They say that there’s no better way to learn writing than by writing. Which is certainly true. After all, you can’t find any bad habits, see any common flaws, or make any mistakes by not doing anything. And, although The Fey Man is the fourth novel I’ve written (but the only one to be published) it still had a lot to teach me.
I cut a lot from The Fey Man. A whole character, Arvel, was scrubbed from existence. As was a subplot in which Tom ensured the new employment of his personal attendant before he left Cairnagan. And some encounters with fay, men, even a few dwarfs.
All of these things slowed the story down at best and made it confusing at worst. Arvel had nothing to do, Tom’s attendant meant it took too long to leave Cairnagan, and the other plot elements prolonged the journey too much. I was sad to see them go, but the novel is better for it.
One of things my beta readers seemed to agree on was this: they struggled to picture the world of The Fey Man. How big it was, where one place was in relation to another, and so on. One reader thought the party was travelling north even though I’d mentioned south a dozen times.
Maps are one element that will help the reader, but I didn’t want to force her to flick back and forth. So I went through the manuscript and tweaked a lot of text to try and establish a sense of the world. I just hope I succeeded!
At the beginning of this journey I had a tendency to spell everything out. Characters thoughts and feelings were shown with words, either the characters’ own or through narration. But that bogged down the narrative with constant exposition.
So I tried to cut a lot of that from The Fey Man. A lot can be said with a look, an action, even a silence. Tom often wondered what all those meant, but I tried to make those thoughts about Tom, not about exposition.
Armies march, dragons scorch the skies, and those who yet remain free hatch a desperate plan. They place their faith in the one man they shouldn’t: Thomas Rymour. He may be the prophet who cannot lie, but Tom only cares about finding the hidden realm of Faerie.
Elfs, dwarfs, Faerie creatures, dragons, magic, and quests. You’ll find it all in The Fey Man, the first book in the Realm Rift Saga.
Will Tom satisfy his compulsion? Can he break free and help save the world? Or do the creatures of Faerie have their own plans?
“The Fey Man immerses the reader in a compellingly conceived alternative realm created with a powerful sense of character and place.” – Brian Sibley, writer of The Lord of the Rings BBC Radio Drama
★★★★★ “This is one of the best epic fantasy books that I have read.”
★★★★ “As a study of a man in the throes of addiction, or maybe withdrawal…[Thomas Rymour] was particularly well drawn.”
★★★★★ “I smashed through this quickly as it's a real page turner and enjoyed it thoroughly. The setting is familiar enough that entering it is enjoyable and welcoming and at the same time novel enough that you care about the characters and the plot.”
