Ken Scholes, author of Lamentation and Canticle, the first two books of a five-book series titled the Psalms of Isaak, takes time out from writing and the wonderful world of fatherhood to answer a few questions for the BSC Review readers.
First, congratulations on the birth of your twin daughters! And now that I have that information out there, a related question. Since they were born you have continued to work on the Psalms of Isaak. How difficult is this, and do your trials as a parent of two newborns work their way into your writing?
Ken Scholes: Thank you–it’s been an amazing (and sometimes daunting) experience.
Fact is, so far, the Psalms of Isaak have been written through an inordinate amount of difficulty. The first book, Lamentation, was written in the midst of providing oversight for my Mom’s ailing health. Canticle was interrupted midway by my Mom’s death, followed closely on the heels by my nephew’s death in Afghanistan. Then, Antiphon had a similar interruption when I paused to grieve my Dad’s passing. So, all in all, the project has experienced a goodly dose of trials.
When Lizzy and Rachel were born (after a challenging pregnancy for Jen), I was within 1,500 words of finishing the first draft of Antiphon. The timing seems to have worked out in that while my editor at Tor, Beth Meacham, went over the manuscript I was adjusting to three hour feedings and diaper surprises. It gave me a month or so for us to get our feet under us. But I’m pleased to say that when it came time to revise, I really didn’t find it any more difficult than before the babies. The biggest difference was that sometimes, I had a baby cuddled up on my chest while I stretched out on the couch with my laptop. I turned the book in just last week and will start Requiem at the end of November after I’ve caught up on interviews and rested up from my book tour with the Amazing Kate Elliott.
The jury’s still out on how the drafting process will go, but I’m optimistic.
As of yet, I have only read Lamentation (I am eagerly awaiting my copy of Canticle) so I will cover some basic questions on the story. Your story is constructed on and around a “religion” that really isn’t. Can you explain your thoughts on creating this “religion” and whether you had a specific goal in mind for it in relation to our world and the way religion fits into it?
Well, in a way I’ve created a world, and a part of that world is a mythological framework that includes religion woven into its history in much the same way that religion and mythology are woven into ours.
In Lamentation specifically I write about the Androfrancine Order, a secular institution created by the Scientist Scholar P’Andro Whym, operating within a hierarchy very much like the Roman Catholic church we see in our world. There is a Pope, there are Offices and Ministries led by Arch-Engineers, Arch-Scholars, Arch-Behaviorists all in service to the light of human knowledge, reason and accomplishment. They exist to protect the light–and to safeguard technology and knowledge and magick from the survivors of cataclysm and desolation at the hands of those who misused those things.
I establish references in the first volume of other, earlier religious expressions regarding the Wizard Kings and the Moon Wizard Who Fell…all a part of the tapestry of history and mythology in this world that Whym and his followers reacted against in the back-story of the novel–and, in so doing, brought down the wrath of the Wizard Xhum Y’Zir.
I find religion, history and mythology a vast sandbox to play in, particularly given my background as a former minister and a history major. I enjoy looking at our world and bending it through a lens of fiction to tell stories about people in crisis and conflict rising or falling to the challenges before them.
So yes, I’ve had a specific goal in mind for the series as I explore these issues, and as the storyline progresses I think it will be a meaningful exploration for me in addition, I hope, to just telling a good, solid story that people enjoy reading.
I love the clockwork bird and the automatons, it is a sort of scientific whimsy that makes me smile, thank you for that. What brought on the idea of an automaton that has a personality?
Thank you. I’m glad to make you smile and hope other readers do, too. The automatons of other storytellers have made me smile, too, over the years, and they are really the inspiration. My first, of course, were Pinnochio and the Tin Man, followed not long after by Rex (from Lester Del Rey’s YA novel Runaway Robot), C3PO and R2D2, Twiki (from Buck Rogers, though by then I was more charmed by Erin Grey) and the many other places they show up. Even recently, we’ve seen other endearing automatons in films and television shows like Wall-E, AI, Star Trek: TNG, and Bicentennial Man (from a superb story by Isaac Asimov.)
I think that they are powerful ways to see ourselves sometimes, and it is a recurring character archetype in storytelling.
There are some recognizable real life ethnicities in the Psalms of Isaak…what moved you toward using those ethnicities and not others?
Good question. I don’t want to give too much away. Some of this is revealed later in the series. But there has been a blending over time, changing concepts of race, ethnicity and the moral fabric of the society my characters live in. Some carried over, some didn’t, largely due to humanity’s propensity for self destructive behavior.
Many authors say the inspiration for a story is a certain idea, scene or character that pops into existence and begs to have a story built around it. Did it work that way for you? If so, what idea, scene or character was it for Psalms of Isaak?
The evolution of this series started with a short story that I wrote specifically for a market requesting stories featuring mechanical oddities. But when I wrote “Of Metal Man and Scarlet Thread and Dancing with the Sunrise” I had no idea that there would be any more to it. When the magazine closed early, I eventually sent the tale to Realms of Fantasy, where Shawna McCarthy and Doug Cohen gave it its first legs in the world. The artist they commissioned, Allen Douglas, created an image of Isaak so powerful that I realized upon seeing it that I had to write more about him and his world. Initially, I conceived it as four interconnected short stories but was later convinced to expand that into a novel.
And some final, important questions: Mac or PC?
PC.
Peanut or Plain M&Ms?
Peanut.
Boxers or Briefs?
Boxer-Briefs.
Sunrise or Sunset?
Sunrise.
Cats or Dogs?
Love both; own cats.
So now you know! Many thanks to the talented Ken Scholes for taking the time to answer these questions. You can find out more about Ken at his website.
