As part of Wyrd And Wonder, I am hosting a Fantasy author, Amanda Fleet today for a guest post. I wanted to learn more about the Fantasy stories that have been aspirational for her. Let’s hear from her!
I was delighted to be asked to write a piece on the authors who inspired me to write Fantasy, but first, I have to confess something. My first two published books were not in Fantasy. One was a psychological thriller, the other a crime novel. But deep down, whether I was conscious of it or not, I’ve been inspired by Fantasy, and now I would say I’m a Fantasy writer. Certainly, the last three books I published were in that genre, and the next three I have planned will be too.
The Fantasy I enjoy reading (and writing) is not that of werewolves, vampires, witches, fae or magic. It’s much more what I would describe as gritty Urban Fantasy – generally set in The Real World, but with Fantasy elements, though I don’t tend to read, or write, books with magic in them. In my books, these Fantasy elements are energy-stealing demons who can kill you with a single touch. I would also consider travel between different worlds as a sub-genre of fantasy, as in Sarah Fine’s Guards of the Shadowlands Trilogy.
Probably one of my earliest inspirations would be Enid Blyton’s Magic Faraway Tree books. I adored the idea that there were different worlds at the top of a tree (never mind the strange encounters as you actually climbed the tree). The idea of being trapped in the wrong place – when the worlds at the top of the tree moved on and there was no access back to the tree – must have really struck me, because I see this echoed in my trilogy (The Guardians of The Realm) where the main character is essentially in the wrong realm (although she doesn’t even know there is another realm at the beginning).
The idea of there being other worlds lying so close to ours was evidently a theme which resonated deeply within me, as a number of other book ideas I’ve had have explored this concept. It’s also evident in many of the books I’ve loved. An author I read voraciously when I was at university was Elizabeth H Boyer. Again, in her books, there are alternative worlds which are linked to one another, though in most of the books I read by her, neither world was entirely the same as Earth.
A big influence in more recent years was Sarah Fine, especially her Guards of The Shadowlands Trilogy, which I just inhaled. The main character accidentally dies, and chooses to go to an afterlife full of horror and strange creatures in order to try and rescue her best friend who killed herself. It’s very dark, and it was a book that made me go, “I wish I could write something like this.”
Another author I wish I had even half the skill of is Patrick Ness. His Chaos Walking trilogy was one of the most amazing sets of books I’ve read in a long time. I have read many of his books and am just blown away by the inventiveness and the quality of his writing, and his way of exploring dark, difficult themes in such an interesting way. The Chaos Walking Trilogy covers a number of concepts, from apartheid, to ‘them and us’ and trust issues. The whole idea of one group of people being able to read another’s thoughts but being able to keep their own secret, and the issues and pressure that creates, is both intriguing and packed with tension. They know if you are speaking the truth; you have no idea if they are. It also examined the same events from different sides of the war, with each side reinterpreting the same facts but seeing very different motives behind actions. It’s brilliantly done and if you’ve not read the books, I would urge you to.
I suppose many of us don’t always know the source of those kernels of ideas that settle inside our brains and start to grow. I’m sure there have been many other authors who have inspired or influenced me, whether directly or indirectly. I read very widely, from Urban Fantasy such as I’ve described here, through Psychological Thrillers and Crime, to Jane Austen and other Classics, and many other genres in between. I learned to read early (well before I went to school) and have been a voracious reader ever since. I know I have missed out lots of Fantasy authors who I’m sure have influenced me (Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Anne McCaffrey to name just four!), but there will be a huge number of Non-Fantasy authors who have been equally influential in both what, and how, I write. In the same way that my body is fed by all the different foods I eat, my brain is fed by everything I experience.
You can connect with Amanda on her website. Her Urban Fantasy trilogy The Guardians of The Realm is available from Amazon.
Thank you for reading! 🙂
Cover image from Unsplash.
Comments are closed.