Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.
This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.
As always, we will kick off this week’s episode with my author update. I’m digging into writing book three in the Huntress Clan Saga right now. Book 2 is off to the editors and is slated to come out next month, January 2020. This series is a lot of fun to write and I’m excited about where the overall story is taking me. I hope you will like it, too.
On today’s show I interview, author Katie Cherry who’s written several compelling series. She’s still relatively new to a lot of you but that doesn’t mean her books aren’t awesome. She’s been writing fiction since she was 13-years-old.
I’ve often been
criticized for the “slow” pace of my books, especially by the
“action junkies” who expect a fight, revelation, or surprise in
every chapter, or at the least every other chapter. Now, I’d be
the first to admit that even my books aren’t completely realistic,
because there’s more action in them than in corresponding events in
real life, but I try to give the feeling of real life and action by
providing more lead-up events, and a certain amount of routine, than
do many authors. Possibly that’s because I’ve experienced more
“action” in life than I anticipated and because it wasn’t much
like the way I’d visualized and imagined it, especially in how much
time and preparation for “action” takes.
I was a competitive
swimmer in college, and even more than fifty years ago, to be
competitive required at least 3-4 hours a day of practice six days a
week. Yet we generally only competed once every week at most. Today,
it’s more like twice that and a lot more work with weights and
machines. All that for a few minutes of “action.”
But the same is true
of any action in life. A one-hour military flight mission for one
single aircraft will require from 10 to over 200 hours of
maintenance, depending on the aircraft. So what does this have to do
with writing and battle scenes? Simply that no society, especially a
lower tech society, can support a lot of battles top of each other.
There’s no time for recovery, resupply, or even travel.
All right. Then why
shouldn’t a writer skip over all that dull but necessary stuff in a
few sentences or paragraphs and get on with the action?
In fact, a lot of
writers do. Even the “slowest” writers condense the events and
maintenance in between the exciting stuff. But there’s a balance.
If it’s all action, the reader loses the “reality” of what’s
occurring and a book becomes the unrealistic verbal equivalent of a
video game. If it’s totally true to life, most readers won’t
finish the book because they get overwhelmed by the details.
As an author, I give
more details than most fiction authors, but that’s because I feel
that those details are real to the characters and shape the way they
see the battle and the action. The “boring” training, or the
trade-offs between trying to make a living and also trying to prepare
to fight an invader are real to those people. They’re choices they
have to make, and they’re in many ways far more important than most
people think because they’re what determines how the battle and the
action turn out.
There’s an old
saying about war, to the effect that the competent officers
concentrate on tactics, the brilliant ones on logistics. Or, put
another way, WWII was won on logistics [while that’s an
over-simplification, at its base, it’s true]. And for reasons like
that and the fact that I don’t want my books to read like verbal
video/computer games, that’s why “logistics” and “routine”
are a vital part of what I write.
You just completed a trilogy in the saga of Recluce, which if I
recall is the first time you’ve used a main character in more than
2 books. What was it about Beltur’s arc that made you want to take
it further?
It wasn’t so much that I wanted
Beltur’s story arc to be three volumes as that the story I wanted
to tell simply didn’t fit into two volumes. I really would have
liked Outcasts of Order
and The Mage-Fire War
to have been one book, but there was no way Tor was going to publish
a 475,000 word novel in the Recluce Saga, and without much, if not
all, of what happens in Outcasts
of Order, too many
readers would find the resolution of The
Mage-Fire War unnecessarily
harsh – which it’s not, because the events in the previous book
make it clear that Beltur and Jessyla, by trying to avoid unnecessary
conflict, have been backed, or backed themselves, into a corner from
which there is no other truly workable solution besides the one they
take.
Order and Chaos
make up the framework of the magic system in the Saga of Recluce. You
have gone in to detail about the actual structure of the magic system
before, but can you discuss Order and Chaos as they relate to your
protagonists and antagonists, specifically why an Order Mage is not
always the “good guy” etc.?
In
the world of Recluce, as in our world, matter consists of structured
energy, the energy being chaos, and the binding force being order.
Most order and chaos are bound into matter, but there’s a tiny
percentage of free chaos and free order. Chaos – or “white” –
mages have an affinity for using and manipulating free chaos
directly, while order – or “black” – mages use order to block
or contain chaos, and sometimes use that order to manipulate chaos.
The use of order or chaos has nothing to do with morality, but
because chaos is chaotic and corrosive, it struggles against
structure, so that chaos mages usually end up using their skills in
more destructive fashions. Order, however, wants structure over
everything, and the danger for order mages is that the extreme among
them want to impose their view of order on everyone and everything,
and that they use their power to create rigid absolutes.
A great deal of
your series deals with various political structures. Some nations
such as Westwind are controlled entirely by women, with men in
subordinate roles. Obviously things have changed in the real world
since you developed these structures, but what did you have in mind
when you developed this divide between men and women?
In most of the world, gender and sex roles haven’t changed that
much since I wrote The Towers of the Sunset, in which the
Marshal of Westwind is a woman who is about to marry off her son to
the younger daughter of the Tyrant of Sarronnyn, also a woman. The
son, the protagonist of the book, is anything but happy about this,
particularly since his younger sister is the heir. At that time,
there were a great many fantasy books dealing with the subordinate
role of women, and I wanted to explore that from the other side,
thinking, perhaps naively, that it might provide some insight to male
readers, while allowing female readers to smile a bit when the
chastity belt, so to speak [only metaphorically], was cinched around
a male. In later books, I showed how the lands of Westwind and
Sarronnyn came to be, based on events and personalities that made
such results almost inevitable in the circumstances of that world’s
history, hinting, at least, that male political and social domination
is not necessarily predestined, as all too many men seem to feel.
Reflect, if you
will on The Saga of Recluce as a major work in Fantasy so many years
later. I know that you have mentioned that you expected The
Magic of Recluceto
be a standalone, but once you began writing sequels did you ever
expect there would still be such a large interest in the world and
that you would still be writing in it nearly 30 years later? What do
you think has kept your writing so enduring?
I have to say that, when I finished The Magic of Recluce and
turned in the book, I had no idea that it would be a long-running
series for several reasons. No one at Tor knew I was writing a
fantasy, and I had no idea what the reaction would be, or even if it
would be published, because I had no contract. My previous books had
done nicely, but not outstandingly, and were all science fiction,
although The Hammer of Darkness had touches of the fantastic.
As
for why the Saga has continued to be successful, I can only suggest
reasons, based on what I’ve done and on what readers have conveyed
to me over the years. First is the fact that the books convey a
sense of “reality” in a fantasy setting, because every character
has a real job and the events in the books arise out of a conflict
between the requirements of that job (and sometimes the failure of
the character to live up to those requirements). Second, given the
magic system, the economics and politics are workable and arise out
of the world, the magic system, the geography, and the societies.
Third, the societies are unique to the world and aren’t copies or
knock-offs of societies and cultures in our world. And fourth, I’m
neither a gloom-and-doom writer nor a Pollyanna. Most books end with
hope, with more than a little of the bittersweet, and a high price
having been paid for that resolution.
You were writing
extremely literary, sometimes abstract, genre fiction long before it
became a “thing”. What are your feelings about the current state
of Fantasy, particularly some of the more Grimdark offerings?
Right now, I personally think that Fantasy is in a state of flux,
with a great variety of work being published, while at the same time,
a number of newer writers are trying to find or define the next
“great new genre or subgenre.” As you suggested by the question,
there’s more and more darkness in the field, most likely a
reflection of current fears about the future of the world.
Personally, I’m not terribly fond of “Grimdark,” for several
reasons. We all know there are problems out there. Wallowing in the
dark isn’t either all that entertaining, unless you’re a
masochist, nor is it particularly useful, either in addressing the
problems or instilling hope.
At the same time, I also see too many critics and writers lavishing
great and often unjustified praise on stories and novels simply
because they address something “new.” Sexual and gender problems
have been around as long as there have been human beings. They’re
anything but new. Most cultures suppressed the unconventional. Now
that much of that literary suppression has been removed, at least in
western cultures, there’s great enthusiasm and cheering for
anything that exalts the “new,” primarily “new” (but not
really) sexual/gender issues and “new” technology. Right now,
the biggest and most important gender issue is an old one – the
continuing minimization and subjection [direct and indirect] of women
by men.
The associated problem is that “new” doesn’t automatically mean
“good,” nor are stories dealing with “old” issues bad. I
worry that too many of the Twitter and “on-line” boosters are
overemphasizing the new and unconventional, while excellent novels
and stories that aren’t dealing with “new” topics are being
overlooked and disregarded. Of course, in time, the current “new”
will become passé, and there will be a new “new,” which will be
equally hyped… and then discarded.
Since we last
talked you’ve completed another long running series, The Imager
Portfolio. How would you describe this series to new readers, and
while it is also long and jumps around between different time
periods, what do you think separates it most from Recluce (aside from
the different characters and magic system)?
The Imager Portfolio is really the story of the unification of a
continent and its struggles from the time of the introduction of
gunpowder and the weaponization of imaging magic through what amounts
to industrialization and social upheaval to an early modern society,
and from essentially warlord cultures to monarchies and then to a
commercial democracy moderated by magic — except that I told it
backwards, beginning with the transition to comparative modernity,
then going back to the wars of unification and then forward to the
time of early industrialization and the conflicts between the landed
gentry and the rising commercial class. While there’s a great deal
of military action in parts, especially in the early years, the
series deals primarily with how rulers and powerful magicians deal
with massive socio-political problems, whereas in Recluce, the focus
is much more on how individuals deal with the problems caused by
economic, political, and military strife.
This is a bit of
a selfish question but I’m sure many others are wondering as well.
In our last interview you addressed the new Marc Simonetti covers on
your first 3 books replacing the original Darrell K. Sweet covers.
(Along with the covers of the newest releases) What I’m wondering
is if there are any plans to re-release the entire Recluce series in
new paperbacks as so many of them are out of print?
All
I can say to this is that this is something Tor is looking at. I am
somewhat skeptical that the entire Recluce Saga will be re-covered,
given the drastic decline in the sales of mass market paperbacks.
You are returning
to sci-fi this summer with Quantum
Shadows. Can you talk a bit about this book?
Only a bit, because the summary doesn’t convey the richness of the
book, and the richness is too complex to summarize.
Quantum
Shadows is a far, far,
future science fantasy, with the subtitle of “Forty-Five Ways of
Looking at a Raven.” A shadow avatar of the Raven must discover
which one of the ten Hegemons [who each may be either a god or a
prophet of a god] it is who wants to unite all Heaven under a single
faith. Then Raven must defeat that deity before that god brings
about the final Fall of Humankind.
What’s next for
you after Quantum Shadows
in 2020 and beyond?
The next book after Quantum Shadows is Fairhaven Rising,
which is a sequel to The Mage-Fire War, except that it takes
place sixteen years later and features Taelya, who is a very young
white mage at the time of The Mage-Fire War. It’s scheduled
for publication in February 2021.
I’ve just turned in the initial manuscript of the first novel in
what is projected to be a new series in a new world. The tentative
title [because the title’s never final almost until the book is
published] is Isolate, and I won’t know for weeks, if not
months, exactly when it will be published, but it’s most likely to
come out in late 2021 or early 2022.
What’s been
taking up your time these days when you aren’t writing?
I’m pretty much never writing, but I will be taking a few days off
over Christmas because we have family visiting.
In all your years
as a professional writer, what would you say is the biggest lesson
you learned? And if you could offer some sage-like advice to writers
that are just starting out, what would it be?
There are no single “biggest” or “best” lessons. Nor is
every technique right for every writer. Everything in writing and
life is connected to everything else. What makes a novel or a story
is not the idea, but the way the writer handles it, including the
plot, the choice of viewpoint and tense, the characterization, the
pacing, and the right supporting details… and that’s just the
beginning.
It
takes time and effort, more of both than most writers want to invest,
not only to become successful, but to stay successful.
Recently, I think I’ve seen a resurgence or perhaps a continuation
of “dragon books.” I couch it that way because I’m not keeping
a tally on how many dragon books are being written and sold.
Certainly, dragons are popular, popular enough that lots of books
about them are sold and that DragonCon is one of the largest of F&SF
conventions
As a writer, I’ve
never had much interest in them, most likely because I find the giant
ones, in particular, rather unbelievable. From what I can determine,
Drogon from Game of Thrones, [if I have this right] has a body some
fifty feet long, roughly six times the length of a large adult male
tiger and four times higher. Such a tiger would weigh between six and
seven hundred pounds [the largest recorded was 850 pounds]. That
would put Drogon’s weight well over 14,000 pounds, and Drogan
certainly appears to be built as massively as a tiger.
But most dragons
supposedly fly. The golden eagle is one of the largest raptors, with
a wingspan of from six to eight feet and a corresponding weight of
from eight to fifteen pounds. So, assuming some correspondence
between weight and wingspan, a 14,000 pound dragon would need roughly
a wingspan of 25,000 feet [structurally, of course, that doesn’t
work]. By comparison, the wingspan of a B-52 is 185 feet. If a
dragon were built like a golden eagle, a 185 foot wingspan would only
lift a body weighing 375 pounds, but if magic is equivalent or
superior to jet fuel, the Navy A-4 [with a 28 foot wingspan] might be
an approximation to a 14,000 pound dragon.
Even in a very verdant environment, a tiger requires a minimum of 20-30 square miles, and in the Siberian locales it’s more like 250 square miles. How much land and how many villages would it take to support just one dragon? And for how long would the villagers put up with it before leaving or becoming troglodytes?
Obviously, dragons must be very magic…or at least too magic for me to want to write about them.
So you’ve
finally completed your first series. That’s a huge accomplishment.
How does it feel to have the Giants’ Spear published?
Honestly, it’s
a great feeling to have the series completed and to be proud of it.
It’s taken up so much time and effort over recent years that it
feels kind of weird that it’s over. Because The Giants’ Spear
is the climax and all the books form a whole story, I also feel
better offering it to readers, because now they can read to the end.
What did
you learn and take away from the experience of working on and
publishing the series?
Man, it would
take a whole book to answer that properly. It’s such a steep
learning curve—learning a whole new profession. And of course, it’s
not just the writing but the publishing side too. Looking ahead, I
would like to release a series together from now on, rather than
having such long gaps between releases. I have no regrets for this
series, because I was learning all the time and I had a day job for
most of it. But from a reader’s point of view I think it’s nice
to have a full series to read. I think it can also help with the
editing and other decision making, to have the full story in place.
Now that
it’s all out there for the binge readers, describe “The Weapon
Takers’ Saga” for new readers. Why should they jump in?
My goal with this
series was to write something that had the feel of the classic epic
fantasy series that I first fell in love with – Lord of the Rings,
Dragonlance, the Belgariad — but updated with modern sensibilities.
I like to think of it as a fun series, even though it has the
darkness inherent in epic fantasy. So there is detailed worldbuilding
but the story is fast-paced; there are a range of character points of
view, including strong female characters. There are strange new races
and twists along the way. Pulling all this together is a quest plot
focused on locating and taking the seven weapons of Madria that are
needed to defeat the dark forces. The novels in the series are named
after four of these weapons and the need to secure these relics
before it’s too late builds a sense of urgency into the story.
You also
just released a box set of the first 3 books and received a couple of
orange bestseller tags. Huge congrats. How do you feel about box sets
in general? Has it helped raise more awareness to the series?
Thank you. It’s
been awesome to see the books find readers from all over the world. I
think the box set definitely worked for this series. Toric’s
Dagger, the first book of the series, was released back in 2017 and
so I think the boxset has helped me to relaunch the series, reminding
existing readers of it and finding new ones. There is definitely an
avid reader audience out there who go for the box sets because they
offer value. It’s also been attractive to readers in Kindle
Unlimited. I would warn that it’s hard to speak in generalities
though. I certainly wouldn’t automatically go with a box set for
every series, you really have to think carefully about what will work
in each particular situation.
What’s
been taking up your time when you aren’t writing?
Outside of work I
have a family with two secondary school age children. I’m a pretty
obsessive follower of tennis, so this time of year is my most
productive because there’s about a month of no tennis before the
season starts again! I’m not a massive gamer but I find that’s a
good way for me to relax and switch off. Strategy games are my go-to
genre.
I remember
you had mentioned taking the bold step toward writing full time when
we last spoke. Has that started? If so how has the experience been?
I’ve been
gradually transitioning away from a career as a full-time teacher to
a full-time writer. It’s not an easy trick to pull off. In the last
12 months I’ve been doing tutoring which gave me more writing time
and since September I’ve stopped that, so yes, I guess that makes
me a full-time writer. Of course, a lot of that time has been spent
on publishing and marketing the boxset and book 4 of the series. But
I have started my next series and it’s great when you get a few
full days in a row to write and build up momentum.
I know you
are a huge music lover. Has there been any music that has influenced
your writing? And do you listen to music when you write?
Yep I love my
classic and indie rock. I think the closest music artists that have
come to influencing my writing is people like David Bowie and Marc
Bolan, who I think were creative geniuses and were themselves
influenced by sci-fi, comics and fantasy. I tend to put music artists
on a pedestal above other mortals because I know I couldn’t do what
they do. It used to be that listening to ANY music would be too
distracting while writing. My brain would just focus on the music.
More recently, that’s changed, and I’ve started listening to
music when I need a boost and I’ve found I’m able to keep my
focus on what I’m doing.
What do you
find to be the most effective means of promoting your work as a
self-published author?
I think you have
to be open to try a number of things and figure out what works best
in terms of connecting you with potential readers. Also, find what
suits you in terms of what comes naturally to you and what is the
best use of your time. I know different authors do different things,
so it’s not like you have to be good at everything.
Networking with
other authors is an important step and I’ve found the fantasy
community to be really friendly and supportive to new writers. There
are informal places on social media like Fantasy Focus. There are
more formal places like Bookfunnel and StoryOrigin where authors can
help to promote each other. There are paid promotion sites and you
can advertise on Amazon and Facebook. Be prepared to give potential
readers something free to read so that they can decide if they’ll
like your stuff and don’t sweat it if some don’t, someone else
will.
How
important is reader interaction to you?
Hmm. That’s
tough to answer. I don’t think anyone has a skin so tough that they
aren’t happy when someone says they liked reading their stuff. It’s
a lovely gesture when a reader does that and hugely appreciated. It
makes you feel good and motivates you. Any feedback, including
reviews, is very important. But being a slight introvert, I don’t
crave interaction. Because I’m the publisher, I can see when people
around the world are reading my books and I get a real kick out of
that, even if they never reach out.
So I’ve
had the extreme privilege of reading your current work in progress.
Can you talk a bit about it and how you came up with the idea for it?
OK there’s a
bit of a story here. It actually dates back to 2003 and my mother
invited members of my extended family to each write up a fantasy
character with the idea that the characters would meet up and create
a longer story. I still have the originals on my pc.
Anyway, when I
came to write mine, I found it hard to write something with just one
character in it. So I decided to have an ogre with three heads so
that they could talk to one another. The family project fizzled out
(what a surprise!) but Og-Grim-Dog the three-headed ogre had been
born. When it came to choosing my next project, I felt like there was
the potential to do something cool with that character and here I am,
writing book one.
What are
some of the literary and comedy influences that helped inspire the
new book?
Well oddly it’s
hard to put my finger on anything. I’ve always loved watching
comedy. Obviously, Terry Pratchett is a giant when it comes to humour
in the fantasy genre, and I enjoyed his books but I never aspired to
write the same kind of thing. I think if anything Book One is
inspired by playing D&D, Heroquest and the like and pokes a bit
of gentle fun at some of the classic fantasy tropes.
How many
books are planned for the new series, and when can we expect the
first one?
As I mentioned
I’d like to offer a full series on release, so 3-4 books initially.
I’d like them to be ready by late spring or early summer 2020.
Looking far
out in to the future what are some of the writing ideas you have that
you would love to someday put to page?
It’s a lot
easier to come up with ideas than write them! I have no shortage of
ideas, but history is one of my big passions and I’d love to do
something historical, whether out and out historical fiction or
something with a fantasy twist.
I’ve
asked this before but I’ll ask it again…now that you have
completed a series, what advice do you have for new and aspiring
writers?
I can’t remember my last answer so apologies if I’m repeating myself. I would encourage people to think long-term. Overnight success is rare. Don’t get hung up on one or two bits of feedback or negative reactions. Be confident about what you’re doing. If you don’t back your own project 100% then others are less likely to. Identify a popular book that you think your story is similar to. If you can’t there may be a problem. Be self-critical but don’t beat yourself up. Identify the areas where you need outside help and do proper research to make sure you’re getting the best you can. Estimate how much time and money it will take you and then multiply that by 5 to 10. Haha — always good to end on a positive note!
Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.
This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.
As always, we will kick off this week’s episode with my author update. I’m excited about the launch a week ago of Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga. This new book has been a long time coming and I’m excited about finally getting it out to see the light of day. Reviews are great and people are already clamoring for book 2.
The good news is I’m almost finished my part of book 2, titled Huntress Apprentice and will be ready to send it off to the editor in a week or so. Then I’m ready to start right in on book 3 in the series. If I can get my ducks in a row, I might even get the first draft done in this year.
On today’s show we interview, Jeff Kohanek. Jeff is returning to the show which is exciting. He was one of the first guests on the podcast and I was excited to have him back on the show.
Check out my chat with Jeff about his new books from the Fate of Wizardoms series, including Eye of Obscurance and Balance of Magic, coming up next.
So how have you been? Seems like you’ve had a big year in terms of new book releases
I’ve been doing well, thanks! It has been a big year. In 2019 I’ve completed two trilogies: Blades of the Fallen and Relentless. It’s a pretty great feeling.
Now Blades of The Fallen is a a prequel series to Nightblade if I’m correct. Can you talk a bit about that particular series and how it ended up being published by 47N?
Absolutely. You are right, the series is a prequel series to Nightblade (although both trilogies stand on their own). When I wrote the original Nightblade series, I was really fascinated by the idea of writing within a kingdom that had been broken by magic. Although I made references in the original Nightblade series, I never got the chance to dive deep into how the kingdom actually shattered. Blades of the Fallen is the answer to that question. In terms of its publication – when Nightblade ended up doing really well, 47N approached me and asked if I had any further stories in the world. They’ve been a really great team to work with.
That’s awesome. Nightblade was a phenomenal series. One of the things I love about your work is that there is always a great mix of action and emotion. What do you set out to achieve when you write a story? What do you hope readers will get out of it?
First off, thank you. That’s kind of you to say, and I’m glad you’ve enjoyed them. When I first start a story, it’s usually because I have an itch, or a question that’s been bugging me. Usually, when several of those itches/questions come together I find myself writing a novel. For Nightblade, I had several questions that came together. One is a very common fantasy trope: How does a young person handle the discovery of magical power. But what if that magical power was a power that had caused great harm in the past? And how does a person react when that power doesn’t help them achieve what they want? For readers, I mostly just want to evoke emotion. Personally, the stories that resonate the most with me are the ones that really make me feel something. It could be humor, or sorrow, or excitement, or anything. But I hope that when I sit down to write, I’m evoking something in the reader.
Well your Relentless series definitely brings the feels. What was the concept for the series? What led to your decision to write three standalone novels that still act as a series?
Thank you again! Relentless is an interesting case, because it changed over time. At first, it started as an issue of belief. I’m fascinated by people who hold any beliefs strongly, whether they be religious, political, or personal. I really wanted to explore how beliefs can both be a vehicle for good and for evil. But after I finished the first book, i became obsessed with another question: What happens to a society when the magic it depends on begins to change? In terms of writing three standalone novels, it really boiled down to my own personal frustration with some of the series trends in the market. I absolutely love series, but I had read a number of books where the first book in the series didn’t even attempt to complete any major plot arcs. So Relentless was initially conceived as one standalone novel. Then when I fell in love with the world and the changing story, I decided to simply make it a trilogy with each book telling a complete story with a slightly different cast of characters.
Have you gotten any time to do any reading lately? If so what can you recommend?
So much reading! Right now I’m halfway through the original ten books of the Malazan series, and those books are consistently making the case for being my favorite fantasy series of all time. Long, dark, complex, with first-rate worldbuilding, I’ve fallen in love with them. I’m pretty sure at least 3 out of 5 have made me bawl like a child, but they’ve also had some of the funniest bits I’ve ever read. They give me all the feels. I’m also a huge sci-fi fan, and I’m reading Cibola Burn (Expanse book #4), and just in awe at the writing proficiency of that duo. They are masters of small group dynamics and constant tension. They make reading a six hundred page book feel like reading a short story. And speaking of short stories, I’m also reading a collection edited by GRRM – Rogues. I’ve never read a collection quite like it, and I’ve really enjoyed every story in it thus far.
Awesome. I’ve enjoyed the Malazan I’ve read but that is quite a commitment. As for Sci-Fi, you also have a couple of Sci-Fi series out. How do you approach writing Sci-Fi as opposed to Fantasy? Do you attempt to bring a different style of writing to the table?
I tend to make my sci-fi writing more casual than my fantasy. A lot of it is due to setting, I suppose, but the characters in my sci-fi speak much differently than my fantasy characters. It’s not something I intend to do, but something that evolves out of the characters as I write the story.
How important is reader interaction to you? How do you enjoy communicating with your readers ?
I love interacting with readers! I’m still always surprised by this, but I love it when people reach out to tell me how they’ve liked the stories, or how they’ve been affected by the stories. I’ve even had a few chances to go out and grab beers with readers who are local to my area. I love that we live in an age where it’s so easy to reach authors and other artists we love. I will admit that I’m pretty old-school (at least these days). I’m not on social media more than a few minutes a day, but the way I love interacting is through email.
What’s been taking up most of your non writing time these days?
Raising a three year old.
Thanks to the income from writing I’m able to stay at home with my daughter. I’ve recently been introducing her to the joys of sledding down steep hills.
It’s awesome that you are able to get that time. How long have you been writing full time and did you enjoy the transition?
I’ve been writing full time since 2016, I think. And yes, I’ve definitely enjoyed the transition. There’s a whole new set of skills to learn (such as how to manage your time when you don’t have anyone telling you what to do), but I wouldn’t trade my time with my daughter for anything.
So here’s the question I always enjoy asking the most. What’s next? Are you ready to let everyone in on what you have planned for 2020?
Absolutely. My goal with 2020 is to have a really productive year. I’m about halfway through the first draft of a new book, which will be the first book in a new fantasy series. It’s a series I’ve been meaning to write for a few years now, and the time has finally come. I’m hoping (we’ll see how it goes) to have the first three books out in the series during the first half of 2020. It will feature some really fun martial arts action, a quest to stop an assassination, and possibly the appearance of a god. I’m also hoping to be writing some more short stories.
Sounds brilliant. And aside from all your writing you’ve also started an excellent podcast this year. Talk a bit about Stories Lives and why people should tune in
It’s probably natural for me as a writer, but I’m fascinated by the ways stories influence our lives. I think back to my own childhood, and how the stories of heroes and villains I read shaped my view of the world. I think stories are subtle and yet incredibly powerful shapers of our reality, and Storied Lives is an attempt to explore that concept more deeply. My goal is to speak with creatives of all different stripes to talk about how stories have impacted their lives and how they use stories to shape the world for others. If that sounds interesting, it’s available on all major podcast distributers.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed listening to it. Well sir, I want to thank you for taking time out to talk to me, and as a final question I’ll appeal to your expertise as a writer. What one piece of advice can you offer to new an aspiring authors looking to make writing their business?
I could probably go on for hours, but I feel like the keys are these: First, read and write a lot. Read widely, and write widely as time allows. The more you write, the better you’ll get. Second, be patient. Writing a book is a long process, and getting it right can take even longer. Seeing success can take even longer still. There are far easier ways to make money, so the only reason to make writing your business is because you love the process. And finally, write what you love. Kinda related to the previous point, but telling the stories you want to read means you already have an audience of one. And in today’s world, if there’s one, there’s probably quite a few.
Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.
This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.
As always, we will kick off this week’s episode with my author update. I’m excited about the launch of Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga. This new book has been a long time coming and I’m excited about finally getting it out to see the light of day. Stay tuned here for more updates on the final release date.
On today’s show we interview, Daryl J. Ball. Daryl writes fantasy books from his home in Ontario, Canada. His series, The Barrier Of Mibekel, represents a vast story and world with a fascinating character, seeking revenge against the father he thinks wronged him. We talk about that and more.
This is the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast Episode 7 with Ed White.
Good day and welcome to this episode of the Books and Authors Fantasy Podcast. I’m your host, podcaster and author of Fun Fantasy Reads, Jamie Davis. This podcast is exactly what the title says it is, a show focused on everything in fantasy books.
This show will cover everything to do with fantasy books. From Epic Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sword and Sorcery, and everything in between, expect to find the best and brightest authors from all the various corners of the fantasy book world. Plus we’ll add in a few other very special guests as well along the way.
As always, we will kick off this week’s episode with my author update. I’m excited about the pending launch of Huntress Initiate, the first book in the Huntress Clan Saga. This new book has been a long time coming and I’m excited about finally getting it out to see the light of day. Stay tuned here for more updates on the final release date.
On today’s show we interview, Ed White. Ed is an artist and writer, having worked in the comics industry for over a decade. Telling stories has always been part of his life. He started drawing cowboys and bike scramblers, spaceships in fierce battles, and soon transitioned to superheroes.
Then, to help with school, he started writing stories and chose the characters he was drawing as the subjects–the protagonists of those stories. This led to the fleshed-out continuum unfolding in the novels he writes today with studio partners at A First Salvo. World-building is fun–especially when it isn’t for school.
So I wanted to say congratulations on the completion of an absolutely brilliant trilogy with Ben Garston. How does it feel to have all three books released?
Thank you. It still feels unreal. I dreamt all my life of having a fantasy novel published, so to get three of them out there feels quite the accomplishment. Seeing them in a bookshop never gets old. Yeah, ‘completion’ is the word. I’m glad that people are still reading them. People rock.
What did you learn from writing the series? What were some of the highs and lows while working on it and putting the books out?
You learn so much. On a basic level, you’re always learning as a writer. Getting published internationally opens you to a whole lot of feedback so you get to see what resonates. You also get to grips with the industry. I guess the real low was the circumstances the series happened in as I was grieving for my Dad at the time, which occasionally made the process hard to deal with. And you have to get used to some pretty harsh criticism too. But gradually you realise that it’s all part of it. You can’t please everyone. Some of it you accept and you want to do better. The real highs were reaching so many people and seeing them feel about books the way I feel about books.
I think that’s probably the best thing. You mostly hope to inspire.
Your writing is very stylistic and often more in tune with classic literature than many authors writing contemporary Fantasy. Who would you say your biggest influences are as a writer and also as a Fantasy enthusiast?
I was reading a lot of classic stuff while writing the books. A lot of mythology and history went into them. Style became this key thing for me as I nailed stuff down and found my voice. I never set out to write something to fit in with a trend. Certainly I poured my influences into the stew, going right back to the Arthurian myths I read as a kid to stuff like Susan Cooper, Mary Stewart and Alan Garner. Then there’s a whole slew of modern authors like Clive Barker, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Alan Moore etc. who coloured my writing. I’d seen all of these authors modernising legends and I wanted to give my books a similar twist, which is where I hit on the idea of writing them as if Ian Fleming had approached the theme. ‘James Bond with dragons’ was my elevator pitch!
I always find it fascinating when authors use elements of themselves in their characters. How much of you is present in Ben Garston, and if not Ben in particular the other characters in the series?
That’s an interesting question. I honestly don’t think I’m anything like Ben. He’s macho and often inept, bless him. I’ve said it before but Ben is a kind of ‘wish-fulfilment’ for me. I see some of my flamboyance in Von Hart. Du Sang was a funnel for my sarcasm, as was Caliburn. I had so much fun with those characters. Overall, the loneliness and exclusion the Remnants feel was imagined easily enough. They’re different and they live on the fringes, generally distrusted and feared. I think that’s something any minority of a certain age could identify with. It was a conscious subtext throughout the series. As was Ben’s apparent conventionality.
Much of the series involves multiple locations. Did you travel for research or did your travels simply influence the work?
A bit of both. I travelled a lot growing up and I like to get around. I seem to feel most alive when experiencing new things, it’s just how I am. As a child, I learnt to see home as wherever I happened to be and that’s never gone away. But the most intentional jaunt that went into the books was when I travelled across China for a couple of months. I found the country impossible to write about without visiting and I’m glad I went. Things like that you want to get right. Other places you see or know about and think, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to drop a couple of dragons in there? See what happens.’
Some of the most fascinating and unique elements of your series are the stories within a story. Where did you come up with the idea to incorporate these segments?
There were a lot more that came out, believe me. I still have about 50,000 words of Chinese myths and history featuring Jia Jing that never made the cut in Raising Fire. Myths themselves are tangential in nature and it’s easy to get lost in ever spiralling stories, which is why I was so grateful to work with world-class editors. They kept me on track. But I really liked that aspect of Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman series and in my research I came across in myths and legends so many times, so it seemed the right approach to take. Stories within stories.
Describe Ben Garston for potential readers of the series? Who is he? Why should readers want to follow his adventure?
Red Ben Garston – Benjurigan in wyrm tongue – is an eight hundred year old dragon living in human form. He’s lonely and he drinks too much, belonging to a breed of creatures known as the Remnants, the surviving creatures of myth and legend who endure in secret in the modern world. When an age-old rivalry surfaces, the peace between the Remnant and the human world is shattered, threatening a magical war. The Ben Garston Novels draw on the rich tapestry of Fantasy and places it firmly in the modern world, reflecting on where we are as humans while providing a series of thrilling adventures.
How’s life treating you outside of writing? What have you been up to since the release of Burning Ashes?
I’m good. Three years ago I took the opportunity to retrain as an English teacher and I’ve spent much of my time working in Spain, first in Barcelona and now in the Canary Islands. I’m planning to see more of the world. I love teaching and it’s a career that works well with writing, which after a long break I’ve come back to. For a while, I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go next artistically and I guess I was waiting for that next big idea to hit me. Thankfully, it did so now I have my head stuck in that.
Can you recommend a few great books you’ve read over the last year to our members?
Sure. There are a lot of great books out there. I tend to read a lot of non-fiction and in other genres these days, and I don’t get the time I’d like, but in Fantasy my stand out books have to be Under the Pendulum Sun by Jeanette Ng, The Ninth Flame by Jen Williams, Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik and I’m currently reading The Bone Ships by RJ Barker. All of these are excellent reads. Fantasy is looking healthy right now.
You’ve been a major champion for inclusion in literature over the last few years and rightfully so. Weigh in on the status of Fantasy Literature now by means of inclusion. What are you happy with? What could still be improved?
Ah, that question. Well, I’m fairly positive about it. Inclusion can still be a battle, but we’ve come a long way. I’m happy that diversity in books seems more and more the norm. Audiences are opening up. People are happy to find stories that reflect their experience. Others are accepting us. Still, it’s a hard cycle to break. When you have a mainstream traditionally accustomed to a certain flavour, then it obviously effects sales and sales dictate what publishers are willing to buy. That takes time to change, I think, for own voices to find ground, so we have to encourage as much support as possible. There’s still resistance out there with cries of forced diversity and what not. But I like to think we’re getting somewhere. I guess I’d like to see folks continue to push the envelope. I’m dead set on doing that, come what may.
What one piece of advice could you offer to new and aspiring writers?
That would be the same advice I always give and which remains the best I’ve received. Enjoy what you write. It shows on the page.
The big question, (you knew this was coming) is what’s next? Can you let us in on what you’re currently working on?
Ha ha I was ready for you! Well, you know how cagey I am about discussing work in progress. But I guess I can say that one of the things that was coming to me as I was writing Burning Ashes was a sense that I was ready to write something set in a secondary world. When you’re writing in the contemporary field, you have all these resources to draw from, like modern settings and mythology. When you write secondary world fantasy you have to come up with all that yourself, right down to the nitty gritty. First thing you learn is a newfound respect for authors who do so!
So I found myself building up to putting my own spin on the giants that got me started, Tolkien, Moorcock, Le Guin etc. I’m deconstructing the epic in a way. Ultimately, I see the new book as a love story. Then again it’s pretty dark. I intend to write one fat book and split it in two. A duology. And of course there’s all the fun stuff in there like magic and gods and monsters and a big ole quest. It’s evolving all the time. I think – if I can pull it off – that it’ll be interesting, at least.
And now I’ve said too much.
Do you feel pressure to appeal to fans of Ben Garston, or do you find the concept of going in an entirely new direction freeing?
Only pressure in the sense that I hope readers of the Ben Garston Novels will join me on this new ride when the time comes. It’s still me telling the story. I like to explore new things and push myself. I’m a great believer in endings. Endings lend resonance. New beginnings are exciting too. So I’d say that I veer towards taking a new direction every time. It keeps things interesting.
The Trouble With “Action”, by L.E. Modesitt Jr.
The Trouble With “Action”
I’ve often been criticized for the “slow” pace of my books, especially by the “action junkies” who expect a fight, revelation, or surprise in every chapter, or at the least every other chapter. Now, I’d be the first to admit that even my books aren’t completely realistic, because there’s more action in them than in corresponding events in real life, but I try to give the feeling of real life and action by providing more lead-up events, and a certain amount of routine, than do many authors. Possibly that’s because I’ve experienced more “action” in life than I anticipated and because it wasn’t much like the way I’d visualized and imagined it, especially in how much time and preparation for “action” takes.
I was a competitive swimmer in college, and even more than fifty years ago, to be competitive required at least 3-4 hours a day of practice six days a week. Yet we generally only competed once every week at most. Today, it’s more like twice that and a lot more work with weights and machines. All that for a few minutes of “action.”
But the same is true of any action in life. A one-hour military flight mission for one single aircraft will require from 10 to over 200 hours of maintenance, depending on the aircraft. So what does this have to do with writing and battle scenes? Simply that no society, especially a lower tech society, can support a lot of battles top of each other. There’s no time for recovery, resupply, or even travel.
All right. Then why shouldn’t a writer skip over all that dull but necessary stuff in a few sentences or paragraphs and get on with the action?
In fact, a lot of writers do. Even the “slowest” writers condense the events and maintenance in between the exciting stuff. But there’s a balance. If it’s all action, the reader loses the “reality” of what’s occurring and a book becomes the unrealistic verbal equivalent of a video game. If it’s totally true to life, most readers won’t finish the book because they get overwhelmed by the details.
As an author, I give more details than most fiction authors, but that’s because I feel that those details are real to the characters and shape the way they see the battle and the action. The “boring” training, or the trade-offs between trying to make a living and also trying to prepare to fight an invader are real to those people. They’re choices they have to make, and they’re in many ways far more important than most people think because they’re what determines how the battle and the action turn out.
There’s an old saying about war, to the effect that the competent officers concentrate on tactics, the brilliant ones on logistics. Or, put another way, WWII was won on logistics [while that’s an over-simplification, at its base, it’s true]. And for reasons like that and the fact that I don’t want my books to read like verbal video/computer games, that’s why “logistics” and “routine” are a vital part of what I write.