Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer, #64: "The Dragon's Ploy"

Dragons are perpetually fascinating. Stories about them exist in many cultures. I knew them from European culture, but they also existed in Chinese myth and in the culture lore of other societies. Like vampires, they have developed character complexity over the centuries. In the Bible the Devil is represented as a dragon. Early dragons are brutal and destructive, like the dragon in Sir Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queen. But modern writers, as usual, began to question the usual characterization. Smaug, the dragon in The Hobbit, is ruthless and cruel, but he is also wise and astute in a cynical, pragmatic way. Today readers will encounter wise and benevolent dragons. There are good dragons, loyal dragons, pet dragons, baby dragons, dragon friends and companions. The only thing that has not change is the fascination. We encounter dragons in Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Game of Thrones, among other stories. My first memories of dragons were not good.

As a kid, I was scared of "monsters," and this included dragons. I remember running out of the living room in fear when a commercial for Walt Disney's film Sleeping Beauty showed the Prince fighting the dragon the evil witch transforms to in the last scene. In school, though, a few years later, we read a story by a writer named Heywood Broun, "The Fifty-First Dragon." Dragons were much less scary in this story and it amused me because it talked about the dragons like they were matter-of-fact things that one might encounter in day-to-day life. 

Daenerys and dragons in Game of Thrones

I wrote the story "The Dragon's Ploy," in response to a call for submissions. I had never written a dragon story before and thought it would be fascinating to give my particular "take" to the genre. In this story a young man named Terrowin is caught kissing a young woman named Matilda who is in the King's employ. The king, named Rimauld, cruel and facing a rebellion, decides to make examples of them. As punishment, Terrowin is taken to a mountain where a dragon has just died. He is drugged and thrown into the dragon's cave, where he goes to sleep on a pile of cursed dragon's gold. Matilda is sentenced to be imprisoned in a tower for the rest of her life. 

He wakes up bewildered and then remembers what happened. A scene in C. S. Lewis' The Voyage of the 'Dawn Treader' where the character Eustace is transformed into a dragon greatly influenced me in this. When he fully comprehends what is happening, Terrowin is faced with a dilemma. His human side and his newly acquired "dragon" side begin to fight for dominance. He struggles to keep the dragon side subservient to his human spirit and manages to succeed. The only time he is overwhelmed by his dragon side is when he is flying and encounters a virgin. He devours her, not able to control himself. 

Matilda

Then he begins to wage war against King Rimauld. Terrowin flies over the kingdom and burns the estates of the King's main supporters. He incinerates Feste the Fool, who told the King about his attachment to Matilda. He attacks the castle and flings a cup from the dragon's lair into the tower where she is imprisoned. It is part of a ploy, and the ploy works. Thinking the dragon who was formerly Terrowin still has an attachment to Matilda, and knowing dragons have a distinct liking for virgins, he brings the wretched girl to the dragon's lair. But the king miscalculates. Terrowin is not driven mad with a desire to devour the young woman because of dragons' liking for virgins. He and Matilda, it seems, did more than kiss.

Having his senses about him, he frightens off the soldiers and kills the king. The King's sorcerer, Gaspar, is there, and says he knows how to change Terrowin back to his human form. He does not trust Gaspar, but Matilda vouches for him. He drinks a potion and wakes up in bed, changed back to his human form. The insurgency has taken over the kingdom. He is a hero. And, of course, he and Matilda marry and live happily ever after.

"The Dragon's Ploy" appeared in Hogglepot.  You can read it here.

For additional titles, novellas, and novels, check out my Writer's Page.

I would love to hear your comments. Do you have a favorite dragon story? Share it!

Check out my latest novel, Sinfonia: First Notes on the Lute. The vampire Nelleke Reitsma plays the lute well. Of course, she's had 300 years to practice. She performs for Queen Elizabeth and is very cozy with a playwright named William Shakespeare. But she has many other lovers and, like all vampires, a love of human blood.

Dave's Anatomy: My History As a Writer #63: "Obia"

Exploring the mythology of other cultures is both challenging and rewarding. We are familiar with the culture that makes up our own society and know the fairy tales, myths, and urban legends connected with it. For me that is European culture. So the stories of the Brothers Grimm, the tales and myths from Europe and America constitute the main sources for many of my stories.  Most of us know some tale from the Middle East:  stories about Aladdin, Sindbad, djinns and magic lamps. But other cultures are farther off. I've written a few tales about Japanese and Chinese culture, but they required research because I'm not as familiar with the lore of Asia. The same is true of Africa. My story "Obia" was an attempt to draw on African myth.

An obia is a creature—a monster of sorts, but not exactly. It seems to be some kind of wild beast and yet seems sentient. It is a creature responsive to the commands of witches and shamans. And yet is not exactly an evil sort of creature. Some of the categories we like to put monsters in do not quite apply to the obia--who maybe had a good side? This intrigued me. Could I work with a monster that wasn't exactly a monster?

This is an old tradition in Western/European literature. If you've read the original novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, you'll feel quite a bit of sympathy for the monster Frankenstein creates. In fact, one critic noted, it is Frankenstein, in his drive/desire to master and dominate nature—a drive that leads him to create clandestine life—who is the real monster of the story. And we feel compassion and sympathy for King Kong, for werewolves, sometimes for vampires who are caught up in their vampire life and can't escape it, for ghosts who want to go to their rests. The clean lines between good and evil, monster and human, often become blurred in a well-written monster story. The obia is just such a creature.

Moremia

This obia is responsive to a sorceress named Hajara. When she does not summon him for many days, he goes to her house and finds it burned down and finds her body hanging from a tree. He gnaws the rope to get her body down and sees that Moremi, a younger witch, is there. She is not permitted by religious law to touch a rotted corpse. The obia buries Hajara and listens as Moremi tells him what happened to his former human contact. White slave traders came to the area. The people of a local village feared Hajara and made a deal:  if the whites would kill her, they would give them some of their people as slaves. The slavers succeeded in killing Hajara and load their ship with slaves the village gave them in exchange for their services. Moremi knows they will come after her soon. She feeds the obia and, as he sleeps, sends him a vision. After the vision, he knows what to do.

He travels to the seacoast and finds the slavers' camp. He sees their boat and the camp where they have lodged captives in preparation for the passage to America. The creature leaps on the side of the ship, digging his claws into the planks of the ship, and capsizes it (obia are large—the size of a small elephant). The slavers attack him, but in the disorder, their captives manage to get free and seize the camp, overcoming their captors. In the battle that follows, the obia takes a bullet in the lung.

He struggles through the jungle, his life ebbing away. As he nears Moremi's house he sees a group of armed villagers coming toward him. Too weak to attack them, he collapses but wakes up safe in Moremi's place. She has healed him and told him the villagers he thought had come to kill him were sent by her; they saw the error of their ways, asked her pardon, and sent a search party to find him and bring him back to her.

As the obia lies and heals, he anticipates what Moremi has promised him:  one of the slave traders and an African who had collaborated with him to deliver captives. His mouth waters thinking of the meal he will have when full healing comes.

This story appeared in a journal called Diagonal Proof, no longer in print and with no archive. It may be yet another story to resubmit.

A full moon appeared on the night of the Summer Solstice. A good time to read a vampire novel. My novel, Sinfonia: The First Notes on the Lute explores the nefarious world of the undead--and what they do to survive through the centuries.

For additional titles, check out my Writer's Website.

I would love to hear your comments. 

Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #62: "Guinevere."

Crosby, Stills, and Nash

The medieval period is a great era to glean material for stories. You can do a revisionist version of a well-known tale; you can write a story from a minor character's perspective (such as the life of Robin Hood and his merry men from the perspective of Little John—or Maid Marian); you can tell a tale from the perspective of a villainous character—maybe the Witch's side of the story in "Snow White." Lots of possibilities exist. The story "Guinevere" came from a couple of sources:  the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight," which I had taught in classes on medieval literature; and the old song "Guinnevere" by Crosby, Stills, and Nash [Crosby's spelling of the name].

 This kind of cross-fertilization is good. The thing that got me going was the intriguing lyrics of the song "Guinnevere." Of that song David Crosby said, "It's about three women that I loved. One of who was Christine Hinton –the girl who got killed who was my girlfriend—and one of who was Joni Mitchell, and the other one is somebody that I can't tell. It might be my best song."

Whatever the circumstances of its composition, the imagination of the writer takes an item—poetry, music, art—and runs with it.

As I listened to Crosby's song, the lyrics intrigued me and I began to think of a backstory to it. The line that stood out the most was "Guinnevere drew pentagrams—like yours, my Lady, like yours. / Late at night when she thought no one was watching at all." Pentagrams are associated with satanic worship. Obviously, Guinevere was trying to hide her drawing, since she did it late at night when she thought no one would see her. I found this intriguing. "She thought"—the narrator of the song might have seen her doing it. But maybe someone else saw her as well and the narrator only found out when there were repercussions—worshiping Satan would be a gravely serious offense in the middle ages—a blasphemy.

So I had Guinevere secretly worshiping the devil at night and being observed by authorities from the village:  the priest, the head of the convent, and a local magistrate who were somehow tipped off as to her activity. And other things from the song:  who is the lady being addressed to whom the narrator says "drew pentagrams, like yours, my Lady"? And it is past tense. Why? Well, at least in my interpretation, Guinevere is gone but has left a child behind.

So the story formed:  Guinevere is a friend of Lucinda Bolingbroke. After her friend is burned at the stake for blasphemy, Lucinda adopts takes her child, Dorigen. But something happens at the execution. When Guinevere is dead, her body hideously blackened by the flames, the legendary Green Knight appears. He throws a sprig of holly on the fire. Guinevere's corpse disappears.

The Inquisition questions Lucinda but can't convict her of any wrongdoing and allows her to raise Dorigen. Years pass. Dreams from Guinevere force her to take Dorigen to the woods where the dreams have told her. She finds Guinevere there. She is married to the Green Knight and has small (green) children. Lucinda knows Guinevere wants Dorigen back. Though the child has become hers over the years, she relinquishes the little girl, who is eager to return to her mother and her new-found half-brothers and sisters.

As Lucinda departs, Guinevere gives her a ruby ring. This exchange takes place:

“The ruby ring I gave you,” Guinevere said—“don’t take it off.”

Lucinda glanced over at her. It was not like Guinevere to command.

She promises and rides off to meet the servants who escorted her to the limits of the enchanted wood where Guinevere now lives. She is told the plague has swept the village. Her husband is dead. The village is abandoned. Lucinda takes off her wedding ring as mourning requires but realizes she must not take off the ring Guinevere gave her and begins to understand why. She goes into the village, visits the grave of her husband, gathers up a few belongings and garments, and rides out. As she had suspected, Guinevere meets her just outside the stricken village.

Lucinda knows that the ring protected her and also that the dreams she dreamed removed her and Dorigen from the settlement to save their lives. Guinevere says Lucinda will live in the enchanted wood and possibly meet a young man who will marry her. She laughs. “Young man who will marry me? Give me children? Guinevere, I’m almost forty.” Life expectancy in the middle ages was about fifty years old. Guinevere tells Lucinda her youth will return once she is in the wood. She agrees to go with her old friend and the two of them depart, Lucinda to begin a new life, Guinevere to old enchantments.

"Guinevere" appeared in SNM Magazine, the May issue, and you can read it here. You'll have to scroll down to it (it's quite a ways down) but you can read it.

For a great read, get a copy of Sinfonia:  First Notes on the Lute. Nelleke the Vampire has lived from the time of Queen Elisabeth I and Shakespeare. Her abilities as a lute player are recognized. Of course, she has had a long time to practice.

For other titles, check out my Writer's Page. 

I would love to hear your comments.

Dave's Anatomy: My History as a Writer, #61: "First Blood"

I have many characters who are women and often my stories have female narrators. Some people have remarked on this. One woman who had read two of my books asked me if I ever had POV characters or speakers who were guys. I told her I most certainly did, and my novellas Strange Brew, ShadowCity, and Le Café de la Mort had male narrators, as did numerous short stories. Still, I like to write stories with female narrators. I like women and find them fascinating, sexy, and desirable. So why not get cozy with one in my imagination just as I have done in my exterior life?

The story "First Blood" was written for a journal called Cliterature. I think from the title you can guess its emphasis. Journals  about women's issues often have restrictions on who can write for them, but Cliterature  does not and I've published three stories for them over the years, some of my very best. I might add that it is a literary journal, not a porn magazine. The stories are thoughtful, intelligent, and display a great deal of literary art. The journal has themes, and on this occasion, it was blood.

When I thought of blood, I thought of death, war, and hunting; but I also thought of hymeneal blood—the blood of a woman's virginity, the bleeding that often occurs from the rupture of the hymen (or maidenhead, as is was called in olden times) during a woman's first intercourse. These combined into an story that would deal with both.

The unnamed narrator is seventeen and the only daughter of a man who hosts a nationally known television show about hunting. From age ten, she has appeared on the show and made it extremely popular. Her father often takes her along, and, over the years, she  has developed considerable skill at hunting. She is diminutive, pretty, and projects an image that sells the program and requires her to play a role.

She has come to call it The Illusion. Here is her description of it:  The Illusion, as I call it, is that I am his sweet, pure little girl and he is the patriarch who protects me; and even though I’m a vestal virgin (as the Illusion has it), I still kill animals. I pick them off, nod with satisfaction when we stand over our kill, and grin with pride as the three of us (Mother joins us for the last segment of the show) sit down to dine on our kill. Commentators say my presence assures young people, and girls in particular, that hunting is okay.

But the girl isn't a virgin. By choice, she loses her innocence when she is seventeen. The experience is a bit harrowing. She bleeds for three days afterward (one of the people in my writer's group told me this would send a girl to the doctor, but a young woman I dated said she bled for four days after her first time, and I was basing my characters' experience on this). She recovers and sleeps with her boyfriend as often she can while still keeping the Illusion alive.

They go to Russia to film some segments and set out boar hunting in Siberia. Her father does not have luck. The daughter, however, finds droppings and tracks and confronts a wild boar. They are one of the most dangerous animals on earth and slash human arteries, frequently causing death. The boar she has stalked charges at her, but she calmly raises her rifle and drops him when he is only two feet away from her, to the amazement of all watching. The producer of the show tells her the sequence was the best they had ever captured.

Woman hunter with blood on face for first kill

Her father, who has had no luck that day, comes to the camp. He explains that from ancient times, experienced hunters celebrated a novice's first kill by spreading blood on his cheeks and forehead. “Not a young man today,” he [her father] said, beaming proudly, “but a brave, tough, fearless young woman.” He spreads the boar's blood on her face. She smiles, looking docile, sweet, leaning on his shoulder, acting out The Illusion. But as she does, she narrates: First blood. Once this went on the air, the audience would be enraptured. But none of them would know about the blood that came before.

You can read the story here, at Cliterature's archive.Writers have favorite stories, and this is one of my favorites.

For more titles, check out my Writer's Page.

And if you like sexy, dangerous
women who go for blood and are hunters of a different sort, read about Nelleke, a guitarist and lutenist who is very good. Of course, being one of the undead, she's had hundreds of years to practice. Available here.

I would love to hear your comments.