Back Stories

History is critical for depth in a good epic fantasy novel (the Lord of the Rings being an excellent example), but sitting down to write a whole history like the Silmarillion is daunting. :)

But, I've learned I don't have to do that. I can take a character or a place, say the cliff city of Underrim, and write a short narrative history of it. That's a lot easier than trying to write the history of a whole world: the back story of a city or a person is a much smaller task.

How do I write the back story? To a certain degree, it's like a logic slider: I can look at the political and cultural state in which I want Underrim, and figure out a chain of events that would have taken it to that point (which is a lot of fun). And if I find inconsistencies in back stories, it's really an opportunity to create even more interesting story. :)

I then have something to write -to- in my novel. I know how the city got to where it is, and I know something more about the city than when I started. As a consequence, I can work better texture into my story.

I've liked history for my stories all along, what I've learned is how easy it is to do in bite-sized chunks. (But I still have histories of my whole fantasy worlds in mind, if only as overviews. :)

SmorgaSword Released

I've just released my first book, SmorgaSword, on Amazon. Click here for the product page:

This is a Kindle ebook version, and I'm planning to follow up with a paperback version via Createspace.

Here's the book description:

SmorgaSword is a story buffet, a selection of twelve unique short stories. Take a wild ride into the Great Red Spot of Jupiter, survive a post-Apocalyptic urban battle, follow the adventures of a superhero from another universe, catch the bad guys with the unlikeliest of detectives, explore strange and distant futures, and find fairytale happy endings along the way.

--The Menu--

-The Prison-

In a future utopia where science is everything, a young technician commits the unthinkable crime of irretrievably destroying data, and he is sentenced to an unusual punishment.

-The Tyrant-

A mind's eye view of the rapid rise and fall of a dictator.

-Morning Glory-

An orphan girl befriends a strange child who is more than he seems.

-Jump!-

A girl in another universe jumps to ours, and finds she is invincible. But all she wants is to jump back to her own world.

-Bull Elephant-

After an apocalyptic disaster, the survivors of an urban gang threaten the lives of farmers eking out a living in the debris of civilization.

-Venus Flytrap-

A special young lady leads the FBI on a no-so-merry chase to find a mysterious informant who seems to know everything.

-The New Outside-

A boy and girl try to escape from an artificial world where plants and animals are unknown.

-The Monster of Jupiter-

Two scientists get a closer look than planned at the Great Red Spot.

-Area X-

A conspiracy theorist tracks down a secret government facility, only to find something he wasn't expecting.

-Daughter of Eagles-

A wise woman gives a young princess a magic gift.

-The Empty Room-

A housemaid in nineteenth-century England finds a haunted room, which can be wonder or terror to those who go there.

-The Awakening of Trevor Still-

The chef's favorite. A modern fairy tale, a romance with a twist.

Joining Ezimin Interactive

As of Friday, I've joined the Ezimin Interactive computer game company. It's a new company, building its first game, Scribes' Descent, and I'm helping with editing the accompanying novel, as well as taking a stab at game programming.

What I like about Ezimin is that I can see a unique treasure that God has put into the company's founder, Dylan West, to be built and explored and revealed. Dylan is making games and stories both for the family of God, and to bring more people into the family of God.

I met Dylan at my workplace. He noticed my computer name was "Reepicheep"; and he asked me to read a Christian fantasy novel he was writing (A Signet Forever). :) One thing led to another, and I find I have a desire to play a part in working out his vision.

Oh yes, and his stories are good. :)

Invisible Ink

Lately I've begun to see how words in a book ought to be invisible. The meaning should be visible, but the words should be like clear glass: transparent to the reader.

I like it when I'm a reading a story and I don't notice the words. It means I'm immersed in the story's world. But if I'm reading, and the words trip me up, I've lost sight of the meaning. The window into the story's world is smudged.

Words should be humble. If the grammar gets in the way, it's no good, even if it's correct. If the words are grandiose or cleverly crafted to be poetic or literary or intellectually impressive, and they obscure the meaning, they're no good. I don't mean that big words are inherently bad, but they ought to be precise words, to serve the meaning, and not be a big thumbprint on the story.

So, I'm now trying to be a window washer. :)

Lots of work

As I related in a previous post, I got the cover art for my first book, SmorgaSword. That opened the floodgates of things to do: I plugged the art into the book, generated a mobi file via Kindlegen, put that on my Kindle, and redid the mobi over and over again as I read through the ebook. I also did preparatory work on Amazon for my author's account, and I still need to get the ebook vetted on the Kindle Fire.

Meanwhile, I also want to do the book as a Createspace paperback. My dad published his first book, Great Signs and Wonders, via Createspace as well as Kindle, and when the first proofs arrived, I was impressed. They look good. If print-on-demand can produce a paperback of that quality, then it provides much the same benefits to self-publishing authors as ebooks, but you get something you can hold in your hand and show people.

So, now I have more work to do. :) The good news is that once I do it, it will be easier next time.

Richness

I recently finished reading the Harry Potter series, and one thing that struck me was how short the first three volumes are in comparison with the last four. I really noticed the difference in the stories: the last four had a lot more story-richness, and I enjoyed that very much.

The contrast reminded me of the Hardy Boys stories. The originals ran for about 220 pages. Later on in the series, though, they shortened the stories to 180 pages or less, and again, I really noticed the difference. The later stories felt thinner, poorer; I missed the richness of the longer stories.

So where I am headed? I realized that this is something I want to do with my stories. With self-publishing, I don't have to worry about length; I can make the stories however long I want. Cutting and efficiency are well and good, but I'm writing stories I like. :) And the best stories are always too short: always.

But, when I applied the idea to my first fantasy novel project, Beastlord of Underrim, I discovered the plot became much too long for me to conceptually juggle. It had already been that, however, I just hadn't realized it until now.

So, I've chopped the story into three novels, each of which will, I hope, be "enriched". :) I had condensed a great deal of story that I would rather have explored, and now I can have fun doing that. At the least, I can visualize the plot of the first novel, and it should be much easier for me to finish.

Here are the prototype names for the three novels:

The Beastlord of Underrim
The River-Spirit of Archenworld
The Golden Circle

Cover Art

Here's the cover art for SmorgaSword, done by Katherine and Sarah Ausura:

I'm very pleased; the work exceeded my expectations. :)