Imagining King Arthur’ childhood
Greetings folks, guess what? There’s a new review of John Matthew’s The Sword of Ice and Fire over on my website! Let no time be lost and get over there and read it!
Still here? Okay, let’s have some more background. I read this book because I am working on Book 4 of my The Swithen series, which will be my vision of King Arthur’s childhood. Matthew’s book is also an imagining of Arthur’s childhood, so I both wanted to see what he did, and also ensure that my book wasn’t too similar. I was actually more than halfway through my initial draft when I started, so you can imagine I had some worry when I finally got to it!
Luckily, the two books have almost nothing in common. Matthews’ in a young adult novel, where mine is going to be an adult novel about a kid. His takes place on the isle of Avalon, where mine is going to take place in a small medieval town. Matthew’s novel takes place mostly in a castle, whereas in mine Arthur is out in the forest exploring and discovering nature. In his novel, Arthur’s adoptive parents and foster brother are there, but not a huge focus, where my novel is going to have large elements of family comedy and drama with lots of talks around the dinner table and other elements that I hope can make it resonate with contemporary readers. Matthews book also focuses, as most Arthurian stories do, on the heroism, valiance and honor of the story, whereas I realize that a big interest of mine is including the failures of the characters, that they learn from, and also the fears and outright terror that often exist right under that outward bravery.
You might be surprised (as I was) to learn that Matthews’ book is currently one of TWO existing works that imagine a childhood for King Arthur. The other is T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, part of his Once and Future King. You would think there would be more, but there aren’t (when my book comes out, the total will rise to three!). The actual Arthurian legend doesn’t cover this period at all, it just goes straight from Uther’s death to Arthur’s pulling the sword, so this entire period is up for grabs for the writer. Interestingly, we also DON’T have any indication in any legend that Merlin was with Arthur in childhood, so any version that you read or see that has Merlin as a mentor to Arthur as a child is influenced by The Sword in the Stone, showing how very influential that novel was.
I’m very excited about my novel and some of the twists it has. It will be very, VERY different in tone from the rest of the books so far, being a very light, sweet “boy and his dog” style novel of childhood—at least until it goes very dark—and I hope readers really like my young Arthur, and the time we spend getting to know him in his formative years will really inform us once he grows into adulthood and settles into his role as king. One of the things I think is going to be amazing if done right—once we get to Book 7 or so, let alone 14 or 20—is the feeling that we remember this character from when he was a boy. Of course, by the time the series is over, we should have that feeling for nearly every character in the saga. It is very exciting, as I write Book 4, to create the childhood of a character we’re going to follow into adulthood and all the way to his death, and to think about what formative experiences he might have that will create the person we know later.
And if you want to read another author’s version of how that childhood might go, you’ve got John Matthew’s The Sword of Ice and Fire, which is reviewed right here. The next move is up to you!
“Fie on thee, inflated fantasy fiction language!”
So I recently made the mistake of asking an Instagrammer to review Our Man on Earth, Book 1 of my Swithen series, and got about the review I should have expected from someone whose main concern is what the book looks like next to a scented candle and a cup of coffee. One of the things I was dinged on was that my characters speak like contemporary people instead of some approximation of how we think Dark Ages people spoke (based on the movies and TV shows we’ve seen), so in this post we’re going to discuss: The language and dialogue of fantasy.
I for one have always hated what I could describe as the “Fie on thee, foul enchanter!” school of fantasy writing. It makes me dislike fantasy and I think it’s what a lot of people dislike about fantasy, and what keeps them away. I always knew I wasn’t going to go that route, but I wasn’t sure what to do. I felt like it the way I feel about historical accuracy; my novels are NOT accurate, but there should be nothing so obviously distracting that it knocks the readers out of the story.
I found my way a lot through the actual writing of my books, and as I wrote, I would think to myself sometimes; “This dialogue is very casual, and they’re speaking in modern cadence… am I okay with this?” My The Swithen series aims to be a deluxe telling of the actual Arthurian legend and when I brought Book 2 out, a friend asked me about a scene in which Uther, brother to the king, is facing the reality that he will be king when his brother dies, and he goes to talk it over his best friend Ulfius. “They sound like they’re two guys having a beer after work!” he said. And I thought about it… is this what I really want to do?
Then I thought; Yes, it’s exactly what I want to do. Because what matters most to me is that readers of the present day are able to understand and relate to the thoughts and emotions of my characters. So if the king and his chief knight sound like two guys having a beer, that’s good, because I want reader to understand that’s what their relationship is like.
This may not be the case for all fantasy writers, but since my series adapts the Middle English sources that tell the legend of King Arthur—and the prose of the Middle Ages was not super-huge on complex emotions or psychological states, a big part of my adaptation is to add that in. To hopefully make us feel the emotions and the stakes that these characters faced, as a way of illuminating the story more fully. So someone creating an entirely new world might be more interested in carrying readers away into a new reality. But since my story is at least somewhat familiar to most people, what I want to do is give them a new understanding of it, and help them see these often familiar, archetypal characters as real, breathing, thinking and feeling people.
Which means, apparently, that I will be criticized by some. Others, luckily, seem to like it, and I do get appreciative reviews that express happiness at not having to slog through any “Ye olde thee and thou or kingly speechifying,” and what I found quite gratifying to hear: “You almost forget they’re Arthurian characters completely.” So that makes me feel like, at least for some, the approach is working.
How do you handle it, if you write fantasy or sci-fi? And as you read, what do you like to see? Let’s discuss it in the comments.
Facing the challenge of adapting Arthurian materials
Greetings folks! I just published a review of Edward M. Erdelac’s The Knight with Two Swords. I even read it just out of the blue, without trying to get a mutual review scheme going with Erdelac, because… I’m just like that!
Since my own Swithen series of Arthurian novels stays close to the actual Arthurian legends as published, I was curious to see how Erdelac did it. I was also curious to see how he handles the whole Balin & Balan story (Balin & Brulen here), because obviously that episode will be coming up in my own books, and I wanted to be sure that I’m handling it differently. So while the review discusses the book, here I’ll talk about how it approaches writing challenges similar to the ones I face in my series.
As for adapting the actual legend, it was very interesting for me, because he comes at a similar challenge in a somewhat similar way. He fleshes out scenes that we only hear about in the legend—like the Lady of the Lake killing their mother, which, in the actual sources, we only hear about as having happened in the past. Here we have the actual scene, and Erdelac uses dramatized scenes like this to build out his novel. In my own novels I am pressed to do similar things, or to write out scenes that “must have” happened, in order for the work to stand on its own and feel complete as a novel. And in doing so he is able to work in some good Arthur time and a zesty imagining of life amongst the knights, which was both fascinating and entertaining. So it was interesting to see another author handle a similar challenge and realize that it has to be handled in a similar way.
Even more interesting is another challenge of adapting the real legend, which is that the reality of it is quite, quite disparate and does not at all hang together as a cohesive story—because it was not written that way or ever intended that way. In this case, the challenge is to find a way for the Balin story to work on its own, since in the legend it works primarily through eerie resonance with the larger story, and how it creates a symbolic contrast with stuff that happens later in the tale. In my version, those later elements will be there eventually, so I don’t really have to worry about that part, but what we both face as authors is the need to give all of this a larger narrative to fit into, so the entire thing isn’t just some random tale. I have the whole legend, and the luxury of 25 novels, in order to do this (but I’m already WAY worried about it) and Erdelac has to do it here, in this one, and: I have to say that he finds a very nice way to find thematic connecting material that makes the story integral to the overall Arthurian legend, while also remaining faithful to the source material as it exists. Yay, Edward M. Erdelac!
I’m also happy to report that it was different enough from what I intend to do (which is like six novels away anyway… the Balin story will begin in Book 10 or so of The Swithen), that I don’t have to have big worries! So pop on over there and read my review and then buy Erdelac’s book as well as the whole series of my books and leave 5-star, glowing reviews of each one on Amazon—Thanks!
The Swithen Book 4 Status Report!
Greetings friends—
It occurred to me that it’s been a while since any of you have heard from me, and that I should reach out and let you know what’s going on. What’s going on is: I’m hard at work on The Swithen Book 4!
The reason that I was able to get Books 1-3 out in just over a year is that… I didn’t have a job! I had all day (when I wasn’t looking for work) to devote to them, and I am very grateful for that time. Now I have a full-time job (and have also emigrated from the US to Canada), I have to snatch time as best I can to write. Mostly, I get up at 6am every day in order to get a good 90 minutes in before work, and I also try to grab any other time I can get, which has led to a pretty splintered writing process, which we’ll get to later.
Taking time for the first trilogy to take hold
Truth is, I had always planned for there to be a bit of a longer break between the first three books of The Swithen and Book 4. The main reason is that Book 4 will be the beginning of the Arthur story, and it really, REALLY has to be great. Which means I need to take the time and effort to make it that way. I am fine with that, because it gives me an opportunity to really try to get The Swithen Books 1-3 out there and garner a lot of readers for the series before we launch into Arthur’s childhood, and begin the main thrust of the overall series.
Luckily (and very gratifyingly) for me, it seems to be working. The series is slowly garnering great reviews, noting two things that really make me happy: 1) When readers finish one, they want to go on to the next, and 2) They’re recommending it to friends. One of the unexpected pleasures of independently publishing a series like this is that reviews come out of nowhere and without any warning, and it’s a great experience to wake up to discover that someone I don’t even know has posted a positive review, especially when they reinforce what I’m trying to do with the series, which is make the actual legends come to life and be vivid, relatable and compelling. These user reviews are hugely motivating and very much appreciated by me, so if you’ve read one, please take the time to post a review online and/or tell a friend about it. I thank you and will continue to thank you! They’re also incredibly helpful in keeping me motivated to continue writing!
Looking forward to Book 4
Now as for Book 4… this is going to cover Arthur’s childhood until he pulls the sword from the stone. This one (and Book 5) is going to be unique in the series because there is almost nothing in the legends covering this period. The legend goes from the death of Uther directly to Arthur pulling the sword from the stone, so 98% of Book 4 is going to be entirely original, made up by me. If you think that Merlin mentors Arthur as a child… well, that’s actually from T.H. White’s The Sword in the Stone, not from the actual Arthurian legend (a testament to how very influential that novel and movie was). So the good thing—and also the terrifyingly daunting thing—for me is that I have free reign to create the novel from scratch, and almost no restrictions on where it should go or what should be included.
New novel, new writing process
Because of this, and because of my job and lack of time to write, my writing process on this one has been very different from the other three. Each novel thus far has had a quite variable process, but this one is the strangest thus far. The main difference is that I am writing the story non-sequentially. It will once again have four parts, and I know the point I want to reach at the end of each part, so what I’ve been doing is just writing scenes where they are needed and where I feel like writing them, regardless of where they fall within the sequential narrative. This has allowed me to create with a more organic feel and get to know the characters before I write their major scenes, and to give the whole thing a much looser flow than the other books in the series.
Another difference in my process with this one is that I am doing a lot of dictation. My overall writing method is to get something—anything—down, and then use that as a base to revise and shape it into what I want, and get it up to the quality that I want. For me, the real action of writing is in the revising, so my goal is to just get something down, no matter how rough, because then I have something and can shape it until I’m happy. So on this one, given my time restraints, the first draft in many cases has been dictated into transcribing software, allowing me to get the overall shape of most scenes, and the book as a whole, down in very rough form. Right now, I have over 400 typewritten pages in very rough form, and what I’m doing in the early morning is to just go through and do the first pass, turning those rough scenes into composed prose, knowing that in the future I’ll circle through again as many times as necessary to get the novel up to snuff.
What’s coming in Book 4?
So, what can you expect? The first thing you’ll notice about the novel (when it’s finally released, probably early or mid-2020) is that it has a wildly different tone. It is much more relaxed, sweet and lyrical. It’s also very much a novel about one small family and their relationships. This is a novel of childhood, and we’re with Arthur and his adoptive family in a rural town, with lots of boyish explorations of the forest and surrounding fields. We get to know his adoptive family in intimate detail, with big parts for his foster father and a very large part for his adoptive mother—another woman who barely receives mention in the actual legend. Here she will be a quite big and influential presence (and she’ll be staying on through the next few books, too).
But the most well-known and lingering character we’ll meet is Arthur’s adoptive brother Kay. Those who know the legends know that Kay will be an important and ever-present character right up until the final book, and the formative moments of his life-long relationship with Arthur (as well as his somewhat pugnacious personality) will be laid out here. And as for Arthur… well, you’ll see, but I will say that it’s very fun and exciting for me to begin to compose the character of the man who I will be staying with through the next 22 novels, taking him through adolescence, to adulthood, into middle age and right up until his death. There are some other surprises, big and small, but I’ll leave them for you to discover.
So that’s it for now… if you’re following the series, I am very thankful to you, and hope that you continue to enjoy the novels as they come. Again, any review or recommendation to a friend that you make is hugely helpful and motivating to me, and helps ensure the continuation of the series. Thanks again and be well!
Author Interview: The Sons of Constance
Greetings folks. I’m in the middle of writing Book 4 of the series, which will cover Arthur’s childhood until he pulls the sword from the stone. Happy to say that it’s going well (although slowly), and I hope it comes off as magically as I hope it will. Anyway, I am also in the process of recording the audiobook for Book 2, The Sons of Constance, and this put me in mind to put up this interview focused on that book in particular.
This interview discusses how Merlin ended up as ruthless and maybe not-so-nice as he did, how the Round Table was created in Uther’s time, the overall structure and some of the themes of the book, and which ones will continue into Book 3… and throughout the series. If you’ve read the book, this interview will give you some good additional insights about it (as well as its place in the overall saga.
So get on over there and read the Author Interview on The Sons of Constance. As always, if you have any comment, about the interview or about the books, always feel free to leave it. Thanks!
The Swithen 