Ken Lizzi's Blog, page 31

Rest. Resurrected Post.

January 22, 2017Rest

A few days ago I finished the first draft of the novel I���m working on. Huzzah. Glory and trumpets. Time to set it aside, gain some distance from it so I can approach it with fresh eyes for the second draft. Normally this means moving on to the next project. Now, I have a couple of books I���d like to start outlining. But which one depends on an outside factor. Meaning I need to wait. Meaning a chance to rest.

All work and no play make Ken a dull boy.

Repeat.

 

But, as I am resting, I figured I might as well do it properly. I have friends with a cabin on the Salmon River, sitting in the lap of Mt. Hood. I think I���ve been spending the occasional weekend there for nearly thirty years. Wow. Three decades. I feel as if I���ve established a sort of house guest���s adverse possession. Call it Kato Kaelin squatter���s rights. Anyway, I took MBW and the HA up. We had fun sledding down the fairway of a nearby golf course. I managed to overeat, imbibe precisely the right amount, read, play cards, and ��� when the HA graciously permitted it ��� rest.

But I am getting antsy. The need to commence outlining is growing. I may have to make an arbitrary decision in order to start scratching this itch.

As problems go, I���ll take this one.

Tolkien Birthday Celebration. Resurrected Post.

January 15, 2017Tolkien Birthday Celebration

I made my annual pilgrimage to the Kennedy School for the J.R.R. Tolkien Birthday Bash on Saturday. The recent inclement weather is the likely culprit for this year���s rather sparse attendance. (Seriously, I saw a couple guys on cross-country skis crossing the street when I left.) So I suppose there isn���t much to report. I brought the family with me, thinking the Heir Apparent would be old enough to enjoy some of the activities, maybe enjoy the costumes. But I only saw one person in costume. Due to naptime considerations (no, not mine, wiseass) and the condition of the roads we left before any of the planned events began (except for the commencement of the trilogy showing in the theater, but I���d just as soon sit at home for a re-watch.)

 

We did stay for lunch and enjoyed the One Ring Onion Ring. Oddly, we were brought more than one onion ring so��I was left unsure which one contained the power of Sauron.

There were a couple people setting up a miniatures game.

I admire the dedication and passion involved in preparing and playing such games. The painting of the miniatures alone must require a hundred hours. And it is that sort of commitment, that desire to be involved, even peripherally, with the Lord of the Rings��that suggest what a truly staggering achievement the Professor���s creation truly was.

At the same time, as I experience the celebration of Tolkien���s life and work with my family and as I get older, I begin to realize I should focus more on my own life and work and less on the lives and accomplishments of others. So, thank you for another insight, J.R.R. And happy birthday.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on January 15, 2017 13:59

Fletcher Pratt, Fleet Admiral of Appendix N. Resurrected Post.

January 8, 2017Fletcher Pratt, Fleet Admiral of Appendix N

Fletcher Pratt, or more precisely, Murray Fletcher Pratt, lived an intriguing life. Seriously, look him up. The man moved in the right circles. Over there, Isaac Asimov, over here, Rex Stout. A true man of letters, making his living as much with non-fiction as with fiction. History, reviews, short stories, novels. Pratt was a man of accomplishment. And I���m sure Gary Gygax was familiar with Pratt���s development of rules for wargaming naval combat, using the tiles of his kitchen floor for grid squares.

 

Gygax follows the listing of Pratt in Appendix N with ���BLUE STAR; et. al.��� Blue Star is entertaining enough novel, full of political intrigue, espionage, witchcraft, and romance. But I rather doubt it had any real influence on D&D. The setting is a quasi-Eighteenth century faux Europe, not quasi-medieval. It isn���t action heavy, nor much reminiscent of the swords-and-sorcery that dominates most of the rest of Appendix N.

No, I think Pratt���s influence comes from the ���et al,��� specifically The Well of the Unicorn. Well is less well known than it deserves. It is one of the cornerstones of Twentieth century fantasy. I got my copy at the age of thirteen or fourteen. After the Lord of the Rings, Well was foundational to my conception of the fantasy genre, forming my expectations of coming of age heroics, monsters, journeys, magic, and romance. I���ve read it a couple of times since. My recollection of my first couple readings is one of complete enjoyment up until the end, which I considered truncated, lacking, as if I���d only been given half a book or should be expecting a sequel. A more mature reading I think, is that Pratt delivers a realistic ending; that completion of a task does not sew up all loose ends and that there is always more to accomplish.

I think I���ll read Well again, once I deal with the current backlog. If my recommendation carries any weight, this is one to read.

Pratt���s name will be forever tied with that of L. Sprague de Camp���s. I���ve referenced their collaborations in a previous post. They worked well together and wrote fantastic, whimsical, and downright funny material. I can���t help but think, however, that the balance of the whimsy came from de Camp. Pratt was, I think, an altogether more serious writer. Read a fantasy of de Camp���s ��� say, Tritonian Ring ��� and then read The Well of the Unicorn. It becomes apparent that de Camp���s tongue is stuck deeper into his cheek than Pratt���s. Pratt projected a more somber tone. Somber is perhaps the wrong word, as he had a light enough touch. Let���s say he evinced a greater seriousness of purpose. The stakes his characters play for are high and they seem more aware of it than do de Camp���s. Pratt���s style lends an element of gravitas and profundity that is absent in de Camp���s fiction. This is not a criticism of de Camp, simply a comparison. One is not necessarily better than the other, and as noted, in combination they were sublime.

So, to sum up, go forth and read The Well of the Unicorn. Don���t dawdle.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on January 08, 2017 13:44

The New Year’s Post. Resurrected Post

January 1, 2017The New Year���s Post

Last week a Christmas web log post, this week a New Year���s post. I���m sensing a holiday theme running through these scribblings of mine. None of this sort of consistency for me. I hereby declare a halt to holidays for the immediate future so I can write about other subjects.

So let it be written, so let it be done.

 

Yesterday MBW, the HA, and I stripped the tree of ornamentation, leaving a drying pine husk in the living room. Today I took it outside and dismembered it with a saw, then stuffed the limbs and sections of the trunk in the yard debris bin. I felt like a criminal in an unproduced episode of CSI: Arbor Day.

We didn���t make it to midnight. That just isn���t in the cards when one has a three-year old who wakes early. Unless one is a masochist, which I am not. Nonetheless, we celebrated the passing of the old year and incipient arrival of the new with a bottle of prosecco.

So, farewell 2016. Hello 2017. Traditionally this demands the making of resolutions. I���m not going to do it. I���m pretty comfortable right now, happy with work and life. But, as too much comfort can lead to stagnation, I suppose I should at least develop some aspirations. Thus for 2017:

At least one more novel published
Complete another (at least a first draft)
Outline yet one more
Get a concrete slab poured so I can set up the grill
Brew beer
Travel someplace new

 

There. To what more can man possible aspire?

Happy New Year, readers.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on January 01, 2017 13:38

The Great Garrett Reread Part VII. The Final Part.

And so we reach the end. Is it wrong that I already want to start over at the beginning? Anyway, here are my thoughts on the final two books of Glen Cook’s Garrett Files.

Gilded Latten Bones

 

This book is a seachange. Foreshadowed in Cruel Zinc Melodies, significant changes play out in Garrett���s life. We���re thrown into change from page one, finding Garrett living with Tinnie Tate ��� away from his house with the Dead Man, Dean, and Singe, who are all carrying on without him. The chronology is foggy, but it might be a couple of years from the end of CZM. Garrett feels he���s losing his edge, becoming a drone. Worse, the hints of Tinnie���s behavior ��� the attitudes that Garrett has dismissed in a sort of humorous ���Lucy, you���ve got some ���splaing to do��� fashion ��� have elevated, increasing in intensity toward a breaking point.

Morley Dotes getting himself nearly killed causes the break, as Garrett naturally rushes off to attend to his best friend despite Tinnie���s obdurate, indignant objections.

Considerations regarding major life changes weave in and out of a plot that is somewhat reminiscent of the Rex Stout tales in which Archie Goodwin fumes and twidles his thumbs inside the brownstone while Nero Wolfe oversees the rest of the troops out in the field, doing what Goodwin feels he should be doing himself.

Furious Tide of Light returns. Significantly. Most of the rest of the cast appear (absent Winger, who appears mostly off stage, as part of the life changes theme, featuring in another character���s development) Morley Dotes and Belinda Contague have established a romance. Playmate is suffering from cancer. Saucerhead is getting gray and putting on weight. Dean has grown increasingly rickety. Garrett himself feels pudgy, out of condition ��� both mentally and physically. After the prior book dealing with growing up, this one touches on aging. Indeed, by the time the plot unravels, aging is more than touched on, it is pivotal.

In all an excellent book, if one is willing to accept time and change in long running series fiction (whether detective novels or super hero comic books.) A disappointment if one is committed to the status quo. I liked it quite a bit this time around, more than the first read through over a decade ago. So, I may be coming around to accepting change in my series fiction. After all, John Watson got married and moved out of the Baker Street apartment.

 

Wicked Bronze Ambition.

 

And so it ends. Perhaps. The length of Wicked Bronze Ambition does make one suspect an extended encore. I got a sense of self-indulgence, of playfulness. Of deliberately placing easter eggs: Father Hunt; Black Orchid. Rex Stout titles salted through the book.��

I found it a little overstuffed and (apparently like Garrett interminably throughout) a bit unfocused. Garrett being lost in his own head ��� the accustomed reveries from the previous books and from the stories of which the series is an homage ��� seem to have become extended, real time dissociative episodes. His various companions must snap him out of it. Garrett wonders why this is happening, but it never gets resolved. Either Glen Cook is playing around, considering how much time would actually be consumed in pondering the paragraph or two that narrators seem to manage in an eyeblink. Or it is linked to the theme of aging, carried over from the previous book. Garrett seems to have put on a decade or two in the last year, feeling slow and creaking in his joints. Could just be an authorial projection.

Garrett spent what I thought an inordinate amount of thought remembering his brother Mikey, whom he barely mentioned at all in the previous novels. But Cook comes through, paying it off at the end. Though it felt extraneous to the plot. I wonder if Cook was dealing with the death of a pet when he wrote this.

The plot itself is muddled. Even when explained at the end it doesn���t make a great deal of sense. But that���s magic for you. There is great latitude for hand waving.

I don���t know if Cook considered this Garrett���s swan song. He certainly dropped enough hints that Garrett might wrap it up, that he could take an early retirement. Hard to say, since the book ended abruptly, as if Cook had run up against a maximum word count. But if that was the last novel it felt rather unsatisfying. Too much was left unresolved. We got no farewell from the Dead Man. Morley Dotes and Belinda Contague���s relationship is left unsettled. The Tinnie Tate matter seems to have been swept under a rug, though I suppose we got enough in the last book for closure.

My guess is that Cook did not intend this to be the last one, leaving the series open for continuation if sales warranted. I���m just guessing, but I think he would have tied up some more loose ends had he truly meant WBA to be Garrett���s curtain call.

So, do I approve of Garrett growing, changing, and aging? Or do I prefer the characters to remain in a perpetual stasis, with only minor movement within a book for narrative purposes, only to essentially reset in the next? As with most things, it depends. For relatively short series, such as the Garrett Files, I appreciate the decision to nod toward realism, to let the characters deal with aging and changing circumstances. For longer running series, such as the Nero Wolfe books, I prefer the artificial stasis, the agreement with the audience to ignore the impossibilities and implausibilities of characters seeming immune to the passage of time, ignoring that they are the same age in the 1930s as the 1960s; that all their adventures have occurred somehow.

Still, long live Garrett. I don���t think WBA holds up particularly well in comparison to most of the other books in the series. Yet if Cook produces another, I���ll be first in line at the bookstore.

While we���re waiting, why not try one of my books?

The Christmas Post. Resurrected Post.

December 25, 2016The Christmas Post

Merry Christmas, Grinches and Grinchettes. We���ve orbited the great ball of fire once more and the fat man in red pajamas has again trespassed upon our property to dispense gift-wrapped gratuities. I hope your stocking offered something other than coal.

 

No travel horrors, extended family disputes, or entertainment anxiety here. We kept it low-key at Meduseld, limiting the festivities to the nuclear family of your humble web logger, My Beautiful Wife, and the Heir Apparent. For our first Christmas in the new house we wanted a certain intimacy. Of course we cooked enough for a murder of relatives (is it a ���murder of relatives��� or a ���suffocation of relatives?��� I���m never sure.) But leftovers will taste just as yuletidelicious.

The highlight for me is always the opening of the cards. Because that���s how the bookstore gift certificates are delivered. There���s something about the anticipation of strolling into Barnes & Noble, gift cards in hand, with no preconceived idea of what books to purchase. Utter freedom (or it would be if B&N carried the selection of, say, Powell���s. But hey, don���t look a gift card in the mouth, right?)

So, I hope the Spirit of Christmas achieved for you whatever the Spirit of Christmas is intended to accomplish in your philosophy. As for me, I think I���ll get some wine mulling and work on realizing my own Christmas spirit. Ho ho ho.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on December 25, 2016 14:03

Bits and Pieces, Odds and Ends, This and That. Resurrected Post.

December 18, 2016Bits and Pieces, Odds and Ends, This and That

Perihelion Science-Fiction magazine published a bit of flash fiction I was commissioned to write for an article on The End of the World. (Read that last phrase in a pretentious film trailer voice, with a dramatic pause between the second and third word.) It���s a brief read, a literary hors d���oeuvres. Here it is, if you want a snack.

I know I���ve already mentioned that I have a short story in Mama Tried. It is a straight up crime piece, no rocket ships or wizards. I���m rather proud of it, though I suppose I���d prefer the title had been spelled correctly. It���s Copperhead Road, not Cooperhead Road. Well, no use crying over spilled beer. A single, anguished tear ought to do. The reason I bring it up is that I received my author copy. So I���m looking forward to reading the rest of the stories. And seeing if their titles are spelled properly.

I���m over two-thirds of the way through Bernard Cornwell���s latest, The Flame Bearer. I���ll probably finish it today. Even strapped for time to read, I still power through Cornwell���s stuff like a chainsaw through pudding. He writes utterly compelling drama. It is familiar territory. I have the Cornwell beats down by heart, and I know how it is going to end. But it doesn���t matter, I���m still swept along by this relentless tide of action.

So, enough of this web log post. I���ve got a book to finish.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on December 18, 2016 13:33

Andrew Offutt, Gary Gygax’s Guiding Genius? Resurrected Post.

December 11, 2016Andrew Offutt, Gary Gygax���s Guiding Genius?

I think, as far as reading sensibilities went, Gary Gygax shared the most with Andrew J. Offutt out of all the Appendix N authors. They were contemporaries and from the available evidence enjoyed similar tastes in fiction. Andrew Offutt was a prolific writer and editor. (And an interesting fellow, as one can discover from reading his son Christopher���s memoir. But such biographical details are beyond the scope of this web log.)

 

Andrew Offutt wrote, among other things, Howardesque pastiches, including a series of books featuring REH���s character Cormac mac Art. Many readers might be most familiar with Offutt from Shadowspawn, the cocksure thief he created for the Thieves��� World shared world series. But Appendix N lists only (and quite specifically) Swords Against Darkness III.

Why only volume III? (Note that volume III doesn���t even have an Andrew Offutt story in it, circumstantial evidence of a strong sympatico between Offutt and Gygax, a ���brother from another mother��� quality, though I don���t know if the two ever met.) I had only a copy of volume I until recently. There isn���t, in my opinion, an increase in the quality of the stories. In fact, for my money, volume I contains a higher proportion of superior stories, with Poul Anderson���s The Tale of Hauk, David Drake���s Dragon���s Teeth, and Ramsey Campbell���s The Sustenance of Hoak (no relation to Hauk) as standouts in a strong lineup. Volume III offers some excellent contributions, with a strong run starting with Drake���s The Mantichore and carrying on through most of the rest of the collection, with Manly Wade Wellman���s The Guest of Dzinganji a personal favorite. (I wonder if volume III represents an epochal mark of sorts, the point at which Swords and Sorcery* was supplanted by the incoming wave of Tolkien clones.)

My theory as to why Gygax selected only volume III is based on chronology. The copyright date in volume III is 1978. Appendix N of the Dungeon Master���s Guide is dated 1979. My speculation is that volume III is included because that���s what Gygax was reading as he penned the DMG. Maybe the book was sitting on his desk as he wrote. Perhaps he even referred to Poul Anderson���s essay On Thud and Blunder at the end of the book as he wrote his advice on building a campaign world. While I was reading volume III I couldn���t help but wonder if some aspect of the story at my fingers directly and immediately influenced the new edition of the D&D rules.

So, want to get a sense of the spirit imbuing the game of D&D? Don���t have the time to read Leiber, Moorcock, and Anderson? Well, Andrew Offutt���s anthology Swords Against Darkness III is the shortcut you���re looking for.

*I prefer ���Swords and Sorcery��� to ���heroic fantasy��� ��� or hf ��� which is the term Offutt pushes in his editorial remarks. Sheer semantics, I suppose, but I don���t consider the prototypical Swords and Sorcery protagonist to be particularly heroic. That isn���t a slight, just an observation.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on December 11, 2016 14:47

First Draft Contemplation and Commiseration. Resurrected Post.

December 4, 2016First Draft Contemplation and Commiseration

The way I figure it, I���m three-quarters through the first draft of Boss. If I can press on at the current rate, I should finish around March.

How do I feel about that? Glad to be on the downhill slope. I can���t actually see the finish line yet, but I know it���s approaching. On the other hand, I���m beset with the usual anxieties, self-doubt, and hyper-critical responses to a first draft. Is there enough conflict? Does it lack description? Is there sufficient characterization? Is it rife with clich��-ridden, lazy writing? Or is there instead too much experimental, self-indulgent phrasing? I alternate between thinking it is absolute shit and that it is actually pretty good for a first draft.

 

The nature of a first draft is to be a mess. It is an embarrassing hodgepodge of spelling errors, grammatical mistakes, plot-holes, inconsistent characters, misidentification of characters, contradictory positioning, etc. But that���s all right. The important thing is to get all the ingredients assembled. The second draft (and the third, and maybe the fourth, fifth, even sixth) will put it all to right.

If it is at all salvageable.

Sigh. The self-doubt will pass. Right now I can agonize over a remembered failure to properly set something up. But when Second Draft Ken sits down to read through the manuscript, preparatory to commencing the second draft, he���ll probably find out that First Draft Ken had already considered the problem and dealt with it. Maybe in a cursory fashion, but with enough specificity to allow Second Draft Ken to sort it.

At least I hope so. Maybe I���ll have a beer.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on December 04, 2016 14:15

The Thanksgiving Post, 2016 Edition. Resurrected Post.

November 27, 2016The Thanksgiving Post, 2016 Edition

The year has been eventful and engaging for me. Selling the condo and buying a new house proved a lengthy, multi-step process. (That isn���t a complaint. This isn���t a complaining web log post, it is a thankful one.) The result was worth the effort. The new house faces a park where the Heir Apparent can assault the play structures with the rest of the army of neighborhood children. This view is two minutes away

And this view about forty minutes away

My novels continue to sell. The volume has decreased, as only to be expected. But the dribs and drabs still add up to royalties. Thank you, readers. I continue to write. I make gradual progress on home improvements. Professionally I am stable and able to support myself, My Beautiful Wife, and the HA. MBW continues to expand her business. We are all in good health. Ever since the move, the cat has quit vomiting.

This all smacks of platitude and the commonplace. So what? I feel no embarrassment at being thankful for the opportunity to take care of my family. If I can continue doing so, while producing the occasional bit of scribbling you deem worth reading, then I will remain thankful.

A bit of unsolicited advice that you���re free to ignore: Look after yourself, look after your family. Assuming you can do that, be thankful.

View more on Ken Lizzi’s website ��Like ������� 0 comments ������� flag Published on November 27, 2016 14:04