eight intriguing author remarks

[asakiyume]

Tomorrow Thursday is the last day to grab the indie fantasy bundle, so if you have friends who might be interested, let them know. In fact, I have five giveaway codes that I haven't used yet, so send them to comment here (my journal won't allow anonymous comments, but they can sign in with Twitter or Google Plus or Open ID if they're not on LJ)--I'll select randomly from the people who comment. (I'll make the offer on Twitter, too.)



Meanwhile, here is a game: Each of the authors in the fantasy bundle was interviewed by one of the other authors. Can you tell which quote goes with which author? Just take a guess :-)

Here are the authors and their books

1. Brad Beaulieu, The Winds of Khalakovo
2. Sherwood Smith, Lhind the Thief
3. CJ Brightley, The King's Sword
4. Judith Tarr, Arrows of the Sun
5. Francesca Forrest, Pen Pal
6. Scott Marlowe, The Five Elements
7. Blair MacGregor, Sand of Bone
8. MCA Hogarth, The Worth of a Shell

And here are the quotations from their interviews:

A. I got fixated on having to follow the Chosen One through the entire narrative. It took me a long time to figure out that there was no chosen one, not really.

B. When you write in genre, readers have expectations based on the structures and tropes of the genre. You can play around with those, but you seriously have to respect them.

C. writers will often develop much, much more than actually shows up on the page, and that’s the approach I took here. I wanted it to be a rich world.

D. The questions of loyalty and honor and promises kept in the face of moral ambiguity, ethical questions, and brutal combat... All of those remain.

E. I loathe helplessness in real life and in fiction. I enjoy peril only if the threatened characters have a glimmer of agency.

F. I’m intrigued by the different ways throughout history that people and society have dealt with war and the emotional aftereffects of trauma.

G. For example, we all know electrical current travels through a wire. In my world, instead of wires there are tubules, and instead of electricity, a wide array of energy types, such as alchemical, elemental, emotional, magical, and others.

H. The basic story stayed the same: two seemingly helpless people whose friendship helps make them both heroes.

So--which letters go with which numbers? (If you want to cheat, blairmacg has all the interviews linked in this entry)

Comments

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Re comment "E": I can so relate to that! And would add "I loathe when people with agency proclaim helplessness."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes--I agree with you on both counts -_-

[amaebi.livejournal.com]

Oh, man, yes.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

On a guess...

Number 1 "The Winds of Khalakovo": Sounds like it's about a large world. Quote "C"

Number 2 "Lhind the Thief" maybe quote "A". Chosen One, name in the title seems to fit.

Number 3 "The King's Sword": Quote "D". Honor and King, morality and sword... yeah. Might be a theme.

Number 4 "Arrows of the Sun" and Quote "G". Because it seems like the only title that reminded be of energy!

Number 5 "Pen Pal" is about friendship, so quote "H".

Number 6 "The Five Elements": Quote B. Because that's a genre title, if I have ever seen one. 5 heroes with power? A group of friends? Some magic?

Number 7 "Sand of Bone": Quote "F". The title sounds ancient and like hiding a story...

Number 8 "The Worth of a Shell" ... sea shell? Uhm "E". It's the only one I have left. Maybe if it goes all "ghost in the shell" route also "G".

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thank you for playing! You were right about two: 1 is indeed C, and 5 is indeed H. I love your logic for your choices of the others, even though the correct answers are different--still, very good guesses. You're entered in the drawing! (I was wrong to say the bundle stops being available tomorrow; it's Thursday--I'll post winners here on Thursday.)

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Yay! :D

Is Quote A then belonging to "The King's Sword" and vice versa? I was a bit unsure about these two.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

'fraid not! Unfortunately, I chose the quotes for their memorability as quotes and not for how well they matched the story, which was kind of (very?) unfair of me. Let me give you another line from that same interview--not that it will necessarily help, but.... Okay, this may help:

My first problem being that I'm writing a marginal society: it has so few people surviving in it that a war on the scale of something out of epic fantasy would wipe away the unjust society by rendering the species extinct.

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Maybe "The worth of a shell?" I mean extinction / worth could be linked? But in my mind it now seems to fit to several of those titles. ^^"

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You're right! That's the one :-)

[silberstreif.livejournal.com]

Wow... *totally surprised*

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

!!! Not three more days?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My mistake; you're right--it's Thursday! I'll fix the entry.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

OK, now that I'm more awake, I'll make some guesses. I've read some of the interviews but not all and can't quite remember what I read where!

A) Judith Tarr
B) CJ Brightley
C) Brad Beaulieu
D) Blair MacGregor
E) Sherwood Smith
F) MCA Hogarth
G) Scott Marlowe
H) Penpal all the way, baby! oh, um, Francesca Forrest

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You have one pair reversed, but the rest are all correct :-) Oh wait, no, you have a couple more three wrong.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

The three you need to reconsider are A, B, and F. What if I gave you this quote for A:

My first problem being that I'm writing a marginal society: it has so few people surviving in it that a war on the scale of something out of epic fantasy would wipe away the unjust society by rendering the species extinct.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

And these were exactly the three I hesitated most on. :P Hmmm....

So, perhaps

A -CJB
B - MCAH
F - JT

???

S orry for the brevity; typing while nursing a kickoy. :Ping b...er kicking boy. See how hard yhat iss?


;p

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

This (href) will clear you up on A at least. And you might enjoy following the author (http://haikujaguar.livejournal.com), who has a child somewhat older than sprout and is also an artist.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

LOL kickoy :D That would be a good nickname!

[queenoftheskies.livejournal.com]

I just got them all converted into Nook-speak and downloaded onto my Nook over the weekend. Hope to have the time to start reading them soon.

Some will be re-reads for me. Looking forward to those, too. :)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I'm such a slow reader. I finished Sherwood's, and now I'm on Blair's--which is awesome.

[yamamanama.livejournal.com]

I know it's horribly off topic but guess who has the third song on their demo on Youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buqk1Vke_Sw)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Way to go Emma! She sounds great!

[dudeshoes.livejournal.com]

Is the Pen Pal author E?

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

No, although the Pen Pal author agrees with the statement!

[c-maxx.livejournal.com]

Will you enter me, if a comment is all that's needed, or am I missing something?

Thx either way, will try to ck back tomrw!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yep, you're entered! And your comment made me realize that I had better tell people *today* if they've won, so that they can still buy the bundle, if they want, if they don't win.

And thanks for your email, too--will respond shortly.

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

I've squeaked in, with 27 hours to spare! Thanks for telling me about the Bundle - I'm looking forward to lots of reading over Tet! :)