The ARC Arthurian Readers Club

Of course, it would be quite improper to take five over excitable dogs to a meeting of The ARC Arthurian Readers Club. But Little Plump Jo did not need her five over excitable canine writing companions, the Dabrowski Dogs – Intellectual, Sensual, Emotional, Psycho Motor and Imaginational, to be with her physically to know pretty much what thoughts and opinions they would have. Often people thought that Little Plump Jo may be slightly mad; as she tended to suddenly burst into tears or into gales of laughter at the mental pictures the thoughts of her dogs’ possible reactions to situations created for her.

A year’s membership for The ARC Arthurian Readers Club was a perk Little Plump Jo received as Artisan in Residence in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies. The ARC held quarterly meetings which lasted for three days in a grand hotel setting.

Jo had belonged to book clubs in the past. Usually, it entailed a group of about six people all reading the same randomly chosen book for a month and then gathering in a home to discuss it over tea and scones. There was always an unacknowledged sense of competition. Members tended to search readers’ guides hoping to demonstrate their understanding and bring additional information to the discussion.

But The ARC was quite different. The ARC was more like a book fair or a cosplay or RPG convention. Everybody brought along with them the Arthurian book or books that they preferred and shared about them on a loudest said soonest heard basis. It was a great place for Indie writers to receive feedback and to show and sell their books. Writers often brought their Works In Progress and sought input from the readers.

Jo went first to the check in desk and was given a welcome bag and an attractive woven lanyard bearing her name tag with her name in gold Old English font letters.

Little Plump Jo

Artisan in Residence

Malory Tennyson’s

Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies

Near the admin/check in desk there was a large lounge area and cafeteria where people could mingle, organize meetups, and relax between sessions. Jo ordered a caramel latte and a chocolate éclair and took her welcome bag to a table for two in the cafeteria to check the contents. The bag contained a small notebook, a ballpoint pen, a 2B pencil, a feather quill (for decoration or use as a bookmark perhaps) an intentional bookmark shaped like Excalibur, a large amount of advertising material and the all-important ARC Booklet.

From the booklet Jo learned that there were several Strands relating to different genres of Arthurian books.

Archaeological Research Chamber - Room B3

About Real Characters - Historical Arthurian fiction - Room 201

About Romance Characters - Myths and Legends - Room 301

About Real Concerns - Modern day settings of Arthurian fiction - Room 310

A Reality Contradiction – Fantasy Fiction/Swords and Sorcery - Room 1101

A Rarified Condition – Sci-Fi Room 1110

Jo scurried to the admin desk, concerned that she may have to decide on one Strand to attend for the whole ARC meeting. She was relieved when she was told that she could walk into and out of any room at any time as long as she did it in a respectful non-disruptive manner.

She decided that she would visit the Historical Strands first - Archaeological Research Chamber - Room B3 and About Real Characters - Historical Arthurian fiction - Room 201. She was very aware of her lack of knowledge in that area. Intellectual Dabrowski, one of her canine writing companions, was very keen for Jo to be more scholarly in her writing. Maybe she would be able to collect some interesting information handouts and take some notes and demonstrate to him that she had made the most of the opportunities the ARC offered.

There were dioramas on display in the basement representing the Cadbury Camelot archaeological dig and exhibits of various artifacts found. Jo was able to make some sketches and take some notes which could prove very valuable background for her writing.

Next she took the lift to the second floor About Real Characters - Historical Arthurian fiction. In Room 201 she found a spirited debate in progress between two eminent academics about the possible identity of the real King Arthur being Lucius Artorius Castus, a second century Roman war leader. Jo knew that the hypothesis was criticized by many prominent Arthurian scholars. She was friends on social media with authors who ascribed to both sides of the argument and had seen the debates become so intense that they descended to vicious barbs and name calling.

After the debate had continued in a civil tone for about one hour but was now appearing to be reaching the barbs and name calling stage, a concertina divider was drawn across the room, isolating the two combatants.

“It happens every time. They will happily keep on going over the same arguments for the rest of the day. “You can either join them or stay here and we can discuss books by Bernard Cornwell, Jack Whyte, Giles Kristian and others.” Jo spent the rest of the morning enjoying those discussions. At lunch time she walked to the lifts with a lady from that group, who introduced herself as Germana Strong, who talked, without drawing breath, throughout the lunch about the role of feminist writers and the importance of strong female characters. Jo did not consider herself a specifically feminist writer and could not find agreement about some of the ideas being expressed. But fortunately she was not given an opportunity to voice agreement or dissent.

Jo had always heard her writing described as Fantasy Fiction, so after lunch she found her way to Room 1101 A Reality Contradiction – Fantasy Fiction/Swords and Sorcery

As she entered she heard

“And he has pink spiky hair and huge blue eyes and the darlingest little wings, which you can see when he takes his shirt off and…” Little gasps and oohs and sounds of appreciation followed.

“Who does?” queried Little Plump Jo.

“Lancelot, of course. He is half fairy, you know!”

Indignation welled up in Jo. She thought of the intense, dark eyed warrior who paced about Cloudbank Cabin. Now she knew how Malory Tennyson felt as he watched the Artisans in Residence in Cloudbank Cabin misrepresenting his characters.

“No!” Jo found herself yelling (quite unlike her normal quiet demeanor) “Lancelot is tall and stern. He is a pedantic perfectionist. He has dark eyes and coal black curls. See Tennyson’s poems The Lady of Shalott and Lancelot and Elaine! It is a ludicrous falsehood that Lancelot is half fairy or lived with fairies. He was saved from drowning as an infant by Nimue, the Lady of the Lake (who was not a fairy), who took him to her island in the middle of the lake. It is an ordinary island, not Fairyland.

IF he took off his shirt (he is actually quite private and straitlaced) you would see great muscles, some pretty impressive scars, but definitely no wings!”

Everyone was staring at Jo now. There were calls of:

“How rude!”

“We strive to be supportive and encouraging of every person here in The ARC.”

“You are in the wrong room, lady. You should be in Room 301.”

“Even in there you are going to find fairies living in lakes Ha ha!”

“This is Fantasyland, the happiest kingdom of them all, and if she says he has pink hair and wings that is fine with us!”

“Sorry” mumbled Jo, as she gathered up her bags and left the room.

She became aware that another lady had followed her out.

“Your first meeting?” she asked. “Regina Penman, Secretary of the ARC. Don’t worry about that. We have a lot of interesting people as members of the ARC and we love them all.”

“What book was she discussing?” asked Jo.

“That is Mimosa Minipas. She was reading from her current Work In Progress.”

Now Little Plump Jo felt even worse. “I really am sorry. That was totally inappropriate of me. I would never intentionally denigrate and deter another writer!”

“I was hoping to catch up with you today” Regina said. “When we have an Artisan in Residence from Cloudbank Cabin attending, we expect that they will give us a brief talk, during the plenary session, about the experience of working and studying there and a bit about their own creative work. Would you be prepared to present that tomorrow? I can introduce you to the IT people now and you can discuss what you would need for your presentation.”

This must have been in some fine print which Jo had not seen; as she probably would not have come to the ARC if she had known about it.

Jo spent the rest of the afternoon discussing her presentation with the IT people. They suggested that she should bring a PowerPoint presentation on a USB stick and even gave helpful suggestions about the subjects she could include.

“Give some slides showing the scenic setting of Cloudbank Cabin, information about the creative works of previous Artisans in Residence and information about your own work, even if just at WIP stage. And be sure to bring along your favorite Arthurian books and give acknowledgement to the ones that have provided inspiration for you.”

Jo sat up till the early hours of the next morning creating her presentation. She had taken many photographs of the Many Mooded Mountain and the Fog Lake and Cloudbank. She compiled these into a photo montage and added the poems she had written, for which her neighbour had composed the music. That led her to the photos of the entertainment afternoons they had presented for the Village. But when it came to describing the books she had written, Jo was hit with Imposter Syndrome.

“There will probably be lots of writers in the audience who have spent time at Cloudbank Cabin. They will have written wonderful books and poetry and wonder how I even managed to score an Artisan in Residence position” she said.

Emotional Dabrowski leant her head against Jo’s leg reassuringly. “Don’t worry! It will be fine!”

Sensual Dabrowski, however, was not quite as encouraging. “You need to realize that, even if people have been to Cloudbank Cabin, they will not necessarily have experienced and appreciated it in the same way as you. Probably the experiences they have vary as much as the people who come here. So, do not be too upset if some people do not understand the Fog Lake as you do.”

“Don’t worry about it” yelped Psycho Motor Dabrowski, bouncing enthusiastically. “There is bound to be at least one person in the audience who will love what you are saying! Look at them and smile and they will give you encouragement!”

“And,” added Intellectual Dabrowski, “these people usually love the sound of their own voice. So get them involved in the presentation. It shares the onus around.”

Little Plump Jo fretted through the housekeeping announcements, looking out from the dais at the crowd gathered for the ARC Arthurian Readers Club Day 2 Plenary session, hoping to find a recognizable smiling face. It seemed to be a very plenary Plenary Session! She recognized several people and smiled hopefully at Germana Strong.

She noticed that Mimosa Minipas was in the audience. She had a little yappy dog, which looked somewhat like a Chinese Crested, in her handbag. It popped its head out to snap at people at unexpected moments.

Jo snickered to herself, imagining what her dogs would think of it. Heureux, Lancelot’s massive companion dog, would stare at it and say “Un chien? Vraiment?”

After assurances that it was so from all the Dabrowski Dogs, Intellectual would add “Think Fizzgig in The Dark Crystal!” Thinking about those images dispelled Jo’ s nerves and she found herself smiling broadly as Regina Penman introduced her in glowing terms as the current Artisan In Residence in Malory Tennyson’s Cloudbank Cabin for Arthurian Studies.

The first section of her presentation went smoothly and was well received. Jo handled the remote control to advance her slides through a montage of photos of the idyllic setting of Cloudbank Cabin – the mountains, especially the one she called The Many Mooded Mountain, and the valley at the foot of the mountains in different seasons and lighting conditions.

She showed pictures of the Village where Cloudbank Cabin was located and spoke with vicarious pride of the many accomplished authors, poets, artists, musicians, composers, dancers, choreographers, glass artists, the silversmith, and the blacksmith who lived there. She could see heads nodding in appreciation.

“Now a bit about me,” said Jo. “I have had a lifelong interest in King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I came to Cloudbank Cabin to prepare a photo essay, The Realm Beyond the Cloudbank, for a university assignment. I stayed on hoping to write the whole Arthurian epic during the month of November” Jo gave a nervous self-deprecating laugh and was rewarded by roars of laughter from the audience. “So, I have stayed on since then. I have written two books and I am working on a third. I am still trying to work out what is the best way to publish them. I have also written several poems which have been set to music by my musician/composer neighbor and we have performed them in the Village. I will share a couple of those with you shortly.

My inspiration comes from the works of Sir Thomas Malory and Lord Alfred Tennyson as you would expect (Jo indicated her stack of books on the podium) and from Catherine Christian, with whom I used to correspond, and lately from Ann F. Howey’s Afterlives of the Lady of Shalott and Elaine of Astolat. Afterlives is a wonderful thesis which has led me to so many more books about The Lady Elaine.

I need to acknowledge all the gracious people who have allowed me to read my work to them, which has been a great source of encouragement to me.

And, of course, my overexcitable dogs!” Jo brought up pictures of her canine writing companions, the Dabrowski dogs – Intellectual, the Border Collie sitting beside a huge stack of Arthurian books, Sensual (aka Itchy) scratching behind his ear, Psycho Motor leaping for a frisbee, Emotional, the English Springer Spaniel, in her Therapy Dog coat and little Imaginational, the Bedlington Terrier contemplating a dog shaped cloud. The audience loved it. Jo, the dog owner, seemed much more relatable to most of them. The hardline academics probably put mental brackets around that section of the presentation and dismissed it as filler fluff!

Jo played video clips of the songs The Realm Beyond the Cloudbank and The Realm Beyond the Realm Beyond the Cloudbank with background pictures of Cloudbank scenery overlaid with famous Arthurian theme paintings. They were well received.

It probably would have been a good thing if Jo had finished her presentation at that point. But she was only halfway into her allotted time and had not really demonstrated justification for her position as an Artisan in Residence at Cloudbank Cabin. So, buoyed by the reception she had been given so far, she launched into the next section.

“How many of you, here today, have worked at Cloudbank Cabin?” About seven or eight hands went up. “I believe that every author or artist who works at Cloudbank Cabin experiences it in an individual way. Each one will appreciate it differently. I would like to ask if you would be prepared to join me and we can share some ‘compare and contrasts’ about our experiences.” Five of the hand raisers came up on stage with her; Mimosa Minipas with her snappy doggy bag was one of them.

Jo asked them about what they found inspiring. Most answered the beautiful scenery and the wonderful selection of books, paintings and music which previous artisans had left in the cabin.

Jo asked about the atmosphere. Most answered that it seemed very quiet and peaceful, which allowed them to write without distraction. Mimosa Minipas, however, said she found the atmosphere inside the cabin quite unnerving. “I only stayed one night. Every time I started to write or paint, CH. Yippit Fae Floosabelle kept on running into corners of the room and barking at nothing. It was really weird!”

Jo thought she knew the explanation for that; but now was not the time to share it.

“Did anyone else take a dog to the cabin?” she asked.

“No, I don’t have a dog.”

“I put my dogs in kennels.”

“I took my dog and he ran away into the bush. I was notified by the stock ranger and collected him from the pound on my way home.”

“My dog got sick on the first evening. I think he licked the William Morris wallpaper and had to be taken to the vet. My girlfriend collected him from there.”

“My dogs love the Fog Lake and cloud watching” said Jo, trying to create a segue to the topic she had hoped would have emerged. “Did any of you notice these things?” Nobody reacted. She still had a section of her presentation which she wanted to show. But she felt instinctively that if she spoke of the Fog Lake re-enactments and the relationship she had with Malory Tennyson and the Arthurian characters, her work would be regarded in a similar way to pink-haired, darling-winged Lancelot.

She settled for showing a final slide of Cloud Camelot ("nice photo-shop" someone called out), thanking everyone and saying that she would be happy to share more some other time.

Regina Penman stepped forward with a large bunch of flowers and said “Thank you so much, Little Plump Jo. Tomorrow we will create a Lady Elaine room where you can lead a discussion of Howey’s Afterlives and the books recommended in it.”