The Pict is my debut historical novel published by iUniverse in August, 2007. I'd be interested in questions, reviews, and criticism of the novel about the enigmatic Picts who defied Roman aggression in what is now called Scotland, in the first century AD.
Synopsis:
An insatiable thirst for conquest has brought the Romans to the shores of Britannia. After easily subduing the southern barbarian tribes, the Romans are astonished by the stubborn resistance of the Cruithne, whom they call the “Picts.”
Synopsis:
An insatiable thirst for conquest has brought the Romans to the shores of Britannia. After easily subduing the southern barbarian tribes, the Romans are astonished by the stubborn resistance of the Cruithne, whom they call the “Picts.”
Although the Picts have always been a loose affiliation of tribes, the extraordinary threat to their very survival now inspires them to unite under the leadership of one indomitable man: Calach.
Can Calach guide the new Pictish nation to victory over the inexorable Roman advance, or will the Empire that has swallowed so many before them determine the Pict history?
Find out! Get The Pict from Amazon.com (US), Amazon.co.uk (UK), Barnes and Noble, or from the publisher (iUniverse).
Find out! Get The Pict from Amazon.com (US), Amazon.co.uk (UK), Barnes and Noble, or from the publisher (iUniverse).
15 comments:
I'm very interested in reading your novel. I found it by chance on Amazon by searching key word Pict. I have always had a passion for history and my ancestry. British and Irish history is particular interesting to me. I have been unable to find anything written about the Scots (Picts, Dal Riadans, etc.) as far as historical fiction goes. I plan to order the book very soon.
Thank you, Kristopher. I hope you enjoy The Pict thoroughly. I'd be interested in what you think of it when you're finished.
The biggest reason I wrote The Pict was the one you mentioned: there's far too little written about them, mostly because documented history about them is so scarce. As archaeologists learn more, that will no doubt change. I know of at least one work in progress that will deal with the Picts in the same time frame as The Pict, but from a different perspective, and it promises to be a very good read. I won't put undue pressure on the author by saying it will be out any time soon, but it's out there, germinating nicely.
I have a page on my website (www.jdixon.net) dedicated to books about the Picts, but I have much to add to it and I haven't had the time. I'll peek around for suggestions for you. You might also want to drop by kirstencampbell.blogspot.com. Kirsten can make a few good recommendations off the top of her head. She's quite knowledgeable about the Picts, the Scots, and Alba/Dalriada history in general.
My own ancestry is Pictish (they say) and Irish (from around Bantry Bay). There's quite fascinating history all around those incredible islands.
Keep in touch, Kristopher, and be sure to let me know what you think!
Jack
Jack
My girlfriend ordered your book for me for Christmas. Imagine my surprise when she remembered the title and the fact that I wanted this (so far) obscure, independently published book called The Pict. I am only about 15pages into it so far, but I was wondering if you could tell me about the Urnifal. Were they a Sarmatian tribe, or simply a product of your imagination? I cannot find mention, nor have I heard of them, anywhere else.
I would also like to hear anything you have to say about independent publishing.
I put a link to your blog in my last blog entry.
Hi, Kristopher. Good to hear from you again. Please pass my appreciation to your girlfriend for getting The Pict for you for Christmas. I hope you enjoy it immensely.
Great question about the Urnifal! In my research, I've discovered much debate about the nature and the motivation of tribal expansion across the Scythian plains from 1200-800 BC. The lack of cohesive theories provides a somewhat blank canvas for the novelist's creativity. Tribes are mentioned and then debated, and their languages and origins are points of vast and varied contention. Since for my purposes they were simply part of the introduction of the Pictish origin myth, I chose a tribal name that would nod toward the culture to which they most likely would have belonged: the Urnfield Culture, which cremated and buried their dead in urns across the plains, and which appears to have dominated the regions previously occupied by the forebears of the Picts. Advances in military technology in that time upset longstanding balances and allowed various tribes to overwhelm and disperse the lesser-advanced. So the Urnifal were simply a tribe of the Urnfield Culture, and therefore probably not Sarmatians, but most definitely a figment of my imagination. I never expected anyone to question such an obscure element of the story, and I'm pleasantly impressed that you did. So many things in the story are subtle nods toward obscure historical ideas that I never really expected readers to pick up, much less question. It might seem strange, but that's one of the thrills of writing.
As far as Independent Publishing, I see it following in the footsteps of independent music and films. The "Establishment" has grown to be incurably exclusive, to the extent that we need 'competitive' television talent shows to identify the next superstar, when there are countless talented musicians on every other street corner that might take a little effort and judgment to find. The publishing industry is lazy; it doesn't want to risk profit on new talent, and it has set rigid formulae with which every book must comply if it is to find a space on a retail shelf. Readers, on the other hand, have a different set of tastes and desires. The established publishers are not filling that need very effectively. They're, in essence, telling us what to read. And that's not ideal.
Indie films have venues in Paris, Milan, Manhattan, and offbeat theaters around the world. Indie music has XPN and a clamoring, assertive audience. Indie books are fighting the resistance of established book distribution models, the influence of established publishing industry tycoons, and a deluge of independently published books that should have never been bound between covers and presented as viable reads. Independently published books currently fight uphill against a reputation sullied by a multitude of badly written books and the absence of marketing muscle that's abundant with conventional publishers.
Many of us are organizing the means to bring the cream of independent publishing to the top: the Independent Authors Guild is one, with a newsletter, discussion group, and plans to aggressively promote the work of deserving independent authors. Amazon is a terrific resource in that effort.
The goal is to get work out there that is produced by brilliantly talented authors, and to promote it to eager and discerning readers who appreciate writing that is unfettered and uncontrolled by executives who are driven by their quarterly bottom line. It's a process of evolution, and it will happen, just as it has in music and films. The technological means exist to pull the revolution off. All that's needed are more talented writers who are willing to go it alone, and to take on their own marketing and destiny, and organizations like the IAG where our resources will be pooled, strengthened, and brought to bear on the reading market.
In essence, readers care far less about who published the book than they do about what they find between the covers after they've bought it. Our task is to get fine authorship into the hands of serious, discerning readers as effectively as technology will allow. The technology and the time is ripe for us to succeed in that.
Incidentally, at some point in the next year, I'll be releasing a much more expansive version of The Pict that you might find more fulfilling than my debut work. The single recurring criticism of The Pict has been that the book is far too short. I agree, and I'll be remdying that, now that I know the readers can stomach my writing (uncontrollable and typical author's self-doubt here). You can consider The Pict as a preview of bigger things to come.
Please let me know what you think of The Pict, if you have the time. I truly hope you enjoy it!
Happy New Years!
Jack
Good reply! I think that I might be interested in learning more about this Guild. I have mostly written only short stories, but I'm about 17,000 words into a story that I have picked up and put down several times over the years. Anyway, I think it would be good for me to start finding my way around this world.
On the Urnifal: Nice job! That little nugget of information made me laugh. I would never have thought of that! Anyway, I wasn't trying to nit-pick. I'm just hyper-curious. If I am unfamiliar with something that I have read or heard, then I will naturally research it. I remember hearing the word Kurgan for the first time in the movie Highlander (yes, I'm a nerd). That name inspired awe in me simply because it was foreign. When I realized that the Kurgans were a real people, I was delighted! History is full of wonder and discovery for the interested and patient person.
What do you think about the theory that the Pictish language might have been more closely related to the Basque language than an Indo-European language? I don't have a lot of real experience researching this type of thing, but I am very interested in language and I try to read up on things like this when I see them.
Kris
Hi, Kris. Please feel free to join the Independent Authors Guild. You'll find the discussion group here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/IAG-members/
It's a good group of serious writers with a clear focus of what we're trying to accomplish. You'll be welcome there, and you'll find a lot of support.
17,000 words is a good start. I remember thinking I was on a roll when I was 7,000 words into The Pict. I've written intermittently for twenty years, but never truly focused on it until the past two and a half years. It's become my primary focus now, along with the normal, basic concerns of daily life.
I think that too little is known of the Pictish language to have a definitive opinion on that. I imagine that some of the Picts carried an Indo-European dialect from Eurasia, but then I also believe that the Picts were probably a collection of disparate tribes with diverse origins. Some tribes appear to have had distinctly Spanish traits, while others were clearly Nordic. Whatever languages the various tribes carried with them to Pictavia, a millenium of integration, as well as of commerce and war with the Scoti and other Hibernian tribes would surely have forced linguistic mutations. The most popular assumption is P-Celtic, or Brythonic, which would have had heavy Gaulish influence - that would make sense, if the Picts came primarily from the European mainland to the Highlands and interacted with the Celtic cultures already on the Islands.
Unfortunately, since the Picts left no written records, or any remnants of their actual language, it's phonetics or pronunciation, our beliefs about their language will never be more than educated conjecture. It's sad, but the Pictish language is truly a dead language - except for whatever wisps of it remain in present day Scottish (and I do believe some Pictish ifluence remains, both in the language and in the national character of the Scots).
Your curiosity and your penchant for research bode well for your future as a novelist! I didn't think you were nit-picking. You think (and wonder) about everything you read, even the "peripheral" stuff - that's a good quality. You'll need to do that in your own writing, so practice it as much as you can with others'. I'm always up for questions that make me think, and questions that make me explain what I was thinking. That's the sort of interactions a lot of writers crave.
Great chatting with you, Kris. I hope you're enjoying The Pict (probably long finished by now, though, it's so short. Damn, I wish I had gone ahead and made it longer!)
Take care.
Jack
Hey Jack. I haven't finished The Pict yet. I'm a pretty slow reader, but I haven't been spending a lot of time with it. I got engaged over the Holidays, so there has been a frenzy of things to do and people to see. It took me a little while to get into The Pict, but now I'm rolling right along. I'll give you some feedback once I have read the whole thing. I don't want to give a half cocked opinion until I have read the last word. I am enjoying it now, though!
Congratulations on your engagement, Kris! You and Kelley must be thrilled. Take your time and enjoy the book. I'll look forward to your thoughts whenever you have the time. I hope your holidays were great!
Jack--
Where can I send a PM or email?
Hi, Kris. The safest thing to do would be to go to my website, wwww.jdixon.net, and click on the Contact the Author link. I'll get your message and reply to you via e-mail. That way neither of us has to post our e-mail address on a blog. Talk to you soon.
Jack
Sorry...that's three 'w's, not four...
Hey Jack. You still knockin' around?
Hi, Kris. I sent you an e-mail yesterday. Did you get it? Been pretty tied up, but if you didn't get the e-mail, I'll figure out what happened and resend it.
Hope all's well!
Jack
Hey jack. No, I didn't get the email. That's a relief. I thought maybe you were upset with me. Glad to hear everything is going well. I'm currently knee deep in R.E. Howard's Bran Mak Morn: The Last King, and I'm browsing through my new copy of Seamus Heaney's Beowulf. This blogging thing has definitely given my desire to write a boost. It's also kind of addictive. Talk to you soon!
I got it! It was in my spam filter. I emailed you back.
Take care, Jack.
Post a Comment