To follow up on my last post, about authors changing what they write based on real-life circumstances, this is where I confess that I’ve experienced the same thing. Not as traumatic as fascist uprisings, of course! However, like most of us, I grew up in the story telling tradition where problems are solved with fists/guns/swords. I came to question that approach when I began to work in education.
Think about it: at school, we spend as much time teaching basic civility as we do the Three Rs. We tell kids to use their words and have kindness, while all the shows and games they like are about running amok and taking what you want. This contrast is definitely what I was thinking about when I began work on the series that would become Minstrels of Skaythe.
You could say that it’s silly to worry. Kids know the games aren’t real. And then you hear about first-graders shooting their teachers.
As writers, we can’t just shake our heads about this. There has to be a response that changes the expectation. Instead of shrugging and saying violence is inevitable, we have to work harder to show there is a better way. Nor am I alone in this. There’s been buzz in the past few years about “hopepunk” as a genre with a more positive approach. Minstrels of Skaythe falls right into that category.
It isn’t that I planned to jump on a band wagon. I’m proudly iconoclastic and do things my own way. Still, it’s good to know that other authors reached the same conclusion that I did, and that, together, we are working to tell a different story.
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Wyrmflight 