People, places, and things
A meeting of reality and fiction
As I mentioned in my letter a couple weeks ago, I’m celebrating the anniversary of my Daughter of Arden Trilogy this month, and I’m delving in to some of the elements that have become a part of my writing. I’m at the start of a new writing project, and already I’m seeing some of these again. It’s inevitable, naturally—every writer is going to lean in to certain things, and often these emerge from our own life experiences.
It took me twenty-five years to complete my trilogy, and a lot of life happened in those years. A couple of years ago after the release of Exile, Jonathan Rogers on The Habit Podcast asked me how I kept going with the story during that long timespan. How did I keep up the momentum? It’s interesting to me that I never tired of the story, and I think it’s because throughout those years I constantly bounced real life experiences off of my created world of the seven kingdoms. Daughter of Arden became not just a story I was building, but a world where I could wrangle with spiritual questions I had and difficult situations I faced. I’ve affectionately called it my therapy. I always had my world at hand, even when I wasn’t actively writing my story.
Every writer can probably look back at his or her writing and pinpoint scenes or characters that came from actual events. Fiction is such a delightful place to expose them, to see how they hold up on the page, particularly because it’s unlikely they’ll be recognized by anyone but the author. I know I spent many hours in mental conversations with some particularly thorny people in my life. As I went back and forth in dialogue that would never happen in reality, I couldn’t help but wonder, “What if I had a character who was like this? How would he or she affect my other characters, particularly my main character?” One of the joys of writing out characters like these is that I could create a satisfactory conclusion…something that didn’t always happen in my own life. One of the surprises was when the conversation didn’t go as I planned, or I gained some insight into what motivated my antagonists.
There has also been a joy in incorporating bits of people I love within my story. Some of my characters inevitably reflect bits of people I know, and it’s fun to pull on that deliberately now and then. I look at how my characters play out in the story and I see aspects of my parents, my kids, Kraig, friends, etc. One of my favorite character homages is in Lady Bradmore who is alluded to in Exile and Wandering, and steps onto the page in Promise. In my mind, when I imagine Lady B, I imagine my Grandmom Mason, complete with silver bangles and a Himalayan cat. I can hear her tone in the comments she makes, even though Lady Bradmore is speaking of people and places my grandmother never knew. She is opinionated, and sometimes misguided, but her intentions are good and her love is true.
Another slice of life that comes out in my books is places I’ve lived. When I first wrote Exile, I had little thought of the setting other than its geography. Years later when we lived in Guadalajara, I realized that the climate there was just about perfect for Ardenay, the capital city of Princess Maleen’s Arden. Suddenly her castle came to life for me, with jacarandas and bougainvillea, with cheesy sauces loaded with mushrooms or sausage (fundido in Mexico), and graceful stone arches. The weather was dry and temperate. I could feel the place. In contrast, I wrote Promise a few years after we moved to hot and humid East Texas. Promise takes place a good bit north of Exile, and as I wrote I leaned into the seasons I missed from our years in Michigan. There were breathtaking fall colors, cold and snowy winter days, and spring apple blossoms. I could smell the place in all its seasons.
In addition to the people and places that have stepped from reality into my story are some of the things that show up. When I first started writing Exile, Kraig was in school studying civil engineering. His career and work have been an integral part of our life, and as a teacher as well as an engineer, Kraig is always describing and explaining what he sees and experiences. To say the least, having him on hand was particularly helpful when my main character was exiled to a tower where she’d live for a significant period of time. What would this tower look like? How would it be believable? Obviously in the original fairy tale the structure of the building and its believability were secondary to the story and symbolism, but for a retelling in a novel, it was significant.
In my new story, I’m still hanging out in the world I created for Daughter of Arden, but I’ve moved south, and my setting is more tropical. I have a city that’s loosely based on Tenōchtitlan, the ancient Aztec city that is now Mexico City—it’s such a fascinating setting, and I hope I can do justice to it. Again I’m bouncing ideas off of Kraig as I think through the kinds of buildings that could stand up to possible earthquakes and unstable foundations. As for the tropics themselves, I find myself digging back into memories of living in the Philippines as a kid. Every now and then a scent or smell rises to the surface from somewhere deep in my psyche. I wonder at times what more may rise as this story weaves onward. What characteristics will show up in the characters? That’s a mystery I don’t completely know the answer to, but I’m thoroughly looking forward to discovering it. Each step into this new world is in some way revealing the world I have lived in all these years, sometimes bringing joy, sometimes sorrow, often helping me better understand my life.
Art for the week:
When Kraig’s family lived in Kenya back in the ‘90s, they had a great light-brown German Shepherd named “Teddy.” I met him one Christmas, and he was so big, beautiful, and loving that he stayed in my memory as an ideal dog. I suppose it was inevitable that he showed up in Wandering as “Tad,” the faithful dog of a young river pilot.
Audience participation:
I know many of you who receive this newsletter have read and enjoyed my Daughter of Arden Trilogy. If you haven’t left a review about it, could you pop onto Amazon and Goodreads and add some stars or a quick word about something you liked in the books? The more reviews, the more the books will show up in peoples’ searches.
HOLIDY SALE NEWS!!!
Bandersnatch Books is hosting their biggest sale ever starting Black Friday. Here are the details from Bandersnatch:
“In addition to having t-shirts and totes available for a limited time, we've got deep discounts ready for you in the Bandersnatch Books web store.
Starting on Black Friday through Cyber Monday, all books on our website will be 40% off
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“While these sales won't apply to our POD merch, we do plan to have a few new designs up for you to consider, so be sure to check out the site starting next week. We recommend ordering early so the items get to you in time! For book orders, we encourage you to get your order in by December 14 so that the postal service has time to get your books to you!”
Love that cat! Purrrrfect ;)
It was fun to read how your experiences shape your writing. I know that as a reader, I enjoy reading works set in places that I will visit or have visited. It is extra enjoyable to layer my experiences with the story.