For Todd Fahnestock and his creations, breaking rules can be key to growth

Todd Fahnestock is an award-winning, bestselling author of fantasy for all ages and winner of the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age Award. He is a founder of Eldros Legacy — a multi-author, shared-world mega-epic fantasy series — a three-time winner of the Colorado Authors League Award for Writing Excellence, and two-time finalist for the Colorado Book Award. Visit him at toddfahnestock.com.

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SunLit: Tell us this book’s backstory. What inspired you to write it? Where did the story/theme originate?

Fahnestock: “Lorelle of the Dark” is the sequel to “Khyven the Unkillable” and a progression of the meta-story of Eldros Legacy: Legacy of Shadows, which will culminate with the 5^th book (due out on July 2, 2024). This shared epic fantasy world was created by the founders: Marie Whittaker, Mark Stallings, Quincy J. Allen, and myself. The Legacy of Shadows storyline is mine, set within the continent I created, Noksonon, but it connects to the other three continents created by Marie (Pyranon), Mark (Drakanon), and Quincy (Daemanon).

The theme of “Lorelle of the Dark” is an extension of the theme of the entire Legacy of Shadows storyline: found family. These misfits are thrown together through seeming happenstance. They all have vastly different backgrounds, but as they slam against one another, fight against each other, and fight for each other, they will grow personally, find their power, and knit together into a fabric that will save the world.

SunLit: Place this excerpt in context. How does it fit into the book as a whole? Why did you select it?

Fahnestock: The excerpt is from the start of the book. I selected it because I believe strongly in beginning at the beginning. Done correctly, the first chapters of a book should not only set the tone, but also make a promise, a glimpse of what the reader can expect from this story. And, of course, it’s my job to ensure that promise is paid off by the end. If it isn’t, then I haven’t done my job correctly.

The character we see in the prologue isn’t the main character, which is ironic because I am also a strong believer that the beginning of the book should showcase the main character. I find epic fantasy to be tricky in this way, and so I sidestepped my usual rule.

SunLit: Tell us about creating this book. What influences and/or experiences informed the project before you sat down to write? 

Fahnestock: The entire Eldros Legacy mega-epic was designed with Dungeons & Dragons in mind. That’s why there is a party of five heroes, each with differing talents. If one were to classify the main characters of the Legacy of Shadows storyline in D&D terms, it would go like this:

Khyven: Warrior, straight-up
Lorelle: Rogue/assassin
Rhenn: Ranger, queen (a female Aragorn perhaps, except with a bit more devil-may-care thrown in)
Slayter: Mage, of course.
Vohn: Paladin. A short, bespectacled, be-horned (is that a word?) paladin.
Shalure: Cleric… and possible Valkyrie

These are not litRPG (literary role-playing game) books. They are edge-of-your-seat epic fantasy, but the idea was to create a D&D-style adventure party that had to “level-up” as they went through the adventures until they were equal to the task of saving the world.

SunLit: What did the process of writing this book add to your knowledge and understanding of your craft and/or the subject matter?

Fahnestock: So “Lorelle of the Dark” was the third book I’d written using the Save the Cat beat sheet (see “Save the Cat” by Blake Snyder and “Save the Cat Writes a Novel” by Jessica Brody, both excellent reads). So much of the story was shaped by that structure, which I adore. 

My goal while writing this book was to hammer home the tenets of “Save the Cat.” I wanted them ingrained in my very approach to novels. As I mentioned, I’d used it twice before with great results (“Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy,” and “Khyven the Unkillable,” both of which were finalists for The Colorado Book Award and winners of the Colorado Authors League awards). I wanted to get to the point where I didn’t have to refer to the book or beat sheet anymore. I wanted to internalize the knowledge and wisdom contained in those two volumes of writing how-to.

To my knowledge, I didn’t succeed.

That is to say, I still have to refer to the books as I prepare to write another story. Total recall is simply not a superpower I have, so as a new novel percolates in the back of my mind, I will still use both of those how-to books as reference guides. Everybody has different superpowers, I suppose. I didn’t get the comprehensive memory power.

But hey, I can type 125 words per minute. So there.

SunLit: What were the biggest challenges you faced in writing this book?

Fahnestock: I wanted this book to be about Khyven, and Lorelle didn’t allow it.

So Khyven was the main character of “Khyven the Unkillable,” as everyone who has read the book already knows. But what most people don’t know is that Khyven was supposed to be the main character of ALL the books. “Lorelle of the Dark” started that way. And then stopped. And then started again. And then stopped…

And then started again.

I tried every which way to make Khyven the main character, but Lorelle kept popping up as the one who had the story to tell. She grabbed my chin and forced my gaze onto her life, and that was when two things happened: It became Lorelle’s book. And Legacy of Shadows became an ensemble story.

I realized right then and there that, while Khyven is the destined one, each of these characters was going to have their full time in the spotlight. The theme is about found family, and so it should have come as no surprise to me — although it did — that the team was going to be the hero in this story, not any particular individual.

I am now utterly tickled when there are arguments about who is, in fact, the hero of the story. One of my favorite readers, and a fellow author in the Eldros Legacy — Kendra Merritt — believes that Rhenn is the main character. There are some who think Slayter is the real hero of this story.

I love that.

SunLit: What’s the most important thing — a theme, lesson, emotion or realization — that readers should take from this book? 

Fahnestock: I think the most important lesson about this book, the emotional thread of the thing, is that breaking the rules can sometimes be exactly what we need to grow. That sometimes the very well-meaning structures we create for ourselves — structures that may have even saved us at one point in our lives — can turn stifling later, can snuff out the magic that leads us to our best selves. Especially if that magic lies in the darker corners of our souls. 

We are always growing and changing, and a structure made to help us survive, say, the death of our parents (as is the case with Lorelle) at age 11 might no longer be useful at age 21. More than that, it could be the reason we cannot move on or grow.

That is the path that Lorelle walks through this journey. She tries to escape her racial destiny and falls into a dark world where there is so much more to her people’s history — and her own — than she ever guessed. There’s evil to be had there, but good also, and how she walks the line between the two determines who she will be at the end.

SunLit: Walk us through your writing process: Where and how do you write? 

Fahnestock: I write in my office in the upstairs front of my house. I have a view of the mountains (so nice, but I almost never look at it while writing). I have a chalkboard wall where I write little ditties to inspire myself (this room used to be my kids’ room, and the chalkboard was originally for them, but it now serves me quite well). 

I have four bookcases, each with about five shelves apiece, and aside from one shelf that has dust-covered sentimental paraphernalia (I don’t even know what’s down there. I haven’t looked in years) and one with a graphic novel collection with Brian Michael Bendis’s New Avengers & Ultimate Spider-Man, Alan Moore’s Watchmen, Frank Miller’s Sin City, and Robert Kirkman’s Invincible (as well as art books by Frank Frazetta, Larry Elmore, and Frank Cho), every single shelf contains my own books — stock for the many comic cons where I sell books.

There are boxes full of books stacked on the floor, and empty boxes that once had books unfortunately strewn everywhere (except right after I clean… which isn’t today).

As to how I write, well…

Okay, so there are so many ways to write. I know writers who get up and write a thousand words every day, two thousand, even three thousand. Like clockwork, they get up and they pound out those words every single day, and I have longed to be one of those people.

I am not.

I do try. I set my intention (1,000 words/day), and I try my damndest to stick to it. But I haven’t yet succeeded. Oh, I’ll get a month where I succeed, but I always go off the rails in the end. Some days, it is the bane of my existence, and I curse myself for not having just a bit more discipline.

That is one way to look at it. 

But there is a flipside to my inability to stick to a schedule. Instead of logging my words like clockwork, they come and go like the tide. Some days the tide is out, and I struggle to find any words. Some days the words come like a tsunami, pushing past all defenses, coursing through me, not to be denied. I have written an entire rough draft in 13 days because of this tsunami.

I have sometimes wondered if I forced myself to the clockwork schedule, would I lose the tsunami? I don’t have the wherewithal to scientifically prove or disprove that notion, but if there’s even a chance I’d lose the tsunami, then perhaps I’m not lacking willpower so much as harboring an unconscious wisdom to work with the tides. Because when I’m flowing with that inspiration, it is euphoric. It’s the primary reason I continue to write.

I don’t ever want to lose it. 

SunLit: In “Lorelle of the Dark,” there are Light Elves (Luminents) and Dark Elves (Nox). What are the main differences between them?

Fahnestock: Both races were created by the Giants thousands of years ago, and each had specific jobs within the noktums (places of absolute and eternal darkness). Lorelle is a Luminent (light elf), and she has a special racial power that makes her hair glow with light when she is emotional, be it happy, sad, angry, or whatever. This is a magical light that can illuminate the darkness of the noktum and enable the Luminents to see.

The Nox (dark elves) are entirely adapted to the dark of the noktums. They can see there perfectly well and live within the rather unique ecosystem that has sprung up in that lightless place. That said, they do not do well in sunlight. It hurts their eyes; they are almost as blind in the sunlight as a normal person is in the absolute dark of the noktum.

There are other differences in the culture, not the least of which is that both have stories that tell how the two split. Luminents say they were the original race, that the Nox fell to the darkness, and were enslaved by the Giants. The Nox say that all elves were Nox once, and that the Luminents rebelled, broke from their creators, and stopped being who they truly were.

It is never resolved which of them is actually correct.

SunLit: Tell us about your next project.

Fahnestock: So I should preface this by saying that my next projects when I finished “Lorelle of the Dark” were book 3, 4, and 5 in the Legacy of Shadows storyline (“Rhenn the Traveler,” “Slayter and the Dragon,” and finally “Bane of Giants”). As of the writing of this, though, those books are complete. 

So technically, my next project — the book I’m currently writing — is a non-fiction book (my second, including “Ordinary Magic”) where I talk about what I’ve learned about writing and how to implement it. It is coming together as part autobiography and part how-to book, and I’m deeply engaged with it right now.

A few more quick questions

A few more quick questions (and short answers)

SunLit: Which do you enjoy more as you work on a book – writing or editing?

Fahnestock: Writing. The tsunami that comes sometimes, as I described above, is one of my favorite things in life. I do love the editing process, though. It gives me the opportunity to use the skills I have accrued over time, to place things just so, to give those readers who love subtle nuance and interesting details the opportunity to find them and enjoy them as much as I do.

SunLit: What’s the first piece of writing – at any age – that you remember being proud of?

Fahnestock: My first novel. I was 18 years old and so proud I’d written it. It had the characters in it that I wanted to be.

It was, of course, awful, but I wouldn’t know that until much later. I now appreciate it not for what it is, but for what it did. It gave rise to all the novels that would follow. And for that, I am forever grateful, but I don’t imagine I could read even two paragraphs of that book without choking on derisive bile. I can’t even tell you the name of the book, because even the name was so bad. Let’s just call it the Koric Book.

SunLit: What three writers, from any era, would you invite over for a great discussion about literature and writing? 

Fahnestock: Orson Scott Card, because he wrote my favorite book ever: “Ender’s Game.” Stephen King, because I want to have his career. And Neil Gaiman, because my wife would love me forever if I invited Neil Gaiman to dinner.

SunLit: Do you have a favorite quote about writing?

Fahnestock: Two quotes, in fact. They are:

“Tell them what you’re going to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them.” – Kurt Vonnegut

“If someone tells you that something doesn’t work about your story, they are almost always right. If they tell you how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” – Neil Gaiman

SunLit: What does the current collection of books on your home shelves tell visitors about you?

Fahnestock: That I must be galactically self-centered. (see answer above about how my book shelves are lined with my own books)

SunLit: Soundtrack or silence? What’s the audio background that helps you write?

Fahnestock: Ooooo. Soundtrack. I almost always listen to music while I write. Mostly female vocalists (I have a weakness for pop chanteuses).

SunLit: What music do you listen to for sheer enjoyment?

Fahnestock: The same music I write to. Or whatever my son puts on a playlist for me. He has a love of 1970s and 80s classic rock. I love it.

SunLit: What event, and at what age, convinced you that you wanted to be a writer?

Fahnestock: It was an independent study class my senior year of high school. I wanted to write a fantasy book. They told me they’d give me academic credit for putting my wild and fickle imagination on the page. Could there be a better class?

It was an even bigger surprise later when people started paying me money for putting my wild and fickle imagination on the page.

SunLit: Greatest writing fear?

Fahnestock: That I will never write a book as amazing as ”Ender’s Game,” have a career as lucrative and popular as Stephen King’s, or be as welcome at my wife’s dinner table as Neil Gaiman.

SunLit: Greatest writing satisfaction?

Fahnestock: That moment when the muse takes me away. When hours fly by and I don’t even realize it. When I wake up like the cobbler and the elves and discover that 10,000 words have been written, and I love them.

Type of Story: Q&A

An interview to provide a relevant perspective, edited for clarity and not fully fact-checked.