I don’t think I could ever quite bring myself to say “no” to this question, but I know time and money are limited commodities, so I want to help you make the best use of them, including deciding whether or not to invest in my books. So here are some questions I always want the answer to when I’m trying to decide whether or not to start a new fantasy book.
- Does it have dragons?
No. No dragons or any other mythical creatures for humans to bond and/or start a telepathic connection with. There’s nothing wrong with these kinds of books, but part of the reason I started writing A Warrior’s Legacy books is that I had trouble finding books I really liked that didn’t use this device.
- Does it have magic?
Also no, for the most part. There are fantastical elements (i.e., things that don’t exist in our world), but I enjoy having a plausible, pseudo-scientific answer behind anything that happens, even if it takes eight books to reveal. 🙂
- Is it relatively clean (as far as violent or sexual content)?
Yes. There is of course sword fighting, but I don’t dwell on graphic details or include horror or torture elements. And there are also of course romantic relationships, but anything that might be R-rated happens off-screen.
- How old are the characters?
Most of my main characters are young adults (late teens to early or mid twenties), but the books themselves are not typical young adult books (i.e., no rebelling against parents, no pining for the hot guy from afar). I usually say my characters would be dealing with the same interpersonal struggles whether they were twenty or forty; I just find this stage of life interesting because people are typically making choices that lay the foundation for the rest of their lives, including who they marry, what their “career” will be, and what kind of legacy they want to build (see what I did there? A Warrior’s Legacy).
- Is there a love story?
Oh yes, of course. And it isn’t the kind of romance you sometimes see in fantasy in which the love interest is aloof and unattainable and the lovers don’t get together until the very end. My characters have real relationships in which they sometimes fight, hurt, and betray and sometimes laugh, flirt, and sacrifice.
- Does it follow one character or jump around a lot?
Each book follows a single character and only that character. In fact, the books are narrated in first person (meaning they use “I,” “my,” “we,” etc. to tell the story), so you as the reader know only what the main character knows. This is atypical for fantasy because third person allows authors to jump around to different places or characters to explain what else is going on in the world or how the bad guy is operating (for example, the beginnings of the first, fourth, and sixth Harry Potter books). However, my books focus on the main character’s growth and the consequences of his or her personal decisions within the greater fantasy world, so that’s why I stay locked on what they’re thinking and doing.
If you have other questions, feel free to leave a comment below, and I’ll address them. Thanks!