Five
facts about L’Wren, Hawk And The Doves….
So, one each and a spare (because there are
two Doves)
1
- L’Wren came to me first
just as a name, sadly triggered by the death of Mick Jagger’s girlfriend (or
‘squeeze’ as the tabloid press might have it).
I’d always had mixed feeling about the
name, thinking it a bit affected or even totally made up but it seems to be a
genuinely acceptable version of Lauren, the feminine of Lawrence, both of which
derive from the Latin word for a bay tree. Ceasar wore a crown of laurel
leaves, so it goes back a looong way.
Bay leaves are green, of course, so L’Wren
had to be green too didn’t she?
There it was then, a blank page with the
name of a green girl on it…
2
- Hawk then swooped in -
well, he would swoop wouldn’t he? At first there was a chance that Hawk would
just be L’Wren’s surname but pretty quickly Hawk had ideas about being an
entirely separate character all of his own. He was plainly in some sort of
juxtaposition to L’Wren based just on his name alone - a wren being a tiny
songbird, small, and brown whereas a hawk is a big fearsome, noble thing.
Opposites attract though, so I went with a
bit of gender stereotyping. L’Wren stayed female while Hawk became very male.
And the most male thing a boy can do is… be
a starship captain! Then he gained the first name Saker, which is an Arabic
word meaning falcon.
You could argue that his name translates as
Hawk Hawk? But I'd get upset if you did.
3
and 4 - The Doves crept
into the title in the same way as I like to imagine the wardrobe crept into C.S
Lewis' thoughts.
Maybe not.
Already having two very different birds
flapping about in my head and plot I realised that there were some more to
flock along. The conflict aspect that sprang to mind of having a hawk and a
wren seemed to be calling out for a peaceful resolution... hence doves were
required. However, I shifted the conflict to a different planet and decided
that my doves would also be from another world. Their role then grew until they
were interplanetary peace-keepers, flying in to resolve a conflict that had
proved all but impossible to deal with.
I needed to hint at some ambiguity about
them, they are mysterious and secretive, so their names were a long time in the
research. In fact all the names in the book were researched in some depth. I
wanted an otherworldly feel to names of both places and people, and to use
language that reflected not only different cultures but also highlighted the
gender aspects of the plot.
So my doves became Anchises and Cytheria,
names from classical Greek mythology linked to each other. The planet they came
from had to reflect their status as peacekeepers, as doves, and it became
Turacoena. Well, it had to...
So....
5 – what's it all bout?
Well, it's really just a standard boy meets girl who both meet boy and girl who
might be girl and boy while boys and girls fight it out over boys being boys
and girls being girls thing.... in space.
Simple.
Well, maybe – I wanted to challenge
preconceptions about a number of things. Science fiction itself, for starters.
Captain Kirk trekked through the stars on his five year mission to seek out new
life and new civilisations and boldly have romantic liaisons every week with
aliens who, while some of them might be green, were always scantily clad and
totally, totally unambiguously female and heterosexual. There was never any
doubt about gender or sexual orientation.
Had he never read 'The Left Hand Of
Darkness' by Ursula Le Guin? Well I have, and he should too.
It's a bit of a daft idea that gender and
sexuality are a social constant across the universe so my two worlds in L'Wren,
Hawk and the Doves have totally different views on the subject. I'll let you
read the book to find out what the twist on the Dove's home planet of Turacoena
is (no spoilers here) but the war, on the planet Ourania, that the doves are
seeking to bring an end to is all about gender.
Ourania is a planet divided by gender, with
rigid social and geographical structures in place. Gender is everything yet
sexuality, because of this, is flexible. Within their respective social and
geographical confines homosexuality is the norm and outside heterosexuality is
expected. It makes total sense on Ourania, trust me.
Into the mix comes the relationship between
L'Wren and Hawk. They each have a past, and a future, and the Doves, with their
innate empathy, bring challenges that neither of them expects.
And the Doves themselves have to confront
the emotional feedback and physical demands of dealing not only with the
heightened atmosphere around L'Wren and Hawk but with their own past and the
secret they have to keep.
If your emotions could be felt by another,
if the desires you kept hidden were revealed and reflected back on you would
you deny and control those needs?
And if sexuality and gender aren't what
they seem does it change who you are?
Catch up with Faberge on –
