Commentary on The Secret Doorway Tales Series

So, I have just finished the rough draft of The Battle of Dusk and Dawn. Celebrated that by having a gimlet (It's been a rough month).

TBoDaD was difficult to write. The hardest one of the series, in fact. I think this is mainly because it's the last book in the series and I feel a little depressed about that. I've been dragging my feet, to be honest. I really love this character and this series - the character is modeled after my niece - and The Green Door, the first book, is my first published book.

I've said this in interviews before but I don't mind relating it again - the idea for the basic story came to me as a short story that I wanted to call The Pumpkin Princess years ago. That was the working title. I had an idea about a little girl who finds herself in a pumpkin patch that leads to a fairy tale land. I never got around to writing the story out years ago. Here's another bit of information that I have not mentioned in interviews, the green door was once a short story idea as well though for a different story. I got the idea many years ago as a teen in a summer writing camp at Lewis and Clark college and did a little bit of work on it but I never finished it so it remained a rather skeletal idea. The idea was about little goblins that lived behind on old green door of a shed. Well, these ideas were combined many years later. In fact, the goblins come much later in the series. The pumpkin princess idea seemed like it started in the middle of the "story" to me when I finally decided to put the story on paper so I felt that I needed to introduce the protagonist to readers by way of her entering this fairy world through another way and that is how the idea of the green door of an abandoned old shed came into being. The Green Door was born. After that The Pumpkin Princess became the second story in what became the current series.

The main character, a seven year old girl named Anne Greene who turns eight loves books, is introspective, imaginative and brave. She loves her friends and her family, who are loving and a little indulgent with her but are definitely strong positive figures in her life. She also loves nature. nature and the environment are very important in the stories. I wanted to create stories around her that created challenges for her without being overwhelmingly dark. I wanted books that showed a little girl with a basically positive view of the world and who held to clear principles, however imperfectly she might live up to them. I named her Anne because of several queens in English history that were named Anne. Boleyn was the first queen that came to my mind. I've always loved the name, specifically the English spelling of it. There are also references to Queen Elizabeth I and Shakespeare's work in some of the books as well.

Now I've said aplenty that this is the end of the series, and as far as I can see, it is. There might be a short story in the works a year or two from now. I won't say "never", after all, my mom has always said that life can make a liar out of you, but as far as I can see, The Secret Doorway Tales series is basically done. So what am I working on next? Well, as I start on my second draft of my current book I am also writing another short story. A deliciously mysterious story. Look for it to be available for download next weekend, if all goes well.

Creative License

I was reading a review on a retail site for a historical novel and the review was generally positive but the reader had very serious issues with the historical details in the book. In other words, the creative license the writer took went over the line in the opinion of this particular reader.

So, creative license. When is it too much? Or is it ever too much? When writing genres such as science fiction or fantasy I think one can get away with an outrageous amount because the nature of those genres are such that many things are open to the imagination. You are dealing with things that don't exist so you have more leeway. When it comes to historical fiction, another genre I love to read, I don't think you have as much license because the setting is history, which can be researched and verified by others. Especially when you encounter a reader of the genre that is either somewhat or very knowledgable about the time period you are writing about.

This brings me to an example I recently found in my most recent book. It's a kid's book so there are a host of things one must tread carefully with. Now to be honest, I really wonder if this is true creative license because this was a mistake that I just realized I made. It involves the different words for "bathroom". Now, in the book I used the word "privy". Just yesterday it ocurred to me that a privy, at least the definition I am using, is an outhouse - a bathroom that stands unattached and outside of the main house or main building. The bathrooms in the story, technically, are not privies, as they are inside the fortress.

So, I have a bit of a dilemma. I have thought of using the word "toilet" or "latrine". Latrine is an older word, I believe, that children may not be familiar with. I'm not opposed to looking up words while reading if you don't know them. That's how you expand your vocabulary. However, not all readers appreciate having to do this. Also, latrine seems to me to be a cruder, rougher word. George R. R Martin uses this word in his ASoIaF series and those books ain't for kids! Then I thought about using the word "toilet" but this word sounds too modern for the story, I think. The story is set in modern times but the children go to a fantasy world that is anything but modern. In this world it seems to me that the word "toilet" is inappropriate. So what does one do? Should I keep "privy" even though it is technically inaccurate and claim creative license or is it even true creative license? Should I use a more accurate word even if it seems strange to me? Things to think about.

Why Science Fiction? Why Fantasy?

I ask this question because I love both and always have. I've encountered many people who dislike or simply hate science fiction and fantasy entertainment, yet it has seemed to gain an increasing part of the entertainment market. This makes me happy. So I ask the question, why? Well, science fiction and fantasy are excellent framing devices for important and even controversial ideas.

Why do I personally enjoy science fiction and fantasy? Because of the otherworldly elements. The fantastic elements in these genres are what fascinate me. They take you to imaginative places that are very different from our real world, include characters with powers and abilities that are impossible or improbable in this world and yet through the fantastic they can explore issues we face and deal with every bit as effectively as shows that more closely reflect the real world. Star Trek did this through nearly all of its incarnations, my favorites being TNG, TOS and DS9. They also examine timeless storytelling tropes and archetypes we recognize and gravitate towards which can serve to uplift and inspire heroism in ourselves. The story can teach us important things about our own culture and even make us examine morality and ethics. They make us examine culture, society and Self, if we allow them to. The Lord of the Rings, A Song of Ice and Fire and Star Wars are a few that come to my mind. One, Star Wars deals with simple and clear Good and Bad, Light and Dark sides, while the other two deal with these same issues but are further along on the continuum between Black and White and gray areas. It is obvious that Martin's work deals with lots of gray area issues but there are still identifiable heroes and peoples with good qualities in his ASoIaF series. Many people mistake Tolkien's work as simple. It is simple in ways and yet very complex. It is this gross misunderstanding of his work that has caused this problem of perception and is an issue for another post. I find that I learn things from all three stories.

One unfortunate thing I've encountered are people who seem to have moral issues with fantasy or science fiction. They explain their dislike of them in moral terms - and in turn judge those who do love the genres as being bad or immoral or intellectually stunted. I really have encountered this. Not very often, but I have dealt with it and it is baffling. Often it comes from people who are extremely rigid in their views of anything they deem out of the ordinary. The sad thing about it is that many of the issues raised in the very stories they despise could teach them much about how to think differently, how to embrace the "Other" and to examine the world around them.

In some creative writing classes I took many years ago, and especially as I got older, these kinds of genre stories were not encouraged. They were looked down on as childish, as not being real literature. Do you think kids in school are taught English and Great Literature by reading science fiction or fantasy? Not a chance! It's unfortunate because I think there are so many science fiction and fantasy stories that have a lot to say about important themes and can say them just as potently as the Great American Novel or the Great Russian Classic. Farenheit 451, Animal Farm, Ender's Game, Dune, The Lord of the Rings, 1984, A Wrinkle In Time, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, A Scanner Darkly, The Divine Invasion, to name a few. There are so many excellent works out there that I can't name them all here; I know there are many that I am missing. My point is that in the minds of some, entire genres should be dismissed out of hand as infantile, childish entertainment when in many cases the very opposite is true..

So why? After all, important themes can be explored in more so-called realistic genres and often are with great skill but I think that Otherness of science fiction and fantasy is what draws me to it. The real world on paper with its drudgery, its horrors and sameness does not capture my imagination and attention the same way science fiction and fantasy do. Mind bending, imagination and things that cannot or should not exist do exist which can remove one from the real world  and we find another world to escape to. Why should we want to escape? Is it necessary? No and is mostly a matter of style and taste in entertainment but in the escape I think that important issues can be explored without the feeling that one is being preached at or converted or beaten over the head - though it must be said in the hands of less skillful creators this problem is still evident. You can explore unpopular, sticky, controversial issues, even things that may be forbidden by society in such a way that are far enough removed to engage the reader/viewer long enough that he or she may be willing to think about issues that conflict with his own beliefs and attitudes. An excellent article somewhat related to this issue was written by author Bryan Schmidt.

Does this always work? No it doesn't but I do think that this is the key strength of science fiction and fantasy. Besides that, elements of the Other appeals to those of us who love things that are different, mystical, mysterious, original, out of the ordinary or even those attracted to fringe ideas, unpopular ideas or the radical, whether radically liberal or conservative. I think certain personality types can be drawn to these genres for that reason.