Joely Sue Burkhart

I was going to post this as a “review” but Bethanie is commenting more about my writing style in general and not a particular book.  I love seeing posts like this, because as I wrote earlier, it’s often a very difficult rahke’s edge to dance when trying to please both fantasy and romance readers.

As a reader, you are imperceptibly drawn into the worlds her characters inhabit until you are there, no info-dump necessary, thank-you-very-much.

The heart of the reason I like Joely’s writing, however, is how well she balances the fantasy and romance elements in her writing. 

When I completed that first precious (and very naive and immature) draft of The Rose of Shanhasson (then titled My Beloved Barbarian), I didn’t think it was fantasy at all.  I certainly wasn’t brave enough to call it fantasy.  At the time, I was reading mostly Robert Jordan and George R. R. Martin, two incredible fantasy authors that create massive, intricate worlds (and casts of thousands).  I didn’t think I’d ever be able to write fantasy enough, especially when I compared my stories to theirs.

Of course that was a long time ago.  My writing has improved a hundred times over and my vision for the story and the world has evolved as well.  I’ll admit, even four years ago, Keldar was only the vaguest smear on my coffee-stained hand-drawn map, let alone the other countries and cultures I know exist in the Blood and Shadows world.  I didn’t have a clue what I was doing when I wrote that first awful draft.  Now, I see it all so clearly.  I see the complete arc of Shannari’s story as plainly as watching The Lord of the Rings trilogy DVDs.  I see Rhaekhar’s arc, his regrets in the end.  And Gregar, well…

I wasn’t kidding when I said I wrote his snippet during Survivor.  Yes, I was paying attention to the show (I adore Ozzy) and I know who got kicked off.  After years of dreaming this story, I can hear Gregar breathing.  His breathing sounds very different from Shannari’s or Rhaekhar’s or any of the other characters wandering around in my head. 

He’s definitely the hardest to shut up.  That’s another reason he’s my Muse.   

Thank you so much, Bethanie, for your great post!

This entry was posted on Friday, April 4th, 2008 at 11:11 pm and is filed under Writing, My Books. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.