Interview with Professor Awesome: Annotated

I had a rollicking good time talking with Professor Richard Scott Nokes over Skype on December 8th, 2018.

After finishing the interview, I realized that I had forgotten to bring up a few things I wanted to mention. I gave a lot of advice on the writing process and thought hyperlinks might be helpful for those interested in following up on them.

One aspect of the interview that makes this a little out of the ordinary was the time spent getting the tech stuff working.  We spent over half an hour trying to get the Skype application to record. After several failed attempts, Professor Nokes got it working. He started to record, but I didn't see the banner at the top indicating it was recording. I didn't want us to begin talking in earnest and have to start all over again.

I mention this because that mistake on my part is the first half minute of the video. After we stopped talking Professor Nokes spent about an hour editing the raw footage and uploaded the unedited raw footage. D'oh!

What you really missed was the cool introductory musical theme song that precedes his interviews. To get you in the proper mood, here is the music you should hear before his interviews:

 

And here is a re-posting of the interview with time stamps of my annotations.

At 2:04 I mention that my series is based on the legends of Charlemagne that were told and retold in the south of France and north of Italy for several centuries. For those interested in learning more, Fordham University has a website dedicated to those legends.

2:55 I mention one of the most famous contributions to the legends of Charlemagne, The Song of Roland or La Chanson de Roland. Here is a link to Fordham University's online translation and a link to Amazon.com's trade paperback version.

3:50 I show my copies of Barbara Reynolds' translations of Orlando furioso. Here are links to those copies on Amazon.com Part One and Part Two.  Those books are my preferred version of this epic poem. They are in verse and there is a lot of white space, so I find it easier to read. Guido Waldman has a one volume version, and it is written in prose. I find it difficult to read because the font is so small, and there is little white space. Here is a link to his version on Amazon.com

A free online version by Project Gutenberg can be found at this link. A fair bit of warning though. This is the William Stewart Rose translation. I started reading this epic poem by printing out a few cantos of this version and found it utterly confusing. Later, once I read the versions by both Reynolds and Waldman, I went back and checked a few choice passages. Rose refused to translate some of the bawdier ones. Bummer.

(As a side note: I do not recommend the latest translation of Orlando furioso by David R. Slavitt. That is because his publisher heavily abridged his work and deleted numerous cantos that cover the Bradamante and Ruggiero story. I disagree with the editorial decision to cut my favorite storyline from the poem, and so I cannot recommend that version. )

5:50 Professor Awesome asks me to define Saracen. Here is a link to one online definition from the Online Etymology Dictionary.

I use Saracen in my title as one of the magic terms that helps to conjure the genre, time period and meaning of the novel in as few words as possible. Fate is reminiscent of the Oracle of Delphi and those in Greek mythology trying to change their destinies. Saracen is a term that went out of use after the Medieval period. Knight is also a Medieval term used in regard to war and chivalry.

Together the three terms should help readers know this is an epic historic fantasy set in the Medieval period.

8:50 I show my copy of Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, translated by Charles Stanley Ross. This is the full unabridged version by Parlor Press. Here is a link to Amazon.com's trade paperpack.

Warning: there is a previous edition by Ross that was abridged and did not include Book III of Boiardo's tale. Bradamante and Ruggiero meet in Book III, Canto iv. I was disappointed after finishing that abridged version to realize that it did not include the scene that I most wanted to read.

10:00 Discussion about fantasy elements in realistic settings.  I realize in retrospect, I didn't really answer Professor Awesome's questions about this aspect of my story.

I agree that it is difficult to strike a balance between fantasy and realism. I am retelling a story about a war that never took place between the North African Muslim army and Charlemagne's Frankish army. My goal was to make the setting feel like Medieval Europe (and North Africa) that would include historically accurate details about Roman artifacts, cultural beliefs, religious restrictions, etc. And then, there is magic, but few have the ability to cast magical spells. They are: Atallah, Melissa, and Maugis. Aistulf was given a magical book which has allowed him to cast some spells, but he is not a wizard.

For the most part, the characters live in a realistic and non-magical world, but there are times when flights of fancy come into play. The flights of the hippogriff is the most notable.

Orlando furioso included iconic visits to the Underworld and the flight to the moon by Aistulf. I had to include them, but I wanted more realism in the storyline to at least help me to "buy the premise." I feel that if I can't buy it, I can't sell it.

22:15  I mentioned writing a Master's Thesis. For anyone interested in it, here's a link to Sonoma State University's library copy of The Cultural Evolution of the Cave Man.

And here is a link to the Fifth year Harry Potter Fic that I wrote back in 2003.  It won the Readers' Choice Award for novel length story on the now defunct website Portkey.org

24:30 Question about how to begin becoming a writer.

25:15 My answer: find a writers group or club. I mentioned the California Writers Club.  My branch of that statewide organization is Redwood Writers.

Here are links to other writers groups that focus on genre fiction:
Romance Writers of America. 
Sisters in Crime.
Historical Novel Society.
Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America


27:00  I mentioned the challenges of getting the Point of View or POV correct. To give a little more information here is one article about the differences in POV choices. Here is a link to an article about POV violations.

And here is where my annotation, really takes off. There are many other aspects of the craft of writing that I learned over the years from belonging to my writers club. My branch has had workshops about various topic as well as talks at our monthly meetings or sessions in writers conferences. Each one of these topics is worthy of extensive blog posts or entire books.

Here are two books that I recommend:

David Corbett's book: The Art of Character 
Jordan E. Rosenfeld's book Make a Scene

Other topics that perhaps I should try to expand on as topics in the future include:

Compelling dialogue
Pacing
Plotting
Establishing setting


***One thing that I meant to bring up in my discussion with Professor Awesome, but forgot are the sheets of paper affixed with blue painters tape to the wall behind me. Those are the months of June, July, August and September of the year 802. That was one way for me to determine when different plot events took place.

The calendar was found at www.timeanddate.com This also includes the phases of the moon.  I include that information in my story. If there's a mention of a full moon, I'm not making it up. And, if I have my characters do something outdoors at night and I don't want a full moon's worth of light - I will make it rain or overcast or foggy.

Using a calendar to structure your underlying plot will give backbone to your story. I recommend all writers have a beginning day and year in mind. Then establish your timeline of events accordingly to that date. It will help you to avoid continuity errors.

I had a friend whose manuscript I read as a critique group partner. Her novel had the climax of her story being on the Thanksgiving holiday. The problem was that she had not been as careful in planning the events as she should have been and she had two Wednesdays worth of chapters. There was a line where she stated it was Wednesday, but I knew it wasn't. That's because I ground myself on the days of the week and other nitpicky details. I then gave suggestions as to how she could move certain events to still make her climactic events happen on the day she wanted.

The use of a calendar to determine the dates of plot points is something I recommend every writer use.  

The calendars on my office wall are hard to see, but the events in the months of July and August
are written in pencil, because those already took place in Quest of the Warrior Maiden. Fate of the Saracen Knight takes place in the months of July and August. The different color Post-It notes represent different character POVs that are being represented in chapters or are background information for me to know who was where and doing what on that day. For example: blue is for Bradamante, dark orange is for Ruggiero, yellow is either Renaud or Aistulf, light orange is for Rodomont or Akramont.

I tend to write one action/adventure sequence before switching to a different character's action/adventure sequence. Later, to balance the work I will shuffle the chapters together. To achieve balance, I may have to switch the days of different plot points. Having those plot points on color coded Post-It notes helps me visually re-organize and balance my storyline.

Once I start working on Volume III, I will update those calendars and create new months. ***

 32:30 I couldn't remember the name of this website that is accessible to all writers wherever you are: Absolute Write online website. There is also Absolute Write Chat and forums.

Wattpad is another global forum for writers and readers.

So if you live in a rural area and/or cannot find any writers groups in your local area you can try one of those two online websites. Go schmooze, find like minded people and engage with them.

38:30 I recommended the book Audition: Everything an Actor Needs to Know to Get the Part by Michael Shurtleff. Oops. There are twelve guideposts for actors, I misspoke and said ten. Humor is Guidepost 4. Here is a small excerpt to demonstrate why I adore Shurtleff's book and his advice.

"Humor is not jokes. It is that attitude toward being alive without which you would long ago have jumped off the Fifty-ninth Street Bridge.

Humor is not being funny. It is the coin of exchange between human beings that makes it possible for us to get through the day. Humor exists even in the humorless.

There is humor in every scene, just as there is in every situation in life. There is humor in Chekhov (too seldom found) and even in Eugene O'Neill (virtually never found). When we say about a life situation, "And it's not funny, either," we are attempting to inject humor into a situation that lacks it. We try in life to put humor everywhere; if we didn't, we couldn't bear to live." - page 53

So yes, as writers, we need humor in our writing. Even if the only humor in a scene is gallows humor.

44:30 There was a mention of Medieval Conferences. I twice attended the International Congress on Medieval Studies at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan. I delivered papers about Carolingian legends and Ariosto. I will be delivering another paper in May 2019 in a session organized by the Société Rencesvals. My paper is titled "To Die For: Duels by knights in Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso over swords, horses, heraldic symbols, and women."

I delivered the paper "Orlando furioso's archetypes and the twisting of expected plot conventions" at the 15th Triennial Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society in 2016. 
Here is the website for the International Courtly Literature Society North American Branch and to Academia.edu if you are interested in seeing my paper.


( I should at some point finish writing citations of the two papers I delivered at Kalamazoo and upload them to Academia.edu. One of my papers, "Ludovico Ariosto’s Legacy: Inspiring Countless Artists, Playwrights, Novelists, Filmmakers, and Puppet Theater" was filled with images and the challenge I have is finding good online sources for those images and then go through the cumbersome process of MLA citation. That shows my work ethic that I don't want to publish a paper online without my citations being in order. That will probably wait until some rainy day when I am procrastinating from doing other writing.)


I think that's all for now.

Here's a reminder that the both Quest of the Warrior Maiden and Fate of the Saracen Knight are discounted in the month of December. If you know someone who loves reading and would like to fill their physical or digital bookshelves, please send them the gift of reading. Or give yourself a gift and be transported back to the time of Charlemagne.

Cheers,

Linda
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2013 Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo

Douglas Gallagher, Professor Richard Scott Nokes, Linda C. McCabe, Alexis E. Fajardo, Brandon Spars

I have a quick announcement before I give my report on the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies:

I will be doing a reading and book signing at the English Bookshop in Milano, Italy on Monday, June 17th at 6:30 pm. The address is 12 Via Mascheroni (the store opens on Via Ariosto!). Please help spread the word to anyone you know who lives in Northern Italy and might be interested in hearing me speak. Note: I do not speak Italian, so they would have to understand English. If they intend on coming, please let Peter Panton know in advance to help him determine how many chairs to set out and how many books to order. Another way to RSVP would be to send me an email or to join the event on my Facebook page.

 Okay, back to my report:

I recently returned from my first ever Medieval Congress held on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

To give you an idea of how large this gathering is, here are a few statistics:

There are approximately 3,000 medievalists from all over the world who attend this four day annual event.

This year's program had over 250 pages

There were over 500 sessions with roughly fifty running simultaneously

The deadline to submit proposals for next year's Congress is June 1, 2013

It is so large that it not a conference, it is a congress.  I do not know at what point the classification changes from conference to congress, but perhaps it is with the sheer number of sessions offered.


If you couldn't find something you wanted to attend, you didn't look hard enough.

I grew up in the state of Michigan, but it was only after I moved to California and started reading medievalist blogs that I  learned of this annual event.

It took a fair bit of advance planning over a year ago for me to be a participant in this year's congress. Thankfully, I found some like minded people who all happen to live in Sonoma County to agree to join me in a panel. We all had adapted the legends of Charlemagne in the hopes of introducing these tales to twenty-first century audiences. I also approached a regular attendee of these congresses and asked if he would be our organizer and preside over the session.

Thankfully, Professor Awesome agreed.

Schmoozing with Professor Richard Scott Nokes AKA Professor Awesome.

We were session #402 out of 582 sessions. I think we were lucky in our schedule because it was Saturday morning at 10 am. It could have been an evening session after the wine hour or we might have had an 08:30 am Sunday morning session when people are recovering from the popular Saturday night dance.

I helped Lex Fajardo staff a table in the exhibit hall. We took turns staffing the table during meal times and when one of us wanted to attend a session.

Lex Fajardo and me at the exhibit table

There were several sessions I attended that I want to highlight. The first was "Constructions of Women Warriors in Medieval Eurasia 2.0." In particular, there were two papers that seemed appropriate to my interest in the women warriors in Carolingian legends.

Suzanne Hagedorn of the College of William and Mary gave a paper titled "The Amazon as Temptress: Thalestris in the Alexander Romance Tradition." I had never heard of Queen Thalestris and the story of her approaching Alexander the Great asking to bear his child since she regarded him as being the epitome of male strength, valor and prowess.

It was an interesting paper and it that reminded me of a portion of Orlando furioso that I did not use in my novel.  Canto XX details the history of an Amazonian tribe that warrior Queen Marfisa came across during her travels. Men were scarce in this tribe and those who were allowed to live after venturing near their shores had to pass tests of surviving combat with ten men in a single day and then satisfying ten women later that night.

(While this passage is interesting and humorous, it did not further my plot of Bradamante and Ruggiero's love story and so it was cut by me.)

The second paper from that session that I would like to mention was delivered by Diane Wright of Grand Valley State University. It was titled "Early Iberian Models of the Female Warrior: History, Myth and Legend."

I look forward to corresponding with Diane in the future about those legends.

Schmoozing with Professor Diane Wright

Another session I attended was the French Cultural Traditions in Italy: The Era of Andrea da Barberino. I do not speak or read Italian, so I was unfamiliar with the source material mentioned in the various talks. However, I met scholars interested in the Matters of France and how they were disseminated into Italy and Italian literature. I anticipate having a good correspondance with those contacts.

On Friday I attended a panel regarding E-publishing and Medieval Studies. I wanted to show support for Professor Nokes as well as meet Peter and Sandra from the wildly popular blog Medievalists.net fame.

Peter and Sandra from Medievalists.net and Professor Nokes

Saturday was the day of our session and while I had been hoping for better attendance, those who came were enthusiastic about our topic.

I spoke about the challenges of adapting two epic poems into a novel suitable for 21st century audiences. This included correcting continuity errors with geography, culling extraneous subplots, and balancing the needs of drama vs. historical accuracy.

Lex Fajardo discussed his approach to blending the Beowulf story with heroes of other legends in a graphic novel form. In his Kid Beowulf series, Beowulf and Grendel are twelve year old twin brothers and his stories are "prequels" to the classic legends.

Lex showing images from the prologue of his first graphic novel Kid Beowulf and the Blood-Bound Oath

Doug Gallagher discussed how he and his students adapted Orlando furioso into a stage production using Pink Floyd's album The Dark Side of the Moon  as a soundtrack.

Doug showing a picture of the many visual elements of that incredible stage production.

Brandon Spars then talked about how he taught the Song of Roland to his class. It involved using a tin foil horn as a prop as he read the classic poem and then squirting ketchup on his face to simulate Roland's temples bursting. I am sure none of his students will forget that day's lesson.

Brandon Spars with "blood" on his face

After our session, I participated in a lunchtime roundtable discussion sponsored by Kalamazoo's local independent bookstore Kazoo Books. There were seven (or eight?) authors on the panel discussing writing historical fiction. Most of the authors were also professors, and I believe I was the only one whose genre extended into the fantasy realm. There was a good give and take between the presenters and the audience who asked some thoughtful questions. For the next two days I had people who recognized me from that talk and I was able to extend the conversation with them about our shared love of books.

Here are two other photos of people that I met who helped make this a special time for me.

Here I am with Medievalist blogger and grad student Jennifer Lynn Jordan

I had read Jennifer's Per Omni Saecula blog for many years and grew to appreciate her humor and love of all things medieval. It was even better meeting her in person. She's cool and I hope once her busy academic year is over that we can share a bad medieval movie mash up like she did once with Carl Pyrdum.

I had so many wonderful conversations with medievalists from all over the globe. I was thrilled to meet Italian and French medievalists so that I could talk about the legends of Charlemagne with them since it is a part of their shared heritage.

I also met a man who is descended from the Noble House of d'Este.

Yes, as I read his name badge, I asked James Estes if he was a descendant to the patrons of Boiardo and Ariosto. He admitted that he was.

This led to a spirited exchange with many laughs and this photo.

Schmoozing with James Estes, descendant of the patrons of Ariosto and Boiardo

How many times do I have the opportunity to geek out over the Noble House of d'Este?

More photos from the 48th International Congress on Medieval Studies can be found on my novel's official Facebook page with this open link. (Meaning you don't have to be a member of Facebook to see this album.)

I plan on going back to the Medieval Congress again, but perhaps in 2015 to help spur on the celebration of the 500th anniversary of the original publication of Orlando furioso. Plus by that time, I should have my sequel published.

Please let me know your experiences with the Congress and any other pages with photos, remembrances, etc.

Thank you,

Linda

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/05/2013-medieval-congress-in-kalamazoo.html

Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo

For several years I have seen blog posts by Professor Richard Scott Nokes about all the fun he has had at the annual Medieval Congress held in Kalamazoo, Michigan on the campus of Western Michigan University.

This year I am going to join him.

Correction, this year I am going to be in a panel discussion where Professor Awesome will be our moderator.

This will be Session #402 out of 582 sessions.

"Carolingian Legends: Adapting Medieval and Renaissance Literature for Twenty-First Century Audiences" on Saturday, May 11th, 10-11:30 am in Room 2355 Schneider.

The panel will consist of Alexis E. Fajardo, author of the Kid Beowulf series,

I will be discussing adapting my novel Quest of the Warrior Maiden from the epic poems Orlando innamorato and Orlando furioso,

as well as Douglas Gallagher and Brandon Spars of Sonoma Academy who produced an incredible musical adaptation of Orlando furioso set to the soundtrack of Pink Floyd's "The Dark Side of the Moon."

 

It should be a fun round table discussion. We hope to inspire medieval literature professors in their preparations to have a grand celebration of the five hundredth anniversary of the publication of Orlando furioso in 2016.

I would enjoy meeting up with other medievalist bloggers at the Congress. Please drop me a line here or attend my session. Lex and I will also be vendors, so you can try to find us there as well.

If anyone has any suggestions about these Congresses and what to expect, I would enjoy hearing about it. I have attended other conferences, but never one with so many sessions and an expected three thousand attendees.

Help this newbie out if you can!

http://lcmccabe.blogspot.com/2013/04/medieval-congress-in-kalamazoo.html