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!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

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Jarna: an Emerian knight-in-training, hailing from the Northern March of Emer

UK/AU/NZ

USA

Carick nodded, looking around the forge and then back to the horse, which was a tall, red roan destrier, bred to carry the weight of its own armor as well as that of a knight into battle. “Is this a great horse? The breed for which Emer is famous?”

“The finest in all Emer,” said Hamar. “But that’s because Jarna trained him.” He grinned at the lad holding the horse, and Carick, looking more closely, realized that the boy was in fact the girl squire who had formed part of his escort to Normarch.

“Hello,” he said, and the girl nodded back. “Did you really train him? What’s his name?”

For a long moment he thought Jarna was not going to answer, but then she met his eyes, a quick shy look. “Madder,” she said finally. “It’s another way of saying ‘red.’” Her voice was low-pitched, almost husky, and with a cap over her thick plait, she was broad-shouldered and flat-chested enough to pass as a boy. She smiled now and stroked the horse’s nose again. “We all have a gift for horses, in my family. That’s what my grandfather says. Although Hamar has the gift, too,” she added.

Hamar shook his head. “No. I’m good with horses, but you are something more, Jarn.”

This time Jarna did just shrug and look away, but Carick noticed that she flushed as well.

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 13 — Normarch
.

UK/AU/NZ

USA

Eventually both horses had adjusted to the enclosed space and the movement of the ship, but Kalan had still needed to spend a great deal of time with them, especially when a squall blew up a day out of Port Farewell. “Because Jarna,” he murmured to the roan destrier now, “would curse me in this life and into the next if I let any harm come to you.”

~  from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 5 — Blood Warrior

This year on Supernatural Underground I’m celebrating the wondrous and wonderful worldbuilding of Fantasy literature with a closer look at some of my favourite worlds.

On 1 May, I featured Palimpsest by Catherynne M Valente—the world and the book share the same name. I had forgotten quite how much I loved the world, and also the novel, until I reread Palimpsest ahead of doing the post.

Anyway, to find out why I love it so much, please do go and have a read — I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by clicking through:

Year Of Worldbuilding in Fantasy #4: “Palimpsest” by Catherynne M Valente

#YoW YearOfWorldbuilding
#WiF WorldbuildingInFantasy

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While you’re visiting the Supernatural Underground, you may also like to check out the giveaway by new SU author, AK Wilder:

Good Reads Giveaway for Crown of Bones

The giveaway is for AK’s forthcoming novel, Crown of Bones (Entangled Teen), which is a YA, secondary world Fantasy.

To find out more about Crown of Bones check out this post:

Welcome To Amassia

(Amassia is the Crown of Bones world.)

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Coming Up Next Week:

Just a heads-up that next Monday I ‘should’ be featuring an interview with AJ Fitzwater re her newly released collection of linked short fiction, The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper.

Do check in with us then and get with the dapper. 🙂

Inside the Writing Life…

On April 20, I posted a few Reflections On Writing the Long Form & WALL#4 Progress, as part of which I talked about posting a little more from inside the writing life.

I was reflecting further on how to kick off this topic when The Wall Of Night readers took the matter out of my hands with a few comments on the blog post, and a few more on Twitter. All of which, just by the way, confirmed my view expressed in the post: that WALL readers (and I’m quite sure  Thornspell readers, too) are characterized by “general all-round virtue.” 🙂

USA

The comments reflected readers’ experience of the books, for example that WALL #1 – #3 are frequently reread, providing both the contentment of familiarity while still remaining “fresh and suspenseful” and conveying both a “plot and character…tingle.” (Thanks Jacqui and Steve respectively.) While Ellen commented that:

“Daughter of Blood was phenomenal; I cried and cried at the end, and that’s a good thing, actually. It means you did your job and did it well and really moved me.”

UK/AU/NZ

My initial response was just “wow.” (In an entirely good way, I hasten to add.) But I also wanted to reply to these comments from inside the writing life, not just because as a writer I love to hear that readers have enjoyed my books, but also because these responses connect directly to the “how” and “why” of my writing process.

Firstly, I’m a re-reader myself, and have many books in my life that are old and trusted friends that I often return to and enjoy spending time with again. So I love that my books slip into some readers’ lives in the same way. When I write, I don’t consciously think, I want people to re-read these books. But I do want to write great stories, where people really care about the characters and what happens to them, and write in a way that has both nuance and depth so that a returning reader may find some new insight or angle, as well as re-experiencing the tried and true of their first reading.

5% inspiration.

Sometimes that kind of writing just flows from the pen, and when that happens it’s always awesome and often quite magical, too. You may recall, though, that I mentioned the 5% inspiration: 95% perspiration formula in my 20 April post, which of course reveals that the magical flow is rarer than you might think, and certainly more so than I would like! And yet… (I’ll come back to the “and yet.”)

Tricksy…

So most of the time, the work-in-progress and the author are firmly in the land of 95% perspiration. Sometimes that occurs because the story is like a giant jigsaw puzzle where there are not only a LOT of pieces but those pieces can be quite “tricksy” (as Gollum would have it when speaking of “hobbitses.”) In the case of books and long-from writing, the tricksiness may lie in pieces appearing to fit together, but gradually the poor benighted author realises that they don’t, quite. At this juncture the only thing to be done is to backtrack until you find the piece that started author and story down the “not-quite-fitting” path. Or sometimes wildly not fitting, but you only see it when you look back…

No kicking the cat!

This process requires both a firm understanding of the big picture and simultaneously a lot of attention to detail—not to mention patience! And maybe a modicum of bloody-mindedness, to work it all out. Not infrequently, too, (in my case—I cannot speak for other authors!) there may be accompanying bad language. Furthermore, items breakable and unbreakable may be thrown, metaphorically if not literally, and cats, if they were not adept at making themselves scarce, might be in danger of being kicked…

It’s always about the characters

This tricksiness mostly applies to plots, with all the attendant considerations of subtexts, pacing, and the invisible but all-important story structure. BUT it may also apply to character development. Mostly, when all the myriad pieces that make up a character appear to fit but then you realise they really don’t, it’s for reasons that may be grouped under the general headings of consistency and continuity, which are sometimes almost the same thing and sometimes not.

Yet for whatever reason, what it boils down to is that characters must remain true to themselves. Because if they don’t, if the author thinks maybe she’ll just take a character shortcut to make the plot work out, then (imho) nothing in the unfolding story will ring true.

Sometimes it takes two typewriters — or PCs. 🙂

And it’s the ringing true, I believe, that leads us to buy into characters as readers, and laugh and cry, and dare and win, or strive and lose with them. So I’ll keep working away on the characters and their stories until I feel they’re pitch-perfect: that they’ll resonate sufficiently with readers for those like Ellen to cry over their fates. That’s the “tingle” and it’s also doing my job, and sometimes (as alluded to when reflecting on the long form) it’s also blood, sweat and tears territory. Or as Ernest Hemingway so succinctly put it: “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit at the typewriter and bleed.”

Optimus maximus…

Do you remember that I said, “And yet…” up above? The reason I said it is because reaching a good result as a result of the sheer hard work and grind and perseverance of the 95% perspiration can be as rewarding as the 5% that springs into being fully formed (like Athena from the brain of Zeus), only in a different way. Somewhat like the stump in Shane, if you’ve ever read the book. And it’s always really affirming to receive feedback that suggests the work and effort has proven worthwhile for readers. So a big thank you to all of you, both on the recent post but also at other times, who have taken the time to let me know that.

“Think of this – that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.” — A.S. Byatt, Possession.

Posting on a Wednesday, you may be thinking, when it’s been Monday and Thursday for a few years now: what’s up with that?

What, indeed? But with a few things coming up I fancied doing an extra post to herald them.

The Supernatural Undergound

Obviously there’ll be a Supernatural Underground post on 1 May, in which I’ll continue my “Worldbuilding in Fantasy” series — check in over there, but also here, to find out which Fantasy, and fantastic, world I’m featuring next month. 🙂

The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, and an Interview With AJ Fitzwater

Speaking of worldbuilding, or rather segueing from that, sometime in the near future I’ll be posting an interview with Christchurch friend and fellow author, AJ Fitzwater. I’ll be chatting with AJ about their new-out collection of linked short fiction, The Voyages of Cinrak the Dapper, including exploring Cinrak’s world of Rodentdom. I’m really looking forward to it and hope you’ll enjoy it just as much. By way of further heralding the event, here’s a very short synopsis of what CINRAK’s all about:

Dapper. Lesbian. Capybara. Pirate.

Cinrak the Dapper is a keeper of secrets, a righter of wrongs, the saltiest capybara on the sea and a rider of both falling stars and a great glass whale. Join her, her beloveds, the rat Queen Orvilia and the marmot diva Loquolchi, lead soprano of the Theatre Rat-oyal, her loyal cabin kit, Benj the chinchilla, and Agnes, last of the great krakens, as they hunt for treasures of all kinds and find adventures beyond their wildest dreams. Let Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning storyteller A.J. Fitzwater take you on a glorious journey about finding yourself, discovering true love and exploring the greatest secrets of the deep. Also, dapperness.

Sounds fun, huh? 😉 By the way, I’ve linked to AJ’s blog through their name, above, but you can also follow them on Twitter: @ajfitzwater

Inside The Writing Life

Inside the writing life…

On April 20th, when I posted on Writing Long Form Fiction & WALL #4 Progress, I also undertook to post a little more from Inside the Writing Life, and will start by responding more fully to the comments on that post. For the very Important Reason that they sparked a few more thoughts on How I Write, which is not entirely disconnected from Why I Write, and so I suspect qualifies as insider material.

So long as inspiration continues I’ll be alternating the Insider theme with About The Characters — and quite possibly the odd randomly themed post, to boot. 🙂

(The blog is, after all, eponymously “on Anything, Really”… )

Change springs eternal: A Traveller’s Guide no more…

On which note, what I won’t be continuing with, for now, is the Traveller’s Guide To Haarth. Mainly because it felt a little bit too much like A Geography of Haarth revisited and I just couldn’t get excited about that. And when I tried to get a little more creative with the whole idea it felt like I was siphoning creative energy from WALL #4 and I wasn’t up for that either.

WALL #4 definitely comes first—and one important way that works is by keeping the blog and book writing channels of the writing life distinct. So no more Traveller’s Guide for now, but I’ll definitely be revisiting all Haarth related matters once WALL #4 is in the can. Roll on that day. 😉

Just by way of a final heads-up, because I’m posting this on Wednesday, the Insider’s post will go up on Friday (rather than Thursday.) I’ll look forward to seeing you again then. 🙂

The TV series

I’m not a big small screen viewer, but one thing about LockdownNZ (or anywhere else for that matter, I imagine) is that in lieu of going out you (i.e. “one”, aka me!) end up falling back on home-based entertainment options. So I’ve found myself checking out TV series that are either new here or which I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while. In a way, as shall be made clear, Noughts & Crosses ticks both boxes.

And since the show also fall into the speculative fiction quadrant, I thought I’d go for a “What I’m Watching” post in lieu of sticking with “What I’m Reading”, although there’s a few of those in the wings as well. 🙂

Spoiler Alert: I usually try pretty hard to avoid spoilers but I don’t think I can discuss Nought & Crosses without crossing over into spoiler territory. So if you’re concerned about that, maybe pass on this post, although I’ll alert you again when we reach the critical point.

Otherwise, here goes.

Noughts & Crosses

As you may know, the BBC production of Noughts & Crosses is based on Malorie Blackman’s well-known YA novel of the same name, first published in 2001. It’s a story I’ve always thought sounds really good and intended reading, but somehow never gotten around to. Although this happens sometimes, it sharpened my keenness to see the series, but also means that my comments are solely based on the show, rather than the book.

Overall, I enjoyed the series, and if not for aspects of the ending would probably be posting that I really enjoyed it. Firstly, I loved the worldbuilding. The basic premise is that rather than Europe invading and colonizing Africa, the opposite was the case. In the TV series, this occurred seven-hundred years before a 21st century present and the UK is still a holdout for the colonial past in which the “Crosses” (the minority, ruling elite of African descent) rule the “Noughts”, the descendants of the original inhabitants and the majority of the population.

The reason I say the UK is a “holdout” is because the political regime there is one of enforced separation between “Noughts” and “Crosses”, including the outlawing of marriage between the two races, and with the institutions of power exclusively dominated by the “Cross” minority. However,  it’s made clear that things are largely very different in contemporary Africa. In this sense, I felt the Noughts & Crosses “world” reasonably closely resembled Zimbabwe and South Africa when they were both governed by separatist, white-minority regimes in the mid-later half of the 20th century. The minority regimes were English and Dutch (the Afrikaaners) in origin, but did not reflect the contemporaneous political cultures in either the UK or the Netherlands.

The African-dominated “world” of Noughts and Crosses UK  is chiefly conveyed visually by means of a large statue of an African woman that dominates the London skyline, and the African culture of the Crosses also predominates in clothing colours and fabric, jewellery, and hairstyles—although otherwise the  world is a 21st century urban environment of high rise towers and more derelict areas, cars and public transport, cellphones and computers. All positions of authority and power, i.e. the government, the judiciary, the military and the police, are exclusively Cross, as are the upper echelons of professions such as medicine, law, and journalism. The Noughts are unemployed, servants, or unskilled labour—but there is beginning to be some change, including Nought recruits being accepted into an elite Cross military college.

So in terms of being speculative fiction, this is alternate history playing out in a contemporary urban setting.

The story centres on the inequality and injustice of the segregated society and discriminatory culture enforced by the Cross regime, but does so through the central characters of Sephy (Persephone) Hadley, a young Cross woman from a highly privileged background, and Callum McGregor, a Nought, whose mother, Meggy, is housekeeper for Sephy’s parents. Sephy and Callum played together as children, but interracial friendships of any sort are frowned upon so they only meet again as young adults, when Sephy is about to start university and Callum has been accepted for Mercy Point, the elite military academy referred to above.

The original novel

The two reconnect and fall in love in a Romeo and Juliet / Westside Story type romance about young people from opposing factions, a relationship that is highly dangerous for both of them, but particularly for Callum in a society where sexual relationships and marriage between Noughts and Crosses are illegal. Their evolving relationship plays out against a backdrop of racial tension: on the streets, e.g. police violence and Nought deaths, as well as protests and terror attacks by the Nought liberation movement; but also in government, with power plays between more liberal and conservative Cross factions, with Sephy’s father a major player on the hardline conservative side.

Eventually, these forces exact a devastating toll on Callum’s family and inevitably place  a major strain on his and Sephy’s relationship. But up until the end I found all the layers of conflict believable and compelling, and I thought all the characters were really good: not just Sephy and Callum, but their respective parents and siblings, friends and associates and enemies. However, I really struggled with the series’ ending, which I can’t really explain without spoilers, so it’s time to reiterate the spoiler alert.

Please don’t continue reading if you don’t want spoilers!

At the end, Sephy and Callum split up as a result of the stresses arising from what’s happened to Callum’s family, and he joins the Liberation Militia (LM), which comprises either terrorists or heroic freedom fighters depending on whether you’re a Cross or a Nought respectively. By this stage, Sephy’s father has become Prime Minister and the LM decide to kidnap and either ransom/kill her, to send a message. Callum not only goes along with this, but actively sets it up—yet at the very end, despite the gobsmacking enormity of this betrayal of trust, Sephy chooses to run away with him.

I think it is this aspect of the ending in particular that I really struggled with, because Callum’s betrayal of their love and Sephy’s trust is something I don’t believe most relationships would easily recover from, even if the betrayed party understands the forces driving the act. And although Stockholm Syndrome, in which kidnap victims develop a psychological alliance with their captors, is a potential explanation, in this case there is a prior relationship that has been completely betrayed, and in addition the kidnapping is not of long duration, which mitigates against it.

I also struggled somewhat with Callum going along with the kidnapping in the first place. Admittedly, he’s very angry and bitter, which might drive that level of betrayal and the real risk to Sephy’s life. Yet in this case their in-love relationship is very recent and we, as viewers, have never seen him not only fall out of love with her, but also to focus personal hatred on her, despite his rage against the Cross regime.

Other, albeit more minor objections, included Sephy’s father, the PM, being allowed to go in alone to meet the terrorists/kidnappers and hand over the ransom. Why, after all, wouldn’t they simply seize the opportunity to kill him, too, since he is the arch-enemy? And then somehow Callum and Sephy manage to escape together, despite the site being surrounded by armed police, as well as eluding the subsequent manhunt that would surely ensue if the PM’s daughter were still missing…

In conclusion, although I enjoyed the series up to that point, I was disappointed by the ending. I still think it’s worth watching and I would probably give a second series a chance as well, only with far lower expectations given the reservations above.

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, of course!

(The quotes, together with the covers, indicate the books in which the character appears.)

—

USA

Jaras:  a House of Blood honor guard in Jad’s eight-unit

“We saw fresh ’spawn-sign, plenty of it,” Jad told Kalan, as the Sea company mounted. “And riders’ tracks, although they were older: long range scouts maybe, ahead of the caravan passing this way.” The rest had nothing further to add from scouting the road, beyond evidence of the caravan’s passage. Once the Sea company and exiles rode on together, Kalan saw more such evidence, from wagon tracks and dropped belongings, to a trail of animal dung. Eventually they met Jaras and Nhal, riding back to the bridge, and their report reflected those from the other scouts.

~  from © Daughter of Blood, The Wall of Night Book Three: Chapter 40 — Shadow Moon

5% inspiration…

I usually write my blog posts at night after the main writing (i.e. working) day is done, but that also often means that I’m feeling tired and a bit “blah” by the time I start the post.

Unless it’s been a really exceptionally positive and inspirational day with the ‘main writing’ that is, but in the spirit of creativity being “5% inspiration and 95% perspiration” those days (or nights!) really don’t come along that often. And since I want to post on the ‘main writing’ (mw — or emdubbya 😉 ) and WALL #4, “blah” really isn’t the starting point I’m looking for. Just sayin’

Yep, it’s autumn here…

Even though a little bit of “blah” may be considered justified after almost 4 weeks in lockdown, and amidst the autumn change-of-season, too—but since I 100% support LockdownNZ and the autumn weather has generally been marvellous, that’s definitely a “Yeah…Nah.”

Part of the inspiration for this post was my Supernatural Underground colleague, Amanda Arista’s post earlier this month, in which she discusses the ten-year road to her recently released novel, The Truth About Night. I was glad to read the post because something that’s not-much-talked-about in relation to writing is that novels are not only “long form” literature, but can also be a long time in the writing process, with the creative spark exacting its full quotient of perspiration, as well as blood and not a few tears, from the authors in question.

95% perspiration

The reasons for this can be quite diverse, from Amanda’s account of the many publishing twistings, turnings, and hurdles into getting a book to the world, through to long form storytelling being, quite simply, hard and challenging work that does make real intellectual, emotional, and physical demands on authors. And exacts that full toll of blood, sweat, and tears—all of which I personally find worth it when I finally win through to those magic words “the end.” (I can’t speak for any other writer in this respect.)

The long form taking time is by no means unusual either. A few relatively recent examples include Catherine Chidgey’s Ockham NZ Book Award winning novel, The Wish Child, which took thirteen years to write. Similarly, readers who loved Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief (2005), also had a thirteen-year wait until Bridge of Clay in 2018. Closing the gap to eight years, Erin Morgenstern brought out The Night Circus in 2011, and her next book, The Starless Sea in 2019. And the next-in-series novel to Patrick Rothfuss’s The Wise Man’s Fear (2011) has now reached year nine, as (famously) has George RR Martin’s ASOIAF novel, The Winds of Winter.

Oh no–oo-ooo, I may hear you cry, what is Helen saying? She’s not saying it’s going to be between eight to thirteen years until she finishes The Chaos Gate? Is she? Is she?  And the answer is “No, she’s not.” Or I certainly sincerely hope not, because although it’s easy to say, it’s also true that the demands of the long form are as frustrating to me as the author as they are to any reader. I can’t give you a date yet, for a number of reasons, including that the twists and turns of this particular long form journey mean that I won’t know for certain when it’s the end until I type the words. Anything else is just me pulling a date out of the air and hoping (like heck)—but so far the muses* have treated all such attempts, however private to me and the manuscript, with contempt and disdain. So suffice it to say that I have learned not to apply my fingertips to that particular burning flame.

Writing, writing, & not always thrown away…

However, what I can tell you is that despite the twists and turns of the long road to this juncture, WALL #4 is coming together into the story I always envisaged and starting to deliver some of the key story and character resolves for the series as well as the individual book. I’ve had to do a lot of writing-and-throwing-away, plus late night and early morning hard bargaining with the muses, to get to this point but I do feel that the writing is on the true and right path of the story with the signposts all clearly pointing toward “the end.” My caution is that I’m not there yet and there’s still considerable writing (and doubtless some throwing away) to be done, but I can not only “see it” now, but I can promise you it’s definitely coming closer. As I also always promise, as soon as I type “the end”, I’ll let you know here and on Twitter.

Open for writing on, every day…

The other promise I always make, and it is one I will never break, is my commitment to the muses and to readers that I will never step back from making the story as good as my creative and writing powers can manage, in the hopes that when it is done and in readers hands they may feel it is worth the wait. Another promise I will never break (within the coda of continued life and physical and mental capability) is that I shall finish the book. I can also give you the assurance that every day, however many obstacles “life, the universe and everything” (including somewhat extraordinary times!) place in the way, I am working on delivering on those commitments.

The river Why: all we can know…

As to why the long form can take so long…”throws up hands” because honestly, if I knew the answer to that, it really wouldn’t. Suffice it to say that in my case there have been a succession of Big Life Events that I’m pretty sure have thrown their spanners in the works. But otherwise, I’m forced to the conclusion (through experience, since I didn’t know it from the outset and if I had may well have done things differently) that despite the best endeavours and certainly the heartfelt wishes and  aspirations of this particular author in which speed (by which I mean celerity, not the drug!) and ‘done yesterday’ all figure large, sometimes the long form just is long, and takes time to write and get right, yanno…None of which means, as a reader myself, that I don’t fully get how tough it is to become engaged with a series and then have to wait years for the next installment.

…is that every river must, at last, come to the sea.

And all of which means that I deeply appreciate the support and encouragement so many of you have shown me, so consistently, in the four years since Daughter of Blood came out—and which always reinforces those commitments and assurances (two paragraphs) above.

In terms of what I can do, in lieu of a date, and recognizing your patience, support, and general all-round virtue, I’m going to try and do more regular updates on progress, say at least three-monthly. And I’m going to post a little more on being inside the writing life. My only qualm on that score is, as I may have mentioned in relation to LockdownNZ, that the writing life is, ummm, kind of naturally self-isolating and so potentially not that interesting, i.e. it’s the writing that’s the interesting part imho. However, I’m meant to be a creative and—ummm—fiction is my thing, so I’ll see what I can do, despite occasionally feeling a tad drained by the daily wrassle with the mw and the muses.

Naturally “self-isolating”…

Until next time, dear friends, particularly in view of the current extraordinary times, keep taking good care of yourselves, and please stay as well as you can. He waka eke noa — we’re all in this together.

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*Muses: re why plural and not singular, ’tis because traditionally the Muses are a sisterhood of nine:

Clio of history
Euterpe of lyric poetry
Thalia of comedy
Melpomene of tragedy
Terpsichore of choral dance and song
Erato of erotic poetry and mime
Polymnia of the sublime hymn
Calliope of epic poetry
Urania of astronomy

Just before lockdown cut in (although in fact post is still an essential service) a new book arrived on my TBR table.

This one is Underland by UK author, Robert Macfarlane. I’ve been aware of the author for quite some time via Twitter, noticing his tweets regarding etymology and aspects of the natural world, all of which are always fascinating.

So I was naturally intrigued when his latest book, Underland, subtitled ‘A Deep Time Journey’, was published last year, to considerable public attention.

I knew it was nonfiction, and probably “creative nonfiction” at that, i.e. nonfiction that uses the style and devices of fiction to add depth and interest, while still maintaining a factually accurate narrative. (Deep breath!)

I figured, too, that Underland’s subject matter was something to do what what lies beneath in terms of the natural and physical world—but the inside cover blurb (there’s no backcover blurb) also indicates that myth and literature also play their part:

“Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save . . . ‘

Underland is an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory and the land itself … From the vast underground mycelial networks by which trees communicate to the ice-blue depths of glacial moulins, and from North Yorkshire to the Lofoten Islands, Robert Macfarlane traces a voyage through the worlds beneath our feet. He reaches back into the deep history of the planet, through the layers of rock and ancient buried objects, and forward to the future, the legacy of the anthropocene and the world we bequeath our descendants. Underland is Macfarlane at his dazzling best – the lyrical, the political and the philosophical come together in this profound exploration of the relationship between landscape and the human heart.”

Although I said there was no backcover blurb, which is true, there is a fabulous backcover quote, which I’ll leave you with until I report back on my reading experience:

‘The way into the
underland is through
the riven trunk of
an old ash tree…’

Cool, huh? I have to say, I am pretty keen to start reading…

Last week’s starring ‘Bubble fare.’

Bubble Fare might be another way of saying Bubble Babble, in hopes of avoiding Bubble Trouble (nods to the esteemed memory of Margaret Mahy), but of course ’tis Bubble Babble with a very specific focus, i.e. lockdown food creations. 🙂

“Bubble”, btw, is the NZ term for NZ’s Covid-19 lockdown, i.e. we’re all in our “bubbles”, staying strong by staying apart, in hopes of saving lives… Today is Day 19 (by my reckoning) of a projected 28, and it’s a case of a still-cautious “so far, so good” — as in, yesterday’s official update showed a marked decrease in new cases, following a week in which a decrease in infection rates began to manifest.

Autumn means it’s time for soup — tomato & onion goodness

Fingers crossed that the positive trend will continue and we will find a way to emerge from lockdown without resulting waves of reinfection… (Yes, I know, I know, I’m an optimist, but you already knew that, right, because no one who was not innately highly optimistic would ever embark upon a writing career. 😉 )

Nothing quite like damper bread to go with soup…

Anyways, as I mentioned in my lockdown post last week, one thing that’s been hard hit in the NZ supermarket aisles is flour (and other baking goods), leading to the observation (via a Twitter pal) that “Clearly NZ is going to bake its way out of Corona virus.”

A hot pumpkin & feta salad adds a welcome touch of autumn colour to the table

I also noted (as regular followers will already know) that I have some cooking and baking credentials anyway, but there’s nothing quite like being in a lockdown bubble to up the home-cooked food ante. As it’s autumn here, the recipes finding favour are those with a decided autumnal twist, as I hope the photos bear out.

A little mushroom filo goodness to nourish body & soul

Bon appetit, everyone. Keep taking care. Stay well.

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!

Today’s character is extra special, because Jan Butterworth is not only a character in The Wall of Night series, she’s also a real person whom I know and esteem from several NZ Natcons and through SFFANZ (Science Fiction and Fantasy Association of New Zealand) — as well as giving her name to the very first Tuckerization character in any of my books.

A Tuckerization, made famous by an early SF author, Wilson Tucker, is when an author uses an individual’s name for a character in a book. I’ve been offering a Tuckerization opportunity as part of the publication celebrations for each of the WALL series books—and Jan’s was the name drawn from the very first Sorting Hat, when HEIR was published.

I managed to work her full name into The Gathering of the Lost, in a way I feel works with the story and the worldbuilding. I hope readers, and Jan herself, agree. The girl below is named Jan, of course, although that detail is revealed a little later in the chapter. 🙂

UK/AU/NZ

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Jan Butterworth:  a girl from the village of Butterworth, in Southern Aralorn

“She rode into Butterworth as the poplar leaves became gold tinted. The village had an alehouse as well as a forge, with a crumbling stone tower on the edge of the nearby chestnut woods. “Although only owls live there now,” the girl who was sweeping the alehouse step told Malian, before bringing her a tankard of cool brown beer and filling the trough beside the step with water for the cob. “Shrines of Serru, is it?” She shooed away the hens that had come pecking around the door. “There’s none here, nor as far as Thorpe, from what I hear.” She gazed beyond the dusty yard and the hens to the nearby chestnut woods. “You could try the Ara-fyr, although—” She crinkled up her eyes, her tone growing apologetic, as if she feared disappointing her visitor. “They may not have shrines to Serru or even Imul. They’re uncanny strange in their ways.”

~  from © The Gathering Of The Lost, The Wall of Night Book Two: Chapter 53 — The Solitary Tower