Once Upon a Time

I actively watch very few television shows on a regular basis. The only show I can remember setting out to watch from the pilot episode (based on the excellent marketing and Spielberg's attachment to the project) is Falling Skies, and that's been a very fun experience, although the special effects are at times cringe-worthy (which is why I avoid the SyFy channel like the plague.) But for a couple years now I've heard people talk about the show Once Upon a Time, and I've always had a mild interest in checking it out. After all, fairy tales are right up my alley! Well, my husband and I finally got Netflix and lo and behold, there was Once Upon a Time.

I watched the pilot episode and was immediately hooked. Needless to say, it's been a little bit of a productivity killer this week, BUT I can view it as research for my writing (right? Sure, why not.). The fairy tale side of the show is, truthfully, a bit cheesy, a bit tongue-in-cheek, and while I usually despise cheesiness, for some reason I don't mind it in this show. So that put me in a contemplative mood.


Why don't I mind that the evil queen is so over-the-top evil? Why don't I mind the love-at-first-sight cliches, the magical solution to every problem, and the obvious story outcomes perpetrated by over-the-top writing, acting, and costumery? I think the answer lies in the very fact that these things are what fairy tales are all about. In Cinderella, Snow White, and Sleeping Beauty, you're not supposed to wonder who is good and who is evil. Heroes and heroines are pure of heart and ready to love, often demonstrated by dashing displays of selflessness and friendly animal companionship. Villains hate everyone and everything that doesn't further their own agenda and drive for power. They are Machiavellian to the extreme, and they relish death and destruction. Except for in fairy tale revisionist stories, there is no place for the "misunderstood" villain that is so prevalent in our postmodern society in traditional fairy tales ... and I love this! Fairy tales draw a clear distinction between good and evil, and when they are transformed into a visual medium, you can literally see it. For children, and for those of us who sometimes yearn for things to just be cut and dry from time to time, this is a beautiful thing. There is obviously also a time in fantasy (and in all literature) for a not-so-obvious distinction between good and evil. In my opinion this is only appropriate if the purpose is not to blur the lines in actuality, but to make the reader dig deeper to figure it out for themselves. In fact, this makes for much more complex forms of storytelling than one finds in the traditional fairy tale, so I'm not saying doing things one way is better than doing things the other way. Where I think the show Once Upon a Time has really hit it on the nose is that the over-the-top obvious morality of the fairy tale realm is tempered by a more subtle figure-it-out morality of the "real world" setting of Storybrooke, Maine. Where the evil queen is SO EVIL in the fairy tale realm, in Storybrooke she's much more seductive and sly; at times the viewer almost wants to feel bad for her (before she hauls off and does something wicked again to remind you who she really is). I think the end result of the show is one that shows both sides of evil - how sometimes it is obvious, and sometimes it is not, and you need to be on guard against it regardless. It engages the cerebral and the emotional centers of the brain.

Mostly, I think I love fairy tales because all fantasy literature is essentially an offshoot of traditional fairy tales. Modern fantasy authors, in using fantasy, have the same ability to draw distinct contrast between good and evil, and to do so in a way that takes the reader to the extreme moral highs and lows without it seeming out of place in the real world (because, after all, it's *just* a story!). To quote a scholar on the subject, "Fantasy literature takes us out of our world, enabling us to see moral principles more clearly... In addition, fantasy literature gives us more stark examples of heroism and villainy than realistic fiction usually does." (Cole Matson, "Is Tolkien Useless?") These stark examples can encourage us to be better people than we are. After all, who ever roots for the evil queen?

Book 5 Cover Reveal!

I am super excited to reveal the cover for book 5 of The Gateway Chronicles: The Scroll and to tell you a little about it! So, without further ado, here it is:

The creature on the front is a wyvern dragon, and you may not be able to tell because of the color that was added and the realism of the image, but it was actually sculpted for me by my friend and talented artist Julia Hankins. She then took a digital picture of it, and we sent it off to my cover designer, Megan Dooley, who put color to it and designed the rest of the cover. This dragon's name is Marier in the story, and I look forward to you meeting him!

You can go to my page at TWCS here to recommend The Scroll on Facebook and/or Goodreads and to read the BACK COVER SUMMARY! Do it now! :)

That Ooey Gooey Feeling

There is something euphoric about starting a new book. And of course I'm talking about writing a new book, not reading a new book. For many of you, I realize that picking up a new book to read can also produce a sense of euphoria, and I have felt that from time to time myself (if the author is a tried and true favorite), but the sense I'm talking about with writing a new book is much stronger. It's like an ooey gooey feeling deep in my chest and gut that produces uncontrollable grins, fits of giggles, and (if I'm not careful) childish hand-clapping. It's really a rather embarrassing syndrome, now that I think about it, but thankfully the discipline of being an author is one mostly practiced in privacy, so giggle and clap away, I say! Last night, as I began writing book 6, I was not in private, however, so my anticipatory energy had to be contained to leg-bobbing and subtle wiggles. I'd been meaning to start book 6 for weeks, but due to a number of circumstances, I hadn't quite gotten around to it yet, and as many authors will tell you, starting is the hardest part, so sometimes it takes a little push to get things going. Well, kids were in bed, and hubs had a new Xbox game to try out last night, so I hopped in the car and drove down to our local Starbucks where I settled in with a frap and The Piano Guys pumping through my ear buds. I was motivated! I was ready. to. go. But truthfully, I didn't get much done at Starbucks. About 30 minutes into my endeavor, the shop was invaded by about twenty junior-high cheerleaders, all wearing pink, and all chattering away. Cheerleading and the color pink. Two things guaranteed to kill my enthusiasm for pretty much anything. I tried not to let my glower show too deeply on my face, but it was nigh impossible to get anything done for the fifteen minutes it took all of them to order, collect their orders, and head out to the patio. And by that time, Starbucks was about to close, so I packed things up and headed home. But it was not an entirely wasted effort, because in that time, I had gotten my word document all set up and formatted, my notes somewhat organized, and I'd even written the first paragraph of my prologue. (Whoa . . . I know. Just let that awesomeness sink in for a moment . . .) But most importantly, I'd gotten my head in the game. Driving home, I came to the realization that I needed to scrap and/or move the single paragraph I'd written in favor of a much better idea for the prologue (this did elicit grins, giggles, and hand-clapping, but I was stopped at a red light, so it was okay), and I began to map out the rest of what would follow from there. Adam wasn't quite finished with his Halo level on Xbox when I got home, and I was so full of that ooey gooey excitement, that I slapped on some workout clothes and ran circles around my neighborhood until my energy was somewhat abated and I had the rest of the prologue solidified. Yes, yes, it was very late to be out running, but it was either that or climb the walls, and honestly, when you are an author who sits on your bum all day (or night in my case) writing, a little exercise is a good idea! Plus, I was a security guard once upon a time, and I kind of pity the guy who tries to mug me. But I digress. Anyhow, back inside, I got changed, returned to Scribbus (my computer) at about midnight, and knocked out roughly 1200 words. So I'm happy to announce that book 6 is off the ground! And I'm even more happy to announce the title for book 6, which I've been sitting on for three years. Drumroll please... book 6, the final installment of The Gateway Chronicles, is called, The Bone Whistle. Yay! If you follow me on twitter (@kbhoyle_author), ask me questions about book 6 using hashtag #TheBoneWhistle, or about book 5 with hashtag #TheScroll or #SaveTellius. I'll answer whatever I can!

And now, to help you feel properly excited, here is a teeny-tiny teaser from upcoming book 5, The Scroll:

Don’t let him deceive you, he said. I am doing everything to Tellius you think I am, and more. Tselloch straightened from the banister and stepped toward her so his height became that much more impressive. Every day that passes, he grows weaker.

“You-you promised to give us until the first day of spring!” Darcy said. She tried to step back, but her feet were rooted to the spot. She clenched her hand around her ring, but the coldness asserted itself with greater intensity.

And I shall, but it will not be easy for him. 

"There and Back Again"...

...The Beauty of Ring Composition in Life and Literature.

As you know if you read my previous blog post, when I was in Sydney, Australia a couple weeks ago for the Sydney Writer's Festival, I had the opportunity to speak with a 9th-grade literature class regarding my books and how I write them. I ended up speaking primarily about literary alchemy, but I started the discussion with ring composition. Ring composition, otherwise known as chiasmic/chiastic structure, is an ancient literary device named for the Greek letter Chi: X in which a poem, passage, or entire text builds up to a central point (what I usually call the axis when I am teaching it to students) and then builds down to the conclusion, stressing the same points in the reverse order. So, for example, the text could look like this:

A (beginning)
          B
                    C
                              D(middle/central point of the story)
                              D
                    C
          B
A (conclusion)

Or:
                              A (middle/central point of story)
                    D                 D
          C                                     C
                    B                 B
         (beginning) AA (conclusion)

And there are other variations. In my books, I tend to follow the second example I gave, but the basic principle is the same - the second half of the story mirrors the first half of the story either by comparison or contrast (ie. D2 could either mirror D1 or be a reverse echo of D1).

Okay, this is all getting a bit technical, so let me get down to the why of the matter. Why bother doing this at all? This is what one of the students in the class asked me, and it is more than a valid question, in fact it is at the heart of it all. Doesn't this make for a lot of work? Isn't writing just about self expression? Isn't it more important that I just get words on the page? Stop! You're stifling me with your compositional restrictions! The answer to these questions, in order, is: Yes. No. Kind of. Let me explain...

I don't think any serious writers want their works to be irrelevant, and in order to prevent irrelevancy, one must take steps to write works that subconsciously lodge themselves in the reader's brain. Ring composition is one way to do that, and it is tried and true. It is subconscious for the reader because, unless they are purposefully studying the text to look for it, they won't see it, but they will feel it. The human brain responds to patterns, and especially to repetition and mirroring, so if you use a chiasmus in your writing, it lodges your story more firmly in the long-term memory of the brain, and if you've written a good story, it should end up being something that readers relate more easily to and want to go back to for more. But yes, it makes for a lot of work! In fact, it's down right hard to do. Many a sleepless night have I spent pacing my living room, trying to puzzle through how to make this structure work with my stories, but in the end, it is always worth it (and it's gotten me out of more than a few writer's-block binds!). Besides, anything worth doing ought to be difficult in some degree. Who ever said rewarding work should be easy? And no, writing is not just about self expression, and if you use a structure like ring composition, you can ensure that your work goes beyond you and hopefully becomes something that is relevant not just for you and your time, but for others and times to come. How do I know this? Let me name a few of the texts that have utilized ring composition throughout the ages and let the examples speak for themselves: The Histories, Beowulf, the works of Aristotle, the Bible, Dante's Inferno, all the works of Shakespeare, Aquinas's Summa Theologica, The Lord of the Rings, The Hobbit, The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Harry Potter, and many more. And yes, while it is important for a writer to "just get words on the page," it is also important for a writer to think about the order in which those words will be presented. All literature is instructive; all authors have some point to make. Ring composition can help you make that point subconsciously without wasting your words.

There are other benefits to using ring composition beyond what I have already mentioned. It lends a sense of purpose, permanence, and completion to a text or story. Have you ever read a book that, if it were a building, it would look like a Jenga tower with odds and ends sticking out here and there, dangerously close to falling over? I have, and usually these sorts of stories feel unfinished or unsatisfying when I get to the end, and I'm left with dangling story elements that were never resolved. I usually chalk this up to poor, or no, planning on the part of the author, and I rarely return to these stories for a second read. If you successfully use ring composition, this should never happen in your own work. Your story will not only make a point, it will lodge in the readers' brains, and when it's finished, it will feel finished. Lastly, ring composition imitates real life and the journeys that all of us take. I thought about this as I was winging my way over the Pacific Ocean coming back from Australia. The same journey, in reverse order, that I took only a week before. When I got back to the Dallas airport and waited for my connection to Birmingham, I even saw some of the same security personnel I had encountered on my way out. This may seem trite to you, but it put a contemplative smile on my face as I pondered its relevance to my writing, and to the greater story of life (ashes to ashes, dust to dust, naked from my mother's womb and naked I return, etc...). There is something beautiful to me about the chiastic structure in life and literature, and it will always be a structure I come back to in my writing. After all, who isn't moved by the deeper implications behind Tolkien's simple words? "There and Back Again." 

Sometimes the Journey of 10,000 Miles...

...Ends in Australia! Or, however many miles it is from Alabama to Sydney, Australia. I don't really know, and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. I'm sitting in a beautiful mansion in the suburbs of Sydney, listening to the gentle bubbling of a fountain and softly playing music, thinking about how amazing it is that my little fantasy series has landed me here. This week at the Sydney Writer's Festival has been a fun mishmash of literary events and sightseeing. On the literary end of things, I got to attend the opening address for the festival which featured a famous storyteller named Daniel Morden (see a video of him here), the after party (during which I spent a lot of time looking around and thinking, "This is SO outside my comfort zone!"), a morning coffee shop event where I got to talk about my books and do a little Q&A, an open bar event where I got to network with other people staying in the hotel (and, incidentally, also got to talk with Daniel Morden and take a photo with him - he's very down to earth and friendly), and I'm looking forward to my panel tomorrow morning at which I will be up on stage with a couple different authors discussing fantasy as a crossover genre. Despite all the swanky parties, gourmet food, literary celebrities, and Festival events I've taken part in this week, though, my favorite literary "event" I've gotten to participate in has been something not connected with the Festival at all. I got to visit a local private school and take over a literature class for a period. Once we got through the introductions and the natural skepticism that attends any classroom visitor/guest speaker (hey, I'm a school teacher too, I know how it goes!), I had a blast talking with the students about my books, my experiences as a writer, and the importance of writing meaningful literature. I introduced a couple devices for infusing meaning into your writing, using Harry Potter as the example (I can hear some of you intellectual snobs out there huffing and thumbing your nose at me, but you just need to get over it). The beauty of discussing Harry Potter is that it is a story that almost all the kids have read and loved, so it's really a common ground. One of the Seven Laws of the Teacher is to speak the language of the students, and that is one way in which to do it. Anyhow, being in a classroom full of students is about the best place I can be, and I feel so blessed to have been able to fly all the way over here to talk with them. Even if that was the only thing I did all week, it would have made the trip worth it. And apparently Australian teenagers are quite tickled by cursive handwriting...

On the sightseeing end of things, our hotel sits just beneath Harbor Bridge, and the Opera House is just up the bay behind it. I've familiarized myself with the historic road in this area called George Street and have enjoyed walking around, trying not to look too much like a tourist. I've seen just about every famous animal associated with Australia, although mostly in captivity (yes, mostly. There really are some enormous spiders here). I have resisted the urge to follow the seagulls around going "Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.", but I could not resist the urge to giggle like a small child riding the 30-foot swells across the mouth of Sydney Harbor. I have hugged a koala bear, I have boxed a kangaroo, I have played in the tide pools and *tried* to find the Little Penguins on the beach (which I could hear, but not see). I have not, however, tried Vegemite, and I'm thinking I'm okay with that. I've climbed a lighthouse, eaten fish and chips on the beach (yes, not very exotic I realize, but I ate them on the beach looking at the cliffs on either side of the mouth of Sydney Harbor), eaten at the oldest pub in Sydney (the Fortune of War, est. in the 1800s), and watched sharks and stingrays swim over my head in an underground aquarium. Did you know stingrays could get up to, like, ten feet across? I had no idea.

Overall, I've had a blast, and the trip is not over yet. My talk is tomorrow, we have a wine tasting event tomorrow, and I have a few more souveniers to buy before we leave on Monday. I do miss my family, however, and I am looking forward to getting home and hugging my boys.

Thinking in the Rain

Okay, I lied. This isn't about thinking in the rain, it's about thinking in the shower, but that didn't have quite the catchiness I was looking for. So I tricked you into reading this blog post. Ha.

My best story ideas seem to always come to me in the shower. Does anybody else experience this? I'm not sure if it's the solitude, the white noise of the water, the relaxation produced by hot water and steam,  the perfect lack of distraction, or a combination of all three, but I have always turned into a pensive, thoughtful, and uber-creative person in the shower. If I have a particularly difficult plot problem to work through, often a good long shower will produce a plethora of probable solutions. (Alliteration is fun, don't you think?) The only problem with coming up with ideas in the shower is that I don't have a waterproof notepad. My mom always used to yell at me for taking long showers when I was young, but that was where I did my best daydreaming, and asking me to get out of the shower was like asking me to leave another world. Although now that I pay the water bill, I can also now commiserate with her. I really don't think The Gateway Chronicles would be here if it weren't for my shower, though, and I think every creative person needs their place of solitude where the muses can visit.

Did I really just write a blog post on showering? Yep. Yep, I did. Okay, I need to redeem this somehow... How about a sneak peek?

I introduce a new character/creature in The Scroll, and I think y'all are really going to enjoy him! He's a wyvern dragon, and here's a selection from the scene in The Scroll where Darcy and the others meet him for the first time. Enjoy!

Darcy crept forward as well as she was able on her crutches. The wyvern made a sort of humming trill and lifted his snout to sniff at her. “Where did he come from? Why is he here?”

“Well, I’m not sure if it would be more accurate to say he belongs to Tellius or Tellius belongs to him,” Veli said, a hint of laughter in his tone. “But he and Tellius are-were-virtually inseparable.”

At Tellius’s name, the little dragon perked his head to the side.

“He’s Tellius’s?” Darcy held onto her crutches while she knelt to one knee and reached out to him. He lowered his snout almost to the ground, like a dog wanting to be petted, but shy of the touch.

“In a manner of speaking. He came to Tellius one day on patrol. Tellius said later that he’d been shadowing him for days.”

Darcy laid a gentle hand on the wyvern’s side. His scales were smooth, not slimy at all, and very warm to the touch. “Does he breathe fire?” she asked, looking up at Veli.

“Aye, that he does,” Veli said. “Hence the bond between him and his lordship.”

“Fire,” Darcy said. She stroked his scales, feeling as though she was connecting with an aspect of Tellius himself. “He could sense Tellius’s fire magic.”

“Especially now that his lordship has passed his test,” Wyn said. “He’s a full master magician now.”

Darcy flushed as a swell of pride swept through her. 

Why Traditional Themes Work

There's a lot to be said for tradition. If something is a tradition, it means it has been around for a long time, and if it has been around for a long time, there is probably a good reason. In literature, the Great Books are (simply put) books that deal with Great Themes - themes such as good vs. evil, power, sacrifice, redemption, life and death, love, and many others. Themes such as these speak to the human condition, and authors ought to seek to imitate the Great Books if they want their work to speak across the ages. I frown on authors who tailor their books to the ever-changing tide of cultural opinion. You might find success for a moment, but when that tide changes, your books will be washed away with it, as irrelevant in the next moment as they were relevant in the moment before. If you write to please pop culture, or with only your immediate generation in mind, you will never find lasting success. And I'm not talking about Kleos, that greatest of ancient Greek virtues that makes the hero (or the writer, in this case) "immortal." I'm not talking about your reputation at all, I'm talking about themes and messages that transcend you, as the author, and speak directly to the heart of mankind. Ask yourself this - if someone were to pick up my books in 100 years, would they read something that still speaks to them? If the answer is no, then you have not written something worth reading.

But let's face it, books have to sell, right? Publishing is a business, and you must write books that appeal to your generation. Absolutely! Of course you do! But that is what is on the surface. It's the candy-coating, if you will. But what should be at the heart of your books, beneath the surface, are stories filled with traditional themes that grab the hearts of the readers and make them come back over and over again. In this scenario, you cannot lose.

Avoid, avoid, avoid the pop culture trap. Avoid promoting the current fad, the current political agenda, the current soapbox topic... anything that will be here today and gone tomorrow. Avoid it! There are Greater things to be said. If I am granted the ability to look back on my body of work at the end of my life to evaluate what I am leaving behind me, I want to see that I have written stories that are true, that are beautiful, that are good - stories that are lasting.

And NOW for a little teaser! Speaking of authors who have written lasting works, if you're familiar with my books, you know that I pair each one with a C. S. Lewis quotation, and that quotation so far has always been about Darcy. In book 5, The Scroll, I've chosen one that speaks to Darcy, but is about another character, and I bet my biggest fans will be able to guess who! Here it is:

"What can you ever really know of other people's souls—of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands." C. S. Lewis