The other day I had an experience I will never forget. I had the opportunity to visit the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, including the Japanese Gardens. It was a cool, sunny day, around 48 degrees, and as I stood there in the sunny enclosure, dappled by the shade of overarching Japanese maples as red as fire, the air was filled with maple seeds spinning and helicoptering silently. There was magic in the air. I felt that if I turned around, I could grasp the door handle and enter Cyrus Barker’s home.
What a monumental effort it is to create such a garden. I cannot imagine what it must have been like before the invention of the backhoe. In an earlier age, when life was brutal and short, such luxuries were only for kings and conquerors. Such an achievement shows more than mere power and position, however. It shows the strong need an individual has for aesthetics, the desire to create something lasting and beautiful. And it was indeed profoundly beautiful.
I believe Barker’s garden, his half acre Eden, is an allegory in my novels. It represents the land in London he has come to love and for which he is willing to lay down his life. At the same time, it is the Oriental part of Barker’s life, his mystery on display. It is the part of him that a typical English gardener would find extreme and stoical.
Do you have a favorite, secret garden that means something to you?
Cheerio,
Will
October 25th, 2008
Years ago, I was a young adult librarian and it was necessary for me to read a lot of teen literature. Much of it, I regret to say, was not of interest to an adult, although the influence of J.K. Rowling has improved that somewhat. One notable exception and a bright spot to my reading was Phillip Pullman’s Sally Lockhart series, (”Ruby in the Smoke,” “Shadow of the North,” “Tiger in the Well.”) The character teeters on the brink of adulthood in the first book, and by the third is already a mother. I cannot recall another series that slides from Young Adult into the Adult category.
Lockhart is a detective in Victorian London and she faces real social problems such as opium addiction, poverty and street crime, while encountering villains that are more than two-dimensional. I recommend the series and regret that Pullman hasn’t written more of the series, involved as he is with His Dark Materials and other projects. Also, teaching at Oxford and having Rowling as a best friend does tend to keep one occupied. PBS has recently produced the Lockhart series on Masterpiece Mystery, starring Billie Piper. While not being fully period appropriate, they are lavishly done and worth a viewing. After her other recent television appearances, I admit, I can’t help looking for Doctor Who’s TARDIS!
October 1st, 2008
I’d like to recommend a delightful series of reprints by the Penguin Publishing Company. In the wake of the highly successful Dangerous Book for Boys, Penguin has produced a series of classic paperbacks. They are ostensibly for boys, but all men and women should read them. These books have block print covers featuring 1920’s era art. The set of books, each priced around ten dollars, includes:
- The Thirty-nine Steps by John Buchan
- Prisoner of Zenda by Anthony Hope
- She by H. Rider Haggard
- The Man Who was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton
- Riddle of the Sands by Erskine Childers
- The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
I can recall in the early 1980’s going out to purchase a Penguin classic every week or two. They included works by Doyle and Christie, Chesterton and Stevenson, and had the distinctive orange spine and black cover. I’d forgotten how much I’d enjoyed them and looked forward to the next.
These are the best Victorian and Edwardian fare, perfect for the whole family.
Cheerio,
Will
August 10th, 2008
Today’s blog is an interview by Will’s wife, Julie, with Jodie Butler, an artist known as rosesandthorns who posts art about Barker and Llewelyn, as well as other interesting subjects on www.deviantart.com.
Julie: Tell us a little about yourself, Jodie. Do you have an art background?
Jodie: I do have a background in art, though I only consider myself an “amateur,” an amateur of limited (but hopefully improving) talents. At a local two-year college, I earned an Associate of Arts degree and took a variety of drawing, writing, and graphic design classes. When I entered a four year college, I majored in Commercial Writing and minored in Graphic Design, and earned a Bachelor of Science degree. For about seven years now, I have worked at a small daily newspaper as a page designer/copy editor. One strange fact about me: I enjoy looking up words in the dictionary.
Julie: What type of books do you like to read? Have you illustrated other series besides the Barker and Llewelyn books?
Jodie: As to genre, a lot of the books I read seem to fall in the fantasy category (mostly young adult/all-ages fantasy), with mysteries/thrillers also as big contenders. But the books I am truly drawn to are all about characters and themes that I love, and that transcends genre.
I have drawn some fanart for a few book series besides the Barker and Llewelyn novels, most notably a fairly recent fantasy trilogy for which I drew a number of (mostly) pencil sketches of the characters with no background. I also sheepishly confess to joining the glut of those who have drawn Harry Potter fanart.
Besides the book series, I have drawn fanart of various anime/manga and The Phantom of the Opera, both Leroux’s book and Webber’s musical (again, mostly simple pencil sketches of the characters with no background.)
Julie: How did you discover Barker and Llewelyn, and what do you enjoy most about the books?
Jodie: I found the first Barker and Lewelyn novel on the new books shelf of a local library when it first came out several years ago. I enjoyed it, and when the second one appeared on the same new books shelf about a year later, I remembered that I had liked the first and picked it up. The third novel I got through inter-library loan some time after it came out, and I made a mental note to myself to look for the then-upcoming fourth novel. But life and other things got in the way, so it wasn’t until December 2007 that I finally remembered to request the book from the library. As soon as I read the fourth book I thought: “Why haven’t I bought these books before?” So I did. Soon afterwards I realized that I had become a fan, for the series entered the small list of books I can read over and over again.
What do I enjoy most about the series? The loyalty that Barker and Llewelyn have toward each other, as well as their interpersonal dynamic, reminiscent of that between a father and son.
Julie: Which is your favorite illustration from the series? Will and I love them all! He’s especially fond of Barker as Shi Shi Ji, the Stone Lion, and I keep being drawn to Bok Fu Ying with Harm.
Jodie: I have two favorites: “Characters: Barker and Llewelyn” and “Barker and Llewelyn: Street Scene.”
Julie: Will loves to do pen and ink drawings of the characters in the margins of his manuscripts (since he writes them longhand). What is your favorite medium to work with?
Jodie: I would have to say that my favorite medium is pencil. Almost every artwork I draw starts as a simple pencil sketch that generally goes through a lot of revision before I either finish it in pencil or change it to pen and ink, marker, mixed media, computer generated, etc.
Incidentally, I would love to have Will Thomas’s talent for going straight to pen and ink, and I am hoping he will share his own drawings!
Julie: That’s under consideration! Thank you for sharing your thoughts today.
Jodie’s art can be viewed at: http://rosesandthorns.deviantart.com/gallery/#Barker-and-Llewelyn-series-fanart
July 3rd, 2008
Recently, a traveling Broadway stage show came to Tulsa, presenting yet another rendition of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera. It has caused me to admit, with some reluctance, that I am in fact a Phantom phan, me and about a million women, drawn to this highly romanticized version of Gaston Leroux’s novel. I tried to repress it, but really, all my favorite things are there: Victorian period setting, danger, secret passageways, murder, romance, and intrigue. Small wonder, then, that on my first trip to Paris, the former Opera Garnier was at the top of my list to see.
The first movie version I saw was the one starring Herbert Lom, produced by Hammer. It was very Grand Guignol, but the seed for Webber’s work was there. It was the first version in which Erik dies a hero instead of a monster. Since then, I’ve seen every version, including some I wish I hadn’t. I enjoyed the Bruckheimer production, I admit, but my favorite is still the silent one produced by Carl Laemmie, starring Lon Chaney. Perhaps it is because Leroux was still alive to see it.
I know, the original novel falls just short of being considered a true classic by most critics. Call it a guilty pleasure, if you will. I’ll probably go to a performance, a lone male in a sea of women mesmerized by Webber’s redux of Leroux’s creation. And I’ll enjoy every minute of it. Are you a Phantom phan?
Cheerio,
Will
June 29th, 2008
After a few technical difficulties, I’m glad to say our blog page is back on track. It couldn’t happen at a better time, just a few days from the publication of the newest Barker and Llewelyn novel, THE BLACK HAND. The official book launch will be July 12th at the 41st Street Barnes and Noble in Tulsa, 7 PM. If you are within driving distance, I hope you will consider attending. Given the theme, you might consider it an offer you can’t refuse.
Cheerio,
Will
June 24th, 2008
Review: Sherlock in Shanghai: Stories of Crime and Detection by Cheng Xiaoqing, University of Hawai’i Press, 2007.
I have known for years that there was a series of stories published in Shanghai in the 1920’s and 1930’s featuring a Chinese Sherlock Holmes, Huo Sang, but this book, edited by Timothy C. Wong, is a small collection of some of the best, translated from the Mandarin. All I can say is, it’s about time.
Shanghai, the wide open Shanghai of Col. Fairbourne, represented in movies such as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, was known then as the Paris of the Orient, though already men such as Mao Tse Tung were plotting its downfall. Shanghai was a nexus of Asian and European cultures and a natural place for interesting tales featuring a duo like Huo Sang and Bao Lang. Cheng Xiaoqing produced a prodigious number of adventures featuring the duo, and sometimes the mysterious villain, the South China Swallow.
Historically, Sherlock Holmes has fascinated the East, in particular Russia and Japan, and China was no exception. The tales of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were some of the earliest stories to be translated into Chinese. It’s natural that an author like Cheng should decide to turn about and write some of his own. It’s just a shame it took this long. The translation is sometimes clunky and cliched, and I don’t envy Mr. Wong’s attempt to translate Chinese thought for Western man. However, he gives Holmes fans and Sinologists like myself a glimpse into a fascinating era. Like Oliver Twist, I’m holding up my bowl and saying, “Please, sir, may I have some more?”
Cheerio,
Will
April 20th, 2008
A really good series I’ve discovered over the past year is the Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne mysteries by Julia Spencer-Fleming. One of the reasons I like them is the location. They’re set in Miller’s Kill, New York, a small town in the Adirondack Mountains. Having lived on the southern tip of the Adirondacks a few years ago myself, I know it’s an inspiring and mysterious place, certainly conducive to a good story. The characters of Clare and Russ, who are an Episcopal priest and a Police Chief, respectively, get your attention and hold it as we wonder how their relationship will develop.
If you like to start at the beginning of the series, the first title is In the Bleak Mid-Winter. You’ll zip right through them. The new one I’m waiting for is I Shall Not Want, which comes out in June, perfect for great summer reading.
Cheerio,
Will
April 16th, 2008
This year marked the passing of a well-loved Tulsa landmark, St. Michael’s Alley, a coffee house and restaurant at 31st and Harvard that was the inspiration for the Barbados in my stories. I went there often in high school and I recall the mother of one of my classmates say that it was the place to go when she was in high school in the 1950’s. I never stopped going.
St. Mike’s had low lighting and tall, pew-like booths, all in dark wood. Beer steins from all over the world hung in the rafters. In those pre-Starbucks days, they had a huge, wheezing silver espresso machine from Italy. Many is the time I’ve gone to hear Tommy Crook play his fine guitar.
And the food! Tortes and frappes, reubens and roast beef au jus, washed down with a fine Cafe San Francisco. Chips and a pickle spear, and that great jalapeno bread. It’s my definition of comfort food.
I remember the time I arrived to find the restaurant smoldering from a major fire. It disappeared for a few years, but then returned, exactly as it was before. Who says you can’t go home again? Come back, fellas. I need to do more research.
Cheerio,
Will
March 21st, 2008
There is little I enjoy more than the serendipitous moments that sometimes occur when I am writing, when two facts are joined together by imagination and later prove to be fact. That is when I know my research is accurate and worthwhile. It happens again and again.
In “Some Danger Involved,” I placed Barker’s headquarters in the Elephant and Castle district in order to make it easier for him to access the different areas of London. I also made him a Baptist and a member of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s church, the Metropolitan Tabernacle. So where was the tabernacle, when I went to research it? In the Elephant and Castle district, right across from Barker’s door.
In “The Hellfire Conspiracy,” I have two characters that were living women, Beatrice Potter and Amy Levy. Both were reformers and socialists. I made them best friends in the novel, and about a month after publication, ran across a very obscure quote that mentioned the girls were indeed close friends.
Those are the kinds of moments when I look up from my pile of research books, raise my fist in the air and murmur, “Score!” We writers are not a demonstrative crowd.
Cheerio,
Will
February 23rd, 2008
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