• fantasy writer by way of England and Maine

Readers! Let’s give a good hearty welcome to Thomas Kane!

After a few years publishing supplements for D&D and other role-playing games, Thomas M. Kane moved from the US to the UK where he lectured in international politics and strategic studies at the University of Hull. He has now returned to his original home in the Maine woods, where he writes fantasy.

Thomas, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most interviews start off with bios and such, and while I’ll get to that as always, let’s start with the important stuff!

If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?

My WIP features a princess with a pet lizard. While writing it, I researched real-life pet lizards and fell in love with bearded dragons. Apparently, many of them play with toy balls, recognize their humans and like to snuggle. I had never known reptiles behaved that way, but now that I do, it fits with a lot of what I believe about the world. And I think they’re really cute!

My late step-mother used to have an Australian bearded dragon! She’d set it on her shoulder, wearing a leash and just walk around. On occasion, it would move, and she’d get surrounded by people asking, “oh, wait. Is that REAL?” They’re great pets.

What do you write and how did you get started?

My father was (among other things) an editor and my mother was (among other things) a poet. They encouraged me to write stories and poems from early on. I discovered fantasy at age 11 when a teacher read The Lord of the Rings aloud in class. He did the Black Riders’ screams.

After that came D&D. I learned about the business side of writing by producing supplements for role-playing games. Meanwhile, thanks to an excellent professor, I became interested in international relations and I pursued and academic career with the thought that it would allow me to write as part of my day job. I did, indeed, publish eight scholarly books in my field, and I also had a fair number of adventures which now show up in my fiction.

My current series is about an introspective woman named Mara growing to adulthood in a time when two powerful countries are slipping closer to war. It’s an adventure story with a lot of intrigue, but it’s also a story about Mara’s home life, her friendships and her observations about her world. Much of my fiction explores similar themes – I am interested in my characters’ inner lives, I am interested in relatively ordinary people and I set my writing in imaginary settings. My academic career taught me some things about real-life war, espionage and international intrigue and I bring this into my writing.

What an excellent environment to grow up in, as a future writer. I’m sure many of us know the appeal of the ‘day job that can support our writing habit,” how lovely to have one that could add compelling stories to the craft itself! And? I have to confess to sometimes caring more about the character’s inner life than their surroundings.

What do you like to read?

I read broadly! The books that most directly inspire my writing these days are Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Tombs of Atuan and Tehanu. I love Le Guin’s use of the language and I love her willingness to engage with ideas.

Tombs and Tehanu are about a priestess in a sinister cult who runs away and tries to find a life that’s right for her. As someone who has moved across the ocean twice for not-entirely-dissimilar reasons, I appreciate that plot!

Ah, I remember having a soft spot for Tehanu back when I read it. Le Guin is an amazing writer and an excellent muse.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you.

When people treat writing advice as unbreakable laws

I think all writing advice needs to be taken in context. Writing advice becomes pernicious when it encourages people to try to catch others out for breaking arbitrary rules. I also have to say I have limited patience for gatekeeping, domineering behavior, and the attitude of “no pain, no gain.” This is another reason I like Ursula K Le Guin – she has written clever essays querying such attitudes as the Hemmingway-fueled presumption that every adjective, adverb or punctuation mark is a sign of weakness.

When I was learning to write, I listened to virtually all the advice I received and worked hard to apply it. This attitude probably helped me develop a consistent and readable style. It certainly helped me work successfully with editors. However, I found it impossible to make progress with novels until I gave myself permission to stop worrying about taboos and simply say what I had to say. That’s one of the reasons I like to write in first person – it lets me express myself the way my characters express themselves, rather than the way I have been told I must.

Definitely. To quote Pirates of the Caribbean – “They’re more like… guidelines.” But, by studying them, you’re aware of the rules and why they exist, and you break them for a purpose, an intent. The rules give a decent framework to start from… and then you can work your magic.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that they can pry out of your cold, dead hands.

Clarity

When teaching. I often recommend Gregory G. Columb and Joseph M. Williams’ Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. Columb and Williams make the point that each sentence is a miniature story in its own right. They also talk about how to organize ideas into coherent “strings.” I find their system valuable for making writing make sense.

Fascinating! I’ve heard that each chapter should be its own story, but never taken down to the sentence level. *Adds ANOTHER book to her massive to-read pile*

---

Shameless Self-Promotion time!

Mara of the League Book One: The Witches of Crannock Dale

Eleven-year old Mara tries to save her family from invaders. When the knights protecting her town arrest her aunt for witchcraft, she wonders who her real enemies are.

This is a story of war and espionage, set in a low fantasy world.

It is also about a child getting to know her mother and father in a new way.

Mara of the League Book Two: The Rebels of Caer City

Throughout five years at a strict boarding school, Mara has turned to her friend Annie-Rose for comfort. Now Annie has disappeared. Mara teams up with two other students – bold Gretchen and soft-spoken Ginny — to find her missing friend.

Together, Mara, Gretchen and Ginny take on a conspiracy involving some of the most dangerous people in their world.

For more check out my website, facebook, and twitter for blog articles, books reviews, and supplemental material on my novels.

For more stories and articles for free, check out my newsletter. Just email me at thomasmkaneauthor@gmail.com to subscribe.

AND? Join the conversation! Discuss the Mara series and other thought-provoking stories in the Facebook group Kane’s Coffeehouse.

Website | Facebook Page | Twitter

• an urban fantasy author, psychology grad student, and lover of tacos

Readers! Let’s give a good hearty welcome to Carrow Brown!

Carrow Brown grew up in a military family and traveled the world absorbing everything she could (including whatever bad words she could find!) Her passion has always been to write stories to share with others that both entertain and provoke thought.

Carrow resides in sunny Arizona with her husband and German shepherds. In the little free time she has between writing The Ghost Walker Chronicles and her clinical psychology graduate work, Carrow can often be found sketching her characters into life and hiking in the wilderness with her husband and dogs.

She is easily bribed with tacos and the answer is always “yes” if you offer to show her pictures of your dogs.

Carrow, thanks for agreeing to be here today. Most interviews start off with bios and such, and while I’ll get to that as always, let’s start with the important stuff!

If you could have any pet (real/fantasy/no-allergies/no worries about feeding it) what would it be?

Dogs. All the dogs. I love dogs. I have only four because we don’t have room for more.

Puppies are pretty much the best.

What do you write and how did you get started?

I’ve been writing probably since high school.

My first writing memory actually came when I was in elementary school and we were given a writing assignment and I totally did horrible at it. And I remember how afraid and shameful I was about the poor quality of my work and it kind of put me off of writing and reading in general at the time. As I got older and I read a lot of books, I wanted to kind of dive into it again but didn’t feel I had the skillset at the time. But by the time I hit High School, I started writing for myself a lot more. That usually looked like fanfiction about 90% of the time but I also did creative writing exercises for English class. When I graduated from high school and went straight into the military, I didn’t pick up writing again until I was probably 25. I joined a couple of games online with other individuals who like to role-play their characters and I got back into writing that way.

When I turn 30 I kind of realized that one of the things I always wanted to do as a kid was ‘write a story’. So, I decided that this was the time, that I was going to be serious and actually write my book and get it out and if I publish one book before I died I was going to call it a victory.

Now, I’m kind of here with my one book out and a bunch more on the way and I feel pretty lucky. But I will say that it wasn’t all roses and sunshine. I have worked very hard to get where I am right now and I’m still always working very hard. I’m always looking to improve my writing and find better ways to hone my craft.

Know that you aren’t alone with getting established and then going back to your writing. Still. It is so hard! Congrats!

What do you like to read?

I will read pretty much anything but westerns. The reason I want to read just about anything is that every genre has something that makes it unique from everything else and I really appreciate that. By default you find me reading a lot of fantasy urban fantasy and romance. Urban fantasy and paranormal romance are my guilty pleasure to read for sure. Now and then I will also dive into a little bit of fanfiction but as I’ve gotten older truly hard for me to read fanfiction because a lot of people who write it don’t really proof what they’re writing, so it’s hard for me to see past that.

Ha! Your to-read pile sounds a lot like mine!

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that doesn’t work for you.

Make likeable characters

Oh, this is a tough one. The one writing advice as commonly accepted by that I don’t fundamentally agree with is that you have to constantly make likable characters.

My entire book is actually based on the premise of making characters that a reader will like but are not likable. And my counter-statement to this advice is that you shouldn’t make likable characters you should make relatable characters. A character should be somebody that you can look like and identify with but not be likable. For example, one of the characters in my book that everybody really does love is Silence. Even though he’s a bloodthirsty sword that’s always pushing goes to do very questionable and horrible things, people end up enjoying him because he is funny and deep down he does have feelings and wants that people can identify with.

Such great advice. For unlikable, but lovable characters in the mainstream, I usually point to IronMan. I would HATE to date him or have to work with him. But, as a character? He’s pretty well-loved.

Name one commonly accepted piece of writing advice that they can pry out of your cold, dead hands.

Set the scene

You need to set the scene.

I have a really hard time reading books with seeing when it’s not set. I have encountered individuals who will write the intro piece to whatever it is that they’re doing and I don’t know where I am who I am or what is going on. A lot of people think that this adds mystery and questions to the writing but I’m honestly very frustrated. I’m not saying somebody needs to come in and bash me over the head with these things but it would be nice to have a gradual introduction to this world that the story is taking place in. Starting off with some kind of rambling or a Falafel discussion by the author to the reader honestly is just antagonistic to me and I’m not here for it. So set the damn scene.

That makes perfect sense. The whole, in-media-res thing is often taken WAY too far.

Then again, I only care moderately about what a place looks like, so authors who stop for a page and a half to describe the room and every character, without interweaving any dialogue or action are kinda my pet-peeve. But, I know I’m plot and stakes focused and try to remember to cater a little to those of you out there with movies running in your head when you read.

---

Shameless Self-Promotion time!

Queen of Swords in silence is my baby book. It is the first book — my debut book, my heart, my blood, my everything book. I’ve gone through a lot of hardship to get this book out into the world so it’s always going to have a special place in my heart. It’s being relaunched on the 23rd for Kindle with the other formats coming up very soon.

Queen of Swords & Silence

A banished Valkyrie stripped of her place among the gods,

Mythics vanishing left and right along with ancient relics,

A sword thirsty for blood and drenched in madness,

and now the roof has a leak—where’s the vodka?

A literal man-eater, Ghost was born . . . damaged.

Where do you go when your own creator discards you?

The world is bleak, but Ghost couldn’t care less about others woes. She has her own to contend with. A castaway, stripped of her valkyrie title, and enslaved for centuries due to her deformity…how’s that for a sob story?

Her love life and bank account are equally empty, her best friend is a bloodthirsty sword, and the roof has a leak . . . but Ghost’s duties ensure very few days are dull. Doing her master’s bidding has some benefits: global travel, meeting interesting people, stealing their priceless artifacts, and doing a little murder if needed. She could be tasked to oversee treasure or execute a magi who foolishly stepped out of line.

But the shadows in Ghost’s world are shifting. When Mythics disappears under strange circumstances, Ghost finds herself in a lethal game of supernatural politics. The Gods seek ancient relics that could prove the ticket to Ghost’s acceptance, but how far will she go to take her place within the pantheon? The stakes are high when one mistake could open a hole into Chaos . . .

 Outside of that, you can find some of my Faye Black work. That is, my guilty self-pleasure venture into romance and anything that involves romance. In 2020, I’m actually focusing on getting more of the stories for Faye Black out just because those are stories that actually make me feel good when I write them. I want to get them out into the world and into people’s hands.

I am an #authortuber, but the only other bit I would throw out there is that I do a podcast with Tamara Woods who is a cozy mystery author. We have a podcast called Authortube News where we basically go through the latest articles and newsworthy items that affect our lives as writers and authors and share them with the rest of the writing an author community. So feel free to go and check that out, thank you.

Website | Facebook Page | Twitter | Instagram | Authortube News!