Introductions

[Wayne Batson]

Welcome to the Wayne Thomas Batson Forum here at SFF World! I'm the Author of The Door Within Trilogy, a bestselling epic fantasy series for YA readers and anyone else who likes a good fantasy yarn.

I guess that makes me your host. So, in the name of the One, True King, ruler of Alleble and The Realm, King Eliam the Everlasting, I bid thee a hearty welcome and well met.

I'm going to make this thread a STICKY, so that as folks wander in, they can say hello and tell a little bit about themselves.

If you are willing, tell us:
• Name or User Name
• Interests/Hobbies
• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
• Anything else you want to share.

[Wayne Batson]

• Name or User Name
I'm Wayne Thomas Batson

• Interests/Hobbies
I am a teacher and an author. I dabble in 3D artwork. I play electric quitar. And I think that Nachos are their own food group.

• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
Uh, yes...once or twice.

• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
See above.

• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
The Hobbit was my gateway. My cousin gave me that book the summer of 7th grade. My life has never been the same. lol

• Anything else you want to share.
When the storms of life come, remember, you are Never Alone!

[Regidor Dragon]

• Name or User Name
I'm Mike Kinion
• Interests/Hobbies
just started to do some Writing ... Astronomy.. reading ( this to is a new Hobbie)
• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
yes and yes and Oh Yes

• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
I will when it comes out

• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
Eragon and Eldest

• Anything else you want to share
when you feel a lone that on one cares just call His name

[vgunn]

• Name or User Name
Val Gunn
• Interests/Hobbies
Reading, Writing and Travel
• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
Only the Door Within
• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
No, but its on the list
• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
Lord of the Rings
• Anything else you want to share.
“It is the job that is never started that takes longest to finish.”

[Wayne Batson]

Welcome, Mike and Vgunn! Thanks for coming by this new forum. I wonder how many folks have LOTR as their gateway books.

[Radthorne]

Greetings, Wayne, and welcome to the Author Forums! Hopefully you'll give our dear Alison a run for her money with the YA posters!

Questions, you say... Okay, here ya go:
Kevin Radthorne
• Interests/Hobbies: aside from writing, I spend most every evening creating... 3D art! So, tell us some more of what you do, or better yet start another thread where you can post some pictures. I'd love to see 'em. (The thread on computer art that I have in my forum gets more attention that the book ones by far... )
• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not? No, but then again I end up reading very little fiction when I'm in the midst of working on a new book. My reading stack is getting very high...
• Have you read Isle of Swords or not? As above.
• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre: I think that would by the Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz, followed by the Pern Dragon books of Anne McCaffrey.
• Anything else you want to share: Glad you're here with us, and hope you meet lots of new readers!

[kater]

• Name or User Name: Kater

• Interests/Hobbies: Rugby, MMA and comics. I'm slowly starting to try and write some comic scripts, I think a lot of neat ideas that get used for short story fiction would transfer well to the visual medium. Plus with art at such a high level (I am in awe of top artists) the stories really can come to life.

• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not? Not yet, I have this book pile that winds its way up my staircase and into the backroom. At the moment it has me beaten, but you're in there somewhere

• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?

• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre: David Gemmell's Legend of Deathwalker, which lead me to Druss and thus heroic fiction in general. More recently Steven Erikson has redefined the fantasy genre for me, his world-building is staggering and he sits on top of the crowd at the moment.

• Anything else you want to share: Welcome to sffworld author forums , great to see new authors here in the forums and wish you all the best of luck in building something enjoyable. Not sure anyone can challenge Alison yet though

[Rocket Sheep]

• Name or User Name
Bren MacDibble

• Interests/Hobbies
Science fiction, mod/urb fantasy (no offence), YA & children's fiction, making the world a better place.

• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
Sorry

• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
Sorry

• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
A teacher read The Hobbit, and I was just so amused that an adult would spend that much time reading to children, that I couldn't pay attention to the story line. War of the Worlds via the radio was what really got to me... sorry again, then the Tomorrow People, The Survivors, The Blob, Dr Who... poor old Hobbit didn't stand a chance.... altho I have been to Hobbiton several times.

• Anything else you want to share.
I'd like to know how you write YA. I've already interviewed several YA writers and I always get a different response. Are you a show them all the evil there can be or dress up the evil in dark capes kind of writer?

[Wayne Batson]

Greetings, Wayne, and welcome to the Author Forums! Hopefully you'll give our dear Alison a run for her money with the YA posters! 3D art! So, tell us some more of what you do, or better yet start another thread where you can post some pictures. I'd love to see 'em. (The thread on computer art that I have in my forum gets more attention that the book ones by far...

GREAT idea, Rad! Now if I can just figure out how to do that, it's on. I've already seen some of your work. COOLNESS. I'll see if I can get a Sticky thread for artwork. I'm sure there are restrictions so we don't fry the server with a zillion terabites of art. lol

Btw, how far are you into your new book?

[Wayne Batson]

I have this book pile that winds its way up my staircase and into the backroom. At the moment it has me beaten, but you're in there somewhere

I SO know what you mean. I've had so many good books recommended to me since coming to SFF that I can't keep up. A good problem to have though. Right now, I'm reading 7 books concurrently. I know that sounds confusing, but I love them all and just can't stick to one.

[Wayne Batson]

I'd like to know how you write YA. I've already interviewed several YA writers and I always get a different response. Are you a show them all the evil there can be or dress up the evil in dark capes kind of writer?

No need to apologize about the Hobbit. It's an acquired taste. lol I just fell in love with the other world aspect of it. And, as a young teen, I needed so terribly to see a somewhat timid protag (Bilbo) set out on adventure and do something that mattered.

As far as how I write YA, I'd like to think that I write where kids' hearts are. I have taught middle school reading/English for 17 years, and I'm amazed at how insightful kids are. In spite of what most adults are ready to admit, kids are asking the BIG questions of life. I try to write stories where young people CAN and WILL do important things. I write stories where the BIG questions are explored, and hopefully drop some breadcrumbs that will lead to answers. And the evil in my stories is multifaceted. I certainly have central antagonist villains, but I also make it very clear that sometimes our own evil can be our undoing with or without a black-caped villain.

[Radthorne]

GREAT idea, Rad! Now if I can just figure out how to do that, it's on. I've already seen some of your work. COOLNESS. I'll see if I can get a Sticky thread for artwork. I'm sure there are restrictions so we don't fry the server with a zillion terabites of art. lol

Btw, how far are you into your new book?

SFFWorld doesn't have any uploads for images, so you'll have to host them elsewhere. I have mine all stashed with the same ISP who hosts my website. Then I just link to them in the posts.

I am almost done with the first draft of the book, which is the third volume in my Tales of Tonogato series. I had actually hoped to be done today, as a matter of fact, but the last chapter ended up being longer than I expected, so now it's going to be two chapters, only one of which got done today. But this weekend, for sure! Been 10 months getting to this point so I'm ready for it to be over now... (Well, at least until the editing fun begins...)

[Konrad]

• Name or User Name
Arvid Nordwall (Swede)

• Interests/Hobbies
Reading, painting, drawing and now roleplaying. To easily bored to be author.

• Have you read The Door Within Trilogy or not?
Can´t say that I have.

• Have you read Isle of Swords or not?
Like above, sorry.

• Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
Like many others The Lord Of The Ring (On Swedish). What can I say, my father read it a long time ago and it stood there so tempting on the bookshelf the trilogy, next to the Silmarilion (Didn´t read that though, not so early, I read it later though, not as good as the ring. The same goes for The Hobbit).
And I read the serie and it was so good that when I heard that the movie should come I read it once more and I did so before every movie. Haven´t read it since I´m sorry to say.

• Anything else you want to share.
Good thread, if you haven´t tried roleplaying do it. New worlds are waiting fore you and your creativity gets a rush.

[Wayne Batson]

Hey, Konrad

Welcome to my forum. And i know what you mean by roleplaying. I'm positively addicted to this Oblivion game on X-Box.

[LadyGwenne]

Name or User Name:
Guen Labig(Yes believe it or not, my real name is Guenhwyvar. Kind of cool that the character's name is Gwenne)


Interests/Hobbies:
I like to read, write, draw manga, write poetry, play video games, eat, sleep, and wander the internet. Reading is in my blood line. Almost everyone in my family likes to read. My sister and I like to write stories and draw manga. (We also read manga, aside from other books). I started to write poetry when I was about 12. I was going through a state of depression and writing poetry helped me. Playing video games is fun. I could stay up until 3 in the morning playing video games. My favourites are Need For Speed, Jetmoto3, Kingdom Hearts I & II, and Final Fantasy VII. Sleeping and Eating, well, I think most people like those things.

Have you read the Door Within Trilogy or not?
I have and I absolutly love them. I used to only read certain types of books with specific kinds of characters, but ever since I read these books, I have been more open to other kinds of books.

Have you read the Isle of Swords or not?
Nope, not yet. But I'll be one of the first people in line to buy it!

Your "Gateway" book--ie, the fantasy book that ushered you into a love for the fantasy genre.
Ummm....I don't really remember. I have read so many Science Fiction and Fantasy Books, I don't know which ones I haven't read. It was probably the Lord of the Rings Books. After I saw the first movie, I decided I wanted to read them. But I'm not quite sure if they were my 'GateWay'.

Anything else you want to share.
I have gone through a lot in my life. My parents got divorced when I was 5. I was diagonised with Type 1 Diabetes when I was 11. One of my missions in life is to show others that people with Diabetes are like anyone else and we are not handicapped.
My moto in life is: "Yesterday is but a Memory. Don't let it bring you down. Look to Today. Let what you're living be a lesson for Tomorrow. Try to do things that can't be done."
I know it's kind of long, but it's what I believe.
Never Alone!

~Lady Gwenne