Ask the Author: Colin Brodd
Answered Questions (12)
Colin Brodd
I try to live a just and honorable life in accord with the best precepts of humanity, and I do my best to show due reverence to my ancestors (both by blood and spiritual antecedents) in filial piety, so I do suppose my ancestors are smiling at me. Most of the time, anyway.
Colin Brodd
After she died, Gylla of Kaupangur awoke and opened her eyes. This was not Valholl . . .
Colin Brodd
I think I would go to Ursula K. LeGuin's Earthsea. I would go to Roke and study to become a wizard, and then I would sail around the Archipelago for a while, and settle down on some small island somewhere. Set up a cottage with a nice library, read, go swimming and sailing, and occasionally use my magic to help the villagers. Something like that.
Colin Brodd
Summer 2017: Well, for my ongoing "Appendix N Revisited" Project this summer, my lineup includes "Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria" by Lin Carter, "Lest Darkness Fall" by L. Sprague de Camp, and the Harold Shea books by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt. In my "Read Authors I Don't Usually Read" category, I'm reading David Foster Wallace's "Infinite Jest" and Salman Rushdie's "The Satanic Verses." I'm also still working through a re-read of the Wheel of Time with my wife (we're still in Robert Jordan's stuff, but getting close to Sanderson). And lots of other assorted fun reading, of course!
Colin Brodd
I guess I lead a pretty simple life; I don't have the kind of questions that make for a good mystery in my current view of my life. What might make a good mystery are the questions I have about my ancestors, both immediate and remote. Why did my forefathers leave Scandinavia (mostly)? What superstitions did they have, what beliefs passed down from heathen times? In more immediate history, my short story "Burning Spirits" attempts to address some questions I have about my grandfather's belief in spirits and ghostly visitations, and a family legacy of anger issues and abuse. I have questions about my maternal great-grandfather and a supposed legacy of Canadian natives married into my family line through the French LaRues. My genealogy might make for some great mysteries, I think, and I have tried to explore some of these questions in stories that were not mysteries.
Colin Brodd
This was a hard one! Spoiler alert for the Wheel of Time series: I settled on Perrin t'Bashere Aybara and Faile ni Bashere t'Aybara. They are such a wonderful couple, and more to the point, a couple to whom I can relate. Theirs is a relationship that seems completely real to me. Honorable mention goes to Charles Addams' creations, Gomez and Morticia Addams (THAT is love and devotion!), and to Orpheus and Eurydice from Greek mythology (my favorite tragic couple, really).
Colin Brodd
I want to say something about the best thing being "getting to share my imagination with others" or something like that . . . but in reality, the best thing may be the chance to get these mad visions and ideas out of my head, where they've been swirling around causing trouble for quite some time, and out onto paper or Kindle screens . . . . It's like a pressure valve, of sorts, in which I have to let off some of the steam of my imagination or my head will explode! :)
Colin Brodd
I give my subconscious a nudge. I reread my research, put on inspirational music in the background, burn incense, drink delicious beverages (especially tea or chai) - I involve all my senses as much as I can. It generally seems to work!
Colin Brodd
The best inspirations for me are: (1) Listen to music (especially heavy metal music with which I grew up), (2) Read a bit of Pressfield's "The War of Art" (just feel the excuses and resistance - or Resistance - melt away with every word), and (3) Reading books on related topics - "research," as it were.
Colin Brodd
Norse mythology and legends have been the source of my most recent ideas.
Colin Brodd
My advice comes in three parts:
First, READ. You can't write if you don't read. Read everything, Read for inspiration. Read research. Read other kinds of stories to see other ways of telling a story. Just read.
Second, more specifically, read Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art" (double check to make sure you read that title correctly). What is preventing you from writing is called Resistance, and Resistance is the Enemy. Understand what you're up against and defeat it.
Third, be familiar with how stories work. You don't have to read Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces," but you should at least have heard of the concept of the Hero's Journey. If you're going to write a story, learn how stories work so you'll know how to put one together.
That's my advice, for what it's worth.
First, READ. You can't write if you don't read. Read everything, Read for inspiration. Read research. Read other kinds of stories to see other ways of telling a story. Just read.
Second, more specifically, read Steven Pressfield's "The War of Art" (double check to make sure you read that title correctly). What is preventing you from writing is called Resistance, and Resistance is the Enemy. Understand what you're up against and defeat it.
Third, be familiar with how stories work. You don't have to read Campbell's "The Hero With A Thousand Faces," but you should at least have heard of the concept of the Hero's Journey. If you're going to write a story, learn how stories work so you'll know how to put one together.
That's my advice, for what it's worth.
Colin Brodd
I'm currently working on what I think will be a trilogy of books inspired by The Saga of the Volsungs. I'm plotting out the whole story, although I already know how the first book will go.
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