Posts Tagged "The Straits of Galahesh"

• I Blame Tolkien

  Why Write Fantasy?

  I don’t really remember the exact moment I decided I wanted to start writing—I came to it late and played with the idea off an on during college and through the early part of my professional career as a software programmer—but I do remember the moment that fantasy first fascinated me. It was in third grade. My best friend had read The Hobbit, and had recommended I read it too. So i did. And I loved it. I adored it. It was my first exposure to fantasy, and I remember how transfixed I was, not merely by the story, but also the maps and the covers.

  The covers, if I’m recalling correctly, were these ones:

  

  The world, as anyone who’s read them will tell you, is so wide and deep it’s easy to fall into. I loved the fairy tale feel of The Hobbit and the deeper, more dangerous feel of The Lord of the Rings. I even liked (not loved, it took me three tries and nearly a decade to finish it) the feeling of myth that The Silmarillion gave.

  So when I started making up my mind that I actually wanted to write, I knew it would be fantasy. But the point of this week’s posts isn’t so much the origin of our writing and why we write it, but why we enjoy fantasy in particular. What it brings to the table.

  I enjoy writing science fiction, but I have to admit, I find it too similar to our modern day world at this point. There was certainly a time when science fiction was little different from fantasy; it was just that one looked backward and one looked forward. Today those paradigms have been broken over and over again, and science fiction has stayed ahead of the technology curve, but it’s getting harder and harder to do so.

  But for me, that’s only part of the problem. I enjoy looking back to another time. I enjoy the escapism of fantasy. But first and foremost, I find compelling because of the particular brand of agency it grants the characters (and so, to the reader). It gives a sense of power that we’ll never have in real life. And so, from this perspective, it’s fun to write about kings and queens; it’s fun to write about thieves and wizards; because in them we get to experience wondrous things, things we dreamed about as children. I think that’s why the buying market has trended away from science fiction and more toward fantasy. Readers are looking for the same things in fantasy that make me want to write it.

  So while I enjoy science fiction enough to dabble, I doubt that I’ll ever write a science fiction novel. Fantasy’s what I love, and that’s where I’ll stay.

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• I need help, but only when the time is right

  Wolf Pack of One?
  

  Bradley P. Beaulieu

  I do indeed write largely alone. That hasn’t always been the case, though. It used to be, when I was first starting out, that I wanted lots of feedback. Lots. When I was active on the Online Writing Workshop, I would post each chapter of the novels I was working on practically as soon as I finished writing them. It was a quick way for me to gain feedback, and I learned pretty quickly how much negative feedback stung, and continued to sting. I started pulling back a bit. I would work harder on the chapters, both while I was writing (using the lessons I was starting to learn) and during editing.

  Slowly, the feedback became less negative, more positive. This gave me more confidence. I continued with that type of workshop—online trading of crits—but I started to feel like it was helping me less and less. This is no knock against those in the workshop. It’s just a natural progression. Eventually you’ll grow. You’ll move on. You’ll find new critting partners that bring something new to the table, and hopefully you’ll do the same for them.

  During this time (my early, pre-published apprenticeship), I would actively trade full novel crits as well. That’s always a great thing to do, both reading others’ works critically, and getting yours read. It helps you to see the larger arcs and the problems that can crop up in trying to present them dramatically.

  Over the next 4 years, I attended several intense writing workshops. Viable Paradise, Writers of the Future, Orson Scott Card’s Literary Bootcamp, and finally Clarion back in 2006. Once I’d finished with those, I wasn’t burnt out, but I needed some time away from such things. I no longer actively critiqued online. I didn’t have any local workshops. I really only critiqued with a few close friends. This was the point at which I knew I was getting close. I was selling short fiction pretty regularly. And I felt if I could just find a good enough idea for a novel, it would put me over the top. At least, that’s what I hoped. There’s still so much luck involved, getting the right project into the right person’s hands at the right time. (more…)

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• Hello! And, this all feels strangely familiar…

  Introductions
  

  Bradley P. Beaulieu

  Hi all. My name is Bradley P. Beaulieu (Brad), and I was one of the charter members of the Night Bazaar before it was subsumed by Night Shade Books. I’m terribly pleased to have been asked back to chat more with all of you, in part because of what being invited back means.

  And what does it mean? Well, I’m glad you asked. It means that I have a book coming out with Night Shade. Again. My debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo, came out last April, and its sequel, The Straits of Galahesh, came out… When was it again?

  Oh, yeah. Yesterday!

  I thought, to re-introduce myself, I’d share a bit about how and why I got into writing fantasy, and who some of my influences were. I’ve been reading fantasy practically since I learned how to read. I came across The Hobbit in third grade—I even remember the friend that turned me onto it: Jim Vogt, my best friend at the time—and I’ve never looked back. It was a wondrous experience, walking through Middle Earth with Bilbo and Gandalf and the dwarves. I sometimes wonder what it would have been like had I found another seminal work in a different genre. Would I now be a mystery writer had I read Sherlock Holmes or Sexton Blake when I was young? Would I write spy thrillers if I had somehow stumbled across James Bond? I like to think the answer is no. Fantasy feels like a part of me at this point, so strong was my reaction to The Hobbit and, later, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion. I can’t imagine a world that feels more internally consistent, more whole, than those volumes.

  And I think this is what eventually drove me to be a writer. As I matured I started to read other things, things like Piers Anthony’s Split Infinity Series, Stephen R. Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, Terry Brooks’ Shannara Series, Thieves’ World from Lynn Abbey, and Michael Moorcock’s Elric of Melniboné. While I enjoyed these and many other books to varying degrees, none of them quite had that sense of history, of scope, that Tolkien had created in his stories. So as I started to dabble in writing in college, while I didn’t realize this consciously at the time, I was trying to recreate that sense of wonder that I’d found while traveling toward the Lonely Mountain to steal into the lair of Smaug. (more…)

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• Looking forward

  The Year in Review

  I know this post is supposed to be about the year in review, but I think it’s very much about looking forward as well.

  One thing this year has taught me is that “I can do it again,” meaning I know how to write a novel more than once. The Winds of Khalakovo came out this year, but I turned in Book 2, The Straits of Galahesh, a few months back, and I’m well on my way to completing the first draft of Book 3. So I’ve gained a sense of confidence that I can do this at a high level. And this is important. Ever since I’ve started writing novels and short stories, it’s always felt like I won’t be able to do it again. Like “this time” was a fluke, and the “next time” the story’s going to fall flat on its face. Never is this feeling more apparent to me than in the first third of writing a new book. I’d written three books before Winds was picked up by Night Shade, so I’m essentially writing my sixth book now. And damned if the same feelings don’t crop up again and again, even on Book 3. But now that I’ve gotten some good feedback from my editor and my beta readers on Straits, I’m more confident that it, and my writing, are doing fine.

  So in some ways, this is a transitional period for me. I have the first year of publication under my belt. I’ve learned a lot in the past year, not just in how to write, but how to promote, how to balance my time, and deal with the pressures of publication. In other words: I’ve learned how to be a professional writer. A young pro writer, mind you, but a pro nonetheless.

  The second thing I’ve learned is that I really, really like this business. It pays chump change a lot of the time, and there are a lot of things that are a pain to deal with, but the act of creating something from scratch and sharing it—which assumes, of course, that people are reading your stuff—is really gratifying. And it’s enjoyable to be around so many other creative people. It’s why I’ve gone to conventions and such in the past, but more doors have been opened for me this year, and I’ve come to enjoy those new interactions—with my publisher, reviewers, bloggers, and other authors. (more…)

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• Member News: November 12, 2011

  Member News

  Bradley P. Beaulieu has new cover art!  Todd Lockwood recently turned in the art for the second book in Brad’s Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, The Straits of Galahesh, and the results are gorgeous. You can read more about it and view the artwork on Brad’s blog.

  Courtney Schafer‘s novel The Whitefire Crossing received a great review over at Adventures Fantastic – click here to read (though beware a few spoilers!).  Courtney will be signing tonight at the Boulder Barnes & Noble from 6-8pm, as part of a bookfair fundraiser for the Pikes Peak Writers.  If you’re in the area, come on by!

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• You’d Think It’d Be Easier, or, On Writing the Second Novel

  Writing the Second Novel

  First of all, a hearty round of applause to Teresa Frohock on her debut novel, Miserere: An Autumn Tale! I love the premise of this novel, and I can’t wait for my to read pile to shrink a bit so I can sink my teeth into it. As a reminder, Teresa is holding a giveaway for a signed copy of her book. Just comment on any of the posts this week with the name of a sequel or second book you really enjoyed. For multiple chances, comment on more than one post (but only one chance per post will be counted).

  Ok, on to the subject at hand… I recently published my debut novel, The Winds of Khalakovo. I also recently finished the first draft of the second novel in The Lays of Anuskaya trilogy, so when Aidan brought up the possibility of a guest post, one of the things I immediately thought of was talking a bit about the differences in writing Book 2 vs. Book 1.

  I had been wary of writing the second novel in a series for quite some time. That sounds strange, even to my ear, but it’s true. I didn’t used to think this way. When I first starting writing seriously, ten years ago or so, I thought a sequel would be a natural extension of the first book, and in many ways that’s true, but as I grew in my craft and began to go to conventions and get advice about writing a sequel, I grew … not worried, but certainly concerned.

  Why? Well, there are a few things going on here.

  (more…)

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