A man
who recently read my historical novel “Pentadaktylos” commented that he was
amazed that an author could actually control a whole set of people who came
together to form a solid book. He commented: “Isn’t that like playing God?”
I had never thought about it like
that, but after some pensive moments, I did acknowledge that the author should
have a degree of control over the characters in a novel. “It’s very easy for
some key characters to run away with the plot to the point that the author has
to re-think or worse still, dump a chunk of pages and start again.
It does help enormously if the
writer creates a synopsis or story-board prior to writing, and indeed write a
rough of the final chapter. In fact, it’s an excellent strategy to be
completely familiar with how your book is going to end. This is like having a
goal – it’s a roadmap to where you’re going. You can always change the goal or
destination, but having it there early or at the beginning can save a lot of
frustrations and writer’s block.
This actually happened with
“Pentadaktylos” a story set on the island of Cyprus in the Eastern
Mediterranean in late 1958. I wrote the novel about seven years after leaving
the island and the ending I chose seemed quite fitting then. But the MSS sat in
a box for over forty years until I scanned it into the digital age. I decided
to edit and tighten it up and in doing so created a different ending which as
it happens, for many readers is much more satisfying and actually adds life and
truism to the novel.
. One very useful strategy is to
create a resume or character sheet for each of the major players in the novel
and add to it as the character develops, or refers to a major point in his life
that is likely to be mentioned again.
In writing “The Guardians of Stavka”
I developed one or more pages on each of the characters. For Harry Travis the
Canadian Secret Service operative, who is also the reluctant hero, I worked on
his background such as schooling, ethnicity, maternal relations (he lost his
father in the Korean War) and a lot of his preferences and distastes before I
even set action to paper. Knowing his total background brought Harry to life.
His boss, a crusty Englishman who
had worked for British Intelligence in London and was now heading a strange
service in Canada, had a military background in WW II. I had him serve in Egypt
and work with the historic Long Range Desert Group. Coincidence! He worked
alongside one of the major British players in Pentadaktylos, my first Cyprus
novel which is not connected to “Stavka.”
I needed to have Harry Travis meet a
girl, fall hopelessly head over heels in love with her and then sow the seeds
of suspicion that she was not exactly the person she appeared to be. Harry
spends his summer vacation from college in Prague, Czechoslovakia. It is July
1968. He meets Anna and she’s mixed up with a group of activists – remember,
social rebellion was in the wind with drugs, flower children and hippies. They
break away and spend a month wandering through the country – even making love
on a church altar.
They return to Prague and continue
living together. It is hot and humid. They sleep on an apartment balcony. It is
August 21st 1968. Harry wakes
up to strange sounds. Tanks! Shooting! Screaming! He desperately searches for
Anna, but she has gone. The Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia actually happened
and his frantic, perilous search for the young woman he loves is set against
that event. He has to wait a year or so before he meets her again – in Toronto,
Canada.
Historical fiction is just that –
fiction! However, it does allow the reader to have some knowledge of what
really happened. If they wish to know more, the fictional tale acts as a step
towards finding out what really transpired.
“Pentadaktylos – Love, Promises and Patriotism
in the Last Days of Colonial Cyprus” is a love story set against a real life
background of violence involving British troops on the one side and Greek
Cypriot freedom fighters on the other. The main thread of the story occurs in
1958 with flashbacks to Cyprus in 1940 and the British Expeditionary Force’s
evacuation of Greece in 1941. I lived in Cyprus during the Struggle for
Independence and I knew people from both sides. I listened to their stories and
then created the fictional characters for the book.
A reader asked me how was it
possible that one of the EOKA people being hunted in the mountains by the
British Army could have fought alongside the British at Normandy in WW II? Easy. He was a member of the Cyprus Regiment which
served in many theaters of war including Dunkirk, North Africa and as the
Allies swept through France in Normandy. The Cypriot in the book while in
England transferred from the Cyprus Regiment to be with the Royal Army Ordnance
Corps to work with explosives. Several Greek Cypriots who served in EOKA also
served at Normandy. Ironical? Absolutely,
but then history is full of irony and it’s reflected in historical fiction.
While reading historical fiction can
be quite intriguing for the reader because it takes one’s imagination back into
another era, it’s also fascinating and challenging for the author. If one has
lived in the past times, one knows the social and political climate of those
times, but if not, one has to start digging into the history of a lifestyle
perhaps in another century.
I have always been fascinated with
Russia and its history but I knew nothing of a town called Gori, Georgia where
the Prologue occurs for my book “The Guardians of Stavka,” in the summer of
1894. I had to research the lifestyles and habits of three teenagers, the
dialogues of the residents, the smoldering resentment of being ruled by the
Tsar and the laws forcing Georgians to learn the Russian language. At first,
research can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, but then an energy takes
over. One feels enmeshed by the subject and it is at this point that the writer
can start the novel. Incidentally, if you know your history, you’ll know that
one of the teenage boys in “Stavka” grew up to be Joseph Stalin. His mother
wanted him to be a priest in Tiflis.
It becomes gratifying when a reader
phones and says: “When I read your story I feel as if I am there. I become a
part of it.” That is the ultimate compliment for the novelist writing
historical fiction.
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