Ask the Author: Sable Aradia

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Sable Aradia Well, I'm the one who made up the High Fantasy Reading Challenge at WorldsWithoutEnd.com, so I guess I'd better finish that! I intend to read a vintage collection, Flashing Swords #4, edited by Lin Carter; A Game of Thrones and A Storm of Swords by G.R.R.M. (finally getting there with the show in its last two seasons,) A Wizard of Earthsea by LeGuin (which I think I read years ago but don't remember well,) and a Robin Hobb fantasy Fool's Errand. I also just started Station Eleven and I intend to read a few books by my compatriot authors in the Chasing Fireflies anthology we're releasing on July 1; plus, I'll have to read the rest of the anthology of course. And I also intend to do Stapledon's Star Maker, Moorcock's Behold the Man, Silverberg's The Book of Skulls, and I'm going to re-read a couple of H.G. Wells classics for my SF Masterworks group and reading challenge (which you can find on Goodreads). So I guess that's quite a lot! We'll see what I actually get done this summer, but I am capable of reading that many books, as long as the writing I have scheduled happens easily and quickly!
Sable Aradia I find my best bet is to change my location. I go to a coffee shop, or the library, or outside. If that fails, I make notes about the plot and where I'm going with it, or my next series of ideas, and that usually sparks the juices. Sometimes I listen to appropriate music (like sea shanties when I'm writing about sailing.) When I write non-fiction, I've usually got a layout that I follow, so if I'm not having any luck with one idea, I can write another one and weave them together later!
Sable Aradia Getting a book published, unless you're self-publishing, takes luck. There's no way that it doesn't. So keep submitting your work. It's like the lottery; you can't win if you don't play.

More than that, keep writing. Start a blog. Set deadlines and word goals and make writing a habit. With practice you get better, just like with any other skill, and eventually if you keep doing it in pieces, you can't help but produce something. The best thing I ever did for myself was join National Novel Writing Month; it helped me develop the discipline I needed to complete my work and meet a deadline. How do you eat the elephant? One bite at a time.
Sable Aradia On the subject of Witchcraft, I am working on a book on intoxicants (from crystal elixirs to entheogens), a project on love and sex and magick in Paganism that may well turn out to be a couple of books (with my partner Lord Redleaf) and a short book on tea-leaf reading that is up-to-date.

Otherwise, I'm still plugging away at the Toy Soldier Saga. I'm nearing the end of the second book.
Sable Aradia There's two different answers for this one. It depends on whether I'm writing fiction or non-fiction.

Since my fiction writing is usually in speculative fiction, I am often inspired by a question; "What would happen if . . . ?" Or, I come up with an interesting character in a strange setting and then imagine how that person would react in the given situation. I confess, a lot of those sorts of tales come from role-playing games!

For non-fiction, I usually am inspired when fascination with a subject (one might say "obsession") leads me to gaps in the research. When I can't find a book on the matter that interests me, I start researching and reading articles, and practicing and experimenting, and I try to write one!

So I guess the real answer is, "I am inspired when I find the portion of the map that says 'Here be dragons.'"
Sable Aradia I wrote the book I wanted to read. There's a lot of basic "how-tos" out there, and a lot of books and websites on Wiccan thealogy. I wanted a book that could take you from the basics to some really advanced magickal practice, breaking things down into the methods that make them work. Gardner's Eightfold Way gave me the framework I needed to create that.
Sable Aradia
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