Chatting with the Pros: Todd Fahnestock

Posted: January 11, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Book Review, Chatting with the Pros, Fantasy, Fiction, Interview, Review | Tags: Book Review, Book Reviews, Books, Chatting with the Pros, Fantasy, Interview, Todd Fahnestock, Tower of the Four: The Rise of Magic, Writing, Writing to be Read | 1 Comment

My guest this month on “Chatting with the Pros” is Todd Fahnestock, a talented epic fantasy author for both adults and teens. I met Todd, kind of, when we both participated in the 2024 Novel Writing Story Bundle. In fact, his nonfiction writer’s resource, Falling to Fly, is the subject of this month’s “Review in Practice”, and you can catch that post this coming Monday.

He is the author of many epic fantasy series and that fascinates me because epic fantasy spans long periods of time, with multiple characters and multiple storylines to follow. As an author, I’ve been playing around with writing in multiples, (see this month’s “Chatting with the Pros” segment), I find it fascinating to learn how other authors handle this aspect of writing. So, let’s get right to the interview.

About Todd Fahnestock

Interview with Todd Fahnestock

Kaye: Tell us a little about your background or your author’s journey.

Todd: Ha ha! Well, if you want the entire story, I highly recommend reading Falling to Fly, which is a memoir I wrote about this very question. It goes into detail for about 50K words about my writer’s journey, starting with the little beginnings of discovering epic fantasy novels when I was fourteen to speaking in front of a packed-house at Planet Comicon in Kansas City.

I’ll try to do a shorter version here.

So when I was in 8^th grade, I was waiting for my brother to pick me up from school, and I wandered over to the public library which was, conveniently, just across the street from Smiley Junior High. After thumbing through the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit editions in the magazine section, I started wandering through the stacks looking for something a bit more mentally stimulating. I stumbled across Lloyd Alexander’s The Book of Three. The cover just captured me; it transported me away to a place that felt foreign and familiar at the same time, so I opened the book and…

Wow. I hadn’t even known what I was looking for, but The Book of Three had a huge, helping of it. I got lost in the epic fantasy trope.

The story is about a young man my age who has no idea about the magical, dangerous world outside his little farm. The highest honor he can imagine is being promoted to assistant pig keeper within the farm, but he gets swept into an epic journey where he will fight alongside kings, battle legendary monsters, and foil supernatural villains.

I was hooked.

In fact, in a very real way, fantasy books saved my life. My parents were going through a divorce at the time, and in my real life I felt clipped free on a tumultuous ocean, drifting in a boat with no rudder. Fantasy books became a safe port for me. Inside a fantasy story, I could feel powerful. I could feel heroic. I could be unafraid. I clung to those stories like a lifeline.

I went on to read Weis & Hickman’s Dragonlance series, Brooks’ Shannara chronicles, and Piers Anthony’s Xanth series. I devoured every fantasy book I could find.

When I got a little older—eighteen years old to be exact—the most amazing thing I could think to do with my life was to write stories like the ones that had captivated me in my junior high days. So I did. I started writing my first novel in an Independent Study class during my senior year.

It was a magical story about a nigh-invincible, acrobatic swordsman named Koric… with absolutely NO possibility of being published. But I thought it was amazing, so I wrote a second, and a third, and… well, here I am now.

Kaye: Why do you write fantasy as opposed to other genres you might write?

Todd: I’ve actually written in a few other genres: memoir, middle grade, time travel. I even have a 1980s road trip, coming-of-age story with a twist of magic (not sure exactly what genre that is), but I always come back to high fantasy.

I think it’s for two reasons. First, fantasy is completely open-ended. I can get as imaginative as I want while doing little to no research. Anything about the world I don’t know, I can simply invent, and that’s my strong suit.

Second, high fantasy is optimistic. It’s hopeful. High fantasy is the very essence of triumph. I drag my characters through hell, but it is with the hope that they will find their way through the dark, that they will prevail in the end. I love that trope. I simply can’t get enough of it.

So that unique combination simply draws me back again and again. If I’m feeling silly, I can create some snark to serve my mood, a crusty little gromnambulan who rides on the character’s shoulder and has a penchant for eating poker chips or something. If I’m feeling angry and vicious, I can pour all of that negative energy into the most vile villain I can create. I can make that pessimism useful to convey the overall optimism I hold by coming up with a way for my heroes to defeat him. And, of course, I love creating heroes most of all, unlikely misfits who find a way to prevail or—I also love this one—destined characters with unbelievable abilities who are going to be put to the utmost test of their strength/brilliance/competency.

Kaye: You write epic fantasy. Is it more difficult to keep the stories going in epic proportions?

Todd: Ha ha! I don’t know that I’d say it’s more difficult. More difficult than what? Than doing research on how strains of a biological weapon breed and multiply so that I can accurately depict a world-threatening event in a thriller? I don’t know. I’ve never written a thriller.

I know I hate doing research and I love imagining things, looking for my own internal logic rather than sticking to the hard facts of the real world. So maybe in my case, it’s easier to keep stories going in epic proportions than doing that. Epic fantasy is what I’ve known for decades. It seems natural to me.

But it’s not easy.

I do struggle often with trying to fit something together over a larger arc, but I’m getting better at it every time I finish a longer series.

I think holding the threads of an epic story takes up a lot of RAM in my head. In the real world, I’ll forget names. I’ll forget dates. My wife often gets frustrated with me because I can’t remember to bring something up from downstairs that she asked me to get literally two minutes ago, but I think a lot of this is because most of my brainpower is subconsciously sorting plot threads so that when I get to the keyboard, things seem to ‘magically’ sort themselves out.

That’s just a theory, but it seems applicable.

Kaye: You are an author of fantasy for all ages. Can you talk about the main differences in writing teen and young adult fantasy, and adult fantasy?

Todd: Sex.

Ha ha! No, not entirely. But that’s a big one. When people come up to my booth and ask me what age range a book is, that’s what they’re mostly asking about. I’ve interacted with many readers at many cons—and I’m mostly talking about parents who are looking for something for their teenage or tween-age readers—and they don’t care that much if Khyven the Unkillable is hacking a sword through a mythical cat beast. They wanna know if there’s any graphic snogging in the book.

I’ll even often have some pretty creepy or frightening descriptions of monsters—bordering on horror—but it doesn’t seem to bother parents or young audiences. I think young readers can handle more than we give them credit for. And a lot of them are hungry for that kind of thing.

Other factors, especially with readers younger than eleven or so, is the vocabulary. Too many big words and you’re gonna lose them. But there are a LOT of precocious eleven- and twelve-year-old readers out there, and the more epic—and complicated—the story, the more they love it. It’s interesting.

For the last three or four years, I’ve been hanging in the PG-13 range (Eldros Legacy). There are a few romantic relationships in that 5-book story, but it’s just a bit of kissing and if it’s something more, it’s only implied. We close the door, put a sock on the handle.

Adults often WANT the spicier side of things. They want a little more description of the snogging, a bit of a heavier emphasis on the snogging. So when I’m writing an adult story, I try to up the sexy quotient. I don’t think I ever get “erotica” graphic, but I dance right up to the edge of it.

Kaye: Which do you enjoy writing most, heroes or villains? Why?

Todd: Heroes. I never get tired of exploring how and why someone becomes a hero, whether it’s to themselves or to the world, whether it’s a badass warrior who’s selfish and needs to learn to put others above himself or a geeky high school kid who needs to find his confidence.

I think we’re all trying to find our inner hero, whatever that hero looks like. Joseph Campbell stipulates in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces that we have a regular cycle we go through as humans.

• Step 1: We start in our comfort zone (status quo)
• Step 2: We are pushed into the Special World (something NOT the status quo)
• Step 3: We go through trials
• Step 4: We reach a crisis point
• Step 5: We find the wisdom/strength/magic sword to overcome the crisis
• Step 6: We defeat our internal or external demons
• Step 7: We return to the status quo

There are other details he illuminates, but those are the basics. This is the format of the Hero’s Journey, and it is used in hundreds of stories you’ve read or movies you’ve seen. The original Star Wars is a classic example, but you can find it everywhere. This format is used over and over and over again, and the reason is because it resonates so powerfully, so intimately, with us. And the reason it does is because we LIVE this journey almost every day.

• Step 1: We head out to work (status quo)
• Step 2: We come across a frustration (car won’t start).
• Step 3: We go through trials (inspecting the car/Googling the problem/finding the part/installing it ourselves or taking it to a mechanic).
• Step 4: We reach a crisis point (yelling and throwing the wrench/kicking the fender).
• Step 5: We find the “magic sword” (money, time, effort).
• Step 6: We fix the problem.
• Step 7: We get back on the road…

There are a million ways to solve these problems, and there are a million different kinds of heroes to solve these problems. I haven’t yet tired of exploring all the different facets.

As an aside, I do enjoy writing villains, too. I love it. It allows me to dance in my dark side, to imagine the very worst of the worst. It’s… cathartic. And frightening. Thinking of the things that lurk in my dark side sometimes makes me shiver. But bringing those thoughts into the light…

…and then having the heroes bring the smackdown is very satisfying.

There’s a scene in the fifth Eldros Legacy book where one of the characters has been abused and twisted and tormented by one of the villains. She finally gets the chance to bring justice to him in a very personal (and bloody) way. I stand up and cheer when I get to that scene.

Kaye: Would you tell us about your podcast, Fantasy in the Margins?

Todd: Absolutely. This is a new thing I started in November of 2024. Essentially, I release a three-chapter chunk of the audio book Khyven the Unkillable (the first book in the Eldros Legacy: Legacy of Shadows series) each week, and then I do an author’s commentary on the chapters. Sometimes I’ll talk about what I liked the most—or hated the most—about its creation.

Oftentimes I’ll break it down as though I’m teaching a writing class on how to put together a story. I talk a lot about Save the Cat (a writer’s how-to book). It’s a lot of fun.

It’s also a great way to get the audiobook for free.

Kaye: You sell direct on your site. In addition to books, you also sell merchandise related to your books. I took a peek, and there’s some pretty cool stuff there. Does selling direct from your site offer you an advantage as an author?

Todd: It has huge advantages as an author.

My policy is to use all the platforms I can. I’m on Amazon. I’m in bookstores. If someone wants to find me or has a preferred platform they like to buy from, I make it as easy as possible.

But I spend a lot of time meeting readers face to face. I make and build relationships with them, and they buy directly from me at those events and online. Often, they would like to continue buying directly from me, and I want to let them. Thus, the website.

An added benefit is that if I sell directly, I make more money per book.

The merchandise is fun, too. That was started by my assistant, and it’s awesome to think people have Wishing World blankets or Eldros mugs in their houses.

I think it also helps in building my brand. The more stuff with my name and/or my characters on it that is out in the world, the more recognizable my brand becomes.

Kaye: Your work has won or been considered for many awards over the years. Which of these would you say you are the most proud of, and why?

Todd: Oh… That’s a tough one. It was such an honor to have one of my short stories (written with my friend Giles Carwyn) be selected by the New York Public Library’s Books for the Teenage. It was completely unexpected, and we were actually living in New York at the time, so we got to go to the reception.

Getting nominated twice for the Colorado Book Award (for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy and Khyven the Unkillable) was quite an honor.

But I think my favorite are my wins from the Colorado Authors League. I have three of those now for Tower of the Four: The Champions Academy, Khyven the Unkillable and Ordinary Magic, a memoir about me and my 14-year-old son hiking The Colorado Trail, a 486-mile trek from Denver to Durango.

Kaye: What is the best writing advice you’ve ever received?

Todd: Oh jeesh. You’re going to make me pick ONE?

Sorry. Can’t do it. Gonna give you three.

Margaret Weis, author of the Dragonlance novels, once said to me when I was a wide-eyed fledgling novelist:

“You can’t listen to the bad reviews… but you can’t listen to the good reviews either.”

It was like a Zen Buddhist koan. I totally understood the first part. Don’t let the haters get you down, right? Got that. Old wisdom.

But the second part? I puzzled over that for years. Why NOT listen to the good reviews? Isn’t that the whole point? People who love what you do telling you so?

Yeah, I didn’t get it until I started having success… and then it hit like a hammer.

When Tower of the Four won awards and Khyven the Unkillable was creating a buzz behind-the-scenes in the publishing industry, I was on top of the world. I felt like I was finally hitting my artistic stride. I could do no wrong.

Then I went to work on my next book. The demons in my mind swarmed me: “What if this book isn’t an award winner? What if you’ve lost your mojo?”

I completely locked up. I struggled to get to the midpoint and then gave up with a gasp, thunderstruck and full of fear that I’d lost my ability to write.

I had to set aside that work-in-progress and intentionally write a “crappy novel.” That is to say, write without fear of disappointing anyone, especially myself. To just let myself create whatever came out. That broke the log-jam. I found my stride again, but I will remember that lesson forever.

Another great bit of advice was delivered by Jim Butcher, author of the Harry Dresden Urban Fantasy phenomenon. He said:

“Don’t worry about getting ridiculous in your writing. You are in far greater danger of losing a reader to boredom than from a reader saying, ‘This is too silly. I can’t possibly read more of this because it’s so ridiculous.’”

I carry that with me everywhere. To me it means: be brave when you write. Write the things that scare you, things you’re afraid people will judge. That’s the good stuff. That’s the stuff people identify with. I assure you, you’re not alone in feeling like others might judge you. And the readers that feel those same things will develop a kinship with you, the author who understands them. That’s what makes fans.

Lastly, Dean Wesley Smith once said during his Writing into the Dark class:

“Stay in your creative mind when you write.”

He clarified by saying writers have a “creative mind” and a “critical mind.” My impression was that Dean didn’t have much use for the “critical mind.” Even when editing. He said that the creative mind, when it comes across something that doesn’t work in your writing, will say something like, “Oooo! This gives me the opportunity to create this.” Or “Oh wow. I see what I was trying to do here. I wanna rewrite this so that I can get closer to my vision.”

The critical mind, on the other hand, says things like, “This chapter sucks! What were you thinking?”

In short, the creative mind is excited.4 The creative mind wants to build.

The critical mind wants to criticize. It is not a builder.

As a writer, stay in the creative mind.

Kaye: Thank you for being my guest today, Todd. It’s been a pleasure chatting with you. Before we go, tell us where readers can go to find out more about you and your books.

Todd: Thank you for having me! This has been a treat.

As to finding my books, you can get them from my website: toddfahnestock.com

For ebooks, it’s cheaper for you (and more money for me). And if you’re a hardback or paperback reader, you can get signed copies!

You can also get unsigned books on Amazon or order them from your local bookstore, too. They’re all there.

Thanks again, Kaye. Have a fantastic weekend!

About Tower of the Four: The Rise of Magic

My Review of Tower of the Four: The Rise of Magic

I received a digital copy of Tower of the Four: The Rise of Magic, by Todd Fahnesstock, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own.

Tower of Four: Rise of Magic, comprises episodes 7-9 in Todd Fahnestock’s Tower of the Four fantasy series. Even though I have not read episodes 1-6, I found the rules of the world clearly outlined where needed and had no problem following the later episodes in this volume.

The world building is top notch, as Fahnestock does a great job of introducing us to a world of magic, where seemingly nothing is impossible. Or is it? Fahnestock takes us on an adventure, as magic is conception on this world, through several turns of the tables over the centuries, cluing readers in to the rules of magic, and showing us just what it can do.

The characters are well-developed, but unpredictable, which in epic fantasy, can be a good thing. You never know who will be tempted or tricked into switching sides, and of course all good villians have an unsuspected trick up their sleeve. In this epic tale, the villians have more than a few. But, as is often in life, the character’s true inner selves, may be their downfall.The possession of magical powers changes people in unsuspected ways, and those who are at first percieved as heroes, may later be seen as villians in this tale of betrayal and revenge.

A magical adventure that is truly entertaining. I give Tower of the Four: The Rise of Magic five quills.

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This segment of “Chatting with the Pros” is sponsored by The Rock Star & The Outlaw and WordCrafter Press.

LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.

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