Nature Walk - April 2023. Relaxing and Inspiring

 I had a rough day the other day, earlier this month, so I decided to treat myself to a nature walk. It was the first thing I did when I got home. I parked my car and set off on the trail leading through the wooded area around a nearby lake. It was just what I needed. 

So peaceful and quiet. I could just walk and breathe and listen to nothing in particular. I could hear water running, ducks quacking and that was it. The leaves under my feet were too wet to crunch. After all the demands of me, of my attention and problem-solving, it was so nice to walk through a place that asked for nothing at all. It was a great way to decompress. 

And that's not all. 

This was a time of transition. After winter but before spring, there was no snow on the ground and only buds on the trees. It was the start of a time of renewal. It was invigorating to be amongst that. I couldn't see any buildings. The tree cover was enough that I could look forward and see only the path. It was so...not modern/urban/etc. that I could imagine walking around the bend and stepping into the Shire. That was a fun thing to imagine; to keep in my heart. 

That's still not all. 

There is this curved bridge that spans part of the lake, or an adjacent pond. I don't know how its divided. Anyway, I walked across this bridge, and I saw a person standing there. She had a camera. She was taking pictures and/or video of a duck on the pond. It was a nice little walk-by encounter; a thing that would only happen on that day and at that time. A special event for those present. 

By the time I made a loop around the lake, I felt refreshed. 

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Novels have layers (writing tip)

As a wise ogre once said, "ogres are like onions". This is not because they make people cry nor because they turn brown if you leave them in the sun too long. It is because they have layers. There is more to them than the surface, and there is still more to them just one thing underneath that surface. The same is true for novels. 

Recently, I read a Facebook post where the Original Poster shared something from another novelist. This novelist was reacting to a review that they had read and were commenting on. The reviewer remarked that the story they read sounded like the author made it up as they went along. The novelist in the shared post wrote something along the lines of "I hate to break it to you but...." with laughing emoj, signifying that, yes, stories tend to be made up as the author goes along. Someone replying to this post, that someone shared, about a novelist remarking on a review for a story written by yet another novelist expressed skepticism.

 (Yes, this Facebook post also has layers! ^_~)

Surely, this commentor on Facebook said, stories are not written as the author goes along. Surely, the author has some plan going in. Surely, they know what they are doing. 

Well....Sometimes we do and sometimes we don't.  The creative process can be messy. 

 Please allow me to break it down for you. 

Draft # 0 - make everything up as you go.

Draft # 1 -  read over what you wrote and try to make sense of it. 

Draft # 2 - tie everything together, remove and add where necessary.

Draft# 3 - check for consistency of foreshadowing, build-up, resolution, etc.

Draft # 4 - repeat, creating new drafts as necessary. 

To go into more detail...

Draft # 0. Yes, I'm starting the count at zero. This is because, in my experience at least, the initial draft is a mess. It might not even be a complete draft, but a sequence of scenes held together by embryonic themes and casual notes. This is because it is the first time that the author's idea for the story comes out into words. For it is one thing to see an idea in one's head and have it play out in the gestalt of thoughts and ideas and images, and quite another to translate that into a linear sequence of words. 
Things can happen in that translation:
Story developments take place as the plot unfolds.
Characters develop as the author gets to know them more personally.
Questions of tone and atmosphere must be answered, because the background of the author's mind can no longer support the scenes on (digital) paper. 

An author such as Neil Gaiman, in a commercial for his MasterClass Art of Storytelling class, compared writing a story to driving through fog. One only sees what is closest. The novelist is writing the scene, because they only see that scene and what was written immediately before that scene. They don't see what comes after or before. 

In this way, they are making it up as they go. Indeed, in the same commercial, Neil Gaiman says that the second draft is about making it appear as though you knew what you were doing all along. 

( Link for the curious -  Neil Gaiman Teaches the Art of Storytelling (masterclass.com). This is not an affiliate link or anything like that. It's just so you know I'm not making this up.)

Draft #1

This is the first "official" draft because it is the first draft that is complete, at least in the most technical sense. The author takes stock of what they wrote, what happens, when, and why, and attempts to get a sense of the whole. They fill in the notes they left in Draft # 0. The novel is still rough, but it is now more than a glorified outline. 

Draft # 2

This is where the author can tie the scenes together. They have a complete story, and they have a sense of it as both a whole and as a sequence of parts. This is where they can bring it all together. They remove scenes, add scenes, re-write scenes as necessary. This is where the novel starts to resemble what the eventual reader will see.

Draft # 3

Now that the story is technically complete, the author has a sense of its parts and unity, and has tied them together, they can go deeper. They can refine what they have made thus far. Adding foreshadowing to point the way to the next events, they create a path for the eventual reader to follow. Foreshadowing is the greatest illusion of planning-it-out-ahead-of-time. Because the reader sees something in Scene A hinting at or building to Scene H, they think the author planned that out ahead of time. No, not necessarily. That is the process of revision, the luxury of going forwards and then backwards.  Indeed, only in foreshadowing between stories published separately does this luxury not exist. 

Draft #4 

Repeat as necessary. There is beta-reading in this process, which creates another layer as the author considers the feedback and incorporates it into a new draft. The author might discover some critical error in need of correcting or discover some opportunity to better tell the story they want. They might even decide that some other angle is more interesting or effective than the one they were pursuing. All of these create more layers. These layers are not evident in the final version. Only the polished surface is seen by the eventual reader. 

I'm not saying that all authors follow the above process. This is not to say that outlines never happen. I can only speak to my own experience, and, in my experience, there is a lot more revision than pre-planning. It is a layered experience. 

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Nature Walk by My Home - Winter 2023

Nature walks are wonderful, regardless of the season.

After work today, I closed up my work computer, put on my shoes and coat, and then headed out the front door for a nature walk. There is a trail next to my house that wraps around a lake. It has other paths, but I chose to stick close to the lake so I wouldn't get lost. Sunset was due in about 20 minutes. I planned it that way, so I could watch the sun go down. 

It was beautiful. This gradient of purple, yellow and then blue up to the sky; these bands of color stretching as far as I could see. I stopped to watch it several times. I turned around to look at it from the other direction. Red and orange, more vibrant and brilliant than the other side, sliding beneath trees and out of side. I wanted to see it all. 

The front lake provided a great platform to see it all. Yes, I walked out onto a frozen lake. I think that is the first time I did that. At least, such that I can remember. At first, I thought it was this big open area that I hadn't seen before. No, it was the lake and/or pond that I had passed by before on previous walks. The abundant snow and all the tracks through that snow disguised the pond as this surprise area. So, I walked across it for the experience, a new experience. It was pretty exciting. 

I was not the only one out and about. I passed by a handful of people walking the trail from other directions. I said "hi" as we crossed paths. There was even a guy out on a larger lake playing fetch with his dog. I didn't want my own walk to end quite yet, so I crossed this lake too, and I picked a steeper area of the bank to ascend back to the path. I wanted to experience that so I could better emulate the experience for my characters.

I'm writing a couple fantasy novels right now, and I've discovered that I am lacking tactile experience with certain environments. One cast is going through a forest, a deep and dense forest. What I have nearby isn't nearly a match, but I still enjoy it. I enjoy filling in those gaps, for the help it does for my writing, but also for the experience itself. When I arrived back at the housing area, I avoided the pavement for a steep and snowy area on the lake bank, just to prolong the walk a little longer. My socks stayed remarkably dry, considering I wasn't wearing boots and was up to my knees in snow. 

It was a new experience, the whole walk. The change in season made all the difference. It's like the theme song for Pokemon's first season in the Johto region, 

"It's a whole new world we live in. It's a whole new way to see. It's a whole new place, with a brand-new attitude, but you still gotta catch'em all, and be the best that you can be!"

To read about my spring nature walk in 2020, click here

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Surprising Readers is Easy but Not Always Wise

"I saw that coming. That story is so predictable". 

This is often a derogatory statement. I read reviews for books, movies, tv shows etc. and I rarely fail to find complaints of this nature (typically in speculative fiction, but that is another topic). Whatever medium it was in, the perceived flaw is lack of originality. The story's theme was tired, the plot elements over-used, seen it before a million times, etc. Rarely do I find complaints that the plot was non-sensical.

In this way, a surprising twist or a shock to readers is seen as originality. The failure to do this is lacking originality, tantamount to regurgitating a previous story. If there is nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing unexpected, then there is supposedly nothing worth seeing. It is seen as a critical flaw. If only the writer(s) did something surprising...

I understand this sentiment. If one experiences enough stories, then one starts to see patterns. One spots common elements. These are properly called "Tropes". Learning enough tropes enables one to make predictions, and thus feel as though they have already experienced the story. This can lead to disappointment. On Tvtropes, this feeling is called "Tvtrope Will Ruin Your Life", because it diminishes the pleasure of the story. 

Certainly, surprise is part of a story's appeal, but it is a narrow slice of it. What these criticisms miss is that surprising a reader is actually an easy thing to do. It is just not always a wise thing to do. 

All a writer has to do to surprise a reader is do something unexpected. That is, to do something that goes against a reader's expectations. Now, all readers are different because they have different experiences, so all readers do not have the same expectations. However, their expectations of a particular genre are likely to be the same.

Some examples -  (These have most likely happened in one story of another -  Zeroth Law of Trope Examples)

If you have a Medieval Fantasy setting with a Quest narrative, then readers expect lots of traveling and monster fighting. Perhaps a dungeon dive or two. Something unexpected would be to have the climatic shown down with the Evil Overlord take place as a literal cooking duel. 

If you have a realistic fiction murder mystery taking place in modern day, then readers expect a list of clues, presentation of multiple suspects, and then a summation at the end, where the culprit is revealed. Something unexpected would be for the culprit to be fingered mid-way through, and the rest of the story to be a long discussion about the appeal of woolen undergarments. 

If you have a romantic comedy that takes place in an outer space/futuristic setting, then readers expect romantic moments between the two leads, silly hi-jinks about their courtship, a Third Act Break-Up and then a happy wedding at the end. Something unexpected would be a talking octopus appearing out of nowhere and telling the leads that they are the reincarnations of gods who are needed to fight evil in another world; no wedding, no comedy, just a bunch of high action monster-slaying that is not resolved at the end. 

No reader would expect that. It would definitely surprise them. This is because it goes against their expectation of the genre.

This is because all entries in a genre are likely to be the same. That is what makes them a genre. Tvtropes even has a page called "From Clones to Genre", which documents the birth of genres, because if you get enough similar works together then you get a genre. There is a self-aware teen slasher' subgenre, seriously, there is. 

No one can say that those three examples are NOT original.  I had to wrack my brain to find something that I hadn't seen before. I haven't seen everything, and the Zeroth Law of Trope Examples is a thing, but I'm pretty sure those examples are not common. 

But are they any good? Maybe, probably not, but maybe. It would take a masterclass of storytelling to pull that off.  A lot of foreshadowing would be necessary to make sense of such a story.  If a new element or story direction comes out of nowhere, then the reader would call foul, right? The story wouldn't make any sense if its tone/genre/etc. changed without any warning. That is something TvTropes calls Shocking Swerve. So, the writer needs to add plenty of build-up and foreshadowing so the surprising and original development makes sense. 

Yet any foreshadowing would tip the reader off, and therefore it would not be surprising.  Therefore, not original, right?

No, it would be original. Maybe. Zeroth Law of Trope Example. Someone has probably done that before, at some point, somewhere. But it would totally be original to a large group of people. But again, would it be any good? 

If someone sits down to read a Medieval Fantasy setting with a Quest narrative, then do they want to see the hero and villain settle things by preparing meals in a kitchen?

If someone sits down to read a realistic fiction murder mystery taking place in modern day, then do they want an Author Tract about the appeal of woolen undergarments?

If someone sits down to read a romantic comedy that takes place in an outer space/futuristic setting, then do they want a mid-story twist into a fantasy isekai? 

Again, maybe. Some people like being surprised. I imagine this includes the reviewers that I mentioned at the start of this post. If someone reviews stories professionally, then they probably see so many stories so often that Tvtropes Will Ruin Your Life kicks in for them and so they seek novelty. But not everyone seeks novelty. Even those seeking novelty would likely prefer a story that makes sense, even if it is not as "original" as they would like. 

If you surprise readers with originality so much that you confuse them, then what have you gained? An upset reader. That is the worst outcome. An upset reader is likely to stop reading and then mock you on social media. Originality is not originality if it causes confusion. It's just a mess. Even if it isn't a mess, does that make it any good? 

Again, maybe. I've said that a lot in this post, because it is an opinion, and opinions vary. Your Mileage May Vary, as we say on Tvtropes. I'm sure there is a group that puts a premium on "originality", even if the resulting story doesn't make as much sense as a more conventional story. Nonsense Poetry is also a genre. Unless you're writing that genre, it would be better to avoid confusing readers. 

That means foreshadowing. It means uses tropes. It means forming a path that your reader might be able to guess. It means crafting a story that your reader will enjoy even if they ARE able to guess. Because you create anticipation, wetting the reader's appetite, and deliver a satisfying fulfillment of that anticipation. 

In my experience, that can be more difficult than surprising a reader. To surprise, you just have to do something unexpected, which is like pulling something out of nowhere. It is easy. To build and fulfill anticipation, you have to actually build something. That requires wisdom. In this way, Surprising Readers is Easy but Not Always Wise.

Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

The Appeal of Overpowered Characters - Part 2 - The Meaning of the Fight

 The Appeal of Overpowered Characters - Part 2. The Meaning of the Fight

Last time, I talked about Appeal of an Overpowered Character, starting with the supposed "problem" of an overpowered character in regard to drama and tension, and then moving into the topic of the protagonist as an underdog. I used the series "No Game No Life" as an example of how to use a nominal underdog to create tense and exciting conflict by making the conflict itself the objective instead of the outcome. 

Now you might cry foul at this example.  "No Game No Life" is the exception, you might say. It focuses on literal games that supernaturally force the players to rely on non-violent means.  What if I want to write a story about life-or-death fights between heroes and villains. Surely, I need to use an underdog here, right?

Not necessarily. This is my next example, "One-Punch Man".

  "One-Punch Man" is a superhero story that stars one such superhero, Saitama. He was an ordinary human who gained super-powers by training really hard for several years. Now he is so strong that he can defeat any enemy in just one punch. And that's not all. He is also invulnerable (only getting hurt when it would be funny) and so fast he can't be seen. All this is when he is not even trying hard. 

The series opens with the introduction of a villain and Saitama reducing them to paste with a single punch, who deplores the fact that he ended the fight so quickly. You see, Saitama is what Tvtropes calls a Blood Knight, he enjoys fighting for its own sake, and he calls himself "a hero for fun". By the time the main narrative starts, Saitama has become so strong that no one can challenge him, and so the fights no longer thrill him. 

Unlike "No Game No Life", Saitama's fights are always quick, and his tactics are rarely more creative than "punch it, once". How then, is the narrative compelling? What is the appeal of the fights? 

First of all, it's funny to see a villain hype themselves up only to get splattered in one-punch. For me at least, that didn't get old even after two seasons. Second, Saitama has to find the right person to punch. He doesn't want to fight minions all day; he's only a hero for fun, after all, and that is not fun. Third is the broader context of the fight. 

It is always about more than just the fight. 

This is a series that can have the protagonist say, in the first episode, "having overwhelming power is... pretty boring", and not be boring itself. 

There is always more going on than some singular villain showing up and saying, "I will rule/destroy the world". So, the solution to the conflict is always more complicated than "punch the guy". The first episode has a couple of these to establish the setting and the story's tone, and that's it. Starting with the House of Evolution arc, villains come in groups, and their respective evil plans have to be figured out. Then Saitama can punch them out or help other heroes do so.

Yes, Saitama lives in a superhero society. Being a "hero" can be a profession, and these "heroes" have many different motives. Fame, science experiments, revenge, genuine heroism. Saitama only fights for fun, so he has many foils. The narrative compares him to people like Mumen Rider, a totally normal human with a truly heroic spirit, and to Genos, a cyborg driven by revenge, or the Tank Top brothers, several of whom have a bad case of Tall Poppy Syndrome. How these heroes react to someone like Saitama, who is better than them at defeating villains, and what the civilians think of a "hero for fun" is just as much a part of the series as defeating the villains.

Finally, there is what Saitama himself thinks about heroes and his own heroics. He says that he is just a "hero for fun" and he is always bored because no one can challenge him. He is enduring an existential crisis, because his dream was to become the strongest hero and, now that he is, he struggles with motivation. It is a dramatic character arc in an overall comedic series. 

In this way, the author crafts a story where the protagonist is overpowered/invincible, but can still create exciting fights, meaningful conflict and interesting character development. A character like Saitama can be played for comedy and drama as needed, and fights can end as soon as he shows up. 

There are also conventional fights with other heroes who are not invincible. The invulnerability of Saitama highlights the fragility of these heroes, and so their reason for being heroes is also highlighted. Saitama isn't always around to back them up. No matter how quickly a protagonist can defeat a villain, if they aren't present, it doesn't matter. These fights are all the more tense for it, and the fights do not always end with Saitama showing up to save them either. 

Having an overpowered protagonist doesn't necessarily make everyone else useless. There are other perfectly competent heroes who can defeat monsters, save lives, and otherwise do heroic stuff. Saitama's existence doesn't make them obsolete. Indeed, Saitama's overpoweredness actually inspires some heroes to reach greater heights, like Saitama's own disciple, Genos. 

Having overwhelming power may be pretty boring, but a story about such a character need not be. Keep Saitama's example in mind and you can indeed write an exciting story about an overpowered protagonist.

Click here to read Part 1 - No Need for an Underdog

Click here to read Part 3 - What is Gained

 Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

The Appeal of OverPowered Characters - Part 1 - No Need for an Underdog.

Authors out there, you should consider using an overpowered character as your protagonist. 

When I first started writing novels, what was it, twenty years ago now? (My how time flies), I read up on novel-writing advice. I sought it everywhere and I gathered it together. Something I saw a lot was "don't make the characters too powerful", and the similar refrain of "give your characters flaws".  A character, particularly a protagonist, had to be weak, or at least weaker than their enemies. They had to be the underdog. 

The general idea was that if a character was too powerful, then the story wouldn't have any tension. The character would resolve all problems with their over-poweredness.  No tension =  no drama, which supposedly also equals "bad story". Without exception, this advice said, a story with an overpowered protagonist was supposed to be bad. I believed it at the time. I don't anymore. 

 It's not bad advice, but with all writing tips, there are exceptions.

What if you don't want to write an underdog story? What if your goal isn't writing a story fueled by the question "will the protagonist triumph"? It is very possible to do that. Even with a modicum of genre savvy, one can predict that "yes, the protagonist will triumph", even if the situation seems hopeless. Why, I recall watching Mighty Ducks 2 with my class during middle school, and right at the climatic moment, when the gaming-winning move takes place, one of my classmates sarcastically said, "Oh, I thought Iceland was going to win". It was a real buzz kill. I imagine he thought himself clever, but no, he wasn't. The climatic moment was well-crafted from a narrative and thematic perspective, but totally predictable.  

Authors out there, you don't have to struggle with that dilemma. There is no strict need to balance the seesaw of "Oh, this protagonist is so weak and overwhelmed, there's no way they will triumph but, yeah, they totally will, somehow".  It's a thin wire to walk. You either have to build the story around setting up the character as an underdog while also setting up their path to victory in a believable way or choose a failure ending and all that implies (bitter-sweet or tragedy). 

 I will illustrate the exceptions with specific series that I believe best serve to help illustrate. 

To start things off, No Game No Life. This is a light novel series staring a pair of human siblings, Sora and Shiro, who are collectively known as " " (in other words "Blank").  The world they live in operates on the premise of Duels Decide Everything. The One True God of this world (who is also the God of Games) decreed that all violence was forbidden, and therefore disputes would be resolved through games. This is enforced via Supernaturally Binding Contract. Sora and Shiro are the best gamers, and the series is not shy about reminding the reader about their motto, "Blank doesn't lose." 

This is a story with tension. There is a LOT of tension, but the driving question is never, "will Sora and Shiro win". That is because the answer is obviously, "yes, they will". The question is HOW will they do it. That is a much more interesting question. It gets readers involved in the middle parts of the story, which basically IS the story itself. If all the reader cares about is the ending, then the potential of the beginning and middle is never fully realized.  (Incidentally, I wrote a different blog post about this years ago ---> LINK)

(Full disclosure - Technically, the gamer siblings ARE underdogs, because their opponents have supernatural advantages, but the narrative doesn't seriously entertain the idea that they will lose. In fact, Sora gives a speech that is summarized as "The weak are the strongest".)

Authors out there, don't you want to write a story that grips readers with every page? For the event on that page itself to engage their full attention? Not as a percussor to an ending, but the progression to have value and meaning. That is what No Game No Life is all about. One can guess that Sora and Shiro will win, but not the moves they make to get that win. 

That is the appeal of the story. Yes, the protagonist "Blank" will win. The gamer siblings approach every game with the mindset that they will win, and they do. Yet every game is thrilling. 

The author doesn't have to worry about maintaining the illusion that the gamer siblings might lose. The time, energy and words that would otherwise have been devoted to that instead go into the amazing tactics, the funny running gags, the fascinating world-building, and other things far more interesting than protestations of their dire situation. Side characters might worry about their chances, but Sora and Shiro do not, and so the overall narration does not.  

My original idea was to include all the examples in one post, but this one is already too long. I will cover the others in other posts. I can think of four examples right now, so this might be a 5-part series. That would be a first for me. 

Look forward to it!

Update: Part 2 is ready. Click to read The Meaning of the Fight

 Brian Wilkerson is an independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor's degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Connecting Things to Connect to Readers -

As a novelist, I write stories. I want to entertain readers with stories they will enjoy. This requires connecting them to the story, and all the elements of the story together. I think I neglected this aspect in Transcending Limitations. I also think it is why The Highest Power is taking so long to finish. 

I recognize the emptiness in the earlier drafts for The Highest Power but I couldn't figure out why they were so empty. I described the image in my head and tried to convey the emotion of what I saw and the energy that I felt so I could share it all with the reader. Yet everything fell flat. I didn't understand where the disconnect was until I realized it was in the book itself. 

I wasn't connecting things in the book itself. I didn't connect the feelings of the characters. I didn't connect events. I didn't connect motives. All the connections were in my head. All I did was present an image of the events through impersonal words. I didn't realize how distant this image was from a reader who lacked my internal connections. 

I could write SEVERAL blog posts about this idea of connections. In fact, if I tried hard enough, I could probably write a whole book about it.  Transcending Limitations was a significant learning experience. 

This post will focus on just one connection, the viewpoint character. You can also call them The Protagonist (which is different from The Hero). 

The viewpoint character is the connection within the connection. The book itself is the connection between the writer and the reader. The book itself, be it a paper book or an ebook or an audio book, links the reader to the writer. However, the connection is not really the book itself, but the story elements inside the book. It is the narration and the action of the characters, particularly the viewpoint character. 

(Related aside -  I'm not sure if this very article is connecting to the reader. It is a different sort of writing than a novel, so my learning experience with novels might not be helping here. After all, there is no viewpoint character, unless of course you consider the viewpoint character to be the one writing the article. Hey, maybe that's the thing.)

The viewpoint character is the connection within the connection. He or she (or "they", I guess) is the means by which the writer connects to the reader. The writer uses them to connect things in the story for the reader. This viewpoint character experiences the events of the story, and feels a certain way about them. They connect the story dots but in a way that is unique to them, which may or may not be accurate. 

The viewpoint characters see the events of the story in a certain way, which is the way that the story connects to them.  They interpret events according to their understanding. The reader sees this (or hears it, whatever) and that is their connection to the story. The energy, emotion and image that I have, that I want to share with the reader, is delivered by this viewpoint character. 

The story is filtered through this character's perspective. The lore that is relevant to the story is presented to the reader from their perspective. This keeps the story focused and coherent. I tried to portray this one scene from everyone's perspective and that was a mess!

The events that are shown in the story are the events that the viewpoint character takes part in, which does not include all the events that happen. Those "off-page" events still need to be made known to the reader, so the reader can understand the whole story, but they must be from the viewpoint character's perspective to maintain a consistent perspective. 

I realize now that this is why I hear so much advise about "relatable" viewpoint characters and "identifying" with viewpoint characters. Being able to relate to or identify with a viewpoint character helps the reader to understand their perspective, which then aids the connection, which then builds up the significance of events and aids the transmission of emotion. It is not necessary, in my opinion, but it is helpful. 

In fact, I think it can be more harmful than helpful, because trying to guess who is going to pick up your book is tricky. Yes, I know about targeted adds and information collecting algorithms, but making presumptions about any given reader is likely to come across as offensive. There are a lot of tropes on Tvtropes that make fun of this tactic, such as This Loser Is You. 

So I think it is better to be authentic. Present the authentic feelings of one character as they are. Allow them to be the author's connection to the reader, whoever the reader is. Doing this enables the reader to get inside the character's mind and experience their viewpoint. That is a connection. The reader can understand the character this way, and thus understand that they are not a flat character, empty of emotions and motives (unless, of course, the goal of the author is an empty audience surrogate). 

I coined a phrase for this -  standing behind their shoulder. Going into detail about that would be another post entirely. 

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Walking a Nature Trail is Inspiring - a brief novelist's perspective

Spring has come, and warm weather has come with it. So I decided to take a walk on a nature trail by my house. I haven't done that in a while, and it was a beautiful day. I am glad that I did. It was inspirational.

I don't see such all-encompassing nature often. Mostly, it is just the small and trimmed areas that line the roads on my way to work. These days, I don't even see that anymore. The only plant life that I have regular contact with is a tiny plant in my study, which I water every other day or so. I should probably do that less often because the soil is growing white moss. 

When I walked through that nature trail, by the water and among the trees, I realized anew why so many fairy tales take place in the woods.

They are so full of life. The many plants and many varieties of plants all around lead one to thinking of the world and all that it contains, and the little critters that one can spot can lead thoughts to other communities outside of human settlements. I spotted a family of ducks swimming by in the lake. They went about their business, maybe and maybe not noticing the large and alien creature that was observing them (i.e. me).

The tall trees and the foliage limit visibility, and so one can be surprised by what is just around the bend in the path. This happened to me numerous times. I trotted down this hill and was greeted by a new glade, mud puddle, or tree formation. I saw cross-roads, and those are linked to Fair Folk in stories. 
Take the wrong path and you might end up in the Land of the Faerie, a land renowned for its strangeness, wonder, and danger. To someone living on a farm, a forest would fit that description. 

You can meet strangers in the forest too.

A couple families were out enjoying nature as well, and our paths crossed going opposite directions. Naturally, we had to stay six feet apart due to COIVD-19 social distancing rules. I drifted a bit off the path to be that far away. I greeted them and they went on their way; a momentary meeting in the woods that happened by chance.

Shortly after that, I came across a bridge. Two bridges actually, one was made of wood and the other, metal. They span segments of the lake that is nearby. I like bridges. They represent connection between two places, and this can take many forms in the mind of a novelist. It could be the distance between two worlds, or a connection between two groups. With the woods on one side and a neighborhood of buildings on the other, this bridge was like the threshold between the world of humans and the world of Fair Folk. The metal bridge could add a layer of meaning to the connection; Cold Iron is supposedly poisonous to the Fair Folk, and so a bridge made of it would not a friendly bridge to the Fair Folk.

And so my nature walk came to an end. It was fun. I found much inspiration. So I decided to write when I returned home. 

To read about my winter nature walk in 2023, click here

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration). His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Beginner Frustration after Thirteen Years

This is a stream-of-consciousness post that I wrote last week during a moment of writing angst. Revisions to my current WIP are taking longer and have been more difficult than I expected, which prompted this outlet into a different form of writing. 

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Ten years. thirteen years. I lose track. I have to count them up every flippin' time. It is about thirteen years. In any case, it is over a decade since I started writing original fiction. YET I STILL FEEL LIKE A BEGINNER.

Story building. Conflict. Character construction. perspective. the art of prose. Just laying words on the page. All of it is still so... immature. I read it and it is half-baked. 

I'm not talking about first draft material. First draft material is crap. It is always crap. I don't mind if the first draft is crap. I'm talking about fourth draft material.

The fifth book of my Journey to Chaos series is in its fourth draft. To be precise, it is the second rewrite of the fourth draft. The first version of the first rewrite collapsed in on itself about 2/3 of the way through. I realized that the story I had written could not sustain itself. So many errors, it was like rotten wood. I had to create a second rewrite, which is something I've never had to do before.  Did I mention this was my fifth book? 

My fourth book was also a disappointment. I re-read it now and I'm amazed I published this thing. Maybe "horrified" is the better word. Maybe I'm over-reacting. I don't think it is a bad story, but poorly executed. It's like I published the second draft. 

I saw myself as getting better with each book. I think the second is better than the first and the third better than the second. Then I come to #4. Now I'm struggling with #5 in a way that I haven't before. Was I just lucky with earlier books? Am I only now, after thirteen years, developing actual skill as a writer? 

When I read the work of superior authors, I was happy to see how much better they were. I could learn by example. It was a mindset of "I'm new at this, so I will learn from those older and more experienced". Now, thirteen years later, how can I still see myself as new? 

I thought I'd have more books written and published by now. I have so many plots that I want to write, yet I remain in my first series. I want to finish this series so I can move on, but if I look to horizon then I stumble on the stones in my path. I don't want to put out another stinker, especially not two in a row. 

I'm not a professional author. I do it in my spare time. I have a day job. The amount of time I have to write before I die of old age is already limited. Yet so much of it is lost on rewrites, overhauls, and extra drafts because I lack skill, or awareness, or even the capacity to plan.

Planing has never worked for me. I want to plan events and story lines so I can be more efficient and avoid so much rewriting. Yet, it has never worked. The actual writing is never what happened on the outline (maybe not "never" but rarely).

Thirteen years, and four books. Now I'm writing this blog post. 

It hurts, somehow to see better storylines, better direction, better execution. It's like "I see how they did that, I know how it works, so why can't I do it myself?" Or maybe it is like "how did I not see that over thirteen years? Have I been a blind man stumbling through all this time, and just now actually seeing?"  That would be luck. 

Maybe I should be glad that I do notice those things. If I were to remain blind, I would not see how bad my writing is, and it would remain so.
Hey
I just remembered a quote. "it is far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness". Quote Investigator says this is originally part of a sermon from William L Watkinson. 

That is what I should focus on.

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Adding this part to the end of each post has become a non-thinking habit. But this time, adding it makes me feel better.

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration). His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

The Joy of being a Devious Dungeon Master

Anyone who thinks being a dungeon master is "not really playing" can expect disagreement from me.

Listening to the players describe their plan and then leading them into an encounter. Their sense of anticipation and nerves when you unexpectedly draw a combat map. The thrill when they fall into a trap. The satisfaction when you describe something they think is important enough to write down, and their speculation about what is to come. The sheer fun that comes from roleplaying a scene you outlined, thereby bring it to life.

This is the joy of the Dungeon Master.

It has been some time since I became the game master for my D&D group (one of two), and I think I'm finally getting the hang of it. There's a lot of stuff to keep track of: monster abilities and stats,  which monster has which HP total, the conditions, the initiative order, etc. Then there's the stuff to track of this information. I had to buy school supplies (pencils, notebook paper, folders, etc.) in addition to tools like condition markers and find a way of arranging it all behind the DM screen.

 It can get confusing, and every fumble you make slows down the game and decreases everyone's fun i.e. the real loot. My first several sessions suffered because I tried to manage everything from my smart phone. Now I go lower tech,  one notepade, one sticky note pad, and paper copies of notes and maps. All this prep has been worth it.

More recent sessions have gone smoother than those earlier ones, and in my personal opinion, the last one has been the best so far. I planned something for everyone's character to do and improvised as necessary. I stuck to these notes instead of ignoring them without reason. I looked to the mechanical side of things as well as the narrative potential, remembering that I a dungeon master instead of an author in this scenario. No rail-roading, just collaborating.

And it worked.

We had lots of good roleplay as the party prepared for the final assault upon a goblinoid war camp. I dropped plot hooks for adventurers after this one, which they picked up and used as suited their characters. I lead them into a goblin trap but they suspected something amiss and only the rogue player triggered it, who was best equipped to survive it. Then the battle commenced.

It will begin in earnest at the start of my next session as dungeon master, and I can hardly wait.

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration). His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Still Learning - a Series Twelve Years in the Making

Hello!
Welcome to 2020. I'm working on something I started earlier in this millennium, the craft of writing a novel.

These days I am revising the fifth book in my first novel series, Journey to Chaos. This is the second rewrite of the fourth draft. If I were to fully disclose, then it would be the second rewrite of the fourth draft of the third version. I started the first version maybe eight years ago, before publishing even book #1 but then I decided to rewrite book #2 which then spilled over all the way to this one, book #5. What I'm working on now has been a long time in coming, and I am still learning.

That is both good and bad. Obviously, it is good to always learn. To always learn is to always improve, and to perpetually expand one's knowledge and skills. However, it is also bad because it is frustrating. After twelve years I feel that I should be beyond the basics. When I learn something new I reflect "duh! that's obvious". Except it wasn't, and isn't, or I would already know it.

The most recent thing I learned is about narrative concentration, and that is why it is frustrating. Like in formal, academic writing, one needs to be focused on what one is writing about. To find a clear subject and write exclusively on that subject so that it can be developed over the course of the work, sounds like something that should be obvious. But I wasn't doing it.  As a result, my most recent book (Transcending Limitations) did not live up to its full potential. Its themes were shallow, its events lacked build-up, and its magical mechanics were confusing (to someone other than me, anyway).

I thought this was because a novel is not formal academic writing. I did not want to follow the rules of formal academic writing because I was not writing an essay. I was writing a novel. There are different rules for writing a novel.

Characters are not rational. They do not make clear and logical arguments. They do not always act based on reasonable premise or a concise thesis statement. They certainly don't talk like an essay (unless, of course, a character's personality is based on being formal and academic). That is why what now appears to be obvious now was most hidden from me indeed.

Now I understand that writing a novel is more similar to writing an essay than I thought (or perhaps wanted to think). One has to write formally for the structure and build up of the story itself, but also informally to catch the emotion and life of characters and for reasons that I likely do not know yet.

  This is the seventh paragraph,but it was the fourth one in my first draft of this article. I added more content during the revision process because I realized a need to concentrate its themes. So now it is no longer the last paragraph before the conclusion in a standard essay.

I realized this when I was wondering where to end this post, or if it was too long. TL;DR, you know? That phrase would never appear in a formal piece, not without a paragraph defining it and its purpose, and within an essay where it would be relevant. As there, and here and in a novel, a writer should only include what is relevant. This aids the quest of subject clarity because there is less clutter.

I'm working on that. It's an on-going process of learning. I want to continue learning and improving as I continue writing for the next twelve years and beyond (ideally, it would be more like ten thousand years, but I'll take what I can get).

Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration). His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

Paladin as Party Healer (D&D Stories)

I've been playing Paladin recently in my regular D&D group. It's quite a change from my previous (and current, it's complicated) character of Fighter - Eldritch Knight. Both of them are primarily melee classes with limited magical ability but my experience with the former has been the opposite of a melee class. Due to the lack of a cleric, my paladin has become the party's heal bot.

In our first major battle, my paladin spent more time keeping our wizard alive then fighting. Likewise, his biggest contribution in the second (due to poor attack rolls) was again healing the wizard. In the third battle he was again on healing duty but this time it was the monk who fell unconscious because the wizard was elsewhere. It was initially frustrating but then I realized how perfectly it fell in line with my character's backstory.

See, he is a dwarf with the guild artisan background and a serious competitive drive. It drove him to sabotage the works of his fellow guild members in order to make his own wares appear superior. This mean-spirited cheating eventually got him into serious trouble with the guild and he became a paladin to atone for it, vowing to channel this competitiveness into doing good as a team player. Thus, a supporting role is perfect for him.

He started the first and third battles by casting Bless on himself and two other party members and then moved around performing Lay on Hands and Cure Wounds as needed. On one occasion, he helped the monk flank an enemy. On another he helped the druid use the Pack Tactics of her direwolf Wild-Shape. At fourth level, I'm planning on him taking the Menacing feat to boost his spell modifier and frighten foes out of attacking the party in the first place.

I've rolled terribly for attacks in all three sessions of this campaign so far. It got to the point where I changed dice. I still didn't hit anything but it doesn't matter. The party needs a dedicated healer more.

Update:
Several sessions later, my dwarf paladin is STILL rolling poorly for attacks; just attacks. He is level 4 now and he has landed fewer attacks than his level.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).
His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

How real life can influence the campaign (D&D stories)

What I like about Dungeons and Dragons is that it is communal story-telling. Everyone contributes to the story and how the campaign's narrative plays out. Usually this is through their characters, but the players themselves can also work interesting changes by just their presence or absence.

See, I'm one of those players that isn't satisfied with ignoring a character whose player didn't show up for the session. I want to know what happened to them; where did they go, what are they doing, etc. So the DM at the time provided a good reason, such as eating bad mushrooms or getting drunk after a victory. That sort of thing provided fun flavor. However, the truly interesting thing happened after I became the campaign's DM.

To set the stage, the party had been trying to free a large group of people who had been enslaved by a hobgoblin army. These people were toiling away in a gold mine near the hobgoblin war camp. In the course of gathering allies for a raid on the camp, the party exited a Lost-World style plane through an arcane portal (long story) and decided to use this magical device to spirit the slaves away.

Two players dropped out at this time so we decided that their characters would stay on the other side and prepare a camp for the slaves to rest after their flight: preparing simple spears, gathering food, etc.

As it happened, the main army had departed the camp and the camp itself had fallen into decay, disorganized and lacking in discipline. This allowed the party to sneak into the mine because the goblin guards were sleeping. The bard decided to cast Leomond's Tiny Hut to block the entrance. We would use the portal device to free the slaves by opening the portal inside the mine.

This is it. This is the moment that I have been building up to. 

 The Free-the-Slaves arc took five weeks to complete, and over each of those weeks a new player came by for that week only (with one exception). So each week the session would start with the party running into another adventurer who was trying to free the slaves by themselves. It started to get ridiculous at how poor the security for the mine was when so many people could independently sneak in. One character gave the impression that he had wandered in and had no idea where he was.

We all had a good laugh about this. One player even joked that the party had done a better job securing the mine than its hobgoblin owners. That was true.

The story was written so that security would be lax at this point in time. However, nothing I could have done would have underscored this plot point as thoroughly and hilariously as this string of new one-time players. Adding them as NPCs would have been pointless and lame. It was the real-life consequence that made it memorable.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback.

The Usefulness of Grey Morality (D&D Experience)

Using grey morality injects ambiguity into a story. This ambiguity can then be used to drive conflicts and forge characters.

This happens a lot in my current Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Right now, there's this hobgoblin warlord that's building an army. He uses slave labor, gathers lots of weapons, and absorbs independent goblinoid communities into his army. Sounds bad, right? When the party infiltrated his camp as caravan guards to gather intel they didn't find something like the pits of Mordor. It was an organized war camp but there was nothing exceptionally cruel going on (that we noticed at least).

When he offered a banquet for the caravan to celebration the completion of the deal, we totally thought there was going to be poison. My character downed an antidote. There wasn't any poison. We later learned that this warlord was a repeat customer of the human city states and had never cheated any of them. In fact, we discovered that his army was not meant to attack any of the city-states (at the time, at least; on-going campaign and all) but a kraken worshiping cult that had been abducting sailors and transforming them into sea-spawn.

We weren't sure who we should side with, if either of them. It led to a lot of interesting discussions within the party. Some of us wanted to attack the warlord for being a slave-owner and some wanted to side with him because they saw the kraken cult as the bigger threat and/or greater rewards lay in working for the more lawful of the two. The roleplay of these debates was a lot of fun.

My own character was mostly interested in hunting and eating so he didn't care which side ended up filling his belly.

There was even a mysterious monk following us. We weren't sure (until the most recent session) if he worked for the hobgoblin warlord, the kraken cult or a third faction. Thus, we didn't know if he was an enemy or a possible ally. This also led to fun roleplaying.

If things had been more straight-forward then we won't have had the opportunity to have these fun moments. Discussing a course of action, in-character, was made possible by the ambiguity of the grey/unknown morality of the characters we met.

What do you think? If you'd like, please share with me such moments of your own campaigns.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback  

Death in D&D - It Completes a Character

Hello!

This post is about using death as a tool for character development. Not the actual death of a character that affects others but imagining how a character would respond to a hypothetical death.

I've spent the last several months playing a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. My character is a high elf fighter named "Hadari" who was literally raised by wolves (rolled for it on the Outlander background). It's taken this long to reach level 5 and I've planned out how I want his character development and mechanical advancement to progress. I hadn't thought about his potential death.

Unlike in video games, there is no guarantee of "game over - restart" in D&D. If your entire party is wiped out, that's it.  A Dungeon Master could allow it for a penalty as a house-rule, of course, or arrange a situation for the party's revival, but the typical response is to roll-up a new character. There are no second chances. This was a new experience for me.

Recently, my party botched a mission and had to leave town in a hurry. The DM decided to call the session as we fled. We didn't know if anyone was pursuing us. If so, we didn't know how many or if they were on horseback. We had to leave most of our own horses behind in our hurry, so if the city guards were on horseback then they would overtake us. I spent much of the next day worried about our uncertain doom.

Then I remembered a line from a fellow author. Thaddeus White said in a blog interview, "Nothing completes a character like their demise " (You can read the whole thing here).  (He's a fantastic novelist, by the way). That got me thinking how I would roleplay Hadari's death in such a situation.

Due to trauma in his backstory, he definitely wouldn't allow himself to be captured alive. He also misses his former wolf pack (the party being his replacement for them) and fears them to be dead. So I figured he would die fighting in a frenzy of panic and fear. His end would be that of a tragic hero.

This helped me to understand Hadari on a deeper level, which helped my role-playing for the next session. It also brought me peace of mind if the party got into such trouble.

A week later, we discovered that the city guards were more worried about putting out the fire our rogue started than chasing us so we got away clean.


Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback 

Five Questions in the Crown of Blood (author interview)

Thaddeus White has completed his excellent Bloody Crown trilogy. I've read the first two so far and I rated both of them highly.  So when he asked me to spread the word on the third one I gladly agreed. Here are Five Questions for "Crown of Blood" and its series.

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1. What was it like writing the third book of a trilogy?  Describe for us any challenges or joys that came with it.

 

Kind of odd. I’ve been working on this trilogy for a long time now, and it’s significantly more challenging than three stand-alone novels because there’s a need for additional planning in order to keep the plot lines consistent across three books. At the same time, story arcs have to be of varying length, some trilogy-long, others starting and ending within a single book, or two, so that each book, whilst part of a great whole, is also a complete entry.

 

On the plus side, the greater size of the trilogy means that characters can have more depth and the story itself can have more ebbing and flowing. I’ve enjoyed the development of characters like Stephen Penmere and Sophie Hurstwood (the unofficial subtitle of the trilogy is ‘In Which Terrible Things Happen To Sophie’).

 

 

2. Did you have all three books planned out ahead of time or did you improvise as the war progressed? Perhaps it was a mixture of the two.

 

I planned most things ahead of time, because I didn’t want to risk driving into a dead end and then scrabbling for a resolution. One thing I decided late on (and changed) was who ends up on the throne. That was deliberate, as I thought it’d help maintain the ambiguity as to the ultimate victor of the war. However, I did fiddle with things a little bit, mostly increasing or decreasing the amount of time spent with a given POV as felt natural and fit better with the story.

 

3. What about the trilogy's cast. Is there anyone you became particularly fond of or, conversely, anyone whose death scene you looked forward to writing?

 

Ha. You say ‘conversely’ but I actually quite like killing off my favourite characters. Nothing completes a character like their demise. As for favourites, I have a few. The female trio of Karena, Sophie, and Charlotte were fun to write, and I really enjoyed Sir James’ elegant sense of humour (in Traitor’s Prize he describes a nobleman he’s teaching swordplay as not requiring ‘further decoration’ after the pupil falls down some stairs and gets the day off training).

4. The Blood Crown Trilogy is just one of the stories that you've written in this setting, correct? What other stories take place in this world you've created?

 

Bane of Souls and Journey to Altmortis, which have a few recurring characters (including Fritigern, Anja, and their hound, who have small roles in The Bloody Crown Trilogy) but are mostly separate. Bane of Souls follows Horst, a Kuhrisch who visits Highford and is compelled to join the mage’s tower, much to his displeasure (which isn’t improved when he discovers the city’s being terrorized by a spate of murders).

 

Journey to Altmortis follows Thaddeus and Lynette Falchester, and a motley crew of companions, as they head deep into the snowy Kuhrisch wilderness to catch up with some old enemies and reclaim stolen family heirlooms. But they find rather more than they bargain for in the ruined, subterranean city of Altmortis…

 

5. What are your post Crown of Blood writing plans?

 

In shockingly productive news, the next Sir Edric story, Sir Edric and the Corpse Lord, is quite close to completion. I just need to finish the beta-reading phase, give it a final proof, and sort the cover, and it’s good to go. My intention is to have it released some time in the second half of 2019.

 

After that, I’ve outlined the next Sir Edric comedy. There are a few ideas bubbling away for more in Crown of Blood world, but after finishing the trilogy I’m going to give myself a little break.

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Crown-Blood-Bloody-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B07PLFC2PB/ 

 

 

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PLFC2PB  

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/928094  

 

 

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Brian Wilkerson is a independent novelist, freelance book reviewer, and writing advice blogger. He studied at the University of Minnesota and came away with bachelor degrees in English Literature and History (Classical Mediterranean Period concentration).

His fantasy series, Journey to Chaos, is currently available on Amazon as an ebook or paperback