I'm Raederle Phoenix. I've been writing since I was five or six years old; before I had ever read an entire book of my own accord. My first real attempt at a novel was when I was twelve; three-hundred typed pages of complete drivel where every character seemed suspiciously like my twelve-year old self.
I wrote several other novels with several-hundred-typed-pages. They were filled with imagination but lacking in a refined touch throughout my teens. Several of those projects I was loathe to give up on, but they served their purpose as excellent practice.
Years of reading fantastic fantasy tales from Carol Berg, Steven Brust, Karen Miller, Terry Pratchet, Jean Auel, J. K. Rowling, Naomi Novik, and an odd assortment of other influences such as Erica Jong have brought my writing style up to speed with my degree of imagination.
[August 14th 2010] Just this morning my husband's co-worker was shaking his head and telling me, "You have an extraordinary level of imagination."
[September 1st 2010] I've discovered through reading writer's blogs and forums that most writers learn the most about writing through critique of their own work. While I find this necessary for refining a project until it's polished, I don't find that it does very much to improve my writing. I learn the most about how to write the way I want to write from reading stories written in a way I'd like to emulate. A blog post I wrote about learning from what I read.
[October 30th 2010] I'm going to work on the second book in the Daughter of Crystals series for Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month.)
Through a series of myriad inspirations throughout my teens I became not only a writer and some-time poet, but a skilled artist, particularly of the digital medium. Within my novel you can expect a multitude of illustrations by none other than the author herself.
Sometimes I get so wrapped up in map-drawing, chart-making, and illustration that I get distracted from finishing the novel itself. I used to view this as an issue, but my husband has reminded me that one of the most famous authors had more maps, charts, drawings and so forth than books; Tolkien.
With that in mind, I only curb my chart-making and drawing just enough to get some writing done each day. You can expect a world with as much depth as Middle Earth, even if it is lacking in it's own complete languages. (I'm an artist and a writer; you can't seriously expect me to be a linguist too at my age!)
I also have high hopes of making a board game based on the Daughter of Crystals series. If that project ever gets cranking, I'll for sure be blogging about it here.
