Author Archives: Darrick Dean

A Story Cliché or the Story we all Want to Tell?

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Darrick Dean

I was reading a discussion concerning a certain fantasy author and someone asked if the author was a cliché writer. This appeared to have been asked as a bit of a put-down. What was meant by cliché writer? Since the writer has authored almost exclusively fantasy, I suspect the critics meant the story line so popular to the genre: Reluctant hero convinced to undertake some sort of quest; Hero joins with others who support the quest; Quest includes finding some object or another and defeating a terrible evil.

Is it fair to call this a cliché? I don’t think so.

In the simplest definition of the word, something becomes a cliché through overuse, not necessarily through any fundamental flaw with item in question. This supposed fantasy trope is a common framework, but it is the details in execution that differ with each story that make it succeed. If the critics were being fair, they would recognize that this cliché isn’t unique to fantasy, but — in one form another — prevalent across much of storytelling.

The reluctant-hero-team-up-battle-evil-save-the-world plot is at the heart of nearly every superhero film or show so popular now. However, it isn’t unique to the fantastic. How many other thrillers, adventures, mysteries or whatever you can think of include one or more of what is supposedly unique to fantasy? Better yet, why is this story line the bedrock of so much human storytelling? John Eldridge explains in his book Epic

Notice that all the great stories pretty much follow the same story line. Things were once good, then something awful happened, and now a great battle must be fought or a journey taken…

It’s true of every fairy tale, every myth, every Western, every epic…Have you ever wondered why?

Every story, great and small, shares the same essential structure because every story we tell borrows its power from a Larger Story, a Story woven in the fabric of our being…

All of these stories borrow from the Story. From Reality. We hear echoes of it through our lives. Some secret written on our hearts. A great battle to fight, and someone to fight for us. An adventure, something that requires everything we have, something to be shared with those we love and need.

There is a Story that we just can’t seem to escape. There is a Story written on the human heart.

Categories: Books, Writing | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Prepare for Your Quest

Posted on January 22, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Much has been said about fantasy books here, but can we somehow manage to combine this with fitness?

“How on Earth can we do that?” you wonder (or say to the computer screen if you’re apt to talking to yourself).

Neila Rey and friends at Darebee have created the fantasy themed Hero’s Journey workout. This is a real deal workout that will test your readiness for any quest in your life.

I may continue this as a series of posts, Fitness Fridays if you will, an idea borrowed from Amy’s Curiouser and Curiouser blog. And if you need some fantasy mood music, load up some Lindsey Stirling here and here.

hjnr

Categories: What You Can Do | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Challenger 7: 30 Years Ago

Posted on January 13, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Two weeks from tomorrow, on January 28th, marks 30 years since the Challenger Disaster.

Seems so long ago, yet it is one of those days people never forget. School was out that day, probably because of bad weather, and I remember watching on television the news showing the explosion over and over.

I will never forget.

We didn’t give up on spaceflight that day, but I wish more would have seen the real promise of the Final Frontier. Instead, many in government still see it as another “get-elected-for-a-few-years” opportunity. The vision of government sees only through the next election cycle, not seven generations hence.

There are those who are far more forward in their thinking. Those who are tired of the others who have given up on the human spirit of adventure. The spirit that created pioneers, frontiersman and explorers. That spirit is in all of us, even if those in power have forgotten.

We can best remember and honor the Challenger 7, and all those astronauts who light up the sky on the National Astronaut Memorial, by looking and forging ahead.

By remembering pioneers are still needed, frontiers need explored and danger can never be eliminated.

Honor those who tried, those who failed, those who succeeded and those who gave the last full measure.

Let the future not say we gave up, forgot or ignored.

If we do, there will be no future to look back on us.

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“Escaping” Into Fantasy? Be Wary…

Posted on January 10, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Since 1977, Terry Brooks has been writing his Shannara fantasy series. Once the first trilogy was complete, he gave up his day job as a lawyer and never looked back. In spite of his success, he has often been asked why he writes fantasy. Not so much now, with fantasy’s mainstream success, but some still equate fantasy with escapism.

True, any book, television show, hobby has that element — and there’s nothing wrong with that, so long as most people know how not let one overcome the other. Good fiction, whether or not it is fantasy, ultimately rests on how much it draws on real life. From the outside, that may be hard to grasp when talking about stories with fantastic creatures. Yet we have detailed here in past posts that it was the depth and themes of fictional worlds of Middle Earth and Narnia that was in large measure the reason for their enduring success. Continue reading →

Categories: Fiction | Tags: , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Did He or Didn’t He?

Posted on January 9, 2016 by Darrick Dean

At the end of World War II the Allies splintered between East and West, and they began carving up Germany and the rest of Europe. Even as the Cold War began to develop, the Allies were rounding up and preparing to try various members of the Nazi regime. It is no secret that while they were doing this, they were also deciding which Nazis to keep for their own purposes (and others would be released early from prison in the following years). This, and the consequences and questions of ethics, have been documented in many books such as The Nazi Next Door and Operation Paperclip.

The Allies also sent investigators to verify the death of Adolf Hitler, since the remains had been burned. There have always been whispers of Hitler escaping, but I’m not one to jump quickly to join conspiracy theories. Then two things happened.

First, there has been the continuing revelations of deception regarding the protecting of many Nazis brought to the U.S., or used in Europe, to “assist” in prosecuting the Cold War. The government’s nonsensical policy of picking and choosing who to use, and who to prosecute, and to occasionally change their mind years later, is a troubling window into what certain people in power do.

Second, something stood out in these accounts of investigating Hitler’s suicide in his bunker. The investigators relied on the testimony on Nazis and evidence provide by them. Continue reading →

Categories: History, Modern History | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Garage Band or Superstar?

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Darrick Dean

What to bands and writers have in common? Quite a bit. Author and editor Jaimie Engle wrote on the similar path musicians and authors take. It is up to you where to stop on that road, so check out her post and decide which band you want your writing to sound like.

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About Time

Posted on January 3, 2016 by Darrick Dean

I was way past due in getting around to reworking my About and book pages. More coming soon.

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Martin: “done when it’s done”

Posted on January 2, 2016 by Darrick Dean

Should George R.R. Martin, author of the books that inspired the Game of Thrones HBO series be apologizing for missing the deadline for his latest book?

I don’t think so.

It’s not just because, as an author, he has reached a level success many do not. This is about his work — writings that has made his career and defined him as an author.

Writing, like anything else, doesn’t always go according to plan. Sometimes it goes fast, sometimes it does not. Martin wrote, “Sometimes the writing goes well and sometimes it doesn’t…as spring turned to summer, I was having more bad days than good ones.” A writer who cares about his or her work, doesn’t want to get it done just to get it done.

There are times where the process does go fast and certain books get out quickly. Other times, not so much. The expectation to have a constant flow of books from authors is partly influenced by the apparent relentless parade of television and films. However, even those in the film business can be pressured to rush their work. Peter Jackson said he wasn’t happy with not having as much prep time with The Hobbit as he did with the LOTR. Extending the series to three from two films ultimately gave more time to create another epic trilogy. I get that publishing and filmmaking are businesses, but when you have something that has succeeded, why risk messing with what made it a success?

Like Martin wrote, “It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it.”

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Opening Our Eyes in 2016

Posted on January 1, 2016 by Darrick Dean

I’ve written on how 19th Century author George MacDonald fathered the fantasy genre that has become such a staple of literature. Beyond that, MacDonald was also a controversial figure in his day, and even now. Why? Because he wasn’t afraid to challenge the status quo. Biographer Michael R. Phillips writes:

In his later writings MacDonald strongly attacks the mentality that cares more for providing its own position than for discerning the truth. He would prefer to find himself in the wrong, and thereby learn a new facet of truth, than win an argument…he would not even formulate an opinion until he sees the question more clearly…[he wouldn’t]…put forward an opinion prematurely until the light of truth had been shed upon it.

Here, on the first day of the new year, perhaps this is what we should keep in our minds and on lists of resolutions. A commitment to test what we read, what we are told and what the powers that be claim is so. In an election year this is even more important, because the professional politicians and their dutiful followers have already spent months weaving their deceptions. We need to be like MacDonald who had

…a mind not afraid to doubt and ask questions. It was a mind not hiding behind doors, but knocking on them. His eyes were wide open, alert to any entrance of truth.

So in 2016, let’s open our eyes, stop hiding and start knocking.

Categories: Critical Thinking, What You Can Do | Tags: , , , | 3 Comments

A Time to Speak

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Darrick Dean

Even though some of my favorite books are old-school dystopian — A Brave New World, 1984, Fahrenheit 451 — I haven’t picked up many of the new wave of books in this genre. One exception has been Nadine Brandes‘ Out of Time series. I reviewed book one, A Time to Die here. Book two, A Time to Speak continues chronicling the life of Parvin Blackwater.

Parvin lives in a future where the world was devastated by disaster. All she knows of civilization is walled in from the rest of the world and run by an oppressive government. The rulers control the population through Clocks. Each person knows when their life will end as their Clock counts down. Parvin was only months away from the end and her life hasn’t amounted to much. In book one, we saw how she began to change that, facing perils she never could have imagined. The true nature of the world she lived in also began to reveal itself.

I don’t want to give too much about this book and reveal the ending of the first for those who haven’t read it. I will say, Parvin has not quit on changing the fate of her people even though events have become much worse. With the Council packing people up and shipping them off to an unknown fate — which reminded me of 1930s Germany — Parvin struggles with being anyone’s leader. People are also dying before their Clocks expire. Her journey will take her to distant parts of the globe and force her to decide if she will lead, and speak, regardless of the risk to herself.

Brandes continues a well-realized, character-centric story with Parvin. Not that the other characters aren’t important or without depth, but Parvin drives this tale. You want to see what happens to her next, her choices and her changes. While her dystopian world will be familiar to genre fans, and Parvin follows that reluctant hero path, it’s her journey that sets her apart from the others. Stories like this are one reason why people write and read:

To remind us to evaluate our own journey on this world.

ndtts

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