Why Prequels? - Guest Post by Michael Stanley

Michael Stanley: Why Prequels?
 
In many series, there comes a point where the author decides to write a prequel—a book that shows the series protagonist before the role she or he plays in the series. The benefit to readers is that they learn how the character was shaped by earlier events and relationships. A powerful example is the Charles Todd prequel novella The Piper, where we see Inspector Ian Rutledge during the First World War and its devastating effect on him that molds him for the whole series.

When we started writing A Carrion Death, we didn’t plan that Kubu would be the protagonist. As debut novelists, we heeded the advice of experienced writers, who said we should write about what we knew. So, as academics, we planned that a brilliant young ecology professor would discover a body in the Kalahari that had been left in the desert for hyenas to devour, and go on to solve the mystery. The ecologist would realize at once that the death was no accident because the body he found was naked. That made it a likely murder, and we needed a police detective to investigate. 
 
So David Bengu, from the Criminal Investigation Department in Gaborone, appeared. A very large man with the nickname Kubu, meaning hippopotamus in the local language, he climbed into his Land Rover, well provisioned with sandwiches and drinks. As he headed into the desert, he listened to his favorite opera arias and sang along (badly). He also had time to muse about how a Bushman school friend had shown him how to look beyond the superficial, and to see clues of hidden things. That was the spark that made Kubu want to become a detective. He would train himself to look beyond the obvious.
 
By the time this larger-than-life character had visited the scene of the crime and interviewed the men who’d found the body, he’d made it clear to us that he had to be the main character. That came as a complete surprise. We thought we were in charge of the story. 
 
Five more novels followed where Kubu was the key investigator. During the series, we discovered he was smart and good at solving murders, and he became more solid, more three-dimensional, but there was nothing that explained how he’d gone from school to being the star detective in the Botswana CID. It was not just a hole in his background, but, in a way, a gap in his character.
 
We wanted to fill that gap and perhaps discover a younger, less self-confident Kubu, who might be an intriguing character in his own right. As a bonus, we could pull the director of the CID, Jacob Mabaku, out from behind his desk and show his background and achievements, and why he became director. 
 
Diamonds are key to Botswana’s prosperity. We thought there might be a backstory involving Debswana, the Botswana diamond giant owned jointly by the powerful De Beers group and the government. Setting the story twenty years in the past would be appropriate since that was the height of the diamond boom. What about a massive diamond robbery that could shake Botswana’s credibility as a safe, stable, country? Immediately, things started to take shape. The diamond heist takes place and suddenly everyone in the CID is thrown into the case, even Kubu, the raw detective in his first week on the job. Facets of Death, the first Kubu prequel, was on its way.
 
As we wrote the story, we watched Kubu develop, having insights, but also making the mistakes that only experience can avoid. He earns respect, but also opprobrium. Facets of Death was a journey of exploration for us. We learnt a lot about how Kubu became the CID’s best detective and about who he is as a person. We also discovered that we liked this young man with his insecurities. And we liked his boss as an insightful detective whose instincts about solving a case were matched by his instincts in mentoring Kubu. 

At the end of Facets of Death, we realized we were only at the beginning of the journey that led to A Carrion Death. Kubu is painfully shy and far from having a real girlfriend let alone a wife. He and Mabaku are not friends or even colleagues, but rather superior and junior, mentor and mentee. We enjoyed these “new” characters and wanted to follow them on their journey. So we decided to write another prequel, one that chronologically would come after Facets of Death.
 
We both love the Okavango Delta area of Botswana, a wonderful network of waterways and wildlife where the Kavango River loses itself in the Kalahari Desert. The Okavango is potentially threatened by excessive use of the water from the river before it reaches the delta. What, we wondered, would be the effect of a major water project being set up just south of Shakawe where the river enters Botswana from Namibia? 
 
We are also fascinated by the cultures of the Bushman peoples and they have featured in a major way in three of our books—A Carrion Death, Death of the Mantis, and Dying to Live. Originally spread over most of southern Africa, they were gradually driven into the arid desert areas as both white and black settlers moved into the lands they roamed and persecuted them. We postulated a massacre of Bushmen that had taken place far enough in the past to be hidden, but recently enough for the discovery to be a threat to the perpetrators.
 
During the story, Kubu and Mabaku become colleagues, and Kubu and McGregor become friends. As for Kubu and his future wife, Joy, well, read the book. 
 
The Kubu of A Deadly Covenant is not the Kubu of Facets of Death. Nor is he the Kubu of A Carrion Death. But he’s getting there.

***

 

Michael Stanley is the writing team of Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. Both were born in South Africa and have worked in academia and business.

On a flying trip to Botswana, they watched a pack of hyenas hunt, kill, and devour a wildebeest, eating both flesh and bones. That gave them the premise for their first mystery, A Carrion Death, which introduced Detective David ‘Kubu’ Bengu of the Botswana Criminal Investigation Department. It was a finalist for five awards. The series has been critically acclaimed, and their third book, Death of the Mantis, won the Barry Award for Best Paperback Original mystery and was shortlisted for an Edgar award. Deadly Harvest was shortlisted for an International Thriller Writers award.

***

A Deadly Covenant

While digging a trench for a new water project, a backhoe operator unearths the skeleton of a long dead Bushman. Kubu and Scottish pathologist, Ian MacGregor, are sent to sort out the formalities, but the situation rapidly gets out of hand. MacGregor discovers eight more skeletons of Bushmen including women and children. However, the locals deny any knowledge of the event. When an elder of the village is murdered at his home, the local police believe it was the result of a robbery gone wrong. Kubu thinks otherwise. So does an elderly woman who believes it was the work of Mami Wata, a powerful river spirit. 

When she dies in an apparent crocodile attack, suspicions rise.

Things become still more complicated when a mysterious Bushman appears at the massacre site, collapses, then disappears again, but seems connected to the murders in some way. 

Kubu’s boss, Assistant Superintendent Mabaku, joins them as accusations of corruption are levelled at the water project, and international anger over the massacre of the Bushman families builds. But how do the recent murders link to the dead Bushmen? As they investigate, they uncover a deadly covenant made many years before by an unknown group, and they begin to fear that their own lives may be in danger.

FLYING SOLO: Guest Post by Stanley Trollip

Stanley Trollip: Flying Solo

If my flying logbook were with me in Minneapolis, and not in my flat in South Africa, I would know the exact date that I first flew solo. That I don’t remember it is not surprising because it is irrelevant. It was probably in December 1968 or January 1969. 

On the other hand, there are many things about that flight that are forever etched in my memory. 

The airport was Rand Airport in Johannesburg. The plane was a brown and white Cessna 150 with call sign ZS-EDH. The flight was scheduled in the morning in order to avoid the normal summer-afternoon turbulence. 

After completing all the necessary preflight checks, my instructor and I took off, and I completed several take-offs and landings. When he was satisfied that I wasn't going to kill myself, we taxied to the apron, he climbed out, and I was on my own. I don't remember exactly how many hours I had under my belt at the time, but my hazy recollection is that it was around ten. Only ten!! 

Even though I had previously done everything required to complete a take-off, a circuit, and a landing, including all the necessary radio communications with the tower, my adrenaline was flowing because I couldn't just throw up my hands and yell 'you've got it!'. For the first time there wouldn't be anyone to rescue me. 

'Rand Ground. Cessna ZS-EDH request taxi, remaining in the pattern.' I suspect my voice was at least one octave higher than normal. 

It was a good thing that we'd already completed a few circuits that day, because I didn't have to decipher the ground controller's instructions to get to the end of the active runway. 

When I reached the end of the taxiway and had checked the various instrument readings, the magnetos, and so on, I switched to tower frequency and requested clearance for a take-off and landing. 

In my head, I was running through rotation speed, climb speed, circuit altitude, radio procedures on each leg of the pattern, and, scarily, what to do if the engine quit. 

 'ZS-EDH cleared for take-off.' There was a pause, then 'Good luck.' It was my instructor who had gone to the tower so he could calm me down if I panicked or remind me of procedures if I suffered a brainfart. 

I taxied onto the runway, advanced the throttle, applying some rudder pressure to counter the torque, and headed down the runway, trying to keep right on the centreline. Ahead of me were several of the ubiquitous mine dumps containing the tailings of the crushed ore from the gold mines. 

I lifted the nose and adjusted the pitch angle to settle on climb speed. At one thousand feet above the ground, I made a left ninety-degree turn onto crosswind leg. When an appropriate distance away from the runway, another left ninety-degree turn onto downwind leg. I remember extending the downwind leg farther than recommended so that I wouldn't be rushed. Another left ninety-degree turn onto base leg, then another one onto final. 

Reduce power, I thought. Now for the tricky part - maintain landing speed while keeping the runway in front, which is sometime easier said than done when there is a crosswind. Then establish a glide path that ends on the runway and not a hundred metres short. It is truly a three-dimensional problem with the added issue of not getting too slow or too fast. If too slow, the plane may fall out of the sky; if too fast, a hoped-for smooth landing may result in multiple bounces on the runway. 

Speed, heading, glide-path. 

Speed, heading, glide-path. 

'Looking good, Stan. Cleared to land.' It was my instructor in the tower. 

Just above the runway, I pulled the power off and let the plane settle. No bounces! I had made it. Every sense in my body was in acute mode. I was elated. MY FIRST SOLO! 

A couple of weeks ago, I experienced my second solo, with many of the same emotions, exhilaration, and nervousness. 

Why? 

Because White Sun Books published my first solo book, titled Wolfman.

Most writers know all too well what it's like to publish a book written only by themselves. That’s how most writers write – alone, by themselves. It is a new experience for me. I had written four non-fiction books with friends before I turned to fiction. Then I wrote seven mysteries in the Detective Kubu series with Michael Sears under the pen name Michael Stanley. We used that pen name also to write a rhino-poaching thriller - Shoot the Bastards in North America, (Dead of Night elsewhere). 

Having written all those books before with someone else is very much like flying a few touch-and-goes with an instructor before the big solo moment. I knew the process well, but suddenly everything rested on my shoulders. Every decision was my decision, just like the first take-off by myself. And the first solo landing. Every word was my word. Aaargh! And I had no one to blame but myself. 

And now I am experiencing all the uncertainties of that first solo. Will the book make a smooth landing, or will it land short or go bouncing down the runway? Only time will tell. We have had publishers for the Michael Stanley books, which is helpful for publicity. But now, how will readers get to know about the book? It turns out many reviewers don’t touch ‘self-published’ books, even when written by an established writer. And I am not skilled at marketing and publicity. 

How will anyone find out about Wolfman? 

Of course, I’m trying social media – Facebook and Twitter primarily. My Facebook ‘friends’ were very kind, with over 150 liking my post about the launch, with many leaving kind comments. But how many will end up buying it? And does anyone read tweets? I’ve no idea. It’s a bit like final descent to land. I sort of know what to do, but the outcome is still uncertain. 

I asked some writer friends to give me feedback before publication. That was a painful experience – they were harsh in some areas, which is what the book needed. However they all liked the book too and gave me some great blurbs. That’s a bit like the instructor in the pre-solo warm up. Critical and supportive. Trying to get me ready. 

The biggest uncertainty, of course, is when readers eventually find the book, will they enjoy it? Will they leave reviews online? Any review is actually a helpful review. But bad ones cut to the quick. 

The next month is crucial. 

So what is Wolfman about? And who is it’s protagonist? 

There’s a story about that… 

When Michael and I were starting to write a stand-alone thriller about rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling, we decided to stretch ourselves by having a protagonist very different from the one in our Detective Kubu series. Kubu is a Black man in the Botswana CID. So, we decided on a female protagonist and, to stretch us further, she’s a Vietnamese immigrant into Minnesota. Her name is Crystal Nguyễn. 

We started writing and hit a wall at about 20,000 words. So we put the pages aside and wrote another Kubu mystery. When that was done, we returned to the rhino thriller and tried again. The same thing happened. We tried all sorts of tweaks, but nothing gelled. Eventually I suggested to Michael that the problem was that we didn’t really know much about Crystal, or Crys as she is called. I undertook to write a few chapters about her life as an investigative reporter on a Duluth, Minnesota, TV station. 

Those few chapters became a novel of 60,000 words. And the effort paid off. We returned to the rhino book and sailed right through to the end. It is called Shoot the Bastards in the USA and Dead of Night elsewhere. 

 A year after Shoot the Bastards was released, it occurred to me that I had a solo book that I could publish. I revised it totally, and White Sun Books (www.whitesunbooks.com) released it in August this year. 

Crys has just been hired part-time as an investigative reporter in Duluth, Minnesota, specializing in environmental issues. However, her boss doesn’t tap her expertise and gives her trivial assignments. 

This is not what she was looking for as a reporter, so she decides to create her own news by sabotaging the snowmobiles and other possessions of people poaching gray wolves, then reporting on the incidents. After several of these sorties, she speculates when she’s on air that someone whom she nicknames Wolfman may be responsible. The idea goes viral, and the station’s ratings skyrocket. 

Needless to say, someone latches onto the idea – a copycat, if you like – and starts attacking the poachers themselves. Crys now has to reverse course and try to persuade whoever the live Wolfman is to back down. Of course, he doesn't. 

***

Stanley Trollip was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and has lived in Minneapolis for the past 38 years. He and Michael Sears write the Detective Kubu series set in Botswana under the pen name Michael Stanley. They also wrote a thriller (Shoot the Bastards) about rhino poaching and rhino-horn smuggling, set in South Africa and Vietnam. Wolfman is his first solo novel.