nine FROSTBORN questions from a reader

A reader had some questions for me about the FROSTBORN series, so I thought I would share my answers here.

1.) Are all the Keepers female? If so, why?

Yes. I didn’t decide that until a couple of books in, but I figured that there were two offices in ancient Britain – the Keeper and the Wizard. The Keeper went to Andomhaim, and the Wizard did not.

2.) Does or did the character Merlin exist in this universe?

He did. I haven’t really worked out what he did, so he hasn’t had an impact on the story. The original Merlin was definitely dead when Malahan Pendragon left Old Earth.

3.) What were your reasons for incorporating the Christian religion?

Two reasons. One, I wanted to. Two, it was less work than inventing a new religion for the series. Also, the whole “Crystal Dragon Jesus” trope is kind of tiresome.

Though I did wind up inventing several religions – the Mhorites in FROSTBORN, the xiatami and Xophiramus in SEVENFOLD SWORD, and so forth.

4.) Did Malahan Pendragon flee through the portal right after the last battle of Arthur and Mordred or did some time pass in between. If there was the time for it, could Antenora not have pleaded for forgiveness then?

There was a couple of months after the death of Arthur and the time Malahan went through the gate with his followers. Antenora was comatose from the effects of the curse for some time, so by the time she recovered herself, Malahan and the Keeper were gone.

5.) Are the malophages inspired by the Lovecraftian Horror Genre?

Definitely. They’re sort of evil horrors from an alien planet that eat life force. The dark elves seriously screwed up by summoning them, and then abjectly failed to learn from the experience when they summoned the urdmordar.

6.) What books, video games and movies inspired you to write this series?

I wanted to recreate the feel of a really epic, sweeping RPG campaign, where the characters go from doing petty quests for local farmers and end up deciding the fates of nations and kingdoms. (That’s why in FROSTBORN: THE GRAY KNIGHT the one farmer rants at Ridmark about his missing pigs. If he was in a game, he’d have a giant exclamation point floating over his head.) I’d say computer game influences included Icewind Dale, Planescape: Torment, Baldur’s Gate, Knights of the Old Republic, and Dragon Age (the original, not the sequels). Book influences would include David Gemmell, J.R.R. Tolkien, Timothy Zahn, Raymond Feist, Robert Howard, and Jasper Fforde.

7.) Did you purposely use any stylistic devices typical for certain fantasy genres or did you just write as you thought it was good?

I did use some of archetypal creatures like orcs and dwarves. I’ve noticed that some fantasy writers write about orcs or whatever, but name their orcs “thogmoths” or whatever. But I actually wanted to write about orcs and dwarves and whatnot, so I decided to just use them.

8.) As a self-publisher, are you able to write things that you would not be able to write otherwise?

Oh, definitely. So long as you stay within the TOS of Amazon and the other stores, you can write whatever you want. Barring libel in certain countries, copyright infringement, and certain kinds of erotica, no one really polices what gets self-published.

9.) How are you able to write so fast? (not that I am complaining 😊)

Practice. I’m working on my 93rd and 94th books right now, and the more you do it, the faster you can write.

-JM