I've drawn a total blank in writing Shadowstrider. I took a bit of a chance, thought I'd try my hand at a scene with a sort of James Bond feel to it. Actually, it's a bit more like "Splinter Cell" in the whole sneak in and don't get caught idea, not the suave libertine like Bond who comes in dressed to kill and introduces himself to every pretty girl in the room. Anyway, I decided to makes this the finale of Book Seven, got it set up real great, even wrote an outline, and I never use outlines. Then as I started up writing and... blank!!! Just blank. I haven't been able to write more than a couple paragraphs since the New Year.
I need some sort of escape from all the depressing crap going on in my family, so I've switched to a story I haven't worked on in years, a nice little dragon fantasy. I'm hoping it cheers me up and gets me through this block on my main project.
However, this story has heavy Middle Eastern influences. The setting is a desert planet, very Dune-esque. Most of the characters have Arabic, Jewish, or Persian names with a few African, Indian, Turkish, Albanian, Japanese, and even Swedish influences throughout. Things like food and fashion are all desert style, with abayas and salwar-kameez and dupattas and keffiyehs and eating baba ghanoush and drinking qawah. Very fun to write.
Now my husband is wondering why the hell I'm looking up all this Arabic information. He raises an eyebrow every time I start mentioning about Islam and various beliefs and traditions I find interesting and try incorporating into the story. He's worried that too much obvious Middle Eastern themes will hurt the book by drawing heating attacks, both from the Muslim community who may think I'm mocking them, and from Muslim haters who will think I'm a terrorist supporter or something. I'm left wondering why I can't give a nod to Frank Herbert without it becoming a political issue.
I may post an excerpt in a couple days. One thing about my story that goes against the "traditional" dragon lore yet follows the more modern assumptions about dragon physicality: my dragons are vegans! Wohoo!!!
1 comment:
Hello
You've just became my "friend" on FB and I found link to this blog over there. I am a muslim and Frank Herbert novel long time admirer, so if you'd like I could tell you could be found offensive. I'm quite sure that you know already that using the Prophet's name is a tricky thing? Unfortunetly everyone in this crazy world became oversensitive...
I understand very good your interest in Middle Eastern world, I'm a bit crazy over it, too :)
Post a Comment