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| Selfie of C. Dale Brittain |
Fantasy is known as one of the most popular book genres, with thousands of fantasy fiction novels published each year. Fantasy allows authors to create new worlds and explore imaginary lands with their characters, free from the laws of science and reality. Heroes can go on epic quests, dragons can suddenly exist in the world and everyone can possess magic.
Building your own world is an entertaining activity that often requires a lot of thought and creativity. For a good fantasy fiction story, authors need to plan out a good plot, gradual character development and a multitude of unique details.
C. Dale Brittain is an accomplished fantasy author and medieval historian, who is best known for her first novel “A Bad Spell in Yurt.” She has successfully published a total of over 21 books and her first book even became a national fantasy best-seller shortly after it’s release in 1991.
Many of her books, like Count Scar and Voima, take place in olden times and often include conflicts involving sexism, religion and generation differences.
Brittain’s magical world of “Yurt” and history-inspired stories provide a great example of what the fantasy genre is all about, especially the subcategory of sword and sorcery.
Despite the light-hearted nature of your novels, I noticed that they tend to tackle deep societal issues involving sexism and religious beliefs. Fantasy is often seen as an escape from reality, though some argue the opposite. What are your thoughts on the matter? Do you believe that your stories have made a positive impact on awareness of these problems?
Good fantasy has always been more than escapism. It's the world's oldest form of literature, somewhat larger than life people moving through a world of marvel and wonder, but addressing real issues. If the marvelous hero faces a difficult conundrum in the stories, one he can't easily overcome, the audience is meant to know this is serious.
Think about the “Epic of Gilgamesh,” the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey,” the classic Greek plays, medieval epics like the “Song of Roland,” Shakespeare's “Macbeth,” etc. My own fiction deals with "knee-slapping hilarious" topics like mortality and redemption, so you know I've got serious things to say in spite of the overall good humor.
One good aspect of fantastic fiction in general is that by setting the story somewhere outside the ordinary world, one can focus on the broader themes, rather than having characters getting hung up on things like remembering to buy toothpaste or pay the electric bill or standing in the rain at the gas pump or other mundane issues.
Though I've only been able to read the first book of your Yurt series, themes originating from medieval Europe seem to be a common motif in your stories. Has medieval history and mythology been the only influence on your novels? Have you ever thought to publish fantasy fiction involving more current time periods? If not, why not?
Well, I'm a medievalist, a professor of medieval history, so a medieval setting comes easily to me. "Yurt," however, is set in something sort of like what the nineteenth century would have been like if there had been no “New World” for Columbus to discover, no Protestant Reformation, no Industrial Revolution (magic making the latter unnecessary).
Modern fantasy (that is fantasy written in the last 50 years or so) is very heavily influenced by J.R.R. Tolkien, himself a medievalist, in his case a professor of Old English literature. Some of my books, like the "Count Scar" series, written with my husband, Robert Bouchard, or my newest book, "The Knight of the Short Nose," are closer to real historical fiction, set in something very close to the real Middle Ages.
World-building and character development is a lengthy process that often requires a lot of planning and thought. What is your creative process? What usually inspires your stories? Do you begin writing with a plan in mind or do you prefer to wing it?
I usually start with a scene and then try to figure out who the people are and how they got there. Every book I start with the happy belief that I know where it's going and how I'm going to get there. I'm always proven wrong. The characters develop minds of their own.
I noticed in your site bibliography that some of your works were published through companies like Baen Books and Wooster Book Company, but the rest were published independently. Based on your experiences, which do you recommend is the best path for authors to take in regards to getting their books published?
I'd recommend a new author try to get an agent to be commercially published. It's really hard to do so, however. The publishers these days won't look at unagented works, and an agent won't take on an author unless they're convinced they'll be able to sell the book to a publisher. The publishers want books that are just like what is currently selling very well, except of course totally different. Yeah, I know. They don't understand it either.
The value of commercial publishing is that they have access to a much wider range of advertising and publicity options than independent publishers. For example, indie books almost never show up in physical bookstores and never get reviewed by the New York Times.
I've done very well as an indie publisher and enjoy the freedom to write whatever I want on my own schedule, but I already had an established fan base when I began independent publishing, and my fans followed me. Most new authors who start out in indie publishing are lucky to sell a dozen books total, lifetime, to anyone, including to their mom.
Here the problem is one of those good news - bad news things. The good thing about indie publishing is that anyone can publish. The bad thing — but you already guessed it. There's some unbelievably bad stuff published, and unfortunately it makes it harder for the good to be found.
I found out you recently published "The Sapphire Ring" this past March, which is the third book of the new generation "Yurt" series. Do you plan on continuing the series or is this adventure over? Are you currently working on any other projects that you'd like to announce to your fans?
Yes, having wrapped up Daimbert's adventures in 6 novels and 3 novellas, I decided to continue with a "Yurt the Next Generation" series. "The Starlight Raven" was the first, followed by "An Autumn Haunting" and now "The Sapphire Ring."
This series will have at least two more books in it. In the meantime, my newest book is unrelated, a rollicking retelling of a twelfth-century epic, entitled "The Knight of the Short Nose." Chivalry, humor, a touch of romance, and a few sword fights, plus lots of strong women.
Updated Dec. 14 at 12:04 a.m. to fix minor style errors and add two hyperlinks.
