What’s Important in Writing?

I hear authors talk a lot.  Most want to communicate something to some group of readers.  Some want fame, fortune, esteem, or any of a number of accoutrements that accrue to the few.  There are awards, reviews, book signings, great sales, speaking events, and teaching options.  What is it that writers would answer to the question, “What would you prefer to see above all return for your writing?”

I’ve thought about that.  I’ve been among the fortunate.  I’ve had numbers of awards, a few reviews to die for, plenty of book signings, and speaking events.  Sales don’t hit the great category, but my genre isn’t something that the general population craves like they do mystery, thriller, and romance novels.

And then I get blindsided.  When The SealEaters, 20,000 BC award comments from Grace Cavalieri were read, I heard the line, “America’s preeminent writer of prehistoric history,” and I didn’t hear anything but a great thought in my mind, “What?  Surely, I didn’t hear what I thought I heard.”  When the review from Midwest Book Review gave my novel series such an awesome, glowing review, I was speechless.  Those things carried great meaning to me.

Little did I know that there would be something to top those comments.  Something that came out of the blue following a post I wrote letting people know that I’d reached the proofing stage of the novella, Freedom, 250,000 BC:  Out From the Shadow of Popocatépetl.  Just a routine post.  Then a response came that tore my heart out, laid it on the table before me so I could see it falter at the words.  I fought to hold back tears.  They came anyway.  Here’s the comment:

Bonnye Matthewes . what you write is amazing and beautiful, it is the ability of men with a life on our continent unsuspected by millions of people thank you for enriching our human history . I look forward to buy your book when on sale . i can writte a litte english!

—Jonathan Melendez, Valued Reader from Monterrey Nuevo Leon Mexico

That is the whole purpose of writing to me.  A writer communicates something to a reader through the written word.  It’s such a simple thing.  Yet, when confronted with such beautiful communication, I was humbled utterly. “Writte a litte English!”  Jonathan Melendez communicated volumes to me in English.  I understood in crystal clarity.

Writers are so very responsible for our communication.  We do communicate to others.  We can affect others in positives or negatives.  I had thought that I communicated a story as I write.  I also wanted people to realize the wonderful prehistory we have under our feet, but I felt that beyond me.  To have it come back so eloquently and concisely touched me at the very pit of my soul.  It affected my spirit.  It deepened my commitment to realizing with each story I write, I want my words to reach people for the positives.  It’s always a stretch.  But that will no longer be a hope but will attain goal status before I approve the final for my books.  I’ll send the proofed copy of Freedom, 250,000 BC back to the publisher either tonight or tomorrow.  I feel it meets the goal I’ve set.

To answer my own question as to what I’d want to see most from my writing, I’d have to say that Jonathan Melendez’s words are the answer.  An honest comment from a reader that shows that not only did my writing communicate at the superficial level but also at a deeper lever coupled with the positives.  That’s what I most want.  It’s not very entrepreneurial, but it’s true.  Jonathan Melendez’s words will appear on the back of Freedom, 250,000 BC:  Out From the Shadow of Popocatépetl along with the words from Cavalieri and Midwest Book Review.  His words complete the awards comments, book review, and reader comment on my writing that I hoped to place on the back cover to help the reader decide whether to consider the book to read.

His words and permission to use the quote arrived less than 24 hours before the final proof goes to the publisher.  What timing!

Email Causes a Welcome Shifting of Gears for the Day

What a delight! My morning began with an email: the proof for Freedom, 250,000 BC: Out From the Shadow of Popocatepetl. I'll be doing the final polishing of the product today. Some people don't enjoy proofing, but to me it's the final polish. I love it that this shorter book length can have larger type. It's so much easier for people of my generation.

I'm thrilled with the novella cover!

I received my first glimpse of the cover for Freedom, 250,000 BC:  Out From the Shadow of Popopcatépetl.  It blew my socks off!  I’m one of those fortunate ones whose publisher lets me have input on the cover design.  I found two images:  (1) the Homo erectus youth and (2) the image of the volcano, Popocatépetl.  I asked the publisher to ask the cover designer to put a skirt on the young boy, since he can’t run around like that here, and to superimpose the boy over the background.  Here are the two images:

The young Homo erectus:

The volcano, Popocatepétl:

 

Tlazotlaliztli  CC By-SA 4.0

 

In the story, Wing, the main character is shorter and thinner than his peers.  In the image above, there is glass glare on the young man and he needed clothing.  There was a lot of background.  In the story the young man has been cowed and leaves his home.  The image on the cover shows shoulders pulled forward, as described in the story.  Somehow when the two images were put together, it paired perfectly with the story.  Even better than I could have imagined.  They do phenomenal work.

The book won’t be out until September, but this is an extremely promising step in the process. 

I'm excited to share the Dedication and Introduction to Freedom, 250,000 BC:  Out From the Shadow of Popocatépetl.  It's my first novella and is due about September 1, 2016.  Each novella in this series will be dedicated to a different archaeological site in existence prior to 11,700 years ago.

Dedication

Archaeological Site at Valsequillo

This book is dedicated to the archaeological site south of Puebla, Mexico at the Valsequillo Reservoir.  What the site shows is an amazingly rich prehistoric view of human life in the Americas, specifically Mexico, in 250,000 BC.  That date is the glory and infamy of the Valsequillo site.

Two mountains are involved in this story.  The title, Freedom, 250,000 BC:  Out From the Shadow of Popocatépetl, refers to the volcanic mountain, Popocatépetl, to the northwest of the Valsequillo site.  Popocatépetl is pronounced po-po-ca-te-petal, the last part like flower petal.  The other mountain, La Malinque, erupted and its ash preserved the amazing finds at the site.

 

Introduction

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There is no longer an archaeological site south of Puebla, Mexico at Valsequillo.  It’s been buried and hidden.  Why?  The answer is as old as man.  It’s a power war over dogmatic belief.  I chose this site for the first novella in the series because of the controversy, not despite it.

In 1959 an accountant in Mexico who was fascinated by prehistoric finds in the Valsequillo area, chanced to discover a mammoth pelvis bone.  He pried it from the soil.  It was not an unusual find, until, when cleaning it later, he found animal carvings on the mammoth bone.  Surprisingly one of the animals was an extinct gomphothere (Ryncotherium), a four-tusked elephant-like animal; another, a speared feline.  There were others.  The find immediately generated great interest.  The Smithsonian Institution featured it, and “LIFE Magazine” did a brief article showing the carving (Illustration 1).  The bone had been carved when green.  In other words, it was carved when the bone was fresh.  What’s remarkable, and unknown at the time of the article, is that the bone scientifically dated to 250,000 years ago.  That simple scientific test would set off an explosive archaeological battle over the past that continues today.  There was a carver 250,000 years ago in the Americas!  That was heresy in the world of evolutionary belief;  totally plausible scientifically.

Illustration 1:  “LIFE Magazine,” Volume 49, No. 7, page 86.

In addition to the engraved mammoth pelvis bone two skulls have been found that relate to man in the Americas at a very early time.   Skull 1:  Associated with the Valsequillo site, the Dorenberg skull, found at the Valsequillo site in the late 1800s ended up in a museum in Leipzig, Germany, where it was destroyed by bombing during WWII.  It’s gone.  Inside that skull there was encrustation from diatoms.  Diatoms are minute photosynthesizing algae with silica cell walls, intricate in form.  Hugo Reichelt in Leipzig scraped diatoms from the skull to get a sense of its date.  The date of the diatoms scraping was established as “antediluvian,” not a very helpful term.  Essentially, it meant before the Biblical flood.  Some of the diatoms were extinct 80,000 years ago.  A few decades ago, Sam L. VanLandingham, a diatom paleontologist, dated a reference slide of diatoms at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco.  The diatoms on the slide came from the Doremberg skull scraping.  He dated them to the Sangamon age (about 80,000 to 220,000 years ago).    Using today’s methods, Sam VanLandingham also dated diatoms at the site where the skull and artifacts had been found.  The diatoms at the site dated to between 80,000 to 220,000 years before the present.  The same forms of diatoms found in the soil at the site at Valsequillo and the skull scrapings are consistent.  Skull 2:  The Ostrander skull was found in California.  With the brow ridges, it’s either a Homo erectus or Homo neanderthalensis.  Very ancient people were in the southwest part of what’s now the USA and Mexico a long, long time ago.  Neither skull remains available today.  The first was destroyed in WWII and the second may have been given a Native American burial.

Illustration 2:  Ostrander skull (on right).  Used with permission from Austin Whittall.

So what happened at Valsequillo?  The wonderful bone art found by Comacho, spotlighted by the Smithsonian, and photographed in “LIFE Magazine” was dated.  C-14 wouldn’t go back far enough.  Testing was performed using the Uranium series.  The date?  250,000 years ago.  Then things went haywire.  The lead scientist on the site, Cynthia Irwin-Williams, refused to accept the date.  Rather than face ridicule, which she knew would follow, she essentially dropped the project.  And ridicule came.  Along came other problems.  Finds were removed from the scientists and hidden or destroyed.  Scientists were accused of planting finds to discredit the work.  How it never occurred to anyone that no self-respecting scientist would knowingly plant finds that would cause himself to be ridiculed, I don’t know.

What has been buried at the Valsequillo site is precious.  Skulls, engravings, tools all once showed a site at 250,000 years ago just south of Puebla, Mexico.  It’s part of a potentially rich and amazing heritage in this land of ours.  Nonsense brought it to the current conclusion.  Maybe in time there will be an environment in which the site can be revisited to learn what lies beneath the surface.  More skulls, more carvings, more tools?  Maybe humans can gain understanding that will help explain this world in which we live.  As it is, it’s the single most intriguing archaeological site in the Americas from my point of view.