Ask the Author: Preston L. Marshall
Answered Questions (7)
Preston L. Marshall
The hardest part about answering this question is that most of the stories I like have really bleak settings where you'd be in an incredible amount of danger all the time. But, I think I would want to live in the Old Kingdom from the Abhorsen Trilogy. The characters I always thought were the coolest were those soldiers that defend the wall against the undead and other free magic creatures from crossing into the south. They're like modern soldiers that also know magic and can fight both physical and magical threats.
Preston L. Marshall
Originally When Darkness Reigns, Remembrance, and Regicide were all one massive novel. It was about as long as one of the Game of Thrones books and while I know that people will read something that long because those books are doing extremely well, it's hard to get people to read something like that when they've never heard of you. Remembrance became a part of that equation and I expanded on some of the scenes that were in the original version of the novel to really spend some time with the cast of characters and learn who they are, what they do, and why they are the way they are. I felt like When Darkness Reigns with its breakneck pace didn't leave room for much character development, so I wanted to fill that void with Remembrance.
Preston L. Marshall
I really enjoy watching movies, reading other science fiction and fantasy novels, playing video games, and generally surrounding myself with other works of brilliant creativity. It's hard not to get inspired when you think about how someone had to write or create all of the things you love. Why not be one of those men or women that write your favorite book or movie script? Thinking about bringing something into the world that people may eventually love as much as I enjoy my fandoms is definitely a big part of my inspiration.
Preston L. Marshall
I'm working on The Lion-Blade Saga. I'm putting finishing touches on Remembrance and once I'm done there, I'll start working on the third installment in the series, Regicide.
Preston L. Marshall
I have two main pieces of advice I would give. The first is to schedule out a time for writing and stick to it. Making time every day or at least picking a few days out of the week to string words together is the only way to get a book written. My second piece of advice is to not give up on your project. It took me years and years to finish my first book and once it was all done it took me another couple years to find a publisher that was interested in it. As long as you keep working at your goal, you can definitely achieve it.
Preston L. Marshall
I really like the ability to create a novel that I want to read. There are tons of awesome books and stories out there, but being an author allows you to take everything you love about fiction and combine them into something new that you really want to see brought into the world.
Preston L. Marshall
The way that I typically deal with writer's block is by skipping the scene I'm stuck on and moving on to the next one I know I want to put in. Then later on I can go back and fill in the gaps between the scenes I was actually able to write.
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