Dracula vs. Frankenstein

Just finished Frankenstein the other night. Combined with Dracula, I've now successfully caught up on two classic, must-read sci-fi/fantasy novels. Both were good, but after much thought, I'm giving the nod to Dracula.

What tipped the balance?

Monster Characters (tie score): Both monsters are terrific. Deviously intelligent, immensely strong, and as agile as any professional athlete, both are more than a match for any mortal man. Frankenstein's monster was intelligent and agile? That was a surprise. I was used to the movie monster with big shoes and a square head. No so in the novel. Like Dracula, he is able to climb sheer cliffs, and Frankenstein's monster also easily dashes across an Alpine glacier. FM (he is never named) is also well-read and an eloquent speaker. In fact, of the two, FM is the more devious. Dracula gets props for special powers: assuming the form of mist, wolf, and bat, and of course, sucking blood and creating more vampires.

Human Characters (Frankenstein wins): Ugh, the male protagonists of Dracula were uniformly brave, just, intelligent, considerate, blah, blah, blah. Not a flaw amongst them. The were all the best examples of Victorian Manhood. Lucy and Mina were wonderful, supportive wives, and helpless victims. Victor Frankenstein on the other hand, was a deeply flawed and much more realistic person. I didn't especially like him, but he was a far superior character.

Story (tie score): Both were creative, original stories. Dracula follows the human protagonists as they struggle to save Lucy, Mina, (and all of England) from the supernatural power of the vampire. Frankenstein is the more personal story of Victor Frankenstein and his tragic life following the creation of his monster. Frankenstein also gives you much more insight into the monster's personal story.

Believability (Dracula wins): When it comes to the willing suspension of disbelief, it isn't even close. Frankenstein just had too many holes. One of the worst examples: FM spends months secretly living in an unused room, spying on a French emigre family living in Switzerland. Although FM gathers wood for the family every night (much to their surprise), they somehow never see his footprints in the snow. And although this giant of a man lives just a few feet from them, they never hear a sound. Too much to believe.

Engagement (Dracula wins): I couldn't stop reading Dracula. Even though it didn't have the pace of a modern novel, it was still a page-turner. Frankenstein...just...dragged...on...and...on. Page after page of exposition. Page after page of Victor Frankenstein having yet another emotional breakdown. Long, long sections of back-story that weren't even needed.

Overall I'd give Frankenstein a good rating of 3/5 stars and Dracula a very good rating of 4/5.

Last post I asked if any of you knew how Dracula died. Bram Stoker went into great depth explaining how a vampire could be killed. It required a stake through the heart, decapitation, and stuffing garlic in the vampire's mouth. This is how Lucy and the three Brides of Dracula are slain. Dracula however, has his throat slashed by an English lawyer wielding a Nepalese Kukri knife before being stabbed in the heart by a Texan wielding a Bowie knife. Didn't see that coming, did you? Hrm...why kill Dracula this way after putting so much effort into describing the proper way of killing a vampire? Smells like the makings of a sequel to me.

So how did Frankenstein's Monster meet his end? And where did it happen? No peeking.

Dracula

Just finished reading Dracula the other day. Absolutely loved it. Why?

1) It's a great story. Yeah, it might not have the pace of a modern novel, and the fear factor might not be up to current standards, but it is still one hell of a story.

2) I loved getting a taste of Victorian culture. I am a history (and economics) teacher and was fascinated by the insights into the technology, language, and thought depicted in the novel. One of my favorite examples were the blood transfusions given to Lucy by Dr Van Helsing. Lucy receives three direct blood transfusions from three different men, and blood typing receives nary a mention. Van Helsing also comments on the potent nature of "male" blood and the positive effect it will have on the weakened Lucy.

3) I feel like I filled on of the many missing gaps in my "must read" list. Dracula is a book I think every fantasy, horror, or thriller fan has to read at some point. It was also the first epistolary novel (it consists entirely of journal entries, letters, telegrams, and newspaper clippings) I have  ever read. I had no idea the novel took this form when I picked it up. A cool reading experience.

So what didn't I like? I only have one major complaint about the novel, and that has to do with the (human) characters. With the exception of the insane Renfield, the main characters ridiculously, boringly good. The five male protagonists were uniformly intelligent, brave, and morally upright. The women, Lucy and Mina, were kind, helpful, and supportive, at least until Lucy turned into a vampire. Mina was the perfect, supportive wife, studying stenography and memorizing train schedules to aid her husband in his law career. Adding a few character flaws would have made the story a lot more interesting and could have potentially added a lot of tension to the story.

Overall, I highly recommend Dracula. Read it!

Bonus question: How does Dracula die? Don't cheat and look it up, just tell me how you think Dracula dies.

House for Sale

I'll be AFK for a little while. We are buying a new house and selling our old house. The process is sucking up all of my free time. I'll be back in a week or so.

And if you're interested in a nice house in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania......

Inspiration

Where do your ideas come from? The question is never far from the lips of non-writers. Someday I'll write about the origins of Eternal Knight. But today's post is about my next work. So.... where did the ideas come from.....

1) Lions
2) My wife and daughter
3) My neighbor
4) Yesterday's Enterprise (an episode from Star Trek: The Next Generation)
5) Charlie Brown and the little red-headed girl from the comic strip, Peanuts.

We'll start with LIONS. Everyone loves lions, don't they? They are majestic and powerful, noble, heroic, and occasionally cute and cuddly. For the purposes of this blog, we'll ignore the bloodthirsty, vicious aspects.

I'll credit two lion documentaries as inspiration for my next novel:  Lions of the African Night and Lions and Hyenas: Eternal Enemies.  Both films demonstrate the total devotion the lioness feels for her offspring.  Lions and Hyenas puts this devotion into the context of an eternal war with a remorseless enemy. Now a  lioness can handle a single hyena one on one, but she will have trouble killing it. And if a pack of hyenas show up, a small pride of lionesses can be overwhelmed.

An adult male lion is another matter. A big male is a hyena killer, but they are often away from the back, unable to protect the pride. The following video is six minutes long. It shows what happens when the lion arrives on the field of battle. (The video is the end of Lions and Hyenas. If you like lions/wildlife documentaries you should watch the whole program from the beginning. The video is also not necessary for you to get the gist of this blog entry.)



And, by the way, there are no lions in my novel.

 my wife and my daughter

My wife and daughter are also not in the novel. But I will say that being a husband and a father change the way you look at the world. And my wife is a lioness. Trust me, if you are a threat to our daughter absolutely nothing will save you from my wife's wrath.

 my neighbor and I

The photo doesn't do Chris justice. I am 5'10" tall and 160 pounds. Chris is 6'9" and 300 pounds. He's a big dude. He's not imposing. He's IMPOSING. He's also one of the nicest people I've ever met. How nice? Plowing driveways, rescuing neighbors in their broken down cars, and running generators (powering sump pumps and refrigerators) during a power outages. All for free. He does those things because those are the "things neighbors do". 

Chris is in the book, sort of. 

Yesterday's Enterprise is a terrific Star Trek episode. What do I like about it? It is a story of sacrifice. I am an absolute sucker for tales of sacrifice (both real and imagined). There are some people out there, who knowing they will certainly perish, step forward and do the right thing. They are willing to risk their one chance at life in order to save the lives of others.

And finally... the little red-headed girl in Peanuts. What does she have to do with my novel? How did she serve as inspiration? Unrequited love. Poor Charlie Brown, he loves her so, but can never get her attention, yet alone her love. Done poorly unrequited love can be pure sap. Done well it can be heart wrenching.

Putting it all together we have the story of...

a child in peril and a mother who will do anything to save her against insurmountable odds.
a giant of a man, feared by those who meet him, but who always does the right thing.
another man charging to the rescue, fearing he will be too late to save the woman he loves.

...all enfolded in a story of sacrifice.

The YA feel

A while back I considered changing my protagonist's age to 16 and revising Eternal Knight into a YA novel. YA seemed to be the the "place to be" and it wouldn't require a major rewrite to make it happen.

But it didn't work. At least it didn't work for me. Hadde isn't a sixteen year old. She has always been a twentysomething to me. I originally wrote her as a 28 year old. Only later did I revise her down to 23. I just can't imagine her any younger than that. She is just too tough, too experienced...too world-wise to be a sixteen year old.

I recently read a Dystel & Goderich agency blog entry on the YA summertime feel. The post's author, Miriam, notes that YA is about good storytelling that doesn't get bogged down with dense writing or dark mid-life themes. YA offers a great escape, and that's why even adults love it.

Eternal Knight isn't a Young Adult novel, but I do think it offers the escape and good storytelling of a YA novel. But how do I get that across in my query letter? How do I get a query letter reader to realize that I'll take them on a great journey in less than 250 words?

Summer Vacation

Maybe I took summer vacation a little too seriously this year. Taking a look back, my last blog post was written on the last day of the school year. I guess I started behaving just like my students do... I shut down.

What did I do with my time?

I played a good bit of EVE Online. A terrific game, but it just takes too much time to really play it the way I would want to. I quit last night.

I spent a lot of time with my daughter. One of the great things about being a teacher is the amount of time it gives you to spend with your child(ren). We had (and will have for a few more weeks) a great time at our local swim club. My daughter started doing the backstroke for the first time. I can now do a really ugly front flip with a half twist.

I got a lot of work done around the house. We briefly thought of selling our house this summer. This brought on a period of frantic activity as we fixed the place up. Now the house looks so good we want to keep it.

I thought about writing. Thought about it. Now I have some really great ideas that need to go down on paper. My next blog post will be about inspiration. I just need a photo of my neighbor before I can write it...

Back soon.

Battles, fights, and general mayhem

Novels often include the most ridiculous depictions of combat. Fantasy novels are some of the worst, but the problem cuts across all genres. If we want to broaden our scope we should include all of the following movie genres: action/thriller, science fiction, fantasy, martial arts, and war (although some war films have gotten much better recently). We can also include virtually anything shown on television.

Many offenses (but certainly not all) fit into the following categories:

Stormtrooper effect/Principle of Evil Marksmanship: bad guys are terrible shots. (Even if described as being lethal killers.)

Law of the Conservation of the Ninja: ninja (bad guys) are weaker in large groups. (A single ninja is nearly unbeatable.)

One-at-a-time attack rule: Large groups of villains will only attack one at a time.

Two friends of mine have written excellent blog posts on the topic or realistic combat:

Christian Cameron writes the best historical fiction I have ever read. In this blog post he writes about the nature of warfare. (The blog thread is actually about the use of elephants in ancient warfare.)

Mike Shultz' fantasy novel, The Sword of Memory, is being published in Germany this fall. In this writing advice column (click writing advice and check out Lesson 16) he discusses rules for combat realism in fantasy.

Nothing makes me want to drop a novel faster than unrealistic action/combat sequences. So follow Mike's rules and read Christian Cameron's blog and we will all enjoy a better reading experience.

Now go out there and hurt your good guys.

Sooooo........

I've been away for a little while. What have I been up to?

My manuscript is in the hands of the German editor of my friend Mike Shultz' novel. I met Carsten when Mike and I had lunch with him in NYC last August. I'm going to put my query process on hold while Carsten has the manuscript. With no prior writing credits, I think my query letter will look substantially stronger with a foreign publication on it. Just need it to be accepted.....

I haven't been doing much writing. Mike suggested I work on the sequel to Eternal Knight, but write it as a stand-alone novel. I like his idea and have been doing some outlining.

I have also been playing some EVE Online. It is a wonderful science fiction MMORPG set in outer space. I've been splitting my time between chasing NPC pirates and playing the commodities markets. In EVE 90% of goods are player-produced. This allows for genuine market activities to occur. I'd love to find a way to include aspects of the game in the teaching of my AP Economics class.

Off to fire up the engines on the Hussar, my Thrasher class destroyer. Or maybe I'll take the Adam Smith out on a trade run. I hear there are good prices for oxygen over in the Pator system.

The Motivation of Evil

Several years ago, when I was first outlining Eternal Knight, my friend, Christian Cameron, sat down with me and let me “pitch” the novel to him. In my pitch I described an epic struggle of good versus evil, all revolving around three ancient artifacts of great power.

As I described the evil warlord leading his hosts in a vicious war of conquest, Christian stopped me.

“What’s his motivation?” Christian asked.

“Huh?”

“The bad guy. Why’s he trying to conquer the world?”

“Uhhh,” I started. And then, “Hmmmm.” I thought about it for a bit. “Because he’s, well, bad.”

Christian just gave me a pathetic look. “He’s got to have a reason he wants to do this.”

“He’s evil. Like Sauron.”

“You’re not Tolkien. Tolkien could get away with it.”  And then Christian said something to me that hit me like a truck. “You know what Hitler saw when he looked in the mirror? He saw a hero.” I don’t know if Christian is the first person to make that statement, but it set me back for a moment.

Hitler saw himself as a hero. The bad guy thinks he’s a good guy.  What if my bad guy thinks he’s a good guy?

“He thinks he’s saving the world,” I said.

“From what?”

Ahhhh…from what?

And so the Wasting was born. A dreaded disease of magical origin threatening all life in the world. A disease that everyone wanted to cure.

The good guys want to cure it as well. Wait a sec…. 

What if my bad guy is really the good guy? What if my protagonist discovers she is on the wrong side?

Wait a sec… what if there are no good guys? All the major powers are self-interested and use the Wasting as an excuse to improve their situation.

And so Eternal Knight was born. A protagonist who has grown up in a world dominated by war and the Wasting leaves home to seek aid from greater powers. In her journey she discovers that good isn’t always good and evil isn’t always what it appears to be.

Thanks, Christian.

Crazy Busy

Sorry I've been away so long, but I've been crazy busy lately...

I teach AP Economics to high school seniors and we are taking our AP Exams this Thursday. This is always a very intense time of the year. The whole focus of the year is success on the AP Exams (microeconomics and macroeconomics). If students do well (a score of 4 or 5) they can usually get college credit for the course. This makes success potentially worth two thousand dollars.

In a few days my school year eases up in a big way. Just have to make it through this final push.

On to writing... I've been analyzing and re-analyzing my query strategy. I don't want to mass-query every possible agent all at one time. However, a limited-query effort will mean a lot more waiting. So who do I query first? Patience, patience, patience....

Query-time is a good time to think about the next project. What's been on my mind?
1) The sequel to Eternal Knight.
2) Another novel set in the Eternal Knight world.
3) Re-writing a sci-fi novel I completed (and then abandoned) years ago.
4) Write an oil/espionage thriller.

I did manage to finish the Turkey Hill Classic bike race I mentioned in my last post. "Finish" being the key word. I placed 27th out of 50 starters in the Cat 5 (beginner) race. Don't let this fool you--I was way off the back of the pack. Twenty starters never finished the race.

I enjoyed the experience of the bike race, but was disappionted by my performance. I was dropped by the pack (peleton) in the first half of the first lap (of four 10k laps). I was really hoping to see what it would be like to mix it up in the peleton. The pace was incredibly fast off the start. It was much more than I excpected from a Cat 5 race.

Off to bed! Have a great one!