The king was the glue that kept the kingdom together and held back the White Tower’s reach. Ultimately, Valtor would need him gone and his puppet of a son put in his place. The good guys can’t win every time. In order to drive the story and the conflict forward there needed to be a catalyst. 🙂
Not sure if you have answered this question before, but I had a brother that recently has passed and he was a huge fan and we bonded over your books for we both had a flair for the fantasy genre. My question is, do you plan on or have you had offers to create a movie series or tv series for your books?
I’m sorry to hear about the passing of your brother, those bonds run deep. I love seeing families reading the books together, very special. My father was the one who got me into fantasy and that’s something we both share.
As far as pushing film/tv rights for my books, I haven’t had any specific offers. I have had a some people interested in optioning the books, but none I felt willing to take.
When it comes to turning over part of those rights, I am going to be very careful. In my opinion, all I’m seeing coming out of hollywood is the destruction of authors’ works as they take their books and mutilate the story and characters in order to push their social agendas and ideologies. This is my life’s work. I have no intention of allowing anyone to destroy it no matter how much $$ they wave at me. 🙂 The only way I would be willing at this point to move in that direction would be to find a producer/studio/showrunner that has a love for the books personally and is willing to allow me enough creative control to ensure the story and the characters do not get altered and destroyed.
The exchange between Ayrion and Dakaran in the first chapter of The White Tower about them being kids and sneaking out with Kira, Reevie and Po with Ayrion always seeming like the perfect little boy to the king seems to contradict a lot with the story in The Street Rats of Aramoor. Did you decide to change his back story? I was wondering if you’ll change these details in The White Tower if you ever decide to make a revised edition?
You are correct about the missing backstory. The second and third books in the Street Rats series were written with the possibility of stretching the saga much further than the intended 6 books I had planned for, which is why the first three take place over the course of roughly a year and a half. However, when I saw that the series would need to revert back to its original 6 books because the marketing just wasn’t reaching its target and generating sales, I had a lot of readers request I make sure to tie the two series together, which meant Ayrion was going to have to grow a lot quicker, leading to the necessity of jumping several years between books. I do want to find a way to incorporate that particular scene from TWT, but it might end up being either a flashback mention in the final book, or it might have to take place when the characters are in their later teens and not early teens. When Ayrion first arrives in Aramoor he is thirteen.
This is the unfortunate downside to writing multiple series at the same time within the same world and at varying time frames, especially when one of those series is forced to wrap early because of marketing. If there weren’t so many tens of thousands of readers who’ve already gone through TWT, I would simply just go in and cut those few sentences, but the book has been out there since 2016, and the audio is synced to the ebook, which means I can’t make big changes like that.
I don’t go into a lot of detail about armor in my books, mostly because I want to keep away from looking like a knights of the round table sort of piece with full metal plates. There would be arm and leg guards, possible mail. Ayrion doesn’t care to wear a lot of armor, himself, because it is restrictive. He relies heavily on his skill and magic. We will see him wearing some armor in this next Street Rats book I’m working on now (Sandstorm | Book 4).
I don’t really have a specific label for his two swords as they are rather unique. The twin blades depicted on the cover of the second book are an artist interpretation of the design, especially with the dragon hilts. It isn’t to exact specifications. If it were the bearer would cut his own hands up trying to use them, but the design is fairly close. The swords are shorter than your average longsword or two-handed sword as seen in most film depictions, which makes them easier to maneuver in tighter spaces.
Ayrion’s most noted visual equipment is his long, black leather jacket and those twin dragon blades from the cover of book two. Actually, if you want a close up of the swords and hilts, you can see them on my website on the artwork page: https://michaelwisehart.com/artwork/
Ayrion also keeps a brace of knives, black leather gloves, and of course his black warhorse Shade.
Just wondering, why did you decide to have the king die?
Hi Liam,
The king was the glue that kept the kingdom together and held back the White Tower’s reach. Ultimately, Valtor would need him gone and his puppet of a son put in his place. The good guys can’t win every time. In order to drive the story and the conflict forward there needed to be a catalyst. 🙂
Michael
Not sure if you have answered this question before, but I had a brother that recently has passed and he was a huge fan and we bonded over your books for we both had a flair for the fantasy genre. My question is, do you plan on or have you had offers to create a movie series or tv series for your books?
Hey Cole,
I’m sorry to hear about the passing of your brother, those bonds run deep. I love seeing families reading the books together, very special. My father was the one who got me into fantasy and that’s something we both share.
As far as pushing film/tv rights for my books, I haven’t had any specific offers. I have had a some people interested in optioning the books, but none I felt willing to take.
When it comes to turning over part of those rights, I am going to be very careful. In my opinion, all I’m seeing coming out of hollywood is the destruction of authors’ works as they take their books and mutilate the story and characters in order to push their social agendas and ideologies. This is my life’s work. I have no intention of allowing anyone to destroy it no matter how much $$ they wave at me. 🙂 The only way I would be willing at this point to move in that direction would be to find a producer/studio/showrunner that has a love for the books personally and is willing to allow me enough creative control to ensure the story and the characters do not get altered and destroyed.
All the best,
Michael
Good for you! I wish other authors would take this principled approach. It is disheartening for readers to see books they love mutilated on screen.
Hi Richard,
I agree. And they do it to the detriment of themselves as the fans walk away.
Howdy,
The exchange between Ayrion and Dakaran in the first chapter of The White Tower about them being kids and sneaking out with Kira, Reevie and Po with Ayrion always seeming like the perfect little boy to the king seems to contradict a lot with the story in The Street Rats of Aramoor. Did you decide to change his back story? I was wondering if you’ll change these details in The White Tower if you ever decide to make a revised edition?
All the best,
Hi Abdullah,
You are correct about the missing backstory. The second and third books in the Street Rats series were written with the possibility of stretching the saga much further than the intended 6 books I had planned for, which is why the first three take place over the course of roughly a year and a half. However, when I saw that the series would need to revert back to its original 6 books because the marketing just wasn’t reaching its target and generating sales, I had a lot of readers request I make sure to tie the two series together, which meant Ayrion was going to have to grow a lot quicker, leading to the necessity of jumping several years between books. I do want to find a way to incorporate that particular scene from TWT, but it might end up being either a flashback mention in the final book, or it might have to take place when the characters are in their later teens and not early teens. When Ayrion first arrives in Aramoor he is thirteen.
This is the unfortunate downside to writing multiple series at the same time within the same world and at varying time frames, especially when one of those series is forced to wrap early because of marketing. If there weren’t so many tens of thousands of readers who’ve already gone through TWT, I would simply just go in and cut those few sentences, but the book has been out there since 2016, and the audio is synced to the ebook, which means I can’t make big changes like that.
All the best,
Michael
I see. Thank you very much for the clarification.
All the best,
Abdullah
What kinds of swords are Ayrion’s and what kind of armor does he wear
Hi Charles,
I don’t go into a lot of detail about armor in my books, mostly because I want to keep away from looking like a knights of the round table sort of piece with full metal plates. There would be arm and leg guards, possible mail. Ayrion doesn’t care to wear a lot of armor, himself, because it is restrictive. He relies heavily on his skill and magic. We will see him wearing some armor in this next Street Rats book I’m working on now (Sandstorm | Book 4).
I don’t really have a specific label for his two swords as they are rather unique. The twin blades depicted on the cover of the second book are an artist interpretation of the design, especially with the dragon hilts. It isn’t to exact specifications. If it were the bearer would cut his own hands up trying to use them, but the design is fairly close. The swords are shorter than your average longsword or two-handed sword as seen in most film depictions, which makes them easier to maneuver in tighter spaces.
Thanks for the response. I’m in a campaign and I want to make character like Ayrion and just wanted to know what kind of equipment he’d have.
What type of campaign?
Ayrion’s most noted visual equipment is his long, black leather jacket and those twin dragon blades from the cover of book two. Actually, if you want a close up of the swords and hilts, you can see them on my website on the artwork page: https://michaelwisehart.com/artwork/
Ayrion also keeps a brace of knives, black leather gloves, and of course his black warhorse Shade.