Jane Lindskold's Blog, page 113

TT: Mann of the Moment

JANE: I’m happily awaiting learning more about Phillip Mann.  Is he a native New Zealander?

Jake Reads Phillip Mann, by Alan Robson

ALAN: No, not quite. Like me, Phillip is an expat Yorkshireman, though he is from North Yorkshire and I am from West Yorkshire, so naturally we hate each other. But despite that, we remain good friends…

And, just like Ngaio Marsh,  Phillip Mann also has houses in both the Northern and Southern hemisphere, though unlike Dame Ngaio his Northern hemisphere house is in France. Since his retirement, he has been commuting between the two and he tells me that he doesn’t do winter anymore; he spends the Southern hemisphere winter in the summer sunshine of France and the Northern hemisphere winter in the summer sun of New Zealand.

JANE: Given that here in New Mexico, we’re now getting nighttime temperatures in the 20’s, I completely sympathize with the lure of eternal summer.

What would you say characterizes Mann’s work?

ALAN: He has a reputation for creating some of the most ingenious (and truly alien) aliens ever to appear in the pages of an SF novel. I asked him about this once and he confessed that he found his inspiration in the strange and creepy creatures that he discovered lurking in rock pools.

JANE: Aliens!  Ooh.  Tell me more!

ALAN: If you like aliens, you’ll love his latest novel, The Disestablishment of Paradise. Things are going wrong on the planet of Paradise. As the name implies, once it was a paradise, but now the crops are failing and the indigenous plant life is changing in unpredictable ways. And so the powers that be make the decision to close the planet down, to cut their losses and leave the place to itself. Paradise will be disestablished.

The major strength of the novel is the wonderfully imagined world of Paradise itself. Phillip’s genius for creating alien life has never been better exemplified than in this book. There are no animals, birds, insects or fish on Paradise. All the ecological niches are filled by plants such as the ubiquitous Tattersall weed, the dangerous Michelangelo-Reaper and the fabulous Dendron Peripatetica, long thought to be extinct until the last one in existence walks dramatically onto the stage.

The sustained and consistent vision that is Paradise is beautifully imagined and it brings the whole story vividly to life.

JANE: I’ll need to keep my eyes open for this one.  Do you have a favorite Mann novel?

ALAN: My favourite of his novels is Pioneers. A long time ago, the pioneers set out from Earth to explore the universe. But now the Earth itself has undergone a huge catastrophe and the pioneers are needed back home. Angelo and Ariadne are two genetically modified characters whose job it is to rescue and retrieve the pioneers.

A bald summary like this, while it certainly defines the plot, cannot do justice to the sheer brilliance of the detail. Phillip gives us a beautiful love story, asks what it means to be human (and gives some answers!) and along the way provides poignant descriptions of a devastated Earth and a practically deserted New Zealand. It’s a hugely moving book that works on both intellectual and emotional levels. It never fails to enthrall me.

JANE: That sounds really interesting.  Does it have aliens in it?

ALAN: There are some, but they aren’t a major theme as they are in many of his other books.

JANE: You mentioned a couple of other titles last week.  Since these might be ones that our American readers would be able to find more easily, can you tell us a little about them?

ALAN: Yes, indeed. Eye of the Queen consists of selections from the diaries of Dr Marius Thorndyke, with interpolations from one of his professional colleagues. Dr Thorndyke is investigating the language and culture of the Pe-Ellians, a humanoid race with a scaly skin. Every individual has a unique pattern of scale markings. However, like terrestrial snakes, the Pe-Ellians periodically shed their skin and emerge with a transformed set of scale markings which indicate that they have moved on to a higher phase of existence (whatever that might mean). Their personality changes and they adopt a new name.

JANE: Sounds as if this would give a whole new meaning to exfoliating bath gel.    “Scrub your skin into a truly new you!”

ALAN: Not quite, though I think I might have enjoyed reading that story…

Anyway, Thorndyke learns the language and translates some Pe-Ellian poetry. As he learns more about the Pe-Ellians, he starts to suspect that the humans have had a drastic effect on the native culture. This troubles his conscience.

I remember, when I was first reading the novel, that a distinct sense of complacency started to set in. Both Thorndyke and I were certain that we understood the Pe-Ellians. On my part, I began to assume that the novel was just another one of those “aliens are just like us once you ignore the scales” stories that are so common in SF.

And then one of the Pe-Ellians did something so outrageous and so amazing that all my preconceptions were immediately destroyed, and along with Thorndyke, I began to realise that I hadn’t understood anything about the Pe-Ellians. And from that point on, the revelations came thick and fast and the sheer alieness (if that’s a word) of the Pe-Ellians just blew me away.

JANE: Oh, yum…  That is exactly my favorite sort of story with aliens.  I remember being completely disappointed with the much-hyped Tooth and Claw by Jo Walton until the dragons became uniquely dragonish.  This sounds even better.

What’s Wulfsyarn like?  Forgive me, but my immediate image was of a wolf with knitting needles, busily knitting a sweater from the wool of its most recent kill.

ALAN: Oh gosh, what an image! Excuse me, I need to go and scrub my mind…

Like Eye of the Queen, Wulfsyarn is an epistolary novel. However, in this case we learn the story from the point of view of an autoscribe whose name is Wulf.

JANE: Ah…  Image fades.  This is a “yarn” as in “tale,” not knitting.  Sad… Of course, now I’m seeing a great fluffy wolf’s tail.  You’d better tell me about the book before it mutates completely!

ALAN: Wulf tells us about the last voyage of the starship “Nightingale” and about the terrible fate that befell the ship and her captain, Jon Wilberfoss. Wulf admires Wilberfoss and wants to explain just why Wilberfoss has been left stricken by guilt and self-loathing and why he has been condemned as a heinous murderer by the masters of the Gentle Order of St. Francis Dionysos, a benevolent religious sect dedicated to rescuing alien refugees who were shattered by the devastating War of Ignorance.

JANE: Interesting.  Reminds me somewhat of Clifford Simak’s Project Pope in the integration of traditional religious structures to the future.  That, by the by, is a positive thing as I see it.

Does Wulf succeed in his goal?  I’d be curious how an automated personality might perceive human emotions.

ALAN: That’s a good parallel to draw. Does Wulf succeed? Well, it depends…

JANE: Ah…  No spoilers…  Okay.

ALAN: That’s the one!

But right now, I’m getting very bored with the letter M. C is a much more interesting letter.

JANE: C?  I’m already looking forward to next week’s chat!

Shooting the Cats

No… This isn’t going to be about murdering my feline co-residents.  It’s going to attempt to answer a question Louis asked (probably jokingly) in the Comments to last week’s Friday Fragments.  It’s also about making the most of opportunity.

Ogapoge Inspects an Invader

But, before I get to those things, I want to thank everyone who dropped by Page One Books to visit during Small Business Saturday last weekend.  I very much enjoyed having a chance to just settle in and chat – something I don’t get to do enough of during typical book events or even at conventions.  I even helped a few people find books they needed – and maybe evolved an idea for a future project.

All in all, a very fine time!

Afterwards, Jim and I went out and visited a couple of other small businesses.  One of the great things about Small Business Saturday is how many of the businesses turn the day into a party.  We were offered cookies and cider at one place, and coffee and chocolate at another.  Oh!  And we bought things, too, including the super cute cat figurine by Dana Pomroy featured in this week’s photo, and some beads I hope to weave into a winter bracelet.

Now to shooting the cats… and the guinea pigs!

Last week Louis said: “…it occurs to me that you could easily devote a Wandering to getting your models to pose for the title photos for these posts. They don’t even nibble on the titles in question!”

Certainly, nibbling on the title in question is an issue, especially when working with Persephone the cat and any of the guinea pigs.  Guinea pigs divide the world into “edible and not-edible.”  Anything is potentially edible until proven otherwise, so we do need to watch carefully.  That’s why, sometimes, there’s a carrot or bit of greenery also featured…  Guinea pigs are firm believers in the saying “Lead me not into temptation.  I’ll definitely follow.”  So we don’t tempt.

Persephone, who is our youngest cat at age three and some, has had a thing for biting paper since she was a kitten.  We’re growing accustomed, if not precisely resigned, to having her bite through the edges of magazines.  Her sharp teeth often “staple” pages together.  Then, when reading an article, I need to pull the pages apart.  Persephone has a particular attraction to shiny paper, so you’ll rarely see her posing with a paperback book or magazine.  That’s simply asking too much…

We hope Persephone will outgrow this trait eventually.  Ogapoge, who is now a dignified twelve going on thirteen, also bit book covers when he was younger.  However, he no longer thinks this is cool.  We’ve tried to get him to explain this to Persephone (who thinks he’s wonderful) but so far she hasn’t gotten the message.

When searching for a model for the Friday Fragment, we first check who hasn’t been featured for a while.  We then patrol to see who looks in the mood to hold still for the camera.  However, we’ve also learned a few tricks to getting a good photo.  This is where I segue into the importance of taking advantage of opportunity… and not just for finding the right model in the right place.

Jim is definitely the photographer in the family.  I don’t think I’ve taken more than one or two pictures in the nearly twenty years we’ve been hanging out together, and those were pictures he set up in advance but needed to be in.  I really appreciate the many photos he takes for me, not only for my various social media sites, but as research references.

One day some years ago, we dropped by a camera store so he could consult about a piece of equipment he was considering buying.   I drifted (as is my wont) over to the books and magazines.  I started browsing through one about getting the best out of animals as models.  From this I picked up a few tips we still use.

 The first tip was that animals react a lot better to having their picture taken if they are used to seeing a camera pointed at them.  Otherwise, the camera (Jim prefers an actual camera, digital these days, although he does like film, not a phone or tablet) can be scary since it masks the photographer’s face.

With this in mind, Jim started going out of his way to take pictures of the animals when they were awake, not just adorably cuddled up in a basket sound asleep.  By combining this with lots of praise, our cats have come to accept that this strange practice of holding up a clicking, flashing monster is just another of the weird things that humans do.  The guinea pigs simply anticipate a treat.  They’re optimists.

Even when an animal is accustomed to being photographed, getting the model to look where you want can be a challenge.  This book recommended that the photographer have an assistant who stands where the animal should be looking and does something to attract the animal’s attention.  That’s my job.  I’m not always needed, but when necessary, I can clown with the best.

Those tips may seem like common sense, but they’d never occurred to either of us.  (That’s the way with so much “common sense,” isn’t it?)  If I’d decided to fidget or not to come along to the camera store, because cameras aren’t “my thing,” then we’d never have learned them.

Opportunity lost, because it wasn’t looked for.  That’s an important lesson, especially for writers, because it’s easy to think of research as something focused on a specific project, not as taking advantage of chance.  My experience has been that some of my best work has come from being open to opportunity.

And certainly, some of our best photos as well!

Amendment

Time Change Alert!



I can write, but apparently I can’t read!  I’m scheduled to be at Page One Books tomorrow at Noon, not 1:00 pm.  (Although I’m likely to still be there at 1:00 pm, at least for a bit.)

 Now that I think about it, I probably got the name of the store and the time confused…  Sheesh!  Anyhow, hope to see some of you there.

FF: A-Mazing Options

Reminder! I’ll be at Page One Book on Saturday, 11/28/15, at 1:00 pm, helping out with their Small Business Saturday promotion.  Want to talk books?  Have fun (rather than stress) with your Christmas shopping?  Do drop by!

Persephone is Amazing!

For those of you just discovering this feature, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Kitty and the Deadman’s Hand by Carrie Vaughn.  Audiobook.  Werewolf Kitty’s plan to dodge all the wedding-related chaos by eloping to Las Vegas rapidly goes out of control.  Out of her own environment, Kitty is less sharp than usual, but I felt her reactions well-supported by the text.

The Black Knight by  Kai Tsugui.  Manga.  Finished the four volumes I had…

Eighth Grave After Dark  by Darynda Jones.  Audiobook.  Despite Charley being restricted in her actions, the plot was all over the place.  Conclusion contained major plot twist.

In Progress:

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. Audiobook.   Invited an old friend to keep me company for the holiday…

The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through Labyrinths and Mazes by David Willis McCullough.  Non-fiction look at the world-wide interest in these patterns.  My only complaint is that it really needs more illustrations.

A World Without Heroes, “Beyonders” series, volume one by Brandon Mull.  I read part of this before deciding to send it to my nephew for his birthday.  Have decided to finish for myself!

Also:

Some research into “traditional” healing options, a subject that’s always useful for a writer interested in low-tech (whether fantasy or historical) settings.

TT: Two More M’s

First of all…. Happy (American) Thanksgiving to you all.  I hope that, no matter your situation, you can find something to be grateful for…

The New Zealand Rule

And now, I will bother Alan again for your amusement!

JANE: I really enjoyed discussing Margaret Mahy’s works.  Alchemy was excellent, both thoughtful and stylistically challenging.  As soon as I finish the heap of books that just arrived from the library, I plan to read more of her work.

 What other New Zealand writers are there?

ALAN: There are two other New Zealand writers I’d like to mention and probably they should be considered together because they have quite a lot in common. I know you are very fond of the detective novels written by Dame Ngaio Marsh. But are you familiar with the science fiction novels of Phillip Mann?

JANE: Wait a second…  Before I answer that, I have a question for you.  Is there some sort of rule that New Zealand writers need to have surnames beginning with M?  We’ve done Mansfield and Mahy, now you want to talk about Marsh and Mann?

ALAN: Yes, that’s right. It’s the most important clause in the Literary Nomenclature Act of 1923, which is re-ratified annually on every April 1st. So I’m sorry Jane, but you are one letter too previous for New Zealand and therefore you aren’t entitled to a visa.

JANE: Wow!  I had no idea.  I’m willing to adopt a penname for New Zealand.  Jim’s last name is Moore.  I could use that, though I could give it a really odd Gaelic-inspired spelling…   How about Mohrr?

Going back to your original question, no, I haven’t read anything by Phillip Mann, although I am familiar with his name from reading your “wot I red on my hols” book review column.  My library doesn’t have any of his works, but I’d enjoy learning more so I can order one of his books.

ALAN: Not all of his novels have had American editions, but I do know that The Eye Of The Queen was published by Arbor House in hardback and that Wulfsyarn was published by William Morrow in hardback and by Avon in paperback. So they, at least, should be relatively easy for you to find.

One interesting thing that these two authors have in common, other than the letter “M,” is that both Dame Ngaio Marsh and Phillip Mann came to the world of letters through the theatre and the theatre always remained their constant passion.

Dame Ngaio produced many plays for New Zealand theatres. Shakespeare was her first love, but she also produced dramas by Pirandello, Chekov, and others. She toured with the New Zealand Players, a national professional repertory company. Until his retirement, Phillip Mann was a drama teacher at Victoria University in Wellington, and he is well known in New Zealand theatrical circles as both a producer and a director.

JANE: Have either Marsh or Mann written plays?

ALAN: Strangely, it would seem that they haven’t. Both of them seem to have concentrated on novels, and genre novels at that, rather than the mainstream literary novels that you might have expected from them, given their theatrical interests.

I’ve read very few of Dame Ngaio’s detective novels. However I know that you are a fan. Perhaps you could say something about them, and then I’ll tell you about Phillip in return?

JANE: I’m hardly an expert, but I’m certainly a fan.  I started reading her works because she was regularly grouped with Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, and Margery Allingham as writers of classic British mysteries.

Most of Marsh’s novels feature Chief Inspector Roderick Alleyn. (Pronounced “Allen.”)  Alleyn is a very atypical police officer.  Because he is interested in art and theater, he is often assigned cases involving elements of the artistic community.  In fact, he meets his wife this way…

ALAN: That’s a nice touch – far too many fictional policemen are artistic philistines.

JANE: It’s worth noting that the characters change and develop as the series progress so reading them in order can prevent spoilers.  It’s not necessary, though.  I read them out of order and enjoyed nonetheless.

Many of Marsh’s novels are set in England – probably because that was what publishers perceived the audience as wanting.  However, even before I did any research, I began to suspect she had a close tie to New Zealand.  She’d slip in characters from New Zealand, wherever she could.

For example, in Light Thickens, which is centered around an apparently cursed production of Macbeth, one of the actors playing a smaller role is Maori.  Moreover, he’s used some moves he learned from traditional – possibly sacred – Maori culture to make his witch more outre and fascinating, then becomes very worried that he has transgressed.

ALAN: That sounds interesting. I’ll add it to my list.

JANE: Light Thickens was her last novel and brings back some characters from the earlier novel, Murder at the Dolphin, but I think it stands on its own.   Marsh had wanted to write it for a long time, but feared it was too rooted in theatrical material to appeal to her readers.  Not only did she use the superstitions about MacBeth, she showed a lot of the tensions that go on backstage – even if there isn’t a murder. However, it apparently did very well.

ALAN: Personally I’m always interested in listening to enthusiasts describe their enthusiasms, even when I don’t share them. So I suspect the readers would have enjoyed being exposed to elements of professions that they otherwise wouldn’t know about.

JANE: That’s how I feel, too!

Most of the time Marsh has Alleyn is stationed in England.  However, during World War II, Marsh has him posted to New Zealand.  This enabled her to set several novels there.  In some of these novels, Alleyn writes home to his wife, occasionally commenting on differences in culture or values that complicate his investigations.  None of this is heavy-handed, but it added a richness to the novel.

ALAN: You know, I’d always assumed that Dame Ngaio was just a pale imitation of Agatha Christie. Clearly I was wrong; it sounds like there’s a lot more to her than that. What are the titles of these New Zealand books?

JANE: Let’s see…  Died in the Wool is quite good for looking at cultural values.  It deals with the disappearance of a wealthy sheep rancher who is also a member of parliament.  Among her many activities is providing patronage to a young man who she feels is musically gifted.  His father – one of the men who works with the sheep – has very mixed feelings about this.

Colour Scheme is another of the New Zealand novels.  I think I mentioned it a while ago, in one of our Tangents.

ALAN:  A lovely piece of trivia that I picked up about Dame Ngaio was that she had houses in both New Zealand and England and, when on theatrical tours, she would sign British hotel registers with her New Zealand address and New Zealand ones with her London address.

JANE: I like that.  What a nice way of proclaiming that she was “at home” in both lands.

I could keep going on about Ngaio Marsh, but I’d like to hear more about Phillip Mann.  Maybe next time?

What To Do…

First off, I want to thank all of you who turned out for last Saturday’s signing for Curiosities.  We filled every chair and most of the aisles, ate all the cookies, and, I think, had a very good time all around.

Me and Mike M’s shoulder at Page One

Looking for a chance to visit more informally?  Next Saturday (11/28/15), I’ll be back at Page One Books at 1:00 pm to help out with their Small Business Saturday promotion.  I attended last year and had a great time talking about books with the people who dropped by.  Look for me wandering the aisles near SF/F, children’s books, and YA.  Small Business Saturday is a great way to get a jump on your Christmas shopping without dealing with crowded malls and over- stressed, newly-hired sales clerks, who know nothing about what they’re selling.

I’m looking forward to the long weekend for other reasons as well.  I’ll write, of course, because I’m addicted to the weird project I’m working on now.  Otherwise, I plan to enjoy having Jim home.  We already have some fun things planned.  Both of us want to continue our current craft projects.  I’m working on another beaded bracelet, this one featuring a dragon.  Jim has been hankering to make arrowheads.  He also wants to dig the first of our numerous compost trenches.

Thursday, I’m making pecan pie to take when we join the extended Estell/Mumma clan for Thanksgiving dinner.  It’s my own recipe, the result of baking numerous pecan pies from a wide variety of recipes.  Funny thing…  The recipe that came with the pecans actually used too many pecans.  (Yes.  This is possible.)  Another created too much filling.  Another was far too sweet.  However, by experimentation that subjected poor Jim to testing numerous pies, I arrived at what, for me, is the perfect balance between buttery sweetness and ample helpings of lightly toasted nuts.

Yum!

Friday, we refuse to have anything to do with all the Black Friday chaos.  Our intention is to stay home, work on the yard if the weather cooperates, and then make homemade sausage.  Last time we made sausage, we made Italian, following my maternal side of the family’s recipe.  This time we’re going to make a Polish sausage that comes to us via my Russian “Baba,” as I called my paternal great-grandmother.  It’s spiced with caraway seeds, garlic, white pepper, and a dash of dill seed.  Unlike the smoked kielbasa that one usually gets, this is not in the least salty, instead being both robust and savory.

To go with Baba’s sausage, we’ll make homemade whole-wheat fettucine noodles.  Both recipes make enough for multiple meals – especially in our two-person household – so we can anticipate enjoying the end results for weeks to come.

Saturday we’re off to Page One but, both before and after, we hope to stop at some other small businesses and support them by doing some of our Christmas shopping there.  We were sad to learn that Weem’s Art Fest, our favorite place to find odd and interesting gifts, is no longer being held, but we’ll stop by the gallery and see what we can find.

Sunday we’ll probably force ourselves to be at least a little practical.  (Even writers need to grocery shop and housekeep.)  In the evening , we’ll continue our on-going roleplaying game.  Last week took an interesting turn and I (as the one running the game) am very much looking forward to seeing what my players come up with.

After a heated aerial battle on pegasus back, during which the Fides discovered that they really have improved a great deal since they first arrived in the court of the Faceless Tyrant, they face a challenge none of them had anticipated – the possibility that they might actually get everything they’ve been striving towards.

I can hardly wait to see what they’ll do!

Any of you have a long weekend coming up?  What do you do to make Thanksgiving special?  I hope that, whatever it is, you end the weekend with much to feel thankful about!

FF: Transformation of Expectations

Reminder!  I’m doing a signing for my new short story collection Curiosities (and other works, depending on what the store has in stock) this Saturday, November 21st, 4:00 p.m., at Page One Books here in Albuquerque.  I think I’m going to bring homemade chocolate chip cookies…  Hope to see you there!

Usagi Contemplates a Future Without Carrots!

For those of you just discovering this feature, the Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of description or a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.  Audiobook.  Darynda has made the choice to morph her lighter “paranormal romance interwoven with detective story” into something darker and more complex.  While some of her readers are probably disappointed, I’m very pleased.

Alchemy by Margaret Mahy.  YA.  Almost surreal at times, as befits the title.  I enjoyed and will be seeking out more of her books.  (For those of you who missed it, Margaret Mahy and her works is the subject of this week’s Thursday Tangent.)

In Progress:

Kitty and the Deadman’s Hand by Carrie Vaughn.  Audiobook.  Werewolf Kitty’s plan to dodge all the wedding-related chaos by eloping to Las Vegas rapidly goes out of control.  I think Kitty’s about to have some preconceived notions badly shaken up.

The Black Knight by  Kai Tsugui.  Manga.  I’ve actually finished the first two volumes and am on volume three.  Certainly more than the romance title the jacket presents it as.

Also:

Usagi is taking a look at Hot Earth Dreams by Frank Landis – better known to regular readers of my blog as “heteromeles.”  This books takes a detailed – but often quirky and even humorous – look at the question of climate change, especially if human society can no longer draw on reserves of carbon-based fuel.   It’s a good read, especially if you’re interested in speculative fiction set in the far future.

TT: Mahy’s Marvelous Mystifications

JANE: I enjoyed learning about Katherine Mansfield.  I have a feeling New Zealand has other authorial gems of whom I am unaware.

Are there other authors you can tell me about?

ALAN: Yes indeed – does the name Margaret Mahy mean anything to you?

Mahy for Middle Grade

JANE: I’m sorry, but I seem to have missed her.

ALAN: She was a modern day New Zealand writer with an international reputation. (She died in 2012). She won many prestigious awards for her middle-grade and YA books. Her stories tend to appeal to SF fans because they often have a strong SF/Fantasy/Supernatural flavour. They discuss relationships and the rites of passage that separate children from adults. Many of them are set in New Zealand, and I think they give an accurate picture of the character of New Zealand society.

JANE: I’m hooked.  Tell me more!

ALAN: Before I do, I must tell you a really cool story… One day I was sitting in an airport lounge whiling away the time by reading a Diana Wynne Jones novel. Margaret was also in the lounge and when she noticed what I was reading, she came bouncing over and introduced herself so that she could talk to me about Diana Wynne Jones who, it turned out, was one of her very favourite writers. We chatted away quite happily until it was time to board our respective flights.

JANE:  That sounds wonderful.  Knowing how much you love Diana Wynne Jones’ work, I bet you two had a wonderful time.

Had you read any of Margaret Mahy’s works at that point?

ALAN: Indeed I had – I’d made a deliberate effort to read her books because she’d been a guest of honour at a convention I went to shortly after I first came to live in New Zealand. I have an autographed copy of her novel The Changeover, which is a coming of age story in which a young girl risks her life to save her bewitched brother. It’s also a rather sweet romance story about the relationship between the girl and a rather aloof prefect at her school who is also a male witch. Amusingly, the family’s surname is “Chant.” I asked Margaret if this was a reference to Diana Wynne Jones’ “Christopher Chant” but she said it was just a coincidence.

JANE: A believable coincidence, too, since sorcerers are usually described as “chanting” spells.

Is The Changeover set in New Zealand?

ALAN: Yes it is. The action of the story takes place in Christchurch, Margaret’s home city. Anyone familiar with Christchurch will immediately recognise it in the book, and anyone familiar with the way New Zealand society works will recognise all the people in the novel. Margaret captured the zeitgeist perfectly and really managed to convey a convincing picture of contemporary New Zealand life. It’s one of the book’s great strengths. And Laura Chant herself is part Maori and part pakeha, which allows Margaret to comment directly on both those aspects. A lot of New Zealand children will recognise themselves in Laura.

JANE: This sounds like a book I want to read.  I’ll need to look for it.

ALAN: I’m glad.  Let me see if I can give you the flavour of it. Here Laura and her mother Kate are discussing Kate’s new boyfriend, a Canadian:

“He’s a librarian at the Central Library… in charge of the New Zealand Room.”

“A Canadian in charge of the New Zealand Room!” Laura exclaimed. “What’s wrong with a good, honest Kiwi joker?”

“It may be International Swap Over Year in library circles,” Kate suggested. “Or they may be promoting Commonwealth understanding.”

JANE: I like that.  The sense of internationality is subtle but strong, and the awareness of being part of the British Commonwealth as an element in the New Zealand mindset is also good.

Also, there’s a strong sense of place in that use of the word “joker.”  Certainly, an American wouldn’t use it in that fashion.

I realize this book was from the 1980’s, but is the word “joker” still in use in that fashion, or was that slang of the time?

ALAN: “Joker,” in the sense of “ordinary person,” is one of those timeless pieces of slang that seems to have been around forever. It’s just as appropriate today as it was in the 1980s as it was in the 1940s…

JANE: I think it’s fallen out of use here in the U.S….  Well, I’ll bring it back into fashion. Tell me more about this joker, Margaret Mahy.

ALAN: Margaret was quite passionate about encouraging children to read. Many of her books were written for very young children and were designed to whet their appetite for words. She also had a “road show” – she would visit schools and libraries and, wearing a multi-coloured fright wig, she would read stories and poems the children. If you search for her in Google, you’ll find a lot of pictures of her wig.

JANE: I searched and I did.  My goodness!

ALAN: As I mentioned before, the first time I met Margaret was when she was guest of honour at a convention in Christchurch. She confessed that she didn’t really know how to behave with adults, so she said she’d read us an SF poem that was always a big hit with the children. It’s called Bubble Trouble:

Little Mabel blew a bubble

And it caused a lot of trouble!

Such a lot of bubble trouble

In a bibble-bobble way.

For it broke away from Mabel

As it bobbed across the table,

Where it bobbled over Baby,

And it wafted him away.

The townsfolk chase the bubble all over town trying to rescue the baby. Hilarity ensues!

All the children in the audience (by which I mean the whole audience) were utterly captivated. We all fell a little bit in love with Margaret that day.

JANE: I think I have, too.  What do you say you wait while I run off and see if my library has any of her books.  Okay?

ALAN: That’s a good idea.

JANE: (panting slightly).  I’m back.  Turns out our library has a pretty good collection of Margaret Mahy’s works.  However, our branch only had two, and both were for younger children.  I didn’t see The Changeover listed, but they did have a YA novel called Alchemy.  Given my current obsession with the topic, I put an order out for it.

Can you wait again while I read the two books I brought home with me?  Maybe Jake would like to go for a run or you could hunt with Harpo or even nap with Bess.

ALAN: Oh – you’ll love Alchemy. It has similar themes to The Changeover and is aimed at the same age group. And yes, alchemy has a large part to play in the story. Meanwhile, it’s a hot day here so I think Jake and I will go to the park. He needs to have a swim.

JANE:  Alan!  Are you back?

ALAN: Yes – just got back. Sorry we took so long, but Jake found a sheep’s skull that just had to be played with.

JANE: Yuck!

I’ve just finished reading – brace yourself, Ms. Mahy apparently liked long titles – The Great Piratical Rumbustification & The Librarian and the Robbers and Tick Tock Tales: Twelve Stories to Read Around the Clock.

ALAN: Yes, that sounds like Margaret. But she only used the long titles on the books she wrote for young children. I kept hoping that one day she’d publish a book whose title was longer than the story. But she never quite managed it.

JANE: I liked both books a great deal.  The stories were full of an illogical logic that is absolutely natural to children.  I thought that Mahy actually tried to make this point overtly in the story “The Boy Who Made Things Up,” as if she wanted to shake parents with too practical mindsets.

Tell me, is “rumbustification” a typical New Zealand word?  She used it in two different stories.

ALAN: No – it’s a Margaret Mahy word.

JANE: A pity.  I’d rather hoped that when Jim and I make it to New Zealand someday, we’d get invited to a rumbustification.

Having just “met” Margart Mahy (and feeling rather sad that I won’t ever get to do so in person), I hope that she is not forgotten in New Zealand.

ALAN: She’s remembered very fondly indeed. In 2009, a bronze bust of Margaret was unveiled outside the Christchurch Arts Centre. Everyone was very pleased that she lived long enough to see it.

JANE: Is she wearing her trademark wig?

ALAN: No, unfortunately. Indeed, I think she must have had her hair done specially. I’ve never seen her looking so neat.

JANE: Still, that’s a tremendous honor.  I find myself envisioning an annual event held in her honor.  Or, rather, “honour,” since it would be in Christchurch.

The bust is adorned with a rainbow wig, then a librarian takes a seat in front of the bust, and reads some of Margaret Mahy’s short stories to a circle of children.  I think “The Boy Who Bounced” would work very well, or maybe “Poodlum Hoodlum.”

I suspect Ms. Mahy would have thought this a great deal of fun.

ALAN: She’d have absolutely loved it!

There are some other New Zealand writers that you might enjoy. Are you interested in hearing about them?

JANE: Absolutely!

Getting Into the Writing Zone

News Flash!  This Saturday (11/21/15) I’m doing a book event for Curiosities at Page One Books here in Albuquerque.  Hope to see some of you there!

November is NaNoWriMo.   I don’t participate, but one thing I’ve noticed is that by mid-month many of those who do are feeling the pressure of trying to write a substantial amount every day.  After two weeks plus, with nearly as much time left to go, they’re wondering how to get into their writing zone, each day, every day.

The Writing Zone

Even people who aren’t formally participating in NaNoWriMo often feel the pressure to produce.  Write more. Write faster.  After all, they’re seeing that other people are doing so and wondering if they’re slackers.

(For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, the short version is that NaNoWriMo encourages people to write a 50,000-word novel in a month.  Want to know more?  Here’s a link.)

I’m not going to talk about NaNoWriMo today.

What I’m interested in is chatting about how to get into your writing zone on a regular basis.  There are as many ways as there are writers, but I’ll share a couple.  I’d be interested in hearing what tricks you use to find your way into your creative space.

Instead of waiting for the Muse to come whisper in your ear, consider ways that you might invite her.  Environmental stimuli are often good.  Remember: Humans can be programmed for stimulus and response.  Don’t believe me?  Think about the last time you tried to break a habit.  Doing so takes more than simply giving up cigarettes or coffee or a favorite food.  Breaking a habit often means giving up or adapting those things you associated with that habit as well.

So, if you always have chocolate with your morning coffee, and are trying to give up chocolate, then you’re going to miss chocolate more when you sit down with the morning coffee.

When you’re trying to break a habit, the stimulus trigger is a horrible burden.  However, when you’re trying to acquire a habit – like writing every day – the same quirk of human nature can work in your favor.

I’ve known writers who create musical playlists to go with whatever story they’re working on.   When they want to get into the zone for that story, they queue up the songs.  In time, the playlist becomes the opening theme…  They hear the music and slip into the zone where the story lives.

I’ve never systematically used the music trick but, when I’m restless and unwilling to settle down, I’ll put on music that for one reason or another I associate with the piece.  Often there is no thematic relationship between the story and the songs.  When I started Artemis Awakening, I’d recently seen the film Velvet Goldmine.  I’d also picked up the soundtrack and listened to it quite a bit.  Although the works have nothing in common – Velvet Goldmine is set in England and deals with glam rock; Artemis  Awakening is set on a fictional planet and has absolutely nothing to do with music or glam or rocks – something in my brain linked the one with the other.

When I started writing Artemis Invaded, the sequel to Artemis Awakening, a certain amount of time had passed.  I’d written another novel in the middle.  However, I found that putting on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack put me back into the “Artemis” zone.

Other little rituals can help you find that zone.  I know one author who uses the solitaire game on her computer as a form of self-hypnosis.  She only plays the game before writing, so playing a game becomes a signal to her brain that she’s about to write.

Other writers use items of clothing, locations, or time of day to put them in the right mindset to write.

Of course, there’s a danger associated with any of these rituals.  If you become too dependent on them, you may be unable to find your zone without them.  I know one writer who absolutely had to write first thing in the morning or she would not write that day.  She might write for ten minutes, then go do something else, but if she didn’t get that early start, she had lost the day.

Determined to write and unable or unwilling to break that habit, she decided that she had to find a way around it.  Her solution for those days when she could not get to her computer was to grab a piece of paper and write longhand.  Later, transcribing that material would become a bridge that would take her back into the zone.

Interacting with prose can become a ritual of its own.  I know one prolific writer who begins his writing day by reviewing what he wrote the previous day.  He tightens and edits as he goes along.  This then takes him smoothly and naturally into new material.  It has the added benefit of polishing the prose, so when he finishes the piece, his rough draft is a bit less rough.

One thing I feel is important to remember is that NaNoWriMo – or those lists that encourage people to post how much they wrote that day, or that week, or other such activities that use the sense of belonging to a group to encourage the writer to write – will not work for everyone.

Production requirements are most useful for those people who benefit from the validation of a group or who have a competitive streak. I’ve known excellent writers who produce nothing at all for months, then go on a binge and write an entire novel in a relatively short time.  It wasn’t that these writers weren’t “working” during the time they would have been unable to report any words written.  It’s that their work took a less quantifiable form.

So, there are a few of my thoughts on getting into the zone.  I’d love to hear what tricks, gimmicks, incentives, or whatever you use to find your way into your personal creative zone.

FF: Interview Alert and More

Dave Gross interviewed me for his “Creative Colleagues” feature.  His questions were just different enough to be fun – including a couple related to my alternate life as a gamer and how it relates to writing.  Hope you enjoy!

Ogapoge ContemplatesTransformation

Just a reminder…  The Friday Fragments lists what I’ve read over the past week.  Most of the time I don’t include details of either short fiction (unless part of a book-length collection) or magazine articles.

The Fragments are not meant to be a recommendation list.  If you’re interested in a not-at-all-inclusive recommendation list, you can look on my website under Neat Stuff.

Once again, this is not a book review column.  It’s just a list with, maybe, a bit of descriptions or a few opinions tossed in.

Recently Completed:

Fighting the Flying Circus by Captain Eddie. V. Rickenbacker.  Non-fiction autobiographical recollections of one of World War I’s hotshot pilots.  His framing war as a form of sport was unsettling and alien, but a good eye-opener.

Naruto by Masahi Kishimoto, issue 72.  (Manga.)  I’ve been following this story nearly from the start.  This was the last issue.  I enjoyed – especially the resolution of the conflict between Naruto and Sasuke, which took an unexpected twist.  Short epilogue was interesting, too.

In Progress:

Seventh Grave and No Body by Darynda Jones.  Audiobook.  Didn’t have as much time to listen as I would have liked, but am enjoying.  The ostensible “case” is taking backseat to larger plot elements.

Alchemy by Margaret Mahy.  YA, rather than her younger offerings that I looked at last week.

Also:

I also sampled some novels I was considering giving as gifts, just to make sure I liked them.  I’ll be finishing some later on and let you know more!

So, what are the rest of you reading?