Category Archives: Culture

Q for Quisling

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My 2020 Blogging from A to Z Challenge revisits my best posts from the 2014 to 2019 Challenges.

Q for Quisling (2014)

 A word we often see, maybe use. But do you know how it originated?

Shakespeare perhaps? Or???

In fact, it was a word originating in World War II and appropriate in many contexts. Name one use before you read the original post.

All the research nuggets were unearthed while I was creating the game-world for my novel ‘Wyrm Bait’. Those, evolved into my post-apocalyptic saga Gossamer Flames. And the research is ongoing as rabbit holes keep appearing.

Links to my other A to Z posts can be found here: https://rolandclarke.com/blogging-from-a-to-z/blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge-2020/

To visit other participants see The OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YphbP47JyH_FuGPIIrFuJfAQiBBzacEkM7iBnq6DGDA/

N for Native

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My 2020 Blogging from A to Z Challenge revisits my best posts from the 2014 to 2019 Challenges.

N for Native (2014)

I’ve been interested in and inspired by ‘Native’ or indigenous people for decades. In the 1980s, I campaigned with tribal human rights organisation Survival International, when I was editor of ‘New Ground’, a green-socialist magazine. I’ve worked that concern into some of my writing, including the world of Gossamer Flames.

This post was echoed in later years, as in 2015’s First Nations during the War of 1812. Does my interest in Romany people for another North Wales case relate? Or just on human rights?

Anyway, all the research nuggets unearthed while I was creating the game-world for my novel ‘Wyrm Bait’, evolved into my post-apocalyptic saga Gossamer Flames. And the research is ongoing as always useful – and interesting.

Links to my other A to Z posts can be found here: https://rolandclarke.com/blogging-from-a-to-z/blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge-2020/

To visit other participants see The OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YphbP47JyH_FuGPIIrFuJfAQiBBzacEkM7iBnq6DGDA/

F for Feeniks

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My 2020 Blogging from A to Z Challenge revisits my best posts from the 2014 to 2019 Challenges.

F for Feeniks (2014)

My fascination with The Firebird and The Phoenix goes back decades, well before Feeniks the bird character and this post emerged. I must have a penchant for avian ‘totems/spirit guides’ since there are at least two more in other writings.

As I write this intro, I’m listening to the 1910 version of Igor Stravinsky’s Firebird suite, which I first encountered in its ballet form during my teens.

You can listen to the same powerful music too:

All the research nuggets unearthed while I was creating the game-world for my novel ‘Wyrm Bait’, evolved into my post-apocalyptic saga Gossamer Flames. And the research is ongoing.

Especially doing research into the Slavic Folklore surrounding the Firebird for my short ‘Feathered Fire’. My story appears in the IWSG anthology Voyagers: The Third Ghost. which is released on May 5th 2020. Read more about Zharptica here: https://iwsganthologies.blogspot.com/2020/02/in-spotlight-roland-clarke-author-of.html

Links to my other A to Z posts can be found here: https://rolandclarke.com/blogging-from-a-to-z/blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge-2020/

To visit other participants see The OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YphbP47JyH_FuGPIIrFuJfAQiBBzacEkM7iBnq6DGDA/

E for Elder Scrolls

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My 2020 Blogging from A to Z Challenge revisits my best posts from the 2014 to 2019 Challenges.

E for Elder Scrolls (2018)

This was one of the games I was playing when I began my investigation into the creative Origins of various On-line Games. However, it was a challenge delving for the literature and folklore behind this one. Maybe given the massive success, I could have dug deeper.

Since then, I’ve not played this one again, although my wife has. And there are games I would now add to my A to Z selection – like the excellent G for Greedfall. However, I will visit other games that I got immersed in and did highlight in 2018.

Links to my other A to Z posts can be found here: https://rolandclarke.com/blogging-from-a-to-z/blogging-from-a-to-z-challenge-2020/

To visit other participants see The OFFICIAL MASTER LIST: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1YphbP47JyH_FuGPIIrFuJfAQiBBzacEkM7iBnq6DGDA/

A to Z April Challenge Theme Reveal 2020

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As April draws nearer so does the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge and lots of exciting posts on loads of new sites.

I’ve been doing the A to Z Challenge since 2014 and began pondering my 2020 theme sometime last year. But in the last few months, everything has overwhelmed me – emails, regular posts like IWSG and WEP, replying to comments, and my own writing. Plus, my health issues.

So, I’m taking the simpler way out – reposting my best posts from 2014 to 2019 Challenges.

Thanks to Jacqui Murray for triggering that approach with her 2019 solution: ..a genre for every letter of the alphabet, but with one or two posts every month. Her reasoning chimed with my own thoughts about too many posts to write/read/comment on etcetera in April.

She wasn’t alone as others found other solutions to negotiating the A to Z Challenge.

However, I’m still going to post on the official A to Z days, starting with A for Assault on Wednesday April 1st, 2020. If you’re tempted and follow that link, you will discover Part One of Azure Spark, which evolved into a novella featuring my Welsh detective Sparkle Anwyl. I edited the posts into three acts, and all three will be posted during April: on the 1st, 11th, and 23rd.

I suspect not everyone got to read ‘Azure Spark’ so this will be another chance. A chance to to revisit older posts on other themes; like my 2017 History of Kanata or my 2015 The War of 1812. But I’ve yet to decide what posts to choose.

Watch this space.

All I can say is Sparkle Anwyl’s case will be complete, and Azure Spark is referenced in my WIP ‘Fevered Fuse’ – my current priority along with the more imminent and crucial release of the IWSG Anthology, Voyagers: The Third Ghost on May 5th.

V for Voyagers on April 25th?

Rebecca – a review

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I was unsure whether I could count Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as my fifth Cloak and Dagger read of 2019, but at least it is the February/March book for  The Insecure Writer’s Support Group Book Club group so I can tick that off.

Then, I read the word ‘mystery’ in a description of the book.

Rebecca

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Daphne du Maurier

Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again…

The novel begins in Monte Carlo, where our heroine is swept off her feet by the dashing widower Maxim de Winter and his sudden proposal of marriage. Orphaned and working as a lady’s maid, she can barely believe her luck. It is only when they arrive at his massive country estate that she realizes how large a shadow his late wife will cast over their lives–presenting her with a lingering evil that threatens to destroy their marriage from beyond the grave. 

First published in 1938, this classic gothic novel is such a compelling read that it won the Anthony Award for Best Novel of the Century.

Review 5 stars

This was a classic that I thought I had read, but I hadn’t. Now I’m glad I did as it’s memorable and worthy of multiple reads.

Although the novel is described as gothic – and by some as a romance – for me it was also a mystery. Its style by today’s standards might be called dated and yet it was ahead of its time – as was the author.

Much of the narration is as chunks of description mixed with reflection and conjecture by the un-named protagonist living in the shadow of Rebecca. In comparison with the title character, this new Mrs de Winter seems naïve, powerless and at the mercy of others. At first, it would be easy to dismiss her – even the novel – without giving either a chance…without understanding the heroine or the shy author.

I grew up in a world not dissimilar to Manderley, albeit one that had lost its glitter but not its attitudes. I felt myself intimidated by scary and overbearing people – especially when I did something wrong. Society and doing the right thing frightened me.

Especially when such amazing people as Rebecca were being fawned over.

Rebecca may be the deceased wife of Maxim de Winter, but she pervades the story, the house and the grounds. She’s on everyone’s lips. It’s a clever device making her so dominant, giving the novel her name, and naming her, not the protagonist. And it works. The reader is fooled along with the new Mrs de Winter into believing the myth – until the doubts appear.

Mrs Danvers, doth protest too much, methinks. She is the archetypal retainer that creates fear and doubts. Rebecca haunts Manderley in one way, Mrs Danvers in another – a brilliant creation, reminiscent of other classic scary presences. A living vampire?

All the characters are distinctive. All reminded me of people I had met – even worked with. The mannerisms felt familiar, whether Beatrice, the loquacious sister, or Frank Cawley, the faithful agent for Manderley. Even Maxim de Winter was real with all his faults and guilt buried.  

If I had to befriend just one, it would be Jasper. The dog? Yes, the faithful exuberant spaniel.

One other character enfolds the novel – Manderley. The house becomes character, atmosphere and setting. At first magnificent and untouchable with buried secrets. Manderley fills the narrator’s thoughts, not just the house but the gardens and the sea coves. As the protagonist’s thoughts change so do the descriptions of setting, of home, of the weather, of the vegetation. Or is it vice versa? The weather changes and then her thoughts?

But they are all one, interacting as the plot unfolds – setting and thought and events. The past even before Rebecca. Even before Manderley. The sea and the fog.

Cliffhanging language that I need to immerse myself in again.

Story – five stars

Setting/World-building – five stars

Characters – five stars

Authenticity – five stars

Structure – five stars

Readability – five stars

Editing – five stars