Daniel Cowper penned Kingdom of the Clock primarily based on his experiences residing in Vancouver
Daniel Cowper’s new e book performs out by means of an intimate type of writing – the novel in verse.
Kingdom of the Clock follows the lives of a number of individuals residing in a west coast metropolis over the course of 24 hours. As their day strikes alongside, we meet increasingly of the primary characters and expertise their tales and relationships as they navigate the expansive metropolis. Whereas Vancouver isn’t named particularly because the e book’s setting, the inspiration for the novel, characters, and tales are drawn from Cowper’s experiences residing in the true life metropolis.
Cowper started envisioning the e book as he and his spouse (and fellow writer) Emily Osborne determined to maneuver from Vancouver to Bowen in 2019 as they awaited their first son. “I used to be serious about saying goodbye to Vancouver, and I began serious about town extra and the way in which that it labored and the totally different loopy issues that I’d seen within the metropolis over the ten years I’d been residing there.”
“After the pandemic I used to be actually serious about neighborhood and about cities… in regards to the significance of cities and the way a lot they’ve to supply and the prices they impose on individuals,” explains Cowper. “So I began writing extra about characters, somewhat than simply in regards to the panorama of town. After which the tales of these characters began getting novelistic, rising up and taking on the piece. That’s actually when it grew to become a novel in verse somewhat than a e book of poetry.”
Time itself is a crucial character in Cowper’s novel. Residing in two such totally different locations closely influenced how he now seems to be at a day, and the way the identical time frame and the way it’s measured can have very totally different meanings and outcomes. “I used to be serious about how town actually operates on the timeline of the clock in a method that the countryside doesn’t. Once you’re on Bowen the seasons are actually necessary, the climate is basically necessary,” he explains.
“In Vancouver all that stuff is a bit bit secondary to the routine of the everyday. A Thursday in November works very a lot the identical method {that a} Thursday in June does. As a result of it’s working by the phrases of the clock,” he says.
The novel in verse style can hint its roots again to Russian author Alexander Pushkin, who was writing a chunk within the type of Lord Byron’s satirical work Don Juan. However as Cowper explains, Pushkin “began eager to deal with it extra significantly and write about his characters in a extra compassionate and three-dimensional method. So he began writing about them prefer it was a novel and… referred to as it a novel in verse.” The tip end result was Pushkin’s basic novel, Eugene Onegin.
The style pale away later within the nineteenth century however skilled a resurgence within the Nineteen Eighties because of Indian author Vikram Seth. His novel The Golden Gate – detailing his life experiences residing in San Francisco – was a success, resulting in extra authors selecting to experiment with absolutely fleshed out novels in verse.
“It’s a extremely wealthy kind, as a result of in poetry you possibly can add an emotional weight and an emotional punch to one thing in a short time. You’ll be able to transfer very quickly along with your story with out sacrificing its impression,” says Cowper.
“However it’s additionally a difficult e book to put in writing, as a result of it’s important to maintain the poetic power from starting to finish. Sustaining the power of a poem over the size of a novel isn’t a simple factor to do – however if you happen to can pull it off, it’s a whole lot of enjoyable.”
Kingdom of the Clock is Cowper’s second e book, his first a set of poetry referred to as Grotesque Tenderness. Daniel says the problem, and payoff, of composing poetry is what has led to his love of the writing kind.
“I actually just like the music of phrases. I discover the sound of phrases very thrilling, and I discover it very transferring,” he explains. “I discover prose very difficult to put in writing artistically. Writing practical prose or persuasive prose is one factor, however writing inventive prose is one other factor.”
“The view that I’ve of literary artwork is that it’s doing three fundamental issues – and that is one thing that Vladimir Nabokov mentioned – it’s instructing, it’s entertaining, and it’s enchanting. However it’s principally imagined to enchant,” explains Daniel.
“I hope this e book will train individuals one thing about cities and the way they work and the form of issues that go on outdoors of their very own particular lives which are occurring in actual lives within the metropolis. I hope that folks will likely be entertained by the story… There’s a whole lot of plots on this e book, there’s a whole lot of narrative enjoyable.”
“And I do hope that the enchantment is profitable. I’ve tried to make it enchanting and if that’s profitable then individuals could have an expertise of magnificence, which is what I would love.”
Kingdom of the Clock is now accessible at Phoenix Books and on the Fireplace Gallery. Cowper is planning a studying of his e book on the island someday within the close to future.
