Historic Fantasy Writer’s Group

[Jake Parrick]

Epic Fantasy

Hello everyone.

The Atlantis Project, book 1 in a series, is about a group of Americans who made a deal with God to escape a nuclear war by traveling back in time to right after Noah’s flood in exchange for building Atlantis and fighting angel-human hybrids called nephilim.

It is realistic and gritty at times, with story driven graphic violence and some non-graphic sexuality. Multiple POV with strong male and female leads. Strong magic system.

Book 1 is in a final draft with many rewrites.

Book 2 is getting its final draft right now.

Book 3-7 are in planning with some discovery docs written.

I’m looking for serious writers with the time to invest in a writers circle (not looking for a group that’ll take 6 months or a year to critique a book), who have work that is complete and in need of critique. And who are possibly interested in doing the Compleat Courses as a group.

[Sussu Leclerc]

Hey Jan and Jake,

I might be interested.
I am definitely interested in some kind of feedback, even if general.
I might benefit from a kick in the butt as I have diverse projects that need polishing.
Last 2 critique groups I was in took 1 year to go through my novels. Although it was amazing, I’d like a faster pace. I kind of learned a slower pace with them. Oops!
If you are in this group, I assume you’re ready for something different 🙂
And I am going through David’s videos right now.
So, yeah, I might be in for anything 🙂

[Jan Nerenberg]

Hi, Sussu: I am also going through David’s videos as well as editing my novel. It is just over 100K and is a historic fantasy. I am interested in feedback in a few weeks as I want to finish the edit first. What do you write, specifically? Jan

[Sussu Leclerc]

Hi Jan,

I mostly write for children, but have an adult urban fantasy in the works.
I love stories with foreign cultures and distant pasts.
I love world-building too.
I also write science-fiction. I have two novels, one set in the sea (life under the sea) and one set on the sea and the future use of sea resources. So, I love environmental novels as well as post-apocalyptic literature.

Here is the blurb for my finished and polished MG novel:

MG historical fantasy (1901, an oasis in Morocco): Shumisha is a shadow who works as a chimney sweep in a flying ship. In her world, monsters in the form of desert dusters close people’s hearts. One of them has closed the captain’s heart and turned his heart evil. The captain has kidnapped Shumisha’s brother and she fears the worst. Shumisha sets on freeing other shadows like herself as she looks for her little brother. Soon, she becomes the Captain’s major target.

My adult novel is an urban fantasy with a war between the overbearing power of the Underworld over magical creatures on earth. Who will win? Life or death?

I hope that helps figure out what I write.
I’d be up for a deep Beta read in a few weeks 🙂

Can you share some of your blurbs? Thanks.

[Jan Nerenberg]

I also write for children but my novel is a crossover for YA/Adult. My pitch line is: “Seventeen-year-old PhD candidate, Barbara Shaunaky, travels to the UK to research an ancient skeleton unearthed in Aberystwyth Castle where she becomes the pawn between centuries of magic and a quest for power.”

[Sussu Leclerc]

Would that be New adult?
Definitely send it my way 🙂

[Marie Newbold]

Is a historical fantasy writing group still on, and possible for a newcomer to join? I’ve been in planning and research stages for about a year and half for stories set in the Taklamakan desert from 698 CE (when the Tang empire re-conquered it) to 744 CE (when the Tang pulled out due to the An Lushan rebellion). I’m ready to get moving, but am having trouble finding a writing group locally who gets when I’m trying to do.

[Pat Hauldren]

That’s pretty cool! I have no idea about anything for that area and time in history. Tell us more!

[Marie Newbold]

You do know how dangerous “tell me more” is to an enthusiastic researcher, right? 🤓

To set the stage – Central Asia in the 7th and 8th centuries was almost constantly at war, but it was also constantly trading. The Persian Sasiniad dynasties had just been supplanted by the new Muslim theocracies in Iran to the west, the merchant cities of the Sogdian trading empire were caught between remnants of the Sasiniads and waves of Turk cavalry from what we now know as Mongolia, north of the Tarim Basin. To the east, China was entering a golden age as the Tang had made alliances with the great Turkic empires and Chang’An was a glowing cosmopolitan city. Tibet, to the south, was an empire to rival China and was not yet the Buddhist theocracy we think of today.

In between these powers was a series of independent kingdoms, with origins unknown. The “Tarim Mummies” are of individuals with red hair and tartan plaids, with a language that seems more related to Czech than to China or Iranian. Buddhist missionaries had found their way into the Tarim as early as 1000 BC, and the Brahmic script was adopted for their local records and Buddhist monastaries. Alexander the Great had advanced to just shy of Kashgar, the western entry point to the Tarim, when his advance halted. When Empress Wu conquered the Tarim and annexed it as part of China in 694, this area was called the “Four Garrisons of Anxi (the west). They were the latest in a long line of “conquerors”, because the cross continent trade from Rome to Chang’An made these kingdoms incredibly wealthy, but living in an oasis on the edge of the worst desert in the world was no place to raise a standing army that could defeat all of China. All of those conquerors meant that you had independent kingdoms peopled by speakers of a Proto-European language and Caucasian genetic group with a strong Buddhist influence absorbing the cultural ideals, refugees, and merchants of China, Persia, Tibet, and Turk nomads in equal measure.

As far as the fantasy element, it’s already there. The horses traded in Kucha are linked to King Solomon’s horses, said to be sired by a dragon living in a lake. The Tang law code includes the penalties for committing crimes by sorcery; the Buddhist law code included the use of oracles to determine past-life truths. Djinn, beings of a subtle fire, are mentioned in the Koran. Daoist ascetics and Indian rishi both communed with other planes of existence. This is the land that Buddhist monk Xuanzang traveled to obtain rare Buddhist manuscripts, later immortalized in the epic tale “Journey to the West”.

These kingdoms were overrun in 850, and the languages of the Tarim disappeared in 900 AD. So this whole area is like a rich, multicultural, desert version of Atlantis that was uncovered in the late 1800s to early 1900s. I love it because I can use the ancient setting or the age of exploration for historical fantasy series – and in fact do have plans for multiple series to link up in the telling the story of the rehabilitation of a lost god. Most of my work is to stop researching and start writing – I just needed to put together the “real” magic system behind all of the historic fables.

Hopefully that whets the appetite, and isn’t boring. 😃

[Jan Nerenberg]

Marie: that sounds great. You’re a perfect fit for SFF (SciFi/Fantasy). I write Historic Fiction Fantasy and find the group invaluable.