[Cover Art] Spellbound by Blake Charlton

I have been meaning to post this cover the moment I saw it, but it slipped my mind. But the image is so powerful and captivating that I kept coming back to it. Blake Charlton has become one of my favorite writers for his beautiful prose and complex magic system over which I gush over in my review [HERE]

NOW with Blake's post over at his blog, I am reminded that this book will come out... sooner rather than later.

The cover itself is amazing. Todd Lockwood knows how to command the attention with using the unobtrusive blue background to make the dragon pop. You can stare only at the dragon, because the dragon is supreme. The design is really something and it's no wonder why Lockwood was commissioned in the first place as his focus on dragons has made him a specialist. I couldn't be any more happier with this cover.

[Interview] Blake Charlton author of Spellwright

Who: Blake Charlton

Bio: Debut novelist and medical student, Blake Charlton is a new face in both fields working to establish a dual career in fiction and medicine.

Currently, Blake is writing fantasy novels, science fiction short stories, and academic essays on medical education and biomedical ethics.

Work: Spellwright Trilogy [Spellwright - March 2010]

Why: I have been hearing about 'Spellwright' for ages [well, since August] and then Blake has been an excellent and friendly chap, who has been a Twitter buddy. His blog is bizarre in the good sense and his writing is enchanting. And he is a doctor. Is that not a reason enough. Behold the funny interview that suddenly became serious.

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Blake, thank you for agreeing to my small torture session. I hope this interview doesn’t scar your mind beyond repair [readers, he signed release forms. I am not liable.]

I called in to put a neuro surg room on notice. We’re all good to go.

Let’s get straight to be point, Charlton. You have written a novel about a young man who has a disability approximating severe dyslexia, and who must come to terms with his disability. You yourself are dyslexic. I bet everybody asks you this, but it is inevitable. How does one triumph over dyslexia to join a profession in which dyslexia makes it darn impossible to break though in?

I am starting to get that one a lot. And, to cut right down to it, you’re asking about how one overcomes a significant disability. It’s tough to answer, because almost every disability is a mismatch between one’s abilities and one’s environment. Here’s a fact that drove this home for me: because its orthography is so spectacularly, mind-blisteringly illogical, English produces more dyslexics than languages with logical orthography, like Italian. Analogies for this ‘abilities and environment mismatch’ idea exist for many, but not all, other disabilities. To further muddle things up, most every combination of individual abilities and environment is unique. One the biggest challenges I have and continue to face as a disabled person is the lack of others in the same situation. The strategy that has helped me the most has been to pay keen and honest attention to both my abilities (or lack thereof) and my environment. Everyone has to work around their weak points; that’s also true for disabled folk, just more urgently and emphatically so.

Also, I absolutely have to hand most of the credit for my successes to my friends, teachers, and (most especially) family. I am very aware of how privileged I have been to have a family with the determination and financial means to help me through my disability. My desire to give back to the world that gave me so much inspired me to pursue medicine as a career.

In Spellwright cacography (the protagonist’s disability) spawns dangerous consequences that can destroy property and harm others. Do these catastrophes waiting to happen in your made-up world reflect a metaphorical message that although outwardly harmless to others, real world dyslexia is a serious issue in our culture, driven by information?

Quite the opposite! Both technology (spellcheckers, voice recognition, etc) and recognition of dyslexia as a valid diagnosis needing early educational intervention have enabled many dyslexics to overcome their disability. I would never be where I am today if I hadn’t been part of ‘generation zero,’ the first group of learning disabled students in the US to be systematically evaluated for dyslexia and then separated into a special ed classroom. I have the greatest respect for dyslexics (and people with other disabilities) who learned how to adapt to their demanding environments without systematic help.

Because the likeness between Nicodemus and you [on a certain level; I bet you do not need to save the world from an epic war {or do you?!}] did you not hesitate to reveal so much of your personal self in that character? Writers are usually private people and not the center of attention [usually, not wanting to be it], so wasn’t baring your trials and tribulations scary for you? Ultimately, where did you draw the line between him and you?

Nicodemus operates in a world that is larger-than-life when compared to ours. And you’re right that there is a strong biographical element in the creation of his disability. When I write him, I mine my own struggles with disability—the frustration, the triumphs, the self doubt, the quest to find meaning in the face of disability. This is Nicodemus’s single most unique feature and likely the most memorable feature of my life story. So it’s natural that folks see him as a sort of translation of myself into a fantasy book. But other than sharing the same essential personal crisis, we do not share the same personality.

Admittedly, a personal crisis is a major force in developing character, but it is not the sole determining factor. Nico is a more circumspect person than I am. His “character voice” is more subdued than mine. He’s more sympathetic, more risk averse, and more likely to keep his head down and do ‘the safe thing.’ (It’s likely a good thing he’s less inclined to puns and lewd jokes than I am.) Of course, situations conspire against Nicodemus that force him into larger-than life dilemmas and allow him to shine. So, in ultimate answer to your question, it’s by distinguishing between personal crisis and personality that I’m able to easily divide myself from my protagonist.

One ancient bit of advice is to write what you know. So you wrote what you know about, thus creating Nicodemus. But you are also a man of modern medicine. Do you see yourself doing a novel with a medical undertone?

At its heart Spellwright is most definitely biomedical. The original inspiration for the world came to me when I was an undergraduate studying biochemistry. I was amazed by how much nucleotides and polypeptides are like written languages. It’s a bit metaphorical, but if you squint at these biopolymers, you can see that they consist of letters and words that might be translated or transcribed. They might be rendered useless or harmful by a misspelling—a mutation. That last idea, that a misspell might cause a disease, struck a chord in the part of me that had been struggling for so long to decrease the number of misspells I produced. It was then that I conceived a world in which the written word could become alive. The story I spun in that world was derived from my struggles with dyslexia. But in writing the story, I found myself drawn to study other conditions such as blindness and epilepsy. First as an educator then as a medical student, I gained clinical knowledge of some of these conditions. More importantly I saw how my students and patients learned to cope, in both a practical and psychological sense. I saw a lot of things that were upsetting, at times heartbreaking, but I saw a great deal that inspired. And, as all authors do, I mined what I saw for material for my fiction.

Speaking of medicine, I know a few friends who hope one day to be called doctors and as far as I know studying to become a medical professional sucks the bone marrow out of a person. How do you manage to advance in this field, write and involve yourself in the promo circus around your debut? I sense a cloning facility involved [and nobody will tell me].

It is all very taxing. But there are plenty of medical students out there who are also starting a family, or physicians who conduct research while attending in the hospital, or full time parents who also write novels. In my opinion, it’s a matter of excluding distractions and filling your life with only the things about which you’re passionate. When you really do love something, it allows you to put in the extra mile, stay up an hour longer, write that next sentence.

The clones help, but they can be a real bother. I mean, when you got a bunch of white bald guys in white coats wondering around…well, it’s only a matter of time before one of them goes all Lex Luthor and we have to put him down. *Sigh* Good henchmen are so hard to find these days.

Is ‘Spellwright’ your very first novel or do you have misshapen literary carcasses littering your past?

SPELLWRIGHT was not only the first novel I wrote, it was also the first bit of fiction I ever attempted. The story of how I was first published is pretty strange. At 21 I started out on the story. Naïve about the publishing industry, I threw myself into the novel. I was exceedingly fortunate to find an agent who encouraged me to rewrite the work. Later I sold it to an editor who bought the book with the understanding that I’d rewrite major parts of it. It means that in some form or another, I’ve been working on this book for nearly a decade. It’s been a long and very strange journey.

There are so many magical languages that pop up through ‘Spellwright’ and I am hopeful that there will be more surprises to come. Can you foreshadow a bit what can readers expect in SPELLBOUND like for instance when the book will be published? Seriously, I need to know.

Even a third year medical student knows that wonky prognostication can get someone in real trouble. So I’m gonna have to stick to the facts alone of SPELLBOUND. Many authors are able to write their second book right after they sign the contract for their first. Medical school and the medical licensing exam put a freeze on my book two until last September. But since then, my research fellowship has allowed me to focus on writing. As of today, the SPELLBOUND manuscript sits at 77,000 words and is coming along nicely (knock on wood). I’m expecting it to come in at, or maybe a little above, 120,000 words.

Without spoiling, I can say that this book takes place in and around the Spirish City of Avel. Much of the action concerns the Spirish Hierophants, whose magical language can move within cloth, and once cast out of cloth it creates a powerful wind. So far, I’m having wonderful fun exploring what could be done with such a language. There are the obvious, mercantile applications, such as providing thrust for naval vessels. But hierophants would also be able to create elaborate kites to allow them to glide within strong winds, and write serpentine warkites to protector the cities, and craft airships capable of flying authors across great distances. I’m looking to do a bit (but not tons) more world building, explore the economic and cultural effects the magic-system has had on the different kingdoms. This time round Nicodemus shares the stage with a character named Francesca, a young physician whose wit and too-clever-by-half mouth gets her into more trouble than she can get out of. I can’t be certain that things will stay this way--story being the most liable to revision—but SPELLBOUND is likely to have less technical development of the magic-system, and more romance, action and intrigue.


Let’s say that you are short on money and suddenly I pop up as a magical money-paying publisher and say in a most glorious voice ‘I will give you money and you will write me a novel to my desire and device’ and the novel will be historical paranormal romance between a Catholic nun and a shape-shifting unicorn, where the most exciting thing is the nun sneaking from the monastery to meet the unicorn in the forest. And the love is more platonic and the zenith is when the characters touch their hands. Would you do it, if the pay would make all the financial woes go away?

In a heartbeat. And I’d titled it “Shifto the Unicorn and the Platonic Love Nun in the Quest to Pay Off Blake’s Student Debt.”

[Review] 'Spellwright' by Blake Charlton

Title: Spellwright
Writer: Blake Charlton
Pages: 352
Genre: Epic Fantasy
Standalone/Series: First in The Spellwright Trilogy
Publisher: Tor Books

Nicodemus is a young, gifted wizard with a problem. Magic in his world requires the caster to create spells by writing out the text . . . but he has always been dyslexic, and thus has trouble casting even the simplest of spells. And his misspells could prove dangerous, even deadly, should he make a mistake in an important incantation.

Yet he has always felt that he is destined to be something more than a failed wizard. When a powerful, ancient evil begins a campaign of murder and disruption, Nicodemus starts to have disturbing dreams that lead him to believe that his misspelling could be the result of a curse. But before he can discover the truth about himself, he is attacked by an evil which has already claimed the lives of fellow wizards and has cast suspicion on his mentor. He must flee for his own life if he’s to find the true villain.

But more is at stake than his abilities. For the evil that has awakened is a power so dread and vast that if unleashed it will destroy Nicodemus... and the world.

‘Spellwright’ and Blake Charlton registered on my radar since August 2009. Given that Aidan from ‘A Dribble of Ink’ spent a series of posts dedicated to this debut’s path to publication, my interest intensified and with each new notification I began to anticipate March and read this book. Quite naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to read a ‘Spellwright’ ARC. I wasn’t disappointed and I am happy to report that the good rep given by several well-known authors is not artificial marketing hype. Quite the opposite. ‘Spellwright’ is my February’s top read and in my list of all-time favorites.

Although fantasy has adopted a violent, gritty mantle with almost irredeemable characters and exploration of the darkness, which lurks in the human soul, ‘Spellwright’ ploughs straight through well trodden paths and will ring a very nostalgic bell. The villains have no qualities to suggest any excuse for their actions and the protagonists are drawn and sworn to subdue the arising chaos. Lives are at stake. The world as it is known is threatened. There is a mission and prophecies, which will be fulfilled by a few destined ones. Sounds familiar in general, but rest assured that clichés associated with these fundamental for the genre tropes are not hiding in between the pages. It’s all a matter of execution and Charlton is a natural. His prose is a rare breed of scholarly sophistication and lyrical streaks, which grabs the mind, ensnares it and makes sure that the reader will keep reading.

The biggest delight in ‘Spellwright’, however, is the magic system. Fantasy without magic as an element would be crippled and in almost every magic system, language and words enable spellcasters to perform miracles or inflict pain. Charlton takes this basic trait of magic a step further and devices a world, where languages hold the power. Wizards are linguists, devoted to their studies. Each language follows a different logic, owns separate syntax, formulas and set of runes and serves a different purpose. So far in ‘Spellwright’ the reader is treated most to Magnus, a language with effects on the material, and Numinous, a language that affects light and energy. However, we are also introduced to other languages with other properties and other dimensions, because each spell must be cast from the spellcaster’s muscles and becomes both visible and corporeal.

With this I am just scratching the surface. There more evolved concepts such as constructs, which are sentient and complex spells with a shape and a function. Durable metaspells and powerful godspells. Quaternary thoughts, which enable a person to think unthinkable thoughts and the potential danger, when handling these languages. Precision and skill are required at all times or otherwise the spellwrights may end up hurting themselves with spells, which have exploded and backfired. There are no inconsistencies within this magic system, which is also a possibility due to the high complexity involved.

As drawbacks here, I would point out that the reader must be patient about explanations, regarding several spells or other ideas as far as magic and the history behind it is concerned. Because the story uses the Starhaven academy and the protagonists are academics, what they narrate about is known to them and unnecessary to explain, when it pops up. I had a few moments, where I had to use the logic within the world to piece what a spell’s purpose was, but explanations were provided at an appropriate moment for their justification. At the same time the reader must be patient with the stage-setting, explanatory paragraphs and the bits and pieces of information until the world becomes familiar enough, so that the action sequences do not raise eyebrows in confusion, when spells start flying around. I personally had no issues with any of this and welcomed the extensive world-building.

‘Spellwright’ is as much scholarly as it is dynamic. However, untypical for epic fantasy, the events in the novel transpire on Starhaven Academy’s grounds. There are no parties with the hard task to travel across the world. Nevertheless Starhaven’s massive size and labyrinthine architecture bring danger and the characters never know what they can expect from the halls and bridges, spanning from tower to tower. Speaking of the characters, I was intrigued by the majority of the characters, primary and secondary alike.

Nicodemius’ struggles with his condition to misspell magic texts are earnest and heartfelt. His soul is torn between the reality he has known that he is a retard in a world, where literacy is supreme, and the hope that perhaps he is not supposed to be cacographic, but whole. Normal and capable, not powerless. Not someone, who people look down upon. To a level everybody can relate to such an emotional turmoil and since Charlton himself is a dyslexic, the internal conflict about one’s worth packs a bigger punch, because it has been written by someone, who has first-hand experience. However, Nicodemius would not be as intriguing, if it were not for the blind Magister Agwu Shannon with a violent political past and his construct bird Azure, Amadi and her intrusive and authoritarian persona, Deirdre and her devotion and selflessness in order to please her goddess, Fellworth and his nefarious schemes, etc.

Perhaps, my only issue with ‘Spellwright’ is how the novel ended. While the culmination was spectacular and rich in revelations that foreshadow events to come, I would have preferred the novel ended there, while I was still high on the adrenaline and my interest was in my highest. However, the story continues well past that, covering Nicodemius’ training for the upcoming battles, which will define the world’s fate. I feel that this would have better fitted the sequel ‘Spellbound’, because it suggests a buildup for a new adventure.

Verdict: [A++] I am quite biased, when talking about this book. It appealed to me on so many levels to a point, where even if there are serious issues with ‘Spellwright’, I would never spot them. Charlton has converted a life-long fan in me and I am recommending ‘Spellwright’ left and right to everyone. Certainly a superior book and a promising debut, which most likely will result in a healthy and long-lived career.