Alas Davy I believe LotR ot be a stain on the literary landscape whose only impressive qualities are that it is big and that it won't rub out.

People tend to read it at an age when it has an epiphanic impact (13-14) and they stick with it forever after and CANTBEARGUEDWITHEVERSOTHERESNOPOINTITSLIKERELIGION.

I mean can you remember some of the other things you really rated when you were 13-14?

Like I said...

Z

JB

Not sure that

historical romance novel

is the same as historical fiction...

lol Zooter. I think we might not agree then, but I do AGREEABOUTRELIGIONDEFINITELY...

JB and Emma sitting in a tree...

Awww, JB, I've come over all weak at the knees. Like I say, I'm always particularly thrilled when people like it who thought they wouldn't...

Davey, we cross-posted, and I think we were saying much the same thing.

And before you and Zooter go any further, can you just agree to disagree about that three-volume-novel-that-shall-not-be-named...

Emma

<Added>

Cross-posted again. Just can't keep up.

<Added>

"not sure that historical romance novel is the same as historical fiction..."

it isn't - one's a subset of the other, I would say.

Conjugation of a verb

I fawn
You grease
He toadies

We brown-nose
You flatter
They puff up
JB tells it like it is.

Yes, well, I was impressed, and it's not often you get to tell the author that directly is it?

No, historical fiction isn't the same as romantic historical fiction. I misread you. And satanic historical fiction with an erotic twist is again, someting else entirely.

JB

Just satanic historical fiction would be inneresting enough! Where do you go to get that?

<Added>

With a parallel narrative preferably.

The Bible?

I recently pointed out to some Christians, that Satanism is actually Christianity too, seeing as they invented the concept.

I've been going to Bible study on Tuesday nights, I admit, though you may think I'm crazy. I'm researching a new novel, and need to talk to these people about stuff. I've also been entertaining some American Mormons, and now am trying to find a Rabbi to have a chat to. Of course, everyone thinks I'm looking for God, when all I'm doing is gathering material.

JB

JB

I can recommend going to a big pentecostal service if you can, amazing experience (I had to go for work purposes), got the whole lot, speaking in tongues, people coming out of the congregation in trances, full choir, pukka Hammond with whirling speaker and the best soul band I ever heard outside of an Al Green LP, dervishes dancing out front with huge streamers and a preacher you have to see/hear to believe. I swear I was half-way to receiving Jesus myself. (Seeing the "bishop's" £85,000 american black sports limousine parked out the back kind of put the dampers on just in time.)

This was the Ruach Ministries in Brixton, and if you're looking for people to talk to, they love an unbeliever!

Z

Hi,

I'm late to this, cos I didn't see it before, until it was in the 'hightlighted posts' bit. I just wanted to mention two parallel narrative novels I've enjoyed: Alias Garce by Margaret Atwood, adn The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.

Actually, TPB isn't really a parallel narrative. It's just lots of different voices narrating their side of the same story. So forget I said that. But it's an intersting read, anyway.

Also The Virgin Blue, by Tracy Chevalier. That's a parallel narrative, I think.

Sarah

What a meaty thread. I've been struggling with this very thing for a while now, so I've read everyone's comments with great interest!

Is the use of parallel or dual narrative ever just a way of avoiding the demands of sustaining a single narrative?

Gaa! Yes! Which is the very reason that every couple of weeks (or days, if things are going badly), I tell myself that although my writing may be alright, I'm definitely not a born storyteller! So often the characters and situations do their own thing...and I'm left about three-quarters of the way through wondering how the heck to tie them al together in a "meaningful" - or even remotely sensible - way. Which is exactly why I'm planning to outline the next novel in excruciating detail before allowing myself to write a single word (apart from notes). Parallel narrative demands it, I've concluded.

Emma, might I WWmail you with a few specific questions relating to the parallel-narrative albatross that's been slung around my neck for nigh on a year now?

Trilby

Yes, of course.

Emma

Thanks Sarah

Ms Atwood crops up again and again in threads but I've never read her. What's her style/subject matter/best work to start with?

Z

Hi Zoots

You could try Len Deighton's 'Only when I Larf' which has four POV's of the same situation in successive chapters. If that is the sort of thing you are looking for.

It is not historical, quite hysterical and consumately clever.

Best

Prosp

Margaret Atwood is the queen of the modern novel (in my humble opinion). She is prolific, and I think her average output is something like one novel/volume of poetry/book of short stories about every nine months. She is now in her seventies and still going strong, although I think she has recently stopped writing chunky novels, and seems to just be treating the whole thing as one big laugh. She has recently said she wants to stop writing and do something healthful like ice dancing.

Anyway, I digress. I love her short stories, and would recommend Wilderness Tips. I would also recommend Alias Grace as her finest novel. I think it's more easily accessible that The Blind Assassin.

And of course there's the Handmaid's Tale. Genius.

Also, in her book of short stories Dancing Girls, there is a fine example of a parallel narrative (though not the strictly defined one Emma mentioned - two different cahracters). It's called The Resplendent Quetzel (or maybe it's not, on second thoughts) and it's about 15 pages long, and will tell you all you need to know.

What sex are you, Zooter? (This is not on-line husband/wife-finding, merely a question, cos my dad doesn't like Atwood, and I can't decide whether thats cos he's a man or cos he has no taste.)

Sarah