Phil Halton's Blog, page 3

An Interview with C.S. O’Cinneide

There are a number of new Canadian writers who I’ve had the chance to meet in the past few years as my own debut novel came out. C.S. O’Cinneide is someone who stands out, though, because of the interesting breadth of the writing that she is doing. She’s not willing to be pigeonholed in any one genre, instead focusing on creating really entertaining books. From Petra’s Ghost to the Starr Sting Scale, you never know what you’re going to get, except that it will always keep you turning the pages.

When you first start have a story idea, is its genre already part of that, or does that come later?

I had a writing prof at the University of Guelph who said once that all stories are mysteries. Otherwise, why would you keep reading to find out what happens at the end? 

Most of my writing might be classed as mysteries in this way, and since I love a good twist, there will always be a few curve balls as well.  So, the genre of my writing is possibly pre-determined and independent of the “idea.”  That being said, my first novel, Petra’s Ghost, was a modern-day gothic thriller set on the Camino de Santiago —- while my second, The Starr Sting Scale, was laugh-out-loud funny, but firmly in the hardboiled crime fiction category. In both cases, the story idea I had was inextricably linked with the vibe of those particular sub-genres right from the start.

What’s the hardest part of writing for you?

Starting. Every day when I sit down in front of the computer to write it is like diving off a cliff into deep waters.  No matter how many times I’ve made the plunge before and survived, my fear is palpable. Now I get why so many writers drink. Although I stick to tea, as I am not young enough to authentically pull off a tragic lifestyle.

Has the pandemic changed your view on the role of the artists/writers within society?

Books have been my best friends during this pandemic. And I am so thankful for all the talented authors who are feeding my voracious isolation reading habit.  Similarly, I am grateful to the screen writers who pen intelligent content to satisfy my nightly Netflix viewing. Never has the need for escapism been more widespread. And I think we need to appreciate our creative artists and support them with this in mind — particularly, some of the quieter voices out there, who have been harder to hear with the advent of the pandemic. If we don’t start reading and supporting emerging authors and independent filmmakers, we will be left with nothing but the mainstream, which is the creative recipe for boredom.

“Petra’s Ghost” is classified in some places as a horror novel, and in others as a mystery. How did you see it as you wrote it, and has your perception changed after seeing the reaction from readers?

When Dundurn Press decided to publish Petra’s Ghost, they told me they were going to promote it as literary. I remember asking, “But what about the creepy bits?”

It seems those creepy bits got noticed regardless, as months before its release the book was showing up on multiple lists of the Most Anticipated Horror books of 2019.  I’ve since had the book described as literary horror, gothic thriller, psychological suspense, magical realism, and dark mystery, just to name a few. It has made me question the whole concept of genre. Is Dicken’s A Christmas Carol horror because it has a ghost in it? Is The Notebook a romance novel?

From my perspective, I was aiming to write a book that would make your pulse race in places while providing a deep, moving and vivid experience of the Camino pilgrimage through the eyes of a grieving Irishman. Whatever the novel is classified as, I think I’ve done that.

And yes, there are lots of creepy bits.

What spurred you to write “The Starr Sting Scale”?

Anger. 

I’d had an agent reject another novel of mine. She said the writing was strong and the characters wonderfully rich, but it wasn’t commercial enough. I sat down at my laptop, and thought “I’ll show you @$!(*&%%  commercial.”

Out of this creative tantrum was born the six-foot-three former hitwoman, Candace Starr, the protagonist of The Starr Sting Scale. The novel is a modern take on the hard-boiled crime fiction genre, but with a feminine and witty twist. It must have been at least a little bit commercial, because the publisher signed me to a three-book deal (I bypassed the agent). The second in the series, Starr Sign, comes out in March 2021.

What attracts you to noir fiction?

I love the vivid detail that I feel characterizes this genre. Nobody ever just steps out onto a rainy city street in a noir novel.  If you don’t shiver from that icy rain seeping into your jacket collar or taste the urban grit of the sidewalk in your teeth, then it’s not noir. Plus, the down and dirty metaphors are to die for. One of my favourites is from hard core noir writer, Jim Thompson — “Life is a bucket of shit with a barbed wire handle.” I know that’s a bit coarse, as my mother would say, but it is also incredibly evocative. These coarse characters I find easier to understand than squeaky clean ones. Dennis Lehane said that “in Greek tragedy, (characters) fall from great heights. In noir, they fall from the curb.”  That’s something a perfectly- imperfect flawed human being like me can really get behind. 

What are the challenges of writing in multiple genres as an author and a writer?

I worry sometimes that people will be shocked by how different some of my books are from one another. I remember one review of Petra’s Ghost, where the reader had read The Starr Sting Scale first, and basically said “Well folks, welcome to the other side of the library!”

But that reader, while surprised, still enjoyed both books. And I don’t think he (or I) are the only ones who appreciate a variety of genres. 

In terms of the writing part, it’s nice to switch up styles and voice across books. It helps me from getting stale. And in the end, there always has to be a well-structured plot, no matter what you’re writing, so the rules are the same in that regard for any genre. Poor structure is the number one mistake I see emerging writers make. There are lots of people out there who can write superior prose, but if you don’t have the story structure to hang those words on, what you really end up with is a book of poetry, not a novel.

What advice would you give to other writers or artists?

Wow, I must have had ESP when I got up on my soapbox about structure in the last question. Learn about structure— that’s my advice if you want to write a novel. Whether you are a pantser or a plotter, you’ve got to have it. Plot points, stakes, reversals – these should all be terms that a novelist is familiar with and knows how to use. For a good book in this regard, check out Save the Cat!  Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. Stupid title, but an awesome resource. Also, Page-Turner: Your Path to Writing a Novel That Publishers Want and Readers Buy, by Barbara Kyle.

Do you see particular challenges that are unique to being a female writer that men might be unaware of?

This is a touchy subject these days. There are many who believe that women no longer face barriers in publishing. But while I think this may be true in some genres and arenas, I don’t think it is true across the board.  Women may be holding their own in the general mystery category for instance, but they are underrepresented in both the thriller and horror genres.  

As well, there are those who don’t give as much credence to women’s stories as they do to men’s, no matter who is writing them. Once, I was in a creative writing class discussing an early draft of The Starr Sting Scale. In that book, Candace is teamed with a female cop, Detective Chien-Shiung Malone. A guy in my class asked, “Do you really think people will want to read a crime fiction book about two women?”

  

All I can say is, he was lucky Candace wasn’t around.

Are you working on a new project?

I’m just reviewing the final proofs for Starr Sign, the second in the Candace Starr series, due out March 2021. In this book, Candace takes on her estranged mafia family with her teenage half-sister and a white hat hacker she picked up at fan conference. In addition to that, I have a domestic thriller in first draft stage, titled Eve’s Rib. It is more in the vein of Petra’s Ghost, psychological suspense with some magical realism thrown in. After I finish that, I need to start on the third and final Starr novel, which I think will tackle Big Pharma. Wow— looking at all that written down is starting to make me sweat a little.

What are you reading now or have read recently that you’d recommend?

I’m reading Tana French’s The Searcher. That woman has a talent for dialogue that surpasses any modern thriller writer I know. And of course, the story is deliciously Irish. Highly recommend it, along with all her books.

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BIO. C.S. O’Cinneide (oh-ki-nay-da) is a writer and a blogger on her website, She Kills Lit, where she features women writers of thriller and noir. Her novels include Petra’s Ghost, a semi-finalist for the 2019 Goodreads Choice Awards, and the Candace Starr Crime series. She lives in Guelph, Ontario with her Irish ex-pat husband who remains her constant muse.

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Six Books I Think You’ll Enjoy

My new novel, Every Arm Outstretched, is about a month away from launching. Set during the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, it explores universal themes like truth, loyalty and whether the ends can ever truly justify the means. If you’re interested in those things, there are a number of other books that I think you would enjoy as well that are linked to it by theme, or setting, or mood (or all three). Here are six books that I would recommend:

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The Jaguar Smile: A Nicaraguan Journey by Salman Rushdie. Rushdie traveled to Nicaragua in 1986, in the midst of the US-backed war against the Sandinistas. Afterwards, he wrote this portrait of the country and its people in the midst of a crisis. While he captures some of the conflict between communists and capitalists, but also recognizes the moral and individual conflicts that lay beneath.

Che: A Revolutionary Life by Jon Lee Anderson and José Hernández. Anderson wrote the definitive biography of Che Guevara, a thick and detailed tome that is not everyone’s cup of tea. Collaborating with Hernández, he then pulled off the nearly impossible feat of turning the biography into a graphic novel that is every bit as compelling and more accessible.

The Man Who Loved Dogs by Leonardo Padura. The story of Leon Trotsky’s assassination in Mexico City in 1940 pulls together a hundred different threads to weave a fascinating story. We see Trotsky as a friend and lover of Frida Kahlo, the life of the Russian agent who murders him, and the frustrated Cuban novelist who uncovers it all. Translated from Spanish, and beautifully written. And if we ever get a chance to travel again, visiting the houses of Trotsky, Kahlo and her husband Diego Rivera are well worth it.

The Motorcycle Diaries: Notes on a Latin American Journey by Ernesto Guevara. Before he became “Che,” the famous revolutionary, he was an adventurous young man who was anxious to see the world. In 1952, he set off to tour Latin America with his friend Alberto Granada by motorcycle (a 500cc Norton for those who care). What they saw shaped Guevara’s world view and set him on the path that would lead through revolutions in Cuba, the Congo and then to his execution in Bolivia a scant 15 years later.

The Mosquito Coast by Paul Theroux. Better known for his travel books, Theroux is an amazing story teller with a keen eye for setting. Here he describes an overzealous father who uproots his family from America and takes them to the jungles of Honduras to set up a new utopian civilization. Spoiler alert: It doesn’t turn out as expected, but it’s well worth reading about.

A Flag for Sunrise by Robert Stone. Stone was twice a finalist for the Pulitzer, and here weaves together the lives of three separate major characters into one political mess in a fictional banana republic in Central America. His vision of power and American influence is very dark, but reflects both the pessimism of the 1980s and his own experiences with it in Vietnam.

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War is not a genre

I’ve previously written about how the demands of the algorithms that drive online marketing have created more genres than ever (over 13000 distinct genres on Amazon!). But even before this proliferation of categories within literature, some commonly accepted genres were problematic. The “war” genre is one of these.

The modern “war novel” as a genre has its roots in the unprecedented amount of literature that was produced about the First World War. Given the vast numbers of people who were directly affected by the war, and the impact that it had on European society in particular, this is no surprise. As film came into its own as an art form, the war film also came to be seen as a distinct genre. These films were quickly harnessed by governments as a vehicle for propaganda, which was much less true of related literature.

It seems clear to me, however, that war is not a genre, and that by considering it as such it does a disservice to many readers and writers.

A genre is a “category of artistic composition, characterized by similarities in form, style or subject matter.” Clearly the form and style of books found within the war genre differ, and so is the only defining characteristic the subject matter?

Goodreads seems to think so. It defines a “war novel” as one:

…in which the primary action takes place in a field of armed combat, or in a domestic setting (or home front) where the characters are preoccupied with the preparations for, or recovery from, war.

But does it make sense that we shelve the Iliad with Catch-22? War and Peace with The Hunt for Red October? The Caine Mutiny with The English Patient?

Even the most cursory examination of the books that get shelved under “War” makes it clear that they share little beyond a setting that includes societal conflict. The themes they explore, and their point of view on war itself, are as varied as the number of books itself.

It might be argued that the commonality that makes this a genre is that they all examine human nature as it responds to the overwhelming impact of war. But I think that the idea of exploring human nature, deeply or otherwise, is true of all books with human characters. It’s not possible to write about humans without creating some level of commentary on our nature.

Many of the literary greats of the early to mid-20th century wrote about war and its effects. But Hemingway, Remarque, Dos Passos, Faulkner, Wouk, Greene and Waugh, amongst others, should not have their work pigeon holed into a narrow genre in which they don’t easily fit.

While I am all for the idea of connecting readers with books that they will love, the micro-segregation of books into narrow or ill-fighting genres can be incredibly arbitrary, and when it is, it does little that is positive for readers

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The Bizarre Story of General William Walker

[image error]William Walker

The word “filibuster” case come to mean a political delaying tactic, using long winded speeches to cause a piece of legislation to fail to pass. But the origins of the term are much darker, as is the history of the most famous of the filibusters, William Walker.

The English word comes from the Spanish filibustero, itself a derivation of the Dutch word vrijbuiter, meaning “pirate” (or in the English direct derivation of the Dutch, “freebooter”). First used to describe English privateers such as Sir Francis Drake, the word fell out of customary use before it was revived in the mid-19th century to describe American adventurers, like Walker, whose freelance military schemes sought to add slaveholding territories to the United States, or in the case of the Fenians, to capture Canada as leverage to free Ireland.

The land they targeted to form potential slave states was in Mexico, Cuba, Central America, and Venezuela. As all of these places had functioning governments with militaries to defend themselves, the filibusters had to bring considerable force to bear in order to achieve their aims.

Walker’s Early Life

William Walker was born in Nashville, Tennessee and graduated from law school at age 14, and medical school at age 19. He practiced neither profession for long, instead becoming a newspaper editor, first of the New Orleans Crescent and then of the San Francisco Herald. One gets a sense of his disposition by the fact that while in San Francisco he fought three duels over points of honour.

[image error]Flag of the Republic of Lower California

In 1853, Walker first tried his hand at private military action, raising a force of nearly fifty men to seize the town of La Paz in Baja California, which he declared to be the capital of the “Republic of Lower California,” with himself as President. He was quickly forced to retreat in the face of the Mexican Army. Back in the United States he was tried for violating the Neutrality Act of 1794, but despite the fact that he was clearly guilty, a jury took only 8 minutes to acquit him.

The Invasion of Nicaragua

He next attempted an invasion of Nicaragua. With no canal yet built in Panama, and no transcontinental railway either, the quickest way from New York to California involved a trip by boat up the San Juan River into Lake Nicaragua, a 12 mile stage coach ride to the Pacific, and then an onward journey by ship again. This route was controlled by American businessman Cornelius Vanderbilt, one of the richest Americans in history.

[image error]Flag of Nicaragua under Walker

A civil war was already ongoing in Nicaragua between the conservative Legitimist Party and their opponents, the Liberal Party. Walker arrived in 1855l eading 60 mercenaries with the sanction of Liberal President, Francisco Castellón. Amongst his men were a number of experienced European mercenaries, as well as future Confederate officers. Bolstered with local recruits, Walker’s men were quite successful and by the following year he had taken control of the country, ruling through a puppet President. Despite the fact that Walker repealed existing Nicaraguan law that banned slavery, his government was given formal recognition by the United States. Walker began a process of Americanization, making English the official language and creating a new administration to run the country.

Vanderbilt’s Revenge

[image error]American newspaper illustration of Walker’s forces in battle

Walker’s story may have been a success if not for the fact that he refused to recognize Vanderbilt’s business interests in the country, seizing them and awarding them to a rival. This led Vanderbilt to use his considerable resources to entice the Costa Rica government to declare war. Despite Walker’s bold attempt to pre-emptively invade Costa Rica with a mercenary force, the tides began to turn against him. He declared himself President after a sham election, and sought support and immigration from the southern part of the United States. Weakened militarily by defections and a cholera outbreak, he was eventually defeated in 1856 by a combined force of Costa Ricans, Hondurans and El Salvadorans.

Initially escaping capture, Walker surrendered in May, 1857 to the United States Navy and was repatriated to New York City and greeted as a hero. Within months, however, he attempted another expedition which failed when he was captured en route and returned to the United States. A fourth and final expedition, this time to the island of Roatán off the coast of Honduras. He was quickly captured by British authorities, who handed him over to the government of Honduras.

[image error]He was executed by firing squad on 12 September, 1860, at the age of 36, and is buried in Trujillo, Honduras.

Walker’s legacy was a mixed one, with many in the American South seeing him as a romantic hero, while in the North he was widely regarded as a pirate.

His life has been the inspiration for a number of different creative works. Walker himself wrote his memoirs before his final expedition, titled The War in Nicaragua. Famous Nicaraguan writer Ernesto Cardenal (also a minister in the Sandinista government) wrote an epic poem about that period in the country’s history, Con Walker en Nicaragua.

[image error]There have also been two films about his life, the second of which is most interesting. Starring Ed Harris and with a musical score by The Clash’s Joe Strummer, the 1987 surrealist film Walker was filmed in Nicaragua while the war against the Contra’s was ongoing. Cardenal even edited the screenplay, and was a regular visitor on set.

Nicaragua has a fascinating history, which is why I chose it for the setting of my novel “Every Arm Outstretched.” Set in 1978 at the height of the Nicaraguan revolution that led to men like Cardenal taking power, it explores how we determine right and wrong when society itself has become corrupt, the meaning of love, loyalty and friendship, and whether the ends can ever truly justify the means.

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Review: A Flag for Sunrise

You might find it unusual for me to post a review of a book that was published in 1981, but hear me out. The sheer volume of books published every year, and the way that they are marketed – very intensely for a short period of time – means that inevitably we all miss books that we would otherwise enjoy. And over time, even the wildly successful books get forgotten.

Despite being a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, the PEN/ Faulkner and the National Book Award, A Flag for Sunrise is just one of those books.

[image error]Robert Stone was a war correspondent in Vietnam, and later on a close friend of famous provocateur Ken Kesey. This put him at the centre of American 1960s counter-culture, exposing him to the writers of the Beat Generation and the post-Beat literary scene epitomized by Hunter S. Thompson and Tom Wolfe. Although Stone’s work was grittier and darker then that of many other writers of this period (Thompson excepted), their influence in terms of structure and composition are clear.

A Flag for Sunrise is a complex story that follows four characters whose lives eventually collide in the fictional Central American republic of Tecan, which is teetering on the brink of revolution. There is an anthropologist co-opted by the CIA, an alcoholic priest dabbling in heresy, a young nun experiencing a crisis of faith as she throws in with the rebels, and a psychotic ex-Coast Guardsman in league with gun runners. Each is living in their own version of hypocrisy, and despite their efforts and intentions, it’s no spoiler to say that the book does not have a happy ending. Stone does not allow anyone, character or reader, to experience anything like a catharsis as he weaves what is essentially a commentary on the state of the world as it emerged from the 1970s.

Stone was heavily influenced by the futility of the war in Vietnam, and saw American influence in Central America (such as by supporting the Contra rebels against the popular Sandinista regime in Nicaragua) as repeating the same error. The malign influence of America in the politics of small nations is so powerful in the book that all of the character’s lives are essentially doomed because of it. In this sense, Stone evokes some of the themes from the work of Joseph Conrad, by updating the setting of while maintaining the sharp critique of colonialism. It is this extended critique that gives the otherwise bleak novel real impact.

Central America in the late 1970s is also the setting of my forthcoming novel, Every Arm Outstretched, available on 16 October 2020. Although my writing does not have the same element of pervasive despair, there is no question that the powerful politics of the time swept many individuals along to places, physically and in their hearts, that they would never have dreamed of going before.

 

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On Algorithms and Genre

It’s generally accepted that in modern literature there are two broad kinds of fiction – literary fiction and genre fiction. While it is often said that the difference is that genre fiction is principally concerned with plot and convention, while literary fiction elevates character and theme, this is not the only difference. The sub-text, sometimes said aloud, is that literary fiction is art, while genre fiction is mere entertainment. One is to be savoured, the other consumed.

There is such a stark divide between the two that while many writers learn the conventions that set them apart, and divide genre fiction into a myriad of different parts, few people question the difference or recognize its origin. It’s also important to ask an even more important question – in its current incarnation, who does this division serve?

Classic western literature began in ancient Greece, where three broad genres were recognized. The epic poem was the first, and oldest, form of the three, epitomized by the Iliad and the Odyssey. The other two genres were forms of drama – the comedy and the tragedy. The characteristics of these separate genres were defined in Aristotle’s Poetics, the earliest known example of literary criticism. Most importantly, though, none of the three forms of literature were held to be above the other – they were different, but neither better nor worse.

Other genres came to be defined over time, though the modern division is a very recent innovation. The “novel” itself was first seen as its own genre, only appearing in the early 17th century (Miguel de Cervante’s Don Quixote). The novel as a genre became more popular, and more possible, with the invention of mass-produced books that were affordable, and meant to entertain the masses.

The modern genres that are more commonly recognized today – mystery, science fiction, fantasy and others – are divisions that only came into being in the early 20th century, and in many cases, did not become widely read until the latter half of that century. With their origins in magazines, they began as distinctly popular culture, differentiated from “high brow” literature.

The last twenty years have seen genre morph once again, driven much as the early novel was, but technology. Online sales platforms, as well as sites such as Wattpad, have created an economic incentive for the hyper segmentation of genre. While it could be argued that the creation of genres to categorize fiction served the consumer by giving them ready access to material that interested them, the new approach to defining genre is driven by purely by marketing, with negative effect.

Amazon as a platform is not only aware of all your browsing and your purchases, but also highly detailed information about how you consume e-books that you download. They are able to analyze how quickly you read a book, whether you finish it or not, and where you stop. All of this analysis is ostensibly to serve the consumer, by feeding the recommendation algorithms to offer you other choices that you will enjoy. But in order to do so, books have become categorized in ever more narrow segments, well below those shown on the website itself. Once you start to read (and assumedly enjoy) Young Adult-mermaid-vampire-mysteries, you are almost certain to only be shown ads for more of the same. This isn’t a problem if one assumes that this is all you want to read, or that writers want to produce material that naturally falls into a tight categorization. What’s critical to remember, however, is that unlike the division into genre that occurred in magazines of the 1920s and 30s, this segmentation isn’t being driven by the tastes of consumers directly, but by the needs of the algorithms that serve up recommendations. And this is the issue that I have with the modern approach to the question of genre.

Amazon  has become not only the largest online bookseller, but also one of the largest publishers in the world. This centralization of power in the hands of one company has allowed them to reshape the book industry in ways that they do not even need to publicly reveal. One example of how they have done this is through the hyper-segmentation of genre. They have created over 13,000 different categories for books, more than are humanly useable. And because they know not only what books you buy, but in the case of e-books, which you actually read – as well as when, how fast, in what order and many other metrics – this information is coupled with their very precise categorization of genre to serve up exactly what they think you will want to read.

You might ask, “Why is this a problem?” If readers are better able to find books that they like at affordable prices, who is being harmed? My concern is simple.

The hyper-segmentation of genre has leaked out of the realm of AI and into the common understanding of human authors. Now, in order to find an under served niche audience, or to find a means to achieve a “#1 Amazon Bestseller,” authors are also conceiving of their works in artificially narrow terms. Gaming the Amazon system has created an impetus to turn all fiction into genre fiction, making general fiction – or anything else that does not fit into an easy category – seemingly unsellable.

Storytelling is an inherently human activity, and in fact is one of the few things that truly makes humans unique on Earth. I don’t believe that allowing algorithms to drive how we relate to stories serves humans well at all.

(As an aside, for someone who eschews being pigeonholed in any single genre, and undoubtedly causes the Amazon algorithms the AI version of a headache, take a look at the body of work of China Mieville, one of whose books I reviewed.)

 

 

 

 

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Discover how to boost your creative brain with meditation and mindfulness

Proving what many creatives have known intuitively for years, studies show that mindfulness and meditation both have a positive effect on our creativity. Whether you want to discover, improve or maintain that creative flow, there are a number of meditation and mindfulness practices that you can use.

Creativity on Demand

Many people think of creative as being that moment when “inspiration strikes.” Being put on the spot and told to “be creative” seems an impossibility. But professional writers, artists and musicians often need to be able to create on demand, facing tight deadlines and working within narrow parameters dictated by their client. While it can feel thrilling when the ideas flow and the work gets done on time, it’s incredibly frustrating when you get stuck in a loop of unworkable thoughts. So how do you get one result and not the other?

Different parts of the brain perform different functions, and are activated in different ways. The neocortex in particular is active in creative thinking, problem solving, visioning, hypothesizing, and strategizing. But getting the neocortex activated isn’t necessarily straight forward, as lower levels of function within your brain are brought to bear to solve a problem before they reach it reaches the neocortex.

In Buddhist writings, these other parts of your brain are sometimes referred to as the “monkey mind.” The endless chatter and self-talk that in many ways defines our inner reality can get in the way of being creative. This is where meditation comes in.

The effect of meditation

Meditation quiets our monkey mind, and in a physiological sense, stimulates and engages our neocortex. When meditating, we enter that “flow state” that many people see as a defining characteristic of having mastered a skill.

Regular meditation has positive effects on our thinking beyond just the momentary ones we feel when doing it. Research has shown that non-meditators have greater cognitive rigidity than meditators, and can also habitually apply known solutions to new problems, rather than finding the solution that best fits.

Meditation and mindfulness create the mental space for you to access the processing going on within your sub-conscious, as well as creating a positive mental environment for that sub-conscious work to occur. Creativity is not something you turn on or off, it’s something that you need to tap into by being ready to receive. But those moments where new ideas seem to drop from nowhere into our waking minds don’t happen at random. We can cultivate them through the steps below.

Exercise your mind

Just as we train our muscles to improve performance in physical activities, we need to exercise our minds to improve our performance in mental activities. There are many different forms of meditation, but they all have a positive effect on creativity. You can mix it up between silent, guided and walking mediation. Walking itself has been shown to have a positive impact on creativity, even apart from the meditative aspects. And if you don’t know how to meditate, there are a number of great apps, such as Calm or Headspace, that can help you get started.

Give your mind room to work

What we think of as intuition or inspiration actually arises from the unconscious information processing systems in our mind that are easily drowned out by the noise generated by our waking mind. To sustain a creative practice, you need to create “white space” in your mind so that it can work. So rather than filling every waking moment with music or podcasts or other sources of information broadcast, carve out time during the day where you simply sit with your thoughts. This could be on a walk, during a commute, or in the bath. You are creating moments where your mind is optimally attuned to produce new ideas.

Show up and do the work

This is the “secret” used by almost any professional creative. Whether it’s the writer who produces a set number of words a day, or a musician who practices a set number of hours a day, or a painter who creates even when they don’t feel like it – they all show up and do the work. Discipline your mind to do the creative work you want to do, even when you don’t feel like it. Let the words flow, and worry about editing them later. Over time, you’ll become so accustomed to your routine, and to doing the work whether you feel like it or not, that you will produce creative works seemingly on demand.

And only you will know all the hard work that you’ve done to make it look that easy.

A Method for Crafting Conflict between your CharactersHow to Outline a Story with Index CardsMy Writing SuperpowerReview: The Artist’s JourneyThe Link between Walking and CreativityIn Support of the Short Story

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The Taliban and COVID-19

The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has created new challenges, as well as opportunities, for the Taliban as they vie for power in Afghanistan.

One of the world’s first major outbreaks after China was in Iran, home to a large Afghan diaspora, many of whom fled back into Afghanistan as the crisis in Iran worsened. Predictably, they brought the virus with them leading to a major outbreak in Herat, and then in the capital. As of June, 2020, Afghanistan has only 18,000 confirmed cases and approximately 300 deaths, but these numbers are almost certainly very low due to a lack of testing.

The Afghan government, mired in a political crisis over the presidency, was slow to respond as the crisis unfolded in March, but the Taliban were not.

“Our Mujahideen are helping the health workers to spread out the messages about the dangers of COVID-19…among the public in our controlled areas.”

– Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman

Afghanistan was to have gone into lockdown, but in many areas this was spottily enforced. Government run schools were closed, and although mosques were ordered to close, many remained open. A huge portion of the Afghan population works in the informal economy and rely on daily wages to survive, and so in many areas the economy stumbled along.

Panic buying of bread and cooking oil lead to shortages and price hikes. An announcement by President Ghani that the government would distribute free bread failed to materialize in many areas due to corruption and incompetence. Government advice to east fruit rich in vitamin C to counter the virus, aside from being medically suspect, was irrelevant ad the cost of imported fruit skyrocketed out of reach of the average family.

A popular perception of the government response to the coronavirus was that they were using the crisis as a pretext to milk the international community for funds that could be stolen. There were rumours of people being paid to report themselves as sick to inflate the statistics, or even to pretend to be dead. While these rumours are likely untrue, endemic corruption does mean that whatever aid is given to Afghanistan to respond to the pandemic, only a small portion of it will ever be used to benefit the population. The distribution of aid is always political, as various parties seek to provide, maintain or grow their influence by directing a portion of it to people within the patronage network.

The Taliban have long sought to establish that they are a more effective administration than the current government, and they are using the pandemic to further this goal. While the Taliban sometimes attack government-run clinics and hospitals, they more commonly co-opt them, directing how and where they are “allowed” to work. This is similar to how they enforce their own rules on government-run schools, monitoring what is taught and even docking the pay of teachers who are absent. In large parts of Afghanistan, the Taliban has shown that its shadow administration is less corrupt, more responsive and better aligns with local (conservative) values than that of the government in Kabul.

[image error]Aid packages for families distributed by the Taliban, as shown on their official Twitter account.

The Taliban have long been very effective at setting standards for public conduct and enforcing them, with often brutal methods. They are doing the same in response to the pandemic, spreading direction on how to act through religious sermons. They famously recaptured a coronavirus-positive patient who had escaped quarantine in a hospital in Balkh, returning him to the authorities. They have also spread public health information through a very active social media campaign, counteracting a flood of misinformation about COVID-19 on popular networks such as Facebook and WhatsApp. The video below from 30 March, dubbed in English, is clearly meant to show that the Taliban are proactively managing the pandemic response.

The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
Health Commission carried out
campaign against Covid-19
in Maidan Wardak province pic.twitter.com/0KOa51yZAl

— Zabihullah (..ذبـــــیح الله م ) (@Zabehulah_M33) March 30, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has also created a challenge for the Taliban, as persistent rumours suggest that many of their leaders have been infected, including the majority of their negotiating team in Doha. The Taliban leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhunzada has allegedly died of coronavirus, while his deputy, Sirajuddin Haqqani is seriously ill in a Pakistani military hospital. If this were true, this would leave the founding leader’s son, Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob, as the de facto leader. While the Taliban deny that their leader has died, it is important to note that they have a history of concealing the death of prominent members, including that of the founding leader Mullah Omar, and Sirajuddin’s father Jalaluddin. These deceptions created serious schisms within the organization in the past, and it is unclear whether Mullah Mohammed Yaqoob has the wasta navigate the politics of succession if he were to be seen as being anything less than transparent with the rank and file.

[image error]Part of the Taliban negotiation team in Doha. (Photo by KARIM JAAFAR/AFP/Getty Images)

The fact that the Taliban’s negotiating team has been incapacitated while peace talks with the government are ongoing is also of concern, as there needs to be further progress if a long lasting cease fire is to be agreed to. As much as the Taliban have very effectively capitalized on the opportunity to bolster their legitimacy that the COVID-19 pandemic in Afghanistan has provided, its effects might also prevent them from achieving the goal of a political settlement.

For further insight into the philosophy underpinning the Taliban movement, check out my novel “This Shall Be a House of Peace,” or my upcoming history “Blood Washing Blood.”

The post The Taliban and COVID-19 appeared first on Phil Halton | Literary Fiction Writer.

A Method for Crafting Conflict between your Characters

Conflict is an essential element to stories, though even in an action movie it gets boring if it is always physical, or between the protagonist and antagonist. Conflict between all of the characters, even if relatively mild, propels your story along and allows you to maintain an essential level of tension. Here is a trick to help you do that in a way that is consistent, believable and gives you a prompt when you get stuck: use the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to define your characters, and the potential conflicts between them.

The Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator

Although it has many detractors as a scientific method, the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a system for describing personalities based on the theories of famous psychologist Carl Jung. Created in the early twentieth century by Katherine Cook Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs Meyers, the MBTI system has found particular popularity amongst performance coaches, relationship counsellors and in team building exercises.

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The system assigns all people to one of sixteen personality types, each of which is a combination of preferences between four paired concepts. These concepts are easy to understand, and allow you to indicate a person’s type with a four character shorthand. If you’re not familiar with the system, you can jump right in and take an online test – answering for yourself or one of your characters – to see where you land.

The four pairings are shown in the table below, with every individual expressing a preference for one element of each dichotomy. Not only do these types define how an individual approaches work, relationships and life in general, it gives a good indicator of where they will find agreement or conflict with other personality types. Unsure of what an extraverted person who relies on intuition and feeling while perceiving the world around them (an ENFP) would be like? There are lots of resources on the web who lay it all out for you.

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Using the MBTI as a Writer

The value to a writer of these personality thumbnails is enormous. As seen in the link above, vast amounts of material has been written about how certain personalities approach life, their strengths and their blind spots. By applying these types to our characters, we instantly have access to huge amounts of data about their psychology, and how they interact with others. Although it all has to be reworked to fit the individual in question and their personal circumstances, it acts as a writing prompt about what motivates our characters on a deeper level. And whenever we get stuck, wondering about what a character might do, or how to characters might work together under pressure, we have a resource that we can turn to.

Other Possible Systems

For those who are less inclined to Jungian theories, other systems of personality typing exist and would be equally useful. Example from psychology are the Keirsay Temperment Sorter, the Five Factor Model, or for some characters, even by dealing into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. For a writer, even using astrological signs might be useful.

Writing believable conflict is key to writing believable characters, and by using a system to describe our characters, we help ourselves as writers. Your creativity is supported, rather than crowded out, when you find a scaffolding to work from. This may not work for everyone, but like using index cards to create an outline, sometimes we gain insights into what does work for us by seeing how other writers work.

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Afghanistan’s Bandit Tradition

While decades of conflict have created a degree of anarchy and lawlessness across Afghanistan, within Afghan culture there have long been romanticized portrayals of bandits that continue to the present day. Pashtun culture in particular is highly egalitarian, with strongly pronounced streaks of both individualism and justice. The ideal Pashtun male is someone who is brave, stands up against unjust authority, is willing to risk everything to protect the weak, and is generous even with defeated foes. All of these behaviours are contained within a traditional code of conduct known as the Pashtunwali, or “way of the Pashtun.” Examples of men whose behaviour epitomized Pashtunwali become popular stories, told and retold in ways that reinforce the ideals.

The Water Carrier’s Boy

Rural bandits in Afghanistan are known as ‘ayyar. The most famous Afghan ‘ayyar is Bacha-e Saqqao, the “water carrier’s boy,” whose autobiography is “My Life: From Brigand to King.” Although he was a Tajik, not a Pashtun, his behaviour exemplified many of the tenets of the Pashtunwali. Operating in the Shomali plain north of Kabul, he outwitted government troops and robbed caravans heading north into the Soviet Republics, sharing the loot with the villages of his men.

He gained particular notoriety in 1929 when Afghanistan’s ruler, Amanullah Amir, tried to convince him to help protect the throne against usurpers from the eastern provinces. Uncertain whether he could trust Amanullah, the Bacha telephoned him, impersonating a government official.
“We have captured the Bacha,” he lied to Amanullah. “What should we do with him?”
“Kill him,” answered Amanullah immediately.
The Bacha then revealed his true identity. “You’ll first have to catch me.”

He then went on to topple Amanullah from the throne and install himself as ruler, taking the name “Habibullah Kalakani.” He ruled for less than a year before he was himself deposed by Nadir Shah. In recent years, pictures of the Bacha have appeared in public places as the Tajik community lobbies for him to be honoured as a former king.

The Badraga Business

In the country’s east, many tribes were involved for centuries in what was known as the badraga business. Badraga is the practice of gaining permission to cross the lands belonging to a particular tribe, but came to mean the practice of caravans hiring protection as they crossed the tribal lands on either side of the Durand line along the trade route from Peshawar to Jalalabad. It went without saying that if protection was not hired, these same tribes would attack the caravans themselves and extract more than the cost of the original payment. This was considered an honourable business, and made up the majority of the income of many tribes.

Kaka: Urban mafioso

Within Kabul, there has long been a tradition of the kaka. A kaka is a sort of vigilante whose strong sense of honour extended to the protection of his entire neighbourhood. At the same time that a kaka would ensure that the norms of honourable behaviour were adhered to in the neighbourhood, he would also control whatever illegal activities, such as gambling or smuggling, took place there. Kakas from different neighbourhoods would often fight for control territory. Akin to the traditional mafias of Southern Italy, they were both protector and aggressor. Most kakas disappeared with the advent of larger armed militias during the 1990s. A famous novel about the kaka, “Real Men Keep their Word” by Akram Osman, was turned into a film in 1979 that you can find on Youtube.

“Real Men Keep Their Word” – 1979



The “Worthy Dudes” of Today

Crime in Kabul today is less driven by the traditional ideas of the ‘ayyar or kaka, and is instead rooted in cynicism after decades of conflict, lack of opportunity and widespread poverty. Criminal gangs have flourished throughout the city (and many others as well), where a specifically Afghan “gangster” culture has developed. Calling themselves bachaha-ye ba subut (“worthy dudes”), they are easily distinguished by a particular style of dress, as well as their own mannerisms and language. Often associated with political parties or specific politicians, these groups engage in robbery, kidnapping and extortion as well as acting as surrogates for more powerful men who need dirty work done, such as murdering or intimidating rivals. Similar gangs have arisen in European cities where large concentrations of Afghan immigrants can be found.

[image error]Famous bachata-ye ba subut Nabi Kohbandi.

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