Review: Wicked: Witch and Curse by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguie

Wicked:Witch and Curse is something of a double whammy of a book. For starters, it comprises the first two novels, Witch and Curse, of the Wicked series. And then there is the small matter of the novels having two authors.

Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié met at a Maui Writers’ Retreat some years ago. Holder will be familiar to many of you as the writer of no small number of Buffy, Angel and Smallville books. Viguié was her student at the retreat. They clearly hit it off and the five novels (to date) of the Wicked series are the result.

Witch was first published in 2002, and Curse the following year.  The next two novels in the series, Legacy and Spellbound, also came out in 2003 but readers have had to wait until this July for the fifth novel, Resurrection. In the meantime, no doubt in an effort to drum up a little interest, the first four have been re-packaged into two two-novel volumes which were issued in late 2008. Still, I shouldn’t be too churlish about that: two novels for £6.99 is a pretty good deal by anyone’s standards and when the novels are this readable...

But I’m getting ahead of myself. So back to business.

Witch opens with turmoil. Holly Cather’s parents have taken Holly and her best friend on a white water rafting trip on the Colorado river. They have also taken their argument; one of those weeks-long arguments that can only end in catastrophe. So it doesn’t really come as a huge surprise when the weather starts to imitate Holly’s parents, turning the river into a swirling hell from which Holly alone emerges alive.

Orphaned, and best-friendless Holly finds herself dragged from her beloved San Francisco to chilly, and infinitely wetter Seattle, to join two cousins, Nicole and Amanda, and their mother, and Holly’s father’s sister, Marie-Claire.  These are relations she never knew she had and as the novel progresses we realise why her father had cut all ties with his family: the Cathers are witches, descended from the ancient family of Cahors in France and the sworn enemies of the equally ancient and French Deveraux witches. And therein lies the problem, because the leading member of the 21^st Century Deveraux family, Michael, is alive and well and living around the corner in Seattle.

In Witch, Holly starts to discover her heritage.  She begins to settle into her new family, slowly becoming aware of her own and their abilities. At the same time she also starts to understand the powerful link that exists between herself and her 13^th century French ancestor Isabeau de Cahors, an understanding which is enhanced when she meets  Michael Deveraux’s son, Jer, who is himself drawn back to the 13^th Century through his links with Isabeau’s lover, Jean de Deveraux.

What follows is partly the traditional battle between good (female) and evil (male) and partly a Romeo and Juliette style love story. (The reference is deliberate, by the way. Nicole is actually starring as Juliette in the school play during the ferocious final battle of the novel!) On the way there’s also a fair bit of self discovery (not just on the part of Holly and Jer) and challenge to the stereotypes, most notably the ‘male=bad’ one, you’ll be glad to hear.

Curse picks up from Witch a year later. By then Jer is a physical mess hidden away on a mythical island and kept awake by goodness knows what magic, Nicole has run away to Europe to escape her destiny (yes, you knew that would be a mistake) and Holly has become Coven Mother back in Seattle. Needless to say the battle between the Cahors and the Deveraux reaches a further stage, this time accompanied by pyrotechnics that leave the reader gasping for breath. The two harbour scenes are stunners and would look great in CGI.

I won’t say more about the plot, for to do so would take me into spoiler territory. These are both fast paced, page turners of books and I was left at the end of Curse wanting more. This is not just because so many questions are left unanswered, nor because of all the hooks into the next novels. I had also grown fond of the characters and I want to know whether they survive and in what mangled emotional and physical state.

And so, you may ask, was there anything I didn’t like? Well, yes, actually, there was. You see Holder and Viguié consistently use a particular collective noun for a group of covens. It’s Coventry! I can’t imagine that bothers the original American readers a jot, but every time I hit it, an image of a dull Midlands city would swim before my eyes. And apart from wet weather I really could not see what Coventry had to do with anything.

But that’s a pretty niggling criticism. I found both Witch and Curse hard to put down.  You may have the same problem.

Wicked by Nancy Holder and Debbie Viguié, published by Simon and Schuster, September 2008

Review: The Demon's Lexicon, by Sara Rees Brennan

Stephanie Meyer seems to have plunged us all into a craving for YA Urban Fantasy with brooding, mysterious  males and teenage misfit heroines, and The Demon Lexicon delivers all this for us in a concise ( by Twilight standards) 322 pages.

As the book’s blurb tells us:

Sixteen year old Nick knows that demons are real. Magicians call up demons in exchange for their power. The demons can appear in any shape, show you marvels, promise you anything – until you invite them in and receive their mark. What happens next? First you get possessed. Then you die.

Nick’s been on the run his whole life, ever since his mother stole a charm from the most feared magician of them all, and the only person he trusts is his brother Alan. Alan’s just been marked by a demon. Only Nick can save him, but to do so he must face the magicians – and kill them. The hunt is on. And Nick’s going to discover things he never dreams were out there...

Nick is the original dangerous male: he has impenetrable, dark eyes and a lithe, muscular body and he can do things with knives and swords that would strike fear into a Samurai’s heart. Worse still, he feels no fear. Or pity. So, when his soft-hearted brother agrees to help pink-haired Mae and her demon-marked brother Jamie, he is disgusted.

Mae, however, is no Bella. She is a tough, feisty number, whose ability to look after herself is only marred by her inexperience in wielding weapons.  Indeed, the reader senses that she grows in stature as the novel progresses. And this may explain why the follow-up, The Devil’s Covenant, gives her the major role.  

From the beginning, you know that these two are destined for each other. But as the blurb indicates, this is no love story, rather a quest to save Nick’s brother Alan (and Mae’s brother, Jamie too). And as a quest, it works well. There’s no shortage of action, a fast pace and plenty of spooky, even stomach-churning scenes. (A particular favourite is when someone’s eyes turn to black beetles and run out of his eye sockets, down his body, and across the room to take a closer look at Nick!)

Nevertheless, love, in all its forms, is a powerful theme in the story. Alan’s love for Nick governs all his actions. Mae’s love for Jamie enables her to undertake tasks that horrify her. And clearly, love is the key to rescuing Nick when he discovers the secret his mother and brother have been keeping from him. 

And this was the one thing that bothered me: it seemed to me that Brennan had set up her world of magicians and demons so well that it is impossible to see a way out of Nick’s predicament at the end.  She has set herself a huge task in the sequel and I will be very intrigued to see if she can pull it off.

On set with Invasion of the Not Quite Dead

Date:                     Sunday 16^th August 2009

Place:                    A fruit farm in deepest Kent

Present:                AD Lane, 16 crew members, 4 actors, 11 extras, 1 actor’s girlfriend, and me

The weather could not have been better: the sky a deep azure blue, and the sun glistening on the newly applied fake blood.  A number of inhumanly pale farm labourers pick apples for their co-worker to sell to equally sickly-looking passers-by. Another labourer, in a boiler suit, gazes into the distance, the smoke from his cigarette swirling around his head and momentarily masking his peeling flesh.

And Vincent de Paula, Director of Photography, glides slowly past with his camera.

This is the first time AD Lane has sat in the director’s chair since graduation and you might have expected him to look a little nervous. Instead he seemed totally at ease, chatting happily with crew, and cast during the breaks, and introducing himself to each and every extra to ensure they felt comfortable. This is my only experience of a real shoot but I was struck by the overwhelming calmness of the proceedings. I had expected the long periods of hanging about, whilst equipment was set up, or cast walked through their part, but I was surprised by how polite everyone was even during the actual filming. It was all please and thank you and there was the most delightfully gentlemanly discussion between Director, Assistant Director and Director of Photography at the end of filming before the Assistant announced, almost apologetically, ‘I think that we have a wrap.’

Maybe this was the reason why Antony brought the filming in under budget and in less time than expected.  Another might be the commitment of everyone involved. You only had to listen into a tiny part of the chatter to realise that everyone there was a zombie freak. Take the young couple who had driven over two hours from Hertfordshire just to be extras. They get married in early September and yet they found time to take part. They get married in September and yet they have already invested £450 in the film and want to invest more when they know how much they have left after the honeymoon! And they didn’t even want a speaking role; they just wanted to be part of a zombie film. Now, that is true dedication and you have to believe, with that sort of support, Antony can’t fail.

So what of the trailer itself? I’m sworn to secrecy, and anyway I didn’t see the morning’s filming. But I can tell you it will feature the film’s heroes in Leslie Simpson and Efisia Fele (otherwise known as Fangoria’s Penny B Dreadful) along with the cigarette smoking zombie, Frank Jakeman.  Antony is hoping to get it out in time for Hallowe’en, preferably previewing it at a festival and you can be sure that it will raise more questions than it will provide answers. The intention is to keep the punters guessing right to the film’s release.

I’ll let you know when the trailer is available, but if you want to get a preview then you will have to dig into your pocket and sign up to one of Antony’s producer packages (http://www.theindywoodproject.com/). You too could be a zombie then, since all producers will be invited to be extras in the film itself.  Oh, and don’t think you need to be a zombie freak to be involved either. It turns out they really are a very friendly bunch with more than a slight penchant for Nice biscuits!

Tunbridge Wells Strikes Again

The idea for Strife was sparked off when I wondered what might follow if the bandstand disappeared overnight. Now a short story based on another of my Tunbridge Wells musings has been accepted for publication in an anthology for adults being published in November. The story, called the Rock House, is about a spooky house built into the rocks on an area of common land and the even spookier old lady who lives in it.

Tunbridge Wells common has a number of houses that are half built into the rocky outcrops that occur in the area and they have always struck me as incredibly magical-looking buildings. I'm sure no-one like my fictional old lady lives in any of them but I do wonder what sort of person could live in a house that seems to grow out of the living rock. Any ideas?

Would you believe it?

One of my novels, Strife, starts with the local bandstand disappearing.

That idea came to me about four years ago but, because I was busy with other things at the time, I parked it for later. Shortly before I started to write the novel, I noticed bits and pieces in the local paper suggesting that the bandstand in the local park was going to be demolished. Apparently the structure was no longer safe. That kicked off a campaign to ensure that if it could not be saved it should, at least, be replaced by another bandstand of similar type. The campaign has a petition and a facebook group. The council are still considering what to do, but if you would like to help please do sign the petition and join the group.

So now, of course, writing my novel became an increasingly urgent project. Its aim isn't to save the bandstand, but if it helps, that's all to the good.

Interview with Garen Ewing, creator of the Rainbow Orchid

At some point in our childhood, or perhaps only in our mythical childhood, didn’t we all spend winter Sunday afternoons, curled up beside a roaring log fire with tea and toast and an Asterix or Tintin book, doing our utmost to ensure that the warm butter dripping down our chins didn’t sully those precious pages?

Now Egmont, who still publish the Tintin books, have taken a punt on a young Briton, called Garen Ewing, to bring us The Rainbow Orchid, a new take on that experience. I thought you’d like to know what makes a 21^st century cartoon artist do such a thing. So, off I went on my travels down Southern England’s A roads once more, to find Garen and have a chat.

Now, the first thing you discover about Garen is he’s a gentleman. My car was reporting an external temperature of 28.5˚ when I arrived; Garen offered me a choice of cold drinks, ushered me to a comfy sofa in his front room and opened the conversation with the kind of selfless questions that immediately puts someone at ease.

And there is something quintessentially gentlemanly about Garen’s attitude to his art too. He combines a quiet confidence in his graphical abilities with an almost unnerving modesty about his command of colour.  Indeed he confesses that the limited palette used for The Rainbow Orchid was a product of his own uncertainty and a suggestion from his wife to keep to the Dulux Heritage range of colours! For my part, I don’t care how he got there. The combination of simple, but assured, line drawings, and flat, muted colouring is what gives The Rainbow Orchid its exquisitely enchanting quality.

But, please, don’t be mislead by all this talk of colour palettes and enchantment, nor even the title, The Rainbow Orchid. For this is not some saccharine tale of fairies or cutesy magical flowers. This is a fast moving adventure tale, with action and intrigue, mystery and suspense, a plucky young hero and a beautiful heroine, an ancient, priceless sword and a mythical plant.

The story opens in the 1920s at the home of Sir Alfred Catesby-Grey and immediately the reader is plunged into a Conan Doyle world of wealthy amateurs living in elegant London terraces.  Young Julius Chancer, Sir Alfred’s assistant, has just returned from an eight month assignment to recover the manuscript of a lost Purcell opera; an assignment, we learn, that has been fraught with the kind of difficulties and danger a modern audience would associate with the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Mummy film franchises.

The filmic references are not out of place. Garen is a fan, particularly, of the early silent films, whose combination of story-telling imagery and written titles, bear more than a passing similarity with comic books. He cites an example from Chaplin’s 1931 film ‘City Lights’ where Chaplin plays a tramp who falls for a blind flower girl, as illustrating how Chaplin, as both writer and director as well as actor, uses emotion and gesture to tell the story.  It is a technique he uses to great effect in his book: he seems to take particular delight in the use of eyebrow gesture, for example. (A particular favourite of mine is the sequence of scenes where one of the secondary characters gets his hand stuck in a Phoenician vase.) And this interest in early films is, he confesses, one of the reasons for setting the story in the 1920s.

All of this is, of course, a far cry from the vast majority of comic books currently available. US, superhero and manga comic books all make use of a bold and vivid colour palette. They shout at the reader, especially when depicting action and violence. Garen shows violence too, but he uses restraint and economy of line.  There is, for example, a subtly simple panel showing a fist ramming into a man’s jaw and making his head vibrate. The violence implied by a few, apparently, casual lines is breathtaking and far more memorable than the Wham Bam violence with which we are all more familiar.

Talking to Garen, though, it is clear, that the differences do not just lie in the subtlety of line and colour. There are huge differences in how the books are conceived and created too. Garen is wedded to the idea that a comic book should be the product of one creative personality. This concept came to him over twenty years ago when he was pitching his portfolio at a comics festival, and realised that he could never achieve what he wanted if all he did was make drawings for other people’s words. So he builds up his books, bit by bit, partly with a script, partly with a few sketches until he has a firm hold of what is happening in each scene. This is a far cry from the more usual, almost production line, process where even the art content is broken down into pencil, ink, colour, etc and each is carried out by a different person.

I could go on a lot longer telling you more about the story of The Rainbow Orchid or outlining Garen’s biography. But there really is no need. You see, another aspect of Garen’s gentlemanly nature is his generosity. Take a look at his web-site: http://www.garenewing.co.uk/rainboworchid/. There you will find excerpts from Volume 1 and 2, fascinating video footage of Garen creating one of the strips, chunks of biography, links to interviews and reviews and a members section where you can sign up for newsletters and the opportunities to win original art work. Have a browse and I think you will see what I mean.

All that’s left for me now is to tell you that Volume 1 of The Rainbow Orchid is to be published on August 4^th. Volume 2 will follow early next year, and Garen is soon to start work on Volume 3.  So pop that date into your diary and make sure you get a copy. And if the cover alone doesn’t make you think of hot buttered toast, then you must have had a pretty miserable childhood!

My first published story!

Yay! My first published piece of fiction is finally out. It's a story for 8-10 year olds, called Behind the Mirror, and it's published in an anthology for the summer holidays, called A Suitcase Full of Stories. Here's a picture of the cover:

It's available now from Amazon, or direct from the publisher, Bridge House Publishing.

It's so exciting. Could this be the start of something really big?