Blogs by Frank P Ryan
Fantasy Fest
11/5/2010 3:22:25 AM
This is the first time I've attempted a blog -- but now I have returned to fantasy after a lamentable ten year gap, I feel I owe readers some kind of an explanation.
I'm a doctor and scientist, and have written a number of popular science books, which sold in large numbers and were well-received by critics. But I began as a fiction writer and I have now returned to fiction. My first fiction was a thriller trilogy published by the London publisher Hodder/ Coronet. In fact I have always had a particular interest in high quality epic fantasy.
Like a whole bundle of others, I particularly like Neil Gaiman's books, such as Neverwhere, Anansi Boys and American Gods -- just finished reading his short story compendium, Smoke and Mirrors -- boy what a contrast the short stories make with the novels -- incredibly dark, some of the short stories. But then my novel, Doomsday Genie, is pretty dark also. I also love Tad Williams -- just about everything he writes. I'm reading his Shadow series right now, can't wait for the last to appear in a month or two.
My new fantasy, which is aimed at a teenage/ adult fantasy readership, is The Snowmelt River. It was great also to return to working with the great fantasy/sci-fi artist, Mark Salwowski. Mark did the brilliant cover for The Snowmelt River -- he read the typescript and he really has captured the four main characters, the American, Alan Duval, the Irish girl, Kate Shaunessy, and the Londoners and adoptive brother and sistier, Mark and Maureen (Mo) Grimstone, perfectly.
Man, it's eerie -- because they look real in his pictures and they feel absolutely real to me. Mark also illustrated the free booklet telling anyone, anywhere, how to write his or her own fantasy short story -- see below.
It's a great thrill that, even prior to publication, Snowmelt River began to attract attention. I had a fairly big readership for my previous fantasy, The Sundered World, but it wasn't just that. I think it was the fact that Snowmelt appears to be very unusual in setting off in Ireland, with an epic Irish background, although Alan is very American, proudly so, which adds to his character. But then I heard, out of the blue, from the PR people for John West, and ultimately this led to their supporting the book in a major way in Ireland, where it was judged the John West Chosen Book for 2010, and it became the fulcrum of a nationwide fantasy short story competition, currently being taken into schools.
I wrote the free access booklet for the competition (it's available on www.swiftpublishers.com and the dedicated website www.frankpryan.com. This is the booklet decorated by Mark.
But the great thing -- the fantastic thing if you will allow me the pun -- is that anybody out there can take advantage of the advice on how to write a fantasy short story.
Why not give it a try -- download it! Have fun!
Post a Comment
More Blogs by Frank P Ryan
• Trilogy coming to completion - Friday, April 19, 2024
• The Sea of Stars - Thursday, January 27, 2022
• The Twins of Moon Book 2 - Tuesday, May 11, 2021
• Closure of my website - Monday, July 6, 2020
• Thoughts of the day - Monday, September 23, 2019
• The Twins of Moon - Saturday, May 4, 2019
• Free downloads to help would be authors - Wednesday, May 4, 2016
• First US publication of The Sword of Feimhin - Saturday, February 6, 2016
• New Therapy Aimed At Curing MS - Wednesday, January 20, 2016
• Welcome to the Golden Age of Genetics - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• New dangerous virus on the go - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• New Stand Alone Novel - Sunday, January 3, 2016
• Thank you, America - Wednesday, December 23, 2015
• Giveaway of the US version of The Mysterious World of the Human Genome - Wednesday, December 9, 2015
• symbiosis ain't about love - Tuesday, December 8, 2015
• Starred Kirkus Review of Mysterious World - Tuesday, November 17, 2015
• Review copies of The Return of the Arinn Going Out - Friday, October 30, 2015
• Christmas offers - Saturday, October 24, 2015
• The Return of the Arinn - Saturday, October 17, 2015
• Free tutorial on writing your own fantasy short story - Saturday, October 17, 2015
• Making contact with Indian readers - Wednesday, October 7, 2015
• Get on board the giveaway train - Monday, October 5, 2015
• Two new kindles selling in six countries - Wednesday, September 30, 2015
• Considering new fantasy - Friday, September 25, 2015
• first class low cost kindle set up - Friday, September 25, 2015
• Virus X in kindle for the first time - Friday, September 25, 2015
• The history of the omega-3s - Thursday, September 3, 2015
• The Legendary Anne Rice loves The Mysterious World of the Human Genome - Thursday, September 3, 2015
• No 1 - Sunday, August 30, 2015
• Close to publication of Return of the Arinn - Wednesday, August 26, 2015
• Producing the kindle - Sunday, August 16, 2015
• Virus X in kindle - Thursday, August 13, 2015
• Five Star Extravaganza - Thursday, August 6, 2015
• Darwin's Blind Spot on Kindle - Monday, August 3, 2015
• Doris Lessing's despair - Sunday, August 2, 2015
• Encouraging everybody to understand their very personal genome - Saturday, July 25, 2015
• Littrell review of The Mysterious World - Thursday, July 23, 2015
• 50 stars for my fantasy/ science fiction to date - Wednesday, July 15, 2015
• new treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome - Thursday, July 9, 2015
• Coming soon - more previews - Wednesday, July 8, 2015
• Only four months to go - Thursday, July 2, 2015
• Is Angelina Jolie's BRCA gene a - Friday, June 26, 2015
• Architecture in Epic Fantasy - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• The Forgotten Plague - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• My earlier books - Thursday, June 25, 2015
• Helpful illustrations - Friday, June 19, 2015
• Mysterious World now published - Thursday, June 18, 2015
• Returning to my epic fantasy - Wednesday, June 17, 2015
• Do you have any questions about the human genome? - Wednesday, June 17, 2015
• First public lecture - Tuesday, June 16, 2015
• Something amazing going on - Sunday, June 14, 2015
• Marketing begins - Thursday, June 11, 2015
• Arrival of first books - Wednesday, June 10, 2015
• Looking forward to my first talk on new book - Saturday, June 6, 2015
• A Glorious June Morning - Thursday, June 4, 2015
• Sword of Feimhin raised - Thursday, September 4, 2014
• while they're at the brewery . . . - Tuesday, September 2, 2014
• The American Dimension - Saturday, August 30, 2014
• The Holobiontic Nature of the Human Genome - Saturday, August 30, 2014
• Third book in the series coming soon - Friday, August 29, 2014
• What am I doing today? - Friday, November 12, 2010
• What is a book? - Thursday, November 11, 2010
• Do omega-3 really keep you healthy in mind? - Wednesday, November 10, 2010
• Fantasy Fest - Friday, November 5, 2010
|
