Month: December 2022

Mainstream

The novel ‘Asanas’ may be the most straightforwardly mainstream book I have written—or that has my name on it. Other fiction might tend toward that sort of realism but can be tucked into various genres, action, crime, etc. The one exception is the ‘The Middle of Nowhere,’ which is certainly mainstream realism but aimed at the Young Adult market.

There are also a couple novels written under a pen name. The fact that they are set more than fifty years ago could allow one to call them historical fiction, but they are not intended to fit into that genre.

Incidentally, I do not particularly hide the fact that I use that pen name but I don’t draw attention to it either. It does allow me to distance myself some from the work, which is desirable both because it is set in the time and place I grew up, and is more graphic than my other fiction.

I will certainly write more mainstream work. A sequel to Asanas may appear as well as more books with a pen name on the cover. However, my ‘realistic’ fiction is more likely to tend toward mysteries and adventures—the Wilk books, the Cully Beach series, and now the Hocking Hills mysteries. These are not aimed at the ‘commercial genre’ market but have more of an ‘up-market’ vibe. Indeed, some of the books I mentioned could probably be styled ‘women’s fiction,’ though I would prefer not.

Stories (and Such)

I should mention I put up a ‘Tales’ page here, where I shall drop a short story or excerpts or something of that sort from time to time. Probably not poetry; most new poems show up at my Tumblr. The first one is a previously unpublished story titled ‘An Orphan of the Tides.’ I’m told it is a bit Gaiman-esque but I suspect that’s because I was influenced by the same authors (I can see some Dunsany in it). I’ll leave it up till I get tired of it.

Characterization

All fictional characters are flat. A writer can give an illusion of depth by giving an apparently stereoscopic view of a character—seeing him from two vantage points; all a writer can do is give more or less information about a character, not information of a different order ~ Evelyn Waugh

This jibes with my own feelings about characterization. We should not attempt to tell who a person is or give the reasons for their actions; we can really only give the outward appearance. It is, to be sure, acceptable to have a character (or intrusive narrator) conjecture such things but is best to make no authoritative statement about them. Humans are too complex for an author to lay out all their motivations for the reader without resorting to cliches and simplifications. Even if we employ first person, or close third, it is the character’s belief about their own motivations that is presented—and best not taken taken as the truth.

Long Books

Probably the longest novel I have read all the way through is Hugo’s ‘Les Miserables’ at some 531,000 words. Second place might be ‘The Lord of the Rings.’ I just could not bring myself to wade through Tolstoy; he bores me dreadfully.

I rarely see the need for such long novels. Yes, some stories are epic in scale and take some time to tell. In my own writing, that is more likely to result in a series of shorter novels. Tolkien’s ‘Rings’ is divided into six books and could have been published as such. My ‘Donzalo’s Destiny,’ published in four books, can be seen as eleven novellas and novelettes making up one continuous tale of some 206,000 words.

My longest standalone novel, however, runs to 88,000 words. Two of them, actually, weigh in at that length (one under a pen name). Many of my books run more in the 60 to 70,000 word range. Plenty of good books have been no longer and some a good bit shorter.

There seems to be a current feeling among publishers that shorter books are undesirable. I see that as no more than a passing fashion. I certainly would not add filler. I would not pad my novels to reach some ‘ideal’ length. Nor would I trim them to reach that same goal.

Gay

I watched the better part of the ‘Ghosts’ Christmas show last night (not that I’m a particular fan but I couldn’t find anything better on antenna television) and noted that the character Isaac, the ghost of a Revolutionary War soldier, dreamed that his wife called him a ‘big gay liar.’ Now, the word ‘gay’ had no connotations of homosexuality two hundred fifty years ago but that doesn’t really matter. It was a dream and it served the narrative.

The word seems to have become attached to homosexual culture sometime in the Fifties. This was part of my research for my latest novel, ‘These Remembered Hills,’ which will be coming out on January 7. I was not at all sure what gay men called each other, nor how ‘straight’ culture referred to them at the time the story is set, 1962. Apparently, the word gay was becoming the name of choice for homosexuals themselves during this period. Of course, ‘queer’ was around and, I’m fairly sure, is a somewhat older term. And, to be sure, most people, if they mentioned homosexuality at all, tended to use derogatory words such as ‘pansy.’

There was also research into how hate crimes against gays were viewed and referred to at that time. ‘Hate crime’ is a way more recent phrase. I could not really find anything definite on when ‘bashing’ came to refer to attacking gays, so I avoided using it. My relatively enlightened police detective who gets involved does speak of ‘homophobia.’ It might not have been in common use in the early Sixties but the implication is that he’s up on the literature.

Most of this is somewhat peripheral to the story’s plot. It is not an LGBTQ novel. One of the murder victims is gay and we get some views of his life from the outside. But I had to get it right, you know? Researching the details is important to crafting a believable narrative. There were a lot of details to research for ‘These Remembered Hills.’ Things change a lot in sixty years, including the Hocking Hills themselves—but the ridges and valleys, the creeks and caves are there still. It is we who change.

Dark Elves

The fay who appeared in my Donzalo’s Destiny series of fantasy novels are Dark Elves. I did not mention this in the books themselves both because it was unnecessary and because I couldn’t find a convenient spot to do so without creating a bit of an ‘info dump.’ I did slip it into the first book of the successor series, ‘The Plain of Silver.’

Dark Elves are not dark; on the contrary, they are quite pale. The name comes from the fact that they dislike sunlight and spend more of their lives in caves or in low-light worlds. It may be noted that there are Black Elves, who are dark of skin. None have shown up yet onstage but I have them waiting in the wings. Dark Elves are relatively slight, compared to mortal humans. That is barely noticeable; their snow-white skins are more likely to be what we would note on first glimpse.

Though I speak of ‘mortals’ as separate from the Fay, I should mention that they are not immortal, only exceedingly long-lived. Genetically, they are human, and can successfully interbreed with us. As can their closer relatives, the Goblin-folk, and those more distant, such as dwarfs, trolls, and even merfolk.

The only other elves in my primary fantasy world (or worlds, I should say) that have found their way into my books so far are the High Fay, who look much like us. One is to be encountered in my current work-in-progress; they have largely fled Exura (the world or universe that is my primary setting) to dwell in other worlds, but one has remained as guardian of a treasure that can not leave its world. But you must read the novel to learn more of that!

I will mention that none of my elves have pointed ears. The closely related goblins—I lump elves and goblins together as Fay—do, for the most part. The Goblin-folk includes Kobolds and Ogres—or, if you are into Tolkien nomenclature, Orcs. I personally do not use that name; it has too many connotations I would prefer to avoid.

Dark Elves do remain in Exura, but have gates that allow them to pass back and forth to other worlds. The very cave which Donzalo visits to find healing in ‘The Shadow of Asak’ is in another world. Or maybe it is a world in itself. That doesn’t matter.

Site

I have begun building my actual Stephen Brooke site elsewhere (though this Word Press space remains a fall-back, if needed). This will replace the one I kept at Yahoo for a long time (but the hosting company was sold to some other company recently), which will disappear at the end of Jan 2023. This blog, then, will serve primarily as just that—a blog. A place to post my news and views.

So, it is in large part a replacement for the Lucky Lad blog I shut down not long ago, but a blog more obviously about me and my work. Easier to find, I would hope; after I stopped dropping links at Twitter (from which I have fled), I wasn’t getting many visitor at the Lad. Be assured, I shall post here frequently. Maybe more frequently than most of you would care for!

The Pioneers

THE PIONEERS by James Fenimore Cooper, a book review

One could make an argument that “The Pioneers” was the first great American novel. It is certainly the first important one. Before Hawthorne, before Melville, Cooper gives us the American voice and sensibility (though with the obvious stylistic influence of Scott).

Yes, it is wordy. Cooper is always wordy and early Cooper even more so. The novel is not quite historical fiction in the sense some of the other Leather-Stocking books are; it is set in the time of the author’s own youth and draws on his memories of Cooperstown. Nor is it an adventure in quite the same sense. Natty Bumppo, Leather-Stocking himself, has a less central role, though he does stand as symbol of the end of an age, helping hold the story together.

The closing of the frontier, the felling of forest, the peopling of what was wilderness, is a central theme—but not the plot. Cooper knew better than do that. The theme is attached to a fairly conventional sort of story. We can all figure out who young Edwards, the closest thing to a main male protagonist, truly is. But the plot is set against the panorama of civilization expanding into the wilderness, both the good and the bad of it. Cooper was certainly a conservationist before the word existed.

The story concerns itself not only with the trees felled but the human lives impacted, including those of the Native Americans. Yet it is most certainly not all gloom. There is plenty of humor and maybe just a little too much description of everyday frontier life. It is one of those novels that captures its time and place—a newly-born nation finding itself and perhaps blundering a bit in the process. A classic and worth the highest ranking (though maybe just barely).