Secret Identities (WW? #20)

This week’s Writer’s Weekly Question gives me a chance to revisit my childhood.

Writer's Weekly Question # 20:
Have you ever created a character based on someone you know? Was it because you liked the person, or disliked the person? How was the character different or like the person you based him or her on?

My answer to this one is a definite “Yes.” In fact, some of the earliest characters I ever created were based on people I knew in middle school. I’ve made mention in a previous WW? that I used to create superhero characters and that I originally wanted to be a comic book writer. One of the oldest groups I created were called “The Demon Riders.” I had this thing plotted out for more than a hundred issues, not that I ever wrote one, but I also created drawings and profiles of the characters.

In the early days, I used the actual names of the people. Upping the challenge, I’d even go so far as to mimic the hairstyle of these people based on yearbook pictures. What’s humorous is to realize that I never borrowed someone to create a villain. When I did use someone’s name and persona, I meant it as a compliment, that I thought they had something within them that could be heroic. Most of them never knew I did this. A few did, most of whom were among my closest friends. Far as I know, only one person ever found out after the fact, and blessedly, she didn’t think I was some kind of stalker freak (I’d previously asked her out, got the “just friends” turndown, awkward teen angst followed... Years later, we ended up getting married to different people a week apart... Weiiiiiiiird).



These drawings come from my last crop of superhero drawings back in high school. The names have been blurred out, because there’s no way for me to know how these people would respond should they recognize themselves, no matter how unlikely it is they’ll see this blog entry. That said, I can name at least one of them. My best friend growing up, and the best man when I got married is Stephen Long. He lived on the street behind me back in middle school. Stephen’s inspired quite a few characters. We made up all sorts of superhero adventures as kids, and I can credit him with making me into a huge “X-Men” comic book fan.

Stephen has inspired more than one character of mine. The first was a character, codenamed “Hawk” at his request. Years later, I drew on a lot of my old characters from my “Demon Rider” days to create some of the characters within the book my wife and I are writing, The Last VanDaryn. This was the first time where the character really took on a life of its own. For a long time, the name of that character was Stephen Hawkke. Only recently did that change. The last name of Hawkke survived, but the first name was changed to something that sounds more in keeping with the fictional society of Iridia.



Ironically, I’m still using a lot of these characters, and as happened with Hawkke, they’ve grown into characters quite independent of their original inspiration. In most cases, the last names have been changed. They’re no longer superheroes, either, but rather agents within the CIA. They’re all characters within what I hope will be one of the biggest epics I ever write. That has a working title of The Dark Hours and is something of a reverse on your typical alien conspiracy theory. Only a handful of the original characters have carried over, though, and I doubt any others will. Stephen’s character is the only one who sports the name of his original inspiration, Stephen Long. For a long time, the character had even retained his nickname of “Hawk,” but with a “Hawkke” in The Last VanDaryn, I decided it was one Hawk too many. Agent Long would simply have to make a name for himself with his real name. Even more humorous, Stephen might find life as a third character within yet another book, but plans for that one are rather sketchy.

The Dark Hours unfortunately lingers in limbo. When will I get back to that story? Most likely, I’ll return to it after I’ve finished with The Last VanDaryn and The Cold Shoulder. The good news for me is that I’ve already written more than 50,000 words for The Dark Hours, and odds favor that a new draft will let me copy and paste much of my work from that previous draft. A few important changes are needed, but even my wife has said some of my best work was in there.

On a humorous note, my kids came into the room as I was digging out these old drawings and all the rest that were packed up with them. My six-year-old daughter, who is quite the budding artist, was mightily impressed. “Did you draw these when you were a little boy, Daddy?” I told her I did, and she was excited when she recognized “Hawk” in more than one drawing.

DUST JACKETS: End of Days

One of my favorite local writers is Dennis Danvers. I’m not a big fan of science fiction, but I love the stuff that Dennis writes. As is the case with a lot of science fiction, Dennis often draws on some universal religious themes for his writing. Religion plays an important part in what makes his book End of Days work.

First off, let me make it clear that his book is in no way related to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie of the same name. In fact, the only thing these two stories have in common is the title.

End of Days is set in an alternate future where the majority of humanity has abandoned life in the real world for an existence without death inside “the Bin,” a massive virtual reality program. People’s souls are transferred into the Bin and their bodies destroyed. Some resist the idea of life within the Bin, some more violently than others.

End of Days was Dennis’ second novel set within this world. I had previously read and enjoyed the first book Circuit of Heaven, and I was startled to discover very few of the characters from that book return for this sequel. They didn’t need to, and it’s best they didn’t. The most important character did return: the world itself.

For this second book, we’re given a man within the Bin who’s had enough of “eternal life” and wants to find a way to die. Then there’s Walter Tillman, one of the Bin’s creators, trapped alone within a prototype of the Bin.

In the real world, what’s left of it, Washington, D.C.’s ruins have fallen under the control of a religious zealot and terrorist named Gabriel. One of his young soldiers Sam has become disillusioned and finds himself at odds with the religious army he’s part of after stumbling upon the mini-Bin containing Tillman. Sam teams up with a female construct (a clone/servant race Tillman helped design) named Laura to rescue Tillman, but there’s much more at stake.

Gabriel has learned the Bin, which he thought he’d destroyed, still exists. He’s intent on finishing the job. Having found his own method for eternal life outside the Bin, Gabriel has time on his side, as well as an army. Even as his plans draw to a close, those within the Bin are facing the ultimate challenge to “life without end”: is there purpose to a life without death?

This was a special book for me, because it was given as a gift from Dennis himself at one of the James River Writers Conferences. I had mentioned to him that I’d enjoyed Circuit of Heaven and that I hoped I’d be able to find End of Days in hardback. That was on the first day of the conference. The next day, he handed me an autographed copy of End of Days in hardback. That also made me a little nervous about reading it. Knowing the writer of a book always creates this fear as a reader that if you don’t like the book, how will you ever look that writer in the face again? I’ve felt that fear almost every time I’ve read Dennis’ books, and I don’t know why, because his books never disappoint.

One of the most interesting things about this book is how it ends. One could argue that Dennis cheated himself out of a trilogy, because the last few chapters cover a period of several years. Yet, I’m not sure this book would have been as satisfying without those chapters, nor am I so certain the subplots within those chapters could be expanded into an entire book. I can definitely say that things do not work out the way you’d expect. The story contains a lot of great twists with some of the best within this section.

What makes Dennis’ writing so great is how he can take the fantastic and make it seem so ordinary… and in doing so, make it even more fascinating. He doesn’t try to predict the future within his books. Rather, he gives us a different view of the world in which we already live. That’s what the best science fiction strives to accomplish, and his books deserve a place among them.

Other Books by Dennis Danvers:



Oh, and a small note on the "Other Books" section above. You'll notice the book entitled The Bright Spot is written by a "Robert Sydney." For the long, long, long time readers of the Lair, you might recall this is a pen name of Dennis' for his most recent book. I might add that The Bright Spot is possibly my favorite book by Dennis.

How to Write with a Spouse (and Not Kill Each Other)

For many years, my wife Sheri and I both wanted to write. Most of our writing ambition involved characters that would never meet, but after a few years of marriage (and six years of dating before that), something unexpected happened. We had created characters from the same “world,” and we both had stories we wanted to tell about them.

This created a real problem for us. I had finished the first draft of a story entitled The Knight of Death, a story that involved many of these shared characters and our shared reality. This led us to an interesting question: What would happen if my book got published? Would Sheri automatically be screwed and unable to use these characters and settings within books of her own for whatever copyright or other legal reasons there might be?

We posed this question to one of the literary agents speaking at the first James River Writers Conference. The lady in question was Jody Rein who runs a rather successful literary agency out of Colorado. When we asked her our aforementioned question, her reply was a rather honest, “I don’t know.” Jody did offer this bit of advice, though: since we both created it, why not just put both of our names on it? She also pointed out what a great marketing angle it would be to sell ourselves as a husband and wife team.

My wife and I took Jody’s advice to heart. After the conference, we decided to do the editing for The Knight of Death together. That way, the book would truly be a joint effort. Now prior to this point, Sheri had read the rough draft I’d done, and she hadn’t found any major problems with it. Well, once we started editing, she started finding a whole host of things that she thought didn’t make sense, a fact that left me irritably wondering where such insights were weeks before when it was just my book. Twenty pages into our “editing,” after yet another of my wife’s “brilliant ideas,” I rather angrily pointed out through grit teeth, “We aren’t editing anymore. We’re rewriting.” This was not a pretty moment in our marriage, one full of yelling, tears and even a moment where my wife went for a car ride just to get out of the house and pull herself together in private. No, I most certainly did not win the award for “Husband of the Year” in 2003.

Both of us licking our wounds, we continued our effort to rewrite The Knight of Death. I think the scene that confirmed for us how to write together involved a conversation between Knight Mikhael Bek and his sister, by way of adoption, Isabeau VanDaryn. Within this scene, Isabeau calls on Mikhael during the day as he’s asleep to confront him about his conduct which included an assault upon one of his fellow knights. Now, we had already discussed working on this scene together, the thought being I would write Mikhael’s side of the conversation and Sheri would handle Isabeau’s. Nonetheless, I was impatient and took a stab at it. All proud with my finished product, I let Sheri read it. Here is a summation of her reaction, “Isabeau wouldn’t say that…wouldn’t do that…none of it’s right.” I don’t think the “Hello” I had coming out of Isabeau’s mouth even survived. My lesson was learned. I couldn’t write the voice for this character my wife had created. That was the key to figuring things out, though.

The Knight of Death, in its finished form from that first joint effort, will never see the light of day. The experience was not a wasted one, however. We used that book to find our way to work together. When we approach a book, we essentially divide up the characters. Some of them are like Mikhael, who is basically a character only I can properly write... not merely in terms of his dialogue but his point-of-view. Likewise, Sheri has certain characters only she can write, like Isabeau. So when we write a scene in our book, the person doing the majority of the writing depends on which character’s point-of-view is best for the scene. Sometimes, it’s obvious. If none of Sheri’s characters are in the scene, then I write it. We’ve never made up a formal list. We just know who owns which character. There are a few shared characters, mind you. Although, we’ve had a few “shared characters” turn into “assigned characters” after it’s become clear one of us just can’t get the character right.

Once I’ve written a scene, I try to let Sheri get ahold of it as soon as possible. The main reason is to avoid “attachment issues.” What are attachment issues? The longer something I’ve written sits around, the more “attached” I become to that piece in its current form. The longer I have to get attached to it, the more resistant I get to any suggestions by my wife to change it. This works the other way, too. I get ahold of her work as soon as possible to touch it up where I think it’s needed.

Would that writing together was this simple, but there’s a lot of other work that goes into writing these books... work that takes place long before the first page is even written. We don’t always see these characters or settings the same. One of the principle locations in our book is VanDaryn Castle. Would you believe that my wife and I wasted the longest time debating the color of the brick? Nothing else, mind you, just the color of the brick. I saw it grey; she saw it off-white. I finally caved on this point, even though in my mind, I still see that castle in grey. One thing we agreed on was to make the castle round. Then we researched castles and realized what a logistical headache such a design would be. We kept it round, but the design of that castle nearly tested the limits of our patience.

The point is that for almost every setting, every character and every country... there’s a blue print, a profile or a map. Organizations such as the knighthood and priesthood need a detailed hierarchy. We had to build a history for this country that was once an empire, figure out how it became an empire and how that empire crumbled. We had to design our villain, figure out where he came from. When you write as a team, you can still let the story take you where it leads, but you can’t let the world be a whim. Before we ever wrote the first page, we had to profile each character, creating an origin and a basic description that included height, weight, eye color, hair color/length, scars, etc.

Even once we started writing, we found new things that need a little research or a file or a design. In one draft of a book, my wife decided to have a character given a fresh set of Iridian armor. The armor isn’t your typical medieval outfit. I’d never intended it that way. I had a drawing (which you see here) that offered the basic design. There’s a small problem with this armor. There’s no way it would ever work. More than halfway through our first draft of The Last VanDaryn, we had to completely redesign the armor for our knights. We checked armor books, searched websites that sold recreations of all sorts of armor throughout the ages. As we work our way through our second draft of TLV, we won’t need that scene, but all that research has made it easier to reference the knights' uniforms and define their actions and movements for the simple act of sitting down to relax.

Then there’s the most daunting thing of all: veto power. A scene isn’t done until we both agree it’s done. I had a chapter where Sheri decided it just didn’t work. The castle (one other than VanDaryn Castle) needed more description. There were details about the castle in the first draft that I’d left out. The conversation didn’t work. I went through this scene about five times. I changed a character, replacing him with an entirely new one. I even wrote up a profile for the jerk, and in the end, Sheri felt he didn’t work at all and had me change him back to the original character. She had me freaking furious, and I let her know it, too. The most frustrating thing of all was that she was right and she couldn’t do anything to help. Every character in the scene belonged to me. She simply couldn’t write this scene.



Ironically, we recently worked on a chapter where the shoe was on the other foot... an interrogation scene. After three vetoes, I had her ready to run me through with a sword. She finally demanded I try writing it, and I did. To do it, I still relied on the dialogue she’d already given her designated character. I just reordered it and completely reworked the wording of the interrogator (my skills as a 911 operator served me well, too). Even then, I could only take the scene so far. The scene was from her character’s point-of-view, and only Sheri could finish it. Our writers group recently critiqued this scene, and I can’t tell you how relieved we were when it fared well.

You might think after reading all this, “What the hell is the benefit of writing as a team with all that extra work?” The greatest benefit is that I can never lower my guard as a writer. My first editor is right there waiting to grab me by the scruff of my “wildcat” neck and throw me back to the keyboard to start over if I screw up. Working with Sheri pushes me to do better every time I write. I can’t tell you how excited I get when I write something I not only know in my heart is good but manages to surprise Sheri with something she wasn’t expecting. There’s also the benefit of brainstorming. Every time we finish a scene, the next question is always the same: So what’s next? Sometimes the answer is an easy one, but other times, it’s not so simple. We bat ideas back and forth, and in the end, we sometimes come up with a real gem. We did that just this week. We had hit a point in the book where I just didn’t know what to do next that wouldn’t make the plot lag, and the solution we found left me dancing around the office like an idiot. There are other benefits. Small a thing as it is, my description of clothing sucks. Sheri’s much better at it. When I hit such a point in a scene, I’ll often leave a comment in parenthesis such as “(cool dress to be described by my oh-so-lovely-wife).” My worst fear is to accidentally leave that in a rough draft we send to an agent or publisher.

There’s one benefit I haven’t mentioned that doesn’t affect the book. This reality we’ve created is a child of our marriage. Over the years, I’ve seen people who’ve been married less time than we have who have nothing to talk about with each other. Yes, we have our children and our jobs, but our writing gives us a unique reason to talk almost constantly. Our creative spirit keeps us close and with something new always to be found. It’s not just a devotion to our story, but a commitment to each other.

I know some of the Lair’s readers have long wondered about how my wife and I write together. I hope this answers most of their questions. You might be interested to know just how curious I am to learn how other writing teams manage this. Do they do it as we do, or have they found some other system? What would they think of our method? I’ve not yet had the pleasure of meeting another writing team to find out, but I can’t tell you how much I hope to one day.

Cat Seeing Double

Well, for only the second time since I started my blog, I’m calling it quits on a book before I’ve read all of it. Sorry to say that Shirley Rousseau Murphy’s mystery Cat Seeing Double just isn’t doing it for me. I’m rather disappointed, because the concept behind this book and series offers so much promise.

The gimmick (most every mystery series tends to have one) for Murphy’s “Joe Grey” series involves cats who can talk to humans. The three cats within the book who are capable of this only reveal it to a few humans. They don’t quite fit in with regular cats and the part of the book that addressed this turned out the most interesting part for me. Frankly, if the book had chosen to explore more of the cats’ existence and origins, I’d have probably enjoyed it more. Yes, I had no problem with the cats being able to talk. I think part of this was because the human characters come across so two-dimensional, that I was hungry for a decent character no matter what its species.

Cat Seeing Double comes rather late within the series. It’s the eighth book, and Murphy doesn’t offer much sympathy for readers who haven’t read the previous books. Within the first three pages, she names about seven characters. As if that doesn’t create enough confusion for a newbie to her series, she references events in the past, present and future all within these three pages. From a writing standpoint, it’s a big ol’ mess that leaves one wondering why an editor didn’t point out she was clearly starting at the wrong point in the book. The references to the future give away all the surprises, including the murder of an estranged husband.

Much of the book is told from the point-of-view of Ryan Flannery. Ryan would be the wife of the aforementioned husband-to-die. She’s also the prime suspect. That creates another problem for me as a reader, because with much of the book being told from her point-of-view, I felt no suspense. She’s not guilty, and I pretty much know she won’t be found guilty either. So yes, there might be the suspense of “What if she’s wrongly convicted of the murder?” Well, for that to matter, I need to like the character, and frankly, I was wishing for a double homicide instead of just Ryan’s husband. She amounted to little more than “rescue bait” within the first half of the book, which was all I could stand to read.

Ryan wasn’t the only person I didn’t like as a character. Frankly, I just couldn’t believe in many of these characters. Of all the players in Murphy’s book, the cats are not only the most interesting but the most developed. Had she ditched the mystery and focused on these cats and their lives, misfits within both the worlds of cats and humans, I’d have enjoyed this more. Of course, then it wouldn’t be a mystery novel anymore. It would be a fantasy novel.

Another element that turned me off was the overuse of one word: evil. The people behind a bombing on a wedding are called "evil" a bit too much. I’m not suggesting that the attack on the wedding isn’t wrong morally, but evil is too powerful a word. It’s not unlike the way newscasters constantly find ways of inserting the word “tragedy” into any story where someone dies and thus weaken the word’s impact when it is appropriate.

Reading Cat Seeing Double, I sense Murphy’s “Joe Grey” series has fallen into the same problem that befalls many series. The book is too caught up in the soap opera of the characters’ lives, and the mystery is shoved into the back seat. This creates a need for Murphy to do scenes from the point-of-view of characters that just don’t really add anything to the book. Most mystery novels work best with a sparse selection of POV characters. This book definitely needs that.

The mystery offers up a lot of potential holes, and I really wanted to finish the book so I could gripe about these, too. Unfortunately, I couldn’t finish, so it wouldn’t be fair for me to get into this too much. After all, Murphy might make good on these events that don’t seem to make sense within the first half. Nonetheless, much of the mystery elements feel too contrived for my tastes.

Other Books by Shirley Rousseau Murphy:



This book also suffered because of the amount of writing I’ve been doing. Murphy’s book couldn’t compete with my desire to write. I’d put it down for several days while I was busy writing, and the idea of getting back into Cat Seeing Double just made me groan. I sat down this morning, determined to finish it... but a half hour later, I found myself just skimming through the pages. I couldn’t take it any longer.

Despite all of my complaints, I’m not necessarily going to give up on Murphy’s “Joe Grey” series. The cats really do offer a lot of promise, so I might someday venture back to try the first book. After all, Murphy’s managed to make this into a successful series, so she’s obviously doing something right for some people. Besides, I might well have just stumbled upon the "dog" in the series (Sorry, the pun was just too good to resist!).

I’m also intrigued by a cat book she wrote which was strictly fantasy called The Catswold Portal. This appears to have been one of her early books, originally published in 1993, and was just re-released in paperback last year.

Discriminating Writing (WW? #19)

Even coming in late with an answer to Jess’ latest Writer’s Weekly Question, I’m still finding it tough to answer this one.

Writer's Weekly Question #19:
We are a society that is literally besieged by historical, political, social, and even religious upheaval and decisions due to our connection to an information driven world. Do these things impact our creative process and do our opinions concerning various historical, political, social, and religious questions show up in our products (this can be writing, or art, or other things that involve creative process)? If so, how?

I’d say there’s little doubt that my answer is “Yes.” In fact, I’m surprised by how much of my political and religious views just sneak in there when I’m writing. I was born in 1973, so I was quite a ways post-civil rights movement. Even so, I grew up in a “New South” where equality of sex and race were a never-ending source of angst despite the fact such matters were supposedly resolved in the Constitution and the courts. Certainly, the South doesn’t have the market cornered on equality issues. One need only watch a half hour of news anywhere in this nation, and you’re almost guaranteed to find some story about someone’s rights being trampled upon because of their race, sex, religious beliefs and/or sexual orientation.

I could list lots of other issues, but for the sake of keeping this entry from growing too long, I’ll focus on equality. Perhaps the most telling element to my writing where equality is concerned has to do with women. I’ve even written a previous entry bemoaning how women are treated in most fantasy novels. Women are equals. Yes, they come with their unique quirks, but we guys do, too. In the end, there truly is little a man can do that a woman can’t and vice versa. I grew up with a sister who was a tomboy. She taught me sports, not my father. I didn’t just grow up being told women were equal. I grew up expecting a woman to be my equal, and if she behaved as anything less, I just couldn’t really respect her. I can’t say that view has changed much.

If the barrage of information in the news and other media about equality influenced me in anyway, it was to make me tired of hearing about it. I can’t tell you how many times I read a story about some young woman thrust into what has typically a “man’s” title and must overcome the doubts and scorn of the men and women around her. Whenever I read these stories, I just cringe. What I love are the stories that don’t beat me over the head with these things. I’ve heard about it in the news and in my home. Guess what. I’m far past sold on the idea of judging a person based on their actions versus their genetics.

In my last rant about women in fiction, I praised Robert Jordan’s “Wheel of Time” series. The reason I enjoy it so much is that we aren’t constantly hit over the head with the stereotype of women being treated as inferior. The playing field is a lot more equal in those books, but it’s still a far cry from a perfect world. The men and women still can’t get along. The men vent about how women treat them; the women still complain about the mule-headed men, but you don’t see these women being questioned for being able to hold power. Even when these female rulers are feared, it’s not about their sex or their race. It’s fear of their power alone, not a fear of women with power.

The irony is that I’m not so much tired of the women worrying about being underestimated by men. I’m tired of the men always being treated as doubting the ability of women. There are men who think a woman is just as capable; I’m one of them. I’d rather read more about guys like that.

One of my favorite moments in Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonflight is when one of the old-timer dragonriders learns the “modern day” riders don’t let their queens fight in order to protect them. The modern rider is floored by this reaction and asks if the old-timers really allow their queens to fight. The old-timer practically laughs at him and says, “Allow?...You can’t stop them.”

So let me bring this roundabout answer full circle. Yes, I’m influenced by the information glut around me. I’m quite the sponge when it comes to that stuff, but it’s not always a matter or mimicking what I see and read. Sometimes, when I write, my goal is to take these things to the next step.

The issue of tolerance in its many forms shows up quite often within my writing. There are elements of racism, nationalism and religious discrimination throughout. I’m not so much interested in these struggles as they apply to the individual who is being discriminated against. What fascinates me is how a society must change to accept these differences and still find a way to retain its beliefs and identity.

Getting Back to Work

Since day one of my blog, I’ve made mention of The Last VanDaryn, the book my wife and I are writing together. In all the time since, one thing I’ve never done is say what it’s about. While I do think it’s important not to give too much away, I recently realized my wife and I really do need to get more practice pitching our story.

So what is The Last VanDaryn all about? For that matter, what is a VanDaryn? The story involves three main players: Squire Isabeau VanDaryn, her adopted brother Mikhael Bek and an army of the undead known as the Dymnarae. The “First” and most powerful Dymnarae has returned from eons of absence determined to wipe out the ruling family of Iridia, the VanDaryns. The one weapon capable of destroying the First Dymnarae may only be wielded by a VanDaryn, and Isabeau is the last of her line. Mikhael, a young knight, has spent his life training to destroy Dymnarae. If he can’t fend off the rest of the Dymnarae long enough for Isabeau to battle the First, then Iridia will not survive.

For those who aren’t fans of fantasy, you likely read this and go, “It sounds like every other fantasy novel.” I wouldn’t completely disagree with this. There are a limited number of stories within any genre that work, and my wife and I would be fools to venture too far from the tree. What will set this book apart from other fantasy epics is the setting and characters, as is the case with most any book. What are these unique traits to our book? Well, now that’s the stuff I can’t yet reveal, because I want it to knock readers on their arse once they read it in the book. That and I do truly feel the ideas are strong enough that others would be tempted to steal them.

One of the reasons I’ve been drawn to write this entry is that my wife and I have been working on the book with a renewed fervor this month. Since the start of June, we’ve written almost 11,000 words, to bring the total word count to more than 34,000. I still find it frustrating that our word count is not greater. When the James River Writers Conference is held this October, my wife and I want this book ready to pitch. The conference offers a great opportunity for networking, and we’d be fools to waste that chance. The catch is that we’re also busy planning the conference and each working a full-time job. Oh, and did I forget to mention our two kids? All that hardly leaves much time to write.

What’s scary is that we’d let The Last VanDaryn sit neglected for quite a while. Whenever I do that with anything I’m writing, I get terrified I’ll find myself unable to “return” to that reality. In almost every case, that’s proven an unfounded worry. Mikhael Bek is perhaps the character I’ve written with more than any other, and that idea I couldn’t get back into his head is borderline ludicrous. Still, I encounter this fear with him, too.

The material I’ve written with Mikhael in this book feels stronger than anything I’ve ever done with him, and it’s easily some of my best writing ever. You might ask, so what about Isabeau? Why don’t I say the same about her? Don’t let my statement give the impression she’s not doing well, too. Frankly, to explain that will require another journal entry. I’ll write that entry later this month, and in that entry, I’ll finally explain just how two people can write one book… or at least, how my wife and I do it.

HIGH NOTES: The Hunt for Red October

As I sat down to write this entry, I was startled to realize that the score to “The Hunt for Red October” and I possibly have more of a history than I do with any other score (with the exception of “Star Wars”).

The music first found its way into my collection in 1990 as a cassette copy gifted to me by a co-worker when I was in high school. What prompted this, I can’t quite recall, but my first listen didn’t impress me, and the cassette was promptly forgotten. Sometime later, as I was in college, I bought a copy of the score on CD on a whim. What prompted that, I also cannot recall, save I was hungry for new music. This time, I loved it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much, that when I finally remembered having a cassette copy, I assumed the cassette must have been of different music. Not so. The music was the same; I suppose my tastes had simply matured.

This CD stands out for several reasons. For starters, while we’re treated to ten tracks, only two of them run longer than four minutes. Even stranger, another pair of tracks don’t break the one minute mark! As a total, the CD barely makes it past thirty minutes, making it perhaps the shortest movie score in my collection, beating out my disc to “Blade II: Bloodlust” which clocks in just under thirty-four minutes. Perhaps one of the most intriguing things about this score is that I’ve never bought anything else by its composer Basil Poledouris. My movie tastes just don’t seem to run along the same tracks as his films.

Given his name, you might think Poledouris some European composer imported by Hollywood. I know I certainly did, but this guy was born in Kansas City of all places. He’s never quite garnered the same recognition as composers such as James Horner or Hans Zimmer, but he’s marked his own place within film music and with a rather diverse set of films. He’s scored “The Blue Lagoon,” “Robocop,” “Lonesome Dove” and even “Starship Troopers,” but his most renowned work was probably for “Conan the Barbarian” and “The Hunt for Red October.”

Enough about the composer, let’s discuss the music. As wide as the composer’s musical history is, “The Hunt for Red October” offers us just as diverse a score. He successfully draws on traditional elements, such as a male choir within “Hymn to Red October,” and synthesized percussion which dominates the final track, aptly named “Kaboom!!!” The music is both somber and fun, and I’m amazed at how Poledouris accomplishes it.

Perhaps my only gripe is the quality of the CD. I’m not so much bothered by the length, as I am the sound of these tracks. Often, a piece of music will be recorded a bit differently for the CD as compared to the film version. A good example of this is “Two Wives” which accompanies one of the most intense moments in the film as the Soviet Red October performs an unexpected course correction, unknowingly risking a collision with the American submarine USS Dallas. The film version of this piece is much more intense where as the CD version is more of a lovely, contemplative melody.

Other Scores by Basil Poledouris:



At some point in the past few years, I actually got rid of this CD, because I just wasn’t listening to it that much. Within the past year, I bought it again. In hindsight, getting rid of it the first time was stupid. I think I listen to it very little because I so associate it with one of my past writing efforts. Back in college, I started a book with the working title The Bear & the Serpent. I intended it as a story told within three time periods that eventually intersect in a place where several factions of Hell’s demons meet in battle… a civil war of the damned, you might say. I wrote as much as 17,000 words before stopping, and I’ve never found the right time to go back and finish it. At the time, I felt it some of my strongest writing (a sentiment I doubt I would have for it now). For this story, I went so far as to do research, learning what I could about 11th Century Scotland and the time of Shakespeare within the rule of James I. This was most likely the first time I did any research for a book I was writing. While there are no Russian elements to this tale, I constantly listened to “The Hunt for Red October” as I worked on that book. When I hear this music, I’m hearing the mood of that book. One day, I will return to The Bear & the Serpent. Of that, I’ve no doubt, but other “loves” have distracted me. Until then, I’ll hold onto this music and put it to ample use once again, when the time is right.

DUST JACKETS: This Present Darkness

Perhaps the most influential book on my writing was a work of religious fiction, a genre I generally find lacking. Frank E. Peretti’s book This Present Darkness was released back in 1986 and offered up one of the most intriguing interpretations of spiritual warfare.

There’s little doubt that the concept behind this book is the best part, so I’ll discuss that a bit. We’re given the standard armies of the angels and demons. Demons attach themselves to people who aren’t saved, taking advantage of their spiritual weaknesses such as lust or the like. The angels draw their strength from the prayers of God’s human followers. The greater the prayers and the greater the belief of the person praying, the more powerful the angels become. Now, the angels are by far the coolest characters in the book. These aren’t your cheezy harp-playing, diaper-wearing, little cherubs. No, we’re talking more like Navy SEALS with wings and swords… well, almost. They don’t curse, of course, and they don’t drink… Well, come to think of it, they’re more like Navy SEALS with wings and swords and Boy Scout values. Regardless, they’re pretty damn—er, darn cool.

Peretti created an intricate story for this book, another thing I liked about This Present Darkness. He almost has to, because even as we’re following the spiritual battle, we’re watching a parallel conflict within the mortal world. What’s fascinating is how Peretti takes all these separate threads and slowly ties them together. The angels can’t win their battle without the aid of the Christian faithful and vice versa. Much as I praise this plot, I honestly remember nothing about the specifics. I read this book back in high school, so it’s hard to remember much. Essentially, it’s a battle for the collective soul of the town of Ashton. At stake in the mortal world is the purchase of local Whitmore College by the shadowy Omni Corporation.

The ending is a bit tricky, maybe even a bit too saccharine and over the top. I think Peretti handled the ending to the sequel, Piercing the Darkness, better. The mortals essentially realize the demon involvement, and it just comes across a little too easy for all these people to accept it.

One thing Peretti does well is make the book move very quickly. I certainly didn’t get bored with this book. The sequel turned out even better. I do wonder about the quality of the writing, though. Frankly, I’ve found most religious fiction just isn’t that well-written. I read Peretti’s work long ago, so I obviously couldn’t bring a writer’s eye to bear on it. Unfortunately, I can say I never quite enjoyed his work beyond This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness. I read his book The Oath, and even though I finished it, the book just didn’t work for me. When I tried to read his novel Prophet, I couldn’t get very far into it. For Prophet, Peretti did research into how local news operations work, but speaking as a former television news producer, I just couldn’t find his interpretation credible. I had to put the book down without getting very far into it, and I’ve never felt any desire to read it since. The latter two books turned me off enough that I’ve not tried to read anymore of Peretti’s books.

Other Books by Frank E. Peretti:



As fascinating as I found Peretti’s concept within This Present Darkness, I always wanted to take it one step further. Much of my early writing was an effort to couple his idea of an invisible war between Heaven and Hell with a CIA counter-terrorism action-adventure. I don’t know that I ever succeeded in making it work, and I don’t think it was simply a matter of my writing skills not being up to the task. Part of Peretti’s secret to making these two books work is that he makes the ordinary world into a fascinating place by showing us what’s possibly happening without us ever seeing it. The more I worked on the counter-terrorism adventure tale, the less the parallel spiritual war worked. The real world battle already held enough intrigue and excitement that I think the spiritual war actually took away from it and over-complicated the plot. I don’t consider those early efforts wasted, though. They’ve given me a wealth of characters and story ideas to draw on for later works. This is probably the best praise I can give Peretti, that he inspired me as a writer and, in many ways, continues to.

The Bear & Bogart

You just never know what will inspire you to write. Recently, mystery writer and editor Sandra Ruttan posted an entry challenging her readers to define a new genre called “Cozy Noir.” I didn’t enter this contest, but the phrase stuck in my head. I couldn’t get rid of this image of some detective bear channeling Humphrey Bogart to solve a murder.

The idea got so stuck in my head, I was compelled to get out of bed in the middle of the day (and I really needed to be sleeping, too) and punch out a bit of flash fiction with the ideas that were running through my mind. The result was something along the lines of film noir meets “Toy Story.” The main character is none other than Ted E. Bear. Funny enough, my son took my sunglasses the other day and put them on his favorite stuffed bear. I took one look and went, “It’s Ted!”

Anyway, I digress. The point of this little entry is blatant self-promotion. My short short story entitled “Unstuffed” has found its way into the latest issue of Spinetingler Magazine as one of their examples of “cozy noir.” Am I excited? Um, hell yeah! Spinetingler is also planning to publish my other short story “I am Sam,” but that’s for a later issue even though that was accepted before “Unstuffed.” There’s something oddly fitting about this goofy story, which is shorter than this blog entry, being my first publishing credit. While a lot of my writing is dark and brooding, I’m more of a goofball in real life, and this story reflects that.



So check out the latest issue of Spinetingler. You’ll find my story in the magazine’s four-pack of cozy noir tales. For all those who’ve followed my blog and my discussions about my writing, here’s your chance to get a look at some of my fiction work. The first example of many, I hope.

The Summer of God

While I think May turned out one of my better blogging months, I have to say it was one of the worst months where my writing was concerned. For a variety of reasons that could probably fill an entire blog, life was just too bloody stressful this past month. Usually, writing has offered me a refuge for tough times, but this was one case where it just wasn’t happening. I’m happy to say that things seem to be on the upswing right now, and I suspect May’s drought will deliver a deluge for June.

Even though I plan to reinvigorate my writing this month, I won’t be neglecting my lair… or should I say lairs? For now, I’m still maintaining my parallel blog on Blogger… which I think has worked out well. Last month offered me plenty of good material with my tribute to John Williams’ scores for the “Star Wars” films and “Dust Jacket” entries focused on books I read a long time ago in cities far, far away from Richmond, Virginia.

The idea of monthly themes seems to work well for my blog, and as I finish reading the offbeat mystery Cat Seeing Double by Shirley Rousseau Murphy, I plan to get rather serious for the month of June. The focus, both of the next book I plan to read and this month’s “Dust Jackets” entries will be religion. As I mentioned last month, I received a copy of an autographed advanced reader’s copy of Javier Sierra’s The Secret Supper. While the book was not inspired by Dan Brown’s infamous The Da Vinci Code, one can safely assume the publisher hopes to cash in on the strong interest in religious conspiracies that’s gripped America’s readers.

So what books can you expect to find in my “Dust Jackets” entries? Well, I’ll finally do a review of The Da Vinci Code. Despite my best efforts to the contrary, the book has found mentions aplenty within my blog. Perhaps my review will finally put that to an end (riiiiiiiiiight). The other books you can expect include End of Days (no connection to the Arnold Schwarzenegger film) by Dennis Danvers and This Present Darkness by Frank E. Peretti. I also plan to do a “Dust Jacket” on The Medici Dagger by Cameron West. The book doesn’t so much deal with religion as Leonardo Da Vinci, so this will be the “wild card” among my “Dust Jackets” for this month.



My “High Notes” entries will shy away from the religious theme, opting for a theme of their own. This month’s entries will focus on the music created for the Jack Ryan films based on Tom Clancy’s books. For those not up on their Clancy, those films include “The Hunt for Red October,” “Patriot Games” and “Clear and Present Danger.” Yes, there’s a fourth one, “The Sum of All Fears,” but I don’t own that particular score. Finances-willing, I might spare the ten dollars needed to download the entire score off of Buy.com, but I’ll have to wait and see.



Some have probably noticed Frank spends a lot of time hanging out with my son Liam. That has more to do with my son not being in school and my daughter still finishing up her school year. In the interest of “equal time,” I’ll see if I can’t let my daughter go an a little adventure with Frank this month.

As you can see, I plan to keep busy this month. I’ll also update you a bit on how things are going as the countdown to the 2006 James River Writers Conference continues. Talk about something to make me stress! As I look back on this entry, I suppose I’m selling my writing a little short, but I’ll explain why in a later entry.