If you would
like to find out more about the Hunt, please click here - http://vfcscavengerhunt.weebly.com/
Somewhere on
this page is a hidden number. Collect all the numbers from all the authors’
posts, and then add them up. Once you’ve added all the numbers, and if I am
your last author, please head to the official website and click on the ENTER
HERE page to find the entry form. Only entries will the correct number will
qualify to win.
The author I’m pleased to
be hosting for Virtual FantasyCon’s Blog Hop Hunt today is Devorah Fox.
Bio
"What if?" Those two words
all too easily send Devorah Fox spinning into flights of fancy. Best-selling
author of “The Redoubt,” voted one of fifty Self-Published Books Worth Reading two thousand sixteen, and three other books in The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam
epic historical fantasy series. She also co-authored the contemporary thriller,
Naked Came the Sharks, with Jed Donellie. She contributed to Masters of Time: a
SciFi/Fantasy Time Travel Anthology and has several Short Reads to her name,
including Murder by the Book, A Mystery Mini. Born in Brooklyn, New York, she
now lives in The Barefoot Palace on the Texas Gulf Coast with rescued tabby
cats ... and a dragon named Inky. Visit the “Dee-Scoveries” blog at http://devorahfox.com.
METHOD WRITING
Guest blog post by Devorah Fox
Most actors are
familiar with the concept of “method acting,” a technique formulated by Lee
Strasberg. The intent is for actors to achieve better portrayals of the
characters that they play. Based on a system developed by Constantin
Stanislavski, method acting
encourages actors to build a deeper understanding of the role by using their
own experience in order to identify with the character, by calling on their own
emotions or sensations. Since the technique relies on the actor’s personal
experience, method actors have been known to seek out an experience or
condition so as to gain knowledge they might not otherwise have.
The writing version
would be “participatory journalism” as practiced by George Plimpton. He did
things like compete in professional sports, perform in a Western, and play with
an orchestra, all the better to write about them.
You might say I do
participatory fiction writing, playing out a scene to see if it would actually
work the way that I imagine. I did a lot of what I call “method writing” as I
worked on The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam epic fantasy series.
In The
Lost King, Book One, the
medieval King Bewilliam finds himself estranged from his kingdom and supports
himself by 7 honing blades. I researched the subject, but to make sure that
I understood the process, I got a sharpening steel and tried it on my kitchen
implements. My knives are now the sharpest that they’ve ever been.
A lot of the action in Book Two, The King’s Ransom, takes place on a single-mast sailing
ship. I took myself on a field trip to tour the replicas of the Columbus ships.
Granted, they were larger than the Orion on which the king travels. They
were caravels, whereas the Orion is more of a cog, but I was able to
get a feel for a small sailing vessel’s dimensions and what life aboard a such
a boat might have been like. Later in that story, King Bewilliam has to defeat
a portcullis gate from the outside. To make sure that this could be done the
way that I visualized it, I cobbled up a makeshift portcullis from a pulley,
rope, and a section of latticework.
Music plays an important role in Book Three, The King’s Redress, and at a critical point, music
becomes a critical element of a defensive maneuver in the king’s battle with a
rival ruler. I attended an outdoor concert with a measuring tape to confirm
that sound would travel the required distance and get the job done.
Book Four, The
Redoubt, finds King Bewilliam
engaged in a board game very much like checkers. Yes, I got myself a checkers
set and challenged myself to verify that the game would play out the way I
pictured it. Had I picked something more complex, like chess, I’d probably
still be at it.
Why do I go this far in pursuit of verisimilitude? After
all, The Bewildering Adventures of King Bewilliam series is a fantasy; I could
just make stuff up. However, readers have commented that in these stories, the
unreal is comfortably real. I want the king and members of his kingdom to come
across as people that readers could know. To do that, I need to be as well acquainted
with King Bewilliam’s world, as I am with my own. Researching the setting to
the point of acting out parts of the story gives me confidence that I have told
a believable tale.
See for yourself if my “method writing” helped to create a
fantasy world, that somehow feels familiar.
Book
excerpt/s from "The Redoubt," Book Four of The Bewildering Adventures
of King Bewilliam:
Tall
and slender with long mahogany hair, Princess Dale was not unattractive yet
Robin could not help but see Zachary’s face under the powder, cheek and lip
stain. Dale worked hard with the kingdom’s best tailors to craft
flattering gowns, which nevertheless failed to narrow a young man’s broad
shoulders and back or widen narrow hips. Today’s robe of deep purple draped
Dale’s form with all the elegance of a counterpane. Princess Dale’s feminine
appearance put Robin off balance. He felt like leaving the hall and coming in
again to reorient himself but it wouldn’t do any good. Prince Zachary would
still be Princess Dale.
Links of all kinds
Links to me
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/devorahfox
I'm an addict. I'm
addicted to writing. After a day or two of not writing, I get twitchy. I used
to think that I wrote to help people, or at least entertain them. Now I know
that I write to keep from going mad. If I don't get the words out of my brain
and on to paper (even digital paper), my head will explode.
Did you find the number? If you did, then click Devorah Fox’s link – http://devorahfox.com to continue Virtual FantasyCon’s
Blog Hop Hunt.
JOIN MARSHA'S MAILING LIST and receive a free copy of her paranormal romance story RULER OF THE NIGHT.
Read Marsha's COON HOLLOW TALES of paranormal romance and her ENCHANTED BOOKSTORE LEGENDS for adventurous epic fantasy romance. For a FREE ebook download, read her historic fantasy, LE CIRQUE DE MAGIE, available at Amazon and Smashwords.
