No sooner do I start complaining about the loss of tags than they come on me in full force... XD
Tagged by dream-is-reality for a book tag!
Also, I have not done Spanish in years and if anything up there is incorrect I honestly don't care... (I mean, of course "tag" is different but look who's too lazy to look that up)
What song are you listening to right now?
None.
Tell us three facts about your current series.
*scratches head trying to think of what I haven't told five times already*
1. Two of my favourite characters in the series are still lying undiscovered in the fourth and fifth books *wails because you can't read them yet*
2. The Claw is one of the most fun books to write in that it probably has the greatest number of unexpected plot twists (with the possible exception of book 5, which is going to be three times as long as the rest of them)
3. Book 5 is still under consideration both for the title and whether it's "in" the Ceristen series or not. It's such an enormous book and set apart from the other four with a great variety of new places and characters, that I think of it to the others as The Lord of the Rings to The Hobbit. A sequel, yes, but not quite in the same plane.
What's the best kind of book couple?
The best kind? You know, I'm not a romance aficionado, and I haven't spent my time analyzing which sort of relationship I like most! If it's done well, I like it.
Who is your favourite character from a book you've read?
Well, I'm guessing I don't have to pick an all-or-nothing fave here, because they just said from a book.
Welllll...
I'm debating whether or not to go LOTR on this...
AH SHOOT WHO AM I KIDDING
I'll go with Fëanor from the Silmarillion. The liddle fireball has so much depth.
What is the best villain?
Seriously? I don't like these "best" questions. There's too much diversity in literature for that.
I like the villain who is suddenly redeemed at the end. Also large-scale evil villains like Sauron/Morgoth, or my Claw mastermind (NO SPOILERS, READERS!) and another, future badguy... but these always have to have a backstory. The bigger and meaner they are, the more depth you need to put into them. And it's hard to put character depth into a pure evil person, which is why I emphasize the backstory. How did they get there? Why are they doing this?
Diversity or culture?
*squints* OR?
I have about fifteen nations - give or take - in my world. While concentrating heavily on two or three of those, I've tried to weave them all into one another and create unique cultural depth for each one. I even have one country whose culture is that they've lost it. They're a de-cultured people who have imbibed customs and words from the peoples around them. (This is Harotha, for curious minds)
I have one country whose culture obsesses over death. My sister and I spend hours at a time discussing this country, its facets, its implications, its art and literature.
One country of mine has people based on an Arabic/Phoenician-style culture, and it is endlessly fascinating to look at their aspects and idiosyncrasies, and the way they react with other cultures (Swirls of Sand was born out of this)
What I'm basically trying to say is, I want culture and diversity. After all, culture creates diversity, and it's pretty much an oxymoron to say you can have one without the other. XD
How many main characters are in your series?
In the first book, two. Three, maybe - depends on whether you want to call Marjorie an MC or not.
In the second... I'm going to go with five: Fred, Fiona, and the three Kenhelms. It's really kind of hard to tell with that one. So much going on everywhere.
Third, I'm going to say two: Mordred and Inspector Dickson.
Fourth: Ummm... hard to say and I'm not going to attempt it because we're not even there yet.
Fifth: There are (I counted once) approximately ten main characters in this book.
Name five differences between your rough draft and final draft.
1. More polished... obviously!
2. The characters are realistically softened, instead of being one-sided jerks with a single defining character trait that would not endear them to anyone.
3. I've cut some major dumb thing out of every one of my books, I think, except maybe 5. I have cut several things out of there, but don't know if any of them were terribly major. The Journey lost, notably, the "Spider", an evil supervillain who wanted world domination. The Village lost... telephones. The Claw lost at least ten useless scenes of more murders and time-consuming traveling. The War lost helicopters, and subsequently the even more ridiculous "helicopter substitutes".
What is your fear as an author?
I think that I will fail to shine my stories enough and hand the world something second-rate instead. But... I don't know. I don't feel like I have many fears.
How closely should one portray history and mythology in fiction?
In historical fiction... obviously you should try to be accurate! In fantasy - it's your world, y'all. You do what you want with it. I like to keep mine fairly consistent with early/mid-medieval period; some people like punk; some people like mish-mash. It can all be beautiful. You just have to make it your own.
Tagging!
And all other interested parties who are reading.
YOU ARE READING
Verity's Book
RandomRandom book. You know those random books people have? Tags. Art. Announcements. Blog-ish sort of things. Random facts about their characters. Tags. Tags. More tags. Yeah... that's pretty much what this is. I know, I know, you want to read it. They a...
