R. L. Stedman

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How to Write Amazing Urban Fantasy

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Amazing Urban Fantasy

fairytale book
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What is Urban Fantasy?

Urban fantasy stories are tales of magic, but unlike other fantasy sub-genres, like Epic Fantasy (think Lord of the Rings) or High Fantasy (like Game of Thrones), they’re set in the real world. Urban fantasy stories are HUGE on TV, film, and books. They’re the oldest kind of story. I think urban fantasy is amazing!

Here’s some tips on how to craft a great urban fantasy story:

1. Use Recognizable Settings

Make sure the reader recognizes the setting of the story.

The house design is familiar, or the story takes place in a well-known city.

Generally, urban fantasies occur in a man-made environment, although sometimes they’re set in at the boundary between the urban and the wild. Like the story of Hansel and Gretel: the witch who lives in the woods in a house made of gingerbread.

2. Plot Structure

Often UF’s follow the typical hero’s journey:

  • At the start of the story, the protagonist is happily living his/her life, ignorant of the magical world. Generally, he will be from of humble origins and not blessed with any special powers. He or she will be ordinary. Good-hearted, perhaps, and sometimes naive. At the beginning of the tale, the hero never sees themselves as special.
  • Then … enter the miraculous; the theatrical; the magical. Generally, in an Urban Fantasy, the magical is a total, freaky surprise to the hero. Of course, the reader will know that its there, because it’s an Urban Fantasy, after all!
  • Frequently, upon entering this magical realm, the hero finds they have a super-power. He or she might be amazingly talented, or beautiful or desirable. Sometimes the hero discovers he’s from a magical dynasty and was hidden at birth to protect him from opponents of this dynasty. (Harry Potter, anyone?)
  • Sometimes the hero is the secret hope of the hidden world, but perhaps he’s a bystander. Either way, he’ll have to use his newly-discovered powers to overcome a threat, and in so doing will return to the real world changed.
  • He may leave the real world altogether and continue in the hidden lands, or he may continue as a bridge between the worlds, and move at will between them.
  • There are variations on this. For example, the hero may be inside the hidden realm at the start of the story – in which case, entering our real world may be a total shock.

But either way, all this is good stuff for a story, right?

3. What Tone Should I Use?

Urban fantasy stories are generally funny, although sometimes they’re dark, almost gothic in tone – Vampire stories are classic UF but they’re rarely funny.

Where there is humor it usually comes from the contrast between the magic and the real, and how characters in the magical realms just don’t get technology, or vice-versa.

But wait – there’s more!

I love reading and writing urban fantasy, and gradually I’m focussing more and more on the genre.

Over the next few blog posts I’ll showcase some of my favorite UF books, but right now I’m going to leave you with an Excerpt from Welcome to Faery.

 

Excerpt: Beauty is a Subjective Term

I’ve put this story below as it demonstrates many of the points above. (P.S. You can download this entire story collection at this link here: https://bookhip.com/VHJFPS)

– Define: Fairest
 The Queen tapped her fingers on the marble dressing table. Click click click. Nails filed to a killing point. ‘Stupid Mirror. “Fair” means “beauty”.’

– Define: Beauty

The last mirror had done what she’d asked. But oh no, the dwarfs had talked her into this new one, saying magic words like ‘memory’ and ‘voice activation’ and ‘ram’ and she hadn’t wanted to look stupid, not in front of a bunch of dwarves. And now look at this super-sleek mirror; so beautiful on the wall and yet so, so useless. How was she supposed to find Snow White without a working mirror? An upgrade, they’d said, as if an upgrade was a good thing.

The Queen threw a crystal jar across her chamber. It shattered on the stone tiles, spilling musk-flavored perfume. A serving girl scurried to clean it up, ducking low to avoid any other stray objects that the Queen might throw.

‘I mean, you stupid mirror, is there anyone else in this Kingdom more beautiful than I?’

– Define: More beautiful

The Queen paused. How does one define beautiful, anyway? ‘Girl,’ she said over her shoulder.

The maid paused in her cleaning. ‘Yes, my Lady?’

‘What makes someone beautiful?

Kneeling on the floor, the maid carefully placed shards of glass onto a folded piece of paper. ‘Like you, my Lady?’

The Queen smiled. This girl was intelligent. ‘Exactly,’ she purred. ‘Like me.’

The girl scrambled to her feet, bending her head. ‘Beauty, my Lady? Ah, maybe something like clear skin. Red lips.’

‘Is that all?’ The Queen was disappointed. ‘Why, you have red lips.’

‘Thank you, my Lady.’

‘There you are, mirror.’ The Queen turned her back on the servant. ‘I want you to find out for me if there is anyone in the Kingdom with clearer skin and redder lips than I.’

Behind her, the girl went to get a mop and bucket.

– Subjective terms. Reframe your search parameters

‘Servant,’ called the Queen.

The girl was folding the paper into a funnel, ready to pour the glass into a small tumbler. ‘Yes, my Lady?’

‘What does it mean now?’

The girl ducked her head. ‘I think, my Lady, it does not understand your question.’

‘Why not? I am perfectly clear.’ Tap-tap went the nails. The Queen’s hand twitched towards another glass bottle and the girl added quickly, ‘It’s a dwarf mirror. My Ma works for them. They’re scientific. Need to use very specific terms, to get their magic working.’

‘Specific terms?’ asked the Queen grimly. ‘I’ll show them how specific I can be. With my wand, I can very specific.’ She sighed. ‘So. What should I ask this wretched mirror?’

‘May I, my Lady?’ The girl indicated the space beside the Queen.

The Queen nodded, and the servant stepped beside her. She smelt of musk perfume and bleach. Her face, what the Queen could see of it behind the fall of grubby hair, seemed pale. She was right to be nervous, thought the Queen grimly. Persons that got too close to her were apt to have a significantly shortened lifespan.

‘Mirror mirror,’ said the girl softly.

‘I said that. Didn’t I say that?’

‘That’s just the start command.’

‘Oh,’ said the Queen. ‘I knew that.’

The girl cleared her throat. ‘Definition input.’

– Inputting

‘Beauty = Fair. Beauty: blemish-free skin.’

‘Amazing,’ thought the Queen. ‘How does she make that noise in her throat? It sounds just someone choking.’ She frowned, remembering: red apple, blood falling on snow.

– Define: blemish

‘Definition input: Crease, line or wrinkles.’

‘Freckles,’ whispered the queen.

The girl nodded. ‘Definition continues: moles, warts, lentigines, skin tags.’

– Definition received

‘What is a lentigine?’ asked the Queen

‘Like a freckle.’ The girl pointed at a sunspot on the Queen’s hand. The Queen moved her hand quickly, hiding the imperfection. ‘So now, if you ask it to tell you who is the most beautiful in the land, it will tell you who has the clearest skin.’

‘Well,’ said the Queen, looking pleased, ‘that’s very clever. Back you go, girl, clean up that mess. The perfume is giving me a headache.’ The girl crept back to the floor and the scrubbing brush.

The Queen stared up at the mirror’s silver screen, tapped her finger and asked: ‘Mirror mirror, who is the most beautiful in the land?’

On the screen appeared faces, flickering in and out, changing too rapidly to recognize any individual. A montage of faces, from happy to sad, from fat to thin, in a rainbow of skin tones. All clear-skinned, all beautiful.

All of them children.

The Queen screamed, stood up, backed away from the mirror. She stumbled over the servant, still scrubbing the floor.

‘Your Majesty. What is it?’

The Queen pointed at the mirror. The menagerie of children floated past. But never her own face, never her own!

‘Girl! Make it stop!’

The servant sat back on her heels, called out: ‘Mirror. End query.’

The screen faltered, the faces disappeared. The Queen slowly straightened.

‘Beauty,’ she said crisply, ‘is in the eye of the beholder. And I behold my face, and I say I am beautiful. I do not need to ask any mirror anything.’

The girl returned to her scrubbing. ‘That’s what my Ma says. She says beauty isn’t that special. It’s what you do that counts.’

The Queen sniffed and returned to her dresser. ‘When you’ve finished clearing up,’ she said, ‘go and wash.’

The girl wrung her perfume-scented cloth into the bucket, picked up her brush and backed from the room. ‘That’s why she stayed with them. She’s never coming home. She’s no interest in your stupid kingdom. And we’re good at hiding. So stop trying to find us.’

The Queen spun on her chair, stared at the servant girl, creeping backward from the room with her mop and brush and bucket. She did look familiar; black hair, creamy skin. ‘Wait!’ she called. ‘Wait!’

But the girl had gone. Out into the corridor, merging with the other waiting staff. Hundreds of them, scurrying about like mice. Identical in their grey coveralls, hiding their faces. The Queen would never find her.

The mirror! The mirror could tell her.

‘Mirror, mirror,’ she said. ‘Show me…’

She stopped. She would never succeed. Curse the dwarves and their wretched technology! Only Snow White had ever managed to work with them.

Great Books for Brainy Boys

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Great Books for Brainy Boys

Do you have a bright boy in your life? Lucky you!

teenager - school visit

BUT it’s hard to keep a bright boy fed with books. So many MG and YA books have pink covers, or touchy-feely romance, or feature bearded manly-men: my boys just couldn’t relate to these stories.

You know how kids can be fussy eaters? (“I don’t like broccoli/tomatoes/mushrooms?”) They’re exactly the same with books.

But it’s really important that kids learn to love reading. If nothing else, a book is a battery-free boredom-killer. A book can be carried anywhere and shoved under your little darling’s nose the moment he becomes restless.

But books are more than entertainment; they’re education. Books teach without even trying. From stories, kids learn facts, coping strategies and how to see the world through another’s eyes. In today’s techno-focussed society, words are super important; if you’re unable to communicate ideas, its pretty hard to hold down any well-paid job. Today, being brain-fit is more important than being physically-fit.

Here’s a list that might help.

Full disclosure: my boys are in their late teens. In their middle grade years (ages 8 – 10) they were competent, not voracious readers. I had to work real hard to find stories they liked. One son likes character-focussed novels; the other is (still) crazy about science, and for the longest time he’d only read ‘how to’ manuals. (I remember reading him the dishwasher plumbing manual for bed time reading!)

But now they’re both advanced readers, in the top streams at their university/schools and while they still have strong preferences, they’ll read across genres. I compiled this list of books with their help.

I’ve put in links to the Amazon pages of all the titles, so you can read a bit more about them.

 

Please note: this list is by no means complete. I’ve left out most of the mega hits, like The Hobbit, The Maze Runner, The Hunger Games and Harry Potter, as I’m sure you’re already aware of them. Plus, of course there are plenty of other wonderful stories I’ve left out, or just haven’t discovered yet. This list is mostly speculative fiction (horror, sci-fi and fantasy) as I found my science-focussed son engaged best with this genre.

If you’re looking for further ideas, try Zac Harding’s blog: https://bestfriendsarebooks.com – or ask a librarian

 

Younger Readers (8 – 10)

Animorphs – KA Applegate

Goosebumps – R. L. Stine

  • These are science-fiction/horror-lite series, and both have an enormous number of titles. One son insisted on reading them in order, which I found real stressful, because do you think the library had them all available at the right time?

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory & Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator  – Roald Dahl

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar   – Roald Dahl

“What keeps the elevator up?” asked Charlie.

“Skyhooks, of course,” said Mr Willy Wonka.

 

When Our Jack Went to War – Sandy McKay.

Based on the true story of Sandy’s great-uncle in WW1. This book is really good for kids with shorter attention spans, as it’s interspersed with cuttings from newspapers, so the formatting helps retain the interest.

 

The Prankster and the Ghost – R. L. Stedman

This is my book, so I guess this could be shameless self-promotion, but I wrote this with my kids in mind. The idea came about from my son’s school camp: within the first hour, one kid had their arm run over by the bus, another had a trip to ED, and my son was convinced the camp was haunted.

The Horse and His Boy – C. S. Lewis

The story of Shasta, runaway slave and his talking horse. A stand-alone adventure set in the Narnia world, this was the only one in the series my kids warmed to, but they both loved it.

Middle Grade (10 – 13)

Horowitz Horror – Anthony Horowitz

These are really good horror stories for kids, but be aware that they may induce delicious terror in the child-reader. So I don’t recommend these for binge- or late-night reading (unless you want to be woken by a kid with nightmares). Horowitz also wrote the Alex Rider series for older kids, about a spy academy for teens. TBH my kids didn’t really relate to the Rider series, “they’re too predictable”, but others may enjoy.

 

The Cherub Series – Robert Muchamore

Another series about teen spies for MG – YA readers. These stories are the ultimate in formulaic, binge-reading, so once a kid is hooked they’ll be gagging for the next in series. One of my sons hated these books, but the other devoured them, so again, worth a try. There are heaps of titles in this series – definitely a bonus when you’ve got a holiday planned. Just be aware that Muchamore writes about real-life issues, like trafficking. Younger children may not be ready for this type of content, so I do suggest caution.

 

The City of Ember (3 book series) – Jeanne DuPrau

A story about a civilisation surviving underground. This was made into a neat little movie, starring Bill Murray and Tim Robbins, and is a well-written exciting science-fiction dystopia for younger readers.

 

 

A Wrinkle in Time – Madeline L’Engle

An absolute, must-read classic for intelligent MG and YA readers: time travel, space travel, a brain-box kid and his older sister. This is part of a series, but you don’t need to have the entire series to enjoy this outstanding adventure.

 

When You Reach Me – Rebecca Stead

An award-winning adventure about time travel. Miranda receives anonymous letters that seem to be able to predict the future. This story is full of puzzles and plot twists. It’s based on an idea in A Wrinkle in Time, so its good to read them together.

 

Cosmic – Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

The story of an unusually tall 12-year-old who’s mistaken for an adult, and how he pranks his way into becoming an astronaut. This isn’t a simplistic read, but if you’ve a kid with a good attention span, they’ll love this story. Cosmic (and Cottrell-Boyce’s other works) make very good audio books, great for long car journeys.

 

Johnny Maxwell Series – Terry Pratchett

More information in this blog post.

Only You Can Save Mankind

Under the Mountain – Maurice Gee

See this blog post here. Fantastic story, disappointing movie.

 

Chrestomanci Series – Diana Wynne Jones.

This was the series that got me hooked on reading, when I was only 9! My favourite in the series is still Charmed Life, about orphan Cat and the mysterious enchanter Chrestomanci, but Witch Week is also great, and even now I laugh out loud when I read it. This series introduces the concept of multiple worlds and discusses causality, so it’s a thought-provoking read for science-fiends.

Older Readers (13 +)

I think my kids enjoyed the books here precisely because they are NOT written for kids – most were written before YA was a ‘proper’ genre.

 

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams

Great fun to read aloud and surprisingly accessible; we laughed our way through this book.

 

The Invisible Man – HG Wells

A classic, and still a fantastic story. A man walks into a bar, his face wrapped in bandages …

 

The Day of The Triffids – John Wyndham

Wyndham’s novels are written in a rather dry, reportage style, which my son loved.  If your child enjoyed the Triffids, they’ll be happy, because there are others to try: The Kraken Wakes, Chocky, The Midwich Cuckoos. (My son also loved The Trouble With Lichen, but I couldn’t stand it!)

 

The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown

I know, right? But my 13 year old totally loved this book, the idea of the puzzles and the fast-paced story-telling kept him hooked.

 

The Raven Boys – Maggie Stiefvater

My boys weren’t massively into this series, but it will certainly appeal to some boy readers. More info in this blog post here.

The Foundation Series – Isaac Asimov

My son devoured this series when he was 14, and it’s still one of his favourites. The combination of science and world-building in Asimov’s books makes these books deeply appealing to young people. Apologies to all Asimov fans, but I find reading his books as exciting as watching paint dry. The ideas are great, but it’s hard work to reach them (plus he’s as sexist as hell), so I wouldn’t expose a teen to Foundation until he or she is a truly competent reader.

 

And then …

Well, once a kid is says he’s enjoying Asimov, they’re on their own, and good luck keeping up with them!

Rights in Space
photographs from pixabay and deposit photos – used under license

Enjoyed Ready Player One? Here’s Four Retro Books You’ll Love

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Have you seen Ready Player One?

In case you’ve not watched it, nor read the book, here’s a quick summary: 16-year-old poverty-stricken Wade Watts is searching for a prize hidden inside the Oasis, the world’s online forum/trading place/gaming place/school venue. It’s where most people spend their days, hidden behind virtual headsets.

The year is 2040; the Oasis’s reclusive developer, James Halliday, has just died, leaving his fortune and control of the Oasis to the person who can find the three keys that unlock the prize, or ‘easter egg’, hidden within the Oasis. But an evil corporation is also seeking the egg. Can Wade save the Oasis (and the world) before it’s too late?

Ready Player One

The story takes place in both the virtual and the real, and through the story Wade meets the fetching Art3mis (pronounced Artemis, how clever), faces his fears, learns about friendship and loyalty.

Watching the movie felt weirdly familiar, partly because the story references the 80s like they were the coolest time ever, and partly because I’ve read a heck of a lot of books similar to RP1.

There ain’t nothing like Spielberg for storytelling, plus you gotta love the meta-ness of Spielberg making a nostalgia-fest of the 80s when he was responsible for much of its pop-culture. And of course, the special effects are great. There’s a few logistical/plot hole questions but hey, it’s a movie, right?

However, the book troubles me. Ready Player One was a best seller, but I have no idea why. I thought it was slow, badly written and full of formulaic tropes. But the thing that annoyed me the most was that there are way, way better books around, but they’re not as famous, and so have gradually dwindled into undeserved obscurity.

If you loved Ready Player One – great! I’m glad it worked for you. Not every book speaks to every reader; that’s cool.

But if you enjoyed RP1, then you’re in luck, because the world is full of books that are EVEN BETTER. Try these stories below. They’re all science fiction, dealing with the intersection between the virtual the real (also known as cyberpunk) but I think they’re more innovative, creative and way more entertaining.

Are you ready?

Only You Can Save Mankind – Terry Pratchett

Only You Can Save Mankind

Johnny Maxwell has a new video game – defeat the alien ScreeWee. But if the ScreeWee refuse to fight? Worse, what if they surrender? Then the aliens disappear from the game, only to begin invading his dreams. With the help of another player (handle “Sigourney”), Johnny must save the world, save the ScreeWee and work out what is real, and what is not.

The story is hilarious; my personal favourite is Johnny’s friend Wobbler, who creates a game called “Journey to Alpha Centauri” which has to be played in real time, thus taking 3000 years to complete.

Johnny and his friends star in two later novels: Johnny and the Dead and Johnny and the Bomb. In all three stories, Pratchett deals with real-life issues, but always with his trademark humor.

The Johnny stories were some of Pratchett’s favourite works, but they never sold as well as his Disc World series.

I’ve really enjoyed exploring them again with my kids; although the tech references are dated, the ideas are still interesting, and Pratchett’s characters are vivid and exciting. Tip: get the audiobooks. They’re a lot of fun for car journeys, especially the voices of the ScreeWee. Appropriate for ages 9 and up.

Find Only You Can Save Mankind on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2rx1GF9

Body of Glass – Marge Piercy. (Also published as He, She and It).

He, She and It

Published in 1991, Body of Glass was one of the first novels to explore characters shifting between the physical to the virtual worlds, and was awarded the Arthur C Clarke Award in 1993.

Shira, an expert in cyber socialization, works for Y-S, a multi. She lives under a glass dome, safe from the environmental pollution that’s killed much of North America. But when her ex-husband wins custody of her son, she decides its time to return to her home town Tikva, and begins working on a new project: the cyborg Yod. As she learns to live without her son, she realises that Tikva is under attack, and Yod is to be its defender.

The book cuts between the past and the present, and deals with gender identity, sexualisation and race. It’s scarily prescient, with topics like: what is a cyborg? Where does humanity begin and end?

The sex scenes are reasonably descriptive, so I wouldn’t recommend this for early YAs but it’s suitable for late teens, and definitely recommended for girls – its unusual to see women cast in starring roles in sci-fi. It’s set in a Jewish community, and I totally enjoyed the opportunity to read and learn about this culture.

Piercy also wrote Woman on the Edge of Time, an unnervingly accurate novel about the future.

Find He, She and It on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2rx1shh

Neuromancer – William Gibson

Neuromancer

Neuromancer won the Nebula Award, the Philip K Dick Award and the Hugo Award in 1984. Case, a washed up computer hacker, is hired to conduct a hit on a powerful artificial intelligence. He’s assisted by razor girl Molly Millions, an augmented street samurai with mirror-eyes. Together they discover why Case has been hired, and the identity of who it was who hired him. The story ends with the world changing, as a new AI is born.

Neuromancer birthed the terms ‘Matrix’, ‘hacker’, ‘cyberspace’, and is at least partially credited with having spawned the internet as we know it. Gibson himself says this isn’t true; that he saw the trends emerging and ran with them. Whatever the truth to the tale, there’s no doubt that Neuromancer both reflected and shaped reality.

Although the book isn’t as good as, I think, Gibson’s more recent works, it’s still an amazing, sometimes puzzling read. It’s suitable for older readers, especially teens who love tech. The language is dense and sometimes hard to follow, so better for competent readers.

Incidentally, if you like the concept of Neuromancer but find the actual story too complex, try Burning Chrome, Gibson’s first story collection, published in 1981. It’s a little easier to read, but still has Molly Millions, dancing in black leather with her silver-mirror eyes.

Find Neuromancer on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2rzx7ym

Snow Crash – Neal Stephenson

Snow Crash

Stephenson works part-time for Amazon-owner Jeff Bezos, as his ‘chief futurist’, so he’s uniquely placed to both dream and implement the future.

Snow Crash, released in 1992, is one of his earlier works. It’s a racy, exciting ride with a page-turning, complex plot and intriguing characters.

Our hero is Hiro Protagonist, a part-time pizza delivery boy for the Mafia, part-time builder of the Metaverse, an emerging cyberspace landscape. Hiro is rescued from pizza-delivery death by Y. T.,  a young skateboard Kourier. Y.T. (“don’t call me ‘Whitey’, I’m Y.T.”) and Hiro embark on a quest to find the creator of Snow Death, a computer virus that threatens to destroy the Metaverse, before it infects the real world.

Snow Crash does contain some info dumps, in the form of the Librarian (oh, how Ready Player One), but the actual story is so exciting that its easy to forgive this small sin. It’s a great read for smart older teens and adults.

I heard that Snow Crash is being made into a TV series by Amazon (of course)! If so, it will be amazing. Oh, and if you enjoyed Snow Crash, you’re in luck, because Stephenson is a prolific writer of very fat books, so you’ll be happily occupied for weeks!

Find Snow Crash on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2rzYLvd

Competition Time – Name a Novel

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Ever Wanted to Be In A Book?

I have a problem – I’m stuck on naming a book, so I’ve started a “Name A Novel” competition. The winner will have a character named after them. So, if you’ve ever wanted to be in a book, or wanted to name one, now’s your chance.

~ ENTER COMPETITION HERE ~

More Information

Background:
I’m writing a three-novel series. Each story follows one of three sisters. The first book is about Zoe, a singer. The second features Belinda, street artist, and the third is about fashion designer Chrissie. In each story, art becomes a bridge between the everyday and the magical, as well as obviously, having a link to The Dancing Princesses fairytale. They’re urban fantasy stories, and each is a romance. The tales are stand-alone, but will be connected through the three sisters. Each story will be PG (ish). You can read part of a prequel Novella, Alice, here: https://dl.bookfunnel.com/w98njz463w

What I Need:
I need a title for each story. Ideally, the vibe of the titles will be similar so that a reader will realize they’re connected. Ideally, I’d also like a connection to fantasy in the title – for example, using words like ‘magic’, ‘enchantment’, ‘spells’. Titles need to be unique: I don’t want a title that’s the same as another book or TV program, and I can’t use proprietary terms, like trade names.

What You Can Do:
If you’d like to have a go at naming a book, now’s your chance. It’d be great if you try to name each title, but if you can only think of a title for one book, that’s fine.

What’s the Prize?
The winner of my Name a Novel Competition will have the opportunity to name a character in one of the books. Plus, they’ll get a free copy of the book(s) they’ve named!

~ ENTER COMPETITION HERE ~

5 Reasons Every Writer Should Visit Berlin

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Holocaust memorial, Berlin

I first visited Berlin in 1992. The Berlin Wall had come down in 1989, but large parts of it still remained. In ’92, there were plenty of other reminders of the Communist regime. (Side note: If you ever want to see an argument against Communism, visit a country just emerging from its grip.)

Back then, West Berlin felt cosmopolitan but soulless and East Berlin was drab and bleak. The city was full of road works, because the tram tracks in the East didn’t match those in the West. The apartment buildings and roads of East Berlin were in a sad state of disrepair and the place was full of soviet-style cars pouring exhaust fumes into the narrow streets.

Fast forward to 2017, when we returned.

 

A post shared by RL Stedman (@rlstedman) on

It’s hard to understate the changes over those 25 years. Berlin is now a vibrant metropolis. It’s full of fascinating alleys and side streets, amazing restaurants, art galleries and best of all, the old East Berlin. The apartments that survived the War have been restored, and the place is clean and bright and exciting. And safe!

To my mind, every creative should visit Berlin once in his/her life. This is why:

  1. The Wall. Seeing the remains of the Berlin Wall and its profoundly tangible consequence on memory and culture is a stark reminder of why artificial barriers always fail. Sectioning one element of a community from another weakens the entire community – but we never learn, do we? Every generation, another leader comes along and says “these people/this religion/this political system is bad, and we must separate ourselves from it, lest it overwhelm us”. Yet, the truth is, of course, that humans are more resilient than we realise and mixing of ideas and communities strengthens us all. But still, we delude ourselves that ideas can be quarantined.
  2. Stumbling Stones (Stolperstein). The stolpersteine are cobblestone-sized plaques set into the sidewalks outside apartments in Berlin. They bear the name and life dates of victims of Nazi persecution. You can find them outside Berlin, too: many German cities have them, as do cities in the Netherlands, Austria and Italy. But Berlin seemed to have the most, especially in the old East Berlin, where many Jewish families lived. Its sad (and disconcerting) to daily step over those who once lived in the same building as you. Many people leave flowers and memorials. Why is this a good thing? Because its hard to forget the past once it wears a human face. And what is more human than a name?
  3. The gardens and parks. Berliners appreciate their public spaces. That’s because many were almost destroyed in the War; much of the urban landscape of Berlin is relatively recent. There’s nothing like nearly losing something to make you realise its importance. The Wall has left its mark, too – and the corridor marked by the Wall became a haven for wildlife. Some parts of Berlin are greener and more beautiful as a consequence of the Wall.
  4. Culture – according to Time Out, you can’t fling a currywurst without hitting an art gallery in Berlin. From traditional to contemporary to street art, Berlin is full of the galleries and sculpture. Plus, the architecture is amazing: from Prussian-establishment to Sovietstyle, the cityscape is extraordinarily diverse.
  5. What price art? Berlin is known for its reflective, regretful installations. The most moving is Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a 19,000 sq metre site of grey concrete coffin-shaped stelae. It’s eerily reminiscent of a cemetery, as it slopes downward, so the stelae grow deeper and the space grows darker as you move through. However, for me the most thought-provoking place was the Kunsthaus Dahlem, former atelier of popular Third Reich sculptor, Arno Breker. This small-but-monumental space was commissioned by the Fuhrer, for Breker. After WW2, Breker maintained he had never been a supporter of the Nazis, merely an acceptor of their patronage. Now, looking back I wonder: was Breker’s art good, or bad?

Berlin’s vibe of restoration, regret and rebirth is a heady mix. It’s perfect for a writer, because in every tragedy there’s a possibility of redemption, and in every tragedy there’s a tale to be told. If you get a chance, do visit.

To end this rather reflective blog post, here’s a poem. I wrote it after watching a girl, dressed all in pink (including her hair), stepped into my subway car.

Violinist, Berlin

Princess in Pink – Berlin, 2017

A princess in pink rides the subway

Traveling the rails alone

Her hair and her nails and her clothes are all pink

And she carries a silver iPhone.

 

Her cheeks glitter softly, like star-dust.

She wears a silver-gilt crown

A violin case over one shoulder

A heart-stopping hint of a frown

 

Above, the city is freezing

But down in the tunnels below

Where the princess is riding the subways

There’s never a hint of the snow.

 

She’s been inside these tunnels forever,

Just her and her silver gilt crown

She was here when the world was younger

Before tracks of iron were down.

 

If ever you meet the pink princess

Don’t stare. Never ask her to play –

 With one touch of her bow to the violin’s strings

That music will draw you away.

 

For she plays of a time long-forgotten

When stars could be seen in the sky

When the rivers and ocean were clean, clear and blue

Before buildings and people and lies.

 

Sometimes she sings to her music

In a voice made of starlight and pearls

And her words, inexplicably haunting,

Set heart, mind and soul in a whirl.

 

When the song ends the princess has vanished

Leaving you trapped on the train

But her memory stays with you forever –

Along with a silver iPhone.

If you loved reading American Gods, here’s 6 books (plus TV) to try

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Love American Gods? Here’s 6 Books (plus TV) To Try

American Gods by Neil Gaiman, was published in 2001, and quickly achieved cult status, winning the Hugo, Nebula, Locus Award and Bram Stoker Awards. For a fantasy writer, this is like winning the Grand Slam – actually, it’s harder!

American Gods was so popular that a remake was published in 2011 in an edition called ‘the author’s preferred text edition’. Kind of like a director’s cut version, perhaps?

There have also been audiobook editions, collector’s editions and most recently a TV production. So American Gods is one of those rarities among novels: it’s both good and popular!

Yet despite American Gods’ incredible pedigree, I only managed to read it last year. I couldn’t put it down, and so, to my husband’s irritation, I insisted on taking a book the size of a brick on holiday.

some books swallow you heart and soul

For those of you who haven’t read American Gods (and please, do read it), here’s a brief summary:

Summary of American Gods

Shadow, a small-time criminal, has just reached the end of his prison sentence. He’s about to be released when his wife, Laura, whom he loves dearly, is killed in a car crash, and his world collapses. There follows a job offer from the enigmatic Mr. Wednesday, an encounter with Mad Sweeney, and the semi-resurrection of Laura. Oh, and a cascade of gods, both ancient and modern: Egyptian, Russian, Norse, media, celebrity and technology.

American Gods is a bleakly humorous tale, sliding between fantasy, horror and social commentary, and the writing is Gaiman at his best; the tone changes effortlessly from dark to light and is both erudite and (when necessary) foolish. Gaiman is truly a master of the craft.

And when I reached the end, and let out a great sigh of regret, for reaching the end of a book you truly love is both satisfying and sad, I thought: you know, there’s something about this story that is terribly familiar.

And then I read the afterword.

So here’s 5 books that I’m almost positive Gaiman was influenced by when writing his masterpiece, and if he wasn’t, he should have been.

 

Influencing Novels

The Eight Days of Luke – by Diana Wynne Jones

In the afterword to American Gods, Gaiman reveals that Wynne Jones helped him with a plot issue. The Eight Days of Luke is a tale of Loki, the mischief-maker Norse god. Gaiman himself credits this as having an influence ‘like first cousins or something.’ However, I think there’s another of Wynne Jones’ books that’s also made its way into American Gods …

The Homeward Bounders – by Diana Wynne Jones

This is possibly the bleakest of Wynne Jones books, and its tone is similar to American Gods, in that although the ending is satisfying, it’s not happy. It’s happy-ish. The Homeward Bounders is the story of Jamie, an inquisitive London urchin who accidentally spies on Them, demonic creatures that war-game with worlds. Them throw him out onto the bounds, where, like the Wandering Jew and the Flying Dutchman, he’s doomed to travel ever onwards. Unless he can find Home, where he can return to play. Wandering the boundaries of the worlds, Jamie meets other bounders, and together, they learn they may be able to change the rules of play. Although this is a book for kids aged 9+, it’s a great read even for adults, and if you’re wanting to introduce your own kids to fantasy, The Homeward Bounders is a great place to start.

The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul – by Douglas Adams

This is the second in the Dirk Gently series. Written by the creator of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, the story follows the eccentric Dirk Gently, a holistic detective who believes that everything is interconnected – even a potato, a scythe-wielding monster, an explosion at Heathrow Airport, the contents of his fridge and Thor, God of Thunder. Unhappily for Gently, it turns out he’s absolutely right. This is a funny, funny read and like American Gods, considers what happens to gods when they have no more followers.

Small Gods – by Terry Pratchett

Pratchett and Gaiman collaborated to write the fantastic Good Omens, and Gaiman acknowledges Pratchett’s help out of a plot hole in American Gods, so I think it’s quite likely Small Gods (first published in 1992) made a contribution to American Gods. Plus, of course, there’s the titles! In Small Gods, the Great God Om unexpectedly manifests as a tortoise, and being a tortoise, has no godly powers. Worse still, only one boy, Brutha, can hear his voice, and Brutha does not believe he can be Om. Like many discworld adventures, Small Gods deals lightly with big topics: religion, freedom of belief and religious institutions.

Midnight’s Children – by Salman Rushdie

This stunning novel won the Booker Prize in 1981, and really marked the beginning of Rushdie’s pre-fatwa career. To be honest, inserting this novel into this list is a long stretch. However, I wanted to mention Rushdie because apart from Gaiman, I’ve not read any other writer with such facility for language. Rushdie is able to transform from starkly energetic horror to contemplative calm, and although his stories are bleak, they are cathartic. Unlike Gaiman, Rushdie isn’t seen as a fantasy writer, but Midnight’s Children is definitely a fantastical tale. (Personally, I don’t find Midnight’s Children as engaging as American Gods, but it’s still a worthwhile read.)

In Midnight’s Children, Saleem, a telepathic with an extraordinarily large nose, is born at midnight on the day of India’s independence with unique gifts, and believes he has unique responsibilities to the new-born state.

The Sandman – by Neil Gaiman

Full disclosure: I’ve not read this graphic novel series, but I’m really keen to. I’ll withhold my comments until that time, but just to note that Wikipedia indicates that many side characters in American Gods, such as Bast, were first born in The Sandman.

fairytale book

Post Script: Television Shows

If you’re keen on stories about Norse Gods living in modern times, try The Almighty Johnsons. In The Almighty Johnsons, the Norse pantheon have relocated to New Zealand, but don’t have their full powers, so Axl, a student (and also a reincarnation of Odin), needs to find his mate, Frigg. But unfortunately, Frigg doesn’t want to be found.

This TV show was written after American Gods, so probably owes something to Gaiman, but the tone is quite different; The Almighty Johnsons contains a whole lot more sex, and is a great deal funnier. It’s less fantastical in tone, too, but has been picked up by Syfy for release in the US.