by E. A. Copen
I fell into a deep depression that nothing could pull me out of. Everything started to slip away, and it felt like there was never going to be any hope of getting back the love for writing that I had lost. My prior experiences working with other people had left me with a bitter taste in my mouth, and I felt I could no longer enjoy writing. I almost gave up my dream of being an author.
But all it takes is a spark to remind you why you love something.
In April and the first part of May, I took time off to dig back into my old hobbies. I had abandoned watching TV, playing games, and reading for the joy of it. I binged my way through Shadow and Bone, all four seasons of Castlevania, and read a sizeable chunk of the Shannara Chronicles by Terry Brooks. I also revisited one of my favorite book series, the Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews and played through Dragon Age: Inquisition.
After that, everything sort of clicked. I realized Rift Walker and the subsequent stories in Rift World just didn’t work as urban fantasy. They were contemporary fantasy, post-apocalyptic fantasy… Whatever you want to call them. Once I chucked the labels out of the way, I focused more on creating characters and crafting their relationships than the plot-heavy story I had initially wanted to tell.
Yes, the book needed plot, but I decided to let that sort of take a back seat to focus on what I liked so much in my favorite shows, games, and books: the character relationship dynamics. The reason all the above stories work so well isn’t because of a well-crafted plot, an interesting world, or any other mechanic. It’s because whoever wrote those books, games, and shows created deeply flawed, relatable characters.
My biggest worry while writing this book was that the plot wouldn’t be strong enough, or that I didn’t have a particularly obvious antagonist. But I didn’t set out to write that sort of story. Ember and Ash is a story about people. They make decisions, and those decisions have consequences. It’s also a story about hope in the face of destruction, and—as corny as it sounds—the power of friendship and love to overcome the impossible.
I set out to tell a story where every character, no matter how minor, could have their own story told, even it takes a dozen installments to get there. Whether I’ve been successful at that… Well, I leave that up to you.
As for where I get my ideas from, the simple answer is I get them from other people and the works of art they create. No work is done in a vacuum. As a writer, the greatest compliment that anyone could ever give me would be to tell I’ve created something to help make their day a little brighter. I hope I’ve been able to make you smile a little today.
If this book made you smile, please consider recommending it to a friend, or posting a review on Amazon or Goodreads.
Thank you for reading!
~E.A. Copen
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