Interview with Fantasy Author Brendan Carroll

Today I'm pleased to have an interview with Brendan Carroll whose novel The Red Cross of Gold is part of the "Tax Day Free Fantasy" promotion on April 17!  Welcome, Brendan.

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

It seemes I have been writing forever, but I probably took up writing in the sixth grade when I was around eleven or twelve.  My friends and I thought it would be a goodidea to have a class newspaper, so we wrote up articles for a ‘newspaper’, printed them out in tiny letters and then cut them out with scissors.  We pasted them on another piece of paper as akind of messy jigsaw.  Of course, we didn’t get far because we had no way of printing more than the original copy, so we just passed it around.  I rememberit was a lot of work putting it together, but I did learn how to print very small, which helped me when I got into high school.  I made the best cheat sheets money could buy.  This sort of enterprise brought in a little spending money and by the time I printed out the sheets for my‘customers’, I never had to cheat on a single test.  In fact, I made very high scores.  Kids! What will they do next?

Aside from my foray into petty crime, I wrote my first novel whenI was about 32 years old and laid up from work with a medical condition. Iwrote a fan fiction Sci-Fi novel based on the original Star Trek television series.  It was really very good (or soI’m told) at the time and for a first effort, but of course, the market for Star Trek novels was closed to outsiders. I had no idea how the publishing industry worked back then or else I may never have put pen to paper again. Fortunately, ignorance is truly bliss and I kept writing in spite of the almost zero probability of ever being published.  I am also told that this is the mark of a true writer.  One who cannot help but write.

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

I have made up a few fantasy worlds in mynovels over the years.  It is easier to borrow from mythology, I believe than try to make up an entire world with new names for old ideas, places and characters. If I want to write about dragons, for example, there are plenty of historical references to dragons and what they might look like or how they might behave.  I don’t really have to make up a new world for dragons when the world we live in is already a fantastical place full of marvels and miracles. So I tend to call an oak an oak and a faery a faery.  No need to put the reader through a lot of trouble trying to learn impossible to pronounce names for ‘common’fictions.  I do like using names that mean something to the reader without the reader having to add new words to his/hervocabulary.  Most of the proper names formy characters (both human and otherwise) are taken from history, mythology,astrology and actual reference books about the meanings and origins of names
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As for my fantasy worlds, I use theunderworld from faery lore and expand upon known or accepted ideas with my ownversions as seen from my own perspective. I think a lot of people can relate to the underworld as a dark andforeboding place, but in my estimation, that would be the Abyss, or Hell, orHades, depending on your personal bent. The underworld I write about is equivalent to what the Pagans might call‘Summerland’ or the realm of the Fae. The alchemists might call it the Ether.

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

In the early books of the Assassin Chronicles series, I use a lot of imagery and description of Pagancircle-working.  Simple magick using crystals, candles, swords and stones. That sort of thing.  I also use the Solomonic Magick found in theKeys of Solomon, hence Solomon’s Wisdom. King Solomon apparently knew a great deal of magick.  Hey, it’s in the Bible… or used to be.  I also use stuff from the Necronomicon of HP Lovecraft fame and Eastern Magick, Djinnis, Genies (whatever you want to callthem).  Most of the main characters workwith either simple Pagan rituals or Angelic Magick.  Sometimes I change it up a bit so thatreaders don’t actual get themselves into trouble using magickal incantationswithout the proper training.  I don’tconsider myself a magickal expert, but tis better to err on the side of caution I always say.

I try to keep the magick believable, if you can believe that, pardon any puns intended or unintended. I like to think that my readers might actually raise an eyebrow and maybe look in the closet o runder the bed from time to time.  I like to make people think or question what they believe or see or hear.

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

I have never found anything hard aboutmaking up fantasies because it is much harder to stick to the facts and figuresof the mainstream realm of thought as to what is normal and what is not, what is real and what is unreal.  Who can saythat my fantasy is not the Real World and everything else is simply imaginationor fiction?  This question has been askedby much greater minds than mine.

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

Oh, yes, my most recent main character outside of Mark Ramsay, the Right Honorable Chevalier du Morte of the Assassin Chronicles, is a sort of partnership of characters in the form of Clint Evansand Marshall Dillon.  The former is based on a friend of mine from my former occupation and the latter is a fictional fellow, loosely based on a close personal friend. Clint is a semi-successful writer who is just trying to live a simple,but comfortable life in a small town. Marshall Dillon (named after his father’s favorite TV personality) is a misplaced Lakota-Sioux, and friend of Clint Evans, who happens to be the local constable.  They are both rather colorful characters with good senses of humor and personable constitutions.  I think anyone might enjoy sharing a meal with either or both of them.

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

In the same novel (The Hounds of Oblivion), the villain or villains are inhuman and inhumane for the most part.  You would definitely not want to meet up withone of them anywhere, dark or light.  AsI said before, I didn’t really simply make them up from scratch, but ratherborrowed them from mythology.  Of course,I had to make up their personalities and their purpose and their methods.  The book is actually leaning more towardhorror than fiction, so I had to think of some horrible things for them todo.  In order to do that, I drew on booksI’ve read, movies I’ve seen and my own vivid imagination.

What is your next project?

My next projects or my current works in progress are thesecond book in the Apprentice Diaries:.Le Nome de Plume and the 26thbook in the Assassin Chronicles series called All That is Fallen.

Thanks, Brendan!

Brendan Carroll's The Hounds of Oblivion, The Red Cross of Gold I and The Knights of Christ are available on Amazon and also on Smashwords.

Be sure and watch for The Red Cross of Gold I and a dozen other great fantasy freebies on April 17 in the coming Tax Day Free Fantasy!

Interview with Fantasy Author J. Dean

I'd like to welcome author J. Dean, author of The Summoning of Clade Josso, to the blog. First, would you tell us when you started writing? What did you first write?

Fifth grade.  The movie RED DAWN had come out, and one of my friends had written what was essentially a two page "clone" story that took place in our school.  I read it and decided then and there that I wanted to do the same thing, so I too wrote a clone story (Yeah... not much in the imagination department yet).  From there, it stuck with me, even after my friends fell away from it.  I couldn't keep from writing; far too fun.  It still is.

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

Imagine if you will seven different universes, each universe containing a world in which exists a different race of beings.  Now, imagine each of these worlds having a gateway that leads to a "para-world,"  a sort of "world between the universes" that acts as an in-between place, like a hallway connecting different rooms.  This para-world (called the Meridian) is not a round world.  It is a flat plane of existence, filled with diverse climates and terrains, and at its center lies an entrance into yet another place called the Vein.  At one point beings could come and go as they pleased through these gateways, crossing from one world to another via the Meridian, living in an existence that could rightly be called paradise.

But something terrible happened.  A war between two factions, the Sect of the Awakened and the Heretics (or the Blindmen), caused the slaughter of many beings, and sealed off the Meridian, severing connections between the Seven Worlds.  As a result, a terrible evil has spread across the Meridian and seeped into each of the different universes, tainting and corrupting the Seven Races.  The Meridian itself was changed.  Once a harbor of prosperity and commerce, it transformed into a harsh, deadly environment, filled with deadly creatures and empty ruins that once represented great civilizations.  And until what is written in the scrolls comes to pass--that one being from each of the Seven Worlds enters the Meridian and comes to the Vein in order to awake The All, Balys-Crahly--The Meridian and its adjoining worlds will remain in this darkness.

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

I actually don't prefer it.  The "magic"--and I wouldn't even really call it magic--has limits on it, in part because it's more or less manipulation by things (maybe beings?) we don't see, rather than being a broad, available "force" like the Force in Star Wars, used by wielders as they please.  It would be more accurate to call it "power" which has an external conscious source, but the power has parameters on it, rules that the "users" cannot violate.   That being said, there is an incorporation of technology into the stories as well.

I have a couple of reasons for taking a more unorthodox view of magic and power in my stories.  For starters, I didn't want to be a Tolkien/R.A. Salvatore clone.  The world of hobbits, elves, orcs, wizards, and the like has been done to death, and with this series I wanted completely orginal characters, creatures, monsters, places, etc.  Part of that originality came in the form of deciding whether or not to use magic, and instead of rehashing it or doing away with it, I altered it.  Some of it I have to keep tight-lipped on, because then it would involve telling you TOO much about the plot, and that means I'd have to tie you up and lock you in the broom closet.  And we don't want to do that :D.  But I prefer to call it "power" rather than "magic," because there is a subtle difference.

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

For me the hardest thing was doing something original.  Like I said earlier, the Tolkien path of fantasy has already been trodden by so many authors and epics, and as much as I admire J.R.R. Tolkien, I didn't want to do that.  It's easy to do what's already been done; the real challenge is to come up with something different, and that's what the Vein epic is all about.  It's an original story, with original characters, in an original setting, with original dangers and wonders.  Doing that requires real thought and development, simply because you're scrapping established templates and making up your own.  It's a challenge, but in the end it's also rewarding to see people read what's been written and say "Wow! That's really different!" instead of  "Oh, nice story."

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

Probably not.  The first two characters in the first two novels (Clade Josso and Old Velt) were quite pleasant fellows, very kind, noble, and brave.  But Kran, well... he's a different story.  You see, not all of the characters coming into the Meridian are doing so with noble intentions, and Kran is here for himself, nobody else.  The Sect members accompanying him are tolerating him because he's important to the fulfillment of the prophecy in the scrolls, but Kran has no qualms about taking the blaster grafted into his arm and killing somebody who rubs him the wrong way.  That being said, he's cooperating with the Sect members while taking his trek to the Vein, but only because it's to his benefit.  He is haughty, selfish, looks down on any other being-and he is sure to let them know it without apology.

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?

Oh I think so.  There are a few creatures that would more than qualify as monsters in the Vein, but I'm most proud of the Cloud Specter.  A massive giant that lurks in a rolling black thunderhead, it lowers itself in an inverse position from the cloud (so that, from our perspective on the ground, the Specter is upside down, with its feet in the cloud and its head just above us).  It's huge, a behemoth taller than the tallest skyscraper, and it loves to kill anything on the ground with one swipe of its hand--which it can do without any problems.

What is your next project?

Aside from continuing to work on the Vein series (and the third book should be done by summer, God willing!), I'm putting together a short story collection of mostly horror entitled Alternate Endings, featuring highlights from previously released work and also including some new stories I've written, two of which are probably novella length.  I hope to have that one ready for summer as well.  After all, what's a little summer reading without sending the occasional chill up the spine, right?

Thanks for dropping by to answer my questions.

Readers can buy The Summoning of Clade Josso on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or Smashwords.

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.