On July 1, I featured Tamsyn Muir’s Gideon the Ninth as part of my Worldbuilding in Fantasy series on the Supernatural Underground blog. Although my focus was on the world, I did conclude that: “the juxtaposition of sorcery and space, adventure and action, politics and mystery, makes for exciting Fantasy…”

Others must have agreed, because immediately prior to my post, Gideon the Ninth received the Locus Award 2020 for First Novel. An outstanding achievement, just by the way.

As the first in a trilogy (The Locked Tomb), naturally I have been looking forward to the next “exciting Fantasy” instalment — so was delighted when a beautiful hardback edition of Book Two, Harrow The Ninth, arrived on my TBR table.

It is a very beautiful book, including the artistry and detail of the cover illustration, and style and texture of the fonts. In fact “gorgeous cover” is almost becoming a theme, since another of this year’s Just Arrived’s, Underland by Robert MacFarlane, was similarly distinguished. And as those who’ve followed me for a while now (waves!) will know, I do have a bit of a thing for beautiful and evocative book jackets.

If you want to check a few of those covers out, take a peek at:

SFF Cover Art Love: Some Favourites

SFF Cover Art Love; More Favourites

Getting back to Harrow The Ninth, as you’ve probably guessed I’m quite keen to read it. In terms of hints offered by the back and inside covers as to the contents within, there’s not a lot on offer. The reader is offered three sentences, two of which deal with the prior book, Gideon the Ninth, and only one with Harrow:

“In victory, her world has turned to ash.”

So, I guess I’ll find out in the best way, by diving in and finding out for myself.

A quick scan of reviews suggest they’re generally positive, although there’s a suggestion this book doesn’t necessarily tread an expected path from where Gideon left off. From my point-of-view, this makes the book far more interesting than otherwise, whetting my appetite to “read on.”

Something I intend to do, over the Christmas-New Year break, if not before.

On Monday, I reflected on having posted for over a decade now on both my own blog and the Supernatural Underground (SU) – pretty dope, huh?!

This year on the Supernatural Underground I have focused on Worldbuilding in Fantasy as my theme. A major reason for that is because it’s a part of the genre that I really love—and I love the genre fullstop!—but also because I believe worldbuilding lies at the heart of what makes the genre distinctive from other styles of literature.

As I also mentioned on Monday, a number of my fellow SU authors have been members of the community with me for most of those ten years – and although every year is a time for celebrating community, 2020 feels ‘more so’ than ever in that respect.

So to both reflect our shared blogging milestone and to celebrate community, four of our SU authors have joined me in the final Worldbuilding in Fantasy series post to celebrate our Supernatural Underground worlds.

In the post each author hones in on an aspect or aspects of the worlds and worldbuilding in their own writing, offering insight into their process or reflecting on what motivates or shapes aspects of their worlds.

I believe Worldbuilding in Fantasy #11 is a really great read and feel privileged to have had the opportunity to put the post together – which is why I’m pleased to invite you to join us on the Supernatural Underground and celebrate the magic and marvels of our Supernatural Underground worldbuilding:

Worldbuilding in Fantasy #11 – Celebrating Our Supernatural Underground Worlds

Amanda Arista

KimFalconer

Merrie Destefano

T. Frohock

The original SU logo

I am currently preparing the final post for my Year of Worldbuilding in Fantasy series over on the Supernatural Underground (SU) – and realized mid prep that I have been posting here on my own blog, and on the SU for a decade now. O-o

My first post here “…on Anything, Really” was on May 31 2010, and titled – very originally! 😉 – “And So It Begins.”

Those who are versed in such arcane matters may catch an echo of Babylon 5 in that title, which would only be fitting since I am a fan of the series — which has probably / definitely(?) acquired Cult Classic status by now.

I commenced posting with the SU a little later, on 1 July 2010 and I believe have posted on the first of every month on all but one occasion for the subsequent ten years. Which really is not nothing!

My fellow Supernatural Undergrounder, Merrie Destefano, has been part of the community since July 2010 as well, and Kim Falconer and Amanda Arista since 2011. So we know how to hang in and hang together. 🙂

As for why I enjoy blogging, I posted a few of the reasons on June 18, although one I didn’t mention is that it allows for interaction with readers and also fellow writers in a “coffee house” sense – although I believe it’s a well-known fact, if not necessarily one universally acknowledged – that the majority of blog followers “lurk”, which in interweb parlance means to visit and read, but not comment or interact.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that, at all, at all: in fact, I “lurk” a fair bit myself. 🙂 I think it’s the potential for interaction that matters, which just a website doesn’t allow. Conversely, a medium like Twitter is all comment, but with so many of us commenting, observing, and opining all at once, it can sometimes feel a bit overwhelming.

It doesn’t “always” come back to coffee, but… 😉

That’s why I think personal blogs are like a coffee house: you (‘one’) can just sit and listen and sip your coffee, or when so inclined, join in the wider conversation, although – coffee houses being small spaces – it’s always going to be at the more personal end of the engagement scale.

The most important thing, to my mind, whether posting, or lurking (although I prefer to think of it as ‘lingering’), or commenting, is to enjoy oneself and have fun. More importantly still, or perhaps best of all, is to keep enjoying each other’s company.

On which note, I think you may enjoy the SU post tomorrow on 1 December (US EST) – so do watch the space to see what transpires… 🙂

The Jabberwock, as illustrated by John Tenniel in 1871

Over the last few weeks I’ve posted twice under the title “O Frabjous Day”, here and then again last week, here.

In the first post, I also referred to the “…vorpal keyboard going snicker-snack so the author could go galumphing back to the main manuscript without further delay.”

To which Kristen, in the second post, queried whether my vorpal keyboard ever does go snicker-snack — and I replied with reference to “slithy toves” and “uffish thought” and the “manxome foe.”

At which point one of my much younger blog readers queried, somewhat plaintively (in real time and place, rather than the ether): “Why are you talking all that gibberish?”

“Not gibberish,” I replied firmly: “nonsense. Jabberwocky is a nonsense poem, and I’m just having some fun with that.”

Possibly even the nonsense poem, in fact — although there are many other worthy contenders, such as Hey Diddle Diddle, used by Tolkien for the inn at Bree, in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Lewis Carroll’s Jabberwocky, from the novel Through The Looking Glass (1871), is definitely a favourite of mine, though. So much so that I featured it as a Tuesday Poem, away back in 2010, together with a few reasons why I heart it:

Tuesday Poem: Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

So if, like my young friend, you hadn’t yet encountered its magic—though I imagine most of you have!—or simply to reread, click on the link to enjoy. 🙂

The path to the bay

Very recently, I spent a few days in Auckland, during which time I revisited a spot that was in m’hood, a long gal ago.

The spot is called Wattle Bay or Taunahi, on the northern shore of the Manukau Harbour: one of the two that lie to north and south of the isthmus. Manukau is the harbour to the south and Wattle Bay is just a short walk down a relatively  steep hillside — and you’re away from the hurly-burly of New Zealand’s biggest city. I had a short break in an otherwise busy schedule and used it to revisit the bay.

First view of the bay…

When I first knew it there were holiday baches along the water margin, but apparently they were removed some years ago, so it’s just water and bush (forest/shrubland) today, along with whoever else is out and about on the Waikowhai Walkway.

Bush & water margin tranquillity

I had it pretty much to myself though — and thought you might enjoy the photos, even if they didn’t feature in the LoTR films.

The next bay along…

‘Tis part of “Middle Earth” all the same, though. 🙂

Two weeks back, I talked about some of the “frabjous” moments in the writing life, such as when (unexpectedly at the time) I returned to an unsatisfactory chapter ending expecting to do much remedial work, then found I could resolve the difficulty by the simple expedient of removing the final paragraph.

Problem solved — because the preceding paragraph did all that was required. “O frabjous day”, indeed. 😀

Endings often present challenges in the writing process, so only a short time previously, when celebrating another moment-of-frabjous via Twitter, the celebration also pertained to an ending. In that case, I ended a w.i.p. chapter thinking I still had another chapter to write, in order to reach my intended destination for the section. Here’s what happened, per the tweets:

That “vorpal keyboard” does it again 😉

I love those mornings when I wake up with an alternative ending ‘download’ to last night’s completed chapter. In this case, I believe a ‘better, stronger’, crisper finish. Not ‘faster’ tho’ given rewrite, however crisp… 😉

Yesterday morning’s revised chapter ending inspiration for #TheWallOfNight #4 WIP not only delivered a better outcome in situ, but has probably saved me an additional chapter in manuscript terms. So all hail those overnight muse interventions. 😀

Yes, indeed, to those muses — definitely delivering another “O frabjous day” moment.

(And no — canna do without the emoji action in m’tweets, #justsayin’ )

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Previous Inside The Writing Life Posts:

• 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!

The series that wowed the world 🙂

Last week, I discussed the mystery of what makes a literary work, such as Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, or the Harry Potter series, resonate so powerfully with (by implication, many) readers that it becomes a bestseller.

Meanwhile, away back on November 1, I posted on the Supernatural Underground about the wealth of fantasy worlds that have spun my reading wheels.

When considering both posts together, I started thinking about the importance of juxtapositions when it comes to stories that have made an impact or cut a swathe through the world. For example, Harry Potter takes the traditional “boarding school story” and juxtaposes it with magic, setting a magical world directly alongside our everyday reality. The result is, well, magical…

Similarly, Joanne Harris’s Chocolat combines magic, this time manifested through the chocolate of the title, with the French village life of A Year In Provence. Robin McKinley’s Sunshine managed a similar ‘marriage’ to good effect, only the baking and bakery-as-community hub were juxtaposed with vampires…

As for Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, as mentioned on Supernatural Underground, it’s “a variant of Gangs of New York meets Westside Story”, with a dash of Narnia (i.e. the magical alongside the everyday, within a predominantly winter world) thrown in.

Again as noted in the Supernatural Underground post, the way in which the Alvin Maker series put together North American colonial history (albeit an alternate one) with folklore and eco-magic, also felt exciting and new when it first appeared, although “flintlock fantasy” has since become its own subgenre.

I do not assert that juxtaposition alone (i.e. of older storytelling traditions and genres into a new format) unravels the mystery discussed last week, but it does appear to be a relatively consistent element when storytelling is hailed as “new” and ‘fresh.” The effect is not unlike the confluence of two rivers, which by coming together create a strong and energetic current going forward. Other storytelling elements, such as a great plot and vibrant characters, definitely need to be present for a story to be successful, but a little genre-bending may sometimes help move things along.

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, of course!

And—woo-hoo!—we’re now into the letter “L” and The Gathering of the Lost is getting a look-in again. All good. 🙂

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UK/AU/NZ

Lady Sarifa: a demonhunter and servant of the magi, from the empire of Ishnapur

“…but it was the woman who slipped into the tent in his shadow who caught and held all eyes. She was clad in a full, deep red robe, her hair concealed by a coif of gold mesh worked with garnet and seed pearls. The face within the coif was quartered with crimson and charcoal paint, both eyelids and lips darkened to black. The effect was both rich and a little frightening, and Jehane Mor heard more than one indrawn breath, although no one spoke.

Demonhunter tricks, the herald thought, but did not risk sharing the thought with Tarathan. The Lady Sarifa’s painted lids were half lowered, but Jehane Mor knew that she would be sensing the room.”

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

Last week, I got to hear two good friends talking over how very much they loved the novel Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. From which point their conversation shifted to trying to understand why they loved it so much, and why some books generally rock one’s reading world, while another on the same or a similar topic may not work the same magic.

Well, I thought, if I not only had the answer to that but could bottle it, I would never have to fear being a writer starving in a garret (aka Mr Gates, look out! 😉 )

Yet alas, I do not have either an answer or a formula, inclining more toward the view, as expressed in the film Shakespeare In Love, that “It’s a mystery …”

I suspect, too, that one could spend a great deal of time analyzing bestsellers and looking for their elements in common, deriving a formula — and then writing something completely soulless.

So “heart”and “soul” probably lie at the heart of what makes stories resonate with readers — but it has to derive from the passion of the writer, and as every author is different, it follows that it’s unlikely there can ever be a formula as to “which” passion, and expressed in “what” way.

Not to mention the reality implied by famous US editor Gordon Lish, in the quote I shared the other week. To paraphrase, that an important part of any book is the juxtaposition of the words and action on the page with the hearts and minds of readers. By implication, a successful work will “speak” to matters of concern to a wide cross section of the reading population — and who can foretell what that may be at any given time? Or what it is that sparks that reaction?

For example, my Eleanor Oliphant–reading friends could not pinpoint what it was that made them like the book and its title character so much, just that they did.

Similarly, it is difficult to say, exactly and precisely, what made a story about an orphan wizard who goes to wizarding school and ends saving the school and eventually the world, resonate quite so powerfully with a generation of readers of all ages, and across many different continents and cultures.

Very often it does seem to be a mystery. So all we, as writers, can do (imho) is write a story we feel passionate about, out of our “heart” and “soul”, and make it the very best we possibly can — because the rest is, in fact, completely out of our hands. O-o

A fortnight ago, I discussed some of the Moments of Grr-Argh that beset the writing life from time to time.

It’s not all such tricky and/or downright frustrating moments, however. This week I’ve had the almost directly opposite experience when finishing off a section of the w.i.p. (Yes, another one: giddy stuff, huh?!)

As a spinoff from that section I noticed something was a bit “off-key” with the ending of a precursor chapter, earlier in the manuscript (ms.)

I wasn’t wrong about that, but when I headed back to fix it, thinking I might have to expand the chapter to remedy the situation, I first read the whole chapter through before making any changes.

The vorpal keyboard…(maybe) 😉

(This, dear paduan, is the way of writing wisdom, a sagacity gained via bitter experience, I may add, as opposed to observation or enlightenment. 😉 )

Having completed my readthrough and reached the offending ending, I realized that I did not have to add anything. All I need do was remove the final paragraph, because the one immediately before it did the required job pretty much perfectly.

Onward!

So as opposed to headdesk and grr-argh, it was “Oh, frabjous day” with the vorpal sword, or in this case vorpal keyboard, going snicker-snack so the author could go galumphing back to the main manuscript without further delay.

Just by way of demonstrating that such felicities do happen sometimes, as do the moments of deeper alchemy I discussed earlier in the year. 🙂

As for that completed section, ’twas a short one, but nonetheless tis done and I’m now moving into a more major sequence. First, though, I believe I need to do a tax return — so we’re back into the realm of writing grr-argh, after all…

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Previous Inside The Writing Life Posts:

• 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”