“On the Far Shore” is what I’m calling this series of interviews with the authors/editors of “The Farthest Shore” an anthology of secondary world fantasy from Filipino writers. The anthology is available here. Today we speak with Rodello Santos, author of “Queen Liwana’s Gambit“.
Could you tell us a bit about your story?
Absolutely. My story is about a young boy who wanders the countryside unsupervised with his best-friend, a chubby yellow rodent who shoots electricity. No wait, that’s Pokemon. Okay, now I remember. My story is about an old woman who bargained with dark powers in her youth and who must now face the consequences. It is based loosely on my own experiences pretending to be an old woman.
How did you hear about the Farthest Shore anthology?
Some of the voices in my head are psychic. Or perhaps I read it on Charles Tan’s Livejournal.
Prior to that, had you ever written a secondary world story before?
Yes, the majority of my stuff is speculative fiction set in secondary worlds. This world is far too boring.
How long did it take you to write the story?
That’s a tough question. The first incarnation of this story was written in 2006 for one of the weekly Flash Challenges at the Liberty Hall Writers’ Forum. For these challenges, writers are given a “trigger” and 90 minutes to write a story. The trigger can be a word, a picture, lyrics, or whatever. So, it took it me 90 minutes to write the first draft, then three years to complete the final revision.
What aspect of the writing did you enjoy the most?
The final draft. By that time, it just required some fine-tuning, and I could enjoy the story without having to make any major choices.
How do you know when a story is “ready”, that it’s time to stop making those minuscule corrections?
When I run face-first into the submission deadline (I can be a terrible procrastinator). I don’t know that one can ever stop tinkering with a story. If I do a few read-throughs and nothing leaps out at me, that’s one sign that it’s about ready. Of course, an author is often the worst judge of his/her own work. Getting feedback from other writers can be invaluable.
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