Ask the Author: F.M. Aden
Answered Questions (2)
F.M. Aden
Hi,
I love this question! So I’ve always had a bit of fascination with history and mythology. Naturally, I had a Greek mythology phase when I was young mainly because it was what we were exposed to in Western media which led me down the rabbit hole of studying other myths and coming across the myth of Erlik Khan and I was obsessed! It was so much fun reading and learning all about his fall from grace. I’d also like to clarify for people getting into the myth that "The Bride of Death" is an original fantasy story influenced by myths rather than a direct retelling (Zerryn and majority of the cast are original characters). I’ve also taken a lot of creative liberties in many elements of the story for both narrative and editorial reasons and because the core story is fictional. For instance, there weren’t many known records of the names of the daughters of Erlik which explains why they have original names. I also fictionalized certain elements such as the titles of the princes i.e. princes of darkness, princes of lust, etc. I also changed some direct translations for instance the direct translation of the phrase “dark princes” which I used in the book to describe his children is “black princes” which I changed for editorial reasons. I also chose to use English words like the “Underworld” rather than “Tamag” which is the term used to describe Hell in Tengrism because I didn’t want to get too deep into the faith narrative.
On the topic of Erlik, I took many creative liberties with his character as well including giving him human traits and changing his physical appearance (in most depictions I came across he is represented as an older man most likely anywhere from 35-40 years old in terms of age range and his most notable feature is his beard) as you know the Erlik from my book has no beard. I wanted him to physically appear younger to feed into his traits of being youthful. I also dramatized his appearance (extra eyes/mouths) to feed into his elements of “otherness” I wanted Zerryn to have a physical reminder anytime she fell for his spell that he was not in fact human.
I mainly wanted Erlik to feel like his own character and I think it’s always challenging writing a flawed immortal character because people kind of expect one to have their life together when they’ve lived a gazillion years, but I wanted him to be imperfect i.e. his little tantrums, his glee at torturing others, his shifting mood. But I also wanted him to not be so stuck in his ways that he wouldn’t grow and evolve and love.
I love this question! So I’ve always had a bit of fascination with history and mythology. Naturally, I had a Greek mythology phase when I was young mainly because it was what we were exposed to in Western media which led me down the rabbit hole of studying other myths and coming across the myth of Erlik Khan and I was obsessed! It was so much fun reading and learning all about his fall from grace. I’d also like to clarify for people getting into the myth that "The Bride of Death" is an original fantasy story influenced by myths rather than a direct retelling (Zerryn and majority of the cast are original characters). I’ve also taken a lot of creative liberties in many elements of the story for both narrative and editorial reasons and because the core story is fictional. For instance, there weren’t many known records of the names of the daughters of Erlik which explains why they have original names. I also fictionalized certain elements such as the titles of the princes i.e. princes of darkness, princes of lust, etc. I also changed some direct translations for instance the direct translation of the phrase “dark princes” which I used in the book to describe his children is “black princes” which I changed for editorial reasons. I also chose to use English words like the “Underworld” rather than “Tamag” which is the term used to describe Hell in Tengrism because I didn’t want to get too deep into the faith narrative.
On the topic of Erlik, I took many creative liberties with his character as well including giving him human traits and changing his physical appearance (in most depictions I came across he is represented as an older man most likely anywhere from 35-40 years old in terms of age range and his most notable feature is his beard) as you know the Erlik from my book has no beard. I wanted him to physically appear younger to feed into his traits of being youthful. I also dramatized his appearance (extra eyes/mouths) to feed into his elements of “otherness” I wanted Zerryn to have a physical reminder anytime she fell for his spell that he was not in fact human.
I mainly wanted Erlik to feel like his own character and I think it’s always challenging writing a flawed immortal character because people kind of expect one to have their life together when they’ve lived a gazillion years, but I wanted him to be imperfect i.e. his little tantrums, his glee at torturing others, his shifting mood. But I also wanted him to not be so stuck in his ways that he wouldn’t grow and evolve and love.
F.M. Aden
Hi, Happy New Year! Great question. So the way my schedule works is usually that the books that I release in 2024 are books that I worked on in 2023. So I am currently working on my 2025 books and not everything is often written within the same year. As for my writing process, I often set targeted word count goals for my first draft. I also set a shorter goal for my first draft so it’s less intimidating. Sometimes it’s easier to write when the target is to reach 50,000 words than 120k words. I also try to write a few words every day. Even if I can’t make the time to sit at my desk I’ll jot a few words in my phone. I think the most important part is consistency and to also take it easy on yourself!
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Mar 19, 2024 04:53AM · flag