Lessons learned in Fantasy
If you're following my page with SPFBO author guest posts you'll find some wonderful books by authors and their posts on the fantasy genre. I wanted to add a post of my own just for the record.
WHY FANTASY?
One of my favorite sub-genres to write is historical fantasy. It's also one of the most difficult because it requires so much research and if you don't get the history right, you'll either lose folks or get negative reviews. That's why I spent so much time on Thread of a Spider, a historical fantasy that takes us to 1920 Ireland when the IRA was newly formed and the people of southern Ireland said enough is enough! No more British oppression on their island. Because the Irish have deep family roots, and watched their ancestors suffer through so many tears and atrocities, they finally decided to end the oppression.
Books like Paddy's Lament, Guerrilla Warfare in Ireland, and On Another Man's Wounds became my resources for this novel as well as video interviews of men like Tom Barry who led the Irish Volunteers. Some may ask why didn't I just write a historical fiction story instead of a fantasy story?
https://vimeo.com/516236832
Because there was something greater in these broken people than force of arms -they had none when they began. What guns they had they stole from the British encampments.
What they did have was spirit, an Irish spirit that came from their culture, a strength of will, a common legacy that had been passed from one generation to the next that set them apart from others and bound them together as a nation. In Thread of a Spider I personify that spirit as the Fae Folk.
You see, even if the Fae aren't real, even if the legends that the Irish hold dear are make-believe, something stronger was with those people and that entity helped them to win that final battle because the odds were against them.
By all rights, they shouldn't have won.
I like to think it was their strong commitment to those who suffered before them that gave them courage. Culture, a sense of belonging, the beauty of a people, ethnicity, these elements have value that a fantasy story can shine its light on.
Thread of a Spider is on Kindle Unlimited for the summer months only.