This lovely pro narrator is Joe Jameson, who has been busy narrating Netherdei book two, The Darkest Core.
Joe has been asking lots of questions about characters, dialogue and things in a novel that you take for granted when narration comes into play.
I admitted something to Joe this week that I thought I’d share – and I have no idea if this is a ‘thing’ with authors who have ventured beyond stand-alone novels, into the realm of penning a series, or saga – or if it’s just me(?)
If you’ve read The Shadow Sect, Netherdei #1, you might recall a character who appears in the inn at Gunwalloe, who I’ve affectionally called ‘the old mumblecrust’.
A Mumblecrust was a term used in the medieval times for a toothless beggar. It was typical of theatre plays in those times to feature a mumblecrust as a stock character, usually for laughs.
I featured a version of this character in a scene where Falken learns that you need a net to catch a wisp.
I had no intention of doing more with the character. It was a nice little cameo to move the story along and support that theme of knowledge and rumours being passed through conversations in inns, in the absence of tech.
When I heard the narration that Joe did for The Shadow Sect, this fleeting introduction to the mumblecrust, became one of my favourite scenes – and the voice that Joe gave the character left me wishing I’d included more of the old beggar. The Mumblecrust, not Joe.
In The Darkest Core, our dear old friend returns, with a piece of dialogue that I wrote with Joe’s voice in my head as the character and it took me just a moment to have the epiphany that I’d re-introduced the character purely from the influence of the narrator. That’s an absolute luxury as a writer. To have the voice on a plate, so clear in your head.
I wonder if others experience the same? Or if I’m just so easily led? Subliminally, or otherwise.
It goes to show what happens when creatives and creative arts combine.
I can’t wait to hear the end result!
Peter Hackshaw - author. 