Category Archives: writing

Reading Dune

 

In fits and starts I have completed a re-read of the classic Science fiction novel Dune by Frank Herbert. I had to work in fits and starts because a growing cataract situation in both eyes has limited my reading hours and much of those have been devoted to my current work in progress novel. I have read Dune before and wanted to revisit the material ahead of the release of the latest adaptation coming in October of this year.

Dune, set in a distant far-future, concerns the bitter and lethal rivalry between feuding noble houses, a treacherous emperor plotting against his own kin, a suppressed people on a harsh and unforgiven world, ecological transformation, and cartel powers all centered on a planet where deserts are the entirety of the surface area.

On one level the novel can be read as an adventure story as Paul Atreides having survived the destruction of his noble house plats, plans, and takes revenge on the forces that killed his father and exiled both he and his mother.

Another reading is as a warning about the power of charismatic leaders and religious fanaticism with Paul’s quest illustrating how even ‘just’ causes often lead to horror and injustice. The work can also be interpreted as treatise on the interconnectedness of life and the dependence everything shares with everything else in an ecology.

The theme one comes away with from Dune, adventured story, prophetic warning, or ecological explainer depends entirely on the read and what they brought with them to the process.

Published in the early 60s, Dune reflects much of its period and how prose fiction has changed in the intervening nearly sixty years.

By today’s writing styles Dune is a novel that engaged in a lot of head hopping. In the middle of a scene the point of view will shift from character to character revealing their inner unspoken thoughts. This is frowned upon current fiction where it is expected that each scene is recounted from a single character’s point of view. For modern readers Dune can appear to be frenetic, choppy, and uneven.

More out of step with current culture is Dune’s approach to homosexuality. The principal antagonist of the novel Baron Harkonnen is presented as a corpulent, greedy, vile person without any redeeming qualities and it is clear that his sexuality is meant to be a mark of his evil nature.

The novel also appears to support the concept of eugenics without expressing endorsement for the result. The Emperor’s elite troops and the Fremen of the planet Dune are both, in the eyes of the novel, superior to any other fighting force because of the harsh and unforgiving nature of their home-worlds, which is a simplistic and naïve understanding of what makes a superior fighting person or force. In addition the novel presents us with the Bene Gesserit a faction devoted to a secret plan to breed a superior human with psionic abilities that unifies the masculine and feminine natures of humanity. Even for the early 60s this is a very binary view of human gender with men reduced to ‘takers’ and women to ‘givers’ without acknowledging the subtleties and overlap even within a binary viewpoint.

Dune is very a product of its time and even given its period the basic premises were already considered quite conservative challenges that the filmmaker will have to overcome in craft a cinematic experience that will be acceptable to modern audiences.

Here’s a reminder that my own SF novel, Vulcan’s Forge is available from FlameTree Press and can be purchased wherever to by fine books.

 

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Ghost Stories and Mysteries: Minefields of Exposition

 

All stories require exposition. From romances set in the modern day to period pieces, fantasies, and science-fiction all tales require a level of explanation about the characters and how their lives and histories intersect with the larger world around them, but ghost stories and mysteries raise the bar for the writer in both the amount of exposition required and the skill to deploy it in a satisfying manner.

Ghost stories often turn on a mystery, why there this ghost, what events created it and what is needed for the restless dead to finally rest. In that way a ghost story is an often, but not always, a mystery where the dead actively participate. Mysteries are built upon the fact that there is hidden knowledge that will be revealed and its revelation with illuminate both plot and character in a satisfying way.

For both types of stories, the exposition usually arrives late, near the end, when the final pieces are slotted into place and the truth is finally uncovered. This is the moment of greatest danger for the writer.

It’s very tempting and trap to have one character deliver the exposition in a massive info dump laying out all the particulars of the plot and how the various elements interlock creating the narrative. If managed skillfully and with dramatic tension still alive, look to Knives Out for a fine example of this performed masterfully both in the writing and by the actors, the reveal can be exciting and dramatic. Done badly and it’s a boring scene with usually one actor forced to attempt to salvage the story by eating the scenery.

This week I watched The Nesting, a title which makes no sense whatsoever, a horror movie and Gloria Grahame’s final film performance, about an agoraphobic woman and her experiences in a haunted house. The core story and set up are perfectly serviceable but when it comes time to deliver the expositions we are treated to John Carradine, sadly far past his prime, attempting to deliver a clunky info dump as his character dies. The film was hardly working before and this badling worked exposition killed what little life remained.

If you are writing a ghost story or mystery, take particular care around the final exposition, remember that a scene, including expository ones, require tension derived from a character trying to achieve something and facing obstacles in that pursuit.

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Thinking About Another SF Noir Novel

 

 

As I close in on finishing my current work in progress, a murder mystery set on a ship that has been traveling between the start for over 230 years, I am beginning to consider what to write next.

Last year my debut novel Vulcan’s Forge was published by Flametree press and while being released the week the world shutdown at the start of this damnable pandemic did nothing good for its sales number its blending of off-world science-fiction with classic film noir styling proved to be fun to write and fairly well reviewed. I have the basics of a plot already in mind for my next novel in fact it has been sitting and cooking on the back burner for about six months and recently I had the epiphany that it may work best as a noirish story. It would however make in one way a major break with noir’s genre conventions.

Noir, in my opinion, is strongest and most compelling with the driving force of the plot is some base human emotion, greed or lust being the most common ones used. Noir has a cynical worldview and tends to view people in the worst possible light. Friends and lovers will betray you and you cannot count on even yourself much less anyone else.

But is it possible to craft a noir where the driving motivation is one that is generally considered admirable? That is the idea that has taken root in my brain. A character obsessed with something most people would agree is a good and valuable goal but in order to achieve it step by step walks themselves down a dark, twisted path where events spin beyond their control.

I think this can work. I think it could be an interesting study of how even a good person with good goals can so easily lose their way when they accept the adage that the ends justify the means.

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I Must Be Dreaming

 

It’s a cliche and before it became a cliche a character muttering during a fantastic event ‘I must be dreaming’ still never worked for me.

The tired bit has a long and stories track record which even includes Goldfinger as Bond mutters the phrase when he awakes and Pussy Galore tells him her name. Here’s why this particular trope has never convinced me that the character’s reaction is authentic.

Never once in any dream that I can remember have I ever considered for a moment that I was dreaming. No matter how fantastic or mundane or improbable the events, locals, or characters that appear in my dreams at the moment they occur they accepted as established reality. Recently I dreamt that I was attending some event and the governor of California was there, not Newsom just some generic guy, dressed in the terrible plaid jacket with stripped slacks. I was about to comment that his style was worse that the mayor of Amity in Jaws but then noticed that Murray Hamilton, who0 played the mayor, was not only sitting right beside me but wearing an identical outfit.

I do not associate with either high ranking politicians or actors and Hamilton dies in 1986 but none of this caused even the slightest hesitation in my acceptance of this reality. It is dream-logic and as you experience it is it solid and unquestioned.

The ‘I must be dreaming’ utterance is a weak shortcut to try and pull out of the character some emotional experience to their current situation. Writers would be better off if at the moment that are tempted to type those words if they stopped and searched for a more intimate and personal way to express the character’s wonderment.

 

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A Bad Year

 

One year ago my planned book launch event at Mysterious Galaxy had already had its attendance limited to the growing pandemic and we were just one day before California and very quickly following the United States and the world shutting its doors and going into lockdown.

My novel Vulcan’s Forge was released from Flametree Press March 27th, 2020 and I can speak with some authority that having your debut book hit the shelves the week the world goes into lockdown is terrible for sales. IT sort like if a sprinter at the starting gun discovers after hitting the ground with his face that someone has ties his laces together. Yeah, you’re in the race but you are not going to win it.

Of course, things were going to get worse. The lockdown shuttered all of our social lives and in June of 2020 my friend of 40 years died of COVID 19. here in 2021, we have lost in the United States alone more than half a million people to this pandemic and in the scale of such disasters poor book sales are less than inconsequential.

Still, I recognize that things could have been worse for me. I never lost an hour of employment and my wife and I have not contracted the disease and are now vaccinated against it.

The year did not have to be this disastrous and it is now upon us to rebuild our lives, rebuild our communities, and honor those who were cruelly taken from us.

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I Dislike Cliffhangers

I Dislike Cliffhangers

 

Recently, that is over the last few weeks, a friend and I started watching the Netflix Original Series, The Umbrella Academy,a series about a set of people all born on the same day, collected/adopted by a wealthy mysterious eccentric mand and turned into a crime fighting superpowered group before internal dissention ripped them apart. Now, as adults the enhanced individuals must reunite, overcome their personal and interpersonal issues, solve the enigmatic death of the adopted father and oh save the world from an apocalypse coming in just seven days.

*Some spoilers ahead*

Overall, I have really enjoyed the show. The production values at top shelf, the performances perfectly walk that line between realistic believable characters and comic book excess, and the plotting moves along at a snappy pace while still taking time to explore who each of these characters really is. All in all, well worth the time to watch.

But.

Season one ends on a cliffhanger and I truly despise that.

Modern television seems to have become infected with the season cliffhanger from the cultural event that was ‘Who Shot JR?’ on Dallas back in the 80s and the disease has spread wide and far particularly into genre shows and with the advent of long-form storytelling it metastasized.

I have no issues with dangling out plot threads to be picked up and following seasons. That’s pure addictive junk food and should be encouraged but promising a resolution to a central story and at the last moment yanking it back like Lucy with the football is simply cruel, capricious, and crappy. If I have invested ten hours of my time, or my life, watching your art then at the end I want you freakin’ art to be complete.

Again, this is not a rant against the concept of series or a plea to return to the artificiality of solely episodic story telling. Pratchett’s Discworld novels are one of my beloved reads and each book builds upon the previous in its storyline, but each book is also whole and complete. When I finish one, I have been told a tale that has a beginning middle and an end.

An End.

Aye, there’s the rub. I have a strong opinion that the ending of a story is where the purpose and reason for the story exists. It is why we experienced the story to have that moment of catharsis or epiphany or loss that gives the tale its meaning and its power a cliffhanger robs the audience/reader of that promise and that release.

 

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Migraines Suck

 

For whatever reasons the last few days, since Sunday, I have been enduring a spat of smallish migraines. This forced me to bail on my twice monthly writers’ groups meeting and has hampered but not stopped the revisions and edits to my next novel.

I have been making it out the door each day to my day-job but in the evening it’s difficult to get more than the bare minimum work done on my writing.

My meds work and will usually dispatch the headache but sadly they leave me feeling ‘off,’ and with my scalp tight as though it is two sizes too small for my head.

All that said I am still pleased with the new novel and have high hopes of getting it out the door soon to editors and agents.

The pandemic smashed my debut last year, turns out have your novel published the week the world shuts down is not so good for sales, but in the scheme of things I have done so much better than so many that it would be quite petty to complain.

Here’s hoping everyone’s days get better.

 

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Quick Thoughts

 

Running a little late this morning after getting engrossed in what looks to be a fairly balanced article on both the 1619 Project and 1776 report so here are a few fast thoughts for the morning.

1) I have finished the first draft of my new novel. This one will require more revisions that previous first drafts as to character and plot I made changes and discovered new paths not represented in the outline.

2) Cuomo’s troubles are a perfect example of why you should not people anyone on a pedestal. His news briefings during the height of last year’s pandemic cases in New York presented him as sort of an ‘Anti-Trump’ and yet like Trump he hid information that would hurt him and apparently is a sexual creep as well. It should be noted however that the Mainstream new is reporting on his misdeeds and the accusation and not playing hide the salami as Fox does with Republican scandals the presenting the different between bias and propaganda.

3) It’s great seeing the speed of vaccination increase and with J&J’s vaccine not approved for emergency use that’s another weapon in our fight against COVID.

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Pedestals Are for Things Not People

 

With the flood of new support for Charisma Carpenter and Ray Fisher as they recount abusive and toxic environments on sets under the control of Joss Whedon it is important to remember that any artistic creator no matter how beloved their work are fallible flawed messy human beings not statuary icons of platonic virtue.

One can adore an artist’s work such as Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, or Chinatown and still recognized and condemn the creator for their actions or unjust philosophies.

It is equally justifiable to refuse to engage with their art if the offense is beyond a pale you can accept. That is a line that each person must determine for themselves.

Wherever you draw your personal line of embargo it is important long before that moment before the horrible revelations come to light that you do not place these people on the pedestals of adoration, that is where the art belongs, but always remind yourself that no matter the touching nature of their creations they people and that  good art can come from bad people.

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I Write Lean

 

As I approach the end of the first draft of my new novel I am once again struck with thoughts on my own writing process.

Many sf/fantasy novels today are well north of 100,000 words and yet my own works tend to land around that mark or under. Vulcan’s Forge (available from all booksellers) was a slim 80,000 and generally well-reviewed and the feedback I got was that the exposition was deft and sufficient so it would not appear that I am shortchanging on conveying my world-building to readers.

It is simply that I write lean. This is not to say I write better or worse than authors who have much larger works. It is a function of both plot and style not of quality. I find that in my editing and even in my critiquing I tend to be an advocate of cutting out words, phrases, or sentences for more direct writing.

I think this stylistic approach is in part a development that sprung from my lifelong love of film. Cinema is by its nature a very lean form of storytelling. While producing longer books os more expensive that cost increase is nothing compared to the fantastic cost of making a feature length film. This constraint presses on production to tell their stories in the simplest, leanest, method possible that can still achieve the artistic vision of the film. It is perhaps the single most identifiable element of my voice. (Someone else would have to speak to that matter I seem constitutionally incapable of seeing hearing my own voice in my fiction.)

I am quite comfortable with my lean prose and writing and hopefully others will be as well.

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