Underground Update: Chapter Three is Coming Soon!

Just a quick note to keep you all up to date:

The third chapter of Underground, “A Proper Crutch,” is entirely written, and should be edited and posted by the end of the month (provided I can keep on top of researching and writing a 25-page paper on the rights and responsibilities of storytellers with respect to copyright law).  

Previous chapters can be read at www.cmgbooks.com/5.html.  

Check back soon!

First Draft of The Harper's Word Complete!

The Harper’s Word is finished!  Well, at least draft 1 is finished … who knows how many more drafts I’ll go through before it’s polished enough to start sending out properly.  The book weighed in at a whopping 399 manuscript pages (that’s 113,670 words, for those of you who prefer word count).  Needless to say, there’s a fair bit of editing to do—and a fair bit of additional research, too, but I’m looking forward to it—and to the sequel!  

Thanks to my writers’ groups and to the other folks who have read this work in its roughest form and offered up constructive criticism.  Your help can only make the next draft better.

To learn more about The Harper’s Word visit www.cmgbooks.com/3.html

Underground Chapter Two Posted!

At last! The second chapter of Underground, “A Gentleman’s Education,” is finished and posted on the website.  You can read this chapter and others at www.cmgbooks.com/5.html.  I look forward to reading your comments. :)

Acknowledgments:

Thanks to the staff of the Bracken Health Sciences Library, for helping me find the information I needed for this chapter; to Zoe, who pointed me in the right direction; and to the folks of effective editing, for helping to iron out the grammatical issues in the chapter.

Some notes on the chapter:

Firstly, The inept Professor Robert Bell was indeed a professor at Queen’s during the 1864 school year.  Over-paid and under-qualified, he was severely disliked by his students.  There are reports of students prying chunks of wood off their desks to throw at him, pummelling him with crumpled paper, and even bringing snowballs to class to throw at him while his back was turned.  Michael Sullivan was also a professor, as well as a graduate of the medical program.  He seems to have been better-liked than Bell.  Although these people actually existed, I have used them fictitiously in this chapter.

Secondly,  late in the 1850s, Queen’s University had a building constructed to house the rapidly expanding faculty of medicine, which had formerly been lodged in the east wing of Summerhill.  As A.A. Travaill states in his book, Queen’s University Faculty of Medicine, 1854-1920, the original plans were lost, and the building has undergone so many alterations over the years that it is now impossible to recognize the original interior.  Even Travaill was unsure where the dissection theatre was located.  For the purposes of Underground, I have decided to merge the old medical facilities of Summerhill, with the new, hence the basement room with limestone slab tables. 

Finally, this chapter is meant to occur the day after the first.  You may notice that the dates at the top of the first page of chapter one and two are a month apart.  This is my mistake.  In researching nineteenth century medical education, I found out that classes ran from October through May, rather than from September through April.

Resources:

For those who are interested in learning more about the history of medical education or the history of the faculty of medicine of Queen’s University, I recommend the following:

Bonner, Thomas Neville. Becoming a Physician. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Neatby, Hilda. Queen's University Volume I. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1974.

Queen’s University. Faculty of Medicine, 1854-1979 : One Hundred and Twenty Five Years Dedicated to Education and Service. Kingston: Queen’s University Press, 1979.

Travaill, A.A. Medicine at Queen’s 1854-1920: A Peculiarly Happy Relationship. Kingston: The Hannah Institute for the History of Medicine, 1988.

You might also visit the website of the museum of health care at Queen’s University, at http://www.museumofhealthcare.ca/

And now you understand why, with law on top of this, it took so long to get this chapter finished!  I hope you enjoy it, and look forward to reading your comments here.

Recollections of Inspiration: A Tribute to Tony Blackman

We all have people who have been influential in the way we’ve developed.  This is especially true of writers—or perhaps it’s just more obvious.  A budding writer who grows up reading a particular author will generally attempt to imitate their idol’s style, at least in the beginning.  This post is a tribute to a man who was a great influence on my life and my writing.  His name was Tony Blackman, and he was an archaeologist from Cornwall in the UK, whom I met when I was thirteen years of age …

In July 2000, my family travelled to the UK to visit my Dad’s parents and brother in Wales, and his sister in Cornwall.  While looking for things to keep my brother, my sister, and me entertained, my parents happened to notice an advert for a hands-on history day at a farm on the Bodmin moor.  So, they packed me and my two younger siblings into our rental car, and off we went. 

The dirt road was so rutted that all three of us kids soon became horribly car sick, and Mom and Dad repeatedly checked the map against the directions in the advert.  We were close to giving up and turning around when, at last, we came over a rise, and there it was: a recreated Bronze Age village, consisting of two thatched round houses, a loom, a flint-napping area and a potter’s stone. 

Seeing my white cane, the organizer of the event (Tony) hurried over.  He said “I’ve got a group of blind Germans coming on Wednesday; can I practice with your daughter?” and that was that.  I was allowed to touch the thatch, clay pottery, a deerskin tunic with bone toggles, and a 2000 year old arrow head.  I was taught to make pinch-pots, crouching on a cold stone slab (I still have the resulting pot tucked away in a cupboard, safely wrapped in tissue paper), and sat for a while watching the flint knapper make arrow heads (I still have the two he gave me).  Finally, just before we left, Tony took me aside and sat down with me on the remains of an original round house.  All that was left was a foot-high stone wall, with a gap where the door would have been. 

There, he spoke of the family that had lived in that place—of the mother who had worn her hip and shoulder bones smooth with years of grinding grain, of the children, helping gather food and tend animals, and the father, going out to hunt.  They led a normal life; there was nothing special about them, but the way in which Tony spoke brought me nearly to tears.  We exchanged email addresses and have been in touch ever since. 

I returned to the UK in my early twenties with my dad, and we arranged to meet up with Tony.  He met us in town and drove up onto the moor with Dad riding shotgun and me in the backseat with his bearded collie, Harry.  While Dad played fetch with the dog, Tony showed me a number of interesting sites.  Usually, he began with “hop up on this mound,” or “Let’s walk the length of this ridge.”  Those remarks would usually be followed by, “That’s a Bronze Age burial mound.” or “That’s a stone-age long barrow.”  From there, we returned to the site of the recreated village, where he taught me to use a Bronze Age quern (a device used for grinding grain) and to mint coins in the Celtic style.  He gave me a number of reproductions that his friend had made, which are now on display beside the arrowheads.  We climbed to King Arthur’s bed—a man-shaped depression in a stone at the top of a pile of rocks—and looked out toward Fox Tor, seven miles away.  There, we sat, and he told me the story of a great battle fought in the fog.  Wounded and frightened, King Arthur fled, following a fox to a safe place high up on a pile of rocks.  There, exhausted, he slept until morning.  When he woke, the fog was gone, and the fox with it.  Arthur had sunk into the stone, which had hidden him from his enemies, and Merlin sat by, waiting for his king to arise.  Together they continued safely on their way. 

The day was nearly over, but there was still so much to see.  Tony remarked that you always have to leave something undone, because it gives you a reason to come back.




CMG, Tony, and dogs at St Neot

 

I did go back, during the Easter break of 2010.  In the UK, where I was studying, Easter holidays are three weeks long.  I spent one day with Tony and his wife, and our dogs (his, Harry, and mine, Andy).  We visited stone crosses, a quoit, the holy well at St. Neot’s, and a nearby castle.  We also stopped in at the Church of St. Neot, where medieval stained glass still adorns the windows.  Tony insisted I had to touch it, since I wasn’t able to see it, and removed the rope barrier with a reassuring “I know the pastor …”  It was a wonderful day, and the last I spent with him.

On Friday, 17 February, 2012, Tony Blackman passed away peacefully at home. 



When I was thirteen, he inspired in me a love of the past—of the people who lived and died and the details of their existence.  As an adult, he fostered my love of learning.  He has been behind me in every literary and scholarly step I took, and I want to thank him for that, and let his family know just how much he means to me.  “Ancient Roots,” a short story that is pending publication in The Lamp is dedicated to his memory, since he was the inspiration for the character of Gwydion. 



Inspiration comes from many places, but I often wonder if I would have become interested in storytelling or in history if it was not for Tony.  It is people like him who make the present a past that’s worth remembering.

 

CMG and Tony at Trethevy Quoit



Underground Update

I honestly haven’t forgotten that chapter two was promised nearly four months ago … okay, actually, more than four months ago, now.  I’d say I don’t have a good excuse, but I think—maybe?—law school is a pretty good one ;)  In a recent email rant to a friend, I think I listed sixteen major projects to complete in the next six weeks, not including exams.  I'll be glad when April's over and I can devote more time to writing again.

In any event, chapter two is now finished, and I hope to have it edited and posted by the end of this week.  Watch for Underground, “Chapter Two: A Gentleman’s Education,” coming soon at www.cmgbooks.com/5.html!

P.S. For anyone who's Welsh: Happy St. David's Day!

Notice of Publication

I am pleased to announce that two of my short stories—“Your Eyes Only” and “Ancient Roots” —will be appearing in the 2012 edition of The Lamp.  Since both pieces are historical fiction, you will find them published under the pseudonym G.L. Morgan.

“Your Eyes Only” tells the tale of the fall of Fort York in 1813 through the eyes of Annie Foster, a young girl who risked everything to save the militia’s regimental colours from the hands of the Americans.

“Ancient Roots” is a retelling of the Welsh folk story “The Battle of the Trees,” first recounted in the Llyfr Taliesin (Book of Taliesin).  Gwydion ap Don, Chief Bard of Wales knows that traditional knowledge has a way of getting exaggerated—a simple trick becomes magic; a ruthless leader becomes king of the dead.  But in every tale, buried deep, is a colonel of truth.  That colonel is what Gwydion must find in order to save his homeland from the invading Irish, and his niece from a political match with the king of the underworld.  This is a short sequel to The Harper’s Word that is easily read without reference to the larger work (a very good thing, since Harper isn’t finished yet!).

For more information about The Harper’s Word visit www.cmgbooks.com/3.html  

To learn more about The Lamp, visit www.sgps.ca/thelamp.  Copies of the journal will be available for purchase when printing is concluded.  I’ll keep you up to date!

One-on-One with a Literary Agent: What Canadian Agents are Looking For

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down for an hour with a literary agent to discuss the query package for The Harper’s Word.  This was an excellent experience, as it gave me some idea of what Canadian agents (in search of commercial fiction) are looking for.

(To read more about The Harper’s Word check out www.cmgbooks.com/3.html)

I had met the agent before, at the Algonkian conference I attended in October, and was pleasantly surprised to find he remembered me.  As we settled in the office with my query letter, synopsis, and the first twenty pages of my manuscript, he dove at once into an analysis of the text itself.  Harper is told in the first person, but the agent indicated that he felt detached from the character.  I was, at first, surprised by this, but soon realized the reason.  Gwydion, the harper of the title, is a musician, and as such often detaches himself from social situations to play.  If the character is detached, it makes it difficult to the reader to attach herself to him.  This doesn’t mean, of course, that a detached character can’t be sympathetic, and the agent suggested a number of ways to make him more likeable.  Firstly, he suggested that I establish what Gwydion has to lose sooner in the book.  Secondly, while he praised my clean style, sense of dialogue, and ability to move well from scene description to narrative summary, he indicated that internal monologues were missing—and were important, because the text was first person.

The other suggestion the agent made for the text was to consider changing and/or shortening some of the names.  Since Harper is a retelling of Welsh myth, many of the characters have long and sometimes unpronounceable names.  Gwydion’s brother, Gilfaethwy, for example.  The agent thought the reader would find it easier if his name was shortened to Gil.  I understand that Gilfaethwy is not a particularly easy name to say aloud—or in your head, for that matter—but I’m hesitant to make that change.  My concern is that shortening the character’s name to a more modern “buddy-buddy” nickname might detract from the historic accuracy of the text.  I’d be interested in anyone’s input on this.

Our discussion of the text complete, the agent moved on to my query letter.  He indicated that a query should contain three things:

1. A short synopsis of the book (between 150 and 200 words).
2.   A positioning paragraph, where you describe how your book fits into the wider world of pop culture.  You can use books, movies, television shows, etc.
3. A brief biography, including previous publications and any qualifications you have regarding the subject matter of your book.  For example, I own and play a medieval-style bray harp, not unlike the one Gwydion plays.

My query contained 1 and 3, but was missing 2.  Together, we managed to find a comparison and a point in the query where the comparison sentence would fit nicely.  Then, our time was up.

This opportunity was made possible by the Writers’ Community of Durham Region.  Local writers’ communities often engage agents and editors for workshops like this, and being a member of such a community gives you the chance to participate.  That’s not to say that non-members weren’t allowed, simply that the events are publicized to members, who therefore have a better chance of getting into the workshop.  If you aren’t a member of a writers’ community, I certainly suggest joining one.  This experience was one I would certainly repeat in future.