Greetings, Loyal Reader!

I’ve returned from a vacation and a visit to Dragon*Con and am finally able to get back to the update.  I’ll give a Dragon*Con report later. For now, thank you to all the Loyal Readers who came to my reading and book signing. I read the first three chapters of Hero Wanted, which were well received by the teeming crowd of at least one dozen.

But today I thought is would be fun to grade Hero Wanted against this funny, yet true, site “The Fantasy Novelist’s Exam.” I just stumbled across it today. I am sure many of you have seen it. If not, it is an exasperated response to too much derivative fantasy. As the site intro says:  “We think anybody considering writing a fantasy novel should be required to take this exam first. Answering “yes” to any one question results in failure and means that the prospective novel should be abandoned at once.”

While the test is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, it is a worthwhile reminder for fantasy authors and would-be authors to avoid tired, overused, and unimaginative tropes, clichés, and themes that frequently turn up in fantasy fiction.

I will say up front that on its face, Hero Wanted fails this test in spectacular fashion.  I can only say in defense of my creation that the Jason Cosmo series is to some extent consciously and intentionally derivative, being in large part a spoof or parody of the epic fantasy genre.  I used quite a few clichés on purpose. I hope I have included some original ideas and that the whole is satisfying diversion for Loyal Reader, but that is for you to decide.

I give Hero Wanted 20 yes answers out of 75 questions. A couple were close calls, but I erred to the side saying yes.  If you have a fantasy work in progress, it might be worth testing your manuscript against this quiz to see if there are any stale notions you could perhaps rethink. I will certainly do so if I ever get around to writing a straightforward fantasy! But for my satirical purposes I will probably make a point of including more clichés in a future work!

Best regards,

Dan McGirt