Greg Hamerton's Blog, page 6

The Riddler's Gift: theme and setting

As a fantasy author with a science fiction slant, I've developed an interest in astronomy: here's a new cluster of five review stars deep in cyberspace. Thanks to The Book Huntress (Danielle) for this informative review of The Riddler's Gift.

If you're studying for something like the LAMDA Speaking Verse and Prose examinations, this would be a very useful analysis of this fantasy novel. The review outlines the magic system, characters, setting and themes in The Riddler's Gift very well, as well as making some detailed comments about the story:

"The magical system was one part science, one part high mathematics (those parts had me scratching my head a bit), one part spiritual, and one part philosophical."

"… each person fights an intimate battle against evil [...] It might not be easy, but we can choose to do what's right. We might fall, and fail ourselves and others, but that doesn't mean the war is over. We pick ourselves up again to fight the next battle. So there is always hope, in the end."

"… a story that had a shining heart, which was what stood out to me from the beginning, despite some of the very dark elements."

Nip over to Daneille's blog to study the review further.

Are the best fantasy books like Tolkien's, or not?

The danger of writing epic fantasy is that anything you write will be compared with Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. So I thought I'd explain how I tackled this in my new fantasy series.

When I began writing the Tale of the Lifesong, the LOTR movies had not yet appeared, and I hadn't read the book for more than a decade. 'There and back again' had become submerged under many great fantasy books by David Eddings, Stephen Donaldson, Robert Jordan and Robin Hobb: new fantasy written in an appealing modern style. The influence of LOTR was far from my mind.

I like the idea of an old world, mapped out on parchment, stuffed with legends; a place one can have an adventure, possibly find treasure and learn magic. I had this idea before I read Tolkien – as a boy I used to collect maps and go on adventures in the mountains. I was seeking a special treasure, looking for a hidden world, or just enjoying the search. It's because of that idea that I enjoyed Tolkien's writing. The idea is fantasy: a world that might be there. Reading about it is the adventure.

However, it is impossible to write epic fantasy without acknowledging the presence of Tolkien. If you're going to write a new fantasy novel that starts with a map, you have two paths: you can choose to be just like Tolkien, or not at all like Tolkien. To write a book that isn't like something else works against creativity, as new (forming) ideas are constantly compared to the (formed) masterpiece, and by their insubstantiality, seem inferior. You get a poor kind of mirror-image, written in the negative space that surrounds The Lord of the Rings.

If you try to write just like Tolkien, you get cliché after cliché, because his writing was full of them and now defines the things you can't use (magic ring, dark lord, orphaned hero, stupid orcs, wise elves, dark riders, ancient language, runes, abandoned underground civilisations, dragons…). Write like Tolkien? Damned if you do; damned if you don't.

This realisation offered me a sense of freedom: the only sensible response to the paradox was to develop ideas I loved and not worry about Tolkien at all. This left me free to explore the world of myths without debilitating copycat-complex. The funny thing is, as a fantasy author, the further you go down the rabbit hole, the more you begin to encounter the archetypes and ideas that drove the great fantasy stories in the first place. Truly unique ideas that have not already been expressed are very hard to find in that mythic plane of consciousness. Myths, being very old, have been told before. Our bones remember a time when there were dragons.

Take the idea of a magical ring, for instance, where all the trouble begins. If you want to contain a magical ability in order to pass it on, you need something you can carry, which could be lost, stolen or coveted. You need a talisman, and none is as simple and elegant as a ring. It is hand-crafted in an almost mystical alchemical process, it is small enough to lose, and the idea of a ring having special power is instantly believable (a wedding ring is more than the metal, there's the idea that it symbolises some magic, not so?). Magical rings make sense to us, they don't seem weird.

That's because the magical ring is not Tolkien's idea. It goes back beyond the earliest legends. But some critics get as far as the T in Tolkien, and look no further for the source of inspiration, overwhelmed by their amazing powers of deduction. Yes, The Tale of the Lifesong has magic rings, but they are different in important ways.

Tolkien's ring contained the malice of an evil soul. Tabitha's ring offers clarity of thought. Tolkien's ring made the bearer invisible. Tabitha's ring is only visible to those with talent and has no magical powers beyond being a catalyst. Tolkien's ring was essentially evil and never changes. Tabitha's ring is neither good nor evil, it just offers enlightenment. Tolkien's ring-bearer is on the run to destroy the ring. Tabitha is on the run to understand it. Tolkien's wizard wore a pointy hat. Tabitha's wizard has a flat-topped one.

Do you see how futile it is to make comparisons? It's like Tolkien, but not like Tolkien. One reviewer recently pointed up all the moments when a character in The Riddler's Gift seemed similar to another in LOTR. Of course they do: at some level all characters share an archetype, so do people, and stories. You can't write sword and sorcery novels without, um, a sorcerer and ah, a sword-wielder. Another critic complained that Tolkien stalked every page. No doubt he could find echoes of Tolkien in any fantasy. Or, if Tolkienism was absent, decry the paucity of invention by comparison. Cynics try to find faults, and become so absorbed in comparing details they can't enjoy the mood, atmosphere and world of the story.

Stories should never be read in terms of other stories: they must be read on their own terms. At the heart of what makes a great fantasy novel is a reader who wants to be spellbound. Library Girl Reads recently reviewed the same book and wrote, "Wonderfully crafted"; Mary on Goodreads said, "Full of everything you want in a book. Perfect!" Same story, different readers.

Can you guess who has discovered the secret of reading fantasy? It's a kind of magic.

The new fantasy series with a great story guarantee

As a new fantasy author, my reputation is built on great stories. But we all know that it is impossible to judge a book by its cover. So I'll give you a guarantee: if you buy my fantasy series as ebooks from greghamerton.com you will be delighted with your purchase. If not, you can get all your money back.

Seriously! It's my great story guarantee.

That means there's no risk to you. It's simple: try an ebook, give it a fair chance, and if the story doesn't sweep you away just send an email within one month to refund@eternitypress.com.

That's it! I will issue your refund with a smile.

You see, this is the beauty of the ebook and audiobook formats. There is no cost for me to send you the book. I wouldn't offer this if I wasn't confident you will enjoy it.

So try The Riddler's Gift or Second Sight. Great fantasy stories, guaranteed.

All refunds are issued via PayPal to the account from which payment was made. Please be sure to mention the email address under which you made the purchase. I would really like to know what it was that you didn't like.

Amazon Kindle Book Lending – legitimised piracy or savvy marketing?

My fantasy series, The Tale of the Lifesong, has been available as an ebook via Amazon Kindle for six months. During this period, my Kindle ebook sales increased to the point that they now make up 20% of the average monthly sales (print and digital). Although the ebooks are available in other formats via Smashwords (Apple, Sony, Barnes & Noble, etc.) Amazon outsells the rest by a multiple of more than 10.

We live in exciting times. Ebooks are much more profitable for authors and publishers: the royalty is now around 60-70% and there are no logistical or print costs.

So the success of ebooks is a big deal, especially for new fantasy authors whose books are (a) long and (b) likely to be printed in a short run (until the market decides that you are the new J.K. Rowling, J.R.R. Tolkien or Robert Jordan) and (c) sold to an international market.

First, Amazon made it easy to publish directly via their excellent Kindle Direct Publishing system. Then they insisted on low ebook prices. Then they pummelled their customers with Kindle ads. And thanks to their free reader software, you don't have to own a Kindle device to read a Kindle ebook. The future was looking bright for ebooks … until, at the end of 2010 I received a message from Amazon that stopped me in my tracks:

Dear Publisher,



We are excited to announce Kindle book lending (http://www.amazon.com/kindle-lending)... allows users to lend digital books they have purchased through the Kindle Store to their friends and family. Each book may be lent once for a duration of 14 days and will not be readable by the lender during the loan period.

All DTP titles are enrolled in lending by default. [...]

Sincerely,

Amazon Digital Text Platform

Borrowing an ebook? You get it from your friend, for free? How is that different to pirating?



You can see how this is the thin end of the wedge … No negotiation with the suppliers, just a notification from Amazon that 'we are now giving your product away for free, if you don't like it, you have to withdraw it or supply the product at a greater discount to us.' I was alarmed. What if they increase the loan period and number of friends at will as they experiment with their new distribution model?

A potential problem with this is that it encourages the mindset of copying/sharing/pirating ebooks, which is exactly what authors don't want. Authors need people to get into the habit of buying ebooks. We must develop a culture of paying for digital content or our authors will not survive.

But I'm happy for my readers to lend their printed copies to their friends. It's what we all do. Does this ever increase sales? Maybe, for future titles; maybe it just spreads the story a bit further. Since lending is limited to one-friend-at-a-time, it doesn't cannibalise sales and makes me happy to know that the precious tree that was turned into paper is being handled more than once. Lend my books to everyone you know, I want those pages turning until they fall out.

Somehow, with digital books, it doesn't seem the same. I feel horrified … my book is being copied, reproduced, ripped, pirated, and I'm not being paid. But is it really theft? I'm not sure. Surely readers should pay something?

In the UK, authors receive a small royalty every time their book is checked out of a public library. The reader believes it is free, but it isn't really, it comes out of their taxes and is administered out of sight by the government that is trying to support the arts. The PLR amounts to a small pay-per-view fee, which seems very fair. Wouldn't it be nice if we could devise something similar for the ebook market?

Well, if you set a low ebook price, very low, it becomes that pay-per-view system. There is a reduced incentive to pirate content when a full length novel is only £2.99 ($4.50). As the price point drops, the sales increase. Call me naive, but I don't believe that the majority of readers would begrudge an author a few pounds for a good story. It's when we try to hold onto an outdated retail price based on the physical book that the market forces (Amazon) rebel. To the author, the story seems to be worth £1 million pounds. This may be true, but the way to unlock that value is to sell it at £1, to 1 million people; a lot easier than convincing 100 000 readers to part with £10.

Piracy is an ever-present problem, but I believe it is caused by overpriced ebooks. Drop the retail price, says Amazon. And now, double the copies for that price (give a copy away / lend to a friend). It's a clever system: word of mouth marketing is doubled, and many of the borrowers wouldn't have bought a copy anyway, so you aren't losing sales. When borrowers don't manage to finish the book within their 'loan' period, Amazon invites them to buy it. At worst, I'd expect to sell just as many copies as before, but more people know about it.

Some of the other ebook formats can be easily copied (non DRM ePub) and Amazon knows that the ability to copy and share an ebook has value. So is Kindle Ebook Lending just a tactic to increase Amazon sales and market share at the expense of publishers and authors? Well, it's a simple equation for me. Increased sales is increased sales. If customers find my ebooks more attractive because they know they can lend them to friends, I want to offer that to them.

As the digital revolution sweeps us along, I'm certain that Amazon intends to sell more ebooks. I'm going to stick my neck out and say this is a savvy marketing move by Amazon which authors should support. It will encourage readers to switch to ebooks, increase sales, and ultimately, Amazon will save the forest.

Imagine a world …

Ever wondered how fantasy authors put together an imagined world? Some books can transport you to worlds that seem so real you begin to wonder if the author was really there. What makes them so convincing, and how does an author begin to imagine a world that doesn't exist? I've been living in a fantasy world for the past decade and have learned some strange things about fantasy you probably wouldn't expect.

Magic is a big part of my writing. Don't get me wrong, I think science is hugely enlightening. Magic fills the spaces we haven't found ways to explain yet, and so in some ways magic is very high tech – it describes the talents we might yet discover but don't know how to access yet. If you're happy to accept the idea that we don't know everything yet, there's a gap for new possibilities and latent talents that could be developed into magic. Once you have magic in your world, it can be great fun! Magic continues to surprise me. It's very very tricky to work with, because once you allow people to have magical powers, you realise they would use magic to find simpler solutions to just about every challenge they face.

Take teleportation, for example. If you really had this power, you could steal anything, escape from any jail, avoid bullets, travel through the entire universe. There's not much that could compel you to be in a predicament. Most tension results from not being where you need to be, or not being able to escape. But of course with great power comes great responsibility. If you could do something to stop Hitler, you'd have to do something about it, or live with being an apathetic moron. Teleport in: pull the trigger: teleport out. Great, now you're a murderer. See how the world has suddenly become so very intense? So as soon as you introduce magic, your whole world and the way you would respond to it changes. This makes the story interesting in unexpected ways, and plays absolute havoc with any kind of plot you invent before you begin telling the story.

Imagine you decided you would have a knight rescue a fair princess trapped in a tower. Then you decide to give your princess the smallest whiff of magical power. By the time your knight in shining has put on all that armour, found his belligerent stallion and completed his quest against the unfair advantages of all his adversaries (who can use magic against him), the princess would have charmed the guard, escaped from her tower, charmed a trader to hide her in his wagon, charmed some men out of their money, charmed some more men to fight for her, swept down from the hills and captured her captors, and locked them in the tower. And she probably thinks the knight is a bit of a ninny. The original plot disappears in a puff of magic.

At which point you realise you have to throw out any preconceptions and submerge yourself in the imagined world, to be true to the story of a mage you must become a mage in that world, to understand how a mage would act you must imagine yourself there, in the flesh, or it's just not going to be real enough.

To keep track of all the various characters in my books is easy, because it becomes an act of seeing rather than inventing. I see the strangest characters in this hidden world, and I aim to record them as vividly as possible. This helps to differentiate them in my mind. I write in a slightly different style depending on whose eyes I am looking through, so my vocabulary, mindset and pacing will change automatically, but the more committed I am to the 'imagined world' the easier it becomes. What's most important is not to focus on the voice but to keep aiming to tell the story. Occasionally I write something from a narrator's point of view to foreshadow an event, create atmosphere, or evoke the rhythms of a myth, and that requires the perspective of an observer, but even then it's the voice of a character who lives in the imagined world … my alter ego, my double, the fantasy author.

We share a mind, but we live different lives. In the real world, I have a house, a car and a business, and probably spend too much time writing about fantasy writing. In the hidden world, I don't have a name, but I am very much alive. I see wonderful things. I work magic. I write.

So you could say that by writing fantasy I've developed a split personality. Greg Hamerton | fantasy author. There's a dividing line between fantasy and reality that helps to keep half of me sane, the half that needs a name. The other half is a wild-eyed creative. The ultimate achievement is to blur the line and be able to bring the magic back into this world.

A short list of fantasy agents

Fantastic! You've written a fantasy book. You need to find a literary agent for UK and USA publishers because publishers don't look at unsolicited manuscripts (or so they say). You need a publisher because they can make a massive difference to your editing, cover design, production, marketing, distribution, review coverage and bookstore placement.

In all cases below, check the respective websites for submission details. I can't vouch for any of these companies – this is simply my working list of current agents to help you get started. If you find something wrong here, or want to recommend someone, please let me know by adding a comment to this page. There's also the helpful Preditors and Editors site, and Publishers Marketplace.

I think you could try the following fantasy agents in the UK:

ZENOAGENCY.COM

JOHNJARROLD.CO.UK

WADE & DOHERTY: Robin Wade or Broo Doherty rwla.com

ROGERS COLERIDGE

UNITED AGENTS: Ben Evans

ANTONY HARWOOD LTD antonyharwood.com

SHEIL LAND

JANE JUDD LITERARY AGENCY

LONDON INDEPENDENT BOOKS: Carolyn Whitaker

GREEN & HEATON

CONVILLE & WALSH

BRIE BURKEMAN

DAVID HIGHAM

CURTIS BROWN

Also check out Macmillan's New Writing Programme www.macmillan.co.uk and browse other fantasy publishers' sites to see if there are some new and exciting initiatives.

Fantasy agents in the USA that might be interested in fantasy and accept email queries:

Matt Bialer LRibar@sjga.com

Ethan Ellenberg agent@ethanellenberg.com

John Rudolph jrudolph@dystel.com

John Silbersack jsilbersack@tridentmediagroup.com

Adam adam@artistsandartisans.com

Jill Grinberg info@grinbergliterary.com

Suzie Townsend Suzie@fineprintlit.com

Linn Prentis via ahayden@linnprentis.com

Roseanne Wells queries@stronglit.com

Nathan nb@cbltd.com Curtis Brown

Kimberley Cameron info@kimberleycameron.com

Nicholas Croche submissions@thecroceagency.com

Joe Monti query@bgliterary.com

Jodi Reamer via ashane@writershouse.com

Danielle danielle.submission@gmail.com – www.upstartcrowliterary.com

Sara Megibow query@nelsonagency.com

info@maassagency.com Jennifer Jackson

Russell Galen russellgalen@sgglit.com

Frances Collin queries@francescollin.com

Lucienne Diver submissions@knightagency.net

Scott Hoffman HoffmanQueries@Gmail.com – foliolit.com

Jennifer jennL@andreabrownlit.com

If you're in a small market (New Zealand, South Africa, Majikistan) then here's the basic problem you face. SciFi and Fantasy in your country is probably not bought by enough people to make your book viable for local publishers. However, if you can get a UK or US publisher interested, they DO have a market large enough to make a profit. Unless your story has too many cultural references to be appreciated by foreigners, you should have a global readership.

You could try to find local publishers (in your country) or small publishers (in UK/USA) who accept direct author submissions by searching on the internet, but I can't say I know of many that regularly publish fantasy and scifi and aren't simply fronts for publishing via CreateSpace/POD printers.

A flurry of great reviews for the Lifesong

As the northern winter closes in, it seems everyone is snuggling up inside … and reading books! Reviewers have recently taken notice of The Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series and are helping to spread the word.

The Slowest Bookworm mostly reads Young Adult fiction; occasionally adult romance, historical fiction, fantasy or thrillers. She's not accustomed to tackling epic fantasy, which makes her reviews more interesting because she can form an opinion untainted by familiarity with the genre. She finally braved the mountain of words and disappeared into Eyri.

sounds of munching. a page moved. an i became an o, then a capital O, and suddenly, there was the bookworm emerging from the page, blinking, wondering where all the sprites had gone.

Now Zarost will tell you, it isn't easy to get a worm on a hook, and this worm is crafty. Although she pretends to be idle she eats up words faster than the Wranglewrithe, so all that's left of my copy of the review is: "… Main … Amazing … Great … In … Characters … And … Lifesong" but you can read the rest of The Riddler's Gift review on the Slowest Bookworm's site.

The verdict on The Riddler's Gift? "Magical! I was hooked …"

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The Happy Booker reviews mainly epic, urban, and dark fantasy and most recently, Second Sight. Well it's no fun being a parrot (just ask Zaul) and Zarost taught me that leaving out bits can make you holy, so I'll recommend that you read the review of Second Sight on The Happy Booker's book review site.

"I would recommend this to anyone that wants to be utterly swept away into a story of epic proportions. I was quite honestly blown away by this book …"

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Finally, Fantasy Book Review is on a mission to find the Top 100 Fantasy Books Of All Time. I would respond that 'we haven't written them yet!' but I'll step quietly away from the whistling precipice. I'm glad to have impressed the reviewer enough for Second Sight to be selected to stand beside The Riddler's Gift in their hall of fame and jostle merrily for position with the great names of fantasy.

You'll find the review of Second Sight and other spellbinding fantasy novels on their website.

They made an interesting comment on similarities. "If you are a fan of Stephen R Donaldson's Thomas Covenant books then you will find much within that pleases you, especially if you wished they were slightly more light-hearted!" I found much to admire in Donaldson's writing. It's not a conscious decision to 'write like him' but I do try to take the best of what I've read and infuse my writing with the themes that excite me. Thanks to Donaldson, Hobb and Pratchett (and many others) I have a rich world of fantasy literature to draw upon for inspiration … but the Tale of the Lifesong is my own.

"An epic tale of justice, forgiveness, beauty and temptation."

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A Gift for a Friend: win a signed fantasy book!

Get the first book in The Tale of the Lifesong fantasy series sent to your friend in the UK in time for Christmas.

By entering the competition you could win a free signed copy of The Riddler's Gift for a friend! Simply join my mailing list and you'll be entered in the draw. You'll get occasional emails about site updates and news. You'll also get a voucher for 5% off my books.

The competition closes 15th December at 12h00. You can enter from anywhere in the world, but due to international postage costs, the friend you nominate to receive the book must be in the UK.

One entry per person, random draw, one winner.

Who are the Top 10 Fantasy Authors?

I wanted a quote for my website from somebody familiar, to let newcomers know they'd come to the right place. Who is the biggest name in fantasy, I wondered? I know who I think have written the best fantasy books, but what does everybody else think? Who would know?

Google! I took some prominent fantasy authors and plugged them into Google's excellent Keyword Tool, which reveals the global monthly searches on their names (and close variations). This is an unscientific method which might not correlate to book sales, but as an indicator of worldwide interest it's great! These are the authors that people are seeking out on Google (and the approximate number of monthly searches):

Top 10 Fantasy Authors

1. JK Rowling (547,000)

2. JRR Tolkien (320,500)

3. Stephanie Meyer (315,000)

4. Charlaine Harris (200,000)

5. Terry Pratchett (110,000)

6. Neil Gaiman (90,500)

7. Robert Jordan (49,500)

7. George RR Martin (49,500)

9. Terry Goodkind (40,500)

10. Philip Pullman (27,500)

Soon to be Top 10 Fantasy Authors?

11. Terry Brooks (22,200)

12. Robin Hobb (18,100)

12. Trudi Canavan (18,100)

12. Brandon Sanderson (18,100)

12. Patrick Rothfuss (18,100)

How surprising. Harry Potter beats Gandalf, Bella and Sookie. Rincewind is twice the man of Rand al Thor. It's great to see that even twenty years after their collaboration on Good Omens, Pratchett and Gaiman are side by side. The Top 5 Fantasy Authors take 80% of the traffic! Strangely, one of my favourite authors, Stephen Donaldson, isn't even on that page! But then neither is Greg Hamerton … it's a travesty

So whom should I choose as the voice of authority on my site? Well, my writing is an evolution from classic fantasy, influenced more by Tolkien, Robert Jordan, and Robin Hobb. So to help new readers quickly identify what kind of writing they could expect, I mentioned these names in the first line of my home page, but I still needed a memorable quote. I nipped onto Goodreads' Quotes database. And there it was, the perfect quote:

"In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded." Terry Pratchett

If Google has a sense of humour, Sir Terry would be ranked as #1.



I should include Stephen King, who writes horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy (The Dark Tower series). Because he straddles genres, he can't fairly be compared with other pure fantasy authors, but he towers over everyone with over 700,000 search requests per month. He is the King.

An electrifying science fiction trailer for TRON

I am developing a book trailer for my new fantasy series The Tale of the Lifesong, so have been trolling YouTube for some inspiration. There are some great efforts out there, by writers like David J Guyton who self-produced a trailer for his fantasy book Mighty Hammer Down and David H Burton, whose dark fantasy trailer for The Second Coming just gives me the creeps. Because of the high standard of film trailers out there, it's very hard to make something that doesn't look homebaked by comparison.

The studios keep getting better. There's a new movie on the horizon – TRON: Legacy. I'd say they've done everything right with the trailer. It looks so hi tech and beautiful, the art direction on this one is superb. They give just enough of the story away to intrigue: a young boy, grown up, his missing Dad, and the chance that they could be reunited, a hint of conspiracy, and a legacy of a passage into another very exciting futuristic world. It does have a bit of an X-Men teen feel about it, but who cares … it's going to blow everything away this Christmas. Even their trailer and website has been done with the same attention to clean-cut electronic art. Electrifying! Disney leads the way with wonderworks of imagination.