Steve Shilstone's Blog, page 34

Here is Georges Perec, the great French experimental writer.

Here is Riffle Sike, one of the water wizard brothers from THE WOODLOCK.

I couldn't have found a better model for a water wizard than Georges Perec.

Gnomes, ogres, trolls, mermaids and giants roam these books. Andrew Lang collected the tales and brought them out over the years in his color specific Fairy Books. The one in the middle up there, The Yellow Fairy Book, is a new version of the one I read and reread as a child. The copy I regarded as a treasure belonged to my mother. It was tattered and falling apart. The yellow of its cover had faded to a brownish gold. I lost myself there in the world of 'The Dragon and His Grandmother', 'The Golden Crab', 'The Invisible Prince', 'The Wizard King', 'The Witch and Her Servants, 'The Glass Mountain', 'The Nightingale', 'Thumbelina', and more. I can lose myself there still.

Here is Mr. C. L. Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll. In my story ZOM FALBU, I pay homage with anagrams to Mr. Dodgson and Mr. Baum, dreamer of Oz. Zom Falbu, the time-traveling shapeshiftress, is an anagram of L. F. Baum Oz. Scong Lodd, time-traveling shapeshifter, is an anagram of C. L. Dodgson. There is a sad Queen in the story, too. Her name is Amzo, which is, of course, Ozma backwards. And finally, the moon creature Lecia? An anagram of Alice.

The creator of Oz, L. Frank Baum, greatly influenced me in my approach to writing The Bekka Chronicles. As a child I read all of them, dreaming myself into Oz. Mr. Baum's tales share characters from one story to the next, and yet each book is complete in itself with a beginning, middle and end. That, too, has been my approach on the world of Boad. THE WOODLOCK, the latest of my stories, features Delia Branch as the title character. She appears as a minor player in some of my other stories. In fact, Bekka of Thorns, the narrative voice of The Bekka Chronicles, emerged long ago when I invented the hedge-dwelling bendo dreen to occupy a place near the Well of Shells. With the publication of THE WOODLOCK, there are now 27 stories of Boad left waiting in line to be heard. I'm waiting for somebody else on the world of Boad to jump into my head and demand to be the 28th story in line.

Here comes The Woodlock, Book Four of The Bekka Chronicles. She will be available to be purchased and read about starting next week from Wild Child Publishing at http://www.wildchildpublishing.com

In THE WOODLOCK, Book Four of The Bekka Chronicles, a time-traveling shapeshiftress named Shendra Nenas appears. Why would I name a character Shendra Nenas? To honor that fellow above, a famous writer of fairy tales. I simply took his first and last names, tossed the letters around a bit, and got Shendra Nenas. Hans Andersen mixed up makes a quite nice Shendra Nenas, I think.

This is what you see when you sit and look out from the mouth of Dodden's cave on the island of Jom. I made this little painting when I was working on the story called DODDEN OF JOM. Although it takes place after the last of The Bekka Chronicles, Bekka does appear and take part in the tale written by Plumly, the girl from Earth.

The 4th chronicler of the Boad, All Fidd and Leee Combined, will be this young girl by the name of Plumly. Girl? Yes, she's an earthling from the high mountains of California. Why is she blue then? Ah, when she got to Boad and was sufficiently educated, she was given the common blue skin of a Blossom Castle flower terrace worker. Why? She was selected to undertake the task which in time will become her first chronicle. What else about her? In addition to being lively and energetic, she is a most talented singer with a great big voice.

There was an odd man with a beard

who had twenty siblings – how weird

It's no wonder that he

spouted nonsense for free

That artistic odd man with a beard

Homage is paid to Edward Lear in RAKARA, Book Three of The Bekka Chronicles. There is an anagram of his name to be found in one of the realms visited by Bek and Kar. There are also limb ricks spouting limericks. And finally, four of Edward Lear's own characters are encountered by Bek and Kar during their adventure. They are Violet, Lionel, Guy, and Slingsby.

The third chronicler is, of course, Bekka of Thorns. The rough sketch of her below is how I imagined she looked at the outset of her first adventure, published by Wild Child Publishing as BEKKA OF THORNS. On the terrific RAKARA cover over there to the right, that's Bekka several years later as imagined by the cover artist for Wild Child.

Most of her stories are personal memoirs, and that is certainly true of her next tale, THE WOODLOCK, coming soon from Wild Child. She is sent all by herself back in time to accomplish a task. It will be the first time she undertakes an adventure lacking the comforting company of her best friend, Kar.