Q+A

As you know, the preorders for Dwr: People in the Water are now open at the RAD Store Online. (How cool is that?!)

But what does that mean? What is the third book in the series going to bring us?

Well, that’s what I’m talking about today, and every Friday this month.

Today, I’m answering the top four questions you’ve asked me regarding Dwr and the Druid Novels in general! Woo!

• How did you start writing this series?

Well, that’s a funny story. See, I started the Druid Novels out of a single sentence uttered by a teacher in a single class in college. I was taking Viking Mythology with my brother and a bunch of friends (seriously, there were at least eight people I knew in there—it was great), and our teacher mentioned something about the druids, and their living out in the woods and their use of magic, and the opening lines to Coetir popped into my head.

As I’ve mentioned a few times before, I’m actually releasing the Druid Novels in the order in which I wrote them, not the order in which they take place. Which leads into…

• Where does Dwr pick up, in the overall story?

I’m glad you asked! Dwr picks up right before Coetir. So when Dwr ends, that’s where Coetir technically starts. You could say that makes it a bit of a spoiler, because you know what happens next in the series, but I don’t think of it that way. You don’t know how this will happen, how things will play out, or what to expect from either the humans on their ship or the Dwr under the waves. There’s a lot going on, and a lot I can’t tell you about without giving something away.

• How did you start writing Dwr?

That’s a funny story. My brain wanted me to write Dwr shortly after I finished Coetir, but I fought it for a long time. I wrote something remarkably similar, even knowing that that story wasn’t what it was supposed to be, because I’d set it in the wrong world. I then ended up writing Cedwig, which you’ll all have read by now I’m sure *wink*

Dwr though, when I finally did write it, ended up being one of my favorite stories. I still go back to it, when I need a little inspiration. And I think it’s really cool to be able to go to one of my own stories for inspiration, when I’m drawing a blank. Because yes, though I do not believe in writer’s block, I do occasionally find that I don’t have any oomph. Pretty sure we all have those days.

• What’s your favorite thing about the Druids?

That’s a hard question! I’ve had so much fun with the druids, with the Dewin and all they’ve done in each and every story. You’re all glad, I’m sure, to know that I’ve actually finished the series by now, so you won’t have to wait more than a few years for every book to be on your shelves.

But the druids have meant a lot to me over the years. They’ve taught me a lot about how to write a spiritual people, how to create people unlike most that I’ve met in person.

I love them. I really do. 

Those were your top questions! Let me know if you have any others — I know how excited we all are for the next book to be released. 

Don’t forget to stop by the RAD Store and preorder your copy! I know you’re all ready to experience the next in the Druid series, and I can't wait to get it in your hands!

[love]

{Rani Divine}

NonFic

Happy Wednesday, everyone! I think I’m still slightly in shock that it’s already April. How did that happen so quickly? Seriously. My book comes out next month, and it’s already available for preorder. What?

*sigh* Probably better to focus on the task at hand, eh?

Monday, we talked about fiction. The logical next step then, is to talk about…

Nonfiction

Tell me you saw that coming. Really. I couldn’t think of any better genre to pair with fiction, than it’s polar opposite. It’s not a genre that I spend a ton of time with, if I’m honest, but I have read a lot of it in my lifetime. If you’ve been to college, or you own a computer, then I’m sure you have too. ;-)

So, why do we enjoy it?

For a lot of people, nonfiction is all about learning. Whether it’s a biography, a textbook, or any other form of nonfiction that pops into your head, its primary purpose is to teach. So we enjoy it when we’re actually trying to find out an answer to a question, perhaps.

We’re learning beings. It’s what we like to do, even if we won’t admit it. We like to know the answers to our questions, and for many of us, we want to find out without the quick answers provided by Google. So we turn to books, to nonfiction, to other people’s lives and studies that explain what we’ve been trying to figure out, whether that means turning to the Bible or a biography of Annie Oakley.

Personally, I prefer the Bible.

Basically, nonfiction is designed to teach, so we enjoy it because we want to learn. Simple.

But what do we gain from it?

Seems obvious, right? We gain answers from it. Knowledge. Understanding. And you’d be right: that is obvious. So if your intent is to really have people learn something from what you’re writing, then nonfiction is the way you want to go. Or if you’re looking for something that you strongly desire to learn from, then this is likely the genre you’ll want to turn to.

I told you earlier that I don’t read nonfiction a lot, and in many ways that’s true, but if you think about it, we all read some nonfiction every day. We read online what our friends are doing (if they post it), we read news articles and absorb information from various websites. That’s all nonfiction. And whether we realize it or not, we’re gaining something from it.

My advice is to make sure you’re gaining something good, and not something bad. And if you’re a nonfiction writer, make sure your audience isn’t gaining something negative from your work. The world doesn’t need any more negativity than it already has. Seriously.

[love]

{Rani D.}

Fic

I so much enjoyed last month, and getting to talk about different clichéd and non-clichéd characters, that I thought I would go one step further and answer some more of my own questions—this time, in a short study of genre.

And we haven’t talked genre in a bit, so I thought it was time.

This month, I’d like to discuss genres in general. I want to show you what we can learn from them, and how we can teach through them. Every week, on Mondays and Wednesdays, we’ll discuss two different genres, and every Friday I have something special planned for you.

For today, on this lovely Monday, let’s take a look at…

Fiction

I have two questions that I’d like to discuss alongside every genre, two questions that I believe will tell us almost everything we want to know about that genre in particular.

First, why do we enjoy it?

This genre is one of the easiest for which I’ll answer this question. See, fiction is something that nearly everyone enjoys, whether they realize it or not. We dream in fiction, most of the time. We watch fiction on television, we read it in books, we even play it in games. We’re nearly surrounded by it these days, and most of us drink it all up.

But why? Well, I think that’s a pretty easy answer too.

People like to escape from the world. They like to fantasize, to consider what life would be like if lived another way. We long to know what’s going on in other people’s lives, and some of us even long to live as others. We desire action and adventure, and for some of us, the only way we can get it is through fiction. Let’s face it, having a nine-to-five isn’t always the most thrilling experience.

Second, what do we gain from it?

This one can be a little trickier, but it’s also the one that teaches us the most, as writers. This is the one that can tell us which genre we should be writing, if we know what we want people to gain from our writing.

For fiction, I believe there’s a lot to be gained. We gain an escape, an alternate reality, which is exactly what some of us need at the end of the day. Fiction helps us to get out of the everyday and experience life in a new form, in a new city, through the eyes of another person. Whether we’re reading it or watching it, it’s what many of us want. We want an escape. Too many of us watch the news and hear awful things about the real world, and at the end of the day we just want to think about something else, anything else. 

Even if that world isn't any better than the one we're in right now. At least we know the fictional one isn't real. 

That’s what fiction is, for us.

It’s a life, outside the real world.

[love]

{RD}