On Offense For and In Defense of "Taterskin & The Eco Defenders"
How I Explain and Describe My Magnum Opus
I provided the following to a book editor and reviewer who requested an “author’s article” from me regarding my novel “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders”
INTRODUCING Blackbird Crow Raven’s TATERSKIN & THE ECO DEFENDERS
I hate science fiction. Most of it, anyway. Yet people would classify my novel Taterskin & The Eco Defenders as belonging to that genre. I can’t argue too much with that assessment except to say that it is really, to be specific, Cli-Fi Utopian Fantasy. But then again, I’m usually no more a fan of Fantasy than I am of science fiction, so I’m still at risk of seeming out of my element to pen such a tale. Full disclosure, I would call Taterskin a mashup of science fiction, fantasy, social commentary, and picaresque time travel, but you could perhaps even label it Young Adult, as it might appeal to that demographic more than others (because that age group typically tends to be more open-minded and willing to accept what older ones would view as too far-fetched or radical).
As for writing in a genre that might seem anathemic to me, this is my rebuttal to any objection that may stem from that: It’s not the genre of the work that matters most, but rather the quality of the story and writing, as well as its message, or overarching theme. And although I have written in other genres, including two works which I consider among my best, one “a biography masquerading as an autobiography” entitled Rebel With a Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs and the other a (nonfiction) two-volume history of my family, Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History, 1620-2006, I consider Taterskin & The Eco Defenders to be my magnum opus.
“Fascinating blend of fantasy and environmentalism; enchanting literary fusion”That is how one reader described “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders”
Here is a brief synopsis: Taterskin & The Eco Defenders, told in “first canine” by the titular character, a Labrador Retriever, is a Cli-Fi (ultimately Utopian) fantasy of a few humans and several talking animals who travel through time and space to make the past—and thus the future—a better place. The improvements effected by the Eco Defenders benefit not just the earth itself, but also mistreated humans and animals.
Taterskin & The Eco Defenders is in actuality two books in one, a literary mini-series, you might say—or the first two in a series, anyway, as I am already mind-mapping volume 3, “The Megalomaniac” (working title)
Book 1 of Taterskin is “Wonders Never Cease;” Book 2 is “Tell It To Future Generations.” Both volumes are available in three formats. Their covers are shown in the image below; from left to right Kindle, Paperback, and Hardcover.
[ elided due to space/size limitations ]Philosopher and renaissance man George Santayana is most famous for having said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” The message of Taterskin is that those who remember the past, and have empathy for those who suffered during it, plus the ability to do something about it (here’s where the willing suspension of disbelief — the Fantasy element — comes in) are privileged with the opportunity of erasing the bad elements of history — in other words, altering history.
That’s what the Labrador Retriever Taterskin and his friends, who come to call themselves The Eco Defenders, do: They alter history to make life better for future generations.
As for the Eco Defenders, they are a vast and varied conglomeration of animals from all over the world, even spanning time in the case of the Pterodactyl. Some of the more prominent characters are Alexis, a brilliant multilingual African Grey Parrot; a Lakota woman named Chapawee, aka They Are Afraid Of Her; African Elephants Chumbawumba and Tubthumper Modoc; Drako Pogona, a Bearded Dragon; a Hippopotamus named Jowls Behemoth; Stripes, a Bengal Tiger, and his “little sister” Marmalade, an Orange Tabby kitten; a Rhinoceros called Ocero Puddleby; Ooga Ah-Ooga, a Gorilla; a former slave who names himself Ravelle X; Rinky, a Duck-billed Platypus; Rory Zamba, a Lion; Rovette, a Golden Retriever who eventually becomes (spoiler alert!) Taterskin’s “forever dogfriend”; Ulysses “Yookie” Calyptus, a Koala Bear; Yukyuk, a “Chuckling” Hyena and, last but not least, Albert Spartacus Joad, a human.
The time span covered in the novel is millions of years, when you count from prehistoric Germany 15 million years in the past, where and when Terri Wingfinger the Pterodactyl joins the gang, to the “starting” time (when the story begins) in the year 2525 CE. Disregarding those outliers, though, most of the action takes place in relatively modern times, between the 1800s and 1978, in the United States, Germany, India, The Congo, Australia, and the Amazon.
Each chapter of both books begins with an AI-generated image related to the contents of that chapter. Here are a few examples:
[ not shown here, but more images than what I provided the editor/reviewer are appended below ]The problems the Eco Defenders solve range from going back in time to warn the Germans about Hitler; freeing slaves and preventing the Civil War in the 1860s; preventing the massacre of Native Americans at Wounded Knee in 1890; bringing an end to vivisection, as well as all sorts of other things, culminating with the protection of the Amazon Rain forest in 1978.
It’s safe to say that Taterskin & The Eco Defenders is beyond simply unique, but if pressured to make comparisons with other works, I would say it most resembles the result of a “special hug” between the seemingly disparate Doctor Dolittle series of books by Hugh Lofting and Edward Abbey’s The Monkey Wrench Gang — with, of course, my own idiosyncrasies (aka “style”) added to the mix.
The message of Taterskin & The Eco Defenders is that we all have the responsibility to try to make the world a better place. A related subtext is that people can change for the better — that personal improvement is possible (and worthwhile).
Although fundamentally a serious book, Taterskin includes a fair amount of humor, too. Perhaps the best example is this excerpt:
[ elided, but already posted here ]
As for information about me, the author, I would simply say that my real name is B. Clay Shannon — when writing fiction, I use Blackbird Crow Raven as my nom de plume, or “nom de guerre,” as my favorite author Mark Twain put it.
Also of interest perhaps, is that I have lived in eight States of the U.S. In chronological order, these are: California (where I was born, in Mendocino County), New York, Montana, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Missouri.
If you are interested in the author beyond those tidbits, the best way to learn about “the real Raven/Shannon” is by reading the book, for, as Mark Twain said, authors can’t help but reveal their true nature in their writings. He put it this way, “...the remorseless truth is there, between the lines, where the author-cat is raking dust upon it which hides from the disinterested spectator neither it nor its smell—the result being that the reader knows the author in spite of his wily diligences.”
Fittingly (I think), my legal last name (that is, Shannon, not Raven) has the denotation “Skilled Storyteller.”
According to a google search/AI:
Shannon is an Irish surname that has Gaelic origins. It comes from the Gaelic word seanachaidh, which means "skilled storyteller."
The Shannon surname became established in Scotland in the 14th century and spread throughout Ireland over time, with branches of the clan settling in different regions. The Shannons became prominent in areas such as County Limerick, County Cork, and Dublin.
[My branch of the Shannons emigrated from County Cork in 1820, which was also the boyhood home of my favorite guitarist, Rory Gallagher] The surname also spread to other parts of the world as Irish people migrated. Between 1840 and 1920, the Shannon family name was found in the USA, the UK, Canada, and Scotland.
[After arriving in Canada in 1820, the Shannons moved to the US, specifically to Central California, in 1889 (and not long after to far northern California).It was only fairly recently (a little over a year ago) that I found out I have far more Scottish blood than Irish (or anything else, for that matter)]For the story of how I found out about my Scottish heritage, see this post. What I knew about family history in 2006 is contained in the two volumes of “Still Casting Shadows” (links at the bottom of this article)
Following are several excerpts from the two books that make up “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders”: selected chapter beginnings.
From Book 1, “Wonders Never Cease”:
From Book 2, “Tell It To Future Generations”:
Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History (Volume 1: 1620-1913)
Still Casting Shadows: A Shared Mosaic of U.S. History (Volume 2: 1914-2006)
Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain's Hidden Memoirs
WONDERS NEVER CEASE: Book 1 of “Taterskin & The Eco Defenders”
TELL IT TO FUTURE GENERATIONS: Book 2 of "Taterskin & The Eco Defenders"
