Ask the Author: Frank P. Ryan
Answered Questions (15)
Frank P. Ryan
The Black Rose is a deus ex machina. A machine to destroy your world, which idolises machines.
(This is a quote from my novel, The Return of the Arinn.)
(This is a quote from my novel, The Return of the Arinn.)
Frank P. Ryan
I would fly into Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, say hello to Alice and then laugh my head off at the antics of the various fantastic inhabitants.
Frank P. Ryan
I don't have a specific forward list. In general I like well-written, even iconoclastically so, books, whether non-fiction or fiction, of whatever category. I'm currently enjoying "To Be A Machine" by Mark O'Connell, and, with some reservations, "If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things" by Jon McGregor. I'm also just finishing a second read of Wolf Hall, a rarity for me since I almost never read a book twice.
Frank P. Ryan
At the age of 19 I had a life-threatening motor-cycling accident that caused me to think about the meaning of life and my own ambitions. It radically changed the course of my life. That might make a good idea for a contemporary novel.
Frank P. Ryan
Frodo and Samwise Gangee. Sam should have been female. His caring attitude to Frodo is very much that of a loving wife.
Frank P. Ryan
Hello, Joanne. First of all thanks for buying my book and for sending it to your father. I don't know if he normally likes to read epic fantasy, or if this was an unusual "reading outing" for him. I'm pleased he liked how I handled magic and the development of the friends' characters. Re the length of the book: I have also had other readers who grumbled about this. One reviewer called it a "brick-of-a-book", which might make you laugh. In mitigation, The Snowmelt River is not quite as long as it appears. The publishers deliberately choose a small page large font format for the hardcover which added about 150 pages to what might be normally expected for its number of words. If you would like to test this, count the number of words in ten lines of print about the middle of any page, divide by ten to get and average, and then count the lines of a typical page and multiply by the average no of words per line. Then compare this to a typical hardcover and you'll see what I mean. The actual typescript pages was about 550. On the other hand, many readers, and reviewers drew attention to and liked the lyrical description of landscape and settings. I was really taken by a similar detailed descriptions of Tolkein in his majestic Lord of the Rings. When we, as authors, are trying to open up readers' eyes to an utterly alien landscape, imbued with unfamiliar magic, we need to explain this in ways that should help develop the theme and deepen the readers' enjoyment. From my perspective, I encourage readers to lose themselves in the narrative, as if they went to live in an alien world for a while. This requires detailed description, which perhaps works better with some readers than others. I have met people who don't like Tolkein's deep descriptive approach. But it was also what many of my readers appeared to take to in this book causing it to rise to no 5 in the amazon fantasy list when it first appeared.
Thanks again for buying the book, and thanks to your father for reading it and sending me his considered comments. I hope he will consider reading the remaining three books in the series. He will be pleased to hear that they are shorter than Snowmelt River, with an average of 560 pages, with the same largish print. I can't answer for the detailed descriptions, but I suspect he would find less of them since most were covered in Snowmelt River.
Thanks again for buying the book, and thanks to your father for reading it and sending me his considered comments. I hope he will consider reading the remaining three books in the series. He will be pleased to hear that they are shorter than Snowmelt River, with an average of 560 pages, with the same largish print. I can't answer for the detailed descriptions, but I suspect he would find less of them since most were covered in Snowmelt River.
Frank P. Ryan
Hi Joane,
Fancy that! Give my best wishes to your dad. I love the escape of writing fantasy fiction. I grew up surrounded by it since my own father was the family storyteller.
Where are you based? Is it the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand . . . ? These days I never know until folks tell me.
And yes - of course I would love to hear from your dad if and when he has read The Snowmelt River. Though to paraphrase the hapless explorer on another odyssey, "he might be gone a while..."
Best wishes,
Frank
Fancy that! Give my best wishes to your dad. I love the escape of writing fantasy fiction. I grew up surrounded by it since my own father was the family storyteller.
Where are you based? Is it the UK, Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand . . . ? These days I never know until folks tell me.
And yes - of course I would love to hear from your dad if and when he has read The Snowmelt River. Though to paraphrase the hapless explorer on another odyssey, "he might be gone a while..."
Best wishes,
Frank
Frank P. Ryan
Hi Niamh,
I can't ever recall having difficulty finishing a book. Starting one, yes. It suggests you have having some doubts about the story, or its inspiration. Might be an idea to start a new one and then, after a little while working on something new, you may feel a fresh inspiration to return to the book again. This is a very common reaction among writers. Iain M Banks said he wrote or attempted some four books before Wasp Factory was accepted. Then he went back and rewrote one of the previous four and rejigged one that became Consider Phlebas, which was the first of his "Culture" novels. We exchanged books at the stage when he was still writing Look to Windward. I bought Phlebas as a first edition and read it a few years ago and it is still quite ropey compared to his later books, so you can see even today that he was on a learning curve. Most of us went through the same, and perhaps you are too. Don't give up. But park it for a while and take on something new . . .
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Frank
I can't ever recall having difficulty finishing a book. Starting one, yes. It suggests you have having some doubts about the story, or its inspiration. Might be an idea to start a new one and then, after a little while working on something new, you may feel a fresh inspiration to return to the book again. This is a very common reaction among writers. Iain M Banks said he wrote or attempted some four books before Wasp Factory was accepted. Then he went back and rewrote one of the previous four and rejigged one that became Consider Phlebas, which was the first of his "Culture" novels. We exchanged books at the stage when he was still writing Look to Windward. I bought Phlebas as a first edition and read it a few years ago and it is still quite ropey compared to his later books, so you can see even today that he was on a learning curve. Most of us went through the same, and perhaps you are too. Don't give up. But park it for a while and take on something new . . .
I hope this helps.
All the best,
Frank
Frank P. Ryan
I grew up as a child under the shadow of the magical mountain, Slievenamon, steeped in tales of Celtic warriors and, of course, the terrible tridedana. But few if any epic fantasies appeared to be based on it. So I decided to develop this theme. But I also looked at Native American and Scandanavian legends, as well as inventing ideas of my own to suit my purpose.
Frank P. Ryan
Out of my creative mind - nowhere else.
Frank P. Ryan
I'm still working on my epic fantasy series, The Three Powers.
Frank P. Ryan
It's incredibly satisfying to express your creativity. In terms of fiction writing, those words can only have come from you - nobody else.
Frank P. Ryan
Put things aside for a day or two. Read books by writers you identify with. Perhaps try taking a new perspective.
Frank P. Ryan
Read good quality books. Use your five senses. I wrote a free booklet to help new writers which is downloadable from the home page of my website .
Frank P. Ryan
It helps to read good quality novels. I also look around me with a writer's eye. The world is full of useful information and lessons to be drawn.
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