Grasping for the Wind

Hidden Reality: An Interview with Michelle Sagara West

Michelle Sagara West is a prolific author under several pen names. In our interview, she talks about being a bookseller, writing a prequel, and how she wants to write characters who are real and behave in realistic ways. A very knowledgeable writer who employs beautiful language even when she is just doing an interview with a lowly blogger like me, Michelle West is an author you should look into reading.

Be sure to read my review of The Hidden City, where Michelle comments on my review and talks more about writing real characters.

Grasping for the Wind: Besides being a writer, you are also a bookseller at Bakka-Phoenix in Toronto. Do you find that rewarding? Any memories of a favorite sale you made?

Michelle West: I love, love, love working in a bookstore. I think I always have (I've worked in bookstores, changing employers, without a break since I was sixteen years old.)

Part of the reason that I started writing novels was indirectly because of that. I had taken creative writing before, in both high school and university, and I had mostly concentrated on poetry or the type of dense prose that is almost poetry, but as I wasn't going to follow an academic career track, this didn't seem like anything I could do as a career; I still write poetry, but with one exception, have never tried to get any of it published.

I knew that I would never make enough to live on as a bookseller; the income is middling retail, even working full-time, and while it seemed like a lot at sixteen, once I actually had to pay rent and do things like eat, it wasn't.

So... I thought about the things I could do, and love, that I could combine with bookselling so that I could pull my own weight, and I decided that I would try to write fiction, for publication.

But yes, I find it rewarding. Because it's a job that involves books. Books and reading have always been enormously important to me. I love being able to figure out what customers like to read, and I love being able to match them with books they will love (even if they're books that I personally don't or can't love in the same way). It's the best part of the job. It does mean, though, that I'm thoroughly broken of the habit of shoving my books into the hands of people whose taste I don't have any sense of, because I feel, on some level, that I should only be giving them things I have some sense they'll love. And frankly, Military SF readers are not going to love my books, as a single example.

I think possibly one of my favorite sales -- and these blur over time -- was to a retired older gentleman who came into the store when the three people working were all women who were significantly younger than he was. He was polite, but he was so very hesitant because we were all girls.

I understand that some people would find this irritating; we didn't because he was of a generation in which it was probably extremely rare to run across women who adored the genre he loved -- and he approached with that hesitance to ask me if maybe I had heard of a couple of authors (Alfred Bester, A.E. Van Vogt, Asimov), and of course, I had. When I started to answer, he relaxed completely, and just started to talk. His grandson was interested in SF, and he was hoping to find some of the books that he'd loved and read in the original to give to his grandson. We did find a couple of those (with some argument over the best of the Besters, but it was a friendly argument), and then I gave him a few more recent novels as well.

He bought those, and he thanked us for our time, and he left -- but for some reason that particular sale stays with me.

For more of West's thoughts on bookselling read her interview with Jim C. Hines.

GFTW: Your latest novel, The Hidden City, is a tragic novel. Why did you decide to write a novel so filled with tragedy, but with the faintest hint of hope?

MS: I'm not quite sure how to answer this, because I had no intention of writing a novel that -was- a tragedy.

I've written the six-book series, THE SUN SWORD, and one major plot thread was not addressed by the end of it: the House War, which would be the war for control and rulership of House Terafin, the most powerful of the Houses in the Empire. I wanted to write about the House War, and I intended to write in the present of the current time-line, with flash- backs to the early years of the den, as a braided narrative.

This was the plan, but when I started to write the first book of what I thought was two books, the start of the book was from Rath's viewpoint. A little bit about this.

I will start a novel many times, from different viewpoints and during different events, trying to find my way into the book. I have false positives sometimes, if I'm writing something I really like, but when I actually have the start of the book in hand, I know. With HIDDEN CITY, the start of the book, unfortunately, was Rath's viewpoint.

For a variety of reasons, and attempting not to spoil, this meant that the braided past/present narrative structure was not going to work. Which meant that I could either give up on writing about the den's past, or I could write a book (or two) about it. And in the end, I chose to write about the den's past.

You will probably think this is slightly funny, but when I started the book, I felt that readers would find it less stressful because they already know who lives and who dies. My husband, however, pointed out that new readers wouldn't know this up front.

I never considered the book itself a tragedy, possibly because I've written so much about the den in the 'present'. I knew that where they came from was not by any stretch of the imagination what we would call a good life, but I also knew that they would see it from a different cultural context. So what I was concerned with, as a writer, was making their situation, and the subsequent way they came together as a family, more real.

You and I have talked a bit about action and consequence before. I don't feel the need to invent a new and interesting way to kill people, because I think the tragedy of death, and the way in which we're scarred by the things that don't kill us, don't require the All New Interesting Death option. What I do want, though, is some sense of the emotional aftermath of actions, because it's our -reaction- to tragedy that illuminates who we are. So, in your review, when you talk about the lack of actual action, you're touching on something that probably annoys some readers; it's not the action itself that interests me so much as what comes -of- the action.

And what comes of action is often the thing that is elided, so the actions themselves, which might be the same -- or far worse -- don't hit us as hard.

I also don't feel that I am doing anything darker in these books than other fantasists do; I think the possible difference is the protagonists live in their lives. They are not living quiet, happy lives when you find them, and they have no easy way of rising above the lives they lead because of their age and their situation. What they can do, though, is privilege the positive over the negative in the lives they are leading.

What Jewel offers them, and what they offer each other, is a better way of living, or a more hopeful one.

GFTW: Rath’s character was the most difficult for me as a reader to understand. What was your intent in writing about a character who could be so kind as to allow Jewel’s children to live with him, yet ignore them otherwise?

MS: I've learned, over time, that I can't actually predict which of my characters readers will love, and which they will hate, so I simply try to make the characters as real as I can, and let them stand on their own.

In this case, Rath is a person who has survived by wits and skill for a number of decades, in a variety of different social circumstances; he is not a very social man, and Jewel was therefore a surprise, to him. His reactions to her, which, over the course of the book become clear, stem from his past and his inability to accept that past for what it was.

But, it's less simple than that. What she is, he doesn't see clearly at first, because no two people understand each other perfectly on first meeting. Or second. I could argue that there are some people who can live with each other for years and never understand each other completely, because it takes a certain amount of will, intent, and attention. In part, and against his better judgment, he allows her to build her den because he's curious about where, and how far, she's willing to take things, and because he tells himself he can get rid of her -- and them -- at any time.

I'm not sure if I'm answering your question, because I'm not sure I entirely understand it =/. He was willing to take her in, but unwilling to let her get in the way of his life -- because, if he were being true to his own vision of himself, she wouldn't be part of his life. At all. And also because the type of work he does, if it can be called work, requires long stretches of time away from his home.

He ignores them because he doesn't want them to know, or be involved, in his work. He doesn't feel that this is cruel - why would he? He's not living in a society in which cruelty can be defined by neglect of this nature. Jewel's father loved her, but when the docks and ports were open, he was -never home- because if he were home, it would mean he had -no work-, which would mean starvation and death for the two of them. Even when her Oma died, and Jay was alone in the home for hours on end, nothing about her isolation could change the truth of that fact; her father -could not be home-.

Rath is somewhat similar, but were he inclined, he might use cash reserves to stay home; he's not. He uses the money for other elements (often unexpected) that his business might require (hiring Harald and his men, for instance).

In modern day life, this type of neglect might seem horrific. But even when my parents were children, it was frequently a fact of life.

GFTW: The Hidden City is a prequel to the other novels you have written set in the same world. Was it difficult for you to go back and write a story set in the history of your established characters? Did you have to do a lot of research back into what you had written before in order to remain consistent with the story you had already told, or was it easy to remember since you had been intimate with these characters for so long?

MS: The first word I wrote about Jewel and her den was sometime in 1994. I'm still writing about them now (the current work in progress is HOUSE NAME, sequel to HIDDEN CITY) in 2008.

So, fourteen years, more or less, and I think it would not be inaccurate to say that I'm not quite the same person I was fourteen years ago, because life experience does change the way you think and view the world.

I've always written -- usually briefly -- about elements of the den's past from the present. This is not hard because the past, the scene or scenes that I write, are not connected to anything -but- the character in the present; they're meant to underline emotion.

Since I had intended to write a braided narrative of past/present, to give readers a stronger sense of when the den was formed, and how, and why the current House War was so relevant to them as a whole, I didn't worry too much. When it became what it is now, however, it was significantly more difficult.

The whole paradigm of the past changes, because it's -no longer- the past; it's not used in small glimpses as a way of underscoring emotion in the now. The past -becomes- the now. And the now of story makes stronger demands on narrative structure because it has to work as a novel, it has to have the power of story and causality behind it.

Before I started, I read all of the books, and I made notes about anything I said. I missed a couple of things, and as usual, minor details shifted because I'm not very good at remembering things that are physical. I also discovered, to my surprise, that my writing style has changed over time; I hadn't expected this, although I probably should have, because what -I- remember about these books are the key emotional scenes that drove me to write them in the first place.

I then made a time-line of known events, and dropped those which simply didn't work. I didn't overwrite them, but there are a few places over the years where I have changed ages by a year =/.

But the hardest part about writing something like this? I know what's going to happen. Not only do I know (and this is not unusual), but I'm - stuck with it-. It's -already happened-.

So anything that the characters reveal, anything they grow into, ways in which they present themselves that I didn't expect or didn't fully anticipate can't actually -change- the events that are already writ in stone.

It's this last that makes it challenging and very difficult, because my normal writing process allows anything at all to change within the context of what I know about the world. Even if the story at the time requires that something in the middle of the book -has to- happen... I change it. I need to feel that the book itself is organic, and that
what happens is a natural extension of character and reaction.

Which, in books of this nature, I can't freely do with nearly the openness. Which is not to say that things did not occur which surprised me. Rath was a surprise to me.

GFTW: You have written many reviews for The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. How do you approach review writing, and what do you do while reading a book to ensure that your review is well-written and thoughtful?

MS: First, I started reviewing because I needed to read, and every time I sat down with a book, I would look at the mess of my house or the words that needed writing or the children that wanted time, and I would put it down. A review column meant that it was work, so I could read without guilt.

Sadly, I am not making this up.

Both of my kids are older now, and I get much more of a chance to read, but because I still can't read as much as I used to before I had children, I don't finish anything I don't like. This means that in general, I'm going to be reviewing books for which I'm in some part the natural audience; I liked them enough to finish them, flaws aside.

So I start with a pile of new books and ARCs, and I just open them up and start reading. If for some reason I didn't care enough to finish a book, I obviously won't be reviewing it.

I consider the reviews I do to be entirely different creatures from critiques, the long and more detailed look at a book's themes, influences, and history. I love these, by the way -- but they're not, in general, what I write. I write reviews in large part as an extension of what I do at the store when someone asks for a book recommendation. Which means I have to have enough plot synopsis to give a reader an idea of what the book is about, without spoiling anything that might otherwise surprise them.

What I try to do with each review is think of who I'd be recommending it to, in store, because obviously I have no face-to-face time with the readers of these reviews. The review only has to (hopefully) speak to the possible audience for the book (or what I think is the possible audience, because after all is said and done, a review is simply an opinion).

I also try to match tone to content; if a book requires a great deal of thought and concentration, like Hal Duncan's VELLUM, I try to make that clear; if the book is possessed of strong narrative ticks (see VELLUM again), I also try to make that clear, because if you're doing things with narrative structure that don't follow a relatively straight line, that's where (in my bookstore experience) you'll lose the most readers; it's not the prose, and it's not even the felicity of characterization. But I adored that book, and it ate my brain for a couple of weeks, and I also made that perfectly clear.

For something like a Patricia Briggs book, which you can read at the end of a long and frustrating day, none of these things (except that I really liked the book) are going to be a problem; these reviews tend to emphasize the nature of the entertainment, and they deal with flaws (if there are flaws) that make the book less entertaining than it might otherwise have been.

Which is a long way of saying, it depends on the book .

If I were reviewing books I didn't particular care for, I would approach things differently.

GFTW: Finally, what has been a response from a reader that you particularly enjoyed getting?

MS: I think one of my favourite emails was one I received for BROKEN CROWN many years ago. In it, the reader thanked me because she said the book was the first fantasy novel she had read in over ten years in which the characters never felt out of character; that all of their many actions seemed entirely true to who they were, and none of those actions seemed to be undertaken at my convenience.

Actually, let me give you another: email I received after HUNTER'S OATH had been published. The email was not actually -about- HUNTER'S OATH, but it was written by a young woman who lived in Oregon. She had seen OATH, had picked it up, had put it down, had come back and picked it up, had put it down, and while she was in the process of doing this, she remembered the last book that she had done this with: my very first published novel, INTO THE DARK LANDS. It was a book that she'd read at 16 years of age, and she adored it.

So she picked up HUNTER'S OATH, and read the copyright page. And saw that it was, in fact, written by the same author as INTO THE DARK LANDS. Which is when she hunted down an email address for me. The email was long, and she'd read all of my novels, which she used as incentive to get through her exams. We corresponded for a number of years after that, before we finally fell out of touch -- but that first letter that she wrote almost justified the entire SUNDERED series for me, and at a time when I needed it.

Because in the end? I write books that I hope will move and affect readers in the same way that I am moved and affected by books that I've read and loved. I know that it's not possible for me to move everyone this way, but when it does work, it makes me feel as if I've achieved something that is valuable, or meaningful.

GFTW: Thank you very much for your time.

Godspeaker: An Interview with Karen Miller

Karen Miller, is the author of the bestselling Kingmaker,Kingbreaker trilogy, a couple of Stargate SG-1 novels, and of several more novels in those worlds as well as all new ones to come, as she elucidates in this interview. One of my favorite authors, Karen's stories are the kind readers of epic fantasy will love. For more of my thoughts you can visit these other pages on my site.

My reviews of The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage.

My interview with Karen about the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology.

My review of Empress, the first in the Godpeaker trilogy.

Now, on to the interview.

Grasping for the Wind: You have stated elsewhere that you were trying to write a very different novel from the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology with Empress. How is it different?

Karen Miller: I think the main differences are found in the setting, which is a long way away from a medieval/renaissance/European influence, and in the tone, and in the central character. And the journey the reader takes with that central character, Hekat, is very very different from the one readers of the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books undertake. There’s also less lightness, less humour, which is sad, but that’s the way the world turned out in the writing. This is a much tougher book to read, I think, because the world is harsh and the characters are pretty confronting. It’s risky, there’s no doubt about it.

GFTW: You have also said that you felt that Empress was a necessary addition to its sequels in order that we might better understand Hekat. Your sequels to Empress are supposed to be more like the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology in mood and tone. Why not just let the sequels to Empress stand alone as another duology?

KM: Well, the short answer to that is: Because that’s the way the story wanted to be told! *g* When the idea for this story first came to me, Hekat’s role in it was much briefer, but I quickly realised that wasn’t working. Basically, she demanded the stage. And I wanted to explore this culture, I wanted to show it in all its savagery and mystery. I wanted to do something different in the genre, and stretch my wings a bit. There was no way I could explore Hekat as a character if I didn’t make her the focus of the first novel, and show her in the context of her culture. And from the entire trilogy’s point of view, when we shift location to the cultures that flourish elsewhere, the reader knows exactly what’s coming. The threat has been made viscerally real. Now, whether or not that gamble pays off isn’t for me to decide, of course. I just have to keep my fingers crossed that readers are happy to go along for the ride!

GFTW: Empress is a very violent, very blood filled novel. This is different from your previously published work. Was it difficult to write something so very different from your previous imaginings?

KM: It was difficult in the beginning, yes. The writing style in Empress is different from my other work, the narrative rhythm is quite distinct, and many of the characters are quite challenging people to embrace. I battled my way through much of the first draft, coming to grips with the shifts in my regular approach and style, and in the vastly different tone of this story. But once I’d nailed down the first draft and turned to rewriting, I found the process went much more smoothly. I will say that the levels of violence and blood weren’t any part of the challenge. They are such an integral part of the culture that once I immersed myself in that world, it all flowed very naturally. When it came to writing Hekat, basically I just went to my dark side and abandoned all social restraints. In an odd way, that was very cathartic, once I’d given myself over to it!

GFTW: Although Hekat is a sympathetic character at the beginning of the novel, we have come to dislike her very much by the end. How were you able to write a character that rather than having an upward spiral toward a “happily ever after” instead moved on a downward spiral filled with selfishness and hate? Was it a conscious choice to send Hekat down that path, or was in a natural outgrowth of her character?

KM: Ah ha! My dastardly plan has been revealed! *g* Yes. Hekat was never intended to be ‘the good guy’ in this story. And that’s another reason for focusing so strongly on her in the first volume of the trilogy – one of the story threads is her downfall. Things could’ve worked out very differently, for everyone, if she’d made different choices. So yes, it was a conscious choice to send her down such a dark road. What she does affects her country, her people, and the people around her. It has an effect on the whole world. I wanted to explore what it’s like to take that kind of personal journey, and what happens to the people around you when you do. And she’s such a strong personality, she just forged ahead. There was never any question, for me, that she’d suddenly wake up one morning and renounce her bloodthirsty ways. She was never destined for happy ever after … and I find that quite sad, really.

GFTW: For all Hekat’s faults, she does produce a good son. Will we see more of him in the sequels?

KM: Absolutely. Zandakar has an integral role to play in this story, which is tied to the mystical vision his father had of him, in the godhouse of Et-Raklion. He’s massively important, and I’m very fond of him.

GFTW: Did you do a lot of research into historical cultures in order to create the barbarian society and religion of Mijak? Any society you particularly based it on?

KM: Yes, I did do a great deal of research, melding a lot of ancient cultures to come up with Mijak. The Hittites, Sumer, Mesopotamia, Persia, Babylon and Sparta, basically. I did a lot of reading, watched a lot of History Channel documentaries, and visited the University of Chicago’s antiquities museum (which is splendid, everyone should go there). And then I kind of mashed them all together and let them percolate into what became the world of Mijak. It was a lot of fun! Especially finding out about the Hittites. They were an amazing people.

GFTW: Why did you entwine your “magic system” so closely with religion? And why does the blood sacrifice requiring, scorpion worshipping religion play such a large role in Empress?

KM: Well, one of the themes of this trilogy is the role of religion in the life of a people. It gets explored in the sequels, too. I think religion, of any stripe, is a phenomenally powerful force for good and evil in the world, depending on how it’s presented, interpreted and acted out by the people practising it. In Empress, I wanted to make religion an absolutely indisputable fact, I wanted the idea of doubt to be impossible, and then to look at how that certainty might impact a culture. The supernatural elements of the Mijaki religion reinforce its power and its existence, so it was important to show it that way. Again, I don’t want to give too much away in terms of what’s revealed in the other two books … but I will say that my intention was not to push the idea that religion is a bad thing. I don’t believe it is. But I do believe it can be used badly, and Mijak is a prime example of that.

GFTW: Your Godspeaker trilogy is complete, having already been published in your native Australia and being published in the US and UK over the next year. What can you tell us about what you are writing right now?

KM: Well, right now I’m working on the next book in a new series that’s just launched here in Australia, and will be coming out in the US/UK next January. It’s written under a pen name, K.E. Mills, but it’s still me! We decided to go with the pen name because it is a series – standalone adventures with a continuing cast of characters – instead of a two, three or five book self-contained story arc. Also, the tone is very different again, especially from Empress, and the cultural background is more closely aligned with the Victorian era. This isn’t epic historical fantasy. It’s not comic fantasy, either, serious things still happen, there’s a lot of drama, but there is a lot more humour – mainly because of the way the characters interact with each other. Lots of banter. It’s called the Rogue Agent series, and the first book is titled The Accidental Sorcerer. I’m having a lot of fun with it, and getting back to that world is enormously entertaining for me.

After that, I return to the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker world for the first of the two-part sequel that explores what happened after the Wall came down. That’ll be followed by a standalone prequel, in which I’ll tell the story of Barl and Morgan. Plus there’s the third Rogue Agent novel to write, and another Stargate SG-1 novel … basically, I’m chained to a computer for the next two years! *g*

GFTW: You wrote a media tie in novel for the Stargate SG-1 TV series. Did you have to approach writing this novel differently from your other works? In what way?

KM: Yes and no. I take the Stargate books very, very seriously. I know there are people out there who think folk who write media tie-ins are hacks without standards, but I utterly refute that claim. I’ve been a fan of the show ever since it started airing, and I consider myself enormously fortunate to be allowed to play in that sandbox, with those characters. I believe I have a huge obligation to do the very best job I can – I owe it to the producers, the actors, the crew and the fans to pour my heart and soul into the Stargate stories I write. And I do. At the end of the day I might come up short, in some fans’ eyes, but if I do it’s not because I didn’t take the work seriously. So in terms of being rigorous in the writing and rewriting process, it’s exactly the same. It’s absolutely not the case of chucking down any old sentence and letting it sit there on the page like suet. I polish and rewrite till the very last gasp!

I do a lot of research. Some of that involves rewatching pertinent episodes (there’s a hardship!) and sometimes it’s regular-style research. I’ve just done my second Stargate novel, Do No Harm, which is out in a few weeks, and I had to do a lot of medical research for that one. I just can’t stress enough – I don’t look at media tie-in work as some kind of poor relation. It’s as valid as any kind of storytelling, in my eyes, and I work as hard at it as I do at my mainstream fantasy novels.

Probably the biggest difference is that with the Stargate novels, you’re working in a shared world with a common frame of reference. So there’s less world-building, less exposition, because the writer and the reader already have an understanding of the environment. So that simplifies the writing process to a certain degree. But to balance that is the complexity of getting the characters right, keeping them true to the characters we see on screen. That’s the biggest challenge, and the most fun.

GFTW: What has been a response from a reader that you particularly enjoyed getting?

KM: I had a lovely letter from a gentlemen recently, who wrote to tell me that his wife had thoroughly enjoyed the two Kingmaker, Kingbreaker books, was very disappointed that there were only two, and would I kindly rectify that as soon as possible. That really did tickle my funny bone! And of course, I was thrilled to be able to write back and say yes, there are more on the way.

GFTW: Thanks for your time!

Check out The Book Swede's interview on with Karen on Empress and various other topics.

Interview with Michael Flaherty, President of Walden Media

Read this interesting interview (Part 1; Part 2) with the president of Walden Media, Michael Flaherty. Walden is the company producing the new Prince Caspian movie, set to release in mid-May.

HT: Mr. DawnTreader

Dystopia Author Sarah Hall: Why She Writes

The Guardian has an interview with Sarah Hall, author of the dystopian novel The Carhullan Army. Hall is a Booker Prize winner and her current book is shortlisted for the Arthur C. Clarke award.

Space Opera

Paul DiFilippo has an essay on the space opera subgenre at the B&N review.

You might also want to check out their interview with Philip Pullman.

Blood is Deeper than Water: An Interview with Pamela Freeman

Pamela Freeman is a noted Australian author of children's fiction. Her first adult novel, Blood Ties (my review), is set for release in April 2008, with the sequel, Deep Water, in September or October of the same year. The final book in The Castings Trilogy, Full Circle, does not yet have a release date. As well as being a skilled epic fantasy writer, she is a mom, wife, and educator. She is also fastest responder I have ever interviewed. After I sent the questions to her publisher, Orbit, I had a response the very next day. And yet her answers are intelligent and full, suggesting to me that she is one sharp woman. I'm sure you'll agree.

GFTW: You are an experienced children’s fiction writer with seventeen books to your name. Is your approach to writing children’s fiction and adult fiction different? In what way?

Pamela Freeman: The main difference, I think, is length! That sounds facile, but it actually makes a big difference to how you work. Most of the children’s books I have written are under 30,000 words. Blood Ties is around 150,000. I can keep all the details of a 30,000 word story in my head quite clearly, but with a larger and far more complex narrative I needed to spend a lot more time thinking about plot and timing, particularly as I had two main narratives running over several years. I am learning so much through the Castings Trilogy about writing long complicated stories!

GFTW: Recently the blog SF Signal asked a few authors of young adult fantasy and science fiction about the explicitness of sex in young adult fantasy and SF. Where do you draw the line in your fiction?

PF: The only YA fantasy I have written was for the Quentaris series, which doesn’t emphasise that aspect of storytelling, so it didn’t arise for me. In my other fantasies, I have been writing for younger children and I don’t put much about sex in them because I don’t think they’re really all that interested in it – they want a different kind of action! I think the line for me is about storytelling – when the details about the sex get in the way of the story, then it’s bad writing. Are the details relevant to the character’s development? Do they illuminate aspects of character or do they set up further developments in the plot? Then, by all means, put them in. But if they’re just there to be ‘exciting’ then it’s bad storytelling.

GFTW: Blood Ties is your first novel for adults. Was there any fear or trepidation in making the jump from children’s fiction to the more critical adult world?

PF: Absolutely. That was why I wrote the book as part of a doctorate in creative arts – because I wanted some help in making the transition and I knew I’d get intensive supervision through a doctorate. I was lucky to have Debra Adelaide as my supervisor – a wonderful writer and editor. But don’t think that the children’s lit world isn’t critical! You are scrutinized and reviewed far more in children’s literature – every one of my books has been reviewed extensively, which is very unusual in adult writing, as you know.

GFTW: Blood Ties includes several vignettes of characters who are incidental to the story, but to whom you give a past or a future aside from their encounter with one of the three main characters. Where did the idea for this germinate?

PF: In fact, the stories came first, and the longer narrative came out of them. The very first story in the book, "The Stonecaster’s Story", was written in 1996! I gradually, over a number of years, wrote a collection of stories set in the same world and often with the same characters, but it wasn’t until much later that I realised the larger story which they fitted into.

GFTW: What do you think the vignettes add to your story?

PF: There are three things. Firstly, I wanted to give a sense of what it might really be like, living in a world where fortune telling is reliable and ghosts appear three days after the person dies. How would that affect ordinary people and their lives? The stories explore that.

Secondly, fantasy novels traditionally concentrate on people who are ‘special’. I wanted to show that everyone has a story, that everyone is worth listening to. It’s a democratic impulse, I guess.

And thirdly… well, there is a larger structural reason I have those stories there, but you won’t find out what it is until the third book! But I promise, there is a thread connecting them all.

GFTW: Blood Ties began its life as a paper you were writing for your Doctoral degree in Creative Arts. Did you have to make significant changes to it to get it ready for publishing as a marketable novel? What kind of reception did you get from your advisors?

PF: I did have to make changes to it to get it ready for publication – but probably not more than I would usually do once a manuscript goes to an editor. Mostly it was about pace – my advisor was far more interested in character than pace and I had to tighten up the first third of the book. I was worried at one point in the doctorate that I was writing a story no one would want – it would be too ‘literary’ for the marketplace and too genre for the literati. But fortunately that was just nerves, and I know that I am a much better writer after being challenged by my advisor to improve things like character development.

GFTW: The Travelers of your story are a race of people oppressed by the stronger and more prolific Actons. Why is racial oppression and the reactions to it the central theme of Blood Ties?

PF: Because I hate racism, I guess. Because I live in a society in which racism is alive and well, because decisions which affect people’s wellbeing are still made on the basis of race and culture, because it’s just not fair – and that is an anger that can keep me interested in a 450,000 word story, which is what the trilogy will eventually be.

GFTW: What is your response to some reviewers who might say that you resort to a little deus ex machina to give your characters powers not previously foreshadowed, or to get the characters to encounter one another?

PF: It’s deus ex lith or aqua with me! Yes, I do that, partly because I’m also interested in what it would be like to live with active gods, where you didn’t have to take deity on faith. Partly for fun – and you’ll note that I do it quite openly, that the interference is understood by everyone, rather than using some vague concept of ‘destiny’ which is the same thing working behind a screen, like the Wizard of Oz. I’d rather have the machinery showing, as it were, because it feels more honest to me.

GFTW: Your inclusion of ghosts has a mystical, ancestor worship feel. That, and the divination from the casting of the bones, is the extent of the magic use in the story. Why did you avoid writing a complex magical system?

PF: Why is hard to answer. I started the stories by writing about stonecasting, and that just popped into my head and sat there, fully formed. Everything else followed from that. I suppose the other, technical answer is that one of the issues I am exploring is about the oppression of hierarchy, through the warlords, and for that to work they have to be unchallenged in power. Any complex magical system suggests an ability to harness power, which sets up another hierarchical system (the whole wizard’s college/guild thing) which would be in opposition to or in cahoots with secular power… it starts becoming another story altogether, one which I am not currently interested in writing. Maybe another day…

GFTW: The ghosts are an interesting part of the story. You require that characters who cause death return to the spot where the killed, lest they be haunted by the specter of those murdered. What was your intent in including such a requirement for your characters?

PF: There are two intents, the main one being the necessity for personal responsibility for violence. It’s not enough to just come back – you have to acknowledge your role in the person’s death and offer reparation. The other intent is story-driven – the army of ghosts which is raised in Blood Ties must be laid to rest, and there has to be a way of doing that which gels with the rest of that universe.

GFTW: Bramble comes from a good family, Ash from one that couldn’t take care of him, and Saker from one that was destroyed. Family has a great deal of effect on the characters, even if most of the story occurs away from them. Why such focus on these relationships?

PF: ’Cause that’s how humans work. We are the results of our backgrounds, mediated by our own character and ability, and we take our memories with us wherever we go and whatever we are doing. I’m not sure I could write a fully convincing character if I hadn’t thought about their family and backstory.

GFTW: What has been your favorite reaction from a reader?

PF: Someone emailed me and told me I was now their favourite writer! That was a real buzz. I’ve always wanted to be the kind of writer where people wait expectantly for the next book, and a number of people have told me that they are hanging out for Deep Water to be published, so that is very satisfying – one of the good things about writing a trilogy.

GFTW: How do you balance raising your son and writing fiction?

PF: I write while he is at school. I have an alarm which goes off half an hour before I have to pick him up, so I don’t forget because I am caught up in a scene (which almost happened once). Occasionally I write on weekends, but mostly just when he is out of the house. And I teach at night, when his dad is home (BTW, I also teach an online writing course at the Sydney Writers Centre.)

GFTW: What can you tell us about the sequel to Blood Ties, Deep Water?

PF: In Deep Water, the Well of Secrets sets our characters off on new journeys, some physical and some mental. Bramble learns a lot more about Acton and the invasion of the Domains by his people. Things are not as history has represented them! Ash must discover why his father has withheld songs from him which are crucial to the safety of the Domains. We meet new characters who will play big roles in the story and discover new kinds of beings and powers operating in the Great Forest and the deep waters… and Saker’s ghost army is growing larger and stronger. It’s a more complex story and a faster pace than Blood Ties, and I hope it is full of surprises.

GFTW: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

PF: My pleasure!

Guardian Interviews Terry Pratchett about Alzheimers

The Guardian interviews Terry Pratchett about his Alzheimer's, his books, and the new movie The Colour of Magic, set for release over Easter on Sky One.

UPDATE: The Match it for Pratchett Campaign now has its own website.

Sword, Sorcery, and Small White Dogs: An Interview with Rosemary Jones

Rosemary Jones (Myspace, Blog) is the author of the Forgotten Realms novel Crypt of the Moaning Diamond as well as several short stories. she answered a few of my questions about shared world fiction, humor in fantasy, and children's books.

GFTW: How would you describe Crypt of the Moaning Diamond to someone who hasn’t heard of it before?

Rosemary Jones: An old-fashioned swashbuckling sword-and-sorcery story full of monsters, magic, mayhem, and treasure set in the Forgotten Realms that does not fear to make humorous use of a small dog.

GFTW: Why are music and the ability to sing (or lack thereof) so prevalent throughout your novel?

RJ: That’s my day job creeping in. I work for an opera company writing press release, program notes, web content, and other items. I love music. But I’m can’t sing at all! And I’m surrounded by people who are enormously gifted at music. So I started thinking about what would it be like if you were a child of a great singer, as my heroine is, and you couldn’t sing.

GFTW: Since you write in a shared world, I have to ask this question. What is your response to those folks who deride shared worlds as bad fiction?

RJ: I would never make blanket statements about any genre because somebody is going to come along and blow you away with their talent. I think it depends on the writer and the risks that they and their publisher are willing to take. Neil Gaiman took a dopey D.C. comics character, the Sandman, and changed the way people regarded comics and won a World Fantasy Award. J.K. Rowling took the British school series genre, where each book deals with the next year in a boarding school, and turned it into an international phenomenon by tweaking that formula in all sorts of wonderful ways. But in both cases, those writers also worked very hard to make their characters real even though the hero might be an immortal god or a boy wizard. And, quite obviously in both cases, there was somebody at their publishing houses saying “Well this is different but let’s take a chance.”

One thing that can be problematic in writing shared world fiction or any type of genre fiction is the idea that you have to sound a certain way, that there is only one “voice” as it were for that type of fiction. I think that’s when writers can end up sounding forced or awkward, and readers can be very quick to pick up on that. I tried to keep the facts right (the way that the world works), stay in my own voice to tell the story, and make the characters as real as I could. When a friend read this, the first thing she said, “Is it really OK to have your adventurers out trying to raise money to repair the barn? Shouldn’t they be trying to save the world? Isn’t that what they do in fantasy?” And I told her that my characters have much smaller and, to them, more pressing problems than saving the world. Luckily, my editor at Wizards was very supportive of what I tried to do with this story. Which meant that the novel that resulted is, for better or worse, definitely Rosemary Jones’s style of storytelling.

GFTW: Why is humor such an important part of a story?

RJ: That’s just the way I write. And what I like to read. I enjoy fiction where the humor isn’t forced, where it comes more out of the relationships of the characters. Pip Granger does this beautifully in a series of mysteries that starts with Not All Tarts are Apple. Life just is a mixture of funny and serious, and it seems natural to write that way.

Terry Pratchett is another master of mixing funny and serious, especially in his later books. Read Jingo or Small Gods or Feet of Clay. Wonderful characters, terrific humor, and some serious thinking about war, religion, and freedom. Making Money, his latest book and yet another fantasy with humorous use of a small dog, is also a pretty good lesson in real-world economics and the types of speculation that is driving the stock market news today. In fact, I was a bit dismayed when I realized a dog was a major part of his latest book—his writing is so fantastic, I don’t like to go too near a “Pratchett-type” plot or characters. I definitely don’t wax as philosophical as he does either.

But as Elaine Cunningham said in a forum, you eventually do cross paths with other writers when you writing in the high fantasy world. Dwarves are dwarves are dwarves, as it were. Again, it becomes a matter of voice and trying to stay as true to yourself as possible.

GFTW: What would you say is the most difficult part of writing a novel?

RJ: Letting go at the end. I’m never totally satisfied. When you’re working on a deadline, you do reach a moment where you have to print out the pages, burn the CD, and ship it off to the editor. I’ve actually ripped open the box to make another note on the page at the post office. This is also true of nonfiction for me. Shipping it off is the hardest part.

GFTW: You write both short stories and novels. How do you approach writing novels versus writing short fiction?

RJ: Much more detailed outlines. Short stories tend to flow out of a single sentence, the opening or the closing line. Crypt also started with one idea: how would sappers operate in the Forgotten Realms? And that idea really started with me reading about medieval sappers, i.e. the men who had the job of breaking down the walls of a besieged castle. Then a lot of other things from life got layered into the outline, like not being able to get out the door without spilling my breakfast down my shirt or wondering why everyone that I see wandering outside in Seattle is walking a small dog or how family members don’t always look like each other but definitely are similar in underlying ways. My outline for a short story might be just one or two sentences jotted in a notebook. My outline for Crypt was 35 pages!

GFTW: To what extent are you constrained by the pre-existing world of Faerûn in your writing and how and when are you able to forge new territory in the Forgotten Realms setting?

RJ: What constraint? I had a whole huge world to play in and somebody else had already drawn the maps! I find owning complete encyclopedias explaining where stuff is and how it works is a terrific safety net and a great source of ideas. Some shared worlds might be harder to write in, but Faerûn seems to act more like historical fiction. If you’re writing about the Napoleonic wars, you have to put Waterloo in the right place on the right day. But if you’re writing about what’s happening in a corner of Denmark on the same day as Waterloo, you don’t need to worry so much about “the facts that everyone knows.” My story takes place in a year, 1276 DR, and a corner of Faerûn, the ruins of Tsurlagol, that nobody else had written about much. So the story and the characters are all mine but I hope the novel makes sense to somebody who likes this setting as well as to somebody who knows nothing about the Forgotten Realms.

As it was, the constraints came more out of the perimeters I set on myself: the action would all happen underground since the theme of this series was Dungeons and the time period would be less than two days in my characters’ lives. But the constraints also led to some creative solutions (I think) that made it a more interesting story.

GFTW: You have mentioned that you used to play role playing games quite often. What is your favorite role playing game memory?

RJ: In college, I was in one of those long-running D&D campaigns fueled by chips and dip. The kind where everything seems sensible and heroic at 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. in the morning. I wanted to get that rushed, light-headed feeling into the action of this book. And another friend, who works in the gaming industry, was my sounding board. He contributed several ideas based on his campaigns and even the title treasure!

GFTW: Your characters create a great deal of humor through their interpersonal relationships. Are any of these based on personal experiences?

RJ: Partially that college D&D campaign. We were a very creative and slightly silly group. We used to drive our DM nuts because we wouldn’t always act the way that he thought we should. And we were very lucky in our dice rolls. So, more than once, when we really should have been dead, we beat the odds and got out. So I had the idea in the back of my head that the luck would play an important role in this book.

GFTW: In addition to writing fiction, you also write nonfiction, including reference materials for collecting children’s books. Where did your interest in children’s fiction come from?

RJ: A longtime passion is early 20th-century illustrated children’s books. I love the work of illustrators like Kay Nielsen or Edmund Dulac. That’s what I collect. But I also read and acquire a lot of fantasy and science fiction written for children or young adults. Both new books, like Kenneth Oppel or Philip Reeve, and older works, like Alexander Key or Andre Norton or E. Nesbit. As far as fantasy and science fiction are concerned, I find that the line between children’s books and adult books blurs quite quickly. Jules Verne, another favorite author, sold to both audiences from the beginning and his works attract great illustrators. Look at the illustrations that N.C. Wyeth created for Mysterious Island in 1918 or what the Dillons drew for a more recent version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, you’ll see a wonderful blend of art and fiction.

GFTW: Any plans for a novel or series outside of the Forgotten Realms?

RJ: Right now, I’m playing around with a novel based on Greek mythology. It’s my ten-year project; as in every time I’m between projects, I go back and tweak the ideas or write another scene for a writer’s group that I’m in. And I’ve been fiddling with a short story idea that keeps growing longer and longer about a guy trapped in a rocket in an asteroid field. The latter may turn into a novel outline if I’m not careful.

GFTW: Any parting thoughts for your readers or those who might be considering delving into the Realms?

RJ: Buy a big bookcase! There are a lot of great books out there. And very many different voices. If my style doesn’t suit your tastes, try someone else. Don’t ever judge the whole series like this based on just one author.

Christianity in Space: An Interview with Chris Walley

Chris Walley is the author of The Lamb Among the Stars a series set in the far future that has a unique setting. His novel discusses good and evil within the context of Christian understanding, something very unlike its contemporaries. Walley was kind enough to answer of a few of my questions about his series, his life as a geologist, and the relationship between science and faith. (You can read my review of his first book here.)

Grasping for the Wind: Tell us a little bit about the genesis of your speculative fiction trilogy, The Lamb Among the Stars. Where did the idea come from?

Chris Walley: I was converted into a Christianity of the sort of reformed tradition that took the Puritans seriously. I was intrigued that many of them held the view that there would be a great and long time of blessing before the End came. As I thought about that the question came to me ‘what it would be like to be at the end of such a Golden Age?’ At the time, I was working in Beirut during the civil war and issues of good and evil were brutally on the agenda. Finally one day, I had this image of my hero walking across the wintery landscape of a made world and things started to come together. But it’s been a long haul!

GFTW: Christians writing science fiction is a rare thing. Why do you think this is?

CW: I don't think it should be a rare thing, but I agree it seems to be. I am very concerned that, unlike our ancestors, many Christians have rather given up on any sort of future. Indeed, there is a slightly despairing mood around that basically says ‘all we need to do is hang on until the Rapture’. Well the end may be imminent – I will be delighted to be wrong – but my reading of Scripture is that we are to prepare for the long haul. We have also become scared of science. Shame on us!

GFTW: On the blog Speculative Faith, you have claimed that science can do a great job in explaining spiritual matters. How is this so?

CW: I think there are several reasons why science is of help. The first is that even if they do not understand science (how many of us can explain the principles on which a cellphone, GPS or even an aircraft operate?) people acknowledge that it must be true because it works. In doing so the great agnostic argument ‘I cannot believe in your God because I cannot understand him’ is undermined. The second reason is that the world revealed by science is very complex and very strange. After you have read anything of modern physics the doctrine of the Trinity or predestination seems far less problematic. A third and related reason is that science is enormously humbling.

GFTW: You are a geologist and teacher by trade. Why did you feel called to study what we here in the US often call “Rocks for Jocks”?

CW: Actually, I never felt ‘called’ to study geology. I was not a Christian when I became a geologist, but despite my repeated attempts to be called to the other things (I am quite open to becoming a successful full-time writer!) God has seen fit to keep me in the rock world. There are actually a lot of parallels between geology and writing fiction. To examine a sequence of dull, dusty rocks and conjure up from that some ancient world of steamy swamps and vanished ecosystems is a considerable exercise of imagination.

GFTW: Your science fiction novel The Shadow and Night is deeply philosophical rather than action intensive. Why did you spend so much time exploring the philosophical implications of the entrance of evil into Farholme society?

CW: I hope the ‘deeply philosophical’ isn’t too off-putting! The action increases in the series and by the time we get to the The Infinite Day any philosophy or theology is largely discussed while the characters are either running or reloading. But I am unrepentant about taking time to set the stage in the first volume. One of the problems of the world that we live in is that we have become utterly blasé about evil. We assume that it is normal and it has lost its shock value. What I have tried to do is paint innocence first so that the true nature of evil is made clearer. It is long-felt belief of mine that by relegating evil to truly monstrous men and women doing appalling acts of bloodshed we overlooked the fact that the vast majority of evil is quite undramatic but equally damning.

GFTW: Merral is both deeply flawed and truly heroic. Was his character modeled on anyone in particular?

CW: Merral’s weaknesses are my own; Merral’s heroism is imagined! I have however tried to make him very much an Everyman; a figure that we can all identify with. What is, I think, particularly compelling about Merral is that this is a man who we first meet in a state of innocence who is forced to become the greatest warrior of his age. He never quite loses the horror of having blood on his hands.

GFTW: Why did you have Merral be so dependent on outside help (i.e. Vero, Anya, Perena, the angel of the Lord) for success?

CW: Another fascinating question! Let me suggest two reasons. One of the problems of action novels is that we tend to create heroes with such mighty abilities that they do not need grace. I can't identify with such people and I'm not sure your readers can either. As an aside, they are not actually very interesting creatures. A second reason is the terrible subtlety of evil; how concentrating on a spectacular external evil may cause us to overlook the no less deadly evil within us. Merral’s greatest enemy is always himself.

GFTW: Did you find it difficult to mesh the science (which is based in what we know in 2008) of the Made Worlds with the Christian culture of the Assembly when you were writing?

CW: Handling advanced science is very difficult. I first started drafting ideas for the first novel 20 years ago, and some of the technology I dreamed of then is now available in the shops today! I have actually largely minimised science innovations; one of the great emphases of the Assembly is that it has a great deal of caution about science and technology. Someone has commented that the Assembly are the ‘Amish in Space’; it's not entirely true, but there is something in it. So other than travel between stars through Gates and gravity modification there is very little that is new in the Assembly technology. However as readers soon find out, there are other cultures about who have no such limits.

GFTW: What can you tell us about how the story progresses in The Dark Foundations and The Infinite Day?

CW: Well I'm not going to give you any plot spoilers, but rest assured that soon enough the action comes fast and furious. There is also a progressive escalation of scale. We start off in a quiet, cosy rural world where nothing has happened and we end up with bloody battles in a war that involves a trillion people and a distance of 600 light years. Someone made the off-the-cuff comment that he thought the series was as if C. S. Lewis had written Star Wars. It’s a bizarre thought, but I take it as a compliment and a reflection on the scale of what happens. What I can promise is that evil is defeated but it is not defeated easily. A price is paid.

GFTW: What speculative fiction novels would you recommend other than Tolkien or Lewis?

CW: Ah, here you have embarrassed me! Because I had always had to squeeze my writing into my spare time I have not read as much as I should of late. Where I have read fantasy recently, I have been rather disappointed. Modern British fantasy, for instance, tends to be either dark and gloomy. That’s partly why I write my own tales! I've promised myself that some day I will go into my local bookshop and buy a great pile of speculative fiction. But in the past I’ve enjoyed both Arthur C. Clarke and Asimov – his Foundation trilogy in particular is a great story and probably a subtle influence on my own works.

GFTW: Any parting thoughts?

CW: Only to say that I'm grateful for all the questions. Writing is a lonely pastime, and sometimes you need external questions to make you think about what you're actually doing and trying to achieve. Oh and if anybody reads the books and wants to comment or contact me they can get me either on what is now becoming a pretty well populated facebook fan site [http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2216305373] or via my own website [www.chriswalley.net].

This interview is part of the February 2008 CSFF Blog Tour. Other participants include:

Brandon Barr; Jim Black; Justin Boyer; Grace Bridges; Jackie Castle; Carol Bruce Collett ; Valerie Comer; CSFF Blog Tour; Gene Curtis; D. G. D. Davidson; Chris Deanne; Janey DeMeo; Jeff Draper; April Erwin; Marcus Goodyear; Rebecca Grabill ; Jill Hart; Katie Hart; Michael Heald; Timothy Hicks; Christopher Hopper; Heather R. Hunt; Jason Joyner; Kait; Carol Keen; Mike Lynch; Margaret; Rachel Marks; Shannon McNear; Melissa Meeks; Rebecca LuElla Miller; Mirtika or Mir's Here; Pamela Morrisson; Eve Nielsen; John W. Otte; John Ottinger; Deena Peterson; Rachelle; Steve Rice; Ashley Rutherford; Chawna Schroeder; James Somers; Rachelle Sperling; Donna Swanson; Steve Trower; Speculative Faith; Robert Treskillard; Jason Waguespac; Laura Williams; Timothy Wise

Ian M. Banks - Why I Write

Ian M. Banks has an interview over at the Guardian on his writing career.

Never Challenge a Goblin to a Game of Rakachak: An Interview with Jim C. Hines

Jim C. Hines, author of the incredibly witty and full-of-pizazz* Goblin trilogy (Goblin Quest, Goblin Hero, and the forthcoming Goblin War, all from DAW books), talks with me about Jig Dragonslayer, writing, and a favorite role playing session.

Grasping for the Wind: Why is humor such an important part of a story?

Jim C. Hines: Without humor, the goblin books could get awfully depressing. Goblins are the underdogs. They lose nine out of ten battles, and they live short, violent lives. If I wrote the stories without humor, it would be nothing but a band of depressed emo goblins singing the blues while they wait to die. You need humor and ... let's call it pluck. Jig is far from thrilled about his situation, but he never gives up. The goblins are always scheming and plotting and defying their role as the underdogs of fantasy. That makes them a lot more fun to write about, and hopefully to read as well.

GFTW: Jig Dragonslayer is a self-deprecating character. His own heroism comes as a surprise to him. Why do you think causes characters like Jig to resonate with readers?

Jim: We might enjoy the superheroes, the unstoppable barbarians and uber-powerful wizards, but I think we can relate more to characters like Jig. He's the Charlie Brown of fantasy. Watching this poor runt fight and somehow manage to survive is a lot more inspiring than when Rambo-with-a-Broadsword does the same thing.

GFTW: Smudge is a non-speaking character, but he has a lot of personality. Did you find it difficult to make sure he didn’t drop out of the story?

Jim: I love that fire-spider, but there were a few times when I'd finish a scene and realize I had completely forgotten about poor Smudge. He's a great character, but he's also limited in what he can do, plotwise. I mean, there's only so much for him to set on fire. But Smudge is important, not only as a kind of organic Zippo lighter, but also because he's Jig's best friend. I might forget about Smudge, but Jig never will.

GFTW: How would you describe your writing process?

Jim: Ugly? Unstable? Painful? My path from idea to finished manuscript varies a bit depending on the story, but usually it involves a few outlines, a first draft of pure chaos and confusion, and several rewrites to finally figure out what the story's about and get it down right. But it works for me.

GFTW: Where did the idea come from to do the Monday LOL books at your blog?

Jim: Heh ... I had just discovered Cat Macros, and I was bored, so I decided to slap a few captions on books by myself and my friends. I posted them on LiveJournal, and the reaction was very positive, so I did a few more. If something makes people grin or laugh, I tend to keep doing it. I think I've done about 40 books all total. It's gotten to the point where I'll meet people at booksignings who say, "Nope, I've never heard of the goblin books. But aren't you the LOL Book guy?"

GFTW: Why do you choose to write primarily fantasy, even though your mainstream fiction has been well-received?

Jim: I haven't actually written a lot of mainstream stuff. One novel and a handful of short stories. I'm proud of them, but I have a lot more fun with fantasy. I love the magic and the wonder. I even love the clichés, the dragons and the shiny swords and the wizards. There are other genres and subgenres where I might be able to make more money, but I figure you've got to write what you love.

GFTW: You have said that you are taking a break from the Goblin stories to work with different characters. How are The Stepsister Scheme and the other Princess novels different from the stories of Jig?

Jim: The princess books are a bit more serious. Not completely serious, of course. I'm basically writing a mashup of fairy tale princesses and Charlie's Angels. But the ch