No happy endings
Nothing to fill a Today in History post, so I went a bit further afield, having discovered a remarkable story of a family in Siberia that lived such an isolated life that they were not even aware of WWII. It is amazing and very sad. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history...
Meanwhile I slog on through this unloved month of February; puzzling how the shortest month in the calendar can seem so endless. I’ve given up sleep for Lent since I have to finish another Ransom chapter by month’s end, and the Sunne galley proofs still have me trapped. I definitely have too many Richards hanging around the house these days. Whatever possessed me to write a 1000 page book? And one where there is no one left alive at the end? Readers have often told me that when they reread Sunne, they stop before Bosworth Field. Well, writing those scenes was not much fun, either; it took me three weeks to get Richard out of his command tent and onto the battlefield at Bosworth. And Sunne was not even the saddest of all my books; I was in need of grief counseling by the end of The Reckoning. Sometimes, as my favorite characters are dropping left and right, I think I ought to consider writing about purely fictional characters so I can have a few happy endings—like George RR Martin.
Meanwhile I slog on through this unloved month of February; puzzling how the shortest month in the calendar can seem so endless. I’ve given up sleep for Lent since I have to finish another Ransom chapter by month’s end, and the Sunne galley proofs still have me trapped. I definitely have too many Richards hanging around the house these days. Whatever possessed me to write a 1000 page book? And one where there is no one left alive at the end? Readers have often told me that when they reread Sunne, they stop before Bosworth Field. Well, writing those scenes was not much fun, either; it took me three weeks to get Richard out of his command tent and onto the battlefield at Bosworth. And Sunne was not even the saddest of all my books; I was in need of grief counseling by the end of The Reckoning. Sometimes, as my favorite characters are dropping left and right, I think I ought to consider writing about purely fictional characters so I can have a few happy endings—like George RR Martin.
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Gin
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Feb 17, 2013 08:50AM
Sharon - I think you should write a "what if" - you know - take one or even some of the historical forks in the road and write as if the characters had gone left instead of right. Then maybe you could achieve the happy endings - like George RR Martin and others who write fantasy!
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An alternative history, Gin? That is tempting. Imagine--I could have Richard III win at Bosworth, Henry II would learn from his mistakes and would not have to die at Chinon, Eleanor would realize that rebellion was a really bad idea, Henry III would think that Simon de Montfort's Provisions of Oxford was a really good idea, Wales would keep its independence, and Henry Tudor would end his days in Breton exile, worrying about how to pay his bills and feed the wolf at the door. And of course Geoffrey would decide not to take part in that tournament and Richard would wear his armor before he went out to inspect the siege at Chalus. That could be fun!
Earlier today, I was complaining about how depressing it is now that I've reached the part in the Sunne galley proofs in which Edward dies and all goes downhill, and I said, tongue in cheek, that I was tempted to write about purely fictional people so I could have some happy endings, like George RR Martin does. My Facebook friend Jayna responded with this post that I thought was too good not to share. She said:I don't expect anybody to be living at the end of A Song of Ice and Fire - including me, at the rate George RR is writing!
Sharon wrote: "An alternative history, Gin? That is tempting. Imagine--I could have Richard III win at Bosworth, Henry II would learn from his mistakes and would not have to die at Chinon, Eleanor would realize..."You were reading my mind. There are others of course but ....... if only, if only...
How shocking it would be for a reader resigned to the umpteenth defeat on the field of Bosworth to reach the page of the dawn of August 22th and witness Richard of York leading the charge against Henry Tudor followed by his uncle the King and then ...(sorry but I've just finished 'A Trail of Blood' and this scene is stuck in my mind)
On one of my Facebook pages, they are discussing a novel in which Llywelyn ap Gruffydd is featured, and apparently there is a scene in which he is saved from death by some time-traveling Americans in an SUV!
If I can choose I would avoid such exaggerations (also I don't like time-traveling stories), I'd like better something more 'realistic', something that could really have happened, let's say a surviving prince.
Joan Szechtman has written two clever time-travel novels, This Time and Loyalty Binds Me, in which Richard is rescued from Bosworth Field at the moment before his death and transported to our time. Joan has fun with the story, a medieval man trying to come to terms with modern society (Her Richard learns to like computers)
I agree! I just finished The Reckoning and I cried! I was very attached to Llewellyn and had to got back and read Here Be Dragons again to stay in the Family!
I needed grief counseling by the time I'd finished writing The Reckoning, Jacqueline. My books rarely have happy endings, but that seemed worse to me because it also meant the end of Welsh independence and I knew what lay ahead for the Welsh, treated as strangers in their own country.
Well, Sharon, I am on to When Christ and His Saints Slept, but I still miss Llewellyn.You made those historical figures so real to me that I can't get them out of my head.You really should teach Medieval History, but then you wouldn't have time to write!
And I'd rather write than teach, Jacqueline!
Sharon wrote: "And I'd rather write than teach, Jacqueline!"I think for some writers (you among them) writing IS teaching, sometimes fiction is more an incentive to study than a lesson at school. For me it's been like this (although my school days are quite far away), your book The Sunne in Splendour was the beginning of an avalanche which has not reached the valley yet
What a nice thought, Ernestina. I feel that way about books myself. If I read a book I really enjoy, I am often inspired to try to find out more about the subject of that book.
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