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More Series, sequels, and prequels.

6/19/2016

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In the previous post I mentioned Tolkien's prequel, The Silmarillion.  I haven't read it in many years, so I decided to take another look at it. If you are a real fan of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, do yourself a favor and read The Silmarillion.  Aside from the separate parts that constitute the actual telling, there is a pronunciation guide for all those consonant and vowel combinations. Read that first so you will have an easier time knowing how to pronounce the characters' names as you read. Also in the front is the Forward by Christopher Tolkien. This is also very much worth reading as it explains what you're going to read. It has no spoilers, but it does explain why you may see inconsistencies within the book and more between the book and the Rings series.
Science fiction and fantasy lend themselves to series writing. The world or worlds can be as big and complicated as the author wishes, so it can easily take three or more books, or movies, to tell the whole story. George Lucas's vision for Star Wars was immense. In order to get it made he had to focus on one tiny part of the whole story. That success led to the next two movies that seemed to end the story of Luke Skywalker. But the success and the demand for more allowed the planning and filming of the three prequels (episodes 1-3). And now with Episode VII, the last three of Lucas's original vision will be produced. How closely it still matches his idea from the beginning I do not know.
Other fantasy series I've enjoyed are David Eddings' The Belgariad and The Malloreon.  He's written others, but I haven't read them...yet.  Piers Anthony has a delightful series called the Xanth novels. It is pretty much magic gone wild. But if you hate puns, it might not be for you.
Stephen R. Donaldson's The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant is a series of ten novels. It was originally a trilogy, then he added three, and then four more. I've read the first six, but not the last four. There are limits. Terry Brooks has the Shannara series. The first, Sword of Shannara, shows distinct influence (some say copying) of Tolkien's work. The later books, though, not so much. I've read the first trilogy and some of the second...I think. It's been a long time. I do recall one thing. There's an entire sequence in one of them that I have used in my own writing as an example of something to never ever do. The sequence involves a man joining the quest who is a sort of entertainer. He is very good at imitating sounds, especially animal sounds. Later on the group finds itself in a city made entirely of stone and the only inhabitants are giant rats. What these rats find to eat in a city of stone with no other inhabitants is never mentioned. But the group is threatened by these giant hungry rats and the entertainer manages to buy them enough time to escape by imitating a giant cat...but sacrifices his life in the process. The group continues on. The entire illogical sequence of the entertainer and the city and the rats could have been completely eliminated and not affected the story at all. It was just several thousand words stuck in there with no lasting significance. The editor/publisher had no business leaving it in.  Just my opinion. I wish I could remember which volume that was in.
One of the first and best science fiction series is E.E. Smith's Lensman series. This was originally published as six individual novels with some character carry-over and the continuation of one main plot shown at two different levels. The series is now available in two hardback volumes.  Considering that the settings visit other galaxies in our celestial neighborhood, it may be the biggest sf series there is in terms of size of the fictional world. Another series written only a few years later is Isaac Asimov's Foundation trilogy. This story also has a huge board—all of the Milky Way galaxy. Decades later Asimov added two sequels to the trilogy, and then later two prequels. He also tied the series in with his "Robot Series" that featured his Three Laws of Robotics—a staple reference in science fiction and psychology and cybertronics still today. One of the unique aspects of Asimov's science fiction is that there are no extra-terrestrial intelligences. Only human beings have peopled the galaxy. In Smith's Lensman series, the galaxy is teeming with all kinds of oddly-shaped intelligences, some far stranger than anything appearing in any of the Star Wars movies. Robert Heinlein's books often feature extra-terrestrial intelligences, and Arthur C. Clarke has some in his stories also.   
Other science fiction series include the Tek novels by William Shatner (yes, that William Shatner), The Lazarus Long series and the World As Myth series by Heinlein. The "series" aspect of these books is simply because they all deal with the same themes and characters, but each book is a stand-alone novel. The one exception might be The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, since it ends in a bit of a cliff-hanger. But there is no promise of a follow-up at the end, either.
And there are two series that are sort of a fantasy-in-science-fiction. One is Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern a series that totals 22 novels and two volumes of short stories. The first novel of the series, Dragonflight, is a compilation of two novellas. The first won McCaffrey a Hugo award and the second won a Nebula Award. She was the first woman to win those awards.
The second series is John Norman's Gor books. This series takes place on "the counter-Earth"—a planet like Earth that is always on the opposite side of the sun and so we can never know it's there. This was written before we had the interplanetary satellites that would detect such a thing. This is male fantasy fiction involving life forms not of earth and many different cultures derived from old earth cultures. Swords, arrows, spears, etc. are the weapons available. This is a series you will probably either love or hate. I like Norman's writing style, generally. The series has 34 novels. I enjoyed the first six, some more than others, and kept track of them pretty much through number 12. After that I felt his commentary on society and other philosophical matters overshadowed the action that I liked reading and I abandoned the series.
That's all for today. There is something exciting currently in the works regarding my own writing, but I'm going to hold off until it's a sure thing (as much as a sure thing can be in publishing) to officially announce anything.  
Thanks again for reading.

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Prequels, Sequels, Series, and Really Long Books

6/11/2016

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I noticed that a movie sequel to Independence Day is coming out.  I can't wait to see it!  Well, yes, I can.  The original is one of my favorite movies. Of course, part of that is the science fiction theme and the victory at the end of the forces of good over the forces of evil...just like in the original Star Wars movie, "Episode IV" it became later.  That ending, where the rebel force blows up the Death Star so much like when Randy Quaid blows up the alien ship and then a little later when the atom bomb delivered by Hiller and Levinson (Will Smith and Jeff Goldblum) blows up the mother ship. And then there's the ship out of the other dimension that Ironman blows up in The Avengers.
If you want to have a thrilling happy ending in a science fiction movie, blow up the bad guys.
There's more to Independence Day than aliens and pilots. There are three different man-woman love stories, a father-son love story, a mother-son love story, a father and mother-daughter love story, a man-and his children love story, a siblings love story, and even a human-dog love story. And all of these different stories are shown with a minimum of fuss and sentimentality. The stories are shown with simple interactions and simple dialog. I'm not sure the words "I love you" are ever spoken. The relationships are shown so clearly that the words aren't needed.
I was lucky enough, once, to see the extended version of the movie on one of the premium channels. It had a few extra scenes not included in the theatrical release. If you're interested, the extra dialogs can be found here:
http://www.movie-censorship.com/report.php?ID=587558  Some of those show that Russell Case 's (Randy Quaid) youngest step son, Toby, actually has a severe and chronic disease that requires constant medication. When the alien is brought into the Area 51 building, Case storms in, yelling demands that the doctors there help his son. He won't take no for an answer. It's too bad this was cut from the main showing as it gives Quaid's character more depth and shows a dedication to his family that is lacking in the "official" version.
Sorry, I got a little off the main topic. Movies are much more likely to have sequels than books because of the...(wait for it)...money! Stallone's Rocky films and his First Blood (Rambo) films are all examples of a first movie being successful enough to inspire subsequent stories about the same character.  Usually the sequel is inferior to the original, but not always. The Karate Kid had three sequels but none came close to the original. The Die Hard sequels were decent but not as good as the original. Raiders of the Lost Arc (Indiana Jones) was the same deal, although the third one, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was about as good, primarily due to the presence and performance of Sean Connery.  But the second Jones movie, The Temple of Doom, was actually a prequel. Clint Eastwood's second Philo Beddoe movie, Any Which Way You Can is much better than the original, Every Which Way But Loose. The plot is much more solid, the actors are much better, the resolution is more satisfying, and the soundtrack is outstanding.
Sometimes the lines can get blurred, like The Godfather II, which has some of the movie as prequel and other parts as sequel. In writing, The Lord of the Rings is a sequel to The Hobbit, but in movie reality, The Hobbit has been made after The Lord of the Rings, so it is presented as a prequel.   One other point: TLotR is not a series, even though it is referred to as such. Tolkien wrote it as a single book, but due to its length and the cost of printing, it had to be presented as three separate volumes. The later novel, The Silmarillion, is a true prequel.
My own novel, Just Lucky, is another example.  Due to the length of almost 200,000 words, I split it into two volumes: Just Lucky: Friends and Enemies and Just Lucky: Love and Hate. If they sell enough and are popular enough to warrant a third volume, Just Lucky: Inlaws and Outlaws (tentative title) would indeed be  sort of sequel, although the time line would include stories that chronologically fall before, after, and during the total chronology of the first two. That's an if and when. More if than when, I fear.
A series is a planned number of books that follow characters in a chronological order (or at least chronologically conscious order) to achieve a plot that is too vast to be told in one or two books. Stephen King's Dark Tower books—seven very large novels—are a great example.  With a planned series the author is under no obligation to end each novel with a nice tidy ending. He or she can leave you hanging because more is coming. A good fantasy series is Anthony Wedgeworth's Altered Creatures novels. Each novel does sort of finish the small subplot business it's concerned with but leaves big questions unanswered because we know those answers are still coming.
Another fantasy series is The Mida by Kimberly Sigafus and Lyle Ernst.  The first two of a planned eight-book series are published and the third is due out very soon. This series involves an all-powerful time-traveling carnival that pops in and out of various times and places that give one of the carnival members a chance to resolve unfinished business from their past. Each novel resolves that specific problem, but also adds a new situation to the overall condition that will carry over to the next stop.
To get to my own writing again, my novel Prophecy of Honor implies a sequel. It almost demands one. But I had no such sequel in mind when I wrote it. I just needed a way to wrap up the story.  I have a good idea on how to start a sequel, and some of the situation that will fulfill the conditions implied in the original, but until I have at least some idea of the ending I won't start that project.
If anybody that has read Prophecy of Honor has any ideas, please put them on the Contact Page. If it leads to a published novel I'll include your name in an acknowledgements page.
My other fantasy novel, a much longer one titled Witchery, will be published this Fall. There have already been inquiries from my beta reader and others that know a little bit about it if there's going to be a sequel. This one is in the same boat. I haven't planned one, but I have ideas. But, again, I need at least an idea of the ending before I start the project.
A little more about these various forms of continuation next time. And please, read something!

 

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Just More Recommendations

6/4/2016

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  A quick interruption here of the current topic:  As noted in the Right Writes tab, my short story "Transition" is available in the anthology Dandelions of Mars.
  It is now also available on line.  Digital Fiction Publishing has a new on-line publication called Quickfic, made up of reprints only. The volume includes "Transition"...and they paid more than I received from Whortleberry Press for its initial publication.
"Transition" and the other stories are available here:
http://digitalfictionpub.com/category/quickfic/
 
Before advancing to other genres I wanted to mention two other deceased authors of outstanding fantasy. The first is JRR Tolkien, author of The Lord of the Rings trilogy and its prequel, The Hobbit. There is also a third outstanding work--The Silmarillion. It is Tolkien's history of the elves and Middle Earth before what is presented in The Hobbit. If you are interested in fantasy history, you'll like it. It does not have the battles in TLotR or the focus on one character as in The Hobbit, but does have other heroes, including one of the canine persuasion.
The other author is David Eddings. His various fantasy series are just plain good and feature a unique take on magic and a unique sense of humor. 
 
One of the oldest genres in this country is the western. The first actual respectable western novel was The Virginian, by Owen Wister. It was published in 1902, and is considered the "father" of the cowboy western.  I read the book back in high school...and if you've seen the television series, I must advise that the series is not reflective of the novel.   Curiously, Wister did not write another western novel.
Another leading author of westerns was Zane Grey.  Grey was a struggling author for years trying his hand at various adventure stories. After reading The Virginian Grey decided that westerns might be the kind of stories he would like to write.  In 1912 he published The Riders of the Purple Sage; this was not only his most successful work, but is regarded as one of the best westerns ever written.  Grey authored over 90 books, though some of those were published posthumously.
My favorite western author is Clarence Mulford. Mulford's primary fictional creation was Hopalong Cassidy and the Bar-20 crew. One interesting thing about Mulford's writing is that he never went west; he never visited the settings of his books or met real cowboys in their "native" settings. He did his research in a library. Mulford was unique for the time in that he wrote several novels that continued to feature the same characters. This had not been done before in the western genre.
Some of Mulford's novels are available free for download or even just reading on the internet, here:
http://manybooks.net/authors/mulfordc.html  I do want to point out that due to the era of publication, even words like "hell" and "damn" are censored. They might appear like this: d—n and h—l .  Just so you know.
Probably the best known modern author of westerns is Louis L'Amour. Mulford picked L'Amour specifically to carry on his Cassidy stories. L'Amour wrote only two, under the pen name "Tex Burns," and then continued on with his own stories.
If you've never read a western, you should. If you've never read a science fiction or fantasy novel, you should—at least one of each. The same applies to detective stories (I consumed most of the Hardy Boys mysteries when I was about thirteen and Ellery Queen novels later on), sports stories (I recommend Semi-Tough by Dan Jenkins—the movie did not resemble the book at all—the book is good), and commercial fiction like The Harrad Experiment or Catch-22. There is also Romance fiction and its various sub-genres (my current project is a paranormal romance), and adventure novels of various types.
I apologize for not recommending anything more modern. My reading has been limited over the last few years since I've been writing more. If I'm reading for pleasure, I'm not writing. 
One of the current (or just past current) popular books is 50 Shades of Gray. I have no interest in reading it, but I will say that at least two authors have evaluated the writing as "poor."
As I mentioned in my first entry eleven months ago, one excellent writer's blog is Anne R. Allen's, here:
http://annerallen.blogspot.com/.  Her last two or three entries are very worthwhile.
I have no idea right now what I'll write about on the next entry. So tune in and we'll all be surprised.

 

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