The Dark and Forbidding Land: Mr. Darwin

“Hello Mr. Darwin.”

“Oh hello, Senta,” said the bespectacled older man, who was only slightly taller than the ten year old girl.  “How are you this cold morning?”

“I’m okay.  Which of these buildings is going to be yours?”

“This one right here,” he replied, pointing to the left most of the two having their roofs put on.  “I’m right next to Mr. Parnorsham’s Pfennig Store.  I think that’s the best spot in the square.  Don’t you?”

“I kind of thought you would have moved in there when Mrs. Wachtel died,” said Senta, indicating the shop just to the left of the Pfennig Store.

“Yes, well… to be honest, when Mrs. Wachtel… a…  passed away,” Mr. Darwin crossed himself.  “I had already signed the paperwork.”

“So what are they going to do with her place?”

“It’s my understanding that Mrs. Bratihn is going to take over the business.”

“I guess that will be good since her husband can’t work on account of being blind.”

“Mmm,” nodded Mr. Darwin, noncommittally while he took off his glasses to wipe them with a clean handkerchief.

“I didn’t expect Mrs. Government to let us go too long without a dress shop.”

Mr. Darwin bit his lower lip.  “Senta, you are irrepressible.  You are going to have to learn to watch what you say.”

Mr. Darwin is a very minor character.  He is of course named for Charles Darwin.  I just thought it would be great to have the man who made things from dinosaur skin be named Darwin.

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Zurfina

Zurfina is the sorceress and mistress of Senta in the Senta and the Steel Dragon.  She appears fairly frequently in Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land.  This is also the last book in which she really has control over Senta, at least as a parent has control over a child.

In real life, nobody would want Zurfina as a parent, but she is very fun to write.  Her total lack of parental nature makes her unusual.

Excerpt:

“Why is my house infested with children?” the sorceress demanded, though exactly to whom she was speaking was unclear.  “Why aren’t you all out playing in the snow?  It was my understanding that children adore it.”

“The tyrannosaurus is out there,” said Senta.

“Well if it attacks, you simply run in four different directions.  That way you have at least a seventy five percent chance of getting away.”

“Unless he can hop from one to the other of us,” said Senta.  “I doubt he would be as hindered by the snow as we would be.”

“Then perhaps you’ve made a good decision,” said Zurfina and headed up the staircase in the center of the room.  “Wake me for dinner, Pet.”

“Is she serious?” wondered Graham.

“About dinner?”

“No.  About us playing when the tyrannosaurus is about.”

Senta shrugged.  “You know she almost let me get eaten by velociraptors once.”

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Hero and Hertzal

Hero and Hertzel are two characters in the Senta and the Steel Dragon series.  They are twins and Senta’s best friends.  Both arrived in Birmisia colony shortly after Senta from Freedonia, where they escaped persecution for being members of the Zaeri minority.  They along with Senta and her boyfriend Graham form a quartet of (in this book) ten year olds.  The twins lost their parents in Freedonia and now live with their older sister Honor.

I don’t know where the idea for these two characters popped up.  They, like so many characters in this series, just seemed to fit.  Senta needed a best girlfriend and it seemed natural to have a male friend for Graham as well.  Of the two, Hertzal is a much more interesting character because he never speaks.  This is a result of a trauma in Freedonia.  This makes him a more difficult character to write too, but he really comes into his own in this book.

I have always wanted to name a female character Hero, since seeing and reading Much Ado About Nothing.  Hertzal, I looked up, searching for something that sounded good with Hero.

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Bessemer

One of the main things about the series of Senta and the Steel Dragon, is the steel dragon himself.  He changes from book to book.  In book 1, he’s not much bigger than a house cat and is treated generally like a pet.  By book 3, he’s somewhat larger than a pony, speaks several languages fluently, and is a real part of the story.  By book 5, he is pretty close to the size of a steam train engine.

In the Dark and Forbidding Land, he is a bit bigger than the average family dog, and is starting to communicate in words.  He’s not really a character yet, like he is in book 3, but I had a lot of fun with him.  He’s perhaps a bit more mischievous and dangerous at this age than he is when he is older and can actually think about what he is doing.

Movie Books: A Princess of Mars (John Carter)

There are about a thousand different paper editions of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ John Carter series and there are almost as many ebook editions.  Probably the best was put together with loving care by ebook lover HarryT at Mobile Read Forums.  He has painstaikingly crafted a single volume with all eleven Barsoom novels together.  You don’t have to be a Mobile Read member to get it, but Mobile Read is definitely worth your time.  Here is a link to the ebook:

http://www.mobileread.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=34895&d=1251219101

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Graham Dokkins

As I mentioned the other day, Graham comes into his own in book 2.  Graham really is a hero, even as a kid.  How many ten year olds are willing to stand up to a pair of utahraptors.

Graham carefully aimed down the length of the barrel.  He squeezed the trigger, but nothing happened.  Lowering the weapon, he flipped the safety to the fire position, and then sighted again.  This time when he fired there was a satisfying crack.  The utahraptors stopped, startled, for a moment, but seemed uninjured.  Graham worked the action and fired again.  This time Senta saw the bullet strike the trunk of a massive redwood about twenty feet above the ground and quite a bit behind the predators.

“It’s not sited in right,” muttered Graham, as he pulled back the bolt.

This time, as with the first shot, they were unable to determine where the missile hit.

“Um, aim at their feet and a bit to the right of them,” advised Senta.

This time the bullet hit a tree just to the right of the foremost creature.

“The next one is in your head!” called Graham as if he had intended the previous shots as warnings. 

The utahraptor did not look at all impressed.  He and his cohort were not much more than fifty feet away.  When they charged they could clear that distance in the blink of an eye.  For the moment though they were still being wary of the strange little creatures which made loud booming noises and refused to run.

“You better stand behind me,” said Graham bravely.

The Dark and Forbidding Land: Senta

I screwed up.  I started talking about the characters in The Drache Girl and went right by The Dark and Forbidding Land– probably because I wrote The Drache Girl first.  So, I’ll switch gears and talk about book two of the series and then go back and finish book 3.

Senta is the first person to appear in book 2.  In fact, in both book 2 and book 3, the four friends– Senta, Graham, Hero, and Hertzal– are the first characters.  These two books, unlike the others, have a kind of Harry Potter feeling to them as the four friends are together throughout most of the story and play a key role in the plot.  In book 1 of course, the four of them meet for the first time, and although all appear in books 4 and 5, they aren’t together in the same way.

In The Dark and Forbidding Land, Senta is ten years old– she has her 11th birthday just after the story ends.  She’s precotious, but not as confident as she will be.  On the other hand, she’s not too afraid to stand up to Zurfina, not that she was even in book 1.  She’s learning all about magic and reveals that she has potential even beyond her guardian.

Also in this book, Senta comes into contact with the Reine Zauberei for the first time.  They are the Freedonian wizards whose racism has poisoned their country for the Zaeri.  The play a much bigger part in books 4 and 5.

John Carter

As I write this, I just finished watching John Carter.  It was a fantastic movie, but then I’m prejudiced.  I first read a Princess of Mars 41 years ago and it became a part of me.  Edgar Rice Burroughs influenced my writing of course, but he and his character John Carter influenced my outlook on life too.  This really is a story for the ages, one that has been copied again and again.

I thought the movie did a good job of bringing the book to life.  There were some changes in the story and a few elements were brought in from book two of the series, but for the most part, they were understandable changes, keeping today’s movie-goer in mind.  The actors were all believable in their roles, the special effects were top-notch, and the story-telling pace was good.

I would recommend this movie to anyone, but you really should read the books.  They are great.

Incidentally, I went with my wife, daughter, and son– the first movie the whole family has been together for, for more than a year.  We saw it in 3-D.  Despite it all costing an arm and a leg for us to have an evening together, it was very nice.

Update: The Young Sorceress

I just finished the first draft for The Young Sorceress.  It clocks in at 65,000 words, which makes it the shortest book in the series (with the exception of book 0), but I think there are a few chapters I need to add to flesh out the story a bit.   I feel pretty good about it.  Chapters 11-14 really came together well.

This has been the most difficult of the series to write.  At times I felt like I was running out of steam for the series.  I love the characters and the setting, but after I finish book 5, I’m going to take a long break before I write any more. 

Watch this spot.  I’ll let you know when I finish the first revision.  In the meantime, here is the chapter list as it stands now.

1. Spring
2. The Blond Girl
3. Nellie Swenson
4. Birthday
5. Birthday Part II
6. The Real Senta
7. Predators
8. Gods
9. Sorceresses and Witch Doctors
10. The Two Sentas
11. Pirates and Princesses
12. The End
13. Mallontah and Hell
14. All Your Fault

The World of Senta and the Steel Dragon

I have a huge notebook filled with maps of Senta’s world.  Many of them are political maps of different times in the world’s history.  Others cover parts of the world which do not appear in the series (though they might in a subsequent series).  Here is the part of the world where our story takes place.

Sumir is a fully settled continent that I usually think of as my stand-in for Europe, though as you can see, geographically it is quite different.  Greater Brechalon, Mirsanna, and Freedonia are the most powerful kingdoms.  You can think of them as stand-ins for Britain, France, and Germany.  Zur was once the seat of an empire that covered the continent, but is now relatively insignificant.  Argrathia is an even older society, now surviving off its history.  They are akin to Italy and Egypt.  Arbrax and the northern islands are sparcely inhabited and quite cold.

The northern half of the map is temperate to arctic, though due to ocean currents and possibly magic, Enclep and the southern part of the Mullien Islands are tropical.

Mallon is a huge landmass.  When I imagine it, I think of Asia, with Birmisia being China and Mallontah being India, at least as far as climate goes.  As far as populations, they are more like North America and Central America at the time of European contact, if the Americans had been cold-blooded reptiles.  The aborigines of Birmisa are different than those of Mallontah, though they are both reptilian.  The lizzies of Birmisia are taller, stronger, and more alien to humans.  Those in Mallontah have been completely subjugated by man and fill the slums of crowded human-controlled cities.