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By Root 374 0

experience as much that’s alien to your everyday life as possible. To invent other cultures you should immerse yourself in other cultures. In the old days, writers would attempt to do this by subscribing to National Geographic and by camping out in their local library. Today we have the Internet. But reading, in whatever format, is not the same as doing. Or as Robert Louis Stevenson put it, “Books are all right in their way, but they’re a mighty poor substitute for life.”

So how do I know when, where, and how I’m going to make use of experiences such as those I’ve related here? The answer is that I don’t. What I do know is that sooner or later I’ll be working on a story or a novel and a situation will arise involving a dramatic, perhaps potentially life-threatening confrontation. Often I’ll produce the resulting scenario out of whole cloth, but sometimes—sometimes I’ll think back to a situation from real life. Drawing on that will produce fiction that cannot help but be more realistic because the source of it has actually been experienced.

Oh, sure, you say. Like Air Jaws. Flying great white sharks. That’ll prove useful in a story some day. Sure it will.

See the novel Into the Thinking Kingdoms.

Or how about interacting with a semi-wild cheetah named Felix, or encountering feeding lions? See all of the novels in the Journeys of the Catechist trilogy.

Years ago, I created an oversize otter character (Mudge, from the Spellsinger fantasy series) before I knew such a creature actually existed. Seeing his real analog only inspires me to write more about him. How about Pip, the flying snake from the Pip and Flinx books? Yes, I created her before I’d ever traveled outside the United States, but I firmly believe that subsequent serpentine encounters have enabled me to render her far more believably in later works than if I had never encountered her actual brethren in the wild. And it’s not just individual creatures. That the description of the Amazon rain forest in Phylogenesis was singled out for especial compliment by one reviewer is due, I’m certain, solely to the fact that I’ve actually spent time there.

In Blue Magic, book one of the as yet unpublished Oshanurth trilogy, magic is commonplace, and much of it relates directly to the creatures that practice it. I refer, in particular, to shark magic, the basis of which lies entirely with the sharks that I’ve met. The octopus is there, too, along with dozens of other underwater denizens among whom I’ve spent some time.

Confront, encounter, interact with a creature, and you are made aware of the unique characteristics it may not share with other inhabitants of the planet. This holds true for plants as well as animals, as anyone who has read Drowning World or the Midworld stories will attest. The environment of Drowning World and much of the invented flora and fauna therein can be traced directly to time spent in the Amazon and, especially, in a reserve called Mamiraua that lies about halfway between Manaus and the Peruvian border.

I have to go now. A kitten is growling and nibbling on my toe. As a writer, I could extrapolate from her to full-grown cheetah or lion or tiger.

But it’s better, much better, and far more fulfilling both professionally and as a human being to have encountered her family relations in person.

The End

Table of Contents

Cover

Title Page

Dedication

Contents

Introduction

I. Tyger, Tyger, Burning Bright...

East Central India, April 2003

II. Things You Never Forget

South Australia, January 1991

III. Felix

Mount Etjo, Namibia, November 1993

IV. The Cute Little Octopus and the Homicidal Shell

East Central Australia, November 1989

V. Jealous Ants, Millions of Ants, and Really, Really Big...Ants

Southeastern Peru, May 1987

Northeastern Gabon, January 2007

Southeastern Peru, July 1998

VI. Sharks I Haven'T Jumped

Bismarck Sea, September 1997

West Australia, April 1992

VII. Flat Tires, Old Canvas, and Big Cats

Tanzania, July 1984

South Africa, May 2002

Tanzania, August 1984

Mount Etjo, Namibia, October 1993