A book to read for fun and adventure

Why did I spend so much time reading?  Why did I/ do I love fantastic stories?

Who knows...  It's not something to worry about.

March 1977.

Do you remember where you were then?

Neither do I.

I do remember that I started on a rather enjoyable voyage to the stars with Aleytys.

The book is Diadem from the Stars, the author is Jo Clayton.

It's a great story, of course, starting out with a robbery of the hi-tech futuristic variety that maybe gets you thinking the entire story is going one way but then the story really starts when you meet the heroine, Aleytys.  Then, as we learn about her life, her world, it's something more of a fantasy... except of course it's not, or it is as all of these stories are always fantasy... but this is science fiction.  Of the best kind.

If you're looking for a heroine with heart, compassion and a growing fear that she's a walking curse then this book is where you need to look.

Unfortunately I can't say anything about what I really like about the book, except it has heart.  The pacing is great, the twists and turns are really good.  The depth of characters is decent.  I mean, Aleytys is the most developed character of the story, of course, but the supporting characters are introduced quickly and are more important to Aleytys than they were to me.  Only a few had the kind of depth that Ms. Clayton developed in her later writing.  But the story moves so fast that you barely notice that aspect, except that each of these characters, especially Daimon, add more and more to Aleytys.

Okay, I checked out the blurb on the back cover and figure I can give that much away.

Aleytys' mother was not of that world.  Yeah, I know.  From the introductory hints and by paying attention you get to know that this woman has to get to the stars, too.

We don't really know how old she is since the planet has a double sun, so how long could the years be if it orbits at a distance to allow life.  I don't know, it didn't matter and that kind of calculation wasn't so important in the 70's in science fiction of this type, if it ever needs to be.

So the thief steals the diadem from some miserly aliens who then go on hunt for him, cause him to crash on her planet... and somehow she winds up with the diadem.  That's obvious from the outside, but the development of the character of Aleytys... before she gets the diadem... is most of the book and as I said, it's a great book.  After she gets the diadem some things change but we're running out of pages.  I already know about the sequelsssssss and they only get better.

I can only imagine how I felt when the book ended... I wanted more, more, more... I always do when a good book ends.  Fortunately, Ms. Clayton delivers... again and again.

I don't know if this is the first book of Ms. Clayton's that I read, I do know that when I went into bookstores (they did have bookstores in the 70's, moreso than now, I think, sometimes two or three in a mall) I would look in the science fiction/fantasy shelves and the yellow DAW book spines and search for her name. (Yes, they did alphabetize the shelves but I would look at all the books).

One of the things that struck me as I read this book again (today) is that she used a lot of creative language (not cussing) there were new and strange words to create the impression of an alien planet, alien language, customs that require formal words of this language as well as strange names.  I'm perfectly fine with this setup.  I roll with it as I read, building up a vocabulary as I build up an understanding of this strange world.  Two or three different languages pop up in the story - what's wrong with that?

Except that you don't see that style much in current books, unless I'm missing a few.

The Lord of the Rings held several created languages, for elves and dwarves and even for various tribes of those, I believe.  Of course J.R.R.Tolkien spent a lifetime on his work.

I wonder if Diadem from the Stars would get published today with all the strangeness in it, the strange languages and customs, if offered by some unknown writer.  I certainly hope so but... writers must keep things simple and quick and filled with easily recognized icons so readers can relate quickly and appropriately.  We can't confuse anyone with a strange word or thirty, that wouldn't be good.

 When I read Diadem from the Stars and the sequels I had fun... it was an adventure... each one.

If you haven't read Jo Clayton's early works, I recommend this one.

If I could only write as fast as I think

First, totally different subject… I saw somewhere that the book I mentioned in my last post The Host by Stephenie Meyer is coming out as a movie next year, goody goody, I can hardly wait.  I loved the book and hope the movie won’t disappoint… the premise doesn’t seem the easiest to transition from book to film.  We’ll see…

Anyway, I was thinking about The Host and of course thought about a past book (see themed blog) and realized one of my favorites was Needle by Hal Clement.  So I went to my trusty bookshelf and… well, it wasn’t there… OMG… no, no, this can’t be.  I went to my other bookshelf (I have several but the pseudo-alphabetizing requires movement) and it wasn’t there either.  I could picture the cover, it was paperback and relatively old, a reprint back in the seventies, likely.  I have lost a book.  Perhaps I loaned it out and never received it (if you’re reading this please return it).  Worst case scenario… I sold a few books ages ago and  - sigh- it may be gone forever.

Enough about me missing a book, I still remember the story… okay, a little vague, I don’t remember the hero’s name or the… anyway the reason I bring this up in conjunction with The Host is that it, too, is a story about a (SPOILER ALERT) symbiotic life form living in a human.

Hal Clement copyrighted Needle back in 1949, so that is a past book, for sure.  Hal Clement was born in 1922 and died in 2003 and wrote many books and was active in the writing community.  The book was reprinted several times and may have started out with another title, or temporarily adopted one in the 50’s.

Needle is a fun and well-paced story.  It is not a Total Invasion scenario as The Host is, rather it is a cops and criminal story with an extraterrestrial cop chasing a criminal who got away and has moved into a human host.  The problem was tracking the bad guy… er… bad symbiote… down required the cop, also a symbiote, to work with a human, so he stabs the guy in the foot while he’s swimming and invades his body and then talks with him.  They become partners while on the case…

Okay, so my memory isn’t going to spoil the story for you, I think there’s a hospital scene near the end and…

Find a copy, since I can’t seem to, and read it, especially if you liked The Host.

Hal Clement came out with a sequel called Through the Eye of the Needle (I think) and it had great reviews, alas, I did not read it nor do I have a copy. 

Although Stephenie likely won’t be seeing this it’s a hint that she needs a sequel to The Host, I think Wanderer is an excellent character, and, as I’ve mentioned before, some stories need to continue.

While searching through my shelves for the missing book I noticed a lot of books that also need mentioning and, since I come woefully short on substance for Needle, let me mention Foundation by Isaac Asimov, okay, I know I was only going to mention the books that were less well-known otherwise I would’ve been talking about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for a few blogs, especially since the movie for The Hobbit is coming out soon.

So, if you’re really into science fiction and have not read the Foundation series, the first was copyrighted in 1951, you may want to check them out.  It’s a complicated work but it has the kind of world building that was once a popular theme in science fiction.  While I know that I enjoyed the books when I read them the first time, I also know that I didn’t grasp what the books were saying.  It was kind of like listening to a story and not realizing the moral until you let it percolate a few weeks. 

I know that Isaac Asimov created foundational ideas for science fiction, both with world building and with simplifying things, like creating the three laws of robotics, neat.  What impressed me about the Foundation stories, what lingers even to this day, was the idea of creating a social engineering equation (He was a math guy, too).  The several alliances within the story viewed this equation in various ways, good, bad, indifferent, but the equation was running all the while, proving itself.  When I think of the story I have this image of an equation that is visible in three dimensions, a hologram that can be enlarged at any point to show more of itself, the complexities.  What it also points out is that human interactions are standard, they can be measured, actions, reactions, sentiments, sins and all the complex motivations can be analyzed. 

Sure, simple, a single list of motivations but an infinite result in their permutations through interactions. 

The idea was essential in Foundation but it works throughout all stories in every media format.

I also realized (totally different subject) I need more bookshelves and a different approach to alphabetizing.  Like, at first I had my paperbacks in one section.  Then I had to start putting some paperbacks with the hardbacks but I already had A-Z in paperbacks here and A-Z in hardback there.  So then I put A-Z with science fiction and fantasy here and mystery there and non-fiction and inspiration over there.  Then I had to divide the hard backs A-Z science fiction here, then mystery, then fantasy and inspiration and reference.  Then I… well, I’ve kind of given up but for a general stacking of what has been read and what I need to read among what used to be organized.

Yes, I was just looking for another book…

I should really be blogging more

          One of the reasons I haven’t blogged in a while is that I’ve been writing, obviously not here.  I’ve written two more books in the Merged Worlds series that I’ve mentioned before.  Except I’m not putting them into ebooks just now, they’ll sit on the shelf as I write the three more that wraps up that period of the series.  Meanwhile, I was polishing a book in the new series in that world that picks up ten years after the early series ended.  Sorry, I’m not giving any hints since the couple of people who read them like to be surprised. 

          This later series is told with new characters, of course, and a different POV. The first book is wrapped, the second is halfway, as with the first series I’m doing a parallel set of characters in other books.  That second character’s first book is halfway.  I don’t know how other writers do it but the stories have already gone through from cover to cover in my mind.  I just need to get it all down on paper.  Yes, it’s true, I write on paper first.

           Call me old fashioned but it’s also one reason I can write this blog, I have shelves full of real paperback (and hardcover) books, so I can look back to see what influenced me.  [Downside to having a lot of old paperbacks… they grow fragile].  Actually, I do not have a copy of every book I’ve ever read.

          This time it’s… well, see if you can guess it, if you’ve read it.

          ‘It was a dark and stormy night.’ – yes, that’s the first line of the book and, no, the author is not Snoopy.

         Do you remember Charles Wallace?  How about Meg?  Do you recall what a tesseract is?

         Copyright was 1962, my paperback copy is from 4^th printing in 1973, and it has been reprinted several times after that.

          I’m wondering if the admonition against starting a book with that sentence is because Madeleine L’Engle did it so well. 

          Yes, A Wrinkle in Time… do you remember when? 

          Mrs. Who, Mrs. Which, and Mrs. Whatsit are such an interesting trio.  And then there’s the Happy Medium.

            A missing scientist, a physicist, and then his really bright children go on an adventure to find him. 

            It’s a fun book, but the interesting thing is that it shows how to mix the elements of science, science fiction and fantasy all together using iconic elements and well drawn characters to come up with a story that really says more than its parts.  Love is the emotion that frees all captives, that’s also part of her story.

          But do you remember IT?  He called himself a happy sadist.

          This is the first of a trilogy that Madeleine wrote and I enjoyed all three of them.   Years later I read more of her books and it seemed that her ability to portray emotions and tell a story improved.  Maybe it was me, but of course we always hope that the authors we love improve as they continue writing.  Those first books were blocky and obvious, using names that told you what was what or who, but that worked exceedingly well for her.  Was it the time of the writing, the period, the 60’s? 

              I was reading a how-to-write book that mentioned the evolution of language as something we need to pay attention to, to be relevant (maybe it was someone’s blog, sorry).  It’s such a truism, though; we need to be relevant when we write.

              Looking back at the books I’ve mentioned so far, most fit in the era they were written but the stories surpass that aspect… as long as we can translate the tenor of the writing.  I’m a sucker for a good story.  If I get grabbed I just go with it.  Suspension of disbelief again, but it’s more that I want to believe in the story; I want to go to the other world, other city, other time or reality.  If the writing doesn’t catch me, the style or voice or whatever, then it’s not going to work, I can rarely force myself to read a book I don’t like.  I don’t finish reading a book just because I started it or bought it or whatever.  My problem, as a result of this, is that I can’t figure what it is that I like about a book.

           Okay, that might sound confusing, but here’s an example…

           The Host, by Stephanie Meyer… I read the Twilight Saga, and enjoyed it (the last book was best) so I thought I’d try this science fiction tale.  I bought a copy but I was busy and let it sit, I was listening to books on disk as I drove to work at the time and listened to The Host… I was like… this is good.

          So, I read it.

           Yeah, it was good.  I was still listening to it, so I read it again.

           I might have read it once more before asking myself what was it that had me reading this book again.

           I decided to read it once more but this time I was going to pay attention to the aspects that grab me, hold me, keep me or… sorry self, by the time I got into it again I was into it and couldn’t think of what parts were doing what to keep me there.  It’s not like I don’t know what held me, it was the relativity of the characters… I related, but why?  I have no idea.  It was just a good read.

          No, I do not read every book four or five times in a row, at the time I was trying to focus my own writing to where I wanted it.  (Usually I read favorite books every couple of years although that practice has fallen off as I write more)   I believe that for all the years I’ve been writing I’ve improved my voice.

         It’s best if I stop here for now… I’m trying to compose a letter in real life.

The number 9

The year was 1970.  The book was Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny.

Okay, the title is enough to make one pause and consider… wha…?  Nine Princes?  Why not ten or five?  What would any number of princes be doing in Amber?  Wait, amber is a hard substance, a petrified resin or tree sap or something, right?  How did nine princes get trapped in…?

So, of course a peek inside the covers might reveal a little something…

It was starting to end…

What a way to start a tale, this was not the ending.  You find he’s awakening from a coma, has amnesia and... is that paranoia… or is it survival mechanisms kicking in.  Before I was finished the first page I had to know what happens to this character.  By page 10 (paperback) you finally learn what his name is, this first person POV character that you’re reading.  And then you learn his sister’s name.  The character knows a lot; history, weapons and geography, but nothing of people seems familiar to him.

It’s a mystery.

Then slowly (even though the cover notified you) you find this is full of strangeness and surreal twists and, oh my, fantasy.   (Of course back then it was covered under Science Fiction and Fantasy – the two were inseparable to the masses – but why were devotees stuck with the combo?) (Yes, that’s rhetorical)  In any case the book, the writing, the author, pulls you into the tale, takes you along for the ride and you realize that the ride is a rather interesting one.  Okay, understatement… the ride was intense.

How does he get his memory back, how does he fool the people around him, playing a game of knowing when he has no clue, to lead them on to gain more clues to who he is until he really does start knowing.  It’s clever.

I don’t know how it was back in the 70’s (even though I was there) with media but nowadays every TV series has the main character take a trip down amnesia way.  Someone wakes up in a movie and they don’t remember who they are… how many times have you seen that?  In the Resident Evil movies it’s happened twice.  Jason Bourne, once was enough.  We, as we’re used-to-it types, are used to it and accept it and then go on…  It’s the whole thing of suspended disbelief so that we tolerate the inconsistencies of a plot, or it's the unique ability of an author to toss us straight into a story to see if we can swim with the character.

All of that being said we believe Roger when his character doesn’t have a memory and we’re really interested in finding out, not so much what his name is but who he is. 

There are a lot of stories out there about dysfunctional families but the Princes and Princesses of Amber are the iconic versions, taking the cake.  Then there are the Trumps, the decks of cards that have magical properties that… well, they’re really cool.  In case you haven’t read the book I don’t want to give anything away.

I will tell you that the book is the first of a series and the series is worth reading.  The last few books of that series are not so memorable but it is something of a soap opera by then, and who doesn't love soaps?

Yes, it was one of the books that inspired me… at the time it inspired me to read.  When I was into writing, it and the memory of the series, inspired me to care about the details, about how the details, as in a mystery novel, add up to the story, guiding the eye, the mind, and coming to a conclusion that only the reader can find.

In this book not all of the details were so important to the mystery, but they were important to the story, the tone of it, the atmosphere and voice.  It was compelling.

The number 9 has shown up a few times in recent years without having anything to do with Princes.  One was a rag doll and the other… something I can’t exactly place right now.

In any case Nine Princes in Amber is a good read.  It may be dated, stylistically, but I don't really think so.  Like the other books of my past it holds a place in my imagination and works with me when I write.

New Year, new post

Latest Entry Meant Much Sooner

A long time has passed since my last entry and I have all kinds of excuses… like, the holidays, finishing up another book and a cover drawing and a drawing for work… and worse of all: organizing my life.

Yes, I admit it… I am not the most organized person.

So, to prove it, I wanted to point out another of the authors that helped to inspire me and the set of books that he wrote.  These are not science fiction or fantasy but mystery.  Rex Stout wrote a series starring the remarkable Nero Wolfe.  The stories were wonderful mysteries but it was the characters that were fascinating, even though it has been years since I touched those books (It was also made into a short lived television series) I still remember many of the details of the characters. 

The relationships between the characters made these stories all the more engrossing as Nero Wolfe was the key figure and everyone else moved in orbit around him.  Primarily for his large size the detective refused to leave his home/office which from description was an immense brownstone (a brownstone is something accepted as a large dwelling - part of a rowhouse set usually), although of course there were some circumstances that compelled him to leave in order to solve a case… or to check out a rare orchid… or avoid arrest.

Puckering his lips, rolling them in a manner peculiar to him, Wolfe would think, contemplate the diverse clues that his right hand man brought to him and solve the riddle presented by nefarious criminals who thought they could get away with murder.  Archie Goodwin is that right hand man and (if I remember correctly) the narrator of the story.  Wolfe thought Archie was a lady’s man (one who knew the ways and wiles of the opposite sex) and Archie did nothing to dissuade him of that belief.  Wolfe had some distrust of females, although it seemed to be based on the fact that he couldn’t understand their logic.

In some ways Wolfe was like Sherlock Holmes, while in fact both are the archetype of the modern detective, where thinking is the major component in solving the mystery.  The clues were gathered by Archie and several part-time helpers, brought to Wolfe and then the mystery would be solved and sometimes all the suspects were brought in for the standard showdown.  The various tools Wolfe employed to gain the upper hand over the suspect were simple devices, like a peephole to look into the waiting room to catch the odd clue.

Okay, so I had to go pull a few of the books off my shelf to verify what I’ve been saying.

Archie does narrate the stories.

The titles of some are designed to grab your attention like The Silent Speaker, The League of Frightened Men, A Right to Die, The Doorbell Rang, In the Best Families, Prisoner’s Base and many others.  The earliest copyright I noted in these few was August 1935, the most recent October 1965, with a wide spread through the other years.  At least thirty one books were written by the author, not all of which were Nero Wolfe novels.

Reading The League of Frightened Men today would make it seem to be of the mystery noir genre, however since the book was actually written in that era it would have been a contemporary mystery.

The Nero Wolfe stories are one of the reasons I started this blog… to bring to mind stories, books, that have been pushed to the back of the stacks because of other more recently published books.  The books by Rex Stout have been printed and reprinted at least six times which is a type of proof, if any is needed.  Of course the prices on the covers reflect the age of my copies… $.50, $.75 and $.95. 

I do advocate buying used books.  I’d rather they sat on a shelf, waiting to be read, than thrown into a landfill somewhere or ‘recycled’ as pulp.  Hardcopies of books may be on the way out in a generation or two with the advent of ebooks, but think of all the books that will be forgotten or lost, books that you might have discovered and enjoyed that you’d never find in a keyword search.  I’ve got a few dozen books sitting, waiting for me to read, and I see them, have to move them out of my way or find a shelf for them, but I can’t accidentally delete them and I won’t…

Okay, off of that rant.

I do not oppose ebooks, I have four published at the moment.  But I can’t forget the books of the past.

So, while I have not (yet) finished a mystery novel of my own I was definitely inspired by the writing of Rex Stout.  The humorous, caring, iconic, human and intricate aspects of these stories made them worth reading, re-reading and keeping in my head (heart) and on my shelves.

There is no way to measure how these stories affected the way I write, but I know that they do… constantly.  The key element of the Nero Wolfe stories was the attention to detail, detail and the characters dealing with them.  That’s something I can’t forget and something I’m glad I encountered when I was younger to help form the writer I am today.

Typical, typical

So, last time I mentioned how a name came into my head and I carried a baby into the future and brought her up to be a teenager meeting another character and, well, I had to write it down.  After writing much of that scene I returned to another story I was writing which was of the parent of the child, a short time after birth… and then to try to keep on track with publishing my stories I went back to another story and found myself at the honeymoon of this parent.  (Obviously, I’m not running into writer’s block.  I just wonder if other writers have this difficulty… that of having so much of this story to write that it comes out in spurts and streams and explosions… which means I have to exercise the one trait hardest to come by: focus)

Bringing up this trait points out the fact that I’ve been neglecting it, just as I’ve been neglecting what I meant to focus on in this blog which is the books that led me into writing.  I meant to… really… I started reading the next of the Witch World series by Andre Norton and then picked up one of Charles Williams books, Shadows of Ecstasy and started reading that (due to an untimely snowstorm in the area I had no power and was reading by flashlight and candles and thought I’d get a lot done).  A friend was reading a more contemporary book (though itself a period piece) The Alienist by Caleb Carr, so since I had a copy on my shelf waiting for me, I started reading that as well.  This is the kind of book where, if you really love details and specifics and getting every detail of the flavor of the past brought up to view (the atmosphere) alongside of the story, you can take your time and read.

Personally I love details and getting the flavor correct to carry the reader into the story… giving the reader a taste of where they are.  The problem in current genre fiction (which is what I seem to be writing) is that carrying the reader along with the story is done immediately and not worked on page after page, if you see what I’m saying.

I had a writing seminar with a bestselling author once and she looked at the story I was working on at the time and told me the beginning was too long, too wordy, what I spent 20 or 30 pages on she would have said in 5 or 10.  Of course when she pointed it out and mentioned the reasons, I had to agree… so I worked on it and I think I actually discarded most of what I’d written and gave the same details looking over the shoulder of my main character in the first three or four pages.  Also, I believe I engaged the reader’s emotions and curiosity as to what happens next (at least of those readers who have discussed it with me) in the same length of space.

Most of what’s published currently is meant to engage the audience by presenting something so well known (almost a universally accepted idea) and showing all the new and interesting characters with all the variations that make them unique (not so strange that you can’t relate to them, though) and have you halfway through the story before you realize you’ve heard it all before.  The books I look back to are no different… there is nothing new under the sun… there are only different ways to express it.

Then yesterday I was leaving the library and found a book in their free book box (a little too worn for the book sale I think – or it’s missing pages I haven’t got to yet) and I started reading that; The Quest by Wilbur Smith.  I picked it up because it’s a story of ancient Egypt (I believe he has a series of that era) and it has magic and caught my attention.  I also grabbed it because of another series I love, which is by Elizabeth Peters, with her character Amelia Peabody Emerson as an archaeologist in Egypt, which are mostly murder mystery/adventure stories.  The Emerson family is perfectly delightful and I still haven’t read them all.

So as far as focus goes, I’m without, with four books to read, one in my car that I listen to while driving, three or four or five notebooks I’m currently working with (writing) of the same series, creating the covers to the ones I’ve finished and working at various necessary support plans… maybe it is focus but it’s on multiple targets…

And then this blog…

I meant to recommend the book by Charles Williams in this post, I still do… it is good… I simply have not finished re-reading it for the occasion.  Power was out at my house for several days and reading by flashlight and candles seemed more difficult than it should have.  I like a lot of light when reading, writing or drawing.  (I found I could not work on my cover drawings with only candles or exterior light)  Then there were the withdrawal symptoms from my TV addiction.  I can read very well with the television on… and write… and draw.

In any case Shadows of Ecstasy by Charles Williams is written with the British flavor of English and one must be able to grasp that to enjoy the story, to have it flow easily.  C.S. Lewis has the same writing style but that stopped no one from enjoying his stories.  The difference is that Mr. Williams’ writing is on an adult level, the concepts and form are offered with no secondary explanations to qualify the storyline.  He takes for granted that you have an understanding of the world, the ways of the world and the fact that there are mysteries that men prefer to avoid rather than admit.  This is the one aspect of his books that I found remarkable when I first read them, he confronts the mysteries and brings them to light… it is up to the reader to accept and believe or disbelieve.

Hopefully, when I present my next offering I will have finished reviewing another of the past books I mean to…

Something Different

I know that I wanted to write about the books that inspired me or books that I liked a lot, but there are other things about writing that I like to talk about as well.  Well, when I get on the subject of writing I do like to talk about what I’ve done and I can talk about it quite a bit… not quite endlessly.

Anyway, I was spending most of my time working on my stories when I should have been working on the covers so I could publish them as e-books.  Because of that, my thoughts were mostly on my stories during the rest of the time every day.  Which brings me to an instance of inspiration… it was while I was writing in one of the stories of my The Merged Worlds series.  When I write I’m always in the future from the last story.  The series carries two main characters through their interconnected stories to… well, to their future…  So I was writing one of these stories and I needed to have the name of a particular baby and for once the correct name came to mind immediately.  I had known the need was coming up (I knew the baby was coming) so somehow the name had grown in my mind… somewhere.

I know it might sound odd to some of you, that such a datum was created in my mind and was available when I needed it, but so it was (is).  A lot of the creation of my stories develops because of the character dealing with the issues of the situation.  In other words the character comes to life in my mind and tells me the story or shows me as I come to understand what’s happening.  It is hard to explain, though I don’t really let the character run away with the story, even though some try.

Back to the name… the baby’s name was there in my head and then in the story at a specific point in the timeline.  So, in the way I think about these stories, I was considering a different character’s tale up the timeline.  Then, all of a sudden, that character was being followed by the character with the new name… the baby had grown up and was now in the story with the other character… as a teenager.  They were talking… the younger had been following the older and made contact, wondering why the one was acting this way.  They hit it off and I listened as the two carried on this long conversation, comparing their similarities and differences and becoming friends.  (I know it’s a little vague but I don’t want to give away any spoilers… in the off chance that someone will actually read my stories and this blog)

Then, since this was all going on in my head, I had to write their meeting down in the appropriate notebook and work out some of the specifics.  In the series there are witches, vampires, werewolves and all the other fantasy types that make up this genre but there are twists in types unique to my stories.  When these two characters become friends they are bringing a standard, though powerful, magic type into contact with a strange magic type.  It develops from simple contact and friendship into a strong bond and, later, a working relationship.

The series of stories had built up in the timeline to a specific confrontation of traditional magicals, as I call them, several books before this one.  At this meeting point on the timeline there is a developing conflict between traditional magic and the strange magic. (This strange magic rears its ugly head in the upcoming book of Stacey’s in the series, to be titled Artificial Magic).

This kind of development (the meeting of these two characters in my mind and their conversation) is one of the things I enjoy in writing.  Not only do I create the worlds, histories, characters and situations, but I get to see them come to life.  Okay, I know that I’m bringing them to life but the fun part is when they are so real that their reactions to situations come automatically.

I’ve written character studies (by which I mean creating several characters with defined pasts and psych profiles and setting them in specific situations of emotional stresses) that equal thousands of pages of stories and will likely never see the light of day but have enhanced my style and understanding of what needs to be written to achieve particular results.  It has also taught me when to let go of control and allow the character to guide me in which direction is logical.  In one sense I have parameters that define the story and let the characters play within the boundaries.  Occasionally they let me know that my original plan is too restrictive, completely wrong or silly, or it reveals a complication that I had forgotten to include or consider.

When I’m writing a story I already know the story, I usually don’t do an outline but the bare bones of the story get rehearsed in my head.  If I’m using a familiar character the character’s voice usually helps me define what he or she will do in any particular situation.  Generally I rehearse the story a few times, or a few dozen times, before I get into the actual writing of the tale.  At that point I know what the story will be, beginning to end and as I write I enhance what adds suspense, conflict or the emotions needed.  There have been many times when I’m reading a story I’ve set aside for awhile, as I worked on something else, and I’m surprised (don’t laugh) by foreshadowing that I hadn’t realized I’d included back when I first wrote it.  Or there are twists to the story that I don’t remember, even though I know I’m the one who wrote it. (Yes, I sometimes amaze myself)

And, no, I’m not generally forgetful.  Most times I remember my stories, the characters and data, enough so that I can pick it up and start writing if it has sat for six months or more.  I remember stories that I wrote thirty some years ago, though as I once mentioned, I’d need to rewrite them to be worthy of publication.

The important aspect of the story is the voice of whoever is telling the story, whether it’s me or a character.   So when a scene with a strong voice, like the meeting of those characters I mentioned before, starts up in my mind I pay attention and play with it, bringing it more into the open, making it real.  Then I write it down so I don’t lose the flavor or tone.

Yes, I do use notebooks and pens.