Hello Readers!  I am honored to host author Bryan Alaspa.  He has been a guest on this blog before, and I was happy to help him promote his book: The Lightning Weaver – The Elementals Part One.  Well, Bryan’s been channeling those elements once again! He has followed up with the sequel – The Lord of Winter (The Elementals Book 2). It is available for pre-order this very moment!

 

The first book of the series is about a girl that can manipulate electricity. Alaspa follows up with a story about a boy that freeze entire cities.  Some might ask why anyone would imagine these fanciful scenarios. What’s wrong with staying firmly planted in the mundane world of reality?  There are perhaps a hundred different ways to respond to that question. A quick answer is that it would be too damn boring without the gift of imagination.  But Alaspa gives a more in-depth analysis of the subject.  Please enjoy his essay on “Why a Writer Writes”

 

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A writer writes. That’s what you hear when you get started down this rather crazy and weird career path. You are supposed to be constantly writing, because every time you put down a word, create a new sentence and develop a new story, you get better. I know that was what happened with me.

 

I started writing stories all the way back in third grade. I was obsessed with the movie Jaws and I pounded out a three page single-spaced, non-existent-punctuation story called Jaws, Jr. It was terrible, of course, but the magic I tapped into when I wrote my first story was a high I have been pursuing ever since.

 

At first, like many, I copied the styles and writing techniques of the authors I loved to read. I wrote many short stories that were total nods to Peter Benchley, Stephen King and HG Wells. That’s not a bad thing because the other adage that you hear, although it is less known, is that “a writer reads.”

 

You have to read. You cannot think yourself so above the rest of the literary world that you do not read other people’s work. I find that I get some of my best inspiration reading other books. Not that I want to write my own version of what I’m reading, but somehow reading a really good book just tickles the part of the brain that taps into the world of stories I have been granted access.

 

So, why does a writer write? Well, I can only tell you that this writer writes because he has to. Because when I sink into the fictional world I have created it is only then that I am truly at home, truly in command. Outside, I am shy, nervous, uncertain. In the world of story, I am king, commander, god, benevolent dictator and friend.

 

I write because the stories come to me. They just hit me hard in the side of the head, inside my skull. They haunt my every private moment and are lurking there, hiding in the shadows when I try to fall asleep. When the story reaches a kind of critical mass, it seems like a thousand voices are running around in my head and I have to sit down and let it all out.

 

See, I believe that I don’t necessarily make up the stories that I write. No, I believe that I have found a way to tap into these stories. They just walk up to me in my mind and start telling me their tales. I transcribe them, offer some advice, but basically I am just pouring out words told to me by people that only I can see in my head.

 

I guess that makes me just a tiny bit crazy.

 

That’s OK, you have to be a bit crazy to want to make stuff up for a living. I think writing is necessary and telling stories is necessary. We need those distractions from the horrors of the real world. The real world is far scarier and more horrifying than anything I have ever written.

 

So, why does this writer write? Because I have to. Because I was made to. Because I love it. Because I want to entertain you.

 

I just hope you like the tales when the come.

 

BWA

 

Bryan W. Alaspa’s new novel is The Lord of Winter: Elementals Part Two, available in print and Kindle editions.

http://www.amazon.com/Lord-Winter-Elementals-Book-ebook/dp/B01BH6C6XO

 

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Stay tuned – Bryan Alaspa will make a third appearance on this blog. This third entry will focus on the content of his Elemental Series.