Instilling some virtue
Winter 2022
By Rehan Khan
As institutions have moved into a post-COVID mindset, for writers such as myself, the joy of visiting schools and speaking with students and teachers has returned. It was quite a busy year on that front, with the opportunity to visit nineteen schools in 2022. Generally, I spoke about history and storytelling and in some cases delivered masterclasses.
As a result, there has been more interest in A Tudor Turk, A King’s Armour and A Demon’s Touch. All three of these books came out during and around COVID and if it wasn’t for my excellent publisher Rosemarie Hudson of Hoperoad, they would not have seen light of day.
On the upcoming writing front, I’ve spent the last few months finalizing the research that is going into the next novel, which is set around 90 BC. It’s a tale of empires vying for power and commerce, in what is modern day Jordan, Syria, Turkey and Arabia. But back at that time, it was a series of empires headed up by the likes of the Seleucids, Ptolemy, Nabataeans and of course the Romans. The novel is still about a year or so away from being released so I don’t want to give away any more details on that front. Other than saying I’m trying a slightly different writing style and hope it works!
Some of the books I have been reading these past few months have been: The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis, an excellent satire on human nature and how it can become easily distracted. Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen, the level of the English language is one of the highest it has been and it makes me feel a very inferior writer after reading Austen. Tao Te Ching by Lao Tzu, which is the cornerstone of the Taoist belief system and contains wisdom applicable throughout the ages. What is Art by Leo Tolstoy, in which he argues why art has lost its purpose and that good art should be about remember God. The Myth of the American Superhero by Lawrence and Jewett, where they compare the classical monomyth as articulated by Joseph Campbell and compare it to the American Superhero myth. Shows About Nothing by Thomas Hibbs, in which he makes a forceful case for why nihilism and romanticism are the primary cultural forces pervading popular culture.
I also ran a course of How to Design a Virtue Based Novel, which took up a fair bit of my time. We went through what is the purpose of being a writer, followed by examining some of the ideas prevalent in society today, such as nihilism, romanticism, superhero myths, religions based on popular culture, before the course turned its attention to what is virtue-based writing and addressing what is the purpose of literature. Those attending the course were primarily writers looking to bring additional purpose to their stories as well as teachers looking to understand how to frame some of the narratives playing out in society. I hope to run a more detailed course along these lines in the future.
That’s all for now, peace and blessings be upon you.
