The Accidental
Fantasist

 Hey, thanks to
Kari for allowing me to abscond with her blog for a moment.  My name is Benjamin Tate and I’m a
fantasy writer.

 *pauses
for the “Hi, Ben!”* 

 Kari wanted me
to promo my book WELL OF SORROWS, and I’ll certainly do that, because I want you
all to rush out and buy it.  But I
figured I’d make a confession first and relate how I became a fantasy writer in
the first place.

 It all started
back when I was twelve.  I was an
avid reader back then, mostly by picking up books from the library either at
school or the local community library. 
But I wasn’t reading fantasy or science fiction.  I didn’t even know such book were out
there.  I was reading
mysteries.  Tons and tons of
mysteries.  And one of the mystery
writers that I was picking up from the library was Mary Norton.  (Some of you are now nodding sagely,
because you’ve figured out how I got into fantasy and SF already.)  I don’t remember any exact titles, but
the one that pops to mind was “Mystery in the Apple Orchard” or something like
that.  Anyway, on one particular
day, I couldn’t go to the library with my mom (I don’t remember why) and so I
asked her to pick me up another Norton book.

 Ahahahahahaha.

 Of course, she
didn’t know it was MARY Norton that I was looking for, and so ended up bringing
me home a few of ANDRE Norton’s books instead.  Being a kid, and wanting to read
SOMETHING, with no chance to get the library any time soon (we lived WAY out in
the country), I decided I’d try Andre Norton.

 And I was
hooked.  The next trip to the
library, I took every Andre Norton book off the shelf, and then
interlibrary-loaned a few more.  I
read all of those in my room all summer, a bag of M&Ms beside me.  But that wasn’t enough, so I
interlibrary-loaned a ton more, pretty much every Andre Norton book I could get
my hands on.  I did this for a
LOOOOONG time, because Andre Norton was pretty prolific (and still churning out
books, although I didn’t know that at the time).  I was a downhill slope from there.  When the library ran out of Norton
books, I decided that perhaps I should try some other fantasy writers, and I’ve
been reading fantasy and science fiction ever since.

 At some point,
all writers (before they are writers) reach the stage where they begin having
their own ideas for stories.  And at
some point, they begin to think that their ideas are just as good, if not
better, than those that they’re reading. 
I hit that stage a few years after discovering Norton and having read a
ton of other fantasy novels.  So I
started writing some short stories, using an old typewriter and about a billion
pounds of whiteout.  I also started
a novel featuring me and my friends being transported to a fantasy world (this
appears to be a requirement for every fantasy writer).  At one point I became a little more
savvy and began a novel where the main character (not me) was transported to a
world that existed solely in his mind, where had to confront the truth about his
father and cancer (not sure where this story came from; my father didn’t have
cancer).  That was a little heavy
for a fifteen-year-old.  But by this
point I was hooked not only on fantasy, but on WRITING fantasy as
well.

 I started what
I consider my first real fantasy novel in the last few years of high
school.  Called SORROW, it was about
a book.  I wrote it, and in the
process learned how to write.  I
rewrote it, and learned more.  I
rewrote it yet again (by this time I’d graduated high school and moved on to
college).  This version felt solid
enough that I started sending it out to agents and editors.  During this process, based on comments
I’d received from agents and editors, it went through two more
revisions.

 And then I gave
up.  Not on writing, but on getting
SORROW published.  It’s a good book,
and it might get published eventually with another major overhaul.  But at the time, I needed to put it
aside and more on, which is what I did.

 And now I have
four novels out on the shelf.  Three
of them—the “Throne of Amenkor” trilogy—are written under the name Joshua
Palmatier and published by DAW. 
That series comprises THE SKEWED THRONE, THE CRACKED THRONE, and THE
VACANT THRONE.  And, believe it or
not, the throne that’s the heart of that series makes an appearance in the novel
SORROW.  As the first set of books
that sold, the Throne series will always have a special place in my heart.  And the general opinion is that the
books got better and better as the series progressed, which just goes to show
you that I’m still learning as a writer.

And now I have
the start of a new series on the shelf. 
The series doesn’t have a title of its own yet (I’m sure one will be
forthcoming . . . I never named the Throne series either, that just popped up on
the internet at some point), but the first book is called WELL OF SORROWS.  The basic concept of the novel is that a
group of refugees fleeing a war in their homeland have come to the newly
discovered continent across the ocean. 
They don’t find a very warm welcome with the settlers already there, and
so they head out onto the plains to settle on their own.  Of course, this doesn’t work out exactly
as they had planned.  *grin*  It’s summed up more dramatically with
the following:

 "Ripped from
the life he knew by the threat of civil war in his homeland, Colin and his
parents  are refugees in New
Andover, the newly discovered continent on the far side of the ocean.  But this new  world holds dangers that its settlers
cannot comprehend.  Forced to flee
onto the unexplored plains, driven there by desperation, they encounter vicious
magical storms, a hostile race that will stop at nothing to protect their sacred
lands, and a dark forest filled with shadow-like creatures.  Attacked by these life-eating Shadows,
on the brink of death, Colin is led to the forest’s darkest and most dangerous
secret:  a Well at the heart of an
ancient, crumbling city.  To save
his life, he drinks the cold, clear water . . .

 And everything
changes."

 I had a blast
writing this, and am currently working on the sequel LEAVES OF FLAME, which will
be followed eventually by the concluding novel BREATH OF HEAVEN.  I really like this series.  It’s more epic in nature than the
“Throne of Amenkor” series, with a much wider scope—I do have an entire new
continent to explore after all. 
*grin*

 In any case, check
the books out.  I think you’ll
really enjoy them.