The truth is what I make it. I could set this world on fire and call it rain.
You want me to pin my entire operation, the entire revolution on some teenaged love story? I can't believe this.
She was happy, yes, in her own way, as best as she knew. But thereβs a difference between a single candle in darkness and a sunrise.
He told me once it was cruel to give hope where none should be.
Life has simply decided to open the floodgates, trying to drown me in a whirlwind of twists and turns.
I donβt like getting involved with other peopleβs business. I donβt have time for it. And yet here I am, listening to myself say four dooming words. βLeave everything to me.
I've been working through Maurice Druon's 'Accursed Kings' series. They come highly recommended from George R. R. Martin, and for good reason.
I start out giving characters archetypes and parameters. Once I know the basics and have a rudimentary model, it's easier to carve unique curves and edges. It's quite easy to guess how a character is going to react if you know their background, and at a certain point, you realize you understand them personally.
Action set pieces are my absolute favorite thing to write. I'm pretty much always in the mood to do them, but music certainly helps the process. I usually brainstorm out the dynamics and choreography of a fight to music beforehand - it gives me the little sparks of imagination when I get to the gaps in my own creativity.
World-building is my favorite pastime, so with me, I'm always about reining myself in. I don't want to lose too much of the mystery by hammering every detail to death. I did fiddle with lots of maps for 'Glass Sword,' as the second installment sees Mare, Cal and company traveling throughout their country, and that's always fun for me.
Maven is very much a haunting presence in 'Glass Sword.' His influence is everywhere, and he dogs Mare and Cal like no other. He's my favorite character to write because he's so complex, but also because he affects everyone else so deeply. He's kind of like the source of gravity. Everyone moves around him and what he's done.
I'm really enamored with the idea of a reformed society, and I've always been fascinated with the Dark Ages as well as the power vacuum that followed the fall of the Roman Empire.
I'm a visual writer, so it's fitting that my first brush with 'Red Queen' was an image. I had the idea of a teenage girl in an arena, a bit like 'Gladiator,' and she's about to be executed. But instead of being killed, she kills her executioner with lightning.
My biggest bits of advice are, write as much as you can, finish what you start, get a thick skin, don't take crap from anyone, but also live your life and have fun. The stereotype of a writer holed up alone all day is really unhelpful. You can't write real people and real emotion if you don't let yourself experience them.
'Glass Sword' has several set piece scenes that I plotted out or visualized before I wrote them, but I always knew they were coming. They anchor bits of the story.
If I am a sword, I am a sword made of glass. And I feel myself shattering.
Many things led to this day, for all of us. A forgotten son, a vengeful mother, a brother with a long shadow, a strange mutation. Together they've written a tragedy.
"I see a world on the edge of a blade. Without balance, it will fall."
Flame and shadow. One cannot exist without the other.
