On May 6 I mentioned rereading books that count as very old friends, which is something I like to do, despite the importance of keeping up with new books and titles, which is as important for authors as it is in any other field.

Conversely, I also believe it’s important to know what’s been written before, if only in order to know if “the new” is really all that new. O-o…

Needless to say, there is an awful lot pundits insist should and must be written now, which has in fact been done before if only one delves back – but that is another post again to this one. 😉

Today my theme is the somewhat eclectic array of older titles that have crossed my reading ken of recent times, originating in such diverse quarters as the back of the bookshelf (somewhat cobwebby, but hey, that’s what dusters are for!), the local hospice shop, the library remaindered table*, and the neighbourhood “book fridge.”**

I hope to share my “terribly important thoughts” on a few of them over the next wee while, with the foremost contenders being:

Amazons II – an anthology of original speculative stories about women warriors, edited by Jessica Amanda Salmonson, and published by DAW in 1982.

Maquis by George Millar, DSO, MC – the “first book of true war adventure to be published in England and America after the War (1945)”, it’s a firsthand account of the authors’ experience as an operative in Nazi-occupied France. My edition was republished by PAN in 1956 and was not, I gathered, quite so heavily censored.

These Lovers Fled Away by Howard Spring. Published in 1955, this novel (basically) follows four young men and those closest to them from the turn of the twentieth century through two World Wars to the period when the novel was written.

The Grandiflora Tree by Shonagh Koea. Published in 1989 by Penguin, this novel is the only one set in New Zealand and explores bereavement and how little we may actually know those to whom we are (ostensibly) closest.

I found each interesting, albeit in very different ways, so will be interested to see what you think when I post on each one – not necessarily one a week, although I shall strive for a reasonably prompt delivery on this post’s promise. 😀

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*By way of an aside, I am sometimes surprised at the very good books that get let go via remaindered tables – to my gain, of course, since I snatch up any “finds”, although not without a qualm for what other reading “punters” will miss being wowed by in future.

** “Book fridges” first appeared in Christchurch following the earthquakes, one of the very many interim uses for lots were commercial buildings in particular had been demolished and would have otherwise remained empty and unused for years. Basically, the one in my ’hood is the shell of a commercial fridge where one can leave books or acquire them, as you will. They’re slowly going as the city rebuilds, which is a shame, as they’re a great way of recycling books.

USA

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!

Currently, we’re traversing the “great plains” of “L” 😉

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UK/AU/NZ

Liad: short for Liadinath, a farspeaker and knight-adept of the Derai House of Stars

He ran over their defenses, and recent events, again in his mind, but could detect no previously unseen weakness. And Tirael’s company, he reminded himself, also includes a farspeaker. The knight called Liad had contacted Stars when their company left the watchtower, which meant a relief force should already be on its way.

~ from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall Of Night Book Three – Chapter 51, Out Of Time

… or at least, proving singularly uncooperative.

I have vague recollections – without being able to point to specific examples, mea culpa – of other authors lamenting this phenomenon, which leads me to believe I am by no means the first to experience it.

It’s no secret either, that once begun, stories and characters tend to develop a life of their own – chiefly, imho, because both the narrative and the characters evolve as the story progresses. The characters respond to events, which leads them to change and grow, including in their subsequent actions and responses, hence the narrative also changing. Very like real people, in fact, and since they are real in the world of the story, it’s probably just as well that they do alter and evolve, even if it’s not always convenient for the author.

Or as Field Marshall von Moltke (I believe) said, “No plan survives contact with the enemy.” No, indeed.

Almost 100% of the time, though, the alteration proves beneficial to the story, even when a departure from the original plan. Almost as if the characters know a thing or two about themselves. Unfortunately that self-knowledge often evolves deep in the authorial subconscious and can take a frustratingly long time to work its way to the conscious “working face”: O-o!

USA

The most recent instance was of a slightly different order and involved the character of Thanir, a Darksworn antagonist that The Wall of Night readers will have encountered in Daughter of Blood. (Yes, he is in The Chaos Gate, but as he survived the events at the end of Daughter, I don’t think that’s a spoiler. 🙂 )

I have a pretty good understanding of Thanir’s backstory and – as I thought – his motivations, but those of you who recall his character will know that he is enigmatic at best. So on coming to the crunch of last month’s sequence, I discovered that his character was even more complex than I realized and his motivations equally challenging to unravel.

UK/AU/NZ

All of which lay at the core of my calling last month’s endgame sequence “a little tricky” – and what was in my mind, also recently, when I quoted Haruki Murakami’s: “My stories are always unpredictable to myself.”

Although when it comes to Thanir, I may also need to paraphrase Lady Caroline Lamb on the subject of Lord Byron. She declared that the famous (and infamous) poet was “mad, bad, and dangerous to know.”

Lady Caroline Lamb, painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence

The paraphrase, in this case, is that Thanir is “difficult to know”, although the Derai would probably fully concur with the “bad, and dangerous” part, too. 😀

It’s the author’s job, of course, to unravel the motivations of even the most enigmatic and difficult-to-know characters – and so unravelled they were, at least sufficiently to advance the story.

All part and parcel of the writing life, albeit requiring considerably more than a day’s work. 😉

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Previous Bulletins From Inside The Writing Life:

• A Little About The Writing Itself
• About Those Muses, Then…
• Naturally Self-Isolating
• Writing Novels, Posting Blogs
• Another Milestone Ticked Off
• A Game Of Two Halves
• Further Reflection on Writing Transitions
• Fun With Friends
• Those Moments Of “Grr-Argh”
• Sometimes It’s A Case Of “Oh Frabjous Day!
• “O Frabjous Day” Reprised
• Listening To The Silence

Last Monday, I mentioned  “Loving the way the poems and books I heart always stay with me.”

And I know I’ve spoken in the past about the way books can be like old friends. You know, the sort where you can just be yourself, put your feet up, and relax into being companionable… (Yep, I am talking about books, but ’tis just as true of people. 😉 )

Another circumstance that directs me back to tried-and-true book friends is because, being in the endgame of WALL #4 (working title: The Chaos Gate), I am currently eschewing exploring new epic fantasies. I definitely want to keep the epic focus on the work-in-progress!

When it comes to the tried-and-true, I know I’ve mentioned Patrica McKillip’s The Riddlemaster of Hed in very positive terms on more than one occasion. A more recent “very good friend” is Martha Wells’ Murderbot series, which I’m happy to reread pretty much at any time. (And if you haven’t read either of these series, hie thee and read — how’s that for a recommendation?!) 😀 )

It was, however, The Riddlemaster of Hed that I picked up last week and began enjoying all over again. Knowing the entire three books very well by now, I felt a deep appreciation for the way Patricia McKillip sets up the story arc from the very beginning — although when reading for the first time, it may appear one is just getting worldbuilding and character ‘texture.’

(No, I’m not going to give detail or explain further, because that would definitely be MAJOR spoiler territory.)

There are plenty of gorgeous words, too. I particularly noted the following passage early on in my rereading:

“The sky darkened slowly as he and the harpist took the long road back to the city; on the rough horns of the bay the warning fires had been lit; tiny lights from homes and taverns made random stars against the well of darkness. The tide boomed and slapped against the cliffs, and an evening wind stirred, strengthened, blowing the scent of salt and night. The trade-ship stirred restlessly in the deep water as they boarded; a loosed sail cupped the wind, taut and ghostly under the moon. Morgon, standing at the stern, watched the lights of the harbor ripple across the water and vanish.”

It’s amazingly evocative and atmospheric writing. It’s also setting up the next action sequence at one level, while simultaneously “lulling” the reader at another. Do I appreciate the author’s craft? Yes, I do. 😉

Yet even with the most enduring of best friends, there can be the occasional wry moment. Part of the initial setup is the close family relationship between the protagonist, Morgon, and his brother (Eliard) and young sister (Tristan.) The book was also first published in 1976, forty five years ago now — and I did smile a little over the passage where, with visiting traders coming, Morgon tells Tristan that:

“…I simply want you to clear the tables, lay the cloths, reset them, fill pitchers of milk and wine, have them fix platters of meat, cheese, fruit and vegetables in the kitchen, braid your hair, put your shoes on, and get the mud off the floor. The traders are coming.”

Even in the mid ‘70s, known now as the decade the women’s movement really took hold, I suspect some authorial irony in writing that passage, with all the domestic work falling to Tristan’s lot. I also suspect that it would struggle to withstand beta reader and editorial review these days. Nonetheless, despite the gendered division of labour in Hed, the author also does a great job of establishing a close and believable family relationship between the siblings that is (also) integral to the rest of the story.

And as I’ve mentioned in other posts, when it comes to the second book in particular (Heir of Sea and Fire), and the character of Raederle of An, the Riddlemaster storyline doesn’t stay in that traditional space. In fact it was one of the first epic fantasies I encountered that not only introduced empowered and engaging female characters, but also included a major female point-of-view character in the series.

Besides, we are none of us without character flaws, so when it comes to friends, whether old or new, book or human, a little give and take over is probably what ensures the friendship endures. 🙂

Lee Murray

On Saturday May 1, I posted the fifth in this year’s Magic Systems in Fantasy series on the Supernatural Underground (SU) — this month featuring fellow NZ author, Lee Murray, talking magic and the supernatural in her short fiction and Taine McKenna series.

Lee is a multi-award-winning author-editor (Sir Julius Vogel; Australian Shadows), and a five-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominee. A third generation Chinese New Zealander, her work includes military thrillers, the Taine McKenna Adventures, supernatural crime-noir series The Path of Ra (with Dan Rabarts), and debut collection Grotesque: Monster Stories. Lee will soon take up NZ’s Grimshaw Sargeson Fellowship for 2021, for her poetry collection Fox Spirit on a Distant Cloud.

Just to lure you in ( 😉 ), here’s a wee taste of what Lee has to say in the interview:

“What’s interesting about horror, unlike fantasy and certain other speculative subgenres, is that it doesn’t have to incorporate magical elements at all. Horror, by definition, describes work that instills feelings of fear, the intensity of which appears on a spectrum that extends from vague unease all the way to bone-rattling white-knuckle terror. But the elements that make up our horror stories, the things that contribute to those feelings of fear, can either be anchored in reality or imbued with supernatural elements according to the needs of the story and the preferences of the author. For me, magic and the supernatural are a natural way to approach horror, partly because in New Zealand myth and monsters hover just beyond us in the shadows…”

Of course there’s more, and it’s all fascinating reading — so please do rock on over to the SU and check it out:

Lee Murray In Conversation on “Fear Beyond Boundaries” & Magic & the Supernatural in Her Writing

Enjoy!

“I suggest not thinking of it as a BLOCK, but as a part of the process.

It’s a matter of your brain not working as fast as your fingers. Sometimes the best stuff needs to simmer, and we need to allow for that.”

~ Melissa Marr, author of the Wicked Lovely series.

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I believe this to be fact, if not necessarily universally acknowledged… When I read the quote for the first time I stood right up and cheered. 😀

As a reader and writer, I love the way the poems and books I heart always stay with me.

Some of you may have picked up that I like to get out into the great outdoors as well – and yesterday I set out amid a late afternoon that very much resembled Keats’ “season of mist and mellow fruitfulness”, with the mountains blue and clear across the plain, and the poplar leaves a burnished gold along the river.

A coastal environment is always a dynamic one, however, and just as I turned back a southerly squall hit, ripping in off the Southern Ocean. So I found myself walking along a clifftop high above the river and into the teeth of the southerly, amid a swirl and spiraling of golden leaves – while not too far ahead of me, the ocean was transformed from mirror glass into whitecaps and spindrift.

Seized by the energy of the moment, I found myself reciting (although shouting might be more accurate, given no one else was near to hear 😉 ) lines from Galadariel’s song, in The Lord Of The Rings, into the wind.

Galadriel farewells the fellowship…

You know, the one from the end of The Fellowship of the Ring, when she and Celeborn farewell the fellowship from Lothlorien:

“I sang of leaves, of leaves of gold, and leaves of gold there grew,
Of wind I sang, a wind there came, and in the branches blew,
Beyond the sun, beyond the moon, the foam was on the sea,
And by the strand of Ilmarin, there grew a golden tree…”

The leaves and the sea are doubtless reason enough for shouting those words into the wind, but given the grandeur and wildness of the unexpected squall, I did wonder if it might not be a moment for lines that appear later, in The Return of the King:

“Horns, horns, horns…great horns of the north wildly blowing. Rohan had come at last.”

That particular passage still gives me goosebumps, even though I’ve read it many times. The weather was not the only reason it suited the day either. Yesterday was ANZAC Day, which commemorates the New Zealanders and Australians that served in the First and Second World Wars, in particular, but also more recent wars. Tolkien served in WW1, and his account of the siege of Minas Tirith, which concludes with the arrival of the Rohirrim, encapsulates a darkness, desperation, and terror that was very likely grounded in his own experience of war.

ANZAC Day Observed

If you would like to reflect further on ANZAC Day itself, the following link to ANZAC reflections, including poetry, that I’ve posted in other years:

NZEF Trooper 203453 by Leigh Vickridge

ANZAC Day & “The Walk Home” on Radio New Zealand National

ANZAC Day & The NZ Novel

ANZAC Day & Poetry

The ANZAC Memorial: The Words of M. Kemal Ataturk

Some ANZAC-themed NZ Children’s Books

The Ataturk Memorial, Wellington, NZ

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Note: The Lord of the Rings quotes are from memory, so if not ec-zackerly right, that be why. I believe, though, that little fault may be found with the spirit of the quotations… 😉

In the process of doing The Chaos Gate (The Wall Of Night #4 – WALL #4 for short 😉 ) updates* recently, I realized that it was some time since I had reminded readers here that there’s a Wall Of Night Facebook Group “out there.”

The Group title is Haarth.

Haarth is a private FB group for Wall of Night series’ readers to meet and discuss the books and related topics – and the discussions do sound rather fun. 😀

Rosie Cooper

The group was set up by the estimable and inestimable Rosie Cooper, shortly after Daughter of Blood was published, and I believe Rosie still convenes it. I am sure that she and the rest of the Haarth crew will welcome anyone who would like to join the group and the conversation.

As the series’ author, I am still chuffed, needless to say, that there is sufficient material for an ongoing conversation. 🙂

To join or check it out, click on:

The Wall Of Night Facebook Group

I love that the header uses the original The Gathering of the Lost cover (US), too, so here is the full cover glory for you all today — because “why not?” 😀

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* The WALL#4 updates are here:

March 29: For The Wall Of Night’s UK & Commonwealth Readers

April 5: As Promised, A “The Wall Of Night” Book #4 (The Chaos Gate) Update

In my recent The Chaos Gate (WALL #4) update, I discussed the current endgame sequence being a little tricky.

Reflecting on this also put me in mind of a Guardian interview with the great Haruki Murakami, which I first read awa’ back in 2014. I feel the interview is “one out of the box” on so many different levels: the insight into the writer, his work, the process of writing, and writing influences.

The Guardian: An Interview With Harumi Murakami

The interview is wide-ranging, but the parts that really resonated for me were when Murakami spoke about the writing process. Here are a few examples:

“I like to write. I like to choose the right word, I like to write the right sentence… in the right place. That kind of engineering is exhausting, though: a daily trip to the “basement of the mind” and back up again. …You have to dedicate yourself to that work. You have no extra space to do something else.” 

Also:

“I take time to rewrite,” he explains. “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…” 

And this:

“I don’t like deadlines …when it’s finished, it’s finished. But before then, it is not finished.”

I believe the reason these quotes resonate so strongly is because they closely reflect my own writing experience.

In 2015, Haruki Murakami attended the Auckland Writers Festival here in NZ, where another of his quotes resonated strongly with me:

“My stories are always unpredictable to myself.”

Mine definitely work in their own mysterious ways, their wonders to perform. And are not infrequently shapeshifters to boot – just when you think you’ve got them tied down, there they go, shifting again: not unlike Menelaus and the Old Man of the Sea…

Or as I wrote the other week: “tricky.” 😉

Yet also magical, and rewarding, no matter how exhausting that daily trip to the basement of the mind and back up again – and with the good hope, always, that the end result may also prove rewarding for readers.

Just by the way, too, if you haven’t already read Haruki Murakami, you may like to check out his work. I first read The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle but he has written many books now, including Norwegian Wood and Kafka on the Shore among many others.

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!

At present, we’re currently in the realms of “L” – a popular one for names in the Haarth world. 😀

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USA

Leto Ilvaine: a grandson of Prince Ilvaine, the head of  one of the ruling families in Ij

When they ducked back out into the brightness of the morning, they found a richly dressed youth waiting with Aravenor. The newcomer’s appearance, Jehane Mor reflected as he bowed, was quite magnificent. He wore a jupon of apricot velvet over a gilded breastplate, with the Ilvaine leopard device stitched into the velvet with gold thread. Tight, golden-chestnut curls clustered around a classic profile, and the eyes that lifted to meet hers were flecked with amber.

“Honorable heralds,” the young man said, straightening. “I am Leto Ilvaine. My grandfather, Prince Ilvaine, invites you to join his other guests in our pavilion…”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 8 — The Demonhunter