Richard W. Wise, Author

by Richard W. Wise

Author: The Dawning: 31,000 BC

copyright 2022

 

Of all the caves we visited, Grotte Cougnac won first prize for its natural beauty. In its broad chambers, slender stalactites drip from the high ceilings and translucent tubes cluster in masses like soda straws. Thin stalagmites rise from the floor—some stubby and phallic. Others have mated with stalactites to form elegantly shaped columns that remind us of a cathedral nave by Antoni Gaudi.
 
Dating back to the early Gravettian Period (33,000, some say 28,000-21,000 BP), its art contains the oldest art of the painted caves clustered around Les Eyzes de Tayak. Some may even be contemporary with the latest art created at Chauvet (31,000 BP). It should be noted that the periods discussed are specific to Central and Western Europe and are based on the evolution not of art but of tool-making technologies. 
 
The art throughout the caves is highly stylized, meaning that the style of the art in one cave adheres to conventions similar to those of other caves with renderings of the same period.
 
Each figure seems to begin with a gracefully drawn backline that defines the subject's ultimate shape. The outlines are often a single uninterrupted line. The elegance of line indicates a well-trained eye and hand. Drawing on cave walls, there was no way to erase or start over. The animals drawn are realistic, but these are icons. This is not true of Chauvet. The 35,000-year-old art is naturalistic; animals possess a singular individuality not present in the later art. Perhaps, it is the original which provided the basis for the stylization and uniformity which came later.  
 
The images, drawn in wood and bone charcoal and red ochre, include ibex, horses, and a beautifully rendered frieze of megaloceros—an ancient species of giant elk crowned with magnificent racks of antlers (see above). This image is among the oldest, with a Carbon 14 date between 30-24,000 BP. Showing a herd in motion, the frieze is reminiscent of some of the art at Chauvet, though not nearly so well executed. This period corresponded to the last glacial maximum when winter temperatures were at their lowest.
 
As early as 50,000 years ago, the cave was visited by Neanderthals, who sheltered in the entrance but probably did not explore the cave in depth. The caves were in use by Homo Sapiens for over 10,000 years.
 
The cave also boasts two rare anthropomorphic figures. One, drawn in charcoal, is of a crudely drawn man-like figure bent forward and pierced by what appears to be seven spears. The other, probably drawn by the same hand, is incomplete, beginning just below the shoulders with three spears, one rather uncomfortably piercing the figure between the buttocks. Dated to 25,000 years BP, these drawings are virtually identical to figures found at Pech-Merle and Lascaux.
 
 
Next: The Venus Figures, Part I. Stay tuned.

How would you describe this book and its themes in a couple of sentences?

 

The Dawning: 31,000 BC is a story about the deep past and a meditation on the present. Aside from the romance and adventure, the theme revolves around the development of human political and social culture which I contend is based on human nature, a nature which has not changed since the beginning of human history.

 

In contemporary literature, prehistory is often portrayed as an idyllic period, free of strife, where men and women were equal and there was magic in the air; the domain of Rousseau's noble savage. While an interesting theme, it is total fiction. In The Dawning, I have attempted to portray the people and the period as I believe it really was.

 

What attracted you to writing fiction about prehistory?

 

The magnificent 30,000-36,000-year-old paintings discovered in 1994 at Chauvet Cave in Southern France. The art is dynamic and sophisticated and tells of a culture which could hardly be called primitive.

You paint a vivid picture of daily life in prehistory: hunting, making fire, travelling, the weather, animals such as cave lions and hyenas. What kinds of research did you do for this story?

 

I took an archaeology course at University of Virginia, read about twenty-five books, everything from scholarly tomes to the Boy Scout Manual. There are a number of groups practicing experimental archaeology and there are published journals. I watched videos of fire making, flint knapping and spear throwing to name just a few.

 

Which research books did you pull off your shelf most often?

 

The Bulletin of Primitive Technology (experimental archaeology) was useful. I bought a set. Desdemaine-Hugon's Stepping Stones was another. Don's Maps and The Bradshaw Society were two very useful websites.

 

The shamans play significant roles in your story. How did you imagine your way into these characters and their influence in their communities?

 

The first shamans were tribal wise men. Often, they were the dreamers, the non-conformists, the tinkerers. Small groups of hunter/gatherers produced little surplus. Everyone had to, literally, pull their weight. No one was just wandering around, shaking rattles and mumbling to themselves.

 

I favor the Eastern European term, šamán and used it throughout The Dawning. "Shaman" carries with it a boatload of connotations—men in horned headdresses and painted faces, covered in feathers. These images conjure up something of an anachronism, a stereotype. I doubt that tribal wise men fit that image in these small mobile clans in earliest times. More likely, they earned their keep as part-time healers and storytellers.

 

Later we see shamans morphing into priests and then into priestly castes who claimed to influence the spirits but were essentially parasitic. In the historical development of culture they--along with the warriors--eventually took over and still rule. Osirus, Anubis, Enlil, Ahura Mazda--most of these made up dieties were worshipped far longer than Christianty has been around. Among these hunter/gatherers there was no surplus upon which a priestly class could feed and take root. 

 

Are there elements of your own life experiences that you have woven into your story?

 

Very little. My academic background is in philosophy. My views of human nature—which is pretty dark—definitely influenced my characterizations.

 

There is tension between the two half-brothers, Baal and Ejil. Do you have tricks for getting to know your characters?

 

No tricks. The experts tell us that these people were just like us. We share the same nature. So, analogies about the relationships of modern human siblings were useful.

 

Not so many novelists have chosen to write about the period of prehistory. Jean Auel, William Golding, Raymond Williams spring to mind. Have other prehistory novelists been significant for you?

 

Don't forget Jack London. I haven't read Williams. Auel's first book was brilliant though it's a bit dated given what we've learned through DNA studies and other discoveries over the last twenty years. Golding took on the impossible. How do you write close third person with characters who lack self-consciousness? Neanderthals did have a sense of self.

 

 

 
December, 1965: the ship had pulled a Bravo over the Christmas holidays. Thirty days steaming in a giant square of ocean off of Argentia, Newfoundland, charting icebergs. They had ridden through two official hurricanes. Winds up to force nine.  Seas running twenty to thirty feet for the first fifteen days of the patrol. Two weeks with the hatches battened down—without a breath of fresh air—the crew was getting squirrely.  It was a Thursday night just past 2100 hours (9:00 PM).  The watch had changed an hour before. 
 
Clark was reading a novel in his cabin when the monster wave hit. It was a rogue, a graybeard, eighty feet tall—some later claimed it was over a hundred. Clark had heard of them, but like most sea stories—he figured—they were more hyperbole than fact. The Yakutat was steaming upwind, plowing into the oncoming swells. Nobody knew where the huge wave came from or why. It hit the ship dead astern. READ CHAPTER ONE FREE ON KINDLE VELLA:   Graybeard

"Redlined" by Richard W. Wise, is a gripping suspense thriller that approaches its subject on the many levels of city politics, big money power brokers, banks, cultural institutions such as the Catholic Church in an old Boston neighborhood, and most importantly, what happens at the human level of family, friends and neighbors trying to protect their dreams. As an Alinsky-trained community organizer, the author is well-suited to tell this tale based on true events and well-researched details that make this novel exciting to read.
When "redlining," the betrayal of a community of homeowners and small business enterprises to make way for high-end development, threatens to overwhelm Boston's Jamaica Plain in 1974, community organizer and Marine combat veteran Jedediah Flynt steps in to turn the tide in favor of the people who live there; people who have been increasingly discouraged about their investments in a place they know of as home.
As the neighborhood housing market crashes and the quality of life deteriorates in Jamaica Plain, abandoned buildings are mysteriously being burned down as though in some systematic plan. Flynt, and his dedicated young organizer, Sandy Morgan, set up a watch on nearby empty buildings in an attempt to stop the destruction, or at least to determine what nefarious plot is afoot. But the investigation turns tragic when Sandy, in the midst of an arson in progress, is killed in the building fire. The incident mobilizes Flynt to swear he will find those responsible and avenge Morgan's death. It is with the inspired aid of another young woman, Alex Jordan, newly hired for research, that Flynt goes deep into a true-life conspiracy to ruin the lives of those who live in Jamaica Plain. The conspirators involved will stop at nothing, including murder, and Flynt will also need to rely on ex-Marine buddies to get the job done.
"Redlined" creates a wonderful look at the history of community organizing in all its early development. Much of the suspense in the first chapters of the novel outline the strategies and tactics meant to preserve the rights and lifetime investments of homeowners and businesses. They are all unwittingly pit against an elaborate web of corruption involving the greed, ambition and indifference of politicians, bureaucrats, elitist bankers, high ranking Catholic clergy, well-heeled grifters and the Chinese Triad. But Flynt and other lead organizers use the law, the solidarity of the people to act together, and the news media to expose the truth. Hope and social justice among the entire neighborhood will not be crushed.
But with every new accomplishment, every new insight, the forces of evil become increasingly aware they have underestimated the talents of Flynt and Jordan. In one move after another, including some daring espionage, Flynt gets closer and closer to who killed Sandy. Before their huge investments and reputations are damaged any further, the forces of evil narrow their sights on the problem and the showdown must come. Much like a chess game where the player who knows in advance what move to make next, "Redlined" maintains an edge of realism that will keep you guessing until the very end, and wondering with insider savvy, about the world at large.
Richard W. Wise is the author of two previous books, bestseller "Secrets of the Gem Trade: The Connoisseur's Guide to Precious Gemstones" (2003 with a second edition published in 2016) and "The French Blue," a historical novel (2010) and winner of a 2011 International Book Award in Historical Fiction.