Worldbuilding In “The Wall Of Night” Series: The Medieval European Setting (3)
On Friday, I looked at my deliberate decision to give The Wall Of Night series a “classic epic framework”, which in turn drove the quasi-medieval European milieu.
I also said that in taking something that on the surface looked familiar, I hope to then emulate Emily Dickinson in approaching that familiar terrain at least somewhat “slant.”
In addition to aspects of culture and locale referenced yesterday, many readers and reviewers have also noted that not only is the lead character in The Wall Of Night series female—which is still relatively unusual in adult epic fantasy (although not unprecedented, given Mara of the Acoma in the Feist/Wurts Empire series, and CJ Cherryh’s Morgaine series, for example)—but also that the books contain diverse and compelling female supporting characters, as well as their male counterparts.
So sometimes the choice of a “classic epic” setting may not necessarily be as traditional as surface appearances suggest. I hope so, at any rate.
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If you’re interested in reading more on creating epic heroines, “place as person”, the world of Haarth, and the kind of books I write, you could check out the following posts:
Writing Epic Heroines: The Princess & Others In Thornspell
Place As Person: What Does It Mean When Telling Story
Keeping Fantasy Fresh & Interesting
“So What Kind OF Books Do You Write?” (1)
“So What Kind OF Books Do You Write?” (2)
We have to wait for January for book three? That sucks.
I can only apologise…
i agree with AJ, why is it taking so long to be released in NZ?
Ur a New Zealand Author after all!
i’ve been wait over a year for the 3rd book. Please tell me its the last one, i don’t think i could wait for a fourth one!
I am, indeed, a New Zealand author.:) However, the books are published through US and UK publishers respectively, so my location doesn’t really affect the publication decision. I am very aware of how long readers have had to wait and very sorry for it. The fault lies with me in that it took me a long time to write the book, for reasons which I have spoken of before so will not repeat now, except to say that it was, alas, a case of the story deciding when it was done, not the author–and this was a story with a decided mind of its own and considerable stubbornness about how it wanted to be written, to the extent that it would not allow me to write “the end” until it was “done right.”