Author Profile - Terry Pratchett

“Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day, but set fire to him and he's warm for the rest of his life.”
― Terry Pratchett, Jingo

By now, many of you know that Terry Pratchett is a major influence on my writing.  To take it a step further, he is also my favorite writer.  Right now, Americans are saying "Terry who?".  It can be said that Americans have a difficult time with British humor.  Maybe it's a little dry, I don't know?  I love it!  My television defaults to BBC America, what can I say?

Terry Pratchett writes with some of the most complex sentence structure I've ever read.  At times, I'll have to re-read a sentence just to make sure it said what I thought it said.  It wasn't until I tried out a little experiment which really gave me that moment of clarity.  I read the sentence aloud.  My mind had been trained through the education system to expect sentences to be structured a certain way, but when I read Terry Pratchett aloud, I was surprised.  This is how I speak.  Granted, the Brits use slang which takes some getting used to for an American, but it really struck me as the easiest way to understand him completely.  I took that idea to a Star Wars novel and it was a disaster.  Once my mind was prepared for reading a Terry Pratchett novel, he standing as an author, in my mind, shot right to the top.  It was amazing!

“In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this.”
― Terry Pratchett

I started writing Alorya with a bunch of Terry Pratchett novels under my belt, but continued writing as I had been taught.  When I was a fan of John Elway, I emulated him as a quarterback.  I watched Clyde Drexler and immediately went outside to see how high I could glide.  Why not emulate Terry Pratchett as a writer?  In America?!?  Are you crazy?!?  Yes and Yes.  I think he deserves it.  I think anyone who takes a "standard" and turns it on it's head is worth a second look.  If it comes to them as second nature and they're really good at it, then you are watching a genius of your time at work.  It is because humans are so brilliant that we were able to appreciate genius when the genius is still alive, right?

“God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of His own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players [i.e. everybody], to being involved in an obscure and complex variant of poker in a pitch-dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a Dealer who won't tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.”
― Terry Pratchett, Good Omens

As you read that passage from Good Omens, your brain is begging and screaming for a period.  When you reach the end of the sentence though, it became a worthwhile journey (if you understand the humor).  When I read it the first time, I had to read it one more time just to make sure.  I did not laugh.  I smiled and said, "Very interesting, Mr. Pratchett."

At times, people would come to me and tell me my sentence structure is a bit weird.  At first glance, they say it's a run-on sentence.  Inside, I smile and say, I know.  I admittedly wrote a run-on sentence in a published book against the wishes of my editors.  Why?  To say 'thank you' to Mr. Pratchett!!!!!

“Five exclamation marks, the sure sign of an insane mind.”
― Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

“It's not worth doing something unless someone, somewhere, would much rather you weren't doing it.”
― Terry Pratchett

Wizards and Robots - Can they co-exist? (Next on Maury)

There are those of us who prefer fantasy stories.  Give us a wizard, an elf or an orc any day of the week, right?  We prefer our supernatural protagonists to live in an exclusively natural world.  Others love the Sci-fi realm.  We want robots, space shuttles and geeky technology that most everyone will be calling "normal" in 50 years.  Finally, there are people like me who like both.  I like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Dune and Lord of the Rings almost equally.  All of those stories capture the escapism I look for, but they also bring the reader to see the world in another pair of eyes.

My question:  Can both Sci-fi and Fantasy exist in the same story?  I've heard quite a few "No!" answers and nearly had my head ripped off by a guy calling himself Stormageddon.

The entire story of Lord of the Rings could have been cut down to about 3 pages if Frodo had teleportation technology available.  Star Wars would have been painful if Luke and his buddies had to walk to the Death Star, right?  All of this pondering brought to mind one question:  How do you write a story which can include both Sci-fi and Fantasy without making it ridiculous?

I used the simple element of time, in Alorya.  There must have been a time when Captain Kirk's ancestors wore armor and bathe once a week.  There also must have been a time when Gandalf would become complacent due to the fact that he's a wizard living in a world of men (and hobbits).  After all, that is what Saruman's destiny was to become, right?  The dominator of a Middle Earth now that the Elves had run off to the West.

In my Prologue, I created an instance in which the continents of men were separated from the continents of Wizards and Barbarians.  They each evolved on their own for the most part, but as the technology advanced, they were in for a bit of conflict.  During the days of men wearing armor and bathing once a week, the Wizards dominated them.  As time progressed, the men discovered technology which would protect them from the Wizard.  In the true tradition of "The best defense is a good offense", there had to be a point where men turned their technological advances toward weapons to be used against the Wizards.

It's probably not a good idea to put the Enterprise in orbit around Middle Earth or have Hogwarts facing off against the Death Star, but you have to think that there must have been a time when both genres were an interesting match.  Let me stop before I start thinking about little blue elves in white hats co-existing with robots which transform in modes of transportation.

Book Interview on Staten Island Beacon

This past Saturday, I sat down with Megan McGibney to do an interview for my book Alorya. - Author Jon Teetsell Releases Pain and Book.

It was an absolute pleasure and easier than I thought it would be.  As some people know, I'm a notoriously bad interviewer when it comes to job interviews.  Amazingly, as soon as I got to chatting with Megan, I just opened up and let everything out.  Of course, that evening I was kicking myself for not mentioning one thing or another, but overall I thought it was a good one.

We focused on what led me to writing Alorya and how it got to the place we are today.  From there, we jumped from topic to topic with regards to a vampire book Megan is working on as well as the second piece in the Alorya saga.

It was fun and I'd want to do it again!

Good Reviews...

... and other kinds of reviews.

I had a friend tell me today that Alorya is a bit confusing after the first few chapters.  I thanked him for it.

Give it to me straight!  I can take it!  I'll only use it to get better at my craft.  :-)