Fairyhedgehog said...I was surprised that Ash didn't get to go home at the end and resolve her problems in our world. I'm wondering if that will happen in a sequel, or if there's going to be an indefinite number of sequels.
Evil Editor said...Or if she prefers Fallenwood and will stay there forever.
Falcondraco said...Well I'm gonna have her return to the real world in the sequel, and then come back to Fallenwood. That's the plan anyway. I've only got a little bit of the sequel written so far. Classes have been taking up a lot of my time lately. But if you guys have any suggestions for the sequel, please let me know!
stacy said...I'd like to see Ash solve some of her problems in her own world. That's kind of where I was expecting the end of this book to go.
Falcondraco said...Thanks Stacy! Do you mean her own personal/relationship problems, or emotional issues/baggage, or larger global/social problems?
stacy said...Mostly her personal and emotional problems, which seem to be tied together. Or at least, she learns from it. But there's really no way to direct the plot, I don't think. It's gonna go where it goes. But that's just what I expected things to go in this book. Doesn't mean that's "right" or that's where things are going to go.
Evil Editor said...You don't HAVE to write a sequel. Is this a world you want to explore more?
Falcondraco said...Yeah, I definitely want to explore Fallenwood more. And...I wasn't going to write a sequel at first, but it's been gradually writing itself in little snippets. So now it's to where I'm saying to myself, "How can I NOT write this?" :)
Fairyhedgehog said...I'm curious as to what happens now that all magic has gone from the world, although I thought that the way Ash won over Akaji suggested that maybe her type of magic still existed. Unless his counterpart in another world just suddenly died but that would be a big coincidence. I wonder if the author could say a bit more about how the system of magic works in her world.
Falcondraco said...Oh. Ok. Great question! Well, in the system I devised for Fallenwood, the magic of the planet is channeled through the crystal (in the sequel you'll get to find out that the one crystal in Fallenwood wasn't the only one, so magic still exists - it's just that Ash doesn't know that). Magic can be used by those who are born into it (like Terces even though he never uses it) or you can become a magic user by touching one of the crystals.
Fairyhedgehog said...Yes, along the same lines as Robin's question, I was wondering what fantasy books you like to read. I was going to ask about "influences" but I'm not sure that is always easy to work out.
Falcondraco said...Thanks Fairyhedgehog! Actually, for one of my classes, I had to come up with an annotated bibiliography of influences. *pulls out binder*
Here's the list I came up with for that:
-The Lord of the Rings
-Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and "Hamlet"
-Oedipus Rex (deals with the whole "fate" issue)
-Brian Jacques's Redwall series
-I love Harry Potter. I've read all the books of that series.
-Nocturne by Louise Cooper
I have a few other books on there, but they're more contemporary novels and books on writing and such.
Evil Editor said...I love it when the black unicorn stabs Laertes in MacBeth.
Falcondraco said...EE: Ha ha ha! That would be hilarious - a remake of Macbeth where the black unicorn comes in and stabs Laertes! People would be going "Whaaaaaa???"
stacy said...Falcondraco, I too am interested in your influences. Any fantasy writers you particularly like or that you find inspirational?
Falcondraco said...I love Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, J.K. Rowling, Brian Jacques - all inspirational to me in their own ways.
stacy said...Hmmm. Never heard of Brian Jacques. I'll have to check him out.
Evil Editor said...Evil Jr. had lots of Brian Jacques books. The Redwall Series. I didn't read them, but the cover art indicates the characters might be mice.
stacy said...Well, I'm working on a piece where many of the characters are rats. Would probably be good research reading, anyway.
Sylvia said...I was intrigued the fantasy world you built up and this is probably an obvious question but ... Were you inspired by The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe?
Falcondraco said...Definitely! I loved reading the Chronicles of Narnia. It's funny you should ask this because a friend and I were talking about Fallenwood the other day, and he mentioned that it had similarities to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I tried to write a "FanFic" story based on The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, though, and it turned out to be really horrible. Has anyone else tried FanFic before? If so, what do you think of it on the whole?
Evil Editor said...Back when we did writing exercises here we did Sherlock Holmes and noir detective and E.A. Poe fanfic. If you can call 300-word pieces fanfic. They turned out great.
stacy said...Ah yes. I remember my noir fanfic protagonist Dirk Beefhead. You're bringing back memories here, Falcondraco. : )
Falcondraco said...Oh, and I read this excellent book called How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card. He says that you have to have a "price" for magic, every time it's used. That's why I came up with the idea of the lifelong "Curse" that comes with magic in Fallenwood.
Robin B. said...I never thought about there being a price for the use of magic - a price of some sort, even when not overt. Interesting way to look at it!
Sylvia said...How To Write Science Fiction and Fantasy, by Orson Scott Card That's on my list of must-read books, following a recommendation by a friend. So I take it you recommend it too?
Falcondraco said...I definitely recommend it!
Evil Editor said...I assume you've read Scott Card's most famous book.
Falcondraco said...Unfortunately, How to write Science Fiction and Fantasy is the only book I've read of his.
Evil Editor said...What?! Ender's Game is required reading of everyone in the F & SF field. That's your assignment for this week.
Falcondraco said...Note to Self: Read Ender's Game.
stacy said...I too have not read Ender's Game (yet.) That can be my assignment, too.
Sylvia said...(I liked Ender's Game too)
Robin B. said...I'm interested in the genesis of the plot - was it a combination of doing a lot of reading (I know that feeling well!) in your area of interest, fantasy, plus a daydreaming kind of thing, that became the story?
Falcondraco said...Yeah, I would say it was a combination of reading and daydreaming. I thought up a lot of it when I was working as a cashier, and Fallenwood became my "escape" where I could have fun thinking of plot ideas and working the kinks out and such.
Fairyhedgehog said...I was glad that the Wolf Man was ready to go. One less thing on Ash's conscience.
Evil Editor said...There was a Wolf Man?
stacy said...The Wolf King, I think she meant. I very much liked the idea of the Wolf King. (I love wolves!) Will we be seeing more wolves in the sequel?
Falcondraco said...I'd love to write wolves into the sequel, but not sure how I'd work them in. Hmm...
Evil Editor said...That can be her problem in our world that she has to solve. Wolf infestation of her school.
ColleenB said...Will Graymalkin(sp) remain a cat in the sequel?
Falcondraco said...Right now I'm thinking he will, but it's not set in stone or anything.
Evil Editor said...Make him a werecat.
stacy said...Falcondraco, can you tell us a little about the process you went through to get published?
Falcondraco said...Stacy asks: Falcondraco, can you tell us a little about the process you went through to get published? Sure! Well, I tried a LOT to get published through the conventional means - I made a bunch of these mini books with like three chapters in them, typed up a bunch of query letters, sat down with a huge volume called the Writer's Market, spent a small fortune on stamps and...nothing. I'd never heard of ebooks before, but Decadent Publishing was starting up as an ebook publishing company looking for editors. So I became an editor first, and then decided to submit one of my short stories to them, which they accepted and then later Fallenwood.
I'm not published in print yet, just in e-book format.
stacy said...Falcondraco, I noticed you used a lot of different points of view in this novel. How did you keep track of all the characters? Did you use an outline? Notes? Or did you just sit down and write? (I'm pretty disorganized and tend to just sit down and write, but I'm always curious about the processes of other writers.)
Falcondraco said...I used kind of a rough outline. At first, though, I just sat down and wrote. The first draft was a real mess. Then I took a creative writing class and started getting the story cleaned up and following a progression. So...sorta both methods - no outline at first, and then an outline later on.
Fairyhedgehog said...I was a bit puzzled by Princess Isabella. I think I might have missed the part where her total brainlessness was explained. It seemed so strong as to be magically based.
Falcondraco said...Ooh! That's a good idea! Maybe I could include something like that in the sequel, like Isabelle was just brainwashed or had her mind magically erased or something...
Robin B. said...That's a cool idea about the Princess. I like it!
stacy said...Are there plans to put Fallenwood into print format?
Falcondraco said...I think how it works is that if you sell X number of copies, it ends up going to print. Unfortunately, I don't know what number the X stands for though...
Sylvia said...That's with Decadent Publishing? Are you still an editor there?
Falcondraco said... So far as I know, that's how it works with Decadent. I'm not currently an editor for them since my classes are taking up all of my time. I've figured out that it's nigh-impossible for me to edit and do coursework all at once. My grades tend to suffer if I do that...
Fairyhedgehog said...I liked the Dragon oracle; I have a soft spot for dragons. I felt that maybe I missed some of the significance of dragons in the book.
Falcondraco said...Thanks! I would have liked to do more with the dragons. They'll definitely show up in the sequel though. I do need to do some more world-building where the dragons are concerned though, maybe figure out how many will be in Fallenwood, how rare they are, and such...
Evil Editor said...Speaking of dragons, I was considering shutting down the book chats, but I just started a book called His Majesty's Dragon, which is alternate history in which trained talking dragons act as air support in the Napoleonic wars. I think everyone would like it if you want a September book.
Sylvia said...You mean Temeraire? That was the name of of the book in the UK - funny that they've changed it. Although looking at Amazon.co.uk, I note it says Temeraire (Temeraire 1) [a.k.a. His Majesty's Dragon] which I guess answers that question. Anyway, I've read it and loved it. Will happily re-read for the chat.
Robin B. said...The cover art for your novel is quite good, and I'm wondering how you decided what you wanted?
Falcondraco said...Well, with the ebook publishers, you fill out a form explaining who your main characters are, what the story's about, important symbols and such, and the cover artist creates samples that you can choose from or ask them to alter or whatnot. Like for my short story "The Devil's Bidding", the cover didn't have flames at first, but I really wanted flames, so Dara England was nice enough to add them in for me. She's the one who designed the Fallenwood cover as well. So it was Dara that came up with the overall design for the cover. She's fantastic.
Evil Editor said...I kind of felt Fallenwood was more geared toward middle grade than YA. Based totally on the 4 YA we've read in past book chats (Marbury Lens, Graveyard Book, Twilight, and Hunger Games.
Falcondraco said...Oh, Ok. Good to know. :)
Robin B. said...I think those age range things are a bit nebulous, to be honest, EE, though i see what you mean.
Sylvia said...Hmm, all of the YA books we've read have serious themes about death, including this one. Is that saying something about YA or about us?
Falcondraco said...Oooh! Good question!!!! Personally I'm not sure how to answer that. I've noticed the death theme with a lot of YA novels as well.
Robin B. said...I like the title Fallenwood
Falcondraco said...Thanks, Robin! The title just popped into my head one day and sounded cool. I've noticed that someone already used it for the title of their CD though...lol.
stacy said...Well, people use the same titles all the time. I have a script in the works titled SINEATER, for example, and that's already the name of a fairly famous horror novel.
Evil Editor said...Some titles have been used dozens of times.
stacy said...I thought the jester's curse was pretty interesting.
Evil Editor said...I forgot what his curse was. The trouble with ebooks is that it's harder to flip through and refresh your memory.
stacy said...He can't stop performing until the king tells him to. And Queen Genevieve cruelly keeps the king busy for something like four hours toward the beginning of the novel.
Falcondraco said...The jester's curse was a spoken one - when anyone says "Entertain us," he automatically goes into entertainment mode - playing the lute, doing backflips, etc. uncontrollably until the person says "We are entertained."
Evil Editor said...My minions are constantly telling me to entertain them. And they never say We are entertained.
Evil Editor said...Not you guys, my other minions.
Falcondraco said...So what do you guys think of the magic system in Fallenwood? Is it confusing?
fairyhedgehog said...I thought the magic system was interesting and not quite like any other I'd seen. I wondered what Ash's curse will be when she realises that she can work magic - but that's obviously a question for another day now.
Falcondraco said...And what do you think about the changing point of view in the story? For the sequel, I'm going to try and write it all in Ash's point of view, which I think will make it flow better.
Evil Editor said...If it's all Ash's POV it can be in first person. Which is good if you want to keep putting in lots of her thoughts.
stacy said...In my own works, I tend to stick to no more than three points of view, but that's just me. Stephen King uses something like a half-dozen points of view in The Stand, but he had written a good fifteen novels before then and handled multiple POVs deftly.
Falcondraco said...I noticed that with 'Salem's Lot as well, that Stephen King handles many points of view, a new one with each chapter almost. He does it very well though, and it really paints you a picture of the town and its inhabitants.
stacy said...Yes, Falcondraco! Been years since I've read that one.
Sylvia said...I think I'd find a single point of view easier to follow, to be honest.
stacy said...I think more than one POV is fine. It works well when the author sticks with the main characters, such as the main protagonist and the main antagonist.
Falcondraco said...Thanks Sylvia! Yeah, I was thinking a single point of view might be better. So I'll stick with that for the sequel. Fallenwood was the very first novel I've ever written, so I'm still learning the ropes.
Robin B. said...I think the POV question is answered by saying 'depends'. But I did need to ground myself here and there as I read, so i'd say your idea of sticking to one POV would be good. I'm for first person, if that is a choice?
Evil Editor said...I'm in favor of not keeping our guest any longer. Hopefully this chat was good practice for when you're a famous author and you do a reading followed by a Q & A session with your fans. Thanks for attending, Leslie, and thanks for your contribution to the auction.
Falcondraco said...Thank you very much for hosting the Fallenwood book chat. I hope you've enjoyed the novel, and thank you very much for your comments and questions. :)
Sylvia said...Thank you for coming, Leslie! It's always great to get insight into the mind behind the book!
Dave Fragments said...Sorry I missed the discussion. I read the book and enjoyed it. I wanted to say nice things to the author and missed the chance.
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