Gynophobia: the Fear of Strong Women

I was recently made to consider that some men are intimidated by women. It doesn’t surprise me that psychology has a term for this, Gynophobia, because that seems to me to be what psychology does, find names for things. I quite like women, I’m even married to one, so this masculine fear of women seems a little alien to me.

This all started because I am a football fan, or soccer as it is known in some parts of the world, and the Women’s World Cup is currently underway in Canada, screened here in England later in the evening. I watched the recent Norway v England game, the coincidence not being lost on me that in my two novels, The War Wolf and For Rapture of Ravens, it is very much a case of Norway v England, and later commented on the game to an acquaintance. “Oh I didn’t watch it,” he admitted, “there’s something about women’s football that I can’t get my head round!”

“Really?” I asked somewhat puzzled. “It’s quite entertaining and the women are getting technically very good at the game now.”

“No, it’s not for me.” He insisted shaking his head and looking uncomfortable.

Now I am not sure if this means that this particular person is suffering from Gynophobia, I’m not a psychiatrist after all, but I did wonder if he was unsettled by the thought of women proving quite competent in an arena of sport traditionally thought of as a ‘man’s game’? The same could be said, I suppose, for men reacting in a similar fashion to women pursuing careers in science, engineering and other ‘men heavy’ occupations. I know it happens, men feel uncomfortable with it. Intimidated even. Perhaps even afraid?

Pat Savage by Ron Miller

When I think about it I believe that I much prefer strong women. I remember reading Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian books when I was younger and being mostly disinterested in the female characters because they largely seemed to be there simply as dressing. They seldom did anything to help the situation even when the mighty Conan could have done with a little assistance. There was Red Sonja to buck the trend of course, and Pat Savage, brave and beautiful cousin of Doc Savage, and it may be that I remember those two from my days of enjoying pulp fiction exactly because they were competent, self-determining women who got involved in their stories and did not just stand around waiting for the men to rescue them.

So what about my female characters then? I’ll start with Mildryth from the Sorrow Song Trilogy. She’s a Saxon woman of the theign class who has already been through pain and tragedy. Her husband and son were murdered by Tostig Godwinson, then Eorl of Northumbria, but she finds it within herself to live life again. More than that she refuses to simply sit and watch the world go by in her pitiable state but determines to grasp what happiness she can and make the most of it. That is how she comes to meet Coenred, a warrior of similar class and inspire him to love her.

Mildryth is strong because she refuses to surrender to despair even when faced with the most bitterest of personal tragedies. There is more than one way to display your strength, however, and she gets several other opportunities to do this. One such opportunity comes from a chance meeting with another man, Wulfhere, all round bad egg. He has nothing but dark designs for Mildryth but she stands up to him at every occasion and leaves her mark upon his face. She is courageous before despair and brave before villain like Wulfhere. I found her engrossing to write.

Another of my female characters is very different but no less as resourceful and self-reliant as Mildryth. Grace’s workd is the 1930’s Britain of Eugenica into which she has been born disabled and abandoned. To begin with she is insular, having learnt by experience that others care little for girls like her. Indeed, the Eugenics movement is at its height in Eugenica and the disabled are the subject of active persecution and incarceration. Grace at first simply goes with the flow, not objecting to being taken into a state run asylum because she has no hope for the future, no expectation of anything better, and no belief in humanity.

It is while she is in the Spring Bank facility that Grace comes into contact with other people like herself and, after realising that they hold no ill will towards her, slowly begins to form relationships with them. One of the very unpleasant consequences of eugenics was the rise of a negative application of its principles, that is, dysgenics. This version of racial betterment argued that the deformed and the infirm were better off segregated at first and then dead. Grace responds to this danger to her life by softening herself emotionally to help her new found friends. Fortunately her years of hard living prove very useful in helping her take the lead in the fight against their oppressors.

Grace is still a character in the making but I am thoroughly enjoying writing about her. She is not the same as Mildryth but they share similar traits, the kind of characteristics that some men might find intimidating even. Neither of them looks to anyone else to get them out of their troubles. Each of them works to their own ends but they know, or at least Mildryth does and Grace has yet to learn, that compromise can be beneficial. Sometimes it does not hurt to let someone else do something for you. It is not a case of surrendering independence or become reliant on others, it is a way of including that most fascinating, rewarding, exasperating, and life affirming people into your world.

Several female readers have told me that they like the way I have written Mildryth, well to be honest no one has told me that they do not, but I wonder if both she and Grace would be anything like what they are if I suffered from Gynophobia?

Technology is Great – Well When it Works!

My first book sold quite well when released and as a reward to myself for all the hard work that I put into it I decided to buy a tablet, a decision made all the easier when I saw a Google Nexus 7 on sale for less than £100! Now I see devices like tablets as essentially entertainment. It is great that I can download the Kindle app for free and read all kind of ebooks without having to buy a dedicated ereader like, well the Kindle. It is also great that I can connect to Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites. It did the job I expected it to do.

Did, in a past tense.

At some point I don’t know when Google released an update for Nexus and, quite frankly, the thing has become a bit of a Jeckyll and Hyde character. When it is Jeckyll it is still fun to use but when it switches to Hyde the thing becomes a beast.

I am not the only one to complain about this, plenty of other owners of this once wonderful device have done the same and Google, surprisingly, have done very little to put it right.

When my Nexus turns all Mr Hyde on me it basically becomes unusable. Programs start running slow and then freeze. Often they prompt a request from the operating system asking if I want to close the program, wait, or report it. Normally I don’t want to close it because I was using it for a reason. Sometimes I try waiting. Occasionally I attempt to report it but then even that has turned into a trial by combat with the program responsible for sending the feedback crashing itself. On more than one occasion the tablet has just turned itself off! Not so much as a by your leave, as Monty Python would put it. It doesn’t automatically restart either, you, the owner but definitely not the controller, have to do that.

Now I am reasonably comfortable with technology. I have a laptop, a smartphone, a smart television, a digital radio, an iPod, a digital camera – you get the picture! Having said that I do not consider myself an expert so when I googled my problems and found plenty of other sufferers out there I was dismayed at the majority of the answers. Mostly these were references to downloading Jellbaby 5.1 or Icelolly 2.4 or something.

Perhaps I am too old fashioned for the 21^st century? I mean, when I buy something then I expect it to work as described on the box, tin, bottle, or whatever other package it comes in. Experience seems to support this assumption. My television worked from the moment I switched it on and subsequent updates seem to have only made it better. My Nexus, however, has not been so lucky and I, as its owner, feel even more aggrieved as it seems that although I have done nothing wrong it is I who have to figure out how to put it right again. The quickest way would be to reset it the factory settings, and lose all the data I’ve put onto the machine in the process. Nice.

I would like to see Google take responsibility for the machine that bears their name but that does not look likely. I liked my Nexus when it was Dr Jeckyll but not so much that I am willing to spend the time necessary to become au fait with rolling back operating system software so as not to damage my tablet further; I’ve got books to write for goodness sake!

I bought my wife an Asus Acer tablet, a device lauded as inferior to the Nexus 7 but it has one key advantage over its more prestigious rival; it works! Despite also having an Android operating system the Acer has not given her that much trouble. She spends plenty of time perusing eBay, playing Candy Crush, reading emails, and whatever else she wants and with nary a problem. It does what it said it would do on the box. My Nexus 7 did once but the people who branded it ‘Google’ don’t seem to care that much about it anymore. When I next have a little free money to spend I think that I am going to avoid placing any value on a brand name and just look at the reviews given by actual users. As Alanis Morissette once said; “you live, you learn.”

Power to the Reader. Power to the Writer.

Before the digital age the reader did not have that much power. Readers as a group did in so far that they could express their like for a particular author by buying their book but the individual reader, they had very little influence. Since the revolution, however, the power of the individual has grown exponentially. Whereas previously publisher only took notice of sale figures and the comments of reviews appearing in Sunday newspapers the rise of social media and internet based market platforms like Amazon has shifted that focus somewhat.

This shift has come about in a response to the growth of independent authors. Previously writers the output of such writers was termed ‘vanity publishing’ and scorned accordingly. There was even a belief that if you published your own work in your early struggling career then you were highly unlikely to be picked up by a literary agent or publisher later on.

Curiously this attitude never took root in the music industry where many fledgling artists, Elvis Presley amongst them, recorded their own work first. Indeed, the ‘demo tape’ became an essential method of attracting record company attention and was considered a legitimate means of doing so. No one ever referred to it as ‘vanity recording’.

Of course writing a book is a little different to writing a song. Books need to be proof-read and edited before they get anywhere near being published and that is a process that can take almost as long as writing the thing in the first place. For an independent author this represents a major task but in comparison to getting a literary agent to take on your work it attains a degree practicality.

With the arrival of the e-reader in the shape of Kindle and Kobo the market for electronic books has exploded. In fact the market has grown so quickly that a void appeared that traditional book publishers could not fill and it is this that has led to the appearance of the independent authors. Many were quick to exploit the new technology and to offer readers who were experimenting with this new form original work at a discounted price. A significant proportion of the readers liked what they found.

As with anything the quality of e-books varies enormously. There are some very good writers out there who failed to win attention from agents and publishers and yet who have found an audience in the e-book world. There are also some writers who turn out sub-standard work. To separate the wheat from the chaff marketplaces like Amazon offer purchasers a chance to both rate a product and write a review about it also. This has proven to be a very helpful tool that allows shoppers to get an idea about the product that they are thinking buying, however:

Like so many human inventions the review is open to abuse. There are, sadly, some people who have a habit of posting negative comments. I do not understand this approach but then I acquired the skills of constructive criticism at college. When I review a product on Amazon or a hotel of Trip Advisor I always do so honestly. I simply cannot see the point in taking the time to write a review, particularly about a book, that is intended to be hurtful only. Even if the book is that bad, a ‘stinker’ as Stephen Fry calls them, then follow the precept that if you cannot say anything good then say nothing at all. A product that has been out for some time and garnered no reviews is not likely to be on anyone’s shopping list after all.

It follows, however, that there is another side to this argument and it is one that I wish to make in respect of the independent author particularly; if you have something good to say then say it! New authors need reviews and ratings. It is beneficial in two ways. First, a series of good reviews brings attention to the author and this is what they both need and want. Having invested an awful lot of time and effort in their work the independent author would like someone to read it and express an opinion. They are not selfish in this respect, songwriters, actors, painters, in fact any instigator of a creative enterprise wants to know if the public likes what they do. It seems to be a natural human requirement.

In respect of independent authors the reader possesses tremendous power. They can talk almost directly to the author and tell them exactly what they thought of their work. For me as one such independent author it is a leap of faith to actually put my work out there into the public arena but I will never forget my response to reading the first detailed review of my book; it made everything worthwhile. I don’t have that many reviews to my name as yet, only 22, but they all mean something to me. They do to anyone who has spent time crafting a project, in whatever format, and putting it out there for people to consider.

I wonder if many readers appreciate the power that they have at their disposal through their digital connection with the e-book world? By taking the time to put together some comments, it does not have to be a critical essay after all – unless of course you are so motivated – the buyer can actually help an author that they like to reach a much wider audience. This is a power that the reader possesses. They can influence the career of someone else. They can become instrumental in spreading the word about a book that they have read and opening up the world it contains to other readers.

The majority of independent authors sell their books at discounted prices to begin with and although they dream of commercial success, I know I do, the reality is that they make very little money at it. My royalties do not amount to much even after selling over 1600 books but I love what I do. I create my won worlds in fiction and share them with other people who, for the most part, seem to like what I have done. I would like to reach more people, to have more readers, and everyone who buys a copy of my work can help in that respect. Hopefully, after reading this post you might be one such person who will do me the honour of rating my books and writing a brief honest review so as to encourage others to take the plunge,

I’ve Walked Les Ramblas but Not With Real Intent

I visited Barcelona in November 2014 and, as a tourist, I was obliged to take a wander down Las Ramblas. Despite being largely a tourist trap area there is something quite wonderful about the place. As I walked along with everyone else, glancing at the street entertainers and the various stalls that all seem to sell things of a questionable quality that you don’t need, the Manic Street Preacher’s song, If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next came to mind. It is a piece about the Spanish Civil War and the line quoted is a reference to George Orwell’s account of the fighting in Las Ramblas; the activity that actually lacked any intent apparently. It was a scene on more than one occasion, however, of fighting and death.

Many historical novels contain violent confrontation as part of their story, not just between protagonists but often between armies or fleets of warships. Indeed historical novels often seem to embrace conflict on an epic scale. In ‘The War Wolf’ I recount the story of the Battle of Fulford Gate, an engagement in which some 15,000 warriors fought; a considerable number for the time. People seem to find it exciting. Certainly war as a subject has been a part of human culture since the first written language was developed. The Battle of Megiddo is widely considered the first engagement to be reliably recorded and that took place in the 15^th century BCE. Ever since then we have researched, recorded and written about human military encounters.

In that respect I am no different. The period of 1066 is characterised by three very violent encounters by the three opposing sides, Saxons, Vikings, and Normans. One aspect of writing about a period where written records were not habitually kept is that it becomes easy to lose touch with the human element of the actual events. We can only imagine what the Battle of Fulford Gate was like for the participants because no one thought to write down their experience, or if they did it has been lost to time. The very site of the battle itself is also being lost to time as the modern world encroaches upon it. When I researched the battle I had to look elsewhere to get an idea of what it might have been like. Fortunately warfare did not differ that much from the time of Megiddo to the advent of gunpowder. Heavy infantry supported by light infantry, missile throwers and some cavalry, although not in the case of the Saxons and Vikings, was the general order of battle. It was not difficult to transfer a Greek hoplites experience of the Battle of Plataea in the Persian Wars to become that of a Saxon frydman fighting before the walls of York in 11^th century England.

For all the use of creative licence, however, my account of Saxon warfare remains strictly third-hand at best. When George Orwell wrote about the fighting in Las Ramblas during the Spanish Civil War he did it from personal experience because he was there. Walking down Las Ramblas, with or without intent, knowing that people died there during one of Spain’s most bloody periods of civil strife reinforces the human aspect of what happened. Men died on both sides. These men were sons, brothers, husbands, fathers to other people. They went out of the world violently and left a hole in the lives of the others. The men who died at Megiddo and at Fulford Gate were no less the same and the friends and family that they left behind suffered no less either.

Although I acknowledge as a writer the intrinsic excitement of reading a battle within a story I also recognise that in every instance there must be human loss. I try to make my characters sympathetic to the reader in order to try and get that point across. In ‘The War Wolf’ there are no good guys and bad guys, no evildoers and heroes in the clichéd sense. The Saxons are fighting to defend their lands, their people, and their way of life. The Vikings are fighting to take what they can for reasons that legitimise their actions within their own way of thinking. The same applies to the Normans as well. Indeed, both the Norwegians and the Normans are pressed by political concerns that lie beyond the boundaries of England and yet both are tied to the Saxon crown by blood through a shared history.

As I walked Las Ramblas I was reminded of the fact that the human story is a fascinating one that can seemingly be presented in an almost infinite number of ways. The important thing to remember, I think, is that no matter which way a writer decides to tell a part of that story they must always strive to retain the humanity of their tale. Battle is indeed exciting to read about if your life is not at risk during it, but even within the safety of a book the author should also remind the reader that there is always a cost to human life when two warriors meet in a fight to the death, and it often extends beyond the two combatants as well.