Melanthrix the Mage (23 page)

AFTERWORD

“THE WAY TO NOVA EUROPA”

This was my first extended work of fiction. It poured out of my soul in a flood of enthusiasm and joy, and remains one of the most pleasurable creative rushes that I've ever experienced. That the book exists at all is due to Katherine Kurtz, who'd bought my idea for the
Codex Derynianus
, and later suggested that I try my hand at writing a novel set in the Deryni universe.

For a variety of reasons that reflected the beginning of the changes that have since taken place in the world of publishing, that project never materialized in the way that either of us had hoped; and the result left me with a finished manuscript that remained floating in Limbo for a great many years. It would be “on” again and then “off” again, on and off, off and on, and neither I nor she could do much about the situation. Finally, after many years of waiting, it became obvious to me that the book would not be published as written—and at that point I recast it as a novel in my own created fantasy world, Nova Europa.

Ultimately, I did three rewrites of the book. During my hospital stay in 2003, I had a great deal of time to think about “Life, the Universe, and Everything,” and I told my dear wife, during the five-minute intervals that “they” would allow her and my daughter to visit, that if I didn't survive, I wanted my three long fantasy novels to be published “as is.” Well, it obviously wasn't my time yet; when I walked out of CCU three weeks later, barely ambulatory, I was determined to preserve what I could of my creative work.

The Dark-Haired Man
and
The Exiled Prince
, as they were then called, were polished and published in 2004, and
Quæstiones
followed a year later. All three books were humongous creations, 600 printed pages in length in trade paperback, or about 183,000 words each. My dear friend and academic colleague Dr. Jorun Johns agreed to handle them at her imprint, Ariadne Press, bless her. And then the books pretty much vanished without any trace whatsoever, despite my best efforts.

Two of the fantasies received glowing notices from Tom Easton at
Analog
, and all three books garnered a scattering of other reviews that added some very flattering comments, but to no obvious effect. I started a fourth novel,
O Infinite Smile
, but (so far, at least) it has never managed to progress beyond the first few chapters. Then, too, in subsequent years my limited energy for creative writing was eaten away by the other assignments I received—to pen two Phantom Detective novels, and to write a trilogy of novels, the first of which was loosely adapted from H. G. Wells's
War of the Worlds
. These too made very little impression upon the world of letters; they were left as mere litters of words.

Finally, however, I had an idea for another Nova Europa volume,
The Fourth Elephant's Egg
, which I finished in the Spring of 2010 after two years of intermittent work. It emerged from its shell at a size slightly larger than the first three novels in the sequence. But there were some distinct differences.

The looser, more collequial style that I developed for the Wells's pastiches and for my short YA SF novel,
Knack' Attack
, seemed very suitable for
Egg
, So, in spite of the serious themes explored in that novel, I managed to maintain the skein of humorous interplay that I found so winning in several of these other works. Thus,
Egg
was both like and unlike the earlier books in the Nova Europa series.

Even so, my agent felt that it was too long to market in the present publishing environment, and so passed on pushing the book. Another one of my major creative efforts was left an orphan, and I was left wondering what I should do with this novel—and with all of my other long fictions.

After months of discussing the matter with Mary (my life companion) and several of my literary buddies, I came to the conclusion that the only way to make these novels viable again was to recast them into shorter pieces, as trilogies.

I started with
Invasion!
(the Wells project), which had originally been written as three novels, but had only been published in omnibus form. It was a fairly simple matter to break the book apart, and issue the pieces as they were originally penned—as separate books. John Betancourt kindly agreed to publish these and my other works through Wildside Press.

Next up was
Egg
, which, like ancient Gaul, could also easily be broken into three parts, under the titles
The Cracks in the Æther
,
The Pachyderms' Lament
, and
The Fourth Elephant's Egg
. I added new Prologues and Epilogues as needed to provide additional continuity. That left me with the three previously published long fantasies.

I started anew with
The Dark-Haired Man
. This was the most tightly plotted of the early books, but I could see several fracture points where the original narrative could be divided into sections, provided that I added the appropriate bridge material. However, I'd moved in a very different direction with my fiction in the intervening years since penning the first draft of this novel, and that left me in a quandary. Should I recast the book, or simply re-edit it? I decided upon the latter course.

Even at this early stage in my career as a purveyor of tales, I tended to write in discrete, three-to-five-page scenes, usually separated from the surrounding text by a row of asterisks. In later works I made these into actual chapter breaks—and I've now done so here as well. I also headed each of the dozen chapters in the original text with quotes from classic literature; I've dropped those in this version. Finally, the chapter titles themselves were all taken from chess terms or themes; I've instead employed lines of actual dialogue, which is my current practice in the other fictions.

The result, I think, helps break up the very dense sections of text that filled the original book, which should make all three parts of the reconstituted trilogy (now called
The Hieromonk's Tale
) more accessible to present-day readers. I certainly hope so. I also edited the text lightly throughout the book, but chose not to mess around overmuch with the actual plot, which still unfolds (I firmly believe) with overtones of Greek tragedy. The King of Kórynthia is a deeply troubled, even doomed, character.

My dear friend and creative writing teacher, Fran Polek, lived long enough to see the manuscript but not the published book; we visited him and his wife, Jan, at their home in Spokane, Washington, in the Summer of 2001. He maintained a profound interest in my work as writer and editor, and I owe him more than I can say for the words of encouragement that he offered me at Gonzaga University during 1965-1969.

When I started my first book,
Stella Nova
(which later became
Contemporary Science Fiction Authors
), in the Fall of 1968, it was Fran and several of his English Department colleagues who scraped together some money to help support my efforts. Their boost at that time was a key element in my subsequent development as a writer and editor. So I rededicate this novel to Dr. Polek, with a reminder to all educators everywhere: what you say to impressionable young students
does
make a difference.

And now, gentle readers, I hope you enjoy my very first incursion into the wilds of Nova Europa. May it not be your last!

—Robert Reginald

San Bernardino, California

4 June 2011

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Reginald
was born in Japan, and lived in Turkey as a youth. He starting writing as a child, and penned his first book during his senior year in college. He settled in Southern California in 1969, where he served as an academic librarian for forty years. He currently edits the Borgo Press Imprint of Wildside Press, and has also penned more than 125 books and 13,000 short pieces. His recent works of fiction include twelve Nova Europa historical fantasies (2004-11); six science fiction novels: The War of Two Worlds Trilogy:
Invasion!
,
Operation: Crimson Storm
, and
The Martians Strike Back!
(2007/2011); two Human-Knacker War SF novels:
Knack' Attack
(2010) and
“A Glorious Death”
(2011); and
Academentia: A Future Dystopia
(2011); two Phantom Detective period mysteries:
The Phantom's Phantom
(2007) and
The Nasty Gnomes
(2008); a comic mystery,
The Paperback Show Murders
(2011); a horror novel,
Hell's Belles
(forthcoming); and four story collections:
Katydid & Other Critters: Tales of Fantasy and Mystery
(2001),
The Elder of Days: Tales of the Elders
(2010),
The Judgment of the Gods and Other Verdicts of History
(2011),
Dead Librarians and Other Shades from Academe
(2011). He has also edited the SF anthology,
Yondering
(2011) and the mystery anthology,
Whodunit?
(2011). You can find him at:

www.millefleurs.tv

And watch for the other

volumes in this series:

THE HYPATOMANCER'S TALE TRILOGY:

The Cracks in the Æther
(Book One)

The Pachyderms' Lament
(Book Two

The Fourth Elephant's Egg
(Book Three)

THE HIEROMONK'S TALE TRILOGY:

Melanthrix the Mage
(Book One)

Killingford
(Book Two)

The Dark-Haired Man
(Book Three)