Karen Azinger's Blog: The Silk & Steel Saga - Posts Tagged "epic-fantasy"

Ever since I first held a crayon, art has always been a beloved hobby. I’ve dabbled in many art mediums, from drawing, to acrylic painting, to ceramics, to rubber stamping, to fused glass. Art has always been pure pleasure, distinct from my work until now. Having taken up the epic task of writing a fantasy saga, I got the idea to combine my love or writing with my love of art. I’m just an amateur artist, but I thought it would be fun to give my readers a chance to see the author’s artistic interpretation of the characters and settings of The Silk & Steel Saga. Inspired by Artist Trading Cards (ATC), I set out to stamp a deck of cards to express the spirit and theme of my books. I had so much fun with this project that I ended up stamping more than ninety cards. Some cards depict settings like Pellanor, Castlegard, Hammer Glacier, Castle Seamount, and the Kiralynn Monastery. Other cards depict characters like Queen Liandra, Kath, the Priestess, and the rangers of the Deep Green. Some of my Art Cards of Erdhe have been published in a national magazine (Rubberstampmadness). If you are interested in seeing some of my cards, you can find many of them on my website for The Silk & Steel Saga while others are posted on my Facebook page for The Steel Queen. I hope you will stop by and check out my Art Cards of Erdhe!
http://www.karenlazinger.com/
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It's nearly Valentine's Day, so let's talk about love. The Silk & Steel Saga is set in a medieval world, but the story is very modern, full of political intrigue, fanatical religions, hatred, misogyny, greed, lust, and love, all woven together in complex plots. Of all the emotions portrayed in this saga, love is by far the most challenging to write, because the bar for believability of this emotion is set so very high by readers. Perhaps we are all too cynical and jaded in this modern age. Or perhaps it is because I write epic fantasy, not romance, so my readers are even more skeptical, pushing the believability bar even higher. Either way, as a writer, love is a the most challenging emotion to write convincingly. Readers must not only believe it, they must feel it. And it cannot come across as sappy or corny or clichéd. And the challenge becomes even more difficult when the reader views the relationship from both points-of-view as in the Silk & Steel Saga. But if done well, love adds a deep dimension to any story, especially epic fantasy. In my view, the reward is well worth the risk.

Great epic fantasy is so much more than just swords and sorcery. To engage a wide range of readers, I set out to write a fantasy that included love, sex, and battles. These three types of scenes presented major writing challenges (especially for me, since Silk & Steel was the first time I'd written any of them!). Love and sex are not required in epic fantasy, but I believe they make any story richer and more compelling. Since my saga explores the theme of how women gain, keep, and wield power in a medieval world, sex and love are both crucial to the story. Of the two, love is by far the harder to write. Perhaps because the world has grown jaded and cynical, it's hard to convince readers that a love story is true, especially if you are writing outside of the romance genre. Fantasy authors who dare to include love risk losing their readers if that love is not believable. The key to believability is showing, not telling. Actions portray love so much more vividly than words. Someone once said, "The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference." There's a lot of wisdom in that saying, proving why actions, even the smallest kindnesses, mean so much when it comes to love. A sharpened awareness of the other person, stolen glances, a first touch that elicits sparks, a shared secret, unexpected gifts, thoughtful gestures, meaningful looks, deep conversations, all provide proof of love. A gift from a lover becomes a powerful talisman, both for the reader as well as the character. Always wearing the checkered cloak he gave her, or clutching the silver warrior ring he left behind sends an enduring message. Once you've established believability, love becomes a powerful force in the story, driving characters to make crucial pivots. True love can evoke extraordinary risks and cause unexpected transformations. These are the story moments readers will remember, but first you have to lay the groundwork. Proof of your characters' love is found in the details, so weave a rich love story with plenty of proof. I hope you'll find the love threads in The Silk & Steel Saga to be both believable and compelling.

Tidbit Thursday: Great epic fantasy is so much more than just swords and sorcery. To engage a wide range of readers, I set out to write a fantasy that included love, sex, and battles. Last week I talked about love scenes. Writing sex scenes proved a challenge of a different sort (including overcoming my own embarrassment!). One of my top priorities was to make sure the sex was never gratuitous, always integral to the characters' goals and the story's themes. In The Silk & Steel Saga, sex is either part of love or a means to a calculated end. And no one does the second better than the Priestess! Wielding sex for power is the prowess of the Priestess, the succubus of the Dark Lord. "Glamour enough to steal a man's soul...and the skill to use it." The Priestess is seduction personified. Her purpose was always clear, although her methods varied. As an author, my goal was to write prose that sizzled without crossing the boundary into r-rated. For me, the key to writing successful sizzle is to focus on seduction rather than just sex. For example, here's a scene from The Poison Priestess, when she's reunited with the prince of Radagar. “What name do you go by these days?” She never used her birth-name, a secret saved for a future conquest. “I haven’t decided yet. Choose something you like. Any blossom will do.” He shook his head. “Not any blossom. Not for you.” He circled her, slowly, studying the silhouette beneath the layers of sheer silk. “For you it must be something special, something rare, something with a double meaning.” Leaning close, he breathed deep. “Sandalwood beneath honeysuckle, allure hidden beneath sweet innocence.” He came full circle, standing in front of her, a hungry smile on his lean face. “I name you, Cereus, a blossom of the night.” “Cereus.” She tried the name, liking the sound of it. “Is it real or myth?” His gaze traveled her length, pausing at the lushness of her breasts. “Is your beauty real, or myth?” “Perhaps you’ll learn tonight.” “Perhaps it will take more than one night.” She made her voice a purr. “One night will be enough.” ...It's just a short scene, but can you feel the heat? This scene sizzles yet all the words are g-rated. I hope you'll find plenty of sizzle in The Silk & Steel Saga!

Cultures are the spice of life, one of the prime reasons we travel. Cultures are the kaleidoscopic lens that lets us see the world from different perspectives. Some cultures are exotic, some are strange and colorful, while others appear familiar till we brush against subtle differences like walking through cobwebs. Cultures also clash, providing a prime source of tension in the real world and in storytelling. Tolkien was a master at creating unique and different cultures. Elves, dwarves, and men all had their unique cultures, their own histories, legends and lore. To make Erdhe a rich and vibrant land, one of the things I wanted to do as an author was to have pockets of forgotten peoples with unique cultures in The Silk & Steel Saga. Overlooked and often persecuted, these forgotten people develop unique counter cultures that seem strange and mysterious at first contact. An example of this can be found on the Isle of Souls, where the council of mystics uses a shocking test to confirm their fortunetellers. Those who succeed gain ‘spirit hands’ for the lintels of their shops…while those who fail pay in flesh and blood. Borrowed from the mystics of India, this trial is the type of cultural detail that gives the Isle of Souls a sense of depth and realism. As a writer, I not only need to develop these alternate cultures but I need to "show them", not just "tell them". "Showing" a culture is usually done in the details (think of Spock in Star Trek with his unique 'Live long and prosper' greeting). To increase tension, these subtle details should confuse, or shock, or surprise the point of view character as well as the reader. These detailed differences are the key to making alternate cultures rich and believable. When Kath first meets the painted warriors in The Skeleton King, she has a conversation with a healer. On the surface it seems like a simple conversations but then Kath realizes that her words are land-mined with subtle misunderstandings. "Kath felt as if she teetered on the edge of a chasm, a division of history and customs, a great divide sundering potential allies." Somehow Kath has to understand the culture of the painted warriors and find a way to bridge the gap. In the Silk & Steel Saga, readers will discover many forgotten peoples with their own unique cultures.