EP 26: Writing Fantasy (1) - Helevorn and Wanda Walker

Today, Helevorn interviews Wanda Walker!  

Her Twitter: https://twitter.com/Rainbw_mansion 

Her Tapas: https://tapas.io/pseudocide335  

Wanda Walker is the author of several novels belonging to genres ranging from contemporary fiction  to low fantasy, focused on realistic portrayals of characters and social attitudes. She is also an illustrator, currently publishing a webcomic on Tapas called “Rainbow Mansion”, which you can read here: https://tapas.io/series/Rainbow-Mansion/info  

Today, we’re discussing her approach to fantasy applied to her 3-volume novel “The Duke’s Prisoner”, written in 2012, which you can read here: https://www.fictionpress.com/s/2995032/1/The-Duke-s-Prisoner  

Artwork of Duke Kasha (in thumbnail) is by Wanda Walker herself!  

Questions: 

1. What is your approach to fantasy? Does it have any supernatural elements involved? 

2. Why have you chosen this approach? What are the advantages? What about disadvantages? 

3. Could you tell us more about “The Duke’s Prisoner”, in terms of premise and plot? 

4. What are the main themes? 

5. Duke Kasha of Jentirrya makes for a protagonist that is full of surprises and with an interesting character arc. Can you tell us more about him? What’s his backstory? What drives him? 

6. I found Kasha’s relationship with his wife Opheali very interesting - can you tell us more about it? 

7. How about the antagonist, Colonel Rodan, the prisoner that Kasha acquires in the beginning of the story? 

8. What can you tell us about worldbuilding in your story? How did you elaborate it?  

9. What elements of our real world did you want it to have and is anything fundamentally different from our world? 

10. The book was finished in 2012. Would you change anything about it now?