Interlude definition: an annoying way to bloat up a book that was already too big by adding a completely irrelevant, at best tangential story.
Interlude. A short break from the history of writing Drakon.
Drakon is written in a first-person voice. Actually, two first-person voices; the primary one is the barbarian hero, and the secondary one is the monk who transcribes his story.
Writing in first-person is very limiting especially when the narrator has no magical powers to know things. But limiting is good. It builds discipline, it avoids omniscient magic, it makes hard-fantasy even harder.
There are only two interludes in Drakon, and they are the only passages not written in the first-person. They are in Book III and I love them both passionately. I am not stubborn but I wouldn’t remove them for any editor in the world. Am I stubborn?
Let me repeat it here. Drakon is not inspired by my life or my family’s stories. My parents were very —how can I say it—uneventful people. Love them, but no writable story, that I know of, there. Though I think they are simply a smoke screen for my grandparents and great-great etceteras. Because those had some stories.
Come back for my next post: The numerous deaths of a moderate communist tailor.