Grasping for the Wind

Describe the Truth, Leave Elegance to the Tailor: An Interview with Stephen Hunt

Stephen Hunt, whose novel The Court of the Air was recently submitted to the Berlin International Film Festival, answered a few questions about his unique story, and describes both his writing intent, and the authors whose works most influenced his own.

Grasping for the Wind: The Court of the Air is receiving a great deal of critical acclaim. Tell us a little about the novel and your very nearly self-created subgenre, “flintlock fantasy”.

Stephen Hunt: The Court of the Air intertwines the life of Oliver Brooks, a young man under house arrest in the rural north of the Kingdom of Jackals (suspected of possessing mutant powers), and a poorhouse girl, Molly Templar, living in the country’s capital – Middlesteel – who has to go on the run after she unexpectedly attracts the unwanted attention of a well-funded crew of assassins. Oliver is framed for murder and they both have to go on the lam, trying to make sense of why their deaths are being so energetically sought.

Oliver is assisted by agents (known as wolftakers) from the mysterious Court of the Air, a floating zeppelin city founded to protect democracy by the kingdom’s version of Cromwell (hence, the title of the novel). The Court have a plan, but it may not be good!

Firstly, The Court of the Air is basically my tribute to Don Lawrence’s fantasy/SF Trigan Empire series, which was one of the comic books I grew up reading (along with 2000AD, but that came a lot later). Don used classical Greek/Roman styling for his work (following, I suspect, the sensibilities of the pulp Flash Gordon/Buck Roger B movies), but people always say write what you know, and my favourite period of history is the Napoleonic/Victorian era, so that’s how my ‘Jackelian’ world came about. I wanted a wide canvas for some page-turning SFF adventures, and the kingdom and its many neighbours seemed the ideal spot.

Secondly, I wanted to encapsulate the feel of British-ness within a fantasy setting – much the same as Tolkien tried to do with his Shire – but make it a truer, less twee reflection of what the Brits have always been about. That curious schizophrenic mélange of disrespect to your rulers, drinking, fighting, liberalism, tolerance, and an unruly sense of fairness that will not suffer being crushed by the foot of any tyrant.

GFTW: In your novel, you make a lot of subtle references to great English classics by Dickens, Defoe and others. Why the nod to their works in a novel of fantasy?

SH: It was revenge, basically. I was writing the first novel in a variety of places, and everywhere I went, Charles Dickens was haunting me. I step out of my favourite coffee shop in London, and there’s an oval blue sign saying that Dickens worked opposite. I bash away at the novel in the London Library (a private members club), and I discover that Dickens wrote most of a Christmas Carol exactly where I was sitting. I figure, you’re going to fuck with my mind like this, Mr Dickens; I’m going to get revenge by borrowing some of your well-out-of-copyright characters. It worked, too! He hasn’t bothered me much recently.

GFTW: Your novel evokes comparisons to other great fantasy/political works like Orwell’s 1984 or Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. Why did you choose to make the politics of Jackals and the Commonshare such an integral part of the novel?

SH: I was just being true to British history, there. The late 18th/early 19th century was a time of enormous political worries and contrasts. You had great statesmen of the left and right, Wellington, Disraeli, Gladstone, taking turns in power – parliament worrying about the French guillotine being raised in London, and later fretting over anarchism, chartism, socialism and communism. Seeing it was such a vital part of life, I thought it’d make for a truer reflection of the period if I put a little of it in. I did add my own twist to parliament, though, such as points of order being settled by politicians dueling: bashing each other with weighted oak staffs. Who wouldn’t want to see President Bush and Gordon Brown trying to brain each other with pieces of wood to decide whether Iraq gets invaded or not?

GFTW: Your primary characters, Molly and Oliver, have their story move outside of the inner world of Jackelian society, although there is some cause and effect, especially in the conclusion. Was there ever a time you felt like you were writing two books, and that perhaps it would be better to split them up?

SH: Nope. I wanted to interweave two stories, mainly because it makes it much easier to end a chapter on a cliffhanger and leave the reader gasping for twenty pages or so. Can’t claim to have invented that trick though – I learnt it at the foot of EE Doc Smith and William Gibson. To be honest, I have a very overactive imagination gland, and I need to squeeze a lot into a novel to keep me interested. That’s both my weakness and my strength, which, methinks, is why critical reaction to The Court of the Air has been so intense – you either love it to death, or think it sucks like a Dyson. It is the SFF world’s marmite-covered sandwich!

GFTW: Did you find integrating technology and magic difficult to do? Was there ever a time in the story when you had to debate which to use?

SH: I think the novel found its natural balance there, but I had some good spirit guides who have walked the path before to aid me in the form of Gene Wolfe, Jack Vance and Michael Moorcock. Thanks, guys. There’s a degree to which I get to play with Clarke’s third law: ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’ and a degree to which the novel’s back-story enables me to get away with it (the physical laws of the universe have evolved in a phase change, so some technology has stopped working, while other things have become possible).

GFTW: What can you tell us about other novels set in the Jackelian World? Rumor has it that you plan to write six books, and even have a deal in place to do so.

SH: I have been very flattered by HarperCollins’ faith in my pen. It felt like winning the lottery when I originally heard from my agent John Jarrold that The Court of the Air was going to auction and all the big imprints in the UK were fighting each to get their hands on it. After the success of the first novel, HarperCollins have recently extended my 3-book contract to a 6-book one – all set in the Jackelian world. Apparently, The Court of the Air is the best-selling fantasy book Tesco have ever had, which is nice. You can buy my book along with your sausages and milk, which has to be handy.

The Court of the Air is coming to the USA as a hardback via Tor on June 10th 2008.

I can’t tell you when the German, French, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese or Spanish-language versions are coming out, though. I have exchanged various e-mails with the translators from assorted foreign publishers, wanting to know what a hansom cab is and the like, so I suspect they’re still being worked on.

Book two, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves is out now in hardback in the UK from HarperCollins. Just launched, in fact. I have even scoffed the lunch with my colleagues at HarperCollins to prove it.

The Kingdom Beyond the Waves features the quest for a lost city that reputedly created the perfect pacifist society, and Professor Amelia Harsh (who had a bit role in book one), has to greenmail u-boat privateer Commodore Black into taking his craft into the jungles of Liongeli to find it. The expedition is bankrolled by a reforming industrial lord and guided by a half-insane steamman safari hunter, their u-boat filled with a convict crew and the lord’s female mercenaries. Meanwhile, back in the kingdom, a Scarlet Pimpernel-like hero is trying to spirit aristocrats away from the revolution in the Commonshare and into Jackals, but runs up against more than he bargained for.

My third novel is as yet untitled and just coming out of the copy-edit stage – it features the invasion of the Kingdom of Jackals from the north by a force that everyone believes are just a horde of polar barbarians. They soon learn, to their everlasting regret, that the invaders aren’t big hairy axe-carrying raiders, though.

Book four is a murder mystery set on the island of Jago, a country settled by Jackelian refugees when the last ice age took hold. It was the final redoubt of civilization, technology and learning in a very dark time. Located in the middle of the magma ocean of the Fire Sea, the Jagonese were able to hold out against the cannibalistic Chimecan Empire, but now we move forward to the current day, post-thaw, they’ve been suffering from emigration for centuries as their citizens leave for nicer places than a fire-warmed rock with a good defensive position.

Book five is a war story between the kingdom and their neighbours to the south, Cassarabia. Tensions have been running high through all my novels to date, and this is the book where their differences get sorted out – airship-on-airship, and regimental squares against the slavering altered children of Cassarabia’s slave wombs. Fans of Bernard Cornwell, Patrick O'Brian, CS Forester and David Weber’s Honor Harrington series should be well satisfied by this baby.

Books six focuses on the dowdy, poorly resourced secret service in the Kingdom of Jackals, who have always suffered in comparison to their cousins in the omnipotent Court of the Air. Sadly, they find themselves holding the line when the brown stuff hits the steam-powered fan. Its sensibility is far more Funeral in Berlin or Callan than the glamour of Bond, and should be great fun, both to write, and fingers crossed, to read too.

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

SH: Well it’s always extra flattering when SFF authors whose works you’ve enjoyed yourself come up at cons and say they’ve read one of the books and thought it was fantastic. Hopefully they actually have read and enjoyed it, and that’s not just what you’re meant to do and say at a con to fellow writers! Like, kissy, kissy, loved your last role, Sir Ian, Peter Jackson told me he was so happy with your performance.

GFTW: There has been an increased popularity in fantasy novels that have parallels in history or tell alternate history tales, like Naomi Novik’s Temeraire, Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell or Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. What’s your theory on why readers have been and are drawn to these types of novels?

SH: I think the readers just like fantasy, and the history gives them something familiar to hang their hat on and get into it. This is the reason, I suspect, why so many of these novels have become popular outside of the core SFF audience and struck a chord with joe public in the wider sense.

GFTW: You are a founding member of the popular online magazine SF Crowsnest. What was the genesis of this magazine, and what has been your role in it throughout its history?

SH: It was originally set up in 1990 as a glossy print magazine called ProtoStellar by a half-Welsh half-Arab SFF fan called Shadwell Oman. I was a contributor and writer for it. When Shadwell went back to the UAE I took over the magazine and moved it online. Originally I snuck it onto AppleWorld, the pre-internet BBS, as I was one of Steve Job’s hirelings (and I could). When the internet came along, I moved it to the web in 1994, and the rest – as they say – is history. I suffered from the dumb luck of being in the right place at the right time, and the site now has 800,000 readers a month clocking up to 50 million hits a month.

I cite dumb luck for being one of the first sites online with SFF, as if I was smart and realized how the internet was going to explode, I would have set up amazon.com, ebay.com, match.com or any of the thousands of other sites that came along at the same time or later, and I would now be writing my novels on my private beach next to Paul Allen, or bankrolling my own private space fleet like Jeff Bezos.

I still love technology as only a sad-geek-loser can, though: we’ve just re-launched SFcrowsnest as a FaceBook application at http://apps.facebook.com/sfcrowsnest/ … that was a couple of thousand lines of coded sweat and tears, yet me tell you. There’s life in the old dog, yet … even if, in internet dog years, I’m regrettably probably older than Connor Mcleod!

GFTW: Any parting words for readers or potential readers of your novels?

SH: I would leave them with the wisdom of Albert Einstein. ‘If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.’ Oh, and, ‘Buy my bloody book.’ That last one was me, by the way, not Albert.

Watch The Court of the Air Mini-Movie, and prepared to be wowed! For other versions, click HERE.

Posted by John at 12:47 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Posted to Interviews
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Ecofiction: An Interview with Lee Barwood

Ecofiction writer Lee Barwood talks a little about publishing in ebook format, her dog Tribby, and some easy ways to help animals and the environment. Her novels can be found at Double Dragon Publishing, or visit her website.

Grasping for the Wind: Your books are published almost entirely in electronic or POD (Publish on Demand) format. You are also environmentally conscious. Are the two related?

Lee BarwoodThey’re definitely related. While I was happy to have the option of a paperback that I could hold in my hands, that I could sign for people, I was even happier that unsold copies wouldn’t be ending up in a landfill somewhere. While many people do know that unsold paperbacks have the covers stripped off and returned, with the books themselves being trashed, lots more don’t – and I didn’t want to be contributing to the problem if my books didn’t sell. And the absolute best thing about the e-book version of Klassic Koalas: Ancient Aboriginal Tales in New Retellings is that 100% of the proceeds goes to the Australian Wildlife Hospital – something you really can’t do with a physical book unless you’ve got very deep pockets and can underwrite the cost of paper, printing, binding, shipping, etc.

GFTW: Your science fiction novel A Dream of Drowned Hollow has been called an "environmental thriller". What does that mean, and how do you respond to critics who might use that definition to say that you are letting your message overtake the story, becoming preachy rather than simply telling a good tale?

LB: An environmental thriller takes its plot, and its action, from some environmental concern – which can be anything from the concept of peak oil to global warming to a hunting story about a guy who’s determined to bag the last polar bear living to someone who’s convinced that environmentalists are out to destroy the political structure of the country. It’s a very broad umbrella, and can even encompass such topics as horseracing (with the current debate over the stamina and structural soundness of the current “crop,” and I use that word deliberately, of racehorses – because that’s more or less how they’re treated) and arguments over whether schools should accept funding from vending machines provided by food corporations (which generally use far more processed ingredients and GMOs than freshly prepared snacks in the school cafeteria might provide). So in a way it’s hard to pin down just what makes an “environmental thriller” – except to say that it still has to thrill the reader, or it’s failed in its mission.

And that’s how I’d answer critics. While it’s fine to have a message in a book – heaven knows, writers have been doing that since Lysistrata, and probably before – if the characters and the action and the plot aren’t compelling, then the whole exercise has been a waste of time and paper (or electrons). And there are some really good stories out there, just waiting to be told. Readers can’t assume, either, that the story will be told only from one point of view. A writer can take the opposite point of view from the public’s perception, whatever it is, and craft a powerful and moving story that can change minds because the images are so compelling. In fact, if the writer doesn’t get into the heads of both protagonist and antagonist, whoever they are and whichever side of the issue they’re on, the story will fall flat.

GFTW: Klassic Koalas, your most recent book, is a retelling of aboriginal tales from Australia about the Koala. Was it difficult to capture tales that were primarily from the oral tradition? What sacrifices did you have to make to get the stories to follow a path, since oral stories often meander or take rabbit trails on their way to a conclusion?

LB: In a way it wasn’t difficult at all, since I think I tend to tell stories more in an old-fashioned, oral way. Certainly I grew up with such stories – one of my sisters made up stories to tell me, and my brother would translate fairy tales from German to tell me; I’d gotten a book of fairy tales, in German, as a gift, and my brother spoke German, so he would translate on the fly from the book. It made for a looser, less structured tale, I think, but it certainly preserved the spirit that went into it. And, of course, I was working from versions that had been written down or recorded – so I more or less went on from there, using the original as a point of departure.

And as far as having to make sacrifices to get a story to follow a path, I’m not entirely sure that I had to do any of that, either. Those rabbit trails can be part of the experience. Anyone who’s ever listened to a person tell a story knows that most people meander as they set out from point A to arrive at point B. While the story always ended up at the proper – that is to say, the traditional – conclusion, if it meandered, I generally let it do so. In fact, sometimes I wandered a bit farther along the path than the traditional tale went, because I saw that it had a point to make. That’s one thing about the oral tradition: stories change in the telling, sometimes subtly and sometimes greatly. And stories are different from history in that the tellers in the oral tradition – for instance, the Celtic bards – were very careful about making sure that their memory of an event was sure. Words have power – whether the power of a fixed-in-the-memory event, or the power of a retelling that draws on everything from the story to be told to the teller’s history to the audience’s needs or wants – or the teller’s purpose.

GFTW: Tell us a little bit about your dog Tribby. What's her story?

LB: Tribby, whom I lost just after she reached her seventeenth birthday, was the only dog my late husband and I ever actually bought – we got her from a woman who was selling puppies and kittens out of the back of her station wagon in a Wal-Mart parking lot. All our other dogs were strays that either came from the local pound or were picked up off the street with no tags, no collars, and no owners we could find. So they stayed with us.

Tribby was different, though. Here was this little tiny puppy, who was really nothing but a ball of fluff – my husband named her Tribble, because that’s what she looked like – and she was covered with fleas. We were afraid she wouldn’t survive if we left her there, so we got her and brought her home; we gave her a bath right away, and then gave her another one because we hadn’t gotten rid of all the fleas. But she was smart as a whip, and funny, and had a personality that won over anyone who ever met her. She was very independent, with a very strong will of her own, and she was the most loyal, devoted companion anyone could ask for. Her best friend was our big black lab, Raven, who “adopted” her as if he were her mother – he played with her, and groomed her, and protected her. She, and all my dogs, taught me an awful lot about animals, about the way we humans treat them, and about how they should be treated.

GFTW: You are a harpist, and harps are a big part of many of your short stories. How did you become a harpist, and why do you include music in your storytelling?

ILB: had been interested in harps since I was small, but when I asked for one as a very young child I got a gold plastic one with fishline strings that didn’t make music – so I lost interest in that one immediately. Pedal harps were definitely not in my family’s budget, and we hadn’t heard about Celtic harps then except in the most general way (like the harp on the Irish flag). I ended up taking up guitar instead when I was a bit older.

Fast forward about forty-some years, and one day I went into the local health food store to do the shopping and who should be there but a woman who played Celtic harp! She was set up to play but I couldn’t stay until her scheduled start; I had other errands to run. But I looked longingly at those harps before I left the store.

Fast forward again to the following St. Patrick’s Day, and the local library was having a free program of Irish music. We went, and who should be there but the woman from the health food store – harps in tow! She let me pick out “Danny Boy” on the harp, and said she gave lessons – so I was off and running. I’d broken my foot a few years before and gotten carpal tunnel syndrome from the crutches, so I’d had to give up guitar (I’d just taken it back up after many years of hiatus), and I was desperate for music. It was very surprising to me that playing the harp did not hurt my hands – in fact, I can now play guitar again, which I credit to the harp’s different actions for the hand muscles, healing what was wrong.

Music has always been important in my storytelling because music has always been important to me, and to most people. The sound of a song can bring back memories that were long buried; it can make you laugh or weep or get up and move. It has a very strong effect on us, and because of that I often weave it into my stories. It’s also a mnemonic device; you can remember something set to music more easily than just plan words. And poetry has its own music, or cadence, that allows its sentiments to linger in the brain. So the music of language and the music of notes work well together.

Besides, people usually find musicians fascinating. There’s something very special about being able to evoke the sorts of reactions that musicians can; why wouldn’t that have a place in a story? Often, it’s musician’s magic that helps advance the plots of some of my stories.

GFTW: What story or novel did you most enjoy writing?

LB: Probably my all-time favorite is a short story I did many years ago called “The Minstrel.” It was a classic takeoff on a fairy tale – a musician in love with a lady who barely notices him goes to a witch for a love potion. But there are some twists and turns, and the musician ends up bespelled so that only the kiss of one who truly loves him can set him free. And while he’s under the spell, he learns an awful lot about love, and human nature, and his own failings. It was a popular story when it first came out in Space & Time magazine and it was reissued as part of the Double Dragon anthology Illuminated Manuscripts – which is yet another e-book.

My favorite novel, at the moment, is one that’s not finished yet; it’s a paranormal mystery that tackles two very serious issues – domestic abuse and the pet industry. Animals are characters in the book, and have very important roles to play, right along with the humans – as they do in a couple of other favorite stories of mine, “Grow Old Along with Me” and “A Woman of Her Word” (stories in two of Martin Greenberg and Andre Norton’s Catfantastic anthologies). Animals think and act independently, and it’s an exploration as a writer that’s a real challenge to bring off in a way that readers can accept as normal and even welcome. But I’m also very fond of A Dream of Drowned Hollow, since it was a chance to show readers the beautiful Ozarks in which I made my home for several years – and to try to make them understand that we need to protect the creatures and growing things around us; when the natural world is gone, it’s gone. Extinction, as they say, is forever.

GFTW:What fantasy or scifi novels would you recommend that encompass a similar theme to your own, the environment and its preservation?

LB: Animal Heart, by Brenda Peterson, is an outstanding novel that talks about animals used in testing, medical research, and as suppliers of “replacement parts” for ill human beings. It will make you look at animals in a way you may not have considered. Then there’s Ecotopia, by Ernest Callenbach (on my TBR list). Carl Hiassen’s Hoot might surprise some folks. Malevil, by Robert Merle, is an oldie but goodie. The Last Whales, by Lloyd Abbey, addresses the dying of the oceans. And readers can find more listings of books at www.ecofiction.net/resources.html.

GFTW: Klassic Koalas was work you penned in order to help a non-profit organization raise funds. I'm not a writer, but I am an animal lover and environmentally conscious, what are some things I could do to help?

LB: Everyone can help animals by lessening the amount of meat they eat. This may sound like just a pitch for vegetarianism (and in the spirit of full disclosure, I’m a vegan), but when you consider the amount of natural resources used to produce one pound of beef, you can see how our fixation on a meat-based diet reduces the amount of water and land for habitat – not to mention all the other factors, such as feedlot-raised animals that are less healthy and that add to everything from water pollution (manure pools at CAFOs, or factory farms) to air pollution (methane from gases produced by their digestive tracts on a grain diet – which is not natural to them).

Then there are habitat issues. If you live in a house rather than an apartment, plant food for bees. Flowering bushes, honeysuckle, things that produce lots of pollen – and things that flower in succession, so that there’s always something for them to eat. Don’t use pesticides or fertilizers in your yard; some theories tie Colony Collapse Disorder to the products used on lawns. And consider ripping up your lawn in favor of a vegetable garden. It’s less maintenance, healthier for you and your family, and a more efficient use of water and sunlight.

If you live in a neighborhood with foreclosed houses, keep an eye out for signs that people have moved away and abandoned their pets – many people are just leaving their animals inside their houses to starve to death. If you miss seeing a familiar dog in the neighborhood, if you see dogs or cats running loose, if you hear animals inside houses that look empty – call the local SPCA.

If you want to raise money for specific causes, like the Australian Wildlife Hospital or a local shelter or rescue organization, you can do anything from holding a garage sale to a bake sale to having a charity auction on eBay. Write letters to your local papers and politicians for improvements in living standards for everything from farm animals to lab animals to zoo animals. Petition your town for more green space and community gardens. Don’t go to the circus, unless it’s animal-free. Maybe pay a vet bill for someone who really can’t afford it – or donate money to your own vet to cover the care of shelter animals, pets of the unemployed, or emergency cases brought in without an owner. And volunteer at your local shelter.

There are as many ways to help as there are people, so everyone can do something.

GFTW: Thanks for all the great suggestions.

LB: Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here! I really appreciate it.

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Human, Understand Thyself: An Interview with Scott Mackay

Scott Mackay is the critically acclaimed Canadian author of eleven novels and over fifty short stories. In my review of TIDES, I called it "one of the best novels of speculative fiction currently in print." And it's still true. Mackay talks with me a little bit about the themes he explores in his novels, both speculative fiction and crime and thriller, his writing process, and what's wrong with a lot of writing these days.

Grasping for the Wind: Could you tell us a little bit about how you became a writer, and why you write in several different genres?

Mackay: All the members in my immediate family have a strong interest in the arts. My mother is a published writer for young adults, both fiction and non-fiction; my father is a jazz musician;, my older brother is a painter as well as bassist for The Diodes, Canada’s top New Wave band of the 1970s; and my younger brother is a music producer and distributor. In this milieu it was only natural that I should find myself involved in the arts as well. I worked for twenty years as a university-trained classical musician and composer before I turned my attention to writing. In university, I had been writing and sending out stories, even as I pursued my musical studies. By the 1990s I was having greater success with writing than I was with music, even though I continued to play professionally until 2002. As for writing in different genres, it’s primarily science fiction and crime these days, with a smaller amount of literary and mainstream thrown in from time to time. I write in these genres because I enjoy them.

GFTW: Since you write in several different genres, is your approach to writing different for science fiction than mystery or thrillers? What do you do different or the same for each genre of writing?

Mackay: A novel is a novel, regardless of its genre, and my method for each genre is relatively the same.

Starting with ideas, sometimes ideas just come to me, I don’t know from where, and at other times I create them by looking at random song lyrics, taking random sentences out of books, or glancing over various flash fiction pieces on the Internet. I combine these on a page, look at them, let them settle, go back to them, and finally get a spark, or a way to associate these random and raw bits of information into a narrative packet that might have story possibilities.

Once this narrative packet establishes itself, I start to flesh out possible dramatic directions, first by choosing my point of view characters, then understanding their goals, then listing possible obstacles they might face on the way to achieving those goals. At this stage I do everything in pen, creating up to twenty pages of notes. It’s a big mess by the time I finish, and only I can understand it.

From there I do a typed chapter-by-chapter outline. This usually runs from twenty to twenty-five pages of single-spaced 11-point font. I rewrite the chapter-by-chapter outline several times, and along the way I find out what’s going to work in my novel, and what won’t.

Once I’ve done the chapter-by-chapter outline, I let it sit for one or two months, then go back to it. When I let things rest and go back to them I inevitably see glaring inconsistencies, improbabilities, and even impossibilities. So I rewrite the outline several times again. I do a lot of preparation before I write the actual novel because I want to save myself unnecessary work later. Because of all this extensive blueprinting, it would be fair to say that I don’t really write books – I engineer them.

When I write the first draft, it goes quickly. The book I’m working on now, a thriller, came out to 178,000 words in first draft, and this first draft took me only two-and-a-half months to write.

Rewriting takes me the longest because I go over and over a piece, let it sit, then come back to it, then go over it again, often up to fifteen or twenty times, so that once the novel is finished and ready to be shipped to my agent, it’s usually taken me at least eighteen months to complete.

The above method applies to all the genres I write in. If there is an exception, it might be mysteries, where the plot has to be more tightly constructed. With mysteries, the preparation phase might take longer.

GFTW: Why do oceans and the science of oceanography play such a large role in your science fiction novels?

Mackay: I’ve never really thought about this, but if I had to speculate, I would guess that growing up two blocks from Lake Huron as a kid might have had something to do with it. I’ve seen Lake Huron in all its many moods, and in winter, Lake Huron can have some fairly boisterous moods. Other than that, I like the way an ocean creates an atmosphere in a book. I particularly like the way I used the ocean in TIDES, as a kind of purgatory of misunderstanding between two peoples.

GFTW: Many of your novels have something to do with first contact, the idea of two alien cultures encountering one another for the first time. Why do you explore this in your work?

Mackay: As a metaphor, first contact, or at least the concept of “the other” applies to every one of us in our day-to-day lives. We fear “the other” yet hold out hope we may communicate with “the other”, be it our spouse, our boss, a complete stranger, or an alien culture like Islam. Every one of us is in a sense his or her own planet, and every day we must go through hundreds of micro-cosmic first-contact scenarios. We must try to understand new ideas that initially puzzle us. We have to learn to forgive behaviors that we don’t necessarily approve of or understand. We have to untangle miscommunication before it leads to dire consequences. In the case of TIDES it was a benevolent and kind species trying to understand an apparently brutal and criminal one, only to at last understand that there was brutality and kindness on both sides, just as there was benevolence and criminality. We’re all struggling to bridge the communication gap with everyone we meet, or all cultures we encounter, and that’s why I think first contact as a metaphor is such a rewarding theme to work with.

GFTW: In Tides, you explored what it is to be human, and in Phytosphere (my review) you wrote a story about humanity’s desire for independence. Why do you explore these concepts in your work, and do you explore another part of humanity’s thinking in Omega Sol?

Mackay: I explore these themes not only because I wish to understand and even embrace “the other”, but because I want to understand myself, and what it is to be an individual human. These basic human themes are integral to my work. In my new book, Omega Sol, due out this month (May 08) from Roc, I explore another basic human theme, that of belief in a higher power, but take it one science fictional step further and postulate a hyperdimensional part of the universe that in many respects operates on a spiritual plane. I’m not a particularly religious man, have never belonged to any organized congregation, but I recognize humanity’s religious impulse, particularly this notion of a higher plane. And in OMEGA SOL I explore this third essential part of humanity’s thinking by suggesting our religious impulses find their impetus in the arcane realm of subatomic physics.

GFTW: What was the germination of the idea for the phytosphere in Phytosphere?

Mackay: Phyto is Greek for plant, and of course sphere is self explanatory. In Phytosphere, the alien Tarsalans construct a sphere chemically based on ocean phytoplankton to block all sunlight from reaching the earth. But the main idea in Phytosphere isn’t the phytosphere itself but that of darkness entombing the earth. In fact the idea of darkness cloaking the earth twenty-four seven isn’t new, but when I first came up with the idea about fifteen years ago, I thought it was. I have since found several examples, primarily in classic poetry, and even some renditions in the sf field. In any case, darkness twenty-four seven, with all its attendant apocalyptic consequences, appeals to me in much the same way oceans do, as an unstoppable massive force that we can’t control, and that can change the world forever. As far as the Tarsalans using plankton to construct the phytosphere, that was just logic: they needed a cheap abundant building material, and there’s lots of plankton in the ocean

GFTW: In Phytosphere, you follow two brothers, both scientists, but with different methods of arriving at solutions. What was your purpose in having these two threads in the story?

Mackay: I’m giving readers a spoiler alert here. Skip to the next question if you don’t want one of the book’s major narrative tactics revealed.

There are two brothers, one a highly successful, super rich, award-winning scientist who has the full resources of the United States at his disposal to fight the phytosphere. The other brother is in debt, a recovering alcoholic, stuck on the moon, where they have no resources. This second brother is an underdog in every sense of the word. Who is going to be the one to destroy the phytosphere?. Hint: everybody likes to see the underdog win. And so I’ve used these two threads not only to get different views of the unfolding apocalypse, but also as a means to produce narrative gratification for the reader by allowing the underdog to win.

GFTW: There is third plot line in the novel, that of Glenda. Why did you choose to write her story, as well as that of Neil and Gerry?

Mackay: Glenda is underdog Gerry’s wife, and she more or less acts as the correspondent-on-the-ground as the apocalypse of total darkness slowly overtakes the Earth. She also acts as the ticking clock in the novel. Her situation becomes more and more desperate as the novel unfolds. If Gerry can’t solve the problem of the phytosphere before things get too bad for Glenda, she and their children might possibly die. I’ve italicized the word “before” in the above sentence, because it is the ultimate hinge word for any suspense novel, and that’s essentially what Phytosphere is, a suspense novel. Without Glenda’s life at stake, there would be no suspense, just a somewhat interesting scientific puzzle.

GFTW: The blurb for Omega Sol, your newest novel, makes it sound like it is very similar to Phytosphere. What makes Omega Sol distinctive from your previous work?

Mackay: I submitted a half dozen ideas to Anne Sowards, my editor at Roc, and Omega Sol was the one she picked. A lot of people don’t understand that writing for publication is often a collaborative process between writer, agent, editor, and copy-editor. My name’s on the book but we all basically wrote it. The other ideas I sent to Anne were vastly different from Phytosphere, but she thought Omega Sol was the most commercially viable.

During the writing of Omega Sol I essentially realized that it was a sister book to Phytosphere. Phytosphere tells the tale of what would happen if the sun got too dark; Omega Sol recounts what would happen if the sun got too bright. I eventually liked this idea, particularly because Omega Sol embodies many yin-yang principals – opposites in harmony, positive and negative forces balancing the universe. In keeping with this, and on a personal note, I dedicated the two books to identical twin sisters, my eighteen-year-old nieces, Phytosphere to Katie, and Omega Sol to Susanna.

Omega Sol is distinctive from previous work in that it utilizes notions and concepts of subatomic physics, and postulates from them a spiritual basis for the universe.

GFTW: What writers would you say most influence your writing?

Mackay: Honestly, none. I’ve developed my own way of writing through painstaking hard work, and millions of small literary decisions and judgments over the last couple of decades. I would have to say that it’s not writers who influence my work, but writing principles. The kind of writing I like is clean, trim, purposeful, unmuddied, and undigressive. In other words, I don’t like to be bored by lazy thinking or flabby writing. There are few writers I can read these days because they don’t seem to take the time or effort needed to perfect their work the way it should be perfected. Sadly, a majority of bestsellers fit this category. So do a majority of science fiction and especially fantasy novels. Some of the writers I still read, however, are Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Elmore Leonard, and Tom Wolfe. When these writers write, every single word seems to have a job to do. I find that most novels published these days are uninspiring. Within the first page I often discover they break most of the salt-of-the-earth compositional principles I write by. I’m always asking people to recommend good books to me in the hope of finding something halfway decent, but nine times out of ten I’m disappointed. I guess it comes from being too hyper-critical of my own work.

GFTW: Any parting thoughts for people who haven’t read any of your novels yet? Any suggestions as to which one would be best to begin with?

Mackay: You might have heard that writers are a poor judge of their own work. Omnifix was my bestseller, yet I don’t consider it my best novel. I can only tell you the books I’m proudest of. That would be TIDES, which unfortunately was published only in hardcover, but which I think will see publication in a better format some day because of the overall power of the tale. PHYTSOPHERE is another book I’m extremely proud of because it fits together beautifully, and does so because I worked extremely hard on it, sometimes writing and re-writing entire chapters from scratch in order to enhance narrative drive. My newest book OMEGA SOL, is probably the strangest book I’ve written. It tries to describe the indescribable, postulates up twenty-six dimensions, and contends that the basic nature of the universe in predicated on a kind of spiritual binary code. It’s definitely an ideas book, more so than any novel I’ve written, so if you like fairly controversial speculative ideas, it’s definitely something you should try. For further information on my other books, readers can access my website at www.scottmackay.com.

Posted by John at 02:40 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Interviews
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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.

Posted by John at 12:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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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.

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.

Posted by John at 01:22 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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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

Posted by John at 12:16 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy/Scifi News | Interviews | Movies, TV, & Film
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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.

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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.

Posted by John at 08:57 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy/Scifi News | Interviews
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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!

Posted by John at 01:48 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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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.

Posted by John at 09:56 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy/Scifi News | Interviews
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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.

Posted by John at 10:08 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Forgotten Realms | Interviews
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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

Posted by John at 09:25 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Posted to Christian SF&F | Interviews | Religion | Science Fiction
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Ian M. Banks - Why I Write

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

Posted by John at 08:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Interviews
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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 characters are more complex, and I think the stories have a little more depth and power. Also, it was kind of fun to switch from Jig the anti-warrior to one of my princesses who's skilled enough to kill an armed and armored warrior with a spoon.

GFTW: You attend a lot of conventions. What do you like most about attending?

Jim: I mostly do the local conventions, for budgetary and family reasons. I've always been a bit of an introvert, so the first few times I went, I felt completely overwhelmed. These days, having met some of my fans and fellow writers, I love the cons. I love getting together with "my people," being able to make goofy jokes about Babel fish or quote Firefly with people who actually get it and don't look at you like you're from another planet. Watching your book sell out in the dealer's room is a nice bonus, and a good boost for the ego.

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

Jim: A friend spent a long time planning a major battle between our party and a Kraken. We had our little charms to let us breathe and move underwater. Each player was allowed to choose one other magical item for the battle. So after watching the rest of the party hack, slash, and fireball this huge monster to little effect, I swam up and tapped it with a wand of polymorph. Kraken fails magic resistance and saving throw, and I turn him into a butterfly. The gamemaster glares at me, hate searing the air between us, and mutters, "It drowns." I'll leave it to the reader to figure out which scene was partly inspired by that game.

GFTW: Any parting thoughts?

Jim: If a goblin challenges you to a game of rakachak, just say no. Trust me on this. Thanks for the great questions. I hope folks enjoy the books!

Keep the belly laughs coming by reading Jim's blog.

Also, read a pdf excerpt from his forthcoming novel Goblin War, set for release in March 2008.

---
*Jim says it is okay for me (a man) to use the word pizazz, "but the Code of Testosterone requires that you grunt a few times and scratch yourself while doing so. Belching is optional :-)."

(Author Photo © Craig Hebert)

Posted by John at 09:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Humor | Interviews
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Weaving the Colors: An Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet

In one of the most enjoyable and well-answered interviews I have ever done, Jeffrey Overstreet has covered the gamut of topics from his debut novel Auralia's Colors to Christians in fiction to review writing methods. (Here is my review of his debut novel.) I hope you enjoy his thoughts as much as I did. For more of his thoughts, check out his oft posted to blog.

Grasping for the Wind: How did you become a fan of fantasy fiction, and why did you choose to write in this particular genre?

Jeffrey Overstreet: Do you remember those “long-playing records” that Walt Disney produced for each of their movies? You’d put the needle to the record and listen to a narrator tell the story, while excerpts from the movie’s soundtrack gave the characters distinct voices. That’s how I learned to read — listening to those records over and over again, on a plastic Mickey Mouse turntable. The needle was right under Mickey’s index finger on this plastic arm.

Most of those Disney stories were fairy tales. My family didn’t watch much television, and we didn’t go out for entertainment. So I found drama sitting in my room and listening to Pinocchio and Winnie the Pooh and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.

Around the time I turned seven, my neighborhood librarian took me up to the next level, introducing me to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and Lloyd Alexander’s Chronicles of Prydain. Then came Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings (I’d read it through more than once by the time I was 10), and Richard Adams’ Watership Down, which remains my favorite novel.

I write fantasy today because those stories — whimsical and wild as they are — continue to speak meaningfully to me, as much as any more “realistic” or sophisticated art. Fantasy explores spiritual mysteries through metaphor, giving shape to ideas that we can’t easily express with everyday stuff. We invent fairies, monsters, elves, trolls, dragons, and magic beans to give shape to ideas and virtues and fears and wonders. And that helps us live more fully, engaging with realities beyond what we can see and hear and touch.

GFTW: Before writing Auralia’s Colors you were widely acclaimed for your movie-going memoir Through a Screen Darkly. Why did you choose to write a book about the simple pleasure of going to the movies?

Overstreet: Movies, like fairy tales, have had an enormous influence in my life, shaping ideas, inspiring questions, giving me an appreciation for beauty, and helping me understand how the world looks to my neighbors (who have often had very different experiences).

I grew up in a rather conservative community in which moviegoing was viewed as a suspicious, dangerous, “worldly” activity. But I also came to see that when we cut ourselves off from art for fear of “contamination,” we lose one of the greatest gifts humanity has to enjoy, something that helps us understand each other, something that humbles and inspires us.

So I wanted to share my own story about how movies have changed my life, how conversations with moviegoers, movie makers and movie stars have taught me a great deal about art and life. It was also a way to write a thorough answer to those who send me emails demanding to know how I can call myself a Christian and still be an enthusiastic fan of filmmakers like Woody Allen, Paul Thomas Anderson, Martin Scorsese, and Krzysztof Kieslowski.

GFTW: Auralia’s Colors, your debut novel, is a fantasy with echoes of the traditional fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen. Like their stories, your story is also an allegory. What moral or cultural truth are you trying to convey to your readers?

Overstreet: I’m glad you find echoes of fairy tales there. I suppose that’s inevitable, since I grew up on those stories.

But I don’t consider Auralia’s Colors to be an allegory at all. I did not intend to teach moral lessons or write a commentary on culture. I imagined a different world, threw in some characters, and then I started asking “What if?” The characters then led me into a story I hadn’t expected.

Now, that doesn’t mean readers won’t find anything meaningful in the story. The story reveals all kinds of things—and that just goes to show that art sometimes knows more than the artist. The characters in Auralia’s Colors are struggling with questions about freedom, responsibility, power, faith, and art. But I didn’t conspire to put any lessons in there. I discovered them after I stood back and thought about the story I’d written. I keep hearing from readers who are finding implications in the story I’ve never considered. That’s exciting.

I get bored with stories that can be boiled down to a simple meaning. In an allegory, characters are really just symbols. And the reader starts solving the puzzle: “Okay, so this character represents Jesus, this one represents Satan, this one represents a Christian, this one represents Judas, etc.” Allegories are like algebra. I’m more interested in storytelling. I do not have any characters that represent Jesus or God or anybody. Certain characters might behave in a Christ-like manner, or in a devilish way, just as many different characters in everything from The Lord of the Rings to Harry Potter to Buffy the Vampire Slayer have moments of Christ-likeness. But Auralia isn’t Jesus. The Keeper isn’t God.

GFTW: Much of your prose reads like poetry. A lot of the book is given over to descriptions of sight and sound, smell and touch. Why did you focus so much on the sensory aspects of your tale?

Overstreet: I grew up reading stories that had musical, poetic language. Literature wasn’t just meant to be read — it was meant to be read out loud. I want to write paragraphs that taste good and sound good.

Also, I’ve learned that natural beauty can make even the most ridiculous movie worth watching. I believe that nature “speaks.” I believe that the things God made mean something. It makes a difference if Auralia is running through a forest instead of a field or a canyon. And it matters what kind of forest that might be, what trees are there, what they smell like, and what colors are in their leaves.

When I read a story in which the author has paid attention to those details, I feel a much more powerful sense of immersion within that world. I’ve read a lot of forgettable fantasy novels. But I go back to Tolkien’s Middle-Earth, Patricia McKillip’s The Book of Atrix Wolfe, Richard Adams’ Watership Down, and Mark Helprin’s Winter’s Tale, because I feel like I’ve lived in those places.

GFTW: You are a vocal Christian who is unafraid to make your beliefs known. What effect has this had on the reception of Auralia’s Colors both in the Christian and secular marketplace?

Overstreet: It’s too early to say, I think. I’m encouraged, because I’m getting mail from all kinds of readers, all ages, and very different worldviews. Some Christians write stories to “present the Gospel” or “convey a message,” but I don’t. Some people write for Christian readers; I don’t. I want to write books that I would have enjoyed reading, and that I think others will enjoy. I think everybody likes a good story. People are drawn to excellence.

If there is some truth to a work of art, or some beauty, poetry, and passion — that’s can give the audience an encounter with God, even in the artist doesn’t believe in God. I’ve read an awful lot of Christian books that were poorly written, derivative, boring, and sloppy. That doesn’t do me any good. And my faith has been encouraged and transformed by artists who would never call themselves Christians. It doesn’t matter much who is writing the story — it’s the story that matters. It doesn’t matter what color that candle’s made of — it’s the light and the heat the draws people in. You’ve probably heard it said, “All truth is God’s truth.” I would add that all beauty is beautiful because it reflects God’s glory.

I hope that Auralia’s Colors has enough in its pages to give people an engaging and meaningful experience. We’ll see what happens.

GFTW: What effect does your Christian faith have on your writing?

Overstreet: Because I believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead after we killed him, I believe that there’s hope, even hope that death does not have the final word. I believe there’s meaning in the world around me. I believe that there are, as Hamlet said, “powers in heaven and earth” that we cannot fathom.

If I believe those things, how can I write a story that isn’t hopeful? I would have to tell a lie. I can’t help but write stories in which there are powers greater than the characters, powers in conflict.

But no, I don’t deliberately write “Christian stories”, just as I don’t bake “Christian cookies.” I just want to write a good story. And I think all good stories draw us because they reflect God’s glory… even if they’re shelved somewhere outside the “Religion” section at Barnes and Noble.

GFTW: Your novel lacks any clearly defined “evil” characters or clearly defined “good” characters. Why did you avoid the standard good vs. evil theme of fantasy?

Overstreet All of my favorite stories avoid dividing their characters into false categories of “Good Guys” and “Bad Guys.” I don’t believe in “Good” and “Bad” people.

I believe that all of us were designed by God, in God’s image, and that we have “eternity written in our hearts.” That means that everybody will give evidence of goodness in some way, even the worst villains.

But I also believe that we are all broken, deceived, and depraved in our appetites. Thus, even the best heroes will have moments of doubt, make mistakes, and sometimes behave irresponsibly.

When we insist on stories in which there are “bad people,” and suggest that the solution is the elimination of those “bad people,” that can carry over into devastating behavior in the real world. We live in a culture that perpetually abuses labels and categories for the sake of judging other people. Genocides begin with the idea that we can divide people into the “good” and the “bad.”

Now, in stories for small children, I think it’s useful to have simplistic “good guys and bad guys” because you are giving children figures that represent fears they must overcome, or virtues they should strive to imitate. But when storytelling becomes more sophisticated, it’s important to discourage any interpretations that will cause people to judge others and exalt themselves.

GFTW: My favorite quote from the novel is on page 254. “You want a gift from the king? Hear this: if you allow Abascar freedom, some people will choose what they shouldn’t. … But take away that freedom, and no one has opportunity to choose what they should.” Why is having a choice so important?

Overstreet: Wow, that’s a question that would take a book to answer! Here are a few thoughts:

In Auralia’s world, the king and queen of House Abascar take away their people’s power of creative expression. And they also forbid them to tell certain stories. The people of Abascar become resentful, because they are not able to ask certain questions, investigate mysteries, and express the mysteries within themselves. They can’t be human.

The king tells them that the world outside is dangerous, so he makes them stay inside the walls. And the world is dangerous. But if the people are forced to obey the king, without any choice in the matter, they have no chance to develop discernment. And worse, when they become afraid of the world around them, they become starved for beauty. Sure, they might be safer from some dangers inside of Abascar’s walls, but by walling themselves off from the world they’re creating an enclosed space, and new dangers will arise and flourish within that space. Worse, the people remove their chances of making a difference beyond the walls, so the world outside just spirals out of control.

It reminds me a bit of my own experience growing up. I was taught to avoid the world beyond the church because there were so many temptations out there. But as a result, my Christian community became rather isolated and had very little effect on the surrounding culture. We talked about “loving our neighbors,” but in truth, we were repulsed by our neighbors and we tried to create a society in which we could live apart from them. And guess what? Temptations and sins of all kinds festered within that community, so we were fooling ourselves by thinking we could withdraw from “the sinful world.”

We need freedom. And yes, freedom is dangerous, which is why we also need to be responsible and discerning.

GFTW: The ale boy, one of your primary and perhaps most interesting characters, lacks even a name. Why did you choose to make him nameless throughout the novel?

Overstreet: The reason is rather simple: I liked the sound of it.

It kindled my curiosity. And while some storytellers like to solve of the mysteries for the reader, I prefer reading books that leave mysteries, big and small, for me to ponder. This is one of those small mysteries in Auralia’s world.

As I began to write Auralia’s Colors, the ale boy was a minor character. My friend Danny Walter is an actor who pays close attention to characters and their voices. He started asking me questions about the ale boy. I started exploring possibilities, and realized that the ale boy had a much bigger part to play in the story.

I’m finishing the sequel, Cyndere’s Midnight, and I’m still discovering more about the ale boy. He has a particular call that he’s following, and it’s leading him into some rather horrifying places.

GFTW: What has been your favorite reaction to Auralia’s Colors from a reader or critic?

Overstreet That’s a tough question. I’ve been bowled over by the enthusiasm in the letters I’m receiving.

I thought I had made up the name “Auralia.” I experimented with combinations of letters from other names and words I like: aura, Laura, Leah. But then I received a letter from someone named Auralia. She bought the book simply because her name was on the cover! She informed me that the name means “golden lion of God.” That kind of freaked me out. I had no idea.

I had to chuckle when a fellow at Amazon gave the book a low rating because it reminded him of the writing of George Macdonald. Hey, I’ll take that as a compliment!

But my favorite responses have come from two extraordinary artists whose work has not received the kind of attention it deserves. They both wrote to say that they felt related to Auralia, because of her relentless creativity and her frustrations at how others take what she does for granted. That made the whole project worthwhile.

GFTW: What can you tell us about the sequel to Auralia’s Colors, Cyndere’s Midnight?

Overstreet: You could call it my version of Beauty and the Beast. But my version has two beauties and a whole pack of beasts.

Auralia’s Colors focuses on House Abascar. Cyndere’s Midnight takes you into a world of monsters — the ruins of House Cent Regus, where people have fallen under a curse that turns them into murderous beasts. You’ll catch glimpses of these beastmen in Auralia’s story, and you’ll learn about the mysterious monster who crept into Auralia’s hideaway in the first book.

It’s also about House Bel Amica, the wealthy and powerful society beside the sea. You’ll meet the heiress to the throne, Cyndere. Cyndere has the scandalous idea that there is a better way to deal with the beastmen than just hunting and killing them.

Things get out of control quickly when Auralia’s Colors bring together the heiress and a beastman, as well as the ale boy, Cyndere’s beautiful helper Emeriene, an ambitious soldier named Ryllion, and that dreamer from House Abascar named Cal-raven.

GFTW: Beyond the usual authors recommended (like Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, Madeline L’Engle) whose works would you recommend that fantasy enthusiasts read?

Overstreet: When I first read Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin, I was enthralled. And I ended up marrying the woman who first recommended it to me. It’s set in New York, but it’s a New York so richly imagined that it’s a whole new wonderland. Helprin writes so beautifully that it could make you want to just give up writing.

I love the way Guy Gavriel Kay tells a story. In books like Sailing to Sarantium and The Lions of Al-Rassan, he imagines new worlds, but they’re firmly rooted in the details of actual human history. He gives us many different perspectives on a single world, from the rich to the poor, the young to the old. That is not only creative, but it’s compassionate. It trains us to consider other people’s perspectives, which is good for our hearts.

I also recommend Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast, for his exaggerated, spectacular descriptions; Mary Doria Russell’s The Sparrow, a powerful work of “theological science fiction”; and a little-known story by Michael Ende called Momo, which is a fairy tale just waiting for someone to turn it into a fantastic feature film.

GFTW: As a professional movie critic, what advice would you give to people (such as myself) on the best way to critique a work of art like movies or literature?

Overstreet: I spend quite a few pages in Through a Screen Darkly telling stories about what I’ve learned about writing film reviews. And I’ve included a guide there for movie discussion groups. I highly recommend starting a movie discussion group. We learn a lot about each other when we compare our responses to a work of art.

There are a lot of questions to consider when watching a movie, or reading a book for that matter: Don’t just ask, “Did you like it?” Talk about what worked and what didn’t. Ask what the artist’s intentions seemed to be, and then weigh whether you thought those goals were achieved. Consider the film’s intended audience: Who are they, how old are they, and will this film serve them? Consider the technical aspects of the film: Whose performance was memorable, and why? What did the filmmaker’s choices regarding color, design, editing, and music do for the film? Did anything in the work draw too much attention to itself?

But I’d also encourage people to examine their own feelings about the film. It may have been powerful, but did it reveal anything true? If it was disturbing, why did it disturb you? Was it a film condoning evil, or was it exposing evil so we can understand both good and evil better? Did it make you feel good? If so, how? Was it sentimental, or honest? Was it telling us what we want to hear, or was it telling the truth? Did it preach its message, or did it show us something and let us think for ourselves?

GFTW: Any parting thoughts or comments?

Overstreet: If anyone is interested in discussing Auralia’s Colors… or movies for that matter… everyone is invited to visit me at LookingCloser.org. That’s where you’ll find my archive of film reviews, and my blog, which I update almost every day.

GFTW: Thanks for taking the time.

For more, read Fantasy Debut's Interview with Jeffrey Overstreet.

This post is part of the CSFF blog tour for January 2008. Read posts from these other participants in the tour:

Brandon Barr Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Jackie Castle Carol Bruce Collett Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Jeff Draper April Erwin Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Jill Hart Katie Hart Timothy Hicks Heather R. Hunt Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Kait Karen 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 Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Rachelle Sperling Donna Swanson Steve Trower Speculative Faith Jason Waguespac Laura Williams Timothy Wise

(Photos © Fritz Liedtke or Jeffrey Overstreet)

Posted by John at 10:55 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Posted to Christian SF&F | Fantasy | Interviews | Literature and Language
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Slush God: An Interview with John Joseph Adams

I was fortunate enough to strike up a correspondence with John Joseph Adams slush editor with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF). Well known for his ability to find gems in piles of slush, Adams was recently guest editor of the Pirate Issue of Shimmer Magazine (my review), and will be publishing his first anthology, Wastelands, with Night Shade Books in January 2008. In the following interview he discusses these two works as well as recommends some of his favorite short fiction authors.

GFTW: What exactly does an editor of a short story magazine do?

John Joseph Adams: An editor is responsible for choosing the contents you find in the magazine. At the most basic level, an editor could be described as a "quality filter." Or, in other words, we read lots of bad stuff so you don't have to.

At a magazine like F&SF, which has an open submissions policy (meaning that anyone in the world can submit a story and we'll look at it), the editorial staff reads all of the story submissions that are sent to the magazine (or tries to anyway--a lot of the stories we receive aren't exactly what you'd call "readable"), and from that pool of stories pick what we think are the best ones and the ones we think our readers will most enjoy.

There's also, of course, the actual editing part, where you go over the manuscripts with a red pen and make suggestions on how to improve the story to the author in the margins. Actually, I say red pen, because that's the iconic image of an editor's weapon, but at F&SF we generally just use a regular pencil.

GFTW: So, tell us a little bit about being “The Slush God” at The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Just how painful of a job is it to read all those unsolicited stories?

JJA: You know, I do have to read a lot of bad stories, but I can't complain. I mean, hey, I get paid to read all day. How cool is that? I don't consider it painful at all, really; it's not like I have to finish reading every story even if it's really, really terrible. (If I did, now that would be painful.)

But despite all the bad stories I have to sort through, discovering the really good ones makes up for it. Plus, there's more to my job than just reading the slush; I get to participate in the editorial process in other ways as well. For instance, I also read everything Gordon is thinking of buying before he does so, and provide him with feedback that he uses to help him make his final decisions.

GFTW: Like many of the readers of this blog, you also review sci-fi and fantasy, but on a professional level. What do you do to avoid sounding repetitious in your assessments?

JJA: I'm probably the wrong person to ask that question, because the only thing I can think to say is: quit reviewing. That's what I did. I discovered that I don't particularly enjoy writing reviews, that writing them sometimes felt like trying to squeeze water from a stone, and yes--trying to avoid sounding repetitious was one of the frustrations. I never really figured out how to do that though, or else if I did, I wasn't conscious of it, and I couldn't pass along advice on how to do so.

Of course, one way to avoid that is to make sure you read wildly different books. If you review 10 epic fantasies in a row, I'm not sure there's any way to avoid sounding repetitious in that case.

GFTW: What qualities do you look for in a short story? Are these any different from what you might look for in a novel?

JJA: It's really hard to describe what it is one looks for in a story; if it were easy to spell out, writer's guidelines for every publication in the world would have a nice detailed description of what it is they're looking for. The trouble is, it's really kind of impossible to say. Or at least I can't think of how to describe it.

I can compare short stories to novels, though. Short stories need to be really tight and don't have much room for digressions, while novels allow the writer more room to sprawl. Also, short stories tend to be a better vehicle for experimentation, and for challenging a writer's comfort zone.

GFTW: You were recently invited to be a guest editor for the Pirate Issue of Shimmer Magazine. What was your approach to choosing stories for this issue?

JJA: One of the things I wanted to do with the Pirate Issue is have a broad range of pirate stories, which took some liberties interpreting the term "pirate." Of course, there are some stories in the issue that are your typical iconic Caribbean-style pirate, but it was important to me to have a certain diversity represented. So that was one factor.

Other than that, I was really just judging the stories on their own merits as I would judge any story. In fact, that was the only way I could judge them, really, because Shimmer employs a "blind" reading system, in which the names of the contributors are stripped off of their manuscripts before the editor sees them. So when I read each story, all I had was the title and the text. It was kind of a liberating feeling to read each story with absolutely no preconceptions, not even subconsciously, about what I might think about the story I was about to read. (And this was only enhanced by the fact that I read all the submissions electronically, so every submission looked exactly the same to me--there were no variations in manuscript formatting or other things like that to get in the way of me engaging with the story.)

The only other time I've ever read a story anonymously, as far as I know, is when I read Neil Gaiman's "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" for F&SF. The manuscript didn't have Gaiman's name on it, just the title. I kind of felt like I recognized the voice, but I couldn't put my finger on who it was. After I got to the end, I saw Neil Gaiman's name, and so I learned who wrote it. But I was glad to have read it that way, and I enjoyed reading a whole slush pile's worth for Shimmer that way.

GFTW: What is your opinion on editors publishing their own stories in the anthologies or magazines they edit? (Something I note you did not do in the Pirate Issue of Shimmer.)

JJA: I generally frown upon an editor including something in his own anthology, though there are exceptions. I guess it really depends on who the editor/writer is. If it's Robert Silverberg, and there isn't a story by him in the book, I might feel like I've got a book that's not as good as it could be. If you're a writer like him, and any anthology would be made better by having a story by you in it--and for Silverberg that's a pretty universally acknowledged truism--then, yeah, you go ahead and publish your own stuff.

Other writers, though? Doing so is fraught with peril. I've certainly seen some writer/editors who have included their own stories in an anthology and I thought the stories were terrible. That's the thing, really--if you're going to do that, you better make damn sure that your story is really great and is beyond criticism, because you're going to get criticized for putting it in there.

As for magazines, that's a slightly different story, because with a magazine, there are many people involved, whereas with an anthology there's generally only one. For instance, when Kristine Kathryn Rusch was editing F&SF, she sold a few stories to the magazine while she was editor, but that was easy to workaround: she just submitted her stories directly to the publisher, Ed Ferman (who in addition to being the publisher was the previous editor, and had been for more than 30 years). Basically, as there's some kind of check and balance system there, I think it's fine, though if you're going to do that you should be aware that it's pretty likely some people won't like the fact that you did it.

That's not why I didn't include anything of my own in the Shimmer pirate issue though, or at least it's not the only reason. The primary reason why I didn't include anything of my own is that I'm just not writing fiction at the moment. I got into editing through my interest in writing fiction, but I found that reading slush all day kind of paralyzed my writing ability. So I struggled with that for a while, and then just kind of gave up fighting with it and decided to put writing on hold for the time being. But I've learned so much about writing from working as an editor, that should I turn my hand to it in the future, I know I'll be a much better writer than I ever was before.

GFTW: You have an upcoming anthology called Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (January 2008). What is the story behind the creation of this anthology featuring such notables as George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Octavia Butler, Orson Scott Card, and Gene Wolfe? Why now, and why this subject?

JJA: My fascination with the sub-genre started years ago, with video games. When I was a teenager, I was obsessed with this post-apocalyptic role-playing game called Wasteland (the inspiration for the title, incidentally). This was when I was 13 or 14 or so, so the computer technology wasn't the greatest. I'm pretty sure I was playing it on a Commodore 64 computer. But at the time, it seemed to be pretty good, and like most RPGs the story was why I played it. (I mean like most role-playing games, not rocket-propelled grenades, which I'm pretty sure appeared in the game.)

I'd always been a reader, but I didn't become a hardcore book nerd until I was 18 or so. And once I did, it was like an obsession. I was reading like a book a day or every other day, and though I'd read and liked a lot of SF and fantasy as a kid, I never identified as a genre reader. But anyway, once I discovered SF was where the books I really wanted to read were, I binged on that, and I read post-apocalyptic novels and short stories whenever I could find them.

Several years later, I picked up the short-lived British magazine 3SF and discovered their "Reader's Guide" column, which was basically an introduction to a sub-genre, along with a recommended reading list. At the time, I was thinking of trying my hand at non-fiction (since my fiction writing had stalled out), and I thought, "I could do that." And so the first thing I thought to try was an article on post-apocalyptic SF. 3SF accepted my pitch and bought my article, but sadly, they went out of business before my article saw print. It did, however, appear in a slightly different form some time later in the webzine The Internet Review of Science Fiction, as a "sub-genre spotlight."

The article required a lot of research, during which I discovered that there was a distinct lack of post-apocalyptic anthologies on the market. So I decided to try to sell an original post-apocalyptic anthology. I tried shopping that around for a while without success. Then, a couple years later, I saw that Bison Books reissued the one major post-apocalyptic anthology--Beyond Armageddon--and I thought I'd put together a proposal for the spiritual successor to that book, I'd reprint the best post-apocalyptic stories published since Beyond Armageddon first appeared, in 1984. By this time, I'd found an agent--Jenny Rappaport of the L. Perkins Agency--to represent my anthology proposals, and when I told her about this idea, she was confident she could sell it. And she did.

As for why now, why this subject, well, aside from my own personal fascination with the sub-genre, post-apocalyptic fiction seems to be part of the zeitgeist right now. I mean, you've got Cormac McCarthy's novel The Road not only winning the Pulitzer Prize, but appearing as an Oprah Book Club selection! If that's not a sign of the apocalypse, I don't know what is. But seriously, at F&SF, I'd been seeing a lot of post-apocalyptic fiction in both the slush and from professional writers. So many that I've joked that if we'd published all of them, we would've had to change the name of the magazine to Mutants & Marauders Monthly. That influx of post-apocalyptic stories started me thinking about how the times we're living in now are reminiscent of the times during the Cold War, when the threat of annihilation seemed like a very real possibility. And post-apocalyptic fiction first came to prominence during the Cold War, so I figured that in this current, similar political climate, that the time was right.

GFTW: What has been your proudest moment as an editor?

JJA: There have been a lot of proud moments, but I guess I'd have to say my proudest moment was when Night Shade Books offered to buy Wastelands. I've had the dream of having my name on the spine of a book for many years now. Having it appear as editor of an anthology wasn't how I originally envisioned it, but since my focus shifted from writing to editing, there's nothing I've wanted more than to have an anthology to call my own. (Well, except maybe for a magazine to call my own...)

GFTW: In the time you have spent editing The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, what have been your favorite finds?

JJA: That's like asking me to pick my favorite child! Of course, I do have my favorites, but it doesn't seem fair to the authors for me to single them out in public. I will say that I'm especially gratified by seeing the writers I've discovered either sell subsequent stories to F&SF, or sell stories to other markets.

We just bought another "slush survivor" on Friday (12/7) that I like quite a lot--so much so that of all the stories in that batch of acquisitions, I liked that one best. But I can't even tell you who it's by or what the story's about because the author won't have even received the contract yet and I wouldn't want him/her to learn about the sale somewhere else!

GFTW: Who, in your opinion, are the greatest short story writers of the speculative fiction genre, living or dead?

JJA: Off the top of my head, the first names that come to mind are Jeffrey Ford, Lucius Shepard, and M. Rickert. I think they're writing some of the best short fiction anywhere on the planet at the moment.

And though he's better known for his novels and the films based upon them, Stephen King really is a master of the short form. Incidentally, I was glad to hear that he's thinking of spending more time writing short fiction, a decision inspired by his recent tenure as editor of The Best American Short Stories 2007. (And glad that he sold one of those new pieces of short fiction to F&SF.)

Similarly, George R. R. Martin has a wealth of great short fiction in his catalog, which has mostly been collected in the mammoth, two-volume Dreamsongs. I've been listening to the audiobook of that recently, re-reading some of my old favorites and discovering others I hadn't gotten to yet. I think the Song of Ice and Fire is his true masterwork, but he's written plenty of short stories that could have vied for that title.

Although he wasn't prolific enough to be mentioned as one of the greatest writers, Daniel Keyes wrote what is without question my favorite short story, "Flowers for Algernon." Which is, incidentally, followed very closely behind by "The Deathbird" by Harlan Ellison--another writer worthy of adding to such a list. I was going to say he's really the only one I can think of who made his entire career out of short fiction, but that's not necessarily true anymore; two more recent examples of such are the great Kelly Link and Ted Chiang, two brilliant writers whose entire catalog to date has been short fiction. Of course, in the case of those two, they're both quite young, so it's a bit too early to put a label on their careers.

But I should really stop now, because this list could go on for a long, long time.

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

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Grasping for the Wind Author Interviews

Below are lists of the authors that I have interviewed at this site. My hope is that this will make them easier to locate for you casual readers. I have also included notes from various lectures I have attended with famous authors.

Fantasy Author Interviews

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich - Lecture and Reading

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Who is Philip Pullman?

The Guardian has a profile worth reading, filled with observations from Pullman's friends and acquaintances.

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GRRM Author Q and A

Powell's has a Question and Answer with George R. R. Martin about Dreamsongs Volumes I and II. He makes a few book recommendations and explains what Dreamsongs is.

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Organic Storyteller: An Interview with Stephen Lawhead

Stephen R. Lawhead, author of The Pendragon Cycle, The Song of Albion Trilogy, and the new King Raven Trilogy, accepted my invitation for an interview. From his home in Britain, he answered a few of my questions about his writing, often disagreeing with the form of my questions. I tried to pin him down and make him give purpose to his stories but he made sure I knew that he is, first and foremost, a storyteller. But don't take my word for it, just read on.

Grasping for the Wind: Thank you for agreeing to an interview, I’ve been a fan ever since my father gave me a copy of The Paradise War when I was twelve. At one point, I was even jealous of my younger brother, who shares your first name. Your work has had a profound effect on me, and spearheaded my own interest in Celtic history.

GFTW: The King Raven Trilogy, your newest epic, is a retelling of the Robin Hood legend. This story has been told and retold in movies and books. What is unique about your take on this age old legend?

Stephen R. Lawhead: I’m trying to take the legend back to the time and place where it began – not where it ended up. As with the legends of King Arthur, the old stories of Robin Hood have passed through many hands and have been used in many ways since they were first told. In King Raven, I show what the original context of the tales might have been and let the political and social realities of post-invasion 11th Century Britain influence the stories we’ve received.

GFTW: You have written science fiction, fantasy, and historical novels. Which genre have you preferred writing in and why?

SRL: I still have a soft spot for good SF. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of it around just now, and the readership for it is miniscule. As a writer, SF is a tough sell in today’s market. I blame the movies and TV. On the one hand, movies can dazzle visually with great effects and convincing sets, etc. – providing a look and atmosphere that is very difficult to compete with on the written page. On the other hand, Hollywood often forgets to tell a coherent, compelling story. In far too many filmic treatments, it’s just the same old shoot-em-up dressed in space gear.

Having said that, I consider fantasy and SF simply different sides of the same coin – imaginatively speaking, there is very little difference. One deals with an imagined future, the other often with an imagined past. The imaginative mechanics, if you will, are very similar even if the conventions driving the two genres are slightly different.

GFTW: Some readers and critics have argued that the King Raven trilogy does not classify as fantasy, although major retailers shelve it that way. What is your opinion on the genre of this trilogy?

SRL: I don’t know why some folks get worked up over this question. If the story is fun to read, exciting to think about, and provides an enjoyable experience that lingers long in the reader’s mind – what difference does it make, in the end, whether it was shelved in the Historical or Fantasy section?

In actual fact, the shelving has a lot more to do with marketing precedence than genre classification. In other words, my books started out being shelved in the fantasy section and that is where people have learned to look for them, so that is where the bookstores will put them no matter what is between the covers.

GFTW: In your novels, you often deal with the themes of honor and faith. What is the relationship between these two, and why do you wrap your stories around them?

SRL:First off, let me say that I don’t ‘wrap my stories around’ anything… at all …. ever. They are not ‘means to an end’ whatever some might think.

I look at my stories as living things, organisms that have grown up out of the soil of their creation and taken on a life of their own. Their make up, personality, or whatever you want to call it, is inherent in their being, it is in their flesh and bones. My stories are not soapboxes for me to stand on and shout my opinions to the world. There are no messages pasted on, wrapped up, or otherwise added on. If they speak to a reader, they speak out of their own organic being. And, I find, that often has more to do with the reader him or herself, than with anything I might have done as a writer.

GFTW: Scarlet, the second book in the King Raven trilogy, is told from the perspective of Will Scarlet. He relates the events to a scribe while awaiting hanging. Why did you choose to write Scarlet from this perspective, when the first book, Hood, was written in a more traditional present tense narrative, as the events occurred?

SRL: Simply put, this is how the story came to me. Contrary to what many people may think, I don’t sit down at my desk one day and say: ‘This story will be cast in the present tense using the second person plural to illustrate the dissociation and fragmentation of modern conscience from communal …’ or whatever. There might be some writers who do that – and academics like to play that game – but I don’t. Instead, I spend a little time listening to the voice of the story and trying to find a way that best captures what I hear on paper. So, Will Scarlet speaks in his own voice in this book and it seemed right to let him do that.

GFTW: In Scarlet, you have Will Scarlet, a Saxon, joining a band of native British against the Normans. Was Saxon and British cooperation common in the days after William the Conqueror’s Norman invasion?

SRL: Extremely common. They were two peoples oppressed by a common enemy, and both suffered as conquered peoples, as victims under a harsh regime.

GFTW: You create and interesting interplay between Will Scarlet, and Odo, the priest transcribing his story. What was the purpose of this back and forth exchange?

SRL: Purpose? That’s a little like asking a painter what was the point of making the sky that colour blue? As an artist, I saw Will and Odo a certain way; how those two characters interacted was part of the story so it had to be told just that way. Again, I don’t think in terms of purposes, of using stories to further some external agenda or advance some message of my own. I’m mainly interested in finding ways to allow them to achieve their full potential as stories.

GFTW: How much time did you spend researching the Robin Hood story before beginning your tale?

SRL: There are two levels of research involved, I think. On one level, I’ve been researching British history for over two decades now, and the result of living, traveling, and working in Britain informs much of the book. On another level, I started reading specifically on Robin Hood about two years before beginning to write, and the research continues even as I go along.

GFTW: You ascribe to the Christian faith. What effect has this had on your writing?

SRL: Faith affects everything! No doubt it has affected my work in ways I’m not even aware of. Among other things, I think it makes me a little more sensitive and empathetic to issues of faith that were extant in the times I write about. I’m able to recognize and explore Christian themes in a way that non-Christian writers simply cannot because they are outside of it, because they nurse a prejudice against it, or because they lack that empathy and intimate understanding. My own faith enables me to embrace certain realities of the human condition that other writers shy away from. Thus, contexts, issues, elements of the medieval world (and religion was a very big part of it) can be woven naturally into the fabric of my stories.

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

SRL: Wow!

GFTW: Looking out to the horizon, what projects other do you have in mind? Could we ever see an anthology publication of some of your early short works?

SRL:Not a chance. It isn’t that I’m unwilling, it’s that there are no early short works. I write novels, and everything I’ve written has been published – beginning with the Dragon King Trilogy (now re-issued in hardback) through to Scarlet.

GFTW: What advice would you give an aspiring writer?

SRL: Read! Read everything you can get your eyes on. Read widely. Read deeply. But read, and pay attention to what works in a story and what doesn’t.

GFTW: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Blessings on your future endeavours.


Other Books by Stephen Lawhead:

This post is part of the CSFF Blog Tour for Stephen Lawhead in November 2007. Click the links below to see what other participants are saying about Scarlet and Stephen Lawhead's King Raven trilogy.

Trish Anderson Brandon Barr Wayne Thomas Batson Jim Black Justin Boyer Grace Bridges Amy Browning Jackie Castle Valerie Comer CSFF Blog Tour D. G. D. Davidson Chris Deanne Jeff Draper April Erwin Linda Gilmore Beth Goddard Marcus Goodyear Andrea Graham Jill Hart Katie Hart Sherrie Hibbs Timothy Hicks Christopher Hopper Becca Johnson Jason Joyner Kait Karen Dawn King Tina Kulesa Mike Lynch Margaret Karen McSpadden Melissa Meeks Rebecca LuElla Miller Mirtika or Mir's Here Eve Nielsen John W. Otte John Ottinger Lyn Perry Deena Peterson Rachelle Cheryl Russel Ashley Rutherford Hanna Sandvig Chawna Schroeder James Somers Rachelle Sperling Steve Trower Speculative Faith Robert Treskillard Jason Waguespac Daniel I. Weaver Laura Williams Timothy Wise

Posted by John at 10:00 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Posted to Christian SF&F | Fantasy | General Fiction | Interviews
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Character Flaws and Ideology: An Interview with Bruce Cordell

Bruce Cordell, Game Designer for Wizards of the Coast and Forgotten Realms author, answered a few of my questions about his latest novel Stardeep (my review) and spoke on the need for characters who are flawed in fantasy fiction.

Grasping for the Wind: Tell us a little about how you came became a Dungeons and Dragons fan, and the path you took to becoming a game and novel writer.

Bruce Cordell: During a late '70s Boy Scouts summer camp, I stumbled upon the older scouts huddled around a lantern-lit picnic table playing a wondrous game. The DM described how an ogre was eating dwarves like a cartoon cat eats a fish, then throwing each denuded skeleton behind him into a large pile. The PCs studied this tableau from hiding, worried that they were next. It was beyond anything I had ever imagined I could interact with. I was instantly hooked on D&D.

On the novel side, I've been a reader since I was old enough to pick up books my Mom bought home every two weeks from the library--science fiction and fantasy novels all. The idea of becoming a writer struck me in high school, and that's when I began writing short stories. Like most writers, I have a folder filled with unpublished short stories, many of them with politely worded rejection letters.

Anyway, it was D&D that turned out to be the key for me writing novels. Years of kind editorial advice prepared me to be a writer with a modicum of knowledge of the craft. Now, continued editorial advice continues to sharpen my pen, or so I hope. So I've been lucky in a lot of ways.

GFTW: What prompted you to do work for your local humane society, and blog so often about science related issues?

BC: I have a soft spot in my heart for animals. Unlike people, they can never be their own advocates. I can hardly bear to read a story or watch a television show with an animal in it, for fear it'll turn out badly for the creature in question. My wife is the same, and when she worked at the Humane Society a few years ago, it was easier than ever for me to become involved.

On science, well I have a degree in biology, and in fact thought I'd be a scientist studying longevity and aging, not a writer. Despite enjoying writing and story design, I also still really love science, and fantasize about going back to school to get a degree in physics or rocketry, or refreshing my biotech skills. In the meantime, I read science magazines and listen to science podcasts like a fiend.

GFTW: You have written several novels for the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, but tell us a little about your latest, Stardeep.

BC: Stardeep tells many stories, including the little-known history of the Keepers of the Cerulean Sign and their long-standing pledge to protect Faerun from a threat few realize it once faced, and could again. One of the underlying themes of the book looks at the value sacrifice for something you deem more important than yourself--another is how strongly held beliefs can sometimes sway your ability to discern actual truth. These themes only became apparent to me after I finished writing. Mainly, I wanted to write a story about Kiril and how she got to be a foul-mouthed, alcoholic elf with a blade whose power seems matched only by its self-importance.

GFTW: In Stardeep, Kiril Duskmorn (a character who also appears in Darkvision) is the primary character. Why did you choose to delve more deeply into this character?

BC: She's a flawed character, more flawed than she originally seemed in Darkvision. I wanted to show everyone exactly what she had gone through, and how she reacted to that crisis, and what steps she was finally willing to take to atone for her past. And, if once all was said and done, she could really change.

GFTW: In Stardeep, your villain is only misguided, not truly evil, although his actions have evil consequences. Why did you avoid the standard good/bad dichotomy of other fantasies?

BC: While fantasy gives us sharply defined Evil and Good, we all know reality rarely works like that. Well-meaning folks who decide to do 'whatever it takes' to achieve their ends sometimes blind themselves by adopting dogma of their own creation or someone else's. Once a policy is set in stone without recourse for self-correction or external balance, such folks can step across the line and become threats as large or larger than what they claim to oppose. I'm not saying I don't have stories that rely on Evil (far from it), but when I can throw in a character or two whose ideological fervor oversteps their ability to weigh options, I will do so, because, really, one man's flawed character who ultimately fails to find redemption is another man's villain :-).

GFTW: Almost all of your stories and novels have an element of martial arts in them. Why is this?

BC: I've been studying Muay Thai and jujutsu for several years as much to maintain fitness as out of a desire to make fight scenes in my stories are as realistic as possible. I've also taken some Jeet Kune Do, which uses swords--I may take up that more for future characters who rely less on martial arts and more on swordplay.

GFTW: Do you find it difficult write female characters like Kiril?

BC: In broad ways, no, not really. In certain aspects, yes. But I think the female perspective in a book with multiple characters is vital for story balance, so I'll always brave potential difficulties. Thankfully, I have a female editor who will tell me if I've gone completely off the rails on a female character's POV.

GFTW: Most of your novels are written in the Forgotten Realms campaign setting, although as an employee of Wizards, you have the opportunity to work in any of their worlds. Why choose to write in the Forgotten Realms setting?

BC: Well, at first it was chance. Now that I've established myself in the Realms, it would be hard to switch to another shared-world. I've grown to really care for the place and become invested in it, not only on the novel side, but also the game-design side. So, in the medium-term you'll find my future novels remain set in Faerun.

GFTW: You usually tackle parts of the Forgotten Realms that other authors overlook. Is this a conscious choice, or is it just that you write about these areas in your game designs and so are familiar with the material?

BC: A conscious choice--I can do more with areas that have seen little previous ink. Of course, being a game designer, I am also in a good place to use my own inventions (the specifics of Deep Imaskar and vengeance takers, for instance), to flesh out my stories.

GFTW: What is your response to those critical of novels set in shared-world settings?

BC: Well, a long while back I read some stinker shared-world stories, so I can understand some criticism. But I'd say, hey, that was 20 years ago. Try some novels being written by new authors and old authors who've grown in their craft. Paul Kemp springs to mind as a fine example. I'd say, try one of the latest Paul Kemp novels and see what you think of shared world novels. Well, probably first I would say try Stardeep and judge it on its own merits, and look, I have a copy right here on my book shelf . . . :-)

GFTW: What can you tell us about your sequel to Stardeep and the continuing adventures of Kiril Duskmorn?

BC: Well, it is too early to say much, but I can say I have a trilogy of books coming out that picks up a few of the story lines and characters of Stardeep, potentially including Kiril in some guise. Stardeep thus serves as a prequel, but one actually written in correct chronological order.

GFTW: Without violating any non-disclosure agreements, what can you tell us about the effect that the 4th edition of D&D will have on the Forgotten Realms?

BC: Like the rest of the game, 4th edition rules will breath fresh life into the various character classes, as well as provide new characters options. 4th edition realms will be more about players as heroes facing big threats, not ungodly powerful good-guy NPCs facing threats.

GFTW: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. I look forward to your next novel.

BC: Thanks John, I enjoyed our talk, thanks for the opportunity :-)

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Arabian Mystery: An Interview with Nathalie Mallet

Nathalie Mallet, debut author of The Princes of the Golden Cage (my review), answered a few of my questions about her Arabian fantasy/mystery.

Grasping For The Wind: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Your novel was one of the best mystery/fantasy blends I have ever read.

Nathalie Mallet: Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed it.

GFTW: You have written a blog post to explain the origin of The Princes of the Golden Cage, but could you give us a quick review of where this novel came from?

NM: The idea came from a documentary I saw some 12 years ago—which, funny enough, I remembered while soaking in my tub. It was a series on the great palaces of the world. The episode in question recounted the story of a palace where princes were imprisoned until one was chosen as heir to the throne. Although the details of the episode were still a tad vague in my mind, I knew I had found something. It wasn’t one of those Archimedes’ “Eureka” moment, but it was darn close.

GFTW: Why did you choose to write this novel entirely from a first person perspective?

NM: I thought a first person perspective would best fit this story. As readers can only see what Amir sees, it makes for a tighter plot…therefore a better mystery.

GFTW: Was there any sort of historical precedent for this tale of a Sultan’s sons trapped in a gilded cage?

NM: Absolutely! The Kafes, which literally means “the cage” in Turkish, really existed. Those princely rooms/cells are located in the Topkapi palace in Istanbul and are visited by thousands of tourists every year. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultans’ eldest sons weren’t automatically destined to the throne, instead the Prince who had managed to prove himself the most apt to govern in the eyes of his father was chosen as the next ruler. Needless to say, that made for constant warring among the Princes, which threatened the stability of the country. The Kafes was then instituted as a solution. Later, the Ottoman succession rule was changed and the Kafes was abolished.

GFTW: Was it a difficult thing to mesh the facts of history with the fantastic elements you wanted to include?

NM: To a certain point it was. Because I loved all those fascinating cultural details so much there was the temptation to add too many of them into the story and bore readers with it or to stick too close to the historical reality. After all this is a fantasy, and as such I needed to construct a new world and give it its own set of rules, but at the same time I wanted to retain that Arabian Nights flavour, because it evokes such a strong imagery in people’s minds. It was a question of finding the right balance.

GFTW: The Princes of the Golden Cage is a subtle blend of mystery and fantasy. When you began writing, was it your intent to write a mystery or a fantasy?

NM: I knew this story was going to be a mystery from the beginning. For a short period of time, I considered making it a straightforward historical mystery. Then I came to my senses and just wrote what I really love—and that’s fantasy.

GFTW: Prince Amir is a strange character. While he takes care of his sick brothers, he has a great amount of disdain for servants, even beyond his mistrust of them. Why did you give Amir this particular flaw?

NM: I purposely wanted my protagonists to be flawed because normal people are flawed and sometime we all behave irrationally—although we don’t like to admit it. Amir’s mistrust of servants was something that made sense to me, because paranoia was prevalent amongst the Kafes’ princes, and Amir had to be a product of his environment. Don’t forget that the Cage is all he knows. Also when considering that the division of classes still exists today; one has to assume that most princes of that period must have been imbued with a healthy sense superiority and self-importance. So yes, Prince Amir believes servants and commoners to be his inferiors, and that’s the sort of prejudice he will have to grow out of, or at least reevaluate, once he leaves the Cage and Telfar.

GFTW: Which great detective of literature (i.e. Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, etc.) do you think Prince Amir is most like?

NM: I adore Sherlock Holmes. He’s my favorite of all detectives. But I would be hard pressed to compare Amir with him or anyone else for that matter. Honestly, I can’t really find a good comparison with my prince, and that’s okay with me.

GFTW: The grammatical structure of your sentences has been pointed out by more than one person (including me), as flawed. What is your response to such criticism?

NM: I agree with most of it. As English is my second language, moreover it is a language I’ve been writing in for slightly less than four years, I know it is far from being perfect, and probably will never be. But it will improve. When I decided to begin writing and chose to do it in English instead of French, I knew that mastering the grammar was going to be my biggest obstacle. French would have been far easier. However, the American market for Science Fiction and Fantasy is so vibrant and open one can hardly blame me for taking that route. I certainly don’t regret it.

GFTW: What has been the best response to your novel that you have received?

NM: It has to be when Jason Williams at Night Shade Books said they loved The Princes and would like to see a sequel.

GFTW: What can you tell us about the sequel, The King’s Daughter?

NM: Well, it has a Russian-inspired setting and the magical elements and legends in the sequel are drawn from Northern folklore. The tone of the story is a bit different. Now free, Amir travels to the icy kingdom of Sorvinka. But after committing a series of faux pas, Amir sees only one way to redeem himself in the eyes of the King. He must solve the mystery surrounding the disappearance of the Sorvinkian Princess, if he wants to win the King’s favor…and the hand of his beloved. It is in this book that Amir’s true nature and purpose is revealed…much to his chagrin.

GFTW: The King’s Daughter looks like it will be set in a different culture. Is it your plan to set each of you mystery/fantasy novels of this series in a different culture?

NM: Yes. It gives me an excuse to explore a different culture with each new book. Also I thought Amir should see the world he lives in.

GFTW: You were recently at the World Fantasy Convention. How was it? Did other authors have anything to say about your debut novel?

NM: It was great! I loved it. I met wonderful people, went to several readings and panels. I’m always interested to hear about other authors’ personal experiences and new projects they are working on. Also The Princes of the Golden Cage was well promoted by Night Shade. A good amount of people received the book, and many authors told me they were reading my book and enjoying it. Charles Coleman Finley, which I met for the first time at the convention, told me that he started reading it and couldn’t put it down until he was finished. He mentions it on his blog, The prodigal blog. It gives me goose bumps every time I think about it.

GFTW: Thanks again for taking the time to do this interview. I look forward to seeing more stories in this vein from your pen.

NM: The pleasure was all mine.

Posted by John at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Notes: A Book Reading with A.J. Jacobs

A Book Reading with A.J. Jacobs
MJCCA Book Festival 11/9/2007
Sweetwater Brewing Company Brew Ha-Ha

Author of The Know-it-All (my review) and The Year of Living Biblically

- believes in full immersion in projects
- likes to think of himself as human guinea pig; his “life as a laboratory”.

- Two key articles
o My Outsourced Life in Esquire – outsourced his life to a company in India, and lazed about for a month. Best month of his life.
o I Think You’re Fat – tried out radical honesty, where you lack a filter on what you say. Worst month of his life.
- grew up in a secular home
o He is, “Jewish in the way Olive Garden is Italian.”

- Steps to writing The Year of Living Biblically
o Bought a stack of Bibles
o Collected a board of spiritual advisors
o Read the Bible in several versions and made a list of 700 rules to follow.
o Followed them.
1. Some easier than others, such as in Leviticus 20:27 (ESV) “They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” All Jacobs had to do was avoid picking a fight.

- There were 2 hard rules to follow
o Avoiding the sins we commit every day such as lying, gossip and coveting
1. “I never became a saint, never became Angelina Jolie.”
2. But in pretending to be a better person, he became one.
o there were rules that were troubling in modern day America, such as stoning adulterers
1. Bypassed this by only using pebbles.
2. Read story from The Year of Living Biblically (pg. 91-94, Day 62) about running into a man who admitted to being an adulterer and the end result of his attempt to stone him.

- There were 2 motivations for writing The Year of Living Biblically
o Genuine spiritual inquiry – sparked by his need to raise up his son morally
o His concern with fundamentalism
- found that the interpretations of words is important
o found out that stoning is not what we traditionally think of it as (i.e. throwing rocks) but actually throwing off a cliff, when the person was drunk.
- Jacobs “Out Bible talked a Jehovah’s Witness”.
- Ironically, he is going to appear on the cover of an evangelical magazine and in Penthouse and Playboy at the same time.

- 4 lessons learned
o Thou shalt give thanks.
o Thou shalt be reverent.
1. Jacobs started out as an agnostic, came out a reverent agnostic – meaning that he appreciates the sacredness of things more
o Thou shalt not stereotype
o Thou shalt pick and choose
- The journey took Jacobs “from the sublime to the ridiculous, and back again”
- When asked if he used the Torah as well as the Bible Jacobs replied that he wanted to, “get back to the original intent, almost like an Antonin Scalia of the Bible!”

Read more at A. J. Jacobs Blog or at mental_floss, where he is regular contributor both to the print magazine and their blog.

Posted by John at 01:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Humor | Interviews | Nonfiction | Religion
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Free Will Fantasy: An Interview with Brian Ruckley

Brian Ruckley, author of the Nordic/Scottish fantasy Winterbirth, graciously answered a few questions about his novel that I had, and talked a little about Bloodheir, the sequel forthcoming in 2008 from Orbit Books.

Grasping for the Wind: For those unfamiliar with Winterbirth, could you give a brief synopsis of the novel?

Brian Ruckley: I’m terrible at doing synopses. How about this: An old, unresolved conflict is renewed, and amidst the resultant mayhem and conspiracies and competing interests, a new and bigger – and at first largely unrecognised – threat starts to emerge. There are battles and pursuits and deaths, big mountains and lots of bad weather.

GFTW: Your novel is modeled after Nordic/Scottish and Germanic tribal cultures. Did this require a lot of research?

BR: I’ve got to admit I’m not big on the whole research thing, at least in the sense of doing specific research for specific purposes. There’s only one scene in Winterbirth that I did some specific background reading for, and that’s the festival that gives its name to the book: I went off and read a little bit about ancient pagan Winter festivals, just scavenging for ideas really.

I’m not quite as lazy as that might make me sound, though. In another sense, I do mountains of research, it’s just that it’s cunningly disguised as recreation. I’ve been interested in history for a long, long time. I read lots of history books, on everything from archeology through Roman to World War II. I wander around museums whenever I get the chance. I visit historical sites, watch history documentaries on the TV. It all soaks in, bit by bit, so my brain’s a bit like a saturated sponge, full of little bits of info on ancient cultures. All that stuff seeps out again and informs what I write.

GFTW: Although none of your characters can be classified as truly good or truly evil, you chose to make the villains of your tale the Gyre Bloods, who follow a twisted belief (The Black Road) rooted in fatalism. Why was this fatalism cast villainously?

BR: Oh, that’s a good question, at least in the sense that I could go on at some length in answering it (which would not be universally regarded as a good thing, I’m sure – so I’ll try for the shortish version of the answer). When the very first ideas for this story were starting to simmer in my brain, I (in my infinite wisdom) had a pet theory that there were too many fantasy stories in which prophecies of one kind or another were central drivers of the plot (this was quite a long time ago – there are fewer of them around these days. Prophecies have gone out of fashion a bit.). I figured that every time a prophecy shows up it raises an obvious question about the role of free will in all these imagined worlds, since it at the very least implies an element of inevitability about what’s going on.

That started me off thinking about choice, predestination and all that and I settled on the idea of giving the ‘villains’ their fatalistic creed, which includes a prophecy of sorts and which explicitly denies the significance of individual choice in the world. There’s no black and white struggle between absolute good and absolute evil in the story, but I do think one element of the story that’s going on in the background is a struggle between the various forces (not just the beliefs of the Black Road, but also the burden of personal and cultural history, social structures etc etc) that undermine the notion of free will, and on the other hand the idea that individuals can rise above such forces and make independent choices that have meaningful consequences.

All of which makes the book sound considerably more serious and weighty than it really is, but that kind of stuff was certainly at the back of my mind when I was writing it.

GFTW: Some have said that your book moves slowly because you spent so much time describing the scenery. Yet, you once told me that you worked very hard on setting the scenery. What is your response to such criticism?

BR: It’s true that I did put quite a bit of thinking effort into the landscapes and the whole environment of the world while I was writing: my feeling was that if those aspects of the world (along with the politics and the societies) came across as realistic and plausible and vivid, it would make it that little bit easier for readers to believe in the whole story. Most readers I’ve heard from seem to have enjoyed that aspect of the book. It may not work for everyone, of course, and I’d be crazy to think it would.

Where I’ve seen questions raised about the pacing it’s related more to the start of the book, where I’m laying out some of the threads of the story that I then start pulling together later on, and that’s perhaps a slightly different issue. I can, with hindsight, see the point that’s being made, although again it’s something that a lot of readers seem to have differing opinions about. But like any piece of well-intentioned criticism, I note it and ‘take it under consideration’ as they say. I’ve always thought that for any aspiring writer, one of the most important things is to learn how to be constructively critical of your own writing, and to deal with criticism from others with a reasonably open mind. That doesn’t change once you stop being an aspiring writer and become a published one. Not if you want to learn and improve, anyway.

GFTW: You have mentioned that Taim has become one of your favorite characters, even though he is a minor one in Winterbirth. Why is that? Can we expect to see more of Taim in the sequels?

BR: Taim certainly has a rather bigger role in the second book: he’s more directly involved in what’s going on. I think he appeals to me because I see him as a more or less unambiguously decent man who’s just trying to do his best in difficult circumstances (extremely difficult circumstances in Book Two, unfortunately for him!). He doesn’t have a self-serving agenda in quite the way a lot of the other characters do. Although, as you mentioned, straightforwardly good or evil characters are a bit thin on the ground, I see Taim as a basically good guy, whose motivations revolve around things like loyalty and service and family ties rather than personal advancement. Plus, he really knows how to handle himself in a fight, as he finally gets to demonstrate a bit in the second book, and that always makes a character fun to write, if nothing else!

GFTW: I have to admit, your elf-like race, the Kyrinnin, made me angry. They were so alien and so other. They didn’t behave like elves, and were very different from the fantasy stereotype. Was it difficult not to fall into the trap of making another elf race? How difficult was it to make the Kyrinnin seem alien and other than human?

BR: I certainly wasn’t trying to make anyone angry, but I certainly was trying to make the Kyrinin a bit unfamiliar, so I’ll take your reaction as a sign that I was somewhat successful in that! It may sound odd, but my way of making them seem ‘other than human’ was to borrow from human cultures. Tolkienesque elves were one element in their inspiration, but a lot of what I think people find distinctive about them is actually drawn from the real world, it’s just that it’s not drawn from the traditional, medieval European sources of a lot of fantasy. They’re a real mixture, but there’re bits of Native American culture in there, bits of prehistoric European hunter-gatherer society and so on. All in all, I’m not sure their attitudes and culture are really any less ‘human’ than those of the humans appearing the story, it’s just that they’re attitudes and culture that we’re not so familiar with in fantasy fiction or in the history we learn about at school.

GFTW: In another career, you are an environmental writer. What effect has this had on the story of The Godless World?

BR: I’ve done all kinds of environment-related work, and although it’s not actually a significant part of my working life right now it remains a major interest of mine (and I may well look to do more work in that field in the future). It certainly influenced the setting of my story: British – especially Scottish – landscapes and wildlife (and weather!) are the basic models for those of the Godless World. In some ways, they’re a version of Scotland I’d quite like to live in: the mountains and the forests are bigger, there are still bears and boars and wolves wandering around (unlike Britain where we decided a long time ago that we didn’t really want to share our island with such inconvenient co-habitees thank you very much). If it wasn’t for all the sword-waving fanatics and vicious Kyrinin I also populated it with, it’s a place I’d certainly like to visit.

GFTW: What can you tell us about the next installment in The Godless World trilogy, Bloodheir?

BR: Well the most important thing about it (as far as I’m concerned, anyway) is that it’s finished and scheduled for publication next year. I think the very end of Winterbirth gives a pretty strong indication that the rules of the game all the competing factions think they’re playing are about to change, so I guess you could say Bloodheir is about how the various players react to (or resist) the changes and their gradual loss of control over events. The stakes get higher, the battles get bigger, and I don’t suppose it would come as a huge surprise to anyone who’s read Winterbirth to hear that not all the characters make it through to the end of Bloodheir in one piece.

GFTW: Why should readers pick up your rather hefty tome?

BR: Assuming that making me happy is, not unreasonably, insufficient motivation in itself, I guess I better think of another reason … I’d say anyone who likes their fantasy with a hint of realism to it should give it a try. It’s got a bit of politics, a bit of magic, a bit of fighting, so there’s plenty of stuff in there that’s potentially pleasing to all sorts of readers. Plus it’s got a raven-haired warrior-woman wielding two swords at once, a snowbound ruined city high in the mountains, wardogs and a castle in the sea (kind of). It’s starting to sound quite good even to me …

GFTW: If a reader wanted to read more Brian Ruckley between releases of The Godless World trilogy, where might he/she look?

BR: I’d be enormously flattered if anyone felt sufficiently motivated to try and find more stuff I’d written, but the truth is they’d find the pickings rather slim. There’s some little snippets of writing and background info on the Godless World lurking on my website in the Gazetteer section (www.brianruckley.com/gazetteer.htm); most of it’s in the form of notes, but there are one or two short bits of ‘writing’ (and more to come in due course). And there’s always my blog (www.brianruckley.com/news.htm).

As far as other fiction is concerned, I suspect it would take a major and highly determined detective effort to track it down. I did have a couple of short stories published in British magazines in the 1990s. Anyone who stumbles across a certain back issue of The Third Alternative (I think it was #20), for example, could find therein a story of mine called ‘Gibbons’, which I’m reasonably proud of.

GFTW: Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I’m eagerly anticipating the release of Bloodheir here in the US.

Posted by John at 10:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Notes: A Lecture by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

These are my notes from a lecture given by Pulitzer prize winning author Laurel Thatcher Ulrich on September 19, 2007. This feisty gray haired lady presented a fascinating case for continued work in understanding the history of women, and in breaking down stereotypes. Phrases in quotes are direct quotes from the lecture.

“Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”
A Lecture by Laurel Thatcher Ulrich (Pulitzer prize winning author of A Midwife's Tale)
Margaret Mitchell House and Museum Literature Center

See the webcast at www.atlantaforumnetwork.org

Books, Activism, Memory

- Read first few pages of Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History in order to define the phrase succinctly.
- Phrase comes from her first article in history in 1976 on Puritan Funeral Sermons
- Kay Mills found it, accidentally changed “seldom” to “rarely” hence two different quotes
- In 1996 Jill Portugal of one angry girl designs asked permission to print it on a t-shirt.
- Kacey Jones sang a song incorporating the term on Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion – the song can be found in the book.
- Sania Mirza, Indian Muslim tennis player has taken it as a slogan for herself

So what does “Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History” mean?

- Ulrich enjoys ambiguous titles for books
- Good Wives is about normal women dealing with prescriptions for good behavior vs. actual behavior
- Age of Homespun is about frontier violence and the intersection of Native Americans and the English
- Well behaved women are often characterized as Emily Dickinson types.
- Well behaved women are those who do what is appropriate for her culture and preserve the status quo
- “Well-behaved” is not referring to good or bad behavior (i.e. Rosa Parks was chosen as the example case against segregation precisely because she was well-behaved, yet she made history.)
- Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History is about “celebrating the impact of the women’s movement of the 60’s and 70’s on knowledge.”
- “Because women tried to make history they discovered the past.”
- Those who want to make history seek to know history.
- “Caring about history we make history”

Book Structure

- Book is set up with three women in three libraries in different time periods and countries.
- Christine di Pizan – 15th century “The City of Ladies”
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton – 19th century leader of women’s rights movement
- Virginia Woolf – reference to famous British Museum doodle leading to the writing of fictional account Shakespeare’s sister Judith where in frustration at lack of success, raped and abandoned she kills herself.
- Woolf was wrong – Elizabeth Carey was forced to marry like Judith but was popular writer (more popular than Shakespeare) in the same time; Artemisia Judelefsky – raped, seduced like Judith, became famous artist
- Tells stories and shows parallels between the three women and retells their stories through the lens of the scholarship of the last 30 years.

A Renaissance in Women’s History

- Christine di Pizan loved the Amazons (800 year kingdom).
- Ulrich retold the story of the Amazons in light of recent scholarship including funny story about Amazon.com being sued by a women’s bookstore called Amazon for copyright infringement. Amazon tried to say they were named after the river rather than Amazon’s of myth. Ironically the river was named by a Spanish explorer who thought he had found the ancient kingdom found in the myths.
- Quilt documentation projects came to light.
- Ordinary people asked new questions
- “academic historians do not own history.”
- Well-behaved women don’t think their lives matter so they don’t preserve their own history by keeping diaries, etc.
- So being misbehaved means preserving ones role in history, no matter how small

Questions

Where are we in terms of male response to women?
- “I’m a historian” not a sociologist
- Ulrich is depressed when she goes into bookstores and only sees books on war
- The book marketing world thinks history is for men and fiction for women – a holdover of the 18th century
- “Our knowledge of history is not very deep, let alone women’s history.”

Was there someone in this new book that touched her like Martha Ballard of A Midwife’s Tale?
- not in new book, no one ever will
- new book is about many women rather than being a microcosm like A Midwife’s Tale.
- Ulrich was touched by the new book’s multiplicity
- Ulrich had to rely on other people’s scholarship
- Writing out of her comfort zone
- Moved by how much scholars and good citizens have done in research.
- Elizabeth Cady Stanton/Jarrett Smith and abolitionist helps Stanton meet a slave named Harriett Powell. Ulrich does research on the underground Railroad and ends up connecting two disparate organizations in New York and Canada who have information on this person.

If Ulrich were to be a history advisor to Hillary Clinton’s campaign what characterizations should Clinton avoid or identify with?
- Hillary has an interesting dilemma, she is both new and old, but is likely the first female presidential candidate who can make it.
- Should not identify with Woodhull – first woman to run for President in 1870’s
- Nearly 20% of the women who have served in Congress have succeeded husbands who died in office.
- Hillary Clinton is in peculiar position of being a pseudo-widow because she is potentially following a husband into office that is not dead. She will be both helped and hurt by his legacy, unlike the ones who follow dead husbands.
- The more interesting question is why it has taken so long to get to this point in the US when other developed nations have already elected women.

How has technology changed getting published?
- it is harder to get published
- her first book was her Doctoral Dissertation, and now he own publisher won’t even look at doctoral dissertations.
- “The Internet is fabulous and terrifying” but is helpful in making connections.
- She would like funding of digitization of primary sources not just go to the 19th century notion of history.

Would we be better off if women had been ruling the world for a while?
- “NO!” Emphatically
- She is a social historian, great things happen when lots of people make small changes, not rulers.
- Women are not always better peacemakers, that is a stereotype.
- See her chapter on the Amazons.
- Women have been warriors for as long as men have and have been just as violent.
- Gender is an important variable but it doesn’t explain everything.

Why are we reluctant to elect women?
- women themselves have a lot do with Nixon’s veto of childcare act.
- Can make the argument that 19th century women had more effect on moral culture and society than men did (child-rearing)
- Women have had economic and political power in the past, but it was directed toward the home rather than those spheres as we understand them.
- Women had a new politics, a moral imperative (more important than the others even)
- Conservative women destroyed the early feminist movements, not just men.
- Activist women disagree.

What was Ulrich’s impetus for becoming not well-behaved?
- committed to study
- marrying young and having a lot of kids
- history changed her life
- Grew up in Mormon Rocky Mtn. West, Idaho.
- Heard about noble pioneers from childhood and felt diminished by their story leading to questions and research.
- Some of those pioneer grandmother’s were not so well-behaved.
- Mormon’s were just as radical in the 19th century as the Elizabeth Cady Stantons, even though they were polygamists as well as feminists and suffragettes.
- Ulrich’s stereotypes were blown away.
- Being a pioneer was creatively dealing with the circumstances, as women who make history should be today.

Posted by John at 01:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to History | Interviews | Literature and Language | Personal Journal | Politics
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SF with an Accent: An Interview with Tobias Buckell

Tobias Buckell is the author of Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and the forthcoming Sly Mongoose, as well as many other short stories. He is also a professional blogger and blog consultant. He agreed to an interview after I read and reviewed his book Crystal Rain (which he was nice enough to sign and send to my home for free, along with Ragamuffin.) His writing is unique in SF, as I think this interview makes clear. I highly recommend this new science fiction author from TOR.

Grasping for the Wind: For those who don't already know, could you give us an account of your unique upbringing?

Tobias Buckell I grew up in Grenada, and moved to the British and then US Virgin Islands with my family. I finally ended up in Ohio my senior year: quite a change! My mother's side of the family is a family of sailors. I'm the third generation of a boat-centric lifestyle that began when my grandfather moved his family aboard a yacht and sailed down the Thames for the Mediterranean and then eventually the Caribbean. My biological father is Caribbean, so many of my relatives hail from Grenada. Both sides are scattered all over the islands and the US now.

GFTW: Where does your interest in SF come from? Do you have any heroes of the genre?

TB: As pretty much a single working mother mine taught me to read fairly young, and introduced me to novels. On a boat there's no cable, and even transmitted TV was fuzzy at best. And with batteries, who wants to drain them? I got into SF thanks to Arthur C. Clarke. I read one of his novels at 6 or 7: Childhood's End. It had an enormous impact on me, I felt like my mind was being stretched and my perspective on everything changed for a couple days. I loved adventure literature, mysteries, even Westerns (which seemed strange and exotic to me), but I really kept coming back for that 'big idea' kick I first got off Clarke.

GFTW: Much of the dialogue in Crystal Rain is a patois, a subtle blending of languages common in the Caribbean. As you were writing it, did you ever have the fear that readers might find it too difficult to understand?

TB: You know that's always a risk. But by the time I was writing that novel I'd written a number of short stories experimenting with different ways to portray the rhythms and sounds I grew up hearing around me. I chose not to use a direct phonetic spelling, like many do when trying to depict a dialect or patois, because I felt that would slow readers down and distract them (I still struggle to read some James Herriot at times). If a word had an English analogue, then it would be spelled the same. It was structure and grammar that I aimed to replicate the experience.

I do get some readers who react negatively to it. I get charged with 'bad English' or that it is challenging, but most people find that they slip into reading the dialogue and enjoy it.

GFTW: Crystal Rain is primarily an adventure story, although you do touch on the themes of culture and belief and how they interact. This is especially evident in the relationship between John deBrun and Oaxyctl. Was there any reason you wanted to address these particular themes?

TB: I always seek to entertain first, so the adventure is always dripping and packed full. But I do have some secondary themes running throughout. The belief question that Oaxyctl faces is an interesting one. Here he has what he thinks is a god asking him to do something almost immoral. Who would defy the divine? Oaxyctl struggles with it. It's the Abrahamic dilemma but with Aztecs: Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, and he eventually firms up his mind to do it. An immoral act becomes moral when his God asks him to do it. Of course, his son is spared, but I thought it would be very tense to give the same problem to Oaxyctl in this novel. I also wanted to give readers a character who represented the Aztecs as not a faceless evil, but a complicated and quite human group.

GFTW: Crystal Rain is filled with mysterious characters, whose past is shrouded in mist. Was it difficult to keep from giving away too much of the back-story before the appropriate moment in the narrative?

TB: It's always a give and take sort of thing. You go through a lot of edits where you try and strike the right balance. In Crystal Rain I kept the back story as buried as possible until further into the book because I feel it helped ease readers in, and it also meant that the focus remained on the adventure and characters.

GFTW: Crystal Rain is a stand-alone novel. Did you intentionally try to avoid writing a series, instead setting your novels in the same universe, but with different stories? Are you planning to create an over-arching storyline?

TB: I'm trying to write each novel as a stand alone event with varying stories and a varying motley assembly of characters. Ragamuffin follows Crystal Rain, but so far people have read it without reading Crystal Rain and enjoyed it enough to seek out Crystal Rain. I'm trying to make each book stand alone because as a reader I just hate missing out because I got the wrong book in the series.

GFTW: You have been a blogger since before the term was even invented. What effect do you think the medium has had on literature in general and speculative fiction (fantasy and SF) in particular?

TB: I have a friend who once remarked that I was the first person she knew to say I had a 'blog' instead of 'online journal.' I started with a GeoCities account back in 1998 to impress a professor and get a better grade. Now, 9 years later, I make about half my income doing professional blogging and consulting.

As for effect, I'm thinking that at the least it's given new writers a total leg up. They have access to information and resources I could only have dreamed of. Online communities, market listings, articles about how to write, and writers blogs where they can watch what writers are doing every day. It's very nifty. For me I've enjoyed the increased sense of community and being able to keep up with writers from all over the world, I think there is more cross-fertilization and discussion going than when I was breaking in.

GFTW: What can you tell us about your upcoming project, Sly Mongoose?

TB: This is the third book in this loose collection of novels. It features a Venus-like planet: hundreds of degrees hot on the surface, crushing pressure, and acid rain. But at 100,000 feet you avoid all that. And with a greenhouse atmosphere all around, breathable air is a lifting gas. So if you fill up a large structure with air it floats. So you get Cloud City, but with scientific justification. You also get to have airships galore, so I had a lot of fun chasing airships, creating armadas of airships, and tossing hapless characters into the great big mix. It was really just a very fun setpiece that I got to explore.

I'm working on a final editing pass, and then it's on to working on my fourth book.

GFTW: Any plans to release an anthology of your short stories? Or is there anyplace someone craving more of your writing can go to find your short fiction?

TB: Wyrm Publishing (they put out Clarkesworld Magazine) is doing a 500 copy Limited Edition of a collection. Tides From the New Worlds will be out this winter, I think January. It can be preordered at: http://wyrmpublishing.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=10.

The art will be by Brian Dow, I am looking forward to it and am very excited.

GFTW: In a fight between Pepper and the Terminator, who would win?

TB: It would be a very tough call. I think Pepper has a bit more style, but he's not running on a nuclear battery thingey like the Terminator is, but he does have a strong survival instinct. I'd say it'd be close, no matter which way.

GFTW: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview with me. I wish you blessings for your continued success.

TB: No problem, thank you for all the questions.

Read more about Tobias Buckell at: Pat's Fantasy Hotlist and A Dribble of Ink

Posted by John at 12:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews | Literature and Language
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Kingmaker, Kingbreaker: An Interview with Karen Miller

Karen Miller, author of two of Orbit's US releases, The Innocent Mage and The Awakened Mage graciously agreed to an interview with me. This duology is not your standard fantasy, and its subtlety in being original and its daring in dealing with real, human drama makes for fascinating novels. I hope you enjoy the interview.

Grasping for the Wind: Thanks for agreeing to an interview. Could you give a quick overview of the story for the Kingmaker, Kingbreaker duology for those who haven't read it yet?

Karen Miller: And thanks for asking me! Kingmaker, Kingbreaker (books 1 and 2) is the story of two men who are brought together by fate and manipulation to avert a long foretold calamity in the small, isolated kingdom of Lur. Though they come from remarkably different backgrounds -- Asher is blue collar, a fisherman, and Gar is blue blood, a prince, they become unlikely friends who discover they have far more in common than they could have imagined. It's a story about friendship and sacrifice and secrets and lies and how far people will go to get what they want. There's a lot of drama and intrigue, some magic but very few swords. As for actual plot details, well ... *g* I think that's what reading the book is for!

GFTW: The main character, Asher, speaks colloquially and with a pronounced accent. Was it difficult for you to write such an accent, and why did you choose to have this important character be a country bumpkin?

KM:Well, I feel I have to leap to Asher's defence here. I don't believe he's a country bumpkin. And I don't think having an accent makes someone a bumpkin, either. I think that's an unfortunate assumption that people make, that does a great disservice to folk who are smart and funny and clever and resourceful and who happen to come from a place with a strong regional accent. How a person speaks, in terms of dialect or accent or even their colloquialisms, has no bearing on their effectiveness as a leader, an innovator, and is in no way a barometer of their intelligence.

I will happily accept the premise that Asher is unsophisticated. He is. He's also not perfect -- he has foibles and prejudices, just like you and I do. But he's very smart, he adapts to his environment, and when things get tough he hangs in there. The rest of it's just window dressing, to my mind.

In terms of developing his speech patterns, that certainly took some thinking and revision. I love writing dialogue, so I don't know that it was so much difficult as interestingly challenging. *g* I certainly wanted to show what his regional way of speaking was like, to contrast him with the more 'refined' modes of speech of the royal family and the staff who served them. It also gave me a chance to show how he's able to adapt to his circumstances, but also how he knows to use his accent as a weapon and as a method of maintaining his identity as his life undergoes its radical transformations. His accent is a way of holding onto his identity, and I thought was an important statement about the kind of man he is.

GFTW: The Innocent Mage addresses themes of race, justice, and family. Was there any particular reason you delved into these particular themes?

KM: Well, I suppose because they interest me. Human drama interests me, human interaction and relationships and conflicts interest me. They're very personal, they involve high stakes, high risk. We're all affected by them on a daily basis, so they're the kind of themes that touch us all personally and allow readers to identify with the characters and their journeys. And when you're dealing with the fantastic, as we do in fantasy fiction, I think that's a key point to remember. The more real and grounded you make the characters and their lives, the easier it is to suspend disbelief on the more outlandish elements of the story.

GFTW: The Innocent Mage, while full of drama, lacks much of the action of traditional high fantasy. Why did you choose to avoid the standard model?

KM: Well, I guess as writers we're attracted to telling the kinds of stories we like to read. While I don't dislike action stuff, as such, it's never interested me the way high stakes human drama and interaction interest and engage me. For me, one battle is pretty much like the next, it's all swords and blood, whereas the battleground of human relationships and the human heart contain infinite complexities and variations. Also, I currently lack the requisite physical and tactile experience of battle to, I feel, really do it justice. I'm working on rectifying that, since I would like the option of including the larger scale battle scenes in future works. I'm not certain I consciously chose to avoid the traditional action -- or if I did it wasn't out of disdain for the form -- it's more a case of recognising my strengths and weaknesses and limitations. If I can't do it well I don't want to do it at all -- but when I think I can make a decent fist of it, I'll give it my best shot.

But, you know, having said all that -- I guess I'll always be interested in looking at new ways to approach the traditions of the genre. And I think I can safely say that even when I do get around to including the big action scenes, they'll still be influenced by the intimate human dimension. Without a strong personal component to the action, without human consequences, it becomes too much like a computer game for me to have any emotional connection to the events and the writing of them.

GFTW: You excellently weave humor into your story, a relatively uncommon thing in high fantasy. Why did you choose to have characters act or speak humorously?

KM: Well, thank you! To be honest, it wasn't a conscious choice. I never once thought, oooh, I have to put a funny bit in here. Sometimes the characters open their mouths and say stuff that makes you smile, or maybe laugh. Well, okay, it makes me smile and laugh sometimes -- can't begin to tell you how I relieved I feel that I'm not alone! *g* It all kind of grows out of the characters and their personalities and how they see the world. People who permit a sense of the ridiculous into their worldview are going to have humour in their makeup, I think. And it becomes a natural outgrowth of the way they think and speak and interact. But it all comes down to individual personalities. Some folk just never see the funny. Or they're so serious they appear funny to others, which lends a different kind of humour.

GFTW: Some of your antagonist characters, when you get us inside their heads, we find are not truly evil, just misguided (i.e. Durm). And your hero characters make mistakes or act selfishly. Why did you avoid the standard good vs. evil characterization in your characters?

KM: I think it's important to recognise that, with a few possible exceptions, people are a complicated tangle of positive and negative
traits. So to make any kind of character all good or all bad flies in the face of honesty about what it means to be a human being. For me, the interest and engagement with a character lies within the conflicts, the contradictions, the messiness of wanting to do the right thing and the wrong thing, and the reasons behind which path is chosen and the consequences of those decisions. The choices we make in our lives shape and define us, and examining that journey is, for me, one of the most fun things about reading stories and writing them. This sometimes frustrating dichotomy was brought home to me some years ago. I worked for a man who was in many ways extremely distasteful. But while he was dying of cancer he thought to arrange tickets for me to a classical music concert because he knew I love classical music and thought I'd enjoy it. And that was an interesting experience, because while I wanted to go on feeling dislike for him, that one act of kindness forced me to recognise that nobody's all bad, all horrible. Even the worst people are capable of kindness, generosity, love. It was a good lesson to learn.

GFTW: What has been the most surprising response you have received from your readers?

KM: There's been nothing surprising, as such, though much has been gratifying. I love it when people say that while they don't usually read fantasy, they read and enjoyed my books. I feel like I've made a new convert to the cause! It's wonderful! And I love it when people who generally focus on the action-heavy kinds of fantasy find they can also enjoy the more internal, human drama kind of storytelling. I think both kinds of story are important, they both add enormous depth and value to the fantasy field, and it's fun getting people to read outside the box.

I think that's the bookseller coming out in me!

GFTW: Are you working on any new projects? What can you tell us about them?

KM: I am indeed. I have my first fantasy trilogy on the burner at the moment, Godspeaker. Book 1 is out in Australia now, book 2 is out in December, and book 3 will be out here next June. The trilogy will be published next year, 2008, in the US and UK, again by Orbit. It's got bigger scope, a more complex world. It's proving an enormous challenge to write. I think it's safe to say that there's no Disney whatsoever in book 1. *g* The first chapter is available as a taste test on my website, www.karenmiller.net. The Australian title is Empress of Mijak. In the US/UK it'll be called Empress. A sample of chapter 2 will be going up shortly, and will show a different part of the world with a different cast of characters.

I'm also finishing a new Stargate SG-1 novel, before leaping into writing book 3 of Godspeaker. I've got a new project being finalised, but I can't talk about it yet, plus next year a new series coming out in Australia, under a pen name. Still fantasy, but standalone novels with continuing characters, and with a much stronger vein of humour. Not full out comic fantasy, but definitely with comic tones. That series hasn't found an overseas home yet, but I'm working on it.

In other words, I'm pretty busy for the next little while ... *g*

GFTW: Anything you'd like to say to folks thinking about reading The Innocent Mage?

KM: Well, really, all I can say is please give it a try because I love it and with luck you'll love it too! And then I'd add, to those who do take the plunge, thank you very much! Hope I didn't disappoint.

Thanks a bunch, John.

You are welcome.

Posted by John at 08:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews | Literature and Language
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Susanna Clarke Podcast

If you like Susanna Clarke like I do, and regret she has so little published, you might satiate your hunger for more by listening to this podcast in which "Susanna Clarke speaks about her new book, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, during an Observer Blackwells talk at the Bloomsbury theatre. (51min 9s)."

Also, read about Aidan's afternoon with Steven Erikson, its very worth your time.

Posted by John at 08:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Gaiman's an Otter

In college, I was called Otter (its a derivation of my last name) so it is with great pride that I find that Neil Gaiman thinks he's an otter too.

"Writers are otters," states Neil Gaiman, firmly...Otters are not trainable," he explains. "Dogs are trainable - if you want them to sit you train them and give them rewards and they sit each time. But otters... if they do something cool and you give them a fish, the next time they'll do something even cooler. Or they'll try to do something completely different. I think that most writers - or at least a lot of us - are otters."

Posted by John at 02:27 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Notes: A Sermon by Honorable Governor Mike Huckabee

I went to a sermon delivered by Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor seeking the Republication nomination for U.S. President in 2008. He was pleasant, a good speaker, and had some excellent points. My posting of these notes in no way means that I support Huckabee. I still need to think on it. I just thought others might find this useful. Phrases in quotes are direct or as close as I could hear.

A Sermon by Honorable Governor Mike Huckabee
September 22, 2007
First Redeemer Church, Cumming, GA

View the webcast or purchase a video/CD at http://www.thereshope.org/

- Huckabee received four standing ovations at the National Education Association
- Born and raised in Hope, Arkansas
- Was a pastor for twelve years
- Was once asked if he was one of those “narrow minded Baptists” who only believed Baptists were going to heaven. He replied, no ma’am I’m even more narrow minded than that, I don’t even think all the Baptists are going to heaven!”
- Went to Southwestern Seminary in Ft. Worth, Texas
- Is an ordained Southern Baptist Convention minister

Theme Verse: Proverbs 22:28 - “Do not move the ancient landmark that your fathers have set.”
- Why? Because when we move it we get lost.
- America is lost and dislocated because “We have moved the landmarks of our liberty”.
- Quote from Edward Gibbon’s Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Sound familiar?

1. The rapid increase of divorce; the undermining of dignity and sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes and the spending of public money for free bread and circuses for the populace.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more exciting and more brutal.
4. The building of gigantic armaments when the real enemy was within: the decadence of the people.
5. The decay of religion—faith fading into mere form—losing touch with life and becoming impotent to guide the people.

The Basic Nature of Man
- we are all sinners
- for secularists, the definition of sin is self-centeredness
- “we are a nation filled with sin”
- Huckabee’s father was a patriot, “he laid on the stripes and I saw stars.”
- Our society was better off when we respected authority and didn’t act like victims
- Story of his son’s attempt to bake a cake but didn’t understand the meaning of dash so the son put in a cup of salt instead of the dash, creating an awful tasting cake.
- It was the lack of knowing the definition of dash that led to the problem. We must be sure and call a thing a thing.
- Some people say that if we are sincere God will honor it, no matter what it is we do.
- “Being sincere is a good thing, but being right is even better.”
- If people make up their own definitions of right and wrong we will not get a kumbaya campfire, but something else.
- “When people redefine right and wrong to match their behavior, rather than match their behavior to right and wrong”, there will be more sin in culture, not less.
- “A political party is nothing more than a vehicle, it is not a destination.”

Huckabee got into politics because he is pro-life.
- All people have individual value.
- “The real discussion is not values, it is the value of a person.” Which is why he can’t compromise on being pro-life.
- Parents are sacrificing their own children for their comfort, rather than, as in the past, sacrificing their own comfort for their child.
- Carl Zimmerman book (?not sure spelling or title)

Christians in Politics
- Some Christians say they don’t want to be involved.
- Not being involved is like owning a bass fishing boat that is perfect but that never gets put in the water. (The sermon is worth watching just for the build-up as he tells this allegory.)
- “I’m not to be of the world, but I am to be in the world.”
- “Have you moved the landmarks?” “ Are you in the water” – making waves
Thanks

Posted by John at 01:45 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Interviews | Personal Journal | Politics | Religion
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Shadowscribe: An Interview with Paul S. Kemp

As promised, here is my interview with New York Times Bestselling author Paul S. Kemp. He was a really nice guy (funny too) and I hope that if you enjoy the interview, you will go out and buy Paul's well-wrought books, if you haven't done so already.

Grasping for the Wind: Let's start of with a personal question. What does that S. stand for in your name? And does it have any special significance? Why include it on the covers of your books?

Paul S. Kemp: It stands for shizzle, as in fo’ shizzle, which is my middle name. I understand my parents toyed with Paul F. Kemp, with the F standing for Flava Flav but they instead went with fo’ shizzle. Good thing for Flav and Public Enemy, really.

It is also possible that it actually stands for “Svante,” which was my grandfather’s middle name. It’s Finnish in origin, as am I and the whole Kemp line (Sisu, bitches! :-)). I use it because there are at least two other authors out there named Paul Kemp – one writes naval history; one writes horror – and I wanted to set myself apart from them in online searches, library database searches, etc.

GFTW: You've mentioned before on your blog that you are a lawyer as well as a writer, and the father of two young boys. How do you manage to juggle the demands of a full-time job, raising a family, and meeting writing deadlines?

PSK: You know, life is complicated for all of us. But we all make time for the things we love and the things we must do. I must work as a lawyer, and I love my family and writing. So I just make time for all three, the same way all of us juggle our various priorities.

As a practical matter, I tend to write on my lunch hour, weekends, evenings, vacations. I’m fortunate in that my work as a lawyer rarely bleeds into my weekends or evenings (that was not the case with some other legal jobs I’ve held). And my wife is both patient and supportive of my writing. All in all, things seems to be working out pretty well.

GFTW: Several months ago, the blogosphere was lit up by your defense of shared world fiction. You gave an impassioned defense of shared world fiction. Why did you choose to write your novels in the Forgotten Realms setting, rather than Dragonlance, Magic, Warhammer, or any of the other shared worlds out there?

PSK: That’s an easy one – I like the Realms. I enjoy its history, its personalities, its idiosyncrasies, its breadth. I’ve always found the Realms to be a setting in which I can tell exactly the story I want to tell. It’s a good fit for me.

There are a lot of good stories being written in the Realms and those who knock it because it’s tie-in have probably read few, if any, of them. In an effort to break through the conventional wisdom of “tie-in/shared world books suck,” I’ve been making a concerted effort to get my novels reviewed by sites that ordinarily do not do a lot of reviews of shared world/tie-in fiction (e.g., Fantasybookspot.com, Graeme’s Fantasy Review, Mania.com, etc.). Those sites have been ballsy enough to ignore the conventional wisdom and so far, so good.

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?

PSK: I have not bumped up against much in the way of constraints, by and large. I’ve always been free to tell the story I wanted to tell. There are some constraints imposed by shared world writing – the rules of magic are what they are, and I could not kill of this monarch or that, wipe out a city, or anything of that nature. But I’ve found them pretty loose boundaries.

As for charting new territory, that happens in literally every novel (and is true for all writers in FR). The Realms is detailed, but it’s not so detailed that a writer cannot develop his or her own take on this or that – from something as small as the religious practices of the holy knights of a particular god, to a scheme whereby servants of one god steal the entire temple of a rival god and transport it across the land (that was fun to write).

GFTW: Where you surprised when Erevis Cale became so popular after the publication of Shadow's Witness? Had you planned to continue writing about Erevis, or did Wizards of the Coast ask you to continue to write about this character?

PSK: I was and still am surprised. I really have the best fans. Whatever popularity Cale has is and was driven by readers recommending my work to others. I consider that the best compliment I could ever receive and am grateful for the enthusiasm. Word of mouth is priceless to a writer. Blogs and online communities are just an amplified form of the same thing and I really like the blogs/sites (like this one) that have a “reader to reader” feel to them. It’s a cool time to be a writer and reader of speculative fiction.

And yes, I had planned to write more of Cale, so I laid a lot of the seeds of future stories in Shadow’s Witness. When my editor asked me to do a Cale Trilogy, I was obviously delighted. Things have snowballed since then.

GFTW: Erevis Cale is a true anti-hero, using any and all methods to achieve his goal, while maintaining his own moral compass. Why did you choose to write an anti-hero, when much of the fantasy genre focuses on the true hero whose moral compass and methods always fall on the side of right or truth?

PSK: I’ve always been fascinated with the anti-hero archetype (Elric is my favorite literary embodiment). The anti-hero embodies the struggles we all face everyday but he does so in a heightened context. He also serves as the perfect vessel with which to toy around with the nature of good and evil. The anti-hero flirts constantly with redemption on the one hand, and transgression on the other. It creates a lot of drama and is a lot of fun to write.

GFTW: You have killed off major characters in your writing. Was it a difficult decision for you to do so?

PSK: Not really. I make all choices based on what I think will serve the story best. If that means a major character needs to die, he or she dies. I just try to make it memorable. :-)

GFTW: Why do you write? Is their some aim or big idea that you want your readers to draw from the adventures of Erevis Cale?

PSK: I write because I enjoy it. It’s fun. And I want readers who read my work to have fun. While I think my word does address some larger, more philosophical themes here and there, I am not interested in beating the readers over the head with it. I’m interested in the readers getting emotionally invested in the characters, the story, then enjoying the ride. I suppose a reader could consider the larger themes on a re-read, but I want that first experience to consist of rapid page turning and an accelerated heartbeat. :-)

GFTW: Your new novel, Shadowstorm, continues the story begun in Shadowbred, wherein Erevis Cale returns to a Sembia and Selgaunt teetering on the edge of civil war. It has been said that this series will be a Realms shattering event. What effect did this have on your story and how you approached writing it, as opposed to your previous books?

PSK: Good question. Prior to The Twilight War (of which Shadowbred and Shadowstorm are books one and two, respectively), I would have characterized my Erevis Cale stories as almost entirely character-driven, meaning the scope was small, not epic. But The Twilight War features events more akin to epic fantasy than pure sword and sorcery. The difficulty with those kinds of stories is that the events can sometimes outrun/overshadow the characters. I very much wanted to avoid that in The Twilight War, wanted readers talking about my characters, not merely the big things that happen. So I tried to marry small, personal, sharp motivations for my protagonists and antagonists to the larger elements of a sweeping plot. Readers will have to tell me if it succeeds.

GFTW: Was it difficult to take over and write about characters not of your own devising, as in Resurrection, or the character of Tamlin from the Sembia series, who plays a large role in The Twilight War Trilogy?

PSK: Resurrection was difficult, because I was inheriting characters who’d been developed previously by not one author, but five, each with their own slightly different take. With the exception of Halisstra, none of them ever really felt mine, so that made it that much more difficult to get into their heads. I was happy with the end result, though (and particularly with Halisstra, though she seems to engender quite a split of feeling among the fans). Tamlin and the other Uskevren are not quite as difficult because they aren’t the product of so many different hands. Plus, I was involved in the Sembia project right out of the gate. Not so with War of the Spider Queen and Resurrection.

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

PSK: Yes. I poke away as time allows at a dark fantasy novel set in a world of my own creation. I’ve also published a few non-shared world short stories (most recently in the anthology Sails and Sorcery from Fantasist Enterprises) and I’ve been in discussions with an editor of a very, very big shared world line. I cannot say much more about it now but I hope it comes to pass. If it does, I’ll blare it across the internet. :-)

GFTW: Do you have any plans to write about characters other than Erevis Cale and his friends in the Forgotten Realms setting?

PSK: The short answer is yes, but the long answer is a bit more complicated. I’ve been torn about it for a while, now, to be candid. There’s a good deal of benefit for both fans and me in connecting new stories to old, in sticking with old friends. But developing new characters is fun and fresh and full of life (kinda like a Mentos :-)).

So I’ve decided recently that perhaps the best approach for me is not to revisit with the same characters again and again, but to connect the story of new characters to the story of the old characters. You’ll see some of that starting to blossom by the end of The Twilight War and I hope to carry it on in my next trilogy in the Realms.

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

PSK: Sure. Consider giving the Realms a try. It’s a line fat with quality sword and sorcery fiction. If you want to try a sample for free, come over to my website. I’ve got the first five chapters of Twilight Falling, book one of The Erevis Cale Trilogy, available for free as pdf downloads (and I also hope to offer the first five chapters of Shadowbred, book one of The Twilight War, soon). Take them for a test drive. Here’s the link:

http://home.earthlink.net/~paulskemp/paulskempshomepage/id21.html

You can also drop by my blog, where a whole community of interesting people discuss a variety of matters, both personal and professional. Here’s the link for that:

http://paulskemp.livejournal.com/

Hope to see you all there. Thanks again, John.

Also by Paul S. Kemp:

The Erevis Cale Trilogy

Contains Short Stories by Paul S. Kemp

Posted by John at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Forgotten Realms | Interviews | Literature and Language
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Stay Tuned....

...for an interview with Forgotten Realms and New York Times Bestselling Author Paul S. Kemp. He has graciously offered to do an interview. I've sent the questions and am just waiting for his responses. As soon as I have them, it will be posted.

Posted by John at 12:58 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Forgotten Realms | Interviews
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Notes from a Lecture by Terry Brooks

The following is my notes from a lecture given by Terry Brooks on September 1, 2007 at the Decatur Book Festival. He was hilarious, and a very friendly guy. He was kind and patient with everyone, and offered to stay as long as needed to sign books. I thought that was very gracious. Words or Phrases in quotation marks in these notes are direct quotes taken word for word from the lecture. The lecture itself was divided into four sections with a follow-up question and answer session.

Terry Brooks: A Retrospective Lecture
Decatur Book Festival 2007

- all writers talk about themselves
- 30 years in publishing, 27 books
- 1st book published in 1977
- A writer changes dramatically from decade to decade

How has Terry Brooks changed as a writer? In 4 ways:

1. How has Terry Brooks' work habits changed?
- in his early career, he had another job but he tried to write everyday (usually at night), now he more often works mornings, since his body wakes him up early and by 3PM he can’t think straight.
- He used to be very focused on outlining and then sticking to the outline, in the last five years this has changed into changing outlining but taking the outline apart midway through writing the book, and then re-outlining. This is because he is comfortable with the outlining process and so can monkey with it more.
- He finds it fun to write himself into a corner and try to get out of it.
- He is no longer dogmatic about writing, because he has less need to write for money, now only needs to write for pleasure and joy

2. What is Terry Brooks interested in writing about now?
- Learned from Lester Del Rey that his obligation is to tell a good story
- All of the important fantasy that has been written has an undertone of looking at the human condition. (i.e. Shea Ohmsford doing something he didn’t want to do; Will explores coming of age; Genesis of Shannara deals with family issues, the environment, and the collapse of civilization.)
- Terry Brooks has moved outward from personal issues in the initial novels to global issues in the later novels.

3. Where does Terry Brooks get the Inspiration for his stories?
- reading other people’s books (particularly non-fiction and non-genre books, though not often general fiction)
- current events
o Voyage of the Jerle Shannara – explores issues of redemption and transgression - triggered by a person in the news who found religion immediately after getting caught committing a crime or immorality but who had no time between getting caught and finding religion for true introspection.
o Magic Kingdom for Sale: Sold! Series – explores the idea that the grass is greener on the other side – written when deciding whether to give up legal career and pursue full-time writing.
o Armageddon’s Children – explores idea of civilization in decline, what will the street kids take with them and how will they rebuild after the collapse? – triggered by one too many people cutting him off in traffic – the idea that the loss of manners is the beginning of the collapse of civilization.

4. Why is Terry Brooks still writing?
- He doesn’t have to.
- New authors start out trying to write and get published, old authors should have no reason to write?
- Brooks can’t quit, because then what would he do?
- “Writing is an addiction you are born with.”
- “If I’m not writing, I’m not a complete person.”
- Even if Brooks were forced to quit, he would still write.
- Operates under the theory that “I’ve got one more book, I haven’t written my best book yet.”
- Right now is his best book, but this will change when he finishes this one and goes on to the next.
- “You keep thinking you can find your way to something better.”
- Made joke about devil and God, with meaning that finding a lawyer is difficult, and so is finding that perfect book.

5. Questions
- Does Brooks have a passion for mentoring young writers?
o Not doing much anymore due to lack of energy (is in his 70’s)
o Sees a focus on family and writing as his first obligation, but does participate in some formal mentoring.
- Why choose to write fantasy, and what would Terry Brooks say to critics of fantasy?
o “What you write chooses you.”
o Everything he wants to write lends itself to the fantasy genre.
o Critics just don’t get it, many critics haven’t read it, and those that have read one book and then write it off entirely.
o Critics need to read authors in the field, beyond those who are dead.
- Which current writers do you read?
o Most important in fantasy genre is Philip Pullman.
o Brooks tends to read in other fields, nonfiction, ancient civilizations, adventure, some contemporary fiction on the recommendation of Mrs. Brooks (who was in attendance).
- What is the process for getting Terry Brooks’ books into audio? (i.e. why are series incomplete and haphazardly made?)
o Audio is fairly new technology in the market, and of course the last area reached is fantasy, as a result publications are very hit or miss.
o Slow process
- What is happening with the movie adaptations?
o Magic Kingdom was optioned two years ago, but little has been done with it.
o Shannara was optioned by Warner Brothers, they are working on getting a certain director to sign on, if they do it will be fast tracked for production.
- Why does Terry Brooks have to go out on the road?
o Joke – “Basically, because my family sends me away.”
o “I do it because I like it.”
o It is energizing to have people tell you they liked your book.
- Is Genesis of Shannara going to have more books?
o Yes, Brooks needs to cover the space between the 80 years of the Word and Void books and the 1000 years in the future of the Shannara books.
o It will come in a series of ones and two’s maybe a set of three.
o The spotlight will be on important periods of time, not the full time between Word and Void and Shannara.
o Next book will be a Magic Kingdom book.
- Thoughts on Character Development?
o If he can’t relate to a character, it’s time to let go.
o Characters he connects with the most are those with personal issues.
- Who are Terry Brooks top picks in fantasy publishing?
o Del Rey
o TOR
o HarperCollins
o Ace
o Some of the new little imprints
o “The number one skill in publishing is luck.”
o There are many opportunities to break in, not just one.

At the book signing, when my turn came, he shook my hand (something no other author I've met has done) and signed my 6 books. We discussed the new graphic novel Dark Wraith of Shannara. He told me that the art would be black and white (except for the cover) which he thought he wouldn’t like, but he found that it actually enhanced the dark feel of the story he had written for it. Dark Wraith is set to be released in January of 2008. See a piece concept art below.

Posted by John at 01:56 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews | Literature and Language | Personal Journal
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Del Rey Interview with Terry Brooks

Del Rey has posted an interview with Terry Brooks about his new book, The Elves of Cintra. Or watch the interview on the previous book in the series, Armegeddon's Children.

Best Question:

Q: Genesis of Shannara joins the Shannara universe to that of your Knight of the Word series and shows how the world of the Shannara books came to be, born out of the ruins of our world, in a near future where technology has run amuck to produce the cataclysmic social and environmental conditions that allow magic to return to prominence. It seems there is a cyclical process at work in your fictional universe, where magic gives way to science, which then gives way to magic again. Is this vision based on the naturally recurring cycles of our world and the ways in which technology has put the environment at risk?

TB: It is. In part, at least. Everything we know comes and goes in cycles. From the mundane to the extraordinary, this is the nature of our world and of the human condition. But my examination of science as a force for good and evil is one grounded in the present, where it is clear that our choices in the uses of science may well affect the way the world turns out. Certainly concern for the environment is high on my list of issues. But science pervades our lives in so many ways, and we are often incautious with its uses and dismissive of its affects. Who we are and how we live in the present is directly connected to the past, and you have to take a close look at the lessons we once thought we would never forget, but somehow have.

Posted by John at 08:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Paul S. Kemp interview at Mania Books

Mania Books has an excellent interview with Paul S. Kemp. I'm eagerly anticipating my copy of Shadowstorm coming in the mail. What will Erevis Cale do next, I wonder?

Posted by John at 08:33 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Forgotten Realms | Interviews
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Ed Greenwood on Swords of Dragonfire

Posted by John at 10:42 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Forgotten Realms | Interviews
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An Interview with George Bryan Polivka

As part of this month's CSFF blog tour, I was able to interview (via email) George Bryan Polivka, author of The Legend of the Firefish, first book in the swashbuckling Trophy Chase Trilogy. It is an unusual novel, as it is billed as a fantasy, but is really an alternate 18th century novel. Best comparisons might be Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke or the Temeraire series by Naomi Novik, although those are more alternate histories and do not involve alternate worlds as this book does. It also draws comparison to Pirates of the Caribbean, and James Ward's Midshipwizard Halcyon Blithe. But more on that in my review tomorrow. Enjoy the interview, and come back tomorrow to read my review of Legend of the Firefish.

GFTW: Why did you choose to write a fantasy?

GBP: I have always been enamored of the Lord of the Rings. In fact, it played a crucial role in my conversion when I was fifteen. It showed me the stark difference between light and darkness, and convinced me I wanted to be on a path toward the light.

GFTW: Why should Christians read fantasies?

GBP: God gave us imagination in order to apprehend Him. Good fantasy (and by that I mean fantasy in which good battles evil, and prevails through honorable means) stretches that capacity. Mine puts God in the center for that reason. I want people to walk away saying, "I understand God better. And I like Him even more."

GFTW: What themes in fantasy do you think parallel those of the Bible?

GBP: The Christian story, as C.S.Lewis pointed out, is Myth with a capital M. It is the source and culmination of all great themes of literature. The Golden Age, the Fall from Grace, the Desperate Quest, the Great Self-Sacrifice, the Victory of the Underdog, the Redemption of the Lost, the New Beginning... it's all there. It comes from there and finds its meaning there. Any literature that does not delve into these infinite, universal themes will not resonate with humans on this planet.

GFTW: What are your favorite fantasy books/series and/or authors?

GBP: Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Madeleine L'Engle. I have read a lot, but no other fantasy authors have reached me quite like they have.

GFTW: What writer, of any genre, has most influenced you?

GBP: I have had a lot of influences from a lot of genres. The biggest one lately is David McCullough, the history guy. I love his books... can't get enough. All true, all history, and so well told. He gets into the heads of these historical people. I want my fiction to read with the authority of his history. But my biggest influence has to be Tolkien. I've read the trilogy four times, the first three times before I was 21. It helped forge the eternal loyalties of my heart.

GFTW: What is your explanation for the growing fascination of our culture with fantasy?

GBP: Too much ugly reality, in too large a dose. "Escape" is one aspect, but not the whole story. I think people are looking for ways to overcome or rise above evil.

GFTW: Do you see your writing as an evangelistic tool? Why?

GBP: I am not an evangelist, and I do not write to convert people. In fact, I write for a Christian audience. What I mean by that is NOT that I target my books so other Christians will like them. Rather, I write with an underlying message that God has given me for His people... the truth about the nature of power, how evil is to be opposed on earth. And it's not the way the church is generally doing it today. If non-Christians like it and take something away, for me that's a bonus. But it's not my mission. I'm equipping the saints.

GFTW: In writing a fantasy, did you fear writing something that might contradict your own beliefs or lead others to believe something contrary to what you know is true?

GBP: Never.

GFTW: How should Christians react to the inclusion of magic in many fantasies?

GBP: I think it's a delicate balancing act. I actually don't find Harry Potter to be offensive in this regard, because I think Rowling is careful about the uses of magic. Though I know many do have a problem with her. But my kids grew up with Harry, and don't seem to have any illusions that people in the real world who want to become witches and wizards are anything but idiots. My stories do not have magic. They have Firefish, sea monsters that are quite the equivalent of dragons, but they must be dealt with using normal human means. (Unless you consider the grace of God not normal.)

GFTW: You set your story in an 18th century world with large sailing ships and a vast ocean. Why did you choose this setting?

GBP: Nothing captures the longing of the soul, for me, like the sea. And nothing quite captures the sea like tall ships.

GFTW: You chose to quote Scripture directly, rather than allegorically (as in Narnia or Middle Earth). As a reader, I felt this stopped the flow of the narrative a bit abruptly. Did you have a reason for quoting Scripture directly, rather than allegorically representing the Christian life?

GBP: As much as I loved Tolkien, I always felt it unfair that the bad guys had precisely the same motivations as bad guys in the real world, but the good guys couldn't have the same motivations as many, many good guys in history... and that is their faith in God. Why should evil be literal but good allegorical? Who made that rule? Anyway, I broke it. I think it surprises those who are expecting a particular type of fantasy, but not those who are looking for a good read. Certainly, characters in 18th Century settings quoted scripture all the time.

GFTW: Packer Throme was kicked out of seminary, and chose a new vocation of swordsman in order to reach his goals. Why did you choose to have you main character be a person who failed at a spiritual vocation but that finds success in a secular one?

GBP: Because that hits pretty close to home for me, and for a lot of my friends who went to Bible College with me. Not everyone is called into full time Christian work. And when you think you are, and then you don't end up there.. it leaves deep and lasting scars. But there is a reason for it. Packer doesn't find it until the last chapters of Book Three, but he does... eventually.

GFTW: What is distinctive about the Trophy Chase trilogy from other fantasies out there, other than its Christian content?

GBP: I think the lack of magic is distinctive. But also the multiple viewpoints, the "omniscient" point of view. I get into a lot of characters heads, including the Firefish. People have told me the Firefish is their favorite character. The beasts have a motive for everything. Usually it's incorrect reasoning. But that doesn't make it less frightening... like the madman with wild theories that lead him to murder. You get to see this world from lots of different angles.

GFTW: You have been a writer for a long time (since 1981, I believe), tell us a little about your journey.

GBP: I couldn't quit writing and I couldn't get published. That's pretty much the long and short of it. But it was always about His timing. And this is the right time... I can see it in a thousand ways.

GFTW: You use exceptional detail to describe your story, especially the life at sea. Some readers might find that a bit tedious. Did you have a particular reason for describing certain scenes in more detail (even when describing torture*)?

GBP: People mention the torture thing a lot. Actually, I cut a lot of it out. It's important to get to the root of who Packer is, very early, to understand that there is no deception in him and that he is ultimately much weaker than Talon. And in that scene, we get to the root of Talon as well. It's painful, yes, but it sets the whole rest of the story in motion... those two will meet again. As regards detail, I write what I like. What I see. I understand if some people want to "cut to the Chase," (excuse the pun), but it's a book... readers are allowed. A lot of readers have told me they love all that tall ship sea stuff.

*GFTW Caveat: I mentioned the torture scene because people mention it in interviews, etc. but I personally did not find it distasteful as some Christians seem to, only a good example of Polivka's use of description. See here.

GFTW: You try to convey the emotions of the characters in the story, particularly Packer Throme and Panna Seline, but you even get inside the Firefish's head. Why spend so much time on the psyches of these characters, even to the point of analyzing their emotions through the omnipresent narrator in some detail?

GBP: I find it fun to write, and most people find it fun to read. And again, there is some underlying theme here. You can watch someone do something heroic, and think, "Oh, he just did it." But "just do it" is a Nike ad, not a biblical directive. What happened in that hero's mind and heart might be very, very different... doubts, fears, complete despair leading to the power of God. A whole lot can flash through a mind in a few seconds of critical decision-making. You don't always understand how people think by watching externally. You have to get in there with them.

Sometimes I think the passion the publishing industry seems to have for objective 3rd person is just an enormous, well-laid trap... a way to convince the world that everyone's the same and everyone's on their own, and there is no way of thinking that can lead to a better outcome. Just do it. Existentialism at it's worst.

GFTW: Finally, any parting thoughts to potential readers?

GBP: This trilogy is a bit of a throwback... it's not the "modern" novel in many regards. It doesn't fit neatly into categories. And that's purposeful. The payoff is a different way of thinking. I had one reader tell me, "I found myself thinking like Packer Throme." That's very satisfying.

Thanks for the opportunity to talk about it a little bit.

George Bryan Polivka's second book in the Trophy Chase Trilogy, The Hand That Bears the Sword is also available. The third book in the series is slated for release in January of 2008. You can keep up with Polivka at his blog, or website.

Check out the other participants in this month's CSFF Blog Tour.

Trish Anderson; Brandon Barr; Wayne Thomas Batson; Jim Black; Justin Boyer; Grace Bridges; Amy Browning; Jackie Castle; Valerie Comer; Karri Compton; Frank Creed; Lisa Cromwell; CSFF Blog Tour; Gene Curtis; D. G. D. Davidson; Merrie Destefano; Jeff Draper; April Erwin; Linda Gilmore; Beth Goddard; Marcus Goodyear; Russell Griffith; Jill Hart; Katie Hart; Sherrie Hibbs; Christopher Hopper; Jason Joyner; Kait; Karen; Dawn King; Tina Kulesa; Lost Genre Guild; Terri Main; Rachel Marks; Karen McSpadden; Rebecca LuElla Miller; Eve Nielsen; John W. Otte; John Ottinger; Robin Parrish Lyn Perry; Deena Peterson; Rachelle; Cheryl Russel; Hanna Sandvig; Chawna Schroeder; Mirtika Schultz; James Somers; Steve Trower Speculative Faith; Jason Waguespac; Daniel I. Weaver

Posted by John at 08:22 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Christian SF&F | Fantasy | Interviews | Literature and Language
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Triad Interview

Interesting panel interview with Christopher Paolini, Tamora Pierce, and Philip Pullman. I thought that with the new movie coming out for Pullman, it might be worth your while to read.

Posted by John at 02:07 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Interview with George R.R. Martin

Weird Tales has posted their interview with George R.R. Martin, in which he concludes that science fiction and fantasy are not all that different. The post is dated Thursday May 24, 2007, something you will need to know since the site doesn't have separate urls for each article.

"I think that for science fiction, fantasy, and even horror to some extent, the differences are skin-deep. I know there are elements in the field, particularly in science fiction, who feel that the differences are very profound, but I do not agree with that analysis. I think for me it is a matter of the furnishings. An elf or an alien may in some ways fulfill the same function, as a literary trope. It’s almost a matter of flavor. The ice cream can be chocolate or it can be strawberry, but it’s still ice cream. The real differences, to my mind, is between romantic fiction, which all these genres are a part of, and mimetic fiction, or naturalistic fiction."

My wife will love this. She likes to rib me by saying that they are the same, while I insist they fundamentally are not. Now here is one of my favorite authors telling me different. This could be trouble.

Posted by John at 08:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Interviews
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Byers Interview

FantasyBookSpot has a good interview with Richard Lee Byers, author of Forgotten Realms Series' The Year of Rogue Dragons and The Haunted Lands.

His comment about shared world fiction I thought was spot on.

"And finally, there are people who think that shared-world fiction is inherently a lesser beast than non-franchise work. Which I've always found curious, because I've noticed that if you do something like retell the story of King Arthur or the Trojan War and do it with reasonable craft, the same people will mostly think that's commendable. But if you do a story set in the Forgotten Realms, where, although you didn't make up the setting, you at least made up the plot and characters, they consider it an inferior creation. I don't follow the logic. As you can probably guess, I think that stories are good or bad depending on how good a job the author did, not on whether they're shared-world pieces or not."

Posted by John at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Posted to Fantasy | Forgotten Realms | Interviews
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