The Jade Owl: Part I: Chapter 9 - 12

[Edward C. Patterson]

Since the first slice was so large and the question like the SATs   I'm doing a smaller range of chapters this week and more discussion-type questions. AND of course, there's an overlap so there's no reason to avoid discussing last week's stuff here also:

Part I:

Chapter 9 - Wewoka's Dream

This Chapter has the first paranormal display of The Jade Owl other than the eerie glowing. There are 3 displays of The Jade Owl's powers in this Chapter. What are they, and discuss them? There's also a subtle 4th effect, if you have noticed it . . . if not, it's okay. It's ground laying, but if you have picked it up, let's hear it. If not, I'm not saying . . . yet

Chapter 10 - A Plan and a Place

This Chapter is "busy and dizzy" for a reason and would be plot-driven if I were an author of plots. How does this busy sequence lend to character development in this chapter?

Also, there are 2 private homages in this Chapter. One is for an early Beta-reader, Sharon Schroeder, who loved the book and we'd discuss he gardens via email. She grows hydrangeas, and so I planted one of her hydrangeas in the Balboa street front garden despite season and clime. Also illogical, but permanent, is the "cheery" door. My first editor of the Jade Owl, when it was a serialized offering on anotherchapter.com in 2003 (and in quite a rudimentary form), was a tartar (I fondly call her the editor bitch from hell - I love her. we're still close friends). She sent me back a note stating "Doors can be wooden, glass, painted, but never "cheery." I wrote her back that I wanted my door to reflect its owner. She told me that was insane. I therefore pledged to her and myself that as long as I breathed and as long as The Jade Owl was available, I would have a "cheery" door, and thus elaborated - "And it was cheery etc. etc.etc.) I have learned to listen to my professional mentors, but sometimes they need to be immortalized, even if it's in a happy portal. The point I made over and over to her is that "objects" in this novel are all "personified" and leitmotifs for their owners, be they doors, knuckles or, as in The Third Peregrination, 3 MontBlanc pens named Moe, Larry and Curly.   Okay that wasn't a question, but a, hopfully, interesting aside and window into the author's mind.

Chapter 11 - Book, Box and Bird

There's a subtle theme in this magical chapter that will repeat over and over in all 5 books of the Legacy. It has to do with the number 3 or in Chinese folk religion - Triads. What do you know about triads and how do they seem to operate in this little museum rumble?

Chapter 12 - Out of the Bag

Triads, eh? How do they continue in this Chapter? How does the contents of the Box strike you as a story extenuator?

By the way, I DID listen to Editor B from H here. Between Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 was another Chapter that lasted until the 8th revision of the book - an escape chapter through the Japanese Gardens, where the kimono are doffed and a rather slap stick comedy scene relieves the tension. My editor from day one wrote me: "I have only one question about that chapter. WHY?" I disagreed, until, later one, my agent suggested that the comedy broke the tension separating the opening of the box and the 3 old ladies sequence, weakening the structure and halting the page-turning activity. So, I cut it, but left the remnants (the trio showing up in kimono) which adds a bit of wryness, like a ghost haunting us from the missing chapter. But hold on (some materials from the cut chapter are coming in a few thousand pages in The Dragon's Pool).

Hope this helps stimulates some discussion. Hows the enjoyment factor coming along? Engaging enough?

Edward C. Patterson

[Ann in Arlington]

I have finished through chapter 12. . . . in fact have gone on to China -- at least, Hong Kong so far. . . .I am enjoying the story so far. . . I'm sure I'm not picking up all the nuances but the adventure is a good one.  At first I was finding the language a touch florid, but then it occurred to me that it's told generally from the perspective of Rowden Gray and he's a bit of a stuffed shirt to start with so it does speak to his personality and what he is like.

I was a bit disoriented when they first showed up in kimonos. . . .but the brief explanation in the chapter worked.  For a minute there, though, I thought my Kindle had skipped ahead on me! 

Regarding the many objects which are personified.  For me, it worked that the old woman's cane is treated as a character. . .it speaks to her character.  The museum director's pens being Moe, Larry and Curly, though, just struck me as silly. 

[Edward C. Patterson]

Ann:

You hit on a general stylistic thing that I developed for Rowden Gray and me as narrator. My agent (when I had one) actually came up with the idea and I sewed in into the work (all the works thus far) from the 8th revision onward. The fact that Rowden is a Brooklyn boy (like me) and curses (like me), but is a bit of an antique as well (like me), I tried to come up a linguistic take that would support the character's development.

Old friend cane is an important friend. And as for Moe, Larry and Curly, well let's just say that there's a Chapter in The Third Peregrination called "A Tale of Moe," and that pen and it's personification becomes crucial - but that in the next book. Remember, when I'm writing this story, I'm writing a 5 book series and laying groundwork for the complete tale throughout.

I'm glad you're enjoying the book.

Ed P