[stylist] Irish novel, historical fiction and POV

Sun Apr 22 18:20:26 UTC 2012

Andi and Bridgit,
I have not been following this stream about Irish material closely, but one
book title really grabbed. Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth.
I read it many years ago, and it made me want to read all of his books.
Medieval castles have fascinated me ever since, as I picture the time and
work that went into them, and how people lived during that long space of
time.
It was a time of delayed gratification, and mini-steps toward a goal way in
the future.
Jackie

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Bridgit Pollpeter
Sent: Sunday, April 22, 2012 9:50 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Irish novel, historical fiction and POV

Andi,

I have only read two Ken Follett books, Pillars of the Earth and the
sequel, World Without End. I love most historical fiction and sponge it
up as well, but I must admit I didn't enjoy these books so much. Long
doesn't bother me as long as I find the story interesting and
compelling, but I found it difficult to carry on with these two books,
though I did finish both. I'm not against checking out other Follett
books however. Even my favorite authors have books I don't find as
interesting.

I'm really into the medieval time period as well so was surprised when I
just didn't enjoy these Follett novels, but again, I may enjoy some of
his other books.

Morgan Llewellyn is one of my favorite Irish contemporary writers,
though she tends to mix fantasy and magical realism within her
historical fiction. She often focuses on legend heroes such as
Cuchulainn, Finn Mac Cool  and Grania who have a real historical basis,
but she also writes about more solid Irish and Celtic figures such as
Brian Boru. She wrote 1916, which is about a lot of Irish issues
revolving around the IRB and the eventual Easter uprising. Not one of my
favorite Llewellyn novels, but still good. Red Branch is really good as
are Druids and Lion of Ireland. She also writes research articles along
with collaborating on historical texts.

I myself constantly switch POV never sticking to one over another. I
just start writing and POV comes out as it wants. I tend to use
first-person or third-person limited, but I like to play with
second-person and using the POV  of different characters perhaps not
always thought of as a character who we would se the story through. For
example, I wrote a short story combining various fairy-tales, and though
I never actually stated a name, a Glinda-like character ( as in Glinda
the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz) was the narrator of the entire
story. It was a tongue-in-cheek sarcastic story.

With nonfiction though, I tend to experiment more with POV than I do
with fiction. I have written my nonfiction from a second-person POV to
even using a third-person limited or omniscient. I really enjoy playing
with form, and while at university, we were encouraged to do this.

Sincerely,
Bridgit Kuenning-Pollpeter
Read my blog at:
http://blogs.livewellnebraska.com/author/bpollpeter/

"History is not what happened; history is what was written down."
The Expected One- Kathleen McGowan

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 20 Apr 2012 22:11:17 -0400
From: "Andi" <adrianne.dempsey at gmail.com>
To: "'Writer's Division Mailing List'" <stylist at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [stylist] Irish novel
Message-ID: <4f921761.e30b320a.0c97.1867 at mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"

Thank you Bridgit, I never know if one of my ideas is worth writing
about as what I think is fasenating may not be a shared interest by
others.  I realize this story will not be every ones cup of tea but I am
glad you think it might be interesting, that gives me hope that others
might to.  I know the Irish famine is a commonly told story but like I
said I hope to accomplish incorporating some of the things not as well
known about the time.  As far as character development goes I usually
tell stories from the prospective of the person but it is still in third
person.  I think you get a double perspective that way.  I like to
switch prospective so you can really get in each of their heads, really
feel their emotions.  I guess it is kind of like a Follett book if you
ever read him.  I don't copy him but I do take a lot of my lessons from
reading his books.  I love how he can make you feel empathy for all of
his characters' even if you want to hate some you cant completely.
Their was only one character of his maybe two in different books that I
found no sympathy for.  However in most of his books he has you loathing
a character only to root him on later.  It really brings a since of
humanity to his stories.  I love it because it is more realistic than a
clear line of good and evil.  In the real world there is no such line,
because everyone has a story.  I guess I want to make an impact in the
way he does by both having relatable characters' and yet get the history
to be felt by the reader.  Follett really is the reason I started
righting historical fiction.  I have always been interested in history
and soak it up like a sponge but his books gave me a hole knew
understanding of the times and places he writes about because you live
it through the characters as if you were their.  If you have never read
Ken Follett I recommend his books everything he writes is amazing
excepts his first few books but even he agrees they were not as good.
His first good book was eye of the needle then they just kept being
amazing.  The sequel to fall of giants comes out some time this year to.

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