Today I am in conversation with Daniel Kelly, who writes books in the historical genre. He grew up with a love of history and stories in the village of Creeslough along the north coast of Donegal before qualifying as a chef from Tourism College, Killybegs, and moving to Dublin.
The author talks about his Writing journey, about his latest book 'The Fall of the Phoenix' which is the first book in the Heroes of Troy series.
Welcome to ‘On Writing’, Daniel Kelly.
Was becoming an author always your dream or was it a particular event or incident that
gave birth to the author in you?
Growing up, I had always been into reading. I did a lot of sports and had 3 brothers. I was outside playing with them and neighbours alot sort of else, again, kitchen
I remember readingDavid Gammell 's troy series, which I won't ruin for anyone who has never
read it, but it waseye -opening, I remember thinking that it was an amazingly different
interpretation of a story we had all read a hundred times and
because a story has been told before that it has to be “That” way, thatit can be interpreted
differently . Then I started questioning why, when they won the war and wrote their history
themselves, the Greeks always seemed to come out of the Troy story looking like the bad
guys.
Writing was an accidentI think,
own answer
questions to myself as I am writing, I start a book with a question Ipersonally
answer people
seem to like the results.
How important are the names of the characters in your books to you? Do you spend
agonizing hours deciding on their names?
I must admit, I have been lucky so far, in that a lot of my work has been on historical fiction and historical fantasy, and as history, a lot of the names of characters are already there.
Sometimes I need to add characters to the story, and for this, I like to add people I know personally and change the name to suit the timeframe.
This method works for mebecause, when I am describing a character, I find it helps to be
able to picture the character so later in the book you don’t forget a detail and have a person
blind “ The
Phoenix” I did use a lot of detail from the 2004 troy film, for example, Brad Pitt is my Achilles
because own was
the certain
other characters, or people from my real world. It helps me with continuity.
What is your writing process like? Do you write every day? Is there a favourite place to write?
I try to write every day, but sometimes I couldbe sitting
with very little happening, the words just won't come. This is mostly because I do most of my
thinking during the time when I am working. The job I currently have as a chef, as opposed to
restaurant work, allows me to do the job without thinking about it, so consciously while I am
working in the kitchen, I am more often than not, working out some storyline in my book.
And just to make life more complicated, I have found that I also work better with multiple
stories in my head at once. I will have one story which is my main focus but during the time I
am writing it,quite
will make an interesting story and start those while I think about the main story.
For example, while working on the sequel for “The Fall of ThePhoenix ” which is almost ready
and which I have called “A Hero’s Welcome: Heroes oftroy part:2”, I also found myself
workingquite heavily on another fantasy novel based in 15th century Europe during the
crusades and the ottoman incursions into Europe which iscurrently
This also makes things easier when Ido that don’t need to new
world from scratch as I have already got the basis of a story scratched out.
As for a favourite place to write,its usually on my armchair.
What is different about ‘The Fall of the Phoenix’?
“The Fall of The Phoenix” is… because it’s the final days oftroy over
beginning of the war, also, I always hated how Homer used filler, like seven pages of just
boat names. Sure, at the time those may have been important to the various city-states
those ships belonged to but
I took a narrower view of the characters and gave themlife, I questioned the loyalty of
soldiers forced to follow Agamemnon, or would childhood friendships have been more
important assumption, that children at the time, been taken
from home at a young age, tobe trained as such,
such as Hector and Achilles, whose parents could both easily afford the best education for
their children would likely have sent them to the same places, so they would likely have
trained
their decisions on the battlefield?
Who
Always writing
Eurodos of course, of
the Greek nation, but I really enjoyed creating characters trapped insidetroy
Heraclitus who was semi-psychotic and enjoyed the killing,Arimnestos Achenia
who the
strange feeling of loss when you are writing these characters formonth
about them, but the actions of the characters themselves sometimes surprise you even as
the one action or another the
only logical end is that they die, giving their lives honorably to save someone else.
Which do you prefer as a reader? EBook or Paperback?
As a reader, I prefer paperback, for the feel, the smell offresh book, its amazing. For
convenience, because Ido read a lot, (although I am a very slow reader) I very often use
ebook just so I don’t need to bring multiple books with me. Otherwise going on holiday half
my luggage would be books with one t-shirt… haha…
The author talks about his Writing journey, about his latest book 'The Fall of the Phoenix' which is the first book in the Heroes of Troy series.
Welcome to ‘On Writing’, Daniel Kelly.
Follow Daniel Kelly on FACEBOOK Twitter, Instagram, Youtube
Was becoming an author always your dream or was it a particular event or incident that
Growing up, I had always been into reading. I did a lot of sports and had 3 brothers. I was outside playing with them and neighbours a
I remember reading
read it, but it was
interpretation of a story we had all read a hundred times
because a story has been told before that it has to be “That” way, that
themselves, the Greeks always seemed to come out of the Troy story looking like the bad
guys.
Writing was an accident
questions to myself as I am writing, I start a book with a question I
seem to like the results.
How important are the names of the characters in your books to you? Do you spend
I must admit, I have been lucky so far, in that a lot of my work has been on historical fiction and historical fantasy, and as history, a lot of the names of characters are already there.
Sometimes I need to add characters to the story, and for this, I like to add people I know personally and change the name to suit the timeframe.
This method works for me
able to picture the character so later in the book you don’t forget a detail and have a person
Phoenix
What is your writing process like? Do you write every day? Is there a favourite place to write?
I try to write every day, but sometimes I could
restaurant work, allows me to do the job without thinking about it, so consciously while I am
working in the kitchen, I am more often than not, working out some storyline in my book.
And just to make life more complicated, I have found that I also work better with multiple
am writing it,
For example, while working on the sequel for “The Fall of The
and which I have called “A Hero’s Welcome: Heroes of
working
crusades and the ottoman incursions into Europe which is
This also makes things easier when I
world from scratch as I have already got the basis of a story scratched out.
As for a favourite place to write,
What is different about ‘The Fall of the Phoenix’?
“The Fall of The Phoenix” is… because it’s the final days of
beginning of the war, also, I always hated how Homer used filler, like seven pages of just
those ships belonged to
I took a narrower view of the characters and gave them
soldiers forced to follow Agamemnon, or would childhood friendships have been more
from home at a young age, to
such as Hector and Achilles, whose parents could both easily afford the best education for
their children would likely have sent them to the same places, so they would likely have
their decisions on the battlefield?
the Greek nation, but I really enjoyed creating characters trapped inside
Heraclitus who was semi-psychotic and enjoyed the killing,
strange feeling of loss when you are writing these characters for
about them, but the actions of the characters themselves sometimes surprise you even as
only logical end is that they die, giving their lives honorably to save someone else.
As a reader, I prefer paperback, for the feel, the smell of
convenience, because I
my luggage would be books with one t-shirt… haha…
This post first appeared on Preethi Venugopala- A Writer's Oasis, please read the originial post: here
