Q & A.

So I have friends asking me shit about the book(s) constantly, be it about the book itself, its inner workings or anything related to it. Normally I dismiss these questions as I can't be arsed answering them, but over the weekend, I asked them to ask questions via facebook which I will answer here, and shall also update with other questions that make be asked down the road.

How do you pick names for characters?

Ha, I don't really. I tend to make up names and if I like it and it sort of suits the character, it will stick.
On occasion, if playing a game or watching a movie, I might steal the name. The blacksmith Dwynn in FT2 was the name of a cowardly dwarf in the game Dragon Age: Origins, I chose Dwynn for the blacksmith because dwarfs by lore are supposed to be brilliant craftsmen.
And Jareth, his name is also the name of the Goblin king from the film Labyrinth.
I don't steal names often though, I think I have stolen maybe four or five.
Then there are names like Ferenc which have hidden meanings. Ferenc is old Iclandic for franc, which is another name for French, nobody likes the French and nobody like Ferenc.
There are some based on mythological lore like Lorelei, Bahamut etc, but I didn't really want to change their names as I want it to be a homage to these great mythological beings.

Why did you choose to use fairytale creatures over the regular fantasy races (elf, dwarf etc)

Because I wanted to do something different. Everything fantasy seems to focus on these. Dragon Age, Elder Scrolls, Tolkien and many more. It's cliché.
I must admit, I've used goblins and trolls, but I have twisted them, the goblins aren't ugly evil creatures, they're now intelligent and civil and the trolls whilst still being seen as barbaric are also intelligent and they too show signs of civility.
Also, I love faeries and fairytales, and the original poem Faerie-Tale is based on was about a faerie, so it only made sense to keep it as such.

What the hell were the dreams about in the first book?

Sadly I can't answer this as it will be revealed during The Enchantment War.
I will tell you this though, when I was writing them in, they served no real purpose and I kinda hoped their reason would manifest itself. It wasn't until I really started planning the second book that I figured out what they are.
Originally though, they were to represent Elloria's drive to keep moving forward, a figment of her imagination only, though the necklace she is gifted says otherwise, but I had always given myself a scapegoat to that with the fact she was drowning and could have subliminally grabbed it from the river bed.

Will you try to outdo book 1s dragon fight?

Oh yes! I got an idea about this last year, and it's pretty kick-ass, again I can't say nothing of it as it will spoil the event.

Is Elloria actually scared of anything?

You mean aside from shadow monsters than hunt her through a forest? Yes, she's not fond of insects but she is absolutely terrified of spiders. This is evident in Dark Day woods of the first book and I shall be using a similar setup in FT2 and turing it up to 11.

Will you be resuming writing chronicles any time soon?

Yes. As soon as I've finished the edit of the first book, I shall get back to writing The Dematri'aan Chronicles

I've always wondered what keeps you going? What pushes you to keep on writing?

Good question as I actually have no real intention of publishing it.
I guess the answer is that's its now such a big part of my life that it's almost habitual, but I also need to get the story out of my head. My noodle is constantly thinking about Faerie-Tale, but once it's over, I'll be free of its grip.

Are the any hidden metaphors/messages?

Not that I'm aware of.
Metaphors, definitely not, though if it were published, some prick could maybe think that Elloria's pink dress is representative of her innocence and as time goes on, her dress becomes filthy, ragged and stained, indicating a loss of innocence.
Bollocks pal, her dress is pink, end of!
As for a meaning, I guess the only suitable one would be that sometimes it's better to dream as the reality may be a nightmare instead.

How did u come come up with the name Elloria?
it's a beautiful name!

Thanks.
Believe it or not, its origin comes from this chick.

Her name is Ellie Dibble. Back in 2007/2008 she used to be a host on a late night phone in quiz show called Pop the Q.
I was actually addicted to this, I'd watch it every night from midnight to 4am.
One night as I was planning Faerie-Tale, she referenced herself as Ellie D.
I remember saying it to myself and thinking it sounded like quite a nice name and wrote it down in my note book as Elliedee.
When I first starting writing Faerie-Tale, I used that name, which then soon became Elladee, but it didn't quite sound right and I was reading up on Greek mythology and came across Rhea, mother of Zues.
I toyed around with the name, switched the spelling and it became Ellaria. It still didn't look right, so I changed the middle 'a' to an 'o', Elloria was born.
There are still throwbacks to the Elladee name as her mother in the prequel and her sisters sometimes refer to her as Ellie and/or Ella.

Have you ever thought of expanding the world once you have finished the trilogy?

Actually I have.
I've got ideas for a prequel which I've outlined before as Wasteland, but I wouldn't mind also exploring other aspects of ariy'aan, its history etc.
Once the trilogy is finished, that's it for Elloria, her story is over and she won't be seen again as a character. Maybe referenced depending on the time-line of the spin-off story but other than that, she'll be retired.

Just how many of your characters are loosely based on family and people you know?

The three sisters are loosely based around me and my sisters, their mannerisms and the way they carry conversation is based off of the ones I share with my family.
But Serra, my closest friend is also the basis for Elloria's darker side, other than that all characters are based on the personality traits I give them.

Do you pre-plan your stories? If so, how?

Yes, I write notes. I normally have a large scale overview of what I want to do with the story, FT1 was cross the forest, FT2 is retrieve the Sorceress sword and FT3 is dethrone the empress.
Once I have this in mind, I start thinking of what I call set-pieces. Large events that serve as plot markers, from there I plan smaller events that will happen between the large events and in between those, I make it up and work off of notes that just are, they have no relevance, they're mainly just awesome shit that has no real place.
That's pretty much how I plan my stories.

FT3 is supposed to be set 2000yrs after FT2, was this always the plan?

Yes and no.
Originally Faerie-Tale was to be set in the 1400's, it was going to be a story about why there are no more enchanted creatures., FT3 was going to be set in the present day and basically be a mirror of FT1, which would be that of a human obsessed with Faerie's goes on a search for the "lost" fae kingdom of Dematria. The human would eventually find the kingdom and in turn meet a very bitter and resentful 600yr old Elloria who would without question send the human to execution.
Unfortunately, the historical time-line for what I wanted didn't match, mainly in terms of technology, so I decided to move FT to a post apocalyptic future 200'000yrs later. This also gave rise to the mutation origin of the Enchants.
This also meant that I had to change FT3 as I could no longer keep my original idea, but this is also when I decided to set it in an advanced future which will greatly contrast the first two books, but still keep the same spirit.

How the hell have you still got such a imagination to be able to write such stuff at your age?

Because I enjoy such things, because I don't have to act "mature" around my friends to win their approval like with most people my age and because I just have a very active imagination with a lot of imaginative stimuli.

How did you originally come up with the story?

Originally, I had this image of a bunch of Faeries riding into battles on unicorns.
This is The Enchantment War. Then I started asking myself the question, why are they at war?
I pondered about this and in the meantime wrote this poem.
I then decided to turn this poem into an epic poem, then decided to turn it into a full novel (with some drastic but necessary changes), though the ending was originally different and didn't lead to a sequel, when I changed the ending, I thought back to that vision and connected the two.

What have been your biggest influences?

Alice in Wonderland and Labyrinth are my main influences for the first book, the games Dragon Age: Origins and God of War II are my main influences for the second and Ghost in the Shell: The Stand Alone Complex and Mass Effect 2 are my main influence for the third and all three have influence from the Tomb Raider series of games.

Whats your preferred environment for writing?

Either in my office, with no distractions and music that has specifically chosen based on its style which can lead to inspiration for whatever playing, or on my laptop in the living room watching a film.

Are there any homages to other works?

Several, Jareth is a homage to the goblin king from Labyrinth, there's a scene in chapter 6 of Faerie-Tale that references The Terminator films,the demon bull (Gulli) is a reference to Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation (fact tidbit, the whole asylum bull battle was originally written as part of a Tomb Raider fan-fic)
I won't list them all, but they're definitely there.

Was the story for Faerie-Tale always the way it was planned?

Pretty much, yeah. Though as I've said before, I never planned for it to be longer than 100 pages, that definitely changed, and the ending was altered but all in all it's pretty close to how I envisioned it.

We have lift off.

As I've said, I'm back on board with writing FT2, even though I never finished editing the first book. It seems like I haven't had any time away from it, but I'm glad I did because I am refreshed and now plouging through the book with renewed enthusium. Also, 90% of it is now fully planned.
The only thing I really have left is a couple of events in the second part and the little things (the way I write is that I have events A, B, C etc already planned and I improv the things that happen inbetween)
So yeah... I'm firing on all cylinders now.

Back on the job.

I'm back to my writing after a pretty lengthy break, and it feels good to be doing so. I never did get finished with editing FT, but I'm going to continue doing so inbetween my writing of its sequel.
Sadly, The Dematri'aan Chronicles will still be put on hold until it is finished.

Why had i never thought of it before?

It's so simple and I feel foolish for have never doing so. Especially with the second book.
Sibling rivalry.
I briefly allude to it within The Dematri'aan Chronicles and somewhat in The Princess Odyssey with Layanna taunting Elloria for her obsession with humans. But I've never shown them as sisters so to speak.
I've always based their relationship on the one I have with my own sisters, in that we're supportive of each other, playful and will tell each other straight, but the rivalry dynamic between us does occur from time to time. And it's always one on one with the other sister acting as a mediator that stops the "fighting".
What you'll read next is a rough draft of one of these spats between the Fae sisters, and whilst the situation is unique to me, the overall tone is something that I have experienced, and any feedback would be welcomed.

Key: E = Elloria. K = Keela. L = Layanna

* The sisters hear something rustling from beyond the bushes, a bear springs forth.
E. "RUN!"
*The sisters run, L looks back, trips. She turns over and backs away on her rear, calling for help (movie cliché)
* E comes out of nowhere with a dagger in hand, jumps on the bears back and stabs it repeatedly in the neck until it dies.
* L gets up.
E. "I told you to run! Why did you look back?"
L. "Because..."
E. "No, not because. You sacrificed footing for a glance at your assailant. You lost focus!"
L. "But..."
E. "And then you stayed on the ground, cowering".
L. "Yes, but"
E. "Next time I tell you to run, you run! No looking back, just move as fast and as far as your legs can carry you."
* L pushes E
L. "How dare you talk to me like that! You may be my Queen, but you're still my baby sister"
* E pushes L
E. "I'm sorry for wanting to try and keep you alive. But lest you forget, I've been in this situation before! You think a damn bear is bad? Try running from a black, shapeless... Thing, in the dark with little to no light and terrified because it's hounded you for over a week and nothing you do to it seems to even have the slightest effect!"
* E pushes L again
E. "You want to stay alive, you do as I say! So if I say run, you run. Do you understand?"
* L slaps E
L. "Don't you ever talk down to me sister!"
E. "Do that again if you dare"
* L slaps E again.
* E raises her hand, ready to strike L, K grabs E's hand and stops her.
K "Will you two knock it off?"
E. "She started it!"
L. "Did not"
E. "Did so"
K. "I don't care who started it! I'm not going to walk through a strange forest on the other side of the world with you two fighting!"
E. "Whatever"
* E storms off, angry.
L. "Oh that's very mature and majestic that! The mighty warrior Queen of the Fae, sulking"
K. "And you can shut up as well! I don't care if you're the eldest, or if she's the damn Queen, I'll knock both of your arses to the ground if you carry on!"
L. "I'd like to see you try"
K. "Don't tempt me... Now move!"
* L sets off, gritting her teeth and mumbling incoherently. K sighs and follows.

Something new and simple.

I've been busy as you know (if you know me) and I've read my main blog (Everyone in the world is crazy) and I've noticed there are a lot of Faerie-Tale related posts. So to separate the FT posts from the EITWIC blog, I shall be moving them all here and all future FT updates shall be here within this blog page.
It's nothing extravagant, it's just something simple and it's more for me because the FT related rambling of my head-brain are hard to keep track of, and whilst I do have things noted down, it can be hard to find the notes so it'll all be here for my own convenience.
Also, I'd like to note that the Letters from the Wasteland page has been scrapped because I don't think it would go anywhere and the Dematri'aan Chronicles will resume when I have the time. I've been really busy and can't really keep on top of things at the moment. So just please bear with me on that.
Thank you.

The writing of FT2 shall resume soon

Righty... I've decided that I'm going to be resuming writing FT2 in the new year, whether or not I've finished editing the original book.
I have had a lot to focus on lately, so I haven't had much time for anything, but now. like I did when I was originally writing FT, I will be setting aside at least an hour a day to finish it. So that gives me a little over two months to finish editing. That should suffice... And to be quite honest, I cannot wait to get re-started on The Enchantment War.

The future of Faerie-Tale

Three years on and I'm still working on Faerie-Tale, despite the fact I finished it last summer... Finished, not completed.
As of now I'm just giving it a final edit, making sure it all flows, sorting grammatical errors and the like and also adding new bits (not much) if they're needed.
But this isn't the reason why I'm writing this post. What it is, is that I hate my brain, whilst Faerie-Tale has always been envisioned as a trilogy, I've never been able to solely focus on the one story, whilst writing the first, I was also planning the second. Now that I'm writing the second (Well, it's actually on hold whilst I sort out FT) I'm planning the third. I'm always several steps ahead. A good thing in a way, but also bad because I now have several notepads filled with stuff I can't even use (yet)

A while back, I decided to do a fourth book after "FT3", but I've since scrapped that idea. The basic premise was the "Arcanic realm" bursts through to the real world and Elloria essentially ends up sacrificing herself to stop it. Thus ending the Ellorian saga.
But now I have a new idea for a fourth book. "Wasteland"
That's just it, no "Faerie-Tale" heading like the other three will have, just "Wasteland" (Maybe The Wasteland, I'm not sure yet)
It will be a prequel of sorts to the Faerie-Tale series, but it will be its own beast altogether.
The plot for the story is as follows.

A few years from now, the economy completely collapses, most of the world is left destitute. Plague levels rise and sweep through the homeless, killing millions of the populous as they can no longer afford healthcare.
Whilst everyone is left to die from hunger and disease, the governments still argue over oil, the price of which has rocketed to unimaginable prices. Tensions fray and allied nations turn on each other.
The "End War" begins as military forces mobilise, but after one country launches its entire nuclear arsenal, the other countries follow suit. The "war" lasts less than three hours, the world is obliterated and left in darkness as the ash falls from the sky, coating everything in grey whilst the sun is shrouded behind nuclear clouds... Nuclear winter sets in shortly after. Freezing the Earth.
The nuclear holocaust also caused the "Ring of fire" to be set off, all around the globe volcanoes erupt and further help to blot out the sun. Earthquakes and tsunamis ravage the planet as 99.5% of all life on Earth is wiped out in a matter of weeks.
Most of the remaining lifeforms have moved underground, to cave systems, sewers, subways and those who knew nuclear extinction was inevitable reside in special military bunkers... Life crawls on.

Twenty years after the world has ended, a wanderer leaves the safety of the bunker where a basic community has started back up, in order to return to the place where their family was killed during the protests that occurred during the economy collapse.
The wanderer is not alone, s/he has a single companion who will accompany them and brave the cold, harsh, radioactive wasteland that is now filled with rabid animals and cannibalistic "raiders" under a permanent cover of darkness in order to reach their destination... Will they survive the journey, or will they finally succumb to the hell that humanity inflicted upon itself all them years ago?

Eyara's Lament

So I've just finished editing Eyara's Lament, a short story prequel to my book Faerie-Tale: The Princess' Odyssey. (Faerie-Tales new full title) so I thought I'd talk about it a bit because it was tough to write, and tough to re-read.

Writing this was tough for me because of the content within it, and although the basics of the story are explained within Odyssey, I feel it was necessary to tell the story in full.

Aside from detailing the tragic events, it also gives insight into what the Kingdom of Dematria used to be like before the tragedy, what Jareth was like before and ultimately what Eyara was like. Which I feel was most important as she is to play a vital role in the second book The Enchantment War.

On top of everything, there are some interesting parallels I've thrown in, such as the carpenters shop that has replaced Eyara's family bakery, this is the same workshop Elloria will visit 18 years later and the apprentice becomes the master.

There are little things like that dotted throughout, though without Odyssey they are useless references.

My goal when writing this was to create a perfect life, a fairytale life if you will... And then tear it all down. And I did just that, and upon editing it, because I know the character of Elloria so well, I found myself smiling as she played with her mother in the palaces gardens, but I honestly found it hard to continue knowing what was about to come next. I honestly feel cruel for creating this character who rose up from poverty to have this dream life, and then destroying in one fell swoop.

When I'd originally written it, I remember sitting there in silence for about half an hour, not able to comprehend what I'd just written, and it's not like I could just take it away and make it "not true", it's a core element to Odyssey's plot so it had to be done.

But it's writing this that gave me the idea of letting Elloria get retribution later on, though at a price. Her actions corrupt her and she struggles with accepting the fact she enjoys taking the lives of those who deserve it, yet she doesn't want to become the thing she hates so it creates a duality within her.I'd love to talk more about the whole thing, but I have work to do so I will leave it here for now and possibly do a similar post once I've finished editing Odyssey.

Finished

My book that is.
It's been a long and strange journey writing that, right from its conception I always had more ideas than I could handle... Which will actually split it into a trilogy.
Though to be honest, the idea for the second book came first, which was just the image of a faerie riding a unicorn into battle.
Then I got thinking, how did this battle start? Is it a war? How did that start? Then I began piecing together the wars origin which soon became Faerie-Tale.
Even though it is a trilogy and that I shall be re-using the same characters, I'm saddened by the fact I no longer need to write FT (Faerie-Tale) anymore, it's been with me for so long now and has journeyed through key moments of my life with me.
My wedding, the opening day of my salon, finding out I was pregnant, the UK road trip, birth, my darling daughters first smile.
All that in the space of just a little over two years. And through the two years the concept of FT was with me, it had become a part of me.
Now, I didn't really start writing until Christmas of 2008 (I had bits and pieces complete, but nothing major) but the idea and planning had been in my head since May of that same year... And now... Now it's not there... There are no more plot ideas to think of, no more new ways to drive the story forwards, no more striving to reach the ending... It's just done and laid out exactly as how I had envisioned.
Sure I'm proud of this, as I never thought I'd finish it, hell, I only just finished writing Chapter 9 of 25 this Christmas Eve just passed.
But it's gone and I don't really know what to do with myself, sure I have the sequels to write and the odd spin-off book, but I just feel lost not having FT to write anymore.
It feels as if I've lost an old friend, though I'll always remember the good times we had.

Doing a Frankenstein

So I'm writing this book, Faerie-Tale... yeah, snappy title I know, but I feel with it I have created something now far beyond my control.
It started out as a simple poem (which will be on my other page "Live, Laugh, Love" when I decide to put it up) and from there, I wanted to expand on it, open it out, so out came this idea for a book.
Well, actually what came first was the idea of an epic poem and the image of a faerie riding a unicorn and waving her sword around like a... well... fairy.
BUT that simple idea has evolved, I thought, "yeah, a nice easy project for me to work on".
It was originally going to be 100 pages long and spread out over 5 chapters with about 20 pages in each, I still keep that estimate as a guideline, but now I'm looking at 25 chapters and as I write, I'm constantly coming up with new ideas, new things to add, i know that it isn't actually a bad thing, but I set myself deadline, and I can never meet them, I know I shouldn't set them, but without them I'd hardly get anything written.
But beyond the ever evolving story, I have also written a simple 25 page prequel, and I have plans for two sequels, while the third book is actually still quite the mystery to me, the second book is pretty much fleshed out.
It will be double the size of the one I'm writing now... at least, and will actually jump around three separate plots and time-lines with each chapter, like in The Grudge, the story doesn't follow a set chronological path!
On top of this, I have also got plans to write a years worth of diary entries for my books main heroine... Sometimes I just feel like I have created a monster as this project seems to dominate so much of my time and my life... and even though I have a child on the way I'm still going to set time aside to finish this work... all of it! maybe after it's all done, I can finally lay it to rest and be done with it... but it's me so I doubt it...
Especially with the idea me and my husband concocted back in 2008 for a zombie horror novel... or three...