Rowena Cory Daniells is the author of “The Last T’En”
and “The King Rolen’s Kin” trilogies and of the stand-alone novel “The Price ofFame”. She recently released a new trilogy, “The Outcast Chronicles”, published
by Solaris Books, also the publisher of “The King Rolen’s Kin”. I have the
pleasure to host Rowena for a guest post in celebration of the release of “The
Outcast Chronicles”.
How I discovered fantasy...
by Rowena Cory Daniells
Before I knew there was such a thing as genre, I loved
fantasy. The stories that had the most
power for me were the stories of magic and wonder. Every fairy tale contained
these elements: witches who tricked children, grumpy goblins who made bargains
and kind woodsmen. And it seemed that every fairy tale contained a clever child
who outwitted the evil. I was always looking for those stories.
I grew up in a sleepy seaside town in Australia. TV in
those days was black and white, and full of middle-class American stories. But
there were some gems. I loved Bewitched. If it had been possible, I would have
grown up to be Samantha. My favourite episodes were the ones with dithery Aunt
Clara and naughty little Tabitha.
Then, one afternoon, I watched Jason and the
Argonauts. Ray Harryhausen brought to life gods and goddesses, and battles with
skeletons and harpies. Before there was
CGI there was Harryhausen. I didn’t identify with the females in the story, so
far as I was concerned I was one of Jason’s crew, fighting alongside him. I was
there for the adventure.
Around this time I also watched Forbidden Planet,
robots and monsters! And the most amazing thing was the revelation that the
monster was a product of the father’s subconscious. (Sorry, spoiler). I loved
the way this turned my understanding of monsters upside down. I loved the way
it stretched my mind.
I was always looking for things that gave me that
visceral thrill of discovery and adventure. Naturally, I read everything I
could lay my hands on, which wasn’t much. So desperate was I for reading
material, that when my parents bought my text books I would read them all in
the week before school started. And still I wanted more.
More adventure, more stories of amazing wonder.
And then at seventeen I discovered Tolkien and
Asimov: fantasy and science fiction.
Finally, I’d found the mental head space where I felt most comfortable. But I
was still living amongst people who thought going to the footy on a Saturday
was the highlight of the week. Nothing can describe the sense of isolation you
feel when you’re alone in a crowd. It wasn’t until I went to Melbourne that I
met SF fans and discovered people who could talk about the things I found
fascinating.
Nowadays, you can find like-minded people on the web.
Nowadays, we have pop culture events where 25,000 nerds turn up to celebrate
comics, TV shows and movies, books and games. Nowadays we geeks are mainstream.
But it was very different when I was growing up. Back
then, if someone had told me that I would one day write books that swept
readers away on fantastical adventures I would have been flabbergasted.
Although I loved writing stories, I had never considered myself an author. They
were wondrous creatures who didn’t exist on the same plane as the people I saw
around me.
Now I write the stories that I once longed to read. I
write about people who face terrible choices and discover things within
themselves they never realised were there. And I do this in a fantasy setting
because an invented secondary world allows me to set up the most challenging of
scenarios to test my characters. In The Outcast Chronicles I test Imoshen and
Sorne, and make them question the very foundations of what they believe.
I hope readers find their stories as compelling as I
did while writing the books.
Catch up with Rowena on Twitter: @rcdaniells
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up with Rowena on
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