Interview about Scratch

About a year and a half ago I was interviewed about my ebook Scratch by Stephen Foland for a website he was writing for at the time. Due to circumstances beyond his control the site closed down before the article was posted. It was a really good interview and I was sad that no one ever got to see it.

I saw Stephen last night and he said to just go ahead and post it myself, so here it is. Stephen asked some really good questions that went to the heart of my novel as well as some bigger picture aspects of my life and writing in general.

There may be Spoilers ahead.

Ten questions for Wayne Wise, author of Scratch.

1. Where did you get the inspiration for Scratch? What was the first mental image you had that really crystallized the concept?

Scratch began its life as a short story in a series of fanfics that a friend and I were writing set in the Marvel Comics universe. Somewhere along the line I realized that there was a core of a much bigger story in it and that it would be easy to strip out all of the superpowers and Marvel trappings and still have something. What survived is the basic idea of a madman attempting to kidnap his biological daughter from her mother and chasing them to this rural community with a secret. I think the central image of a small, innocent-looking girl with angel wings chained in the basement of a church is what led to everything else. The prolog, though it has been rewritten and polished several times over, appears much the same as it did in the original story.

2. The book seems to be focused on the savagery that exists in the hearts of so-called civilized men. Though there are supernatural elements in the story, the real monsters are the humans. Like in C.S. Lewis’s The Screwtape Letters there is the notion that all we need to be at our worst is the slightest nudge. Do you subscribe to the notion of “Original Sin,” if not in the theological sense, then in the social philosophical sense?

In most of my work that deals with the supernatural the real evil seems to come from people and not from the “monsters.” We do horrible things to each other without a supernatural agency being behind it. Every day, the news is filled with far worse things than I can invent. I think it is easy for people to blame an outside force for what they do rather than take responsibility for their actions. In the novel the residents of Canaan are eager to blame Scratch for the evil in their town. He becomes a whipping boy for their guilt and by projecting it onto him, metaphorically and physically through the agency of Gabrielle, they are able to expiate it. Part of my goal is to show the dark side of people. I don't think we are served by hiding or ignoring darkness. It festers in the dark, if I may be so obvious in explaining my primary metaphor in Scratch. This tendency of mine probably originates with being a long time fan of Alice Cooper (something I know we share). Alice always showed us the dark underbelly of our culture. The other part of my goal, hopefully, is to balance that by the good achieved by other characters in my story. As far as “original sin” goes... I don't really subscribe to the concept in a metaphysical sense. I think that is also projecting our own evils onto supernatural precedents in an attempt to remove ourselves from responsibility. If I'm born in sin then I really don't have to take responsibility. It's Cain's fault. I think we're all capable of evil acts, or at least we're tempted by them. I think it's easy to make little decisions that seem like nothing at the time that can lead to bigger evils. The benefit of Horror, or Fantasy or SciFi is that it allows you the metaphor to deal with this stuff.

3. In Scratch, the small town of Canaan, West Virginia is brimming with emotional intrigues and deception. Is this a case of “writing what you know” in terms of your experiences with rural towns or upbringing?

Let me say up front here, that though I was raised in a small, rural church (that's a photo of the church I grew up going to on the cover of the book, circa 1929), we never actually kept a young girl or an angel chained in the basement. It doesn't even have a basement. I haven't attended that church in years but still know people who do and quite honestly, as much as I have moved away from it in my life I have nothing but warm feelings toward it and the people who go there. They are good people and I don't really trace my own feelings toward religion to any antipathy toward this community. Quite the opposite in fact. I may no longer follow their religious path, but the basic lessons of compassion and kindness and mutual support inform my earliest memories. My book is about secrets, and the lengths people will go to to protect them. I think any community has secrets, the classic “skeletons in the closet” thing. It doesn't have to be rural. Any place with a long history has a history of secrets... lies, addictions, violence, infidelities, deaths, murder in some cases. It's part of human nature. Canaan is, in the tradition of fiction, an exaggerated example. None of the residents of Canaan are based on anyone that I know specifically. That said, in the big metaphorical picture of my life, I've known every one of those people.

4. You’re an author of comics as well as novels, who would you say are your primary influences in each form?

Too many to name. I devour books and comics. It's easier to track my comics influences. The Hernandez Brothers of Love and Rockets fame, in terms of both storytelling and art. Matt Wagner, creator of Mage: The Hero Discovered and Grendel. Scott McCloud on Zot, before he did Understanding Comics. Elfquest. Nexus. I've been going back and really looking at Dan DeCarlo and Harry Lucie, famous Archie Comics artists and both big influences on the Hernandez Brothers. Those are the ones that I can trace specific influences to, but really, I learned to read from comics. My entire sense of storytelling and heroic fiction can be traced to Marvel and DC in the 60's and 70's, so all of those creators. In writing... Everything. Stephen King, in terms of genre, certainly. Charles DeLint. Jonathan Carroll. Hermann Hesse.

5. What was the moment in your life where you knew that you were going to write?

I've always known, on some level, that I wanted to be a storyteller. My earliest form of play was pretend in the effort to tell stories. My action figures were actors in stories of my own creation far more often than they were the characters they were marketed as. My nephew and I (he's the same age as me), used to spend hours playing in the woods, and it was always about playing out an entire narrative. We were “making movies.” It was improvisational theater. We would create characters and play out an entire story in the course of a Saturday afternoon. I always had a notebook full of drawings and notes for stories. When I was fifteen I wrote a typed, single-spaced 90-plus page “Men's Adventure” novel, full of sex and violence (neither of which I had any experience with at the time. No, you can't read it). But it was a full story, with a plot and lots of characters. I spent a lot of years trying to find my voice, more than a lot of authors, it seems.

6. Scratch, along with This Creature Fair, and Bedivere Book One: The King’s Right Hand are all available as e-books. What do you see as the future of print publishing, and what do you perceive as the advantages of the e-book in terms of the current marketplace?

I love books. Physical books. I love the way they feel, the way they smell, the experience of reading them. I hope print books never go away entirely, and I don't really see that happening. I have mixed feelings about the ebook revolution. As a creator the terms for me are very good. I have control over the product. It succeeds or fails on its own merits. My royalty on a $2.99 ebook is better than my royalty on the $21.95 trade paperback edition of the novel I had published through a more traditional publisher several years ago. Online booksellers have killed a lot of brick and mortar stores, and as there are less and less of them traditional publishers are getting more and more conservative with what they will publish. They aren't taking as many chances with new authors. Thanks to Print-On-Demand technologies there are more small publishers than ever, but they don't really have much to offer in terms of royalties or advertising or getting your book in the stores. Self-publishing has always been looked down on in in the book industry, but I come from the world of comic books where it is an ideal to aspire to. It's a completely different mindset. Epublishing is DIY, utilizing digital technology. I wrote it, designed the covers, found artists to realize them for me, found editors, formatted it, promoted it... I am the business. I own the rights. A far as the future goes, it's hard to say. I hope books stay in print. Through a program affiliated with Amazon I will soon be making my three novels available in print editions, and while they will cost more than the ebooks, it's still a good deal for me, and I still own the rights. Sales on ebooks are up across the board while sales on regular books are down. I think the cheaper price of ebooks can have the effect of people actually buying and reading more. They say don't judge a book by it's cover. Don't judge a book by it's format. The story and ideas are the same whether it's on paper or on an ereader. Judge the content, not the method of delivery. The technology is out there, it's not going away. Mp3's changed the music industry but they didn't kill music.

7. One of the major criticisms of the horror genre as a whole (as well as in DC’s “New 52”) is the gender roles of women. How would you characterize the sexualization/victim cycles present in the genre as well as in Scratch?

That's a really good question. When I sit down to write I don't really think in terms of this sort of thing. Characters appear to me as part of the creation process and they play roles in my story, many times taking the narrative in directions I didn't intend. As a result, there's not much of a conscious intent on my part to address these issues. I'm a victim of the tropes of my genre and the conventions of storytelling. That's not to dismiss or downplay the seriousness of the issue you raise. In the genres I work in there is always going to be the bad guys who are victimizing someone. The victimization of women in fiction is a complex issue. Some say it perpetuates the victim role. Others point out it is a reflection of reality and draws attention to the issue. It probably does both, depending on the context. In Scratch, an incident of date rape is a part of Holly's past and serves as part of her motivation and character. She was victimized by Billy in her past, and he continues to victimize others in the course of the story. He is, pretty overtly, the bad guy in my story. Hopefully, I present this in a fashion that shows what a messed up person he is and don't use these scenes gratuitously or pruriently (though I'm sure that's debatable). Like the residents of Canaan who do horrible things and blame it on Scratch, Billy is unable to take responsibility for his own failures, projecting blame on everyone else. This blame turns into violence as he becomes more deranged. I would argue that Holly, in spite of her past victimization, is healthier at the beginning of the story than her husband Adam is. She is in touch with her creativity, is a successful mother, and her career is on track. He's an emotional mess. I think Holly reclaims her power from Billy by the end of the story as well. In Canaan we see the incredibly dysfunctional relationship between Ed and Abigail, where she is without a doubt an abused woman. I don't think Ed is ever portrayed in a positive light. I think we have all known couples who live like this, so this portrayal is representational of a dynamic that actually exists in the world, healthy or not.

I think it is also fair to point out that there is a lot of victimization of men in the novel as well. Without giving too much away, a couple of men have a pretty harrowing experience in Canaan. I don't have statistics to back this up, but my guess is that violence against men happens in fiction as often, if not more so, than violence against women. As a society we are more accepting of violence against men. It's not as big of a social issue so it doesn't get commented on as often. And once again, that's not said to undermine the seriousness of the issue of violence against anyone.

The eventual body count in Scratch is pretty democratic in regards to the sexes.

I like to think that when writing I treat characters equally, at least in terms of being honest in the presentation of who they are, male or female. People are complex, and any fictional narrative, no matter how detailed, is shallow compared to the depths of real humans.

I don't know if I've really done justice to this topic. It's a big issue and is pervasive in all storytelling.

8. There is a great deal of esoteric symbolism present in the story: Animal spirits, labyrinths, womb and birth imagery. Was this something that evolved unintentionally and organically in the writing, or something that you actively pursued?

These are all topics that have fascinated me for years, so I've done a lot of research and reading on them. I didn't really know they were going to be featured as strongly as they were until I started writing. Some of this comes from personal experience as well. In the early 90's I had a series of significant dreams about bears. Now I come from a Jungian perspective on psychology, and had immersed myself in the whole Joesph Campbell craze of the time, so when this happened I naturally started reading everything I could on bear symbolism. There's a great book called The Sacred Paw by Paul Shephard that sums up pretty much everything you might want to know on the topic. Adam's dreams in the novel are based on my own, though his are more specifically narrative than mine. The bear knocking on his bedroom window and beckoning, as well as the image of a bear in the worldtree, come straight from my dreams. Once I started this symbolic path in the book it took on a life of its own and grew well beyond my original plans. The juxtaposition of mythic, more nature-based shamanic imagery against the admittedly twisted Christian imagery of angels and devils was certainly intended.

9. You’re forthcoming about your role as a practicing magician. Can you tell us a bit about your own personal cosmologies? Chaos-based? Thelema?

I guess if I'm going to toss out the word “Magician” in my author bio I should be ready to address the issue. I've been meaning to blog about my thoughts on this topic, but hadn't gotten around to it. Let me say at the outset, I don't have any real answers for anyone else, nor are my comments meant to be definitive. I'm all about everyone finding their own path. This is what works for me.

This will probably be long, so bear with me.

I don't really follow any specific cosmology. I've read about most of the more well-known systems, of course. I've spent time with the Tarot, and read bits about the Kaballah, and alchemy and the medieval magical systems. I'm aware of most of the ideas from Crowley and that movement. I've also read the spiritual ideas from most of the world religions. I've read Biblical writings and the Tao Te Ching and parts of the Upanishads and Wiccan/Pagan histories and lots of other stuff. None of these work for me whole cloth, partially because they simply don't reflect the world I live in. There are lots of great ideas and they have made me think differently about the universe, but none of them claim my allegiance. I'm a bit of a spiritual gypsy, picking and choosing the bits that work for me (so I guess I'm a little chaotic, in that sense). I'm a little skeptical about anything that resembles a closed system. I don't cast spells in any way that would make sense to anyone. I don't mystical rituals that I ascribe to. I'm incredibly wary of any system that claims to have all of the answers to anything, whether an organized religion, an organized political party, or an organized magical system. My belief in regards to this is that far too often the followers of these systems begin to confuse the metaphors of their belief for the things these metaphors point to. That leads to trouble.

I think we are always removed from the ineffable. Short of neverending enlightenment I don't think we can understand the true workings of the universe, at least the metaphysical ones (and I say that while being completely open to the idea that science may one day explain it all). We talk about these things through myth and metaphor. And then we go to war over who has the best metaphor, completely missing the point of the whole thing. Everyone needs to find a system that works for them, but always remember that the accoutrements of the system are only symbols, not the truth itself. I think that's what the admonishment about worshiping false idols really means.

For myself the idea of the Magician is a metaphor to remind me to be aware of the magic in the world, and that by being aware of it I can bring it into my life. Other than through fictional characters like Merlin and Dr. Strange my first real contact with this mode of thought came through my reading of the Carlos Castaneda books in my late teens. Now, I'm aware that a lot of his work has been discredited, at least in terms of whether it ever actually took place. Even then I didn't care whether it was “real” or not. I read it as a parable. Something doesn't have to be real to be true. I now know he took a lot of ideas from other metaphysical systems. My point here is that this was my first contact with the idea of living life as a “sorcerer.” I reread the entire series a couple of years ago and was amazed at how many of these ideas still form a lot of my core beliefs. Magic is perception. If you want to change the world, change the way you see it. The only true power we have is power over self (the only kind that interests me, anyway). Before we can change anything else we must effect change on ourself. In psychology it's called reframing. Change your belief system and you change the world around you. Travel the path with heart, or “Follow your bliss,” as Joseph Campbell would say.

Then I started reading about quantum physics, and man, that stuff is pure magic. Yes, I know that there are scientific formulas that prove these theorems, but as a lay person, the math might as well be esoteric magic symbolism. Ideas like David Bohm's Implicate Order theory, or a holographic model of the universe resonate with my perceptions. The idea of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, at least in terms of a metaphor for me since I don't pretend to understand the math involved, sounds a lot like the idea of changing your perspective and changing the world. For me it is easy to see the connections between the ideas of quantum theory and the classic metaphysical systems. Physicist Dr. Fred Alan Wolf wrote on these topics, and I believe coined the term Quantum Shaman (I may be mistaken on that, but it's where I first encountered the term). My friend Steve Segal, in his recent book Geek Wisdom talks about how there are Math Geeks and there are Myth Geeks, but at heart it's all the same thing. I'm definitely more of a Myth Geek.

I have an MA in Clinical Psychology and read tons of Jungian work, applying his thoughts to all of the esoteric systems and what they represent in psychological terms. As I said, the works of Joseph Campbell provided the basic framework I still use to look at the contact point between all of these topics. In the 90's I read a series of psychology books that talked about Masculine Psychology by breaking it down into four basic archetypes. The first book was called King, Warrior, Magician, Lover. Truly healthy men, according to the book, are able to tap into the positive qualities of each of these (and each has negative connotations to beware of). The author's take on it is that anyone who engages in any type of specialty knowledge, be it a brain surgeon or a car mechanic, is accessing the Magician. He is the technician of knowledge in one guise, and the technician of the sacred in another. Sorcerer and Shaman. Math geek and myth geek.

Around that same time is when the bear dreams started showing up, so my interests turned to Shamanism. I tend to prefer this as a more naturalistic approach than all of the formulas and symbolism. But I recognize that this tends to have a religious connotation to it. Real world religions still have shaman who engage in a lifetime of dedication. I am not that. Many years ago I was “ordained” as a minister by an online service that professed no specific religious belief other than that of everyone having the right to get legally married outside of the strictures of organized religion. I did it as a whim, but discovered that it was legal in all states. My primary social group has always been a hodgepodge of beliefs and non-belief, yet when things like marriages and funerals come up they all seem to recognize the need for some sort of ritual. Because of my beliefs and demeanor I have fallen pretty naturally into a role that we all refer to, tongue in cheek, as “Shaman of my tribe.” I have performed a dozen weddings and one funeral.

As a creative person, in my case a writer and an artist, I believe that all Art is an act of magic. It is an effort to take my perceptions of the universe and make them visible. I am creating myself more than I am any work of art. Comics creator Alan Moore (of Watchmen fame), claims to be a magician, and in his case it is with all the trappings and esoteric history one expects from that word. He has said that writing is an act of magic. When we write, we spell. Grammar serves as our grimoire. We are giving life to an idea and casting it out into the world. Positive or negative (and I try for the positive), this effects change in the world. Ideas are memes that change people, so we need to be careful about the ideas we put out there. Grant Morrison, another comics writer who claims to be a magician (I'm sensing a theme here) talks about Pop Magick (google it to read his thoughts). He is not caught up in the magical traditions of the past, but believes that it is here around us all the time, taking new forms that reflect our current culture, which I happen to agree with. He talks a lot about the idea of Sigil Magick, which basically is giving an idea a symbolic form and putting it into the world. In his view the McDonald's golden arches logo, all corporate logos, are sigils that have tremendous power in the world. Anyone who sees the logo associates a whole complex of ideas with it and it changes their behavior, in this case for the purpose of making money for the owners of the logo. His series, Batman Inc. deals with this idea.

I believe that everything is connected. I believe this because it feels right to me and science tells me it is true. If it is true, then everything we do has connections to every other thing. Being conscious of these connections is what is magic to me. We all experience synchronicity, which is defined as “Meaningful Coincidence.” The key here is finding the meaning. It's always there if we look for it, because by looking for the meaning we create it (Heisenberg, anyone?). All it takes to see it is a change in our perception. Seeing the connections allows us to align ourselves with the universe. It's living life in balance. It's the Tao. It's recognizing that what we put into the world is what we get out of it.

“And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”

10. What other projects do you have in the pipeline right now?

I'm working on the second novel in the Bedivere series. Right now it's a trilogy in my head. It's a more complex story, so the writing of it can be a little slower. I have ideas for more stories set in the world of both Scratch and This Creature Fair. There are several characters from my print novel, King of Summer (which will be available as an ebook eventually), who will appear in further stories. I'm in the really early phases on a non-fiction project about comics and my personal experiences with it. I'm not exactly sure what kind of form the final product will take, but it's shaping up.

Thanks for the interview and review. These were wonderful questions that forced me to think... always a little dangerous.

I started a second blog...

Because, you know, there's not enough room on this one for all of my prattling.

One of my many writing projects is a book on comic book history that has been swimming around in my head for a while now. I've written some pieces of it but it is very much a work in progress. I wanted to get some of it out there to look for feedback, and more importantly, to motivate myself to work on it. I initially thought about posting it here, but there is much more of a formal structure to this project than what I normally post here, hence, a new and separate blog.

So anyway, you can take a look at it, or follow it at http://masksblog.wordpress.com/

I recommend that it be read in order, beginning with the "About" page, simply because as a book each section builds on what has come before. This probably won't be updated very often. As I say there, I welcome feedback and critique. A lot of what I have to say is my personal thoughts and ruminations on the topic. I hope to spur conversation. I don't want a lot of fanboy snark and those types of comments will be deleted pretty summarily.

Hope you enjoy.

New 5-Star review for This Creature Fair on Good Reads!

Jordan's review 

Apr 04, 13

5 of 5 stars

Read from March 12 to April 04, 2013

This Creature Fair reminds of nothing so much of as if Poppy Z. Brite had kept writing subcultural horror instead of going into foodie fiction. The perspective here is not of youth’s fiery passion, but of a long-standing deep love grown over the years. Indeed, a deep love of music is interwoven with the tale. The book is also lovingly set in Pittsburgh, with amalgamations of many prominent landmarks (Phantoms is clearly a ringer for Club Laga, complete with caged-in bar).

New review for This Creature Fair

The paperback edition of This Creature Fair prompted a great, well-thought out review. You can see it at: http://readingchallenged.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/book-review-this-creature-fair/

The entire text of it follows...

book review: this creature fair

By libraryalchemy Leave a Comment

Categories: Uncategorized

Disclosure: The author is a friend of mine. I’d considered not reviewing the book, due to my obvious bias, but here’s the thing: I’ve also studied literature for about ten years, and been a librarian for ten more, so I think I can give you a working guide to this book without descending (too far) into fangirl squee.

Photo by Marcel Lamont Walker, all rights reserved.

Title: This Creature Fair

Author: Wayne Wise

Genre: Literary urban fantasy

Publisher: Amazon Digital Services (Kindle edition) and CreateSpace (print edition)

Length: 397 pages.

Challenge: Embarrassment of Riches TBR Challenge, Platinum level

Summary: An unexpected encounter with celebrity changes the course of one fan’s life, and an entire city’s heartbeat.

Analysis

There are two broad strains of community structure in contemporary urban fantasy. One consists of a divided kingdom, a world in which there are supernatural creatures and/or an organized system of magic, a world that coexists with a mundane reality that is blissfully unaware of the other community’s existence, even though both are anchored in the same physical geography. Then there’s the community in which some “mundane” folks are aware of the fantasy community, but interact with it uneasily, forever conscious that there are two worlds that don’t play nicely together, but, of necessity, sometimes overlap. In the former kind of book, the narrative relies on the fantasy community preventing a threat within its ranks that could ripple over into the mundane community, to the ruin of both. In the latter kind, the mundane and fantasy communities work to lay aside their differences and resolve a problem, for the mutual benefit of both.

This Creature Fair is singular in that it takes neither of these roads, forging instead a middle path that opens up a new way to think about both fantasy and community in urban settings, which makes it the kind of book you read and think about, and discuss with your genre-fiction-loving friends.

The plot revolves around Nick, a serious music fan, who travels to Washington D.C. to see the enigmatic Morrigan Blue perform. Morrigan takes a liking to Nick on sight, and they strike up a rock star/groupie relationship. Unbeknownst to Nick, however, Morrigan is actually one of the leanan sidhe, a fae creature who can only exist in our world by feeding on human artistic energy; in Morrigan’s case, that energy is musical, which makes Nick, who has steeped himself in sound all his life, the equivalent of a three-course meal at a five-star Michelin restaurant. Having almost exhausted her previous energy supply, Morrigan insinuates herself into Nick’s life and invites herself to Pittsburgh so she can more easily feed off of him.

So far, so normal, for a fantasy yarn. But it’s when we get to Pittsburgh that things get interesting. Nick may be the nominal hero of the tale, but Pittsburgh is its great lady, and the novel’s excellence rests heavily on its author’s ability to bring the city to life, as if it were a separate character. The city, and the people who live in it, are painted with loving, detailed brushstrokes by a person who has clearly lived in it a long time, and knows how to make it sing–if you’ll pardon the pun–for people who’ve never been here. Morrigan can tell, almost instantly, that feeding off of Nick will be more difficult than she’d bargained for, as Nick is one very important strand woven into a tapestry of people–both family and fictive kin–who care for each other deeply, and won’t let evil win without a fight.

This, of course, brings us to the problem of evil in the novel, which is not so much a problem as it is an interesting twist, in Wise’s hands. Morrigan is not evil, as the Big Bad of the typical urban fantasy might be: she’s simply a creature whose needs conflict with her environment, forcing her to do things she wouldn’t have to do back home. Alas, she cannot go home, the door to faeryland having been closed to her by a tragedy not of her own making. And so, as the body count starts to mount, you find yourself in the curious position of having sympathy for the “devil,” who, at heart, just wants her homeland back, and kills only to survive in a world that, ultimately, cannot be other than hostile to her and her kind.

Another element that makes This Creature Fair a dark horse in the urban fantasy pack is its approach to magic. No fireballs or incantations here: in Wise’s world, magic is something all humans have, a fact of which they are rarely cognizant. Some of Nick’s friends–characters who also appear in Wise’s other novels–have had interactions with other worlds in which magic operates differently, and are aware (as much as any human can be) of both their own magic and that of other realms. It is they who first realize something is wrong with Nick, and subsequently figure out a way to save him, and Pittsburgh, from Morrigan. And while this particular strain of magic is steeped in sound, you could also argue–as I think Wise is, here–that love is the greatest magic. Not the cardboard hearts and pink candies kind, but true love: the kind that’s rooted in blood, sex, arguments, candor, and–most importantly–time.

The book’s other appeal factors make it difficult to compare to other books, or peg into a neat little genre box. Like much literary fiction, the pacing is slow and deliberate, with a heavy emphasis on characterization and relationships, making the best author comparisons Jonathan Carroll (overall) and Charles de Lint (pacing, attention to detail, characterization). However, the language choices are clear, simple, and precise, which will appeal to those who are reading more for fun than for lit analysis. Readers who like psychological fiction will, on the whole, appreciate the emphasis on introspection and reflection, while those who enjoy naturalistic fiction will appreciate Wise’s ability to communicate really complicated things in very simple–but not simplistic–ways.This Creature Fair is, in short, a tale well-told, for the kind of reader who either seeks out unusual tales in the first place, or is open to an author doing something differently with established tropes.

So, please: try this. Report back. Call me on my bias, and point out things I missed. And then try King of Summer, Bedivere, Scratch, etc.

Recommended for: The fantasy reader who’s read everything else, avid readers open to a singular experience, Pittsburghers hoping to recognize themselves or people/places they know, people who believe in magic, and people who secretly want to.

KISS Dynasty

Writing my last post spurred some nostalgia for my teen fanaticism for the band KISS. I've written on this topic before. When the original band reunited and put the makeup back on in the late 90's I wrote a fairly lengthy article for In Pittsburgh about being a fan. I can't find an archive of that article anywhere online and while I'm pretty sure I have a copy it currently resides in some unopened box where I packed it in a move a couple of years ago. I don't want to rewrite all of that, but I do want to recount some things I discovered about the 1979 Dynasty tour.

The night I first met Chiharu (see my last post), June 15, 1979, was the opening night of the tour in Lakeland, Florida. I had seen KISS the year before in Pittsburgh on the Alive II tour (January 13, 1978). In the interim they had released their four solo albums, followed by Dynasty. It was an expensive year to be a KISS fan. Dynasty was met with mixed reviews and reactions from the fans. The single I Was Made For Loving You was widely decried as a sell-out disco song, but for all of the naysayers it ended up being one of their best-selling singles ever. I liked it. For the most part I liked the whole album. After the success of Ace's solo album his songs and voice were more of a presence on Dynasty than on any previous album, which I thought was a good thing.

I now know that this time period was the beginning of the end of the original band. Ace and Peter were overindulging in the Rock and Roll lifestyle and having trouble keeping up. Some members of the band weren't speaking to others. At the end of the tour Peter left the band (or was fired, depending on the source you read).

On June 15^th we didn't know any of this. In public KISS maintained the illusion of being one big happy family. I will say that we all felt that this was the album where we were more aware of the members individually than as a band. The solo albums contributed to that perception. When Dynasty came out I thought of the tracks as “This is a Paul song... Oh, this is an Ace song,) rather than listening to the whole as KISS songs. I now see this as evidence of the fracturing of the band.

There was a lot of anticipation leading up to the show. There was going to be an all new stage set. More importantly, they were going to reveal all new costumes. I remember a lot of press and secrecy about this at the time. It was rumored they were adding color to their outfits for the first time, branching out from the straight black and silver we had seen up until then. They had introduced character specific color themes on their solo albums, so we expected this to be part of it. To build mystique and suspense they refused to release pictures of the new costumes before the first show. We were going to see the big reveal.

These were the days of Festival seating, which basically meant first come, first serve, no assigned seats. Mark, Scott, Chiharu and I arrived at the Lakeland Civic Center and found some seats. This was Chiharu's first concert and being a fairly small woman she had some understandable concerns about braving the crowd down by the stage. Mark and I were pretty pumped for getting closer than we had been in Pittsburgh. Scott and Chiharu stayed in their seats while Mark and I pushed our way through the mass of people on the floor to a space about ten feet from center stage (yeah, I was smitten by Chiharu, love at first sight and all that... this was a chance to see KISS's new costumes up close. I regret nothing).

The opening band was a group called Nantucket and if not for this show I would never have heard of them either.

The lights went down. The famous opening line from the show echoed from the speakers; “You wanted the best. You got the best. The hottest band in the world... KISS!!!” Fog rolled out over the crowd, spotlights hit the stage and the four members of the band rose up out of the stage in all of their glory.

I'm probably in the minority of KISS fans here, but I have to say these are my favorite of their many costumes. They are colorful, ridiculous and completely over the top and that's what I love about them. Gene's armor looked like the skin of some giant Godzilla-like monster. Ace was covered in mirrors so that when spotlights hit him it looked like lights were shooting out of his body. Paul's purple tunic called to mind some fantasy world, the garb of Rock and Roll royalty, the King of the Night Time World (the song they launched into after the lights dimmed again and they took their places on stage).

I've known since that night that I was one of the first people in the world to see those costumes, but I discovered a few other firsts from that night I didn't know until a couple of weeks ago. Ace's smoking guitar was already legendary, but this was the first time his guitar levitated into the rafters after his solo. He then shot it down with a rocket from another guitar. This was great, but there was an even more significant addition to the show, a special effect that continues to this day. Gene had been doing the blood-spitting and fire-breathing pretty much from the beginning of their career, but this was the first time he flew. We weren't expecting it at all. Gene did his blood-spitting bit and then the lights dimmed. As close as we were we didn't see the stage hands hooking up the cables to his flying rig. Suddenly a spotlight hit Gene and the crowd roared. Then he simply levitated before our eyes, shooting thirty feet straight up to a platform over our heads. Once there he launched into God of Thunder and we kind of lost our minds.

I found some pictures online from the Lakeland show. These were credited to Jerry Bennett. Based on his perspective we were about ten to fifteen feet to his right.

A little over a month later Scott, Mark and I saw them again in Pittsburgh. It would be the last time until the reunion tour in Pittsburgh in 1996.

I discovered that there is a bootleg floating around online of their entire rehearsal for the Lakeland show. This was recorded at the same venue a night or two before. Apparently it has outtakes of the band shouting instructions to the lighting guys and by the end you can hear some of the tension between band members come out. This isn't exactly the concert I attended, but a neat artifact anyway.

For the completists out there here's the 1979 tour setlist (from Wikipedia)

1. King of the Night Time World (Paul Stanley)
2. Radioactive (Gene Simmons)
3. Move On (Paul Stanley)
4. Calling Dr. Love (Gene Simmons)
5. Firehouse (Gene Simmons Firebreathing) (Paul Stanley)
6. New York Groove (Ace Frehley) (lighted guitar)
7. I Was Made for Lovin' You (Paul Stanley)
8. Love Gun (Paul Stanley)
9. 2,000 Man (Ace Frehley Guitar-Solo,smoking guitar,flying guitar,rocket shooting guitar)
10. Tossin' and Turnin' (Peter Criss)
11. God of Thunder (Gene Simmons Bass-Solo, Bloodspitting and Flying-Stunt, Peter Criss Drum-Solo) (Gene Simmons)
12. Shout It Out Loud (Gene Simmons/Paul Stanley)
13. Black Diamond (Peter Criss, intro by Paul Stanley)
14. Detroit Rock City (Paul Stanley)
15. Beth (Peter Criss)
16. Rock and Roll All Nite (Gene Simmons)

Radioactive and Tossin' and Turnin' were dropped from the list after a few shows. Let Me Go, Rock 'n' Roll and Christine Sixteen took their places.

While I was in Florida a chain of convenience stores called
Magik Market were selling frozen soft drinks in these plastic cups.
They were released two per week. I was there for three weeks
so I never got the last two.

This was probably the height of my KISS fandom. By 1979 I was already starting to move on, echoing the whole of KISS fandom, apparently. I was getting into other music, other bands, other sounds. I had turned onto Cheap Trick and Blondie by this time, and was starting to flirt with some new sounds by bands like The Ramones and The Runaways. I picked up the next couple of KISS albums (and didn't HATE Music From the Elder the way most people did), but I just didn't care as much. By the time the makeup came off on Lick It Up both Peter and Ace were gone and for the most part, so was I. I kept a vague awareness of the band through the 80's but I just wasn't very interested. I wrote my In Pittsburgh article for the reunion show but I honestly didn't plan on going to the show. When they added a second night at the Civic Arena I caved and bought a ticket. It was an amazing recreation of the Alive II era, the first show I ever saw, so I ended up having a lot of fun, fully aware that it was more nostalgia than anything else.

I've seen them again in the last couple of years with Eric Singer and Tommy Thayer playing the parts of the Catman and the SpaceAce. I have mixed feelings. They still put on a great show. The spectacle of the concert experience remains pretty true to the original. I've had a great time at both shows and saw some younger fans really enjoying a recreation of something they never had the chance to see. I know a lot of older fans just can't accept the new version. Maybe I've seen comic book superheroes recast with new people under the masks often enough that this doesn't really bother me that much. I miss Peter and Ace but then I miss being eighteen years old as well. Some things can just never be repeated.

1000 Beautiful Skies Over A High Ridge

I think of myself as a pretty open book with the people I know and love. I don't really hesitate to share personal stories with friends. It has come to my attention recently that in spite of this self-image the truth is I'm really pretty private, at least in the social networking forum of the internet. I'm open, but I guess I'm choosey about who I'm really open with. The problem is that all of my stories are also someone else's story as well and I'm not always comfortable sharing their lives. My recent post about my years as Santa was more personal, but it was seasonally appropriate and hopefully spoke to some universal experiences. But even then I asked permission from my friend Dar and my Godkids before mentioning them in such a public way.

I don't often get caught up in nostalgia. Most of the reminiscing I've done here was in service of talking about my history in comics and writing.

That's about to change. What follows is a story I've told many people over the years. It's a nostalgic reminiscence filled with the glory of youth. If you have a low tolerance for maudlin sentimentality you might want to bail now.

I graduated high school on Sunday, June 10, 1979. As a graduation present to myself I took a vacation in Florida right after to visit Scott and Mark, brothers who were two of my closest friends at the time.

One of the few pictures I have of the
three of us together, taken at
Disney World. That's Scott in the
middle and Mark on his left.

They had moved from southwestern PA the previous year, severely interrupting the teenage adventures we had been having up to that point (some of which I would tell some friends about, but many are not for public consumption). Originally they had planned to drive to PA that summer to visit and then I was going to go back to Florida with them later in the summer. We switched the plans around when we discovered that the rock band KISS was kicking off a tour in support of their album Dynasty in Lakeland, just up the road from where my friends lived. Now KISS was a huge part of my teen years and big part of my friendship with these guys, so on Thursday, June 14 I flew for the first time and landed in Tampa for my first real trip away from home.

(I was going to just touch on the KISS concert here, but this afternoon as I was thinking about this whole trip I realized that has to be a separate blog. Coming soon.)

Anyway, I arrived in Bartow, Florida expecting a great concert, time at a beach, Disney World, going out to bars (I was going to turn 18 while I was there, and guess what the legal drinking age in Florida was at that time), and all kinds of other fun summer activities for young men with no responsibilities. We did all of that, and it was great. But something more important took place for me over the course of those three weeks.

I want to tell you about a girl.

Chiharu Takahashi was a Japanese foreign exchange student going to college in Florida. Her host family included the minister at the church my friends went to in Bartow, where she had met them. They had told me a little about her of course, and I knew she would be hanging out with us some.

We went to the minister's house on June 15 to pick her up so she could go to see KISS with us. This was going to be her first concert (I was a veteran at this time with three big shows under my belt, KISS and Ted Nugent in '78 and Rush earlier in '79). We walked into the house and I was introduced to the minister and his wife. And then I turned and saw Chiharu.

At my current age I realize the whole “love at first sight” thing is a Romantic ideal and rarely holds up to the rigors of a genuine relationship. Whatever. At that moment I was smitten. Knocked over. Stunned. Completely in love in the way only a seventeen year old dreamer like myself can be. She was beautiful! Though accented, her English was very good. She was really smart and had a great sense of humor and fit in really well with the three of us. Surprisingly, I wasn't a tongue-tied buffoon in her presence. We crammed into the car and went to the show.

Now, we all know I'm a comic book geek. That's not only how I organize my life, it's what people expect of me. So this next shouldn't be a surprise. The previous winter in the pages of X-Men #118 (my favorite book at the time), the character Wolverine had met a beautiful Japanese woman named Mariko Yoshida. The coincidence of this with what was happening in my own life was not lost on me at the time.

I felt just like this at the time, even though neither
Chiharu or I were wearing costumes.

Back to real life... I don't think I saw her every day, but we spent a lot of time together, always the four of us. Chiharu and I didn't get a chance to “date” in any regular way. She was one of the guys. But like I said, I was smitten, and I thought, in my inexperienced way, that she liked me too. You know... Liked me liked me.

That Sunday we went to the beach and I saw the ocean for the first time. Well, the Gulf of Mexico actually, but it was still pretty darn impressive to this country boy. We swam, we played in the sand, we ate, we drank enough wine that I fell asleep in the sun and burned my pasty pale skin really badly.

This was before my skin got baked.

Oh yeah... tell me she's not checking out my rock-hard abs.

Poor B'rer Bear probably doesn't
have a job now that Song of the
South isn't shown any more.

We went to Disney World and rode all of the rides and ate all of the food and saw Mice and Princesses, Presidents and Country Bears, Tiki Birds and singing little people. It was a remarkably full day, but two events stand out; two that convinced me that Chiharu Liked me liked me.

 

We went on Space Mountain, a giant roller coaster in the dark. Chiharu had never been on a coaster before, so she was excited and scared. We paired off and she rode with me. At the time (maybe still...I haven't been there in ages), the seats were arranged so that one person sat in the rear of a car and the second person sat directly in front of and leaned back against the first. So I sat down and then Chiharu planted herself between my knees and leaned back. We had hugged by this time, but this was the most intimate position we had experienced yet. We weren't up the first rise before she started whimpering. Then we dropped over the first fall. Gravity and inertia pressed her against me. Her head leaned back on my shoulder and all I could hear were her tiny sighs and squeaks of fear and excitement.

Best roller coaster ride ever.

By the time we got off the ride she was trembling, almost hyperventilating. I held her arm as she attempted to get her land legs back. I jokingly asked if she was ready to go again. She looked at me, eyes wide, nodded her head and said, “Yes!”

The other event of the day that stands out took place as we were leaving the park. It was really late and we were among the last people to leave, squeezing the most out of our day. We were walking through the courtyard of Cinderella's Castle. It was night, so the castle was lit with magnificent color. Music played from hidden speakers. I don't remember the song, but it was an instrumental piece from one of their films. As we were walking along I stopped, took Chiharu by the hand and asked her to dance. We slow danced around the courtyard until the end of the song, bowed to each other when it was over, hugged and then broke out into laughter as we all made our way back to the car and the real world.

It was one of the most spontaneously romantic moments of my life.

Eventually I left Florida. Scott, Mark and I drove back to PA, my first extended road trip. My last day there was a Sunday. We went to church and there, after the service we took pictures and I said goodbye to Chiharu. She cried. Pretty sure I wanted to. She gave me a going away present. She had placed two Japanese coins on a chain for me to wear to remind me of her. I wore them for years.

I still have them.

We stayed in touch. We wrote letters. We actually wrote a lot of letters. Occasionally we called each other for short talks. Long Distance phone calls were expensive in those days. 

During that year she transferred to a different school in Florida and moved away from Bartow. I went back for a visit the following summer and she made 

the trip to see me. We all hung out one single afternoon, had a great time and took some pictures. Then she was gone.

Two years went by. We still wrote regularly. She started seeing some guy in Tallahassee. I had my first serious relationship (and though that romance didn't last a year I'm happy to say I maintain a good friendship with that beautiful, wonderful woman. She commented on a picture of me on Facebook while I was writing this).

I turned 21 in the summer of 1982 and returned to Florida for what would prove to be my last visit there. My friend Peggy and I went to a three day comic book convention in Pittsburgh then on Monday flew to Florida for ten days. These were two of the best and weirdest weeks of my life, filled with many of the stories I tell most often (most of which I'll never relate online, for the protection of the not-so-innocent... we nearly sank a boat). As sort of a comic book bookend to this story, this was the year the first Wolverine mini-series came out. Set in Japan. Dealing with his relationship with Mariko. We read the concluding issue while we were there. Once again, the coincidence with my life did not escape me.

I had made arrangements to see Chiharu during the trip. Peggy served as wingman for me and convinced Scott and Mark to let me have a night with Chiharu alone. She picked me up in her car for what I guess was a date. We went to see E.T. By the end of the movie I heard her crying. I tentatively put an arm around her (remember, we had never, in all of our correspondence, mentioned anything about a relationship between us. There were simply too many miles for that to happen). To my relief she crumbled into me and let me hold her until the end of the movie. We left and went someplace for dinner, Pizza Hut if memory serves.

We drove back to Scott and Mark's house. They were still out with Peggy and some other friends but their parents were home and apparently in bed. We sat in the car and talked. About many things. During this chat she told me about some of the terrible things her boyfriend had done to her. Abusive things. She cried again, embarrassed but relieved to tell someone. She wanted to break up with him but was afraid. I was livid. I sat there in the dark, not knowing what to say or do, feeling helpless and angry and very, very much in love. It may not have been appropriate, it might not have been what she needed to hear right then, but in that moment, with everything extreme I was feeling, I had to say something. So I did.

“You know I'm love with you, don't you?” I said. “I have been since the moment we met.”

She nodded and said, “Me too.”

I held her then. Nothing more. We didn't even speak. At some point my friends came home. They had been partying and were a little wound up. Scott came to our car and started telling us about all the great stuff they had gotten into. Peggy once again saved me. She took Scott by the arm and led him away from the car. We stayed there for a little while longer, but finally I realized I needed to go. I said good night and as I started to open the door she leaned over and kissed me. It was short, but it was real. I got out and waved as she drove away.

I never saw her again.

We stayed in touch, letters and phone calls. She broke up with the abusive douchebag. Eventually she finished school and moved back to Japan. She ended up teaching English to grade school kids, last I heard. We continued to write for several years. But that eventually dwindled and then stopped. I don't know which of us wrote last. I've tried to find her during the internet age of course. But the name Chiharu Takahashi is apparently a lot like the name John Smith because I've seen dozens of listings for men and women with that name over the years and none of them seem to be her.

So what do I make of this, thirty-plus years on? Was she the great lost love of my life? Probably not. We never had the chance to have a relationship. It was an idealized long-distance not-quite-romance that existed in my head more than anywhere else. I have no idea if we would have been compatible over the long haul.

What it was for me though was a beautiful experience that has given me wonderful memories and great stories. It may be better that she remains an ideal romance of my youth, unsullied by real life. But in my interaction with her, through our brief moments together and in the many, many words of our correspondence, I opened up to another person. I began to transition from a youth to an adult. I think whatever it was I felt for her helped prepare me for real relationships with real people. Since then I know I have had the genuine love of a woman, real and sullied instead of ideal and pristine. More difficult, but more rewarding.

Chiharu, if you're out there, know my twenty-one year old self believed he loved you as much as he was capable of loving. Somewhere inside of me he still does. Thank you for returning my affection. Thank you for being in my life and for giving me a story. I still have your necklace. I still think of you. I hope your life has been wonderful and filled with love and adventure and fulfillment. Domo Arigato.

I'll end this the way we used to end our letters:

Your tomodachi,

Wayne

My ebook This Creature Fair is now available in a paperback edition, thanks to Amazon's Create Space self-publishing option. I'm pretty happy with the final product.

If you want to buy a copy online you can find it at:

Here's a preview of the wraparound cover, designed and executed by Marcel Walker.