Playing with Story Structure to Delight the Reader

Last Saturday, I participated in the St. Louis Writers Guild’s annual Writers in the Park event, where area writers could attend workshops, network and sell their books to the public. One of the sessions I attended was David Lucas’ (president of the SLWG) presentation, which outlined several types of novel structure. Listening to him made me think about the ways in which I use these techniques to structure my novels.

Telling the Story
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m working on Honor Among Outcasts, the follow-up to The Lies That Bind (book 1 of my DarkHorse Trilogy). My novels are so imaginative, one could assume I develop them by “seat-of-the-pants” method. I confess, I do like to let the stories go where they will, to create interesting characters and to let their natures build the action, to let them surprise the reader and me. As a writer and a reader, I like the little surprises that show up in a story as much as anyone.

However, there is much more method to my madness than that.

The Structure
David covered the four-part structure, which I often rely on to give the story a spine, to make it easy for the reader to follow.  For example, the first two sections might encompass these elements:

·      The Set-up. To establish The Lies That Bind, I put all the major characters in a troubling situation in the first quarter of the book. For instance, Durksen Hurst, my “hero” (or anti-hero),  and his partners, a group of slaves, devise a scheme to build their own plantation called DarkHorse. By the end of that section, they’ve acquired the land and are in a pretty precarious position, having to build a plantation and not get exposed, with death and danger lurking around every corner.

·      The Development. The second section begins with Antoinette, whom Durk loves, ready to abandon him on her own secret mission. Antoinette, too, has her set up and development. You will find Cassandra-like, mysterious Antoinette a very complex woman, certainly not a typical “heroine.” Additionally, in this section, Durk and his partners clash with the wealthy and powerful Frenches (Devereau French and his mother, Missus Marie Brussard French), who are trying to do them in.

A word here: In defiance of typical structure, The Lies That Bind has a second hero (or “anti-hero”) in Durk’s antithesis, Devereau French. Devereau, who is struggling for his own freedom from his manipulative mother, is not your typical villain. Rather, Devereau has his own set of problems, which will delight and amaze. Readers will see how Durk’s and Devereau’s problems are different—and yet the same.

Sections three and four have their own characteristics, but that’s for another blog.

It may seem that I’m constantly defying structure; yet I am really just playing with standard structure. My goal is to produce constant surprises for the reader and, I confess, to amuse myself!

Mythology as Structure
In his presentation, David also tied storytelling to Joseph Campbell’s writings on myth. Campbell studied all the world’s myths and found common elements among them, elements that are found in the most successful fiction. Theoretically, every story we read is, in essence, a new myth. One can argue this stuff all works based on our basic human wiring. Right?

Campbell writes that all myths, symbolically, feature a hero on a journey. The hero leaves the ordinary world and is called to an adventure. In The Lies That Bind, Durk plunges into the swamp/forest; he and his partners scheme to build an egalitarian plantation in a slave society.

According to Campbell, at some point the hero is tested and discovers who his allies and his enemies are. Clearly, Durk’s partners are his allies: their lives all depend on trusting each other. And the Frenches are his enemies. Right? Not so fast!

Devereau (my other “hero”) is being driven by his mother to destroy Durk and his partners. However, Devereau resists—he doesn’t want to do it. Now Devereau, as a second hero, is defying the mythological structure. Is he a friend or enemy of Durk’s? Why won’t he accept the role of enemy?

Finally, there is resurrection in the hero’s story, where the hero’s final problem is solved. Here, too, I give it all a twist so that the reader is surprised and left nearly breathless. Does Durk solve his problems (many of which he created himself)? Does Devereau gain freedom from his mother? Does Devereau defeat Durk or vice versa? Or do they both experience something a bit more ambiguous?

Of course, there are more stages to a myth than the ones I’ve provided. To learn more, see Campbell’s ground-breaking work, The Power of Myth. (See Bill Moyers PRB series.)

As you can see, from beginning to end, The Lies That Bind toys with traditional structures. I hope I’ve played well on readers’ expectations and delighted them with the book’s many shockers.

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News Flash! The Lies That Bind received two new flattering reviews this summer:

·      Historical Novel Society: “The action and drama are compelling from the first page to the exciting conclusion. The animosity between the French plantation and Hurst builds to an exciting and surprising climax. Antoinette is so mysterious, one doesn’t know of her mission until the end. Highly recommended, and I am anxious to read the next installment.”

https://historicalnovelsociety.org/reviews/the-lies-that-bind-book-one-of-the-darkhorse-trilogy/

·      Midwest Book Review: “The debut novel of author Ed Protzel's 'Dark Horse Trilogy' series, ‘The Lies That Bind’ is a deftly crafted and consistently compelling read from beginning to end. While strongly recommended for community library Historical Fiction collections, it should be noted for personal reading lists that ‘The Lies That Bind’ is also available in a Kindle edition ($4.99).”

http://www.midwestbookreview.com/sbw/jul_16.htm#Fiction

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Arrange a Visit
I love speaking to book clubs, organizations, bookstores or libraries about writing, history, or (of course) The Lies That Bind and my DarkHorse Trilogy.

To request a visit, just send me an email at: ed.protzel@att.net.

Speaking at Left Bank Books, St. Louis

Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! and Me

Back after a much-needed break and ready to blog — this time about my favorite author and novel, William Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, and its influence on my own novel, The Lies That Bind.

I had the chance to talk about Faulkner at a videotaped interview prior to my most recent reading at Left Bank Books in St. Louis, where I was asked: What are you reading now?”

Knowing I would be asked the question allowed me to think about my answer in advance. The exercise gave me quite a few insights about myself — and about the nature of literature.

As I say in the interview, I am re-reading Absalom, Absalom! for the umpteenth time. Published in 1939, Absalom, Absalom! is considered one of—if not the—greatest novels of all time, voted the best Southern novel of the 20th century by Oxford American. My copy (above) is well-annotated and -worn (as you can see).

What is it that makes this book so great, you may ask? and how has it influenced my novel?

Absalom, Absalom! breaks many of the rules of novel-writing. Yet, these supposed “violations” of accepted literary norms are a real strength of Faulkner’s narrative, making the novel unique — and very powerful. Power, yes. Like any Faulkner work, but even more so in Absalom, Absalom!, you have to work a bit to get through it. But as I said in the interview, when you are done, you are satisfied, in a profound way, emotionally and intellectually.

See video, “Ed Protzel Talks Faulkner.”

Two Distinct Norms
Two unique ways that Faulkner defies norms in Absalom, Absalom! First, instead of an economy of words, he deluges the reader with the most diverse and incisive language I’ve ever read. Matchless. Second, and as importantly, Faulkner doesn’t present the story in linear fashion. Rather, each chapter tells the story repeatedly, often by different narrators, relating events over and over, and in each new telling he reveals new insights. In Absalom, Absalom!, Faulkner found a whole new way to tell a story, to write a novel. It takes getting used to, but it’s worth it.

Absalom, Absalom! was a major inspiration for The Lies That Bind — but sometimes I reversed his concepts. As far as language goes, no one can duplicate Faulkner, and shouldn’t even try. Rather, operating on my own literary theories and style, I try to be as economical as possible, using impressionistic descriptions to set the scene and the mood.

Take this example from The Lies That Bind:

Dusk rapidly closed in, the sun’s retracting tendrils leaving bloody claw-marks upon the clouded sky. The final residue of daylight drained quickly behind the western hills, drawing with it what little warmth remained of the day.

Like Faulkner’s tale, in Lies, as the plot moves forward chronologically, revelations about the characters’ pasts move back in time, revealing the novel’s themes. You can see the Faulkner influence there.

But there is one major difference at the heart of my novel that is entirely contrary to Faulkner’s tale: I give credit and identity to the slaves. He did not.

That always troubled me about Faulkner’s great work. The central character in Faulkner’s novel is Thomas Sutpen, who built a great plantation out of a swamp, called Sutpen’s Hundred, a man who is emblematic of the antebellum South and its slave society, its rise to power, and its fall. While the narrators boast of Sutpen’s success, they barely mention his slaves. Had they nothing to do with the creation of Sutpen’s Hundred?

Thus, one of my motivations for writing The Lies That Bind, my whole concept for the novel, was to correct that racial omission. In fact, in The Lies That Bind, the townsfolk (in antebellum Mississippi) give the protaganist, Durksen Hurst (a free, mixed-blood white-Seminole charlatan), credit for the success of his DarkHorse plantation. But the reader knows the truth: that it’s Durk’s secret partners, former slaves, who conteribute the agricultural expertise to their mutually owned plantation. In fact, one of the slaves, Big Josh, who had once run the plantation for his former dissolute master, was the real brains of the operation, something that actually happened historically.

No, no writer can match William Faulkner or compare his writing to the great man. Lies is a much faster, easier read than Absalom, Absalom!, and I use very different techniques to tell a very different story, with more modern themes. But seeing how I play off Faulkner’s novel is a lot of fun—and, I hope, enlightening, as well.

Creating Ellen: Her Fictional Function

Last week, I talked about Ellen, a seemingly minor character in my historical novel, The Lies That Bind, and how readers have responded to her. Minor? You be the judge.

In the novel’s initial outline, I referred to Ellen merely as “granddaughter,” who is present when Durksen Hurst registers a deed for land with her grandfather at his store where the hamlet’s records are kept. (The land is where Durk and his partners - former slaves - planned to build their egalitarian plantation.)

Yet somehow, as I began developing that scene, my fingers seemed to take over, and the “store” became a hapless business establishment named the Honor Store; the “grandfather” became the fanatical fundamentalist Senior Deacon; and the “granddaughter” grew into mousy, unworldly, seventeen-year-old Ellen. I had fun writing it, and I think that’s why readers have fun reading it!

Although Ellen only appears a few times, she adds a fresh and wholly unexpected tone to the otherwise jaundiced tale. Is it innocence? idealism? faith? Her appearances offer belly-laugh humor that breaks from the rest of the story’s heartrending dramatic tension and, thus, serves an important emotional component to the book’s overall theatrics. Just as importantly, Ellen’s actions near the end of the book give the reader a great deal to think about. Indeed, such a perspective calls into question all of the book’s themes, the other characters’ motivations, and the very foundational assumptions of the antebellum South. That’s a lot for an ancillary character!

She Cannot Tell a Lie
In the novel, all the main characters develop complex schemes in order to survive. Each lives a lie—and often tells lies. Ellen, on the other hand, cannot lie. Her first brief appearance so intrigued me that I decided she, not her grandfather, would have the job, the privilege, of providing manumission papers to Durk in his attempt to free his partners. After this single act, Ellen comes to believe she is being guided by God to free all of the town’s slaves. Suddenly, Ellen has her own personal crusade—and a place in the story as a true heroine!

Ellen’s Creative Source
What literary tradition inspired my creation of Ellen and the impractical Honor Store? If you’ve read Shakespeare, you’ve probably noted that his dramatic works often have humorous, parallel characters and subplots.

Like Shakespeare’s clownish minor characters, Ellen and her grandfather have motivations far different from everyone else in the story. The Honor Store is not founded on profit, but on other (religious) ideals: charity, neighborliness, etc. For that reason, we know the Honor Store could not survive in the real world, which is what makes it funny to modern-day thinking.

Likewise, Ellen’s motivation is barely tangential—if at all—to practicality. Therefore, in The Lies That Bind’s world of schemers and plotters, Ellen’s purity of thought stands out. And that bright point of view contrasts with the rest of the novel’s dark perspective. The question then becomes, who is right? The archaic Ellen, who lives deeply in ancient beliefs, or the other characters who live in fear and uncertainty? Maybe that idealism, that purity elevates Ellen beyond minor character status. You, the reader, will have to decide that for yourself.

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Upcoming Reading: Thurs., June 23, Left Bank Books, St. Louis Central West End, where I’ll be reading some scenes involving Ellen, among others.

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Taking a break - back in June!

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Infusing History Into Fiction: Manumission, Freeing Slaves

I am thrilled by the number of readers who’ve told me they love love love the minor character of young abolitionist Ellen in my novel, The Lies That Bind.  I love Ellen, too, of course, and I suspect you did—or will—as well. On my recent appearance on LA Talk Radio’s The Writers Block, the show’s terrific hosts, Jim Christina and Bobbi Bell, were especially enthusiastic about Ellen, and we had a lot of laughs discussing her (listen to the interview here).

Freeing the Slaves
In the novel, Ellen earns a few dollars by keeping the town of Turkle, Mississippi’s minor records, including deeds, wills, agreements—and manumission documents. Historically, manumission is defined as the act of a master freeing his/her slave(s), which required legal papers (to “manumit” the slave). Most often, a master would manumit a favored slave in his/her will or in a deed, or manumit an older slave whose productivity was in severe decline. However, the chance of a field slave or laborer being freed in this or any other way was almost nil.

In the novel, Ellen has never had the opportunity to fill out a manumission document freeing any slaves, and that bothers her greatly. Ellen and her grandfather, a church Senior Deacon (and religious fundamentalist), constitute the town’s only abolitionists, an unforgivable sin in the antebellum South. The anomalous pair is tolerated, however, because they are such idealists, so religious, and so impoverished and powerless, that people consider them harmless.

Historically, manumissions increased in the late-eighteenth century, after the American Revolution, and the percentage of freedmen went from 1 percent of the black population to 10 percent (7 percent in Virginia, for example). However, after the invention of the cotton gin (1793) opened extensive lands to labor-intensive cotton cultivation, manumissions declined almost to zero. In parallel, there were abolitionist preachers in the South who convinced some planters to free their slaves. However, after the 1840s, these idealistic preachers were driven to flee north or were even killed outright. So the religious establishment became solidly pro-slavery until the Civil War.

Interestingly, in a revised edition of The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South, John W. Blassingame relates his discovery of a brilliant, black pro-slavery theologian called Bentley’s Old George, who served as preacher to a church of wealthy planters. The congregation, which paid the preacher $700 a year, offered to buy the man from the estate that owned him, and Old George refused to be bought by them!

Likewise, in the second novel in my DarkHorse Trilogy, Honor Among Outcasts, the main characters encounter such a pro-slavery black preacher—under circumstances that are both moving and tragic. (I just couldn’t pass up the dramatic irony.)

Revolting Against Bondage Halts Manumissions
It seems slaves just weren’t satisfied with their condition! After the Haitian slave revolt of 1791-1804, in which all the French masters were killed, and the rebellion led by American slave Nat Turner, planters in the South lived in fear of their unwilling bondsmen rising up against them. The South’s false portrayal of the “happy slave”—which I wrote The Lies That Bind in part to debunk—was used as propaganda to counter Northern abolitionists’ criticism of the South’s “peculiar institution.” As a result of this fear, the South passed laws that made manumission quite difficult, if not impossible; after which few slaves were freed until the Thirteenth Amendment to the U. S. Constitution ended slavery.

In Lies, Ellen’s life is changed when Durk Hurst asks her to draw up manumission papers to free his (secret) partners, a group of (former) slaves, fulfilling her lifelong dream. Of course, as in the rest of the novel, the irony seldom lets up. Durk does not really own his partners, so his signature does not really manumit them. In fact, under the circumstances, his partners must still pretend to be his slaves, which they never were, and they must keep their fake manumission as secret as their partnership with Durk. A twisted situation, indeed!

Reading Ellen Scenes
I plan to include a few scenes involving Ellen at my upcoming reading at Left Bank Books in St. Louis on Thurs., June 23. It will give fans a sense of the ironic situation Ellen (and Durk) find themselves in, and why she is so endearing to readers. Stop by the reading if you’re in town. See details.

Next blog post: I’ll continue my discussion of Ellen and the literary function she serves in The Lies That Bind.

This Writer’s Challenge: Finding Humanity in a Violent Setting

Working on Honor Among Outcasts, Book 2 in my DarkHorse Trilogy (to be published in 2017) has been challenging emotionally and creatively. The atmosphere in Honor is far different from the first book in the trilogy, The Lies That Bind. Whereas the backdrop for Lies was a staid, rigid (read: caste, slave) antebellum South society, and the accompanying tension a product of the characters’ subterfuges, Civil War Missouri, where Book 2 takes place, was quite another matter.

James W. Erwin’s Guerrilla Hunters in Civil War Missouri

Missouri’s western counties during the war were near absolute chaos. The brutal war in Missouri pit neighbor against neighbor, community against community, with both sides robbing, burning homes and crops, and slaughtering husbands and sons indiscriminately — even on their own sides. Guerrillas and Union soldiers even took scalps — that’s how horrific the war was.

(To learn more about it,  I recommend James W. Erwin’s Guerrilla Hunters in Civil War Missouri.)

A Far Darker Place
There is a fine line between a drama and a thriller, and I try to keep a balance of both in all my writing. Unlike in Lies, where the tension is atmospheric, the tension in Honor Among Outcasts is very much event- and plot-driven. My job is to see that the story’s characters develop their own motivations, not merely to portray them as victims trying to escape the mayhem of war. I, therefore, have no choice but to incorporate violence into the story’s historical milieu.

At times, I have to take a break because the violence and situations are so unsettling.

Nearly all of the main characters in Lies are reprised in Honor Among Outcasts. You’ll again meet Durk, Big Josh, Antoinette, Isaac, Devereau, and Wounded Wolf. Readers will be pleased to know that even young Ellen, whom readers adore, has a role to play in the coming dramatic events. Given the environment and events depicted in Book 2, the emotional state of many of the characters has devolved to, shall we say, a far darker place. Far darker.

I hope I don’t shake up fans of The Lies That Bind too much!

Upcoming Events
April 28: Reading at Subterranean Books in St. Louis' U. City Loop
June 23: Reading at Left Bank Books in St. Louis’ Central West End
Sept. 25: Garden District Book Shop, New Orleans
Oct. 29: St. Louis Central Library's 2016 Author Shout Out!

Buy/order The Lies That Bind.

My Latest Radio Interview

I really enjoyed my interview on LA Talk Radio’s “The Writer’s Block” show on March 31 . The Writer’s Block interviews a wide range of terrific writers every week talking about their work, and I was honored to be a part of it.

Click here to listen to my interview.

Hosts Jim Christina and Bobbi Jean Bell had both read The Lies That Bind (the first book in my DarkHorse Trilogy) and were very perceptive, even down to the novel’s nuances, from subtle to overt. We discussed much during the hour-long program, including many of the novel’s secrets, twists and turns. But, of course, none of us exposed the book’s most startling, and critical, secret. That readers have to discover on their own!

The show focuses primarily on the craft of writing, with incisive questions. I highly recommend the podcasts to both experienced and aspiring writers. I especially enjoyed their January 7 interview with Craig Johnson, creator of the Walt Longmire Mysteries, and the main character  in the Longmire TV series. Craig himself is an interesting character—although, he is a real person. The show also interviewed my literary agent, Jeanie Loiacano, on February 24. Fascinating!

In my interview, the three of us had a big laugh discussing one of The Lies That Bind’s minor, but colorful, characters, Ellen—and the Honor Store she runs with her grandfather, a Senior Deacon in the local church. Everyone I talk to seems to love unworldly young Ellen. And so do I. From a practical point of view, the Honor Store seems to make little sense, and anyone who knows anything about business can tell it’s designed (unintentionally) to fail as an enterprise. Fortunately, as Bobbi Jean pointed out, Ellen makes a few dollars on the side handling the town’s records that are considered too “unimportant” to be sent all the way to the county seat. These include manumission documents that would free slaves!

Ellen and her grandfather are idealists in the purest sense. Whereas the other characters in the book tell and live lies in order to survive, Ellen and her grandfather are the opposite, clinging to absolute convictions, regardless of the worldly consequences.

Ellen and the Honor Store were inspired additions to the book, which I came up with when composing the scenes. I don’t know where they came from, but they were really fun to write, and apparently everyone is having real fun reading about them. Ellen doesn’t appear often in the novel, but she does serve to bracket key elements of the story. And she’s a nice break from the story’s tension.

Coming Attractions!
April 12: I’ll be doing a seven-minute reading from Honor Among Outcasts (the second book in my DarkHorse Trilogy), during St. Louis Writers Guild's monthly open mic night. Book 2 is scheduled to be published in 2017, and the feedback I’ll get from fellow writers should be worthwhile.

April 18-22: Shakespeare Week on Goodreads! - celebrating The Bard's literary legacy and 400th anniversary. I plan to participate in #ShakespeareWeek.

April 28: I’ll be reading from The Lies That Bind at Subterranean Books in St. Louis' University City Loop. Details.

April 30: Independent Bookstore Day - a good time to visit your local independent bookstore. Find a local bookstore here.

Thurs., June 23: I’ll be reading from The Lies That Bind at Left Bank Books in St. Louis’ Central West End. Details.

Daniel Woodrell’s Novel, "Woe to Live on" Rings True Historically

Hearing about my historical novel, The Lies That Bind, Anne Sanow, the visiting guest writer at the University of Missouri-St. Louis where I teach writing as an adjunct, recommended that I read Woe to Live on by Daniel Woodrell. That turned out to be one of the best suggestions I'd gotten in quite a while. I’m a big Woodrell fan now for sure.

You might know of Woodrell from his earlier novel, Winter’s Bone, which was made into a great film, shot entirely in Missouri with a cast including a number of amateurs. I thought the film was the best of the year at that time, and "Winter’s Bone" earned 19-year-old Jennifer Lawrence an Academy Award nomination. Quite an honor for a low-budget film, and Lawrence deserved it for her performance, which made her career. Great book, great film, too.

Anyway, Woe to Live on takes place on the Missouri-Kansas border during the Civil War, same time and place as the upcoming second book in my DarkHorse Trilogy, Honor Among Outcasts. I’ve already written about the border guerrilla war being the vilest, most dehumanizing part of the war—much like today’s Syrian civil car. In 1999, director Ang Lee made an excellent film based on Woe to Live on, called “Ride with the Devil,” starring Toby Maguire.

There's a nice twist on the point of view in Woe to Live on. Jake Roedel is the lead character, and he is entirely out of place as a 16-year-old, pro-secession guerrilla. He is lured by his best friend, Jack Bull Chiles, the son of old Southern gentry, to join Black Jack Ambrose’s mounted “Irregulars.” Jake Roedel is second-generation German, what the guerrillas called “Dutch” from the word “Deutsch.” The Germans in Missouri, fleeing persecution in Germany and seeking democracy in America, were very pro-Union and anti-slavery, and the rebel guerrillas hated and readily killed them, even innocent civilians. Lincoln received 10 percent of the votes in the four-way 1860 presidential race in Missouri, and most of those votes were German.

One reviewer describes the book as “brutal yet poignant, ironic and spiked with earthy, irreverent humor.” As the story advances, Jake learns a great deal: his side in the war, knowing defeat of the Confederacy is coming, turns to mostly murder and robbery.

I’m not going to give much away. Interestingly, though, the book begins ironically. Riding with the guerrillas, Jake shows he belongs by hanging an innocent German, a man like the very people he comes from, like his own father. Even worse, he murders the man’s young son when the boy tries to cut his father down, shooting the unarmed boy in the back. Nasty stuff in a nasty conflict.

Inspiring writing. I recommend Woe to Live for all history buffs.

Upcoming Events:
March 31: LA Talk Radio “The Writer's Block” - live interview and podcast
April 28: Reading/Signing at Subterranean Books in the Loop, St. Louis
June 23: Reading/Signing at Left Bank Books, Central West End, St. Louis

More Lively Discussions are Coming!

Last month, I did the first reading from my novel, The Lies That Bind, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis (see recent blog post, “Fun Reading Stimulates Insightful QA&A”). That appearance prompted an invitation from one of the English department's faculty to speak at her “Literature of the American Civil War” class later this month.  Should be fun!

Most Americans know about this epochal event in American civilization, so I wasn’t surprised at the depth of the conversation that first reading prompted. (Incidentally, as a former amateur thespian, I’m enjoying the chance to read dramatically, especially since the story is quite dramatic itself.)

I am more than willing to do more readings or discussions. So contact me if your school or organization is interested.

OUT & ABOUT
·  Thurs., March 31. Interview on LA Talk Radio’s “The Writer’s Block” show, 10 pm CT. Details.

·  Thurs., April 28.  Reading/signing at Subterranean Books in St. Louis, 6:30-7:30 pm. Details.

·  Sun., Sept. 11. Reading/signing at Garden District Book Shop, New Orleans, 2-3:30 pm. Details.

·  Sat., Oct. 29.  On the panel at the St. Louis Central Library's 2016 Author Shout Out! event. Details.

ON THE SHELVES
Left Bank Books, St. Louis
The Booksellers at Laurelwood, Memphis
University City Public Library (soon)
More to come...

Progressing on Book 2, Honor Among Outcasts
Because The Lies That Bind takes place 1859-61 Mississippi, it overlaps with the beginning of the Civil War. Honor Among Outcast, the second book in my DarkHorse Trilogy, takes place smack dab in 1863 Civil War Missouri, a guerrilla war not much kinder than the Syrian civil war today.

Oh, my poor characters, women and men, black and white! Leaving antebellum Mississippi for Civil War Missouri takes them out of the frying pan, and into the fires of hell. Like people today—and at every time—the novel’s characters also are in denial about the war. Of course, it has a profound effect on them in a number of ways. But America needed this conflagration for its transformation from a slave society.

In the meantime, I’m readying for the students’ questions on March 25.

(See amazing Amazon reviews!)

Fun Reading Stimulates Insightful Q&A

“Click to begin slideshow”

Lots of fun last week with a well-attended reading and book signing of my novel, The Lies That Bind, at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where I teach adjunct. The Q&A discussion afterwards was lively and far-ranging, with many historical and other insights from the audience, few of whom had yet read the book. The myths surrounding slavery (which my novel attempts to debunk), gender in the antebellum South, the Civil War — so many great discussion threads were followed. I was even invited to speak to the English department's Civil War literature class. I loved every minute of it.  The conversation could have gone on for hours.

The reading was sponsored by the gender studies department and coordinated by the English department. As a nod to gender studies, I began the reading with excerpts from Chapter 2, where we first encounter the reclusive Missus Marie Brussard French, and her strange son, Devereau. A volatile scene, indeed!

Special thanks to Lynn Staley of English, who initiated the reading and worked so hard to put everything together — even cake! Kudos, too, to the folks at the UMSL bookstore. The student “womaning” the sales got so involved in the discussion that she bought a copy of the book for herself!

An educator I spoke with recently thought The Lies That Bind should be taught in schools. Frankly, I always believed that myself. It would be an innovative way for twenty-first century students to get a sense of what it might have been like to live in a nineteenth-century slave society (or any society based on lies). The book also could serve to illustrate how no one can escape the tsunami of war, but rather how we are sometimes swept by folly into doomed blunders. Vietnam, Iraq II are very strong parallels.

Honor Among Outcasts Discussion
I also touched a bit on the second novel in the DarkHorse Trilogy, Honor Among Outcasts, which I am working on now. Most of the main characters from The Lies That Bind appear prominently in Honor, plus some minor characters rise to the top and become very important. I can’t wait to see readers’ reactions to the surprises, although the book can be read independently. For research, I’ve found Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri, by James W. Erwin, enlightening.

Again, thanks for all the kind words and interesting feedback.

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Click BUY/CONTACTS page to order your copy of The Lies That Bind!

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Next Reading: I can’t wait until my next scheduled reading on April 28 in St. Louis at Subterranean Books. Try to come if you're in St Louis.

Check the EVENTS page for all upcoming events.

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Request a Visit: To request that Ed talk about The Lies That Bind at your organization, school, book club, or bookstore — in person, via phone or Skype —  email ed.protzel@att.net.

Book Club Likes the Portrayal of the Female Characters in The Lies That Bind

It was a great honor—and a helluva lot of fun!—to attend the February meeting of a neighborhood book club in University City (MO) last week for their discussion of my novel, The Lies That Bind—and many other fascinating topics, too. I was thrilled that the club’s members were so perceptive about the novel. What a great group!

Two Favorite Aspects
From my memory—which the good wine reduced somewhat—there were two things the members especially liked.

The first was highly gratifying: they appreciated how well the novel’s female characters were portrayed. Since the club was 75 percent women, that meant a lot to me. Indeed, the members complained that too many novels by men paint poor portraits of women. I do listen carefully to comments I get from readers when I’m working on a novel, and in this case, the feedback from my female readers helped immeasurably.

The members also stressed how much they enjoyed the story’s many twists and turns, surprises and revelations. The novel’s been out for just over a month now, and that’s a consistent theme I’m hearing.

Use of Chess
I've also noticed how people are enjoying the consequential chess game between all the characters—each using lies to hide dark secrets as they strive for survival. Readers also get a kick when they realize that the author himself (me) is playing a chess game of sorts with their expectations.

And finally, they appreciate that, when the games are over, there are significant themes that relate to society, any society, including today’s America.

I also touched on Honor Among Outcasts, the second book in the DarkHorse Trilogy, which I am working on now, giving only a short overview of the conflict. Since many of the characters from The Lies That Bind follow into Honor, I assumed the club members were curious to see where they were going—and what challenges they faced. Useful to know.

And, of course, I couldn't leave without talking a bit about my just-finished thriller, The Antiquities Dealer, and there is one major point that made them gasp—and that they liked. More on that in a future blog perhaps.

Thanks for all the interesting feedback. Keep it coming!

Find several reader reviews on Amazon.

Black History Month; Good Time to Research The Lies That Bind Sequel

Right now, I’m working on Honor Among Outcasts, Book 2 of my DarkHorse Trilogy and the sequel to Book 1, The Lies That Bind. I'm not just working on developing the story, but preparing the research, too. Black History Month couldn’t come at a better time to stimulate my thoughts and feelings, and to offer fresh insights into the Black Experience in America, which has been nothing short of epic on the world stage.

The new novel will take place in Missouri—gasp!—to where the DarkHorse partners have fled from Mississippi. Beginning in 1863, Durk, Big Josh, Isaac, and the other former slaves will finally get their chance to put on the Union uniform, to fight for the liberation of all Southern slaves.

But things are not as simple as they anticipate.

Of course, visionary charlatan Durk Hurst, continuing his role from The Lies That Bind as the “white front man” for the DarkHorse partnership, has worked alongside the others all along, sharing their joys and their hardships.

In the new book, Durk gets the group through these rough times by characterizing his partners as “contraband” laborers, supposedly “liberated” by himself. Sometimes he calls them his own “manumission-freed former slaves,” depending on what story he is spinning and to whom on any given day, to serve whatever ends Durk’s instincts dictate. Of course, sometimes Hurst’s golden tongue does get them out of trouble—and sometimes it gets them deeper into trouble. Oh, well. Durk may be part-Seminole, but he’s the only white face his partners have to depend on.

Brutal, War-Torn Missouri
Prior to 1863, when the story begins, General Samuel Curtis had defeated the Confederate army at Pea Ridge, and chased it to Arkansas. Was that the end of fighting in Missouri? No, the worst was just beginning. During the war, Missouri had more battles and clashes than any other state besides Virginia. But they weren’t set-piece battles.

After Pea Ridge, Missouri became neighbor against neighbor, terrible stuff. The state quickly devolved into hit-and-run guerrilla attacks: civilians were victims of atrocities, and generally, few prisoners from either side lived to tell the tale. Civil war is the nastiest kind, and guerrilla war the worst of all. Look at Syria today. Civil war, guerrillas, atrocities, refugees, devastation. Well, Missouri had all that—and more!

Bushwhacker Brutality
Missouri’s pro-slavery guerrillas, called “bushwhackers”—yes, you’ve heard that reviled term—raided Lawrence, Kansas, and killed hundreds of civilians before returning home. In desperation, the Union military authority issued Order No. 11, which emptied out more than three counties in western Missouri, where many guerrillas lived. I mean cleaned them out, including pro-Union civilians, everybody. Women with husbands at war and children to raise, widows, the elderly. Many destitute, without means to carry a few goods to sustain them, were forced onto the road. And it wasn’t done in a kindly way, as you might well guess. Union soldiers, like their bushwhacker counterparts, robbed and burned. That was Missouri.

The African-American War Effort
Since twelve of the thirteen DarkHorse partners are black, naturally I’m busy researching and learning about that experience during the war. Two books I’m excited to have found are A Grand Army of Black Men, edited by Edwin S. Redkey (Cambridge University Press); and African American Faces of the Civil War: An Album, by Ronald S. Coddington (The Johns Hopkins University Press/Baltimore). See Library of Congress  webcast discussion of the Coddington book.

I’m also very happy to be studying Guerrillas in Civil War Missouri, by James W. Erwin (The History Press); and A Rough Business: Fighting the Civil War in Missouri, edited by William Garrett Piston (The State Historical Society of Missouri).

Real history must never be forgotten, least we repeat our errors. And as I delve more deeply into our country’s history, the clearer it becomes that history itself is truly stranger than fiction.

Enjoy reading The Lies That Bind, and I’ll keep working on Honor Among Outcasts.

Coming up:
Book Launch for The Lies That Bind, Feb. 18, University of Missouri-St. Louis
LA Talk Radio's “The Writer's Block”

Check out my online interviews:
Hangin With,” G.W. Pomichter’s video show (30 min.)
David Clarke’s “Different Strokes for Different Folks” (58 min.)

The Meaning of DarkHorse — and Democracy

 “Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others.”
- Winston Churchill

Since I’ve been asked, and since The Lies That Bind is the first novel in my planned DarkHorse Trilogy, I’ll explain the two basic interpretations of the name, DarkHorse, the literal meaning and the mythological meaning.

The Protagonist
First is the name of the main character: Durksen Hurst. Durksen is Hurst’s given name, but he goes by Durk. Now, Durk was raised by the Chickasaws from the age of ten, but due to their limited familiarity with English and the similarity to the words Durk Hurst, the Chickasaws called him “Dark Horse,” a name that stuck.

The Plantation
Second is the name of the plantation, DarkHorse (an egalitarian partnership between a visionary charlatan and a group of slaves). Durk’s need to prove himself to the town of Turkle is expressed by naming the plantation after his Native name, DarkHorse. Why spell it as one word? Because that’s how he writes it on the deed. While Durk is a reader, he is self-educated, and his written skills are limited. In rural antebellum Mississippi, few were highly literate. In The Lies That Bind, only the Devereau French and Antoinette DuVallier characters are well-read in the classics.

The Real Significance
Then there is the real meaning behind the name DarkHorse. These thirteen men, near starvation and with little to lose, try to carve out their own farming enterprise from the surrounding Chickasaw swampforest (with Durk having swindled the rights to a patch of land from the local tribe). And wasn’t—or isn’t—that America (including robbing the Native Americans)? Didn’t our ancestors, and don’t immigrants today, find themselves on these shores looking to build new lives, and a new civilization, unbound by the strictures of the past — bound only by rules they conceive themselves, rules far different from those they left behind in the Old World? And it doesn’t matter whether they came across the ocean in steerage or first class, in the hull of slave ships, or by modern-day airplane, they all had common aspirations.

The Old World had a rigid class system: kings, aristocracies, all manner of tribal tyrannies. Except for Athens and a sprinkle of states, that’s the way the human race organized itself. In fact, that’s the way most of the world still is today. Even mercantile, parliamentary England had an aristocracy until the twentieth century. Unless you earned a title by pulling an arrow out of the king’s butt at the battle of Widdle-upon-Piddle five centuries ago, you had a rough road ahead.

And DarkHorse? A handshake between themselves and Durk was all the partners had to go on. Those men had to learn to trust and rely on each other. Their creation was a democracy of sorts, making up the rules as they went along, with everyone participating on his own terms, the decisions being made by consensus, through debate — or rather, under their tense circumstances, outright argument.

Of course, the society surrounding them was a slave society, about as rigid a structure as you can get. Run by the powerful French family, little Turkle, Mississippi, was slave vs. free, aristocrat vs. sodbuster. Impoverished whites clung to the belief they were better than slaves. House slaves believed they were better than field slaves. Field slaves believed they were better than house slaves. In the novel, former house servant Old Moses dismisses his partners with the term “field hands,” and he doesn’t mean that as a compliment; while his partners make fun of his house servant ways.

DarkHorse has no rigid structure. Its members are recognized by what they can accomplish, not by preconceived notions or birth status. Big Josh, with his deep knowledge running his former dissolute master’s plantation, with his wisdom, with his strength and his peacemaking skills, is actually the partnership’s unacknowledged leader.

Durk, the figurehead white man, is the front for DarkHorse out of necessity, and the townsfolk give him all the credit for its success. But Durk’s real talents are mostly fast-talking and, to a minor degree, building fires. And his fast-talking may sometimes prove more a drawback than a boon to the partnership, creating “fires” he hadn’t intended. (Such as when Durk signs manumission documents freeing his partners, whom he never owned, in essence invalidating those very papers!)

Naturally, the DarkHorse partners argue, even come to blows, trying to dig themselves out of their desperate situation and build some kind of security for themselves. But democracy is rough and tumble, and solutions come the hard way. To paraphrase Churchill, “Americans always do the right thing — as a last resort.” In spite of our repeated failures, through all kinds of hardships, we usually seem to find a way to do things a little bit better in the future. It may be trial and error at times, but at least we have mechanisms for change.

Meantime, in 1861, outside the partners’ insulated world, the country itself is coming to blows: the Civil War, a conflict necessary to break down the rigid structure of the slave system, in which 700,000 Americans would die. Democracy is not always pretty.

Try as they might to ignore what’s happening elsewhere, in the second book of the DarkHorse Trilogy, Honor Among Outcasts, the DarkHorse partners will find themselves engulfed in this not-so-fraternal American conflict. Woe to them.

Buy The Lies That Bind

Online Interviews:
Hangin With” G.W. Pomichter
David Clarke’s “Different Strokes for Different Folks”

Book Launch for The Lies That Bind, University of Missouri- St. Louis

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and The Lies That Bind’s Big Josh

Voices Dr. King believed would have the final word—voices of unarmed truth and unconditional love.
- President Barak Obama's State of the Union Address, 2016

Today is the 30th anniversary of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., federal holiday. When you visit Washington, D. C., be sure to visit the Dr. King memorial on the national mall. Yes, Dr. King’s visage in granite is moving. You immediately discover tears forming in your eyes, a lump in your throat, your pulse racing, and a heaviness in your heart. But what is more moving than any sculpture are his words carved in stone all around you, expressing the eternal ideas those words capture so concisely, so sublimely, so profoundly.

Also, when in Memphis, be sure to visit the the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where Dr. King was assassinated. When we last visited Memphis, the museum itself was in its early stages. Even then, when the project was merely the motel and the rudimentary foundations of the museum across the street, it was exceptionally moving. We hope to go back soon.

Dr. King’s Influence on Big Josh
When I wrote the screenplay The Lies That Bind is based on, Barak Obama was not yet a national figure. At that time, black men were not portrayed in film and fiction as leaders as they are now. I created the character Big Josh in my book as the leader figure, part of a new American mythology depicting a racially harmonious America where people are equally recognized for their virtues.

A slave, simple-looking, speaking with a stutter, people in the antebellum South would have looked right through Big Josh, not seeing the man himself. Yet in the egalitarian DarkHorse partnership, where Durk Hurst and twelve uprooted slaves agree by a simple handshake to carve their own plantation out of the wilderness, it is Big Josh who is their true leader. Hurst, the white man, is merely the front man to whom the town, naturally, gives all the credit for their accomplishment. But, in truth, it took all thirteen men to make DarkHorse a success. As Hurst acknowledges, Big Josh is the heart and brains of their plantation—without whom DarkHorse would surely fail.

In essence, as I see it, Big Josh is the literary, mythological precursor to Barak Obama, the leader of America as a whole.

Symbolically, these thirteen men are rootless, finding themselves stranded in the American wilderness (Mississippi/Chickasaw swamp), and from there they must learn to work together to achieve security and prosperity for all. Isn’t that the challenge America has always represented and that we’re faced with today? Hurst had no family, no friends, no place to call home. But Hurst’s slave partners, and America’s slave population in general, could never return to Africa thousands of miles away either. Talk about being stranded. Perhaps that is why Hurst, being an outsider himself, was able to see Big Josh as a man like other men, black and white.

In his past, Big Josh ran the plantation for his drunken master and, thus, has the skills and knowledge for DarkHorse to succeed. That was pure invention on my part. However, in my recent research, I found there were, indeed, slaves who ran plantations for dissolute masters [see: The Slave Community: Plantation Life in the Antebellum South by John W. Blassingame].

So there were men like Big Josh in real life!

A great soul, like Dr. King, in the worst of circumstances—a slave society—Big Josh is the peacemaker in the DarkHorse partnership, always keeping headstrong partners Durk Hurst and angry Isaac from coming to blows. The novel shows in very practical, down-to-Earth terms why Dr. King’s own inspiration claimed that peacemakers—men bearing only unarmed truth and unconditional love—are blessed. Big Josh exemplifies that spirit.

Celebrate Dr. King’s life today, sure. But keep in mind his eternal ideas every day. After all, I seem to remember that Dr. King told us that he had a dream, didn’t he? And while we’re closer to that dream than we once were, we haven’t achieved that dream just yet.

See DelawareBlack.com:  "New historical novel, The Lies That Bind, debunks slave stereotypes"

Related blog posts:
Seeking a New American Mythology
Big Josh and Angry Isaac—Minus Stereotypes and the Chains of Slavery

Honor Among Outcasts: Early Research Takes me to the Missouri/Kansas Border

I’m progressing on my newest novel, Honor Among Outcasts (Book 2 of the DarkHorse Trilogy). The story takes place in Civil War Missouri, the nastiest, lowdown, dirtiest part of the bloody conflict—oh, what my poor, harried characters may encounter!

Besides my main characters, I also am considering adding a couple of quirky new ones. Readers really loved the oddballs in Book 1 (The Lies That Bind), like idealistic little Ellen. We’ll see what fits into the new story and its themes.

So far, I’m fascinated by the 1863 chain of horrors on the Missouri/Kansas border during the war. I think I’ll begin with Union General Ewing’s Orders 9 and 10, which were tough responses to ruthless rebel guerilla activity, including crimes against civilians, what today we’d call crimes against humanity. As a response to these Orders, Confederate bushwackers massacred hundreds of abolitionist civilians in a raid on Lawrence, Kansas. Killed men, women, and children. Quantrill and other guerilla leaders led 400 rebs.

These brutal murders led, in turn, to Ewing’s Order 11, which cleared whole western Missouri counties of everyone, especially “pro-rebel” sympathizers, but pro-Union citizens, as well: everyone, men, women, and children. In defiance of their orders, troops robbed and burned their homes and farms in retaliation. Picture it: the roads clogged with refugees, old men, women and children, some with few clothes on their backs, many with no mules or oxen to pull wagons, carrying what they could save! Rough times.

Oh, my poor, sensitive characters, faced with unspeakable crimes, getting caught up in history’s tragedies. How did the DarkHorse partners—Durk, Big Josh, Antoinette, Isaac, et al—Devereau French, and their respective allies jump out of the Mississippi flames into this inferno?

But of course, nothing is simple in my novels. Twists and turns, surprises and revelations will be coming at you faster than a flash flood—oh, what I plan to startle and delight you with — again!

Online With Ed
If you haven’t done so, check out my online interviews: G.W. Pomichter’s “Hangin With” show, and David Clarke’s “Different Strokes for Different Folks.” And coming up: my interview on LA Talk Radio’s “The Writer’s Block” on March 31 (8 pm PST/6 pm CT), with Jim Christina and Bobbi Bell.

I’ll keep you up-to-date on all this!

Oh, and after you’ve read The Lies That Bind, let me know what you think. I love getting feedback, opinions and recommendations from fans.

For now, on with the Honor Among Outcasts research!

On With the New Year: Forthcoming Novels in the Queue

Late-2015 proved a busy, busy time for me. My first novel, The Lies That Bind (The DarkHorse Trilogy, Book 1), was published in early December by TouchPoint Press, and as you can imagine, it was quite a thrill to hold the book in my hands after all that went into it!

Even before the book was in print, I’d had three interviews lined up, with many other interviews, signings and appearances in store for 2016.

“Different Strokes for Different Folks”
My first interview took place Dec. 3, just before the book’s release, on David Clarke’s “Different Strokes for Different Folks” (we talked a full 58 min.). David calls himself a “spiritual adventurer,” and we talked about the “spiritual” — or what I’d describe as the “aspirational” — aspects of The Lies That Bind. These can be found deeply buried under the layers of desperation the characters endure and the subterfuge they must promulgate to survive in that restrictive society—beneath their deeply hidden secrets. Find it here.

“Hangin With...”
On the heels of the Clarke interview, I did my first Skype interview with G.W. Pomichter for his YouTube show “Hangin With...” (30 min.). Garrett, a former journalist, is a great interviewer, with lots of personality and knowledge in the arts, literature and film, and the show has terrific production values. I see a limitless future in TV for Garrett. Catch it at on YouTube.

“The Writer’s Block”
On March 31, I’ll be speaking with Jim Christina and Bobbi Bell on their LA Talk Radio show, “The Writer’s Block.” Being an LA show, I’ll probably talk more extensively on my screenwriting and how The Lies That Bind had its roots in that medium.

"An audacious scheme"
I’ve even ventured into production myself, posting a brief trailer on YouTube: An audacious scheme: The Lies That Bind. In 1:15 min. it captures the intrigue and essence of The Lies That Bind. View it here.

Much more in the works! All will be posted on the Events page of my website so check back frequently. I’ll also be posting events on my Facebook page - so “Like” me if you haven’t already to get the latest. Will tweet it out too.

New novels in the queue—whoa!
Working now on two books that definitely bear the Ed Protzel imprint—conflicted characters burdened by lots of secrets, plots with a plethora of surprises, revelations, twists and turns.

First on my agenda is researching and sketching out Honor Among Outcasts, Book 2 in The DarkHorse Trilogy, which takes place in Civil War Missouri, the nastiest, cruelest perversion of the conflict. Oh, my poor, sensitive characters, faced with unspeakable crimes! Massacres of civilians by Confederate bushwackers, even Order 11 by Union General Ewing, which cleared whole counties of “pro-rebel” sympathizers: men, women, and children. How did the DarkHorse partners—Durk, Big Josh, Antoinette, Isaac, et al—Devereau French, and their respective allies jump out of the frying pan into this inferno? Book 2 due in 2016; Book 3, Something in Madness, to follow in 2017.

And then there is The Antiquities Dealer, nearing completion. I describe the novel as a genre-stretching, ostensible futuristic suspense/mystery/thriller (and don’t forget, romance). But aren’t all my works genre-stretchers?

In this novel, an upscale Jewish antiquities gallery owner is drawn by his former lover into a scheme by a purportedly ancient society of Israelis to clone the great minds of history—beginning with Jesus Christ. Oh, my!

Millennial religion, futuristic biotechnology, and human evolution collide in a cauldron peopled by our intrepid couple, plus a TV evangelist, lowlife gamblers, a former NFL player (“God’s Left Tackle”), Middle East conspiracies, and radicals of the major world religions. 

But unlike The Lies That Bind, where all the tension is dramatic or internal, The Antiquities Dealer has its share of murder, assassinations, and kidnapping…as does the real world. Buckle your seat belts!

In the meantime, I’ll be writing and exercising regularly to lose those extra holiday pounds :)

A good 2016 to you all!

Order The Lies That Bind at Amazon, B&N or through your local book store!

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Seeking a New American Mythology

In writing The Lies That Bind (DarkHorse Trilogy, Book 1) — released by TouchPoint Press on Dec. 8! — I was attempting to create a new American mythology. There are a couple of wry hints of this intent within the book (one section title and the name of the county seat), but the novel’s true mythology is in its milieu (the antebellum South), structure, and characters, as I’ll explain.

“Elysian Fields” Indeed
First, Section I is titled “Elysian Scrubland.” That tells you something right away. “Elysian Fields” is the ancient Greek approximation of Paradise or Heaven, where the very best, most virtuous people go after they die. In America’s inception, the perfection we sought began merely as scrubland, not neat fields.

The novel begins with Durksen (Durk) Hurst, an itinerant “visionary” charlatan, escaping a mob into the Chickasaw swamp. Isn’t that like the original colonization of America: People leaving the Old World, often escaping oppression and/or seeking opportunity, for the wild New World of America?

There, Hurst encounters a group of stranded slaves. These slaves are rootless, coming from the oppression of slavery. Together they agree to create an egalitarian plantation, an equal partnership, which they call DarkHorse, after Hurst’s Chickasaw nickname. Isn’t that symbolic of our ancestors’ arrival in this country—an extreme version of their plight?

So the DarkHorse plantation represents the attempt by these dispossessed men to create their own “civilization” based on equality. Sound a bit like the founding of American representative democracy? It doesn’t matter where they came from. Durk’s past is revealed, and he can never return. His partners can never return to their past either. Their old plantation, where they were slaves, is gone. Besides, they had no rights there. And their African homeland is an ocean away, an impossibility to cross.

A Uniquely American Concept
Thus, symbolically, their DarkHorse enterprise is like the original America. These people have no model to follow, no rules waiting to be adopted, no preconceived ideas on which to base their actions. And no clear consensus on how to govern. For the first time in their lives, the former-slave partners are free from fear of the lash. Durk, too, who had to keep his abolitionist opinions to himself, is now free to treat black men as human beings.

The adjustment of these very different men, from very different circumstances, to each other is an important dramatic element of the book. Isn’t that symbolic of multi-cultural America, the inclusion of so many different ethnic, religious, and racial groups into the “melting pot” that is America?

Studies have been done of historical colonization. For example, the Greeks colonized the Mediterranean centuries before our ancestors colonized America. In every case, the original belief systems and social structures of the old civilization weren’t retained in the new colonies; they were dispensed with or dissipated. Aren’t things constantly being created anew in America? Wasn’t our constitution, with its checks and balances, its dispensing with kings and aristocracy, and our social formations very different from Europe, Africa, or Asia? And aren’t we still evolving?

I should mention, the establishment characters in the novel, the powerful French family, also contribute to the story’s mythology — especially regarding the role of women. But you’ll have to read the novel to find the meaning which is deeply hidden and only revealed as the novel progresses.

Nod to the Greeks
Oh, a funny tidbit: The town’s county seat, where the big money cotton exchange and wealthy brokers are located, is named “Lethe Creek.” In Greek mythology, when people died, they were taken on a boat down the river Styx by the ferryman Charon, to Hades, the underworld. The river Lethe is one of the five rivers in Hades, and all who drink from its waters experience complete forgetfulness, forever.

With the word lethe defined as “oblivion,” “forgetfulness,” or “concealment,” Lethe was also the name of the Greek spirit of forgetfulness and oblivion. Indeed, lethe is related to the word aletheia, the Greek word for truth, which literally means “un-forgetfulness” or “un-concealment.”

Concealment! All the novel’s characters are concealing profound secrets (which are unraveled as the story progresses). Indeed, a major element of the novel is the eternal war between truth and lies—oops, the word Lies in the title is a clear giveaway! Read it and you’ll find out why :)

Enjoy your holidays and let me know how you like the book.

Order it at Amazon - print & Kindle editions. Other outlets to be added soon!

Until January...Cheers!

From Screenplay to Novel: The Evolution of The Lies That Bind

I originally wrote The Lies That Bind not as a novel, but as a screenplay for feature film. At that time, I was writing spec scripts for Hollywood, everything from science fiction, to futuristic, to historical, as well as writing development treatments for film projects. I still believe the story, named DarkHorse in that incarnation, is the best script I ever wrote.

Fortunately, the late Bob Friedman, president of the Missouri Association of Performing Playwrights at the time, quite a writer of plays and operas for the stage himself, read the script and was wowed. Bob was kind enough to organize a filmed reading of the script to introduce me to the St. Louis playwright community, with professional actors and award-winning writers reading many of the parts and others in attendance, including George Hickenlooper, Jr., the father of the late writer/film director, George Hickenlooper III.

Later, Murray Silverman, president of 20th Century-Fox MTI, gave the script to Sherry Lansing, who called it a “great script.” We both thought my future in Hollywood was made. However, just at that time, Fox was bought by Ruppert Murdock, and Sherry Lansing left Fox to take over Paramount. Being a newer screenwriter, naturally, my career fell through the cracks. Another producer offered an option on the script. His idea was to submit the script to Oprah to produce, but we never agreed to contract terms. Life happens.

The Incubation Period
DarkHorse the script sat for some years, but the power of this unique story ate at me. Once I decided to turn to writing novels, I knew exactly where to start. Suddenly, it was like Alice in Wonderland when she ate the mushroom or drank from the bottle: the story and characters outgrew the restraints of the two-hour script medium and bloomed into a deep, multi-layered work of fiction.

Screenplays for feature film are a very limited medium. Scripts are typically 120-minute pages of dialogue and action, and the director and actors must bring the characters to life as their talent allow. But in the novel format, which can be hundreds of pages, the writer can reveal what the characters are thinking and feeling, which allows the writer to go into great depth and to take the story over great stretches of time and space. For example, when a character’s thoughts are at odds with his/her actions, that can lead to irony and reveal internal conflict. You can do a lot more with a novel than a screenplay.

In The Lies That Bind, the main character is Durksen (Durk) Hurst, whom I describe as a “visionary charlatan.” That in itself is almost contradictory, and only by exploring Durk’s thoughts and perceptions can the reader fully grasp how complex the man really is. How and why does he invent such a foolhardy scheme as a partnership with slaves to build their own egalitarian plantation? Along the way, why does he take the risks he does, which jeopardize all their lives? What is it in his past  that drives him to take such risks? In attempting the seemingly impossible, is Durk terrified, doubtful? How do he and his partners really feel about each other? How does their relationship change?

Each of the main characters becomes a three-dimensional, flesh and blood human being, with fears, hopes, dreams, resentments, and secrets from the past—oh, their pasts! That’s the beauty of writing a novel: the writer can reveal a character’s secrets at a time when they’ll have the most dramatic and thematic effect.

The first version of The Lies That Bind was well over 650 pages, but I knew I had to trim it down to make it tighter. Then I rewrote it and it got longer again, so I cut it back again. I endured this process several times before being satisfied with the result.

Also, as I rewrote the novel, my writing got better and sharper, leaner and meaner. Sometimes, for example, I cut standard descriptions and replaced them with impressionistic ones, which made for a faster read, sure, but also made for a more emotional, more aesthetic experience for the reader.

I hope you will agree.

Watch for the release of The Lies That Bind from TouchPoint Press later this month!

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Big Josh and Angry Isaac—Minus Stereotypes and the Chains of Slavery

The core of my historical novel, The Lies That Bind (TouchPoint Press, Nov. 2015), is the unique relationship between visionary charlatan Durksen (Durk) Hurst and a dozen helplessly stranded slaves who partner together to build their own egalitarian plantation, which they will call DarkHorse.

The DarkHorse plantation itself is mythological, carved out of the Chickasaw forest by this ungainly baker’s dozen. As a literary technique, dramatically and structurally, DarkHorse creates a dynamic triangle between the partnership’s main characters: Durk, plus Big Josh and Isaac, both of whom are still legally slaves, and thus at risk of being re-enslaved—or worse—alongside Durk, who would surely hang should their scheme be exposed.

This pervasive danger forces the ill-fitting partners to adapt to each other in order to make decisions and settle disputes—quickly. But the characters’ awkwardness—given the time and place, their different races, legal status, and outlook—creates a tension and a sense of irony, resulting in some of the book’s most hilarious and most touching scenes.

Interestingly, although my original concept and first draft invented Big Josh and Isaac from whole cloth, during subsequent research I discovered that historically there were slaves such as Big Josh who ran plantations for dissolute masters. (See previous blog.)

I am a lover and reader of the great Southern novelists, especially William Faulkner. It was during a read of his iconic Absalom, Absalom! that the idea for The Lies That Bind came to me. I wondered why give all the credit for the success of Sutpen’s Hundred plantation to Thomas Sutpen? The labor of his slaves built his empire. In fact, I’ve blogged about how slaves and women are so often stereotyped in Southern literature. In my novel, I attempt to correct these oversights by portraying the novel’s slaves, including Big Josh and Isaac, as real men, and to give them credit for their intelligence and labors. I do the same with the novel’s women.

Big Josh’s Talents and Smarts
The DarkHorse plantation cannot survive without Big Josh’s talents and smarts. Simple looking, a stutterer, Big Josh has already upended stereotypes when we meet him. We learn Big Josh had run the plantation “back home” for his drunken master, a man who insisted people call him “General,” despite his lack of a military background. Because of Big Josh’s knowledge and wisdom, this natural peacekeeper becomes the unspoken, but acknowledged, true leader of the DarkHorse partnership. Durk is merely acting as the figurehead “white master,” with no actual experience in farming or building other than as an itinerant laborer, whose vainglorious, but failed, past endeavors had always left him broke and alone.

Angry Isaac
Then there is angry Isaac, an escaped slave who had been badly treated and was living as a swamp rat in Chickasaw territory when he first latches onto the partnership. Isaac’s past mistreatment led him to distrust all people, especially white people. In the first encounter between Durk and his future partners, wary Isaac insists that the stranded slaves bury Durk in the swamp lest he turn them in for a reward. And it is only Big Josh’s intervention that forestalls that tragedy.

Dramatically, Isaac serves as a counterbalance to Durk Hurst. While slaves were reluctant to criticize whites, hostile Isaac has too much anger to ever hold back. He brings up issues and flaws in Durk and Durk’s outrageous schemes that get the discussion—or rather, the arguments—going. Seeing this, Durk’s other partners get brave enough to express their opinions, too. This makes DarkHorse’s internal conflicts lively, to say the least.

Again, my research showed there were many slaves who, like fictional Isaac, had escaped bondage to live in marginal areas, in swamps, forests, and mountainous lands. These were called maroons at the time. Understandable, considering the lash was a major management technique on many plantations.

Despite Isaac’s vehement initial hostility toward Durk, Durk comes to realize that he has much in common with Isaac, especially their mutual alienation toward society. But Durk also sees a vast difference between them: that a slave can’t “pack his goods in a handkerchief and leave his troubles behind like a white man.”

There are no rules, no defined roles, no model to guide these mismatched protagonists through their ordeal. Yet despite their natural antipathy toward one another, they must somehow learn to cohere to survive. As a result, each must evolve as human beings—or they are all doomed.

A life lesson for us all.

Next week: Evolution from Screenplay to Novel
November is here — watch for the release date of The Lies That Bind later this month and how to pre-order!

Characters: The Soul of a Novel

A good character will almost write your own novel for you, will make your story come alive. An example of this is Durksen (Durk) Hurst, aka Dark Horse, in my forthcoming novel, The Lies That Bind (TouchPoint Press, November 2015).

In last week’s blog, I wrote that, in writing a novel, you should make sure you know what your major characters want or, if they’re conflicted like Hamlet, why they’re confused. Then make their actions true to their inner motivation. In this way, your characters will become real people, will even initiate actions that may surprise you and breathe authenticity into your story.

Complexity Creates Character
Keep in mind: stories are about conflict. The different characters’ interests should clash. Build as much conflict as you can into the story and into every scene: between protagonist and nemesis; even between the protagonist and his/her allies; and conflict within the nemesis’ group. But the story is richer when that conflict comes from within the characters—the plot then feels real, not artificial, trumped up.

No one is simple. A killer may be repulsed by his/her own tendency toward violence. A hero may have grave doubts about his/her ambitions. Ambiguity is the key here—build lots of ambiguity into your tale, into every event and character. In The Lies That Bind, seemingly logical actions propelled by the characters’ own internal contradictions develop into irony, humor, and meaning for the reader.

 When Durk Hurst first appears in The Lies That Bind, he is being chased by a mob. Is Durk bad or good? or a real person with inherent complexities? I often describe Durk as a “visionary charlatan,” and that almost contradictory description illustrates the contradictions within Durk himself. As a visionary, he has ideas that he believes will help whole classes of people throughout the South, poor farmers, widows, everyone—and make him rich to boot. But one of these get-rich, help-everybody schemes is why he’s being chased. Durk has his limitations.

Near the beginning of the novel, Durk agrees to a secret partnership with a group of slaves stranded in the Mississippi wilds to build their own egalitarian plantation, with Durk serving as the partnership’s figurehead “white master.” An idealistic scheme, yes; yet a death-defying one. But then Durk’s ambitious urges take over, as he attempts to parlay the partnership’s success into great wealth—incurring enormous, possibly fatal consequences.

Naturally, great tension and cataclysmic actions are generated by Durk’s own flawed character. Like real life, the interests of flawed people colliding with those of other flawed people. And so, history is written.

Next week: Big Josh and Isaac Defy Stereotypes
Watch for the release date of The Lies That Bind!

Celebrating National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) in November. A great time to start your own novel! Visit http://nanowrimo.org/

Take the NaNoWriMo Challenge in November

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Well, here is where I don my writing coach cap and whistle and draw your attention to National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), being celebrated in November across the country.

 If you’ve ever wanted to write fiction, you should definitely go for it next month. Just sign up  at NaNoWriMo.org and draft a 50,000 word novel or novella. You track your progress, get pep talks and support, and meet fellow writers online and in person. What more could you ask for?

Sure, any writer can tell you that good novels are not just written; they’re re-written, edited, and edited some more. But still, this is a great starter exercise, if it only motivates you to get the story down. You can re-write/edit later. In fact, once you get your first draft roughed, then the fun really begins as you revise. So go for it!

 A Less Solitary Experience
It’s nice that today there is so much support, online and otherwise, for would-be writers. The effort is not quite as solitary as it once was. Perhaps there are enough ways to link up to other writers and readers to overcome the isolation of the computer screen. I’ll tell you, readers who will take time to give you considered feedback are solid gold. Makes the long, hard slog of writing a novel more fun. A reader will have a different perspective from yours, and will tell you honestly when your story is unclear, etc., plus engage you in discussions that will summon up good ideas. Solid gold indeed.

The good thing about this one-month challenge is that it forces the writer to write every day. That’s great because, as I’ve mentioned, for a new writer, especially in the beginning, creating a novel can be more than challenging. It’s like your brain has inertia of rest: you’ve got to cut your way into the story with a sword or an ax. Once your story is going, however, it’s like inertia of motion: it’s painful to be kept away from your tale. At some point, the act of creating your story is so pleasurable, so exciting, so fulfilling, you don’t want to stop. It’s more than worth the pain of getting started.

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An “Easy” Method
Frankly, when I get an idea for a novel, I’m pretty ready to go—I can’t wait, in fact. Experience, perhaps; but the only way to get experience is to start writing. One fun way to go about crafting a novel is the method Syd Fields’ book, Screenplay, suggests for writing scripts. I’ve used it and recommend it.

Divide the story into four roughly equal segments. Come up with three major plot points: a quarter-way, half-way, and three-quarters-way in. Then decide on your dénouement or climax. These are guideposts and may change somewhat. In fact, the events at these guideposts may change meaning by the time you get to them because your story has outgrown them. It’s great if things change or evolve: that means you’re creativity is taking over!

Make sure you know what your major characters want; or if they’re confused, like Hamlet, why they’re confused. Then make their actions true to their motivation, which will keep the story moving forward. In this way, your characters can come alive, and your story will be more than a simple narrative. Often, your characters will fool you and change the story. To me, this is the magic of fiction writing—being surprised and delighted by your own creation!

Next week: More on creating characters, depth and themes, and how I developed the characters in my forthcoming novel, The Lies That Bind (TouchPoint Press, November 2015).