Category Archives: Books

by | March 21, 2013 · 9:18 am

What I’ve Learned the Hard Way About Book Marketing

by Gail Z. Martin

My first book, The Summoner, was also the launch title for a brand new fiction imprint, Solaris Books, a UK-based publisher that was a subsidiary of Warhammer giant Games Workshop.  No one had heard of Solaris Books, or me, but we launched into the wild blue together.

Since I live in the States and the Solaris folks were in England, I knew we were going to face some marketing challenges.  The books were going to have worldwide distribution, and I wanted us to also have worldwide visibility.  Did I mention that the official marketing budget was pretty well non-existent?

That’s when I discovered Important Thing #1 about book marketing:  Even when you’ve got a traditional publisher, most of the marketing mojo comes from the author.

Fortunately, my MBA and more than 20 years of business experience was in marketing, and I vowed to put everything I knew behind the book, because it was my lifelong dream.  That meant sinking my advance money into marketing expenses.  It paid for a web site, bookmarks, travel costs to genre conventions, posters and banners, and postage for review copies.  I compiled lists of reviewers and bloggers, spent countless hours emailing and mailing, and gradually pulled it all together.

Back in 2007, social media was still pretty new, but it was free and it was global, so that was good enough for me.  I got out onto MySpace (and then Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and all the rest as they emerged) and found that the real key to letting the world know about a new book was making relationships one reader at a time.  Social media was perfect for building reader relationships.

It worked.  We sold 50,000 copies of The Summoner in short order and went back to reprint.  The Blood King came out, and did equally well.  I ventured into podcasting, blogging, and more social media.  Books kept selling.

And a curious thing happened.  Other authors—even publishers—started to ask what I was doing, because it was working.  And I was invited to write a new non-fiction series about social media, beginning with 30 Days to Social Media Success, and a new series on book marketing, beginning with The Thrifty Author’s Guide to Launching Your Book Without Losing Your Mind.

The marketing plan I create for my books and the time and energy I spend promoting them was a factor in my being picked up by Orbit Books for the most recent four books.  That marketing plan continues to play a big role in my new Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, with the launch of Ice Forged in January 2013.  I work very closely with the folks at Orbit to make sure we’re all working hand-in-glove to get the word out.  To date, it’s helped me sell about 400,000 books worldwide, and I’m hoping it will help me sell even more in the future.

So what did I learn the hard way? (Besides everything?)  Here are my top take-aways:

1.  A good book is no good if no one ever hears about it.  The hard work is just beginning once the book is written.

2.  Today’s writers can’t afford to be hermits if they want to be successful (i.e. sell enough books to be invited back to write new ones).  You’ve got to get out and make friends with as many readers as you can.

3.  Social media enables you to create personal connections with readers all over the world.  But you have to be interesting, personal and consistent.

4.  Writers don’t have the luxury of being tech phobic about online marketing any more than they can be tech phobic about using a computer to write their books.  If you’re smart enough to write a book, you can figure out Facebook.

5.  Relax and enjoy the marketing—it’s really about making yourself available to meet people who love books.  Readers love to learn about a good book.  Marketing feels more authentic—and is a lot more fun and less work—when you approach it as one reader sharing a book suggestion with other readers.

If you enjoy writing—and I’m assuming you do, if you want to write books—then take the plunge and realize that marketing your book is just another form of writing.  And if you love your book (and I hope you do, since you’ve just spent a year or so birthing it), then talking about something you love should come easily and naturally.

There are readers in this world who need your book!  Get out there and let them know the book they’ve been waiting for is now available!

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Gail is also the author of six marketing books: 30 Days to Social Media Success, 30 Days to Online PR and Marketing Success, and 30 Days to Virtual Productivity Success (the 30 Days Results Guide series) along with Launching Your Book Without Losing Your Mind, Selling and Promoting Your Book Online and Social Media and Virtual Apps for Authors (The Thrifty Author’s Guide series).  You can find Gail’s books in bookstores and online worldwide.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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by | March 14, 2013 · 9:17 am

The Day After the End of the World

by Gail Z. Martin

What happens on the day after the world ends?

As in most apocalyptic scenarios, the “end of the world” doesn’t necessarily mean the planet has been blown into smithereens.  More likely, something has radically altered the climate, destroyed the power and communication grids, and sent governments careening into anarchy.  Whatever the cataclysm, it’s likely that large numbers of people are dead, medicine and medical facilities are scarce or non-existent, and social roles have completely broken down.  Transportation is dangerous or not possible.  Survivors are on their own to figure out how to get by.

In my new novel, Ice Forged, my characters face a post-apocalyptic medieval world where war has not only devastated the physical landscape and destroyed the social structure, it has made magic unusable.  That’s bad news for a culture that depended on magic in much the same way our culture relies on technology.

I’m fascinated by the people left alive to clean up the mess.  How do they pick up the pieces and go on? What decisions do they make regarding how to protect themselves, how to find food and shelter, and how to band together for support?  What elements of the culture do they try to preserve, and which do they allow to die?  What becomes of a culture’s art, religion and collected knowledge?

As I’ve worked through these questions in Ice Forged (and the manuscript for its sequel), it’s been an interesting journey to strip civilization down to its most basic essentials and then put myself in the boots of the survivors to determine what gets rebuilt—and what is allowed to remain rubbish.

When you’re free to re-make yourself once the strictures of class, family history and social convention are removed, who would you choose to be?  And if the only thing that matters if your ability to survive and protect your friends, would your past mistakes (or criminal record) still haunt you?

These questions are especially significant for my Ice Forged main characters, who have been exiled to a prison colony in the far north.  When Blaine McFadden, exiled for murder, comes to realize that he might be the only one who can put magic right again, he faces a series of decisions that go to the core of his being.  I’ve enjoyed putting him to that test, and finding out what drives my characters, what matters to them when they’ve lost everything, what keeps them moving forward.

You learn a lot about someone when you go through the apocalypse together.  And you learn even more when you have to decide what kind of civilization you’ll rebuild.  I hope you’ll join me for the adventure!

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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by | March 7, 2013 · 9:16 am

Women and the Apocalypse

by Gail Z. Martin

In my new novel Ice Forged, a medieval post-apocalyptic story, I find that women of every circumstance play a very important role in what happens after the world “ends.”

Blaine McFadden, my main character, sacrifices his title, lands and fortune to protect his sister and aunt from Blaine’s abusive father.  He’s sent to a prison colony in the arctic, There, he meets women from every class and circumstance whose ill fortune caused them to be exiled.  One of those fellow prisoners, Kestel Falke, is a courtesan, spy and assassin who becomes part of Blaine’s inner circle.  Among the prisoners who have survived long enough to become colonists, the women are shopkeepers and merchants, trades people and seers, farmers and trollops.  They play an important role in the economy of the self-sufficient colony, and emerge among the leaders when a devastating war cuts the colony off from the supplies and oversight provided by the kingdom.

Regardless of their previous social class or the circumstances that caused their imprisonment, the older women colonists emerge as the “wise women”, an important force in the social cohesion of the colony.  Far from the land of their birth, torn from their families and loved ones, these “wise women” preside over the births, marriages and deaths, and keep the customs and culture of their homeland alive through the celebration of religious and seasonal holidays.  The magics of vision, foresight and prophecy seem to fall more often on women than men, giving women with these gifts status and standing among their fellow colonists.

When war destroys the kingdom that exiled Blaine and his fellow colonists, the after-effects of war fall especially heavy on the women who survive the devastation.  With a generation of men lost to the battlefront, and many of the surviving men either too old, too young or too injured from the war, it falls to the women to piece together a subsistence living from the wreckage, harvest and plant the crops, gather the scattered livestock, and patch up their damaged dwellings.  Since the Cataclysm also destroyed the kingdoms’ trading partners, the survivors are on their own for the necessities of life.  And since magic was one of the casualties of war, those who survived the conflict must shoulder the burden of rebuilding without magical help.

Blaine’s Aunt Judith, his sister Mari and his former fiancé, Carensa, each find a different path to survive in the harsh new reality.  Without the strictures and conventions of class and in the midst of a society torn asunder, they have the opportunity to make decisions for themselves and step into leadership roles in ways that would not have been possible under old norms.

I found it very interesting to think about the tension that the power vacuum creates after the apocalypse. Some of the women survivors will seize the moment to assume roles for which they are qualified but which social pressures would have denied them before the breakdown of society.  Others will attempt to regain a sense of control and normalcy by attempting to replace familiar cultural, social and family roles and take consolation in the familiar.

I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know the women of the apocalypse in Ice Forged and as I work on the sequel.  And I’m looking forward to seeing more of them as future stories come together.  I hope you’ll join me for the adventure.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

 

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by | February 28, 2013 · 9:14 am

Fantasy Faction interview – questions for Gail Z. Martin

by Gail Z. Martin
Many people will know you as the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (beginning with THE SUMMONER) or the more recent Fallen Kings Cycle set in the same world. The new Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, beginning with ICE FORGED, is set in a wholly new world. What lies in store for readers?

ICE FORGED’s world is very different from the world of the Winter Kingdoms from my previous books.  Magic works differently, there’s a completely different set of gods and goddesses, and the culture of the kingdom is very different.  I’ve had some fun turning a few things upside-down from how they worked in my other books.  In my previous books, they kept magic from failing.  In ICE FORGED, magic does fail—and the results are catastrophic. My main character in the other series has a very powerful magical ability.  Blaine McFadden has almost none.  In my Chronicles series, my main character was an untested young man.  In ICE FORGED, Blaine has seen the rough side of life before the story begins.  All those changes were a lot of fun for me—and I hope they present a very different adventure for readers.

ICE FORGED interestingly seems to revolve around the concept of an apocalypse in a medieval-like setting. What was it that appealed to you about this idea?

I’m not really very interested in modern-day apocalyptic stories, but I liked the idea of having the world fall apart in a medieval setting—perhaps because in real life, things like the Black Plague really would have seemed like the end of the world for the people who survived.  When the magic fails, their society is so dependent on it that it’s like us losing the power grid across an entire continent. I’m having a lot of fun wrecking havoc!

The main character in ICE FORGED Blaine McFadden is a rather troubled and complex character – a man condemned for murder, exiled to a penal colony, yet still a heroic figure of firm morals and principles. Did you find writing him a challenge?

Blaine kills the man who raped his sister—who happens to be their father.  He expects to be executed for his crime, but the king (who was aware that Blaine’s father was a rat bastard, but a loyal rat bastard) exiles Blaine as an act of mercy.  Blaine endures tremendous hardship in the prison colony and finally earns his Ticket of Leave which means he is a colonist (though without the ability to leave the colony) and builds a life for himself with close friends.  He’s made his peace with being in exile, until war destroys the kingdom and the magic, and Blaine might be the only one who can put things right.  I have really enjoyed writing Blaine because he’s a survivor.  He accepts what comes his way without ducking, and he takes care of his own.  He loses everything he has, and still emerges to make a life for himself.  Although he’s got scars, he’s not bitter, but he is wary and so he’s got people who watch his back.  He’s actually been a lot of fun to get to know!

ICE FORGED has a very gritty edge to it, and the concept of survival – of endurance in the face of adversity – seems to be a key theme. Do you feel that it’s important to give a message of hope in dark times?

I have very little patience with fiction, movies or people who wallow in despair.  I like the proverb about “fall down seven times, get up eight.”  In my own life, the people who inspire me are the ones who find a way to create something positive about even the most awful circumstances and who emerge as a beacon for others.  I’m a fan of Churchill—“Never, never, never give up.”  So for me, watching Blaine and his friends go through all that they’ve endured and come out with their sense of self intact, their ability to form bonds with others intact, and their ability to see a bigger picture beyond their own misfortune is very encouraging.

Magic seems to play a more important role in ICE FORGED than it does in your previous series, but interestingly, it seems to be treated as a kind of natural resource for the characters that’s taken for granted. Could you tell us a bit more about your inspiration for this?

In my last series, the plot focused on characters with powerful magic.  With the exception of the magic strike (something of a doomsday weapon) that makes the magic fail, the real devastation happens with the small magics no longer work.  These small magics helped people with their everyday lives and function much as our science, medicine and technology do.  I liked the idea of doing the opposite of what I had done before, so I was looking for a different way to approach magic. I liked toying with the idea that magic is something that is constantly present but only a percentage of people have the ability to learn to use it.  It’s not about studying spells, it’s about an inborn ability that you either have or you don’t.  That becomes very important as the story goes on, because people who have magic have learned to rely on shortcuts.  People without magic have to do things the hard way.  When the magic fails, guess who is better positioned to survive?

We all think ICE FORGED would make a great movie. So the big question – if it gets made, who would you like it to star?

I think Richard Armitage, the guy who played Thorin Oakenshield in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, could do a great job as Blaine!  I picture Piran Rowse as a young Bruce Willis.  Beyond that, I’ll leave it up to the casting agents.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

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by | February 21, 2013 · 9:12 am

5 Rules for Surviving the End of the World

by Gail Z. Martin

My newest novel, Ice Forged, takes place in a post-apocalyptic medieval world.  As the book cover proclaims, “Their world is ending: the adventure is just beginning.”  With the Mayan Apocalypse so recently in memory as one of those “fake” end of the world scenarios, what does it take to survive when the world devolves into chaos?

Rule #1: It helps to be far away when the doomsday strike hits.  My characters begin the book in exile in an arctic prison colony.  Their colony is affected by the catastrophic loss of magic, but because of the colony’s primitive conditions, the effect of the catastrophe  is lessened.  In their case, exile to the end of the world ended up being “lucky”.

Rule #2: Make sure you know how to do important things without magic.  In Ice Forged, people have gotten dependent on using small magic as a short cut for everything from healing sickness to making sure crops weren’t eaten by pests to holding stone fences together.  When the magic fails, everything it was holding together fails, too.  People who only know how to do things with the help of magic are stuck.  Their “power grid” has gone down, and they don’t have back-up.

Rule #3: Have people who will watch your back.  Our myth of the totally independent person is only possible because of the largely invisible, massive infrastructure that enables us to pretend we’re doing everything ourselves.  When that infrastructure fails, you find out very quickly that the people who survive do so as a team.  Cut-throat individualism only works on reality TV—had “Survivor” been real, the ones who made it would have been the ones who banded together. In Ice Forged, friendships and alliances make a life-or-death difference.

Rule #4: Challenge the defeatists.  Just because civilization as you know it has been shattered doesn’t mean it’s the end of the world.  It might be possible to reverse or at least limit the damage, unless you sink into depression and drink all the remaining brandy.  Even a slim chance can give survivors the will to transcend the devastation.  In Ice Forged, the idea that it might be possible to restore the magic takes my characters from their icy (but relatively safe) prison home back to a kingdom that exiled them, against all odds.

Rule #5: Accept that the end of the world changes people.  Some lie down and die.  Some go mad. Others find a new purpose for life, and courage they never knew they had.  In Ice Forged, the exiles find out what they’re made of—and what they’ll risk—to start over.

There you have it: my rules for surviving the end of the world.  Feel free to print out this list and tape it to the inside of your pantry door, so that you have it handy for the next doomsday prediction.  Then gather your friends in a remote location, and get ready to hit the restart button.

Gail Z. Martin’s newest book, Ice Forged: Book One in the Ascendant Kingdoms Saga (Orbit Books), launched in January 2013.  Gail is also the author of the Chronicles of the Necromancer series (Solaris Books) and The Fallen Kings Cycle (Orbit Books).  For more about Gail’s books and short stories, visit www.AscendantKingdoms.com. Be sure to “like” Gail’s Winter Kingdoms Facebook page, follow her on Twitter @GailZMartin, and join her for frequent discussions on Goodreads.

Read an excerpt from Ice Forged here: https://a.pgtb.me/JvGzTt

 

 

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by | February 4, 2013 · 9:00 am

Creature Creation

by Anne E. Johnson

One of joys of reading science fiction and fantasy is its challenge to our imagination. We are offered new worlds and beings and expected to accept them as real.

But before a reader gets a chance to wrap her mind around fantastical inventions, a writer must invent them. That can be harder than it sounds. The trick is not the inventiveness; most authors who choose to write speculative fiction have imagination in spades. The trick is viability and consistency.

Consider a fantasy creature we’re all familiar with: a dragon. As the author describes this dragon, there are a lot of factors to consider: What color is it? Is it the same color all over? Does its color change as it moves? What texture is its skin (scaly? spiky in some parts?)? How large is it, compared to other characters or objects around it? Is it a young, spritely dragon, or an old, lumbering one? How wide must its wingspan be for it to reasonably be expected to fly?

And then there is its effects on its surroundings: What happens to the ground when it lands or takes off? How do the trees move when it flies through or over them? What gets scorched when it breathes fire? If someone rides on its back (as seems to happen with remarkable frequency), how does that person hang on? How does the dragon react to having a rider?

Such issues become magnified when an author has invented a completely new and unfamiliar creature. My favorite example is the trinity Odeen, Dua, and Tritt in Isaac Asimov’s The Gods Themselves. Asimov seemed determined to make beings that were as far from human experience as he could imagine, so their very physical presence is foreign and is intermixed with unique psychological features. These creatures are rather ghostlike, feed on moonlight, and to show emotion and experience they alter their width and density. And, rather than two sexes in this species, there are three sets of emotional function. It’s complicated and fascinating, and completely believable.

No surprise that the great and powerful Asimov set himself such a hurdle. For most of us ordinary mortal writers, however, it’s the physical nature of invented creatures that’s the primary challenge. For example, one of my main characters in The Webrid Chronicles is named Zatell. Her body is a single round section surrounded by about thirty small limbs that serve as both hands and feet. When she “walks” (and I try not to use that word too much with her), she’s really rolling or cartwheeling.

Every time Zatell performs any physical act, I have to think very hard how she could actually accomplish it. Getting up onto a chair is different for her than it is for a biped species. On the other hand, she can do many things that others can’t, like hold several things at once while also eating and writing! The biggest issue in such cases is consistency. Notes like “Can she actually do that?” from sharp beta readers and editors are invaluable and always make me slap my forehead.

It can be slow, detailed work to rein in the imagination to make it viable to a reader. But the chance to captivate the reader is what a writer lives for, so it’s absolutely worth the effort.

*   *   *

Green Light Delivery, Book 1 of The Webrid Chronicles, is a humorous, noir-inspired science fiction adventure. Read the first 24 pages of for free here.

Book 2, Blue Diamond Delivery, is scheduled for release by Candlemark & Gleam in June of 2013.

Purchase Green Light Delivery from the publisher, on Amazon, on BN.com, and elsewhere.

You can learn more about Anne E. Johnson at her website.

For updates on Anne’s publications and appearances, like her Facebook author page.

Follow her on Twitter @AnneEJohnson

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by | December 19, 2012 · 4:05 pm

The Next Big Thing

Last week Gail Z. Martin (https://disquietingvisions.com/2012/12/11/big/) tagged me on her blog, as part of a chain of authors (or creative people) recommendations called THE NEXT BIG THING. Today it’s my turn to reciprocate. I’m going to answer questions about my new project Awakening the Wolf .

What is the working title of your next book?

The working title of my newest book is called Awakening the Wolf: A Two-Natured Novel and currently I’m writing the sequel to it called Awakening the Lion.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea for the book came from a dream where the shape shifter characters were able to turn into two different animals instead of just one.

What genre does your book fall under?

My book falls under the Romance genre with a little bit of erotic and shape shifters.

If you found yourself in an elevator with a movie director you admire and had the chance to pitch your book to them, what would you say?

I would tell the movie director that  no movie has ever been done about characters that can turn into two different animals. And there is a great love story to boot? It’s a cross between Twilight and Underworld except without the vampires.

Every writer dreams of their book being turned in a movie or a TV show like Game of Thrones. If this happened to your work, which actors would you choose to play your characters?

If Awakening the Wolf was turned into a movie, I would see Illiana, the heroine, being played by Scarlett Johansson. Belik, the main raven shifter, would be played by Orlando Bloom, and Christopher, main wolf shifter, would be played by Alex Pettyfer.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

Once the characters started talking to me, they were the one to inspired me to write the book. I loved the story line and could not stop it.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

It took me a month to write the first draft of the manuscript.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Hmm…I can’t think of any specific books that I can compare it too.

When will your book be available?

This book will be available some time in the spring of 2013.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Well, if the readers enjoy a good love story with plenty of character development and a moving storyline, then this book is for them.

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by | December 11, 2012 · 9:28 pm

The Next Big Thing

Last week Rowena Cory Daniells (https://www.rowena-cory-daniells.com/2012/12/05/my-next-big-thing/) tagged me on her blog, as part of a chain of author recommendations called THE NEXT BIG THING. Today it’s my turn to reciprocate and to pass on the torch. I’m going to answer questions about my new project, Ice Forged. Then I’m going to tag more wonderful authors who will tell you about their Next Big Thing on Wednesday, Dec. 19.

Q:  What is the working title of your next book?

A: Ice Forged: Book One in The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga

Q: Where did the idea come from for the book?

A: I started to think about what a medieval apocalypse would look like, and then got thinking about what if…a prison colony were in the far north rather than the hot south, like Australia.  What if…magic were an artificial construct, and it broke after civilization had come to depend on it? And what if…a man who was rightfully condemned for murder turned out to be the only one who could put things right?

Q: What genre does your book fall under?

A: Epic fantasy.

Q: If you found yourself in an elevator with a movie director you admire and had the chance to pitch your book to them, what would you say?

A: I love the line from the back of the book:  “Welcome to the end of the world.  Welcome to the beginning of The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga!”

Q: Every writer dreams of their book being turned in a movie or a TV show like Game of Thrones. If this happened to your work, which actors would you choose to play your characters?

A: I’d write in a new character if it meant we could cast Hugh Jackman for something!

Q: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

A: I’m not a big fan of modern apocalyptic fiction, but I liked the thought of looking at a medieval society dealing with the after-effects of a series of disasters.

Q: How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

A: Six months.

Q: When will your book be available?

A: Jan. 8 in bookstores and online—trade paperback, and ebook in Kindle, Kobo and Nook!

Q: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

A: As always, I promise you a roaring-good rollercoaster ride of a book—lots of action, believable, flawed characters, hints of humor, dangerous magic, and the end of the world!

Q:  Anything else you’d like readers to know?

A: Beginning in January, I’ll also be releasing a new short story every month, so be sure to “like” my Facebook page www.Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms and follow me on Twitter @GailZMartin so you know when new stories are coming!  I’m also on Goodreads, and you can join my newsletter at https://bit.ly/TLtix2—that’s where you’ll hear about contests, book and story give-aways and more!

And here are the authors I’d like to introduce, and who you can follow next Wednesday, when they answer the Next Big Thing questions…

 

John G. Hartness is the author of The Black Knight Chronicles from Bell Bridge Books and the creator of the self-published superstar series Bubba the Monster Hunter. He blends urban fantasy with redneck humor to blow up the things that go bump in the night. Think Duck Dynasty meets Dark Shadows and you’re on the right track. www.johnhartness.com

Misty Massey is the author of Mad Kestrel (Tor Books), a rollicking fantasy adventure of magic on the high seas. Misty is one of the featured writers on the blog MagicalWords.net.  https://madkestrel.livejournal.com/

 

James Maxey writes about dragons, angels, circus freaks, superheroes, and monkeys, frequently in the same book. Learn more about Maxey and his novels at https://dragonprophet.blogspot.com.

Casey Daniels is the author of the Pepper Martin paranormal mysteries set in Cleveland, Ohio. She loves old cemeteries, ghost stories and because she loves old buttons, too, she writes the Button Box mysteries as Kylie Logan. You can find her at: www.caseydaniels.com

Crymsyn Hart is a prolific writer of romance and erotica. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends. https://www.crymsynhart.blogspot.com

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by | August 16, 2012 · 9:31 am

The End of the World As We Know It

by Gail Z. Martin

My newest book, The Dread: Book Two in The Fallen Kings Cycle, confronts a medieval world on the brink of a “War of Unmaking.”  Plague, famine, civilian unrest, pretenders to the throne, usurpers, traitors and a foreign invasion—along with betrayals large and small—have set the monarchies of the Winter Kingdoms on a collision course with war.  The stakes are huge, and no matter who wins and who loses, neither the kingdoms nor the main characters will ever be the same.

Sure, I drew on ancient Asian, Sumerian, and Celtic/Norse mythology, as well as my own fevered imagination to conjure up this war-torn world, but I’m certain that the angst in modern headlines had some subconscious influence over the decision to set in motion a cataclysm that changes the course of history.

I also blame some of it on my undergraduate training as a historian, taught by professors who saw flashpoints in history more as a confluence of trends rather than the handiwork of a single “great man.”  Where a single individual rises to such prominence as to seem capable of personally changing history, I’ve been taught to look deeper, to see the societal, religious, financial, cultural and other shifts that made it possible for the “great man” to come to the fore and achieve such prominence.

Personally, I find this a more interesting reading of history than seeing an endless procession of heroes and villains who are larger than life.  And as an author, I think that the idea that those who become heroes and villains stand astride the crest of a great flow of other circumstances makes a story much more intriguing as well.  While my characters always have choices, both they and the readers should feel that other forces are pressing toward particular options, or making other choices unsatisfactory.  Sometimes, the hero chooses to swim against the tide. In other situations, he (or she) rides the swell, realizing how little control they have over the rushing torrent, trying to make the best of it.  Throw magic, active deities, and two groups of immortal enemies into the equation, and all bets are off.

Part of the fun for me with epic fantasy is having a big enough canvas to set up this kind of cataclysm and bring the reader along for the ride.  The story that begins in The Sworn: Book One of the Fallen Kings Cycle, finds its conclusion in The Dread, but those who have been with me for all four preceding Chronicles of the Necromancer books will find old loose ends tied up and unfinished business brought to a close.

So is this the end of adventures in the world of the Winter Kingdoms?  No.  But my surviving characters do deserve a little rest!  So while the survivors rebuild, I’ll be bringing out a brand new series, The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga, from Orbit in 2013.  Time to start the mayhem all over again!

You can find The Dread in stores and online everywhere.  For more about my books, please visit www.ChroniclesOfTheNecromancer.com, and like me on Facebook.com/WinterKingdoms.  I blog at DisquietingVisions.com, host author interviews at GhostInTheMachinePodcast.com, and tweet @GailZMartin.

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by | August 9, 2012 · 9:29 am

What are some things you learned from writing fantasy?

by Gail Z. Martin

Q:  What are some things you learned from writing fantasy?

A:  One thing I’ve learned is a definite respect for the hardships which our ancestors endured—plague, famine, lack of clean water, lack of indoor plumbing and central heat, high mortality rates from curable conditions, etc.  At the same time, I’m intrigued by how much joy they were still able to take from life through family and friends, small comforts and conveniences, celebrations and holidays, and good food when there was food to be had.

I’m in awe of what they were able to do with the technology that they had to work with, whether it’s the invention of war machines such as those DaVinci designed, or the creation of complex water and sewer systems, or the sheer temerity to sail across an ocean without modern communication and navigation tools.  And then there’s the cooking.  I’m amazed at the complicated recipes they created to be cooked over open flames or in “ovens” without any reliable temperature control!

I’ve learned a lot about medieval weapons and society, not in a bookish sort of way, but by needing to apply what I learned from history and then live with it in the skin of my characters.  It’s one thing to read about something.  It’s another to put yourself into the moment and have to live with it.

I’ve also learned how much contemporary stories rely on instantaneous communication and modern travel speeds, neither of which were available in the medieval world of epic fantasy.  This has major plot ramifications.  If something happens on one battlefield, there is no way to get word to someone hundreds of miles away faster than a horse and rider can travel, unless you use magic (but magic must be unreliable to avoid being a cheat).  We don’t think about those kinds of delays today, but they were very real throughout most of history.  If a character needs to go to a distant place, they’re constrained by how fast a man can walk or how fast a horse can sustain a gallop.  Especially in battle scenes, these two issues are crucial, because there is no good way to communicate among far-flung  battlefields, no way to know real-time information, no fast way to move an army from here to there.  These kinds of things make a big impact on how you can tell the story, what can be known by your characters, and what options are open to them.

I’ve also learned fun things, like word origins.  For example, people have been retching since 1540,  puking and heaving since the 1600s, but only barfing since the 1960s.  They’ve been pissing since the 1300s and leaking since the 1500s, but they didn’t start to pee until 1788.  If your character needs to do one or the other, you’ve got to get the historically correct term. These things are important for a writer to know!

 

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