Author Spotlight: Rosemary Sutcliff

I have decided to try an Author Spotlight to draw attention to authors who I think are worth your time and that some people might not know about. I could think of no better author to start this off with than Rosemary Sutcliff.
For those of you who have not read Sutcliff, you are missing out on a rare treat. She is, to my mind, one of the most underrated writers of the 20^th Century.

She wrote primarily historical fiction, mainly focusing on early Britain and Saxon times, though she branched out to Greece with Black Ships Before Troy, as well as the Vikings in several other works. Even if you are not a huge fan of historical fiction, those of you who want to be writers should still read her for the mastery she displays in the art of writing.

Sutcliff does two things better than any writer I have read; she creates poignant sense of atmosphere and she tells deep, complex stories in a compact, straightforward style.

I am still trying to understand exactly how Sutcliff is able to make her settings so vivid and complete in my mind, but I think part of it comes from her deep understanding of them. She had a well-developed picture of the world in which her characters lived, something I think young writers can hurry through. As a writer, I believe the words on the paper should be the tip of the iceberg you have imagined and thought about. Simply by seeing that bit of ice peeking over the waves, we can sense the vastness of what lies beneath. If you only imagine enough to fill in your pages, it will seem flat and cheap without you really being able to tell what the issue is.

The second thing I love is that Sutcliff’s writing is the definition of tight and compact. Mark of the Horse Lords is a prime example, it is a short (less than three hundred pages) novel that covers over a year of complex action in depth and detail with complex and well developed characters. Yet Sutcliff tells only those scenes that directly move forward the story. I was stunned when she skipped over what I thought would be the pivotal moment in the book, preferring instead to relay the aftermath. Looking back I realized, the aftermath was what mattered, she cut at least twenty pages of action out of the story and only left in what was important.  It is a good lesson for some of us writers who feel the need to include every step from beginning to end. Some things can be told in brief, in a flashback, or left out entirely. Sutcliff did this masterfully.
If you're looking to get started on Sutcliff, I recommend starting with her Roman Britain Trilogy, Eagle of the Ninth, Silver Branch, and Lantern Bearers. These are not only some of her best work, but they should be relatively easy to find. You can find many of her books on Amazon here, and some of her books, such as Frontier Wolf (If you are in any leadership position you should read this book) are difficult to find other than used outside of Kindle. You can also bookmark her works on Goodreads to get to later, and you'll want to. Her works are numerous and well worth reading, and you don't want to do what I did and find yourself accidentally starting with the middle  book in a series. 
I am currently working to outline the second book in her Eagle Trilogy, Silver Branch, part of trying to study how she wrote and specifically how she structured her novels. I'm hoping that once I have a good start on it, I can make it publicly available and maybe get some of your thoughts on it, both my outline and Sutcliff's writing, so stay tuned for that.
Who are some of your favorite under appreciated authors? Hopefully I can learn about a few hidden gems from you as well, and perhaps I can focus on them for a future Author Spotlight.

The Sagas

Having just published ‘The Dragon of Kveldmir’, I’m switching gears and setting to work on a couple of other projects that I have planned out and filling my tank in preparation for these as well. Thus, I am back to reading the Sagas.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Sagas, they are various collections of old stories from the North in general and Iceland in particular. Written down sometime in the 13-14^th centuries, they reflect historical, or quasi historical, happenings and heroes from the 9^th-11^th centuries in Iceland. They are, in my mind, a branch of the Northern school of literature, closely related in style and purpose to not only the Poetic Edda and Prose Edda, but also to tales such as Beowulf.

These stories are laced with commentary, sometimes veiled, sometimes overt, on the actions of the characters. And I think this is part of what makes them so special.

They were not just meant to entertain, but also to instruct young men in how they should behave. The actions of the men and women in the stories are shown to have consequences in their lives. A greedy king may find himself in conflict with great warriors who might otherwise have served him, while a gracious and generous lord may find no lack of men to give him aid.

The Sagas are fascinating tales of tangled loyalties, great battles, cunning ambushes, and men seeking their fame and fortune. They are well worth your time to read, and think about. The world these men lived in is not too far from our own. They knew that chance often takes choice from our hands and dashes our hopes on the rocks, but they also knew that they could survive the rocks if they fought hard and lived well.

Probably the best starting point if you want to read the Sagas would be Sagas of the Icelanders, an epic collection which contains the enthralling Egil's Saga, a tale of adventure and expansion. If you don't have a Goodreads account, by the way, I encourage you to get one.

I’ll address the Sagas in more detail in a post I have coming up, where I intend to talk about why I became and English Major with no intention of becoming a Teacher. For those of us who write, it is incredibly important for us to understand why we are writing and why we are telling stories. Our readers’ time is a valuable commodity and if we don’t have compelling reason for creating it, we can’t expect them to have one for reading it.  

Also keep an eye peeled for a couple new pages here at Writing Adventures. I have a few posts that deal with some of the more technical aspects of writing that some of you might enjoy. And hey, while you're on Goodreads, check out my book "The Dragon of Kveldmir". Maybe you can be one of the first ones to write a review! 

What are some of your out-of-the-way favorites when you need inspiration? What are some old stories that you keep coming back to?