{"id":5548,"date":"2017-08-15T07:00:25","date_gmt":"2017-08-15T11:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tellest.com\/?p=5548"},"modified":"2017-08-31T07:35:25","modified_gmt":"2017-08-31T11:35:25","slug":"interview-eric-k-barnum-author-dar-tania-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellest.com\/interview-eric-k-barnum-author-dar-tania-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Eric K. Barnum (Author of Dar Tania 2)"},"content":{"rendered":"
Hello folks.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got an interview with Eric K. Barnum, the writer of the Dar Tania books and the Forsaken Isles series.\u00a0 He\u2019s written a follow-up to Dar Tania\u2014Set\u2019s Dream\u2014and we\u2019ve been given the opportunity to talk to him about that today.\u00a0 If you\u2019ll recall, we also had an interview with him a few months back<\/a>, so make sure to check that one out for even more of an insight into how he works and what his books are about.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Tellest:<\/strong> Hey there Eric.\u00a0 Welcome back.\u00a0 It\u2019s only been about three months, but you\u2019ve done a lot in that short time, and we\u2019re glad to have you here again.\u00a0 We\u2019ll get right into things this time around, as I\u2019m sure there\u2019s plenty we\u2019ll have to talk about!<\/p>\n First up: Set\u2019s Dream follows an unlikely pair, Syliri and Bruce.\u00a0 Bruce is a badass ranger, which is a cool enough character in its own right, but Syliri takes the cake.\u00a0 She\u2019s a medusa, which in your world is not a single, rare occurrence, but an entire race.\u00a0 She\u2019s got the whole head of snakes and everything.\u00a0 But the most interesting thing about her is that she\u2019s one of the primary protagonists in this tale.\u00a0 Did you find it challenging at all to write about someone who is not only such an uncommon character, but one also predominantly shown as a villain?<\/p>\n Eric K Barnum<\/em>:<\/strong> When I began outlining the Forsaken Isles, and what a dragon-led empire might look like, I realized we have all these tangled mythologies and monsters. Let\u2019s be real. If a medusa existed in actual human history, she would have won. There\u2019d be no humans left. So, yes, starting from that perspective, it\u2019s difficult. In shaping the world though, I began to consider\u2026 \u201cWhat if, in the monsters\u2019 minds, they aren\u2019t monsters? Humans are the monsters?\u201d Good, evil, it all gets a bit subjective in my stories. It had to make sense though. The red dragon Alerius theorized that perhaps the medusa began as dragons with a petrification breath, and somehow got stuck in a non-dragon form. After all, they have a power every bit as devastating as a breath weapon. They have a kinship with serpents. From there, Syliri was easy. The real challenge with her was finding motivations for her to care, believably, about a mortal. Here\u2019s Syliri. She\u2019s intense and my illustrator Darko nailed my vision for her.<\/p>\n