Speculation, Fact and Fiction

I never met David Gemmell, so can't share some story of how nice he was. Though I recall everyone I've met who did know him, if only in passing, has spoken well of him, as Chaz does over on the writefantastic LJ. That I will now never have the chance to meet him is a minor chord of regret in the general chorus of sorrow from his friends.

What I can share is the vivid recollection of reading Legend when it was first published. A good and trusted friend brought it to my attention, a friend who had recently returned the laboriously dot-matrix printed copy of my first massive fantasy masterwork. A friend who told me honestly how he'd really struggled to finish my wonderful book, even given the magic sword, and he was (and is) a sucker for a magic sword... He's the one who recommended Legend as something new, distinctive and different in fantasy fiction at that time.

He was right. There were probably books out around that time that didn't have farm boys turning out to be long-lost heirs or wizards, but I was certainly reading too many of the ones that did. There may have been books where the heroes didn't automatically get plot-immunity, but I wasn't finding those either.

Until Legend. Where grown-ups were fighting their way through shattering events that had the steely ring of a believable history. Where 'fair' just didn't apply, no matter who you were. Where no-one was guaranteed any kind of get-out-of-death card.

So when I looked back at my fantasy masterwork, I saw how consistently I'd failed to take chances with my characters, how I'd ducked the hard choices in my plot, how I'd failed to challenge expectation time and again.

How do you become a writer? By reading, more than anything else.