The subtle perceptions are often so revealing and so neatly expressed. Another would be the depth of insight into characters’ thoughts, reactions and motivations. Things are often expressed in unexpected, even adventurous ways that would have taken a lot of thought and that result in a new dimension, a new layer to the reading experience. The first would probably be the creative use of words, almost a playfulness. I have a long list of things I’ve learned from the classics, but let me just pick out a few. Jonathan: Yes, there are some major differences in punctuation and style, which have to be overlooked, and I do share your frustrations but I find the gains are worth it. I read a few Jane Austen novels more recently and she’s still brilliantly funny, but those run on sentences! Sheesh! How did puzzling out the classics help with your own writing? Or did it? I find that fascinating because while I read many of those authors, I didn’t study their writing. and that you’re original fiction writing was informed in this way.

In your bio, you indicate that you originally grew up reading the classics, such as Dickens, Twain, Doyle, Austen, Stevenson, etc. Sometimes the silence would be broken by questions like, “Have you thought about becoming an accountant?”ĭavis: Oh thank God! Now I don’t have to feel so inferior. I did allow one or two people to read them and they were disturbingly silent afterwards. At the time, I thought those first few pages I wrote were going to shake the world with their brilliance. It’s only when I look back that I get a bit of perspective – and wince. The weird thing is that I can never really tell at any given stage if my writing is any good. Shallow and combustible might be more accurate. Jonathan: Deep and dark would be undue compliments to my early efforts. Are there any deep, dark books that you’ve written? Novels so bad that the pages bleed? (fingers crossed: please say yes, please say yes, please say yes-us mere mortals hate it when demigods descend to show us up). There is an old wives’ tale, sometimes attributed to Stephen King, that in order to become proficient as a writer, you first have to practice, and that usually requires one million words of crap before you finally start getting it right. I thought it was one of the finest self-published fantasy work since Anthony Ryan’s seminal Blood Song, and one of the finest fantasy novels I’ve read in the past few years.īut before we get to your book, Jonathan, let’s talk about what you’ve done in the past. This is the self-published novel that I recently reviewed and absolutely loved. Davis: Today, I get to interview Jonathan Renshaw, author of the fantastic Dawn of Wonder, the first volume of his planned Wakening series.

Dawn of wonder the wakening