Christopher Patterson's Blog - Posts Tagged "action"

Hey everyone

Look for a giveaway through Goodreads for my book, A Chance Beginning: Book One of the Shadow's Fire Trilogy. I am giving away six books, so go in and request a copy. Goodreads will then select the winners.

Thanks and Happy Reading!

Christopher Patterson

Hello All

Another exciting week of trying to market my new fantasy novel A Chance Beginning and working on book two, Dark Winds.

For all of you in or close to the Tucson area, I will be doing a book signing at Mostly Books on July 13th from 1-2pm. This is an awesome opportunity to support a local business and me at the same time. The link to Mostly Books is http://www.mostlybooksaz.com/

Thank you all. Also, check out the newly priced $2.99 Kindle version of A Chance Beginning at http://www.amazon.com/Chance-Beginnin...

Christopher Patterson

You should see the looks I get when people learn I'm an author, especially people who have known me for a while. They get this bright-eyed, amazed look. Of course, the next question is, "What have you written and what is it about?" You should see their faces when I tell them I am a fantasy author. For most, any level of amazement recedes and I get the look that says, "Oh, you're one of those kinds of authors."


Why can't fantasy get any love? When I was studying Creative Writing at the University of Arizona, the goal of almost every student in my class was to be an author, to write that next ,great, American novel that would move mountains, shatter norms, and change the minds of generations to come. And then there was me. I just wanted to write good fantasy. But to most, putting that adjective with that genre is oxymoronic. There is no such thing as good fantasy. I even had a classmate tell me one time that she didn't understand why I was bothering with a degree in Creative Writing if all I wanted to do was write fantasy novels. This was a degree for serious writers. Great, Thanks!

Even with classics like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia and new blockbusters like Harry Potter and The Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones for those of you who have only watched the HBO series), one would think that fantasy writing, fantasy writers, and the fantasy genre in general would be getting a little more credibility, but I really don't think it is. I mean, come on, Zombie and Vampire novels are getting more love than Fantasy novels. Really?

I get that some people simply don't like fiction. I have several good friends who only like biographies and motivational books and histories. But those aren't really the people I'm talking about. Fantasy requires some stretching of the imagination, definitely. And some people just have a hard time with make believe worlds and creatures like dwarves and elves and dragons. Okay. But if you're going to read a fiction novel, why would you want to read something that resembles real life? Then it's not really fiction, is it? And that is what most literary fiction is. I know I am committing a cardinal sin here and generalizing, stereotyping even (uh oh, the dreaded word that contradicts all that is PC), but much of modern day's literary fiction is some novel about a situation, event, or life that actually happened, only the names were changed. I read fiction to get away. I read fiction to take a journey. I read fiction to engage my imagination, travel beyond reality, and experience something I will probably never experience in real life. Now, I don't want to read a story in which no one ever dies, there are never any struggles, and everything ends up perfect. I want conflict. I want stress and worry. I - yes I know this is going to sound like I am contradicting myself - want some reality. But I don't want real life.

Anyways, I digress. Fantasy. Fantasy and Science Fiction seems to be the red headed step child (no disrespect to any red headed step children out there) of the literary world. In fact, some might even scoff at the notion of mentioning literary in the same sentence as fantasy and science fiction. So why? Well, I think the biggest reason is, what I have heard commonly called, popcorn fantasy. The cheeseball effect of fantasy. Fantasy, even more so than science fiction, can be so over the top, so overwhelming, such a stretch of the imagination, that it is just too much and it becomes almost like a soap opera with dragons and orcs. Much like romance, and I don't mean to rag on romance because there are some very good romance novelists out there, it is formulaic. You have a young human warrior just trying to figure things out, a dwarf fighter who's a jerk, an elvish wizard who is uppity and whose sexuality is questionable, a halfling thief with quirky, witty puns, and a sexy female warrior who, for whatever reason, thinks its a great idea to wear a chain mail bra. By the way, if anyone knows where to get a chain mail bra, can you let my wife know. Right, I mean, that pretty much sums up the group of fantasy protagonists. They set out on some epic journey to fight an evil wizard, a powerful warlord, or some other archetypal fantasy villain (there's a few more to pick from). This party is faced with overwhelming odds and in the end, using a literary technique which I have to admit, I have used in my early writing and which is not recommended, by Deus ex machina the conflict is resolved and everyone lives happily ever after.

I think a lot of people figure once you've read one fantasy novel, you've read them all. And, not at all trying to hate on Forgotten Realms or Dragonlance, in the cases of those popcorn type fantasies, that's probably true. I've seen some deviations. Michael Moorcock and his Elric series cast an evil, somewhat sadistic, and very conflicted character (Elric) as the protagonist. Nice. R.A. Salvatore does something similar with Drizzt, a drow elf gone good. But what have the really successful fantasy writers done that makes them so successful, what has Tolkien, Rowlings, Martin, Lewis, Le Guinn, Sanderson, and even Jordan done that make them so great, and make their novels so outstanding? I think what has made their work more available to the typical, non-fantasy loving reader, is firstly their outstanding writing (I get so tired of the fantasy community accepting terrible writing, acting, directing, etc. just because they like the idea of a story or book) and then their ability to cross genre boundaries.

In order for fantasy to started becoming more mainstream, not the genre of nerdy virgins hanging out in the back of the classroom playing Magic the Gathering, fantasy writers need to do a few things. We need to get away from the formulaic. There really isn't a story out there that hasn't been told, but we need to tell a story in a new, fresh way. We need to get away from the D & D adventure template. Fantasy authors need to write something that doesn't sound like they pumped it out in a month. Fantasy authors need to hold the fantasy a little. What? I know, it sounds crazy, but what sounds crazy to me is that every knight has a magic sword and every wizard can blast through an army of goblins with a fireball spell. Where's the mystery, where's the struggle, where's the conflict? One of the things I love about George Martin is the fact that magic is somewhat limited in his world. It's a precious commodity. I think people are drawn to books where magic is mysterious, dragons don't do fly overs every day, and not every town has its own wizard. Fantasy authors need to invest in good editing and books from other genres. We need to find out what appeals to the mystery reader, the romance reader, the literary reader, the reader of historical fiction. If fantasy can incorporate those ideas into a well written story that happens to have many fantasy elements, we will have many more fans.

So, just some food for thought. I would like to know what you all think of fantasy, why you think it has the stigma of being so cheesy, and, if you're not a normal purveyor of fantasy, what would get you to read more of it. Also, if you're looking for a good fantasy novel, check out A Chance Beginning
Christopher Patterson

Available now for a free download through my website

Prisoner
A Short Story by
Christopher Patterson

Check it out at http://www.christopher-patterson.com/...

We were sitting on the couch, watching the HBO rendition of George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, known to most people who have never read the books as A Game of Thrones. My wife and I rather enjoy the series. There are some things I could do without, little changes between the show and the books and the gratuitous sex, but other than that, we have a good time watching it. It was the episode known as The Red Wedding. Now, I had already read the books, so I knew what was going to happen. I literally sat on the edge of the couch. When Kellie, my wife, would ask, “What is up with you?” I would simply reply, “Just wait for it.”
Then it came. I won’t tell you what, exactly, just to avoid any spoilers for any of you that might want to read the books. But the scene I had been waiting for happened and my wife hit me as hard as she could on the shoulder and almost started crying. Someone had died. No, not someone, a main character, a protagonist, a mover and shaker, someone we had come to really like—love maybe, someone with whom we empathized. They were dead, never to be seen again save for reruns, and then again, why would you want to watch a rerun with them in it, only to know their inevitable fate? My wife hated it. I loved it.
Fiction, especially Science Fiction and Fantasy, is a break from reality. People read it, for the most part, to escape the everyday doldrums of life. We get to live the life of a hero, a princess, a powerful wizard, a dragon slayer, a king, a universe-known smuggler with a soft heart, you pick. We get to imagine, live in worlds that don’t exist, dabble in ideas that are simply . . . well, fiction. In fact, we see books and movies that are technically fiction, technically fantasy, but they are so close to reality that people almost revolt against them. I truly believe that those who really don’t like A Song of Ice and Fire hate it because it, in many ways, resembles the twisted, wicked, aristocratic, dictatorial societies of our own world 500 years ago as well as today. It’s too close to reality. Where’s the magic? Where are the orcs? Hell, where’re the damn elves? Can you really have a fantasy book without any elves? Ok, it does have dragons. I really do like A Song of Ice and Fire.
So, back to my point. Fiction is a break from reality, but if it breaks too much from reality, we are left with something that is completely unbelievable. I know, I know. Right now you are asking, “Um, how are dwarves and elves and orcs and dragons believable?” Well, take that grumpy dwarf blacksmith and replace him with your grumpy, mechanic father-in-law. That might have been too personal. Hopefully, my wife doesn’t read this. Sorry Sweetie. Take the haughty, stuck up, pretentious elf traveling with the protagonist and replace him with your coworker who is always right, always speaking out in meetings, always talking about his new BMW, always wearing designer shirts that you make fun of even though you really wish you could afford one, and who definitely can afford all of this because of the trust fund his grandparents set up for him. And all the while you hate to admit that this guy really is your friend and a good guy. How about that ugly orc? Maybe a big, brutish, dark-haired German Nazi (no offense to anyone who is German) who is chasing after the protagonist—an American spy during WWII—trying to thwart his plans to smuggle a Jewish family out of Nazi Germany. Ok, ok, but dragons? The dog that’s really not a pet and does his own thing, but in the end always helps. Or, possibly, the uncertainty of nature, the unknown. I know. That last one was deep. Very metaphorical.
My point is, when you really think about it, all of these characters or creatures really are believable. They are simply representations of real people, real creatures, real ideas, and real problems. A mystery buff might call a fantasy lover a nerd, but the mystery reader’s detective is just a hobbit to the fantasy fanatic. The fantasy lover might find romance almost vomitous, but what is the relationship between Arwen and Aragorn but a love story, a romance. Despite the break from reality that any fiction poses to the reader, but especially genres like fantasy and science fiction, it still has some elements of reality to which we can relate. We typically could replace the main character with ourselves. I’ve been Aragorn, Sparrowhawk, Jamie Lannister, Kylar Stern, Ender, Drizzt Do’Urden, Jack Ryan, heck, I’ve even been Erik, one of the main characters from my own book. It is the believability of the situation, the characters that make us want to read these books, and I truly believe, as a one time English teacher, that it is the lack of believability of Greek heroes that makes it hard for our students to read an epic poem like The Odyssey.
So what am I getting at. There are very few critiques I have of Tolkien. His work, to me, is amazing and set the groundwork for every other fantasy artist in the 20th and 21st centuries. One of those critiques is, however, the fact that no one dies—at least no one important. Boromir dies, but if you are like me, you never really liked him anyway. The movies do more to give him some sort of likeable qualities than the text. Frodo and Sam should’ve died but they are miraculously rescued by the Giant Eagles. Gandalf “dies,” but not really. Théoden dies, but again, if you read the book rather than watch the movie, at least I was not as attached. I want someone to die. I want some conflict, some heart wrenching moment that tests the resolve of the characters. I want something that gives real motivation to the action and the plot. Again, let me reiterate, I love Lord of the Rings. But if I could change one thing, I think it would that. You wouldn’t have a murder mystery without a murder, why have a fantasy adventure without people dying—on both sides. I mean, was anyone else perturbed by Wulfgar coming back to life in the Drizzt books? Was anyone irritated that Spock came back to life?
Anyways, back to my wife and I watching Game of Thrones. I know my wife was pissed and sad and a mix of ten other emotions when that main character died. Part of her even wanted to stop watching the series (even though she still watches it). And that is exactly the reaction I want as an author. I want people to be so bought into my characters that if one dies, and they should since they are on a dangerous, treacherous mission with any number of perils along the way, that they will be mad and sad and depressed and irritated and outraged. That means I’m doing my job as an author, right?
So, in my humble opinion authors, especially fantasy and science fiction authors, kill of a main character. It will drive your story and make your readers care. Someone must die.

Be sure to check out A Chance Beginning: Book One of the Shadow’s Fire Series. You can find it through amazon.com at http://www.amazon.com/Chance-Beginnin...

Thanks and Happy Reading!