Audiobook Series Launch from Podium – Shadowplay: Spellmonger by Terry Mancour

Audiobook Series Launch from Podium

Shadowplay: Spellmonger by Terry Mancour

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Shadowplay (Spellmonger: Legacy and Secrets Book 1)

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Author Interview With Terry Mancour

1. Describe the [book/series] in 10 words or less for people who are just learning about it?

It’s like Game of Thrones with more wizards and less incest.

2. Do you identify with your main character or did you create a character that is your opposite?

I definitely identify with my main character, Minalan the Spellmonger, although he’s not me and I’m not him.  Writing in the first person I think it’s inevitable that an author lends important bits of him or herself to the character, and there are times where it gets downright autobiographical.  Minalan is a generally good man with a lot of flaws; he’s not your typical noble-to-a-fault epic fantasy hero.  He definitely has an ego, just like all creative people.  And he has genuine interests and desires that make him human.  Communicating all of that effectively requires a lot of personal introspection on m part and more than a little deconstruction of my own motivations and desires, even where he and I differ. 

3. What have you found to be most challenging about writing in epic fantasy?

Keeping things truly epic, for one thing.  Ensuring that I’m adhering to the dictates of fantasy as a genre, for another.  “Epic” implies a grand, sometimes multi-generational approach to storytelling, and the requires a lot of plotting and imagination to keep any particular part of the story both fresh and part of a greater whole.  You can’t just throw bigger battles and evil-er bad guys at your readers and expect them to maintain their interest.  Plotting elements that may not come through to a payoff for 13 or 14 books is tricky.  And building up to the climactic finale in a believable way requires a lot of work. 

Along the way you cannot lose focus about the necessities of the genre.  Fantasy literature, by definition, requires magic – but that encompasses a lot of territory.  As an author you need to understand the rules and limitations of your system of magic even if you do not communicate all of those details to the reader.  And you have to develop a fine appreciation of how magic affects the society and the characters you are writing about.  Sometimes that creates incredible problems, from a writing standpoint, but other times it reveals absolutely brilliant insights that can be used to great literary effect. 

4. To date, what is your favorite (or most difficult) chapter you have ever written?

I suppose the parts of the Spellmonger Series that are my favorite are the personal interactions between the characters, particularly the main character’s relationship with both his wife, Alya, and his ex-girlfriend-cum-best-friend-and-consigliere, Pentandra.  These are three people from different backgrounds who have all been thrust into a life of power and politics that they were unprepared for, and how they react to it and to each other as the story progresses have yielded some of my favorite passages. 

More challenging are the parts where I have to generate legitimately horrific scenes.  I’m not a cruel or violent person by nature, so when I have to describe something truly awful to progress my story it can be difficult to muster the level of darkness I need.  That said, the very reluctance of my soul to contemplate the truly horrific sometimes reveals key elements to what makes them horrific in the first place.  There have been some scenes that I’ve felt physically ill about after writing them – and they have been among the most emotionally powerful scenes in the entire work. 

5. Share some advice for aspiring authors. What advice would you give to your younger self?

My best advice?  Write.  While talking about writing and reading about writing and thinking about writing are all very well and good, there is no substitute for putting words on a page every day.  Any discipline will improve with experience, and writers are lucky that we can measure that experience in the sheer number of words we produce.  It always amuses me when I meet a young writer who spends more time talking about writing than they do at the keyboard.  Or someone who thinks that they can find the “magic solution” to becoming a writer at a conference or workshop.  There is no substitute for doing the work. 

So write – everything.  Not just your preferred genre or your magnum opus.  Learn to write anything, from menus to major works.  I learned a tremendous amount about human psychology, the use of words, and the English language as a commercial copywriter.  I’ve done technical writing, educational writing, non-fiction, reference works, advice columns, journalism, poetry, screenplays, and on and on.  If you want to be a success, you should take a stab at every opportunity to write that comes along.  Be willing to accept any assignment as a challenge to your professional skills and do your best at it.  Sure, a lot of it will suck – but you will learn.  It’s more important to develop your skill with your craft than it is to be seen writing on your laptop at Starbucks. 

About the Author

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