Novelist Pat McDermott on Children in Adult Stories

I'm very pleased to welcome back Pat McDermott, discussing a topic I've often been curious about: making child characters central to an adult story. I've never tried it myself, but I've read some great examples (David Mitchell's Black Swan Green pops to mind).

In her new novel, Fiery Roses, Pat used this technique, and agreed to share her thoughts about it.

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Children in Adult Stories

Blackmail and murder hardly make Fiery Roses a story for children. Yet a few vibrant moppets have stolen their way into this action/adventure fantasy set in an Ireland that might have been. Why include children in an adult story?

A child’s perspective can ease the tension, offer a simpler point of view, or add a touch of humor as it furthers the story along. In this excerpt, two girls amuse a reporter.

The sight of two red-haired demons bicycling straight at her frightened her until she realized the skinny legs pumping the pedals belonged to freckle-faced Mary Margaret Gannon and her sister Joanie.

“Allison! Allison!” Little Joanie skidded to a halt, braking with the toes of her sneakers. “An old, old man is visiting Aunt Betty. He must be a hunnerd-an-ten!”

Mary Margaret backpedaled to a stop. “He came to see her garden.” Holding the handlebars, she straddled her bicycle and sighed. “He said none of the flowers in her garden was as beautiful as her, and then he kissed her hand.”

“He’s going to court her,” squealed Joanie. “Wait till we tell Daddy!”

No secrets with kids around. Then we have the adult character who flashes back to childhood. I used this trick to help readers understand Neil Boru, the adoptive cousin and newlywed husband of Princess Talty. Here, he shares a haunting memory of his first meeting with his grandmother.

“‘Come here, boy’, she said. ‘Let me look at you.’ My mother gave me a nudge, and I went and stood in front of Bridget.” His eyes shut tight at the recollection. “I thought she was a witch, Tal. I can still see her weird purple eyes staring at me, never blinking. Then she said, ‘You look nothing like my Frank.’ She only spoke to my mother after that. While we were having tea, she said, ‘He’s left-handed. That’s no good,’ and other equally endearing things.”

Fiery Roses takes Neil and Talty to a parallel world, where they meet Kavie, a darling eight-year-old who gives Talty a chance to demonstrate her archery skills.

Kavie stood with his back to the sun, shooting arrows into, or at least near, a moth-eaten hide thirty yards in front of him. Pieces of straw peeked from beneath the target, an old boarskin shaped to somewhat resemble the unfortunate boar who had once owned it.

Smiling at his comical lack of skill, she waited until he reached for an arrow before she spoke. “Hello, Kavie. You’re up early. Practicing your shots, are you?”

“Good morning, goddess,” he said in his squeaky but endearing young voice. “I’m going to be a great hunter, like Papa.”

“That will take lots of practice and hard work.”

“I don’t mind.” He stood tall. “I’m small, but I’m very brave.”

Kavie will have a chance to prove his bravery, as will little Joanie, and yes, even Neil. The children’s presence undeniably enriches the plot of Fiery Roses. I’m glad they insisted on jumping aboard.

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Fiery Roses, released by MuseItUp Publishing on August 10, is Book Two in the Band of Roses Trilogy. Book One, A Band of Roses, was released in May. The third book, Salty Roses, is due for release in November.

To learn more about Pat McDermott, visit her website.           

Fiery Roses on Amazon or directly from MuseItUp Publishing.

Cloud Atlas as Homage

Critics have praised the originality and experimental nature of David Mitchell's novel, Cloud Atlas, which might best be described as six interwoven novellas in as many genres. It's a fascinating book, and my purpose is not to suggest it is in any way unoriginal.

It did, however, from page one and increasingly thereafter, remind me of somebody close to my heart.

True, the stories in Cloud Atlas are interconnected, but only just by a thread. The connections are not at all obvious for a while. During the first sections, while I was wondering what the heck was happening, I thought of Anthony Burgess' The End of the World News. Burgess wrote this so-called novel by intersplicing three utterly unconnected works, in three unrelated genres, all of which he'd written for people who hadn't used them or paid him.

The Burgess homage does not end there, however. Burgess was a professor of linguistics, and his unsurpassed understanding of language shows up primarily in his ability to invent his own. (I refer you most famously to A Clockwork Orange, and most infamously to the screenplay for Quest for Fire.) In two of the novellas of Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell lets us watch human language disintegrate in the near and distant future, in a systematic, entirely scientific way. Slang and abbreviations take over first, and then parts of speech drop off so that that nouns must be used as verbs. Burgess would have been proud.

I submit that Cloud Atlas is not only an experiment, but is also a gift from one of Britain's best living novelists to one of the greatest in that nation's history.

Delay Tactic

This post is about why I haven't put up a post in a while. I'm reading, fondling, savoring, slurping up David Mitchell's Cloud Atlas. And I'm formulating what to say about this labyrinth of fiction. I promise to give it a try soon, so please check back. Thanks for your patience.