Yesterday we were joined by J. Scott Savage, author of the soon-to-be-released young adult fantasy novel, “Farworld: Water Keep.” If you missed the first installment, you can click here to catch up.
Scott, I understand “Water Keep” is the first of a series. How many books will follow, and how frequently will they be released?
Seventeen books released one every three years. Just kidding! There are five books. The titles of books two, three, and four are Land Keep, Air Keep, and Fire Keep. I’m still working on the title for book five. They will be released one book every fall.
Right now, it seems like every fantasy novel being released is being compared to Harry Potter. Do you think this will always be the case, and what can fantasy novelists do to escape this blanket comparison?
You can’t escape the comparison right now, any more than a vampire book could escape comparisons with the Twilight series. I think a recent reviewer summed it up best recently when she said that at first she kept looking at the HP comparisons, but as she got lost in the story, she forgot all about them. How many fantasies series start out with an outcast discovering the have a special calling, and going on a quest? But if the characters are engaging enough, the questions is interesting enough, and the world is encompassing enough, you forgot all about comparisons. By the time you reach the end of the book and move on to the rest of the series, the paths have diverged so far that it’s nothing like HP.
But you know if people liked HP, and my book reminds them of that series, even a little, it can’t be all bad.
My favorite part of the book is when Marcus realizes that while they are on
a quest to save Farworld, Kyja is saving both worlds one person at a time.
That was an eye-opening moment for me as I realized that we can indeed change our world by helping those in need around us. Did you set out to write the book with that message, or did it come along as you wrote?
If you want to write a good story, you can’t set out to provide a certain message, but in all good stories the inherent messages bubble to the surface. I hope my story is one of those. Inherent in the plot if the idea that while flashy spells and things get all the glamour, it’s the little things that make the most difference. I loved that the climax of the first book is only possible because of a little thing Kyja chose to do before the book even starts. Goodness rocks!
Yes, it does! Rock on, goodness!
Thanks for hanging out with me again, Scott. It’s been great to talk with you.
We’ll conclude our interview with J. Scott Savage tomorrow. In the meantime, you can learn more about him by clicking here.
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