Author Q & A with David M Brown

David Brown, author of Fezariu's Epiphany (which I reviewed back along), is currently on a blog tour. As well as finding time for a guest post a couple of weeks ago he has also been good enough to agree to do an interview.

David was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, and first conceived the idea of the Elencheran Chronicles at college in 1999. He moved to Huddersfield in 2000 to read History with English at the University and today lives in West Yorkshire, now with his wife, Donna, and their six rescue cats Razz, Kain, Buggles, Charlie, Frodo and Bilbo

When did you first think of becoming a writer and who or what got you interested in writing?

I’d always enjoyed creative writing at school but it wasn’t until college that I wanted to be a writer. I’d been spending hours playing the Final Fantasy games on the Playstation and their stories were utterly compelling. Those games led me to Norse mythology which remains my favourite to this day. From there I decided I wanted to create my own world, draw the maps, build an epic history and write novels set there.

How would you describe your books and style, and who has been the greatest influence on your writing?

My novels belong in the fantasy genre though I am trying to do something a little different. Though set in a fictitious world, the stories give more precedence to the characters rather than the land they inhabit. In essence some of the stories wouldn’t be out of place in our world, they just happen to take place in Elenchera. In terms of influence I’d have to cite Tolkien as the teacher many of us fantasy students aspire to. My writing is more inspired by the likes of Hemingway and Murakami, their prose seems so simple but as a whole it is magnificent and beautiful to read. I try to write in a straightforward manner that won’t leave the reader bogged down with endless descriptions.

Do you start a book knowing what the beginning, middle and end will be or does it take on a life of it's own as you write? 

I tend to know the beginning, some of the middle and the end. I knew how Fezariu’s Epiphany would start and end but there were many gaps between those two extremes and I had to just write the story to see how the events would unfold. Sometimes inspiration would come easily, other occasions it would involve a lot of head scratching but I always found a way to the end.

Are you self-published or traditionally published, and what has been the best and worst thing about the route you have taken?

My wife and I decided to go down the self-publishing route with Fezariu’s Epiphany and I imagine we’ll be doing the same in future. It’s great having full control of the book and being able to appreciate the positive feedback knowing it’s down to our individual efforts. My wife has taken on a lot of the publicising of this book and done an amazing job, I have to say. The flip side of course is that going it alone involves a lot of hard work such as formatting the book, arranging avenues to publicise your work and market it too. It’s not for the faint hearted but it’s been an amazing journey so far.

If this isn't too much like asking a dad which of his children he likes best, which of your characters is your favourite?

I’ll focus just on Fezariu’s Epiphany. There’s no way I could pick my favourite character from 47,000 years of Elencheran history! That would be mean! Certainly in this novel Fezariu is an important character but I have a soft spot that lovable toldere, Vintaro, the one who likes a drink and has the gift of the gab as well. He offers some light relief in the book and was a really fun character to write. I think the fact he is humorous makes those rare moments when he’s serious all the more poignant. 

If Fezariu's Epiphany was going to be turned into a blockbuster movie who would play Fezariu and where would it be filmed?

My wife and I are in agreement on this one. If he’s listening, we’d like Jake Gyllenhaal to play Fezariu. He was superb in Donnie Darko and Brokeback Mountain and I believe he could get to the heart of Fezariu’s character. Where would it be filmed? New Zealand tends to be a good location for fantasy films, doesn’t it? I travelled there in 2008 and it’s easy to see why.

What do you like to read and do you have any other passions?

I read many genres of fiction, always plenty of fantasy to admire the work of my peers, but I do enjoy general fiction as well. I also love biographies but I do struggle if I don’t regularly read a history book. It was my favourite subject at school and has inspired me a lot when it comes to Elenchera. Away from books I do love films, especially world cinema. I’ve broadened my horizons a lot in recent years and have started going back to some of the really old films. There are so many hidden gems from the past.

Finally, what are you working on at the moment that you can tell us about?

I’m working on my second novel, A World Apart, which will take place in the western colonies that feature in Fezariu’s Epiphany. The basis of this book will be a tragic love triangle between three friends that starts in their teens and continues to affect them into adulthood. These kind of scenarios seldom end well and I can promise that A World Apart is designed to make tearful readers want to reach for their

Thank you to David for fitting this interview into a no doubt busy schedule!

Fezariu's Epiphany & Short Stories I-IV - are both available in Paperback/Ebook

To find out more....

Blog - The World According to Dave: http://blog.elenchera.com

Website - The Elencheran Chronicles: http://elenchera.com

Facebook - Fezariu's Epiphany: http://www.facebook.com/fezariu

Twitter - David M. Brown: http://twitter.com/elenchera

Review of the week & Blog Hop Time

I'm beginning to wonder if I have anything other than busy weeks nowadays. It's definitely been busy on the blog with reviews, a guest post and a giveaway. So as a recap....

You have until noon tomorrow (so just over 25 hours) to enter my giveaway. As part of his Be Nicholson's Agent event Scott Nicholson is giving away a copy of his e-book Troubled. Here is the original post with details on how to enter. Once the winner has been drawn I will be announcing the next giveaway!

This month author David Brown is also busy on a blog tour. He stopped by with a guest post on creating the fantasy world of Elenchera featured in his novel Fezauriu's Epiphany.

And as far as reviews, I posted on

The Water Men, by Adelaide MacKenzie Fuss, a 5* contemporary fiction
ORPHANS stories, by Tim Cummings, a diverse collection of short stories, poetry and dramatic pieces, and finally
The Tunnelers by Geoff Gander, a great horror short.

I have another review to write and post later, and tomorrow I will have a guest post from Scott Nicholson.

Moving swiftly on...it's Blog Hop time! This week the question is Many of us primarily read one genre of books, with others sprinkled in. If authors stopped writing that genre, what genre would you start reading? Or would you give up reading completely if you couldn’t read that genre anymore?


Give up reading :O Never! It's not a dilemma I'm likely to ever face because I read such a mix. I think even if the only genres left were my absolute least favourites I would still read them, I'd just have to hunt down the best of the best.

Are we really going to see anyone admit they'd stop reading if they couldn't get their hands on their fave genre? I thought book blogger were all too diehard for that!

Guest blog post by David Brown - Creating a Fantasy World

I reviewed David's book Fezariu's Epiphany back in June and although not so long ago I would have said fantasy wasn't my thing he is one of a few authors who have been changing my mind on that count. As part of a blog tour David has kindly written a guest post for me, so read on to find out more about how he created the world of Elenchera for the book.

The beauty of creating your own world is the flexibility to do whatever you wish with the land, the races that live there, the languages and even the rules of science. I’m always conscious in creating fantastical elements of not writing something too outrageous that will leave readers rolling their eyes in disbelief. Elenchera has many races that can live for thousands of years but you won’t find any creations that are invincible. Even the gods that rule in the earliest Shards can be wounded and slain and indeed that’s exactly what happens to them.

Creating Elenchera I knew I would want to retain many of the standard elements that really define fantasy. Elves, dwarves and dragons are involved in the history from the earliest Shards and continue to thrive for quite some time. I also wanted to create races of my own and this is something of a challenge. How do you create something unique? I’ll be honest and say I don’t really think I have but what I have done is to take an element which may have been prevalent in previous fantasy works and redefine them for Elenchera.

Anthropomorphic races are nothing new. History records tales of such beings long before the likes of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis were even starting their fantasy masterpieces. I decided early on that I not only wanted some animals in Elenchera with the ability to speak but I wanted anthropomorphic beings as well. In the early history the continent of Emeraldon sees a beautiful unicorn known as Valkinia emerge from a sparkling waterfall, a blessing from Mother Nature almost, and this unicorn creates a richly diverse race known as the valkayans. These are a combination of talking animals and anthropomorphic beings that control half of the continent and endure through the ages even when colonialism comes to their shores and they are bound and enslaved. There are so many animals in our world that it is easy to create unique beings.

Elenchera has a rich and varied history so some Shards (periods of Elencheran history) will involve different races, lands and battles. The great thing about building such a large and varied world with such a full history is that there’s always a new character to encounter!

Thanks to David for his insight, it has shed a new light on the places and races in the book for me, and it's interesting to hear some of the thought process too.

David blogs at http://blog.elenchera.com/ and tweets as @elenchera.

Fezariu's Epiphany by David M. Brown

I'm quite picky about which fantasy books I choose to read but the synopsis for this book caught my attention and had me wondering about Fezariu's story: - "The White Oak, Clarendon’s oldest brothel, lured and destroyed men by the thousands. Fezariu was different. He had never been drawn by the White Oak’s vices but the brothel had still ruined him when he was just a boy.

Salvation came in the form of the Merelax Mercenaries – Elenchera’s most prestigious hired hands. They gave Fezariu the chance to escape from his past. Immersed in the world of dangerous assignments in the colonies Fezariu longed to forget everything about his childhood but only in facing the past would he ever be free of it."

Fezariu's childhood is marred by a series of deaths and upheavals, and he becomes convinced that he is the cause of these tragedies. Sadly for him childish misapprehensions cause him a lot of angst and completely change the course of his life. He sets his mind to becoming a mercenary, to gain respect and a replacement family. However he discovers the past isn't that easy to forget and has to try and face it in order to move on.

This is a well written book and although before starting it I was a bit tentative about whether my latest foray into fantasy would be a sucess I found myself absorbed in the world the author has created. The story covers a period of decades and mainly covers key points in Fezariu's life. I thought the author's use of his letters to childhood companion Alycea, detailing his experiences during the years that aren't specifically covered, were a clever way of filling in the gaps and enhancing the story. I found in Fezariu a character I empathised with, and enjoyed his relationship with his closest friends and colleagues.

I will admit though that I did struggle a little with all the different places mentioned, trying to figure out if they were towns, countries or something larger. It didn't greatly affect my reading experience but I would have appreciated a map so I could see how they related to one another.

This was a very enjoyable read, and I can definitely say this is the sort of fantasy novel I like!

Format: Kindle, review copy
My Rating: 4*