Will English's Blog, page 12

Magic Appreciation Tour: I was Interviewed by Christopher Kellen

I don't really have a rant prepared this week. But I do have an interview: As part of the Magic Appreciation e-tour, I was interviewed by Chris Kellen (author of the Sorcerers Code and other books) which you all can check out here:
http://christopherkellen.com/blog/matour-interview-with-author-will-english/

Hope you all find it enjoyable.

See you later.

For Ray with Mad Love.

I only found out an hour or two ago that Ray Bradbury died this morning...and I only just stopped crying long enough to write about it. I don't normally get all teary eyed when a celebrity dies, it's not like I knew them or anything....but I did for Ray. I remember a few years ago when I first read The Martian Chronicles, and loving it and every thing by him i could get my hands on. But for me, Ray was more than just some author whom I really admired. Even though I never knew him personally, i felt that he was both my friend and mentor (if only by osmosis). He taught me through his art, helped shape my philosophy of the craft, Showed me what writing was all about. I felt connected to him through his books.
I remember a few years ago, I wrote him a fan letter, and asked him to sign my copy of "From the Dust Returns."
Which he did and more, sending me back small reading guides for
Fahrenheit 451, post cards promoting stage adaptations of 451 and Dandelion Wine and a charatuire drawing of him at his typewriter on which he had written "Will: Mad Love"
He wrote the same thing on the cover page of "From the Dust Returns."
Later I sent him two poems that I had written, and returned with grades "A+" and "AA++ Super" I still have all of those things. the book is on my shelf,
And the other things rest in a drawer in my desk. I wrote to him and said that i hoped to meet him when i had established myself as a writer. I was even going to send him a copy of Walking With Summer Dreams this ...now I'll never get the chance, in this life anyway. Someone once told Ray to "live forever" and even though he's no longer with us, he still lives on. In the books and in our hearts and memories.

Thank you Ray, for everything. I will miss you. With Mad love.

(To my followers: sorry If I sound like a crazy fan here guys. But this really wasn't easy for me write. Thanks for your indulgence).

Another Good Reads review: In Our Time By Ernest Hemingway.

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I rarely step out of my reading comfort zone. And I was really hesitant to pick up In Our Time. But I was looking to expand my literary horizons and this book was close to hand. I knew who Hemingway was before reading this, but I had never read any of his work (not by choice anyway) and I had no desire too before. So it came as a surprise when I bit the bullet and did. When I first read it, I hated it.

But now, many years later, I have very conflicting opinions about this book and Hemingway in general. On the one hand I love how complex and deep his characters are. And his writing style, while short and choppy, is surprisingly very effective when it comes to portraying strong emotions. The old saying goes "Less is more" and Hemingway embodies that to the fullest. Its short and quick but expressive. My favorite story in this collection is 'The Battler', a story about a train stowaway who shares an evening with with a former boxing champion (who is half-crazy) and his companion. Its hard for me expression what I like about it. It just has this surreal atmosphere that sucks you in, and the way Hemingway portrays the boxer is one that both scary and yet sympathetic. Scary because the boxer is unpredictable (he's content one moment then enraged the next), and sympathetic because deep down he's just a sad and confused misfit who screwed his life up and doesn't know what to do with himself.

On the other hand though, while Hemingway's style is his greatest strength, its also his greatest weakness. His prose's leaves way too much to the imagination and that can confuse and alienate readers. He also doesn't give us much direct insight into what his characters are thinking, preferring instead to let their actions and dialogue show what they are thinking. When I first read this I had no clue that that was what he was doing. And the narrator's voice is so bloody wooden and BORING that it literally put me to sleep. And more than once I considered throwing it away.

But what really turned me off is just how depressing as hell this book is. I can understand putting all your pain into a story, you'd have to be inhuman to filter it out. But Hemingway takes it WAAY to far. Every story shows the negative side of life. There's no happiness, or very little of it. Every character is cosmically depressed about something or is faced with such an impossible situation that they can't see any other way out. I understand that Hemingway and other authors of his day were trying to be gritty and realistic to the point of insanity. But what they failed to realize themselves was that life isn't gloom and doom all the time. It never has been and it never will be. Painting it that way makes just your work melodramatic (for lack of a better term).

But to be fair, the stories in this book were not meant to be entertainment, so much as they were an outlet for the author's own personal problems and fears. Hemingway was chronically depressed for most of his life and he was also an alcoholic, and that comes out in his work.

But despite all that, I did eventually end up enjoying the book, even if I didn't realize it at the time. In Our Time is one of those books that leaves a sonic boom. The emotions it portrays stays with you and makes you think even after you've put the book back on the shelf.

This is not a book for everyone by any means, I wouldn't even recommend it to 90% of my friends. But it definitely deserves its reputation as one of the great works of literature. If you can stomach all the flaws then go for it. Otherwise stay away.

View all my reviews

Literature Rant: Pictures and Frames.

Sorry about the lack of updates. Real life intervened.

So whats been up with me? Well I recently updated the back cover of Walking With Summer Dreams so that the text on the back is now readable (and it looks better too). Also, The summer leg of the Magic Appreciation e-book tour starts tomorrow  and I will be attending it again, so check please check that out.
But the big news on that front is that I finally got enough money to purchase the GlobalREACH distribution option from Lulu.com for the paperback version of the book. What that basically means is that the paperback version of Walking With Summer Dreams will become available on Amazon.com (including its UK and European branches), The Barns and Noble website and physical book stores will be able to order, stock and sell the book in their store. So as you can probably guess I'm pretty excited about that. The new distribution will go into effect soon, so I'll let you all know when that becomes official. And I have some left over to do some more marketing so maybe that will help my sales.

Anyway, on with the rant. I just wanted to take a quick moment to talk a little about the the perceived failings of the fantasy genre. And I know that some of this I have touched on before so please bear with me. In the summer of 2010, I studied at Oxford University for a term as an exchange student, and one of the courses I took, not surprisingly, was creative writing with a focus on my filed. Anyway, at the end of the term he gave me a evaluation of what I had shown him (several of which are stories in 'Walking With Summer Dreams' as it happens) and in it he made an observation about the genre as a whole that I thought was fairly interesting. He said that it could be argued that "much fantasy writing actually represents a failure of the imagination, in its tendency to endless reproduce (at great length) a small number of immature obsessions--notably the will-to-power, a fascination with death--in societies which are nostalgically pre-modern/pre-industrial and peopled with unreconstructed gender roles." When I read that, I couldn't help but remember something my Uncle Lamar had said countless times about genre literature. To paraphrase: "Genre literature, is more about distracting the reader from real human drama with special effects."  

And guys, as much as I hate to admit it; they're both right, to some extent. Its no secret that like every genre  has motifs, archetypes and themes that are repeated over and over again.  a Dark lord or an otherwise  satanic figure wanting to remake the world in his own image and is only thwarted by a youth who is destined to become a Messianic figure, for example. Or the decedent of a King of a dead nation reclaiming  his ancestors crown, or a school that teaches magic and so on. And I would be hard pressed to refute my uncles claim that there is a lot of genre fiction that puts plot and action first and characterization a distant second (I'm looking at you Twilight Saga). But with all respect to the good Professor and my loving (if slightly misguided) mentor; I think that what they failed and/or are failing to see is that A). the reuse of such motifs isn't so much a failure of the imagination as it is a kind of frame for it. And B). like any frame, its only as good as the picture its meant to protect and/or display. And while, like every aspect of this craft, this is by no means a standing rule and it depends almost solely on the skill of the author. It does help put things into some sort of perceptive.

 The Wheel of Time: Book 1: The Eye of The World.
Just as an example of both points: Lets a quick look at one of my favorite fantasy series, Robert Jordan's  'The Wheel of Time.' While it has the basic structure of the aforementioned "Dark Lord wants to remake the world in his own evil image and is stopped by a youth with mysterious heritage." but what makes the Wheel of Time such a great series isn't that the main characters are going to save the world, its how they change and grow as characters. Just to illustrate the point: The main character, Rand Al'Thor, isn't a perfect being, in fact when we first meet him, he's anything but perfect. He's a clumsy farm boy with hay in his hair and daydreams of adventure floating around his head. But when he finally gets the adventure he's been longing for and subsequently discovers that he is destined to save the world, he doesn't embrace it at first. In fact he HATES it. Half the world doesn't even believe he is who he is (at least not at first), and those that do know either want him dead (prophecies be damned) or they are trying to use him to advance their own selfish ambitions, and those who are loyal are so shaded with grey that Rand can only trust them by the skin of his teeth. On top of that, the male half of the series magic was tainted by the Dark One in the series' back story and any man who uses it will eventually go violently insane or rot while still alive. As the story progresses, the books show us Rand's inner quest to both hold on to his sanity and find the meaning of his own existence beyond the great conflict before him. Its very much a personal Journey, one that takes Rand to the edge of sanity and back.  With Rand at the helm, Jordan has created an archetypal fantasy story that is both personal and realistic. Not realistic in the sense that it doesn't have fantastical elements, but realistic in the sense that its characters act like real people would. Complete with their own hopes, anxieties and emotional baggage that would make William Faulkner proud. In other words, the Wheel of Time isn't about how pretty the magic is or how many Orcs or whatever the characters can blow up in one minute. Its about how they overcome adversity and how that diversity shapes the adult they become.

The point I'm making here is one that 'Hero with a Thousand Faces' made long ago. And that is that it really doesn't matter if an idea, motif, theme or what have you, has been done before. What matters is what you do with it. Rand wasn't Fantasy's first messianic figure, and I highly doubt he's going to be the last. But rather than copy someone else, Jordan (and millions of my fellow authors for that matter) took an old idea and made it their own. And that, I think, is one of the ultimate expressions of the imagination.
Its like I told my Uncle: "If you can't get past the frame and look at the picture. Then you're staring at a wall."

And I'm out. Talk to you guys later ^_^.                                                                                        

A (partial) review: Homeland by R.A. Salvatore. (originally published by me on Goodreads.com)

Homeland by R.A. Salvatore





(Just a quick disclaimer before I get started: At the time this review was written, I was working my way through the audio book version of Homeland via youtube and I had yet to sit down and read the physical book. So consider this a partial review).

 As I said in my last real post, on a recommendation of a friend, I decided to give R.A. Salvatore's work a try. I originally wanted to try a book that wasn't connected to Forgotten Realms (a campaign setting for Dungeons and Dragons role-playing games) or any of his other media tie-ins novels. But since Forgotten Realms is what Salvatore is more or less famous for, I decided to bite the bullet and picked up The Dark Elf Trilogy, which consists of the books 'Homeland', 'Exile, and 'Sojourn'.

As most already know, Homeland is the story of Drizzt Do'Urden--one of Salvatore's most beloved creations--and his childhood and coming of age in the underground dark elf city of Menzoberranzan.
While I have yet to finish Homeland in any form, Here is what I think of it so far:

As its own book, it's ok. Salvatore has a very vivid imagination and unlike some other media tie-in authors that I've read, he also seems to have the literary skill to back it up. This is a good thing because, he knows how to tell the story in a way that those unfamiliar with the source material (like me) can pick up the book and enjoy it. I love his description of how brutal and chaotic Dark Elf (or 'Drow) society is. Each Drow noble house is basically a mafia family, using lies and murder to improve their own standing in their society. You want to have more power and influence? Then kill off a powerful house and fill the void that houses leaves, just don't get caught. Or maybe you want to improve your standing within the family, then all you have to do is kill your siblings and fill the role that sibling leaves. It doesn't really get much more blunt and Machiavellian than that. So in that sense, Homeland is very much a Maifa novel with a Fantasy setting, which is kind of interesting on one hand.

On the other hand I can't help but feel like its a bit juvenile too. I get that the Drow are supposed to be evil, but there are times when it feels like that they are so cartoony about it that it makes me want to bust out laughing. Like for example: The name of Drizzt's mother and the matriarch of his family is Matron Malice. I mean, come on. Malice? Really? The name in of itself makes her sound like a villain from a Saturday morning cartoon.

But then again, all the evil of the Drow is contrasted in the character of Drizzt. And that, I think, is what holds the book together. Drizzt and his mentor Zak are the only ones who sees just how amoral and wrong Drow society is. But while Zak lives with it, Drizzt does not. He questions everything about his society, even if it is inside his own head: from the stereotypes (Brain washing really) that his people have about the surface races of the Forgotten Realms, to the Drow religion (which he comments that its more like slavery than a religion). This is what I like, Drizzt is the classic rebel who looks at the traditions, beliefs and practices of his society and rejects them, even though he knows that doing so could hurt and/or get him killed. He has a sense of honor, a rarity among the Drow, and he manages to keep it in tact despite all that his society does to beat it out of him. In other words, he's a thinker as well as a fighter. It makes him stand out.

The biggest complaints I have so far about this book is that Salvatore tells us every thing the characters are going through, he never shows us. The result is that the prose doesn't really convey any of the characters emotions to the reader, at least not very effectively. The second problem might admittedly be derived more from personal taste than any real problem with the book itself. But for some reason, Salvatore decides to tell this story with an omnipotent 3rd person narrator. And as a result, he is constantly jumping into different character's head during one scene. If there are three characters in one scene, then before its all over, you will get a POV (or "Point of view") shot of all those characters. Its confusing to say the least, and its also something I don't care for. Because I think there are better ways to convey what a character is thinking without jumping into their POV. Something as subtle as a sly smile could speak volumes as to what a non-POV character is thinking.

In closing, based on what I've read/listened to so far, Homeland isn't a bad book, and its not a great book either, Its a GOOD book. One I will eagerly read to the end. And that goes for its sequels as well.

Pick it up if you can.






View all my reviews

Guess what arrived today ^_^.

Four copies of my book arrived today ^_^. Now comes the hard part of getting people's attention.

Pick up your copy today at Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/shop/will-english/walking-with-summer-dreams-short-fiction/paperback/product-20101351.html

How unintentionally like you.

Drizzt Do'UrdenRecently a friend of mine recommended that I check out some work of one of her favorite authors, R.A. Salvatore. A name I only really knew before from casually glancing at the Dungeons and Dragons and/or Forgotten Realms covers at the bookstore. So I figured, what the heck, and bought the "Dark Elf Trilogy" box set at my local used bookstore. I haven't read it, but I will get to it eventually. Anyway, for some strange reason I started to lightly, casually look into the Trilogy's central character: Drizzt Do'Urden (pictured left). I don't know what it was exactly that got my chain of thought going, but I was thinking about one of the non-human characters in my novel one night and then it just struck me at how similar these guys are.

Both Drizzt and the current version of my character are exiles, both of their races have evil reputations among humans, both are from underground cities, and both have either rejected--or otherwise gone against--the cultural norms of their people. When I first realized this, it kinda startled me. I originally had created my character way during the books earliest incarnations in 1997, many years before I had ever even heard of Drizzt, Mr. Salvatore or Forgotten Realms. So I chuck the similarities up to coincidence and intend to plow ahead with my character. But since this was the second time in my writing career that I had tapped into or archetypes that I had never previously encountered before. How can my subconscious do that to me and not tell me?

I think I'll have to file this as a "topic to revisit." Sorry guys, but I'm drawing a huge blank as to where to take this next for some reason. So consider this an incomplete post.
See you later.       

Its official.

I now have a paperback book...FINALLY!!!!
http://www.lulu.com/shop/will-english/walking-with-summer-dreams-short-fiction/paperback/product-20101351.html

Check it out.

Political rant: War cry of the stupid.

I know that I said that I would blog about something more cheery in the last real post I did. But I feel like pissing people off today and what better way is there then talking about how stupid politics is?

I grew up in a family whose politics were relatively conservative  and I learned early on that, generally, it was probably smarter to try and stay out of the cesspit of a political argument. Mostly because no matter what I have to say someone is gonna sit there and tell me how wrong I am. Especially since I've never wholly shared the narrow minded political conservative views of  your average American southern, nor do I wholly share the often nonsensical, "politically correct" views of a liberal. And, according to a lot of people, that's where I went wrong. To those kind of people (including some of my own relatives), I can't live in the middle because there is no room to be neutral in this day and age of so-called "change" and "saving America from the evil liberals who want to turn this country into a pussified third world nation." In other words, I have to be one side or the other or I'm automatically labeled a communist, fascist and other much less flattering words that I'm not gonna repeat.

And that, boys and girls, is what you call the war cry of the stupid.

Being a good leader does NOT mean being a stone wall and calling people down just because they don't agree with you. It means putting aside your personal agenda and doing what is truly in the best interests of the people.  Its as true of being president as it is of a father. And from where I am standing, very few politicians are willing to actually do that, not President Obama, not Mitt Romney, hell so far as I can tell  none of them are.

Just as an example: lets look at Obama's health care bill, which last I heard was under review of the supreme court. At its most basic level, the bill is designed to introduce a European style "free" health care system with equal care for everyone, rich or poor. Sounds good on paper, but in reality its a mess. You wanna know how European nations pay for such things? They tax their citizens out the ass, and not just the richest people in country, that NEVER actually works, but everyone. You think the prices over here are bad? Try the UK, hell over there they will charge you for the shopping bags to carry your purchase home in (and no, I'm not kidding). And even with all of those taxes, Europe's economy as a whole is STILL  spiraling towards certain death, I mean just look at the mess in Greece. And yet Obama and the Democrats in congress have decided to ignore this and plunge ahead with this cluster f***ck anyway. With our economy not yet even half-way out of the carper, how exactly do the President and the Democrats think we will pay for all of this? By punishing those who don't have insurance with heavy fines and by hiking already high taxes up the ass? Where is the logic in this,  I wanna know. With that being said, I wonder if they ever thought of maybe a limited government health care plan? Meaning that the individual and insurance still pays for things like doctor and hospital visits, while the government picks up the tab for, say, prescription drugs. Sure that would also involve a minor tax increase as well, but when you compare it to the uncountable amount of dollars in tax hikes that Obamacare would lay on us, I'd say its pretty much  like picking a dirty napkin up off the floor as opposed to cleaning up an mount Everest sized pile of garbage.                 

And not to get down only on democrats: Republicans, you're just as bad. They will have you believe that by turning off the all the government regulations and essentially getting out of the way of business in pretty much every way imaginable will put more money in people's pockets and get the economy up and running. In other words, if the government does exactly what Ayn Rand suggests in Atlas Shrugged then everything will be all happy and hunky dory. LIES.  Nobody will disagree that making money a good thing,  but unless you have something to counter balance people's greed (like, say, a government watch dog) then you have a recipe for a civil rights disaster. And if you don't believe that, then you need to have another look at the history of the big business in this country.
Here is the bottom line Republicans (and Collectivist too I suppose): while most people will agree that a big government is a bad thing, but not having government watch dogs of any kind is even worse. Part of a government's job is protecting its people, weather its from a mad dictator in a foreign land or from its from some greedy corporate big wig whose only interest is making money and damn the people who help him make it.      

I am aware that I am speaking in general terms and that not every Republican and/or Democrat necessarily adheres to everything I am saying, but I'm trying to make a point here. And that point is both sides are so blinded by some irrational and stupid hatred of one another and their politics that they can't see that both ideologies have part of the right answer. And not in that "the answer is somewhere in the middle" kind of way, but in a jigsaw puzzle kind of way. One person has one side of the puzzle, while another person has the other and putting them together will get the right answer. Its like what I was saying before about putting aside your personal agenda and doing whats in the peoples best interest. And sadly...neither side is willing to do it. Not really. Too many Republicans/conservatives see Democrats as the coming of the Fourth Reich, and too many  Democrats/Liberals see Republicans as primitive, idiotic savages as lead by the Dark Lord Sauron. And you know what the worst part is, Even when Obama is out of office (I personally hope its this year), this idiocy is not gonna stop and it never will. They will keep sounding the war cry of the stupid, until the end of time.

"Why is it the innocent who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?" -George R. R. Martin. 

   

    Well that actually felt pretty good. I'm under no illusions that it changed anyone's mind but it felt pretty good lol.
See you all later.                        

                                     
         

Another Interview

Hey everybody,
just letting you all know that I was interviewed recently by the very talented author Vanna Smythe. Please check it out if you're interested ^_^.