Originally, Sorcerer! Was to be the sequel to Yusef of the Dusk, which was the sequel to Forty Hands of Night, which was the sequel to Fruit of the Deceiver. Yusef, “a man you can count on,” in his youth and prime, would face the trials of decrepitude and retribution in his fallow old age, in hiding, in the mountains of northern Spain where he was spawned.
But I would never see Spain, or any part of Europe. I had grown used to writing fiction set in place I had lived. I had been all over the American west and had only written one horror novel and one sci-fi adventure set there. So, I thought, after having pit away the outline for Sorcerer, since I was very sick and unwell, and needed to wrote something that required no research, that the discarded story could be recycled in a mythic American West. The story had to be set in places I had been, and rely on pre-existing history and myth.
Tolkien had woven an epic and more by mixing European myth and history. I thought that I should be able to do the same with American myth and history. The idea of resurrecting the story of sorcerer came to me while shoveling stone and mud under snow while I had a bad illness. I was being kept alive by modern medicine. This made me think of the Wise Man on Medicine Wheel Mountain and his helper, both ancient, who met Wakashi in about 1840 [1838 I think] on his way east, and when he came back west, after the winter, were gone.
Well, Sorcerer! And the entire fantasy setting of Awes West and Elder Earth are merely a sick writer’s attempt to remain relevant while method writing and too sick to write history or do research or world building.
I hope you enjoy Sorcerer! It was the hardest thing I have written. Below are my questions and notes.
Page 4: comma after spheres
Page 5: crenalated for crenellated
Page 6: borrowing to burrowing
Page 10: afront to affront.
Page 13: place a comma after The Book
Page 14: chisling to chiseling
On page 17 I assigned the ranger sergeant 38 years in the saddle. I picked this because I knew what it was like to be at constant war with Bantu savages for 38 years. The sickness and delirium of the old servant of Medicine Wheel Man was written from method as I experienced this symptoms for the writing of the first five chapters of the book.
Page 25: pemecin to pemmican
Page 26: dash between roof and shingled, Absoroka to Absaroka
Page 27: grissled to grizzled
Page 28: packtrain to pack train
Page 30: the rock hoping old Indian who guided pilgrims up the mountain to Medicine Wheel Man, comes directly from the biography of Washaki, as related by his grandson set in 1838.
Page 31: delete ‘in’ from between dismounted and battle
Page 32: insert ‘own’ between his hand
Page 40-41: change verbal quotes to single internal monologue quotes: “Such a great man should have a tower, like Duke Yorebarrow at Springfield Station...not a dang trapper’s cabin.”
Page 46: is to ‘is
Page 49: footnote witch to which
Page 50: sort to short point
Page 51: cooly to coolly
Page 53: insert ‘the before Shawnee
Page 56: There to Their
Page 65: council to counsel
Page 82: ladells to ladles, mucklucks to mukluks
Page 84: laudinum to laudanum
Page 85: footnote one ‘back of side’ to ‘back or side’
Page 86: corrected Pemmican
Page 90: corrected pemmican
Page 94: corrected Pemmican
Page 95: corrected Pemmican
Page 96: swam to swamp
Page 103: I experienced being nursed while wanting to quit and die, by the two wives of my host while writing the first five chapters of this book. The character of Rattler is taken directly from the life of Washakie, which is Shoshone for the rattler.
Page 107: insert to between and wonder at top of page
Page 111: our glass to hour glass
Page 112: single quote to end internal monologue, I coyote to a coyote
Page 114: corrected pemmican, Navaho to Navajo
Page 115: corrected Navajo, afright to affright
Page 120: least to last trip
Page 121: Nooses lifelong foes, the “Voodoo coons” were based on my own lifelong foes, the Kangs of Baltimore. The character was based on my failures and decrepitude. So it seemed right t grant us the same defining foes—indeed, our enemies make us more than our friends when we lose life’s race for grace.
Page 131: corrected affrighted
Page 143: sea for see
Page 145: Rosecution to Rosicrucian Order
I find Sorcerer! To be the best of my novels, though not my favorite. This bothers me, that my best work might be behind me. For the fate of a man worn and undone, central to this novel, is the universal writer’s dread.
