John and Cassandra: Fair Is Fair

Author John Passfield contemplates writing a novel about the mythological figure Cassandra. Suddenly, he finds himself in the presence of her tormentor, Apollo, the god who -- seemingly as a whim -- has brought a catastrophic curse down on the head of an innocent human. John sees Cassandra as a mythical creature whose helpless situation epitomizes all that is wrong on the planet Earth. What a chance to confront a representative of the gods, ask him to explain such actions, and demand an immediate end to all the agony in the world!

Special Bonus

This edition of Fair Is Fair includes a special bonus -- a 56-stanza poem by "John the Character," in which John reflects on his encounters with Apollo and Cassandra in verses at once humorous, whimsical, and sometimes angry.

John Passfield was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, Canada, and continues to reside in Southern Ontario, near Cayuga, with his family. He is interested in exploring the development of the novel as an art-form in a search for a form for the poetic novel of our time. He has published almost thirty novels, and his planning notebooks and journals are available for free access on his website, johnpassfield.ca. His novel John Passfield: Saturday Morning was shortlisted for the ReLit award in 2022. He has posted more than one hundred readings on YouTube, each of which presents a passage from one of his novels and a comment on an aspect of the craft of novel-writing.