One problem with having a protagonist with superpowers is how to make him human. Probably in most fantasy fiction that's not a problem. The hero is either physically all-powerful or, like Gandalf, so wise he or she is perfect or nearly so. But I didn't want Carlos to represent either of those extremes. His task is learning to live in the world, not holding himself aloof from it. Read More
STROKES ARE VERY CHALLENGING
In late September, Willie, our housemate of forty years, now age ninety-one, had a fairly severe stroke that left her right side--face, hand, leg--badly impaired. After she had a brief hospital stay and two weeks of intense therapy at a rehab facillity, we decided that her continued recovery would be best served by bringing her home. It was, we believe, the best course of action, even though the first couple of weeks here at home left Dorothy and me exhausted because Willie needed contant help day and night with nearly everything. Three months later, the situation has stabilized somewhat and Willie is capable of some self-care. With the help of sessions with Visiting Nurses twice a week and coaching from us, she has regained the ability to use her right hand to write, can move around adeptly in a wheelchair at night and a walker during the day. She's beginning to learn how to walk with a cane. We've been able to take some outings to see her MD and to get a Covid shot (Covid is running rampant in Western Massachusetts since the holidays) at her pharmacy. She loves playing balloon tennis (batting an inflated balloon back and forth with a racquet, a good balance exercise). She has a long way to go, and it's not at all certain how much she will have recovered by six months post-stroke. Our lives have been largely Willie centered for months now and probably will remain at least somewhat so for the foreseeable future. Wish us luck. We welcome your prayers.
What the Owl Saw an award finalist.
October 3, 2015
There was no September blog post because I spent the last ten days of the month in the hospital recovering from surgery.
Good news! WHAT THE OWL SAW has been named by the New Mexico Book Co-op as a finalist for its Best New Mexico Adventure Novel of 2015 award. The NM Book Co-op is an organization dedicated to promoting communication among authors and readers of books in every genre dealing with the Southwest. Read More
Good news! WHAT THE OWL SAW has been named by the New Mexico Book Co-op as a finalist for its Best New Mexico Adventure Novel of 2015 award. The NM Book Co-op is an organization dedicated to promoting communication among authors and readers of books in every genre dealing with the Southwest. Read More
Twitter!
August 30, 2015
Stay tuned. Yesterday I signed up for a Twitter account. Now I need to learn how to use it successfully. My Twitter address is @BrujosWay08sW.
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Progress Report on Buenaventura Series novels
July 19, 2015
Recently I sent the manuscript for "The Last of Our Kind," the final volume in the Buenaventura Series trilogy, to Sunstone Press. No formal publication date has been set, but some time this fall is likely. Presently I'm drafting short stories. See my June 4th post for instructions on how to obtain your free copy of the first such story Read More
Free copy of Montezuma's Emerald
June 4, 2015
Some readers have had trouble getting copies of MONTEZUMA'S EMERALD, a short story in which Don Carlos meets his mortal enemy, Don Malvolio, face to face. To obtain a FREE copy, simply email geraldm3@verizon.net/ and you'll receive the story as an attachment to a return email.
A Scattered People: Every May
May 7, 2015
From A SCATTERED PEOPLE (pg. 1). "Every May when spring at last comes to western Massachusetts, a small batch of phantom lilies [narcissus] blooms in my garden near the swamp."
Today these bulbs--carried by generations of women in my family from East to West and now by me back to New England--are in full bloom. Read More
Today these bulbs--carried by generations of women in my family from East to West and now by me back to New England--are in full bloom. Read More
Coming Soon: Volume 3 in the Buenaventura Series
March 19, 2015
A glimpse of THE LAST OF OUR KIND, vol. 3 of the Buenaventura Series.
The year is 1706. Santa Fe is threatened by Comanche war parties and French traders, and agents of the Spanish Inquisition have arrived in town in search of a brujo suspected of residing in Santa Fe.
That brujo, of course, is Don Carlos, who has been living in Santa Fe for two years under the name Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca, his true identity known to only a few close friends. Given the many dangers that threaten the town, will he be able to bring his brujo powers to bear for good and still keep his true identity secret? An amazing story with a spectacular ending is coming later in 2015. Read More
The year is 1706. Santa Fe is threatened by Comanche war parties and French traders, and agents of the Spanish Inquisition have arrived in town in search of a brujo suspected of residing in Santa Fe.
That brujo, of course, is Don Carlos, who has been living in Santa Fe for two years under the name Don Alfonso Cabeza de Vaca, his true identity known to only a few close friends. Given the many dangers that threaten the town, will he be able to bring his brujo powers to bear for good and still keep his true identity secret? An amazing story with a spectacular ending is coming later in 2015. Read More
The Brujo and the Owl
February 9, 2015
For a recent birthday my dear friend Willie Van Ness wrote a long essay on the first two novels in the Buenaventura Series. I've quoted part of her summation below.
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Neither THE BRUJO'S WAY nor WHAT THE OWL SAW fall easily into familiar genres or marketing categories. Neither novel, therefore, is easy to characterize. In future blog postings I will mostly use the word "paranormal" as a more general category of the extra-normal as it occurs and functions in the two novels rather than "magic" and "supernatural," which I think would prematurely and arbitrarily limit how the author describes the varieties of extra-normal events throughout the two novels. The category of "fantasy" would also be limited and leave out a great deal, and "science fiction" would be almost wholly irrelevant.
The upshot of this is that varieties of extra-normal and normal events in the novels mix in ways that pretty much defy easy categorization. Both novels are at base relatively traditional forms of literature that reflect their author's roots in the special time and period of spiritual questing and popularization of the quest that took place in American culture during the 1960s and continues to the present day. I am going to further suggest the category of "opera" as a perhaps secondary reference--that McFarland has thus far written a two-act opera, an American prose opera with some kinship to the complex forms introduced by Rogers and Hammerstein in their early 1940s transformations of the American musical form in "Oklahoma" and "Carousel." McFarland's novels are set in their specific moment of early American history--the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico. The time and lives of the inhabitants of the Spanish colonial settlement of Santa Fe are carefully and respectfully portrayed. A no-frills portrayal of the period and location is faithfully rendered. Then elaborate special effects of spectacle-fantasy unexpectedly and repeatedly metamorphose throughout both novels to enrich a relaxed and seemingly mundane context. In the opera form everything is permitted! Read More
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Neither THE BRUJO'S WAY nor WHAT THE OWL SAW fall easily into familiar genres or marketing categories. Neither novel, therefore, is easy to characterize. In future blog postings I will mostly use the word "paranormal" as a more general category of the extra-normal as it occurs and functions in the two novels rather than "magic" and "supernatural," which I think would prematurely and arbitrarily limit how the author describes the varieties of extra-normal events throughout the two novels. The category of "fantasy" would also be limited and leave out a great deal, and "science fiction" would be almost wholly irrelevant.
The upshot of this is that varieties of extra-normal and normal events in the novels mix in ways that pretty much defy easy categorization. Both novels are at base relatively traditional forms of literature that reflect their author's roots in the special time and period of spiritual questing and popularization of the quest that took place in American culture during the 1960s and continues to the present day. I am going to further suggest the category of "opera" as a perhaps secondary reference--that McFarland has thus far written a two-act opera, an American prose opera with some kinship to the complex forms introduced by Rogers and Hammerstein in their early 1940s transformations of the American musical form in "Oklahoma" and "Carousel." McFarland's novels are set in their specific moment of early American history--the aftermath of the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico. The time and lives of the inhabitants of the Spanish colonial settlement of Santa Fe are carefully and respectfully portrayed. A no-frills portrayal of the period and location is faithfully rendered. Then elaborate special effects of spectacle-fantasy unexpectedly and repeatedly metamorphose throughout both novels to enrich a relaxed and seemingly mundane context. In the opera form everything is permitted! Read More