The Role of Storyteller

In my role as a fiction writer, I consider myself primarily a storyteller. I have listened to some great oral storytellers over the years who could keep you entranced as they spun a tale. I am not glib of tongue and rarely give more than the essential details when telling someone about an incident I've been involved in. But when seated at a keyboard, I do my best to create stories with depth that entertain readers. My intent is not to espouse opinions or champion particular causes, as do writers of what is popularly called literary fiction.

Having said that, I do occasionally find my characters discussing matters of a more philosophical nature. When I'm caught doing this, I usually go back and read the passage with a feeling that authors sometimes experience when reading a passage they haven't looked at in years: Did I write that?

I encountered one of these "aha" moments when reading a review of my first post Cold War political thriller, Beware the Jabberwock. The review was written by Lee Boyland for Military Writers Society of America. Here is the passage he mentioned (quoting from the book):

Ex-FBI Agent Burke Hill comments regarding his initial  reluctance to get involved in a counter-espionage operation:

"I got all hung up on legalities and ethicalities. I finally accepted Cam Quinn's version of reality, that you can't fight unconventional wars with conventional means. I guess the important thing is to be honest with yourself and not compromise on your search for justice."

The answer to his dilemma is given by CIA Director Marshall, who winds up with:

"To achieve justice, which, as you indicate, is our ultimate goal, we must introduce another concept called equity. If the outcome of the action is equitable, then justice has been served."

Although I make no effort to espouse a particular point of view, I'll have to admit that some of my characters reflect my own feelings. But others may express diametrically opposite sensibilities. As I indicated earlier, I try not to get too philosophical. I don't write with a message in mind. I write with a good story to tell.

I hope you enjoy them. I'll have a tenth to add to the list shortly. Stay turned.

Where Do You Start the Story?

When you begin writing a book, the obvious first question is where to start the story. If the whole premise of the book and everything that happens flows out of events that occurred many years before the current action, to me it calls for a Prologue that details the background to the plot. I'm aware that some readers refuse to read prologues and skip to start at Chapter 1. To me, this is a shortsighted approach. In the first place, what's the difference if it's called the Prologue or Chapter 1?

My second Post Cold War thriller opens with a Prologue that sets the scene for the story that follows. Since the action takes place mostly in South Korea, we get a little historical perspective on the area and how it developed into an ideological punching bag over the years. It's a key to understanding the motivations of those who people the story.

I carefully researched the background to make sure the history was accurate, which it is up to the point where my fictional character, Young Tiger Lee, picks three of his Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army comrades in Manchuria to form the Poksu (Vengeance) guerrilla group. Returning to their Korean homeland, they wreak havoc on the Japanese Army during World War II.

As I mention in the Prologue, the Japanese forbid use of the Korean language during the occupation. But young Lee, not his real name, chose to use the hangul characters for the Korean word for vengeance, written inside a square, as the mark of his guerrilla group. They left it at sites of their attacks against the Japanese.

As I mentioned in a blog recently at Murderous Musings, The Poksu Conspiracy could be called half spy story, half Korean police procedural. Much of the story is told from the POV of Captain Yun Yu-sop, a homicide detective in the Namdaemun Police Station of the Seoul Metropolitan Police Bureau. The espionage half involves a CIA spinoff called Worldwide Communications Consultants, where my protagonist Burke Hill handles clandestine activities.

Both spies and cops wind up seeking to identify who Young Tiger Lee turned out to be as a key to what's going on in South Korea.