Ask the Author: T.R. Neff
Answered Questions (10)
T.R. Neff
No, but I can tell you one in fifty-five words or less. In fact, I can tell you ten. They're all there in Melange, along with forty other fifty-five word stories.
T.R. Neff
Besides any of my own worlds (then again, mine tend to get dark, so probably not a good idea to go there...)?
And why just one? Why not a tour?
Let's see: as a child I loved anything to do with unicorns, so I'd probably head for Narnia where I would get to ride one, although a short trip through post-Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn forest would be on the itinerary just to see them all in their natural habitat.
Next, I'd head for the worlds of Michael Moorcock, but only for a glimpse. Battles between Order and Chaos get pretty ugly, and I would not want to be nearby when Stormbringer gets thirsty.
Then I would round off my trip with a jaunt through the Shire just in time for one of Bilbo's extravagant birthday parties. After a week of sleeping off all the merriment, I'd head for Gateway (Fredrik Pohl), but only if I got hold of a round trip ticket back to Earth. I would NOT want to be stuck on the asteroid, forced to try my luck just to earn money to pay the air tax.
And why just one? Why not a tour?
Let's see: as a child I loved anything to do with unicorns, so I'd probably head for Narnia where I would get to ride one, although a short trip through post-Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn forest would be on the itinerary just to see them all in their natural habitat.
Next, I'd head for the worlds of Michael Moorcock, but only for a glimpse. Battles between Order and Chaos get pretty ugly, and I would not want to be nearby when Stormbringer gets thirsty.
Then I would round off my trip with a jaunt through the Shire just in time for one of Bilbo's extravagant birthday parties. After a week of sleeping off all the merriment, I'd head for Gateway (Fredrik Pohl), but only if I got hold of a round trip ticket back to Earth. I would NOT want to be stuck on the asteroid, forced to try my luck just to earn money to pay the air tax.
T.R. Neff
I love to re-read my old favorites, so I'm looking forward to going through C. S. Lewis' Space Trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength). But I also like to remain flexible and read whatever catches my interest, so I'm sure there will be some spontaneous selections depending on the mood.
T.R. Neff
This answer contains spoilers…
(view spoiler)
T.R. Neff
Adventuring alongside fascinating heroes. Visiting strange new worlds. Exploring dangerous situations without an actual exposure to the threat. Seeing people triumph through difficult circumstances, and against the odds. Witnessing awful villains get their comeuppance (yes, sadly, I am still working on ridding myself of that horrible schadenfreude streak of my own).
And I do this all while waking up before the sun, with only my coffee (I feed the cat before I start writing so I am uninterrupted, and the dog likes to sleep in) and my computer or notebooks, depending on which stage of the project I am in.
And I do this all while waking up before the sun, with only my coffee (I feed the cat before I start writing so I am uninterrupted, and the dog likes to sleep in) and my computer or notebooks, depending on which stage of the project I am in.
T.R. Neff
I don't generally get a total writer's block, but sometimes I throw my hands up because I can't figure out where a story is going. Or I want to make change A and realize that B, C, and/or D can't happen. When I'm stuck, I generally switch to a different story, maybe a small project that may/may not see the light of day and add to or revise it. Because I feel incredibly guilty if I don't write or revise anything during the day, I work on something. Usually a day or two is enough for the solution to pop into my head and then I can go get the mechanics of the scenes re-worked.
T.R. Neff
Just write. Don't wait to publish until you're old. Get as much of it out there as possible without constantly questioning yourself.
T.R. Neff
Impossible to say, as I've been crafting stories and writing them down for as long as I can remember. I believe someone in my family has a copy of a "comic book" I wrote and illustrated while I was still in early grade school. Before I self-published, however, the only stories that I ever really shared with anyone outside of my family were those I crafted for table-top role-playing games, as their GM. In 2014 I decided to pull the trigger and published quite a few of my stories in collections and a novel, Umbra: A Post-Apocalyptic Mystery (updated and renamed Umbra: Shadows Over Hinge).
T.R. Neff
My current project is Eater of Dreams, a world I described as "Cthulhu-eats-Tolkien". It's a dark fantasy with more than a taste of horror, and will follow the gradually intertwining stories of three heroes from across the kingdoms of Sornem. The WIP blurb:
Looming shadows follow Keengrim on his travels around Sornem, but never so much as when he returns to the sprawling Compass, the city at the conjunction of four kingdoms. He resides in the darker haunts, laying low to avoid the scrutiny of the Golden Meridian and their sanctions—and worse condemnations—against those born with a connection to the influxus, the manipulation of natural elements. This visit proves no different, finding him blackmailed into grand thievery, to retrieve a supremely rare ore for a Consortium professor. Except… he soon discovers he’s not the only one with an interest in the precious mineral. His competition, as charming as she is devious, sends him spiraling head-first into a maelstrom of no return.
Cyphers, chosen for their inborn ability to manipulate a natural element—the influxus— and trained in the ways of an investigator and warrior, they enjoy a special authority throughout Sornem. Recognized almost universally as the arbiters of universal laws, they cross kingdom boundaries to carry out their tasks in groups of three to investigate crimes, compile the evidence and determine guilt or innocence. As a cypher, Sherdon of Gellar-in-Hvall is trained in the ways of an investigator and warrior, enjoying special authority throughout Sornem. He crosses kingdom boundaries to carry out his tasks within a group of three, investigating crimes, compiling the evidence and determining guilt or innocence. However, two members of Sherdon’s triad perished. In his haste to return to his masters and report his failure, he grows careless. That carelessness feeds him into the hands of the Midrathian War Marshal, a man who cares little for his protests against being detained as a “spy for Dathlel” or only “one of three”. In fact, the War Marshal “insists” he resolve a particularly complicated murder—not one on the battlefield, but within the military camp itself, and one that hints at sinister impulses. Can Sherdon extract himself from his own dilemma and still see justice prevail?
Laevh knows loneliness. She travels by herself to conceal her cursed abilities, on her way to seek the assistance of a famed savant. Every time fate forces her to use her ability, trouble homes in. This time, that trouble comes as two sides of the same tarnished copper coin. The first: a horrifying beast threatens the villeins locked away when darkness falls, quaking under the threat of its prowling their villages at night. The second: the viciously shrewd Duc du’Mauntegne, general of the Mad Queen’s army, who wrongfully charges her with the crime of murder but gives her a simple trial—help him solve his dilemma with the beast, and she walks free. That is, if she can survive…
Sundered into simmering kingdoms, the island continent of Sornem forgot the meaning of peace, cycling through battle after battle, from within and without.
Each conflict, each evil act feeds another power—one far greater than any man, any elf, any dwarf or gnome—lurking just beneath the surface, tainting and twisting the hearts of all mortalkind.
They call it the “Eater of Dreams”.
Looming shadows follow Keengrim on his travels around Sornem, but never so much as when he returns to the sprawling Compass, the city at the conjunction of four kingdoms. He resides in the darker haunts, laying low to avoid the scrutiny of the Golden Meridian and their sanctions—and worse condemnations—against those born with a connection to the influxus, the manipulation of natural elements. This visit proves no different, finding him blackmailed into grand thievery, to retrieve a supremely rare ore for a Consortium professor. Except… he soon discovers he’s not the only one with an interest in the precious mineral. His competition, as charming as she is devious, sends him spiraling head-first into a maelstrom of no return.
Cyphers, chosen for their inborn ability to manipulate a natural element—the influxus— and trained in the ways of an investigator and warrior, they enjoy a special authority throughout Sornem. Recognized almost universally as the arbiters of universal laws, they cross kingdom boundaries to carry out their tasks in groups of three to investigate crimes, compile the evidence and determine guilt or innocence. As a cypher, Sherdon of Gellar-in-Hvall is trained in the ways of an investigator and warrior, enjoying special authority throughout Sornem. He crosses kingdom boundaries to carry out his tasks within a group of three, investigating crimes, compiling the evidence and determining guilt or innocence. However, two members of Sherdon’s triad perished. In his haste to return to his masters and report his failure, he grows careless. That carelessness feeds him into the hands of the Midrathian War Marshal, a man who cares little for his protests against being detained as a “spy for Dathlel” or only “one of three”. In fact, the War Marshal “insists” he resolve a particularly complicated murder—not one on the battlefield, but within the military camp itself, and one that hints at sinister impulses. Can Sherdon extract himself from his own dilemma and still see justice prevail?
Laevh knows loneliness. She travels by herself to conceal her cursed abilities, on her way to seek the assistance of a famed savant. Every time fate forces her to use her ability, trouble homes in. This time, that trouble comes as two sides of the same tarnished copper coin. The first: a horrifying beast threatens the villeins locked away when darkness falls, quaking under the threat of its prowling their villages at night. The second: the viciously shrewd Duc du’Mauntegne, general of the Mad Queen’s army, who wrongfully charges her with the crime of murder but gives her a simple trial—help him solve his dilemma with the beast, and she walks free. That is, if she can survive…
Sundered into simmering kingdoms, the island continent of Sornem forgot the meaning of peace, cycling through battle after battle, from within and without.
Each conflict, each evil act feeds another power—one far greater than any man, any elf, any dwarf or gnome—lurking just beneath the surface, tainting and twisting the hearts of all mortalkind.
They call it the “Eater of Dreams”.
T.R. Neff
Every laundry day turns out to be a mystery as I try to discover the fate of that other sock I stuck into the machine, but that's not exactly novel territory--pun intended.
Unless... there's somehow a wormhole in there that the socks are slipping through. And one day, when the washing machine door is left open carelessly, and the cat checks it out (we know, thanks to The Witcher novels and games, that cats and dragons are sensitive to places of power, and they're naturally curious, so...) and bye-bye kitty. And our intrepid hero, searching for her beloved cat as well as those darned--literally darned as well--socks, manages to not only find the wormhole but squeeze through, stretched like a strand of spaghetti for an eternal nanosecond, to pop out into a world where socks are currency. Now our hero must rescue her feline, because the sock-traders consider HIS socks to be priceless, if only they can figure out how to get them off of him...
Unless... there's somehow a wormhole in there that the socks are slipping through. And one day, when the washing machine door is left open carelessly, and the cat checks it out (we know, thanks to The Witcher novels and games, that cats and dragons are sensitive to places of power, and they're naturally curious, so...) and bye-bye kitty. And our intrepid hero, searching for her beloved cat as well as those darned--literally darned as well--socks, manages to not only find the wormhole but squeeze through, stretched like a strand of spaghetti for an eternal nanosecond, to pop out into a world where socks are currency. Now our hero must rescue her feline, because the sock-traders consider HIS socks to be priceless, if only they can figure out how to get them off of him...
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