I have been doing a lot of reading when Victoria is napping, or after she has gone to bed. Now that she is sleeping through the night consistently (knock on wood), I find I am not as zombie like and actually have some spare brain power to read.

At first I mainly re-read some old favourite books (CJ Cherryh’s Foreigner series….love them) but then I started reading ones that have been languishing on my shelves for years in some cases. I don’t know what it is, but I always need to have a certain level of potential-books-to-be-read, even if it takes me a long time to get to them. When the level gets too low, I get antsy and have to buy more books in order to keep that level consistent. Some books though take me a long time to start. I might visit them several times and read a page or two, like a butterfly sipping nectar from a flower. But for whatever reason, the book just doesn’t appeal, so back on the shelf it goes.

I got into a tear this week reading some L.E. Modesitt, Jr. that I hadn’t gotten to yet. I quite enjoy his Recluce series, and have read most of his Soprano Sorceress series, didn’t get too into his Corean Chronicles (but perhaps it is time to revisit them!), I read the first of his new Imager series, and am waiting for the second in paperback. That about covers his fantasy oeuvre. I then dipped into his science fiction/alternate history books, and that is what has consumed me the past week. As I read, I was reminded yet again how with some authors, you can see bits of themselves on the page.

Holly Lisle, a wonderful writer, has written about this in her online course How to Think Sideways (an excellent course on writing that I am currently taking). When one writes, one spills clues and bits of oneself on the page, and an astute reader will put the pieces together and perhaps divine more about the author than perhaps the author intended.

This thought popped into my head this week several times. In some ways, I think I could tell you what I “know” about Modesitt, as there are many things that appear and reappear in his works. I don’t mean to say that he is a hack and wholesale reproducing characters, ideas, plots, etc., as that is not the case. However, there are many themes or objects that seem central to his works. I could, to borrow from Holly Lisle, probably recreate swaths of his mind-maps, and it really brought that technique home to me. I shall have to revisit mine and see if I can see the congruence in my writing also.

Modesitt is known for his use of certain themes (such as Chaos vs. Order, war as a necessary evil, collapse of society due to misuse of technology, etc.), technologies (flitters, nanotech, holo-projection, AI systems, etc.), and organisations (ISS, Galactic Empires, Masters and guilds). I am not really going to touch on those as I am sure there has been much written about that elsewhere on the internet. I am just going to focus on a couple of small things.

Music, particularly vocal or piano music, often plays a large role in the books. At times, the main character might be a musician, or a singer, or a secondary character has some kind of musical talent. Often, music is said to have power, to influence people or cast some kind of spell. Hand in hand with music is the appearance of art, painters, and vision/perception.

Certain foods have significance. For example, Earl Grey tea appears in several books. Even if not explicitly called Earl Grey, most characters prefer a floral-scented tea of some kind. Eggs Lyonnaise and Potatoes Lyonnaise, and indeed other French dishes often appear. In the Recluce books, dark bread is frequently mentioned, enough that one could construct a drinking game around it. Wine is also quite common, and discussed often by characters who are connoisseurs to some degree.

His characters are also highly routine driven, and are often solitary due to events in their past. They tend to be meticulous about details, and incorporate regular exercise routines into their day. His characters often work long hours, and are usually ex-military or involved in academics in some way, or are craftsmen of some sort.

Edited to add: Oh, I almost forgot. The colours green, black and grey appear very often in his books.

Anyhow, this is probably only interesting to me, but I was struck with his works in particular how certain elements seem to always be present.