A.J.’s Comments (group member since Feb 16, 2012)

A.J.’s comments from the Q&A with A.J. Campbell group.

Bryn,

Well, yes, the DDB is quirky, and written in "bad" English. But I wanted something that defied convention, right from the beginning. Things like the characters commenting on their roles within a "tale," much like Tom Jones looks directly at the camera, also done in several Mel Brooks films. It's a dangerous technique because stunts like this can pull the reader from the fictional dream. But in this tale it seems to work; you just keep reading because you need to know what happens to the characters, not easy in a story with an ensamble cast. I think it was my choice of heroes-heroines-- not one being "perfect." No Superman here!

Forging the Blade is conventional, the old premise: Thulia gets beaten down, rises above, gets beaten down again, etc. She is classically larger than life. Even her bosom, which if smaller whould have created a physicality ringing as mannish. Fritigern, on the other hand, is more like Galen; a young man who needs world-experience to form his life-view. He becomes the one upright man in a world of dogs, in fact a sort of junior Soranus. In history, they rode together to retrieve the bones of the martyrs.

Athanaric I love. He isn't the "Resident Evil" type, but a man with limited insight, a "good man" of the tribe who fights the oncroach of Christianity as best as he can. This type of antagonist is hard to write, not a total bad guy, just flawed. Aoric, his father, is another "good" Goth. And then we have minor characters like Theodosius (actual father of the future Emperor) who is a Christian but has yet to grasp what Christianity is really about.

I think FTB is more of a woman's novel. And yes, it would appeal (hopefully) to a larger readership. The story will continue, with the Dragon Men of Safrax and Alatheus joining Frit for the battle at Adrianople, then Frit's son (Thiudebalth) and nephew Alaric within the Roman army. The Equite Taifali will be formed and Thiu will lead them into Britain. Throughout the tales, Merjands appears as their "guide." I leave him nebulous, a mystic figure who is not a wizard or true Magus, but the "grandfather" we all wish we had.

Well, anyway. It should be out in paperback (497 pages) early this coming month. Keep writing. As we write, we get better. Like yourself, I am publishing stories written out of context, those written earlier arriving in the market later. (Of course the "market" is a joke. No money that I can envision, unless some miracle happens:)

aj

Hi, Bryn

I've had terrible wifi reception for over a week. Tried making a comment on your site about Brunhild, and got bumped. I have the silent version(s) by Lang, and "Krimhild's Revenge" is totally strange, the only good person in it is Attila (who looks subhuman).

What a voice. Christoff also did a Boris Goodenov opera and also Faust.

At the moment, "Forging the Blade" is in the proofing stage. I don't like the writing in this as well as the DDB. Just not as good, but I think the story carries OK. I spent a month writing a single "guest" capter for a book a friend of mine is writing. It's about a famous fly rod maker who lived here in Maine. Not earth-shattering stuff with a limited audience, but I fish his bamboo rods, as do a legion of anglers.

aj

Karl & Bryn,

Been off the wifi for a few days. I guess I'm too odd, and only 2 of the top ten fit me: movies and self improvement. The last is simply by attempting to keep mind clear of dumb trivia, such as TV and car-chase movies.

My neighborhood watch amounts to deer, squirrels, and wild turkeys. My excercise is archery and fishing from a wooden canoe.

Today's opera is shrill. We don't have the great mezzo and basso voices anymore, but singers like Callas, Caballe, DeAngeles, London, Hotter, and the amazing Christoff, are gone. The trick is to pick operas designed for the dark voice, and that option no longer exists. You have to retro and go back to mono.

I tried writing a commment on Bryn's website yesterday and got bumped off after spending 45 minutes on describing Lang's silent version of "Sigfried" and "Krimhild's Revenge." In "Revenge" the only decent person is Attila whom Lang portrays as sub-human (in good Germano-idyl fashion). Don't know if Lang was aware of his double-take or not.

So, beyond books and opera, I'm heavily into classic and cult films.

aj

Bryn,

I answered your above with about an hour's worth of comment, then lost it to a glitch. And I can't bring back the past any better than Prof. Harting did in The Time Machine.

My version of Don Quichotte is Massenet's, with the unmatched Boris Christoff as our hero and Teresa Berganza as Dulcinea, with Carlo Badioli (a great opera-buffa) as Sancho. The CD is through Opera d' Oro, a company that had access to the historic Radio Italia live performences. This one was recorded in Milan in 1958. I like live, and I think golden age singers put their heart in it, not so today because modern performers fear destroying their vocal chords.

My favorite Parsifal was recorded live at Bayreut, the original wooden structure, and conducted by Kappertsbush with George London as Amfortas (the Horsebreaker's father) and Hans Hotter as Gurnemanz. I have a rare early Italianette version (1950, I think) with Christoff as Gurnemanz and Maria Callas (young and plump) as Kundry. Acquired two versions of the Gallic priestess Norma, both with Callas and recorded in 1955. Otherwise, I'm not really into Verdi. My family adored him, and my mother was named after the heroine of la Traviata. One of my greatgrandfathers was a Red Shirt, so my grandparents loved Verdi because he was a patriot. Yet the dumbest opera ever written was Rigaletto (sp?), since the librettist was an idiot. I'm into Bellini and good old Rossini.

There are very few good opera DVDs. An example of how bad modern singers can get would be Image Entertainment's version of Attila, with a soft-blubby Forresto, a stumbling Cheryl Studer, only saved by Samuel Ramey, a mid-western American. Baz Luhrmann produced an excellent visual La Boheme, but the most astounding DVD is a documentary, The Art of Singing. It simply, and totally, blows you away. Gigli (the little Sicilian) sings Handel's Ombra mai fu and raises the hairs of your neck. We get Chaliapin singing a French version of Don Quixote, and a Puccini duo by Tebaldi and Bjorling that will bring tears. And Kirsten Flagstad does a great Edweena the fallen Valkyrie version of Brunhilda, complete with a spangenhelm with wings. All the scenes are, old, black & white, and in mono, but where else could you find Christoff playing Boris Gudenof, and Jon Vickers actually living the role of Fidelio?

Vickers expressed it succintly: opera is about truth, beauty, and love. This is what I tried to incorporate in the DDB, adding the final ingredient-- the human comedy. To talk about that-- comedy-- perhaps I should start a second thread, since it springs from not opera but films.

Well, yes, we writers tend to be poor but not "poorly." Out wealth lives in imagination, and no tax assessor or thief can take it from us.

Somewhere there is an Apocypha of Thomas, but it won't read like mine. It was an after-thought when I realized "who" actually opened the Door Bolt.

By the way, I wrote the entire tale standing up. Figured my brain (a little askew and cracked) might work better if I wasn't sitting. After all, you can fall asleep in front of a computer while in a chair.

I'm also poor, actually impoverished. My second wife complained about my writing, not having a "real job," but I was under contract with Lyons & Burford and had to honor it. We got a divorce. I'll die without a cent, but at least I wrote a couple of good books. I'm not proud of the Shark one, but I'm thinking of bringing back King Shag's Recipe Book, a study in hilarious stupidity. It was Maine humor, hardly appreciated below the Kittery Bridge. Really bad puns, recipies like "Piano Tuna" and "Case-O-Deeahs." In Maine vernacular a deer is a "deeah."

I'm a writing fool. Wondering if I should try a film script of the DDB and shop it around. Might make a slightly tongue-in-cheek epic, something like the original Conan the Barbarian (not the new terrible one.)

I need an AD 700 cut-off date, because I'm thinking of doing a non-fiction book on the Eastern Indo-Iranians, basically the Saka, Massagetae, and Alans. Perhaps subtitled, "From China to Britain." People don't realize where our modern culture began, not in Greece or Rome, but out upon the steppe. I'll never do half of what I want to. Too damned old.

Oh, and I'm an opera buff, mostly early 1800s Italian, but also Don Quichotte and Parsifal. My favorite singers are Maria Callas and Boris Christoff, dark voices. Hate screeching Anglo-Saxon sopranos, hurt my ears.

Hi, Bryn

I'll tell the truth, honestly I will.
The Apocrypha is one of the two books by Thomas locked in Prester John's safe, and of course, he forgot the combination. All the other stuff, Hesiod, etc., did make it into general circulation and missed by Caesar when he torched the Alexandria Library.

I haven't been east of Ukraine, but I got a chance to meet steppe artifacts at the Archaeological Museum at Odessa. My bows are all made in Hungary, and someday I'd like to visit Csaba Grozer, the bowyer whose name I borrowed for the Magyar chieftain. Last night I was discussing artificial limbs with my son Jason, and Valeriana really isn't all that far-fetched, just the atomic-solar part. Sci-fi is becoming reality. Jason is applying the finishing touches to the cover of Forging the Blade. Then it goes to Createspace. Wonder if Julie the Arthurian buff be interested in reading it?

What about me? I'm a former/retired Registered Maine Guide and USCG licensed captain. I began writing internationally in 1978. At the moment I'm doing a "guest" chapter to be included in a book by a friend of mine, subject-- a famous rodmaker who lived here in Maine.

I've visited a bunch of countries, maybe 20 or so, and I think that gave me a peek into universal humanity. I like indie movies and Chinese films, mostly chop-socki and historicals. French films, too. Haven't read sci-fi in several years, and have avoided it lately because I wanted the DDB to give a fresh take. Anything historical prior to AD 700, either Roman or Chinese, I'll gobble up. I can never afford to reach Mongolia, but I'd love to get there, ride a shaggy beast and catch a taimen.

I suppose people are figuring out I'm Uther, but do they realize that Uther is Pinocchio? And my favorite character is Pliny/Mungo, God's superveniant man. "Do we have time for a lunch break?"

Thanks, Karl, for telling us about yourself.

Strange at it might be, my favorite historical person is Herodotus. He had guts, visiting lands most Greeks shyed from, and of course, he was a great teller of tales.

As you say, a good fiction novel has possibilities of becoming a film. I'd love to see The Demon's Door Bolt on the big screen; and now that we have just about perfected CGI, the novel could be converted easily. The movie would be loaded with generals: Sun Tzu, the Count of Britain, Attilla the Hun, and Julius Caesar (the great sleaz-bag himself).

Bryn has also written a good novel, but it's best for her to make comments on it, particularly its possibility of becoming a film.

I'm hoping more GoodReads folks might join this discussion. As for God, by the way, the various characters in The Demon's Door Bolt have their own version of God or gods, as well as all the venues of afterlife. Galen the Physician gives us a critique on the soul, which is one of my favorite chapter openings. In her review, Julie Bozza liked Uther Pendragon the best, and frankly he's a fictional combination of Herodotus and myself. (nuk, nuk, nuk,):)

Overall, the novel advocates the Golden Rule, and Uther simply states, "Do the conscionable." The whole idea of the Grail Warriors stems from pure conscience, "Otherwise, you could never sip from the Grail," as Prester John puts it. You are well informed in historicity, so you know that "prester" was a contraction of "presbyter," a minister.

Hailog thein!

In Gothic, that means "welcome" and tell me about yourself and where you came from. Who are your favorite historical people? And why?