the message. Kyle licks Teagan's forehead during class, infecting her with a retrovirus that will change her DNA. Teagan feels it working immediately. Kyle and Isabeau, a Highborn mascarading as a French exchange student, threaten to kill Teagan's father and destroy the lives of her friends if she doesn't bring Aiden to Mag Mell.

Kyle's threat has real teeth, nasty and sharp. As Thomas told Teagan and her family earlier in the narrative, Kyle was Jack the Ripper. Fear Doirich once sent him after a girl living in Whitechapel named Mary Kelly. Kyle got carried away and gutted a few others just for kicks.

Teagan comes up with her own plan to put a stop to Fear Doirich by delivering the Dark Man to Raynor the angel, who has been guarding the gate to Mag Mell behind the library. If you loved the trip to Mag Mell from Tyger Tyger, Hamilton has more of the same in store for you in In the Forests of the Night. We meet some new animals, travel between worlds through the pools that dot Mag Mell, and visit a Goblin fair and coliseum-style show that makes the Romans look rather tame. (I don't think the Roman spectators ever came out of their seats to eat the fallen gladiators.)

As in Tyger Tyger, we see events through Teagan's eyes. In the Forests of the Night is essentially the story of Teagan's struggle to come to terms with what she is (a Highborn Goblin) and how that impacts who she is. Can a Highborn Goblin be good? Can a Highborn Goblin be a healer, a fixer of broken things? Or is Teagan fated by her genes for cruelty and destructiveness? It's the old nature versus nurture goblin debate, freewill versus determinism. I believe Hamilton wants to broach a broader question. Can humans, as inherently sinful creatures, rise above their nature?

Finn repeatedly assures Teagan that she can rise above her goblinness, despite Kyle's attempt to transform her into a pure Highborn.

"I can't believe [that sluagh] was a Fir Bolg," Teagan said.
"It wasn't," Finn said. "No more than Fear Doirich is an aingeal. Any creature can wal away from what it was meant to be" (p. 133).

"But ... I'm devolving. Into something like Kyle." [said Teagan]
"Prove it. What evil thing have you done?" [said Finn]
"I'm walking without my skin and bones!"
"That does concern me." He wrapped his arms around her. "But it doesn't prove that you're evil, does it?" (p. 224).

Teagan isn't certain and therein lies the story's tension. She's experiencing new emotions and doing things, such as bilocation, that she never imagined possible.

"DNA doesn't make you who you are inside, Tea," Mr. Wylltson said. "That hasn't changed."
Teagan shook her head. He hadn't heard her howling with the phooka. Hadn't seen the blood lust she inspired in the Highborn's eyes (p. 282).

At heart, Teagan is compassion and mercy. She dreams of becoming a vetinarian and she finds it impossible to turn away from a broken creature no matter what it is. Hamilton suggests that there is a part of Teagan that Kyle or Fear Doirich cannot corrupt against her will. Teagan's essence is her greatest strength, but in a direct confrontation with Fear Doirich and Mab when she needs to focus on making a kill, compassion and mercy may be her greatest weakness.

I received an advance copy of In the Forests of the Night from the publisher through NetGalley.

News and Announcements

2011-11-21T21:09:00.000-08:00

My flash story "A Creature of Words" is up at Avenir Eclectia, which the editor Grace Bridges describes as "a multi-author microfiction project, based in a world with flavors of science fiction, fantasy and supernatural genres." "A Creature of Words" introduces a sentient, four-footed fish who tangles with a strange creature that talks but doesn't seem to know how to swim. Check out the other story lines at Avenir Eclectia, too. With so many contributors, there's bound to be something you'll like. In December, Underneath the Juniper Tree will be reprinting my story "Why the Squonk Weeps" with some cool custom artwork. Each story in Underneath the Juniper Tree is illustrated with original artwork. The editors are doing a fabulous job with the layout and the stories are cool, too. My flash story "Under the Bridge" will be in the December issue of Apollo's Lyre. This issue is devoted to members of the Write One Sub One challenge. "Under the Bridge" considers a young boy's encounter with something monstrous. Was it a troll or an old man? You be the judge.

Last year I reviewed Tyger Tyger here and interviewed the author Kersten Hamilton here. If you haven't picked up Tyger Tyger yet, the e-book version is on sale for $2.99 for a limited time through Amazon, Apple, Barnes and Noble, and Google.

Word of the Week: Vair

2011-11-18T14:15:00.000-08:00

Vair is a little-used word that will give squirrels nightmares. It means squirrel fur, specifically the white and bluish-gray fur of the Eurasian Red Squirrel (Sciurus vulgaris). In Northern and Central Europe, the Eurasian Red Squirrel's winter coat is blueish-gray on the back and white on the belly. In medieval times, this fur was used as a lining for expensive cloaks in which alternating pieces of blue and white fur were sewn together to create a variegated pattern. The word entered Middle English circa 1300 from the Old French vair, an adjective for mottled or variegated, which derived from the Latin varius meaning variegated or various. Obviously the word is more associated with the pattern created from the fur than any properties of the fur itself. Vair also signifies an alternating pattern of blue and white used in heraldry.

Vair-lined mantle

depicted on the tomb of

Geoffrey V of Anjou.

Once upon a time vair played a role in a controversy regarding the source of Cinderella's glass slippers as described in Charles Perrault's version. There are well over a hundred versions of the Cinderella tale from various cultures. Only a few versions mention glass slippers. In the majority of cases, the shoes are made of gold or not described. In the Grimm's version, for example, Cinderella goes to a ball on three different nights. On the first night, her shoes are "silk slippers embroidered with silver", undescribed on the second night, and "pure gold" slippers on the third night (The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes, pp. 81-2). Some scholars proposed that Perrault had meant "une paire de pantoufles de vair" which through printing and translation errors became verre, the French word for glass. The problem with this theory is that Perrault's original text contains pantoufles de verre. It appears that the glass slippers were Perrault's or a French contribution to the Cinderella story, perhaps to highlight their magical quality.

Considering The Shadow Seer

2011-11-04T23:28:00.000-07:00

Fran Jacob's The Shadow Seer (see note below) is a different breed of fantasy. The protagonist is a young prince named Candale who is second in line to the throne of Carnia behind his father Gerian and grandfather Sorron. Candale is on the cusp of manhood and chaffing under the control his father exerts. He is physically attractive though very inexperienced with girls, enjoys the benefits of a loving family and life at the top of the social order, has a younger sister, and generally wishes the best for everyone. In short, Candale is a nice guy, someone with whom everyone would like to be friends. Unfortunately, Candale is not what most would consider king material. He is barely adequate with a sword despite intensive training, tends to go off on his own without considering the consequences to himself and others, and suffers from seizures, probably some form of epilepsy, which give him the appearance of physical weakness. Unlike most fantasy heroes who are either able to hold their own or singlehandedly defeat legions in combat, Candale requires protection from body guards or loyal friends and without such assistance, he would be dead.

The story opens with Candale near death. He has been wasting away from some sort of illness, growing increasingly weak. All the healers have failed to reverse Candale's demise. Only the intervention of Mayrila, a powerful witch whom Candale's father despises, restores Candale to health. Mayrila contends that Candale was poisoned. Her claims are initially dismissed. Why would anyone want to kill Candale? Then Candale learns that Mayrila is his biological mother and that she and others believe him to be the long-prophesied Shadow Seer, who will have visions of a dark future when all the kingdoms will collapse. Mayrila has evidence to prove her claims but Sorron and Gerian are not convinced and banish Mayrila from the castle, requiring her to swear on a truth stone that she will not spread rumors about Candale. Candale, meanwhile, has some odd dreams and begins to reinterpret his life in light of Mayrila's claims. Another attempt is made on Candale's life. Only the intervention of Trellany, who becomes Candale's bodyguard, saves him. An organization dedicated to killing the Shadow Seer in the hope of preventing his prophecies from being fulfilled believes Candale is the Shadow Seer.

Candale slowly comes to believe he is the Shadow Seer despite everyone close to him telling him that he is not. He tries to find out as much as he can about the Seer but the castle library yields little. The book he needs to see, The Rose Prophecies, is housed at White Oaks, a school for mages, which lied many days distant and winter, when travel will be impossible, is approaching. Sorron agrees to ask that the book be brought to the castle in the spring so that Candale can put his concerns to rest once and for all, but Candale doesn't want to wait. He and his friend Teveriel--a bard--hatch a plan to escape the castle and travel to White Oaks before winter. They make their escape and are later joined by Trellany who scolds Candale for not trusting her loyalty to him as his bodyguard. After an arduous journey, they reach White Oaks, where Candale spends the winter and learns without a doubt that he is the Shadow Seer. Now Candale faces an even greater set of challenges. How to deal with the horrible visions of death and destruction that the Seer experiences. How to deal with the future madness that has been predicted for the Seer. How to deal with supernatural beings in the form of shadows that threaten him and everyone close to him. And how to deal with the demon Ellenessia, who has some connection to the Shadow Seer. On top of all that, Candale is supposed to be preparing to someday be King.

Jacob's pacing for The Shadow Seer is patient. If you are looking for a fast read with lots of harrowing fight scenes, The Shadow Seer is not for you. The first part of the story concentrates on life at court while the second half focuses on Candale's experiences at White Oaks. Foremost in the narrative is the drama of family and interpersonal relationships. Although there's nothing sexually explicit in The Shadow Seer, Jacobs does address Candale's thoughts on his own and others sexuality. It rounds out his character. There are a few hints that Teveriel might fancy a homosexual relationship with Candale although Candale does not appear to share his friend's interest. It's not a major part of the plot, but if this sort of theme bothers you, consider yourself warned. Candale does much talking and soul searching regarding his destiny. Jacobs takes her time to provide compelling portraits of the major characters. The Shadow Seer is the type of book George Eliot would have written if she had chosen fantasy instead of history. Both Candale and the student mages at White Oaks face a future riddled with difficulties through no fault of their own. Candale becomes the Shadow Seer when Mayrila gives birth to him and the young mages are born with their abilities. Candale must confront an uncertain future. While the mages are safe within the bounds of Carnia, they face prejudice and possible execution at the hands of peoples in neighboring lands.

Although Jacobs earns high marks for the uniqueness of her story line, the novel suffers from a limited point of view and repetition. Jacobs tells her story entirely from Candale's point of view. For a novel as long as The Shadow Seer, the limitation becomes suffocating and reduces the story to a single plot narrative. What do other characters think of Candale? What are they doing outside of Candale's observation? We only know what is reported to Candale or what he sees. Imagine The Lord of the Rings told exclusively from Frodo's point of view, from within his head. The second issue is the novel's length. At well over six hundred pages, The Shadow Seer is quite a doorstop. Does it need to be that long? I think another editing pass would have shortened the book as there are numerous cases where the characters say more than they need to say. Consider the following examples. (I read the book in a galley format in which the page numbers do not correspond to the final printed versions so I will give chapter names instead of page numbers.)

In this instance, Candale is wondering what to do about the voices he is hearing. "I didn't know what I was going to do about this. I didn't know how to even begin thinking about how to handle this" (emphasis mine, from the chapter entitled "Silver"). The second sentence is unnecessary. It restates the idea from the first sentence.

Consider this dialog: "It's my duty, Silver. It's what I have to do. I don't have a choice. I'm sorry" (emphasis mine, from the chapter entitled "Silver"). The two sentences in the middle define duty.

In the following paragraph, Candale is talking to Trellany about getting help from Mayrila to control his visions. Keep in mind that most of this chapter has been about acquiring help from Mayrila to control his visions.

I gulped down the wine in my glass and nodded. "I-I don't think I have much of a choice," I said. "I need to find a way to control them, to stop them interrupting my life, to prevent them hitting during a-a ball or a banquet ... If Mayrila thinks this is necessary, so that she can help me to do that, then I have to trust her judgement on this. She's here to help, after all (emphasis mine, from the chapter entitled "Visions and Prophecies").

All of the highlighted text has been previously stated or so strongly implied that it's a given. I agree that someone might restate the obvious over and over again in conversation, but dialog in a story is not supposed to be "realistic" in that regard. The author should employ some economy to spare the reader such endless repetition. The reader knows what is worrying Candale and the reader knows that Candale wants Mayrila to help him.

Thanks to Fran Jacobs for providing me a copy of The Shadow Seer for review.

Note: Jacob's first installment in the Ellenessia's Curse series is published in two parts. I'm reviewing parts one and two together.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Bone House Day Three

2011-10-26T15:25:00.000-07:00

So what does it all mean? That can be a thorny question for any literary work, but for Stephen Lawhead's Bright Empires Series, I think that question is only going to get thornier.

First, there is the question of truth and religion. Lawhead presents several religious traditions in this series. We encounter learned priests from the Christian, Egyptian, Etruscan, and stone age shaman traditions. All are presented with respect and the suggestion that they all have some truth to offer. I suspect Lawhead agrees with the Inklings' notion that pagan religions possess an incomplete version of religious truth that Christ presents in its complete form. I believe you can arrange the various priests/religions along a continuum. The stone age shaman that Kit encounters constructs his bone house in which he will presumably receive religious visions during his dreams on a ley line. The shaman is tightly connected to a particular piece of land. The priests become increasingly abstract in their thinking until we reach Roger Bacon at the other end of the continuum. That religion has tended to move from worship tied to particular places to worship of an omnipresent and omnipotent god is not news, but Lawhead adds a twist as the discovery of the power of the ley lines brings us full circle back to the stone age, a trip that Kit makes literally.

During a conversation between Arthur Flinders-Petrie and his son Benedict as they prepare to make a ley jump, Benedict asks if they will see Jesus where they are going. Arthur answers that Jesus lived in a different time and place, but then muses:

It had long been an ambition to find the line of force that might lead to the Holy Land in the time of Christ. He had yet to find it, but knew it was out there somewhere. The search went on, and Arthur contented himself with the thought that his relentless mapping of the cosmos would eventually yield the location (p. 160).

What would it mean to meet Christ in another place in the multiverse? Is each world fallen and in need of Christ's sacrifice? If there is only one Christ, does he go through the birth and crucifixion cycle in each world? This reminds me of issues raised in C. S. Lewis's science fiction trilogy in which Mars is not fallen, Earth is occupied by the forces of evil, and Venus is on the cusp of falling to Satan's temptations. If intelligent life exists on other planets, are those beings also in need of redemption?

And last but not least, what are we to make of the final scene in chapter 35? Kit, having stumbled out of the stone age (watch your step around ley lines), finds himself on a tropical beach. He journeys inland and comes to a pool of something like water. As usual, Lawhead gives a beautifully detailed and evocative description.

No, not glass--but not water either. Intrigued, Kit stepped closer and knelt down to examine it more closely. Translucent, glimmering, fluid, yet giving off a faint milky glow: a pool of liquid light. As impossible as that might have been anywhere else, here, in this place, it felt natural and right (p. 373).

As he reaches forward to touch the surface, a man carrying a dead woman arrives. The reader knows this to be Arthur Flinders-Petrie and Xian-Li. Arthur steps into the pool and the pair descend beneath the surface. Rings of luminescence spread from the point at which they descended "until the entire pond was the colour of heated bronze glowing fresh from the crucible" (p. 374). When the pair emerge from the pool, Xian-Li has been restored to life. Kit has arrived at the Well of Souls, the prize Flinders-Petrie sought to keep secret. But how does this work? Is this pool like a fountain of immortality, reminiscent of the fabled fountain of youth? Will Kit bring Sir Henry and Cosimo there? What are the theological implications? We will have to wait for The Spirit Well.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Bone House from the publisher.

Stephen R. Lawhead's website: http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

To read what other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below.

Noah Arsenault
Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
Karri Compton
D. G. D. Davidson
Theresa Dunlap
April Erwin
Victor Gentile
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Janeen Ippolito
Becca Johnson

Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Marzabeth
Katie McCurdy
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Joan Nienhuis
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Rachel Wyant

CSFF Blog Tour: The Bone House Day Two

2011-10-25T18:56:00.000-07:00

The protagonists of The Bone House interact with several historical personages on their ley travels and I suspect an English Egyptologist served as the inspiration for at least one of the protagonists.

Thomas Young (13 June 1773 – 10 May 1829) figures in the narratives of Kit and Wilhelmina and I'm hoping he will be back in The Spirit Well. An English polymath, Young made contributions to physics, physiology, and Egyptology, particularly deciphering hieroglyphics. Lawhead provides a biographical sketch of Young in the essay that concludes The Bone House. Wilhelmina describes Young as "the last man on earth to know everything" (p. 43).

Dr. Thomas Young by

Sir Thomas Lawrence.

Wilhelmina and Kit bring Young, at least the one living in a particular multiverse, into the circle of ley-knowledgeable people. Young at first thinks Wilhelmina insane but the force of her arguments and personality win him over and he agrees to a test. As a scientist, he demands some physical proof of Wilhelmina's claims. The proof turns out to be several items from the future that Kit presents to Young who is on an archeological dig in Egypt. Young's worldview is thoroughly shaken, but he soon recovers and makes forays into the philosophical ramifications of ley travel during a conversation with Kit. Young will serve as a great mouthpiece for voicing some of the themes behind Lawhead's multiverse world which is why I hope he returns in the next volume. Later, Kit guides Young to the discovery of the tomb of Anen, an Egyptian priest from the 18th dynasty who had known Arthur Flinders-Petrie. Young finds a treasure of artifacts in the undisturbed tomb and Kit finds a piece of the skin map. At one point during their conversations, Young tells Kit that his aim is “To unravel the mystery of tombs” (p. 179). We learn later that at least some of the skin map pieces have been hidden in various tombs which adds another level of meaning to Young's statements.

*Statue of Roger Bacon in the

Oxford University Museum of

Natural History.

The next historical figure to make an appearance is Roger Bacon, an English philosopher and Franciscan whom some consider an early champion of the scientific method. Bacon lived from circa 1214 to 1294. Known as Doctor Mirabilis, which means "wonderful teacher," he studied at Oxford and later taught there as well as lecturing at the University of Paris. In his writings, Bacon comments on mathematics, optics, alchemy, astronomy, and astrology. He called for reforms in theology, arguing that the Bible should be placed at the center of study and that scholars should thoroughly understand the languages of their source materials. Posing as a visiting scholar/monk from Ireland, Douglas Flinders-Petrie meets with Bacon in medieval Oxford to acquire his assistance in deciphering the symbols in the skin map.

Turms the Immortal plays a role in Arthur Flinders-Petrie's narrative. Many years previous, when Turms was a young prince, Arthur had been his student. Now the priest-king of the Etruscans, Turms receives omens, foretells the future, and passes judgements for his people. Arthur brings the pregnant Xian-Li to Turms to learn if the child she carries is still alive. Following a divination ceremony, Turms announces to the couple that the child is not only alive but will enjoy a long life. Unlike Thomas Young and Roger Bacon, Turms is not a real person but a deity from Etruscan mythology. Like the Greek god Hermes, Turms is a messenger between the gods and humans as well as the god of trade. The deity's role as a messenger seems appropriate to Turms the Immortal's role as a soothsayer.

Many critics make a career of speculating about and tracking down a writer's sources. While researching Turms, I came across a novel by Mika Waltari, a Finnish writer of historical novels, titled The Etruscan (1956). The story traces the amazing life of Lars Turms the immortal in ancient Greece and Rome. I haven't read Waltari's novel so I can't speculate on the connection between Waltari's Turms and Lawhead's Turms, but the coincidence is intriguing.

Flinders Petrie, in Jerusalem (1930's).

Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) was an English archeologist and Egyptologist who pioneered systematic methods and artifact preservation. Early in his career he surveyed various Roman and stone-age sites in England then traveled to Egypt to apply the same methods to the ancient Egyptian monuments. During his long career, Flinders Petrie performed excavations in Egypt and Palestine. He discovered the first mention of Israel in an Egyptian source and trained a generation of archeologists, including Howard Carter. Did the archeologist Flinders Petrie serve as an inspiration for Lawhead's Arthur Flinders-Petrie? Both are explorers, pioneers in new methods, and both have an affinity for Egypt.

Photo Credits:
*Photograph of Roger Bacon's statue taken by Michael Reeve, 30 May 2004. This image is used in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Bone House from the publisher.

Stephen R. Lawhead's website: http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

To read what other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Bone House Day One

2011-10-24T22:52:00.000-07:00

Stephen R. Lawhead's The Bone House is a strange book. It transports the reader to exotic locales in time and place: ancient and nineteenth-century Egypt, Etruscan Italy, medieval England, and somewhere in the stone age, just to name a few. And, Lawhead renders them all in beautiful detail. It poses questions about the philosophical implications of multiverses between which, in Lawhead's fiction, time flows at different rates. While all those attributes cast The Bone House in some very strange and wonderful shadows, they are not the principal reason for designating The Bone House a strange book. The Bone House is of a breed from which many readers cringe in terror. It's a middle book in a series. The action picks up where The Skin Map, the previous book in the series (see my reviews here, here, and here), left off and ends after an appropriate number of pages. New plot lines have been established and new characters introduced, but almost nothing has been resolved. It's the second ley in a series of jumps. The Bright Empires Series is much more a Lord of the Rings type experience than a Narnia experience. So is The Bone House worth reading? Most definitely, but you must read The Skin Map first and be prepared to feel annoyed when you finish the last pages and discover that The Spirit Well will not be available until September 2012.

The Bone House follows intersecting plots centered around six characters: Kit Livingstone, Wilhelmina Klug, Lady Haven Fayth, Arthur Flinders-Petrie, Douglas Flinders-Petrie, and Archelaeus Burleigh. As in the first novel, Arthur's skin map is the prize everyone is seeking as they jump from world to world, occasionally bumping into each other. For readers of The Skin Map, The Bone House answers a number of nagging questions. First, who is Archelaeus Burleigh and why is he such a scoundrel? The short answer is an unhappy childhood. Lawhead traces Burleigh's rise from a rejected bastard of Lord Ashmole to wily street urchin to personal secretary of Lord Gower to celebrated antiques dealer. Lawhead tells Burleigh's story dispassionately, leading one to feel some pity for the boy Burleigh, whose mother became an opium addict, and admire his determination and resourcefulness, but somewhere along the line, something goes wrong with Burleigh. He loses respect for his fellow human beings, who become little more than tools to achieve his ends. His interactions with various women suggest that Burleigh is incapable of love and intimacy.

At the end of The Skin Map, Wilhelmina appears out of nowhere to save Kit and Giles from certain death in an Egyptian tomb. So when did Wilhelmina go from coffee house owner to master ley leaper? A healthy portion of the chapters on Wilhelmina tell that story. Of all the characters, Wilhelmina most comes into her own in this book. She takes over from Cosimo and Sir Henry Fayth as the driving force in the search for the map. She devises the plans and organizes the participants. One comes to the conclusion that she was born in the wrong place at the wrong time. At one point she tells Kit that the first jump from London to Bohemia, which seemed a disaster at the time, is the best thing that ever happened to her. When she thinks about returning to London to wrap up her affairs, she admits that "[t]he plain truth was she missed nothing about London or her mundane, drudging life there" (p. 168).

Douglas Flinders-Petrie is Arthur's great-grandson and several chapters cover his trip to medieval England in his quest to unlock the secrets of the skin map. But wait, readers of The Skin Map say. Didn't Xian-Li, Arthur's wife, die from Nile Fever before the couple had any children? And who removed the skin map from Arthur's body and hid it all over the multiverse? I won't spoil it, but both questions are answered in The Bone House.

Kit continues to muddle through while always managing to land on his feet, to make the right choice at the end of a string of disastrous ones. Don't think, I found myself saying time and time again, just do exactly what Wilhelmina tells you. He's one of those characters you want to grab by the collar and shake some sense into them. For example, when he stumbles into the stone age, Kit tries to escape from a settlement of cavemen in the middle of the night, not considering what might be lurking in the wilderness after nightfall. A bear comes about as close as possible to eating him.

And finally, what of Lady Haven Fayth, who appeared to turn traitor at the conclusion of The Skin Map. Lawhead devotes several chapters to her story and attempts rouse some sympathy for her as we learn about her previous meetings with Burleigh and her life with Burleigh after escaping the tomb. She abandoned her friends when certain death seemed imminent, and in her view, she made an expedient decision, better to be alive and have a fighting chance than dead. How many of us would have done what she did? Lawhead suggests that Haven does not trust or like Burleigh and she does warn Kit and Giles when Burleigh enters the coffee house and hands Henry's journal over to Kit. However, Wilhelmina doesn't trust Haven, and I'm inclined to follow Wilhelmina's instincts.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Bone House from the publisher.

Stephen R. Lawhead's website: http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

To read what other CSFF bloggers are saying, follow the links below.

Recent News and W1S1 Report

2011-10-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

I received a note the other day that my story "Blood and Beauty" has been accepted for A.J. French's Satyrs Anthology from Wicked East Press. The anthology features stories about, that's right, satyrs, those half human, half goat beings from mythology. "Blood and Beauty" combines elements from "Beauty and the Beast" and classical mythology in a story about a failed love affair between a half satyr, half lion and a dryad.

I'm taking part in Write 1 Sub 1 this year, the monthly challenge. (There's a weekly challenge for the insane.) The idea is to write at least one story a month and submit one. I noticed when making the rounds of other W1S1 member blogs that many of them were posting progress reports. Seems like a reasonable thing to do, so here's my progress to date.

Month	Story	Word Count	Status
January	"A Mother's Gift"	2900	Published in Silver Blade Magazine
February	"Why the Squonk Weeps"	1300	Published in Digital Dragon Magazine
March	"Shafts to Hell"	1300	Published in How the West Was Wicked (Pill Hill Press)
April	"The Crooked House of Coins"	3700	Published in There Was a Crooked House (Pill Hill Press)
	"The Fletcher's Daughter"	1500	Published in Residential Aliens
May	"Tapestries of Betrayal"	4000	Published in Greek Myths Revisited (Wicked East Press)
June	"Blood and Beauty"	4800	Forthcoming in A.J. French's Satyrs Anthology (Wicked East Press)
July	"Wilson's Thicket"	4200	Forthcoming in Beneath the Pretty Lies (Wicked East Press)
August	"Sixpence and Rye, and a Snake in a Pie"	2400	Forthcoming in Father Grim's Storybook (Wicked East Press)
September	"A Creature of Words"	670	Submitted
October	"A Daughter for a Daughter"		In Progress
	"Under the Bridge"		In Progress

Nine stories accepted and 26,770 words completed. It's been a good year, and without the W1S1 deadlines, I don't think I would have written this many stories.

Story Out and Recent News

2011-10-03T08:54:00.000-07:00

Hey, it's my 100th post. Yippee!! What better way to celebrate than to announce a publication, an acceptance, and a new book in a series I'm reading. Wait until you see my eleventy-first post. It will be one heck of a party, but I promise not to disappear. (Tolkien joke in case you're wondering.)

My story "The Fletcher's Daughter" is now available at Residential Aliens. This is a short piece, about 1500 words, and a fun variation on the Cinderella fairy tale.

I heard from the editor at Wicked East Press that my story "Sixpence and Rye and a Snake in a Pie" has been accepted for Father Grim's Storybook. The collection calls for stories based on nursery rhymes or fairy tales, but with a twist. My story is based on "Sing a Song of Sixpence," but as the title suggests, there's something other than blackbirds in the pie. The story roughly follows the nursery rhyme and incorporates some of the details into the narrative. It was fun to write.

Last year I reviewed Kersten Hamilton's Tyger Tyger and also interviewed her. The novel is steeped in tales of Irish mythology and follows a contemporary Chicago family's struggle with a group of goblins determined to kill them. Tyger Tyger is now available in paperback as well as Kindle and the second book in the series, In the Forests of the Night, will be out in November. I am impatiently awaiting a review copy. Check out my review of Tyger Tyger here and my interview with Kersten here.

Visiting Hill House

2011-09-29T16:54:00.000-07:00

If you like haunted house stories, Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House should be on your reading list. This is a wonderfully creepy short novel featuring some memorable characters and a sentient house. This is a psychological ghost story in the tradition of Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and follows Eleanor Vance's descent into madness. One could also argue that Eleanor has not so much gone insane as she has become one with the house. Whether Eleanor is insane or possessed depends on the reader's opinion of the supernatural, but within the confines of Jackson's novel, there is evidence for both.

Possessed or insane or driven to insanity from being possessed, that's all fodder for future blogging. What I want to touch on today are some features of Jackson's style: her use of free indirect speech (also known as free indirect discourse) and her adverbs.

The point-of-view in The Haunting of Hill House is third person. The narration shifts back and forth between Eleanor's view and thoughts to a more distant view in which the narration covers events of which Eleanor has no knowledge. The interesting points are the ones in which the narration dips into Eleanor's thoughts. Often, Jackson uses normal indirect speech, adding the tag phrase "she thought" to a sentence to let us know these are Eleanor's ideas. Consider the following paragraph:

Luke came, hesitated in the cold spot, and then moved quickly to get out of it, and Eleanor, following, felt with incredulity the piercing cold that struck her between one step and the next; it was like passing through a wall of ice, she thought, and asked the doctor, "What is it?" (p. 87*)

In other cases, Jackson slips from normal indirect speech to free indirect speech, dispensing with any tag phrases and employing the pronoun I, skirting the edge of first-person narration. Consider the following paragraphs:

I could help her in her shop, Eleanor thought; she loves beautiful things and I would go with her to find them. We could go anywhere we pleased, to the edge of the world if we liked, and come back when we wanted to. He is telling her now what he knows about me: that I am not easily taken in, that I had an oleander wall around me, and she is laughing because I am not going to be lonely any more. They are very much alike and they are very kind; I would not really have expected as much from them as they are giving to me; I was very right to come because journeys end in lovers meeting. (pp. 157-58*)

I could, of course, go on and on, she wanted to tell them, seeing always their frightened, staring faces. I could go on and on, leaving my clothes for Theodora; I could go wandering and homeless, errant, and I would always come back here. It would be simpler to let me stay, more sensible, she wanted to tell them, happier. (p. 177*)

In a post from last year "Why No Adverbs?", I listed some of the problems associated with adverbs. When I began reading Hill House, I noticed that Jackson makes frequent use of adverbs. The more I read, the more I noticed them and some struck me as odd, maybe even sloppy. By the second half of the book, I stopped noticing them. I guess the story had become so compelling that they no longer stuck out or I had grown accustomed to them. Here are some examples that stuck in my head:

Journeys end in lovers meeting, she thought, and could only say inadequately, "Are you looking for us?" (p. 40*)

Jackson's characters frequently say things "inadequately." I know what Jackson is trying to say, but isn't there a better way to say it?

"Too much vermouth," the doctor said, and followed them lingeringly, watching the nursery door over his shoulder. (p. 89*)

How do you do something "lingeringly"? I devised a few alternatives that I've listed below.

"Too much vermouth," the doctor said, and followed them, watching the nursery door over his shoulder.
"Too much vermouth," the doctor said, and followed them, lingering every few steps to watch the nursery door over his shoulder.
"Too much vermouth," the doctor said, and followed them, lingering to watch the nursery door over his shoulder.
"Too much vermouth," the doctor said, and followed them, lingering, watching the nursery door over his shoulder.

The goofy adverbs put a slight blemish on an otherwise outstanding read. Do those adverbs bother any of you?

*Page references are from the 2006 Penguin Classics edition.

A Brief Sojourn in the Twelve Kingdoms

2011-09-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

In Charming the Moon, Emily Snyder presents two tales from the early history of her world of the Twelve Kingdoms, which is the setting for her novel Niamh and the Hermit: A Fairy Tale.

"Brigglekin the Dwarf" tells how Brigglekin came to possess a glowing silver sphere containing a radiantly beautiful woman named Mira and what he does with it. The world is in twilight when the story begins, a time "when the Titans slept in punishment for their infidelities, and there was no more Day or Night, and all the land lived in a Perpetual Twilight." The referenced Titans are the Sun and the Moon. The sphere containing Mira is the Moon. Brangwenn, a goddess who acts as guardian of the world and often appears as a flaming-winged bird, leads the dwarf to the lake in which the moon sleeps and helps him find it. When Brangwenn leaves him with the silver sphere in his hand, she tells him: "Brigglekin, this gift is not for thee. Through selfishness was she lost, and if thou provest likewise selfish, she will be lost again." Brigglekin, who has always been a seeker of silver, can think of nothing better than to hoard this new treasure, but as she leaves him, Brangwenn bids him to release the prisoner and find an even greater reward. Brigglekin cannot break open the sphere with his pickaxe, and seeing no way to release the beauty inside, takes it to his home inside the roots of an ancient sycamore. For days he stares at the sphere, entranced by its beauty, until some other dwarves arrive looking for him. They try to take it, to give it to the king of the dwarves, but Brigglekin prevails and sends them away empty-handed. The dwarf decides to return the sphere to Brangwenn and sets out on a long journey to the north where he encounters dragons, the sea, and a reward beyond his imagining.

"Ostrung the Giant" recounts the Sun's quest to reunite with the Moon, which has returned to the sky thanks to Brigglekin. The Sun travels on foot across the land in the form of a child, trying in vain to capture the attention of the Moon soaring overhead. All his attempts fail and no one will help him until he meets Ostrung, a kindly giant and an outcast. This story provides some much needed background information on the banishment of the Sun and Moon which adds context to Brigglekin's story. The first paragraph in "Ostrung the Giant" explains the troubled relationship between the Sun and the Moon and provides an example of Snyder's tone.

When last the Sun ruled in the sky, he saw within her Citadel the girl called Mira, whom men now call the Moon. And as he looked on her, he loved her; and as he loved her, he could not bear to part with her; and when he would not part with her, his radiance turned her valley all to gold, and his passion left the land as dark as his desire. The warnings of his brothers he would not heed, nor the pleas of those who worshiped him as a god. For as long as his beloved delighted in his company, the Sun would not stray from her side; and the girl named Mira loved her man of beauty and of light.

Snyder tells her tales with a serious tone befitting mythic lore but also mixes in comedy. The "battle" scene between Brigglekin and the other dwarves approaches slapstick. It is difficult at times to follow who some of the characters are since the reader is dropped into stories without having the full context. Readers of J.R.R. Tolkien's Silmarillion will know what I mean. Of the two tales, I found the longer story about Brigglekin the most rewarding. Brigglekin faces internal and external conflicts and must step beyond his comfort zone to resolve them. Snyder introduces a rich world in these tales and I am looking forward to a longer sojourn in Niamh and the Hermit.

Recent News

2011-09-13T14:01:00.000-07:00

My story "The Fletcher's Daughter" has been accepted at Residential Aliens. (A fletcher is someone who makes arrows.) In this variation on the Cinderella tale, the maid Cinderella attends a ball in place of Princess Desriella, who has sprained her ankle. Cinderella wears arrows, a gift from her father, stuck through the hair at the back of her head. Will the arrows make her look silly or will she usher in a new fashion? And what will the Prince say?

In other news, my story "Tapestries of Betrayal" is out in Greek Myths Revisited from Wicked East Press. This is a retelling of the myth of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela. I based my story on Ovid's version but made significant alterations to the original myth's conclusion. This is a wild, tragic ride with lots of violence and gore and embroidery and, of course, betrayal on many levels. Here's an excerpt:

As [Procne] descended the winding stairs to the great hall, excuses tumbled through her thoughts, explaining Philomela’s absence. Perhaps her father had found a suitor, another arrow in his quiver of alliances. Perhaps their father was ill and Philomela dared not leave him.

Itys ran across the tiled floor, across the mosaics of hounds and stags and falconers, and leapt into his father’s arms.

“Oh, Itys.” Tereus held the boy to his chest. Itys’ feet dangled below his father’s belt. “I’ve been gone too long.”

Procne stood back several paces, staring at the reunited pair, despairing over her reunion with her sister. Tereus averted his eyes.

“Where is Philomela? When does she come?”

Tereus gave Itys to his nurse, who led the boy away.

“Philomela is dead,” he said. “Bandits. They ambushed us. They killed both my men.”

Procne fell to her knees. Her scream ripped through the hall.

“I spent these weeks hunting them down.”

Procne wrenched her braids loose. Her black hair fell about her face. She ripped her tunic from neck to waist, exposing her breasts, the nakedness of her sorrow. She hid her face in her hands as sobs shook her.

Tereus clasped her shoulder. “I burned her body to save it from the wolves.” He nodded at Elpis, who clutched the boy in her robes. “I must speak to the steward and I have to find a new squire.” Tereus walked out of the hall.

Tears dripped from between Procne’s fingers to the mosaic floor, pooling on a stag with a hound gripping its throat.

Story Out

2011-08-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

My story "A Mother's Gift" is available at Silver Blade Magazine. Here's an except.

From a pouch in her cloak Muldred drew a leaf folded tightly into a square no bigger than a child’s tooth. She told Thestral to chew it as she placed it on the Queen’s tongue.

Thestral grimaced at the bitter taste. “You’re poisoning me.”

“Far from it, my Lady. That leaf will calm you. No harm. Now lie still.” One hand Muldred burrowed beneath the blankets to rest on Thestral’s womb. The other she placed on Thestral’s head. Muldred closed her eyes. “Do not stop chewing. You are perfectly safe. I’ve done this many times for those on their deathbeds whose loved ones wish to ease their final hours.” Muldred clenched her jaw and breathed deeply.

Thestral chewed the leaf, whose rising bitterness sickened her each time she ground it between her teeth. She expected to die at any moment, but death seemed preferable to the agony of another dead child whose pain and torment she would never know.

Muldred uttered something strange but melodious, like the songs the bards sang in the great hall. She added new phrases then repeated the refrain. Warmth radiated from Muldred’s fingers. She chanted more verses, rising in intensity as the heat from her hands flared. She shouted the last line of the refrain then fell to the floor in a gasping heap.

Thestral held her breath, waiting to die or for the baby to kick.

“What do you feel?” asked Muldred.

“I feel….” Thestral slouched forward and drew up her knees. “Cramped. Pressed together.”

“Good,” said Muldred.

CSFF Blog Tour: Residential Aliens Day Three

2011-08-24T20:40:00.000-07:00

Another day on the tour and another round of story reviews. I hope you read some of the stories I'm highlighting from Residential Aliens. My reviews hardly do them justice.

"Sharp Stick," by Walter G. Esselman

"Sharp Stick" is a fun romp about a boy and a dragon on a hunting expedition, hunting for giant bugs in underground caves. The boy, Gideon, is a bit young to go hunting on his own but he wants to prove himself after suffering ridicule on the playground. The young dragon Pavataro also has a problem with ridicule. He's afraid to fly and only Gideon knows his secret. The story follows Gideon and Pavataro into the caves where they meet a giant, armored bug and work together to kill it. The struggle forges a deeper bond of friendship between boy and dragon. Aside from the introduction of some background material in the first few paragraphs that could have been handled better, Esselman's narration is smooth and he flavors the story with understated humor.

"The Kitterson Ranch Incident," by Brandon Barr

"The Kitterson Ranch Incident" takes a humorous look at community and minding your own business. Every year the search for Bigfoot brings a hoard of outsiders to town. The residents don't like the visitors tromping all over their property. The narrator says "We’d be watching one another’s backs real close until the week long search ended. There wasn’t a one of us who didn’t have a past he was hiding from." While the narrator is taking a quiet break at Earl’s Bar, Red Ferguson enters with one of the Bigfoot hunters who claims to have caught one of the creatures on film. The patrons at the bar gather around to hear his story. One patron slips out unbeknown to the stranger. The locals suggest that the stranger might have been trespassing on the Kitterson Ranch when he filmed Bigfoot, and then Mr. Kitterson arrives.

"The Sorcerer's Wife," by Erin M. Kinch

Brand, an aged sorcerer, is dying, confined to his bed to rest his aching joints, dependent on his beloved wife Amira. He appears destined for a peaceful death until an old friend pays him a visit. Viola appears as young as ever. They once practiced sorcery together before Brand left to marry Amira. Viola tempts him with a ring that would restore his powers and bring him back into the fold. Brand and Viola debate the merits and demerits of their past life together and what a future life might entail. Brand insists that the love he shares with Amira is greater than anything sorcery could offer, but the ring exercises a powerful attraction, and Viola is persistent. Through effective dialog and interior monologue, Kinch dramatizes Brand's choice between a mortal life with Amira and one of sorcery with Viola.

To learn more about editor Lyn Perry, visit his blogs at http://residentialaliens.blogspot.com/
and http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/.

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

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
D. G. D. Davidson
Dean Hardy
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart

Bruce Hennigan
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Lyn Perry
Sarah Sawyer
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour: Residential Aliens Day Two

2011-08-23T20:24:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are my comments on a few more of the many stories at Residential Aliens. Editor Lyn Perry assembles an eclectic mix so there's probably something for everyone, and if you're not in the mood for fiction, Perry mixes in interviews with artists and writers as well as guest columns. Check out the editor's introductions to each issue to find the interviews and for a couple examples of nonfiction, check out John Ottinger III's article "Christian Fantasy: More than Tolkien and Lewis" and R. L. Copple's editorial "Fantasy and Christianity."

"Shadowed," by James T. Coon

Here's something you don't see very often, hard-boiled fantasy. That's right. Tolkien meets Chandler. "Shadowed" is a flash story with a 1930s feel: radios with tubes that have to warm up, switchboard operators, and rusty revolvers, but it's populated with elves, orcs, humans, and various combinations. The action takes place in an Irish bar--O’Smalley’s--and the alley behind it. Brick Munson is a half-orc private investigator who has spent a long day shadowing an insurance scammer. After downing a few ales and listening to some hockey on the radio, he's ready to go home for some rest, but an intoxicated elf armed with a rusty revolver threatens him in the alley behind the bar. The elf is shaking and blubbering about his wife. Munson disarms the elf in a flash and sends him reeling into some garbage cans. You might expect Munson to finish off the elf or haul him to the police station, but Munson does something quite unexpected after questioning the elf. Coon creates a vivid picture of this somewhat familiar world made strange by its unusual inhabitants.

"A Stretch of Time," by Grace Bridges

Everyone can relate to this story. A young Maori mother with too much to do doesn't have time to do what she wants to do, reading and telling stories. She tells her grandmother that times have changed since the creator gave us the twenty-four hour day. Her grandmother gives her a "spiritual gift of time." She thinks her grandmother is playing games with her, but after completing hours of housework, she finds only minutes have passed and the coffee she and her grandmother were sharing is still hot. As she relates her secret to her grandson, she reflects: "This was the beauty of the gift: nigh unlimited time to ponder. Yes, there were many things to do, and I did them all. But this unhurried pace of life had made me impervious to stress and a magnet for those who were not." It appears the protagonist has sipped from the cup of eternity.

"Cries from a Grave," by Janett L. Grady

Grady's "Cries from a Grave" is labeled science fiction but I found it closer to horror. Sara, the protagonist, is dead, floating in space without any air for eighteen hours. Although inanimate, she is still conscious and able to feel pain. What she fears most is burial on Earth where the worms will devour her. Her husband had promised to "bury" her in space but goes back on his word, picking the cheapest box available. Sara seethes with futile anger and damns him to hell in her mind. Eventually, she hears dirt hitting the lid of her coffin. The worms will be coming she thinks, but what is that stench? What happens when you go to your grave with your heart filled with hate? Sara is about to learn. Grady takes a subject that sounds preachy in summary but gives it a corporeal sense of urgency and reality.

To learn more about editor Lyn Perry, visit his blogs at http://residentialaliens.blogspot.com/

and http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/.

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

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
D. G. D. Davidson
Dean Hardy
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart

Bruce Hennigan
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Lyn Perry
Sarah Sawyer
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

CSFF Blog Tour: Residential Aliens Day One

2011-08-22T11:38:00.000-07:00

This month's tour takes a look at Residential Aliens, a webzine and small press run by editor Lyn Perry. The magazine's description on Duotrope reads: "ResAliens Press (short for Residential Aliens) is a publisher of spiritually infused speculative fiction. Submissions need not be religious in nature. However, we are looking for engaging stories that are truthful to the human experience while offering the reader something of the eternal." Hats off to Mr. Perry for a very accurate description. The stories range from science fiction through fantasy, deadly serious to humorous. In addition to the webzine, Perry also publishes themed collections under the ResAliens Press label. If your an aspiring writer, Mr. Perry is a great editor to work with. He provides timely responses and feedback for stories that are declined.

Over the next few days, I will highlight some of the stories from the magazine. My selection is somewhat random and informed by my personal taste which tends toward fantasy. "The Master and the Miller’s Daughter," published as two parts in the September and October 2010 issues is a must read but I won't review it for obvious reasons.

Here are a few reviews (published previously) to get us started.

"This Is My Blood," by Kristen Davis

If done very, very well, flash fiction can be a small gem, amazing in its minute perfection. If done poorly, it comes across as a story skeleton that needs some more flesh and bone. Davis gets it right in "This Is My Blood," an interesting take on contrite vampires and transubstantiation. Father Marell returns to the rectory one night to find a man named Annik with his wrists bound by a rosary. He claims to be a vampire and requests that the priest hear his confession then kill him. The priest hears the confession but refuses to carry out the execution. They debate alternative sources of blood, such as animals, but Annik claims that only human blood quells his lust. Father Marell suggests the blood of Christ and Annik agrees, believing something so holy would certainly kill him. Father Marell's beliefs about the Eucharist are tested and the results are unexpected. The healing power of Christ appears to know no bounds. Davis tells this story from Marell's point of view. The dialogue is succinct, giving us just enough details from the vampire's story to understand how out of control and dangerous he is. As for Marell, Davis provides enough psychological detail to highlight his doubts and fears. In a longer treatment, Davis might have provided more details to highlight the creepiness of the setting, two lone figures at night in a darkened chapel sharing communion.

"Angels of Stone," by Kelly Dillon

"Angels of Stone" is a strange story, haunting and beautiful in its simplicity. Much lies beneath the surface. After multiple readings I'm still puzzled but in a good way. The story is narrated by an angel who resides in a cathedral with only the stone gargoyles for companionship. The angel remarks on the past glories of creation and hints at the horrors of Lucifer's treachery and humanity's misunderstanding of angels. Each year, God visits the angel in human form, asking that the angel return with him to heaven, but each year the angel refuses, answering God's entreaties with "'I need more time yet.'" Many years later, the angel makes a decision. The ramifications are not clear but the result brings tears to God's eyes. In the comments to the story, Dillon states that "this short story is based in part on a novel that I’m looking to publish which deals with the Fall of Lucifer, the creation of the Nephilim, and many other misunderstood aspects of angelic mythology."

"In Hot Water: A Dragonson Vignette," by Walter G. Esselman

"In Hot Water" is a quirky tale with a serious side. The Lords of Bon Su Pear have asked two water nymphs--Regent and Brianna--to retrieve a mysterious box from a sunken ship. The Lords insist the box contains a bottle of cognac. Brianna brings along her playful spell otter, named SOS, whose fur glows blue. They retrieve the box with little trouble, but as they're leaving the ship, an adolescent sea monster--part bull, mostly fish--swallows SOS. Brianna wants to chase down the massive animal but Regent convinces her they need reinforcements. Brianna creates a diversion in the water, allowing Regent and Brianna to avoid their otter's fate but barely. The monster, properly called a Camahueto, isn't done yet. (They never are.) It lunges out of the water to attack the water nymphs and Lords. Regent manages to wound the beast but Brianna takes her revenge with some watergolems who hack it to a bloody, gooey mess. An argument over the box's contents ensues and the Lords reluctantly admit it contains a cure for Wailing Flu. According to tradition, the Lords must anonymously do something to help the people of the city each year, thus the secrecy about the box. Esselman mixes the strange, mundane, and dangerous for comic effect. The nymphs nearly die retrieving what they think is a bottle of booze. High officials asking others to risk their necks to further the interests of the officials is nothing new, and the innocent otter suffers more than anyone but not as much as you think. You'll have to read the story to find out what really happened to that furry, blue critter.

To learn more about editor Lyn Perry, visit his blogs at http://residentialaliens.blogspot.com/
and http://blogginoutloud.blogspot.com/.

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

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Thomas Clayton Booher
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
CSFF Blog Tour
Carol Bruce Collett
D. G. D. Davidson
Dean Hardy
Katie Hart
Ryan Heart

Bruce Hennigan
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Lyn Perry
Sarah Sawyer
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler

Short Stuff Take 8

2011-08-19T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Fisherman and the Syren

by Frederic Leighton (c. 1856–1858).

"The Dust of the Earth and the Foam of the Sea," by E. M. Biswell in Mindflights

In beautiful and haunting prose, Biswell tells the story of a dying boy's confrontation with love and immortality in "The Dust of the Earth and the Foam of the Sea." The narrator, Prince Maximilian, is dying of consumption. His mother believes saltwater to be an elixir and has banished him to a palace by the sea with his tutor, the very logical Mr. Alexander, as his only company. He grows weaker every day and passes his hours reading Socrates and Plato with his tutor. "I was too weak for swimming, too old for sandcastles and hope." One morning, he spies a young girl sitting on the palace steps with her feet in the water. She calls herself Hespatia. She is a mermaid, searching for an immortal soul, and asks Maximilian for help. "'If you love me—' she said." But, according to Mr. Alexander's teaching, there is no such thing as love or heaven or souls. Maximilian will return to dust and Hespatia will return to foam. Hespatia remains at the palace for three days and does her best to teach Maximilian to hope and to love someone other than himself. Hespatia and Mr. Alexander stand in contradiction and wage a war of ideas through Maximilian who has never sought beyond his tutor's teachings.

"Do you mean love and heaven when you say fairy tales and lies?" [Hespatia] asked. "If so, I would rather accept my lies than your truth, my foolishness than your wisdom."

"Clear eyes are better than false hope," [Mr. Alexander] said.

"Heaven is real," she said. "And so is love."

Maximilian finds joy in Hespatia's company, and though Mr. Alexander's teachings have a hold over his psyche, Marcus Aurelius' meditations provide little comfort to a dying boy. Who wins the war? You'll have to read the story to find out. It's well worth your time. I'm looking forward to more of E. M. Biswell's stories.

"The Tale of the Emperor’s Sighs," by Elizabeth Hopkinson in Silver Blade Magazine

The twenty-second Emperor of China is despondent. "Day after day, he would look out across his gold-roofed palace and sigh, his hand on his wasted cheek, his eyes filling with tears." His ministers gather to debate and hatch a plan to cure the Emperor of his woes. They order craftsmen to construct an enormous paper lantern with a dish of oil to burn and a basket in which the Emperor can ride. They believe that his spirits will be renewed if he rises above whatever is bothering him. The Emperor embarks on his journey upward. He passes an Abbott living high atop a mountain, greets the princes and princesses in the Palace of the Moon, and then stops when he reaches the Mountain of Paradise. He can rise no higher but his sadness persists. The Enlightened One tells the Emperor that his sadness is concern for the sorrows of the world. He sends the Emperor home on a cloud, telling him it “is made of all the sighs you have given for the sorrow and suffering of others. As long as your compassion continues, it will bear you up, until the time when you return to this mountain." The Emperor returns to earth with a heart filled with purpose. Hopkinson tells a beautiful fable in "The Tale of the Emperor’s Sighs." Her writing has the feel of something ancient and wise. The moral is thoroughly integrated with the plot. What a better place our world would be if every leader shared the concerns of Hopkinson's Emperor.

Story Out and Recent News

2011-08-09T14:09:00.000-07:00

Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm as

painted by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann (1855).

My story "The Hand with the Knife" is now available at Mindflights. This story retells the Grimm's fairy tale of the same title about a young girl, her malicious brothers, and an elf with a magical knife. The original, which you can find here, is only a few paragraphs long. My version adds substantial new material and a much more satisfying ending (in my opinion at least). There's also a shape-shifting wolf/man who eats one of the minor characters and a ferocious, wild boar with a penchant for walnuts. Here's an excerpt.

"That's quite a knife you've got there, sis," said Aulden.

"What knife?" Cordelia tucked it among the billowing folds of her skirt, shifting her eyes between her brothers and the outcrop.

The brothers laughed, and while the younger pair held her to the ground and muffled her cries, Aulden wrung the knife from her hand. He examined the runes then tested the blade against a strip of leather that gave way without resistance.

"It's not yours," she said.

"I'm afraid it is, sis. I'm going to say hello to your elf friend. Keep her quiet." Aulden swaggered toward the low hills that marked the trail head.

Cordelia cried out, but the wind carried her warning in the opposite direction and a hand, thick and muscular from farm labor, muffled any further cries. When the elf's hand appeared, Aulden raised the knife and swung it down, a flash of silvery light. The knife sliced through the elf's wrist, severing bone and cauterizing flesh. The elf's deep cry swept across the heath, a cry of betrayal that no wind could divert, the cry of a soul stabbed to the quick. The scream stung Cordelia's ears, ringing on and on as tears welled from her eyes.

In other news, my story "Wilson's Thicket" has been accepted for inclusion in Beneath the Pretty Lies, an anthology from Wicked East Press. The anthology's theme is betrayal and revenge. "Wilson's Thicket" is a contemporary ghost story set in a small town. The protagonist is a junior high boy who witnesses the murder of a teenage girl. At the moment of her death, the girl's spirit enters the protagonist's mind and uses him to carry out her revenge against her killer. The question for the boy is when will her revenge stop?

Recent News

2011-08-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

My story "A Mother's Gift" has been accepted by Silver Blade Magazine. The story centers on Queen Thestral, who has suffered four stillbirths. She cannot endure another one and asks a village woman skilled with herbs to guarantee her child's live birth. The herbal woman can offer no such help, only a spell to channel the child's pain to Thestral for the rest of the child's life. Is this a gift or something else? "A Mother's Gift" is slotted for Issue 11, which should be out in mid-August.

Short Stuff Take 7

2011-07-29T15:11:00.000-07:00

A Virgin with a Unicorn,

c. 1604-05, by Domenichino.

"The Unicorn Hunter," by Matti Lena Harris in Mindflights

Portivaul is looking for a virgin. No, it's not what you think. He needs someone innocent and pure to attract unicorns. Once plentiful in the King's forest, a vast expanse of oaks, the population of unicorns is dwindling from excessive poaching. As a magical animal, every part of the carcass is valuable on the black market. Portivaul claims that he is working for the King, doing a census and evaluation of the unicorn population, at least that what he tells Narissa, the desperate young girl who offers to be his virgin. Narissa agrees to be unicorn bait, not surprising as she was willing to sell herself for three coppers. Portivaul gives her five gold coins as an advance. They catch a glimpse of a unicorn on their first night in the forest and Narissa can talk of nothing else. Portivaul soon wearies of her enthusiasm. The next day, Narissa stands quietly in a clearing while Portivaul hides in a tree with his crossbow. He's told Narissa that the unicorn poachers are dangerous men and he is armed for their protection. A unicorn comes after waiting all day in a cold autumn wind and Narissa is transfixed. Portivaul watches Narissa's reaction and recalls the first time he saw a unicorn as a young boy, baiting them for his father, a unicorn hunter. They find two traps in the clearing. Portivaul says the traps are to break a unicorn's legs so that it can't run away from a hunter. Narissa demands that they hunt the unicorn hunters but Portivaul cautions against it. The next morning, Portivaul finds Narissa and his crossbow gone and begins a desperate search in which he'll find much more than unicorns and an innocent girl. "The Unicorn Hunter" speaks of loss and the power of innocence and the miraculous to overcome it. Narissa turns Portivaul's heart, taking him back to a time when he too appreciated the beauty of creation, embodied in the unicorn, for its own sake.

"For a Handful of Crowns," by Milo James Fowler in Linger Fiction

What if the Soviets had won the Cold War? What if a mysterious green cloud had washed over the United States of the early 1970s, leaving every American dumb, as in unable to speak, and unable to use their feet for walking? What would happen to all the shoe stores? If you're curious and don't mind some disturbing imagery, check out "For a Handful of Crowns." Milo posted on his blog that this story might be too disturbing to read. After hearing that I had to read it. "For a Handful of Crowns" centers on a boy and girl in Soviet-occupied America, crawling around a nursing home filled with desiccated cadavers. They can't talk so they have to use sign language to communicate. They're searching for crowns. I thought at first that crowns referred to British coins, kind of like A Fistful of Dollars, but it actually refers to dental work. They're after the gold which they can trade for food at a Soviet army commissary. All of this is illegal of course but tolerated. I won't spoil the fun by listing all the gross imagery except for one.

Jennifer’s eyes reminded him of cheese. Something about the way they oozed cream while she argued her point, like they were liquefying and he had to quick find some tortilla chips while the stuff was fresh.

This image echos throughout the piece. Is there any hope for people reduced to such desperate circumstances? Is there any hope if they can trade a handful of crowns for some cheese and chips? Maybe.

Remarks on The Ale Boy's Feast

2011-07-27T22:53:00.000-07:00

I learned a valuable lesson from Jeffrey Overstreet's The Ale Boy's Feast, the final novel in The Auralia Thread. You cannot read a book out of sequence in a series like The Auralia Thread and hope to appreciate it, no matter how many summaries or reviews you read of the previous books. I suspect this series is tightly integrated, more like The Lord of the Rings than the episodic Chronicles of Narnia. What's worse is that The Ale Boy's Feast is the last of the four-book series. All the threads are coming together at this point. It's like reading The Return of the King first. I had reservations when I started but the title sounded so intriguing that I decided to jump in. Like the Ale Boy, I suffered a long fall.

I was supposed to read The Ale Boy's Feast for the CSFF Blog Tour but I didn't finish in time. It took me an extra week. It's not the case that Overstreet's prose is laborious or the story difficult to follow. His prose and imagery are beautiful, the stories (there are multiple plot lines) are engaging, and the characters complex. The difficulty was fitting the parts of the stories together when I did not have first hand knowledge of the previous parts. While the resolution of the plot lines for Auralia, Cal-raven, and Rescue (a.k.a. the Ale Boy) are powerful, I couldn't help but think I was missing out on their significance and power.

The Ale Boy's Feast centers on the quest to find Inius Throan--an ancient, deserted city--where Cal-raven, the former king of House Abascar which is now in ruins, hopes to establish a new House Abascar from the scattered survivors of Abascar and anyone else who wants to join. The ancestors of Cal-raven and his people once lived in Inius Throan. The people of Abascar are scattered, some in captivity and some in exile. The Ale Boy plays a key role in rescuing some of the captives and leading them on a journey across the continent on an underground river. In broad outline, this tale shares some elements with the Exodus story. A downtrodden and defeated people journey through many hardships to return and reclaim their original homeland.

The source of evil in Overstreet's world is the Seers, a group of "fallen angels" who cannot create anything new but are highly skilled at perverting nature. The Seers have cursed the people of House Cent Regus, transforming them into hideous beastmen. They have perverted plants into deathweed, a fast-growing plant that kills people and animals. In their final act of evil, they transform trees into viscorclaws, branches that walk about like spiders and shred people with the points of their legs. The only weapon against the plants is fire and the only cure for the accursed beastmen is a very pure water from a well that has run dry.

I've only scratched the surface with my summary. There are dozens of characters in Overstreet's novel that I've not mentioned and many places--some not so pleasant--that I haven't sketched. I've added the other three books in the series--Auralia's Colors, Cyndere's Midnight, and Raven's Ladder--to my reading list. I want to know how this story began.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Ale Boy's Feast from the publisher.

Stories Out

2011-07-02T23:00:00.000-07:00

Two of my stories have been published in the last week. "The Wand" is available at Golden Visions Magazine for the next three months. You can read it here. "The Crooked House of Coins" appears in There Was a Crooked House... (An Anthology of Crooked Stories) from Pill Hill Press.

Here's an excerpt from "The Crooked House of Coins":

James stared at the scrolling flower reliefs that decorated the ceiling. Across the room, below a newly cleared wall, Nathan snored in his sleeping bag. James thought of Silas, falling or leaping from a window, watching the grass and rocks racing to meet him. Something moved on the ceiling. A vine of filigree slithered into an oval. Flowers contorted to bulging eyes. A single, broad leaf twisted into a mouth while stems with multiple flowers grew to bushy sideburns that edged a balding head. The lips contorted to a scream as the face, translucent and gray, fell toward him. James cried out and rolled into the wall.

Word of the Week: Panic

2011-07-01T14:14:00.000-07:00

So what do you think of when you hear the word panic? Do you think of a mob pounding on the doors of a closed bank, fire in a theater, or strange noises in a forest? Panic derives from the French word panique which derives from the Greek word panikon which means literally "pertaining to Pan." As a word for mass terror, panic came into usage in the 17th and 18th centuries. Its association with financial matters dates from the 1750s.

The god of wild places, shepherds, hunting, and rustic music, Pan has the hindquarters, legs, and horns of a goat but the torso, arms, and head of a man. Known for his famous flute and the ability to create groundless fear, people attributed mysterious sounds in the wild that frightened them to Pan. According to mythology, Pan aided Zeus in his battle with the Titans by voicing a horrible sound that frightened the Titans and sent them running. Another story suggests that Pan favored the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon and inspired panic in the hearts of the Persians.

Recent News

2011-06-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Philomela and Procne confront Tereus with

the head of his son Itys. (Peter Paul Rubens.)

Two bits of news to report. First, my flash story "A Gift from over the Sea" is up at Every Day Fiction. You can check it out here. Don't forget to vote. : )

I received word this week that Wicked East Press accepted my story "Tapestries of Betrayal" for their Greek Myths Revisited anthology. "Tapestries of Betrayal" revisits the story of Tereus, Procne, and Philomela. Ovid's telling from Book 6 of Metamorphoses is probably the best known version. Like most Greek myths, this story is rather brutal and centers on betrayal and revenge. The original's deus ex machina conclusion has Tereus, Procne, and Philomela transformed into birds whose traits match those of the human characters. I made some radical changes to the conclusion to give the tale a new twist.

Word of the Week: Clue

2011-05-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

Here's a word that has experienced a radical transformation from its original meaning to its present day usage, and it's all due to a famous story. If you asked someone in medieval England for a clue, they would not give you information to solve a mystery. Instead, they would hand you a ball of thread. The modern word clue is a phonetic variant of clew which meant a ball of thread or yarn. Used in northern English and Scottish, clew derived from the Old English word cliewen, which meant skein or ball. The modern sense of the word clue developed in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries when the word clew became associated with the ball of thread that the Greek hero Theseus used to find his way out of the Labyrinth.

Recent News

2011-05-17T06:42:00.000-07:00

My interview with Colin McKay Miller and commentary on his story “The Ocean Thief” is up on The Midnight Diner blog. "The Ocean Thief" is a short, humorous tale about a man who puts all the oceans into a book. People learn to muddle through without the oceans, but who is the Ocean Thief and what does it all mean? Check it out here.

On the fiction front, the editors at Everyday Fiction have accepted my flash story "A Gift from over the Sea." It's a coming of age story with a Viking/fantasy flavor. It's less than nine hundred words so if I explain any more, I'll be telling the whole story. The inspiration came from Charles Causley's poem "Nursery Rhyme of Innocence and Experience," which I heard set to music on Natalie Merchant's Leave Your Sleep. I borrowed the structure and theme. The editors say the story will be posted in June or July.

Recent News

2011-05-09T02:30:00.000-07:00

I received word that Pill Hill Press has accepted my story "The Crooked House of Coins" for their upcoming anthology There Was a Crooked House. This is the story of two cousins, some coins, and a haunted house. As the title suggests, the house is crooked. It leans to one side and becomes more crooked as the story progresses. The ghosts of the cousins' great-grandfather and uncle haunt the house in which their great-grandfather cached some 1933 Double Eagles, which are very rare and valuable coins. One cousin goes mad as the pair rip the house apart from the inside during their search for the coins. The ghosts become angry and one of the cousin suffers retribution. Written specifically for the crooked house anthology, this story has many parallels to Edgar Allan Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher."

In related news, the Pill Hill Press anthology How the West Was Wicked, which contains my story "Shafts to Hell," is now in print.

Exorcising the Mists

2011-05-05T17:30:00.000-07:00

An apt subtitle for Court Ellyn's novella Mists of Blackfen Bog might be "When Priests Go Bad" but that gives away too much of the story. Imaen, the protagonist and narrator, is a disillusioned priestess on a journey with her mentor, the Venerable Orn, to Fellwater, a hamlet in a remote corner of the realm.

For years Fellwater has suffered from hauntings, wraithlings that emerge from the mists as dusk settles on the bog. The spirits are lost and confused as they cannot for some mysterious reason enter Darashan's Valley, a paradise where all but the most evil go after death. The wraithlings have multiplied over the years and grown steadily more aggressive. Fearing that Darashan has cursed them, the villagers have resorted to human sacrifice--a victim chosen by lot each equinox--to assuage the god, but the curse remains. Braec, the village blacksmith whose daughter will soon be eligible for the lottery, has sent for the Darashani priests.

Imaen has lost her faith and has asked multiple times to be released from the priesthood, but Orn has refused. Imaen is not happy to be on this journey into a mosquito-infested backwater populated by suspicious yokels. As they travel along a dike in a cart pulled by a mule, Orn confides that freeing the bog from wraithlings is not their only task. The leaders of the order also want to know what happened to the Venerable Engrim and his acolytes. The last Darashani priest to serve in Blackfen Bog disappeared without a word years before.

Imaen's situation becomes only worse. Startled by a wraithling, the mule kicks Orn, who dies days later in Fellwater, leaving Imaen to face the wraithlings alone. From Braec, Imaen learns the horrific story of Engrim's descent into madness, his attempt to sacrifice the village children, and the fire at the temple that consumed Engrim and his acolytes. As Imaen suspected, the problem is not the curse of Darashan but that of Engrim and Imaen will have to journey beyond the grave to battle Engrim and save the children of Fellwater from more senseless sacrifices.

The marsh is a palpable presence in the story. Ellyn skilfully brings to life a world of water, dikes, and roundhouses on stilts. Far from merely providing atmosphere, the marsh limits Imaen as she cannot travel far in the bog or visit the ruins of the temple without a guide. Mists of Blackfen Bog is a compelling narrative, part fantasy and part ghost story, that deftly compares Imaen's physical journey to her spiritual journey. Through service and sacrifice, she rediscovers her faith and finds belonging in the most unlikely of places.

Court Ellyn kindly agreed to answer some questions about Mists of Blackfen Bog.

JC: Your story has echoes of Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery." Did that story or any others influence Mists of Blackfen Bog?

CE: Well, this is rather embarrassing, because until now I was unacquainted with Ms. Jackson and “The Lottery.” Shame on me. In truth, my reading list is rather limited, but I try to branch out to authors I’m not familiar with when I have the time. Surely there are elements in Mists that I drew from other books and stories, but I can’t pinpoint anything in particular.

The fact is that writers draw inspiration from everywhere, filing random bits of information away until they come of use. Mists was born one afternoon when I was tying my tennis shoes in preparation for a workout. In the background, the History Channel was playing an episode on the bog bodies found throughout northern Europe. I’d been fascinated for years with the mystery surrounding the unfortunate individuals chosen by a desperate society to suffer those gruesome deaths. The little butterflies started flapping in my stomach and my brain started churning, and that evening I started brainstorming the plot and characters.

JC: What were your sources for the character names?

CE: At the time I started writing Mists, I had recently read a collection of stories by Ursula K. Le Guin, in which her characters are named after things found in nature. So I certainly drew from that when naming side characters like Rue, Jonquil, Fallow, Crane, and Rook. The practice was appropriate, I felt, because of this culture’s limited exposure to the outside world. They would naturally draw names from elements in their surroundings. I wanted Braec’s name to reflect the brokenness of his people. Because Imaen and Orn are outsiders, their names follow a different pattern. I have no idea where their names came from, except that they must’ve whispered them in my ear.

JC: I like the setting with the marsh, the dikes, and the round houses on stilts. What inspired the setting and how did the marsh enrich the story?

CE: Because of what initially inspired the story, it only seemed appropriate to set it in a Celtic/Scandinavian-style culture with thatched roundhouses, coracle-style boats, etc.

Originally, the story did not open with a description of the marsh. I jumped right into Imaen’s argument with Orn. But later, I wanted to show that the marsh is as much a character as Imaen or Braec or Jonquil; it is the element that has shaped the culture and mindset of the people living in it. So during revisions the setting got pushed to the forefront, literally, to emphasize its importance and the part it would play in the events to come. Obviously, I felt the setting important enough to give it a place in the title.

Now, could this story have taken place in a desert with mummified sacrifices instead? Probably. But there’s a darker ambiance with water. One cannot often see beneath the surface. But more importantly, in some cultures water was viewed as a doorway to the otherworld, the glassy surface a barrier between the human world and the fairy or spirit world. Throughout Mists there are several references to these dividing lines: twilight, the shoreline, characters standing on thresholds between rooms, and, of course, the equinox, that gateway between winter and spring. So the watery world in Mists takes on great significance for that reason.

JC: Growth through service and sacrifice looms large in Imaen's story. Please comment on her spiritual journey.

CE: Imaen’s spiritual journey is very much inspired by my own journey. If the best advice is to write what one knows, then I’m certainly qualified to write about spiritual turmoil. I was at war with God for years. And I’m not ashamed to admit that because that struggle finally led me into a deep relationship of trust and affection with Him, and a far deeper understanding of who He is and who I am to Him.

I think it’s necessary for everyone of any faith to go through a period of questioning; otherwise, one accepts what one is told without establishing that that faith is one’s own. In Mists, a tragedy has uprooted Imaen’s faith, which is a common story, one I think many readers will be able to identify with. Through a series of events she must settle the question of her faith because her answer determines the actions she is willing to take on behalf of these troubled people.

JC: Some Christians deride fantasy for promoting paganism. Please discuss your views on the role of religion in fantasy worlds.

CE: I love C.S. Lewis’s reference to Deep Magic in his Narnia stories. If there was ever a fantasy writer who was NOT promoting paganism, it was C.S. Lewis.

Religion is one of those fundamental human needs; whether you ascribe to a faith or deride all faiths, you are cleaving to something you believe in. So touching on religious issues in fantasy is (1) realistic when building a fantasy world that reflects, in any way, our own, and (2) resonates in the human reader, either positively or negatively. So the writer will succeed in producing some kind of subconscious or emotional reaction in their readers when religion (of whatever kind) comes into play.

I have discovered on my own writing journey that my faith cannot be suppressed. It eventually rises in some shape in my fiction, whether that is through fictional deities or spiritual struggles. Usually both. If the spiritual element is missing from a story I’m writing, I usually find myself asking, “Why am I bothering with this? Where is the deeper message?” Sometimes I can answer those questions and continue with the project. Other times I can’t answer them and scrap the story as empty blather.

Now, I feel it’s very important to add that even in my stories which feature pantheons of fictional deities, the last goal I’m aiming for is to promote a faith not my own. Nor is it my goal to preach my faith to anyone. The goal is to explore the human being in relationship with, or fighting against, a higher power. Every human being copes with this struggle at one time or another, whether they claim allegiance to a deity or claim no deity exists at all. In my fiction, this struggle just happens to take place in a world I made up myself.

JC: Imaen is a strong female character as are Hetwyn and Rue. However, Imaen's freedom is circumscribed by men. Orn will not allow her to leave the priesthood and she cannot travel the bogs without Braec as a guide. Please comment on the tensions between the genders in Mists of Blackfen Bog.

CE: Honestly, I hadn’t given much thought to gender issues in this particular story. I was more focused on a clash between cultures than a clash between genders. But I see your point. The fact that a female priestess served the bog-dwellers before Imaen comes upon the scene and the fact that another female serves them afterward, I think demonstrates that at least among Imaen’s own culture, gender is less an issue than among the bog-dwellers themselves. The society of the bog-dwellers is clearly patriarchal, but those strong female characters, like Rue and Hetwyn, show that it’s not oppressively so, by any means. Those women dominate their spheres of influence with plenty of spunk.

JC: Do you have plans for any other stories set in the Blackfen Bog world?

CE: The world of Tanerra is very broad with several vastly different eras to explore for material. So Mists is not the first story I’ve written that takes place there, nor will it be the last. Last July, my story “Fire Eater” was published in a special addition of Kaleidotrope. Like Mists the tale is also set in the kingdom of Rahn on the world of Tanerra. It involves a prison for non-human criminals and, you guessed it, a priestess who wishes to help one prisoner in particular find redemption. It does not go as she hopes.

My goal in the long term is to collect all the tales of Tanerra into one big, fat volume for readers to enjoy. Whether or not that happens—and when—remains to be seen.

Recent News

2011-05-03T13:00:00.000-07:00

I've been busy lately so I've fallen behind on announcements. "Why the Squonk Weeps" is now up at Digital Dragon. Also, Mindflights has accepted "The Hand with the Knife." This story retells the Grimm's fairy tale of the same title. It's the story of a girl, her malicious brothers, and an elf with a magical knife. The original, which you can find here, is only a few paragraphs long. My version adds a substantial amount of new material and a much more satisfying ending (in my opinion at least). There's also a shape-shifting wolf/man for any werewolf fans.

Writing Under the Blade

2011-04-20T20:50:00.000-07:00

I have a new post up at The Midnight Diner blog entitled "Writing Under the Blade." I like the title so much that I'm using it twice. I discuss how the Write1Sub1 experiment has benefited my writing and productivity. And in a round about way, I equate Write1Sub1 to the grim reaper. If that doesn't pique your interest then nothing will.

An Acceptance

2011-04-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

I received a note from the editor at Digital Dragon Magazine informing me that my story "Why the Squonk Weeks" has been accepted for their April edition. This is a short fairy tale and my Write1Sub1 story for February. It's been through several rewrites so I'm overjoyed it has finally found a home. A squonk is a mythical beast of American origin known for being ugly and perpetually weeping. The story also addresses trickery and the vagaries of magic. Sometimes the best laid plans can bite your backside, literally.

Interview at Midnight Diner

2011-04-01T12:52:00.000-07:00

Some commentary and an interview with me regarding my story "The Princess and the Vampire" has been posted here on The Midnight Diner blog. Thanks to Eric Ortlund for the commentary and interview.

Sorry for the confusion. The interview is actually up as of today, April 6. It was posted briefly on the first then unposted.

An Acceptance

2011-03-25T01:45:00.000-07:00

I'm thrilled to report that my short story "Shafts to Hell" has been accepted for publication in How the West Was Wicked, a new anthology from Pill Hill Press. According to the description of the anthology on the call for submissions page:

How the West Was Wicked is an anthology of WEIRD WESTERN fiction with dark overtones and elements of horror. Let the imagination go crazy.

"Shafts to Hell" centers on a gold miner driven insane by claustrophobia who commits a grisly murder and then contemplates the nature of Hell while awaiting his hanging. I'm aiming for a story with an unreliable narrator in the "The Cask of Amontillado" tradition. Be forewarned. "Shafts to Hell" is extremely creepy and not for the faint of heart.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Resurrection Day Three

2011-03-23T11:35:00.000-07:00

A story without vivid characters is just a series of events that most likely doesn't engage us. Mike Duran's characters from The Resurrection engage us. Their physical descriptions are memorable and they are "real" people with idiosyncrasies and lives beyond the events of the story. Duran creates a sense of depth, that the characters are moving from point A to point B in their lives and then the young boy's resurrection throws up a road block in everyone's path.

For my survey of the characters, I'll begin with the creepiest and work my way up.

Mr. Cellophane--Clark's name for him--is the "thing" that haunts Clark's church office, hovering in a corner at the end of a bookcase. It's never clear exactly what Mr. Cellophane is: ghost, disembodied spirit, demon, or something else. In a short essay at the end of the novel, Duran discusses the various possibilities and their theological implications but never answers the question. "What I am advocating," Duran writes, "is a world view that tolerates (at least in a 'fictional' sense) a being that defies neat categorization" (p. 300). Duran's description of Mr. Cellophane is rich and memorable.

The specter ... watched him with sallow eyes. An opaque, gauzy sheath seemed to cloak the presence. Pale organs throbbed beneath its translucent skin. It appeared to be a young man, or the remnants of one, caught between worlds (p. 1).

Mr. Cellophane is one of Clark's many secrets, issues that he would like to ignore. Clark fears the specter will one day materialize during a meeting with a parishioner or, worse yet, the elders. Mr. Cellophane appears to Ruby when she meets with Clark to discuss the resurrection and communicates with her. Later, we learn that the apparition is connected with the gifts that Professor Keen has been sending to Clark. Later in the story, Mr. Cellophane turns up and performs some pyrotechnics at an opportune moment for Clark's well-being.

Weighing in at number two on the creepy scale is Professor Benjamin Keen who once taught at Clark's seminary but was forced to resign for his heretical beliefs. Keen has since become an anthropologist, focusing on religion, and has recently published a book titled The Myth of Religion. Keen lives on an isolated ranch decorated with ritual masks gathered during his travels. He also keeps a manservant named Mr. O and a squawking parrot named Jade. Keen is a proponent of syncretism and heads a coterie of like-minded intellectuals into which Keen is anxious to introduce Clark. Keen frequently refers to Clark as the "Wandering Soul," an epitaph which Clark later learns to his horror has a very specific meaning. When Clark attends the meeting of the syncretism group, Keen shows him a room dedicated to the pantheons of various pagan religions. A stone altar rests on a dais at the room's center and an obsidian dagger is on display. On closer inspection, Clark realizes that the altar is not decorative. It has been used.

A number of minor creepy characters also warrant mention. In Purple Maze, one of the downtown occult shops, Ruby and her prayer group friends encounter Gwen, the store's owner. The store occupies the land on which White Creek Chapel once stood. Gwen is plump with pomegranate-dyed hair and green fingernails shaped to points. She keeps a massive iguana as a pet and considers herself a witch although her incantations have no effect on Ruby and friends. Gwen also hates Christians. Coy Barkham, a wealthy businessman whose roots in the community go back multiple generations, is the head of the board of elders at Canyon Springs Community Church. He is intimidating physically with a forceful personality to match. The elders bend to his will. Barkham's grandfather profited from the fire that destroyed White Creek Chapel, which occupied prime real estate and therefore stood in the way of commercial development. Clark's historical research uncovers Barkham's business connections but he is unprepared for the depth of Barkham's greed and duplicity. Mace Wilflee is a reporter for the Rippington Weekly, a tabloid that wants a piece of Ruby's story. Wilflee is sleazy and annoying and above all, relentless in his pursuit of some kind of story. Duran's description says it all.

[Wilflee] wore wraparound sunglasses, the kind that looked very cool or very trendy, depending on one's hipster IQ. His hair was short and spiky with bleached ends; his polyester shirt was unbuttoned enough to expose a tanned chest draped with excessive jewelry (p. 122).

Ian Clark and Ruby Case serve as the protagonists for The Resurrection and everything is seen through their perspectives. The events transform both of them. Clark moves past the tragedies of his past, regains his purpose and passion for life, and surprises the villains with his new found will to fight for his beliefs. Ruby, who has suffered all her life from a bad hip which causes her to limp, finds her faith reinvigorated. Never one to put herself forward, she accepts leadership when it is thrust upon her and appears willing to make whatever sacrifice necessary for the good of the community.

In his science fiction trilogy, C. S. Lewis describes a universe in which spiritual forces of good and evil are battling over control of Earth, known as the silent planet because the forces of evil occupy it. The fight has been raging for ages with humans wittingly or unwittingly choosing sides. Duran's story presents a similar worldview. Greed leads such characters as Barkham to drift toward the dark side while power appears the chief motivator for Keen. Complacency, as typified by Clark early in the novel, allows those such as Barkham and Keen to operate unchallenged.

If you're looking for a page-turner that will also challenge your concept of the spiritual world, find yourself a copy of The Resurrection.

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

To read more about Mike Duran and his writing, visit his web site at http://mikeduran.com/.

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

Noah Arsenault
Brandon Barr
Red Bissell
Book Reviews By Molly
Keanan Brand
Kathy Brasby
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Melissa Carswell
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Carol Bruce Collett
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Wanda Costinak
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Janey DeMeo
Cynthia Dyer
Tori Greene
Nikole Hahn
Katie Hart
Joleen Howell
Bruce Hennigan
Becky Jesse

Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Carol Keen
Emily LaVigne
Shannon McNear
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Mirtika
Joan Nienhuis
Nissa
John W. Otte
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Andrea Schultz
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
Donna Swanson
Jessica Thomas
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: The Resurrection Day One

2011-03-21T14:19:00.000-07:00

The Resurrection, Mike Duran's debut novel, follows the struggles of Ruby Case and Reverend Ian Clark as they grapple with the aftermath of a miracle and the dark forces that hold sway in the small coastal town of Stonetree. The novel combines aspects of a thriller, ghost story, and detective story. Duran attacks the evils of greed and complacency but his prose is never preachy. The characters and their stories remain always at the forefront.

The story begins with a haunting and a vision. Ever since accepting the position at Canyon Springs Community Church, Clark has been visited by a ghost in his office. The translucent figure of a young man hovers near the end of a bookcase but says nothing. Clark, whose faith and ministry are in steep decline, has taken to ignoring the apparition until it goes away, a metaphor for Clark's approach to his life's problems. He intends to resign in days and leave the ministry behind. The vision appears to Ruby on a Sunday morning during her weekly prayer meeting with her two friends. Duran describes her vision with precise and engaging details.

It was stark in its simplicity: an immense gray tree with barren, arthritic limbs tilted on a high hill. Behind it stretched an unending curtain of crimson sky.... The tree towered over her, its skeletal limbs like a vast umbrella speckled with blackbirds.... As she studied it, her thoughts went to a single leaf blooming on a craggy bough, bright and green like newly sprung grass (p. 4).

The tree is an ancient, dead oak in an abandoned cemetery at the top of a high bluff overlooking the ocean and the town of Stonetree. That evening, Ruby attends the funeral of a co-worker's child. Ruby touches the body when filing past with the other mourners and to everyone's shock, the boy sits up in his casket, alive and disoriented. It appears that a genuine miracle has occurred.

Some hail Ruby as a saint and healer. A long line of the sick and desperate come to her home for help, and despite her husband's advice to ignore them, Ruby cannot turn them away although her efforts to perform another miracle fail. Other elements in the community have a different take on Ruby's miracle. Some are skeptical that anything really miraculous has happened. One of the church elders argues that God doesn't speak through housewives. The elders of Ruby's church vote to downplay the incident. Clark acquiesces to the chairman's strong-arm tactics, but he believes something has happened and whatever it is has challenged his beliefs and interrupted his plans to flee the ministry. Another element in the town, centered in a row of shops in the town square that sell occult paraphernalia, is fearful. The morning after the miracle, Ruby and her husband discover a strange figurine made of plant and animal parts in their front yard with a cryptic message inside.

The plot of The Resurrection is complicated. Working in parallel and later together, Ruby and Clark delve into the history of the town of Stonetree and the curse which casts a shadow over the region. Clark and Ruby come face-to-face with evil and Clark barely escapes a sacrificial altar. I will not try to summarize the events and discoveries here. I won't do the story justice and I don't want to spoil your fun if you have not read the novel. It's a cliche to say that "you feel like you're there" when reading a book, but that compliment is especially applicable to Duran's writing. He builds up his characters and their environment with telling details. As a tree-lover, I am particularly impressed with the range of trees that Duran mentions.

Duran populates his story with a wide array of fascinating and well-drawn characters in addition to Ruby and Clark. Tomorrow, I'll discuss some of the major characters.

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

To read more about Mike Duran and his writing, visit his web site at http://mikeduran.com/.

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

Another Diner Post

2011-03-18T20:59:00.000-07:00

I have another post up at The Midnight Diner blog. This one spotlights Brian J. Hatcher and his story "The Clockworks of Hell." It's a fascinating story about a minister and a curious timepiece, reminiscent of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." You can read the whole story in The Midnight Diner, Volume 3.

Midnight Diner Post

2011-03-10T13:33:00.000-08:00

I volunteered to be a columnist for the Midnight Diner. My first post (Blinded by the Light: Spotlight on Eric Ortlund’s “A Thousand Flowers”) is now up at the Diner site. It features an interview with Eric and some commentary on his story. Look for more of these in the future as I spotlight the stories from The Midnight Diner.

Write 1 Sub 1

2011-02-28T13:50:00.000-08:00

Have you wondered what that Write 1 Sub 1 Monthly badge in the left-hand gutter of my blog is? It's a collection of writers who have committed to writing and submitting on a regular basis, following the example of Ray Bradbury, who used to write and submit a short story every week. The challenge is the brainchild of Milo Fowler, Simon Kewin, and Stephen V. Ramey and comes in two flavors--weekly or monthly. I wimped out and chose the monthly option. (To put a positive spin on it, you could say I was being honest.) Every week or month, members check in with a comment to let everyone know what the writer has accomplished or not. It's a self-imposed deadline with self-imposed public humiliation looming over those who don't keep up. It's about discipline, or as Bradbury says, "writing persistently." Check out the W1S1 blog to see how members are doing and the video in which Bradbury talks about his approach.

So far I'm keeping up. I've completed new stories for January and February and have ideas for several more. The story for March is underway. If I'm particularly inspired this coming month, I might even crank out two tales. W1S1 is pushing me to write shorter stories, which is a good thing since it's hard to sell the mammoth pieces I normally come up with. Along with revisions of older stories and rewrite requests, I'm keeping the ink in my pens flowing. Unfortunately, the blog has to suffer some neglect.

Point Your Browser at The Tolkien Professor

2011-02-17T08:58:00.000-08:00

Do you long to hear serious discussions of fantasy literature that treat it as a legitimate and thoughtful form of literary expression? Well, as Bob the Tomato and Larry the Cucumber would say, have we got a website for you! Check out The Tolkien Professor. Dr. Corey Olsen, medievalist and assistant professor of English at Washington College has assembled an extensive collection of lectures, conversations, and classroom discussions that give fantasy literature thoughtful attention. There's more material here than you can shake a massive trilogy that's really one long novel with appendices at. The site is a work in progress, but the material already available (high-quality audio and free, by the way) bodes great things to come.

So, you might ask, why is Olsen assembling and releasing all this material? Olsen explains:

I have become increasingly frustrated with the separation between academics and general readers, and I am determined to come out of the cloister and spend my own career sharing my scholarly work with the public. I founded this website because I wanted to connect with other people who are eager to be included in a thoughtful literary conversation about the works of J.R.R. Tolkien.

Your first stop should be the introductory lecture: "How to Read Tolkien and Why." Olsen offers an interesting explanation for the marginalization of Tolkien's works and fantasy in general. Unlike Tom Shippey, who argues that Tolkien's close association with philology in the face of rising interest in other literary studies brought scholarly derision on Tolkien's works, Olsen posits that the problem is Tolkien's Christian worldview, which is currently out of fashion among many intellectuals. If you are a materialist and believe all that exists is the physical world, then fantasy, which explores other worlds, is likely to seem a rather silly and not very serious pursuit. Why not write about the real world? Olsen also supports Tolkien's belief that the life of a writer is not all that important to understanding their work and dives into the works themselves, giving little attention to Tolkien's life. It's not surprising that medievalists would hold this opinion. For most medieval writers, we are lucky to know their name.

If you're a fan of The Hobbit, you will be pleased to find a series of eight lectures devoted to Bilbo Baggins' adventure. Olsen discusses the book in great detail, noting the many ways Tolkien manipulates language and events in the story to achieve broader effects. The series is in progress, a little over half finished. Olsen promises to give a similar treatment to The Lord of the Rings. Olsen also let's us sit in on his undergraduate Tolkien course from spring 2010. In forty lectures, he covers "On Fairy-Stories", a few of Tolkien's shorter works, The Silmarillion, The Hobbit, and The Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, he doesn't cover "Farmer Giles of Ham," but I can forgive him for that omission. Faerie and Fantasy is an undergraduate course for spring 2011. Olsen surveys fantastical works from the middle ages to the present. There's much more than I've covered in this brief summary.

Fantastic Anachronisms

2011-02-04T12:17:00.000-08:00

Aristotle, portrayed in the Nuremberg

Chronicle (1493) in 15th-century garb.

I was reading a fantasy novel last night when I came across one character saying to another, "Don't be so melodramatic." There's nothing too extraordinary about that phrase. We hear it all the time. So why did I stop reading? Why did that line interrupt the all important fictional dream? Because the setting for this particular story is very medieval and melodramatic is a relatively modern word. Websters lists its first recorded usage as 1808, nowhere near the Middle Ages. So, when I read the character's statement, I said to myself "That's an anachronism," and stopped thinking about the action in the story.

To be fair to the author, the story's fantasy world is not our own and has a different history, so maybe melodramas have already been developed in the story's world. However, there has been no discussion of dramaturgy in the story, so the reader doesn't know what types of dramas have been developed. The only thing the reader has to go on is what has already happened in the story and what the reader can fill in based on knowledge of similar periods from our world's history.

The fantasy writer whose setting is analogous to a historical period from our world's history faces a particular problem with language. The writer must be careful about using modern terms or figures of speech and if they are used, the writer must establish that such language is appropriate to the fantasy world. The challenge to avoid unintentional anachronisms is much easier said than done.

Does anyone else notice these types of slips when reading historical fantasy? Do they bother you?

Interview with Kersten Hamilton

2011-01-19T19:37:00.000-08:00

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.

An Acceptance

2011-01-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

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.

Word of the Week: Wyvern

2011-01-12T20:44:00.000-08:00

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.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Wolf of Tebron Day Three

2011-01-04T22:28:00.000-08:00

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

2011-01-04T13:06:00.000-08:00

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:

CSFF Blog Tour: The Wolf of Tebron Day One

2011-01-03T09:33:00.000-08:00

This 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:

CSFF Blog Tour: The Charlatan's Boy Day Three

2010-12-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

In my previous posts, I steadfastly avoided giving away the ending of The Charlatan's Boy. However, in order to highlight the novel's irony and remark on some of its themes, you have to know the ending, which is really the end of the beginning of Grady's life rather than the conclusion of anything. So, if you haven't read the book yet, and you should read it, stop reading if you don't want the ending spoiled.

Floyd and Grady succeed brilliantly creating a new Feechie scare. Grady does much of the legwork, tromping around through the forests at night to set off the noise maker, shoot arrows into barns and even moving wagons, and shout Feechie war cries. Grady witnesses first hand the terror that the noise maker can create. While out in the woods leaving Feechie signs one night, some hunters and their dogs tree Grady, thinking he is a raccoon. When the hunters start to chop down the tree, Grady sounds the noise maker. The hounds run away yelping and the hunters follow closely behind. Grady also demonstrates his ingenuity. He hangs the noise maker in a stand of pines with ropes and pulleys such that when the wind blows, the noise maker will sound its horrible bellowing. One night in the woods, Grady hears a strange cry that he knows must be a bog owl. According to Feechie folklore, the Feechies use that call to signal to one another. Grady is thrilled to finally hear something about which he has heard so much talk. At the Middenmarsh stock market, Grady's Feechie antics convince cattle drovers from all over Corenwald that the Feechies are on the move. Everyone is talking about Feechies and Floyd and Grady are able to revive the Feechie act. However, people are no longer just curious about Feechies. The scare has worked a little too well, and people are now frightened of Feechies to the point that they are prepared to do violence to them. Floyd and Grady make some alterations. Floyd ties a rope around Grady when he's in Feechie costume so that the villagers won't be afraid that he'll get away and kill them. Grady again feels that he is doing honest acting work.

As Floyd predicted, giving people a little push in the right direction is all it takes to manipulate public opinion. People want a show, and many will give up a few coppers to be entertained. As I was reading The Charlatan's Boy, I was struck by the similarities between writers and hucksters like Floyd. Both try to entertain. Both make things up and attempt to render a bunch of lies believable. Perhaps a writer is simply an honest huckster, one that admits that what he is selling is fiction.

Short-eared Owl, also known by

the common name Bog Owl.

Floyd decides to take the new Feechie act to the Tambluff stock market. In the town square, they find a slew of hucksters attempting to cash in on the Feechie craze. Floyd is angry. He doesn't like to share the benefits of his work. Floyd and Grady quickly prove to have the superior act and the crowd, which is very hostile to Grady the Feechie, drifts from the other acts to Floyd's wagon, but then some farmers show up with someone in a cage on a hay wagon. The farmers claim they caught their Feechie in a net near the Bayberry swamp. Floyd and Gardy are impressed as the Feechie looks very much like a Feechie, very much like Grady. Even stranger, the farmers are not trying to take any money from people. They tell their story and display their Feechie for free. As the crowd drifts toward the farmers, Floyd orchestrates a diversion. He falls from the wagon, claiming that Grady has gotten loose. In the ruckus that ensues, the crowd comes close to seriously harming Grady, but Floyd does nothing to save him. Floyd disowns Grady--apparently having a live Feechie is no longer necessary for his act--and the crowd tosses Grady in the cage with the farmers' Feechie. They stare at each other and Grady experiences a strange sense of recognition and familiarity. Then, the unthinkable occurs. An army of Feechies, whom all resemble Grady, come over the rooftops, making the bog owl bark and terrifying the people. The Feechies break open the cage. The Feechie in the cage beckons for Grady to join them. The Feechies are real, and Grady is one of them. As Grady learns when he arrives in the heart of the swamp, he has Feechie parents and they did lose him when they hid him under a palmetto bush.

The revelations in the novel's final chapters cast an ironic light on the story. Rogers has masterfully plotted his story, laying a field of mines that all go off when Grady's true identity is revealed. The story we thought we were reading becomes a different story. Floyd's most unbelievable tale about Grady's past is true and Floyd is shown to be a cruel liar. Grady feels such an affinity for playing a Feechie because he is a Feechie. Much of the folklore that Floyd and Grady use to add authenticity to their act has a basis in fact. As Grady's story suggests, the roots of myth and legend are often sunk in reality, a forgotten reality that seems too fantastic to believe.

Photo Credit: Short-eared Owl -- Amherst Island, Ontario, Canada -- 2006 February. Attributed to Mdf. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Charlatan's Boy from the publisher.

To learn more about the Jonathan Rogers, visit his website at http://jonathan-rogers.com/.

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

Sally Apokedak
Amy Bissell
Red Bissell
Jennifer Bogart
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Beckie Burnham
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Andrea Graham
Tori Greene
Katie Hart
Bruce Hennigan
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie

Carol Keen
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
Donita K. Paul
SarahFlan
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
Kathleen Smith
James Somers
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Fred Warren
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: The Charlatan's Boy Day Two

2010-12-07T00:01:00.000-08:00

As I noted in yesterday's post, the driving force behind Grady's story is his search for belonging and identity. Ignorant of or indifferent to Grady's needs, Floyd allows Grady to drift and assume whatever identity is advantageous to Floyd's schemes. During the Feechie-act, Grady identifies himself as a Feechie; later he takes on the persona of a phrenologist's assistant; at the worst of times, Grady is merely a useful sidekick, someone to share the work. More than once, Grady wonders if Floyd might be his father, but Floyd never acknowledges him as a son. Remarking on why he keeps Grady around, Floyd says, "'I reckon I'm too tenter-hearted for my own good. But I hope you'll make yourself useful'" (p. 43).

So why does Grady not leave Floyd and strike off on his own? Following the demise of the ugly boy routine, Floyd tells Grady that he's not a Feechie, just a very ugly boy that his mother did not want, and that his loss in the ugly contest proves it. No civilizer boy could beat a Feechie for ugliness, at least according to common wisdom. Grady considers leaving, but decides against it.

Truth is, I forgave Floyd because I didn't know what else to do. I didn't have another person in the world but Floyd, and it hurt to have him disappointed in me.... It's a dangerous business, seeking the good opinion of a feller as unscrupulous as Floyd, but I kept after it (p. 42).

Later that day, the pair enter the town of Little Reedy and go to Short Fronie's public house, where Floyd hopes to win some money at cards. (Rogers populates the story with evocative and humorous names for people and places.) Floyd picks Ten-Finger Walter--a struggling phrenologist who is not very good at phrenology or cards--as his mark. While Floyd plays, Grady sits at the bar, telling Short Fronie about his troubles. Short Fronie is rough with the customers but has a tender heart for Grady and offers to let him stay with her. She's offering to become his mother. Grady has the opportunity of a lifetime thrust before him. He could become a villager and belong some place. Grady is overwhelmed and watches Floyd's card game as he tries to get his head around Fronie's offer. Floyd's game is going poorly, but Grady notices something about the way Ten-Finger eats his peanuts. During a break in the game, Grady tells Floyd what he has observed: when Ten-Finger has a good hand, he throws the shells on the floor, otherwise he puts them on the table. Armed with Grady's scouting report, Floyd makes short work of Ten-Finger, fleecing him for all his money and his phrenology equipment. Floyd tells Grady that he "saved the day." Grady tells Fronie he's sorry and then follows Floyd out the door.

Rogers presents a fascinating scene here that works on several levels. We move forward in the story from the ugly boy routine to phrenology. We see just how unscrupulous Floyd is. He has no qualms about pushing his advantage and taking everything from Ten-Finger. What's to stop him from doing the same to Grady? We're also left wondering why someone would not take the golden egg when it's presented to them. Are a few complimentary words from Floyd more valuable than a life of love and security with Fronie? Does Grady love Floyd as a parent? As Grady is well-aware, he has known no one else or any other life. Having proven himself useful, Grady is back in Floyd's good graces and opts to continue with the familiar, however unwise his choice appears.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Charlatan's Boy from the publisher.

To learn more about the Jonathan Rogers, visit his website at http://jonathan-rogers.com/.

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

CSFF Blog Tour: The Charlatan's Boy Day One

2010-12-05T23:09:00.000-08:00

For this month's CSFF blog tour, we're reviewing Jonathan Rogers' The Charlatan's Boy, a charming picaresque story about hucksters and Feechies (more about them later), in which the narrator/protagonist makes a startling discovery concerning his identity. The action takes place in Corenwald, an island colony of farms, cattle ranches, mines and inhospitable swamps. Much of Corenwald's produce is shipped back to the continent from which the "civilizers" came. The setting has a nineteenth-century feel to it, probably because I associate it with nineteenth-century America as opposed to anything the author is doing. Firearms of any kind are distinctly absent. When hunters chase Grady across a swamp with their dogs and tree him, thinking he is a raccoon, they shoot at him with bows and arrows. The indigenous people of Corenwald are known as Feechies, a reclusive people who live in the swamps and generally avoid contact with the civilizers. The Feechies are so reclusive that many civilizers doubt their existence. Despite their pseudo-mythical status, Feechies have well-known traits. They are ugly, small, wiry, wear muskrat pelts, cover themselves with mud, wrestle alligators, and live in swamps. Corenwalders also consider them wild and dangerous.

Grady, the boy from the title, tells his story in a dialect reminiscent of the rural American South. To Rogers' credit, he maintains the dialect throughout the narrative, and coming from Grady and the other characters, the language sounds natural and unaffected. (Warning to parents: if you're hoping your children will learn sound grammar and diction from reading this book, they won't, but they might pick up a truth or two about human nature.) Grady's voice is infectious and works with his innocent honesty to endear him to the reader. Consider the following paragraph from the opening chapter:

I don't care who you are--when it comes to knowing where you come from, you got to take somebody else's word for it. That's where things has always got ticklish for me. I only know one man who might be able to tell me where I come from, and that man is a liar and a fraud (p. 2).

That's the crux of the story: who is Grady; where did he come from; who are his parents? Grady desperately wants answers to those questions and he dreams of having a proper home with loving parents. Instead, Grady has Floyd, the charlatan from the title. Grady's earliest memories are riding in Floyd's wagon. Floyd has told Grady many stories about his early life. In one version, Floyd says that he found Grady crying under a palmetto bush and took pity on him. Grady finds it hard to believe that Floyd would take pity on anyone. In a crueler story, Floyd claims to have bought Grady from a circus man, mistaking him for a monkey. Floyd tells another story in which Grady's mother gives the boy to Floyd because he's too ugly to keep. By most standards, Grady is ugly. He is short and wiry with close set eyes, one blue and one green. He has a single eyebrow stretching across his forehead and his small ears stick straight out. His weak chin is difficult to distinguish from his neck. Grady looks much like everyone's idea of a Feechie and according to Grady, "If you want to know the truth, I'm pretty sure that's why Floyd kept me" (p. 3).

At the start of the novel, Floyd and Grady are making their living from the Feechie-trade. They travel from village to village, putting on a show in which Grady stars as a genuine he-feechie and Floyd charges people a few coppers hear a lecture about the times he spent in the swamps with the Feechies. Floyd proves masterful at working a crowd and Grady plays the part of a Feechie to perfection. However, people eventually stop believing in Feechies, and Floyd has to come up with a different scam. Grady came to think of himself as a Feechie while they performed the Feechie shows and later looked back fondly on the feechie-trade as "honest" work. Floyd's next idea is to parade Grady around as the ugliest boy in the world and bet villagers that they do not have an uglier boy living in their village. This works until they meet a boy in a mining town that beats Grady for ugliness. They next try phrenology and do quite well. As Grady understands, the key to being a charlatan is reading people and Floyd is a master at it. He makes very educated guesses about people's traits and what they want to hear. The phrenology business comes to an end when an angry customer destroys their equipment. Grady tells a father the truth about a prospective son-in-law who is only interested in the daughter's dowry and tries to bribe Grady for a favorable reading. After trying some less than successful schemes, Floyd hits on a new idea, a grand scheme to bring back the good old days of the Feechie-trade. Floyd concocts a plan to create his own Feechie scare. They create arrows and spears from flint and a noise-maker that bellows like a swamp monster. The idea is to make strange noises in the forests and swamps near villages and shoot "Feechie" arrows in the sides of houses and barns. Floyd believes that if enough people talk about Feechies, people will start believing in Feechies, and he and Grady can return to the Feechie-trade. The plan works. The Feechie scare takes hold but with consequences that neither Floyd nor Grady could ever imagine.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Charlatan's Boy from the publisher.

To learn more about the Jonathan Rogers, visit his website at http://jonathan-rogers.com/.

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

Word of the Week: Goblin

2010-11-17T14:08:00.000-08:00

From Francisco Goya's

Los Caprichos (1799).

Goblins abound in fantasy literature, from Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market to George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin to J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit to Tyger Tyger, the book I reviewed last week, but where does the word come from? And what is a goblin?

Goblins come in many shapes and sizes and temperaments, ranging from grotesquely evil to mischievous and annoying. Tolkien's goblins, later rechristened orcs, lean in the evil direction while MacDonald's goblins lean the other way. Goblins are typically small, ranging from a few inches to the stature of a dwarf. In some stories, they possess magical abilities.

I assumed the word had a Germanic or Norse origin but it's antecedents are not so easily traced, which seems strangely appropriate for such a creature. One line dates the word's first recorded usage to the fourteenth century and traces it to the old French word gobelin derived from Gobelinus, a spirit said to haunt Évreux, a region in Normandy in northern France. Another theory relates goblin to the German word kobold--meaning household goblin--derived from the Medieval Latin term cabalus from the Greek words kobalos--a rogue or knave--and kobaloi--the wicked spirits that rogues invoked. Kobold was also used by silver miners in the Harz Mountains in northern Germany to refer to rock containing arsenic and sulfur. The contaminants degraded the ore and made the miners sick.

Goblin, Goblin: A Review of Tyger Tyger

2010-11-08T13:24:00.000-08:00

Tyger Tyger: A Goblin Wars Book by Kersten Hamilton is a story steeped in tales of Irish mythology. The narrative centers on Teagan Wylltson--a teenager in contemporary Chicago with definite plans for vet school. Hamilton tells an exciting story about the Wylltson family's struggle with a group of goblins determined to kill them and the protagonist's struggle to discover how she and her family fit in to ancient Irish history. The ultimate answer is sobering--Teagan, her younger brother Aiden, and their mother Aileen fall into a gray area--but not without hope and speaks to the power of love and friendship to overcome old wounds and hatred.

Teagan's life turns upside down one day when her best friend Abby, who believes she is psychic, claims that in a dream, she saw goblins from the paintings Teagan's mother creates for her children's books attacking Teagan. Abby is so convinced of the danger that she drags Teagan to St. Drogo's church to ask for the saint's protection. Abby is not a regular churchgoer. Teagan dismisses Abby's fears but then receives another shock when her parents tell her that there will be a new addition to their family. Finn, Teagan's cousin who has been missing for several years after the death of his parents, has been discovered by social services. Finn gives the authorities Teagan's mother's name and her parents agree to take guardianship of the boy who has been living on the streets.

By most standards, Teagan's family is eccentric. Aileen is an orphan with a mysterious past who was taken in and raised by Mamieo--Finn's grandmother and a member of the Irish Travelers. She writes and illustrates children's books set in fantastical lands populated with fantastical creatures. The Wylltson's basement is filled with paintings. Aiden has a remarkable ability to remember and regurgitate songs. He also finds the tooth fairy and Elvis impersonators scary. John--Teagan's father--is a librarian by trade with a great love for poetry, especially old poetry like that of William Blake whose poem "The Tyger" informs the novel's title. Mr. Wylltson reads to the family after dinner most every evening.

Finn Mccool Comes to Aid the Fianna,

by Stephen Reid (1932).

Strange events follow Finn's arrival. Teagan has no interest in a boyfriend as that would interfere with her plans for vet school, but she feels a strange electricity whenever Finn is near. He appears to feel an attraction as well. Mr. Wylltson reads an account of the Irish hero Fionn Mac Cumhaill who battles goblins. Aileen points out that Finn is a variation of the name Fionn. (We later learn that Finn is not only Fionn's namesake but the Mac Cumhaill, the person who carries on the battle with the goblins.) A baby hedgehog that Teagan is caring for at the Lincoln Park Zoo is found dead and it appears that the death is Teagan's fault. On the way home, she catches a fleeting glimpse of a cat-sidhe, a type of cat goblin. Aiden claims he saw a body-less shadow touch his mother. Finn leaves in the middle of the night, fearful of the trouble he may have brought on the Wylltsons. But the worst is yet to come and Teagan's life will become much stranger--including two trips to Mag Mell, the world the goblins now call home--before it makes any sense.

Hamilton populates her story with a vast array of fantastic creatures. Some are hopelessly evil; others are charming. A quote from Hamlet, which comes up several times in the novel, does well to sum up Hamilton's story.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. (Hamlet Act 1, scene 5)

The narrative--told entirely from Teagan's point-of-view--is fast-paced but not hurried and Hamilton further flavors the story with her sense of humor. Some scenes are as amusing as they are terrifying. In one case, a pair of hell hounds chase a vintage truck through suburban Chicago. However, unlike the proverbial dog chasing the car who doesn't know what to do with the car if he catches it, these nasty creatures know exactly what to do with the occupants of the truck. Hamilton also makes some subtle plays with names if you read carefully. Finn's guardian angel for example is named Raynor Schein, which could be read as "rain or shine." The novel ends with a satisfying conclusion that answers the questions posed at the outset but leaves room for more adventures to come. This reader is looking forward to another trip to Mag Mell.

I received an advance copy of Tyger Tyger from the publisher through NetGalley.

CSFF Blog Tour: The Skin Map Day Three

2010-11-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

The Skin Map is speculative fiction. To paraphrase Orson Scott Card's broad definition, much of the story takes place in worlds that have never existed or are as yet unknown. I suspect few would argue with the speculative tag, but what kind of speculative fiction is this? Is it fantasy, science fiction, or some sort of alternate history? It combines a bit of each. The worlds to which the characters jump have much in common with our own, but their histories are slightly different. In the seventeenth-century England that Kit visits, the English Civil War has not taken place. Oliver Cromwell is an itinerant preacher. In another world, Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon discover the untouched tomb of a high priest rather than King Tut. (Lawhead does marvelous work in that chapter building up our anticipation of the discovery we know is coming so that we can share in Carnarvon's disappointment. Rather than filling his tomb with gold, the priest has spent his money on art, covering the walls and ceilings with paintings.) While these historical differences are significant, Lawhead does not focus on them or spend much time speculating on their consequences for subsequent historical developments. As for fantasy, the cave lion and the chapters set in seventeenth-century Europe give the story a touch of fantasy, but the genre's touchstone, magic, is completely absent. Aren't those ley lines magical? No, Cosimo and Sir Henry argue a naturalistic explanation. The alternate worlds are simply part of the grand universe in which the characters reside, a characteristic as "magical" as gravity, light, or the moon. Time travel has been a staple of science fiction, and the alternate worlds follow the same rules as our world, except for the ley lines. All of which leads me to conclude that The Skin Map has more in common with science fiction than anything else.

Despite the various attempts by Cosimo and Sir Henry to explain how ley lines work, it is still not clear what is required to use them. Are only certain people with some sort of gift able to initiate a jump? Or, is ley jumping a skill that anyone can acquire with practice and knowhow? Some of Cosimo's comments suggest the former, but Wilhelmina is able to make jumps by herself at the novel's conclusion. Hopefully Lawhead will elucidate this mystery in subsequent volumes.

The Great Fire of London,

with Ludgate and Old St. Paul's,

ca. 1670, artist unknown.

As with most stories involving time travel, there are some moral questions. If you know that a great calamity is about to occur and you can stop it, what do you do? Let history play out or intervene? On their way to dinner in seventeenth-century London, Cosimo makes a late night stop at a particular baker to buy a stale loaf of bread. He pounds on the door to wake the baker who is most displeased with the interruption to his sleep. Cosimo tosses the loaf to some women on the street after leaving the bakery. Kit learns that Cosimo has woken the baker whose untended fire caused the great fire of London. Kit questions altering history since Cosimo had stated earlier that ley travelers should strive to impact alternate worlds as little as possible. Cosimo argues that preventing the great fire spared many poor people a great deal of suffering and that the building boom in the wake of the fire would occur with or without the mass destruction.

Wilhelmina alters history in a different way. Plunked in seventeenth-century Prague with no idea how to return to modern-day London, Wilhelmina makes the best of her situation and attempts to integrate with the local society. However, when the bakery she and her partner operate is faring poorly, she uses her knowledge of modern-day coffee houses to reshape history to her own commercial success. Rather than waiting for coffee houses to evolve in Prague as the taste for coffee slowly spreads across the continent, Wilhelmina determines to start a new type of business from scratch and sends her partner out to find coffee beans. Knowing what a success coffee will ultimately be, Wilhelmina is hardly taking a gamble. The only serious problem is finding enough coffee beans. Lawhead does not treat the morality of Wilhelmina's actions. Other than Burleigh, who appears to have no moral scruples, Wilhelmina has no one with whom to discuss the situation.

Considering how to sum up The Skin Map's philosophy, two quotes come to mind.

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. (Hamlet Act 1, scene 5)

And Cosimo's rebuttal to Kit:

Who's to say the reality in which we find ourselves is the best one possible? (p. 61)

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Skin Map from the publisher.

To learn more about the author, visit his website at http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

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

Red Bissell
Thomas Clayton Booher
Keanan Brand
Grace Bridges
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Jeff Chapman
Christian Fiction Book Reviews
Valerie Comer
Karri Compton
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
Stacey Dale
D. G. D. Davidson
George Duncan
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Christopher Hopper
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Becca Johnson

Jason Joyner
Julie
Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Shannon McDermott
Allen McGraw
Matt Mikalatos
Rebecca LuElla Miller
Nissa
John W. Otte
Gavin Patchett
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Donna Swanson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Nicole White
Elizabeth Williams
Dave Wilson

CSFF Blog Tour: The Skin Map Day Two

2010-11-01T22:25:00.000-07:00

In yesterday's post I mentioned two protagonists in addition to Kit and Wilhelmina: Arthur Flinders-Petrie and Lord Archelaeus Burleigh, Earl of Sutherland. In the grand scheme of ley lines and world jumping, Kit and Wilhelmina are minor figures, amateurs, interlopers. The real movers and shakers are Flinders-Petrie and Burleigh.

Flinders-Petrie is a pioneer in the use of ley lines. Through trial and error, he has learned to navigate the lines to go where he wants when he wants. He has documented his findings as a map tattooed on his torso. After his death, the map is removed and preserved as a thin piece of parchment, the skin map of the novel's title. We enter Flinders-Petrie's story as he arrives in Maccau, China to have a new tattoo added to the map. This addition records directions to the Well of Souls, which Flinders-Petrie describes as "the ultimate prize, . . . the greatest treasure ever known" (p. 132). To Wu Chen Hu--the tattooist who has recorded all the maps in his unique, vivid blue ink--the designs are "a tightly controlled swash of abstract ciphers. . . , elegant in their own way as the Pinyin script was elegant, but utterly devoid of any comprehensible meaning" (p. 132). Burleigh makes his first appearance, interrupting the tattoo session to invite Flinders-Petrie to dinner to discuss mutual business interests. Chen Hu is suspicious of Burleigh but remains reticent. Dinner turns out to be a trap. Burleigh knows about Flinders-Petrie's discoveries and requests that he and Flinders-Petrie form a partnership. When Flinders-Petrie refuses, Burleigh decides to acquire the map by force. Only the intervention of Chen Hu and his daughter Xian-Li save Flinders-Petrie from being killed and skinned.

The Foundation Stone above the

Well of Souls.

Burleigh is the novel's charming but ruthless villain. He's also an atheist, flatly stating, when Cosimo invokes God in a plea for mercy, that God does not exist, "only chaos, chance, and the immutable laws of nature" (p. 337). Burleigh claims to give people choices, usually cooperate or die in some dastardly manner. As with Flinders-Petrie, we know nothing of Burleigh's past. He possesses considerable wealth, some of it obtained from selling antiquities on the black market, and employs a small army of henchmen whom Cosimo calls Burley men. All the other protagonists cross paths with him at some point in the novel and none of the meetings conclude pleasantly. What motivates Burleigh? Avarice? He has more than enough money. Burleigh's aim is the Well of Souls.

So, what is the Well of Souls? According to Wikipedia, the "Well of Souls is a natural cave located immediately beneath the Foundation Stone, under the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem." When Burleigh presses Cosimo for an answer, Cosimo calls it a myth with Jewish, Arab, and Egyptian versions, but none agree on its nature or location. Cosimo continues:

Some tales have it that the well is an earthly place, an underground region where the souls of the dead congregate to await the coming Judgement. Others hold it to be a heavenly place where the souls of those not yet born await their call to life in this world (p. 336).

But in Lawhead's universe, it appears to be something more. Flinders-Petrie tells an Egyptian priest that the Well of Souls is beyond Sirius--the Dog Star--and that he will take his wife Xian-Li--who has just died of an acute fever--to the Well of Souls in a last attempt to heal her or, more accurately, bring her back from the dead. Lawhead does not give us a difinitive answer.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Skin Map from the publisher.

To learn more about the author, visit his website at http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

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

CSFF Blog Tour: The Skin Map Day One

2010-11-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

This month's tour features The Skin Map by Stephen R. Lawhead, a well-known writer with several novel cycles to his credit. The Skin Map is the first book in the Bright Empires series. The second novel in the series--The Bone House--is scheduled for September 2011. If you have read my previous post, you will know that we received our review copies late. (Mine arrived last Saturday). I prefer a couple days to think about a novel before I write about it and I usually have the first post written well before Monday but no such luxury this time. I finished the book Sunday night, so I feel like I'm doing this tour by the seat of my pants, which may be appropriate. Two of the protagonists--Kit and Wilhelmina--are living by the seat of their pants as they jump from one time and place to another. Before I go any further, I must point out to potential readers that there is a major problem with this book. The pages end before the story does. Yes, a few (very few) issues are resolved and a mystery or two is cleared up but there is a lot more story left. Reading The Skin Map is like stopping The Lord of the Rings after The Fellowship of the Ring.

Down Tor stone row on

Dartmoor in South Devon, UK.

In an essay at the back of the book, Lawhead remarks on his inspiration for the story. In the early twentieth century, Alfred Watkins noticed that many ancient landmarks in the English countryside were aligned in straight lines. He documented the phenomenon, termed them "ley lines," and published at least three books on the subject. Theories abound regarding ley lines. There are many landmarks in Europe, so some argue that lines formed by various points are inevitable based merely on random chance. Others dispute the purpose and significance of ley lines. Were the ancients marking something, such as "the telluric energy that is associated with various geodynamic forces of the earth: underground streams, fault lines, movement of the earth's crust, and even, perhaps, lightening strikes?" (p. 402) No one knows, but Lawhead has crafted one scenario, that these lines are points at which alternative universes touch, into an exciting and engaging story.

The story begins with Kit trying to make it across modern-day London to his girlfriend's flat where she is waiting for him to take her shopping for curtains. Everything Kit does goes awry. He eventually wanders down a dark alley known as Stane Way (Anglo-Saxon for Stone Way, referring to standing stones) and meets a man named Cosimo who claims to be his great-grandfather and seems to know everything about Kit's dull existence. (Most people would say Kit does not have a life.) Cosimo convinces Kit to have a drink with him and when the pair emerge from the alley, they are in an early nineteenth-century fishing village. Over a tankard of ale at a local pub, Cosimo explains ley lines and jumping between worlds and asks Kit to aid him in a project. Kit believes that he is suffering from some extended hallucination and refuses any part in Cosimo's plans.

Kit reenters London through the Stane Way ley and eventually arrives at his girlfriend Wilhelmina's house eight hours late. She is not pleased. Neither Kit nor Wilhelmina appear to be all that fond of each other but remain as a couple out of mutual desperation. Wilhelmina is plain and severe looking. She is a baker and lives a life of early mornings and early nights, different from Kit's time schedule. Kit reluctantly tells her the story of his meeting with Cosimo because he can think of no other "plausible" explanation. He decides the only way to convince her is to show her, so she accompanies Kit to Stane Way. They both make the leap to another world. Kit winds up where he left Cosimo. Wilhelmina winds up somewhere else. Ley jumping takes practice and Kit is a novice. Kit and Cosimo set out to find Wilhelmina and their storyline takes them to seventeenth-century England and later a tomb in twentieth-century Egypt. Wilhelmina finds herself in early seventeenth-century Bohemia. Fortunately, Wilhelmina learned German from her grandmother. She hitches a ride from a baker--another fortunate coincidence--on his way to Prague to set up a new shop. Two other characters have their own plot lines--Arthur Flinders-Petrie and Lord Archelaeus Burleigh, Earl of Sutherland--but more about them tomorrow.

As expected from a writer as experienced as Lawhead, the narrative flows and we move from story to story without too much jarring. The various worlds are rendered in detail. (I know more about seventeenth-century London eating habits than I ever wanted to know.) Lawhead has clearly done some research.

Photo Credit: Attributed to Herby. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, 2.5 Generic, 2.0 Generic and 1.0 Generic license.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of The Skin Map from the publisher.

To learn more about the author, visit his website at http://www.stephenlawhead.com/.

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

Excerpt from "Esme's Amulet"

2010-10-26T12:15:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why there are no CSFF blog tour posts this month. There's a simple explanation. Review copies for the October selection arrived on Saturday. (I almost backed my car into the mail truck as it careened into my driveway.) The October tour will start next week, the first week of November.

I don't have much to post right now because I'm busy reading, finishing the novel I had already begun and starting the one that arrived on Saturday. What's freaky is that both novels reference the same quote from Shakespeare's Hamlet. So, in lieu of posting about the work of someone else, here's a teaser from "Esme's Amulet," which appears in the October-November-December print issue of Golden Visions Magazine, available in paper or pdf. I love the cover art for this edition.

This excerpt picks up with Esme at a village market, desperately trying to sell a goat that has been eating her mother's prized vegetables.

Esme asked every passerby if they wanted a goat. Her cheeks ached from smiling. A few acknowledged her as they hurried to some urgent appointment, but most brushed past, and to the one man who showed an interest, Gertrude stomped her front hooves and lowered her head to butt him.

"Mother will cook you as sure as the sun sets if I take you home. And I'll get a whipping. Do you want to be eaten?"

Gertrude stared at her with placid eyes then bleated.

"I'll take your goat, miss."

Esme spun around urgently, searching for the owner of that female voice, fearful lest the buyer vanish and suspicious, after so much failure, of her own senses.

"Over here, lassie." Directly behind her, an old woman, whom Esme assumed to be a harmless though likely shrewd widow, sat in the shade of her stall selling trinkets. On her head she wore a red cloth wrapped multiple times like a turban. A smile softened the severity of her thin, wrinkled face, and her raised eyebrows questioned, inviting conversation. Esme jerked Gertrude in the stall's direction, and to her great surprise, the goat followed willingly.

"Did you say you want to buy my goat?"

"Well now. Buy is a strong word, but I'll trade you something for her."

Something worth five ducats ought to be just as good. She scanned the bronze chains, buckles, brooches, and bracelets displayed on the stall's wooden counter, grayed and softened from years of rain and sun. An oval-shaped brooch with a single garnet embedded in the middle with interlocking vines etched around the border caught her eye. How grown up she felt to be bartering. "That brooch is nice."

"Yes, it is, my sweet, but is that all you want for your goat?"

"My mother told me to bring home," she paused, then announced firmly, "six ducats."

"Six? I should say that goat's worth no more than three. She's got a sour temperament."

"She's skittish from the crowd."

"I have something that would be perfect for you." The old woman retrieved from her apron pocket a gleaming, gold-colored pendant strung on a leather cord. "What do you say to this?"

Esme admired the pendant as it swung hypnotically beneath the woman's hand. At the charm's center, a green stone, its surface a myriad of interlocking planes, each reflecting light at a different angle, captured her attention. She noted the five garnets embedded in a ring around the stone with runes in between and beyond those fought snakes and vines with each snake swallowing the tail of another while the vines coiled tightly around the scaly bodies. But to the stone her eyes returned, always retreating to the stone after forays among the red gems and writhing snakes.

The woman snatched the pendant away, replacing it in her pocket where it jangled, settling among coins. Faltering as dizziness overcame her, Esme placed her hand on the stall to catch herself.

"So what do you say? My charm for your goat. And it's more than just a pretty trinket. It's an amulet. Those runes ward off evil in all its slippery forms. Seems an even trade though I suspect you're getting the better bargain."

Short Stuff Take 6

2010-10-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

"Hero for Hire," by Milo James Fowler in A Fly in Amber

"Hero for Hire" does not belong in the fantasy or science fiction genres. It's set firmly in the present world as we know it. But it addresses fantasy in a comical way and suggests what might happen if someone tries to turn their fantasy into reality. Darrell, the protagonist, is what most people would call a loser. He's twenty-seven, lives in a cottage in his parent's backyard, works the graveyard shift at Target, and still relies on his mother to do his laundry, which he also neglects to retrieve in a timely manner. His most prized possession is a samurai sword that he bought on eBay. He routinely dresses in a gi purchased at Party City and acts out mock battles with imaginary Ninjas in his living room. He always prevails. Not a bad way to get some physical exercise, but he decides that mock battles or attacking watermelons and pumpkins are becoming boring. He needs some real enemies. He needs to use his skills for good. So far, his only nemeses are a cat that leaves dead birds on his doorstep and his angry mother, who nags him about his laundry. He puts an add in the paper: "Hero for Hire" along with his phone number. For two weeks, nothing much happens. He gets some prank calls, but then, someone requests a hero. An old lady claims that someone has stolen her laptop. Darrell accepts the job. I won't spoil it by recording what happens. It's funny and sad with some interesting twists. No one gets hurt, except for Darrell's ego, which takes a beating, and his feet, which are scorched on the hot sidewalk. Fowler handles his subject matter with wit and compassion. We feel sympathy for Darrell even as we laugh at him. "Hero for Hire" reminds me of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," only in Fowler's story, the protagonist attempts to turn his fantasies into reality.

"The Lych Owl's Cry," by Terrie Schultz in Golden Visions Magazine print edition (October-November-December 2010)

The word lych is a Saxon word for corpse used in modern English as an adjective in phrases or names associated with death or burial, such as the lychgate at the entrance to traditional English churchyards. Lych owl is another name for the barn owl, whose cry, according to folklore, portends death. Schultz's story begins and ends with the lych owl's shriek. The protagonist is Jessa, a healer in a village, who hears a lych owl one night and with resignation, waits to be summoned to some neighbor's deathbed. The dead are a young wife and her newborn baby. Jessa tells the husband that there is nothing she can do but he begs her to cross the Veil and bring them back, something remembered in tales but never done by Jessa, her mother, or her grandmother. The tales told of healers coming back haunted or never at all. Jessa relents and agrees to try. She finds the recipe for a salve in an ancient tome that she hides under a stone in her cottage. The salve works and she rises from her body in a ghostly form and follows a path through the churchyard to a hedge of hawthorn and rowan at the edge of the village where she crosses the Veil into a misty, barren place, a sort of purgatory. She had feared that she would meet demons. Instead, the meets her recently deceased neighbors and family and learns why so many characters from the old tales never came back. Schultz builds her haunting story with sharp details and flowing prose. While many such stories might focus on the terror of death, the operative emotion in Shultz's tale is love and the grief that comes with loss and saying no.

Comments on How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy

2010-10-15T08:35:00.000-07:00

If you want to write science fiction or fantasy, I recommend giving Orson Scott Card's How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy a read, maybe multiple reads. This is a short guide, less than 140 pages of text, but it's packed with cogent advice. While most books on writing dwell on general skills, such as the mechanics of building sentences and creating effective dialogue, Card focuses on problems and skills at the story level targeted at issues particular to the science fiction and fantasy genres. For example, he devotes one of the book's five chapters to world building.

In the first chapter, he attempts to describe speculative fiction by defining its boundaries. He explains that science fiction and fantasy are labels defined by the publishing industry, sometimes useful in helping readers find your work and sometimes a way to pigeon-hole you. The terms also label a "fluid, evolving community of readers and writers" (p. 17) as well as a "ghetto in which you can do almost anything you like" (p. 17). His clearest definition states: "science fiction and fantasy stories are those that take place in worlds that have never existed or are not yet known" (p. 18). This covers a lot of works that would not ordinarily be considered speculative. However, if a story does not fit this definition in some way, it's not in the speculative genre. What about the boundary between science fiction and fantasy? Card provides a somewhat accurate rule:

If the story is set in a universe that follows the same rules as ours, it's science fiction. If it's set in a universe that doesn't follow our rules, it's fantasy (p. 22).

In either case, the writer must define the limits of technology or magic early in a story and stick to them.

The longest chapter covers world creation. Card discusses where ideas come from, using some of his own works--Ender's Game and Hart's Hope--as examples. Hart's Hope began with the map of a walled city that Card drew to pass some time. He then asked himself questions about the city, named the various gates and determined their particular functions. Asking questions and then more questions, Card contends, is the key to world and story creation. Once you have the germ of an idea, Card emphasizes the importance of creating rules of time, technology, and magic for an invented world. Characters will have to contend with those rules just as we have to wrestle with the physical laws limiting our abilities. Card warns that readers will notice if a writer is sloppy with rules or breaks them. Those readers will feel betrayed. Card also comments on creating geographies and cultures.

In the chapter on story construction, Card identifies differences between the protagonist and a viewpoint character and suggests how to determine which characters should fill those roles in your stories. Another difficult task when developing a story is deciding when it should begin and end. To answer this question, Card offers the MICE quotient. (Yes, those lowly rodents can be your friends.) MICE is an acronym for four types of stories: milieu, idea, character, and event. In a milieu story, such as Gulliver's Travels, the purpose is to explore a strange land. An idea story depicts the discovery of new information. It begins with a question and ends with the answer. In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the story begins with a mysterious monolith and ends when someone discovers its purpose. A character story traces the "transformation of a character's role in the communities that matter most to him" (p. 79). In an event story, the narrative begins when something in the world is out of order and ends when a new order is established. Examples include Hamlet and The Lord of the Rings. Stories may contain sub-plots which draw on any of the types but the dominate plot will follow one of these formulas. Card is not saying that speculative fiction is formulaic. Anything can happen between the beginning and the end, but it's important to know what kind of story you're writing so that you can honor your reader's expectations.

The fourth chapter covers writing, namely exposition and diction. Card discusses how to guide readers into the strangeness of an invented world, using Octavia Butler's Wild Seed as an example. Later in the chapter, he discusses how to use appropriate diction for an invented world.

In the final chapter "The Life and Business of Writing," Card discusses markets, agents, and query letters. He comments on the usefulness of classes, workshops, conventions, and professional organizations. Keep in mind that How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy was published in 1990. Much of the information in this chapter is dated as the internet has opened many new markets for speculative fiction writers. But some of Card's advice is timeless. Consider his amusing but apt comments on the writer's self-image. Card argues that a writer must believe two things at all times.

1. The story I am now working on is the greatest work of genius ever written in English.
2. The story I am now working on is worthless drivel (p. 109).

Perhaps holding contradictory opinions simultaneously is a sign of madness, but the writer has to call on both of these ideas to do his work, calling on number one when submitting the story to an editor and number two when revising it. Two points come up over and over again in How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, and if you get nothing else out of the book, you should at least remember to honor the rules you create for your world and honor your reader's expectations.

Review of Masters and Slayers: Another Trip to Starlight

2010-10-09T23:47:00.000-07:00

Reading Masters and Slayers was a strange experience for me for two reasons. First, I read a digital copy of the galleys. I had never read a "published" novel in digital form before. I think I prefer paper. I tend to do a lot of reading in small bits while I'm waiting in the car or watching something cook. That's hard to do when the book is on your laptop. So, I had to schedule long blocks of time to read Masters and Slayers, usually at night.

Second, Masters and Slayers is closely intertwined with Davis' Starlighter, which I reviewed for the CSFF Blog Tour a few months ago. (For my commentary on Starlighter, go here, here, and here.) The stories take place in the same worlds and share many of the same characters. The two books could be mashed together into one, albeit very long, novel. The novels differ in their point of view characters. Masters and Slayers centers on Adrian Masters while Starlighter tells the story of Jason Masters, Adrian's younger brother. Also, I believe Davis intends Masters and Slayers for an older audience. Starlighter is marketed as a YA novel. Masters and Slayers has a slower pace than Starlighter with more time for complex character development and it answers a lot of the questions I had after reading Starlighter. The content is also grittier. For instance, there's some discussion of the breeding program the dragons have established to propagate slaves. You don't have to read Starlighter first to follow Masters and Slayers. Many parts of the early chapters are a retelling of the material from Starlighter from a different character's point of view. This made for a strange reading experience since I already knew what was going to happen in those scenes, as if I had looked at the writer's notes beforehand. If you have not read either novel and want to read both, I recommend reading Masters and Slayers, which provides more background material, before Starlighter.

Masters and Slayers takes place on two planets in the same solar system. (I like the names the dragon's use for the planets so I'll use them.) The dragon's home planet is Starlight while the humans native home is Darksphere. There are multiple portals between the two worlds but the existence and location of these is not well known by the residents of either planet. Approximately one hundred years ago, Magnar, a powerful dragon, crossed from Starlight to Darksphere. He captured some humans and took them back to the dragon planet to become slaves in the pheterone mines. Pheterone is a gas trapped beneath the surface that the dragons need to live healthy lives. It's similar to our natural gas. One of the humans--Uriel Blackstone--escapes, returns to Darksphere, and locks the portal. He tries to rally a force to rescue the humans still on Starlight but most dismiss his story as pure lunacy and the government works to suppress it. Some, however, have faith in Blackstone. Over time, an underground organization known as the Underground Gateway develops with the goal of freeing The Lost Ones, as the slaves are now known. Adrian's brother Frederick has succeeded in finding a portal and crossing over to Starlight and a dragon from Starlight has contacted the underground about acquiring pheterone from Darksphere. Masters and Slayers follows the journeys of three members of the group--Adrian, Marcelle, and Drexel--as they enter Starlight and attempt to return to Darksphere with at least a few freed slaves.

The plot of Masters and Slayers is complicated. Drexel enters via a different portal than Adrian and Marcelle, and Drexel does not know for certain if the other two are on Starlight. As one expects in a good story, many of the characters have ulterior motives which add to the plot's thickness. I could spend several pages covering its intricacies. Drexel, for instance, hopes to use the rescue of the Lost Ones to propel himself to high political office in Mesolantrum, the home country of the characters from Darksphere. The motives of Arxad, the dragon who wants to trade for pheterone, are equally complex as he appears torn between loyalty to the dragon species and disgust with the practice of slavery.

Forgive me for not providing a detailed plot summary. I would much rather discuss character and theme. The most interesting characters are not Adrian, Marcelle, and Drexel, but Cassabrie and Arxad. Adrian is an accomplished and admirable warrior. He has a solid sense of right and wrong and tends to act accordingly although he can exercise restraint and patience when needed and recognize the complexities of a situation. One could do well to emulate him. There's nothing wrong with Adrian. Therein lies the problem. Almost all his difficulties are external: trekking through the wilderness, finding the Lost Ones, fighting the dragons. He appears to have only one internal problem. Whom does he love more, Cassabrie or Marcelle? And if he must choose between them, will he choose based on his heart or will he sacrifice his own longings and act out of a sense of chivalry and loyalty. This choice is more complicated than it might first appear. Cassabrie is a disembodied spirit. She was executed by Magnar, who feared her powers to hypnotize dragons. Arxad values her talents; he salvaged and protected her spirit. Cassabrie can dwell within Adrian in a kind of "perfect union." Marcelle is Adrian's childhood friend and fellow warrior. On Darksphere, they appeared destined to someday be together. This inner conflict builds slowly through the story and doesn't reach its first fruition until the novel's climatic scenes.

Marcelle is a skilled fighter but acts impulsively. She is strident, sees the world in black and white terms and acts accordingly without considering circumstances or the ramifications of her actions. When she and Adrian go to a work camp for children, Marcelle, against Adrian's advice, rashly attacks a dragon who whips a child. Adrian comes to her aid to kill the dragon. The consequences of this event soon spiral out of control in ways Adrian and Marcelle never imagined. In another scene, Magnar commands some slaves to subdue Marcelle, threatening to burn their children alive if they don't comply. Marcelle rebukes them: "'If all it takes is a verbal threat to your little ones to turn your backbones into butter, then you can just die and rot here! A real man would fight!'" (p. 400) Marcelle fails to consider the context. She is one warrior against many dragons and the slaves know that Magnar will not hesitate to carry out his threat. Prudence suggests the slaves should save their children and live to fight another day when the odds are better.

Drexel is one of the leaders of the Underground Gateway. He lacks great skill as a warrior but does have a talent for planning and manipulating situations to achieve his goals. Unfortunately, his ambitions for political power have crushed his moral compass and he behaves in such a reprehensible manner that the reader feels no sympathy for him.

Cassabrie and Arxad are mysterious. We never see the story from their viewpoint; their motives are never clear. As stated above, Cassabrie owes a great debt to Arxad for her current state of existence. Arxad appears to feel great sympathy for the plight of the slaves but must act carefully to avoid raising the other dragon's suspicions of his loyalty. Arxad takes care to transport the spirits of "promoted" slaves to the Northlands. Arxad defends the slaves in legal proceedings and insists that laws be followed. And when Adrian's execution is imminent Arxad offers to let Adrian kill him so that Adrian can escape. Arxad is bound by law to stop a condemned prisoner from escaping. Adrian considers accepting Arxad's offer but Cassabrie counsels him against it. The slaves are far better off with Arxad in place to check Magnar's power than with him dead. Cassabrie recognizes Arxad's importance to the slaves and the precarious nature of his position. Both Cassabrie and Arxad are pulled in opposite directions, their loyalties divided. When Cassabrie first dwells within Adrian, experiencing the sensations of again having a body, she tells him that "I am to be your guide, not your mistress" (p. 181). Can we believe her? The phrase is repeated multiple times. As Cassabrie's love for Adrian grows, we recognize that the balance between guide and mistress subtly shifts. Arxad warns Adrian to beware of Cassabrie mesmerizing abilities and Adrian wisely heeds the advice.

Before closing out this review, I want to touch on a few themes. Davis depicts a stark contrast between Adrian and Drexel regarding means versus ends. Drexel reveals that he will exercise any means, including sending children to certain death, to achieve his ends which are inherently selfish. For Drexel, saving the Lost Ones is merely a precondition for seizing power though he convinces himself that all he does, all the sacrifices of other lives, is for the greater good. Adrian could not be more different. Saving the Lost Ones is his goal, but he refuses to permit others to die without his intervention to save them, even if such actions ultimately put his goal in jeopardy. For instance, he could have remained hidden at the cattle camp and allowed the dragon to kill several of the children in payment for the death of the dragon that he and Marcelle killed. Such a strategy would have allowed he and Marcelle to continue their efforts. Instead, Adrian offers himself in the place of the children.

In many ways, the dragon society on Starlight mirrors the human society on Darksphere. A corrupt governor rules Mesolantrum and the society is divided between nobles and peasants. The leaders work to suppress anyone or anything that might foment discontent. Talk of rescuing the Lost Ones is forbidden and the Code, an ancient book of wisdom, has been banned. A few citizens, such as Adrian and his father, oppose the government and strive to live according to the Code. On Starlight, Magnar is the counterpart to Mesolantrum's governor while the dragons and slaves mirror the nobles and peasants divide. Like Adrian, Arxad works to restore law and justice to his society.

Whether intentional or not, Davis presents strong, capable warriors in a positive light while those who do not possess fighting skills tend to be victims or scheming villains, usually tainted with a touch of cowardice. The contrast between Adrian and Drexel demonstrates the dichotomy. I find this troubling because not everyone has the physical talents to be a great warrior. Some people are better suited to develop strategy and use cunning to defeat an enemy. Is that sort of talent inherently bad? Drexel uses his skills for ill but might someone use those same skills to achieve positive ends? As we've seen in the case of Marcelle, a little more thinking might go a long way.

I received an advance copy of Masters and Slayers from the publisher through NetGalley.

Short Stuff: Take 5

2010-10-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

"The Captain and His Squire," by Matthew Wuertz in Mindflights.

"The Captain and His Squire" is the second story in Wuertz's Cole of Arkessler trilogy. (See my review of the first story here.) A scholar for Salincia's royal academy, Cole again finds himself on the road traveling to a distant city to record a knight's life story. His subject for this trip is Sir Borodin, the captain of the knights in Kartev. Unlike Sir Chahan, who behaved like an oaf much of the time, Cole finds Sir Borodin to be intelligent and affable. They also share an interest in darivs--a mysterious race of humanoids living in the forests--and Borodin has collected books that mention them. Like Cole, Borodin's interest dates from the action against the darivs near Donevsk recorded in "Regarding Sir Chahan." An alarm bell interrupts their conversation. Cole follows Borodin to Aukland Bridge, where two guards and a dariv lie dead. Lord Thamair, the lord of Kartev, orders a retaliatory attack on the darivs. The next morning, a force of knights and squires led by Thamair and Borodin leave the city. At Borodin's invitation, Cole accompanies them. The battle with the darivs in Arsdale Forest goes badly. Borodin falls and Harris, his squire, flees the battlefield. Cole and the survivors from Kartev are magically rendered blind then captured and forced into a tunnel. A magician recognizes the difference in Cole's clothing from the others and upon finding that Cole is a scholar, restores his sight. The magician wants Cole to record the recent events. Cole learns from the magician that the darivs serve the magician's brother and that the recent attacks are in retaliation for "stealing" Mydrianna from them. The darivs are known for devouring the corpses of fallen enemies but no one knows what becomes of live captives. When the darivs leave them unguarded, Harris returns to free them. He tells them that he left the field under Borodin's dying orders to prepare the city for defense. Harris leads the blind, wounded fighters back to Kartev where they must rally any able-bodied citizens to mount a defense against an impending attack. "The Captain and His Squire" is a transition story. We learn more about the darivs and their motives, but this story lacks some of the punch of the previous one as Cole does not undergo any great change to his character or beliefs. "The Captain and His Squire" and "Regarding Sir Chahan" share a similar structure. In both stories, Cole ventures far from home to interview a knight who then dies in battle with darivs. One has to wonder if knights will be leery of telling Cole their life stories in the future since the stories end shortly thereafter.

"In Hot Water: A Dragonson Vignette," by Walter G. Esselman in Residential Aliens.

"In Hot Water" is a quirky tale with a serious side. The Lords of Bon Su Pear have asked two water nymphs--Regent and Brianna--to retrieve a mysterious box from a sunken ship. The Lords insist the box contains a bottle of cognac. Brianna brings along her playful spell otter, named SOS, whose fur glows blue. They retrieve the box with little trouble, but as they're leaving the ship, an adolescent sea monster--part bull, mostly fish--swallows SOS. Brianna wants to chase down the massive animal but Regent convinces her they need reinforcements. Brianna creates a diversion in the water, allowing Regent and Brianna to avoid their otter's fate but barely. The monster, properly called a Camahueto, isn't done yet. (They never are.) It lunges out of the water to attack the water nymphs and Lords. Regent manages to wound the beast but Brianna takes her revenge with some watergolems who hack it to a bloody, gooey mess. An argument over the box's contents ensues and the Lords reluctantly admit it contains a cure for Wailing Flu. According to tradition, the Lords must anonymously do something to help the people of the city each year, thus the secrecy about the box. Esselman mixes the strange, mundane, and dangerous for comic effect. The nymphs nearly die retrieving what they think is a bottle of booze. High officials asking others to risk their necks to further the interests of the officials is nothing new, and the innocent otter suffers more than anyone but not as much as you think. You'll have to read the story to find out what really happened to that furry, blue critter.

CSFF Blog Tour: Venom and Song Day Three

2010-09-29T00:01:00.000-07:00

Much of Venom and Song focuses on the development of cohesion among the seven lords. They begin the story as a loose-knit set of teens with little in common other than the bizarre events that have taken over their lives. Grimwarden wisely understands that a few individuals with some extraordinary gifts will fail before the power and discipline of the Spider King. From the instant their training at Whitehall begins, Grimwarden concentrates on teamwork, on transforming the seven into a military unit that is more powerful than the sum of its parts. The team-building exercises demonstrate that as a team, the seven lords can accomplish what the individuals cannot. All seven have unique gifts and important roles to play and no one, not even Jett with his strength or Johnny with his fire, can carry everyone. Along with cohesion comes trust and friendship and sacrifice. When they first arrived at Whitehall, they bickered and lashed out at each other when the tasks became difficult. All that had changed by the time they reached Terradym Fortress. They went to extraordinary lengths to save one another from death in the various traps and worked together to unlock the secrets of the cistern.

Initially, the lords understand the conflict with the Spider King as a battle between good and evil. They are the "good guys" while the Gwar and assorted company are the "bad guys." Their Elvish handlers are content to leave them in ignorance, but a chance meeting with a scarlet raptor leads Kat and Tommy to a shocking discovery. The Elves once enslaved the Gwar and treated them cruelly. The Gwar have good reason to feel some antipathy toward the Elves. The revelations, which Kat and Tommy share with the others before approaching Grimwarden and Goldarrow, threaten to wreck the Elves' plans. Jett threatens to leave Allyra and return to Earth. Grimwarden and Goldarrow eventually convince the seven that despite the wrongs of the past, the Elvish cause is just in the face of the Spider King's tyranny and vengeance. "[H]ow much Elven blood must be spilled to pay the debt in full?" asks Grimwarden (p. 179). The seven learn that history is more gray than black and white and that righting past wrongs with more violence and wrongs does not resolve the original issue.

Finally, Venom and Song makes an interesting comparison on the nature of power in the contrast between the Spider King and the seven lords. The Spider King is all about physical power. He does appear to be stronger than the combined powers of the seven. He has an answer to all their tactics, but he is puzzled by some of their decisions. After Jett sacrifices his life to save Kiri Lee, the Spider King says, "And the strong one made the choice to let the air walker live? How strange, given that he was the greater warrior" (p. 367). The Spider King values physical strength above all else and when their battle with him reaches a stalemate, the Spider King taunts them, asking them what they know about power.

"Look, look behind you. See my armies, my fortress, my lands? I KNOW power, real power! Power to create life, power to take it . . . even power to wake the dormant volcano to vomit up FIRE!" (p. 380)

The irony soon becomes evident. The Spider King knows very little about real power as water soon washes away his armies, his fortress, and him. The Rainsong calls on the real power of Ellos (God) to unleash the torrent that dooms the Spider King and his plans. To the response of Ellos, the Spider King has no answer. And the key to the Rainsong is Kiri Lee, the person that the physically strongest member of the seven gave up his life to save.

Venom and Song is an exciting narrative that addresses friendship, trust, sacrifice, and power in thought provoking ways. It's well worth reading.

In conjunction with the CSFF Blog Tour, I received a free copy of Venom and Song from the publisher.

To learn more about the authors, visit their blogs:

Wayne Thomas Batson – http://enterthedoorwithin.blogspot.com/
Christopher Hopper – http://www.christopherhopper.com/blog/

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

Angela
Brandon Barr
Keanan Brand
Amy Browning
Beckie Burnham
Morgan L. Busse
Melissa Carswell
Valerie Comer
Amy Cruson
CSFF Blog Tour
D. G. D. Davidson
April Erwin
Tori Greene
Ryan Heart
Bruce Hennigan
Timothy Hicks
Becky Jesse
Cris Jesse
Jason Joyner
Julie

Carol Keen
Krystine Kercher
Dawn King
Leighton
Rebecca LuElla Miller
John W. Otte
Donita K. Paul
Sarah Sawyer
Chawna Schroeder
Tammy Shelnut
James Somers
Kathleen Smith
Rachel Starr Thomson
Robert Treskillard
Steve Trower
Fred Warren
Jason Waguespac
Dona Watson
Phyllis Wheeler
Jill Williamson