Geralt of Rivia

Hey guys! As promised, I have news! This Saturday, July 14, I’ll be at the ArtsCrawl in Gallup, NM! I’ll be downtown in the evening, somewhere near Gallery 123, and I’ll have copies of anything and everything currently available from RAD Writing. Woo! Come and see me, and get your copies of the best clean fiction the market has to offer. :)

But for today, I want to talk about a book series which has both inspired me and utterly annoyed me, to the point that I still haven’t finished reading it.

The Witcher

Andrzej Sapkowski

I’m hoping I spelled that right. I keep checking and double checking, but it never looks right even when it is.

Anyway, again, if you’ve been following me on Goodreads, you know I’ve been making my way through this series. Of the books that are currently available in English, in fact, I only have one left. And I’m sitting on it. I want to read it and I don’t want to read it, at the same time.

Why?

Because it inspired me, in a way that I hate.

Sapkowski isn’t afraid to do things to his characters. He’s not afraid to get a little down and dirty, to make people suffer and hurt and feel things they shouldn’t have to feel. He’s not even afraid to make them try to commit suicide on the page. It’s gutting. And it’s incredibly inspiring.

But again… why?

Well, the thing is, I hate reading that sort of thing. It brings out this feeling of dread inside me, which I absolutely hate. But at the same time, it makes me want to write something like it. Because things like that, actions like that, they’re real. Characters, people, actually go through things like that. And more than likely, some of my readers would like to see that in my characters as well (you might notice the inspiration within the Earth-Space saga, in fact).

The Witcher novels aren’t originally written in English, so they’re also a good study in what other countries like to read. Not everyone reads like an American. I’d say I don’t really read like a normal American, either. And that’s also an inspiration to me. It’s a reminder that I can write with whatever pace is most suitable to the story, and though there will be some readers out there who hate it, there will also be many who love it.

Because there’s no perfect book for everyone. And people (like me) will read a series even if there are one or two points in it that they don’t like. Enter Sapkowski and the Witcher. I love this series. I hate this series. I’ll finish it before the year is through. Promise.

[love]

{Rani Divine}