Historical Novelists and Fantasy Writers Should Be Friends

Christopher M. Sevasco is an author of both fantasy fiction and historical fiction. As someone with a foot in both worlds, he is constantly surprised by the lack of crossovers.

“When I go to the Historical Novel Society Conference, I don’t see the faces that I do when I go to the World Fantasy Convention,” says Cevasco in the 511 episode. Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy Podcast “Most people have either been one or the other. I think I’m the weirdest bird that ever goes to both of them. “

George R. R. Martin has read many fantasy writers A game on the throne, Based on the Battle of the Roses, but don’t think of giving a sample of the work of the historical novelist Bernard Cornwell, which gives much the same pleasure. Sevasco loves them both. “I know George RR is a huge fan of Martin Bernard Cornwell, and vice versa,” he said. “It’s perfectly understandable to me that they like to read each other’s work.”

Sevascor was the biggest effort to unite the two communities The paradoxA magazine he started in 2003 and published for six years. “It simply came to our notice then The paradox Magazines back in the day, ”he says. “I was trying to highlight that overlap and combine the two in the shadow of a magazine that was publishing short fiction at the time that was either historical, or fantasy, or a mixture of both historical and fantasy.”

Both historical fiction and fantasy allow readers to step outside of their everyday reality and see it from a new angle. Cevasco hopes that more writers will come to realize how common ground the two genres share. “I think the best science fiction and fantasy and the best historical fiction, it’s not just a period costume drama, it’s something that resonates with the modern world আমাদের with our world এবং and comments on it somehow,” he says. “I think it’s an interesting way to explore these kinds of issues in an unconventional setting.”

Listen to the full interview with Christopher M. Sevasco in episode 511 Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (Above). And check out some highlights from the discussion below.

Christopher M. Sevasco in his novel See: Godiva’s story:

When [Lady Godiva] According to legend, most people in the city go to their homes and avoid their eyes, so as not to embarrass their beloved majestic woman. But a man named Thomas looks up at him, and is immediately blinded অথবা or in some cases he dies দ্বারা by God for his sight. And this is exactly where we get the idea of ​​a “peeping tom”. যদি If you look at it page by page, only a small percentage of my books have this awful, sensual content, but it is definitely a prominent theme throughout my book, and it is much more risky, short or long than anything else I write. So I was in this awkward position of writing outside of my comfort zone, but I felt it was something that legend forced me to do. I had to deal with that head, and in this book I had to do it front and center.

Christopher M. Sevasco in Norman Victory:

Everyone thinks of the Norman conquest as an event – the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and the Normans conquered England. But I think it is fair to say that the war was the beginning of their conquest and indeed there was an active resistance movement among the English for about five to seven years of that war which was in many ways similar to that of the Maquis in France. During World War II. They were conducting covert operations, all these colorful personalities like Hayward the Wake who lived in the jungle and sabotaged the Normans – and in some places fought and won against William’s army. It’s a really amazing period in history, that period right after the victory, and it’s another big book I’m shopping for right now, it’s a wartime resistance thriller set among those resistance fighters.

Christopher M. Sevasco On Hierot: Beowulf’s Domain of Dread:

If you play Black hole and dragon, You know there’s a setting called Ravenloft, which basically has all these different horror pocket dimensions সব everything under the sun can be in this environment. So I was like, “What if there was a setting based on Beowulf where people in that setting were caught in an endless cycle of violence and revenge? And this whole cycle resets every time Grendel arrives and slaughters everyone, and Mom comes to avenge Grendel’s murder, and then it’s all reset, and these guys get stuck in this eternal cycle? “So I had a lot of fun putting this together. I thought it was going to be a little 10-page supplement and it ended up being a 125-page gazetteer of Ravenloft and Beowulf scholarship that captures Norse mythology and Anglo-Saxon history and all sorts of fun things.

Christopher M. Sevasco on Religion:

What I like when you write about people and how they communicate their beliefs — you know, it’s one thing when you have a scene between two or three characters. They will always portray themselves as “characters” – as they want to be felt. But when you have a character who is communicating with their God or some spiritual force, their power of faith means that they are in a kind of naked state and you see the most authentic version of that character that you are probably seeing because they know That there is no hiding place in their minds. So it’s really interesting to me that when you have a character in a book that deals with spiritual or divine matters, because it reveals a lot about their inner thinking.

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