Ask the Author: Ren Cummins
Answered Questions (2)
Ren Cummins
First of all, lose the word "aspiring." Do, or do not. There is no aspire.
I had a professor in college – he was literally that teacher who taught Chaucer from memory, and looked a bit like a cross between a nutcracker doll and an older, wiser, Shakespeare. Good man. Tough teacher. He and I spoke one day and he told me the same thing I tell other authors: education will give you the framework, but only life will give you your stories. The stories you want to write – the lessons, the lives, the hearts and minds that make their way into your blank pages – exist out there, waiting to be drawn into your eyes and ears and feasted upon in your soul. Those elements can only exist in a life lived, as they pass through your readied mind. Live your life, learn everything and watch it all. Listen.
And don’t ever stop writing.
I had a professor in college – he was literally that teacher who taught Chaucer from memory, and looked a bit like a cross between a nutcracker doll and an older, wiser, Shakespeare. Good man. Tough teacher. He and I spoke one day and he told me the same thing I tell other authors: education will give you the framework, but only life will give you your stories. The stories you want to write – the lessons, the lives, the hearts and minds that make their way into your blank pages – exist out there, waiting to be drawn into your eyes and ears and feasted upon in your soul. Those elements can only exist in a life lived, as they pass through your readied mind. Live your life, learn everything and watch it all. Listen.
And don’t ever stop writing.
Ren Cummins
"Steel & Sky" was more or less inspired by a challenge issued from an editor I previously worked with. Frustrated by my apparent unwillingness to (permanently) kill off a favored anti-hero character I had in my "Chronicles of Aesirium" series, she demanded that my next book needed to be about killing him off. "He better be dead the next time I read about him," she said.
So, fine. But it's not just gonna be one book. It's going to be a trilogy.
I'm horrible. I know this.
So, fine. But it's not just gonna be one book. It's going to be a trilogy.
I'm horrible. I know this.
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