fantasy writer Archives | A.S. Akkalon

The kind of book I love to read and want to write

I describe my ideal book–a high fantasy novel that takes me on an emotional journey–and offer to beta read for you if you wrote it. Or if you’re nice.

When friends in real life ask me what kind of books I write, I tell them “fantasy with dragons”. This has the benefit of being a) true and b) uninformative.

What? Not all books have dragons?

The short answer is that I write the kinds of books I most like to read. (Doesn’t everyone?)

Here’s the long answer about what I love to read and try to write.

A fantasy author asks, who is my audience?

I attempt to find and befriend an audience for my fantasy novels (that don’t yet exist) on Twitter. Dragons may or may not be involved.

I read a lot about writing, and one of the uncomfortable pieces of advice I run into repeatedly is this: no matter what kind of book you write, your audience is not “everyone”.

What do you mean everyone won’t like my book? But it’s going to be awesome (or so the writing elves tell me). How could anyone not like it?

The conversation that finally convinced me of the truth of the advice went something like this:

Hubby: I’ve finished my book and I don’t know what to read next.

Me: Why don’t you read [favourite book that is the most amazingest thing ever that I would marry and eat and wear all at the same time if I could]?

Continue reading “A fantasy author asks, who is my audience?”

How to win a fantasy writer’s heart

Fantasy writers can be bewildering creatures, one minute asking for help with a gnarly plot point, the next scolding you for daring to offer it.

They have big dreams and fragile confidence, and are more at home among the inhabitants of their imaginary worlds than at a dinner party among their friends.

Their pockets are misshapen from carrying a notebook and pen, and they’ve probably been stopped at least once by airport security for trying to take a sword onto a plane. (Or maybe that was just me.)

Read the rest of this guest post on Anna Kaling’s blog.

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