Ask the Author: Helen B. Henderson
Answered Questions (6)
Helen B. Henderson
Oppressive darkness surrounded her. Claws ripped down her back.
Helen B. Henderson
I get to soar the clouds with dragons and hang out with wizards. In my earlier works that I wrote just for myself, my character rode the desert on missions with the Rat Patrol, flew with the 918th Bombardment Squadron (aka the men of Twelve O'Clock High) and saved the world with the men from U.N.C.L.E. Alas I always come back to the real world. But I have to be here for my books to reach you, my favorite readers.
Helen B. Henderson
I think I am fortunate that I don't usually get afflicted with writer's block. One of the reasons is that I am an inveterate plotter. As I put the thoughts down, either in a bullet list or when the muse if visiting and entire scenes flow through the fingers, I tend to power right through the block.
There is an occasional exception when I know what a scene should be but it just won't flow. This usually happens when a work is fairly set in my mind but I want to go back and change some point. Resistance forms a barricade. I keep attacking it at different times and places until it crumbles.
I'm working through that right now with my current work in progress, Dragon Redemption. A beta reader liked a character so much she said he should be saved rather than suffer the fate of the losing commander. I know how to save him, but the words just aren't coming. I'll be patient and keep attacking it until one day the words will flow.
There is an occasional exception when I know what a scene should be but it just won't flow. This usually happens when a work is fairly set in my mind but I want to go back and change some point. Resistance forms a barricade. I keep attacking it at different times and places until it crumbles.
I'm working through that right now with my current work in progress, Dragon Redemption. A beta reader liked a character so much she said he should be saved rather than suffer the fate of the losing commander. I know how to save him, but the words just aren't coming. I'll be patient and keep attacking it until one day the words will flow.
Helen B. Henderson
When you start putting thoughts to paper or sit down at a keyboard, eventually there is a question you have to answer for yourself, because no one else can. Do you write for fun, to make a living, or because you “can’t not write.” The answer can help guide you to the publication method that works best for you. Today’s writers have a wide variety of paths to publications, so, don’t give up.
Helen B. Henderson
My most recent release is a novella, Magic and Steel - Mt'wan Comraich. When typing the two little words, "The End" for the fourth, and what I had planned the last, book of the Dragshi Chronicles, I realized that there was something untold. While the chronicles recorded the related adventures of the trader girl Anastasia and Lord Branin Llewlyn, there were other dragshi, ones whose lives were just recounted in legends. As with all such tales, some contain larger than life deeds. Others are the simple story of a man or woman doing what must be done, regardless of the cost. Sometimes embellished, the ceoltiers use the stories of times and actions past to educate and inspire. Magic and Steel is just one of the legends and the rest will be released as a collection at some future point in time.
UPDATE: Magic and Steel is included in the collection of novellas and short stories, First Change: Legends From The Eyrie.
UPDATE: Magic and Steel is included in the collection of novellas and short stories, First Change: Legends From The Eyrie.
Helen B. Henderson
The Dragshi Chronicles has been completed with the release of Hatchling's Mate, Hatchling's Vengeance and First Change: Legends From The Eyrie.
Also in the realm of fantasy and romance, Windmaster Legend, a tale of star-crossed lovers from myth and history of the world of Windmaster set sail.
On a different front, a collection of novellas, short stores, and poetry honoring the duty and sacrifices of those who served on the battlefront and those who held down the hoe front is available.
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