The World As Our Characters Know It

One of the really fun parts of starting a new fantasy series as a writer is creating the world the story will take place in.  Some created worlds are so different from ours the world is a story unto itself.  Brandon Sanderson is a good one for creating settings that are more than just background noise for his characters.  In the first three books of his Mistborn series, the world is a gloomy place on the verge of total annihilation.  Only as the reader gets toward the end of the novel, does one come to understand that the reasons behind the harsh conditions of that world and what it will mean to the beloved characters struggling to survive.  Sanderson's novel, The Way of Kings, is another great example of a world very alien to ours and I know as that series progresses, the physical and political aspects introduced in the first novel will slowly start to make sense and become like another character in the books.

As an author of fantasy, there are lots of decisions to make.  A big one is how much different do you want your world to be from ours? Will gold and silver still be precious? What will the political system be? Will the sky be blue and the sun yellow? Are apple trees still apple trees?  It's fun, but also a challenge and that's without getting into how magic will work in the invented world.

In my Futhark series, Beyond the Gate and The Keepers of Sulbreth, some of the creations in the fantasy kingdom of Futhark are demon creatures.  I've pulled them from my imagination but made most of them similar to beasts we often fear as children.  Some are wolf-like but with bigger teeth.  Some run in packs and are like rats with poisonous bites.  Some fly and are similar to pterodactyls but all the demons have a taste for human blood and destruction. They're fun to write about.

Scifi authors have fun things to create too, though I would guess they have to follow some scientific rules.  But since none of us know what other worlds are like or what ships that zip from galaxy to galaxy will use as fuel, they can dig deep into their own imaginations for their stories also.

What author do you think creates exceptional or memorable worlds? Do you enjoy doing it as an author? Have you read a novel where the world differences bothered you?

First Review for 'Futhark Chronicles'

What an exciting day for me. The Keepers of Futhark will be released in January but today I read the first review. Publisher's Weekly posted a review and said many kind things about my book. One little zinger about the start of the book and then everything was roses. I hope someone uses those reviews to make their must read lists.

I know there's often discussions on blogs about whether or not people read reviews to determine their shopping lists for books. I often do just that. ROF used to have pages of book reviews though the space allowed for that in their new, recently rescued, magazine is much less. I bought one of my daughter's favorite books after reading a review for it there. My daughter and I both highlight books each month in RT and intend to buy them. Of course, Keepers won't be reviewed in RT because it's not a romance. The only beef I have with PW was the way they referred to the book as a romantic fantasy. I would rather term it an epic fantasy with a romantic subplot but I won't complain too much if some readers buy it because of the romance.

Do you read reviews and allow them to dictate your must read list? Where do you find your reviews and have you ever felt misled by one?

Shoot, Score, Goal!

A very busy week has passed since I set my goals last week. The good news is I scored a 4/5 on completing them.
I did finish Beneath the Mountain, book #4 in The Futhark Chronicles from Medallion Press. I did have a lovely over night visit with my mother where we stayed up too late talking and drank too much coffee.
I did work on that last, weedy, messy flowerbed. Looks better and I didn't get any more poison on my legs. Yippee.
I did try a new wine, well, a new Zinfandel. Isn't my favorite but the good news is I drank most of it anyway so I'll splurge for another new one this week sometime.
My lone failure was in working out five days out of seven. I only managed three though I could count the two hours I spent in the pool as a fourth. I used all kinds of muscles to keep my balance on that raft. Okay, it was only three workouts.
I'm going to wait until tomorrow to set my writing goals for next week. I have to thing which project I'm going to do next. In the meantime, I always celebrate finishing a book by reading something from my TBR pile that I've been putting off because I want to read it too much. Big decision. I have about four of them sitting there.
Another thing I always do after finishing a book is clean up my writing area. It's not too messy right now, but I can't really see any desktop either. So while that fourth book is transferring from my AlphaSmart to my computer, I'm going to shove some papers around. Thanks to my friends for the encouragement to reach my goals.