Author Archives: ogresan

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About ogresan

Richard Parks' stories have have appeared in Asimov's SF, Realms of Fantasy, Fantasy Magazine, Weird Tales, and numerous anthologies, including several Year's Bests. His first story collection, THE OGRE'S WIFE, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. He is the author of the Yamada Monogatari series from Prime Books.

Review: Firelord by Parke Godwin

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Firelord by Parke Godwin, Morrow/Avon edition 1994.

This is probably the most definitive version of the legend of King Arthur published in the last thirty years, in my opinion. Godwin has done his research, and traces Arthur’s origins from a high-born Romanized Briton in the twilight years of Rome’s presence through his rise to power and the creation of a well-organized, effective kingdom that is capable–at least for a while–of holding back the encroachment of the Jutes, Saxons, Angles, and other mainland tribes. If Arthur actually existed, well, it could have been like this.

Good as his research is, that’s not what makes this book so worth reading. Godwin has the natural ability to bring his characters to life in a way that few other writers can match. There are no “minor characters” in a Godwin book. Everyone is there for a reason, and everyone has their own story to tell, be it Geraint, Lancelot, Guenivere, Isolde, Tristram, even that legendary whipping-boy King Vortigern gets his due. Everyone is at once larger than life but very recognizably human, and all play their parts for good or ill according to who they are and what they think is best. Godwin doesn’t stray too far from the broad outlines of the story of Arthur, but within that outline he has all the room he needs. Highly Recommended.

Another Writing Exercise

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One more bit of fluff from the Java Ink writer’s group.  The challenge this time was to write a flash around the premise “Bad news solves all problems.”  Not that I accept the premise, mind you, but as an exercise, I went with it. This one didn’t take fifteen minutes. Might have taken fifteen seconds.

 

First Child: “Mommmm!  She took my doll!”

Second Child: “Did not! It’s MY doll!”

Mom: “Girls, just so you know–your father won’t be around anymore. I killed him. He was bugging me.”

Children (in harmony): “Never mind!”

 

Success and Failure

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Two things writers–like a lot of people–tend to obsess over. Yet we tend to do it without a very clear idea of what either term really means. Is success being published by a mainline publisher? Widely read? Lots of money? Writing full time? Critical acclaim? If the answer is “All that and a ton of other stuff you forgot to mention” then by that definition there may be ten to fifteen successful writers in the entire country, tops. I’m not one of them and chances are you aren’t, either. Everyone fails by some standard; the question is what standard you apply. And I submit that applying any standard outside your own control is programming yourself for real failure. Too much of that can, as noted elsewhere, screw up your entire life, writing included.

Let’s consider an example: A few years ago, before ebooks mattered and we were still in the mini-explosion of the Print on Demand craze, a new writer proudly posted an excerpt from their novel, just published by some vanity house that I won’t dignify with a name. The prose was, no two ways about it, godawful. “Eye of Argon”‑class bad. Can I make that any clearer? I had absolutely no problem proclaiming both novel and writer complete and absolute failures. I didn’t see even the vaguest spark of talent in the work and their judgment was badly flawed or they wouldn’t have put that work out for the world to see in the first place. So. was the writer a failure?  Ummmm, no. Why not? 

Simple: I don’t get to decide that. Continue reading →

Tweaking

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I haven’t been happy with my online bibliography since I first posted it. It was one long line of short story publications before any of the books came up (yes, I’m proud of that long line, but unless someone was looking just for that, it’s a lot to wade through). So, not that I necessarily think the books are more important, but I did put them first because there are fewer of them naturally and this makes them easier to find.

Is it better now? Yes? No? Anything you’d like to see included in the bibliography or elsewhere here that isn’t? Inquiring minds want to know!

Telling Vs Showing, Or Is It?

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The advice is hammered into a baby writer’s head almost from Day One: “When writing anything,show don’t tell.”

I’m not the first to point out the following, but it bears repeating, so let’s think about this, shall we? And let’s begin with two character descriptions:

“Jim Bob Hattrick was the sort of man who would have everyone in the county attending his funeral, if only to see for themselves that the sumbitch was dead.”

“In orderly fashion, the long line of people in their Sunday best filed by Jim Bob Hattrick’s open casket. Some made a show of spitting on the corpse, but most were content to glare. No one cried, but a few did laugh.”

Which one is telling, and which one is showing? Continue reading →