Sestina (Blame Stephen Fry)

I made a new year's resolution this year to write every day. I've mostly kept it. I can't say I've got a huge amount of work done on my main projects as a result, though. I'm writing more frequently, but not necessarily for very long each day. One thing I have been speeding ahead on, though, is working my way through The Ode Less Travelled by Stephen Fry. This is a great little book for anyone who wants to learn or review the formal side of poetry writing. Well, maybe not anyone. Parts of the book are not suitable for children, thanks to Fry's naughty sense of humour, and the exercises are definitely at an adult level. But for all you mature would-be poets, it manages to make the elements of poetry transparently clear while being entertaining at the same time. It is like a tour through the world of poetry by a knowledgeable and witty guide, except that you aren't allowed to just stand and admire things. There are exercises.

I have found the exercises really valuable, and not too onerous. I have generally taken the view that exercises are not for writing brilliant verse, but for building the skills of writing verse. As a result, I have had fun with the exercises, but have mostly produced insufferable doggerel. This morning, however, I had a surprising experience.

The assignment was to write a sestina. I had read up to the exercise last night, and given a little thought to topics and words to go at the ends of my lines. This morning I thought about it some more as I lay in bed. I came up with a first stanza, which I thought was a little too cute to really use. I couldn't imagine actually getting five more stanzas plus an envoi out of it. But since I hadn't come up with anything better, I started thinking a bit about where I could go with it, and came up with a couple ideas. By the time I got up, I had decided I might as well try it. I wrote down my cutesy first stanza, and fitted the ideas I had so far into my second one. Then, well, it just sort of got going. I was really surprised by the things that came out as I went on. I wrote the whole thing in about an hour.

So, here it is. I suppose if I was a professional poet I would want to do some revision before I considered this poem finished, but I think as it is it makes an interesting example of how ideas can grow organically. Consider it a specimen.

This is the house that someone built
Not on the rock, but on the sand,
Not out of brick, but out of straw.
This is the heart that always fed
Not upon trust, but upon hope,
Not upon truth, but upon dreams.

Some years don't offer much but dreams.
Some years tear down all that is built,
And leave behind only the hope
Of better days. Wait. While the sand
Runs from the glass, the goats are fed
Not upon hay, but upon straw.

At times she said, "It's the last straw.
I'll do no more." But night brought dreams,
And somehow she kept the children fed -
All but one lived. For him she built
A little cross and piled white sand
Over the grave. She tried to hope

He was in heaven. But it was hope
And not belief. She grasped the straw
And lost it thinking of the sand
Above his head. He lived in dreams,
And out of dreams his mother built
A world inside. Her spirit fed

Compulsively on lies. She fed
The growing children. They found hope
In newer lands. Far off they built
Houses of sod with floors of straw
And filled the fields with all their dreams,
Numberless as the grains of sand.

This is the mouth that tastes the sand
Of death even when it is fed
On sweets. These are the lonely dreams
Of an old woman. Still her hope
Is for the child with hair like straw
To come again. What has she built?

It shifts like sand. Her weary hope
Grows thin. She's fed up with the straw
Figures of dreams, torn down, rebuilt.

A Canticle for Liebowitz vs. The Chrysalids

At this year's Pure Speculation convention, I attended a panel in which paticipants argued the relative merits of Dune, A Canticle for Liebowitz, and Spin. We were asked to vote for one of the books at the end. At first, the question posed was which book was most worth reading, but few people were prepared to make a judgement. It was then suggested that we vote for which book we most wanted to read after listening to the discussion. I had recently re-read Dune, which put it out of the running, and I decided to vote for Canticle. The idea of post-apocalyptic monks definitely had me intrigued.

I have read Canticle now, and I was not disappointed, though I don't think I would quite put it ahead of Dune on the list of must-read SF books. It happens that I read it right after reading The Chrysalids, which was an interesting contrast. The question of whether, if our civilization destroys itself, we can continue to see human life as worthwhile is at the heart of both books. Chrysalids takes a secular view in which Darwinian competition for survival is the ultimate morality, while Canticle presents the world from the point of view of fervently and uncompromisingly religious monks.

The villains of Chrysalids are bigoted fundamentalists, while those of Canticle are worldly men, bent on gratifying their own pride. It is quite easy to see in the telepathic utopia of Chrysalids exactly the sort of impatience with our own imperfections with which Canticle accuses secular culture. Likewise, the monks of the Order of Liebowitz can be compared to the religious community in Chrysalids: like them, they seek to preserve the past rather than improve on it, and submit unquestioningly to authority and tradition.

Both books ultimately declare humanity, at least in its current form, incapable of overcoming its destructive tendencies. However, they then proceed to opposite conclusions about the value of human life. In Chrysalids, the genocide of all humanity save the evolved few is seen as an act of mercy. Canticle takes the other extreme, arguing against euthanasia even in the case of someone who has nothing to look forward to but a painful death.

My own views fall somewhere between the two extremes, but if I was asked to vote between these two books, Canticle would win hands down. I found the characters and ideas in it human and engaging, though also challenging, whereas those in Chrysalids left me feeling sickened. I'm sure other readers will differ, though. If you have read this far, please post your opinions on the matter, and perhaps cast your own vote as to which of the two is the more worth reading. I think this could make an interesting discussion.

Where to buy Dominion and other links

http://www.dragonmoonpress.com/ has been offline for a while now, so just in case anyone comes by this blog wondering where they can get a copy of my book (one can hope) or wanting to find out more about it, I thought I would post a few links.

Firstly, you can order the book through EDGE publishing: http://www.edgewebsite.com/books/dominion/do-catalog.html

It is available in various ebook formats:
http://ebooks.ebookmall.com/author/jyt-kennedy-ebooks.htm
http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/JYTKennedyeBooks.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Dominion/dp/B000OI0DQY

You can find out more about DragonMoon Press on their blog:
http://www.dragonmoonpress.blogspot.com/

And finally, here is a review of Dominion by Donna McMahon:
http://www.sfsite.com/11a/do211.htm

While gathering these links, I discovered that there is another J.Y.T. Kennedy who has written a book called 'Happy Aging with Costa-Rican Women.' So much for my theory that using all those initials would prevent me being confused with the gazillion other Kennedys out there. . .

Words in the Park: November 1st

I am going to be participating in a Literary Fair at the Strathcona County Library on November 1st. The Library is on the east side of the Sherwood Park Mall. The event is free, and runs from 1 to 4pm. I will have a table there, and be available to chat with anyone who would like to come by. I will have copies of Dominion and In the Dark for sale, and will also be helping to promote our local storytelling chapter. There will be other authors from a variety of genres present, all with some connection to the County. I have not seen a list of who will attend, but I understand that Joan Galat, the author of Dot to Dot in the Sky and other books of sky and star-lore, will be there. You can check out some information about her here:

http://www.telusplanet.net/public/dot2dot/free_new.htm

And here is the library website:

http://www.sclibrary.ab.ca/

Campfire Ghost Stories

I'm doing some last minute preparation for this year's Spooktacular, and just wanted to post about a great book which I found at the library. It is Campfire Ghost Stories by Jo-Anne Christensen. This is a really good collection of scary stories to tell, including versions of many old classics as well as some I haven't encountered before. (After ten years of storytelling, that is getting rarer than you might think!) Not all, or even most, of these are strictly speaking ghost stories, but the book is part of Lone Pine's Ghost Stories series, which I assume is the reason for the title. The book includes some tips on how to tell scary stories for newer tellers.

Where'd that year go?

I can hardly believe it has been ten months since I last posted. Actually, this year has not been a complete vacuum, although there hasn't been any really exciting news as far as writing goes. (Not for me, anyway. Fellow cultist Barb Galler-Smith sold her Druids trilogy to Edge!) I do have some short stories, that I am very excited about, almost ready to send out, and have also made some real progress on the two novel-length projects which I have going at the moment.

I have had a good year for storytelling. I told at the Night of Artists event and the Fort Edmonton festival, but probably my favourite telling experience was at a local seniors home. MaryAnn Lippiatt and I got trading off stories: every story seemed to inspire another one that we just had to tell. It was great fun, and just what this craft is supposed to be all about!

I am finally reading Amber Hayward's book The Healer, which I picked up at last year's Pure Speculation. It is a literary styled fantasy, with a modern setting, a leisurely pace, and understated fantasy elements. It is also a very intelligent, heartfelt, and engaging book, and well worth checking out.

Reading November 12 with Jennifer Rahn

I am going to be holding a reading on the evening of November 12 at the Strathcona County Library, together with Jennifer Rahn. My novel, Dominion, was released by DragonMoon Press two years ago. DragonMoon had just released a terrific new book by another Alberta author, who happens to share my first name. Jennifer Rahn currently lives in Calgary, but grew up in Sherwood Park, and is coming back here to promote her first novel, The Longevity Thesis. We will both be reading from our respective books, and will also provide refreshments. We are hoping that this will be a fun evening, with plenty of opportunity for us all to visit and get to know each other better. We will begin at 7:00pm, and continue until 8:45.

I have read The Longevity Thesis, and found it really absorbing. It is not your typical fantasy, by any means. The story centres on a university campus in an underground land, where the inhabitants have so long avoided the desert above them that many now regard the stories of its magic as mere superstition. Antronos, who has been touched by that magic, knows better. But even he does not suspect what ancient and unnatural beings are at work within the University itself, until his desire to study longevity places him in their power. The Longevity Thesis is at turns darkly primeval and disconcertingly modern, grimly macabre and life-afirming: compounded together, these ingredients create a powerful and unsettling tale.

I enjoyed meeting Jennifer R. in Calgary last year, and am looking forward to seeing her again, and hopefully some other new and familiar faces too.