Today, Rhodes Review is proud to welcome Ramon Terrell. Mr.. Terrell is author of an epic fantasy called Echoes of a Shattered Age.  Thank you for joining us Mr. Terrell.

Rhodes Review: Care to tell our readers about your background in writing?

Ramon Terrell: Well, the first story I wrote was a short story for earth day when I was in the eleventh grade. I procrastinated and ended up whipping something up in twenty minutes during a class. My teacher read it and silently submitted it in the school contest and it won second place! I didn’t write much after that till I was in school for medical coding in 2002. I was ahead in my work and just started typing in my spare time in class. The teacher offered to let me continue so long as my work was done and she got to read it. At that point, the characters wouldn’t be quiet and I thought perhaps I would see this thing through. From there, its been a heck of a ride!

Rhodes Review: Have you always wanted to write?

Ramon Terrell: Oddly, no. *laughing* It wasn’t till my coding professor questioned whether I should be pursuing medical coding, or a career as an author that I considered it.

Rhodes Review: What is your writing process like?

Ramon Terrell: For this one, I had a rough outline of where I wanted to go from start to finish, but once I started writing, very little of it turned out as planned. I think this is part of the process that keeps writing a more organic experience. There needs to be some structure, some line to guide you, but essentially I just sit down and ask the characters what they have to say and transcribe!

Rhodes Review: Where do you usually get your muse/inspirations?

Ramon Terrell: I find nature and music inspirational. I listen to a lot of instrumental music and soundtracks. I’ll listen to a track and then that perfect scene pops up and I have to get it down before it fades away. I’ve learned to keep a small writing journal nearby at all times.

Rhodes Review: What led you to come up with the story for Echoes of a Shattered Age?

Ramon Terrell: I would have to say it was the desire to see warriors from different ethnicities in a fantasy setting. Given the types of characters and themes we see in fantasy today, I think there is a lot of room to expand.

Rhodes Review: A lot of the story involved martial arts, is this a personal hobby of yours?

Ramon Terrell: *chuckles* I wish I could say it is more than a hobby, but I’ve let life distract me a bit too much. For now, it is in the hobby section, but I would like to get serious again one day soon.

Rhodes Review: I noticed a lot of similarities to films of Akira Kurosawa. Was this intentional?

Ramon Terrell: Actually I’ve never seen them! I may have to see what they are about.

Rhodes Review: What’s next in the adventures of Kenyatta, Kita, Akemi, Kenjiro, and Shinobu

Ramon Terrell: Well, the next book, which I’m currently editing features Kita and Kenyatta, as well as one character whom they stopped to help out during their travels. Throughout the book, there are very brief updates as to what the others are doing but its more to let the reader know the other three are not forgotten, and there is more going on. The entire group returns for book three to finally deal with Brit and Kabriza.

Rhodes Review: How long did you spend writing Shattered Age?

Ramon Terrell: It took me about six months to write.

Rhodes Review: Akemi is a Ninja, Kenjiro a Samurai, what are Kita, Kenyatta and Shinobu?

Ramon Terrell: Kita and Kenyatta are more or less warriors. Although they have been trained in the same manner as a warrior, such as a samurai, they tend to wander without much in the way of structure. Shinobu is more of a mystery. He is a Strider. Not much is known about them, but they have some similarities with ninjas. In book three, we’ll get to learn more about the origin of the Striders, and also that sword Shinobu carries.

Rhodes Review: Does a novel like this take a lot of research?

Ramon Terrell: Not a great deal, really. For this book, I used mostly functional information I already had on hand, and looked up some things for reference.

Rhodes Review: What’s your current writing project?

Ramon Terrell: Currently I am polishing up the second book which features Kita, Kenyatta, and one other character from Echoes of a Shattered Age. I’m excited about this one because we get to see more things in the world that humans are unaware of. The origins of the world and humanity’s place within it comes to light. There is much more out there for them to discover. Although there will be plenty of action, this one will deal strongly with origin, both personal and worldly.

Thanks again Ramon for joining us here at Rhodes Review.

See our review of Echoes of a Shattered Age here.

Bio:

R J Terrell is a native of California now living in Vancouver BC. If its outside and involves mountains, water and lots of trees and snow he most likely enjoys it. His love of fiction, particularly fantasy, has filled his bookshelves to bursting and has fueled his vigor to join the ranks of the most prominent figures in fiction and fantasy.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 13th, 2010 at 5:39 pm and is filed under Interview. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.