On Writing

I’m a fan of the Eddie LaCrosse fantasy series byAlex Bledsoe. So when I saw that Alex had a new book out, The Hum and the Shiver, I asked if he’d be nice enough to guest blog, and he said yes.

WARNING: The post gives away a plot point or two from the book. So if you don’t want to know what happens, skip to the giveaway info at the bottom.

Take it away, Alex:

All authors, if they’re serious and honest, put bits of themselves into whatever the write, and that includes authors of fantasy, science fiction and horror. These most unrealistic of genres, in fact, demand the realism of the author’s personality in order to work. Would horror greats like Poe, Lovecraft and King be the same if their individual childhood landscapes and adult difficulties weren’t evoked in their fiction? Would Tolkein be as vivid without his intense interest in languages?

In The Hum and the Shiver, I wrote about variations of my own Southern background. The rhythms of speech, the priorities, the way of life was familiar to me, and I had no trouble recreating it and then adding the story’s fantasy elements. Further, like secondary character Don Swayback, I’d worked in small-town newspapers, so I understood how they operated within their communities. I don’t actually play music, but I know a lot of musicians so I’ve observed them, talked to them and internalized their experiences enough to, I believe, recreate them.

There was one scene, though, that constantly defeated me. A character finds out her child has died. It’s a crucial moment, and obviously a dramatic one, but each time I tried to write it, it rang false. It was a moment that had to be real for the book to work.

So I took it from life. My life.

When I was ten, my older brother died. I was in my room playing when my father told my mother, and I remember the wail she let out as vividly as if it happened yesterday. I also remember what my father said to me when I came out to see what had happened. It was my first experience with the death of someone close to me. So I used it to make the moment real.

When my mother read the book, she didn’t even blink at the scene. No doubt her memories are completely different from mine. But for me, it’s the kind of detail that makes a crucial moment in the story work far better than any fictional version I could conjure. Far from being exploitative, as a writer it’s both my right and my duty to use my own unique experience to bring my fiction to life.

I don’t consider The Hum and the Shiver to be a “realistic” novel. It is fantasy, after all. But to make that fantasy believable, to make the broad strokes work, you have to ground it in realistic detail so that the reader doesn’t notice the line between what’s real and what’s not. And for every author, the best detail comes from his or her own life, from your own unique treasure of moments and emotions.

GIVEAWAY INFORMATION

Thanks so much for guest blogging today, Alex! I appreciate it. To celebrate the release of The Hum and the Shiver, Alex is giving away one copy of the book. The giveaway is open to US/Canada residents. To enter, leave a comment on this blog post talking about a fantasy book or world that you’ve enjoyed or a book that you are looking forward to.

The giveaway will be open through noon, Wednesday, Oct. 19 EST. I’ll post the winner here on the blog on Friday, Oct. 21. Happy commenting!