BLURB:
The Accidental Turn Series follows Pip, who is pulled against her will into the epic fantasy novel series she’s loved since she was a teenager. However, the world is darker, and far more dangerous than she could have ever predicted, especially when it turns out the hero is a much bigger misogynistic ass than she knew. Pip knows how to circumnavigate the Hero’s Journey and the pitfalls and loopholes of this particular world – but what will happen to her beloved characters outside of the comfort of the fantasy they were written for? And what happens when it’s not the male-power-fantasy hero, but the hero’s overlooked and bullied little brother who proves to be her biggest champion?
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What is it like to finish an epic fantasy series? Mostly, it’s exhausting. Sure, thrilling, triumphant, terrifying, all of those things, but mostly exhausting. I handed in the draft of the forth and final book of The Accidental Turn Series in December of 2017 and I swear, all I’ve done since is sleep. (Or rather, wish I could sleep, as I’ve been editing two other novels, which are being published this year.)
It takes a lot out of a gal to write a trilogy. What a lot of people don’t realize is that writers aren’t only just writing while they’ve got the pen in their hands, or their fingers on their keys. They are thinking about their stories constantly, playing mental jenga with scenes as they do the dishes, and composing the perfect opening line in a boring office meeting, and brainstorming how on Earth they’re going to get themselves out of that corner they wrote a character into while doing the bedtime routine with the kiddos. They are making notes everywhere – scrap paper, receipts, notebooks in purses, on whiteboards and chalk walls, and sticky notes bristling from the edge of their computer screens like a lion’s mane.
And the moment when you hand that final manuscript in, that moment when it stops being your burden is… wonderful. Scary, because you don’t know if your editor, agent, publisher, secondary/beta reader, friends, mom, or postman will love it. But at the same, such a relief. Because you know that you’ve done the best that you can, and that you can stop carrying your little book baby all over the place. It has its own legs now, it can start to learn to walk. It’ll be running, soon enough, and then, if you’re lucky, flying off the shelves.
Authors like to write stories about writing. Stephen King did it. John Scalzi did it. Jodi Picoult did it. Jim C. Hines did it. Cornelia Funke did it. Jane Austen did it. When I started The Untold Tale, I knew it would be about fans, and community, and cosplay, and Mary Sues, and all the things I loved about fanfiction and conventions. But I didn’t realize so much of the books would be about writing, and writers, and the burden/joy of creating a novel.
Through the writer character in this series, I had the unique pleasure to be able to not only talk about writing, but show my audience what it meant to be a creator. I hope you like Elgar Reed, and his creations Kintyre and Forsyth Turn, Sir Bevel Dom, and the world he envisioned. And when you read a book – not just my books, but every book – you have a better understanding of just how much of each of us goes into the work we write.
Yeah, it’s exhausting. But it’s thrilling. It’s wonderfully challenging. It’s amazing. It’s magic.
What is it like to finish an epic fantasy series? Mostly, it’s exhausting. Sure, thrilling, triumphant, terrifying, all of those things, but mostly exhausting. I handed in the draft of the forth and final book of The Accidental Turn Series in December of 2017 and I swear, all I’ve done since is sleep. (Or rather, wish I could sleep, as I’ve been editing two other novels, which are being published this year.)
It takes a lot out of a gal to write a trilogy. What a lot of people don’t realize is that writers aren’t only just writing while they’ve got the pen in their hands, or their fingers on their keys. They are thinking about their stories constantly, playing mental jenga with scenes as they do the dishes, and composing the perfect opening line in a boring office meeting, and brainstorming how on Earth they’re going to get themselves out of that corner they wrote a character into while doing the bedtime routine with the kiddos. They are making notes everywhere – scrap paper, receipts, notebooks in purses, on whiteboards and chalk walls, and sticky notes bristling from the edge of their computer screens like a lion’s mane.
And the moment when you hand that final manuscript in, that moment when it stops being your burden is… wonderful. Scary, because you don’t know if your editor, agent, publisher, secondary/beta reader, friends, mom, or postman will love it. But at the same, such a relief. Because you know that you’ve done the best that you can, and that you can stop carrying your little book baby all over the place. It has its own legs now, it can start to learn to walk. It’ll be running, soon enough, and then, if you’re lucky, flying off the shelves.
Authors like to write stories about writing. Stephen King did it. John Scalzi did it. Jodi Picoult did it. Jim C. Hines did it. Cornelia Funke did it. Jane Austen did it. When I started The Untold Tale, I knew it would be about fans, and community, and cosplay, and Mary Sues, and all the things I loved about fanfiction and conventions. But I didn’t realize so much of the books would be about writing, and writers, and the burden/joy of creating a novel.
Through the writer character in this series, I had the unique pleasure to be able to not only talk about writing, but show my audience what it meant to be a creator. I hope you like Elgar Reed, and his creations Kintyre and Forsyth Turn, Sir Bevel Dom, and the world he envisioned. And when you read a book – not just my books, but every book – you have a better understanding of just how much of each of us goes into the work we write.
BIO:
J.M. (@scifrey) is a SF/F author, fanthropologist, and professional smartypants on AMI Radio’s Live From Studio 5. She’s appeared in podcasts, documentaries, and on television to discuss all things geeky through the lens of academia. Her debut novel TRIPTYCH was nominated for two Lambda Literary Awards, nominated for a 2011 CBC Bookie, was named one of The Advocate’s Best Overlooked Books of 2011, and garnered both a starred review and a place among the Best Books of 2011 from Publishers Weekly. Her sophomore novel, an epic-length feminist meta-fantasy THE UNTOLD TALE (Accidental Turn Series #1), debuted to acclaim in 2015 and was followed by THE FORGOTTEN TALE (Accidental Turn Series #2) December 2016, and THE SILENCED TALE (Accidental Turn Series #3) December 2017. This spring will see the launch of the final book in the series, THE ACCIDENTAL COLLECTION, which will feature all of the short stories and novellas included in the series, as well as a brand-new never before published novella.
www.jmfrey.net | @scifrey
www.jmfrey.net | @scifrey
