My first book where a publisher requested the full manuscript was ultimately rejected. Among the many concerns of the book, was that “This author doesn’t know much about medieval culture”.
To this day I still think this is a stupid comment, but to each their own. It was explicitly making fun of fantasy tropes as a whole as opposed to it being a primer about Ye Olde England in the thirteenth century, ultimately the novel was a love letter to the tropes I enjoyed. I’ll talk another day why people who love a thing are the best people to poke fun at a thing.
When I’m writing a fantasy novel of made up… everything, why is it that everyone (critics or at least people I deal with) accepts the worst in history as being ‘realistic’ (IE, grimdark underage marriage and way to much emphasis on gorn) meanwhile there’s some dragons that physics won’t allow flapping aboot. My short answer is you can do whatever you want in your story so long as you are consistent with the idea. You want grimdark with dragons that aren’t technically accurate? Amuse me, good author. Meanwhile, let me have the same luxury when I’m taking liberties.
For instance, I spoke about how much real-world religion we can sort of infuse into a fantasy world without making it so foreign or an obvious analogy, as said the tenants of knighthood were based around Christian ideals at the time. So in Fable, I have knights and squires, and part of their ideology came into frame. I had a knighting ceremony, and to my surprise Ron liked the scene (I was worried it slowed the story down) but didn’t like that I had a woman of low status do the knighting. I thought it was good thematically, but it’s a hill I’m not going to die on; I’m going to have her do something else and have a knight raise up said squire. I have to show what a knighting ceremony looks like in a fantasy world – setting a standard for what it would be like for all knights of that kingdom, meanwhile satisfying the historical buffs that this isn’t an affront to history.
I thought this would be more straight forward in Tower of Obsidian, set in Ireland around 1000 AD. I wasn’t wrong so much as mistaken, as I wanted Kale and Aaron to be knights, but knights didn’t exist at that time in Ireland. Changing them to Men-at-Arms? Not a problem. The book still required world building, as many people would have been quasi-familiar with the era, but many people would be coming at the era and not knowing the ins and outs of the end of the Viking era. It’s a fantasy, but I can’t just do whatever I want, it has to feel like it belongs in our history, at least until we get to the unexplored and undocumented fringes where the fantasy happens.
A Fable of Wood and String is a more idealistic world than our own but still a place where danger is actualized. In Tower of Obsidian, Kale and Aoife have to dress befitting their station in their culture, whereas I can have Tiffany wear whatever she wants – it has to make sense for that character. Once I decide an aesthetic for the folk of Stagmil, Tiffany needs to look like she belongs to that region. Her costume has to reflect: Where is she from, what she does, her social status, and little hints that tell me about her as a person. And while I’m not saying I can’t have some sort of weird, contemporary-fantasy hybrid clothes, if everyone other girl is wearing aprons and wool clothes, Tiffany running around in a silk ballgown, there’s better be a good explanation as to why. What really irked me watching Rings of Power was Bronwyn’s dress.
It’s a pretty dress and it looks nice. My problem is she’s the only one dressing this way.
I am the first one to say: Hey, give her a slightly different color so she stands out in the crowd for the sake of this being a visual medium or, whatever about someone not wearing a helmet to battle because he’s needs to emote. She’s from the Southlands so I can assume it’s warm. Thing is, I should see other women of her area dressed similarly. I think I’ll go off on good and bad costume design on another post (it’s a long-time coming, from someone who isn’t particularly good at designing costumes herself) but this to me is jarring because she’s the only character who is like this, and it’s not like she’s always a little ‘out there’ or trying to make a fashion statement, she lives practically and works hard.
Anyway, back to the short answer: if you’re going to do something: Do it, but be consistent. I will talk more costume/fashion in another post. I had Catarina stealing liberating tea in The Mermaid and the Unicorns and, the British discovered North America before they were sipping tea. To me, that’s not a deal breaker because the story is a fairy tale and I’m not particularly specific about the technology of that time period. We have knights on horses and we have ships with cannons. I also have foxes who can enunciate, deal with it.
In other news, I had to get stuff done for the paramedic college and have been busy with other RL stuff, but in general I’m feeling really good about how Fable is turning out. My original plan was to finish the second book, but the more I’m thinking about it I’m going to shift my focus and start working on another project, then circle back and finish the rough draft of the second book. It’s not fatigue so much as I’m getting creative ideas and even if I start with them, I can always come back to the other project which will need to percolate anyway.
Cook’s Creek is having a medieval festival; I submitted an application to sell books and will advise probably some time in April so fingers crossed they’re only taking 20 vendors. I had some bookmarks made (They are beautiful) and my next event will be at my old High School (my cousin is graduating – eee I feel old) so if you’re in the Charleswood Area April 13, pop by and say ‘hi’ it’s in support of their Safe Grad.
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