The problem is, with eleven years of plotting, I don't remember what ALL of the inspiration was. We'll start writing and see what I come up with.
Narnia. The obvious one. After all, the story began as my attempt to write a better version of the Narnia movie. (Because I was vain and thought I could do it better than movie producers.) And while I have taken care to distance the plot from Narnia, there are still traces of Narnia in it and the plots are connected. Distantly.
Lord of the Rings. So when we sat down to rewrite Narnia in a way that we could replace the various characters of Narnia with characters we could feasibly cast. Fauns were out of the question, so we brainstormed around for a replacement and I blame Middle Earth for our decision to use elves. Also, Amber's dragon scale is vaguely inspired by the One Ring.
Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville. Once upon a time I read this book and fell in love with Unicorns. And then I invented Harandas for Rizkaland. Then I decided to let Petra and Reuben ride Harandas and it was epic.
The Samantha Movie. Before we decided to do the Arcaland play, my friend, sister, and I were going to do the Samantha movie, using the movie's actual script that my friend just so happened to have. And I rather suspect that our decision to substitute an orphanage for Professor Kirke's house stemmed from that, possibly with a bit of influence from Little Orphan Annie and Madeline.
Star Trek. This is a specific element. You see, there is a character whose gift is teleportation, and when she teleports, I describe it as "disappearing in a burst of glitter." And I have had beta readers ask if she gets glitter everywhere. The answer is no, she doesn't. Because it's based off of what happens with the teleporter devices in Star Trek. (Incidentally, that special effect was produced by swirling glitter around in water. Fun fact of the day!)
Blood of Kings by Jill Williamson. This book influenced the telepathy aspect of the book. It'd already been in the story, but it refined my thoughts on the topic.
Dragons in our Midst by Bryan Davis. Kinda spoilery what this series influenced, but like Blood of Kings, it took something that I had already planned to include and solidified my thoughts.
The Hobbit. This one is ... indirect. You see, my sister and I did a story game once upon a time based on the Hobbit, and in that story we invented the Rowandas and the Hinequas, which I later repurposed into Rizkaland.
Barbie of Swan Lake. Another indirect one. But a character mentioned in part one has a story inspired by Barbie of Swan Lake.
Percy Jackson Series. Apart from being one of the main series I read to get a grasp of how a guy's brain works, the Mist of the Percy Jackson world influenced the World Continuity Effect that I touched on but never addressed in LDTD. Basically, the WCE is how a lot of people don't notice that world travel happens - unless they themselves have world travelled. They simply can't see the effects - or if they can see, it, their brains just can't make the connection that it's the result of another world. I'll probably get into this more in the third book.
And that's everything I can think of right now. if I think of anything else, I'll come back and add it, but now I need to get to work on the facebook party. Do come join us tonight. It'll be fun.
Kindle
Paperback - Yes, it's out. And get it now while it's $14.99, because after the tour is over, it'll go up to $19.99 because it's a big book and I can't put it in the Expanded distribution otherwise.
Check out my stops on the tour:
I'm doing a giveaway, as per normal for a tour. Prize is an autographed copy of LDTD, a 2.5 oz bottle of Citrus Bliss Lotion - my favorite lotion that smells like citrus and vanilla - and a Serenity Bath Bar - which smells like lavender and vanilla and is awesome for relaxing before bed. Giveaway is US ONLY, however. Sorry about that, but ... shipping.
I'm also doing a comment giveaway. The person who leaves the most comments on the blog tour posts - including the interviews, reviews, and guest posts - and my back posts with the Lady Dragon Tela Du or Rizkaland Legend lables will get a sneak peak at either book three or Worth of a King. Possibly both. I'm generous. This giveaway is international, because there is no shipping. (Well, there may be shipping, on your end, once you get the book, but I don't have to pay for it.)
a Rafflecopter giveaway
That's quite the impressive list. Fascinating how so many elements come together to produce a unified whole.
ReplyDeleteCool. I was going to make a movie of the Samantha books, but I was writing my own script since they left out things I liked. And I LOVE Annie. Annie is my childhood. Didn't you say the Oracle in PJO helped to inspire the way the Bookdaughters Speak? And the way their weapons come back to them and disguise themselves as other things is kinda like Riptide.
ReplyDelete... I knew there was something I was forgetting on PJO. The oracle.
DeleteThe weapons, thing, though, I'm pretty sure pre-dated PJO, and reading the book was more like "ooh, hey, you're doing what I do!"
Yup. :)
DeleteInteresting. I know I read LDTD slightly before PJO, but I wasn't sure about the weapons thing with you.
It's always interesting to hear where inspiration comes from. And now I'm terribly curious about which character's story comes out of Barbie Swan Lake . . .
ReplyDeleteEven though I knew You've read Blood of Kings, I didn't think about that at all with the telepathy. Yours is certainly different enough. Maybe because it's just a couple of people instead of a whole lot. Also it doesn't have the whole mental link part of things. I think that was done really well. Still haven't figured out how telepathy would work in a movie.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that. LDTD's telepathy feels entirely different from Blood of Kings. In a way, I like LDTD's take on it better. It's more intimate, and it also addresses many of the quirks and challenges and dangers of this form of communication.
DeleteIn Blood of Kings, i wouldn't really call the blood voices telepaths. Yes, it was something they used, but the communication wasn't all that different to talking by phone. I've actually been reading several different series with telepathy lately and they all had more depth to it that Blood of Kings. Strangely most were actually sci-fi.
Delete