Forty-year-old Nick Chambers is a fan of an obscure British musician named Morrigan Blue. She’s beautiful, with a sexy voice and a sensuous stage presence. He knows it is just a crush, one of many in his years as a music fan.
What happens when you get a chance to meet your hero? What happens when the attraction is returned? What happens when the object of your affection begins stalking you?
What if she isn’t exactly human?
*****
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Cover Marcel Walker - http://www.marcelwalker.com/
*****
First of all, the title This Creature Fair comes from the lyrics to David Bowie's song Lady Stardust from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars (one of my desert island albums). The story is set in the world of music fandom, has flashback scenes set during the Glam Rock era, and has a beautiful nonhuman creature in it. Perfect title.
I jokingly refer to This Creature Fair as my midlife crisis book. I didn't really have one of those in the devastating way that some people describe. The year I turned forty is when I got the contract for my first book, King of Summer, so I was feeling pretty good about myself at the time. I've always questioned things and had mini midlife crises most of my adult life prior that that. Oddly enough, I've had less of those in the last ten years than I did before. But a lot of the themes that come into play in This Creature Fair were present in my life at the time.
There are SPOILERS in the following, so if you don't want to know, stop reading NOW. Come back after you read the book.
The protagonist, Nick Chambers, has more of my overt characteristics and interests than most of my characters do. He's a middle-aged, unmarried man who works at a music store (the same one Adam and Michaela visit in Scratch). He appears to a lot of his contemporaries to have never really grown up. They can't see that he has simply taken a different path, and held onto his youthful interests and exuberance more than most people do. The question of age and aging and what it means to be young and old runs throughout the narrative. So does the idea of obsession and addiction.
I've never had a real addiction, but I've certainly had my share of obsessions. Nick's fandom of music, his long-distance crush on an unattainable rock star, and his experiences at concerts are all based on elements of my life. So is his fervent desire to be able to play music and not to simply listen. For all the skills or talents I have, music is not one of them. I mess around a little with a guitar and a bass, but I've known for a long time now that I lack whatever talent or magic takes to be a real musician. I am envious of anyone who can. That envy and desire became part of Nick's central motivation.
I have known since I finished King of Summer that many of the kids in that novel would someday be seen again. Though KoS ended, many of their stories continue. The characters of Wren and Chris, now in their last years in college, were naturals for the story I wanted to tell in This Creature Fair (Lizzy also appears, because where Chris is, Lizzy is). They were originally meant to be supporting characters, there more to let the reader know that this was the same world than anything else. But Wren and Chris are powerful characters for me, and they simply wouldn't stay in the background where I wanted them.
I hadn't planned on Nick getting involved with the much-younger-than-him Wren, but the themes I was playing with made it seem natural when the time came. That's another case of a character, in this case Wren, dictating events in a story I had no control over.
I felt more comfortable writing this novel than the previous ones. I was more experienced, of course, and no longer questioned my ability to write novel-length works. The format of this one was a challenge and I broke away from the simple chapter by chapter flow of my previous works. The first section was so unremittingly from Nick's perspective that I felt the story needed to focus on the effect his behavior was having on the other people in his life. I like the solution I chose. It felt a little more experimental than what I had done before.
I have plans for more stories set in this world. Chris and Wren will appear again, as will some of the other King of Summer kids. But after This Creature Fair I needed a break from this style of story and writing. My next book, Bedivere: The King's Right Hand, proved to be both.
REVIEWS:
This is the first unsolicited comment I have received from someone I don't know. This isn't a full review obviously, but took the form of a Tweet:
REVIEWS:
This is the first unsolicited comment I have received from someone I don't know. This isn't a full review obviously, but took the form of a Tweet:
@Wayne_wise wrote an amazing book called "This Creature Fair". It's paranormal noir. It's available on iBook for 2.99. Support good fiction
