The Journey of a Fantasy Author
by D.A. Adams
The journey for The Brotherhood of Dwarves series has been
long and arduous. It began in my
early teens, when my cousin, Sam, introduced me to Dungeons and Dragons. The central protagonist of the series,
the half-elf half-dwarf Roskin, began as a character I played. Fairly soon, my D&D group decided
that I should be the regular Dungeon Master because they enjoyed the elaborate,
detailed quests I would invent, so Roskin morphed into a non-player character
thrown into certain adventures, sometimes to assist and sometimes to
hinder. Back then, he was a much
different persona than the character in the series, mostly because of my growth
and maturity as a person, but his core elements were forged 20 years before the
series began.
During my senior of high school, I discovered through the
school newspaper that I enjoyed writing, so I decided to pursue it as a career
and chose to write fantasy because it had been such a positive influence on my
life. The character Crushaw was
born during my early and quite clumsy attempts to write. I had grand dreams of developing an
epic masterpiece around this escaped slave who becomes a nearly invincible
warrior. At the time, I didn’t
recognize the Robert E. Howard influence, but now I see that all of the Conan
books I had devoured were the genesis for Crushaw. However, again, the character in the series is a much
different one than what I envisioned as a late teen.
Then, I went to college to learn the craft of fiction, and
for three years at the University of Memphis, my instructors drilled into my
head that genre work was for mindless hacks. If I wanted to have a “real” writing career, I had to write
mainstream literary stories. Being
young and naïve, I listened to them and set aside my “childish” dreams of
creating epic fantasy. For the
next several years, I diligently focused on developing my storytelling skills
and wrote exclusively in a literary style, and while I did produce a handful of
short stories that were well-crafted, I struggled to find my voice. When I went to graduate school, that
same notion was reinforced tenfold, and my creative spirit was completely
dampened by the experience. By my
late 20’s, I had grown so frustrated, I gave up on writing as a career because
I simply couldn’t find my voice.
Then, while watching The
Two Towers, an epiphany hit me like a thunderbolt from a blue sky. The professors who had, with their best
intentions, steered me away from all genre work, had also stifled my true
creative desire, which was to write fantasy fiction. Still, at that point, my confidence was so fragile, I didn’t
think I had the talent to write anything.
Instead of writing, I thought about what kind of book I would write if I
ever chose to give it a try. I
mulled the idea and compiled pages and pages of notes. At first, I thought about dusting off
Crushaw and telling his story as I had originally planned, but because I had
changed so much as a person, I found that character too simplistic and
stereotypical. He would have to
change if I were to write about him.
Then, I remembered Roskin and thought about writing some of the D&D
adventures he had endured from my DM days, but again, that character was too
flat.
The moment of inspiration for combining those two characters
into one story was the closest I’ve come to a true religious experience. I saw them both clearly, Crushaw aged
and disgraced, Roskin young and arrogant, and knew that I had found something
that interested me. For nearly a
year, I built the framework for the series, and from the beginning, I saw it as
five books. Still, I had no
intentions of actually writing anything.
At that point, it was merely a hobby, something to occupy my imagination
while I taught composition and business communications at a private
college. The true turning point
for me, my rebirth as a writer, came when I saw my first son’s heartbeat on an
ultrasound. On that grainy screen,
there was this little speck of life, fluttering away at 150 bpm. Watching that, my creative energy,
which had felt extinguished for so long, burgeoned back to life. I knew in my heart I was a writer and
this story I had been constructing as a hobby had to be told, so either that
night or the next, I sat down at my computer and began writing the opening
chapter for The Brotherhood of Dwarves.
To me, the biggest strengths of the series are the
characters’ growth through each book, the intense action scenes, and the
smoothness of the narrative voice.
Also, because I wanted the series to be young adult appropriate, there
is no profanity or sexual content in any of the books. As a father, that was very important to
me, creating a story that my sons could read without me feeling ashamed of the
language or gratuitous sexploitation to draw in readers. Instead, I’ve tried to develop a story
that keeps reader wanting to know what happens next through plot twists and
dramatic tension. So far, the vast
majority of feedback from my readers has been positive, and most have expressed
that each book is better than the one before. Now that Seventh Star Press has reissued the first two
books, I hope the series reaches a broader audience and more people are able to
share in the adventures of these compelling, complex characters.
For more information about D.A. Adams and his series, The Brotherhood of Dwarves head to these links!
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