In 2009, my friend Mur Lafferty challenged me to complete NaNoWriMo in half a month. For the un-initiated, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month and it falls in November each year. To win, write at least 50,000 words of a new extended work of fiction starting at midnight on the morning of November 1 and ending at midnight in the evening of November 30. For most normal purposes, 50,000 words is a rather long novella or a rather short novel, but it’s a handy target and every year thousands of erstwhile novelists from around the globe pit themselves against their keyboards and the clock.
In 2007, I completed the first draft of South Coast in November and had the podcast out by Christmas. In 2008, I failed to break the 2,000 word mark because of day job conflicts–travel, new high-priority projects, etc. In 2009, I accepted Mur’s challenge and the result was the first draft of Ravenwood. The first of what I hope will be a new series of works set in a fantasy setting.
Why fantasy?
2009 was the year of The Challenge with NaNoWriMo. After I accepted the speed challenge from Mur, another friend challenged me to get out of my genre and write a fantasy work while a long time beta reader finally nailed me down to write a female lead character. Little did I know how much of a challenge it would be, or how much fun I’d have working in this new country.
Keeping with my idea of twisting tropes, I approached the Epic Quest Fantasy by first identifying the things I wanted to change. In the typical story, the kid leaves home to seek fame and fortune (or escape the boredom of the farm) and adventures across the land becoming a hero and gaining powers as they go. So, I wanted to tell the story of an older person on a quest to find a place to settle down and write her magnum opus — a book on the collected herb lore collected from a lifetime on the road. The result is Tanyth Fairport – a wandering herbalist in the autumn of her years in search of the last of the keepers of the Old Knowledge.
I had so much fun with this book, I can hardly wait to get back into the world.
Hi Nathan. I am delighted you chose a female character “of a certain age” for your venture away from your other writings. As an acupuncturist, herbalist – and a woman in my 50’s – I have actually taken inspiration from the character. Middle age has a lot to offer if not the energy to do everything we can imagine we’d like to. The world isn’t only for the young anymore!
Once again, thank you for taking the time to write about the adventures of Tanyth. I can’t wait until you can get back to her!
Kindest regards,
Rachel
As I stated on other site:
I must say that in my 56 years not many books keep my attention. I get bored with most because they do not hold my interest, guess I’m an odd bird. My husband listened to a podcast of Ravenwood and keep at me to listen to it. He keep on until I gave in and let him download it to my phone. After a few days of his constant “have you started listening yet”, I gave in and turned it on. I’m so glad I did, what a lovely story. I love listening to it as I was putting around in my greenhouse. I think I’ve smile more listening to this story than I have in a year. I reminds me so much of my great-grandmother (in a way); she was a nurse, Dutch, moved to America, and married an Native Indian whose mother was a medicine woman, her mother-in-law taught her Indian medicine to use along with her modern medicine (modern for that time) and she traveled all over caring for people..
It sadden me when the story came to an end. I so look forward to what I hope will be a long running series.
BTW, the way the story was told was “PERFECT”, thank you. I’m finding the audio book work very well of me and my working, lovely stories like this one is a perfect seating in my greenhouse, surrounded by my plants and the woods outside. I am so looking forward to hearing more on Tanyth.
Sincerely yours,
Christal
Thank you, Christal. It was a lot of fun for me to do and I’m looking forward to getting into the sequel later this fall.
I just wanted to drop you a line and let you know that I completely enjoyed the Ravenwood podiobook. I loved the fact that you tossed the young hero trope away and did something different. I think it worked really well.
I also loved the fact that she wasn’t trying to save the world. She was just trying to save their little corner of the world. It’s a lot more personal and immediate than battling the ultimate forces of darkness and evil.
Thanks, Greg.
This story is my reaction to that kind of “massive battle pitting ultimate good against ultimate evil.” Just like my SF is a reaction against the “save the universe every twenty pages by blowing something up every ten.” My goal is to write smaller stories that connect to readers more directly and I’m very happy that this one worked for you.