Interview with Fantasy Author H. Jonas Rhynedahl

I'd like to welcome H. Jonas Rhynedahl, author of the excellent The Key to Magic series. Jonas, thanks for answering some questions about your novels and your writing.

First, when did you start writing? What did you first write?

Like many I suppose, I started writing fiction when I was young. I'd been reading F&SF -- Edgar Rice Burroughs, Andre (Alice Mary) Norton, Heinlein, Laumer -- since I was about seven years old (back then, I had to get one of my older brothers to snag books from the grown-up section, since helpful librarian ladies tended to want to steer me towards the juvenile section). I caught the writing bug at twelve, learned to type on an old Underwood, and started banging out unfinished novels and short stories. I've always written only F&SF and my first finished novel was Orphan, the first in my epic fantasy series, The Key to Magic.

I would consider ERB and Alice Mary Norton to be the greatest influence on my conception of fantasy, and I would consider their prose and stories as the epitome of "traditional fantasy."

Tell us about the fantasy world(s) you make up. What are they like?

Though I do not shun either of the two, I don't really strive for the bizarre or unusual in my fantasy settings, finding little worth in simply being different for the sake of being different  My fantasy worlds are often comfortably familiar, but not (hopefully!) too recognizable. I've studied and read a lot of history over the years and tend to rat hole some of the more off kilter facts and situations. These make excellent seeds for the creation of a world.

I like adventure when I read fantasy and attempt to inject as much of it as possible in my own writing.

The world of The Key to Magic is a combination of several historical eras with the addition of some literary and anthropological details.

The world of my humorous fantasy, Potatoes, Come Forth! (which may one day have a sequel) is a bit less traditional, with a system of magic existing in a world with steam power, firearms, and embodied natural forces.

How do you work out a magic system for your world? Do you prefer a lot of magic? Light magic? And why?

I believe a robust system of magic ("A sufficiently advanced system of magic is indistinguishable from science.") is the fundamental ingredient of any traditional fantasy universe, Tolkien-esque or otherwise, I usually spend a lot of time sorting out how magic works in my world and make copious notes in an attempt to remain consistent.

I like magic that has rules, limitations, and drawbacks, but I also expect my magic wielders to do fantastic and wonderful things. A hero or heroine must, after all, save the world, or, at least, his or her small part of it.

What is the hardest thing about making up a fantasy world? Why?

For me, creating a cohesive back story. I find that I have to know -- even if the specific facts never make it onto the page -- why things are the way they are and how they came to be. If I write something like, "The great fortress before Korae's horde had never before fallen in war, but he knew that it would today,"  I have to create the three hundred years of history that detail those previous failed sieges and some of the characters involved.

For The Key to Magic, I have forty pages of abbreviated historical and geographical notes and a growing timeline.

Tell us about your most recent main character. Would we want to share a meal with them? Why?

Mar, the main male character of TKtM, is altruistic, heroic, and determined.  He is also customarily disagreeable, frequently anti-social, and relationship impaired. He started out as your basic good guy and while I have been tempted to skew his personality with the insertion of tragic events, I think that would be simply disingenuous.   Mar isn't perfect, but he is a hero.

What about the villain of your most recent novel. How did you make them up? Would we be scared to meet them in a dark alley?

One luxury of epic fantasy is the freedom to have a plethora of bad guys.  In TKtM, there are a number of competing villains and I kill them off as the situation permits.  Most of my villains are adaptations or amalgams of historical figures.  Very few purely fictional antagonists can match the unmitigated evil of real people.

I think it unlikely that you would meet one of my villains in a dark alley.  They tend not to operate solo and it would be more usual to encounter them as they burned your village and slaughtered the people as they came out.

What is your next project?

I am currently working on the next novel in the TKtM series, Emperor, with  two SF novels, Tunnels and Time Traveler's Currency Exchange and Pawn, simmering.  I have a wisp of an idea for a humorous novel based in a fantasy world that I created in my short story "Virtue", but it hasn't reached the planning stage yet.

My books are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the iBookstore.

Jonas, thank you so much and best of luck with your novels.

Interview with Epic Fantasy Author Sara Jo Easton

I'd like to welcome Sara Jo Easton. Sara, would you tell us when you started writing? What did you first write?

I started writing at a young age; my mother has "books" I made up when I was five. I first got serious about writing in the fifth grade, when I had a very helpful and encouraging teacher. I've been working on my writing ever since.

My first novel involved an orphan bobcat and a pack of wolves fighting evil humans. I had fun writing it, but looking back I've gotten more joy out of laughing at my middle school antics. I'm rather glad that Kindle publishing wasn't easy when I thought that particular story was good.

Tell us about the fantasy world(s) you make up. What are they like?

The Sandleyr is a world in which humans are slaves to a race of dragon-like creatures called the Onizards. Ideally, the Sandleyr is ruled by four empaths called the Children of Light, but when the last Child of Light died, no one inherited her powers. Instead of an empath who has a strong incentive to keep his or her people happy,  the Onizards of the Day Kingdom have the Fire Queen, whose idea of fun is setting humans on fire.

The human Jena was just trying to stay out of trouble when she was brought to see Onizard eggs hatching. A freak accident left her as the only one who could save a drowning hatchling. Now that her mind is telepathically Bonded to the mind of that hatchling, she has to fake her own death to avoid the Fire Queen's wrath. There's also the awkward expectation that she'll be the one to free her race.

How do you work out a magic system for your world? Do you prefer a lot of magic? Light magic? And why?

The Onizards have plenty of magic in their world, but the magic has limits. The Fire Queen can breathe fire, but she can't do so as often as she'd like. The Children of Earth are probably the most powerful Onizards, as they can heal wounds, but Children of Earth can tire themselves out or even over heal.

I like having a lot of magic in a story, but having that magic limited to make it more special. Magic that comes too easily ceases to have the wonder that makes it magic. 

What is the hardest thing about making up a fantasy world? Why?

The hardest thing to do when making up a fantasy world is to tone down the information in your head when it's time to write the story. You may know everything there is to know about your fantasy culture, but if it isn't related to the story it isn't worth adding.

Tell us about your most recent main character. Would we want to share a meal with them? Why?

I don't think sharing a meal with Jena is a good idea unless she's the one issuing the invitation. Wherever Jena goes, a loyal group of Onizards follows. They would eat everything in your house and still be starving.

What about the villain of your most recent novel. How did you make them up? Would we be scared to meet them in a dark alley?

The Fire Queen popped into my head when someone stole my writing and threatened to set it all on fire. The idea of someone who would callously burn something knowing what it meant to another thoroughly frightened me.

I don't think the Fire Queen would fit in a dark alley, but if she was stuck there she'd already be angry. I would be terrified to meet the Fire Queen when she was angry, as  she'd waste no time in killing me.


What is your next project?

"The Speed of Wind", the next Onizard novel, comes out in March, so I'm busy editing and formatting it. After that, I'll be working on another Onizard story for an August/September release.

The Zarder is available on Amazon. I hope you'll check it out.

Interview with Epic Fantasy author Sean Van Damme

When did you start writing? What did you first write?

I started writing from a very young age, but knew that was what I wanted to do in 7^thgrade when I started working on a grand Sci-fi novel.  That was what I wrote for a long time before I moved to scripts and fantasy and such. Looking back now at those hundreds of pages of loose leaf paper the pure joy and “I’m not paying attention in class” still brings a smile to my face. 

Tell us about the fantasy world(s) you make up. What are they like?

The world that I created for The Long Night, is a fractured land of city-states and small independent townships. The people are far to fractured and petty to ever fall under a single king, and the warfare among the cities is so common that the world is to weak for a single group to come out on top.  When I was outlining the book the story was going to be a Mod for Dragon Age: Origins, so the world fit into a feel that would have worked right with the engine, and was also colored by my having just finished reading A Song of Ice and Fire, I came late to that game what can I say.

As a world builder I wanted to avoid some of the tropes that I saw to often like powerful kings, mage and thief guilds etc running the show. I also only put in a second race aside from Humans and those were Dwarfs. I decided to do something different with them as well turning them into refugees whose city had fallen into a massive underground air pocket.

The only thing that in any way unites the whole world is religion an the worship of their lord of light Hyack, whose followers have built a very strong institution and army that gallivanting around crusading, as they see heretics everywhere, if they had power armor they would be Warhammer 40K marines.

How do you work out a magic system for your world? Do you prefer a lot of magic? Light magic? And why?

I went with a middle ground for magic, it wasn’t something that hid in legend, and wasn’t so omi-present that people had lost any awe for it. As such I also didn’t want my caster to be to over powered so I put down limits to how it worked. I gave it an almost scientific explanation; the mages can see down to the components of our world and manipulate them, such as causing water molecules to slow down forming ice, or pushing the air into a pocket crushing a goblin’s head. At the same time this puts a strain on the caster meaning that most mages can only cast a few spells before they start to get light headed.

Being that it was scientific magic is something that can sort of be learned, a mildly powerful mage with much practice and reading can become more powerful, whereas most people who are born so strong that they can move walls as children tend to go insane, do to parts of their brain pushing out other parts, and are put down by the magic establishment because they are to dangerous.

What is the hardest thing about making up a fantasy world? Why?

Trying to not make it cookie cutter, but at the same time not making changes and decisions just to be different. Everything had to make sense, and had to support the story. I didn’t want to get bogged down creating thousands of years of history only to use a fraction of it on the page. I outlined a lot of history but only developed what I needed, and even then about half of that didn’t make it to the page.  After I finished when I was outlining the prequel trilogy (which has been pushed back in my ever expanding queue) I went into more depth about the world history and subcultures etc.

Tell us about your most recent main character. Would we want to share a meal with them? Why?

Well if we stick to fantasy my most resent main is Alen Tar, he would be pleasant enough to share a meal with as long as you didn’t bring up the past, he has a sore spot for his past failings and can never let those go. Otherwise he would be polite if a little cold.

What about the villain of your most recent novel. How did you make them up? Would we be scared to meet them in a dark alley?

In The Long Night the villain is far more the darkness and their own demons and pasts, and less the Prophet of darkness or Val’Mal both of which are more generic evil then I would have liked but such is life. 

What is your next project?

Right now I am banging out a few thrillers that were in my head keeping me from writing other things, then I am going to go and knock out that Sci-Fi story that I started in 7^thgrade.  Fantasy was something I fell into quite by accident and really surprisingly enjoyed writing.  I have some ideas for more books in my world, but they haven’t completely crystallized yet so I am letting them ferment in my brain before I tackle them full on.

The Long Night is available for Kindle and Nook for only $2.99.