The Next in Line

I like to read books in the order that the author intends, if those books are part of a series.  Even when books are singles, reading them in the order the author published them can be interesting.  Since I started with Witch World by Andre Norton, I continued reading the series, turning to Web of the Witch World which was copyrighted in 1964, a year after Witch World. 

Most of what I observed in the first book was the same with this, as far as my memory of it.  I remembered scenes and characters and the events as I read… it was interesting.  On one hand it showed how healthy my memory was and on the other it made me wonder how many times I’d read these books in the past.

One of the writing structures evident in Ms. Norton’s style is the arrangement of words in a manner giving the flavor of a different culture.  The style is most noticeable in the dialog, but descriptions of the world carry the same flavor forcing the reader to think that this is alien… almost to think as an alien.  I know this is called the voice of the author and I believe Ms. Norton had it mastered.  She taught us all by taking us into the world… with witches.

I’m not certain that today’s readers accept such a strong, alien voice when they’re reading.  There have been quite a few recent popular books that have had a voice that was annoying rather than engrossing. Most times it appears that the voice must be simplified, or the author thinks it must be.  I may as well admit here that my analysis of an author’s style is quite imperfect, even when I read a book five times with the sole intention of understanding why it grabs me… I fail.  The book grabbed me, carried me along through the story and simply ended, leaving me wanting more… somehow forgetting that I’d intended understanding how the author did what he did.  I can’t say that it’s ADD since I had to read the entire book to realize I forgot to focus… and then again.

So, I’m not the best at giving anything more than my own opinion of a book and how it’s put together but I know what I like and if your interests parallel mine then I hope you can look into the past of books with me as I go on at my slow pace.

Since I’m a writer I’m spending a great deal of time working at other writings than this blog, editing what I’ve written, preparing to publish other books of mine and creating the cover art for them as well.  Besides all of that I have a real job to deal with.  I won’t go into my addiction to TV…

While trying to improve my writing skills I’ve looked at quite a few how-to books.

One of those that I liked was On Writing by Stephen King, subtitled ‘a memoir of the craft.’

I’m not certain that my grammatical ability is as sharp as it should be, as sharp as Mr. King’s. I simply attempt to communicate what my imagination conjures using the words that I know.

Mr. King, in his book On Writing, says that to be a writer you must Read and Write… that’s a must do.

I wanted to quote the book but that would be reproducing without permission, so I merely recommend it.

When Ms. Norton began her writing career the realms of science fiction and fantasy were young, not infantile, but young.  She was a pioneer, who, along with (seemingly) a dozen or so other authors created the foundation for what we have today.  Over time these realms have been expanded and redefined until they bear little resemblance to what came before.  Some of these changes were due to the evolution of society and technology, others were due to the accepted foundations laid.

I don’t know which writers inspired Ms. Norton, but there were many to choose from.  Many of these writers I found later.  George MacDonald published a book called Phantastes in1895 which inspired a great many fantasy writers, he was a friend of Lewis Carroll (Alice from Wonderland is one of the most popular characters in fiction, as are the supporting characters from the story).  C.S. Lewis was particularly impressed and inspired by Phantastes, the works of C.S. Lewis are some of my favorites, fantasy and non-fiction.  Charles Williams published a set of books in the 1930’s  including War in Heaven, Many Dimensions, The Place of the Lion, The Greater Trumps, Descent into Hell, All Hallow’s Eve and others, each of which touched me and proved that what’s invisible in this world can be brought to life, or at least brought into sight.

If you like to read, enjoy great stories and can adapt to the very present voice of these authors, be they English or Scottish, I hope you will seek them out.