 DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeI’ve been asked quite often why I never went back to write more books in my first series, the LonTobyn Chronicle. There are several reasons — I had other things I wanted to write, I had completed the story I set out to tell, I felt that I outgrew the worldbuilding — but probably the main reason is that I got bored with my lead characters, Jaryd and Alayna. They were both so . . . nice (and I say that with as much of a sneer as I can manage) that after a while I just wanted to slap them both. They were virtuous and kind, generous and wise beyond their years. Their faults were superficial, their magical powers the stuff of future legend. They were, in short, just the sort of people I would wind up hating in real life. By the end of the series, they [...]
Continue reading On Writing: Characters to Love, Characters to Hate
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeEighteen years ago this month, I received a call from an editor at Tor Books asking me if I could please send his way all the completed chapters and outlines of what would become my first published novel, Children of Amarid. It took a while to get the contract settled, another fourteen months passed before I turned in the completed first draft of the book, and it took two years after that (revisions, polishing, production issues) to get the book out in stores. But still, this is the eighteenth anniversary of what I think of as the beginning of my writing career.
In the time since, I have published eleven more books and several short stories. I have two more books in production and several others written and still looking for a home. My career has seen high points, low points and everything in between, and I have learned a [...]
Continue reading On Publishing: Five Things About the Business that Surprised Me
DavidBCoe
read all posts by DavidBCoeWe are now officially taking requests here at Magical Words….
The other day, Faith asked me to post on epic fantasy Big Bad Uglies in the context of my own work. In particular, she wanted me to write a bit about the duality of conflict — the external and the internal — that she so eloquently described in her post last Wednesday, and to relate it to my first series, the LonTobyn Chronicle. I’m going to do most of what she asked, but not all. As the MW contributor whose work (up until now) is closest to traditional epic fantasy, I have wanted to weigh in on the subject since she began her wonderful series, but I happen to feel that I handled the two sides of conflict far better in my later work than in those first books. We all aim to improve our craft as we write, and [...]
Continue reading Villains and Heroes: One Writer’s Approach
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