Good day everyone! Welcome to our new Friday Fantasy Book Club where you’ll find some of the best family-friendly authors for your fantasy read needs! Welcome to our first author, Kandi J Wyatt. Kandi is a prolific fantasy writer with several books under her belt. I know Kandi from some online author and writing groups and have been impressed with her work in bringing faith into her fantasy books.
Kandi J Wyatt lives with dragons, most in human form–and some even blow fire! She spends her days providing space for teens to be themselves, inspiring them to be more than meets the eye, and spilling hope into their world. When she’s not hanging out with fictional characters, Kandi’s chilling with family watching anime or playing games. Her toddler granddaughter keeps her running–often in circles–and full of joy.
Question One: Kandi, how much worldbuilding and plotting do you do before you start to write your book?
A: This really varies. It depends on the book or series.
My Dragon Courage series started with an image of a dragon breathing fire down a boxed canyon. I started writing and the world and stories came to me without much worldbuilding at all–especially for the first book. Myth Coast Adventures wasn’t much different. I already knew the characters in real life, I watched how the school worked, and knew intimately the setting. You see, it’s based off of where I live, actual students I had, and the school where I work.
On the other hand, though, Four Stars over Ardatz took over a year of world building. The idea of a planet that was tilted or in tidal lock was foreign to me. It was an amazing idea, but this world had so much potential, I had to get it right. Was it even possible to have this type of world? What would have caused the impact? What would survive where? Would there be magic? If so, what would it be like? As the world grew in my mind, I knew it’d have a whole history of its own. Four Stars over Ardatz: Sovereigns takes place 6,000 plus years after the impact. Journeys has a story set 400 years after and another in the late 5,000. More stories are interspersed, and more stories are formulating in my head. I know there’ll be a steampunk era later on.
That is an amazing idea, to have a planted tilted in a tidal lock. I can only imagine the work you had to put into it to get the details right. It would’ve taken me longer to get those details untangled! Kudos to you!!
Question Two: Where do you draw inspiration from?
A: The world is such a fascinating place. I love the many different cultures, landscapes, plants, and animals. With this wide variety, it’s easy to draw from the real world to create fantastical ones. Why not begin with reality and jump off from there?
Take the Southern Oregon Coast or Ireland and then add fantasy! For the first, I added mythical creatures–dragon, unicorn, and bigfoot–and for the second, I set it in a medieval world with a king, a mage, and a dragon. There’s always a twist though. In my Myth Coast Adventures set in Southern Oregon, the mythical creatures are getting through a warp in the time/space continuum, and so there’s a special division of the NSA to deal with these breeches of national security. In Four Stars over Ardatz: Sovereigns the twist is literally in the world. One of their moons thousands of years ago split apart, sending a fragment to crash into the planet. This has left one side of Ardatz constantly in darkness and the other in constant light. That very thin slice of just right land is where my Irish influenced culture thrives.
I love stories that are more than meets the eye, and I’ve discovered those are the kinds of stories I write. Taking from reality and looking beyond. Asking, “What if….?” That’s how my life is as well.
I agree about taking things from reality and twisting them into something fantastical in nature. Nature is fantastic, after all! Thank you so much for sharing your writing journey with us! Now onto the fun part. Kandi has a new release this month and I’m excited to share it with you, Exalted: Young Adult Epic Dragon Fantasy, Four Stars over Ardatz Book 3, which comes out November 1st.
If achieving your dreams consumed your very self, would you pay that price?
Hest’s titles seen to constantly multiply—dragon rider, warrior, husband, king—and he’s working hard to live up to them all, even if each one seems to require more from him than the last. Between suffering beggars, jealous nobles, and a gang of violent thieves plaguing the capital, he can hardly find time to spend with his wife, let alone his dragon. And while he sleeps, one dark dream is repeating–an old enemy, come to destroy everything he loves.
Fearing what feels like a prophecy, Hest tries to protect his new wife, but his attempts only alienate her. He seeks comfort in the bond with his dragon, but even then he must be vigilant against losing himself in it and taking on the draconic form that terrifies his people and steals his mind. Then the unthinkable happens: he and Usheen are shot out of the sky, captured and brought to face powers far beyond his imagining.
Hest will do what it takes to keep his family and his kingdom safe, but at what cost? Will there be anything left of him when it is over?
Exalted is the third book in the coming-of-age fantasy series, Four Stars over Ardatz: Sovereigns
Purchase Exalted here.
Purchase other books by this author: Amazon
Find Kandi online:
Website, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Goodreads, Bookbub, Newsletter Signup, Langlois, Oregon
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