Time period

The backdrop of the 3 century gives me ample opportunity to craft a story in historically turbulent times. While I have not yet decided on the exact locations nor the precise decade where and when my story happens, the history gives me lots of choices.

This is a time when the empire is under attack both without and within, and territories are distributed between at least 3 main entities, one of which, Lydius was related by back story history and lineage: Palmyra.

The changes in dynastic rule of the empire provides confusion and conflict about the authorities ruling outlying areas, and there were many conflicting claims as to who was really the boss. The record reveals that many commanders had an "every man for himself" attitude which led them to establish their own upstart empire-ttes.

Sorry to have neglected you for a few days, but life does take it's toll. With luck, I will be adding more detail to the characters and conflicts over the next week. Thank you for your patience!

Reference: Zen and the Art of Writing

Dedication Page

At last, something easy to write:

To Frank, the true love of my life:

Your personal story is so much more interesting than anything I have ever imagined.

Your most devoted fan, Dustin.

Changes always changes

Mia Culpa! ( you don't really want to know the vulgar translation of that phrase. . .)

There is a basis in history for the name of Lydius. And to think, I thought I picked it out of thin air. Seems there was a siege at a place called Cremna where a Lydius pretty much bitch slapped his way around the place. He's referred to as a bandit. Now,our Lyius has even more shady family history to hide, since this happened about a century before our target date, and will give us added material to weave into the story.

reference:
The other Lydius


Other reference of interest for the period of time
3d century crisis

Other references: Plotting a play

The new working title: "Descent From Divinity"

Scenes Chapter 1

1)
A young boy of about 11 is setting traps in the woods, when he chances upon a strange sight of soldiers.

He is frightened when he hears them speaking in an unknown language, he begins to run back to his village though the woods.

Several times, strong arms reach to touch and catch him when he falls. Men are laughing and having great sport with the child, but he escapes.

Entering the village, he runs home to inform his mother of the sighting, she in turn pales and hurries to inform the elders.
<-----------
The details of this scene will include the kid smashing one of the soldiers in the face as he holds the boy too long and incites panic in the boy. The other soldiers will be laughing at the little tykes poor victim. Rage fills the soldiers face as he moves quickly to punish the boy for his offense, only to have one of his comrades strike the soldier away from the boy and facilitate his escape.

The point here is that the three act play is here in it's entirety. Tranquil beginning, the inciting moment, escalation of tension or increasing the stakes and resolution, all in outline form.

This is one of about four scenes which will make up the maser scene of which there should be at least four or five per chapter. Call it sixteen to twenty pages per chapter.

All of this process is currently seriously out of order, but will be made right when the real construction of the story begins. Chalk this post up to everything being in the idea stage and my not following the snow flake plan in a linear manner.

Why would I have a boy of an age, whom we would barely credit with the ability to wipe his own nose out setting traps and snares? Simple. No iPods. This was a time when there was no luxury of education beyond that which might help you survive. The boy's family would not just welcome his inputs to the dinner table, they would have demanded he earn his keep from the time he was able to demonstrate the ability to pick a head of wheat. The boy's father, or perhaps uncles or other siblings would be charged with his training and would have expected he become competent rapidly.

Lydius More info

I am not yet done with our dear Auslander, Lydius. While we have given him a bit of background there are dimensions yet missing to his character and mission. The story itself suggests time lines, chases aka a quest and more in depth conflicts. Fortunately for us, these can be supplied easily enough.

In the proto opening, Lydius is referred to as Old Lydius. Perhaps that should not be mistaken for a man of age, but taken more like Lydius the Elder. This implies a Lydius the Younger. Congrats, old man, you have a new born son, who just happens to wind up held captive by our erstwhile, if unnamed Roman commander. I suspect there will have to be a rescue immediately launched, only to find The Younger is well en route to the slave market. Bad luck old boy, now things are getting even more complicated. How are you going to save your only son and heir in time to prevent him from breaking a nail on the first gladiator he meets and save your adopted nation? Only time and a grand chase will tell. In the mean time, you're going to have to deal with the fact that Roman commanders often turn their young male hostages over to favored soldiers for despoilment. In modern terms, that means The Younger will wind up being the camp butt boy.

Actually, treatment of hostages by Rome was pretty good, so long as they and their nation/village/family were well behaved. It's in the event of war or other misadventure a hostage could suffer death, humiliation and torture.

Here is a nice link to this post which gives a brief view of the life of a Roman hostage.

Lineage of Lydius Character sketch

Anthony-Cleopatra
Cleopatra Selene II and king Juba II of Mauretania
Ptolemy of Mauretania or Ptolemy of Morocco
Drusilla of Mauretania
Gaius Julius Alexio

These in order are documented in the historical record. The history of the line is lost until the third century when a queen claimed decent from the line.

I foresee an exciting escape from death by one of the main character's ancestors and some material being derived which will illustrate the cunning and political acumen applied in the book.

Name Lydius

A nonsense name sounding Roman, but it isn't
Lydius wants to escape his family's past history. He's descended directly from
Anthony and Cleopatra. Lydius is trapped in the matrix of the current Roman invasion of his adopted homeland, where he has become counsel to the rulers of that land, based on his scant knowledge of the outlying world. Lydius' yearning desire is to live out his remaining years in peace. His current goal is to survive the Romans current attention. Lydius' conflict is that he desperately wants to never allow his new countrymen to know of his former ties with Rome, lest they feel he has conflicting interests. Lydius finds that the Romans respect the authority represented by Lyduis's past. Lydius has his family history to thank for giving him the negotiation and political skills to overcome the current events.

Resource: Roman Timeline 4th Century AD

On to Step Two! Time to flesh things out.

I wish to explain this next process a bit. First, it might be helpful if you review How to Write a Novel: The Snowflake Method .

We start with logically, step one:
Here are my results.

Rome is at the doorstep offering peace and prosperity. Death is the more likely prospect. Now what do we do?

In step two, I will start to expand on the idea.
REAL WORK HERE<-------------
Rome as arrived at your door. Death is the usual result of all races facing Rome's incursions. That being the first disaster of the book, the object of the game is to try and explain how a technologically inferior clan or nation tries to cope with delicate negotiations with the Roman general of this campaign. During the negotiations, there is a brief but deadly misunderstanding, and a resumption of the terms of surrender.

Just as the terms are near completion, another force matching Rome in local power arrives and the prospective outcome of the negotiations change radically in favor of the smaller nation. But, alas, there are complications in this direction as well. Our small nation faces being caught between two titanic foes and the future is looking grim. So much for disaster two!

Decisions and alliances must be made, time is passing and in this reality, a deadline means DEAD. A strategy is born after much planning, but backfires in all directions for all parties. Death seems imminent. Disaster three is in the can.

At last, a truce is arranged by the small nation, unpalatable to the other parties, but completely functional, rational and effective. AKA, we all live happily ever after. Until next time.

END REAL WORK<--------

We Have Come From Rome to Bring you Civilization, or We'll Kill You.

I must be crazy to have thought I could write a novel set in ancient Rome. There are only a couple of examples which come to mind, "I, Claudius by Graves, and "Julian" by Vidal. Gore, not Sassoon. Actually, Vidal wrote about a byzantine emperor but most Americans don't really make the distinction between the eastern and western empires, so therefore, nor will I. A third comes to mind, "Justinian" by Turteltaub. Otherwise, the field leaves little else for me to ponder. Perhaps I have missed huge masses of literature. If I have, I will leave the blame affixed to myself for having ignored for so long a field of interest I love.

Forgive me if this project takes a while, but I really am busy managing a legal practice in Fresno, California. for those who may wish to visit, check our web site at Bruce Nickel Attorney at Law .

Now: Some text!
START TEXT <---------

Salutations, the Emperor sends us to bring you civilization. Or we will kill you.

The translation couldn't have been exact, old Lydius wasn't known for his skills in the Latin language, but the tone was undoubted. The benefits of the Pax Romana were about to rain from the mouths of the gods at the point of spears and arrows. Blessings to the Emperor, whom ever he may be this year. Lydius' battle weary face wrinkled while he contemplated the implications of the parchment he held, knowing well that the gods had abandoned him leaving only his wits to deal with the world's most powerful force, the Roman peace.

END TEXT <---------



There, the ink has hit the page, now, all we have to do is expand on it. I hope the process of writing is as interesting to you. May you enjoy this blog.

I have violated a rule by allowing the above to jump out of my brain and escape into the world of the web, but it is done and I'm going to be stuck with it for a bit. The opening likely will, or perhaps not change once or a hundred times over the time it takes me to write this story.

What I should have done, first and foremost is to realize that the text above is only an idea, and perhaps use it later. The real task at hand is to formulate one fairly brief sentence which is a summary of the story.

formally, I suppose it is this:

Rome is at the doorstep offering peace and prosperity. Death is the more likely prospect. Now what do we do?

A little longish, but I can work with it.