My King Arthur book follows a 16 year old kid named Arthur after his father who was the King Arthur of old and died on a great battlefield by the hand of Lancelot (not Mordred as the Welsh annals have shown). This 16 year old kid actually is from the present times, 1983 United States, but he was transported here by Emrys (Merlin) to protect him from the evils of Lancelot in a corrupted Avalon. Eventually Arthur meets Morgan a young girl bearing magical talent and re-enters the land to search for a missing boy. Turns out it becomes a lot more involved and he may eventually take over the throne to claim his father's kingdom for himself.
Oh yeah. You
definitely need to read The Wizard Knight. It's about a teenage kid from around 1950s or '60s America who, on a camping trip, wanders out into the woods and ends up in an original, but Arthurian-inspired fantasy world. The twist with this one is, when he wakes up there, he has the body of an adult. So that's how people see him and treat him. At first he just wants to find a way back home, but he ends up getting caught up in the affairs of the kingdom.
It's treatment of elves and faries and magic is particularly interesting, as is the conceit of a child trapped in an adult's body as the main character. It's multi-layered world is also something very fascinating that I haven't seen done elsewhere. I'm sure it
has been, it's just rare enough that I haven't encountered it.
The whole book is framed as an epistolary from the boy to his older brother back home in America, so it's strictly first-person, which both allows the story to move at a very brisk pace (if something didn't happen directly to him, even if it happens moments later to a character he was
just speaking to, it doesn't happen on page) and cover a
lot of ground in two relatively-short books, and lets us have direct insight into this boy-in-a-man's-body as he deals with that complication.
As for the historical fiction, it's not a YA novel and is far more mature and darker. I'm trying to write it like an HBO show, keeping the mature themes of Starz's Black Sails, or Game of Thrones in mind.
Ooh, if you're doing something HBO-ish, have you tried writing in unusual ways? Because I also have a story that's intended to be HBO-like (actually, my inspiration is ABC's Lost), and I've actually decided to write it
as a script first, and then fill in narration to make it a book.
I'm a very lazy, negligent writer, and I've found in recent months that breaking away from writing prose in the typical fashion helps. I'm writing another story as a play-by-post forum RPG, but with myself, and that's also coming along nicely, as is the script-y one. Both coming along much more nicely than my traditional efforts at writing prose in the typical way.
There is an interesting history here though that has never been done before. There is a privateer, endorsed by Thomas Paine who wrote the pamphlet Common Sense. That privateer was known as William Death, and he was no fake. He took on contracts in the English Chanel and eventually dies in combat one day. I'm trying to mold him into a drinking, heavy-hitting, swashbuckling pirate privateer who does not do things "by the books". Adam Wright finds himself aboard his ship, and starts a grand plot involving secret societies, the French and a plot to take down the idea of a "United States" before the concept ever came about.
Will your William Death be played by Johnny Depp? :p
This is actually sounding like something that would get picked up by HBO. Or maybe the History Channel...once they get bored of Ancient Alien shows.
William Death hates the french, and stops at nothing to seek revenge. He is one of the characters in this book that are a part of a secret society started by Henrietta Howard, who was the King of England's mistress. She dislikes the English rule, and so started this society to turn the American Colonies into an independent nation. No "taxation without equal representation" as the Tea Party members said. Now in my book, I'm thinking of having Adam Wright, the main hero, mutter these words first, and so therefore starting a small blip in history. I want him to be the "Vessel of Instigation". Much like how Forrest Gump was through a later era of American history.
You could be cute and switch it around. Have Adam, in some private meeting, say something like, "until we secure equal representation, we shan't accept taxation," and then Ben Franklin, being the smooth speaker and trisky Hobbit that he is, at some public event whips out "no taxation without representation." Adam could even be on the sidelines with a "jerk stole my line" look on his face.
It breaks heavily from actual history, but a scene like that would be gold.
My King Arthur book has been in and out of production for nearly 12+ years! I started a book way back in early middle school. So it has been a long, long journey to get to where I am with it today. I think I'm on my 4th rewrite. The first attempts were just really bad.
Yeesh. It's crazy how long it can take to write a book.
I've been working on my big children's fantasy series since the summer of 2006. I'll never forget it, because it's a multi-book series and when it was first coming to me and I was coming up with titles for the books, the final book in the series was going to be called "The Four Deathly Kings." It's a play on "
four heavenly kings." However, mere WEEKS later, Jo Rowling announced the title for the final Harry Potter book. "The Deathly Hallows."
I was like, "aww, come on!" Because my series is about a boy who stumbles into a parallel magical fantasy world, so I knew regardless of how different it might be, in a post-Harry Potter world, it's invariably going to get compared to Harry Potter. So there's no way I can use that title.
It's fine. I've come up with a different, cohesive naming structure for the series altogether since then, but still. There'll always be a silly part of me that's like, "Jo Rowling stole my adjective!"
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I meant something a little different by "relationship to one's books," though. I meant in a more abstract, general sense. Like, I mentioned how a lot of authors say that their writings are like their children, for example.You hear a lot of talk like, "oh, I don't have a favorite among my books, they're all equally important to me," and they'll say they religiously avoid reading reviews because reading a negative review about their book is like someone saying something terrible about their children and they just can't bear to hear that.
Or you have a lot of authors that talk about their books like their lovers, guarding them jealously and passionately. These are the types who make a fuss about fan fiction "ruining" their books, or bemoan film or television versions of their book for "sullying" the story by changing something. These kinds of authors typically
do read reviews, and occasionally, react very badly to a negative review, attacking the reviewer for failing to see the brilliance of their book, in the same way you might defend a spouse if someone slung an insult at them.
To varying extremes and degrees (and acknowledging that it's a continuum, not an either-or), I see these attitudes a lot. A
lot a lot. The wide majority of writers I know say that their books are like their children. That's a very common sentiment. And I just don't remotely feel that way.
My books feel more like...partners, or old friends. Entities that I adore, but respect, and trust to be able to stand on their own. I don't feel the need to protect them like they're precious babies, or justify them to people who don't like them. I've just never felt a super-emotional response to criticism of any of my writings, or existential dread at the notion that someone might think they're completely lacking merit.
To be fair, I have not yet
published any of my works. Very few people have seen any of my writings, and almost all of those who have have been face-to-face with me. Maybe once I put my first work out there into the world and an online reviewer tears it to shreds, I might become more jealous and defensive.
But for me, right now, I feel like, "my work can stand up on its own." I don't feel the need to hold its hand like a dottering preschooler and guard it from the harshness of the world and explain to the other parents that it's "gifted" and complain to the teacher when it doesn't get first place. I have faith in my writing. I'm eager to put something out, let it leave me, and watch it blossom.