Hello, everybody. How’s spring
treating you? Well, I hope, and lushly! I’ve been moving about things I’ve got
to get done rather…slower than they ought to be getting done. Some would accuse
me of procrastination, but I stand firmly on the grounds that I’m a victim of
unrighteous circumstance. Why, just recently, within the last couple weeks,
goodreads.com had a bug go through that, out of all the millions of users on
there, affected my account adversely! (It also might have sort of kinda
affected a few other authors as well, but let’s talk about me, shall we?) This
insidious BUG, kept reposting one of
my old blog posts from a year ago over and over and over again for all the
world to see! Not a thing I could do about it, and my followers, dear me, they
must all hate me with a passion…
But, enough about me. You’ll never guess what I’ve got for you today!
No, don’t even guess, I’m going to tell you. Today, we get to discover the path
and ways of a great author of fantasy. I had the vast pleasure of interviewing
the talented Grace Crandall, and I couldn’t wait to share that interview with
you all! Are you ready?
Grace Crandall is a writer
of short stories and planner of novels, currently at work on her first
full-length book. When she’s not playing the hermit and poring over her writing
projects, she can be found at her day job taking pictures for a local newspaper,
or roaming the woods around her Wisconsin home and dreaming up adventures. Her debut work, Ashes, can be found on Amazon.
Most certainly! Ashes begins at the
end of a long-running rebellion--a failed rebellion, thanks to the machinations
of the protagonist, Fendin. The rebellion’s failure is a tragedy, leaving a
tyrant comfortably in power and a lot of good men and women dead. Employed by
the tyrant as a spy, Fendin was technically just doing his job. The devastating
betrayal of the rebels still plagues him though, the guilt eventually driving
him to seek redemption.
Fendin was inspired by my general frustration with traitor characters in
other stories. They were always just that--traitors. Usually they would be
exposed, reviled, and chased away with curses, never to be heard from again. I
was always annoyed by that; I wanted to know more about them--what drove them
to do what they did? Were they smug, or sorry? Did they want to forget, or want
to be forgiven? And the question I most wanted to answer with Ashes--what if
the traitor decided to be the hero?
Are
any of the characters in your book based on you or someone you know?
I actually didn’t realize this before
this interview, but almost all the characters in Ashes are based on me to some extent.
There’s a little piece of my soul in each of them.
Although no one character is directly inspired by someone I know, the
warmth I pictured Risil and his family sharing is heavily based on my own
parents and siblings.
Tell
us about your writing process! Are you the strict regimen type, or do you
prefer a more laid-back approach?
I’ve attempted the regimen route, but strict schedules and I have never
been the best of friends. I tend to write late at night, since it’s quiet and I
can think more clearly. Of all the writing methods I’ve tried, the one that
works best for me is simply writing for a certain about of time each day. I
started ‘Ashes’ doing ten minutes of writing every night, and since then I’ve
worked up to forty minutes of writing a day. So far, it’s the best method I’ve
found for staying on track and actually finishing writing projects, and it’s
pretty flexible, which is always a plus. When the desire to procrastinate hits
hard, though, I write the very first thing in the morning, focusing more on how
many scenes I need to finish than how long I take to do it.
What
is your favorite genre (to read as well as write), and why?
Fantasy! Especially medieval fantasy.
I also like historical fiction, science fiction and modern-day adventure stories,
but I keep coming back to fantasy--it just feels like home. There’s a kind of
honesty about life and people in it that’s harder to find in other genres.
Are
there any specific authors or books that you aspire to?
Quite a few, but the author who impacted me most was Lloyd Alexander.
I discovered his books when I was about
nine, and they were all I read for some years afterwards. His stories were very
light-hearted in tone, but they dealt deeply with problems of human nature,
good and evil and all the shades of grey in between. Though I strive towards
the standards set by other authors in matters of world-building, imagery, or
prose, I write in hopes that my books will be for others what his books were
for me--an escape from reality that helps one to understand it.
Do
you have a favorite character amongst those you’ve created? (don’t worry, we
won’t tell any of them your answer.)
Haha! That’s good, because I’m sure Lord Esgor would be extremely peeved
if I didn’t pick him. To be completely honest I don’t have one yet. They’ve all
worked their way into my heart in one way or another. I do feel most connected
to Jissi, though, simply because she reminds me of myself.
It does, though I’m not certain it’s a message I could put into so many
words--at the heart of it, I suppose it’s a story about a man trying to run
from his demons, and the message of the story would be that sometimes, running
isn’t an option. Some demons have to be faced.
Ashes was an interesting journey for me. While I’d like to say it showed
me a lot of new things about myself, instead it seemed to throw into relief the
things I already knew. There was one striking revelation, though, albeit not a
very complementary one; like Fendin, I have a tendency to let apathy get in the
way of doing the right thing, and that in turn can result in people getting
hurt.
What
are three pieces of advice you would give to other aspiring authors?
I think the best thing any writer can do is to talk to people--or
perhaps more to the point, listen to people. Other people, both online and off
it, are the only really unpredictable things the world contains, and In a job
like writing that requires a constant sense of wonder, they’re rather
indispensable.
I’d also suggest spending some time and energy looking into different
avenues of the book-publishing, author-platform-building world. I published
with no clue about how complex and time-consuming marketing really was, and
I’ve been playing catch-up ever since; I can’t help but think how much smoother
everything would have gone if I’d known a little about it first. There are
times when marketing can seem a little maudlin, but it helps to remember that
it’s only a conduit for telling people stories--which, after all, is the
writer’s job in the first place.
And somewhat paradoxically, I’d advise to be careful of advice. Every
writer has a method and an opinion, different ideas of what ‘good’ writing is
or what merits success. And to some extent, it’s good to listen to all these
differing opinions; but I think it’s good to remember, too, that writing is a
very individual thing. Holding yourself up to someone else’s
standards--especially to the point of abandoning your own--is rarely a healthy
practice.
Do you have any future novels planned?
Ah, dangerous question. I have about
fifty titles in the works, and it’s a growing list! But the one I’m most
serious about at the moment is a time-travel adventure called Nightshade--I’m
hoping to finish the first draft of it this year.
And lastly, would you mind sharing a teaser
with us?
Not in the least! Here’s a bit from the beginning of Chapter Two:
“ “Hob!” someone shouted. Fendin froze. No
one knew him by that name anymore. No one who was still alive. He turned
around, halfexpecting to see the ghost of Risil standing in the motley crowd.
Instead, he saw a tall yellowhaired man reaching out to clap another upon the
shoulder. “Hob!” he said. “I haven’t seen you in ages. How have you been?”
Fendin breathed a sigh of relief, letting
the two men fade away into the throng.He was in Angras, a place where noise and
chaos reigned unchallenged. The smell of dead fish and live cat permeated the
air, salted over with the tang of seawater. Smalltime traders and enterprising
sailors hawked their wares on every corner, their voices mingling with the
cries of seagulls. The wives of merchants and of fishermen crowded the pier,
small children clinging to their skirts as they cried farewell to departing
ships or watched eagerly for incoming ones. Not even the greyclad soldiers
attempted to control the myriads of seafaring men that choked every street and
filled every alehouse. Halflost in the mad scramble, Fendin felt at home.
After the long days spent inland with only his own thoughts for company, there
was a kind of refuge in the all enveloping cacophony that surrounded him. He
closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the pungent air.
He was still choking on it when the flying
shadow assaulted him. Something small and dark slammed against him, latching on
to him with a deathlike grip. Startled into panic, Fendin tried vainly to
disengage himself from its hold, but the thing only burrowed further into his
side, clutching his cloak with small, pale hands--
It was a boy."
Thanks for your time and advice, Grace! All the best to you!
Places to Find Grace:
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