Having read a number of more contemporary novels, I’ve come to realize I would classify my fantasy novels as “classic fantasy”. What do I mean by that? I have heroes and villains in my stories. Sometimes someone you think is a villain changes, or else is revealed to be a hero, and vice-versa. For example, Snape in Harry Potter appears to be a villain but is revealed to be a hero. In my book ‘Specter’, you will see one character who appears to be a hero become a villain, but for a reason later explained. And one who you think is a villain is changed into a hero. That is all fine and good in classic fantasy. Even the king of classic fantasy, ‘The Lord of the Rings’, Saruman must have started out as a hero, but is turned to the dark side (not to mention ‘Darth Vader’).
A new trend has emerged in our current society where no one is really all good or all bad. A good example is ‘Game of Thrones’, where the only truly good guy (Eddard Stark) is killed off. The rest in my view seem to fall in the realm of sometimes good and some bad. While some might think this to be a more accurate reflection of reality, I personally don’t write books for complete realism. I write books to try to make people desire to become better. I believe that’s what ‘classic fantasy’ is about. I love reading stories where I come to the end and feel great about the ending, and desire to act more like the characters I read about or watched in the movie. Spoiler alert – thus far all my books have happy endings, and the good guys win. Almost all fiction novels in the past were like that. But no any more. So, I promise I will alert my readers if I decide to go a different way in one of my novels. But for now, I hope to encourage and delight my readers with a satisfying story and a positive ending to my novels.