Heather Rose Jones on Researching and Writing Fantasy Novels

I am thrilled to present this podcast in which we chat to Heather Rose Jones about researching and writing fantasy novels.

As a reviewer, my tastes are really wide and I will enjoy everything from thrillers to science fiction and romance. It doesn’t really matter what I am reading as long as it is well written, entertaining and interesting. But that is my biggest problem with fantasy novels.

As a genre, fantasy is really wide and even encompasses sci-fi. When I am talking fantasy here I am referring to swords and horses. My biggest complaint with fantasy writing is that there is excessive writing and not enough entertainment. This results in overly complex explanations of worlds and not enough character growth.

When I read Daughter of Mystery and Mystic Marriage by Heather Rose Jones I was really surprised because she managed to do what very few authors have and that is to get me to enjoy not just one but two fantasy novels. Her descriptions are vivid yet character drives the story. So, naturally I had to interview her for my podcast.

Listen to this episode here

About This Episode

Heather Rose Jones is the author of the Alpennia lesbian fantasy series. Today she talks to us about writing fantasy novels.

She discusses:

• how she does her research
• why she writes lesbian fiction
• her lesbian motif project
• how to know when you have written to much description
• why beta readers are so important

As a bonus she also does a reading from Mystic Marriage – it appears at the end of the podcast

About Heather Rose Jones

Heather Rose Jones was born in the late 1950s into an academic family. She has lived all over the USA and in three European countries.

It was during her childhood in Europe where she developed the love for history that would manifest into her Alpennia series of novels.

She has a BS in zoology after which she spent a decade in medical research before getting PhD in linguistics (specializing in Medieval Welsh prepositions).