Gillian Bronte Adams

YA Epic Fantasy Author

Fantasy Reflections: Many Meetings

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I’m just a tad nervous about this question. It requires an earth shattering blend of colliding worlds, realms, cultures, and eras. Be prepared to stretch your imagination muscles. Stretching — it’s good for you, right?
Don’t think I can’t hear you groan! It’s actually a fun one to answer … I promise … until you wind up with double the correct amount on your list and have to start eliminating them. *shudders* Talk about painful.
Here’s the crack team I narrowed it down to in the end:
1. Kaladin
(Way of Kings, Brandon Sanderson)

He’d make a great leader for the Fellowship. He’s an expert spearman, knows how to motivate his followers, and cares for those under his charge, not to mention his training as a surgeon which lets him double as team medic!
2. Fflewddur Fflam
(Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander)
Whether you’re in need of a companion to lighten the mood or fight like mad, Fflewddur Fflam would be an excellent choice. His harp provides an endless source of entertainment — both when he’s actually playing it and when the strings react to his flamboyant tongue and tendency to exaggerate.
3. Eanrin the Bard
(Tales of Goldstone Wood, Anne Elisabeth Stengl)
Because let’s just admit it, watching Fflewddur Fflam and Eanrin facing off would be hilarious! Not to mention the fact that both Eanrin the Bard and Eanrin the cat would be a tremendous asset to the quest.
4. Artham P. Wingeather/Peet the Sock Man
(Wingfeather Saga, Andrew Peterson)
Who could resist an offer of assistance from the winged Throne Warden of Anneira? And Peet the Sock Man is well worth his weight in a fight.
5. Waxillium Ladrian
(The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson)
Wax may be from a slightly different era than the others, but I feel like he could hold his own on the quest. (Especially if he’s allowed to time/realm travel with his Sterrion revolvers!)
6. Wayne
(The Alloy of Law, Brandon Sanderson)
Wayne and Wax are a bit of a package deal. They work well together, and Wayne’s unique ability to disguise himself and become other people would be most useful!
7. Reepicheep
(Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis)
There are few knights I’d rather have by my side, than this noble knight of Narnia. Stalwart. Courageous. Faithful to the end. I’d trust Reepicheep to travel to Mount Doom and back with me.
8. Lochlan Stormgarden
(The Errant King, Wayne Thomas Batson)
Loch is just an interesting young character. He’s a bit impetuous, tends to shrink a bit from too much responsibility. But he’s highly talented and just the sort of fighter who would come in handy.
9. Taran Wanderer, Assistant Pig Keeper
(The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander)
Taran is a young fellow and he certainly has a lot to learn. But he’s a loyal companion and he has a stout heart.
How about you? Who would you select for your Fellowship of the Ring?

Fantasy Reflections: Identity Theft

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I’m quite excited about today’s Fantasy Reflection question. (Excuse me a maniacal laugh) Put on your thinking caps, ladies and gents. This one is a real poser.
Fantasy Reflections: Identity Theft

Tough one, isn’t it?

Fantasy characters tend to have it pretty rough. Rarely is life all sunshine and daisies. It generally leans more toward battle and bloodshed and good versus evil and some pretty nasty dark lords. There is a cruel class of people out there – commonly known as authors – who take a disturbing level of pleasure in subjecting their characters (and readers’ hearts) to trials and torments that would drive any sane man bonkers.

Answering this question is like choosing your own form of torture.

You could choose to be the really cool character … but generally the more special abilities you have, and the higher you rank on the boring to awesome scale, the worse villains you have to face.

Caution aside, I would have to choose Vin from The Final Empire series by Brandon Sanderson. True, her life is a wee bit miserable at the start. And she is fighting a hopelessly losing battle. And well … it can be a bit depressing. But those are minor details! Her Mistborn abilities totally make up for it! ;)

How about you? Who would you choose to become?

As always, you can answer in the comments and please feel free to chat in and amongst yourselves! That’s what makes this whole reflections series fun! If you’d like, you can copy the image to your blog and carry the conversation over there as well. Please just link back to my post. Thanks!

Fantasy Reflections: Pack Your Bag, It’s Moving Day!

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Here’s a Fantasy Reflection question to start off your morning.

If you could pick any fantasy world to live in, where would you move?

I always have a hard time answering these right off the bat. So I like to think of the question like coffee. You have to let it percolate for a bit, stewing in the back of your mind, until you can come up with an answer.

Now picking a fantasy world to visit wouldn’t be that tough. There’s scads of places I’d love to visit. But picking one to move to is a wee bit more difficult. So many pros and cons to consider. I mean, there’s usually some sort of major disturbance happening in the fantasy world at the time of the novel, so they’re not always the sort of place you’d want to move a family.

My first thought was the world of Roshar from Brandon Sanderson’s Way of Kings, since I’m reading it right now. It’s a fascinating world, really. Such a unique place, full of interesting people, and the magics of Surgebinding and Shardwielding. Until you get to the part where you discover it’s a world decimated by high storms with hints of a terrible devastation approaching.

Perhaps I’d better not move there.

I’m afraid my answer to this question will have to be a tie between Middle Earth and Narnia. I visited Middle Earth first of all and Narnia soon after, so for me, moving to either Middle Earth or Narnia would feel like returning home after a long absence.

Perhaps I’ll have a winter home in one and a vacation home in the other?

We’re dreaming, so anything is possible. :)

How about you? Where would you like to move most of all?

Answer in the comments! Or if you’d like, you can copy the picture to your blog and start the discussion over there as well. All I ask is that you link back to my blog in your post. Thanks! :)

A Letter from the Warrior-In-Hero-Training School

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Every now and then I find something odd sitting on my make-believe desk in my amazing fictitious writing office secreted away in an imaginary attic. It started with a letter from the Spy at the Academy of Ultimate Villainy. From letters it progressed to recordings and transcripts.

Since then, it’s been fairly quiet.

But when I tramped through the door this evening after work, dripping wet and shivering with the cold, I found this propped up on my desk … and no sign of any intruder.

In short, it seems this blog is soon to be graced with posts submitted by the Headmaster of the WIHT School of the Round Table. And no, that’s not a typo, I discovered. It stands for Warrior-In-Hero-Training. Though if it is the most prestigious hero school in the world, I can’t help wondering why I haven’t heard of it before.

One hears about that sort of thing in my line of work.

It’s been a while since we’ve received any news from our Spy, so I am rather intrigued to see what we can glean from Sir Galgadin’s posts on the knightly-heroic side of things. Though to be honest, I’m not quite sure what to expect.

Thoughts?

Fantasy Reflections: Magical Objects

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Time for another Fantasy Reflections post. I don’t know about you, but I had loads of fun with the last one.
Once again, you can answer in the comments. Feel free to chat back and forth. And if you’d like the continue the discussion over on your blog, you can copy the image and repost it. Please just link back to this original post.

Gracious me! This is another tough one. There are so many options to choose from … And I thought this question would be easy.

First to come to mind were the Silmarils from Tolkien’s Silmarillion. But owning them never turned out well for anyone. It tended to end tragically. And what do I need with shining gems, even if they do contain the light of the two trees …

Next I thought of Fflewddur Flam’s harp from the Chronicles of Prydain. Until I recalled the fact that I am a storyteller … and storytellers are prone to embellishing the facts. The harp and I might not get along so well. I’m afraid it would be one series of broken strings after another.

So at last, I settled on King Mendenbar’s Sword from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles. I have always loved the way his sword is connected to the threads of magic woven through the Enchanted Forest. Other than its tendency to occasionally “leak magic,” I think it’d be a pretty handy magical object to have around.

Best stop there before I can think up a dozen more answers. :)

How about you? What magical object would you choose?

A Novelist’s Classroom

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Sometimes I wish I could go back in time, travel to England, sneak in the back door of the Eagle and Child, and grab a seat in the corner among the Inklings.
And maybe … just maybe … if I could gather up enough courage, I might venture to speak before the end of the evening.
But mostly, I would want to just listen. And learn.
To glean wisdom from the masters.
Until time travel becomes a reality, I’m afraid my dreams of sitting among the Inklings are doomed to disappointment. But I can still learn from the masters. That’s the glorious thing about a novelist’s classroom.
You don’t necessarily have to go anywhere or enroll in any specific classes. Nor do you need to follow a syllabus that was obviously written expressly to cause you misery and torment by a devious professor who simply must have graduated with honors from the Academy of Ultimate Villainy.
No, for a novelist, the classroom is all around us. The textbooks are at our finger tips. And the masters walk among us.
After reading certain books, I can’t help sitting there staring off into the distance with the book lying still open in may lap, stunned by the beauty and brilliance of what I just read. There are some amazing authors out there and some books that are truly works of art.
Sometimes, I have to pause in the middle of reading and jot down some new world-changing insight about crafting characters, or foreshadowing, or plot twists.
I love studying the craft of writing. I enjoy reading blog posts and how-to books. I love taking classes at conferences. And if I grit my teeth and force myself to bear the pain, I can also endure critiques of my work in the hopes that I will continue to improve.
But I believe the best way to learn about writing is to read.
Voraciously.
Classes will teach you the rules and mechanics. But only a well-written book can show you how the rules truly work, when they apply, and when it’s okay to break them.
And the truly beautiful thing about the novelist’s classroom is that you never have to graduate. You can keep learning, keep gleaning, keep growing.
Until you become one of the masters.

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