Philippa Ballantine - Author

Award-winning Author of fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk

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Christmas Nookie

Cover-Image-Christmas-Nookies-web-largeEvery year there is a little frisson in the air. It’s cold outside here in the Northern Hemisphere, and now thanks to Short Fuse Publishing there is a way to warm up.

I have a story in this anthology, and right now it is only 99c! That’s a lot of heat for not a lot of money.

Why settle for just one when you can have multiple? Our second annual Hot Holiday Reads anthology serves up another batch of tasty bits sure to warm your heart…and other places. Featuring all new quickies by your favorite Fuse Literary authors and more, this is one sleigh ride that will make you hold on tight. Are you dreaming of a wet Christmas?

Contributors include: Blake C. Aarens, Paul Goat Allen, E.B. Ashcroft, Philippa Ballantine, Peggy Barnett, Bethany Hyde, Nicola Jane, Mairi Kilaine, Maureen Lee, Melissa Lenhardt, Anh Leod, Elizabeth Shandy, and Wendy Vogel.

 

You can purchase a little Christmas warmth on Amazon and in the next week or so all other platforms.

Merry Christmas indeed!

GUEST POST- Black Silk

Today I welcome Lila Lestrange to my site to talk about the genesis of her new novel, Black Silk, and going dark. As writers we have choices to make, like how violent, gritty and damaged we want to make our worlds. Lila talks about the choices she made and why…

“Black Silk” is a tale of thieves, evil and murder, set in a fantasy city state inspired by the European Renaissance. It contains a fair share of violence and atrocities, enough to be calle, perhaps, gritty and dark. Why? Because in real life, terrible things happen under comparable circumstances, and I could not feel honest about my writing without. I didn’t want to forget about these things, or pretend that they were not important and could be omitted, denying the experience of far too many for the reading comfort of the few. As a historian, I have always been interested in how individual lives are affected by circumstances, and how people arrive at the decisions they make. So, because of my interest in the individual, “Black Silk” takes the reader up close to killing, hanging and rape, and the impact of these experiences on the characters gives the story of unlikely allies against a common enemy its definite shape. It is the moment when the protagonists (and hopefully the reader) say- no more! – that the tale shifts towards victory. But more on that later.

blacksilkFor now, blame my historian self for the gritty setting. During my university years I read a lot of classic gender-equal, “clean” fantasy, and played many fantasy games where elves and dwarves and humans lived peacefully together in a kingdom that felt like a democracy, and an inner voice said: No. No way! You know it’s not like that. A big city with a very visible minority? Pre-Civil Rights Movement? Get real… My university was in a medieval city, and I would often walk home through what had been, 700 years ago, the local no-go-area. Now on the UNESCO’s world heritage list, it has a street name that translates to “so bad, not even your dog will follow you down here”. What was it like, back then in the 13th century? And what happens if you add fantasy creatures to the mix? Would there be angry mobs? Or ghettos, like the one that had been razed to the ground in the same city? What about special laws and taxes?
Enter the filthy and uneducated Wharf Rats gang, and their natural environment, the Lowtown slums of Naressina. With them came the fantasy creatures who settled all over the city. Speaking of fantasy creatures, although the setting owes a lot to European history, I wanted to stay away from European mythology and the classic fantasy races, and explore something different. I honestly don’t know when the first cat eared, clawed, fanged, tentacled “zereshi” appeared in my mind, but it probably was while doodling during biology lessons and daydreaming about parallel evolution, cats and aliens. I was fascinated to learn that a gesture of greeting declares non-hostile intentions and hides any natural weapons, and went on to think about alien body language, and non-human physiology. The social historian in me then had a go at wondering how the beings I’d dreamed up would fit in, and what kind of hair raising nonsense would be told at the bar in the equivalent of local pubs. And not only about the non-humans, but about rich and poor, rival guild member, nobleman and commoner.

The world of “Black Silk” is full of inequality, prejudice, dirt, and violence – and people who rise up and take a stand, often reinventing their position in the world as they do so. I like to think that this is precisely because the characters in the story know what injustice and pain feel like, and that nobody will care. When a single act of compassion by the merchant Kaliari earns him a favour with the Rats of Lowtown, it is because compassion is such a rare thing that his gesture stands out. (And he wouldn’t have done it without being driven to act by past experiences, either.) And when the Rats are good to their word, and set out to bring down the story’s main antagonist, they do so with the experience of blood and death behind them, knowing exactly what they will face. And they still do it. Terrified and in tears, but they do it. Because it needs to be done, and they know nobody else will. It is this knowledge that gives them the determination they need to settle the score, and ultimately become a force for good (and an even bigger nuisance to the magistrate and the city watch!) in a world where might makes right and justice goes to the highest bidder.

You can buy Black Silk, and read more about the novel. Cover Art by Bianca Schreck

David Bowie Is…Inspirational

So last weekend my family and I were in Chicago. The main reason was to watch the New Zealand All Blacks play the American Eagles in Rugby, and also hang out with with friends. However, there was something waiting for us there…

bowieIS_1Chicago is a hell of a town, but all the stars seemed to be in alignment for this trip, because the Museum of Contemporary Art was hosting the only American stop of the touring exhibit, David Bowie Is…

Now I have always loved Bowie and his music- pretty much ever since my friend Shelley introduced me to both when I was a teenager. Then it was Labyrinth (like most teenage girls that was an eye-opening movie) and the Prestige. So I knew he was a talented man.

Even knowing all that, this exhibit opened my eyes. David Bowie is a renaissance man in the truest sense of the word. He studied mime, he writes, sings, acts, paints and designs.

The exhibit was like a little peek into his brain, and it was amazing. Even our ten year old daughter, whose entire knowledge of Bowie is confined to the song Moonage Daydream in Guardians of the Galaxy, was entranced.

Seriously if you can get to Chicago to see this exhibit, then go (it closes January 4th). Going in knowing nothing might be even more exciting…especially for creative people. Personally this year has been all over the place, but taking a brief walk through someone else and their uber-creative life put things in perspective for me.

So, what can we learn from Bowie as writers..and people?

  1. Be Curious. Bowie as a young man had an idea of what he wanted to be, and he set about to get there. He read books that he thought were cool while traveling on the Underground in London. Eventually, he found ideas in these books he read just to look good, and that broadened his mind. Read widely. Look around you, and be always looking for new experiences to enrich your writing.
  2. Try New Things. Bowie has this program written for him by Apple called the verbalizer. In the mid-1990s this program took sentences and chopped them up and put them in new patterns. He’d then use these new and sometimes strange sentences to get him started on writing lyrics. It may sound weird and wacky, but it also seems like it was the kickstarter for new ways of thinking for him. Experiment outside your genre, it may feel weird but try out some new writing shoes now and then. Don’t be afraid to mix it up.
  3. Collaborate and Learn. David Bowie discovered other artists, sometimes quite different to himself and worked with them. He found musicians and producers all over the world, and made funk, pop, and avant garde music. Learn from others. Even if others tell you how amazing you are, you can always lose more. Writing can be solitary, find ways to communicate and work with others. It’ll be fun and you might learn something—or at least have a good time!
  4. Keep Your Head On. Although Bowie achieved amazing, world-wide success with Let’s Dance in the 1980s, he didn’t stop there. Popularity was something he wanted to try out, but then he went back to doing what he loved, creating. Love what you write, or what’s the point?
  5. Be Fearless. Or at least give the impression of fearless. Keep moving forward, even if there are highs and lows, who knows what is ahead.

To me Bowie is the ultimate hybrid; always trying new things, refusing to be labelled as one thing or another, and always moving. Perhaps that is what makes him so alien and intruduing. However, after seeing the exhibit, I know one thing Bowie Is…inspirational.

 bowieIS_2

“All art is unstable. There is no authoritative voice. There are only multiple readings.”

Books of My Childhood

There is one of those memes going around asking which books have stuck with you, and it made me think about what those books would be for me. However, being an author, I couldn’t just make a list…it needs context, and character to tell the whole story.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll keep saying it, I blame my father, Roger Ballantine for getting me to be a writer. I am sure it wasn’t his plan, but when he read me as a bed-time story these words

In a hole in the ground, there lived a hobbit

I was set on that path. Later on, as a writer I came back to reading the Hobbit to my daughter, and I realised just how difficult to read aloud it is. Probably that is because Tolkien has a real Victorian style of writing, and is also coloured by his knowledge of epic poetry like Beowulf. It does make for long sentences. I only appreciated the effort it took my Dad to read this every night, when I had to do it!

But he didn’t stop there, he also read me Lord of the Rings. I can’t tell how many months or years that took, and maybe he abridged bits, but that was an act of love. Later I read the series myself, and it stuck with me. That aspect of worldbuilding was like Edmund Hilary getting to the top of Everest; everyone else followed in his tracks.

Now I was firmly entrenched in the world of genre fiction.

I proceeded over to the Narnia books. Like his pal Tolkien, CS Lewis carved out a place in my heart. They made kids the heroes, and they told me that there was magic in the world, even if I couldn’t see it. The Last Battle taught me just how easy it is to be broken by a book. You think GRR Martin slays characters you love? Well, at least his books aren’t for kids. Two words. Train accident.

The Dark is RisingThen I read the Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper.  This introduced me to the possibilities of weaving myth and legend into stories. I remember reading these books over and over again in an almost obsessive way.

Ender’s Game. Though now classified as a YA book, it wasn’t when I read it…it was just a book. Also, the abhorrent beliefs of the writer Orson Scott Card had not yet revealed themselves, so I was able to enjoy this book- something I feel sad that young readers today are less likely to be able to do. This book haunted me, mainly because it is about choices made and childhood being warped.

I don’t ever recall my parents telling me not to read something. I am sure they were watching what I was devouring, but I never felt their presence in it. Reading was just fun.

Later on in teenage-hood, I worked my way through Stephen Kings’s early works, Carrie, Pet Cemetery, and It. I enjoyed the shivers and the masterful way King blended the ordinary with the terrifying. However I didn’t keep reading beyond teenage-hood—maybe that was enough exploration of horror for me.

When I was at my Nana’s house, I also read her books. They seemed relics of the past…which I guess they were. Most of them had probably been her books when she was a child. I recall there was one series about a group of girls all called Catherine (?) who were summoned to attend this mysterious school which might have been in Cornwall. They had all sorts of adventures, and we trying to untangle the mystery of who was running the school and why they were attending. Being a British book it was probably some kind of tragedy!

If anyone can find out the title, then please let me know!

Anyway, shortly after that I started writing for myself, dragging around my green journal and scribbling away on it. So perhaps parents should be warned, if your child reads to much there is a distinct danger that they may become a writer!

Mind you, there are worse things to do I suppose…

The Trouble with the Wife

Thinking about wivesYesterday I was watching the start of the second season of Sleepy Hollow. The show is goofy fun, with a great mix of characters, pseudo-history, and a charming pair of leads.

Usually I enjoy the show, but there are some scenes I feel really disinterested in; the ones with Ichabod’s wife, Katrina. Yep, I had to Wikipedia her to even remember her name.

It’s not a problem with the shows creators doing a poor job of writing female characters, because Abbie Mills is a fantastic person that I really enjoy watching. Her sister Jenny Mills, is even more tormented with a collection of kick butt skills, and attitude to match.

So the writers of the show can create great female characters, instead it’s the usual problem. ‘The wife.’

It’s a terrible tag. Think about it; in most shows or books, when there is a wife character, she is usually the one fans or readers complain about the most.

She’s the one whose scenes feel flat or forced. She always gets in trouble, and the hero has to drop everything to go and save her. She is either whiny, too perfect to be true, or has such a pitiful sense of survival that she should have been a Darwin Award winner.

As a wife myself, I’m a little distressed by this. For a moment I wondered, is there something inherently dull about being a wife? Does somehow becoming one make the rest of your life fall away? Do you lose all your common sense and become merely an appendage?

Luckily, I know plenty of fascinating, strong, and loving wives who show that is not true. Nope, unfortunately, it’s something about the way many writers approach writing wives.

Now, I’m going to point out that this could be said of any ‘side kick’ character—including a husband—but most often it does seem to be the wives that get this treatment.

So here’s how it begins…

When writing a male character, there is a statistical chance that at a certain age, he will have married. So the writers go, ‘ah he needs a wife.’

Ugh. First thing, by throwing that label on her immediately, is putting her into some weird mold of what a ‘wife is’. New flash darlings; wives are actually women cunningly in disguise. Frighting, huh?

Instead of just putting in a cardboard cut out of ‘the wife’ in your story, think about what sort of woman you want? She can be anything; any colour, have any job—but the one thing she must have is her own goals and aspirations. Yes, they can be family, but as a wife I can tell you I have ambitions beyond that too.

In other words, stop thinking of the wife in terms of the family alone. Where did she come from? What have her life experiences been? What are her faults? (Please don’t forget that one!)

Put as much effort into making her a character with fullness and completeness, as you did making her husband. (Again this goes for any sex, or any sidekick too)

Katrina Crane in Sleepy Hollow is also the McGuffin. She only exists to be the goal just out of reach for Ichabod. Now I love my husband, but I don’t want to be his McGuffin. I am his equal, and my back-story is in reality as complicated as his. Sometimes I will save his bacon; sometimes he will save mine.

Now things have moved on from last century, and writers—especially of genre fiction—have worked out, people do like strong female characters. However, in ‘the wife’s’ case that strength can…well it can waver…

Katrina, like many of the ‘wifey’ characters these days, has been built up to have powers of her own. When Ichabod is not around, she is a strong witch and leader of a coven. She can do spells and…stuff…

That all sounds cool, until Ichabod is near her, where suddenly she loses all those powers. Pffffttt, I don’t know where they go… This tends to happen with the portrayal of women, but in the ‘wife’s’ case it is almost endemic.

It does disappoint me, because I enjoy all the other characters in the Sleepy Hollow—and I hate feeling this way about a female character. The show has a wonderfully racially diverse cast, and a pretty equal percentage of male to female.

My favourite, Abbie Mills is a rounded person with back-story and character quirks—but then she is not hobbled with the almost cursed title of ‘the wife’.

It is the problem with labeling anyone with archetype, and I am hoping the Sleepy Hollow writers can bring Katrina foreword as her own, real character as the season goes on.

As a writer it serves as a reminder, to think in terms of people rather than simple placeholders. The wife problem is part of the wider, characters considerations, so I know if writers put themselves in the heads of wives, they will find their motivations and goals too.

So go out there, make full, wonderful, conflicted, powerful, diverse characters—and if you write a woman who is a wife, make sure that you show the world that wives are also people too!