Pulpseed
Excerpt
April 1922, in the fictitious town of Nayaganj, India. An American aviator, Julian Brentwood, whose war alias was G-8, is found near death from what appears to be the effects of a snake’s bite. In his hand is an envelope his comrades among the Indian terrorists, as well as Communists and two intelligence organizations, believe contains a map leading to a fabulous treasure. British intelligence is represented by two agents: the veteran Commander Samuel Lindsay, target of assassination attempts by Julian, and the inexperienced and unstable Louis Hothersall, increasingly affected by the surrounding intrigue and violence. These men battle Julian, whose secret identity is confirmed by Frank Reynolds, an American intelligence agent. He joins Lindsay and Hothersall in Nayaganj, intent on retrieving incriminating war documents it’s believed Julian possesses. Julian’s letter escapes their grasp, and that of his former allies - Ram Dulal, Isuar and Anjelica - and reaches New York.
Upon receipt of the letter one of Julian’s adopted brothers, Kenton, wires his twin, Lawrence, to meet him as soon as possible in London, England. There they question their adoptive father’s solicitor, Jeremy Hall. Soon after their initial meeting the lawyer’s office is robbed; a former family servant reveals a secret of their adoptive father, David Brentwood; and they find themselves followed on the ocean liner Bithynia that is taking them from Liverpool to Bombay. They discover that the revolutionaries think they have a treasure map. Docking in London they learn Hall has been found murdered in the basement of his law office.
Arriving in Nayaganj they find Julian’s grave ransacked. Suspicious of the police, the Brentwoods investigate their brother’s death, determining it had been caused by a poisoned dart. The twins learn, among other things, that Julian had hidden a metal chest with personal mementoes, and that they had a never-known sister. In the search for the truth of their brother’s death they rescue a friend of Julian’s, Ram Singh, from the clutches of Isuar, a terrorist leader who has freshly defeated his rival Ram Dulal for supremacy in the region. British and American intelligence implicate the brothers in two murders and they are arrested. Ram Singh helps them escape the police and they flee to Tibet, pursued by an Army troop whom they defeat in a battle over a bottomless gorge. In a storm the twins and the Sikh plunge off a cliff, regaining consciousness some time later in a lamasery.
The two masters of the lamasery, Chen T’a Tze and Khünpela, retrain the Brentwoods with the purpose of convincing them to use their warrior abilities to fight evil wherever it exists. Having sought some purpose in their lives after the War, the twins come to view this mission with enthusiasm. A special British force arrives to arrest the three men, but the troops are killed or dispersed. Knowledge gained from them spurs the Brentwoods and Ram Singh to return to Nayaganj, where they learn Lindsay is their adoptive father’s half-brother. They resolve to track Lindsay down and put all the pieces together. To do that they must follow him, Hothersall and Reynolds into the Thar Desert of Rajasthan where an attempt is being made to find Julian’s treasure before the revolutionaries do.
When they arrive at a village on the desert’s boundaries the Brentwoods are kidnapped by Isuar and Anjelica, only to be spirited away from their camp during a sand storm by a spy for the British who had infiltrated the revolutionaries some time ago. While Lindsay and Reynolds interrogate the twins the army commander controlling the base where they are held continues to hunt for the treasure. Isuar and Anjelica’s men attack, and a device secreted by Julian goes off, bringing about a gruesome death for many of the soldiers and treasure seekers. The twins escape the locked interrogation room and meet Lindsay for the final confrontation.
At the end of the book, in May 1923, the Brentwoods and Ram Singh return to the spot where their brother was found dying. Buried deep in the ground is Julian’s metal box containing the journals Reynolds had wanted, personal documents revealing their biological parents’ names as well as their own, and a photograph of their sister. The twins separate, Kenton to return to Tibet for more training, and Lawrence, together with Ram Singh, to the United States. The groundwork has been laid, and over the next six years Lawrence establishes completely new identities for himself and his brother. In October 1929 Kenton will return from his studies to take over the identity of Kent Allard (The Shadow) while Lawrence has become Richard Wentworth (The Spider). Pulpseed finishes with them ready to embark on their careers.
Verbatim: A Novel
Excerpt
The setting is a legislature of a fictional Canadian province; the time is the 1990s.
Section I: August 19 199- to January 17 199- of the next year:
The book begins in correspondence between the Speaker and the Clerk of the House as they discuss hiring a Director of Hansard. Shortly after the new Director is installed bureaucratic squabbles start, increasing in frequency and intensity as the story goes on. Letters and memos distributed throughout this long introductory section (in a variety of styles and fonts) reveal people defining their power roles and territory or having those things defined for them. When the Director tinkers with Hansard’s format it bothers his staff of editors and transcribers. In the next section the new style book - akin to a manifesto - is introduced, forcing differences of opinion out into the open.
From correspondence, the novel moves into legislative debates. Readers plunge into the province’s problems in the areas of health, social services, education, finances and the environment, while they are simultaneously exposed to parliamentary practices. Debate degenerates into attacks on members and partisan fighting as the government issues good news announcements which the opposition attempts to discredit. Petitions and question periods are realistic with regard to parliamentary procedure, each speech revealing a politician’s personality. The debates appear in dual columns on the page.
Section II: January 20 to March 7 199- of the same year:
This brief section opens with a combative session of the House as the Social Progressive government, close to the end of its mandate, is attacked by the Alliance Party, the Official Opposition. The session is terminated by an election call.
In Hansard, the Director and staff clash over the new style book, as neither editor will compromise on their idiosyncratic opinions about how things should be done. Correspondence shows the Clerk and the Speaker temperamentally at odds with a Director who is not as compliant as they wanted. The pettiness of the bureaucrats increases, matching the escalating tensions in the Legislature.
Section III: March 11 to June 4 199- of the same year:
Five parties and one independent member fight for the right to speak for their constituents. The Social Progressives eventually lose their one-seat majority due to the abrupt death of one of their members. To stay in power they form a coalition with a left-wing party. At the end of the book a scandal brings down the government, forcing a second election. This multi-party House features voices uttering concerns from across the political spectrum on abortion, welfare spending, and native rights.
Relations between the Director and others decline. The memos talk about poor management and unfair treatment, and reveal personality and ideological clashes, as well as political maneuvering. The Speaker and the Clerk devise a plan which forces the Director to quit. A malleable editor is elevated to head the division under a different title and at a lower salary. The Speaker, who has the first words of the novel, has the last words before contesting the election. The book ends with the almost simultaneous dissolving of the House and the re-arranging of affairs in Hansard.
Shadow & Spider
Contemporary Novel
Chapters 1-8
In 1996, with work on Mirrors on which dust has fallen starting off slowly, I had the idea of writing a contemporary Shadow and Spider novel. I had already written of their origins (and of G-8’s) in Pulpseed (1993; 2002), but a second viewing of “The Shadow” movie made me wonder how the hero could be updated for today’s audience. It seemed a little absurd to keep Lamont Cranston around, partly due to his sensibilities, partly due to his age. For me, he just doesn’t connect with what kids and others find exciting in action heros today. I figured out a story behind Cranston’s private life, but more importantly, I thought the main character could be entirely different from him. Yet possessed of his abilities, somehow. And it also occurred to me that The Spider could be revisited as well. After all, I made the brothers twins in Pulpseed, so why not have them find successors at the same time?
From the ten pages I wrote in the middle of a night came the first eight chapters of a not-yet-completed novel. The eighth chapter ends with new characters introduced but before a plot kicks in. —Well, there you have it. I never could come up with one. Or rather, haven’t to this day. Which is why I haven’t pitched it to anyone yet. I went back to it this year [2002] and did some tinkering. So who can say what will happen tomorrow? I don't regret the time spent on the stalled project. Apart from helping me move into Mirrors, it was a wonderful bit of play, and I liked summoning up B. Jonas and all the other things. Maybe readers here can get some pleasure from it as well.
Mirrors on which dust has fallen
Excerpt
This novel is a social satire, a quest novel, and an examination of artistic and religious impulses in the 1990s. Those who have gone through periods of self-examination, and who favour strong male and female leads, will identify with the novel’s concerns, and with the characters: labourers, reporters, small businessmen, disc jockeys, artists, the unemployed, single and married women and men. These people, the “mirrors” of the title, struggle to become or remain whole in the fictional Canadian city of Bowmount.
The novel begins with an unnamed narrator of limited omniscience describing Bowmount. From there, readers are introduced gradually to the major characters, beginning with Loyola Holden, a young man unhappily working for a female boss at Moscati-Mann, a garment wholesaler. During the novel’s time span (April to November 1995) he moves from passivity at work to fighting with his employers, loses a girlfriend, and finally realizes he has always been attracted to his cousin, Janet Campbell. She is a reporter for a local newspaper who is equally attracted to him. In one of the bars Loyola likes, Harry Prestwick, former union leader turned public relations expert, dispenses wisdom to Sam Tynbourne, Camilla Lonegin and others.
Camilla’s parents’ marriage is under stress, with Duncan increasingly alone and Marian verging on alcoholism. Duncan is shocked when his friend, Fr. Jerome Ryan, is arrested at the Lonegin home for sexually molesting an altar boy. Marian suddenly becomes the calm centre of the family, but, paradoxically, the re-emergence of her former self intensifies her husband’s anger. The arrest and his wife’s perhaps temporary self-control precipitate Duncan’s deterioration.
Ivy Merifield, a friend of Camilla’s, is a woman close to forty searching for a man who shares her desire for spiritual enlightenment. As the novel progresses she draws near to what might fulfil her needs, but her course is filled with self-doubt. Ivy is made malicious sport of by Vinnie Deeka, Loyola’s mentor, whose brutal world view wounds her.
Minor characters contribute to the novel’s texture and action. Alistair and Bart begin a friendship which may become something more. Sam had originally planned painting a triptych in honour of the Holy Family, but his faith, shattered by scandals, results in a work bitterly hostile towards the Church. Nadeen Sarkissian is a hot-tempered photographer involved with Deeka until he breaks their relationship off when she demands to know him more intimately than he wishes. Their problems cause a fight between Vinnie and Loyola; when Loyola states he and Janet are in love, the mentor-pupil relationship collapses.
In the last pages, it is apparent that certain characters have become more themselves, while others have advanced or diminished. Throughout the eight months there has been growth, regression, inertia and death, but the novel ends on a cautious note of hope when Ivy chooses a path that she trusts will give her life greater purpose.