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The small audience of Penn State staff listened to Maria V.
Snyder's story with rapt attention.
Her speech was conversational and lightly sprinkled with humor, creating a very comfortable atmosphere.
The ambience of the room was indistinguishable from the placid air of a library.
Except in this small room, there were intermittent eruptions of riotous laughter.
This resulted from the author's witty depictions of the writer's dilemma.
These peals of laughter would have disconcerted any rigid librarian.
Maria V.
Snyder originally aspired to become a meteorologist.
With a college degree in meteorology, she pined for a creative outlet.
Since weather forecasting only allowed small degrees of creativity.
Whilst, most of the tools used for tactful weather forecasting relied upon deductive skills.
Feeling unsatisfied with this creativity deficit, she began writing fragments of a story that would later morph into "Poison Study.
" The novel Poison Study happens to be the first novel of a long spanning series that is comprised of six volumes.
Those six volumes are then divided into two separate, but related series.
Both of them feature focus upon different points of views of two feisty females, Yelena and Opal.
Furthermore, they involve two very distinct types of magic.
Yelena's study series includes a tutorial of the series' particular magic system.
While Opal's Glass series relates directly with Opal's bizarre ability to infuse glass with magic.
With the inclusion of humor, adventure, romance, conflict, and eccentric characters, this series hosts many more elements than archetypal magic systems.
During the speech Maria V.
Snyder also described her preferred method of writing and idea organization.
Contrary to popular belief, not every single writer religiously adheres to a structured outline.
"When I write, I mostly just write without outlining beforehand.
I follow the story where to leads me.
" Maria V.
Snyder said, surprising the audience with her unorthodox manner of writing.
Then again, from a writer's vantage point, it happens to be a relatively normal method of idea organization.
Many writers are impromptu because it allows for the stream of consciousness to effectively organize the story.
Basically, she's constructing a stable story structure with intuition and spontaneous idea generation.
Another fascinating element of Maria V.
Snyder's writing process involves meticulous research.
If the story requires sword fighting, heists, or prison intrusion, Maria V.
Snyder will research those things in order to realistically write these scenes.
For example with her recent novel, "Spy Glass," she perused a prison to authenticate Opal's own personal prison trip.
Luckily, Maria V.
Snyder's prison visit did not involve attaining important information from certain prison sources.
Otherwise, she may not have exited the prison unscathed and have been able to conclude the Glass series.
In other instances of writing research, she learned the craft of handling a broadsword from several teachers at a Lancaster Boscov's.
She remarks that "There was a sign outside the store that mentioned Broad Swords lessons being offered at Boscov's.
Inside, there were several men passing out broadswords to us.
Remember this all happened in a Boscov's.
I think I scared the older woman nearby with my broadsword swings.
" Strangely, this incident allowed for Maria V.
Snyder to relay her newly discovered broad sword abilities into her novels.
Without this fortuitous occurrence, the broadsword within her novels may have been eliminated.
This careful research certainly compels a diverse number of individuals to read her novels.
One of my fellow bloggers, Senita commented on Maria V.
Snyder's books and said they were, "Full of adventure and had strong female characters.
Plus, the romance is always a plus.
" Jon Sprunk, author of Shadow's Son, attributes the success of her novels to Maria V.
Snyder's good characterization, "Maria Snyder has a gift for understanding what makes people tick.
Her characters are thoughtful and rich, and always engaging.
" Books without endearing characters that evoke our empathy would be overlooked.
Because, people are not simply begging for books packed with senseless violence and carnage.
Nearly all readers alike wish to conjure an imaginative narrative world with characters that mirror our complications and complexities.
Maria V.
Snyder said "I have to torture my characters because without conflict, who would want to read that novel?" Without realistic conflicts or tragedies, turning the next page would be unnecessary.
Even in a world filled with fantasy elements, the characters still embody the characteristics of ourselves that makes us human.
Therefore, a story is never really a reprieve from reality.
Instead, it's a fictitious reflection of our world.
And we cannot help but escape repeatedly to that world even with the unpredictable misfortune.
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