You have described your Outcast Chronicles trilogy as a fantasy family saga. How did you approach weaving developments in family relationships across the three novels, while still giving each novel its own focus?

The characters of the Outcast Chronicles (OC) are related to each other but theirs are not your traditional families.  The trilogy explores a society torn apart by discrimination and persecution. There are the True-men, who consider themselves better than the mystics. And there are the half-bloods who are born, caught between two worlds. My goal with this series is to explore the long term ramifications through the generations. The first three books set up the story. Sorne is the disinherited son of the king, born with mystic traits. He spends a lot of the first book trying to win his father’s love and gain the respect of True-men. And then there is Imoshen, who was born a mystic, but finds herself caught up in a feud between the mystic sisterhoods and the brotherhoods.

What is it that attracts you so strongly to writing fantasy, as opposed to other kinds of fiction?

Like science fiction, fantasy can hold a distorted mirror to the real world to help us see things more clearly. This is what Terry Pratchett does with his Disc World books. By creating a secondary world, the author can set up events to test their characters and force them to question their assumptions.

Your novel The Price of Fame is a paranormal mystery, which is a bit of a departure from your usual high fantasy. What inspired you to write a paranormal mystery novel?

I read and write across the genres. The first draft of The Price of Fame was written over thirty years ago. It has gone through several incarnations before reaching this point. The craft of building a mystery is similar to the craft of building a secondary fantasy world. The writer must decide what to reveal and when to reveal it and everything must make sense.

You regularly go to book conferences and festivals. What are some of the highlights of these events for you?

Catching up with fellow writers and readers. I like attending panels, where the participants make me go wow, I must read their books. Then I’ll buy a stack of books at a convention and read my way through them.  I’m going to have to cull my bookshelves again soon. Sigh…

You have interviewed a range of novelists and other book related people on your author website. What is one of the insights brought to light through these interviews which stands out to you personally, and why?

Writers come from a lot of different backgrounds, but the one thing they have in common is a fascination with people and the world. I think human beings use narrative to make sense of the world. This is why story is so powerful.

If your next novel had to have no fantasy/paranormal/speculative element, what might you write about?

I find no matter what genre I write, I explore the human condition and the relationships between people, between the powerful and the powerless, often this means between the genders or between those in power and those who are persecuted. I like to ask the question: how can we remain true to ourselves in an imperfect world?

Who is one of your favourite fictional characters, and what makes this character stand out for you?

This might sound really corny, but I do enjoy Sherlock Holmes. I’ve read everything Conan Doyle wrote on Holmes. I particularly like the way the character has been re-imagined in the contemporary  Sherlock series which stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Sherlock and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson.  I like stories about flawed human beings and Sherlock, for all his intellect, is a flawed human being.

What is next for your fiction writing?

I’m currently writing book four of the King Rolen’s Kin series, tentatively titled, King-maker, King-breaker. I have lots of wonderful (read terrible) things planned for my characters. The challenge is to juggle the writing with my day job. Sometimes I wish I could just run away to write!

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Rowena Cory Daniells author site: www.rowena-cory-daniells.com

Outcast Chronicles book trailer

The Price of Fame book trailer

The Australian Literature Review
www.auslit.net

The fun, like any description, is in the detail because world building is a giant description or, in a sense, character building. It’s the details that will draw the reader in and make the world more real – the blood-red sap that oozes from the slash in the cactus-like plant, seeping around the needle-sharp thorns until it drips on to the sand, sizzling and billowing back as a smoky gas that burns the nasal passages and gags in the throat.

Okay, a bit too much there. Still, it’s the details that count and as the writer you need to choose the details that are important for the reader to understand the world. Sometimes that’s easy, sometimes the ideas are so firmly imbedded in your head you need someone to tap you on the shoulder and say ‘Ah, I didn’t quite get what you meant …’ Bugger! Back to the drawing board.

So, basically stick with the aspects that your plot or theme revolve around or that you need for your character building and leave the rest to the reader’s imagination. A good travel brocher only points out ‘appealing’ details – substitute interesting, alarming, exciting, terrifying, etc. After all, once the writer is finished, it becomes the reader’s world and the world will be slightly different for each reader. That won’t matter if the  writer gets the framework right. To make those aspects real to the reader, no matter how alien the world, we can only use human senses and human emotions. That’s all I can use anyway.

So I have to devise a goblin culture that can seem real but doesn’t have to describe every aspect. One of the interesting points is avoiding the ‘they all look the same’ syndrome. The more alien the race, the more difficult that can become. I also have to build a physical world and I’ve chosen to mix known with unknown, that is, my Land (and flora and fauna) is based very, very, loosely on the North American continent. That makes some things easier but means I’m open to criticism if I get something wrong. That’s a worry because I get lots of things wrong.

Then I have the religion/magic system to get right. Ah, I wish I’d gone for more satire or outright spoof. It’s much easier when it’s all tongue-in-cheek.

Which brings me to the second part – the work.

Getting the world building to fit seamlessly into the story is part of the craft and that can be fun too. The part that isn’t that much fun is making sure everything is consistent.

Pray for good proof readers and good editors.

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Russell Cornhill bio page

In Dwight Swain’s screenwriting guide Film Scriptwiting: A practical manual, he likened story conflict to target shooting, he suggested that bringing one thread of story conflict is like flinging one clay plate into the air – one is more interesting than none, but it really gets interesting when there are multiple plates in the air simultaneously. Priorities have to be made about which order to go for the plates in and their is an urgent time factor.

A prologue can be a useful way to ‘fling a plate in the air’ then cut away, with the reader knowing that it will have to be dealt with after more immediate concerns. Think of a cop show, where the prologue features a murder to be solved, or a horror movie where the prologue features a maniac on the loose to be captured or killed.

Fiona McIntosh began the prologue to King’s Wrath with:

They fell swiftly and silently.
Any moment they would hit the ground and it would be over. She didn’t know why he had chosen to kill her. She was his only friend.

To use Swain’s analogy, from the first few sentences clay plates are being propelled into the air; the character and her friend are falling, she thinks she is going to die, she doesn’t understand why her friend caused her to be falling, and so on - then, about a page later, the prologue ends with:

And then suddenly they were tumbling on something solid. Her fall was cushioned though; first her legs then her back and shoulders touched inanimate objects. She had no idea what but it didn’t hurt. How did that happen? She wanted to open her eyes but they were squeezed shut with fear. It sounded as though branches were snapping! Trees? … How could that be?
With no warning the breath was sucked out of her as Genevieve, the first princess of the Valisars to survive in centuries, blacked out.
And across the empire, various people felt the stirrings of a mighty magic they had never felt before.

This resolves some of the immediate conflict began in the opening sentences of the prologue, but raises more questions, including where Genevieve and her friend have fallen, what broke their fall, and the nature of the mighty magical disturbance which occured and what that means for the characters in the story.

For the beginning of chapter 1, McIntosh has cut away from the prologue to follow other characters while the events of the prologue remain unresolved, leaving questions for a reader to wonder about. Chapter 1 begins:

Though the two men walked side by side they looked anything but companionable.
‘Did you feel it?’ the younger one asked.
Greven didn’t want to admit it but there was no point hiding much from Piven these days. While his mind was essentially his own, his actions were not. It didn’t matter how hard he fought the bonding magic, it had him completely at its mercy. ‘I felt it’ he said, gruff and disnterested.
‘And what do you think it is?’
‘Why are you concerning yourself with what I think? I just do as I’m told.’

The opening sentences of chapter 1 take up from the moment of the magical disturbance from the end of the prologue but focusing on different characters. Although the magical disturbance is felt by the characters, their own relationship with one another take over as the more immediate conflict. It continues:

‘Is this how it’s going to be from now on Greven?’
‘What did you expect?’
Piven made a soft scolding sound, clicking his tongue.’And I can remember not so long ago your telling me just how much you loved me and wanted to protect me.’
‘I did, but my love was given freely then. And I had two hands then. And I didn’t know what you were then.’
‘And what am I? No, don’t, let me say it for you. A monster? Is that the right word?’ When Greven said nothing, Piven continued. ‘Because I really haven’t changed that much, you know. I still love you Greven. I always have.’
‘You once loved your brother.’
‘Ah, but you haven’t deserted me as my brother has. He must pay for that.’
‘Your sister had no choice in the desertion.’

This passage piles on further conflict (or strong potential for conflict) for the two characters featured in chapter 1 as well as other characters mentioned but not shown in the first chapter. It continues:

‘This is true,’ Piven admitted, slapping at some tall grasses at the side of the Tomlyn Road.’She was helpless, but she is helpless no longer, and you know as well as I she will try to destroy me now. That disturbance we felt was likely none other than her returning home.’
Greven was genuinely startled.’I felt the disturbance but had not given it much thought … of course you’re right. Are you frightened?’
Piven threw him a wry glance. ‘No,’ he replied with a gentle scoff. ‘I have you.’ He pointed to where the main road forked. ‘We go left to the capital.’
‘Let’s go right, Piven. Let’s head south, keep you safe.’
‘I am safe. You are here.’
‘I think you are depending on me too much.’
‘But that’s the role of the aegis. To be entirely dependable. Come on,’ he said, increasing his speed. ‘And don’t claim fatigue; I know you don’t even feel it. That must be amazing. No need for food or water, rest or any form os sustenance.’
‘Does that not strike you as a living death?’
Piven smiled openly. ‘Not at all. It’s surely immortality. I envy you.

In this passage, the chapter 1 characters have a good idea about the general nature of the magical disturbance but that raises the possibility of more specific threats to come.

In the space of just a few pages Fiona McIntosh has set up many threads of story conflict, short term and longer term, major and minor, to intrigue a reader with the possibilities of what might happen, what problems will arise from each conflict, and whether or how each conflict will be resolved.

King’s Wrath is the third novel in Fiona McIntosh’s Valisar trilogy. More on Fiona McIntosh can be found at www.fionamcintosh.com and in her interviews with The Australian Literature Review here and here.

The Australian Literature Review
www.auslit.net