Piers Anthony

[Geoff_N]

Having finished the first draft of my magic realism fantasy, Xaghra's Revenge, I contacted Piers Anthony for a pre-published endorsement. Him, because I'd read some of his books decades ago and knew he is iconic in science fiction / fantasy. Also he'd endorsed a friend's children's fantasy hence a link.

I sent him the opening scene. It is based on the real 1551 pirate abduction of the population of the island of Gozo. All those 5,000 souls needed revenge - the theme of the book. In that scene a  farmer tries to hide his family from the  corsair pirates ravaging the island and herding its population to their fleet of galleys. The farmer is in time to hide his baby son and father-in-law but gets captured with his wife when he  returned to his house. While he is held face down in the road, his wife is raped inside the house. We don't see the rape, and Lydia survives, as does her spirit to seek revenge nearly 500 years later when one of her descendents becomes infatuated with a descendent of  the pirate (not that they realise that).

Piers liked the theme but said 'I accept you needed a cause for the revenge but I  write happier stories and so have to pass on this one.'

This is a horror forum so we all write gritty noir stuff. Most of you know I inject ironic  humour in mine.  I thought maybe he'd refuse because he didn't like my style but because it lacked happy? Plenty of happy and hilarious later in the novel even in the following scene but I wasn't going to chase him.  Then I did what I should have done first and checked him out more. Wow, he's quite a controversial writer including writing scenes involving 'consensual sex' between a man and a 5-year-old girl – aarrggh. Maybe it is just as well I'm not able to use his name.
For me, another SF icon bites the dust.
Geoff

[delph_ambi]

Yikes!

This is one reason why I went to Neil Marr for a pre-pub wotsit for 'Small Poisons'. Better the devil you know.

[Rev. Austin]

In what way can you use pre-pub quotes?  And does it matter who they're from (as long as it's relevant)?  I'm asking cos I got some top drawer quotes off an editor at Bloody Books for my novel but other writing forums, etc, say "don't use them!" even though he said it was "original, unusual and extremely well-written"  /

[delph_ambi]

In my case, I specifically wanted a pre-publication quote from a known 'name' to grace the back cover of my new novel. That's the usual use for them, eg back covers, sometimes inside pages, posters, flyers etc. The better known the 'name', the more likely people are to buy the book, and the more likely bookshops are to want to stock it.

[delboy]

Two questions Geoff - how did you go about contacting him? Is it through your sci-fi connections, or did you just write to his publisher on spec? There are a few authors I'd love to contact (alas, most are dead) for a quote if ever I get a proper book published.

Secondly, is Keira Knightly in your book? All that talk of pirates, I assumed she would be. It might make a difference to sales...

Derek

[Ed]

Sounds like a complete sleazebag if he's trying to justify any reason for a man to have sex with a five year-old. It's not something I even want to think about.

I know a lot of famous authors will blurb any book they're asked to, depending on who asks them (agent, publisher, friend, friend of friend). Most times they'll do it without even having sight of the book. It's all bullshit.

[Geoff_N]

As Delph says, pre-pub quotes, sometimes known as puffs, are used for back-cover blurbs and in promo. Also I've used them to promote an unpublished book to agents and publishers. It can't do any harm if a 'name' endorses your work even if the comment is generic.

Del. As you know I am a co-editor of a science fiction magazine so pulling that string helps open some, but not all, doors and inboxes.

Kiera Knightley - yes please!

Geoff

[delboy]

Sounds like a complete sleazebag if he's trying to justify any reason for a man to have sex with a five year-old. It's not something I even want to think about.

As writers we need to be careful about not tarring authors with the same beliefs and attitudes as the characters they create. A good author will create a villain that everybody hates - but it doesn't mean we should hate the author. I always recall the trouble Randy Newman got into for some of his songs where, to the casual listener, he sounded racist. His records were smashed and radio stations refused to play his music...but he was just writing first person narratives highlighting the attitude of certain people. It wasn't his view. He was using his music to shine a light on such prejudices in his country.

There was a period going back four or five years when paedophilia was the trigger behind the plot for a whole bunch of crime novels. In these novels we had characters who advocated such practices, but they were clearly the baddies and they were all brought to justice. Nevertheless, the authors had to be able to justify such activities in the minds of their characters.

Another example, I remember reading The Cellar by Richard Laymon and there were scenes in there that I thought were going just too far. Not read anything more by him. Maybe it's one taboo too far even for horror writers?

Having said all of  that, a quick Google would suggest that Piers Anthony does hold some controversial views, and I would agree that he's not the sort of person one would want to be associated with, but nevertheless, I think it's important to understand the context of anything that's written within fiction, before assuming the author agrees with the views that he's given to his characters.

Derek

[Geoff_N]

What considered wise words we recieve from our Derek these days. 

[Ed]

It's one thing to write about a taboo subject, but quite another to glorify it. Some of his personal comments on the subject of paedophilia are pretty disturbing, I think.