Welcome to my World(s).
or how and why….
I can’t remember the exact date when I started writing the Maingard Chronicles, but it was sometime in 2012 when I first put digital letter on digital page. But Bex’s story started years before then. She was a character I played in an MMO game during the early 2000s. An ordinary woman with a demon inside.
Now, I have an inquisitive mind. As I grew away from that game, I found myself asking questions.
- Why the demon?
- Who was the demon?
- How did they meet?
- What world would they really live in?
- and on and on…
Those questions gave rise to answers, and those answers, in turn, raised more questions. Soon I was swimming in information about a fantasy world, it’s people and some terrible events that would happen to it. That’s when I gave in and started to write it down. The first seven years or so were quite haphazard but with guidance and help from The Coffeehouse Writer, Book 1: The Darkness Rising is finished and just about ready for publication. Book 2: The Demons Within is close behind and Book 3 (Imaginatively titled #WIP at the moment) is quarter way through the first draft.
As Rudyard Kipling wrote: ‘I keep six honest-serving men, They taught me all I know. Their names are What & Why & When, And How & Where & Who.’ Next time you are at a loss for ideas; find a character, a location, an event – give these six honest-serving men a shout and see what answers they come up with.
Why Fantasy?
An easy answer – why the hell not?! How can someone not get excited by worlds where the Fantastic and Magical happen everyday.
Worlds where heroes and heroines clash with monsters and demons.
Huge dragons terrify villages and ravage the countryside.
Undead walk the earth and supernatural beings haunt the night.
Villains plot the downfall of thrones and kingdoms, and wizards deal spells and curses with aplomb.
And where swords are all powerful, yet a ring can defeat them all.
The Maingard Chronicles is a high fantasy work, but I won’t stop there or limit myself. If you follow me, you’ll see an eclectic mix of high & low fantasy, sword and sorcery & steampunk, weird & wonderful, short stories and novels.
I love the writing, creating the characters and life shattering events they face – essentially playing God and Dungeon Master. Of course, I would be honoured if my stories are compared to those of my literary heroes – but more important for me would be for my stories to open up a world of reading for a new reader, or inspiration for a would be scribe to pick their pen up and ask themselves some questions.
Now, buckle up your armour, grab that sword and grimoire of spells, and get ready to jump in….