After many months of mistakes and banging my head against the wall, I came up with a few principles related to creating fictional worlds. I’ve never written them down before and they’re by no means perfect, but they may help you craft your own world or at least generate some thoughts on how you would approach it.
Always being attracted to spooky things, even as a child, is what led me to write horror. My first book was a Christian fantasy with horror elements.
Cats spend most of their day asleep. It’s one of the things they are so good at. They use much of their time sleeping to restore their energy before the next hunt even if it’s chasing the laser, rubber ball, or catnip toy for our domesticated friends.
Andrua, the main character in 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒂𝒊𝒎𝒆𝒅 𝑲𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒅𝒐𝒎, and Robin Hood are both heroic although they are heroes of radically different kinds. Probably the most significant difference between the two is their status. Andrua, princess of D’Land, hides her true identity in the beginning of the novel but is still a legal authority of her people.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑫𝒓𝒐𝒘𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑳𝒂𝒏𝒅 was inspired by a Time Team TV special on Doggerland that I watched in 2007, but there’s a long road of research between a popular TV program and a novel based on actual science.
What I learned from my first trip through Italy was to listen to the people, be respectful of their culture, read up on their local history and be open to the joys of a world you have never before encountered.
Bringing characters to life gives me the ability to live a hundred lives with no boundaries, limits, or rules.
My brother read my third poetry book, 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘦, recently. His response? “That book is kind of dark, man.”
Bows have been around for a very long time. . .maybe even since the time of cave dwellers.
The fact that the publication of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘛𝘳𝘢𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘔𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴 coincides with National Awareness Day of Human Trafficking on the 11th of January is a coincidence. But it does draw attention to this important date, and to one of the most horrific crimes this world has to offer—human trafficking and modern-day slavery.
