What makes a good/believable character?
I’m putting part 1 because the subject has so very many facets that it might well turn into several posts, but I got to thinking about it when I went up to Amazon to get the isbn numbers of RoL and got seduced into reading the book’s reviews and realized that I now have a viable forum from which to respond to those reviews.
Normally, I try to stay away from reviews cuz nothin’ good ever comes of reading them. It’s just not worth the frustration and self-doubt. You either want to scream a) “OMG…what part of this book did you actually read?” b) “OMG…did I really write that?” or c) “OMG…could they possibly be right?”
One negative review for RoL triggered an initial “a” reaction, but as I was raking this morning (have to do something with the excess neurons) I began to think about what he’d said, not questioning what I’d written, but thinking of that author/reader synergy that makes a book work or not. Fiction isn’t a one way transaction. It isn’t one person telling the same story to every reader. It’s one person telling a slightly different story to every reader, because what the reader brings to the equation is as important as what the author wrote.
This particular reviewer had a problem with the characters in Ring of Lightning. They were, to paraphrase, over the top. The reviewer’s support for this opinion? The Rhomandi brothers quarrel like teenagers and with all their money, they should have learned to avoid AuntyA.
Hmmm…
Yes, Khyel and Deymio argue like teenagers: their understanding of each other is frozen at that point in time. One of the major points of the whole series is how this screwed up, adversarial relationship came about and how they overcome that conditioning. It’s very common, among large families, for patterns to get set in the teenage years, patterns that affect the sibling interactions for the rest of their lives. Sibs age and leave, one after another. While the sibs might interact as adults, it’s rarely to the same extent as they did as teenagers…unless they share a domicile as adults, which adds a whole new layer of complexity.
This reviewer is not alone in the opinion that this interaction “wrong.” I’ve heard it a few times over the years. Invariably (if I get the chance to ask the question) the person who expresses this opinion is an only child, or at most, one of two children in the family, and those usually widely separated in age. Discussions over the years have shown a curious pattern. Most only children have this idealized notion of what it would be like to have siblings. And that notion doesn’t begin to resemble the Rhomandi brothers’ relationship.
I come from a large family. I love my sibs dearly. But there are arguments. Thank god there are arguments. If there weren’t we’d be a seriously boring Stepford Wives family. Like the Rhomandis, there’s a fair spread in our ages. The parents my oldest brother knew were not the parents I knew, as next to the youngest. Life had changed, taking familial relationships with it.
As for the suggestion that the Rhomandi bros should take the money and run…I have to ask myself, what kind of CEO would the reviewer have made? The kind who finds an excuse to fire a longtime employee just before retirement? or the kind who takes a cut in his own pay to avoid layoffs? Granted the former is far more prevalent in our society these days, but the Rhomandi brothers are not like that. The power and money to which they were born is the foundation of the entire economic structure of the web. If they were to pick up and leave, leaving Anheliia in charge, that entire structure would collapse. Deymorin does use their Outside holdings to escape Anheliia while still keeping his side of the economic bargain that he inherited from his ancestors. Mikhyel is likewise bound by duty and honor and a real love for the city of Rhomatum. He is the legal buffer between Anheliia and the people of Rhomatum.
And herein lies the catalyst for the heat of their arguments: the fact that they are caught between the ability, monetarily speaking, to escape the nightmare of Anheliia, and their duty to every other Rhomatumin citizen. The brothers endure Anheliia because they must, because they are who they are. They inherited more than money; they inherited responsibility.
So…I guess this reviewer completely missed the driving force of the entire character side of the book. But the question is…why? Should I have explained more? Reiterrated yet one more time those above mentioned factors? Should I have spelled it out in words of one syllable?
I don’t think so. There comes a time when as a writer you just have to admit you’re going to lose some readers. The one thing you can’t overcome, as a writer, is a reader utterly and completely predisposed to reject your basic premise.
Of the two points you made: I’m the oldest of 5 children, six years between me and the youngest, and it’s so true that familial relationships change and that the parents you knew weren’t necessarily the same ones your eldest sibling had! As adults, we tend not to fight the way the Rhomandi brothers do in RoL, but we sure did as children and teenagers. That (dysfunctional) family interaction made a world of sense to me.
I remember recently reading a post in LJ – I thought it was Laura Anne Gilman’s but I can’t find it now – also discussing readers or reviewers who miss the point or who otherwise don’t connect to a book (and the difference between reviewing a book you don’t get and therefore don’t like, and reviewing a bad or poorly written book).
It basically comes down to the phrase YMMV: “Your mileage may vary”. (And having written and – justifiably – trunked a couple of bad novels of my own, I’m a much more tolerant reviewer: I know how much effort goes into good writing.) We get spoiled reading Carolyn’s output -she makes it look so darn easy!)
Write your way – those of us who love it will love it. Others won’t. (Go to Amazon and read M.Hanf’s review of Gone With The Wind for an hysterical example.) I love reading, and every once in a while I’ll just not – get – a book. Or the characters, or the underlying “big question” or philosphy.
PS Back on line today, downloaded RoC (second thing I did!) – whoot! I will NOT spend my whole weekend reading, I will NOT spend my WHOLE weekend reading, I will . . what? did you say something . . .?
YMMV: I LOVE IT! That’s exactly right.
Re: Carolyn’s work…and I have to live in the same house!
But honestly, she works hard to make it that smooth. Yeah, it’s probably easier now with all the mileage she has as a writer, but it’s still just incredible.
Re: RoC:A I do hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I would never have believed writing an infant could be fun!
Haven’t gotten RoC yet…notice I said “yet”…but I’m in process of finishing my first original fiction novel. And I love what you’re saying about characters and about siblings. Even more I love what you’re saying about reviews. Some people will like what you do, some won’t. “You” as generic, that is. Because I also mean “me.” I’m in process of having volunteers vet my novel–nearly finished–for typos and readability. I actually like it when a given person doesn’t think I did something “believable” or whatnot (though I occasionally think–what did they read, because nobody ELSE got that from what I wrote) but I don’t always listen to them, because I’m in touch with my own vision of what I’m writing.
I’m one of three siblings, btw. If some miss the dynamics of character siblings’ arguments, it is likely not your writing, it’s likely what they’re bringing to the reading of it.
I find that is true of my writing.
Or at least so I grok, so to speak.
Welcome! And congrats on the completion of your first novel! That’s a big deal! Beta readers are invaluable…especially if they’re good at expressing their reactions. Someone who can adequately express what you’re trying to do BEFORE telling you where you “went wrong” is the best kind of beta reader.
I actually try not to dismiss negative reviews out of hand. I don’t accept that they’re “right” but I will try to understand where they got the negative impression. If it’s something I think I can change without compromising my creative vision, I will…that’s one way to learn to write, but some of the online reviewers are people who are more interested in reading a lot rather than reading well. My books absolutely cannot be skimmed and generally I find those who don’t “get” it simply didn’t really read it.
Good luck with your novel!
Great commentary, Jane.
It also has to be the right *time* to read a given story. You told me that once when I was having trouble getting into getting into a certain book. I had gotten as far as ~page 70 but was totally dazed and confused. You advised me not to feel bad or guilty, but to simply set it aside and try again another time.
I did just that about about a year later and tore right though the book — I couldn’t put it down. The real problem was that I simply initially didn’t have the sf background to understand the complexities of said story the first time around. A year later, it was a completely different “story”.
The book that I set aside but later loved? CYTEEN.
One thing that always made my mom a bit sad was that she was never able to read my stuff. She was a great reader, but she’d never read SF/F and so, by the time I began writing, she just didn’t have that background, didn’t really have the skill to develop the world in her head, and never was able to get it from just my books…which are rather like jumping into the deep end!
I was always grateful for the one short story I wrote before she passed away. It was a contemporary fantasy for Gods of War anthology, so she didn’t have to build that alien landscape in her head.
I’ll always remember her reaction: “You really CAN write!”
LOL! Isn’t that funny? I hated Cyteen the first time I read it.
The second time it was as if someone hit me over the head with it – OMG LOVE!
For me the eye opener was Serpent’s Reach. Just couldn’t get into it. Second time…same thing. But because it was Carolyn, I gave it a third try, and then, I was ready to read it and loved it.
Heh. I LOVED Serpent’s Reach from the very first sentence. But by then I had 1-2 years of CJC under my belt.
That’s pretty funny about your mom’s reaction, Jane! Sad, that she didn’t really have a true opportunity to enjoy your other works – she would have been amazingly proud.
But yes, it does take time to develop a sff foundation. Several summers ago I spent time reading anthologies of sf foundational works. That helped. So does going to cons & hearing people discuss various works. The problem: my “to read” stack keeps getting bigger.
I’m a realllllly slow reader. I couldn’t catchup/keep up with the basic reading list when I began reading SF in the early sixties! My stack now would fill the house. Sigh…And I manage about three pages a night on whatever I’m reading at the moment. Not good…
Mom always found a way to be proud of us. When I left the Seattle area to go live in OKC with Carolyn, she had me come and sing filk and talk about alternative lifestyles to her church group. It’s a really fun memory.
I’m very glad Mom got that one short story. I think she could extrapolate at that point and understand that I wasn’t just a hack.
I’ve read their reviews. Even the ones who may not have cared for it completely still say you’ve created an interesting world, that is beyond dispute. Jane Fancher is an awesome world-builder.
And truly,your characters were very good and very believable. I could imagined them in many other situations and they would have seemed just as genuine and well drafted.
So you really shouldn’t take to heart this idea that the characters are deeply flawed in some way, or that the relationships you’ve set them in don’t ring true. They do.
Why then did some people put the smack down on you for all the focus on the Rhomandi brothers and their relationships?
Just guessing here, but from my experience of the book, I think it has less to do with the characters themselves, and more about the feeling of focus. I found it difficult to discern which brother was the main character. I kept wanting to attach myself to just one of them. I liked them all, but I wanted to especially like one more than the others. Maybe that’s the nature of being a reader–or maybe we are just conditioned to expect stories to be set up like that.
ROL will not let you do it. This story is about the brothers–and their relationship to each other. Maybe what you are hearing in those reviews is the frustration of not being able to pick just one character and totally invest in him–a more simple read. You have to deal with the three of them as they relate to one another.
It’s a theory anyway–it may be worthless to you, but I throw it out there because I don’t think any reviewer truly hated your book–perhaps just less than thoughtful in their commentary. (By thoughtful I mean thought out–though the other applies as well.) And I might add that if these same folk didn’t like the subsequent installments, it’s probably because they didn’t like Khyel as much as Deymio or Nikki to start with. That is a simple matter of preference.
That’s actually a very interesting thought. Never considered it that way since for me the story is truly about the three of them. I’ve always thought it funny that different people are completely convinced that one of them is my personal favorite…and all three have been elected! :D I get irritated with Nikki (not nearly so much in Alizant. The lad is growing up! YAY) I want to whack Khyel upside the head (again, he’s much better in Alizant) and Deymio…ah, heck, he’s just fun, but that doesn’t make him my favorite.
If I had to choose who is the most interesting in the original series, I’d have to say Khyel. Certainly he had the most story to tell, but he wouldn’t be nearly so interesting without his brothers to put his story in perspective.
I think you’ve hit the nail with your first set of thoughts – reading is a partnership, and what the reader brings to the story will color the reader’s response. You are not responsible for that, and you cannot please all readers. After all, readers look for very different things in a book.
Also, of course, you write what you know. What you happen to know about how siblings relate is of course drawn from your own experience, and if readers don’t have that experience they ought to think about what it is they don’t immediately relate to and let it expand their understanding of the world, not reject its validity because it is out of their experience. I agree with you, 100%, that a good writer doesn’t spell that stuff out for the reader. It is part of why your work is compelling to me. You expect your readers to think and to work. I like that. Not all readers do, though. So, you won’t please them. So what? You’ve pleased ME and surely that is sufficient ?
PS, i started RoC yesterday – didnt get very far but loved it as far as I got.
If you will recall, while WoW and others were getting the pronunciation guide from Carolyn, there were several of us in the kitchen with you discussing this very topic about families. You are the 5th of several, I am the 1st of 6. We’ve all had our differences, in my case, two of my brothers will never be able to work out those differences any longer, and a third brother doesn’t really want to. I think he’s in Nikki’s situation, where his wife has an evil influence over him, but just my opinion (along with a few other peoples’)
I agree with your assessment that the Brothers Rhomandi are most duty bound to their heritage, and must do what they must in order to preserve the web and protect the citizens from Auntie A. and the evil outside influences from the west. (hmm, just like real life, the west is considered evil, at least to the “middle” east).
I think you should take the tack that the reviewer probably does not know what they’re writing about and leave it at that. As Harlan Ellison would do, this is the story, take it or leave it.
I love Harlan.
Carolyn thinks I need to develop a healthy dose of arrogance. And I guess I do, but ultimately, a reviewer like this doesn’t so much bother me as give me just that much more insight into how the human mind works. I didn’t realize, when writing the book, just how resistant especially only children would be to the relationships. I just thought it would fun to write a book about sibs.
I still think you’ve nailed it. The oldest seems to be the one who has the drive to go out and do things, while the youngest stays home and is spoiled, especially if the parents know the youngest is the last child they’ll have. The middle child, and I cannot relate, since I’m a Deymio, is kind of stuck between the oldest and the youngest, not being given enough freedom to go out on their own, but not given as much “apparent” love as the youngest.
The brother just after me looks up to me as a role model, when I joined the Navy, he joined 4 months later. He also found out he wasn’t cut out for it, and got out after his time was up. The very youngest was as much a loner as I am, even though he had his circle of friends, he still did a lot of things alone. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to get a chance to strike out on his own, he was 2 months into his senior year in high school. The middle two brothers were completely opposite to each other in personalities. One was somewhat of a whiner, the other was a sneaky devil, always in trouble, especially if it involved the law. Well, the older one would cover for the younger one, even to the point of admitting fault to an auto accident when he wasn’t even driving. I’ve heard nothing from the younger brother that shows he was remorseful about that, but then, he doesn’t have to apologize to me, anyway. The fifth brother is a highly successful engineer for American Honda Motors, makes more in 2-1/2 days than I do in a month, and is happily married to a nurse-practitioner, they have 2 boys in college right now.
I don’t know which of us had the happiest time going through life, we don’t much discuss it, and even if they wanted to, I don’t think I want to discuss my life experiences with my brothers. They need to take care of their own lives, I’m happy where I am.
There are no absolutes…but birth order does seem to have some interesting effects. Relative age matters as well. Two middle sibs closer to the same age, go through the teen years together and I can see where that could either make for a partnership against the world or absolute competitors.
Those teen years are really significant in establishing lifelong patterns, since those are when the personality is seriously forming, as the individual begins making real decisions for their life.
So…six brothers? I guess I knew that, but still. Wow. Very sad about the youngest. That’s way too young.
Oh, I recall my teen years vividly. I don’t EVER want to go through that period again. There were very dark thoughts going through my head, not something I’d want to do now.
My middle sibs were born 354 days apart, and were completely opposite in personality. I think the younger of the two developed his covert operations skills at a younger age than teens. I also think he was with the wrong friends, but on the surface, those friends were always “such darlings”, until it was just the boys, and then all hell broke loose. One was a public embarrassment to my father in a court of law, and he’s never spoken of it, and I’ve never asked. I don’t want to know.
Both of the brothers died of heart conditions. Pete because of an enlarged heart, multiple heart attacks, and atrial tachycardia. Paul (18) because of a genetic defect that placed one of his coronary arteries in the wrong place and it was crushed one night while he was asleep.
Every one of us developed a different personality, even though we were raised (for the most part) in the same environment, went to the same school, etc., I know the second brother wanted to be just like me, but I’m glad he turned out to be just like himself. I don’t need a clone.
Wow.
I think there’s definitely personality that you’re born with. Infants show decided preferences that indicate the kind of person they’ll be as an adult. The whole “position in the lineup” is more an influence on those innate tendencies.
It’s all part of that whole nature vs nurture thing.
I remember driving my brother to school with several other gradeschoolers…all boys. He had a learning disability and went to a private, religious school that would teach him rather than stick him in special ed. Great for that, but…I never heard such language as those kids used in the car. Worse than Wesley ever thought of being. I’m sure part of it is the age group, but still…
I’ve often wondered how much association with that group affected his self image and behavior.
And I remember certain events from my own pre-teen years that definitely affect my self image to this day. So…maybe I should strike that line about the particular importance of the teenage years!
…and that calls to mind a question…could that experience of driving those boys to school also have surfaced as the treatment that Bijan (“That’s Mr.”) Shapoorian gave to Stephen? I find it remarkable that the way that Indian people (Asia, not NorAmer) were treated by the British is similar to the way Ms. Shapoorian treats Recons. Genetic Memory, indeed, I think she’s out for revenge centuries after the fact.
taken to a new message block…see below! :D
I won’t touch the question of what makes a good character (Tharr Be Dragons), but I think you hit it on the head about what makes a believable one. Versimilitude – not necessarily what is real but appears real – is the key. And our views of what “seems real” are going to be driven by our past experience, either direct or mediated through books (or film or music or…). Which, weirdly, may make it easier to create a “believable” character from an utterly alien society, since the reader brings fewer preconceptions to the table.
Hmmm…Interesting idea.
Alien or human, for me a writer has to truly understand motivation in order to create something believable. In that sense, truly alien reactions really require some form of substantiation, generally environmentally or biologically. That’s hard to do without turning the novel into a treatise. (slipping in that kind of info is an area where Carolyn really excels.)
Even with the brothers, it was important to set up the reasons for the tension that leads to the arguments. If you skim the book, you won’t get that underlying empathy that lets you understand the reactions.
OTOH, I think you’re right in that the more “flow through” reader, i.e. the one who can’t or doesn’t want to think past their own expectations, is going to accept an alien character’s actions without preconceptions. And even there, the simpler the better. Just one or two weird traits per story.
I also think that it’s why the best sellers rarely have very complex characters. I think most people are flow through readers and they find characters that don’t fit their preconceived mental slots to be disturbing.
I think the question of a good character is really very much linked to the kind of story it is. Star Wars (the original movie) was an amazing retelling of the simplest sort of tale. The characters were equally simple. It worked spectacularly well.
A more complex story requires more complex characters. I don’t really know, thinking about it, if it’s the story that makes the characters complex or the other way around.
Well rounded characters can also arise out of a series of shorter, simpler stories which continually examine different nuances of the character…but the character traits portrayed within each simple story will be simple as well. Does that make any sense?
I think when a writer tries to pack tons of complex characterization into a simple story, it begins to sound like a psychology text.
Beyond the question of the complexity, I think…for me a good character is one who uses whatever his/her talents are to solve the problem at hand and the more they have to stretch those abilities, the more they are on the edge of what they actually know they can do, the better. This is why Superman had to have Kryptonite. Without it, there was no way he could lose any battle. He was never riding the edge of his abilities.
Good characters for me are generally bit of a MacGuiver (sp?) i.e. making do with the tools at hand. A portion of the plot is them figuring out how to fix the plumbing without a wrench.
Interesting insights!
I agree with a lot that’s been said here. The only little bit of insight I can add is that in my experience (oldest of 3, aunt to 2 nephews, and looking around at other 2 or 3 child families), the middle child often is in the most complex position, and develops the most complex character, just as Khyel is. He or she isn’t just the peacemaker and bridge between oldest and youngest (ergo also the one who can always find an ally: if the oldest won’t play with you the youngest will, and look up to you) (though in RingDancers Nikki had taken on that role), and the one who feels ‘left out’ the most (least obviously loved, especially if the others have issues such as health problems that need extra attention and parental time), as has been said above, but also the most ambitious.
This last holds true for second kids in 2-kid families as well, where the above-mentioned traits are more specific to the middle one of three (& maybe more). The second kids look up to their older sibling, and want to join in his/her play and imitate him or her, but because of the age difference will always have to run to keep up, and perform (somewhat) above their current ability-level at practically every task and ability (unless the age difference is so big they really can’t play together and compete). At the same time they often need to defend their stuff, their territory, themselves and their personality from being ‘taken over’ by the older one’s ideas, so they get a good sense of ‘this is mine’ and ‘this is me’.
Also the older kid generally will regularly tell the younger one that they’re too young, they can’t do this or that, which mostly spurs a very decided will-to-win in the younger one. The older one generally gets responsibility for the younger kids dinned into them, “Play nicely”, “Share”, “You’re old enough not to act like a selfish child”, “Look after him/her” and “Why is your kid brother crying? What did you do?”. This responsibility can get transferred or shared with the younger one if the older kid has health issues: then the younger one can get to feel responsibility for the older sibling not overdoing things, while the older one can still feel generally responsible for the younger one’s happiness.
Follower and leader roles are less clear: the older one often leads, but if keeping the ambitious younger one happy means following his lead this often reverses (or else inventing a game in which the younger one can star, while maintaining the shape of the game in the background).
And a middle child can get both roles, depending on whether he’s with his older or younger sibling at a time, so often becomes more socially flexible.
And health considerations or other special circumstances will change the usual patterns, so it’s very comprehensible that protecting (starting with his brother from abuse and/or danger) became Khyel’s dominant trait, and personal ambition and a need to ‘be seen to have won’ didn’t get that much of a look-in.
I love your books! I read the first two sections of RoC yesterday, and am starting the third now: interesting new developments…
The characters, their interplay and development are exactly what’s most interesting, though I also like your world-building: you’ve got interesting ideas.
-
I just looked in to tell you that my bookstore in Amsterdam, the ABC (American Book Center) has announced that they’re getting an ‘Espresso Book Machine’ in November. See http://www.ondemandbooks.com/the_ebm.htm and especially the brochure on the right. That says that one can bring one’s own PDF-file with a PDF cover file and get it printed and bound as a book. So I’m going to try to get a printed copy of your seven books this winter, if I can do so without adding them to the EspressNet (I still have to ask the bookstore or research that) – so far the only E-books that I’ve read which I think are worth this, as I want to read them again multiple times, in comfort.
Perhaps it might be worth your while to add them to the LSI list of available POD books – the method for adding your own books to the list seems fairly straightforward, though it’s unclear how you could go about setting a price. I’d expect the POD book to be at least half again, or double the price of the E-book, $15-20 (the price of a really thick paperback book, over here), which means that even with the $1.50 or 10% commission the EspressNet people take, it shouldn’t be bad for your book-income.
As adding a book seems to involve printing it at least once, I’d be perfectly willing to buy the printed books from you, including postage etc., or to purchase it again through the EspressNet to get it printed.
Or, you could hold a kind of poll to inventory how many people want to buy a printed version from you, and run off an initial printing-run to fill those orders – in that case don’t forget to add the postage to the price!
Curiously, Khyel began life as the eldest brother, but the instant he came on stage, and especially the first time I stepped into his head, I knew he was the middle brother. Just trying to stand up to Deymio was so hard for him.
You’re so right. The middle of three is the only one who is both a younger and an older, so at the same time that they’re trying to take care of and be a role model to the younger, they’re trying to keep up with the elder. I was the fifth of six, but I was the second daughter, with my sis the next older, so I’m definitely a middle.
Thanks for the input on the printed book options. I’m looking into the various publish on demand options. I know several authors who are increasingly happy with Amazon’s PoD and ebooks. There’s no question they increase visibility. I just don’t know where we’ll settle with that. Right now, I’m just trying to get the books I’ve got written available. Unfortunately, the size of all my books is kind of prohibitive in PoD. I guess I could break them up into to smaller ones, but I just don’t know how readers would feel about that.
Anyway, once I have some solid numbers and some input on quality, I’ll put up a post and see what people think.
I’m sooooo glad you’re enjoying my kids!
Jane, I love this type of blog entry! Great incite into how your are thinking and the writing process. I think you re right on the mark with your commentary and some people just can’t deal well with complexity. My step dad is one that I know personally. Thanks for sharing! I plan on getting all of the ROL books.
Thanks! Hoping to do more like this. I’ve been so swamped with just getting covers and books and gardens done, I haven’t really thought about the process of writing for a while. I’d love it if people asked questions that inspired me to put something together.
Joe…I think we’d better take this to a new block!
Children can be remarkably cruel. They act so much on instinct and haven’t yet achieved the empathy that comes with life experience. They instinctively vie for power and incorporate (certainly in Bijan’s case) the methods of their elders without the real understanding of how those methods work.
I wasn’t thinking specifically of that historical resonance, but the methods of those in power to stay in power and use those note in power to achieve that end are fairly predictable. Bigotry, if you will, follows a pattern. To keep a people down, you restrict what they know and their economic options.
And you make their unusual ways a target for the people you’re attempting to rule, thereby bifurcating society and getting the masses watching the wrong hand…in this case the Recons, while you manipulate the laws to your advantage. Not that simple, of course, but that’s the underlying philosophy.
In this case, Shapoorian has a very powerful weapon on her side…one you don’t really know about yet…that’s a major element in ‘NetWalkers.
Thanks, yes, that block was getting a bit heavy to hold up.
I’ve witnessed firsthand the cruelty children can wreak on others. Case studies showing that children who were abused will grow up to be child abusers themselves.
After having finished “Harmonies”, I think I better understand Bijan, as well as Stephen’s way of thinking. Even though it hurt him physically, it was something he knew, something he could equate with no fear. It was the unknown threats that he feared most.
I also gained a new respect for his mother, and I THINK I understand her motives.
Wesley still confuses me, and that’s fine, his story has picked up in the middle, whereas we’ve gotten Stephen’s story just a little earlier in his life, and as the story progresses, we’ve gotten a much better insight into what makes Stephen tick. Now, if we could just get the Wesser figured out…LOL.
Hooray for Nayati, too. As a villain in the beginning, it’s nice to see that he was really NOT a bad person.
I certainly hope that Anevai is the therapy Stephen needs. I also hope that Cantrell and Wesley succeed in their mission back to Vandereaux.
Gee, the list goes on and on: lexi, Chet, TJ, Sagiima, Nigan…..oh, I certainly hope you’ve got more to come in the series.
Thanks for challenging the gray matter. I’m going to have to go back over that Dream Walk sequence again, maybe it’ll sink in.
Oh, one other question: Where did you get your Athabascan language? Considering when you wrote the stories, the Interwebz weren’t yet generally public, so you must have been buried in a library somewhere.
I would just like to support your insight as a writer whom I admire who has made me see now that my profession is way more difficult than I thought it was, and lo! I thought it was pretty difficult already. I’ve been winning tons of awards in Canada and a few elsewhere — my books are fantasy/around the corner stuff– and who gave the awards to me? Why, in all but one case, adult readers. Just as you say, I don’t think all adult readers are the same, but how many adult readers truly access the young adult world they used to live in? And how many can say that their own young adult world was “right” or “typical” or “the way things ought to be?” And so, not only do I have to (now) consider the fact that my books reach every single young adult differently because of what they bring to them, but I have to ask myself if I ever really deserved the awards I got from *adults* for these *young adult* books. I guess I deserved the one where the jury was entirely young adult readers who had read all the books on the short list. But guess who picked the short list? You’ve got it. The Canadian booksellers association. So while you were raking all this up in my mind (as you raked outside)I begin to wonder why I think I can ever reach any young adult reader at all. Do even *I* know what a young adult feels? I’ve been working my way around to this for nearly two years now, and thanks to what you’ve brought up in my own mind today, I know. My next book is going to be for a small group of adults who think mythology is totally cool and who understand that myth determines human values and beliefs, and so when I write my book where the same myth happens more than once in different time periods, they will understand that the question of whether it is possible to change the ending, really matters. And meanwhile I will stop wasting my time on goodreads and Twitter and Twatter and all that “putting myself out there” when the truth is that everyone is going to see a different me anyway. Thanks for your very important musings on this matter, and believe me, my life is going to change because of it. If you want to reply, it seems suitable to use bookavenger@hotmail.com. Thanks. Welwyn
First off…Congrats on the awards! That’s great. No matter who gave them to you, you reached them. No matter your “target” audience, if your “real” audience has found you, that’s what’s important.
Personally, I have to write the story that wants to be written. I’m not sure if that makes me “less professional” than some or not, but there you are. I’ve had a few moments where I was asked to write a short story and given a focus that triggered something that turned into a good story, but then there was the vamp story that my agent asked me to write. I came up with what I thought was a cool book, written in my style. He didn’t come out and say he wanted just one more urban fantasy, but once I turned it in to him, it became obvious that was just what he wanted.
I tried to think that way, to twist my muse, as ’twere, and it just didn’t work.
Consequently, my philosophy now is: Write because you love to write, write what wants to be written and then edit it to perfection for what it is and do your best to get it to people who want to read it. Thank god once more for the internet and persistent readers!