Literary Birthday – 15 February – James Islington

Happy Birthday, James Islington, born 15 February 1981.

James Islington Quotes

1. I tend to carefully plan the skeleton of my work—major plot points and scenes, where the story should end up—but work out a lot of the details and come up with ideas to augment the original ones as I go. (Writer’s Digest)
2. I feel like I learn something new every time I get a book published. (Writer’s Digest)
3. While I had years of extra writing experience under my belt, it was still only the second time I’d had to come up with a completely new world, new story, new characters, new magic system … It was a lot! But I got there in the end, and am incredibly happy with the result, so it was all worth it. (Writer’s Digest)
4. Learn to look for common themes in any feedback on your writing, even if it’s criticisms of areas that don’t really matter to you as a reader. It’s something I don’t see mentioned much and I’m still learning to do, even now. (Writer’s Digest)
5. I love time travel stories, but only when you can’t poke holes in them, so it was important to me that everything remained consistent throughout the series. Especially when I was writing Light, I was constantly having to check my notes or go back to find very particular points in the first two books to make sure I was getting all the timing just right. (Novel Notions)
6. I was very conscious of trying to find that balance between soft and hard magic. I’m a big fan of a magic system’s limitations being clear enough to readers that it can’t just become a fix-all for problems in the plot. (The Fantasy Reviews)
7. I think an arc’s truly finished when to add more to it would risk it becoming less satisfying or interesting, rather than more – it’s definitely more related to the ‘feel’ of the story than anything technical. (Goodreads)
8. I’m not sure there’s any specific source of inspiration – writing’s something I’ve always loved doing – I just get real pleasure out of creating something I’m proud of, and I’d be doing it (albeit with far more time constraints) regardless of whether I was able to reach an audience. (Goodreads)
9. I think that fear that the next book somehow won’t live up to the last one is pretty natural (and I don’t think it ever really goes away, no matter how many books you’ve written). (Goodreads)
10. I definitely use music to set my mental mood, sometimes – I don’t habitually listen while I write, but do a lot while I’m planning out scenes in my head (often while I’m out on a walk to start the day). (Goodreads)

James Islington is an Australian author of fantasy fiction, best known for his high fantasy series The Licanius Trilogy. His influences growing up were the stories of Raymond E. Feist and Robert Jordan, but it wasn’t until later, when he read Brandon Sanderson‘s Mistborn series – followed soon after by Patrick Rothfuss’ Name of the Wind – that he was finally inspired to sit down and write something of his own. He is also the author of the first two books of the Hierarchy series, The Will of the Many, and The Strength of the Few. Sony Pictures have purchased the rights to adapt the series to film. Follow him on Facebook.

Source for image: Author’s Facebook Page

by Amanda Patterson

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