tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422684351196031305.post8374567720137829515..comments2023-09-19T03:20:07.025-04:00Comments on Carole Ann Moleti: Welcoming John Blackport Discussing His Military Fantasy Release: RaingunCarole Ann Moletihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03376384405966524815noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422684351196031305.post-75869181196376200692011-11-13T06:28:52.331-05:002011-11-13T06:28:52.331-05:00This is fascinating, John. Thanks for your detaile...This is fascinating, John. Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful reply.Rayne Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13992900621890391763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422684351196031305.post-62766712613766539622011-11-09T22:12:57.303-05:002011-11-09T22:12:57.303-05:00With regard to writing style: It seems to me that ...With regard to writing style: It seems to me that O’Brian and Cornwell don’t put you too deep into their hero’s heads. They switch point of view, and O’Brian even splits the spotlight between two separate “heroes” with different strengths and styles. On the other hand, Forester and Fraser make sure you are in the head of Hornblower or Flashman all the time. So in that respect, I suppose I try to channel the experience of reading whichever authors I need for Rick Rivoire’s current level of intensity (or isolation). <br /><br />As far as “structure” goes, I try to follow their examples with pacing as well. I believe the ideal story is a dance where it’s best to go for unpredictable variations between fast pace and slow pace. O’Brian and Forester seem to put their fast-paced stretches and their slow-paced ones in bigger chunks. It’s taught me how to try to anticipate what a reader wants at the next point in a story to keep them reading. . . but always succeeding at this, of course, is another matter!<br /><br />The “series concept” of The Raingun Chronicles is complex. I boil it down to five steps:<br /><br />1) I don’t want to shrink from how horrible battles and combat are. But having never fought in a battle myself, if I set such a story in the modern age I would be telling a story best told by someone else. The obvious solution is to set the story in an age where no one who fought in that age is now alive: I chose an imaginary era I loosely refer to as “musket and pike”, where magic holds its own.<br />2) I wanted one thing that would make my hero very different from Richard Sharpe: I wanted him to care --- deeply --- about the principles he was fighting for. The way I addressed this was to make the fight not about territorial expansion, but about personal freedom. I chose to make it all happen within the hero’s home country, which he loves: civil wars never lack for passion. <br />3) I also wanted my hero to have a freedom of movement that most soldiers just don’t have, to follow hunches, or even pursue private concerns. My solution was to make the hero a commissioned cavalry officer. These soldiers bought their commissions, and enjoyed luxuries far above those available to most infantry and artillery. Many of these officers were capable, dedicated and brave, but many were none of those of things and only bought their commissions to ensure themselves a comparatively soft life. As a Raingun, Rick Rivoire is sometimes “confined to barracks”, or posted in a specific place under a specific commander . . . but many times, he is not and is only required to periodically “check in” to barracks unless he is summoned. <br />4) I was inspired by the espionage missions O’Brian gave to Dr. Maturin, to show the intricate interplay between how people affect history, and how history affects people. Since soldiers in wartime rarely have “all the facts” about a situation in the way a novel’s hero can, I decided a good way to facilitate this was to include magic, and put the story in a fantasy world. There would be no objective historical facts to get wrong. <br />5) When deciding what kind of fantasy world to create, I took another cue from Cornwell’s Sharpe series. I didn’t want grand, metaphysical explanations of magic --- I wanted magic spells that either hit or missed, and that their casters considered as mundane as Sharpe’s Rifles considered their bullets. I wanted the hero to have to worry that his gun might get wet, or about getting foot rot. I wanted my fantasy world to look and smell and taste like a place Bernard Cornwell would be comfortable in. So I tried to put mundane, everyday concerns right alongside the magical, earth-shaking ones. <br /><br />I guess that’s it!John Blackporthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04733140448189722957noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4422684351196031305.post-59750307834525756422011-11-09T05:01:21.684-05:002011-11-09T05:01:21.684-05:00Hi John,
Could you tell me more about how your li...Hi John,<br /><br />Could you tell me more about how your literary influences - Cornwell, Macdonald Fraser, O'Brian, Forester - influenced 'Raingun'?<br /><br />You mention the military background of their works, and also how O'Brian and Forester give their heroes challenges outside the battlefield.<br />Did those writers also inspire other aspects of your work - such as writing style, structure, the series concept?<br /><br />RayneRayne Hallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13992900621890391763noreply@blogger.com