I’m pleased to welcome young adult fantasy author, R. L. Copple, to my blog today. R. L. Copple's interest in speculative fiction started at an early age, after reading "Runaway Robot" by Lester Del Ray. Many others followed by Asimov, Bradbury, Heinlein, Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, among others. He has written for religious purposes but started writing speculative fiction in 2005. “Infinite Realities” marks his first book, a fantasy novella. His second book, first full length novel, “Transforming Realities” hit the shelves March 2009. He has been published in several magazines.
R. L., I love fantasy and I love the young adult audience. Can you please give us a brief synopsis of “Transforming Realities?”
R. L.: Sure. When Sisko refuses the demon Beltrid's request to use his miracle-producing ring for selfish purposes, Sisko's world is turned upside down. Trapping Sisko's wife, Gabrielle, inside the "Crystal of Virtues," Beltrid sends Sisko and his two teenage children, Nathan and Kaylee, on a journey to find seven virtues that will free her. Simple? Not when a demon is involved. The trip takes several twists and turns leading to a showdown at the steam house where it all started. They discover that the reality of the ring transcends healing sicknesses—they discover a transforming reality.
Katie: I see you have read many of the same fantasy/science fiction authors I have. Why do you write fantasy, and more particularly, young adult fantasy?
R. L.: Fantasy makes the impossible, possible. The ultimate "what if" scenario can be laid out and find out how it would affect people. While a fantasy world will have its own internal rules, the author is free to construct that in any way he or she wants. That opens the doors of an unlimited and interesting source of story ideas. The interesting spark is how some reality not currently available will affect people, relationships, and lives, whether individuals or a society.
I tend toward young adult, maybe on the upper end of young adult, because I find my writing style is more in line with that age group. I like some action, a little romance, but always something interesting happening. I would say that much of my young adult writing is also enjoyed by adults. I think that is because I don't write it to sound like I'm focusing on, as one editor said it, "teen aghast," but on issues that affect all of us. Because as adults, we never really stop learning and growing. If we do, we're dead. To me, the young adult period of life is the perfect storm for fantasy. Someone seeking to discover their place in the world, and unusual events that push them to learn more about themselves and others.
Katie: Many fantasies deal with world creation. How much of that did you do in “Transforming Realities” and how easy/difficult did you find it?
R. L.: Honestly, it evolved over a period of time writing the stories and books. The first story in "Infinite Realities" was a short story, "Steamy Realities," that I wrote for a contest using the theme "h
Excellent interview, Katie.
R.L., I can see why Katie wanted to interview you.
Thanks, Vivian. It was enjoyable. Katie asked some good questions.
Katie, thanks for the interesting interview. R.L, nice to meet you. I'm a way back sci fi and fantasy fan, too. Your book sounds interesting.
What, in particular, did you have to research for your book?
Great interview. I'm such a big Fantasy reader and this book looks like one I'll be reading for sure.
Great interview. I was especially intrigued with the advice on formatting for ebooks. I keep running across items in the "two-column" style, too (I call it "newsletter format"). I just can't figure out why so many people do it that way-- they have to know it's a pain to read!
madcapmaggie,
Thanks for the comments.
One example is sword fighting. While I didn't want the story to get distracted into what kinds of swords they were using (sometimes I might describe the sword), I wanted my sword fights to appear more real, and not so much the typical "Hollywood" style. So I researched what generally happens in a sword fight. Note: in the first book, before I researched it, I have a more "Hollywood" sword fight. But the unusual nature of it might justify it as well. But for normal sword fighting, I wanted it to be realistic. Those who know will have to judge how well I did.
Another example is in the first book, Infinite Realities, to which Transforming is a sequel, I did some research on steam houses, to get some idea how they might operate in a Medieval society. While my world is in an alternate one from our world, I decided I would put it in a technology time period equivalent with our Medieval society in general (one might find some slight differences like a more widespread monetary system).
So, when I wanted to reference a toilet in my first book, I realized I wanted to make sure they used toilets back in those days. And if so, how widespread. I found most didn't have them, but some did, and they were pretty nasty places, no more then the equivalent of a bench with a hole in it. So plenty of flies and disease, which fit perfectly in how I wanted to use it.
The trick is knowing when you need to research something. Invariably, I'll think I know something, but someone will point out (hopefully before it is published) that I messed up on something.
Like I had some horses "lapping" in the original draft of this book, but a critiquer pointed out horses don't lap like dogs, they slurp. So, now my horses slurp. I could have had in my world horses lapping, but that would be a pointless fantasy element. I'd rather not introduce something that is going to throw people. Invariably I will, but to keep those to a bare minimum sometimes takes helpful beta readers, doing research where needed, and when I do blow it, forgiving readers. :)
There are probably other things. Often as I'm writing, I'll want to use something or write a scene that contains something I'm not sure about. That's when I go on a research mode, or mark it to do research later, after I'm finished writing depending what it is.
Hi Brenda,
Yes, you'd think they would think about it. Even one column isn't smooth in a PDF unless it is reformatted from the book dimensions and font size. What you want is one or two "pages" totally viewable on the computer screen so they don't have to scroll.
Personally, I don't care for reading ebooks on pdf because I like to read them on my phone and it is simply too small of type, and you can't change the font size like you can with an epub or such.
Basically, it's laziness. Those are probably the PDFs sent to the printer to print the book. But that is rarely ever the best format for ebook reading on a computer screen because one is portrait and one is landscape, and it's a lot of trouble to read sideways. lol.
Great information and ideas on publishing in ebook and print. Your story sounds captivating too.
Katie does ask good questions, thanks for sharing Rick, a great interview.
I also write Fantasy and I agree with your need for research.
Great interview, y'all!
Thanks Rosalie and Frank. Thanks for checking in.