Having a Laugh (in Time and Space)

I shy away from top 10 lists normally. I'll indulge myself with a few as I did with my blog post on what I felt were the best TV westerns. And on my Take a Look/Have a Listen blog, when I listed what I considered the top five covers of Beatle songs. But generally I shy away from stating the best of anything when it comes to creativity cause it can be such a subjective thing. I can tell you that two + two equals four is an indisputable fact, but I can't tell you that "Ra One" is the greatest movie ever made in history, hands down, bar none. That's my little hangup and I have to respect those poor, deluded souls who rate it lower on the scale than I.

So knowing that "the best" is subjective and remembering the fact that in my DVD collection you'll find both "Citizen Kane" and "Sharktopus," I try not to judge...at least not too harshly. Rather than a "best of", I'd simply like to share some titles of novels and names of writers that I feel do an excellent job of mixing humor, and science fiction and fantasy.

Of course #1 would have to be Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I know I said I wouldn't judge, but come on, this is a no-brainer. It is a classic fish-out-of-water (Arthur Dent) tale with a touch of social commentary and intergalactic travelogue to it. The writing was fantastical, yet light with just the right amount of sardonic edge that pointed out one consistency throughout the universe: Bureaucracy runs rampant no matter the galaxy you find yourself in. The books inspired a radio show, a television show and a movie. Two other, non-Hitchhiker's novels of note are Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and it's sequel, The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul. Adams also wrote, along with zoologist Mark Carwardine, the nonfiction book Last Chance to See (1990). Written with his typical sharp humor, it none the less highlights animals considered endangered species, hence the urgency of the title. In 2009, Stephen Fry joined Mark Carwardine in a BBC documentary to track down the animals featured in Last Chance to See to gauge their status. It was a bittersweet series. But of course, Adams will forever be best known for his Hitchikers and 34 years after its first publication, it remains a classic. You can be assured that at some convention, somewhere, someone is holding a towel and wearing a "Don't Panic" T-shirt.


Along with Adams, Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat series helped me realize the possibilities of sprinkling science fiction with humor. I bought my first SSR collection, a three novel anthology, from the Science Fiction Book Club decades ago and it remains prized in my book collection. Jim Bolivar diGriz is The Stainless Steel Rat (he also goes by the alias "Slippery Jim"), interplanetary conman and thief extraordinaire. Slippery Jim debuted in a short story, "The Stainless Steel Rat," appearing in Astounding magazine in 1957. The story was expanded upon and featured as the plot of the first novel, also titled The Stainless Steel Rat published in 1961. Eleven novels followed including The Stainless Steel Rat for President (1982), The Stainless Steel Rat Gets Drafted (1987) and The Stainless Steel Rat Returns (2010).

Throughout those novels the Rat uses his talents not only for larceny, both petty and otherwise, but very frequently martial arts to save the various worlds he finds himself on. He tangles with invading aliens, ruthless dictators and the authorities who, when they're not trying to incarcerate him, are trying to blackmail him into working for them. Along the way, he finds a wife, and has twin sons who are chips off the old block. An interesting thing to note about Harrison was his dedication to establishing as the official language of Earth, Esperanto, a language developed in the late 1870s and on by Dr. Ludwig Lazarus Zamenhof. Harrison, much like the good doctor who invented it, believed that Esperanto could bring the people of the world together under a common language. The language is used liberally in the Stainless Steel Rat books.

Terry Pratchett's writing can probably be considered more fantasy than science fiction but he's high on many people's list when it comes to sprinkling his writing with humor. To be honest, I've never read much in the Discworld series. I have read Going Postal and found it a really fun read. Going Postal tells the tale of a Moist Von Lipwig who, in an attempt to avoid a threatened execution, agrees to turn around a rundown post office and to prove its worth by winning a contest to deliver a message before the semaphore tower or "clacks" of Reacher Gilt does. Gilt is willing to do anything to win and Moist must fight his own questionable nature to see his task through. It's a fun read and was turned into an enjoyable TV adaptation in 2010.

Another favorite in the fantasy genre is Piers Anthony's Xanth series of which, I think, there are 8,421. This was another author I met through the Science Fiction Book Club (somewhere I still have my tote from the club) and every time I bought a new book in the series it was like discovering a golden nugget. The series is imaginative and not just funny but punny (puns are used liberally in the titles, the names of the characters and places and in the plots), inventing an entire world for the reader to dig right into. Unfortunately, a time came when life got a hold of me and shook me into submission, so I fell behind and lost track of the series. If free time ever visits again, I would love to start from the beginning and work my way through.

I'm not sure how you'd classify Christopher Moore's work except to say it's often a mix of genres. His Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ''s Childhood Pal is an invented history of Jesus Christ (though one would be hard pressed to figure out what in the Bible isn't made up about Christ). It's obviously humor, but with a little bit of philosophy baked in. I'm sure it made some of the more fundamental heads spin. Moore's novel Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings is a novel about a marine biologist studying humpback whales and their songs and discovering something extraterrestrial in the mix.

And then there was The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror. It's sort of an answer to those Maeve Binchy, Thomas Kinkaid, Christmas-swollen-with-pageantry-and-meaning novels that fly wildly off the shelves at the holidays. One could also argue that it's his answer to the zombie craze. That'st he genius of Moore. He's mashed two divergent crazes into one tasty morsel. He should win an award just for that. It involves a reanimated store-Santa, a truly stupid angel, and the town of Pine Cove under siege by the dead as they rise from the grave and converge upon the town's Christmas party in search of...well yeah, of course, brains. The novel won the 2005 Quill award for Science Fiction/ Fantasy/ Horror.

There are many more novels out there that have fun with the genres of science fiction and fantasy. These are some of my favorites.

 Goes back to what I've stated before: Don't over think it. It's supposed to be fun.

What are some of the fun science fiction and fantasy books that would make your list?

Everything Old is New Again

I'm not sure what led me to set Trouble in such an old-western-like locale. It just seemed the perfect setting for the two characters. They remind me of drifters, moving from one town to another, using whatever skills fit the situation. I enjoyed the anachronism of a guy traveling across the dessert on a chiitorah (sort of a cross between a horse and a camel) yet using a weapon that shoots laser charges and pretending to be a member of the Inter-Planetary Police.

Of course I'm hardly revolutionary in mixing the two genres. Steampunk, for example, is a popular sub genre of Sci Fi that often mixes futuristic technologies with old west (or often times Victorian) settings and sensibilities. And long before that, writers such as Jules Verne and H.G. Wells were known to dabble in it from time to time, dreaming up fantastic inventions at a time when the technology didn't even come close to existing.

Utilizing a setting like the old west gives you a well known structure for the story while adding the Sci Fi allows the writer's imagination to run wild.

Star Wars, for example, is every bit a western in space. All the elements are there. The grizzled retired lawman, the kid fresh off the farm, the handsome rogue and his faithful, albeit furry, friend, the lady in distress (at least in the first one). And of course the evil and powerful villain trying to take over their land (or worlds as the case may be). The cantina scene has been done in countless westerns (the customers just weren't quite as odd looking.



"Valley of Gwangi" released in 1969 comes to mind when it comes to mixing Sci Fi with westerns, though in this one, it isn't the future visiting the old west but the past. Like a hundred million years past. The Forbidden Valley is home to creatures which didn't get the memo that they'd gone extinct. Visiting this valley, a team of cowboys, headed by James Franciscus, decides that roping themselves a dinosaur to exhibit in the world would bring them fame and fortune. A T-Rex, however, is nobody's prancing pony and relays this in a rampaging climax through the town.

The creature effects are by Ray Harryhausen and features the T-Rex fighting a triceratops and later in the ring, an elephant. There are of course a myriad of other prehistorics for Harryhausen to work his magic on. So many times, when a dinosaur went on a movie rampage, it rammed through modern (well, modern by 50 and 60s standards) settings. It was an interesting change of pace to feature a T-Rex showdown in an old western town.



"The Adventures of Brisco Country Jr. starred everybody's favorite chin, Bruce Campbell as the title character. It's a show that should have had more of a shot than it did. With a nod toward "The Wild Wild West", "Brisco" incorporated a fantastical vibe that helped make it a rousing western. After his father, lawman Brisco County Sr., is killed by the prisoners he was transporting, Jr. makes it his mission to track everyone one of the escaped prisoners down and bring them to justice. He tracks them across the U.S. and toward the 20th Century. Set in 1893, the world is seven years shy of the turn of the century and unlike some of his contemporaries, Brisco is excited about what the future holds. He's also fascinated by the gadgets and contraptions being invented. There's even a touch of the alien in the show as time after he times he runs across a mysterious orb that seems to have a power all its own. The buddy element is present as well in the form of bounty hunter Lord Bowler (Julius Carey). Rivals at first often competing for the same bounties, they eventually grow to be friends...in a slightly "Odd Couple" fashion.

 

Another show dead before its time was the 2002 Joss Whedon show "Firefly". Where "The Adventures of Brisco County Jr." brought a touch of Sci Fi to the old west, Whedon flavors his space opera with a definite taste of old western sensibility. Even the war that Mal (Nathan Fillion) captain of the Firefly-class starship Serenity fought in had a sort of Civil War feel to it. And much like many of the soldiers coming back from that war, Mal and his crew find themselves drifting once the guns have silenced. There is a system recovering from that war and pockets of lawlessness that they must navigate (sometimes by being lawless themselves)just to survive. Even the costumes have the look of the old west to them.

 

Then of course there's "Back to the Future III". Well, they went back a few decades with I, moved forward several more with II, then decided to really dial up the "wayback" machine and headed straight for the old west with III. Eightteen-Eigthy-five to be exact. Trapped in 1955 due to a malfunctioning DeLorean during "BTF II", Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) discovers the tombstone of Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), who had been trapped in 1885, and he discovers that Brown was killed by the great-grandfather of Biff Tannen. And if you thought Marty was a fish-out-of-water in 1955, he's a fish in the desert in 1885. As the producers of more and more movie franchises have been doing lately, the sequels to "Back to the Future" were shot concurrently over 11 months. "Back to the Future" was often lauded for its ability to handle the notion of time travel (which is harder than you may think), and was named by the American Film Institute as the 10th best film in the Science Fiction genre. All three movies have remained popular since the first one debuted in 1985.

 

 You can't go wrong when a steam-powered locomotive pushes you back to the future!

Head 'em Up; Move 'em Out!

The 1950s and '60s were the salad years for the television Western. The tube was ripe with shows that utilized both America's wild and woolly past for story ideas and the convenient use of studio back lots to film those stories. I was introduced to many of these shows via reruns on local television channels since the age of the TV Western was nearing its end by the time I came along and while it wasn't my favorite genre, I have a particular fondness for several shows. So, since I published Trouble, my humorous science fiction novel with western overtones, I thought I'd write up a list of my Top Five TV Westerns beginning with Number Five:

5) Bonanza
For most people, when they think Western, they think "Bonanza." Even the theme song is iconic. Ben Cartwright (Lorne Greene) owns the Ponderosa: The biggest spread in Nevada. On it, he's raised three sons, Adam (Pernell Roberts), Hoss (Dan Blocker) and Little Joe (Michael Landon). The interesting thing about the boys was that they all had different mothers (all of Ben's wives died prematurely. The Cartwight boys never had good look when it came to wives), hence the reason they all seemed so different in looks and temperament. They all shared a few things however: Their love for their pa and their love for the Ponderosa, a ranch that spread out for about 600,000 acres (and it's curious how rarely the viewer saw anyone on the ranch except Ben and his three boys). 

"Bonanza" was a show about a family that had fought for what they had and were willing to fight to keep it. Often times neighboring farm-and-town-folk resented their power ("Darn Cartwights think they're better than everybody!") and this was a richly mined plot device for the show. Generally though, the Cartwrights were well respected in the area and were responsible for helping to settle that part of the Nevada territory. 

"Bonanza" was as big and brash as the Ponderosa itself. From the writing, to the acting to the music. The drama was melo-, the humor often slapstick. And yet somehow it all worked, perhaps thanks to the four leads. The show was on from 1959-73, which is a considerable amount of storytelling for one television show but they had four big characters to invent stories for. And for the show, the theme song says everything.




4) F-Troop
Yes, "F-Troop." I'm not sure if you could call this your typical Western, but it was set in the Old West where Indian fights are colorful sights and nobody takes a licking/where pale-face and red-skin both turn chicken. 

Okay, I lifted that from the theme song. But while the show may be at its heart a comedy, it is set in the Old West and has fun with the the trappings of that time, blending the two genres nicely. Captain Wilton Parmenter (Ken Berry), a well meaning but accident prone officer is sent to Fort Courage guarded by F-Troop, a truly rag tag bunch of recruits featuring Private First Class Hannibal Dobbs (James Hampton), the bugler who couldn't bugle, Private Vanderbilt (Joe Brooks), the near-and-far-sighted lookout, and Private Hoffenmueller (John Mitchum), the translator who could speak three languages, none of them English. Also at the fort were Sergeant O'Rourke (Forrest Tucker) and Corporal Agarn (Larry Storch), president and vice president, respectively, of O'Rourke Enterprises, the business the pair ran on the side with Chief Wild Eagle (Frank Dekova) and Crazy Cat (Don Diamond) of the local Hekawi tribe.

Some might find the local Indian tribe, the Hekawi, an insult to Native Americans. I think this is too simplistic. The show was never really insulting Native Americans. They set up from the beginning that the Hekawi, were the exception, not the norm. They were as much rejects among their people as the men of Fort Courage were among theirs (probably one reason they got into business with O'Rourke Enterprises). And unlike many portrayals of Native Americans at the time, Chief Wild Eagle and Crazy Cat had the savvy to deal with shifty "white-eyes" like O'Rourke and Agarn. So draw your own conclusions

At any rate, "F-Troop" ran from 1965-67 with respectable ratings but the new owners of Warner Brothers, the studio producing the show, decided that it was too expensive to keep a back lot open to film one half hour comedy, so they canceled the show. 




3) The Wild Wild West
This is another hybrid, this time Western and science fiction (a bit like my novel Trouble). It's also one of the cleverest shows that ran in either genre. "The Wild Wild West" starred Robert Conrad as James West and Ross Martin as Artemis Gordon, two secret service agents on special assignment for President Ulysses S. Grant. The concept was an attempt to tap into the "secret agent" genre that was becoming popular in the mid-to-late sixties. The two characters traveled the U.S. in a special (and very tricked out) private train car, solving crimes, saving the day and just being cool. 

Gordon, a master of disguise, was also an inventor of clever gadgets that often got West out of trouble. Like James Bond, West was equally adept at getting out of trouble using his brains or his fists. In fact the athletic Conrad (a Chicago native) did many of his own stunts, working closely with the stunt team on the show.

But it's the science fiction elements that gives "The Wild Wild West" its uniqueness. The writers tried to be respectful of the time (and what was possible technologically) when they dreamed up the gadgets used in diabolical plots to rule the world. This was, after all, the late 1800s. And it's possible that plots were aided by the show being set in a time when so much of the U.S. was still unsettled. Anything was possible, or so it seemed. 

As with "F-Troop," however, the fate of "The Wild Wild West" was cast not by ratings but by outside forces. It ran from 1965-69 with high ratings, but was canceled as a scapegoat in Congress' attempt to address television violence.

There were two reunion movies in 1979 and '80 and a remake with Will Smith and Kevin Klein was made in 1999. The less said about that movie the better except to say that it should have been better. 




2) The Rifleman
This is a 30 minute show that packed a lot of punch. Dramas can be tough to do well in 30 minutes but there was a great deal of 30 minute productions in the '50s and '60s. Of course, there were less commercials then too, giving plot more time to develop. The quality of the acting is what helps give "The Rifleman" its punch.

The show, which ran from 1958-63, starred Chuck Connors as Lucas McCain, a mild mannered sod-buster who could wield a pretty mean rifle when needed. In the days of the six-gun-shoot-'em-ups, a guy fast enough to win a showdown with a rifle was pretty impressive. Especially a guy as accurate with the shot as Lucas McCain.

Lucas, a widower, and his young son Mark (Johnny Crawford) lived on a ranch just outside of the town of North Fork. It's the relationship between father and son that makes "The Rifleman" so special. In fact, it was one of the first television shows that featured a man raising a young son after the loss of his wife. The bond between them is strong and often Lucas' actions in a crisis are decided by what is best for Mark's future. Lucas can swagger with the best of him, but his only interest is raising his son and working his land. The themes are complex, often centering on the idea of people being given second chances.

Connors had a sports career going before he went into acting. In fact he was one of only 12 athletes in sports history to play for both major league baseball (one of the teams he played on was the Chicago Cubs in 1951) AND professional basketball. When watching this show, it's easy to see that he chose the right career path. His acting is easy, yet sincere and the chemistry between him and Crawford (who was equally natural) is spot on. It's one of those shows I can watch over and over and not get bored with.

 

1) Rawhide
This is, for me, the penultimate western. Along with having the best theme song (sung by Frankie Laine), and co-starring Clint Eastwood as ramrod Rowdy Yates, the series, which ran from 1959-66, seemed to have the best grip on the sort of effort it took to make a life in the Old West. The premise was simple. Trail boss Gil Favor, played by Eric Fleming, and his crew of drovers (some regulars, some hired at the beginning of each drive), have to drive a herd of cattle from point A to point B at a time when doing so meant driving them across miles of rough, sometimes hostile country. Threats could come from a lack of watering holes and decent grazing, to unfriendly Native Americans or white settlers unwilling to let them cross their land. There were also rustlers, unreasonable townspeople and even members of the drive itself who, when times got tough, decided they weren't that interested in going through what they had to go through to be paid what they'd be paid. 

Along with quality writing and impressive location shooting, there was quality acting especially by the two leads. Gil Favor, as played by Fleming, was a no-nonsense guy simply trying to get the cattle through and earn a living. Always on his mind was what was best for the men and the cattle. When the needs of the two collided, he tried to deal with it as fairly as he could. Yates, as played by Eastwood, was a guy trying to live up to the standard of his trail boss, yet who was young and often impulsive. (Interestingly, Fleming was originally approached to play in "A Fist Full of Dollars," the Sergio Leone epic, but turned it down, so Eastwood took the chance and shot the film between seasons of Rawhide). They headed up an ensemble of characters, each adding different textures to the show.

Complicated characters, intricate storylines and changing locals helped make this show one of the more gritty and realistic Westerns on television. Which is why I consider "Rawhide" the best Western of all time.

Don't Over Think it. It's Supposed to be Fun

As an experiment, I recently self-published my novel Trouble (click on the link to visit Amazon) through Kindle Direct Publishing. It took me longer than I expected but it was easier than I thought it would be and I now find myself very excited about it.

This is an older novel but close to my heart. Humorous science fiction with western overtones, it's very much a labor of love cause I really like the two main characters, brothers Trouble and Bear. I have a soft spot for the "buddy heroes" sort of story line having watched too many cop and detective shows in the past perhaps. I love to write dialogue and this sort of genre is perfect for that.

Often times stories in this sort of genre have an "Odd Couple" feel to them. One person fanatically clean and proper, the other preternaturally filthy with few inhibitions. My brothers in Trouble both sort of fall into the latter camp (depending on the time of day). The difference is that one sails through life eager for a challenge while the other rumbles along loaded for bear. This could be why I chose the name Bear for the older brother. He growls, he grouses and can intimidate with his size.

Trouble is perfectly named since somehow he always managed to find it (and if he isn't finding it, he's often causing it). His antics often annoy his brother which of course encourages Trouble to do it even more. 

I say, "Don't over think it. It's supposed to be fun" because...well that's what it is. There is no mind-bending physics or sociological comment in this. It is a space opera. I had two characters I loved to write for and a fun plot and I set it in Jeffers City, a dusty mining town on the planet Exiise. A town pretty much owned by Alby Jeffers whose ambition goes beyond the mining concern that he bought up a good portion of the town to build. The goals he is working toward will have planet-, maybe system-wide impact and it's up to the brothers to stop them.

Bear was blissfully ignorant of anything Jeffers was up to until his brother came to town. He'd returned from the vagabond life of a planet-hopping con and took up, of all things, the job of sheriff in Jeffers City. It's a cushy job since most of the citizens of Jeffers City are too tired from working the mines to give him much of a problem. Those that do, soon learn from their mistake and never do again. 

Trouble comes to town hoping to enlist his brother's aid in retrieving the plans to an important piece of mining equipment out of which Alby Jeffers cheated Trouble's client. Despite Bear's warnings not to pursue the issue, Trouble digs anyway and unravels a plot that goes beyond mere mining equipment. And there we have the dilemma that eventually sends the brothers on a mission to stop him.

When I was younger, I purchased Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat from the Science Fiction Book Club and fell in love with the series. This, and novels like the Xanth series by Piers Anthony and of course Douglas Adams' fantastic Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, inspired in me a love of science fiction/fantasy sprinkled liberally with humor.

So it's with great pleasure that I announce the publication of my novel Trouble and hope that everyone has as much fun reading it as I had writing it.

Remember: Don't over think it. It's supposed to be fun.

That Lucky Dog

I thought, for fun, and since I haven't posted for a while, I’d share a review of The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice that I wrote for the on line book chat I conducted for Pioneer Press all those years ago (July of 2012 to be exact). I chose it for one of the rounds and let’s just say I wasn’t overly satisfied by the time I reached the end. 

Well I've finished The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice. We'll have a live, on line chat on it at 7 p.m. July 10 at this very blog. Sign in and join the discussion. I'll save most of my thoughts for the chat but I do have to mention that Reuben Golding is quite possibly the most fortunate character in literature. The beast he transforms into shouldn't be termed "the Man Wolf" but rather "the Lucky Dog."

Let's tally up here. He's born into a wealthy family and manages to get a master's in English, as well as attend a number of archaeological digs (a fact that conveniently figures into the story) before the age of 23. He's also tall and incredibly handsome.

When the novel opens he's working as a reporter, a job acquired thanks in part to his mom's influence with the editor, and has already had a couple of major murder stories under his belt. Very unusual for a reporter less than a year on the job.

While doing a story on the sale of the Nideck mansion (which, once he sees it, he considers buying because at age 23 he never the less has enough money to do so), he beds down the beautiful owner of the mansion, Marchent Nidek. Unfortunately for him it happens the same night her psycho brothers break in and kill her, severely wounding him. Fortunately, it's also the night that a mysterious, beastly protector kills the brothers, leaving Reuben with only a few nips. Also in the "win win" column is the fact that Marchent, seeing his appreciation for the house, managed to fax over papers to her lawyer earlier that night bequeathing the house to Reuben.

How Cool is that!

Now we all know what's going to happen, it's not a secret, especially since as he heals, quickly, Reuben notices some changing going on in his body (one of them being that his lustrous hair becomes even more so). When the first transformation occurs, it's not the violent, agonizing, terrifying experience we've come to expect from werewolf tales. Oh no. For Lucky Dog, the transformation is a fantastic, orgasmic experience. And while the werewolves in other stories revert to mindless beasts, Reuben retains his mind presenting him with the best of both worlds: The strength of the beast with the conscience of the man. Even better, the first night it happened, he was alone in his parents' house. How embarrassing would it have been to start into something like that and have mom pounding at the door. Of course, once that big, empty Nideck mansion clears probate, he's able do his transforming in private.

Reuben does go on rampages, but he's compelled only to kill evil people, which he can sense so he knows right where to find them. Even more convenient, after he kills them, all evidence that he was ever at the scene--hair, blood, tissue--simply disintegrates into nothing leaving no tie to the crime. And, as time goes by, he learns how to transform into beast or man at will.

Now a life such as this might get lonely. Luckily on one of his wolfish forays into the forest, he chances upon a woman named Laura living in a cabin who not only isn't scared of the Man Wolf stepping onto her porch, she's actually attracted to him enough to invite him into her bed. At last! An understanding girlfriend.

Perhaps I should clarify that the Man Wolf is literally a man/wolf. A hairy (and apparently sexy) beast who can walk upright, has a level of manual dexterity and can apparently satisfy a woman sexually without ripping her to shreds in the process.

What the heck kind of star was this guy born under? Larry Talbot is drooling all over himself after transforming and this guy is romancing women in forests.

There are other little fortunate asides like the fact that Reuben is able to unburden himself during confession with his brother Jim, who is a priest and bound by the sacramental law that states, "What's said in confession, stays in confession."

Also amazing is that at a time when newspapers are running on skeleton staffs composed of harried reporters working on any number of stories at one time, Reuben's editor seems content with the couple of stories on the Man Wolf that Reuben manages to file. Even then, the stories require little footwork or research on Reuben's part because, as the Man Wolf, he was there!

Now I understand the need for convenience in fiction, especially fantasy. It helps propel the plot. But a liberal sprinkling of inconveniences can also offer the story a sorely needed sense of dramatic tension.

The title of the novel indicates clearly the track Rice is on. Lycanthropy is not a curse, it's a gift, one that can be controlled and used for good. This plot device has found great favor in literature for years now. But even this "gift" would also have to be incredibly life altering, especially in the early stages, and so consequently the lycanthrope would have to experience some inconveniences, awkward moments, and dangerous issues. As I read The Wolf Gift, I couldn't help but think of how much more interesting it might have been if Reuben Golding didn't have fortune's safety net to keep catching him when these inconveniences arose. What if he didn't have a mansion and its many quiet acres to run to? What if he didn't have money to easily purchase things he needed for this condition? What if the change overcame him in public? What if Laura had some initial misgivings about dating a Man Wolf? Perhaps if he had had more more stumbling blocks to navigate in his strange journey, I might have found Reuben's story a bit more interesting.

History Handed Down in Pieces

I recently read Mrs. Peregrin's Home for Peculiar Children and enjoyed it, especially the accompanying photos which I think adds a lot of heart to the story. In the novel, the murder of Jacob's beloved grandfather leaves the young man with a lot of questions many of which concern the stories the old man had told of his past. Aside from memories, Jacob has been left with photos that seem to back up the history provided by the grandfather while at the same time raising more question. It put me in mind of family stories and how sometimes you wish you had tried to learn more when you had the chance. (My dad's parents)  
I never met my grandparents. Both sides had gone before I came around. My dad's mother died in 1932 a few months after giving birth to her eighth child. My dad's father died of a heart attack a few decades later while loading boxes in the room upstairs from the tavern that he owned. Somehow that seems fitting since he had built the bar and it had become such a large part of his life. The bar is still there in Harwood Heights, now known as the Landmark Pub. My uncle Marty was present for both those events (he was the eighth and last child his mother gave birth to, and was a 13-year old boy helping his father load boxes when the heart attack struck his dad) and it's because of him that I know a lot of family stories about the Enrights. I never knew much about the Enrights when I was younger. My father said very little about his parents. Or, perhaps it was that I asked very little and he volunteered just as much. My mother volunteered much more about her parents. According to her, her mother was a loving and caring woman while her dad could be abusive, emotionally and physically. One story she told was about my grandmother coming home one day to find her favorite dog hanging in the doorway, placed there out of anger (for whatever transgression) by my grandfather. Another story actually involved my dad's father. As a child, my mother had been sent by her father to Mike Enright's Bar to get a bottle of liquor (that's how they did it back then). After leaving the bar, she tripped and the bottle broke. Knowing what she was in for, she broke down herself and when my dad's father found her crying, he gave her another bottle, free of charge, to take home to her father. Years later my grandfather's sixth child, Dennis would marry Agnes, the little girl in that story.

(My parents above)

My mom told me about her sweet, long-suffering mother, but she never told me that her mother was also, what used to be called, a pantry drinker, or an alcoholic who hides her drinking by stashing it around the house. This was another thing I learned several years ago from my Uncle Marty. Mother never told me a thing about this, and that's understandable. She loved her mom so dearly, in her mind, she was able to wipe away any tarnish. Family legends are usually passed down in pieces. Often times the children are far too preoccupied with the shaky art of growing up to really be interested in asking questions they'll later regret not asking. Stories heard in the passing conversations of aunts and uncles will register but will lack the details needed. By the time the child is old enough to really start caring about the details, the people who can best fill them in are gone. The legend of my Uncle Bill's passing, for example, involves him suffering from the DTs, wandering from a job site and being hit by a truck on a lonely road. I've heard a couple of stories on this event, each differ in some detail from the other, each colored slightly by the personality of the storyteller. (left to right below: my mother's father, mother, my brother, sister and father) It's easy to believe some legends when you have photos to back them up. The hardness of my mother's father seems clearly evident in all the photos I've seen of him. Even in the presence of his grandchildren, he never smiled. In fact, he seemed annoyed, even angry. Yet, was that his mood or simply his face? Not everyone beams when they smile. What was he like before the accident? During the Depression, when work was hard enough to come by, my grandfather was working on a roof when he fell and severely injured his leg. Gangrene set in and there was no other choice but to amputate. What must it have been like, during the Depression, to try feed a wife and seven kids when your disability left even less opportunity open to you? Did the drinking, did the cruelty, start before or after the accident? Did he smile more before an unfortunate circumstance made him feel like a failure or was he always so sour? Or am I perhaps letting the stories my mom told me help me assume the worst about him when I look at that photos? Writing this post, I called my sister to find out what she remembered of him. Seven years older than me, she has some memories of my mom's parents and curiously, her memories belie the photos I grew up looking at. She remembers our grandfather as being playful, warm and welcoming when my parents brought my sister and older brother over for a visit. I don't doubt the stories my mom told me about her childhood, but parents often treat their grandchildren differently. And now I regret that my mom isn't around to fill in the details I'd now like to know. The photos do not give the whole story.

(Above, grandfather plays cards with uncles)

Which is a bit like what Jacob is faced with in Ransom Rigg's novel. He looks at the strange photos left by his grandfather, remembers the stories the old man told, and in light of how the old man died, can't help wonder what is fact and what is fiction.

Age Appropriate

On this blog I try not to get too preachy about the craft of writing. It seems presumptuous to me since the success or failure of a piece really lies in the mind of the reader. As a reader myself I’ve run across styles that other people enjoy which I find irritating (the increasing popularity of present tense style, for example).

I would like to comment, however, on something I find troubling mainly because it’s occurred again in a book I’ve recently read.

For the online book club that I moderate, Pioneer Page Turners, I recently chose the book The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice for discussion on live chat. I was a fan of Rice’s vampire fiction and her The Mummy or Ramses the Damned and I thought it would be interesting to see her take on the werewolf legend. It turned out to be neither interesting nor enjoyable but that can be a future post.

One of the issues I will address however is what I consider Rice’s difficulty with appreciating the age of her younger characters.

Now again this could simply be my observation but as I read the dialogue in the book it came off not so much as age appropriate to the character but rather as dialogue that a 70 year old person might speak which, of course, is what Anne is.

The character of Reuben Golding, for example, the young man who receives the “wolf gift” of transformation is 23 years old yet you wouldn’t know it from the dialogue. Now to be fair there does exist in the world precocious people; people who carry themselves older than their years. The character is from a wealthy family who has somehow managed to acquire a master’s degree in English by such a young age and to get a job as a well-respected reporter whose already covered a few big murder stories despite being on the job only several months. He’s fascinated by philosophy, old literature and classic architecture so would conceivably sku older than his years.

But he’s only 23. And where once 23 year olds were quoting old poetry and philosophy and were expected to be moving on with their own lives by the time they graduated, we live in a world now we’re 23 year olds are still considered children. Parents continue paying their way—education, health insurance, car insurance, etc., then complain about continuing to pay for them. Rice writes in almost desperate detail about the incredible computer set-up Reuben obtains for his new home, yet rarely is Reuben described as texting or taking part in any form of social media (walk down the street and see how many 20 year olds have their eyes glued to their phones, their thumbs working feverishly over the tiny key pad). Add to this the fact that prior to the attack by the werewolf Reuben lived at home with his parents, his mom refers to him still as “Baby Boy” and his brother refers to him as “Little Boy.” I’m gonna guess there would have been a touch more infantilizing here then the story and dialogue would suggest. Yet somehow we’re to believe that when he inherits a mansion by curious means (he leads a charmed life) he would have the fore sight to understand all the legal and social ramifications of owning a mansion. As the tale goes on, the reader would think that this 23 year old had lived alone in a mansion for decades, so comfortable is he.

Another character in the story is a youth who Reuben, in his wolfen form, saved from being beaten to death. Now Rice has set up Stuart’s precociousness even better than Rebuen’s. Stuart is 16 years old and managed to graduate high school two years early, is attending college and living on his own (away from his messed up mother and an abusive step father). He is portrayed as a genius and it seems fairly obvious that he’s also seen some things in his young life so one could understand him grasping concepts that most 16 year olds wouldn’t.

What threw me, however, were a few references he made. First there was Stuart’s use of the adage “Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.” I heard that when I was a kid…Four decades ago! I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I’ve heard it this past decade. It’s a great saying, but one rarely used so how likely is a 16 year old to hear the saying enough times so that it becomes a normal part of his lexicon?

Quibbling? Perhaps. Stuart also has a hero he wants to emulate. Clarence Darrow. 

Now admittedly Darrow was a skilled lawyer and a fascinating character—Who died in 1938! Again, I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I’ve heard of this man’s name used as a cultural reference the past few decades. That is a sad fact. As is the fact that he wasn’t a part of any school subject’s curriculum when I was a kid. I doubt four decades later he’d make the list.

I once did a series of high school talks on my book Chicago’s Most Wanted. Most of the kids had no idea who John Dillinger was. Dillinger remained a cultural reference, if perhaps a vanishing one, when I was a kid. By the time Stuart was born in 1996 I doubt Dillinger was ever mentioned.

I bring Dillinger up because Stuart along with idolizing Darrow also knew the story of Bonnie and Clyde enough to reference their bullet ridden last drive when he was describing another incident.

As with the “angels fear to tread” comment, 16 year old Stuart referring to an event that happened 70 years prior seems somehow unreasonable.

Again, one can make the argument that Stuart is a history buff. He may have run across these references while reading an obscure history book on his own and they stuck with him.

And that’s a good argument. But there have been enough people and situations that have happened in Stuart’s own time let alone the few decades before he was born, that he could use as examples rather than digging out names of nearly a century before.

Interestingly, another book I chose for the chat presented me with the same problem several months before The Wolf Gift. Stephen King’s 11/22/63 features a 35 year old Jake Epping going back in time to save John Kennedy from assassination. It’s an interesting premise since the time portal always brings him to the same date in 1958. Jake must live as a man out of time for five years until the fateful date comes round. If he returns to 2011, when he goes back in time, it’s 1958 again.

Jake’s age in 2011 means that he was born in 1976. About 13 years after Kennedy was shot. When he came of age, punk rock, New Wave and eventually rap were the big styles of music. He grew up as the personal computer and the technology that followed was taking off. By the time 2011 came around, his was a 24 hour world of digital convenience.

Going back in time, living in the late 1950s and early 60s, would be a major culture shock for a 35 year old from 2011.

Yet you wouldn’t have known it by reading the account. He seemed to have no problem adjusting to driving the land yachts they called cars back then. 

He had no problem with not being able to obtain knowledge with a few clicks of the mouse. He fit right in at the 1958 high school he started teaching at to bide his time while waiting for 11/22/63.This man of the millennium didn’t even seem fazed by racial attitudes of the time, which differed strikingly than those in 2011 (though we seem to be devolving on that point culturally of late).

During one scene in a 1950s grocery store, it wasn’t a song from the 1980s or 90s he was quietly singing while waiting. It was a 1969 Rolling Stones song called “Honky Tonk Women” that, by the time he was of age to be conscious of it, was probably only heard on one of the oldies radio stations that were disappearing as talk radio infected the dial.

While reading the book, I didn’t get the sense of a 35 year old man from 2011 going back in time but rather a 64 year old writer, who grew up during that time, revisiting it.

Of course that’s not to say that this character would not know about the Rolling Stones. Jake might prefer classic rock. He might be someone so uncomfortable in his own time that he’d be fine stepping into this very foreign time.

But for both novels, the stories might have been more enjoyable if, as I read it, I could imagine a 23 or 16 or 35 year old and not a middle aged writer in the tales. 11/22/63 in particular would have been much more interesting if I got the feeling that Jake was truly a modern fish out of water trying to navigate a time he was not designed for. It’s fine to make a character precocious, or clever beyond their years. But age does often factor in how even the extraordinary view their surroundings. If you want to tell me about a 23 year old turning into a were wolf; or a 35 year old traveling through time, then give me characters who say and do things that are age appropriate.