NOTES FROM AN AUTHOR | PAUL MAGNUSON

What’s Next…Ventriloquism?!?!? No!!!

Ok, not ventriloquism. But character development. Not all that different from ventriloquism in ways.

I’m working on a 2nd book. I actually have a trilogy in mind when it’s all said and done. I plan on calling the 2nd book “Mother Marq - A Work of Social Science-Fiction”. Might take another year or two before it’s available.

The aspect I’m enjoying now is formulating characters. Some of the best book reviews I’ve seen highlight an author’s ability to develop characters while laying out a believable plot while also adding a mixture of twists we didn’t see coming, and somehow leaving us satisfied.

Tall order, I know. But that’s what I’m hoping to accomplish in my series.

So, how do I develop a character to say things that I might not say myself in real life? (See, there’s the ventriloquist reference.) I guess I’ll have to rely on my imagination. For the 2nd book I’m imagining a social outcast who meets up with the main characters from Book 1. Why is he an outcast? Well, he finds a way to offend nearly everyone eventually. Not all at once. But eventually. For example, he’ll say stuff like “marriage is hard…but it’s harder when women don’t have the right to vote.” Not offensive to everyone. Probably not offensive to many. But offensive to some. He’s not left leaning or right leaning. Not a centrist really either. Just very blunt. Over time he gets around to offending just about everyone to the point he’s an outcast. Loveable? No. Hateable? Good question. But my task is to make this otherwise unlikeable character a part of the team somehow. Yes, that’s a challenge. But that’s part of what I’m trying to do with Book 2. And he’s not even the main character. But he plays a part. And I want that part to fit, not be forced.

I hope to tread on other topics to expand our imagination, sometimes using fairly current talking points. Remember the bear or man encounter in the woods question posed to women? And the outrage when some women expressed their preference to encounter a bear instead of a man? Well, what if that situation was addressed from a Lakota woman’s point of view? Can you imagine her answer if she was asked to choose between encountering a bear or a white man in the wilderness?

I’m going to cover that kind of topic and many others in my 2nd book of the series. That’s part of why I’m subtitling it “A Work of Social Science-Fiction”. Wish me luck.

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How Some Photographs Happen

BRAZOS CLIFFS

We went looking for the Brazos Cliffs. That was my plan anyway. The Aspens are changing into their beautiful fall gowns and I invisioned a big, dramatic photo with dark greens and bright yellows. But when we arrived they were socked in.

Instead of throwing in the towel and calling the day a bust, I wandered with open eyes and saw this.

THE DEVIL'S ROPE

I am not sure if other photographers think like this, but I have had this image in my head for years. Not this exact image or the ones that follow, because we never know exactly how it will all come together, but the feel is what I had in my mind's eye.

Everything in the distance went blurry and then the wire came into focus, hard and black against all the softness.

Water and wire together. I started thinking about how they shaped the West. We all know water is life. It is a resource that we must protect. Protection can come from fences. It can keep your possessions in and intruders out. It can also stop a path. Paths that have been trod for years. Now there is a barrier that must be circumvented and our route must find a new path.

Suddenly this little piece of wire holds history and change.

That is why I love photography! I almost never get the picture I was seeking but wonderful gifts are dropped into my lap.

THORNY FENCE

BARBED WIRE

WIRE FENCE

SPIKEY WIRE

BARBED THREAD

As always prints are avalible just send me a message.

AUXARCZEN | IN MOTION

Watching the dancers at Old Taos Trade Fair

"What have we been doing?" you ask.

Well let me fill you in!

Tuesday, we launched our 20th book, Planet Marq.

Wednesday, we cleaned up a first proof and sent off for a second proof of a second edition of Desert Threnody, by author John Macker. It was first published in 2020 and recipient of the 2021 New Mexico - Arizona Book Award. This is one of the things we love about being a small press, we don't have to believe a book is set in stone simply because it has been published. We can open it back up, make the adjustments that feel right, and send it back into the world.

Of course, there are about seventeen other things happening at the same time. But, we are learning how to bring some zen into our schedule. We have been working on a flow that allows us to easily move from one project to the next and stave off our boredom.

Over the weekend we attended the Old Taos Trade Fair.

Joe Kierst is the author of a wonderful book that we have in the editing stage of the Auxarczen process. The novel is set in the early 1800s in the Taos area and beyond. This rendezvous gave us an opportunity that we couldn't have gotten from research alone. For a while we were able to step into the world of his novel. It also reveals that the reason for his remarkable descriptive language is partly because he has experienced it.

Joe Kierst

One of the things we love about what we are building here is that the work keeps crossing paths with itself. Publishing leads us somewhere, photography follows. A book becomes the reason to go somewhere. A place becomes a photograph. A photograph finds its way onto the cover of a book. A manuscript sends us looking for history, and history leads us back to the story.

Never a straight line, more like a dirt road winding through time.

We are still figuring out exactly what Auxarczen is becoming, but we have a pretty good idea what it feels like.