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Juggling Time

Walker Buckalew

Jul 26
2 min

Juggling Time

In the five novels in my Rebecca Series , time gets “juggled” with regularity. The action usually takes place on more than one continent, separated by the Atlantic Ocean, and by five – sometimes more – time zones. Rebecca is English. She and her family live in London or in cities nearby. But other major characters are American, including Matt Clark, Sidney Belton, Eleanor Chapel, and, in the newest novel, A Fearful Thing, Marie Campbell and Jack McGriff. In each of the storie

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Wounds: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Jul 8
2 min

Wounds: A Fearful Thing

In the five-book series of novels called the Rebecca Series, almost every major character, good or bad, sooner or later, gets wounded or, in a few cases, killed. In the latest novel in the series – A Fearful Thing – the most severe wound is actually administered by Rebecca to one of the bad guys. In this story, set in 1985, the height of the Cold War, Rebecca’s newly developed knife-throwing skills result at one point in her rifling one of her Barrington Swords 12-inch compet

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Rebecca Series Update: Current In-Process Novel

Walker Buckalew

Jun 15
3 min

Rebecca Series Update: Current In-Process Novel

As of now, I have in circulation five Rebecca Series action/mystery novels for adults (print and electronic), and, in addition, two for young adults. Since shortly after release of the fifth Rebecca story, titled A Fearful Thing, I have been working on the sixth, which is still unnamed. And I’m in no hurry to select its title. (I’ll need to know more about it first.) Sometimes I’m asked how far along I am with these stories as they are in process, and the answer sometimes is

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Dialects and Intelligibility

Walker Buckalew

May 26
3 min

Dialects and Intelligibility

“Th’ bg! Th’ bg! Dt’r Stf’d’s bg! H’r sh’s w’r unt’d! Th’ w’r unt’d!” What? What dialect is that? What language is that? Well… it’s English, but before I translate, let me explain that this quotation is not dialect. This is a person trying to talk despite having been beaten so severely that his face, lips, and tongue are painfully swollen. In contrast… this is dialect… a passage from the fifth novel in my Rebecca Series, A Fearful Thing: “It seems pretty clear t’ me that th’

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Dogs and Cats and Novels

Walker Buckalew

May 14
2 min

Dogs and Cats and Novels

The latest novel in the Rebecca Series, A Fearful Thing, is the first in the Rebecca Series and in the Visioners Series – a total of five books for adults and two for young adults – in which no dogs play important roles. In fact, no dogs even make an appearance in the latest book. There is, instead, a cat named Penelope (as there was, incidentally, in the first Rebecca novel, The Face of the Enemy; that, of course, was a different Penelope). This Penelope belongs to a new cha

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Constructing Novels: Part Four

Walker Buckalew

Apr 12
3 min

Constructing Novels: Part Four

In Part Three, I described the importance of contributions of in-process readers of manuscripts. And I closed by noting that, aside from the contributions of individuals who read and comment, there are those who ask me whether or not my approach to construction of these novels has changed over the years. And I said at the close of Part Three that it indeed has, and I wrote that I would explain that in Part Four. In The Face of the Enemy – my first novel – each of the first th

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Constructing Novels: Part Three

Walker Buckalew

Apr 11
2 min

Constructing Novels: Part Three

When my wife Linda finished reading her third three-chapter block of manuscript pages for A Fearful Thing – on its way to becoming the fifth novel in my Rebecca Series – she made two disquieting observations: first, the plot, she said, had become too scattered, and she felt that she was losing the thread of the story; and second, the story, she added, had gotten too far away from what she called “the mind of Rebecca.” From the start of this series of novels, I have always ask

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“How Is a Person Supposed to Read Fiction?”

Walker Buckalew

Mar 23
3 min

“How Is a Person Supposed to Read Fiction?”

C. S. Lewis told his readers and his correspondents repeatedly that, when you read fiction, you will not have a good experience unless you mentally grant the author the right to create a world for you, a world in which you may experience something altogether wonderful. Not everyone learns how to do this. If you can learn it, you will open yourself to what may become informative, thrilling, and even inspirational experiences in the world of fiction. But if you begin a novel wi

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Real-Life Characters: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Mar 9
3 min

Real-Life Characters: A Fearful Thing

I have mentioned in earlier posts that the characters in my novels are not based on actual people. Rather, I normally create my characters from the ground up, so to speak, in order to move these stories in the direction they need to go. Prior to writing the fifth novel in my Rebecca Series – A Fearful Thing – there had been just one exception. In my fourth novel, Choose You This Day, there appears a Dutch woman whom I named Greta van Dijk. Although Ms. van Dijk’s experiences

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Cover Art: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Feb 1
2 min

Cover Art: A Fearful Thing

Before the proliferation of e-readers – and using them as convenient and inexpensive substitutes for actual books – the cover art business was an important way for some artists to supplement their income from their “real” work of painting. Hardcover books, then and now, had dust jackets: covers for those books comprised a vital component in the sales success of each book. An attractively done dust jacket was essential to attract readers, since most sales were the result of pe

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“I really enjoyed your book”: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Dec 14, 2021
3 min

“I really enjoyed your book”: A Fearful Thing

Occasionally I – like other authors – get notes from people who have read one of my novels. They sometimes write, “I really enjoyed your book.” Occasionally I – also like other authors – happen to meet someone face to face who has read one of my novels. They sometimes say, “I really enjoyed your book.” These words are nice, and certainly the people writing or speaking them intend to say something that the author wants to read or hear. But many of us who write novels don’t wri

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Why is there Violence in the Rebecca novels? A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Nov 19, 2021
3 min

Why is there Violence in the Rebecca novels? A Fearful Thing

Near the end of my second adult-level novel – the second in the Rebecca Series – we read this passage: The gunman, kicking wildly at her face and chest, tried to wrest the barrel from her hands so that he could open fire again toward the dais. Just as he seemed about to succeed… all eight combatants were swarmed under by an avalanche comprising military policemen, Secret Service agents, and, by the dozens, members of the graduating class of the United States Naval Academy. In

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Romance in the Rebecca Series: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Nov 2, 2021
3 min

Romance in the Rebecca Series: A Fearful Thing

In previous posts, I’ve suggested that, in action/mystery novels, a background romance can add suspense to the mystery and depth to the action. That first phrase, adding suspense to the mystery, means to me that, if the author has led me to care about any of the major characters, and if one of those characters begins to have romantic feelings toward another character, then I start to be both intrigued and concerned. What is this new person really like? Is this person going to

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Good Endings: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Oct 18, 2021
2 min

Good Endings: A Fearful Thing

At the end of the highly successful film The Bourne Identity, the actor Matt Damon somehow finds the actress Franka Potente on what appears to be a Mediterranean island, a final scene that is as joyous as it is unexpected. We did expect Damon to be victorious in his violent struggles against those trying to destroy him; we did not expect him to be able to find the woman who had become his comrade in arms, and perhaps more than that, in mid story. Until the final scene, we wer

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Boats and Ships and Weapons: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Sep 27, 2021
3 min

Boats and Ships and Weapons: A Fearful Thing

My stories – adult and young adult – often feature boats or ships at some point. What’s the difference? Well, the easiest way to think about the difference is to realize that a boat can be hoisted onto a ship. The aircraft carrier on which I served as a young naval officer carried eight motor whaleboats. Each of those boats could carry about 60 sailors to and from shore, whenever the carrier was anchored in a city’s harbor: Hong Kong, Valparaiso, Acapulco, for example. In A F

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Action Scenes: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Sep 10, 2021
3 min

Action Scenes: A Fearful Thing

A Fearful Thing, the fifth novel in my Rebecca Series, opens with a car chase through the streets of London. On page two of the book, we read the following. (Bear in mind that this is London, the cars are right-hand drive, and everyone drives on the left-hand side of the roadways there.) As she turned her right hand drive Volvo onto the main thoroughfare… her liquid gray eyes focused on the black Mercedes sedan trailing five car lengths behind, one lane nearer the curb… She s

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Researching Novels: "A Fearful Thing"

Walker Buckalew

Aug 24, 2021
3 min

Researching Novels: "A Fearful Thing"

My new novel, A Fearful Thing, is the fifth novel in the Rebecca Series. It is set in the year 1985, four (fictional) years after the fourth novel, Choose You This Day. That means that most of the main characters, including Rebecca, are now in their early or mid-30s. That also means that the United States and England – the two national settings in most of my stories – are just starting their sprint toward the age of the worldwide web, of handheld electronic devices, and of ne

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The Female Lead Character in the Rebecca Series and in the new release: A Fearful Thing

Walker Buckalew

Aug 10, 2021
3 min

The Female Lead Character in the Rebecca Series and in the new release: A Fearful Thing

Over the years, when I have found myself speaking to students in their classrooms, or to adults at book-signing events, I have often been asked why my Rebecca Series features a woman as the lead character, given the fact that I am a man. My answer has always been that I have found women easier to know than men. Women and girls that I’ve known are more willing than men and boys to want to talk about serious subjects. (As a former college athlete and, later, high-school coach,

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Sympathetic Characters: Self-Reflection versus “Wallowing”

Walker Buckalew

Jul 26, 2021
2 min

Sympathetic Characters: Self-Reflection versus “Wallowing”

I have noted before, in other posts, how fast and hard I tend to get rolling when an action scene approaches. Since I am fast on the keyboard, I tend to write fast and furiously in approaching and describing action. I love action scenes, and relish the chance to present them to my readers. But I know that, unless an author is willing to “write shallow” – that is, to move from one action scene to the next without allowing the characters to reflect on the meaning of the action

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How Long is a Novel?

Walker Buckalew

Jul 13, 2021
3 min

How Long is a Novel?

In the introduction to his novel tilted Winter Prey, John Sandford observes that this story was one of his first in which the novel’s length played out just the way he had imagined it would. He writes that, too often before that, he would find himself at the 50,000 word mark, only to realize that the end of the story appeared to be right around the corner. He humorously notes that, when he would reach that point, he would realize, too, that he could go ahead and finish the no

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