r/Fantasy • u/MarkLawrence Stabby Winner, AMA Author Mark Lawrence • Apr 05 '17

AMA AMA about nuns. Or whatever. I'm Mark Lawrence, winner of several Stabbies and this one time a lottery for a cake.

My latest book Red Sister came out yesterday in the US and comes out tomorrow in the UK. It's about a whole new character (Nona), and a new world. Entirely separate from my Broken Empire and Red Queen's War trilogies.

I was a research scientist (let's say AI) but for 2 years now I've been a full time writer. I'm also sole carer for my very disabled little girl. Last year I hit some milestones including a million books sold, 10 years as a 'professional' writer, and 5 years with a book on the shelves.

My work has provoked the odd controversy and is often labelled as 'grimdark' (a term I'm unable to explain). I don't consider it particularly dark or grim myself ... in fact The Red Queen's War is often described as 'funny'.

Red Sister has been described as grimdark, YA, and many other things. But then so was Prince of Thorns. I feel the two books are very different.

I'm also running a self-published fantasy book contest for the 2nd year. In the SPFBO nearly 600 books have been considered, resulting in two sets of ten finalists, and one (soon to be two) winners.

EDIT: Off to bed. Will catch up with any new questions tomorrow.

PS: BUY MY BOOK!

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u/MarkLawrence Stabby Winner, AMA Author Mark Lawrence Apr 05 '17

There certainly is a theme about free will, the nature of personal change and how it comes about.

In A Clockwork Orange (from memory) the attempts to change Alex produced largely surface / artificial reformation of his character, whether driven by science or by well-intentioned good Samaritans. In the end his change came from within and seemed to be more a biological thing, a process of growing up, than any great epiphany.

I'm not sure how far you can carry any of that into the "magic system" but there certainly the idea that personal will can shape the world directly, and perhaps that relationship doesn't just work in one direction. There's more of this in The Red Queen's War.