How many people here are writing Alexander books?

[ScottOden]

I, for one, would be willing to take part in something like this. I mean, really....when do writer's *not* like talking about themselves? Maybe someone can devise a series of questions (five or so) that we can answer in regards to our motivations, etc.? Then tack on a short synopsis and an excerpt, if possible. I know mine is still a long way from publication, since I've only recently wrapped up my core research and started my rough draft. Still, I'd love to play along.Scott

[karen]

The way I sold my first novel: I already knew some published writers, I went to conferences and got to know people, I made contact with a very well-regarded editor and got her interested in my manuscript and then mentioned this to an agent who took me on. Alas, this editor was no longer in a position to buy my kind of work, and twelve publishers rejected it, even though I had an agent. The thirteenth bought it. I was selling in the science fiction/fantasy market, but it was very much non-standard sf/f, and hence the difficulty, I think."Get a nibble from a publisher and then tell that to an agent" is a tried and true method of getting publisher and agent both. (Not that I've done it yet with my Alexander book -- I'm not quite at that stage. Alas, it's in a different genre from my previous work, else I could hit the same publisher again.)I hate to say it but yes, you do have to write the manuscript entire before you sell it, when you are an unknown author. There are plenty of people out there who are willing to write whole books for nothing, and you are competing with them. When you've published at least one, then you call sell on an outline and three sample chapters, and when you're Stephen King, then you can just tell a publisher that you're writing another book and they'll snap it up. Basically, before they buy your book, a publisher needs to know that you are capable of finishing one.If you send a proposal to a publisher or agent, and they like it, they'll want to see the whole manuscript, if you're new. If you tell them, "I'm not going to have it done for a year or two," they'll say, "Come back and talk to us then." And not only will they forget you entirely until you do -- but the company personnel might have changed entirely by that time.Good luck all!Love & peace,
Karen

[marcus]

Scott - good idea. Far easier to answer questions than to have to try and work out what to talk about (after all, we're only supposed to be writers, right?).I also don't mind posting an excerpt or two, although it would probably take me 8 years to work out which excerpts I want to post :-)All the bestMarcus

[Linda]

Well, I am not writing a book because I am not a writer. However, I am very interested in fiction about Alexander. I asked if anyone has made him bad because I think there is one huge risk in writing about Alexander; it is very easy to fall for him, as Renault did (although she gets round that by using Hephaestion and Bagoas as protagonists, and they are portrayed as being in love with him). I admired and enjoyed the Renault books, but I think they would have been better books if she had not been so smitten. On the other hand, she loved that world and so did enough research and had enough respect for her subjects that she created a completely believable world. I am interested in how everyone is approaching thngs in a different way. Or are youGǪ.? But how can you breathe new life into Alexander and Olympias, and Philip, how he tamed Bucephalus, loved Hephaestion, fought Darius, died at 33? Or does no one think the definitive work has been written yet, or that each age deserves its own interpretation? What do you want to show? There are a few questions there if anyone wants to answer..

[karen]

Susan, I really like this idea, for several reasons. First, it's a way for us to tell each other, and the cyberworld, something about what we're doing. I for one am very curious about everyone else's premise. And as you say it might have a stimulating effect. Second, it will make the site even more interesting. Third, it's actually a selling point for authors. Throw this in your cover letter: "Excerpt featured on Pothos.org, the premier Internet website on Alexander the Great," plus the URL, and it gives the editor or agent the message that your work is already appreciated by Alexander fans!Here's my entry in a format others might want to use:Author: Karen Wehrstein (Huntsville, Canada)
Title: _I, Alexander_
Summary: Three-book historical series covering the life of Alexander the Great from birth to death, written from his point of view.
Progress: In researching/writing stage, about 25% written and going very slowly, shopped around a little, no bites yet.
Previous publications: _Lion's Heart_ (New York: Baen Books, 1991), _Lion's Soul_ (Baen Books, 1991), _Shadow's Son_ (co-authored with Shirley Meier and S.M. Stirling, Baen Books, 1992), several short stories.Then you could throw in "Click here for excerpt" to link to an excerpt. (Though I, like Marcus, will have to spend a while figuring out *which* excerpt. Maybe we should all try for different types of scenes? Or how about a special section in which all of us show our different versions of the *same* event? )Love & peace,
Karen

[aen]

Alright, my hand has to go up as well.
Novel well advanced and agented on an excerpt, with a (conditional) publisher; although currently on hold for a satirical murder mystery in Athens centred on the Aristophanes/Agathon / Euripides/Socrates set.
A word of caution, however, to all of you who love Alexander, as doubtless many of you do, and whose passion is to do him justice in some ineffable way with a book that cuts right to the centre of the man . . . the man that you personally know.
I did a titanic amount of research and travelling; I filled copious notebooks; I sketched like a maniac; I drove a wedge down the middle of a relationship with obsessive behaviour; I ran frantically from one library to the next, and stretched a friendship unacceptably in an effort to get into the Vatican libraries; I nearly killed three friends in Egypt with boyish enthusiasm; I spent countless nights and early mornings emptying the wine bottles and dribbling incoherently with Serbs fresh from war in the Balkan mountains; I clambered over fences and walls to visit Pella, Siwah, and Dion at night when I could be alone; I read, reread, then read again all the sources; I dug out things IGÇÿd no right to dig out, and with credulous optimism handed them to seers and pseudo-psychics; I spent weeks on end in total isolation collating and writing; I even lectured on Alexander. And this is what I learnt . . .
I couldn't write a book that would do him justice. Whatever about the rest of you, he's too exceptional for me to apprehend. I could only grasp fleetingly at facets of the man. HeGÇÖs very like Hamlet: more brawn, but just as indecipherable and enigmatically elusive. Every time you think you have a route into his head, his heart, his soul, his very blood and reason you recall, or re-encounter, some snippet that turns all your hard won truths inside out. And I will not allow myself to write explicitly of a man to whom I cannot do justice; it offends every instinct I have. After nearly ten years of pronounced effort, I still donGÇÖt know him. Robin Lane Fox, was right when he implied that any search for Alexander is just that . . . a search. The mystery of the manGÇÖs actual life lies just out of reach. All of us who would write of him have an obligation to remember that.
In the end, I settled on Ptolemy instead; a first person narrative from the age of ten upwards. I thought I could see in him something more readily understood . Of course, I might have let h

[aen]

In the end, I settled on Ptolemy instead; a first person narrative from the age of ten upwards. I thought I could see in him something more readily understood . Of course, I might have let his memory down as much as I feared disappointing AlexanderGÇÿs, but in the writing of it, strangely, I donGÇÖt feel as uncertain.I suppose that many of us are drawn to these people because we identify the noblest part of ourselves with them. And in Alexander himself I think we see what we wish we could be, but sadly, more often than not, arenGÇÖt. ItGÇÖs oddly presumptive to write of him, isnGÇÖt it? After all, how could any one of us, irrespective of literary talent, hope to draw from the crucible of our imagination a true and fully fleshed model of a man who was both a legend and a God before he was even thirty. The mind reels. ItGÇÖs a difficult quest. Maybe, as in the best Grail tradition, the act of trying to find is more important than the finding itself.Yeeeaarrgh. Getting a little heavy there. Wake up and shake the head - bit too much of the psychotherapistGÇÖs couch. I like the idea of people submitting drafts of work so far. Very naked but what better audience, eh what???Marcus, if you will, I will.

[Us]

You've said it all. He was always surprising, always at least one step ahead. His peers were great men in their own rights, but could not compete with him. Even they found it impossible to think at his level.
With the best will in the world, words cannot give shape to the mind, will and drive of the man. In the end, in modern fiction, Alexander becomes limited - and defined - by the limits of each author. After, it is up to the reader to make of Alexander what they can fathom from the multitude of books. Thus the saying that Alexander is something different to each person, and what each person needs him to be.
But we look forward to each person's interpretation of aspects of his personality.
Whose book is due out first and where?

[gahauser]

excellent idea, Susan.

[gahauser]

Guilty as charged. I did not cast him as a 'baddie'. I don't know if I could. I get insulted when someone puts horns on his head. If you want ATG as the criminal, don't read mine. As far as 'breathing new life', I didn't write it as if it were an intense history book. There is enough of that. I couldn't tolerate books that were so overwhleming in their detail I lost the premise. So, I have updated the telling,(but not the facts) hoping to appeal to a younger, more open minded reader. (And some of it was written purely tongue-in-cheek, believe me.)

[gahauser]

I don't know if that would be mine. It's due out this summer. The publisher is getting together the cover design. IN THE SHADOW OF ALEXANDER, A SOLDIER'S TALE. From the point of view of one of the men in his army. Available through Amazon.com etc...in the UK and in the USA. Believe me, when it's out, I'll post it.

[Tre]

Fellow companions: I'm not sure I want to put my hand up :-)I caught this little blurb on the web: As of now (January '03), Pressfield reports being hard at work on a fiction book for Doubleday. He tells us, "I remember one scathing review of Tides of War , in which the writer backed up the dump truck and let loose the full load, then exited with a parting shot something like, 'We can only fear that Pressfield, even now, is turning to work on Alexander the Great and will ruin that great story too.'"Bad news, buddy. That's just what I'm doing."I'm superstitious about blabbing too much about something when it's still so far from completion (about a year, I would guess, at least for the manuscript), except to say that the book is going to be heavy on Alexander as a soldier and general, with quite a bit of nuts-and-bolts on tactics, strategy, and historical specifics of battles, and plenty on Alexander's style as a warrior and a leader of men. It will be told in the first-person, from Alexander's point of view. It'll be lighter on 'story' and 'drama' than other things I've done. The other dominant thematic element will be Alexander as a genius, even Alexander versus his genius, in the Latin sense of guiding or possessary divinity (or, in Greek, his daimon.)"How do I feel about it? I'm petrified, which is a good sign."Having been one of the people who gave his Tides of War a fairly scathing review, I feel the same way, unfortunately, I don't agree it's a good sign; not if his Alkibiades is any indication of his ability to portray complex ancient characters. Alkibiades was very much an Alexander, missing several critical pieces (and those of you writing should know the pieces as they defined what made him different, what made him 'The Great.' It wasn't just the Romans...), but Pressfield couldn't portray him effectively. However, it will get published, no matter what the quality, largely based on the reputation and good sales figures of Gates of Fire.With this upcoming book, he breaks the classic tenent of historical fiction, do not do a novel from a famous characters' point of view - choose a lesser know character. Even Renault wouldn't do Alexander first person and her POV books were her best works. A good Alexander POV book has yet to be written (although at least one has and I read it unfortunately). The author would have to be as complex as Alexander in able to understand the thought processes that went into the decisio

[Tre]

The author would have to be as complex as Alexander in able to understand the thought processes that went into the decisions, which is daunting to say the least. Aengus, I applaud your comments and I wish the rest of the Forum authors and authors-to-be great fortune in their endeavors. Of course, I will be reading :-)Regards,Tre

[Linda]

I am sure there is a good book to be written with Alexander as the subject. I think it is the baggage surrounding him which would cause problems to a writer. and Shakespeare wrote about Henry V, Richard III. It was his own Henry V, though, not history's...I I look forward to reading any excerpts.Open minded - GA. Does that mean sex? I will aske that question for Marcus :)Linda

[Sandra]

Count me too... This is more romance, but...