“And” we haz a cover! (UK-Aus-NZ)

‘Great’ as in 3 weeks and 3 days of unremitting slog, at any rate! 😀

And during that time I not only agonised over comma placement (yeah, “I know”), but (far more importantly) rumbled an important “time and geography” issue, rousted out a potential deus ex machina, and resolved innumerable small scale, but nonetheless important, matters of logic, and sense, and continuity, all of which seem to have consequentials (grrgh-aargh.)

Not to mention patiently checking facts, both within my own creation, the Haarth world (more continuity), but also in terms of background research into a diverse range of areas, including weapons and warfare, different aspects of weather, and wounds, injuries and credible medical responses to the same. To name but a few.

And I wrote one new chapter, which I have to say, I think is “brill”—i.e. it gave me quite a sense of satisfaction, because it not only adds to the overall coherence of this book, but also better enables keeping a number of minor characters as a consistent—albeit still minor– plot/character(s) thread running through the WALL series. So yahoo for that, say I. 😉

But, BUT, now ’tis done. I have not only logged out of the Chicago Manual of Style, but hope to stay logged out for some time. I have also closed down Merriam Webster’s Online Dictionary—although probably only very temporarily!

But as I mentioned a few weeks back, the really cool thing about waving goodbye to the copyedit for Daughter Of Blood, is that:

“…the copyedit is also the milestone after which I really feel freed up — to concentrate fully on the next book. In this case … that book is The Chaos Gate (working title), otherwise known as The Wall Of Night, Book Four.

And as we all know, The Wall Of Night Book Four is also the final book in the WALL series.”

But first of all, a little bit of r’n’r to get my head out of Daughter of Blood before I really focus on The Chaos Gate.

~ by Rebecca Fisher
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Introduction:

For a number of reasons, I can’t bring myself to actually recommend a show like Salem. I’ve always had a grim fascination with the Salem Witch Trials, a dark period of American history in which twenty people were executed for crimes of witchcraft between February 1692 and May 1693, in the small community of Salem, Massachusetts. Its legacy serves as a striking reminder of the dangers of mass hysteria and religious fanaticism, and is ripe material for a television drama.

But Salem decides to run with the theory that there were ACTUAL witches pulling the strings of the persecution – and furthermore uses the real names and identities of historical figures to populate its cast. Cotton Mather, Mercy Lewis, Bridget Bishop, John Hale, Giles Corey, Tituba – these were all real people who lived and died during this tumultuous period, reimagined here as anything from evil devil-worshippers to hypocritical witch-hunters.

I can handle a little dramatic license, but it takes some audacity to take a historical tragedy and posit that it was all secretly the work of the devil’s servants, working together to bring about the end of the world.

But putting all that aside, what is the show itself actually like?

Premise:

John Alden (Shane West) and Mary Sibley (Janet Montgomery) are two young lovers who are separated by war. While John marches off to join the army, Mary finds herself alone in Salem with a secret – she’s pregnant. To avoid stigmatization from the community she heads into the forest with her servant Tituba, where a strange ritual removes the child from her womb in exchange for wealth and power.

Mary and John reunited

Seven years later John returns to Salem, only to find Mary married to the richest man in town (one conveniently confined to a wheelchair and unable to speak) and the community in the grip of a witch hunt. As he tries to quell the unrest, John finds himself in cahoots with his old childhood friend Cotton Mather, a preacher and witch-hunter who is convinced that the township is plagued with witches.

It’s not too much of a spoiler to say that Mary Sibley is the leader of the Salem coven, using her social position and magical powers to manipulate events toward outcomes that benefit her cause. And yet she herself is a pawn in a much larger game, beset on all sides not only by zealous witch-hunters but the ambitions and secrets of her fellow witches.

Story:

At first Salem seems like a show that wants to have its cake and eat it too. On the one hand, the show is aware that the religious fanaticism, misogyny and paranoia that drove the historical Salem Witch Hunts were very bad things. On the other, the gist of the story is that an evil coven is orchestrating the executions of innocent people throughout Salem so that they might accumulate enough bodies for their Grand Rite: a ritual that will allow the devil himself to return to earth.

The audience is left in the odd position of condemning the Witch Trials not because innocent people are dying for misguided beliefs, but because it’s all part of a ploy for real witches to bring about the end of the world. Who exactly do you root for: the evil witches or the hypocritical Puritans?

Mary and Tituba survey events from their balcony

Having said that, I have to admit that I’ve been rather addicted to this show since its premiere (it’s recently just wrapped up its second season). The plot is full of surprising twists, and the initial confusion as to what side you’re meant to be on is soon alleviated by the surprising complexity of the characters. Everyone has a range of motivations and some degree of sympathy – even the most evil of witches.

Characters:

Mary Sibley in particular emerges as a surprisingly complex character who is both powerful and powerless, sympathetic and detestable, full of agency and yet swept along in events she cannot control.

There’s also Anne Hale (Tamzin Merchant), a spirited young Puritan girl whose parents are keeping a terrible secret from her about her heritage and the innate power she possesses. In season two, we’re joined by Lucy Lawless as the Countess Marberg, an ancient sorceress who seeks out an alliance with Mary (whether she wants it or not!) in order to ensure the fulfilment of their long-term goals.

Our own Lucy Lawless joins the cast

Sensing a pattern here? The side-effect of a show that’s largely about witches is that most of the cast is inevitably made up of women. Even as they plot to destroy everyone, it’s still refreshing to have such a female-dominated cast.

Conclusion:

As I said at the beginning of this review, Salem is not a show I would heartily recommend to many people. Often it’s trashy and grotesque and hijacks a very serious piece of history in order to tell a rather silly horror story about the devil trying to take over the world.

And yet for all of that – I watch and enjoy it. So much melodrama, so many twists and turns, so many times when it crosses the line, doubles back, and then crosses it again. Perhaps it’s best if you don’t watch Salem. But if you do, brace yourself for a wild ride.
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Next Time: X-Men Evolution

There have been dozens of iterations of the X-Men, from the comic books to the movie franchise to the Eighties cartoon. But my personal favourite was X-Men Evolution, which imagined most of the characters as high-school students whose most pressing concern was simply fitting in with their non-mutant peers.

Across its four seasons the storylines moved from the teenagers coping with the usual high-school pressures to fighting off powerful mutants who threatened the human race – with a great deal of character development thrown in the bargain.
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About The Reviewer:

Rebecca Fisher is a graduate of the University of Canterbury with a Masters degree in English Literature, mainly, she claims, because she was able to get away with writing her thesis on C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman. She is a reviewer for FantasyLiterature.com, a large website that specializes in fantasy and science-fiction novels, as well as posting reviews to Amazon.com and her They’re All Fictional blog.

To read Rebecca’s detailed introduction of both herself and the series, as well as preceding reviews, click on:

Big Worlds On Small Screens

Rebecca has recently won the Sir Julius Vogel Award 2015 for Best Fan Writer, for writing including Big Worlds On Small Screens.

at night my dead mother appears wanting soup

I search the town for ox tails
even the movie houses

there’s Clint Eastwood placing
a bridle on his horse

I need a bit of guidance, I say
and he turns to doff his hat

the way cowboys do and I ask
the approximate whereabouts

of the nearest ox
and he hands me a pistol

you can do this, he says
so now I’m in charge

of a Colt but how to load
or fire and time is running out,

you see light leak around the edges
the way you might if trussed up

in a haybarn, your eyes fixed
towards the door, somewhere

a gramophone playing,
all the good husbands dancing

with their wives and your mother
in the doorway with her bowl

you do what you can – hunger
merits our grief

if only you’d paid attention
at the movies, if only you’d learned

how to shoot those ox
.

© Frankie McMillan

‘at night my dead mother appears wanting soup’ was Highly Commended in the NZ Poetry Society (NZPS) International Competition 2014 and subsequently published in the NZPS anthology Take Back Our Sky (2014.)

Reproduced here with permission.

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About the Poem:

I am currently engaged  in the process of re-posting poets who have had multiple poems featured here on “…Anything, Really” , or by me on the Tuesday Poem Hub, since I joined the Tuesday Poem community in June 2010.

Today I am delighted to continue featuring the “unique and insightful” (Beatties Bookblog) poetry of Frankie McMillan. I featured this poem earlier this year, on The Tuesday Poem Hub, which you should check out if you would like to read a fuller commentary. But it’s nonetheless a pleasure to have the opportunity to highlight both it, and Frankie, again today.

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About The Poet:

Frankie McMillan is the author of The Bag Lady’s Picnic and other stories, and a poetry collection, Dressing for the Cannibals. In 2005 she was awarded the Creative NZ Todd Bursary. In 2008 and 2009 her work was selected for the Best NZ Fiction anthologies. Other awards include winner of the New Zealand Poetry Society International Competition (2009) and the NZ National Flash Fiction award (2013). In 2014 she held an Ursula Bethell writing residency at Canterbury University. Her second book of poetry, There Are No Horses in Heaven was published by Canterbury University Press in March, 2015.

Very recently, Frankie both won and also took third place in the National Flash Fiction competition. You can read all about it here: A National Flash Fiction Heroine: Congratulating Frankie McMillan

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To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here.

And here it is, in all it’s goodness. I’ve also posted the updated synopsis below the image. And, ahem, according to Orbit’s post, you may also preorder… 😉

A failing wall, a broken shield, and an enemy that will exploit every weakness . . .

Malian and Kalan have recovered two of the three legendary weapons of the Derai, but already it may be too late. The Wall of Night, fractured by centuries of blood feud and civil strife, is on the verge of falling.

Meanwhile, among Grayharbor backstreets, an orphan boy falls foul of dark forces. A daughter of the House of Blood must be married to the Earl of Night, a pawn in the web of her family’s ambition, and Kalan is caught in a political web he may not be able to escape.

While even as Malian dodges Darkswarm pursuers in her search for the Shield of Heaven, rumour whispers that it may be broken beyond repair – and she herself may be the blade the ancient enemy will drive into the heart of the Derai Alliance.

—

So there we go—it’s now official!

Check it out in all its glory on the Orbit blog:

Daughter Of Blood The Wall Of Night Book Three: UK Cover Reveal

Yes! As promised in Friday’s post, A Teaspoonful of Excitement, the joint USA/UK (HarperVoyager/Orbit) cover reveal for Daughter Of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three, is happening today.

Yes, that’s right: TODAY, Monday 13 July!

Because of time zones, though, the Voyager/Orbit posts will not be live until Monday rolls around in UK and/or USA time. (Probably USA, I’m guessing, because it’s the latest, timezone-wise.)

So despite NZ being the first country in the world to see the new day, I’m not going to jump the gun…

…but I will be posting in as close to synchronicity as I can manage, so you can either check back here a little laterz or keep your eye on HarperVoyager and Orbit’s respective sites (links embedded in their names.)

I would love to hear what you think, though, so do consider leaving a comment here at any time after the reveal “happenates.” 😉

Now, I’m off to watch the clock–when I’m not wrapping up the copyedit, that is.

Recently, I was asked what was the most important lesson I had learned in the process of becoming—and I suppose being—a published author.

The answer, which I found a pretty easy one, was this:

“Just this: it’s the story that matters. It’s your only pilot star.“

What I mean by that is: that it is frequently a long and solitary (so yes, sometimes lonely!) slog writing a book in the first place, and no light task getting it out into the world either.

Once you do, there is no assurance of plain sailing — sales may not be steady, reviews may be hard to come and not all will be friendly, so building a readership may be proverbially tough.

That’s why I believe a writer really has to feel passionate and positive about the story she or he is telling, because it’s that passion and commitment and love of the work itself that keeps an author on course, and gets her or him through the rough patches.

Or that has been my experience at any rate.

Today, owing to circumstances serendipitous, I reacquired a copy of Richard Adams’ The Tyger Voyage, with the wonderful and evocative illustrations by Nicola Bayley.

Here’s what the backcover says:

“A gentleman tyger and his son set sail from Victorian England into the timeless unknown.
Together they roam across the seas, through jungles, past ice-covered mountains and erupting volcanoes and many more unexpected hazards along the way.“

I have always thought The Tyger Voyage a magical picture book for children, not only because of the illustrations, but because of the adventurous story within, told entirely in rhyme:
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“My father’s got some curious friends —

…

He takes a friendly interest
…..in neighbouring bird and local beast.
The Dubbs live just across the way.
…..(The Dubbs are tygers, I may say.)”

The milieu of the book is Victorian, and Adams has managed to capture that flavour while keeping the story accessible for contemporary readers. In short, The Tyger Voyage really is wonderful storytelling.

And because I love great storytelling in all its forms, as well as the magic of the physical book, I was very sad—oh, quite some years ago now—when my copy was unfortunately destroyed and I was unable to acquire another.

So I was delighted today, to learn—quite unexpectedly—that it had been reprinted. No doubt I should have discovered that fact eventually, anyway—but here’s where the serendipity comes in. I had been to a meeting, then got as far as my car and realised I had left my diary behind. So I went back, but chose—on impulse—to walk another way, and so saw a special display of children’s picture books that I would not otherwise have encountered. And one of them was The Tyger Voyage.

Of course, I bought it straight away, even before I had retrieved my diary. 😉

I am looking forward to sneaking in a peek at its delights, in between discharging copyediting duties for my own book.

If you get the chance, I hope you will take the opportunity to enjoy reading this wonderful story — or better still, make the chance!

Meanwhile, here’s the cover again, this time ’embigenated.

Following on from Wednesday’s Teaspoonful of Luck, today we have a Teaspoonful of Excitement — because next Monday, dear readers, both the US and UK COVERS for Daughter Of Blood shall be REVEALED!

And I have to say, I am REALLY looking forward to it!

Because although I have been telling you all that there is a book and it’s going to be published in January, having covers makes it all seem so much more Real. (Even if logic asserts that it will, in fact, be no more or less real after Monday than it was before. 😉 )

And, just to add to our teaspoonful of excitement, because the Wall of Night series is being re-released (and re-jacketed) in the US, that means this cover will be breaking step with what’s gone before. A wee bit of extra excitement indeed!

So if I don’t see you before then, do drop by on Monday — or otherwise rock on over to either the Orbit (UK) or Voyager (US) sites and check out the goodness there.

Hill Tower, Jaransor; art by Peter Fitzpatrick

In yesterday’s post on “Keeping Fantasy Fresh — & (With A Teaspoonful Of Luck!) Interesting”, I opined that “The second part of keeping Fantasy real (and fresh, and interesting) is developing those fantastic worlds…”

So in the spirit of that statement, and because I see it’s been generating a few visits lately, and because I am still deep in the mire of copyedit, I have decided to revisit the backlist and re-post “Place As Person.”

If you’ve read it before, I hope you may enjoy it again. If you’re reading it for the first time: enjoy!

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“Place As Person: What Does It Mean When Telling Story?

I first became consciously aware of the interface between place and character as an undergraduate, when writing an essay on the city in literature. As soon as I began researching the topic, I quickly realized that whether Lawrence Durrell’s Alexandria or Italo Calvino’s invisible city, these places were so vital to the story being told that they were more than simply setting or backdrop—they were “characters” in their own right.

Of course, utilising the benefits of 20/20 hindsight, I can see that an unconscious awareness of place as character began a great deal earlier—with the snowy forest and lamp-post that was my first experience of Narnia, the encroaching darkness of Alan Garner’s Elidor, and the lonely reaches of Earthsea. Yet ‘place as character’ only implies that locale must be strongly enough drawn to pervade the unfolding story. I believe the premise of “place as person” takes both reader and writer a great deal further and that to realise it fully the place must have an actual personality, i.e. it must in some sense be sentient, or at very least a conscious player in the story’s game.

I wrestled with this premise when writing The Heir of Night and developing both the Wall of Night and wider Haarth world. I believe there is no question that the Wall of Night is “place as character”—its bleak, windblasted, and literally dark physical presence dominates The Heir of Night. But we get no sense that it is either sentient or conscious. On the contrary, its brutal physicality is almost the opposite, a monolithic indifference mirrored in the Derai people who garrison its keeps and holds. But toward the end of the book the world begins to open out for the central characters and they find themselves in a new place, known as Jaransor. Once again, I believe Jaransor exemplifies “place as character”—but if I have done my writer’s work well then the reader may begin to question whether there is not more to the matter:  if it might, in fact, be possible that Jaransor is not just a chaotic force, but a personality, albeit a fractured one, that has consciously entered into the conflict being played out.

The Heir of Night ends with this question unanswered, but I pick it up again in The Gathering of the Lost when Malian, the central protagonist, is forced to ask herself whether not only Jaransor, but the world of Haarth itself, could be aware…

To say any more at this point would be a spoiler, and in fact the jury is still out on how Haarth’s role, if it is indeed a personality, could play out through the series. But I do feel that in order for either the world or a particular place within it, such as Jaransor, to be said to be “place as person” then it must be a conscious participant in the story. And even the possibility—but not necessarily the certainty, because that would be ‘telling’—of that being the case is an exciting notion, one that introduces a Gaian consciousness into my epic fantasy.”

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"Place As Person" first posted on Mary Victoria's Chronicles Of The Tree blog in 2011,
as part of a series celebrating release of the anthology River, edited by Alma Alexander.