What are your top 10 favorite
books/authors?
Joseph Campell - Hero with a
Thousand Faces.
|| - Pathways to Bliss
C G Jung - the Archetypes of the
Collective Unconscious
|| - The Portable Jung
John Milton - Paradise Lost.
Most of the ‘Gotrek and Felix’
novels, published by Black Library.
My KJV Bible
Peter Hitchens - The Abolition of
Britain
Edmund Burke - A vindication of
Natural Society
Dante Alighieri - The Divine
Comedy
What book do you think everyone
should read?
Joseph Campell’s ‘Hero with a
Thousand Faces’; it tells you pretty much everything you need to know about
writing your own mythic adventure story.
Do the characters all come to you
at the same time or do some of them come to you as you write?
Some come as I write, I certainly
develop them all much more as the book progresses.
Do you see writing as a career?
At the moment, I see writing as a
vocation. If I make any money from a book, I consider it a trade as well.
Do you read yourself and if so
what is your favorite genre?
I like to read philosophy,
politics, fantasy/myth and the occasional biography.
Do you prefer to write in silence
or with noise? Why?
Silence, or with some great movie
music blaring out, like Jerry Goldsmith or Alan Silvestri. It depends what mood
I’m in.
If you could have been the author
of any book ever written, which book would you choose?
My own, of course!
Pen or type writer or computer?
I wrote my first two books by
hand first, then typed them. Now, I have the nerve to hit the keys from the
beginning.
What made you want to become an
author and do you feel it was the right decision?
I envisaged a story I felt
compelled to write, so in that respect, my motivations were correct.
A day in the life of the author?
Sit at a keyboard and force
yourself to write, make a cup of tea/coffee, stare at the computer, then
finally, God willing, you hit the imagination vein and the thing almost writes
itself....sometimes.
Advice they would give new
authors?
Just do it!
Describe your writing style.
Concise, to the point, rolling,
visual and sometimes I hit something sublime; that’s the best thing I feel I
can give to my readers.
What makes a good story?
Something that transcends the
everyday.
What is your writing process? For
instance do you do an outline first? Do you do the chapters first? What are
common traps for aspiring writers?
I outline the story with a kind
of lengthy synopsis, then get on with it.
Some writers get too lost in the
details and waffle too much. They need to keep their eye on the story and the
emotional needs of their characters.
What is your writing Kryptonite?
Building work going on
nearby....like my Land Lord has been doing for the past year!!!!
Do you try more to be original or
to deliver to readers what they want?
First and foremost, I try to tell
a good story.
If you could tell your younger
writing self anything, what would it be?
See above (just do it!)
What’s the most difficult thing
about writing characters from the opposite sex?
As a man, it’s harder writing
women as you have to confront and come to terms with something that is
objectively external to you, yet on some psychological level resides within
you. I find understanding the fairer sex challenging but also greatly
therapeutic.
How long on average does it take
you to write a book?
If I’m on good form and I don’t
have any other commitments, I can turn a book around in less than 6 months.
Do you believe in writer’s block?
Yes, but as long as you write
something in a day, that’s what counts.
About writing:
I enjoy how sometimes I surprise
myself. I go into a writing zone, on a good day, and when I emerge I read over
what I’ve written and it’s as if someone else has been sitting in my chair when
I wasn’t looking...strange.
The
Merewyrm's Tooth
Animal
Kingdoms Book 1
by
Oliver Paglia
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Faharen
was a contented enough young lad, living a simple farming life with
his adopted kin the Manxii, on the North Western Plain of the Animal
Kingdoms.
After
a mysterious blight begins to ravage the pastures of his homeland, he
must embark on a perilous quest only he can complete; to cross the
Great Forest, entering the Realms of Men to retrieve a piece of ivory
with healing properties from a legendary monster, the Merewyrm; a
creature so ancient it predates both man and animal kind.
Not
long into his journey, it dawns on Faharen that he is part of a much
larger, darker world than he thought existed and must mine hidden
depths he wasn’t aware he possessed to survive.
Created
by the gods to divide fallen men from the faithful animals and
forsaken by them long ago, traversing the Great Forest will not be
easy, for it hides many malevolent creatures such as the Satyrs to
name but one; a half man, half cloven hooved beast that knows only
spite and treachery!
With
the body of a man and the heart of a Manxii, Faharen must do what is
deemed impossible; cross the worlds to save his people.
Gauntlet
of Wrath
Animal Kingdoms Book 2
Animal Kingdoms Book 2
Residing
in a monastery far to the east of the North Western Plain, troubling
nightmares stalk Faharen’s sleep as he seeks inner peace and
answers to profound questions, stirred up by his quest for the
Merewyrm’s tooth.
But in the Realms of Men, all is not
well.
Out of the deserts to the south, like a sandstorm on an
ill wind, a force of occultists, led by an armoured giant calling
himself the Ferra Demiurge, or Forged Lord, wielding the strongest
ever blades made of a mysterious metal, have taken the Achaean lands
by coup and sorcery. Their ambition and greed is insatiable and the
Demiurge will not be satisfied until the entire known world is his,
including what lies beyond the Great Forest.
With the worlds
of the Animal Kingdoms and men alike set in flux by recent events,
the ancient prophecy of the wild men seems to be unravelling.
Now,
all those standing against the Achaeans will be tested in their
defence of the sacred. Some will conquer, some will die, but all will
struggle to survive.
Oliver
Paglia is a writer/filmmaker and was born and bred in Hampshire,
south England, where he grew up on a small farm in the picturesque
Test valley countryside. He now lives in Reykjavik, Iceland with his
veterinary nurse partner, Snæfriður Stefanssdottír. For many years
Oliver has worked as a videographer in England and has a substantial
portfolio of commercial and artistic film work spanning a broad
variety of subjects.
Oliver’s
artistic preoccupation is with the mythic; it is his view that it is
one of the highest forms of artistic expression. It can be vague, yet
illuminating, without a contemporary context yet insightful as to the
human condition, absurd yet wise and dark yet moral. The legends of
old are the stories that resonate with us on all levels.
As
the late Professor Joseph Campbell put it, “The myth is the public
domain and the dream is the private myth. If your private myth, your
dream, happens to coincide with that of the society, you are in good
accord with your group. If it isn’t, you’ve got a long adventure
in the dark forest ahead of you.” Also, “Myth must be kept alive.
The people who can keep it alive are the artists of one kind or
another.”
And
that is what Oliver hopes to do, to keep myth alive in his own modest
way.
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