There’s a giveaway for The Wolf of Oren-yaro if you haven’t seen the link for it yet. Clicky! As mentioned, this will feature the ARC cover, not the new cover, because my artist doesn’t have the paperback version of that one ready yet.
I was sitting here looking at this cover and wondering what it is that I like about it so much. The wolves, for one thing. My artist and I both really like wolves, and it was one of those mind-meld moments where she was like “LOOK” and I was like “YASSS I LOVE YOU.”
But also, I love how she incorporated the horror elements that seep into my work. Which got me to thinking about how I approach my craft, what I tend to do with it, why people react to it in such different ways.
A few months ago, I came to the eye-opening realization that all my beta-readers/editors like horror.
I was asking a beta-reader why it didn’t bother him not knowing things when he first started reading Jaeth’s Eye, because by then I was well aware this was a common complaint. He said, “Well, you’re playing this like a horror movie, right? Clues are dropped, we try to remember as much as we can, and then you hit us with reveals. You know, like M.Night Shyamalan’s stuff.”
And that’s why that made it into the blurb.
Which got me to thinking more. Because you know, The Agartes Epilogues has its fair share of monsters, but they are rarely seen. Why? Readers have complained about that too, more than once. That’s where the horror influence comes in…you’re not supposed to see the monsters all the time or you lose that sense of wonder, especially that trickle of fear.
The important bit is how the characters are reacting to all of this. You feel everything on a surface level. The emotions…their fear, sense of chaos, despair, anger, helplessness…this is what’s important. Not so much what’s happening outside, but inside.
But then now you have this genre-bending thing that doesn’t follow any rules that people don’t know how to react to, and as a creator you’re left scratching your head wondering what you could’ve done to change things.
I love the feeling of discovery in fantasy. Of not knowing, and learning as we go along. I hate exposition. And I love horror. This is a couple of lines from my current work-in-progress, which I’ve dubbed Happy Farm Adventures until I’m ready to reveal the title.
I can’t help writing the way I do. My work is an expression of the things I love, the things that matter to me, that fascinate me. And I love work that brings the reader down to the visceral level–an attempt at pulling the rug from under their feet, not to confuse them, but to make them feel.
It isn’t always received well, but as a creator, I owe it to my work to keep trying.
Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
