A Good Preface
By way of a short introduction:
I like to read. I wish I had more time for it. I like to write. And yeah, I wish I had more time to write . . . and play music, and the list goes on. I wish a lot a’ things and mostly they revolve around the mystery of time. Speaking of mostly’s, I mostly read fantasy, historical fiction, and sci-fi. Nice, long, thick tomed epics. Then I get crushed when the final and true last page is turned.
I simmer and boil, crackle and pop, gnash and fidget if an author runs outta gas, interest, or just the plain decency to finish what they started, turning the void between books into years and bloody-damned years. (A pox on R.R. Martin. High acclaim to Steven Erikson. What, ten wonderfully thick Malazan tomes in less than their number in years. Four stars!)
I write bad jokes. Really bad groaners. And fantasy. What I call historical fantasy ‘cause it grows from the seeds of true history and something someone once told me: Don’t ruin a good story with only the truth. Cr-e-a-t-e a truth. Find another reality out there somewhere. They’re out there. Waiting.
And now, to A Good Preface.
A favorite convention of some sci-fi and fantasy writers is the use of chapter prefaces. I first discovered them reading Frank Herbert’s Dune back in the ‘70s as a serial in Analog. Now there was a man who knew a good preface. A touch of mystery; the deep resonance of the profound; all seasoned with a relevance to the story you can trust. He’s still my favorite. And of course, he follows it up with a great tale just begging to be told and read.
I even tried to use a few of his in my own novels but couldn’t obtain copyright permissions from his estate. So, here’s some true advice for like-minded scribblers. Don’t assume you’ll get permissions no matter the purity of your heart and daring of your quest. Having to scrap a masterpiece and then write something of equal wonderfulness, somehow employing temporary amnesia (easy until you want to forget) to avoid plagiarism, well it ain’t no fun unless you like death by a thousand rewrites, revisions, “oh, what the hell’s” and more rewrites. And because we’re dealing in the quantum physics of inspiration and creativity, the shorter the preface, the more difficult it is. Murphy had it right: A piece a’ bread, smeared with p & j, then dropped, always lands goo down. Universal mysteries rule!
Here are three of mine. If you’re a like-minded soul of quill and parchment, please share a couple of your own and your thoughts. Do you create ‘em before you write the chapter? After? As you write? It’s a mixed bag of inspiration pour moi. All of the above.
“What is truth?”
“Truth is why we fear.”– The Book of Questions
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There is nothing as fierce as our drive to exist. To exist, I say, not merely live. Life is not a choice. Existence, though, how we live, that requires of us to reach out of ourselves; to grasp ahold of the greater universe and to then fashion of it a place for ourselves. For that we must make a choice . . . or many.
Caireen: Dael’s Choice
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Our concept of reality is one of the first constructs we build, and remains a most vigorously guarded foundation of our beliefs. When we discover fissures in these realities – and we always do – many will choose death rather than accept the new reality of tearing down and rebuilding a different system of beliefs. They cannot envision themselves outside of what they know. In that, we all share common cause: The unknown can be terrifying. Why else do we strive so mightily to set what is real in the stone of our beliefs? Despite our efforts, awareness has the power to make a pauper’s example of reality.
The Use of Power
by Dael ap Owain
