Fantasy: A Guest Post by Virginia McKevitt

Today we have the fabulous Virginia McKevitt, author of The Secret Enemy Saga, here to talk about what fantasy means to her.

Author, Virginia McKevitt’s Take On Fantasy:

I started reading when I was about four years old. I have a sister who is ten years older than I am and she loved to read to us little ones (I come from a family of eight) all the time. She was the one who taught me to read. That is when my love for fantasy really began. My imagination was always off the charts, and reading books like Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Cinderella, only added fuel to the fire. Disney’s Snow White is the first book I remember reading by myself. I carried that little book around with me until it fell apart. As I got older my taste changed, but not my hunger for fantasy or reading. I would write little stories about fairies, dragons, wizards, and kings. My teen years were vampires and the baddies that run around today. It’s funny how the circle continues. Some of my favorite authors are- Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and James Patterson. I could go on… Anne Rice in my teens, Stephen King forever, and the rest just followed. I like stories that have a lot going on from one page to the next and I hope I am giving that to my readers also. I am a character driven kind of reader, and writer. I like a strong plot but if I don’t get into the characters, it’s hard to stay with the story. I write fantasy, with a romantic flavor, but I want a lot of action and mystery for my readers. I don’t write erotica or occult type books. It’s just not me, but I do give you a peak and you can take it the rest of the way your imagination. The first person to read my finished work, Fracture The Secret Enemy Saga, was my husband who reads like most people eat. I will never forget what he said when he turned the last page, "I feel like I've been on a journey that I didn't want to end. Don't stop."

Those words have pushed me onward and there is no turning back. I wrote the following as a Q and A post originally, at Goodreads, to see what other writers had to say, and the reach continues onward. 

Paranormal Romance is one of the hottest genres (actually a sub-genre of fantasy) on the market today. The titles and book covers alone can make one break out in a sweat, but what is it that makes you want to read about romantic encounters with beings from other worlds or vampires and werewolves? Is it the old concept of forbidden love or the thrill of the bad boy (or girl) image mixed up with fangs and wolf fur? Dragons and wizards are sitting on the back burner, while muscled bodies and creatures who howl at the moon warm the beds of the humans we write about. Steamy romance, whether implied in YA or graphic in paranormal erotica, has increased by leaps and bounds since the e-book revolution and now knows no boundaries. Fantasy, as wild and imaginative as it is, still has rules. If your reader does not find your characters and story believable, you will lose their interest. Make the relationships between your human and non-human characters real. Give them a cause they both have a stake in (no pun intended), especially if it is for different reasons. Obstacles that strengthen real life relationships are everywhere. Just give them a little twist. So, what makes it hot? Dark and dangerous delivers whether you dash it with a little pepper or turn on the hot sauce. Romance appeals to the heart and the paranormal infuses it with the thrill of the fantastic, something we all want a little bite of (I just can't help myself). There are many challenges in mixing genres, especially fantasy and romance. How can beings from different worlds become romantically involved and even be believable? I hope I can shed some light on that very subject because that is what my novel, Fracture The Secret Enemy Saga stands on; two people from different worlds, fighting in the same cause and falling in love. That's a mouthful!

How can I make that believable you ask? Next time you go to the mall look around you. The couples holding hands and shopping are as diverse as you can get; different nationalities, different shapes and sizes, even different beliefs, yet they seem to make their relationships work. How? The Asian man with the American wife are from worlds so different they might as well be from Mars and Jupiter. What about the Italian woman or the French man? I could go on and on. The cultures and beliefs that separate us everyday are broken and shattered by one simple need, to be loved and accepted by another. How far off am I, that someone from another world could actually fall in love with someone from this world and vice versa. Not far at all. Take those two people, throw them into a conflict that threatens both their worlds and fill it in with a little magic and mayhem, friends and family and who knows.

Virginia McKevitt is an American author of fantasy. Her 5 star novel, FRACTURE The Secret Enemy Saga can be broadly described as fantasy incorporated with elements of the paranormal, suspense, mystery and romance (I couldn’t help myself). FRACTURE The Secret Enemy Saga is available in paperback at Barnes and Nobles and Amazon.com, and as an e-book through Amazon and Smashwords. Her vivid imagination and love of fantasy pushed her to finish a book she had started over two decades ago. The first book in this series, FRACTURE The Secret Enemy Saga, has received praise from readers since its debut release in early 2012 and now the beta readers are saying that book two, The Hunted, available at Smashwords, is another winner. Turn the pages and see for yourself.

 

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Thanks so much for stopping by Virginia.

Now tell me minions: what do you love about Fantasy?