Whales, Wizards, and an Admiral

Last Sunday I went whale watching with friends in Hervey Bay. The weather was kind, the company was good, and the whales were underwhelming.

We saw a few, but there were no breaches and no close encounters with curious whales gathering around the boat to inspect the humans. One whale managed a lazy spyhop, poking its snout above the surface, and we saw some vigorous tail slapping. Otherwise, they seemed to be having a quiet day.

That’s life.

The whales aren’t paid to perform. They don’t check the tour schedule and decide that the boat arriving at eleven deserves three breaches, two pec slaps, and a grand finale under the bow. They were doing whatever whales wanted to do that Sunday, and we were fortunate enough to see some of it.

Besides, a disappointing whale watch is still a day out on the water with friends. There are worse ways to spend a Sunday.

Dolly Parton

The week became much sadder with the news that Dolly Parton had died at the age of eighty.

I never followed country music, although I enjoyed some of Dolly’s songs, especially Nine to Five and I Will Always Love You. Jolene, not so much. My reaction was always that if the man was so smitten with Jolene, Dolly should shrug her shoulders and move on. He was hardly a prize worth begging for.”

But it was hard not to admire Dolly herself. She was talented, funny, clever, and generous. She also understood the value of refusing to let other people decide who she ought to be.

Behind the wigs, the rhinestones, and the jokes about her appearance was a formidable businesswoman and songwriter. She wrote Jolene and I Will Always Love You on the same day, which is frankly showing off.

Her Imagination Library has given hundreds of millions of books to children around the world. That alone is a legacy worth celebrating. Dolly knew that putting books into the hands of children can change lives.

She also appeared to possess that rare ability to laugh at herself without ever allowing anyone else to diminish her. She created Dolly Parton, larger than life, then lived inside that creation with intelligence and grace.

Tim Curry

Tim Curry died on the same day, also aged eighty.

Most people will remember him as Dr Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Others will remember Pennywise in It, Wadsworth in Clue, or one of his many voice roles.

I’ll remember him as Trymon, the scheming wizard in Terry Pratchett’s The Colour of Magic.

The 2008 television production was called The Colour of Magic, but it combined that book with The Light Fantastic. That made sense because the two books are really one story. The first ends with Rincewind and Twoflower sailing over the edge of the Disc, which is an inconvenient place to leave them.

Trymon is the ambitious wizard who believes the quickest route to the top of Unseen University involves removing the people above him. Tim Curry played him with exactly the right mixture of menace, vanity, and absurdity. He had a gift for playing villains who knew they were the most interesting person in the room.

His Trymon was dangerous, but he was also funny because Tim Curry understood that evil delivered with complete confidence can be hilarious.

Two performers gone in one week. Both were known for flamboyant roles, both had unmistakable voices, and neither could ever be described as ordinary. The world has become a little less colourful without them.

Another Hot Admiral

Meanwhile, I’ve been spending part of my week on another world, enjoying myself enormously while writing Konrad Valperez’s story.

Readers of The Iron Admiral: Deception have met Admiral Valperez, but this story takes place earlier in his career. He is forty-three, newly promoted, recently divorced, and supposed to be enjoying three months of leave.

Naturally, that doesn’t last.

He meets Fran Navarro, a former Fleet pilot who now runs a transport and recovery business. Fran is thirty-five, practical, capable, and unimpressed by rank. She and Konrad share a Fleet background, but they made different choices. He took the promotion. She left.

They’re currently aboard Fran’s ship, Lorenzo, responding to a distress signal from a Ptorix freighter. I know what’s waiting for them: a damaged shuttle, an attack over one of Ceranoso’s lakes, and an escape involving an automated freight carrier. Konrad and Fran don’t. For now, they’re circling each other with professional respect, verbal fencing, and growing interest.

Konrad is turning out to be a bit of all right.

I’m having so much fun with him that I may have to admit I’m writing another hot admiral story. It seems I have a type.

Whales may decline to perform, and favourite performers eventually leave the stage, but stories keep arriving. Sometimes they even bring an admiral with them.

If you’d like to meet Admiral Valperez, he gets a mention in my FREE book, The Iron Admiral: Conspiracy, and graduates to an important speaking part in The Iron Admiral: Deception. Here’s the link to the freebie.