Ask the Author: Juho Pohjalainen
Answered Questions (16)
Juho Pohjalainen
Not really. A friend is a big fan and I wanted to see what the fuss is about.
It's been a good enough read so far.
It's been a good enough read so far.
Juho Pohjalainen
Lloyd Alexander never wrote anything that I didn't adore, with The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen on top of that list. Michael Ende's The Neverending Story is another easy choice, as is William Goldman's The Princess Bride. Maybe toss in Peter S. Beagle's The Last Unicorn as well. And then of course the usual suspects of Moorcock and Tolkien, particularly The Hobbit, the old childhood favourite that may very well still be the best book I've ever read.
Juho Pohjalainen
Perhaps I would have gotten my act together and finished my computer studies. Or I might have held on to drawing stuff and managed to become an artist instead. It's very hard to speak hypotethically of one's own life - how far things would have changed if something small had gone differently.
I wonder whether these alternate versions of mine are any happier than me.
I wonder whether these alternate versions of mine are any happier than me.
Juho Pohjalainen
Where are all these bugs coming from?
Juho Pohjalainen
That morning, Stephen woke up and found all his ideas and inspiration gone. They would never return.
Juho Pohjalainen
Barsoom, because however weedy and out-of-shape I might be, there simply being human would make for a considerable advantage. Then I would impress the locals and learn some fighting. It's been a hundred years since the books, so they probably need a new warlord by now.
Juho Pohjalainen
7th level bugbear outcast as of the second book - or, if we're doing one of the new editions, 5th level rogue, 2nd level ranger.
Str 8, Int 16, Wis 13, Dex 17, Con 11, Cha 7, 30 or so hit points
True Neutral
Ivar would be 9th level fighter. You can't rule a kingdom and be lower level than that. It's simply not done!
Str 15, Int 7, Wis 15, Dex 13, Con 18, Cha 18, 90ish hit points
Lawful Good
Rime is 9th level wizard, or in the new edition, warlock.
Str 13, Int 18, Wis 9, Dex 14, Con 15, Cha 15, 20-30 hit points
Chaotic Neutral
Finally, there's Nayeli as a 3rd level thief
Str 11, Int 10, Wis 14, Dex 18, Con 16, Cha 17, 12 hit points
Chaotic Good
On the whole I think I'd prefer statting them on Burning Wheel, but that would take a lot longer and not nearly as many people would care.
Str 8, Int 16, Wis 13, Dex 17, Con 11, Cha 7, 30 or so hit points
True Neutral
Ivar would be 9th level fighter. You can't rule a kingdom and be lower level than that. It's simply not done!
Str 15, Int 7, Wis 15, Dex 13, Con 18, Cha 18, 90ish hit points
Lawful Good
Rime is 9th level wizard, or in the new edition, warlock.
Str 13, Int 18, Wis 9, Dex 14, Con 15, Cha 15, 20-30 hit points
Chaotic Neutral
Finally, there's Nayeli as a 3rd level thief
Str 11, Int 10, Wis 14, Dex 18, Con 16, Cha 17, 12 hit points
Chaotic Good
On the whole I think I'd prefer statting them on Burning Wheel, but that would take a lot longer and not nearly as many people would care.
Juho Pohjalainen
In a roundabout way... yes, I think so.
The majority of my recurring bad dreams involve video games. Specifically, Doom (the first one) and Diablo. I can play them fine, when I'm awake, but there's something about their atmosphere and gameplay that makes them ideal nightmare-fodder: I have many dreams where I play them but they're twisted into something horrifying. And seeing that I've written some things somewhat based on the latter of those games - the adventures of young Aurel in the dark sewers of an ancient city, or ruin-invested caves and tunnels - and in these things I try to emphasize the claustrophobic feel and the fear of the dark, you might say my dreams had something to do with them as well.
That said, now that I think about it there are a couple other one-time nightmares I've had that could make for books. There was this one where robots had infiltrated our society, in human form, but they were given away by the fact that they couldn't resist being humongous dicks that would break everything just to ensure no one has a good time. In this dream I first learned of their presence when one of them insisted on kicking my friend's computer into scrap, and we beat into him in revenge and found out that he was made out of metal and wires. Years later, a member of the Resistance movement carried a small puppy with him wherever he went, because he knew no robot could resist messing with it, giving them away. The dream ended when I was trying to escape the insane asylum (run by secret robots, of course) and I was given the syringe to put me to sleep or to just kill me... and just as I fell asleep, I woke up for real. I felt pretty weird about it for much of the next day.
Or how about the one where Donald Trump and some other less-defined president started out a nuclear war, and for some reason both of them ended up in my home and I had to look after them, and Trump just wouldn't stay down, and would insist on trying to run away or babbling politics no matter what I did, even when I swatted him with a broomstick, even when one of his eyeballs was hanging out and his face was tearing off... okay, maybe not this one.
Or the one where I was a god and playing ball with a planet, only to realize upon its shattering that it was Earth, so I just kind of sheepishly put it back together and walked away whistling and hoping no one saw me?
Or the one where I foiled a terror attack and then ran away, not because I feared the publicity, but because I wasn't wearing pants?
That's all I can remember. Feel free to, uh, write about some of them if they inspire you. I don't think I'll find the time.
The majority of my recurring bad dreams involve video games. Specifically, Doom (the first one) and Diablo. I can play them fine, when I'm awake, but there's something about their atmosphere and gameplay that makes them ideal nightmare-fodder: I have many dreams where I play them but they're twisted into something horrifying. And seeing that I've written some things somewhat based on the latter of those games - the adventures of young Aurel in the dark sewers of an ancient city, or ruin-invested caves and tunnels - and in these things I try to emphasize the claustrophobic feel and the fear of the dark, you might say my dreams had something to do with them as well.
That said, now that I think about it there are a couple other one-time nightmares I've had that could make for books. There was this one where robots had infiltrated our society, in human form, but they were given away by the fact that they couldn't resist being humongous dicks that would break everything just to ensure no one has a good time. In this dream I first learned of their presence when one of them insisted on kicking my friend's computer into scrap, and we beat into him in revenge and found out that he was made out of metal and wires. Years later, a member of the Resistance movement carried a small puppy with him wherever he went, because he knew no robot could resist messing with it, giving them away. The dream ended when I was trying to escape the insane asylum (run by secret robots, of course) and I was given the syringe to put me to sleep or to just kill me... and just as I fell asleep, I woke up for real. I felt pretty weird about it for much of the next day.
Or how about the one where Donald Trump and some other less-defined president started out a nuclear war, and for some reason both of them ended up in my home and I had to look after them, and Trump just wouldn't stay down, and would insist on trying to run away or babbling politics no matter what I did, even when I swatted him with a broomstick, even when one of his eyeballs was hanging out and his face was tearing off... okay, maybe not this one.
Or the one where I was a god and playing ball with a planet, only to realize upon its shattering that it was Earth, so I just kind of sheepishly put it back together and walked away whistling and hoping no one saw me?
Or the one where I foiled a terror attack and then ran away, not because I feared the publicity, but because I wasn't wearing pants?
That's all I can remember. Feel free to, uh, write about some of them if they inspire you. I don't think I'll find the time.
Juho Pohjalainen
I have a soft spot for Aurel, on account of being many years - almost a full decade - older than anyone else in the cast, and having a fair bit of backstory and other traits that did not really come up in the bit part he played in the actually published work. But he's also one of those badass swordsmen, charming and muscular, flawless in almost every way, that fantasy genre is rather full of as it is, so I don't think I'll ever write anything actually starring him. He mostly works as a contrast, an unreachable ideal, to his far more flawed and underdog-ish successor: I'm glad I can continue keeping him around in that function if nothing else.
Juho Pohjalainen
I listen to music virtually all the time, across a number of genres and styles that I can't really even name - my interest in music itself isn't really very deep, apart from just listening to whatever sounds good. I don't like silence.
Whenever possible, I try to listen to similar stuff as the story I'm writing at the time, to get the right kind of inspiration and to keep me in the correct sort of mood. The Straggler's Mask, for instance, has a lot of Blind Guardian running behind the scenes. Return To The Tribe, by Edguy, would be about as close to a theme song as possible for Peal if only he weren't so meek.
Other times it doesn't work out that well. Lately I've had my mind for a lot of synthwave (and a bunch of related things that I can't name), and this brings very little of value or mood in relation to a steampunk pirate story I've been writing. At best, it just keeps me in a good creative mood in general, rather than giving me any particular ideas.
On the other hand, I've got some Bal-Sagoth ready for something a little darker for NaNoWriMo. We'll see if that works out better.
Whenever possible, I try to listen to similar stuff as the story I'm writing at the time, to get the right kind of inspiration and to keep me in the correct sort of mood. The Straggler's Mask, for instance, has a lot of Blind Guardian running behind the scenes. Return To The Tribe, by Edguy, would be about as close to a theme song as possible for Peal if only he weren't so meek.
Other times it doesn't work out that well. Lately I've had my mind for a lot of synthwave (and a bunch of related things that I can't name), and this brings very little of value or mood in relation to a steampunk pirate story I've been writing. At best, it just keeps me in a good creative mood in general, rather than giving me any particular ideas.
On the other hand, I've got some Bal-Sagoth ready for something a little darker for NaNoWriMo. We'll see if that works out better.
Juho Pohjalainen
I stop working with this particular thing and skip ahead to another part in the story that I've been itching to put to paper. At the time of this writing, I've recently skipped about ten chapters, give or take.
More often than not, for me it's the opposite feeling: I run out of story to write but still feel like writing, and then I've got a few days when I have no idea what to do with the sudden free time I've gotten.
More often than not, for me it's the opposite feeling: I run out of story to write but still feel like writing, and then I've got a few days when I have no idea what to do with the sudden free time I've gotten.
Juho Pohjalainen
Just writing comes naturally, and its ups and downs, highs and lows, have long since become routine. I think the best part would be when people read something and like it, give me good constructive feedback that's ultimately positive but still tells me of some things to look out for.
That's when I know that the wisps of my imagination have begun to alter the universe around them, however minutely.
That's when I know that the wisps of my imagination have begun to alter the universe around them, however minutely.
Juho Pohjalainen
This answer contains spoilers…
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Juho Pohjalainen
The Vagrant's Wings is the next project to come out, probably, being currently in the editing phase: I've worked on it for about a year. It's about a young girl exploring a spooky castle and its grounds, making friends, expanding her view of the world, and ending up with challenges suitable for far older ages than hers.
Pirates of the Demure Sea is what I've been writing the last few weeks, maybe about one third through the first draft at the moment. It sees Peal return to a new adventure - he settles down in a small port town for a while, befriends its people, and through that gets embroiled in its own problems and worries. The stakes are far lower than in The Straggler's Mask, but it's probably going to touch Peal personally a lot more.
Other drafts I worked on but ended up shelving for now... in Shadowland, young squire Voclain follows his master to a deep dark forest, in search of an older knight that disappeared there; in Chaos Star, the sorceress Rime is enlisted to bring down an evil empire; Stragglers in the Mires of Time introduces several people in the past and the future who carry the legacy of the Palarum, and forces them to work together across the tides of time-space-continuum; in Ivar Stormling of Skar, the new high king of Carolea finds himself stranded far away from home, and faces whole new challenges in trying to return to his kingdom once more.
I think that's about it. I hope I can throw them out for you to read in time. You might even like some.
Pirates of the Demure Sea is what I've been writing the last few weeks, maybe about one third through the first draft at the moment. It sees Peal return to a new adventure - he settles down in a small port town for a while, befriends its people, and through that gets embroiled in its own problems and worries. The stakes are far lower than in The Straggler's Mask, but it's probably going to touch Peal personally a lot more.
Other drafts I worked on but ended up shelving for now... in Shadowland, young squire Voclain follows his master to a deep dark forest, in search of an older knight that disappeared there; in Chaos Star, the sorceress Rime is enlisted to bring down an evil empire; Stragglers in the Mires of Time introduces several people in the past and the future who carry the legacy of the Palarum, and forces them to work together across the tides of time-space-continuum; in Ivar Stormling of Skar, the new high king of Carolea finds himself stranded far away from home, and faces whole new challenges in trying to return to his kingdom once more.
I think that's about it. I hope I can throw them out for you to read in time. You might even like some.
Juho Pohjalainen
I get stuff in my head that I want to get out.
Juho Pohjalainen
It doesn't really work that way for me. An idea doesn't just suddenly pop up into my head, ready to be written - at least not usually. They tend to start out as tiny, almost unnoticeable wisps of thought and imagination, so small that it'd be impossible for me to tell where and how they started, then gradually build up mass and presence as I end up thinking about them more and more.
Most of them take a lot from Dungeons & Dragons, though.
Most of them take a lot from Dungeons & Dragons, though.
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