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Welcome to the tenth issue of Noahan Author! Bet you didn't think I'd make it this far, did you?;)
There was a new installment of Beyond Brilliant this week. In my opinion, it's Dana's best artwork yet. If we ever do collect these things into a book, I think its a real contender for the cover!
I have two interviews for you this week, and a book review that I wanted to share. The book is The Baron in the Trees by Italo Calvino. Sadly, I cannot interview the man, as, like most authors, he's no longer living in this world.
One brilliant idea. Is that enough?, October 9, 2010
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This review is from: The Baron in the Trees (Paperback)
The concept behind The Baron in the Trees is brilliant. I'm not so sure that the story itself is.
Readers will find the idea haunts them and follows them around. Could a man really spend his whole life living in the branches of the trees? And what does that mean? Is it a metaphor for a life of intellectualism? Does it mean he died on the day he left the Earth? Is it a rejection of Earthly and mortal matters for the spiritual?
This is left open, and I expect that I will spend years turning the story over in my head and again and again changing my mind about which suits my tastes best.
But I think that the book does have a major flaw. Throughout it's 217 pages we follow the life of the Baron with the eyes of his brother. Most of the events are not exciting, not really. They are not memorable. I won't turn them over in my head. I don't even expect to remember them in a year, with the possible exception of the Baron's final poetic death scene.
The story could have been 20 pages. And I'm sorry to say that, but we have an example here of an author having one brilliant, transcendently brilliant idea, but sadly only the one. I felt that I was meant to spend the rest of the book basking in that idea, and I suppose I did... But any story told in 217 pages which would be no weaker if told in 20 is flawed.
Again, I expect to remember the beginning and the end of this story many years from now, but the middle is fading even now....Wait! Wait!.... and I'm afraid it's gone......
Noahan Author Interview – Dawn McCullough White
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about your novel; Cameo the Assassin.
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: Cameo, the main character, is an assassin who seems to possess a certain, otherworldliness. She has a master that she works for at a place called The Association, which is a company of assassins, and a secret master who is a vampire. She's sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place, she hates working as an assassin but she's afraid if she breaks from the company they'll kill her, and she has a vampire master who seems to delight in tormenting her by killing the people she loves. Up to this point in her career she has steered clear of any sort of friendship entanglements, until she meets up with two somewhat charming highwaymen.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What can you tell us about Cameo?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: She's an assassin with a tragic, mysterious past. She's world-weary, and a heavy drinker. She has corpse-like eyes and animals scatter when she gets close to them. I think she would like to do the right thing but I don't know if she's really a good person. This character tends to surprise me as I write.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What can you tell us about Opal?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: He's a silver-tongued highwayman, and the most complex of all my characters. He's vain, and selfish but he's also very witty, and optimistic. The sort of person one would enjoy listening to at a dinner party but would probably not want to live with. There's also sort of a mystery about his past.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Tell me about your Vampires and their rules. Does sunlight burn them, or do they get pretty and glittery? Do they enjoy garlic?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: Well, the rules of vampires are a mystery in my series, but I will say that they are few in number and very powerful. They don't sparkle, and yes the sun will kill them. I'm really not into the stories that have a vampire hierarchy, with legions of vampires living alongside us humans. I think that takes away the intrigue a vampire possesses.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: In your opinion, is assassination ever morally justifiable?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: No. Assassination is murder, there's nothing morally justifiable about it.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What research did you do for this book?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: I researched smallpox, various wounds, undead myths, and odds and ends dealing with subjects from clothing to bedding in the 18th century.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What have you done and what are you doing to promote your work?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: I've been doing interviews, having my book reviewed, doing guest spots on blogs. I have an excerpt of my novel in the back of a fellow author's novel. I have a promotional giveaway going on for a signed paperback. I just had a trailer made for my book. I actively participate on Kindleboards and Goodreads. I've been sponsored by Kindle Nation Daily and will soon be featured as the book of the day on the Kindle forum. I have a facebook fanpage that I post on regularly, a website and blog (although I don't blog a great deal), and I try to network as much as I can.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What the heck is a Gewürztraminer?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: It's a German white wine, that gets it's name from the grape it's made from.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I understand that you’re from Rochester, New York. What influence has Rochester, and the other places you’ve lived, had on you as a writer?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: A tonne. In my series the weather is said to be only winter and summer, which is exactly what the weather is like here. Two months of hot humid summer and ten months of cold, with no sunlight. Which makes it a bit dreary- a bit dark. I also use many locations from the Rochester area in my novel, some of it is subconscious, some not. I live near the Erie Canal and the idea of a canal as a waterway and hiking the canal path are used in my novel by Cameo and her friends. The very large cemetery in Yetta is probably a reference to Mt. Hope cemetery which is 196 acres with 14 miles of road. There's a place that Cameo travels to called “Kings Basin” which is the 19th century name of the area I now live in. The way the world looks, is borrowed directly from this area I've lived in most of my life. It's lush, cold and dark.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could leave your body and travel astrally, would you? Where would you go?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: Yes. Everywhere.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could ask any one character in your novel a question, what would it be?
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: I'd ask Black Opal why he keeps purchasing boots that aren't made for hiking, when, in fact that's what he ends up doing for the majority of the book.
DAWN MCCULLOUGH WHITE: Question for Noah: If you could steal a smooch from anyone in Hollywood, who would it be?
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Hollywood seems a good place to get a smooch from, there are a lot of beautiful women on television and in the movies!
I’ve been a fan of Christina Ricci for many years. I think she’s really beautiful, and someone once told me that we’re from the same home town, so maybe we’d have something to talk about?
Keira Knightly is a goddess as far as I’m concerned, and she has a great voice too. I always prefer either an English or Australian accent to an American one. I’m half-English and half-Australian, even though I’m from New Jersey.
Oh, there are so many! Kylie Minogue, Jessica Alba, Michelle Rodriguez, Nicole Kidman, Emilie De Ravin…. Why, has someone in Hollywood said something to you about me?????? ;)
Noahan Author Interview – Tracey Alley
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Please tell us about Erich’s Plea.
TRACEY ALLEY: In some ways Erich’s Plea is a typical D&D style fantasy adventure but I also wanted to make it something more than that. The primary underlying theme of the novel is love – in all it’s forms, love of country, love of a god, love of parents, siblings, friends, lovers etc. and the question of how far would you go to save someone or something you love. It’s almost an exploration of human emotion, love, power, greed, revenge, abandonment – it covers a lot of issues in the realm of a Sword and Sorcery style fantasy setting
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Tell us about Slade.
TRACEY ALLEY: From the beginning Slade is a conflicted character. Designated to be Erich’s heir to the throne of Vestland Slade was rejected by his true love and so sought out a spiritual alternative. He’s stronger than he realizes but at the same time he is repulsed by the trappings of political power and drawn to a simpler way of life. As the events unfold he is forced into a position of leadership, which he actually handles quite well, but all the way through the trilogy you can see that his heart is not focused on power only on finding and saving his father. He wants to save the people of Vestland from the coming war but from a more distant perspective, he’d rather not be a major player in the events unfolding.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: How is a druid different from a magician?
TRACEY ALLEY: Druidic magic in Kaynos is very different from wizardry. It is a thing of subtle influences, a gentler type of magic. Druids seek to protect and care for the natural world and theirs is more akin to a religion than the magician’s in Kaynos who do seek out temporal power. Druids also tend to be more solitary, wandering The Kingdoms helping where they can where the wizards of Kaynos congregate in their own kingdom, have their own form of government and seek out power for the sake of power.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Reading the free preview of Erich’s Plea, I noticed that you refer to the main language spoken as “Common.” Those of us who grew up playing Dungeons and Dragons will recognize this as being the main language from Gary Gygax’s game. How similar or dissimilar is the world of Erich’s Plea to the worlds of Dungeons and Dragons?
TRACEY ALLEY: In many ways very similar, D&D fans will find much that is familiar to them. Yet Kaynos is also a land where I’ve drawn heavily from our own ancient civilizations – for example the kingdoms of Vestland and Ostland are heavily based on Norse history and mythology, the Emirate of Kemet draws heavily on Egyptian myths and political structure, Thyatis is very similar to ancient Rome etc. I guess you could describe it as a D&D style fantasy-scape of what Earth might have looked like if fantastical elements were real.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: In the world of Erich’s Plea, as well as throughout fantasy literature, we find the concept of different humanoid races; humans, elves, dwarves, hobbits, orcs, trolls, ogres, etc. Do you think that historically, there may have been branches of our family tree that are half-remembered in these legends?
TRACEY ALLEY: As an historian my instinct is to say no, not directly. But just as modern archaeologists find bones and artifacts that are sometimes difficult to explain or understand I believe there were also ancient archaeologists who discovered the same or similar things and developed mythologies or explanations for those things they couldn’t immediately understand. Dinosaur bones for example could provide an excellent example of how these types of mythologies began and why they have persisted for so long.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What are one or two qualities that you think are most important when telling a good sword & sorcery story?
TRACEY ALLEY: I think obviously a good fantasy story, whether drawn from Sword and Sorcery or other sources, must contain the expected fantastical elements, dragons, elves etc. I think telling a good story however, is greatly dependant on characterization and character development. Plot revolves really around the strengths and weaknesses of your characters and how they grow and develop during the story. A plot can be almost anything and so often can be broken down into the basic good vs evil tale yet if your audience cannot connect with your characters then I believe you’ve failed to tell a good story.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: Erich’s plea is one of several books you have available. Can you briefly tell us about one or two others and where we can buy them?
TRACEY ALLEY: At the moment the second of the trilogy Ursula’s Quest is available in ebook format from Amazon and Smashwords, and in print from Amazon. Hopefully customers will soon be able to buy directly from my website but that is still a month or two in the making. I also have two short stories which detail background history of certain characters from the Witchcraft Wars series available from Amazon and Smashwords and, if all goes according to plan, will have an anthology of short stories available before Christmas along with the release of the final Witchcraft Wars series, Slade’s Destiny. I’m also a poet and have an anthology of poetry available in e-format at Amazon titled “Reflections: A Modern Anthology”.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What are you doing and what have you done to promote your work?
TRACEY ALLEY: So far I’ve done very little to promote my work beyond certain forums like Kindleboards, Ebookgab, Goodreads etc. I’ve just completed a Goodreads giveaway of Erich’s Plea that I felt was very successful. Once the trilogy is completed I intend to go more in the way of promotion but I’ve held back because I’m one of those people who if I like a series I want to be able to read all of them and not have to wait months or years for the next book to come out.
NOAH MULLETTE-GILLMAN: What’s next?
TRACEY ALLEY: While I will probably return to Kaynos eventually, my next two works in progress are a mystery/thriller set in current times and a non-fiction work based on the history and development of religion vs. personal faith. I hope to have the mystery released early in the New Year and the non-fiction sometime around June/July next year.
NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could leave your body and travel astrally, would you? Where would you go?
TRACEY ALLEY: Firstly I believe astral travel is probably possible so if I could I most definitely would and my first ideal place to visit would be ancient Egypt, around the time of Akhenaton – he’s the historical character I would most like to better understand.
NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: If you could ask any one character in your novel a question, what would it be?
TRACEY ALLEY: I would probably ask Lord Michael Strong why he was so willing to work with Lord Nexus and why he is prepared to trust such an obviously evil mage. I do try and explain that in the novel but confess it’s the biggest puzzle to me that Lord Michael puts his trust in the evil necromancer.
TRACEY ALLEY: Now for my question:
As a fantasy writer yourself do you believe that as the world becomes increasingly violent, destructive and economically unstable that fantasy plays a role in allowing people a form of escapism or do you think fantasy is just a popular genre and always will be?
NOAH K MULLETTE-GILLMAN: I don’t know if I agree that the world has or is becoming more violent or destructive. Yes, America is locked into at least two wars right now and I don’t have a lot of confidence that either is about to end, but take a look at where we were last century. We had the Cold War, and before that Vietnam, Korea, both of the World Wars.
The 19th century had the U.S. Civil War, and frankly I think that violence between individuals was much higher back then. Husbands could beat their wives. Children were treated abhorrently. Teachers were allowed to use corporal punishment!
But I do agree that we have entered a time of economic disaster. In my opinion this is not a recession, it’s a depression. When I was in school I was taught that the definition of a recession was two economic quarters in a row of shrinkage. A depression was four. That's one year. We’re there. We're past that. This is a depression and it isn’t ending.
As far as Fantasy goes. I think that there are two sides of the genre. There’s what we would call Mythology, if it were properly aged, and the modern Fantasy whose origins are Gygax and Tolkien. Modern Fantasy is a popular genre. Yes, it can do an excellent job of providing escape or just plain fun! The use it’s put to is up to the reader, and not the author.
Mythology is never about escape, and never simply about fun. It is about facing the underlying truth. It is the opposite of escapism. The purpose is psychological illumination. It has always been with us and always will be.
I don’t suggest that either is superior, but I find the distinction important all the same.
That's all for this week! Thanks for visiting! If you haven't yet, I hope you'll take a moment to enjoy the first three cartoons in the Beyond Brilliant! series.
And then, maybe you'll consider checking out the work of one of our featured authors? Free samples are available of everyone's work.
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