My name is D.N.Frost, and I'm a fantasy author, cartographer, and creative mentor.
My love for role-playing games and knack for storytelling drives me to build the Known World, map its lands, and tell its tales.
I love exploring culture, psychology, and language through my characters and their exploits through the Known World.
Since earning a Linguistics degree from the University of Texas, I've been happily creating realistic societies with their own dialects, traditions, and magic.
Check out this Author's Manifesto for more of my inspirations!
This manifesto also serves as a Spark Directory that shares my passion for writing with you. You'll learn my beliefs about storytelling, what I hope to achieve with my novels, and who I am outside of my writing career.
Listen in on my interview with Worldbuilder's Anvil from April 2015:
(interview starts at 1:50)
Come take a look at my work under Tales of the Known World Books:
• Book One: Awakening
• Book Two: Broken
• Book Three: Conceived
• And these free online resources and bonus content
Get to know me with these blog posts:
• I am a writer - How the stories started. A 5-part series.
• Why I write - How I set out to craft the ultimate story. A 2-part series.
• What is TotKW? - Welcome to my Tales of the Known World saga.
• I love maps - Using a storyteller's greatest tool. A 2-part series.
• I am a poet - My first poem left me underwhelmed. A 4-part series.
• I am a truth-seeker - How I grasped life's mysteries. A 6-part series.
• I am a linguist - How my love for language began. An 8-part series.
The Long Version
I wrote my first story in 6th grade. I'd always dreamed vividly, but one morning I awoke from an unfinished storyline and endeavored to piece together the fragments into a satisfying conclusion. After mulling over the dream and ironing out the biggest incongruities in the plot, I slipped out of bed and out to the family computer. By slow hunt-and-peck typing over the whole day, I documented my silly 11-year-old adventure with a sense of rapture and shame. In those days, had no aspirations beyond capturing the adventures flickering through my sleeping circuits. As youth's writing is wont to do, the manuscripts ranged from breaking the 4th wall with hilariously contrived dialogue to overwrought sentences and bewildering plotlines.
When I was a freshman in high school, a new friend introduced me to the world of RPGs, and I was never the same. Those online role-playing games were stories written back and forth with another person, each 'playing' assorted characters and collaborating in new story arcs. My gaming quickly refined itself to specific partners who mirrored my fanaticism, with my new best friend at the forefront. I suggested we begin a fantasy story with its own cast of characters. Late that night, ensconced in her bedroom during one of our frequent sleepovers, I drew the very first map of the Known World. We plucked characters from the four corners of the map, dropped them like wind-up toys into a detailed setting, and watched the sparks fly.
Though the grip of one-on-one RPing never lost its hold, by the time high school ended, I'd added other, more populous games to my repertoire. As I joined more diverse games not limited to one fandom, I discovered that most players used characters from existing works of fiction, particularly from Japanese video games and cartoons, rather than inventing their own original characters. Dutifully, I began picking up my favorite pre-existing characters, and found that the payoff of writing with friends did not diminish for the changeover. Meanwhile, I retained old maps and transcripts of my old fantasy game in the Known World. I felt driven to turn my premise into a novel, and having never been as interested in that storyline as I was, my old friend granted me permission to take my ideas and run with them.
Over the next few years, I realized my story-writing came from within me, and that I couldn't rely on a writing partner to keep up. Amidst the chaos of college graduation, I began to work on the Known World story again. It was dreadful. There seemed to be no salvaging the ridiculous storyline or childish tone. At last, I decided the transcripts weren't worth editing, but infused with determination, I hatched an ambitious plan. I would rewrite the entire story myself, and edit my own draft up to snuff. And so it began. My passion for writing flowered again. The work was rewarding unto itself, though many times I felt the rub of disinterest from friends and family. Determined to be my own cheerleader, I resigned myself to the fact that stories are best shared when finished.
As the years flew by, I poured myself into my creative work, revisited some fantasy cartography tutorials I'd encountered during my gaming days, and remade my map of the Known World. I loved the map so much, I decided to make a map for each of the book's fourteen chapters. By the time I'd finished the manuscript, the self-publishing arena had advanced far from its vanity press beginnings, and quality self-published works were landing print deals. In a single frenzied week, I launched my debut novel.
While I figured out how best to reach my audience of fantasy-lovers, gamers, and fans of tropes the world over, I began work on the second book in my series. The stories of the Known World span centuries, continents, and at least eight impending novels, which cannot be written fast enough. Now, I share my writing adventures here, and I look forward to publishing my next book.
Note: This site contains links to Amazon, for my own publications (obviously) as well as for other books I have reviewed. As an Amazon Associate, I may earn commissions from qualifying purchases. Feel free to contact me with questions.
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