I’ve posted a new version of “Safe Haven,” one of my oldest short stories, to the Free Articles and Fiction section.
“Safe Haven” is a tale set soon after the Trojan War, in a world that isn’t quite the same as the one familiar to us from the poems of Homer. Aside from the links on the Free Articles and Fiction page and in the sidebar, here’s a direct link as well.
“Safe Haven” will also be released to my patrons, free of charge.
I’m still plugging away on Twice-Crowned, although I seem to have lost some of my momentum on that project. I may spend a few days working on other items so as to stay fresh, then get back to the novel.
In particular, I’ve taken the first steps to move all of my archived content out of the Sharrukin’s Archive site and into this WordPress framework. For the moment, all I have is a parent page (visible on the sidebar to the right, under the “Sharrukin’s Worlds” link). I plan to hang several child pages from that, each covering a specific project or setting that I have in the process of development. For example:
This should give interested parties a chance to look at the content I’ve developed without having to dig through months of blog posts. It should also be far easier to maintain than the Sharrukin’s Archive site, which is frankly a royal pain in the nether regions to do anything with. Finally, I suspect this kind of structure might also be a convenient way to collect content on the way to developing books for publication via Amazon or a game-centered platform like RPGNow. Watch this space for further developments.
More forward progress on the rough draft of Twice-Crowned. As of this morning I’ve got just over 17 kilowords down.
I’ve been going back to the beginning of the story, to set up Alexandra’s situation and the reason why she has to flee from her home city to Athens. I think the first section of the novel is going to take place all in a single day, beginning with Alexandra about to succeed to her mother’s throne, and ending with her fleeing for her life with a single companion.
I’m still evolving my novel-writing technique. Decades of being a failed novelist have shown me several approaches that don’t work, at least not for me. Now I think I’m getting somewhere with the strategy of just dumping scenes and bits of business onto the page, with the assumption that I’ll whip the results into a coherent story later. When I work from extensive outlines and world-building notes, I tend to over-think everything.
One result of this strategy is that I don’t always see potential conflicts and themes until I’m already in the middle of them. That seems to be happening here. A bit of explanation may be in order.
This story has always been driven by the idea of writing a “return of the true king”
So, how do I get a story set in Classical Hellas, in which a woman has any chance of being a ruling monarch? I mean, that did happen once in a great while – we have the example of Queen Artemisia of Karia – but it was extremely rare.
I did it by setting up an alternate history, based on some of the more sensational interpretations of Bronze Age Greece. It’s not clear whether Minoan Crete or the pre-Greek societies of mainland Hellas were ruled by women, and it’s not very likely. Still, if you go with Robert Graves or Riane Eisler, those societies were probably more gender-egalitarian than the Hellenic culture that followed them. (Admittedly, this would not be at all difficult.) So let’s arrange for a survival of pre-Greek civilization into the Classical era. As I’ve documented elsewhere, what I ended up with was a city founded at the end of the Bronze Age by Minoan refugees, at the site of what we know as Syracuse. Although this city (Danassos) eventually became more or less Hellenic in culture, it remains the most gender-egalitarian society in the Greek world, and it tends toward female rulers.
Meanwhile, Robert Graves gave me one possible model for how a pseudo-Hellenic society might manage female rulership. That’s the idea of a “year-king,” in which the ruling queen selects a different male partner each year. That way, no one man could dominate, and the queen could keep various factions among the people in line by favoring one, then another. At least it might work that way in theory. No doubt, in practice, the system would tend to break down whenever a particularly ambitious year-king came along. Mary Renault’s novel The King Must Die, which is based heavily on Gravesian speculation, does a good job of showing us how such a system might fail.
There’s even some precedent in real-world Greek political structures. In Athens, for example, there was the office of the archon basileus (the “king archon”) who was elected or appointed each year. The archon basileus didn’t have that much of a role in actually governing the city, but he (and his wife) took care of some of the religious duties that had once been carried out by the kings.
So in Danassos, at least in Alexandra’s time, there is a ruling Queen who is essentially a constitutional monarch. She is the foremost religious and legal authority in the city, she has an important role in forming foreign policy, and she presides over meetings of the democratic assembly. Each year, at the spring equinox, she selects a new year-king; no man is permitted to serve more than once. The kingship doesn’t carry a lot of authority, but it’s considered a great honor, especially if the partnership results in the birth of a new member of the dynasty. Meanwhile, the city’s other administrative and military offices are filled by some combination of royal appointment, selection by lot, and democratic election. The whole structure is probably rather baroque; most Greek city-states had pretty complex systems of government.
So far, so good. It occurred to me, though, that in the real world this kind of monarchy would have rather unsettling implications. Just how does the Queen of Danassos select a king each year? She probably has lots of political implications to think about. Does she select a man from this faction or that one? Which candidate will do the most to support her rule and defend the city from its enemies? What if the best candidate for the city is a man she finds personally repugnant? What if a given Queen just isn’t all that fond of men in the first place? Does the Queen ever get a chance to pick a candidate just because she is attracted to him, or because she loves him? And even if she does, it’s just for a year, and she has to give him up at the next spring equinox.
Are the Queens of Danassos the most powerful women in the Hellenic world, or are they the most expensive prostitutes?
I’m going to have to think about that, while I keep working on the rough draft. There’s some good conflict there, and good potential for character development for my protagonist. There are also a lot of land-mines I’ll have to watch out for.
Just a quick post today. I’ve been home from the office with a bit of intestinal crud for the past couple of days, which has not exactly been conducive to getting any writing done either. Still, I’ve managed to get another two or three kilowords down on Twice-Crowned since the weekend. I’m not at all happy with the text as it stands – I’ve got more loose plot threads lying on the floor than you can shake a stick at – but better to get the story roughed out in full, and then go back and start polishing and trimming. The overall shape of the story is working out fine.
I should call out a source that’s been remarkably useful, and will probably continue to be so: a book titled The Seer in Ancient Greece, by Michael Atiyah
Watching this blog for the past few days has been a bit surprising. Today has been the busiest day the blog has seen since I reinstated it back in April, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why. For some reason, I’ve suddenly been getting dozens of hits from Facebook, which is odd since I don’t cross-post and don’t even maintain an active account there. Haven’t a clue as to where the hits are coming from, either, and neither Google nor Facebook’s native search engine have been of any help. Not that I’m complaining, to be sure. Still, a small request to any readers who might be coming this way from Facebook: could you leave a comment on this post to indicate where the link is coming from? I’m kind of curious what’s up with that.
Tomorrow, with any luck, I’ll be back on an even keel health-wise and ready to get back to the office. The writing that needs to be done there is piling up too.
So I’ve long since gotten out of the habit of making New Year’s resolutions. For one thing, life is too unpredictable to nail down that way, and for another, it takes more than a line on the calendar to change habits. Still, the first few days of the year is a good time to at least try and make a few plans.
I’ve got a fairly crowded agenda for my day job, where I have several course-development projects lined up for the coming calendar year. I’ll also be “on the platform” to lecture more than I was last year. So there’s one irony: out of all my writing output for the year, most of it won’t be fictional and isn’t likely to be mentioned here.
Meanwhile, I’m taking steps to improve my health in the coming year. I’m an overweight guy in my fifties, and a controlled diabetic as well, and that means I have to pay a certain amount of attention to personal maintenance. At least, I do if I want to live long enough to enjoy a few years of retirement, subject as always to the whims of our lords and masters downtown.
Recently I resumed my membership at a local gym, and while I’m never going to be slim and athletic again, I hope to build up a bit of strength in my legs and maybe lose a few pounds. Possibly more productive is a suggestion my podiatrist made, not long ago. Apparently there exist compact elliptical machines that are ideal for putting under a desk, so you can be working your legs and burning calories even while you sit at a computer. I’ve got one on order for my home office, and if that works out I may order a second one to take to work.
As far as creative writing goes:
Another thing I’m considering is shutting down the Sharrukin’s Archive part of this site, in favor of just placing any “persistent” items in this WordPress framework as permanent pages. Honestly, the Archive as it’s structured is an enormous pain in the ass to maintain, and I’ve never managed to populate it as densely as I originally planned.
Honestly, that seems like enough to keep me busy for the next few months. Watch this space for progress reports.
A good holiday to everyone, whichever holiday you may observe.
Personally, I’ve been enjoying a few days off from work: spending some time with my wife and children, flying starships around in Elite: Dangerous, experimenting with the new tabletop game SpaceCorp (there may be a theme here), and getting some writing done. Also, ignoring the outside world entirely. I think if I paid any real attention to the horde of rough beasts currently slouching their way toward Bethlehem, I would probably go mad.
Work on the new novel proceeds apace. It’s a little slow, especially because I keep having to stop and do some research every few lines. In the past week, I’ve had to read on:
As for that last item, I found some very satisfying evidence:
Not to mention that the whole business of going to fetch water in a classical Greek city handed me a perfect little conflict scene. One of the story’s major ongoing themes has to do with how a woman is forced to deal with one of the most profoundly misogynistic cultures in history. The fountain house was apparently a nexus of feminine society in Athens, but it was also a venue where men frequently stalked, harassed, and assaulted women. A good place for Alexandra to decide that she has very much had enough.
Just a quick post to report that I have, indeed, started work on a new original novel (working title is Twice-Crowned), set largely in classical Athens, with Alexandra and Memnon as lead characters. A little over two thousand words down so far in
Something of a departure this time. Most of the characters I’ve drawn up so far have been upper-class
Age25; Human; 6′ 2″; 170 lbs.; Tall, brawny man, tanned skin, dark hair and eyes, neatly trimmed beard.
ST 14 [40]; DX 13 [60]; IQ 12 [40]; HT 13 [30].
Damage 1d/2d; BL 39 lbs.; HP 14 [0]; Will 14 [10]; Per 12 [0]; FP 13 [0].
Basic Speed 6.5 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 8 (DX); Dodge 10; Parry 10 (DX).
TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Dorian Greek (Native) [0].
Combat Reflexes [15].
Code of Honor (Soldier’s) [-10]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) [-5]; Status (Ordinary craftsman) -1 [-5]; Vow (Always protect Alexandra) (Major) [-10]; Wealth (Poor) [-15].
Quirks: Dislikes wealthy and arrogant people; Frequently swears “to the crows with it”; Has an unspoken crush on Alexandra; Loves farming and hunting; Proud [-5].
Area Knowledge (Danassos)-12 (IQ+0) [1]; Armoury/TL2 (Melee Weapons)-11 (IQ-1) [1]; Bow-12 (DX-1) [1]; Brawling-15 (DX+2) [4]; Carousing-13 (HT+0) [1]; Climbing-12 (DX-1) [1]; Cooking-11 (IQ-1) [1]; Farming/TL2-13 (IQ+1) [4]; First Aid/TL2 (Human)-12 (IQ+0) [1]; Hiking-13 (HT+0) [2]; Intimidation-14 (Will+0) [2]; Leadership-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Running-12 (HT-1) [1]; Shield (Shield)-14 (DX+1) [2]; Shortsword-12 (DX-1) [1]; Soldier/TL2-13 (IQ+1) [4]; Spear-14 (DX+1) [4]; Strategy (Land)-10 (IQ-2) [1]; Streetwise-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Survival (Plains)-12 (Per+0) [2]; Swimming-13 (HT+0) [1]; Tactics-12 (IQ+0) [4]; Thrown Weapon (Spear)-15 (DX+2) [4]; Tracking-12 (Per+0) [2]; Weather Sense-12 (IQ+0) [2]; Wrestling-14 (DX+1) [4].
Character notes for Memnon:
In my day job, I develop and teach short courses in cybersecurity. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been overseeing a pilot offering for a new course, which implies nine- and ten-hour days at a minimum. This week in particular I’ve been “on the platform,” lecturing and leading classroom sessions. All of which is to say, I’ve been coming home in the evening and crashing hard rather than getting any writing done. Today was spent mostly just resting.
I did get one interesting task done today, though. Over the past few weeks, I’ve worked out an overall timeline to support the story of Alexandra’s adventures – essentially an alternate history of the Peloponnesian Wars. That’s a little coarse-grained, though, mostly just a bullet list of the most important handful of events to take place each year. Now that I’m getting close to starting to write, I need a more fine-grained timeline on which to hang the plot. Which means I spent today juggling calendars.
Most of the first novel is going to take place in and around Athens, in the years 416 BCE to 414 BCE. Alexandra is going to be involved in the life of the city, its religious festivals, civic observances, and political debates. All of which means I need to deal with the Athenian calendar. Unfortunately, there wasn’t a single, consistent, well-designed Athenian calendar.
The Athenians kept track of religious festivals with a lunar calendar, each year starting on the first new moon after the summer solstice, with 12-13 months per year. A fairly rigorous lunar calendar existed in the period I’m writing in, based on the calculations of an Athenian astronomer named Meton. However, the actual festival calendar seems to have been maintained by the city magistrates, who were not astronomers and just based an ad hoc reckoning on whenever someone spotted the new moon every month.
Meanwhile, during the period I’m working on, the Athenians maintained a completely separate solar calendar to keep track of the workings of the polis government. They broke the solar year (365 or 366 days) into ten roughly equal
Meanwhile, I’ve already invented my own calendar for Alexandra’s home country, the Etos Kosmou reckoning I mentioned in this post. Meanwhile, for my own sanity, I need to relate everything back to the Gregorian calendar so I can keep track of things.
It was actually a challenge to figure out the dates of new moons, full moons, and the four points of the solar year that far back in history. I spent an hour or two this afternoon messing with my usual planetarium software (a copy of Starry Night 7 Enthusiast), but that was kind of imprecise. Finally I found a couple of useful links:
Since both of those sources matched the few dates I had already worked out by hand, I felt inclined to put some trust in them. Those sources enabled me to quickly set up a spreadsheet comparing Athenian festival calendar, EK reckoning, and Gregorian reckoning for the roughly two-year period I need:
Off to the right, I have columns of the table marking (some) of the prytany beginning dates (important if I need the government to change hands, or for the timing of an
Neat exercise, this, and it should lend the story some verisimilitude. I can’t guarantee that this is exactly how the Athenians reckoned those two years in particular, but then their calendars were maintained on the fly. Since this is alternate history, a slightly different set of magistrates might very well have decided to arrange things differently. Hopefully, the result is good enough that any classical experts in the audience (all two of them) will let it pass.
(Whenever I write in this period, I keep having nightmares that involve Harry Turtledove reading the story and shaking his head sadly
Okay, having worked up some historical figures, and sketched out the details of the Danassos setting’s magic, I think I can finally put together some of my leading characters. Here’s the protagonist of the first story, as she is just after she arrives in Athens. Back at home, she’s a member of the royal family, a goddess-touched priestess, and a magician of uncommon talent. Once she sets foot in the Piraeus, though, she’s just another young foreign woman without an obolos to her name . . .
Age 16; Human; 5′ 1″; 115 lbs.; Petite young woman, curly black hair, dark eyes, strong eyebrows, well-groomed but wearing shabby clothing.
ST 10 [0]; DX 12 [40]; IQ 14 [80]; HT 12 [20].
Damage 1d-2/1d; BL 20 lbs.; HP 10 [0]; Will 16 [10]; Per 14 [0]; FP 12 [0].
Basic Speed 6 [0]; Basic Move 6 [0]; Block 7 (DX); Dodge 9; Parry 9 (DX).
TL: 2 [0]. CF: Hellenic (Native) [0]. Languages: Dorian Greek (Native) [0]; Punic (Accented) [4].
Ally (Team of aurai, nymphs of the breeze) (100% of starting points) (12 or less; Group Size (6-10)) [60]; Appearance (Attractive) [4]; Blessed [10]; Clerical Investment [5]; Medium [10]; Rank (Religious) 2 [10]; Ritual Magery (Path/Book) 3 [30]; Ritual Magery 0 [5].
Enemy (Melissa, usurper of Danassos) (Equal in power to the PC) (6 or less) [-5]; Honesty (12 or less) [-10]; Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) -1 [-5]; Status (Ordinary craftsman) -1 [-5]; Vow (Celibacy until becoming Queen) (Minor) [-5]; Wealth (Poor) [-15].
Quirks: Broad-Minded; Enjoys intellectual debate; Responsive; Shy around attractive or handsome men [-4].
Area Knowledge (Danassos)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Current Affairs/TL2 (Greater Hellas)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Dancing-11 (DX-1) [1]; Diplomacy-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Dreaming-14 (Will-2) [1]; Finance-13 (IQ-1) [2]; First Aid/TL2 (Human)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Fortune-Telling (Dream Interpretation)-15 (IQ+1) [4]; Hidden Lore (Spirit Lore)-13 (IQ-1) [1]; History (Danassan)-13 (IQ-1) [2]; Knife-14 (DX+2) [4]; Law (Danassan)-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Literature-12 (IQ-2) [1]; Occultism-14 (IQ+0) [2]; Path of Dreams-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Elements-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Health-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Knowledge-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Protection-15 (IQ+1) [2]; Path of Spirit-16 (IQ+2) [4]; Politics-13 (IQ-1) [1]; Public Speaking-14 (IQ+0) [2]; Religious Ritual (Hellenic)-14 (IQ+0) [4]; Ritual Magic (Hellenic)-16 (IQ+2) [4]; Savoir-Faire (High Society)-14 (IQ+0) [1]; Singing-12 (HT+0) [1]; Swimming-12 (HT+0) [1]; Theology (Hellenic)-14 (IQ+0) [4].
Some notes about this writeup: