Malcolm R. Campbell's Blog, page 103
June 30, 2020
I wish it were easy to add illustrations to my books
[image error]When I read old novels, I enjoy the engravers’ work. Sometimes the illustrations begin new chapters or appear in line with the text to add weight to a description. Whether or not one believes an illustration is worth a thousand words, the graphics, in my opinion, helped convey the novel’s places and characters and events to the readers.
I’m always happy when the publishers of modern-day novels take the trouble to add a reoccurring graphic at the book’s chapter beginnings, or better yet, graphics that fit the text here and there throughout the book.
Unless an author is an artist, the first roadblock today comes from having to hire an illustrator, and that might just be an expense that’s higher than what the book is projected to earn. Yes, there are stock agencies where one can find illustrations, but their use is typically limited to cover artwork.
The second issue is copyright. Sorting that out might be a nightmare to just determine who owns it; and then, if anyone does own it, getting permission and paying a fee to use it (sometimes waved for educational books).
[image error]In my case, I mention real products in my novels, partly to set the scene, partly to give the reader a sense of the times, and partly just to show what I’m talking about. For example, if I were writing a novel set in Montana in the 1800s, I would probably mention (or have the characters attend) one of the presentations of the traveling Shakespeare companies. Showing a handbill would be wonderful. Or, I would have one of my characters who likes chewing tobacco get swept up in the craze of related products. I love the artwork from the Juliet tobacco pouch.
If I could draw (ha ha), I might create a black-and-white illustration of the downtown of one of my made-up towns, showing what such a place might have looked like during the time when the novel is set. No, I don’t want a graphic novel. Just a few drawings to convey the ambiance of the stories.
My contemporary fantasy novel “The Sun Singer” is currently free on Kindle.
June 29, 2020
Free Book Promotion: ‘The Sun Singer’
My contemporary fantasy novel The Sun Singer will be free on Kindle from June 30 through July 4.
[image error]A “Foreword Magazine” Book of the Year Finalist when it first came out, this remains my favorite novel (though I won’t say that to the characters in my other novels.) If you’ve already read The Sun Singer, you may enjoy the sequel Sarabande.
Both books are set in the mountain high country of Montana’s Glacier National Park where I worked as a seasonal hotel employee and hiked all the trails used in the novels.
Description
Robert Adams is a normal teenager who raises tropical fish, makes money shoveling snow off his neighbors’ sidewalks, gets stuck washing the breakfast dishes, dreads trying to ask girls out on dates and enjoys listening to his grandfather’s tall tales about magic and the western mountains. Yet, Robert is cursed by a raw talent his parents refuse to talk to him about: his dreams show him what others cannot see.
[image error]When the family plans a vacation to the Montana high country, Grandfather Elliott tells Robert there’s more to the trip than his parents’ suspect. The mountains hide a hidden world where people the ailing old man no longer remembers need help and dangerous tasks remain unfinished. Thinking that he and his grandfather will visit that world together, Robert promises to help.
On the shore of a mountain lake, Robert steps alone through a doorway into a world at war where magic runs deeper than the glacier-fed rivers. Grandfather Elliott meant to return to this world before his health failed him and now Robert must resurrect a long-suppressed gift to fulfill his promises, uncover old secrets, undo the deeds of his grandfather’s foul betrayer, subdue brutal enemy soldiers in battle, and survive the trip home.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Malcolm
June 27, 2020
Announcing Bumblehill Press
I’m very pleased to announce that we’re dipping our toes into the water of publishing with the establishment of Bumblehill Press. To begin with, the press will be focused on bringing some of my backlist of short stories and mythic essays out in ebook editions…but once we get the hang of this, who knows where it might lead?
The first publication is “The Color of Angels,” a short story about a London artist who flees to the myth-haunted hills of Dartmoor as her life and her health start to crumble around her. The tale is loosely connected to my desert novel The Wood Wife (the protagonists of each, Tat Ludvik and Maggie Black, have been close friends since their university days), but can be easily read on its own.
Source: Myth & Moor: Myth & Moor news: announcing Bumblehill Press
I’m a long-time fan of the art and writing of Terri Windling, so the formation of a new publisher is great news. I saw this announcement several days ago on her blog and thought it was worth sharing, especially for those of us who like folklore and fairy tales.
–Malcolm
June 26, 2020
This and that on a rainy afternoon
[image error] I just finished reading the sequel to Michael Crichton’s 1969 novel The Andromeda Strain which I read when it first came out. Written by Daniel H. Wilson, The Andromeda Evolution, fits nicely into the style and plot of the original, though potentially with a more unlikely ending. Still, I had fun reading it. If you haven’t read the original, you may be a little lost.
Earlier this year, I held a sale for my Vietnam War novel At Sea. Somebody left a comment, saying they would be happy to write a review. I was looking at my Amazon author’s page yesterday and noticed the review was there. What a great review. The reviewer’s name was listed as Robin. If you’re the person who left the comment here several months ago, I wanted you to know that I appreciate the review.
For those of you keeping score , I did finish reading Madame Bovary.
[image error] Currently available Steegmuller translation published in 2013.
The book was well written, though I have to say, it was strange reading a novel that was hit with obscenity charges when it came out that didn’t have an overt sex scene in it. For today’s readers, other than those who enjoy experiencing the classics, the book will read very slowly.
Yes, I know, I’m supposed to be cleaning out the garage today–that is, editing my novel in progress. Some gurus say a novel should sit for a bit before an author starts editing. Since I didn’t really feel like editing today anyhow, I’ve decided to follow that advice. I wonder how long I can use that excuse.
During our quarantine days, my wife has been making cherry pies and blackberry pies. Unfortunately, the standard Oregon Brand of pie cherries/berries has disappeared from the stores around here in favor of some goofy brand of pie filling. However, we just went online last year and started ordering our Oregon favorites in bulk.
Besh wishes for the month of July which we all hope goes more smoothly than the previous months of the year.
June 25, 2020
Editing is like having your spouse say, ‘Let’s clean out the garage.’
We all know what Let’s clean out the garage means.
[image error]In case you don’t, it means that the person making the suggestion wants to get rid of a lot of stuff the person hearing the suggestion wants to keep.
I edit while I write. I know that’s wrong, but I don’t care. For one, it keeps stuff out of the garage that somebody else will one day tell me to throw away.
Otherwise, editing begins when your manuscript is on the home stretch. At this point, you’re the one telling your characters it’s time to clean out the garage.
Basically, they don’t want to do this unless it means giving them more lines. Usually, it means giving them fewer lines or (worse yet) fewer scenes. They (the characters) like the garage as it is because that’s all they know about each other and themselves unless you’ve used them in previous books.
Characters become restive, even combative when you bring out an editor’s broom and a toll of trash bags (the novelist’s “cutting room floor”). They want to story to stay the way it is, go to a publisher, show up on the bestseller list, and make them as famous as Madame Bovary and Captain Queeg even if readers think they’re crazy.
The madame and the captain had some great lines, they’re in a box somewhere, but they probably don’t belong in my book. If I find anything remotely resembling either character’s habits or lines, they need to go.
Gandalf had some great scenes, such as when he fought the Balrog in The Fellowship of the Ring. If anything like that’s in this garage, it’s got to go.
One of the mysteries of editing is that you’re not simply throwing away trash, you’re throwing away some darned good stuff. Goodness knows, your characters want to keep that good stuff. So do you, probably, but if you ponder it long enough, you’ll know its not a good fit for your story.
(What you don’t want is reviews that say “Snoopy’s Sopwith Camel vs Fokker dogfights with the Red Baron sure were exciting, but why were they happening in a small town in the Florida Panhandle in 1955?”)
So, this is where I am with my novel in progress. The characters are saying, “Let’s blow this joint!” (and we’re not talking about marijuana here) while I’m offering them a bigger share of the $10000000000 adance if they stay around and play nice while we get this manuscript ready for the publisher.
Plus, I keep telling them that my publisher goes flat nuts if I send in something that belongs in the garage sale bin, and “trust me, you don’t want to be around when that happens.”
Basically, I think cleaning how the garage is the worst part of homeownership and editing is the worst part of writing a novel. Others’ opinions may vary
June 24, 2020
New title: ‘Child of Sorrow’ by Melinda Clayton
[image error]Thomas-Jacob Publishing has released the third title in Melinda Clayton’s “Tennessee Delta Series,” Child of Sorrow. Currently available as an e-book, the novel will appear in additional formats as soon as printer supply chains return to normal.
Prior books in the series are: Blessed are the Wholly Broken (2013) and A Woman Misunderstood (2016).
From the Publisher
When fourteen-year-old foster child Johnathan Thomas Woods is suspected of murder, an old letter and a tacky billboard advertisement lead him to the office of attorney Brian Stone. Recognizing the sense of hopelessness lurking under John’s angry façade, Stone is soon convinced of his innocence. When John offers up his lawn-mowing money as payment, Stone realizes this is a case he can’t refuse.
In the face of overwhelming evidence assembled by the prosecution, Stone and his team find themselves in a race against time to save an angry boy who’s experienced more than his fair share of betrayal, a boy who more often than not doesn’t seem interested in saving himself.
–
I was a beta reader for this novel and enjoyed the experience and the story.
–Malcolm
June 23, 2020
Hardcover edition woes
[image error]The pandemic has screwed a lot of supply chains as various manufacturing and retail operations shut down.
The shutdown problem is impacting my hardcover books, all of which are listed on Amazon (and possibly elsewhere) as out of stock. These come from a different printer than the paperback editions which are still available. The Kindle editions are also available.
I apologize for the inconvenience to those of you who have been perplexed about the missing hardcover editions of Conjure Woman’s Cat, Eulalie and Washerwoman, Lena, Sarabande, and Special Investigative Reporter. Let’s hope they return soon.
June 22, 2020
A daughter’s questions
My daughter was born in 1976, is married, and lives with her husband and two children in Maryland. My wife and I planned to visit them this spring, but the pandemic nixed our travel plans.
[image error]On Father’s Day, she sent me a Facebook message with a series of “Questions for Dads” that read as follows:
Can you tell me about your best friend when you were a kid and one of your adventures?
What is the oldest story you know about our ancestors?
Can you describe a favorite memory of a family member? Do you have a favorite snack, song, television show, recipe, comedy?
What is your first memory?
Did you ever get in trouble as a kid? What happened?
If there were a biography of you, how would you want to be described?
What is the best advice you remember from your father?
Is there anything you wish you had said to someone but didn’t have a chance?
What do you wish you had spent less time worrying about?
What is the best part of your day?
What is the last thing you changed your mind about?
What things helped you get through a difficult time in your life?
What trip or place is most special to you and why?
What would you like to re-experience again because you did not appreciate it the first time?
Can you tell me something about yourself that I don’t know that you think would surprise me?
What habits served you the most through life?
What is the best mistake you made and why?
Typically, when asked questions like these, I respond with flippant answers. But, as I told my wife, I didn’t want to do that because these questions were a gift that–if I answered truthfully–would bring us closer together. So, I poured a glass of red wine and started typing.
I did the best I could. I suspect most of my answers were things she didn’t know. When I printed them out, they became four single-spaced pages that I mailed to her via the USPS this morning.
When I was in college, my father sent me a series of letters about his life during high school and college. It was the kind of stuff that didn’t come up in conversations around the dinner table. I was happy to get it because it shed new light on just who my father was. I hope my daughter will feel the same way.
Most of my life is a mystery to my daughter because it happened before she was born, and even before I met her mother. I don’t know where she found the questions, but it made my day to see them. Will my answers surprise her? Yes, I think they will.
June 20, 2020
Okay, I guess I’ll read ‘Madame Bovary’
I bought a copy of Madame Bovary in 1991 just before my wife and I became involved as nearly full-time volunteers at a museum near Atlanta. All of my reading time switched over to museum-related research. So the novel sat–even after we left the museum and moved all my books from one house to another twice.
[image error]I am near the beginning of the novel now, a few pages past the time when Dr. Charles Bovary marries Emma Rouault, the daughter of one of his patients, so none of Emma’s indiscretions that led to Flaubert’s obscenity trial in 1856 have happened yet.
Flaubert was acquitted and, as usually happens after such trials, the book became a bestseller, and subsequently considered a masterpiece. Most Flaubert commentators mention that he was a perfectionist, agonizing (apparently for hours) over every word.
I can see this clearly even through the 1957 translation by Francis Steegmuller. The description of the farm where Emma lives reminds me of the exuberant care of Hillary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. The scenes are so perfectly set in both novels, that it’s easy to feel like a time traveler back to 1827-1846 (Madame Bovary) and 1500-1535 (Wolf Hall).
[image error]Currently available Steegmuller translation published in 2013.
Steegmuller (1906-1994) translated quite a few of Flaubert’s works, so he was familiar with the author and his style. The novel has been translated into English at least 19 times, the first one coming from Karl Marx’ daughter Eleanor in 1886.
The critics argue about which translation is best, some chiding translations for using the current American slang of the day in their work. Steegmuller’s is among the better known, but–having been around for a while–his version gets sniped at by subsequent translators such as Lydia Davis’ 2010 comment in New York Magazine: “You’d think, working from one text, that the translations have got to be fairly similar. But it’s amazing how different they all are. Some are fairly close, but then they’ll add a metaphor that Flaubert doesn’t have. And some are outrageously far away. Two of the most popular, Steegmuller and Hopkins—they’re not bad books. They’re well written in their own way. But they’re not close to what Flaubert did.”
As some commentators have said, those of us who aren’t French, or aren’t fluent in French, will never know exactly what Flaubert did. As we say, “The map is not the territory,” we might also say “The translation is not the novel.” As for me, I’ll keep the translation I have–with no intention whatsoever of comparing it with the others.
Now, I’m waiting to see whether or not I’ll be shocked and scandalized!
–Malcolm
June 18, 2020
Senate Passes Bill to Fix National Parks and Public Lands
Washington, DC – Today, the United States Senate passed The Great American Outdoors Act, historic legislation that would provide dedicated funding to reduce the National Park Service’s deferred maintenance backlog – nearly $12 billion in needed repairs across the National Park System – and provide full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). For five years, the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has urged lawmakers to fix national parks’ crumbling roads, worn-out recreational trails, failing water and sewer systems, and other critical maintenance issues. Today’s momentous vote brings us one step closer to protecting our parks now and for generations to come.
Anyone who visits and/or keeps up with national parks news knows that park infrastructure has been underfunded and in trouble for a long time. This legislation has been a long time coming. I hope it makes a difference.
Many parks are experiencing overcrowding. Solving this problem might take additional funds as park management plans are reviewed and discussed. Personally, I would restrict or limit visits and ban cars from more areas. As I see it, protecting the parks takes presence over their use for recreation.
–Malcolm
