The Adelaide Advertiser, the leading newspaper in South Australia, reviewed The Wounded Guardian last Saturday.
While the reviewer didn't like the villains, he did enjoy the story - giving it four out of five stars!
Here's the review, for those unable to get South Australia's finest!
BTW: I'll be talking more about his point about Gello and Onzalez later.
Martil is a war hero – or a war
criminal, depending on your
perspective. But now all he wants
is to settle down quietly. That’s
not going to happen, as fi rst-time
Australian author Duncan Lay gives
his Dragon Sword Histories series
an enticing start. Martil made a
decision which won a war against
aggressive neighbour Berellia, but
blackened his name and put a price
on his head. His plan to leave fame
and notoriety behind is complicated
when he is burdened with fi rst a
feisty young girl, then a magical
sword and an endangered queen.
Martil is an enthralling character
but, having given us a complicated
hero, Lay stumbles slightly with his
villains, who are totally, ridiculously
evil. Ignore that and The Wounded
Guardian rolls along beautifully.
Scott Moore ****
My name is Duncan Lay and I'm the author of the Australian best-selling fantasy trilogies, The Dragon Sword Histories and the Empire Of Bones. I am now with Momentum Books (Pan Macmillan) and my new series, The Last Quarrel is out in eBook and print. Book 2, The Bloody Quarrel, is coming out in December 2015/Jan 2016 in eBook and will be in print later in 2016. Head over to my website, www.duncanlay.com for more!
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Sunday, August 2, 2009
The Risen Queen back page
Perhaps not the absolute final back page blurb for The Risen Queen - but pretty close!
Martil and his Rallorans are trying to gain control of the north for Queen Merren but winning the hearts of the people is proving impossible when the bards have painted them as murderous barbarians.
King Gello the usurper is planning to lead a massive army to crush the budding rebellion but, even if a way can be found to defeat him, the Fearpriests stand ready to come to his aid...
Karia is trying to persuade Martil that she has all the answers, while Merren is considering desperate solutions to the problems facing her and Norstalos.
Perhaps the vilified and despised primitive race of men to the north, that the Norstalines call ''goblins'' might be the answer.
But on Dragonara Isle, the dragons have their own plans for Martil and particularly for the Dragon Sword...
Martil and his Rallorans are trying to gain control of the north for Queen Merren but winning the hearts of the people is proving impossible when the bards have painted them as murderous barbarians.
King Gello the usurper is planning to lead a massive army to crush the budding rebellion but, even if a way can be found to defeat him, the Fearpriests stand ready to come to his aid...
Karia is trying to persuade Martil that she has all the answers, while Merren is considering desperate solutions to the problems facing her and Norstalos.
Perhaps the vilified and despised primitive race of men to the north, that the Norstalines call ''goblins'' might be the answer.
But on Dragonara Isle, the dragons have their own plans for Martil and particularly for the Dragon Sword...
Thursday, July 23, 2009
mX picture story
The free commuter newspaper, mX, ran the following story on me on Thursday July 23:
Some people use the time to daydream, others read and some sleep.
But one CityRail passenger used his time commuting to write a book. Three books, to be precise.
The two-hour commute each way from Gosford to Central station became the time Duncan Lay used to write his fantasy trilogy.
The first book, The Wounded Guardian, has been published by HarperCollins.
``Writing a book is the perfect way to use a long train trip,'' he said.``You don't have other distractions and you can just get stuck into the writing.``I was able to feel like my trip was not wasted.''
The three books have taken Lay about five years to write.``The amount I would write varied on the inspiration that was striking me on the day, but I average about 10,000 words a week while writing a first draft.''
The biggest trouble he had writing on the train was the occasional tussle over the armrest.
``You need a little bit of elbow room when writing and sometimes there is a spot of elbow fencing over how much room everyone wants,'' he said.
Some people use the time to daydream, others read and some sleep.
But one CityRail passenger used his time commuting to write a book. Three books, to be precise.
The two-hour commute each way from Gosford to Central station became the time Duncan Lay used to write his fantasy trilogy.
The first book, The Wounded Guardian, has been published by HarperCollins.
``Writing a book is the perfect way to use a long train trip,'' he said.``You don't have other distractions and you can just get stuck into the writing.``I was able to feel like my trip was not wasted.''
The three books have taken Lay about five years to write.``The amount I would write varied on the inspiration that was striking me on the day, but I average about 10,000 words a week while writing a first draft.''
The biggest trouble he had writing on the train was the occasional tussle over the armrest.
``You need a little bit of elbow room when writing and sometimes there is a spot of elbow fencing over how much room everyone wants,'' he said.
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
The Sunday Telegraph article
As I work for The Sunday Telegraph, our books writer, Lucy Clark, as well as editor Neil Breen, very kindly arranged for the following article to appear on July 5:
Not many commuters would claim hundreds of hours spent on CityRail trains as a wonderful gift. Yet that is exactly how The Sunday Telegraph journalist and Central Coast commuter Duncan Lay regards his time spent on the train from Gosford.
While those around him read or stared out windows, Lay transported himself into the fantasy world of a country called Norstalos, with characters and a story that won him a three-book deal with HarperCollins.
The first of the books, The Wounded Guardian (Voyager, $20.99) is on bookshelves this week.
Here Lay reveals exactly how he did it:``Writers normally like somewhere peaceful to come up with their first book -- a stereotypical garret or a villa in Tuscany, perhaps.``I used the 7.33am from Gosford to Sydney Central.``My publisher tells me I'm the only author to have put together three books on the train, and certainly nobody I've spoken to can remember another author doing the same -- or at least admitting to it.
``In some ways it was the perfect place to write. You can't go anywhere and you've seen the view hundreds of times before, so there's no excuse not to knuckle down and work.''
In the same vein as Raymond E. Feist and David Eddings, The Wounded Guardian will appeal to die-hard fantasy fans who enjoy being transported into mystical lands where lives are won and lost by magical powers and epic wars.
The story centres around wounded warrior, Martil, who has been branded ``the Butcher of Belic'' and must leave his homeland.
Captured by bandits he's tricked into taking into his care Karia, an orphan who is trying to reach the home of her uncle.But when Martil and Karia arrive the village has been destroyed and the people are gone. The only remaining resident is an ex-bandit who has in his possession a magical relic belonging to the rulers of Norstalos -- the Dragon Sword.
Suddenly this unlikely and reluctant duo find themselves in the middle of a dramatic struggle as Norstalos's good queen fights to keep her crown from her cousin Duke Gello and his dark forces.
At the heart of Lay's first novel lies a lesson about the search for family, and how, by seeing life through the eyes of children, yours can change forever.
Not many commuters would claim hundreds of hours spent on CityRail trains as a wonderful gift. Yet that is exactly how The Sunday Telegraph journalist and Central Coast commuter Duncan Lay regards his time spent on the train from Gosford.
While those around him read or stared out windows, Lay transported himself into the fantasy world of a country called Norstalos, with characters and a story that won him a three-book deal with HarperCollins.
The first of the books, The Wounded Guardian (Voyager, $20.99) is on bookshelves this week.
Here Lay reveals exactly how he did it:``Writers normally like somewhere peaceful to come up with their first book -- a stereotypical garret or a villa in Tuscany, perhaps.``I used the 7.33am from Gosford to Sydney Central.``My publisher tells me I'm the only author to have put together three books on the train, and certainly nobody I've spoken to can remember another author doing the same -- or at least admitting to it.
``In some ways it was the perfect place to write. You can't go anywhere and you've seen the view hundreds of times before, so there's no excuse not to knuckle down and work.''
In the same vein as Raymond E. Feist and David Eddings, The Wounded Guardian will appeal to die-hard fantasy fans who enjoy being transported into mystical lands where lives are won and lost by magical powers and epic wars.
The story centres around wounded warrior, Martil, who has been branded ``the Butcher of Belic'' and must leave his homeland.
Captured by bandits he's tricked into taking into his care Karia, an orphan who is trying to reach the home of her uncle.But when Martil and Karia arrive the village has been destroyed and the people are gone. The only remaining resident is an ex-bandit who has in his possession a magical relic belonging to the rulers of Norstalos -- the Dragon Sword.
Suddenly this unlikely and reluctant duo find themselves in the middle of a dramatic struggle as Norstalos's good queen fights to keep her crown from her cousin Duke Gello and his dark forces.
At the heart of Lay's first novel lies a lesson about the search for family, and how, by seeing life through the eyes of children, yours can change forever.
The Daily Telegraph article
The Daily Telegraph featured the following article on me, published Wednesday July 22:
IT WAS a coffee with one of the world's top fantasy writers that fired Duncan Lay's creative spirit.
The Sydney writer was editing a local paper in 2002 and Raymond E. Feist, author of novels such as the Conclave Of Shadows was touring the area. Lay grabbed him for an interview.
`We started talking about writing and I'd been, like most journos, a frustrated writer,'' Lay says.
`We talked about how you work out your plots and he talked about how his characters take control of the story. He has the bare bones of the story and knows they start at A and finish at Z but how they get there is up to the characters themselves.''
Lay's self-diagnosed problem was that his characters were a bit flat. But, two kids and a few years down the track, Lay felt a little older and wiser and more confident after the chat with Feist. So he had another crack.
He now has a three-book deal with HarperCollins with The Wounded Guardian, the first instalment in Lay's The Dragon Sword Histories, now fresh on bookshop shelves.
And character was the key to his success.
The plot centres on a war hero, Martil, who is persuaded to take a child to her uncle. He is soon caught in tumultuous events and in possession of a magic sword, fighting for his life amid the battle for a kingdom.``I really wanted this idea of an embittered warrior, almost like a Vietnam vet, someone who had seen too much,'' Lay says.
For want of a better description, this is realist fantasy (no elves, goblins or fairies), led by a believable cast of characters.``One of the things I've tried to do is not simply to have this plucky group of heroes on an expedition. They're all unique characters and quite often they don't get along.''
As for Lay's own journey, well he dropped a gracious email to Feist via his management and got a quick reply, including a disclaimer.``Don't go blaming me, mate, if you got the storytelling bug,'' Feist wrote. ``And if you somehow get rich and famous doing this, it's not my fault! Seriously, congratulations.''
This was written by Chris Hook, editor of T Weekend and a former workmate from Cumberland Newspapers. Needless to say, I think he's a great writer!
IT WAS a coffee with one of the world's top fantasy writers that fired Duncan Lay's creative spirit.
The Sydney writer was editing a local paper in 2002 and Raymond E. Feist, author of novels such as the Conclave Of Shadows was touring the area. Lay grabbed him for an interview.
`We started talking about writing and I'd been, like most journos, a frustrated writer,'' Lay says.
`We talked about how you work out your plots and he talked about how his characters take control of the story. He has the bare bones of the story and knows they start at A and finish at Z but how they get there is up to the characters themselves.''
Lay's self-diagnosed problem was that his characters were a bit flat. But, two kids and a few years down the track, Lay felt a little older and wiser and more confident after the chat with Feist. So he had another crack.
He now has a three-book deal with HarperCollins with The Wounded Guardian, the first instalment in Lay's The Dragon Sword Histories, now fresh on bookshop shelves.
And character was the key to his success.
The plot centres on a war hero, Martil, who is persuaded to take a child to her uncle. He is soon caught in tumultuous events and in possession of a magic sword, fighting for his life amid the battle for a kingdom.``I really wanted this idea of an embittered warrior, almost like a Vietnam vet, someone who had seen too much,'' Lay says.
For want of a better description, this is realist fantasy (no elves, goblins or fairies), led by a believable cast of characters.``One of the things I've tried to do is not simply to have this plucky group of heroes on an expedition. They're all unique characters and quite often they don't get along.''
As for Lay's own journey, well he dropped a gracious email to Feist via his management and got a quick reply, including a disclaimer.``Don't go blaming me, mate, if you got the storytelling bug,'' Feist wrote. ``And if you somehow get rich and famous doing this, it's not my fault! Seriously, congratulations.''
This was written by Chris Hook, editor of T Weekend and a former workmate from Cumberland Newspapers. Needless to say, I think he's a great writer!
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Book Launch
You only ever get one book launch for your first book - and many people will never even get that chance.
So June 28 will live in my memory as a golden day, the day when I launched The Wounded Guardian.
I say ''I'' but it would never have happened without the help and support of friends and family. The Global Financial Crisis means HarperCollins is unable to help out with book launches (especially for nobodies) but, seeing as they are the ones publishing my books, I reckon they've done more than enough right there! I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am to Stephanie Smith and the Voyager team!
But I digress - friends and family really stepped in and worked unbelievably hard - I owe them all a great debt of thanks.
Kincumba Mountain was the perfect place for the launch - an atmospheric building, lots of grass for all the kids to run wild and toilets that were positively medieval!
The road up to the top is long and, for those who travelled from Sydney or even further afield, it must have felt almost as long as the trip to Mount Doom! I'm sure I saw a couple of hobbits wandering dazedly around the bush tracks...
I'd never done anything like this before, and found myself operating on a combination of adrenalin and nervous energy. Only the knowledge of how bad the toilets were kept me from too many nervous trips to the bathroom. That, and not really eating or drinking anything the whole day because I wanted to talk to everyone there!
Sadly, such a thing was impossible - there were more than 100 people there, from as far away as Brisbane and Melbourne. To all those who made it there, I thank you - and if I didn't get around to talking to you, I am sorry!
The whole thing was somewhat dream-like ... to see Dymocks Erina staff piling up my book (and then see people buy it) was surreal. To sign it for people was even crazier! This was the sort of thing I had imagined and dreamed about for years ... to see it happen was an incredible experience.
I can honestly say that it is only topped by seeing my children born and my marriage day.
We had some incredible Celtic music care of two young musicians, Elissa and Naomi, as well as half a dozen medieval warriors thanks to Mahkra and his mates. The music was great and the kids all loved the chance to get a photograph holding a bow and arrow or a sword!
But the main thing was the book, and to see so many people buying not just a copy for themselves but for a friend was, simply, humbling.
Signing books for friends (and family) I have known for years or even decades was a surreal experience. I still pinch myself to imagine it was real!
But now the book is out there.
It has been launched and now it will be judged by the people who were at the launch, and hopefully a few others!
But wherever it goes, whatever it does, that launch day will be a high point in my life.
So June 28 will live in my memory as a golden day, the day when I launched The Wounded Guardian.
I say ''I'' but it would never have happened without the help and support of friends and family. The Global Financial Crisis means HarperCollins is unable to help out with book launches (especially for nobodies) but, seeing as they are the ones publishing my books, I reckon they've done more than enough right there! I can't even begin to tell you how grateful I am to Stephanie Smith and the Voyager team!
But I digress - friends and family really stepped in and worked unbelievably hard - I owe them all a great debt of thanks.
Kincumba Mountain was the perfect place for the launch - an atmospheric building, lots of grass for all the kids to run wild and toilets that were positively medieval!
The road up to the top is long and, for those who travelled from Sydney or even further afield, it must have felt almost as long as the trip to Mount Doom! I'm sure I saw a couple of hobbits wandering dazedly around the bush tracks...
I'd never done anything like this before, and found myself operating on a combination of adrenalin and nervous energy. Only the knowledge of how bad the toilets were kept me from too many nervous trips to the bathroom. That, and not really eating or drinking anything the whole day because I wanted to talk to everyone there!
Sadly, such a thing was impossible - there were more than 100 people there, from as far away as Brisbane and Melbourne. To all those who made it there, I thank you - and if I didn't get around to talking to you, I am sorry!
The whole thing was somewhat dream-like ... to see Dymocks Erina staff piling up my book (and then see people buy it) was surreal. To sign it for people was even crazier! This was the sort of thing I had imagined and dreamed about for years ... to see it happen was an incredible experience.
I can honestly say that it is only topped by seeing my children born and my marriage day.
We had some incredible Celtic music care of two young musicians, Elissa and Naomi, as well as half a dozen medieval warriors thanks to Mahkra and his mates. The music was great and the kids all loved the chance to get a photograph holding a bow and arrow or a sword!
But the main thing was the book, and to see so many people buying not just a copy for themselves but for a friend was, simply, humbling.
Signing books for friends (and family) I have known for years or even decades was a surreal experience. I still pinch myself to imagine it was real!
But now the book is out there.
It has been launched and now it will be judged by the people who were at the launch, and hopefully a few others!
But wherever it goes, whatever it does, that launch day will be a high point in my life.
writing checklist
Every writer has their own style, their own habits. What works for one may not work for the other. But, having said that, here's what I have learned about writing - perhaps it may be of some use.
1) Imagine you are writing it out longhand. Don't fiddle around, don't get bogged down. Imagine instead that you cannot go back and change anything until you have finished, so that you press ahead and have a first draft of your work. Once you have a first draft, you have a much better foundation to work from and will have learned more about your story and your characters, which you can use to add depth and complexity.
2) Let your characters do the driving. Get them fixed in your head so that they push the action along. Don't make them do things or make choices you realise they wouldn't really make, just because you plotted it in a Chapter Plan three months ago. If you want them to turn right but you just know they would turn left, then turn left and explore where that goes.
3) Rewrite, rewrite and then rewrite some more. Rewrite until you are absolutely sick of it - and then do it again. Would-be writers send their work off to agents waaaay too early (I know, I did!) You need to put your draft away in a drawer for a week, or even a month, then come back and start ironing out the flaws.
4) Find some friends you can trust to point out the flaws. There will be flaws, trust me on this. The trick is finding someone who can tell you - this character isn't working, this plot point isn't up to scratch. Perhaps publish a chapter or two on the HarperVoyager site ... they have a section for writers to post work, where it can get feedback. Having your flaws exposed is painful. Having an agent reject your work at the last moment because you didn't spot those flaws is agony.
5) Explore the concept of external and internal action. Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) tells this best. Get the two-disc edition of Serenity and watch him talk to a bunch of Aussies at Fox Studios about this. Boiled down, he says that external action is your plot (ie, goblins attack). That, by itself, is fairly ho-hum. What you need is to couple it with internal action (how it affects each character and the characters' relationship with each other). So goblins attack, which makes Fred mad, because he's been warning about this for years. George, who's been boasting about how great a warrior he is, discovers he's terrified. The two, who had been friends, are now arguing - all because of a few goblins. Their relationship has been fundamentally altered and will affect the rest of the book, all because of a simple goblin attack.
6) Finally, just begin writing. Even if you don't hit the jackpot with your first effort, you will have learned something. Every failed attempt I had taught me how to be a better writer and, ultimately, led me to be published.
Good luck!
1) Imagine you are writing it out longhand. Don't fiddle around, don't get bogged down. Imagine instead that you cannot go back and change anything until you have finished, so that you press ahead and have a first draft of your work. Once you have a first draft, you have a much better foundation to work from and will have learned more about your story and your characters, which you can use to add depth and complexity.
2) Let your characters do the driving. Get them fixed in your head so that they push the action along. Don't make them do things or make choices you realise they wouldn't really make, just because you plotted it in a Chapter Plan three months ago. If you want them to turn right but you just know they would turn left, then turn left and explore where that goes.
3) Rewrite, rewrite and then rewrite some more. Rewrite until you are absolutely sick of it - and then do it again. Would-be writers send their work off to agents waaaay too early (I know, I did!) You need to put your draft away in a drawer for a week, or even a month, then come back and start ironing out the flaws.
4) Find some friends you can trust to point out the flaws. There will be flaws, trust me on this. The trick is finding someone who can tell you - this character isn't working, this plot point isn't up to scratch. Perhaps publish a chapter or two on the HarperVoyager site ... they have a section for writers to post work, where it can get feedback. Having your flaws exposed is painful. Having an agent reject your work at the last moment because you didn't spot those flaws is agony.
5) Explore the concept of external and internal action. Joss Whedon (Buffy, Firefly) tells this best. Get the two-disc edition of Serenity and watch him talk to a bunch of Aussies at Fox Studios about this. Boiled down, he says that external action is your plot (ie, goblins attack). That, by itself, is fairly ho-hum. What you need is to couple it with internal action (how it affects each character and the characters' relationship with each other). So goblins attack, which makes Fred mad, because he's been warning about this for years. George, who's been boasting about how great a warrior he is, discovers he's terrified. The two, who had been friends, are now arguing - all because of a few goblins. Their relationship has been fundamentally altered and will affect the rest of the book, all because of a simple goblin attack.
6) Finally, just begin writing. Even if you don't hit the jackpot with your first effort, you will have learned something. Every failed attempt I had taught me how to be a better writer and, ultimately, led me to be published.
Good luck!
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