#very much capable of going medium distance whatever... medium is supposed to be

[explicitinformaticn]

i feel like if marble is gonna have numbers as a scale they should probably not be so.  .  .   arbitrary

[iveryafterdark]

Day 119

Part 10, Maybe Gods should leave hunting to the mortals in the future. [Medium]

Last Part. Next Part.

Bear was something of Time's personal shadow since he had arrived, seems he hadn't been joking about going with him wherever he went. Normally, being watched and followed so closely would aggravate the dark man, after all, he was a God not a child who needed to be protected from itself, but Bear managed to mind his own business and provide good enough company to not bother Time with his consistent presence. It had been a fair few weeks since the charming werewolf had joined them and he seemed to be capable of getting along with everyone else just fine... the exclusion of Surie who had a distaste for anyone who referenced his god-hood too often.

Today, he had been talked into another hunt with Vaitelin... featuring the elusive Relis as well who seemed eager to prove himself the superior out of the two of them.

"I am just saying, if Bear moved up the path and sat in ambush we could take this buck down in record time." Relis and Vaitelin were having some disagreements on the exact plan they should use and, considering that Time was no hunter, he was content to let the two bicker like hens over the course they took.

"I'm not leaving Time back here with you for something so minor as a short hunt, Relis, try something else." Bear cut into the conversation, causing the golden-haired man to cast a quick glare his way which was only responded to with a bold smile.

"I never agreed to help you hunt, anyway, so don't look so sour." Vaitelin coughed, badly trying to hide a laugh, in response to Bear's snark. An attempt was made to suppress the grin on his face but it was a really bad one.

"Fine, we could do things your way but if we lose this catch do not forget that I disagreed with it." Relis seemed eager to be done with this, Time couldn't help but agree with the sentiment.

"Okay, so, what do you need me to do?" all eyes turned to Vaitelin at Time's question.

"You two spook the buck into the direction of the Rockies, chase him but keep 'em at a distance, I'll handle the rest."

"You sound awfully cocky, Viaite." the dishonest werewolf said in a near-growl, managing to butcher the other's name in the same way as Astaira had, leaving Time to wonder just how much of that argument Relis had been privy to before he joined.

"I wouldn' say 'cocky', I'd say... confident. Assured. I know what I'm doin'." Relis rolled his eyes at the assertion and the self-confident look on the hunter's face.

"Whatever, we should get moving."

-

-

Ouch, while it was difficult to kill a God it was still lucky that Bear was so quick to drag him out of the way. Bucks are more aggressive than does and when Vaitelin's plan didn't work out right the deer had decided enough was enough. While Time wasn't sure it would have actually killed him, he still was thankful that he hadn't ended up being gored by the angry thing.... though the scars probably would have looked neat by the end.

"That was the most reckless attempt at a hunt I've ever seen! What kind of plan was that supposed to be? The one where you get someone killed?" and Bear was not happy. Anger sounded weird on him, he was normally very relaxed and easy-going.

"'Ay now, yeah the plan did kind of... fall apart at the end there but no one got hurt!  Sometimes you just got to think on your feet! The prey isn't always gonna respond how you think it will." Vaitelin responded in self-defense. Time hadn't bothered getting up from his place on the ground, yet, catching his breath after the long, draw out, chase and subsequent whiplash of being thrown by someone aptly named Bear. The painted wolf was half-bristled, having something of an aggressive stare-down with the hunter several feet away. Bear had nearly jumped the other, generally, friendly wolf when he had first reacted. Thankfully, Relis had jumped into the middle just in time to prevent blood being spilled but Bear still seemed eager to verbally tear the sandy-colored werewolf apart.... speaking of Relis, where had he ended up?

A sharp pang to his right quickly alerted him to Relis, who had been kneeling next to him for who knows how long, which he had somehow overlooked during the commotion between Bear and Vaitelin. The shock between both sudden pain and contact made Time draw away with an aggravated hiss.

"I am just checking to see if you broke anything when Bear threw you, even Gods can get fractured ribs." strange, Time couldn't help the distrust that gripped his lungs as he stared at Relis, he was certainly not the concerned or caring type so why would it matter to him even if he had cracked something? Apparently, the scowl he was giving wasn't enough to dissuade the golden-haired man.

"Please hold still, this should only take a minute." before he could even muster a disagreeable reply Relis had already moved a bit closer and prodded him in the side. Something that felt like it had just jabbed him in both the lung and the brain at the same time. Time hadn't been well acquainted with pain so, maybe, he had a poor tolerance for it but he could swear he could see stars. An undignified wheeze escaped him as a small amount of pressure was exerted to the curve of his mid ribcage. Yup, broken. Relis tsked, though if it was at his reaction or the situation he couldn't really say... not that he had much brainpower to think on it with how the world was spinning.

"Hey! Idiots!" Relis could be surprisingly loud and viper-like when he wanted to be. Time hadn't even noticed that Bear and Vaitelin were still arguing in the background, but he was well aware of its absence as the two fell silent at the interruption.

"Come here." a command. Time carefully removed Relis's hand from his side now, the seething that the blond was doing making him rather concerned that, if provoked, he'd end up causing more harm to his already broken ribs.

"'Ay, what's the glarin' for?" Vaitelin's voice was closer now, Time shifted so he could look at the group. At least the bickering between them hadn't led to anything worse than some harsh words. To call Relis's look 'glaring' was a little on the light side, though, if mortals could kill with a look the hunter would be quite dead. The blond outlaw nearly jumped to his feet, bristling.

"Take a wild guess, Viaite, want to ask Time why I am so mad?" the sandy-haired man turned his gaze to Time now, a confused look on his face, but Relis hadn't been being literal.

"You said 'no one got hurt', right? That's what you said. But you did not even bother to check, did you? So, why not come down here and check to see what the problem could possibly be." Vaitelin opened his mouth to respond but the second he did Relis just went back to talking. "No, really, come down here. Feel just how broken Time's rib is and tell me again about how no one got hurt."  a very odd thing for Relis to be defending him, really drove in the point that he had made earlier though.

"I said that if something happened it would be your fault, and this-" he gestured sharply at Time causing the young-god to flinch, his subconscious still labeling Relis as a threat despite his mortality. "- this is your fault. You should have allowed us to back off the target when the plan went astray, not pushed us to try to take it down at such an obvious disadvantage. You are the reason one of your fellow hunters is hurt and you do not even have the decency to ask." hopefully, Relis was done with his tirade now. The mix of his volume, sheer seething rage, and also the amount he had said left the lanky wolf sounding like he had just finished another hunt by himself.

"I.... he's a God, right?... I didn't know they could get hurt." a weak response that caused an ugly, short, laugh from the outlaw as he closed the distance between him and Vaitelin. While Vaitelin was a fair-sized man, Relis was much taller than him and his lankiness just added to how.... overwhelming he often felt. Time didn't envy the hunter with the current situation he was in.

"I'm sorry, I broke your ribs when I grabbed you, didn't I?" Bear asked, a suitably guilty look on his face.

"Don't worry so much, I'm a God not a doll, I just got really unlucky with a vengeful rock on the way down." an attempt at a joke, but he didn't look convinced... it would have to do, though, too much talking was painful. Returning his attention to Vaitelin and Relis, he was glad that the two's conversation seemed to have worked itself out without him needing to intervene. Relis looked a bit calmer, more self-satisfied than anything, and any defensiveness that Vaitelin had once presented seemed gone for the moment. Good, maybe they could get back to camp without any further problems. Time carefully got to his feet, trying to ignore the screaming in his side.

"Bad hunts happen, we still have food, we should return to camp before any more bad luck decides to find us." the rest of the group seemed to agree. Now... how was he going to explain this to everyone back at camp.

[dramable]

A Poem a Day: An Irreverent Review

Here’s a review for your enjoyment of the drama about poetry and stuff and people who unlike doctors are just normal folk like I don’t know physiotherapists. 

I won’t post the poster for the drama because honestly? It’s not memorable. Also, I don’t want.

I will also add a disclaimer: I like Lee Yubi and I also like poetry.I will also add that poetry loses a lot (everything) in translation or maybe I am just uncultured. I don’t know.

But honestly, A Poem a Day had a strong start but oh my god, it was boring.

That was me as I waited for something to happen. And it did, often, but not the kind of thing that I wanted to see. I mean, initially it was cute? Bo Young was cute even without a personality. She had some personality, I suppose but no opinions, nothing that grabbed me by the collar and demanded I give her my ardent support. 

The romance was cute for a while until the second lead became super annoying and I was hardpressed not to throw something at my screen leaving myself without a medium in which to watch things which would have been TRAGIC. I resisted, thank goodness. 

The major issue I had with this drama was that it felt contrived. Rather than allowing the story to breathe, it tried too hard to be something without going the proper distance. It tried to be meaningful without actually putting in the effort to be meaningful.

As an example, i give you one of the later episodes in which we are introduced to a doctor who works too hard and has a stroke and finds himself in the same situation his patients were in. Bo Young feels heartbroken for him as is her brand and cries and whatnot. Which is fine. On paper, this sounds like solid stuff to tug at heartstrings. HOWEVER, this doctor is entirely without weight. They introduce him in the same episode that he is a paragon of virtue, has a stroke, and deals with his diminished capabilities. 

There is no progression of his character, however slight it is; we don’t see him from the beginning. We don’t see Bo Young’s admiration for him until he is used as an obvious plot device so his struggle, his story feels hollow and without the emotional payoff it would have had had this character been present in whatever quantity from the very beginning. 

This is not the only time the author does things heavy-handedly and as a writer, I found her/his/their obvious manipulations to be discordant. The poetry too while beautiful in the language of origin feels extraneous to me. I wish they had used few poems and dedicated more time to a single one, perhaps uniting the themes among the characters. 

This drama was among my least favourite but hey, at least I got to see this kid and his alligator. He was the best thing about this drama, to be quite honest. Okay, that and the friendship between the three people. I wish they could have removed the romance entirely and focused on the friendship between these three people. The drama would have been so much stronger for it.

[ruffsficstuffplace]

The Keeper of the Grove (Part 69)

Qrow noticed the beam, pushed Ruby out of the car before he and Taiyang jumped out themselves, just barely avoiding getting incinerated along with it.

The flaming, falling wreck kept on going, headed straight for the others still on the floor, Yang, Blake, and Weiss unable to run for exhaustion or their injuries.

Winter rocketed through the air, stopping the wreck with a tractor beam before she threw it away to a deserted area of the park. Then, she zoomed over their heads, taking Pyrrha and Weiss along with her while leaving the others behind.

Qrow, Taiyang, and Ruby rolled on the ground, and hauled ass to the others, Taiyang stomping his feet and raising up walls of rock, dirt, and concrete behind them. The Queensguard reacted by destroying them almost as fast as they went up, with magnetically-accelerated bullets, energy blasts, and high-explosives.

Cinder screamed and flied up into the air, started blasting fireballs, blinding beams of superheated light, and making magma erupt all over Goldleaf Park to give both the surviving Heralds and Council forces cover to get the hell out of there as the Queensguard pulled back.

Weiss looked around as Winter sent her and Pyrrha zooming across Candela, suspended just in front of her in bubbles of energy.

The streets were deserted but for the peacekeepers and AFA roaming around in squad vans and tanks, thundering through the forgotten booths and stalls, helping tourists and citizens still trapped, and warding off looters and other criminals trying to take advantage of the chaos.

She frantically turned back to Winter, her face hidden underneath her helmet. “Winter, is that you?!”

“Snow Queen to Castle: both VIPs secured, en-route to Marhalika Avenue, and need extraction ASAP!” Winter barked. “I don’t know what the hell else these Tangos are capable of, and I don’t intend to find out!”

Then, she spared a glance at Weiss, and said, “Yes, yes it is, Weiss!” She smiled underneath her helmet. “We’ll get you both back someplace safe, somewhere where we can undo whatever the hell it is those people have done to you….”

Weiss tried to beat at her armour, found herself turning round and round inside her bubble. “Take me back! Take me back! Those people are my friends!”

“Mine too!” Pyrrha cried.

Under the helmet, Winter’s eyes widened. “Sweet Shepherd, it’s even worse than I thought...” she muttered as she made a hard bank to the right, Pyrrha and Weiss’ internal organs spared from the laws of physics with the help of the fields.

“You’ve got it all wrong, sis!” Weiss screamed. “They’re not the bad guys! They were trying to help us get away!”

“I second that!” Pyrrha cried.

“You mean take you two back to wherever they’re holding you hostage and brainwashing you!” Winter cried as she sped up, straight to Maharlika Avenue. “I got your message from Kajiki, Weiss—I’ve got a pretty good idea of how badly they’ve screwed up your head!”

“I meant every single word of it!” Weiss screeched, her voice getting hoarse from the strain. “I’m not going back! The Valley is my home now, and if you’ll just listen to me, we can go back there together!”

“What the hell are they doing to you back there?!”

“Everything I told you! Feeding me! Keeping me safe! Giving me things to pass the time with! I’m on parole now, actually, and now I work on a farm… and… well… I’ve even fallen in love with Ruby!”

Pyrrha blushed. “… I have too but with Penny instead, so I would really appreciate it if you please turn us around, and back to them, if it’s not too much trouble...!”

Winter looked at the both of them in turn as she began to fly down to Maharlika Avenue, and to a waiting jet with well-armed guards waiting. She gave Pyhrra to them, before she set Weiss down on her feet, and gently put her armoured hands on her shoulders.

“Weiss, as soon as things quiet down, we are having that talk about Stockholm Syndrome again, okay...?”

Suddenly, their comms crackled with Ironwood’s voice: “All units in Maharlika Aventue: MOVE OUT! I repeat: MOVE OUT!”

“What’s wrong, sir?!” Winter asked.

“Tango coming in hot on your position, and she’s bringing serious firepower!”

She frowned. “What the hell do they have, sir?!”

“JUST MOVE! And if you have to engage, you’re authorized to use every single thing you’ve got!”

They all looked up to the sky as a missile rocketed up to their position, before it stopped, revealing itself to be Cinder, her entire body not covered in flames so much as made of them. They all stared as she raised her hands, and meteors began to rain down from the sky.

“RUN!” Winter cried as she blasted off towards her.

“WINTER, NO!” Weiss cried as soldiers hauled her and Pyrrha off.

The meteors crashed into the street, leaving molten craters in the ground, destroying gigantic chunks of the faces and sides of the buildings around them, turning the jet into twisted wreckage as the whole place began to burn.

Winter and Cinder clashed, dashing and weaved through the air, trading bursts of energy, fireballs, missiles, jets of flame, lasers of pure concentrated magic and superheated light, the flames around them growing ever hotter and larger as their surroundings began to collapse and crumble.

“How the hell are you flying and fighting like this?!” Winter cried as she fired a lance of energy at Cinder

“With the same magitech you’re using!” Cinder cried as she dodged it.

“That’s impossible!” Winter cried as she readied seven more of them. “My Mk. IV’s the only one of its kind in Avalon!” she yelled as she fired them all at once.

Cinder destroyed them with a giant wall of flame, before she rushed through the smoke and fire, tackling Winter and pinning her to the side of a building. “In the human territories, at least...” she growled, before she raised a hand of pure fire with molten magma claws.

The temperature alarms in Winter’s suit were going insane, she could feel Cinder’s heat begin to melt her armour, blister her vulnerable skin underneath. She scowled at her as Cinder pulled her hand back, prepared to plunge it into her.

Suddenly, she screamed in agony.

Winter watched as ice exploded over Cinder’s body before it almost instantly turned to steam. More and more blasts began to land on her, coming in at a steady, rhythmic pace, like a squad were firing two sniper rifles as quickly as they possibly could, one after the other.

Back down on the ground and in the nearest safe intersection, Ruby continued to fire her scythe’s farslinger, Blake feeding it a constant stream of every medium they had on them, Taiyang holding the barrel steady and keeping them from flying off from the recoil.

Beside them, Pyrrha did the same with Penny holding her energy lance steady, and Weiss’ gloved hand on the receiver feeding it a constant supply of her unsealed magic. Some distance away, Yang and Qrow loaded the last of the unconscious or severely injured AFA soldiers into an unmarked van from the Plushie Palace.

“Sorry, boys, girls, and NB’s: nothing personal,” Qrow said as he and Yang grabbed the doors.

“Trust us: you’re going to hear about the reports tomorrow morning and think to yourself, ‘Man, I am so glad I got the shit beat out of me, or else I would have been right in the thick of that shit!’” she added before they slammed them shut.

The van took to the skies and away from the scene as news teams, Queensguard, and AFA started to rush in all around Maharlika Avenue, erecting energy barriers, keeping their distance, and watching with long-range optics as they tried to figure out exactly how the hell they were supposed to engage Cinder and the others without getting killed.

All the while, the group continued to fire elemental bolts at Cinder.

From what little Winter could see of herfrom her darkened optics, she was writhing in agony desperately trying to drive her flaming claw into Winter, stopped only by the constant rain of ice, electricity, fire, and metal.

Finally, she could take no more, screaming in pain and frustration as she flew off, her body turning back to normal as she fell to the ground…

… And just in time, too, as Ruby had completely run out of mediums, and Weiss’ once full mana bar was finally dipping dangerously close to empty.

Winter pushed off from the crater she was stuck in, reactivating her wings and blasting through the burning street to the only safe haven in sight—ironically and unfortunately, where one of the very, very, very few things she was terrified of was standing with her companions.

“Will someone please tell me WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?!” Winter screamed as she landed between Weiss and Ruby, frantically looking back and forth at them in turn.

“We’ll explain back at the Valley!” Weiss replied as they began to holster their weapons and pull out several air teleporation charms for all of them.

Winter blinked. “I’m sorry, you don’t mean the Viridian Valley, where the Keeper over there lives, right…? This is some other ‘Valley’ elsewhere in Avalon, right?!”

Weiss was about to reply, before they all saw a giant fireball heading straight for them.

Winter blasted forward and put up an energy barrier in front them.

Standing in the remnants of the broken and molten street in front of them, Cinder just sent another fireball, and another, and another, a constant rain of explosions erupting in front of Winter, her shield barely keeping it from the others.

“I hope you’ve got a plan, because I can’t keep this up forever!” she cried as she looked at her helmet’s HUD, noted the flashing red warning sign of her suit’s power supply.

“We’ll think of something!” Ruby cried. She turned back to the others. “Does anyone have anything?”

“ARE YOU FUCKING WITH ME RIGHT NOW?!” Winter yelled.

They ignored her and started thinking. Then, Taiyang snapped his fingers, sparks flying from his still metallic fingers. “I got it! Penny, Weiss: give me as much juice as you can possibly spare!”

“The hell are you planning, Tai?!” Qrow snapped.

Taiyang grinned. “Same thing we did for episode 38 of Rune Rangers: Guardians of the Grove!”

Qrow groaned. “You took seventeen takes to get that right!”

“That just means I have a lot of practice!”

Without much choice, Penny and Weiss grabbed either of Taiyang’s hands and began the transfer.

Winter’s energy barrier began to flicker, Cinder made a giant fireball and threw it at her.

Boom.

The shield and Winter’s power core gave out, she rocketed past them and to one of the barriers further up the street; her fellow Queensguard rushed out to catch her and brought her back behind the wall.

“WINTER!” Weiss screamed.

She let go of Taiyang’s hand and tried to run after her, before Yang grabbed her and pulled her back.

“FOCUS!” she yelled. “We’re ALL fucked if we don’t stop her!”

Weiss screamed in frustration, before she put her hand back onto Taiyang’s

Cinder panted for breath, shivering and aching from the bolts still ravaging her system. Penny and Weiss fell into Pyrrha and Ruby’s arms, exhausted from the transfer.  Taiyang ran up, his ironbark arms now glowing golden.

Cinder let out a harsh, strained laugh. “The hell do you think you’re going to do, soft-skin?!” she barked.

“Why don’t you find out?” Taiyang called out, making the “come at me” gesture.

Cinder sucked in a deep breath, and let out a roar of pure rage as she sent a giant fireball at Taiyang.

He grinned as he snatched it out of mid-air, spinning around from the momentum before he sent it flying back at Cinder.

Her eyes widened.

Boom.

Cinder staggered back, surprised.

Taiyang laughed. “Tsunami-Fist, baby! It’s a hell of a technique. Come on, give me all you’ve got, see what happens!”

Cinder growled, her ears pulling back as she began to circle a hand in the air, little flickers of light winking in front of her.

Taiyang’s smile disappeared. “Uh… you’re not casting more fireballs, are you...?”

Cinder chuckled as a halo of light appeared in front of her.

“No.”

Everyone had to shield their eyes as a blinding, searing beam of light erupted from Cinder’s hands. Taiyang braced himself, his arms reflecting it away from him and the others. Aircraft began to take evasive maneuvers as he started to get pushed back from the sheer power, the laser veering all around searing the faces of the buildings and the scorching the air around it.

He stomped his feet into the ground, burying himself into the street for support. “Does anyone have anything else?!” he asked through gritted teeth. “Preferably a better idea than what I had!”

They all wracked their heads, their expressions growing more and more desperate as Cinder kept on intensifying the beam, Taiyang struggled to reflect it.

And suddenly, Weiss had an idea. “Can Taiyang use the Tsunami-Fist to absorb Cinder’s power then into Ruby’s farslinger like a conduit?!” she asked.

“Theoretically, he could, but blocking Cinder’s beam is taking all of his concentration!” Penny replied. “We’ll need someone to do it for him!”

“Can I do it?” Weiss asked.

Penny frowned. “All that energy going through your body at once will likely kill you… unless you can distribute the excess energy among the rest of us.”

Qrow nodded as he stepped up. “How do we do that?”

“I’ll put my hands on Weiss’ body, and you all hold onto me in turn. Brace yourselves—this is likely going to be extremely painful!”

“Beats getting finding out what a well-done steak feels like!” Yang cried. “I’m game!”

“Count me in!” Pyrrha called out.

<Me too!> Blake said.

“Let’s do this!” Ruby yelled as she rushed forward beside Taiyang, planted the head of her scythe back in the ground.

“Do you really think this is going to work?!” Cinder snapped.

“We’re going to find out!” Weiss called out as they all got into position.

She put her gauntlet hand on Taiyang’s back, and pointed Myrtenaster’s tip into Ruby’s farslinger. Penny grabbed her waist, the others held onto hers, and on the count of three, Taiyang began to absorb the full force of the laser, and Weiss siphoned it out of him.

It hurt.

Like every single inch of Weiss’ body, her very being was being incinerated. Cinder’s magic ravaged her system, chaotic, uncontrollable, a force of pure, absolute destruction; she almost let go of Taiyang, gave up before she burned to ashes, when she felt something:

Penny’s healing magic pouring into her and keeping her together and redirected the brunt of the damage to the others; sweat poured down their skin, their knees shook and buckled, their knuckles were ghostly white as they just kept holding on, refusing to let go, refusing to let Cinder win.

It still hurt, but now, Weiss could focus just long enough to transform the white-hot light into freezing-cold ice, then send it straight into Ruby’s farslinger.

And then, when they could all take no more, she pulled the trigger.

A giant beam of freezing cold water shot out from Ruby’s scythe, the air around it turning to frost, the molten and scorched ground turning to ice, Cinder’s eyes widening as she saw it coming just a little too late.

The farslinger attachment exploded in a cloud of icy blue magic.

Everyone but Ruby collapsed to the ground and on top of each other, overwhelmed and exhausted.

Cinder was trapped in a giant iceberg, her horrified expression clear for all too see under the several inches thick layer of pure, crystal clear ice surrounding her.

Ruby fished out all of their teleportation charms from their pockets, activated them all at once as a twister of green magic swirled all around them.

All of Avalon watched as they literally vanished into thin air.

[thecosydragon]

My latest blog post from the cosy dragon: Interview with JW Golan

An Interview with JW Golan, author of the Stormfall Chronicles

What is your favourite Dragon in literature?

I will name two favourites: very different dragons, with very different reasons for appreciating each of them.

On the one extreme was the dragon Glaurung from J.R.R. Tolkien’s the Silmarillion. Glaurung was everything that you should expect from an evil, malicious dragon of legend. He was not just a great, fire-breathing monster, but a crafty, greedy, manipulator who took delight in how much misery he could inflict on others. Glaurung was the perfect embodiment of what an malicious dragon antagonist should be.

At the opposite extreme, were Anne McCaffrey’s dragons of Pern, who were depicted as partners with humanity with individual personalities of their own. Among the dragons of Pern, Ruth stands out by virtue of his intelligence and practical sense.

Why did you choose to become an author? What drove you to devote the hours needed to produce and polish a book?

As someone who has published both non-fiction, through a traditional publishing house, and fantasy as an indie author, I can say that in both instances I wrote because I had something that needed to be said. In both examples, there was a story that needed to be told, a story which fate had chosen myself to relay. In a very real sense, I was merely the conduit for its retelling. The story was already there, struggling to get outside. My only responsibility was to relay the tale to the best of my ability.

From among your published novels, is there one that is your own personal favourite?

I have released or will soon have released the first two installments in the Stormfall Chronicles. Comparing between the first two books, my beta-readers have concurred that the second novel is the better of the two. The first novel in the series really lays the foundation for everything that follows, and is a relatively short read – 300 pages in paperback versus 497 for the second book. The second book in the series, on the other hand, is where the tale rises to become an Epic Fantasy and not merely a High Fantasy.

Everyone has a ‘first novel’, even if many of them are a rough draft relegated to the bottom and back of your desk drawer (or your external harddrive!). Have you been able to reshape yours, or have you abandoned it for good?

My first attempt at crafting a fantasy novel came when I was in high school, decades ago. There are certainly elements and characters from that era which have remained with me and which found their way into my current series of fantasy novels, the Stormfall Chronicles. Many of those characters and elements, however, have evolved and changed over the years.

One of the reappearing characters of the Stormfall Chronicles, for example, is Eirlon. In his original incarnation, Eirlon was depicted as a powerful human mage. In his current incarnation, however, I have retained the character as a sage, whose knowledge and wisdom prove invaluable, but I have downplayed his own magical capabilities and have cast him as a gnome to further de-emphasize his role. On many levels, he has been overshadowed by other characters in the story. The result, I believe, is a more nuanced portrayal and overall story development.

Over the years, what would you say has improved significantly in your writing?

The most important changes in my writing abilities and style over the years have come from changes in perspective. When you’re experimenting with writing fantasy fiction as a high school student, your writing style and area of focus will naturally be heavily influenced by the novels and sources which you have most recently read.

With time, however, comes distance. And with distance comes perspective: the ability to see the larger picture of the story and how different story-telling techniques and elements can affect the reader’s experience. You become more self-aware as a writer, which places you in a better position to combine story-telling techniques and plot elements from a wider variety of influences.

Some authors are able to pump out a novel a year and still be filled with inspiration. Is this the case for you, or do you like to let an idea percolate for a couple of years in order to get a beautiful novel?

The Stormfall Chronicles was, for me, percolating for some time. The story combines some elements that I had experimented with decades ago, and others of more recent pedigree. So while it still takes me many months to compose and polish each novel, the story-arc which connects them was really developing across a decade or more.

The second novel in the series will be released in December of 2019, for example, eleven months after the first. And I’ve already begun the first draft for the third book. I’m expecting the original characters and story-arc to span a total of four novels, with material still remaining for both a prequel, and a stand-alone sequel set decades into the future.

So I suppose that for me, the ideas need to develop for some number of months or years, before the elements are mature enough to set the stories down.

I have heard of writers that could only write in one place – then that cafe closed down and they could no longer write! Where do you find yourself writing most often, and on what medium (pen/paper or digital)?

As a parent with a full-time job, I find myself writing whenever and wherever I can. Over lunch, at the table at home, while waiting for my daughters to untack their horses at the barn, wherever I happen to be.

I usually try to get my first draft down in digital form so I can begin to edit it, but it sometimes doesn’t work that way. If I have a particular scene that’s been brewing in my mind and nagging me to write it down, I’ll sometimes just write it out with pen and paper if I don’t the laptop at the time.

For editing, however, I always prefer paper medium. I need a quiet place where I can review and mark-up the printed copy, a process which will be repeated countless times before any scene is ready for my beta-reviewers to read.

Before going on to hire an editor, most authors use beta-readers. How do you recruit your beta-readers, and choose an editor? Are you lucky enough to have loving family members who can read and comment on your novel?

My teenage daughters, and in particular my two older daughters, have been my beta-readers for the Stormfall Chronicles since the beginning. They were really the audience whom I was aiming at when I wrote, and there are elements in the books that grew out of their personal experiences or the experiences of their close friends. Their added perspective has been invaluable, pointing out areas where I needed to add explanations, or scenes, or where additional atmosphere or character development was needed.

As for editing, my first published book was non-fiction, published in hardcover through a traditional publisher. It was an historical recounting dealing with a particular chapter of the Cold War era, and was ultimately published by a university press. Producing and editing a book for that audience was an exacting process. I went through countless revisions to get the manuscript ready for submission to the copy editor – who is expected to be the final step in the editing process. The copy editor is the one who formats the manuscript for the printer. If they find the manuscript to insufficiently polished as of that stage, they are expected to reject the text – not edit it for the author.

From that experience, I came away with an appreciation for how much editing and review was needed to prepare a manuscript for publication. I knew that if I could polish a scholarly manuscript until it was up to a university’s publishing standards, then doing the same for a fantasy novel should prove easily within my reach.

I walk past bookshops and am drawn in by the smell of the books – ebooks simply don’t have the same attraction for me. Does this happen to you, and do you have a favourite bookshop? Or perhaps you are an e-reader fan… where do you source most of your material from?

As someone who grew up with book shops and printed books, from before the digital age, there is a certain nostalgia for the printed medium. There are a number of book shops that I have fond memories of, most of which are long gone. I’ve had to learn to adapt to the e-reader medium, and have read a number of novels in that fashion now. But for certain books there will never be a substitute for having a hardbound or paperback copy on my shelf.

I used to find myself buying books in only one genre (fantasy) before I started writing this blog. What is your favourite genre, and have your tastes changed over time?

If I’m reading purely for entertainment, then I have an appreciation for both fantasy and science fiction – depending on what mood I am in.

I appreciate fantasy for its ability to transport us away from the everyday cares of the world we live in. That escape is a large part of I want out of fiction. I have to deal with enough real world consequences in my day job – and expect the fiction that I read to be worlds apart.

Conversely, I appreciate certain science fiction works, for their ability to comment on the world in which we live – and how technology has created new challenges and questions which humanity is still struggling to face. Which is why I am less drawn to the “space opera” genre, and more drawn to stories with a message about the world in which we live or may soon be facing.

For me, both fantasy and science fiction have a place – but with very different expectations and roles.

Social media is a big thing, much to my disgust! I never have enough time myself to do what I feel is a good job. What do you do?

Most of my social media energy is focused on either my blog page, or my Facebook page – the latter of which often mirrors whatever I have most recently posted to my blog. I do have an author’s Twitter account, but I make minimal use of it in comparison. I prefer both Facebook and the blog page, because they allow me to write at more length and in greater depth on the topics at hand.

I try to post an update at least once per week. If I’m in the midst of writing the next novel, I will usually post short articles describing my progress, or my observations about the writing process or perhaps about publishing in general. I did try to take a couple of months off between when I finished the first novel and when I started on the second, to catch up on other things which I wanted to do. Things like reviewing a novel or two, reviewing whatever anime I had been watching with my daughters, or writing short stories.

Answering interview questions can often take a long time! Tell me, are you ever tempted to recycle your answers from one to the next?

Although there is probably a certain amount of overlap in some of the general questions, I have been gratified to see many new or unique questions being raised. Coming at topics from different angles helps us to keep the subject fresh and allows for perspectives which might not otherwise have been added.

About the Author

A writer, father, and aeronautical engineer, J.W. Golan lives in New England together with his wife and three daughters.

The opportunity to write fantasy stories was once a youthful dream of his – something that he first experimented with in high school. In the intervening years, however, life happened: university, jobs, marriage, and children. Although he never completely ceased writing, he also had neither the time nor excess energy to complete a full-length novel.

It was his three daughters who reintroduced him to the world of fantasy fiction. Literature was something that all of them could share, discuss and compare – together with other fantasy and literary influences. He was able to introduce some of his favorites to his daughters, and they in turn, introduced him to some of theirs.

It was this latter experience, sharing and discussing stories and literature, that convinced him to try his hand at composing fantasy novels once again: weaving together tales and ideas that had been circulating in his mind for decades. It is his hope hope that the resulting stories and characters are as fun for others to read as they were for him to write.

from https://ift.tt/2S59yg0