Ask the Author: M.D. Presley
Answered Questions (9)
M.D. Presley
I start the rough draft this week (mid-June), so I'm hoping it will be out by end of the year. I'm writing them (there's also a book 3.5) concurrently, so there shouldn't be nearly as long of a wait between 3-3.5-4 as there were between the first two.
M.D. Presley
I believe "used" is supposed to be the least favorite word among males, but I've got nothing against it personally. However, in my writing world, "is" is verboten.
It's a carry over from screenwriting (and high school English) in that it's passive, which makes it not only bad writing when it shows up, but also an extraneous word that just eats up space on the page. Sentences like "he is running" therefore should never exist and quickly metamorph into the cleaner "he runs."
In high school English we were only allowed on "to be" verb per page, and while I'd like to stick to that in my adult prose, I have LOADS of "was" in my books despite my best intentions. In fact, I've never been so panicked as when, days before sending book two to the copy editor, I did a search for "was" and it came back with more than 900 hits. Sure, that only comes out to .7% of the total words in the novel, but it's still more than one per page and I was beside myself until I searched a best selling fantasy book to discover over 1,500 occurrences of "was."
Yeah, discovering that another used even more didn't make my writing any better. But it certainly made me feel better.
It's a carry over from screenwriting (and high school English) in that it's passive, which makes it not only bad writing when it shows up, but also an extraneous word that just eats up space on the page. Sentences like "he is running" therefore should never exist and quickly metamorph into the cleaner "he runs."
In high school English we were only allowed on "to be" verb per page, and while I'd like to stick to that in my adult prose, I have LOADS of "was" in my books despite my best intentions. In fact, I've never been so panicked as when, days before sending book two to the copy editor, I did a search for "was" and it came back with more than 900 hits. Sure, that only comes out to .7% of the total words in the novel, but it's still more than one per page and I was beside myself until I searched a best selling fantasy book to discover over 1,500 occurrences of "was."
Yeah, discovering that another used even more didn't make my writing any better. But it certainly made me feel better.
M.D. Presley
Because this is such an obvious corporate shill question for Valentine's Day, I'm going to say Jamie and Cersei Lannister. Their's is a love that refuses to be denied, despite their crimes against the law of man and nature. Theirs is a love that helped doom seven kingdoms and kill thousands. They know what they do is wrong, yet they do not care, and for that they will always have a special place in my cold, flinty heart.
M.D. Presley
The first germ to Sol's Harvest came from The Last Airbender (the cartoon, not the terrible movie; obviously). It had such an intricate and vibrant world that I wanted to see if I could develop a new fantasy world that was equally as inviting as a thought experiment. I obviously failed, because how do you top that show? You can't, but that's where it all started.
The second inspiration came from Ken Burns' Civil War documentary. I've often thought that too much fantasy spends its times focused on mimicking medieval Europe, and so the American Civil War seemed like an interesting experience to fold into my existing fantasy world I had developed.
The third inspiration came from the first season of True Detective (is it odd that all my inspirations for a book came from TV?). I loved how they used two different timelines to juxtapose the characters so as to build mystery as well as giving decades of development to build a character study around. Plus, you know, it was relentlessly nihilistic.
So yeah, that was my goal: To build a bright and inviting fantasy world and then paint over it in gray with a nihilistic civil war. Because I'm a jerk apparently.
The second inspiration came from Ken Burns' Civil War documentary. I've often thought that too much fantasy spends its times focused on mimicking medieval Europe, and so the American Civil War seemed like an interesting experience to fold into my existing fantasy world I had developed.
The third inspiration came from the first season of True Detective (is it odd that all my inspirations for a book came from TV?). I loved how they used two different timelines to juxtapose the characters so as to build mystery as well as giving decades of development to build a character study around. Plus, you know, it was relentlessly nihilistic.
So yeah, that was my goal: To build a bright and inviting fantasy world and then paint over it in gray with a nihilistic civil war. Because I'm a jerk apparently.
M.D. Presley
Used to my good friend whiskey was always there to whisper in my ear at night. But I've recently moved to writing during the morning/ day, so he and I have been at odds as of late. Because there is nothing sadder than a day drunk. Unless it's a weekend, of course.
I have found though that there's a direct correlation between when inspiration strikes and how far away you are from something to jot it down on. So, walking the dog? Check. Yoga on the beach? You betcha. Shower? Most assuredly.
I have found though that there's a direct correlation between when inspiration strikes and how far away you are from something to jot it down on. So, walking the dog? Check. Yoga on the beach? You betcha. Shower? Most assuredly.
M.D. Presley
Book two in my Sol's Harvest series of four books. Also, a hangover.
M.D. Presley
Make sure you don't ignore your day job that will provide you the money to pursue your writing passion. Make damn sure you have something viable to fall back on.
M.D. Presley
Not having to wear slacks is pretty great. Or a shirt. Plus, it's one of the few jobs you can do drunk without being fired.
M.D. Presley
That's really not something I deal with, but if I'm stuck on a word or concept, I just leave in XXX and move on. So later, when I'm editing, I just search for "XXX" and find all those spots that I skipped and can deal with them when I'm not longer frustrated.
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Jun 16, 2018 04:27PM