Conclusion: there aren’t that many of ’em — not in speculative fiction anyway, or so it would appear.

Nonetheless, I’ve managed to find a few to discuss and celebrate for my 1 May post on Supernatural Underground:

Celebrating the “Band of Sisters”

Aes Sedai: Wheel of Time

Also, I’d love to know your thoughts — was the 1980s a golden age for bands-of-sisters in speculative fiction, or have there been more recent examples that rocked your reading world?

By way of a rider, I feel that in order to constitute a band, the numbers have to comprise more than two… 😀

So-o, on Thursday I ‘fessed up to having typed “the end” on the “beginning-to-end” of the final The Wall Of Night manuscript. 😀

I believe it’s the most important milestone in getting a book into readers’ hands — but as indicated Thursday, now it’s ‘game on!’ for the next round, which is basically revise-revamp-repeat.*

This is probably my favourite part of the writing process. To quote Haruki Murakami — and by extension, Raymond Carver —  (with approval):

‘ “I take time to rewrite … Rewriting is my favourite part of writing. The first time is a kind of torture, sometimes. Raymond Carver [whose work Murakami has translated into Japanese] said the same thing. I met him and I talked with him in 1983 or 84, and he said: ‘The first draft is kind of torture, but when you rewrite it’s getting better, so you are happy…” ‘

I also take heart from the fact that I don’t believe there is anything in the current w.i.p. that comes close to matching the confused jumble that was my first cut at  ‘Part IV: The Bride of Blood in Daughter of Blood.’ (No, it definitely didn’t spring fully fledged onto the page!)

UK/AU/NZ

So here’s to Carver’s happiness and getting on with the revise-revamp-repeat (and finally complete!) “interfrastically” (to quote Winnie-the-Pooh.)

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* Repeating the revising and revamping, that is — a part of which will be removing all
 but intended repetition.

Yes, dear readers, I “do” have real news for you, which is that at 9.35 pm on Thursday 20, I typed “the end” on the WALL #4 manuscript, which means that the narrative arc for the final book, and for The Wall Of Night series are both now captured “end to end.”

If you are thinking, “I bet that was a red letter moment!” you are quite right. It was. It also feels very good to be able to share the news with you, because we have definitely been on this long and winding road together, even if—quite rightly—the blood and sweat component, if not the tears, have been all mine.

By way of qualifiers, the reason this post is not titled “The End” is because the manuscript is not yet a publishable work. Now, I must read through the entire story from go-to-whoa, if only because the timespan between writing the beginning, midsections, and the end, will require a close eye to continuity and consistency. There are also some rough patches that require smoothing and straightening, as well as considerable repetition to be addressed and loose ends tied up, so I can’t lay aside my pen and put my feet up just yet.

In terms of a publication date, my expectation is that will be determined when the publishable manuscript is on my editor’s desk and she is satisfied it’s up to scratch.

Still some spinning & weaving to do…

Yet although the onus is still very much on me to keep going and make that so, what this post signifies is that there is now a completed story and by far the major—and hardest—part of the work to get a book to you is done.

As I wrote to my editor yesterday, the feeling is like standing on a high pass, with the road ahead clear below you. So although there are still a few updates on that road to come, I hope you will celebrate reaching this very significant milestone with me today.

Lindis Pass (NZ)

“Writing is a bit like swimming in the ocean. You have to get beyond the wave line into the depths. But the fear of not getting back to the shore; of drifting out to sea, can make the swimmer/writer panic.”

~ Phyllis Theroux, The Journal Keeper

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This quote definitely resonated, the first time I read it — although I also thought, and still do, that it applies to any endeavor that takes us beyond what, until then, have been our life’s norms and safety barriers. Creative endeavours, yes, but also starting a business, or training for an endurance event, or embarking on an overseas trip to somewhere that not necessarily ‘just like home.’

For The Wall Of Night series readers, I should have an update for you this Thursday 27, or failing that, next Monday 1 May.

In the meantime, whatever you’re embarked upon this week, I hope your endeavours are crowned with success.

UK/AU/NZ

The About The Characters post series focuses on the minor characters in The Wall Of Night series, in large part because:

“I think it’s the presence of the smaller characters that “makes” a story, creating texture around the main points of view.”

~ from my Legend Award Finalist’s Interview, 2013

Initially, the series focused exclusively on characters from The Heir of Night, but now I’m continuing on with minor characters from both The Gathering Of The Lost and Daughter of Blood — in alphabetical order, by name, of course!

Well, we’ve been traversing the “great plains of M” for some time, but the landscape has finally changed and we’re now into the “foothills of N.” 😀 Enjoy!

—

USA

Nai: a wagoner in the House of Blood bridal caravan.

Shaking off both memory and speculation, Kalan joined Rhanar, who was captaining the current watch with a wagoner called Nai as his second. She was one of those with guard training who had been invalided out, in her case with a withered leg, a legacy of the plague years before Kalan was born. He suspected Rhanar had selected her as much for a similarly taciturn disposition as competence, since neither had much to say, beyond Rhanar’s observation that the six wyr hounds were maintaining their perimeter patrol.

Nai pursed her lips. “They’re different,” she said. She bit off the second word as if she had already said too much, but Kalan guessed she was referring to the hounds’ reputation for instability.

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three – Chapter 44, Listening to the Wind

Tokaido is a favourite historical novel and another best book-friend – or should that be book bestfriend? Never mind! I suspect you know what I mean. 😀

Clearly, “Tokaido” was also published as “The Tokaido Road.” 🙂

First published in 1991 (although I read it first about ten years later) Tokaido tells the famous story of the forty-seven ronin (samurai without a lord to follow) through the lives and adventures of fictional characters whose lives intersect the famous vengeance quest.

The main character is nicknamed Cat, a courtesan through adverse fate, although born into the samurai (warrior)/daimyo (noble) class. Forced to flee Tokyo (Edo) to escape her dead father’s greatest enemy, Cat embarks on the three-hundred-mile journey to Kyoto, traveling on the famous Tokaido Road.

This is my edition, Gainsborough Press, 1996

Those familiar with Hiroshige’s famous series of woodblock prints titled Fifty Three Stations on the Tokaido Road, will know that it was the main route between the Shogun’s capital of Edo, and the imperial city of Kyoto, and a major highway of the Shogunate era.

From Tokyo’s Yoshiwara pleasure district to Kabuki theatre, kago bearers to daimyo lords, pilgrims and itinerant haijin (poets) Tokaido brings to vivid life the society and times of the Genroku period (1688 – 1703.) The events of the book and the forty-seven ronin’s famous revenge is set in 1702-1703.

Tokaido is also full of fabulous characters and evocative writing. The evolving romance between Cat and Hanshiro, the ronin bounty-hunter dispatched to capture her, is key to unfolding events and the story charts their gardual shift from enmity, through growing admiration, to love.

As a writer, I’m always interested in how other authors deal with romance in all its guises. The following passage, when Cat reflects on Hanshiro’s continuing pursuit and then Hanshiro himself, is the first noticeable shift in her thinking, away from outright fear and enmity. (He is one of many pursuers, since many powerful people want her dead or disappeared.)

The audio version

I should also note that the first time I read Tokaido, this was the first time (the reflection occurs just over halfway through the book) I twigged to what might be happening beneath the story’s surface.

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“As the wind shifted, the music and laughter from Okitsu faded. They were replaced by the steady murmur of the surf and the low rustling of the pine boughs overhead. Tomorrow, Cat vowed, tomorrow they would be on the road before dawn. …

Hanshiro was proving difficult to lose, and not just because he was as persistent as boiled rice on the sole of her foot. His face and his presence were beginning to haunt Cat. Someone, somewhere, was playing a bamboo flute. … As Cat lay on the narrow may with her head cradled on her arm and listened to the melancholy song and to the constant rush and murmur of the waves, the memory of Hanshiro returned. His dark face, shaded with the stubble of his beard, was almost gaunt.

“Tosa dog!” Cat thought. She remembered him as he had been in the lanternlight of the abbot’s poetry gathering. Shadows lay under the arches of his prominent cheekbones and in the deep hollows around eyes that glittered like ice on obsidian. His face was rugged, cold, ruthless as the mountains. And like the mountains he was remote, mysterious, and beautiful.”

~ from Tokaido, by Lucia St Clair Robson.

Marion Drolsbach, translator extraordinaire 🙂

I think Photo #6 might be my favourite in the series of photos taken by Marion Drolsbach when she was in Aotearoa-New Zealand last year.

Marion, as those who’ve been following will know, is a book translator (English to Dutch) and we first met when she was translating The Heir of Night into Dutch.

The photos were taken at the mouth of a Canterbury braided river, and the Telimbras, in The Wall of Night series, is also a braided river. (Hmm, wonder where that worldbuilding influence came from?! 😉 )

Photos #6 and #7 both show a tern flying. The rivermouth is home to both blackfronted (tarapirohe) and whitefronted terns (tara.) I believe this is tarapirohe, the blackfronted tern, but am by no means certain. All the terns look fabulous in the air, and Marion’s photos really capture that.

The blackfronted terns are endangered, chiefly from human-introduced predators. But since the braided rivers are the only place they breed, efforts to turn endangerment around have to be concentrated in that environment. Relocation is not an option.

The whitefronted terms numbers are also decreasing, but not to the same extent as tarapirohe so are not classified as endangered.

To read some of my reflections on predators, picked up in the comments, check out post #3 (and photos #3 and #4) on Ngutuparore, the wrybilled plover.

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Preceding Posts In the “Fun With Friends” Photo Series:

• Photo 1: Sunrise
• Photo 2: Pied Stilt
• Photos 3 & 4: Wrybilled Plover — Ngutuparore
• Photo #5: Rivermouth & Blackbacked Gulls

The post title was going to be “Oops! Er…” but that’s a tad oblique so I went with Catchcries and Slogans (from last Thursday’s post), Revisited. 🙂

The “oops, er…” was because a household member, upon reading the post, said: “But isn’t the catchcry for the WALL series, ‘If Night falls, all fall’?”

If Night falls, all fall…

Ha! Caught out with m’own story — because it definitely is. And it’s still very much part of the WALL #4 story, so I can’t even claim to have forgotten it because of the narrative moving on: O-o! 😀 (Being deep in the WALL #4 final showdown might have something to with matters, though…)

The WALL world; art by Peter Fitzpatrick

And then, dear readers, I started watching Series 2 of Shadow and Bone, and wondered how on earth I could have overlooked the Crows’ wonderful catchcry of “No mourners, no funerals!”

As a Crows’ fan, I definitely don’t feel a “Catchcries & Slogans” theme is complete without it. Hence, revisited!

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On another note, and ICYMI, fellow Supernatural Underground author Merrie Destefano has a Kickstarter running right now, for her Valiant series. So there’s all sorts of good things to read about in her post, including checking out the Valiant book trailer.

So if you havena done so already, rock on over and check it all out:

Is Kickstarter the New Way To Launch Books?

Enjoy the rest of your Easter break everyone, and have the best return to work that you can.

I was going to have “in Fantasy” in the title, except one of the most famous fictional catchcries is the legendary “All for one and one for all!” from Alexander Dumas’ The Three Musketeers – which however fabulous, is not fantasy.

“The” 1973 film version

Nonetheless, the genre has its share of slogans and catchcries. The one that sparked this post was “In the bright”, from Mary Victoria’s Tymon’s Flight trilogy. In the bright is a greeting, one that makes a lot of sense given her world is a giant tree, with brightness being something those living within its canopy appreciate.

I also love “Watch for me!”, which is both a blessing and a curse in the Los Nefilim series by Teresa Frohock. To give you context, the nefilim are constantly reborn to serve in the way between angels and demons, so “Watch for me” may be something a nefilim says to friends – but also enemies.

A similarly doubled-edged watchword is “A Lannister always pays his debts” from George RR Martin’s famous A Game of Thrones* series. For the Starks and their northern allies, of course, it’s “The North remembers”…

It’s not precisely a slogan, but I’ve always loved the way Anna Smaill uses musical terms in the language of her The Chimes’ world. Presto, meaning to act quickly (think pronto), is one of the most common, which I always associate with the book.

And while it may be less well-known (but undoubtedly deserves to be better known, imho), I have always enjoyed the “Awesome: High five!” uttered at strategic moments by Tenzin, the Tibetan monk-mentor in The Prince of Soul and the Lighthouse, by Fredrik Brounéous.

I believe the closest to a catchphrase I can muster in The Wall of Night series is the Derai greeting and farewell, “Honor on you and on your House, Light and safety on your road.”

I’m sure I’ve missed innumerable others, though, so if you have a favourite to share – well, that’s what the Comments are for, dear readers. 😀

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* The book series is titled A Song of Ice and Fire (ASOIAF) and it’s only the first book that’s titled, A Game of Thrones – but given the TV series, I think we all think of the whole shebang as Game of Thrones now. 🙂

Game Of Thrones – the TV version

We all love a good “Scooby Gang”, right? Well, I do, anyway. 😀

Last month, I’ve focused on some of the seminal examples of “bands and brothers” in Fantasy literature. Although I did mention “Scooby gangs” (AKA – if only in Helen parlance – the “band of buddies”) the weighting was more toward the epic fantasy classics.

Yet as asserted in posts #1 and #2, the “Scooby gang” is equally integral to the genre, just deriving more from fairytale and folklore than the myth and heroic-legend end of the spectrum.

So this month I’m honing in on “Scooby gangs” and where we may expect to find them in the genre. YA Lit, sure, but this particular characteristic casts a wider net. Needless to say, I offer some examples. 😉

The Band of Brothers in Fantasy #3: The Scooby Gang

As always, I’d love to hear your favourites!

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Also On Supernatural Underground:

You might also like to check out Kim Falconer’s post on Book Titles.

Plus, I believe Merrie Destefano will be featuring the Kickstarter for her Valiant series on April 4 (US Eastern Standard Time), which should be worth checking out.