Robin Tompkins's Blog: Rob the Writer - Posts Tagged "the-field-of-reeds"

It has been suggested, that the original inspiration for the Egyptian notion of passing into the afterlife, the Aaru or, ‘Field of Reeds,’ was the physical crossing of the Nile by the mummified body of the deceased. The Agriculturally cultivated East bank, was the land of the living, the mummy would be transported across the Nile and through the abundant reeds about its margins, to the arid West bank with its tombs and mortuary temples. From the land of the living, through the reeds, to the land of the dead.

As a theory, it probably doesn’t really hold up to close inspection. It’s a cool theory though and a great image. In many ways, better than the truth.

Which brings me to our book, ‘The Field of Reeds: in Shadows.’

Something you should probably understand, if you are going to read it, is that in this book we never let the truth get in the way of a good story, to steal a phrase.

There is an anecdote about the making of the epic TV mini series ‘Shogun,’ that goes this way… The crew on the shoot were part American and part Japanese. The American crew lined up a great shot of a white castle reflected in the waters of a lake, where swans serenely glided back and forth. The Japanese crew chased all the swans away. Why? Because, they quite correctly said, that there were no swans in Japan at the time this historical epic was set. The Americans promptly waited for the swans to come back and filmed the shot anyway. Why? Because it wasn’t historically accurate but it was a great shot.

We have camels in our book… there were no camels in ancient Egypt. They hadn’t arrived yet. The thing is though, unless you’re an expert in these things, you expect them to be there. Camels and Egypt? In the mind of most people, they go together like bread and butter, or strawberries and cream. Most people would find it odd if they weren’t there. So, not historically accurate but there are camels in the book.

Nearly all of the action takes place in the fertile Nile delta, well irrigated by a myriad little tributaries of the Nile. We know this but we present it as desert. Why? Because if you ask anyone what ancient Egypt was like, they will tell you it was dry and dusty, a desert.

We take many more such liberties, not least with Egyptian history, the folk lore and mythology, which is rejigged to better suit our plot, or to be entirely cat-centric (if there is such a word).

The thing is, this is a fantasy book, it is not historical fiction. If it was historical fiction, we wouldn’t do it. Perhaps we should have set the book in the land of Tpyge or some other anagram of Egypt but that seemed pointless when it would so obviously be Egypt.

No, we just wanted to be free of that sort of thing, to let our imaginations roam and build the world we wanted.

So, although, ‘The Field of Reeds’ is set in ancient Egypt, it is an Egypt of the mind. Not Egypt as it ever was, or ever could have been. It is a fantasy of Egypt, a beautiful dream of a bygone time that never was.

We hope you will forgive us our trespasses and enjoy the story.
The Field of Reeds in Shadows

I recently launched a new book, co-authored with my sister Madeleine Purslow. (The Field of Reeds: In Shadows, out now on Amazon)

Her friend, the writer, Sally Jenkins was greatly intrigued. She was having trouble picturing what it was like to work with another writer. In so far as she could picture it at all, she imagined it as a riot of creative fun, with ideas and banter zinging happily back and forth.

Well, that’s sort of how it goes, you know, a bit, some of the time, occasionally. Then, there are those other times…

Sally asked Maddy if we could give her five hundred or so words on the subject, for a little guest spot on her blog.

We duly obliged and here it is…

The importance of having a weapons cabinet. (Or, how to write with someone else).

So, co-authoring a novel. How does that work? Hmmm, let me introduce you to the weapons cabinet…

Picture, if you will, an antique cabinet in the corner of the room, ornate and a bit dusty. Now, open the doors. They protest a little, they groan, they could do with a spot of oil. Inside though… now, that’s unexpected, every kind of weapon you can think of, softly shining in the half-light. The weapons are all in perfect order and ready for use at a moment’s notice.

Got it? Great, hold that thought, we’ll come back to it in a minute.

So, writing is a solitary thing, isn’t it? You take yourself away from other human beings for hours on end. Go deep inside your own head and stay there.

Stephen King said, writing is actually a form of telepathy. You take words, images, emotions and transfer them from one mind to another. Well, if that works between a writer and a reader, there is absolutely no reason why it shouldn’t work between two writers.

Well, perhaps not absolutely no reason…

Unless you really, get on well with your potential co-author, don’t even think about it. It has been said, that the best way to break up a friendship, is for two people to go on holiday together. I have a better one, try writing together.

If you are writing with someone else and you are both convinced that you have just come up with the best possible way to express what you are trying to say, who’s words do you use?

That’s where the weapons cabinet comes in…

You have to fight it out. Maybe with twin swords? Or, sneaky, ninja, throwing stars? Even a ball point pen can be lethal in the right hands…

Eventually, a compromise, the best of both worlds. Two brains really can be better than one. They had better be brains that genuinely like each other though. Whatever wounds you inflict in the heat of battle, you have to be able to live with afterwards.

So, what about the nuts and bolts? Well, it starts with huge brain storming sessions, lots of notes and a lot of laughing. You build the world, the shared playground and agree on a writing style.

Then, it may be that we take a chapter each, go away and write it. Or, if we are really unsure about how a chapter should go, then we both write the same chapter and ‘swap papers,’ like doing a test at school. Then we… Did you hear the creak, as the weapons cabinet doors opened?

Boundaries are also important, recognising who does what best. If you know your co-author is better at dialogue, or spooky atmospheres, or has a real feel for a particular character, then, you do what serves the story. After a trip to the weapons cabinet, obviously.

So, there you are. This blog has been brought to you after a short but vicious fight, by the gestalt brain that is Madrob, or possibly Robeleine. We have to decide which. Excuse us for a moment, we are just going to the weapons cabinet…



The Field of Reeds in Shadows

In my last blog about our new book, ‘The Field of Reeds: in Shadows,’ I was talking about the terrible liberties we have taken with Egyptian history, myth, folklore and even geography. Just to quickly reiterate, to save you checking it out if you haven’t read it, I can sum it up with that famous quote from MythBusters, ‘I reject your reality and substitute my own.’ The things we have ‘got wrong,’ are only wrong, from the perspective of the book being set in the real Egypt. It isn’t, it is set in our own private version of Egypt, where we make the rules. So, rest assured, it is all one hundred percent accurate. 😊

We have taken a very different approach though, when it comes to the cats in the book. (For context, if you haven’t seen the book blurb, or watched the video, most of the major characters in the book are cats). It was important to us, that the cats were cats.

We really didn’t want to go down the route that so many do in this type of book, the ‘little people in furry trousers,’ thing. These are not hobbits with a tail and whiskers.

The cat behaviour, body language, senses and abilities, their physicality, was as accurate as we could make it. Apart from them being able to talk obviously. 😊

The guiding notion was, that if this was a movie and you watched it with the sound down, only at the more extreme moments, would you see anything other than cats doing cat things. (I will come back to the extreme moments shortly). Without the narration, or dialogue, there are cats sitting around on roof tops, lounging under trees, napping, eating, running, jumping, climbing, scrapping and hunting. You know, cat things. Even when they are interacting with humans, if you can’t hear the conversation, what you would see, is a cat rubbing around someone’s legs, being fussed, getting their tails tugged. The cats, as best we can make them, are cats.

There are the more extreme bits of course, (see, I said I would come back to that). This is an epic fantasy book. Extreme things do have to happen, it comes with the territory.

You are no doubt now saying, ‘My Mr Tiddles and little Snowball wouldn’t fight a supernatural monster, they would hide under the bed until it had gone.’ Well, quite apart from the fact that that would make for a very dull book, (despite being a very sensible course of action), cats are capable of a lot more than you might suppose, if they need to be. Just think a minute, haven’t you ever seen any of that stuff on You Tube, Instagram, Tik-Tok etc where cats attack foxes trying to steal their dinner from the front porch? Where they face down dogs and even larger animals like bears, fur bushed, tails fluffed, hissing and growling like cougars?

Cats have all the same skills and equipment as lions and tigers, they just come on a smaller scale.

I do agree though, that we are certainly pushing the boundaries of what is even remotely possible at times. So, I now refer you, gentle reader, to exhibit B, the, ‘superhero movie’. Or, if you prefer something less extreme, the, ‘action flick’.

Action heroes and those superheroes that haven’t been bitten by a radioactive camel, or injected with super Lucozade or something, the ones that are just highly trained humans, like Black Widow, or Batman, do amazing things. The things they do are most likely impossible but they are made to look just plausible enough for us to suspend disbelief, because they stick to things that humans can actually do. Run, jump, roll, kick, punch etc. Similarly, our cats don’t fly, or snort lightning bolts, they just do cat things.

The actors who play those parts on screen have to go through months of rigorous training. I imagine that by now, most of them would be pretty handy in a fight. I doubt that any of them could actually take down twenty armed guys, using only a taser and a broken chair leg though. But their on screen alter egos can.

So, if Mr Tiddles and Snowball couldn’t take down a supernatural monster, our cats, Priah and Riheow, can. Why? Because they are superheroes.

PS: Please do not, under any circumstances name your cats Mr Tiddles and Snowball. It’s not kind, it’s not dignified, they won’t like it. They would probably prefer to fight a supernatural monster than answer to those names in public. 😊

The Field of Reeds in Shadows