Today I'm chatting to Stephanie DosSantos about Writing Portal Fantasy. Maybe it's time to explore a different genre.
Today I'm chatting to Stephanie DosSantos about Writing Portal Fantasy. Maybe it's time to explore a different genre.
Hi, and welcome to the writing and marketing show brought to you by author Wendy H. Jones. This show does exactly what it says on the tin. it's jam packed with interviews, advice, hints, tips and news to help you with the business of writing. It's all wrapped up in one lively podcast, so it's time to get on with the show. And welcome to episode 130 of the writing and Marketing Show with author entrepreneur Wendy H. Jones. As always, it's a pleasure to bring you the show. And I do so willingly. And I have to say the weeks are just flashing past. I can't believe what episode 130 already. Today I'm going to be talking to Stephanie DosSantos, the author of portal fantasy novels, and I'm going to be talking about portal fantasy today. Now, it's not a genre I know a lot about so I'm very much looking forward to chatting to her. What's been happening in my life? Well, I'm getting ready for my trip to the States when I go in August. And I'm also been writing, I've had a meeting with my editor, everything's going along swimmingly, and I'm thoroughly enjoying what's happening in my life, being a writer is absolutely fabulous. So, before I get on with the show and talk to Stephanie, I'd like to say it's a pleasure to bring you the show every week. I do so willingly. And I enjoy doing it. However, it does take time out of my writing. If you would like to support that time, you can do so by going to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. And you can support me for just $3 a month, which is the price of a T of coffee per month. Or you can do so as a one off through buy me a coffee and the link is on my website. And it's buy me a coffee.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. And I would be very grateful it would let me know that you're enjoying the show and you want me to continue. So what off Stephanie? Well, Stephanie started writing poetry as a child graduating to school newsletters and magazines. Before being offered a freelancing job with a local newspaper from one of our unsolicited articles. Someone apparently liked her work. After several year high writing hiatus while navigating life and working in the medical field for over 20 years. She has now released talent in the tree the legend, the first in the town and the tree series, she publishes through Black Dog Brown Dog press. When not creating unusual predicaments and adventures for talent and the other characters that shared his world are outlining the next novel in the series. She spends time at home with multiple pets perfecting her painting and photography skills, and travelling with her Brazilian husband and eats as much chocolate as possible. Stephanie resides in Central Texas, and I know that her second book has just come out and we'll hear about that today. So without further ado, let's get on with the show and hear from Stephanie. And we have Stephanie with us welcome, Stephanie.
Stephanie DosSantos:Thank you. Thanks for having me.
Wendy Jones:Oh, it's absolutely my pleasure. No, wait, you're not Scottish with an accent like that. So where in the world are you?
Stephanie DosSantos:No, I'm originally from Kansas. So I have the nice Kansas Twang, but I'm currently in Texas. I've been here 10 years about around about Austin,
Wendy Jones:Kansas. And okay. Do you miss Kansas?
Stephanie DosSantos:Oh, yeah, I go back to visit family three, four times a year. So we just cruise up I 35 for the people in the US know where that is right down the middle of the US. So takes about eight hours. And I'm home. So
Wendy Jones:yeah, not too bad. Hey, the only thing anybody ever knows about Kansas outside of America is the Wizard of Oz
Stephanie DosSantos:yeah, well, we'll bring up the Wizard of Oz later. Actually.
Wendy Jones:There no in Kansas for very long in all fairness, because this is not like Kansas anymore. That's right. Anyway, moving swiftly on from my ability to talk about wizard advice, which I despite having watched the film a million times still can't answer much on. And we're here to talk to you about writing portal fantasy which I'm absolutely fascinated about. Because portal fantasy is not something that I know a lot about. So so we're all on the same page. What exactly is portal fantasy? Because it was a new one to me to be honest.
Stephanie DosSantos:portal fantasy without giving like a formal definition. It's just a sub genre of fantasy. So portal fantasy would be where the characters go to another time or another place or both through something like a doorway. Amir? My book he falls in a tree I'm sure it's not the first book of somebody to fall into a tree. There's one that I have recently heard about, on Tik Tok. I cannot recall the name but they go to another world via STB. So So you can come up with any it's just getting to another time or location through through another, not a dimension, but a portal, you know, like a portal window. It can, it can be anything.
Wendy Jones:So I suppose Narnia books or portal fantasy theory, right? Yes. No? No, the best portal fantasy? And so are your books. And to be honest, I love the fact yours is through a tree, and I'm sure we'll hear about the tree later on. But how does that actually differ from traditional fantasy? Is there any other way it differs? Or is it justified as a portal?
Stephanie DosSantos:I, I would imagine it's just portal. As far as getting to the other world, I think usually there were, they're usually set in modern or current times, and the portal takes you to somewhere else. Or, you know, either by time or by place, but from you know, the ones that I am familiar with, I'm sure there are many I am not familiar with, but the ones I'm familiar with, it's kind of set in present day and they have to either go through solve a problem or find someone or something.
Wendy Jones:Yeah. What did I wonder if it's a movie? Not a book, but like Back to the Future? Would that be classed as a portal fantasy? Oh, yeah, the current contemporary and historical?
Stephanie DosSantos:Yeah, the car would be would be the portal, I would imagine. So you go to a different time and place you know, you can pick the time that you get to go to you know, in the DeLorean, I think the the second third one's when he goes back to the wild west, it's, you know, it's his locale and where he lives, but it's a different time because the car comes crashing through the sign of where he used to live. And it's called by a different name. And yeah, like that. So that would be actually really good example, I think.
Wendy Jones:Yeah, quite like I'm to be honest. So I do know what portal fantasy is. So what are the key elements and tropes to bear in mind when writing portal fantasy?
Stephanie DosSantos:Um, I think as far as tropes, I think you can pick any trope that you want. In fantasy, it's just set in a different place and how you get there is the main thing I think it can be anything commonly is found family, the chosen one good versus evil things, you know, with battles. I think it's any trope that you like, it's just where it's set, when and where it's set. Yeah.
Wendy Jones:I mean, the tropes in fantasy I'm not really I don't read a lot of fantasy, although I love your books, but I'm not very sure where the you know what the tropes are in fantasy, what sort of tropes Do you have
Stephanie DosSantos:my tropes just because I like them. Deal with family, emotion, good versus evil. I always like to think that good will always overpower evil. I know sometimes you don't always have the happily ever after, or the good ending. Oh my gosh, there's just, there's so many tropes I I'm really
Wendy Jones:tropes release and fantasy. I'm sure you could have romantic tropes, friendship tropes, you know, anything?
Stephanie DosSantos:Yeah. And I know, I've looked to kind of see where mine will fit in for marketing, or for keywords and things like that on Amazon, and there's a site called TV tropes.org. And there's hundreds of 1000s of tropes that you can look up. So I mean, seems Trump's dot org. So if you can get lost. I mean, it's kind of like when the internet first came out, you go down the rabbit hole like Allas. And you don't come up for air for wha
Wendy Jones:yeah, there's another. There's another part to that. Absolutely. So we all know what portal fantasy is. We just never gave it a name.
Stephanie DosSantos:Yeah, and I know we've talked about in your neck of the woods, Joanna PIN before I remember listening to one of her podcasts. And she said, I oh my gosh, my book. I can't recall which one she has so many. She's my portal fantasy. I just didn't know what that was called. Where you know where your characters go to another world?
Wendy Jones:Yeah, absolutely. I don't think I wonder if it's something if it's an American versus British thing that people know more about the name portal fantasy in America than we do in Britain.
Stephanie DosSantos:That could be I never thought of it that way before. I don't know that I've read a whole lot of British and UK and authors from overseas so that's something to think about.
Wendy Jones:Oh my goodness, you need to remedy that immediately. You need to remedy it immediately. What all awesome
Stephanie DosSantos:No, I hear I have two books from a very, very well top known author over they're coming right now.
Wendy Jones:Yeah, they'll be coming. I don't know why. And then the person America's briefly slow that they need a portal, that's for sure. Oh, yeah, it could be a portal could be the postman, couldn't it? Oh, currently somewhere else? Oh, that wouldn't be a very fast portal. That's for sure. Anyway, sorry, I'm not picking on the Americans. I love America. I love America. And I love Americans. So what I'm curious, is it necessary to plan when writing the genre? Or is it possible to fly by the seat of your pants?
Stephanie DosSantos:Oh, boy, I'm both Yes. I think going into it, you need to know what your worlds about, you need to know what the portal is going to be. Those things I think probably should be planned ahead of time with a little bit about have an outline. I'm a little bit of a pantser, I do a little bit of both, I have kind of a rough outline. And then from point A to point B, I'm not exactly sure what will happen in between point A and point B, I just know that this needs to happen. This needs to happen. This needs to happen. And then I start writing it. So I have bulleted lists. Not a full, you know, 5000 word outline. But I think knowing whether your portal is going to be I mean, because they're typically magic because that is something that is not in real life yet and that we know of know whether it needs to be hard bajic Soft magic, you know, what are the rules of going into the porthole? Who can go who can't? How do you get in? How do you get out? Those kinds of things. I think you kind of should have a rough idea first of how that works. But I think you could go either way. But having some vague ideas is really helpful.
Wendy Jones:I would hate to go into a fantasy book writing I mean, without knowing where it was going. And when with a crime. I pretty much know it well. So I can do it by the seat of my pants really if I want to. Although I do do a little bit of planning. So I'm a bit of a mixture, like you and I plantstone. Most people would say my plan really but you know. Yeah. So I do I do a mixture. But I think the fantasy to me, it would need to be plotted out. And I think probably a lot of us get the that from JK Rowling. And the plotting that she did. I mean, how have you seen her plans for her books? Oh, my goodness, phenomenal, phenomenal. But really for her city? She would have to? Because you'd get lost, you'd forget what you put in one.
Stephanie DosSantos:Yeah. And I have run into that even just with Book Two out going, Oh, my gosh, I said, ABC in book one. How do I come back to that in book two? And then I know things that I want to happen in future books. And I'm like, I've got to work this out, you know, with ages of people and how is this going to happen? And who's related to who? And so I'm becoming a little bit more of an outliner because I mean, especially in JK Rowling's world it's so everything is so intertwined with the main people. I kind of see myself going down a similar, similar path one, I gotta figure this out before I write myself a corner. So yeah, it it can get a little tricky.
Wendy Jones:Yeah, I can imagine. So, how do you go about building a world in portal fantasy? I mean, I'm fascinated because I'm writing in Dundee. I know Dundee like the back of my hand. So it's no problem. How do you go about writing a completely different world? Not even like here on Earth?
Stephanie DosSantos:Right. What's your like? What what interests you make sure it's a world that you don't leave out important things that you would leave out of this world? As far as what's it look like? What's it you know, the feeling for the characters, the tastes, the smell, what is there what characters live there? What creatures live there? What, as far as actual world building, I know there's tonnes of books on world building. I haven't quite got into a lot of them myself. But my gosh, there's so many books I could, I could read but what I'd spend my time writing, but there's tonnes of worldbuilding actually pulled a book earlier a gal that I absolutely love. I can't see myself on the screen, but hopefully you can see it. I have no idea if it's backwards. But Sarah Beth Durst queen of blood I love, love, love her world building. She's got several books out. And it's you know, they fly through the trees on zip lines and things and you know, hardly spend much time on it. They do spend time on the ground, but it's just a completely different place and she has another world where it's all underwater. So I think just making sure there's something different for the reader that you can pull yourself away from and they usually have an element of magic people like to be whisked away and magical places but don't Don't forget to, you know, treat it like you would the world up here, you know, immerse the reader in, you know, what is the character feeling, seeing, smelling, doing taste light, you know, all of those. And that's something that I've got with my books. People say, Oh, my gosh, I feel like I was right there. Thank you. You know. So that is, that is something that I like to describe things I rather wordy. So I have to kind of call some of my my words in editing. But
Wendy Jones:those will be the main things. Yeah, I mean, I think what you're saying is, it's to try and make it different enough that the reader is getting their old fantasy experience, but familiar enough, that they don't feel it's too far away from them. And they don't relate. Yeah, and
Stephanie DosSantos:I think reading some books, even if it's not a portal fantasy, where it's just written in a fantasy world, the author just throws you in. And that's like, every day for that character. That's just how it is. And, and you're thrown right in, I enjoy those books as well, too. But they just, they describe it as this is how it is this is the world and you're thrown right in the middle. So I think, you know, not forgetting about that and treating it as a real place.
Wendy Jones:Yeah, yeah, no, good point. So what would be your top three tips for anyone wanting to write portal fantasy?
Stephanie DosSantos:It's a good one, read other portal fantasies. I have a long list of not dove into yet. Um, and kind of like we talked a little bit before, make it as immersive as possible that that you can for the person, you know, because that's why we read is to escape, you know, whether the character is escaping to another world, you kind of want to escape to another story or another place. And try it. You don't know, just try it. You know, you might like it, you might hate it. You know, it may give you an idea for something else if you don't like it, but just trial and error. Give it a go give it a shot.
Wendy Jones:Excellent. Great tips. So can you tell us about your own books?
Stephanie DosSantos:I happen to have him right here. The last time I spoke with you on another platform. I didn't have book two available. So it's actually here. It's not a sticker over the other book. So book one was my first. The one with the Jaguar is Book Two is portal fantasy. And it's a little bit of a mix of folklore. Sorry, tell
Wendy Jones:podcast. Can you tell us the titles please?
Stephanie DosSantos:Oh, sorry. Forget about that. It's talent and the tree. And but what is the legend in Book Two is the elimination it but the whole series is talent in the tree. He falls into a portal in the trunk of the tree and finds a total different world under the ground that everyone else thought was folklore and he grew up thinking has that real? Course once he gets down there, he realises and finds out that he is a descendant of the great healers of the island, you know, protecting the island of the people and nature and so forth. So the last healer was his great grandfather three generations ago and picked him before he was even born. So he has to figure out how that happened and all the characters that he meets and so on, but it has a little bit of that folklore, retelling and fairy tale retellings because it's based off Caribbean folklore. Characters like Papa bois, Mama Dillo. The old hag loggia bless lots of different characters that a lot of people haven't heard a lot about. We hear about Snow White beauty in the beasts, those retellings and so forth, but not a lot of other other cultures. And I just, I love travelling I love the Caribbean and when I went to Antigua that's where I got the idea of seeing the silk button. And the more I read about it, then I went down my rabbit hole and now we have the books so I plan on having about five or six two was just released we're this is what July now 2022. So the next project for me is going to be the prequel my reader magnet so I can build my newsletter list. It's awful thin little skinny right now. I need to beef that up. And then I'll dive into Book Three. There is some inkling in my brain just Navin out me wanting to make I think probably book for the from the another character point of view. talons, the main character it's told from a very close like over his shoulder everything is from his very tight world point of view. And I think I may change that to his his best friend Berisha in book four I don't I don't know how jarring that would be. I'll find out from beta readers and see how I feel after I finished book three but that's kind of the plan just to kind of change things up because she's she'll play a big integral part in the books but so it's a mix of the portal fantasy and folklore retelling which I I think a lot of Portal fantasies are, you know, they find out about other worlds other cultures, other other myths and legends and things. So it's very much.
Wendy Jones:Wow, brilliant. And I have to say I've read book one. I haven't read book two yet. I'm going to take it to the states for me. So it's gone. It's gone back to the States. So my final question is because all interviews have come to an end. My final question, Where Can my listeners find out more about you and your books?
Stephanie DosSantos:The website will always be there it is author Stephaniedossantos.com, you can sign up for my newsletter, and that will give you up to date. info on how the prequel is coming along. This is the cover mock up for that lovely, lovely cover. And I have to say that, that's going thank you that's
Wendy Jones:gonna be late for the podcast. Can you describe it? Oh,
Stephanie DosSantos:gosh, keep forgetting about that. It is a lot of symbolism that's in the book. It's a vine and it's holding a necklace of three different pendants. One is a circular stone, and then a cross and a starfish. And they all represent different healers in the world. And in this book, we'll go over kind of the drama in the background of the three main families that play a part in the book. Also, you can find me on Tik Tok author Stephanie Santos, you can find me same handle on Instagram, and email me through my website or yep, I think that's it.
Wendy Jones:We can find you everywhere as Stephanie just sent us so thank you very much, Stephanie. It was an absolute pleasure having you on the show.
Stephanie DosSantos:I always, always love talking to you. I just call you up. Hey, what you doing today,
Wendy Jones:Wendy? It's great chatting to us all was wonderful. It's it sets me up no end and I apologise for my background which is frightfully advertising like crime fiction, but I was looking for the podcast background couldn't find it. I'll have to find it after find it. I can't even remember ever having done this background. So it was a bit of a surprise to me, really. Anyway, thank you have enjoyed the rest of your day. And I'm sure we'll speak soon.
Stephanie DosSantos:I hope so. Bye.
Wendy Jones:Bye. That brings us to the end of another show. It was really good to have you on the show with me today. I'm Wendy H Jones. And you can find me at Wendy H jones.com. You can also find me on Patreon where you can support me for as little as $3 a month which is less than the price of a tea or coffee. You go to patreon.com forward slash Wendy H Jones. I'm also went H Jones on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Thank you for joining me today and I hope you found it both useful and interesting. Join me next week when I will have another cracking guest for you. Until then, have a good week. And keep writing. keep reading and keep learning