From Ian, With Love

Ian Lancaster Fleming is the author I credit to being my very first inspiration for being a writer.  If it had not been for him, I probably never would have realized my dream until much later in life.  And it is far better that I learned it earlier, because it allowed me to hone very important communication skills, which would serve me well sooner rather than later.

As a teenager, I was a huge James Bond fan.  I had always seen the James Bond films with my late Dad, though I did not truly start appreciating them until much later in life.  Then I purchased the James Bond Role Playing Game and had created a huge circle of James Bond fans in the circle that played the game with me.  So I finally decided to experience the "other" world of James Bond by reading the novels that started it all.  And I have to admit that it was a learning experience for me as well as an entertaining one.

Not only did I learn the basics of how to write an intriguing and captivating story, but I also learned about history during the 40s, 50s, and 60s -- the setting in which the James Bond novels took place and influenced the events.

I have decided to go back and reread the Fleming novels from the first to his very last in an effort to allow myself to be influenced once more, but this time as a mature adult.  I'm finding that I can appreciate more things as an adult than I could as a fledgling youth.

One of the things I can appreciate about Fleming's style is his wit, not only displayed in his character dialogue, but also in his writing flair.  In Casino Royale, he actually described a fellow gambler's wife thusly:  "...with the predatory mouth of a barracuda."  Then he later described one of Le Chiffre's body guards of being exceedingly hairy:  "Bond guessed that hair covered most of his squat body.  Naked, Bond supposed, he would be an obscene object."  Maybe you have seen a similar flair in my writing.  Don't give me credit; give it to Mr. Fleming.

I sometimes feel that Ian Fleming does not get his due share of credit.  The James Bond that he described in his novels was certainly more real than the one we see in the movies.  The realistic spy, about which he wrote, actually had moments when he was paranoid and even scared at times.  You do not see this in the over-the-top cinematic James Bond characters as portrayed by various actors.  This is not to say that I do not enjoy the films; but I enjoy the novels more.  The characters as portrayed in the films -- in my humble opinion -- are simply what I call, the icing on the cake.  But when I eat cake, I often prefer to scrape the icing off and enjoy the cake for what it is and was truly meant to be.