Tom says:
So many good answers! I love Mexican thumb wrestler El Thumbo and ‘buying different gloves’ was absolutely perfect. However, it’s impossible to ignore the effort of Ray. More comments should involve poetry.
So, Ray, a signed copy of The Deep will be swimming your way!
Thanks for reading, everyone. And thanks for having me, Rowena.
Ray, if you email I’ll pass your details along to Tom.
rowena(at)corydaniells.(dot)com
I have been featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) but this has morphed into interesting people in the speculative fiction world. Today I’ve invited the talented James Maxey to drop by. (Further disclaimer, James and I are both published by Solaris).
Look out for the give-away at the end of the post.
Q: Your series is called Dragon Age and the books are called Bitterwood, Dragonseed and Dragonforce. Your new series is called Dragon Apocalypse and the first book is GreatShadow– who is a ‘primal dragon of fire, an elemental evil whose malign intelligence spies upon mankind through every candle flame, waiting to devour any careless victim he can claim’. Can we take it from this that you really like dragons?
The first thing you should know is that dragons are constantly stalking me in my bedroom. (See the photos of the shadow dragons I’ve attached. I swear these are not photoshopped.) Since they have yet to devour me, I assume they’re instead whispering subliminal messages in my ears filling me with urges to write about them.
As an author, I’m fascinated with dragons for their mythic impact. I think humans are hardwired to be on the lookout for dragons. If you think about it, we evolved from small monkey-like creatures who had strong evolutionary pressure to watch out for big snakes, big cats, and big birds. Blend these animals together, and you get a dragon. Dragons provide a path into the deep and primal instincts of readers. The small mammals inside us feel compelled to keep their eyes fixed on these ultra-predators.
Q: In an interview on Shimmer you said: ‘My books feature dragons as the oppressive rulers of humanity, and Burke is a rebel who hates dragons. Anza is his only child, and, while he might have wanted a son, he’s decided to turn his daughter into a dragon-killing machine. After I decided that Anza had been trained since she could walk to be a fighter, I wrote a battle scene where she kills someone in complete silence. It was then that the character revealed to me that she never talked; she’d been mute since birth. I had to go back and rewrite all the scenes where she spoke, which was a pain, but completely worth the effort. With a lot of my best characters, I don’t so much design them as discover them.’ From this I take it you are not a plotter so much as a pantser? (Pantsers write by the seat of their pants. ie. they let the story take them where it and the characters want to go).
I normally go into a book with some sort of broad outline, but outlining only helps me think about the big plot points and the most obvious character motivations. So, in Greatshadow, when I’m thinking on the outline level, Infidel’s motivation for wanting to slay the dragon Greatshadow is so that she can steal his treasure and have enough wealth to retire from her life as a mercenary and live the rest of her days in peace. That sort of straight-forward, big picture motivation is all I need to start writing. But, if I only wrote down the big picture stuff, I’d have a book about 20 pages long. So, I’ve got to fill in each scene with detail and dialogue, and the more the characters talk, the more they evolve, and I’m able to start drilling down deeper and deeper into what really, really motivates them. To the degree that I’m a pantser, it’s because I’m willing to toss out my outlined plot points and let the characters go where they want to go as my knowledge of them increases. Sometimes I wind up back exactly where the plot required them to be (for instance, Infidel still has a climatic scene where it all comes down to her facing off against the dragon). But, other times, my plot does a 180 turn as the character rejects my master plans and tells me what they really want to do, and I wing it and charge blindly into terra incognita.
Q: Do you think that writers are in a unique position to explore and process the major experiences of their life through their writing?
Hmm. I don’t know about unique. Certainly an actor or musician or artist would have similar opportunities to channel their emotion into their chosen careers. But, an accountant or a mall security guard… maybe not so much.
I process a lot of pain through my writing. Greatshadow is dedicated to my best friend Greg Hungerford, who passed away two years ago. The novel is narrated by a ghost named Stagger, who is sort of a wastrel poet intellectual who looks back on his too-short life with a mix of fondness, cynicism, and black humor. Anyone who knew Greg will probably recognize a bit of him in Stagger. But, my writing isn’t informed only by loss. Greatshadow is also a love story; Stagger is secretly in love with his best friend, a butt-kicking female mercenary named Infidel. They spend almost all their time together, but Stagger is so addicted to her friendship he’s terrified of telling her of his romantic feelings, worried he’ll drive her away. As I was writing this, I happened to have a female friend who I spent a great deal of time with. Her name was Cheryl, and we liked to get together and go for hikes, but early on we’d decided that we weren’t dating and were just friends. This opened up a whole new level of conversation between us, as I wasn’t trying to impress her, so I was a bit less guarded. The more time I spent with her, the more I realized she was perfect for me, only now I was stuck. I enjoyed spending time with her so much that I was terrified that if I told her I loved her, she’d skedaddle. So, we were “just friends” for about three years. As I was writing Greatshadow with its “friends in love” plot, I kept thinking, “What if Cheryl reads this and thinks it’s about her?” Which eventually forced me to ask, “Is this about her?” Suddenly the book sounded very much like a secret message to tell myself that I really needed to man up and tell her how I felt. I did , learned she felt the same way, and we were married on 11-11-11.
Q: On a completely different note your book Nobody Gets the Girl is a superhero story. This looks like a heap of fun. Were you the sort of little boy who crept away to read comic books in a cubbyhouse?
What do you mean, little boy? I still sneak away to read comic books. I’m a hard core superhero junkie. I’ve followed up Nobody with a novel from the villain’s perspective called Burn Baby Burn. And, the not so secret secret about Greatshadow is that it’s a superhero novel as well. All the main characters have superpowers. Infidel is super strong and invulnerable, Lord Tower flies and wears indestructible armor made of prayer, the Truthspeaker can edit reality with his words, and Menagerie can shapeshift into any of the animals that are shown in his head-to-toe tattoos. The book is kind of X-men meets Tolkien, supermen verus dragons. It’s an unapologetic orgy of geekiness.
Q: You seem to be very keen on music (See Favourite Albums I discovered in 2011). Are you also a musician?
I wish! Alas, somehow my fingers are capable of banging out a hundred words a minute on a QWERTY keyboard, yet completely unable to master five strings on a guitar. My voice has a vocal range of three notes, which only takes me so far when I’m singing. But, my tastes in music are strongly related to my literary urges. I’m drawn toward singer songwriters who confess all, like the Mountain Goats, and to dazzling, daring lyrical juggling acts like the Decemberists. Melody is important, but for good lyrics I’ll devour any musical style or genre.
Q: I notice you have several books up on Smashwords. Are you experimenting with self publishing? What have you learned from this?
With the exception of Burn Baby Burn, all my e-books are traditionally published books where I’d either never sold the e-rights or else they’d reverted back to me. Self-publishing e-books is a headache. All the major e-book outlets have completely different format requirement for listing your work, and you don’t really appreciate such subtle elements of cover art as the font choice until you’ve had to design your own covers.
However, the rewards are definitely worth it. Amazon has completely upended the whole career path for authors by offering 70% royalties on self-published e-books paid monthly. I’ve published four novels through traditional publishers, with three more under contract, and for the most part these have earned me more money than e-books… so far. But, traditional publishing usually only brings you two paychecks a year, and you’re in the dark on sales all the time. When you self publish an ebook, you get most sales data in real time. I not only know how many books I’ve sold this month, I can tell you how many I’ve sold this hour. I know when and how much I’ll get paid for each book sold, and usually get paid about a week early. It’s pretty amazing, and I think that any author with a back catalogue of existing books is foolish if they don’t self-publish it.
The big question is whether or not it makes sense to pursue self-publishing and ignore the more traditional path. Right now, I’m not quite willing to make that leap. I still get a thrill out of walking into a bookstore and seeing my books on the shelf. And, while ebook royalties are wonderful, the reality is that ebooks reach a smaller pool of readers right now than traditional books. So, if you want to be read widely and get broad bookstore distribution, selling your work to a traditional publisher is currently the best path to that end. But, this is changing rapidly. Getting your books into bookstores might not be as valuable ten years from now, since there might not be very many bookstores left. Readers who insist on paper books will probably persist for decades, but they will increasingly become like audiophiles who insist on only listening to music on LPs when everyone around them is streaming songs through their phones.
Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?
I assume you are talking about epic fantasy? Because I would argue that the fantasy shelves of most bookstores are dominated by female writers, mostly writing urban fantasy. At most conventions I go to, the mix of male to female writers seems to be pretty well balanced. As for a difference in the writing, I don’t think I can point to any difference in male and female writing that isn’t completely masked by the variations between individual authors. I don’t think an average reader could read one of Gail Z. Martin’s novels and one of my books and come away thinking they were written by the same writer. But, the same is true of me and any male fantasy author as well.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Not really. I suppose that there might be certain sub-genres where I might make an assumption on the likely gender of the writer; i.e., if I was told a book was military science fiction, I might assume the writer was male, and if I was told the book was a bodice-ripper romance, I might guess that the writer was female. But, for the most part, the gender of the author is just not a factor at all when I’m deciding what book to read next.
Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?
How is this fun? If genuinely presented with this choice, it would torment me. Should I spend time with loved ones I’ve lost? Should I go back to my younger self and offer advice on what stocks to buy? Could I settle some big question once and for all, like whether Shakespeare wrote his own plays or if there really was a historical Jesus? Should I go to the Library in Alexandria before it burns and scoop us as many scrolls as humanly possible? What did dinosaurs really look like? What was Gobekli Tepe really used for? Could I come back with a dodo? A Tasmanian tiger? A snap shot of Cleopatra? Could I find out where the %#@$! Genghis Khan was buried?
I would forever be haunted by the ghosts of the choices I didn’t make.
Take this burden away from me. I do not have the strength to bear it.
Giveaway Question:
Which superpower would you rather have: Flight, invisibility, mind-reading, or regeneration? And, as a follow up, which of these powers do you think science is likely to bring to you via a wearable device in the next twenty years?
I’ll award a copy of Greatshadow to the most interesting answer.
James Maxey (ranting) Blog
James Maxey (writing) Blog
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As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the prolific and talented Keri Arthur to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: Between 2001 and 2011 you released more than two books a year (23 in total). I’m guessing you had a backlog of books that you’d written. Or are you going to put us all to shame and say you’ve written 23 books in 10 to 12 years?
Well, if you want to get technical (and include the two I’ve written this year) its 27 books, 1 novella, and three short stories for anthologies.
I didn’t really have a backlog of already written books when I signed the contract for Dancing with the Devil. I had completed five books by then, but three of those will never see the light of day. Great ideas, but horrible writing. So yes, I’ve basically written 25 books in ten years.
Q: You have four series that were originally published with Imajin. Spook Squad series, the Ripple Creek Werewolf series, the Damask Circle series ( which has a release date of 2001) and the Nikki and Michael series. Which was your first series? I’m asking because I like to read author’s books in chronological order of when they were written to see how they develop as a writer. When you look back at these books are you tempted to edit them? I see Bantam are going to release these books. Will you be given a chance to go over them? (Lots of questions, sorry, but all related).
Dancing with the Devil, the first of the Nikki and Michael books, was the first book I had accepted and published, so that’s the series to start with–although I alternated between that series and the Circle books when I was writing them. The Ripple Creek series was next, then finally the Spook Squad series.
All the books will be re-edited before Bantam release them in mass market format. I’ve just completed the edits on Beneath a Rising Moon, the first of the Ripple Creek books which is being re-released in May next year. I was actually surprised how well it held up considering how much I think I’ve grown as a writer since these books were first published.
Q: I see you are one of the guests of Conflux in 2012. Have you been to other SF conventions? Will you know many of the writers and the fans?
I’ve been going to Conflux for a few years now, but tend to stick more to the romance conferences, as that’s the market Bantam have been aiming the Riley Jenson series at (even though they’re dark urban fantasy rather than romance). After the open friendliness of all the Romance conferences, it was a little intimidating going to an SF convention like Conflux, as I very much felt like an outsider. Thankfully, it is getting better now that I’m becoming a little more known in the SF community.
Q: You blog on a group blog called Deadline Dames, (how the Deadline Dames met, LOL), with Devon Monk, Jackie Kessler, Jenna Black, Karen Mahoney, Lilith Saintcrow, Rachel Vincent, Rinda Elliot and Toni Andrews. I belong to a writing group called ROR and find the support of fellow authors invaluable. We critique each other’s books once every year or so, but I gather you and the other dames share the blog to spread the good word about your books. Would you recommend a shared blog to other writers thinking of blogging, but overwhelmed by the pressure?
I’d definitely recommend it, because the dames have been a huge source of both inspiration and support over the years (as has my crit group). It’s good to be a part of a close knit group of writers who totally understand what you’re going through at any given point in your career. It’s also brilliant to a have a ‘safe’ place—somewhere where you can let off steam and know with complete certainty it will go no further.
However, it can sometimes get overwhelming, especially if you also have your own blog (as I do) as well as twitter, facebook, google+ and whatever else they decide to come up with in the future. Getting the word out there about your books is all well and good, but in the end, it’s the books that count.
Q: When we were talking at Supanova you mentioned you’re renovating. My sympathies, we’re just reaching the end of more than 12 months of renovating. I find having well ordered surroundings helps me to think clearly. Messy room equals messy mind for me. Hopefully, your renovations will be smoother than mine. Are you the kind of person who is heavily influenced by their surroundings? I know some authors collect ‘play lists’ for each book they write, while others collect a resonance file of images. Which are you?
I write by music, and it’s always the same music–Eco Zen 2. It’s gotten to the stage where I put that cd on, and my muse instantly gets to work. I can have the TV going, the daughter in the next room playing shoot-em ups, the neighbour mowing, and none of it matters as long as the music is going.
Mind you, I’m not sure the same will be said when the builders start pulling down the house around us. Especially if they’re well built builders.
Q: In an interview on EUSA Today Books you said the idea for book one, Destiny Kills, of Myth and Magic series came to you while watching The Bourne Identity. You said:
‘Seriously. I know the two have nothing in common, but I was sitting there, watching the beginning, thinking, Why is it always a guy? Why can’t it be a woman? And then I got to thinking what I’d do with that sort of start. Which is how we ended up with a heroine washed up on a beach with no memory of how she got there or why there was a dead man beside her. How dragons got into the equation I have no idea — other than the fact I have a very twisted, very imaginative muse.’
Dragons, Keri? Are you a fan of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Riders of Pern books? Or have you taken a totally different slant on dragons?
I love the Pern books–well, all of Anne McCaffrey’s. I’m not so keen on the later ones she did with her son. My dragons are different–they’re dragon shifters not actual dragons, and there’s both fire breathing dragons and sea dragons in my mythology. The books are also urban fantasy rather than fantasy.
Q: Your Riley Jensen series is set in Melbourne. Was there any resistance to the Australian setting when you pitched the idea to the publishers?
We were totally expecting resistance, and I had in fact began researching places in America that I could use instead of Melbourne. But it never came up with any of the three publishers who were bidding for the book. Of course, the Melbourne I use is very Americanised, so that might have made the setting less of a problem.
US Cover
Q: With your Dark Angels series (as with all the others) I notice there are US and UK covers. The US ones look more sensual, while the UK covers play up the strength of the female character and the threat. Would say that that this is the difference between the two readerships? And how much input do you get in your covers?
I have no input on the covers–although if I have occasionally asked for some minor changes. The US covers aim for the huge romance market, whereas the UK/Australian covers tend to go more for the fantasy market. I don’t think there’s any difference in the readerships, I just think the covers are a result of marketing people targeting their markets differently.
UK cover
Q: I see you watch a lot of TV series. I must admit I like to get the whole series of something like Deadwood and have an orgy of TV watching. I like to be able to watch the narrative arc for the series, plus the development of the characters. I find I can’t switch off my internal editor unless the show is really gripping. Do you have any specific TV series that you watch, that are guaranteed to switch off your internal editor?
God, how much time have you got? TV has become my escape–more so than books these days. I’m also a whole lot less critical of TV shows and movies than I am of books–a show has to be really, really bad before my internal editor starts getting snarky. I love shows like Deadwood, Justified, Supernatural, Haven, Torchwood, Primeval, Being Human, NCIS, NCIS LA, Castle, Blood on the Wire.….the list goes on. And on. lol
Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?
I think female fantasy writers approach a novel on a more emotional level than most male writers. Or at least, that’s how it used to be (and it was one of the things that drove me to write fantasy in the first place). These days, with writers like Jim Butcher, it has improved somewhat, and there’s not such a noticeable difference in emotional depth.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your 
expectations when you pick up their book?
Not really, because when I pick up a book all I’m expecting is to be entertained. If they succeed in doing that, I’m a happy reader. Hell, I read–and love–Matthew Reilly, and his books could very definitely be described as boys own adventure books for grown-ups, but they’re fantastically entertaining.
Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?
Weirdly, I’d love to go back to Jane Austin’s era, just to see if men like Mr Darcy really did exist. I wouldn’t want to stay there though–couldn’t stand not having a shower every day, let alone no internet access!
Keri has a signed copy of Darkness Unbound to give-away (or a copy of one of her books to complete your set, subject to availability). Give-away Question:
If paranormal creatures existed and humans were lowest on the pecking order, which kind of paranormal creature would you like to be?
Follow Keri on Twitter: @kezarthur
Catch up with Keri on GoodReads
See Keri Arthur quote on GoodReads
See Keri Arthur’s official fan page on Facebook
This week we welcome back Rhonda Roberts with her new book Hoodwink.
I know I must’ve been a chain smoking binge drinker in a past life because in this one I throw up whenever I drink wine and faint dead away if I have even a puff of a cigarette. As you can imagine my experimental teenage years were a series of memorably messy incidents.
That said I must’ve done something good some time (I have no idea what) because I now have the arduous job of carefully selecting and scheduling my holiday destinations for the next decade.
You see I write the Timestalker series about a time travelling detective called Kannon Dupree. (She’s named after Kannon, the Japanese Bodhisattva of Compassion aka ‘she who hears all cries for help’.) The first book, Gladiatrix (2009) was set in ancient Rome, while the second, Hoodwink (out now) is set in Hollywood in 1939. Each book in the series solves a mystery set in a different time and place.
And here’s where the strangely good karma bit comes in… I have a filing cabinet full of cases lined up for Kannon to handle – and boy does she travel around! So I do too…
Well I have to do research don’t I?
I treat all my research trips like full on anthropological expeditions, including camels and pith helmets if necessary. I go prepared for anything and everything and expect it all to go wrong. And it usually does – but as I’m peering out from the midst of the rumble something truly spectacular rises up like a phoenix…and gives me the key to Kannon’s next adventure.
Leonard Cohen has a song called Anthem, which is one of my all times favourites. One segment goes: ‘Forget your perfect offering. There’s a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.’ Well I’ve found that it’s the unexpected twist in the path that takes me round a corner to the spectacular view.
And believe me I’d experienced a few twists in that path. I’m writing Book 4 now and in the past few years I’ve been stuck up a shaky ladder in an ancient cliff top pueblo city with a 200 metre drop below, stumbled across a horny male crocodile on his way to his girlfriend’s love nest, been caught in a sand storm on a non existent road through the desert and been threatened by three furious (and gargantuan!) armed guards at an LA studio who mistook me for a member of the paparazzi.
Speaking of which leads me to doing the research for Hoodwink, which has just hit the bookshops….
Hoodwink starts with a body covered in a Mayan occult tattoo being discovered cemented into the floor of a Hollywood film set. It’s the body of a famous film director who went missing in 1939. Kannon is hired to return to 1939 to find out who killed him. While on the set of Gone With The Wind, mixing with the big stars of Hollywood, she stumbles onto a mystery that stretches back to the Civil War…
Why Gone With The Wind?’ you might say. ‘Isn’t that just some old film about a Southern woman’s determination to survive the American Civil War and its aftermath?’
Yep it is that…plus a lot more. (The sound of chuckling) Trust me…what happened during the making of that film is more fantastic than anything I could possibly make up!
Anyway…I wanted to write about a murder on a film set in 1939, the most glamorous period in the Golden Years of Hollywood. So I had to choose a movie that’d give me the maximum room to explore the feeling of the 1930s as well as yield some interesting plot points I could play with. Gone With The Wind fitted that bill plus some!
So now to do some research on old Hollywood…in new LA!
Well I did a whole lot of research before I left our eucalyptus-lined shores and arranged appointments in Los Angeles where I could. And I was lucky enough to get permission to visit the famous Culver Studios, which is where Gone With The Wind (as well as Citizen Kane, two of Hitchcock’s most famous films and some episodes of Star Trek) was filmed. The CEO was very friendly and arranged for the stage manager to take me on a three hour tour of the place. I saw the historic bungalows that Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable used, the main GWTW sound stage as well as many other places of interest. It was amazing.
The rest of the time I wandered around Los Angeles searching for locations to use in Hoodwink. I trudged around Beverly Hills carrying a map to the homes of the old movie stars, hiked around Griffith Park looking for a place to stick my Temple of Lost Souls, walked along the famous canals of Venice searching for a place to hide a suitcase full of money, studied the Mayan statues in the garden at the Forrest Lawn Cemetery wondering how the hell they fitted into the puzzle…
And all the time I was still waiting for that epiphany, that precious moment when I’d know what Hoodwink was really about…when I’d get a glimpse of its soul.
Then I ended up at Hollyhock House, which became the inspiration for Ceiba House…the home of my murder victim.
Now some places are amazing. We all have memories of the first time we walked into a particular space. It could be a cathedral, a temple, Uluru, whatever…
To me, Hollyhock House is one such space.
Frank Lloyd Wright, one of America’s most famous architects, built several stunning Mayan-inspired houses in Los Angeles during the 1920s. The most beautiful is Hollyhock House in East Hollywood. It’s modeled on the ancient Mayan city-state of Palenque in southern Mexico and covered in highly stylized hollyhocks. They decorate the whole house, appearing in stonework, windows and wooden furniture.
And the first thing I saw when I walked into this amazing temple to grace and beauty was a big statue of Kwan Yin… Or as she is known in Japan – Kannon the Bodhisattva of Compassion. She who hears all cries for help.
She stands in the foyer of Hollyhock House welcoming all with a warm smile full of peace and compassion…a heavenly sign of hope for all humanity.
And in that moment I knew the key to writing Hoodwink.
Give away question:
I love festivals and think that Australia doesn’t have enough of them. When I lived in Japan there seemed to be a new one on every week – everything from fertility festivals to welcoming the dead back home for a night.
If you could introduce a new festival to Australia what would it celebrate and how?
Narrelle says:
I enjoyed Cecilia’s choice to read zombie stories as a how-to manual for the zombie apocalypse, and of coures all the people having a bet each way on vampires/zombies, but I really liked Vintage Zombie’s answer, both for remembering that the brain-eating undead used to be people and for the fact taht she’s scared of Shaun of the Dead. I hope she enjoys Best New Zombie Tales Volument Two.
For the copy of The Opposite of Life, Paula’s vocal support of the hot vamps has got popular backing, but I liked Melissa May for citing Bram Stoker. Gary (from The Opposite of Life) would approve of that, so the copy of The Opposite of Life goes to her!
Thanks to everyone for joining in the fun!
Vintage Zombie and Melissa May, please email Narrelle Harris to organise the postage of your give-aways.
narrelle(at)iwriter(dot)com(dot)au
I’m expanding my series featuring fantastic authors to include fantastically creative people across the different mediums, which is why I’ve invited the talented Douglas Holgate to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: We met at Supanova and hung out at the cocktail party. Do you get to many of the Supanovas? Is it fun to mix with other illustrators and talk shop?
Doug with Skye, one of the Amazing Supanova Team
I’ve been to Supanova on the east coast fairly consistently over the last 3 or 4 years. I’ve yet to make the trek to Perth but I’m keen (and not just because I’ve never been to Perth).
Absolutely one of the best parts of the shows is mixing with peers, it’s always great to catch up, especially with people out of state and while the internet keeps us all up to date on what we’re up to it’s not a substitute for a drink and chat. I’ve found of late though I actually really like meeting and talking shop with people NOT doing what I’m doing…but working in similar creative fields. I had a ball talking to all the writers just recently at the Brisbane show (where we met), and came away with different perspectives, work ethics and ideas around publishing and the like.
Q: Back in the 80s when I was working as an illustrator in Melbourne we used to have to make appointments with the art directors of publishing houses, lug our folios in and be interviewed in hope that they’d send us work. Now artists have pages on all sorts of sites, as well as their own blog sites, to promote their artwork. (eg. The Loop. Illustrators Australia). Do you still have to do the ‘meet and greet’ with art directors or is it all done over the internet now?
I was saying to someone the other week that I have no idea how I’d work if I didn’t have a scanner, a computer and email. I can’t even imagine what it must have been like to navigate the creative process via the postal system. I do a lot of work for the US market so predominantly I work exclusively with them via the likes of email and sometimes skype. Local clients I do like to try and get a face to face with at some point. It’s nice to put a face and a voice to a name.
As for approaching clients for potential work, when I first started freelancing about 10 years ago it was still a phone call to the AD and physical hard copies of my folio sent to them if they were keen to see it. Now though…it’s pretty much all email and the internet. Which I think is good for ease of breaching that inner sanctum (It makes it less intimidating), and promotion wise you can have global reach instantly. But there is still something about even just talking to someone on the phone and a physical copy of your work in that person’s hands which can’t be replaced (Though I am a bit of a sucker for beautiful printed objects).
Q: You illustrated the Zack Proton (genuine intergalactic hero) books. Was this a chance to let your ‘inner kid’ loose? And how did you hook up with the writer, Brian Anderson, (I see he lives in Austen, Texas)?
I have such a soft spot for Zack proton. Not just a ridiculous, over the top, irreverent and just plain FUN series but also my first big time published work in the US.
All set up through my agent. The way it works is a publisher has a project, they approach my agent and ask if I’m free to work on the series and if I’d like to…and then I (always) say yes.
I then will back and forth with the publishers art director, receive a manuscript, any art direction they’re keen on, cover concepts, internal illustrations etc.
It’s very very rare that I’ll actually talk to the writer at all, especially during the process of putting the books together. This seems to be standard in the industry, which is a bit of a shame…but I can understand it from the publisher’s perspective, they want control of the books and don’t want creative decisions made without being in the loop.
I did however end up after the series was published getting in touch with Brian and we’ve stayed in touch every since, which is great!
Q: You worked on The Amazing Joy Buzzards from Image Comics, which is about an adventure rock-and-roll band. Look like lots of fun. When you work on a project like this how closely do you collaborate with the writer? Are there really tight deadlines?
I sort of already answered this one, but there are always exceptions to the rule. For original material I’m generating with writers to pitch, or self publish then absolutely it’s a complete collaboration.
Of course every writer is different and in some cases they’re happy to let me go away and work on the visual design of these things with minimal guidance. Others I’ve worked with have a strong vision and want to see it realised, from character design and aesthetic through to direction of what is happening specifically in a given scene. Writers like Alan Moore (whom I’ve not worked with) are notoriously specific about their art direction that in some cases almost becomes a novel in itself.
I do like a middle ground though. And there is nothing quite like brainstorming, back and forthing with someone and creating worlds and plots and characters from scratch.
For things like Joy Buzzards there was already an established universe that I was coming in to play around in. So the main characters and the like had pretty much already been fully realised. Which isn’t to say I didn’t have any creative input, it’s just a different challenge to say something original with someone else’s characters.
Q: And you worked on Super Chicken Nugget boy. When you were doing your Post Graduate Degree in Illustration at the University of Newcastle did you think you’d end up drawing animated chicken nuggets? LOL Do you have a personal project that you are madly working on in your spare time?
Haha! YES! Well…sort of. Maybe not chicken nuggets, but certainly I was aiming my sights on comics and material for kids and younger readers. There was a small group of us who were constantly getting in strife with the lecturers for pushing our project work in the comic book, cartooning direction. We were repeatedly told there was no future in it. Ironically I’m pretty sure we’re the only ones from our graduating class now working fulltime as artists and designers.
And I’ve got a list as long as eternity of personal projects. It’s one of the things that frustrates me some about what I do. IT TAKES SO LONG! If only I could snap my fingers, get that thing that’s gnawing at the back of my head DONE and then move onto the next thing. OH…and be paid a gazillion dollars for it…that would seriously not only make me happy but the world!
But yes. Right now I’ve got a couple of things in the works that I’m really excited about. The main one taking up all my time (When I get it) is an all ages graphic novel with a fantastic local Melbourne (though she’s been swanning about the streets of New York for the last 12 months) kids comic writer, Jen Breach.
Q: On Twitter we were talking about fantasy movies we loved like Mystery Men. “We struck down evil with the mighty sword of teamwork and the hammer of not bickering.” What were your biggest influences when you were growing up?
Oh, you mean the list of things that never seems to end? It’s funny, it’s only in the last couple of years since I’ve had a little boy that I’m rediscovering things that I used to love and adore as a kid…and I realise are a direct influence on what I’m doing right now. They’re obviously always in the back of your head, consciously or unconsciously, but tracking down vintage copies of Richard Scarry’s busy town series to introduce to him, looking at them and having this epiphany that he is a major influence is pretty wild. I spent some formative years in the UK and was obsessed with weekly kids comics magazines like Beano and Dennis The Menace. A lot of annuals like Eagle. Was a big fan of Roald Dahl and CS Lewis. And long form comics wise I was reading things like Asterix, Tintin and Lucky Luke a long time before I discovered American comics. Herge and Uderzo definitely are the two seminal influences though. Relatively strict realism of form with a cartoon sensibility inhabiting that world.
Q: If you could go back and give that starry-eyed kid advice, what would it be?
Get serious sooner. YOU’RE WASTING TIME!
Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy (in books) is a bit of a boy’s club. I’ve come across quite a bit of talk on the blogs recently about female comic artists and writers, and their lack of representation in large companies like DC. Have you come across this in your professional life?
Not really no. I’d argue that illustration is actually a pretty even spread, in my experience anyway. There are as many female illustrators (if not more) whom I know and love working fulltime and being consistently published by major publishers. Also the majority of art directors I’ve worked with at the major US and Australian publishers have been women.
I’m a little torn on the issue of women in comics. On one hand I think that It’s pretty well established that there is indeed a boys club at the upper echelons of the likes of the major publishers, and obviously being a man I have no idea what that boys club mentality would be like to breach being a female creator. Not to mention the weird curtain wall of fandom thing you have to scale before even making your way to the keep.
But I also think that now is probably the best time in the history of comics for women. I can name you dozens who might not be published by the likes of DC or Marvel but they’re making original comics that are above and beyond in creativity, aesthetic, storytelling and vision than any run of the mill churned out monthly.
The push by established book publishers such as Random House and Scholastic into graphic novels, Independent comics publishers like IDW, First Second and Adhouse, the rise and rise of webcomics, artist sites like Deviant Art, Concept Art and the growing tendency for a lot of animators dipping their toes into comics making are all being driven by some incredible amazingly talented female cartoonists. I don’t see that stopping anytime soon.
This can’t help but change attitudes eventually at the dinosaurs. You know…if working on spiderman is something that you really want to do.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer/artist change your expectations when you approach their work?
No not at all. If it’s well written, drawn, crafted and published I’m all over it. You know…I read my first babysitters club a few years ago and LOVED it, all because it was adapted by one of my favourite cartoonists (Raina Telgemeier) into a brilliant graphic novel.
There are as many male creators I like and don’t like as female. And none of that is based on gender it’s just about the work they create.
I don’t go into a movie or a novel thinking “oh it’s directed or written by a woman therefore it’s going to be formula X.”
Certainly there are directors and writers and creators who work in specific genres so you’re going to consume that material based on that. But that has little to do with gender and more to do with the genre’s I appreciate.
I think if a creator is specifically broaching topics of gender or social acceptance or struggle and it’s a key part of their approach or the material they’re producing then absolutely you view that work with that in mind. And that’s probably why you’re reading or watching it in the first place.
At the end of the day it should be about creating the best material you can, and letting your story speak for itself regardless of gender.
The best work always will.
Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?
Rowena, this isn’t the fun question, this is the HARD question! I’m a pretty mad history buff…can I go EVERYWHERE?!
God…just one?
I love pre history…but I’m not sure I’d want to get eaten by a giant mosquito (It’s not the dino’s you’ve got to watch out for).
Adore American history…from Revolution, The Westward push to Civil war to Cold War and modern politics.
I’m doing a lot of reading and playing around with Gallo/Romano Britain at the moment for a project. So I’m a little obsessed with that. And Roman history in particular…so maybe Ancient Rome?
Do I really want to gad about in tartan and blue body paint screaming murder at Roman legionaries in their incredibly well drilled formations? Yes…probably. So I think I’ll go there. But only if I can use the time machine again to scoot to medieval England for lunch, then shoot to Aztec south America for a couple of days and then over to Ancient China for tea and then take a break on a circumnavigation of the globe with Magellan, back in time for dinner with Caravaggio.
(And then wake up in WWII occupied France.)
To win a copy of Zinc Alloy and Super Chicken Nugget Boy here’s the give-away Question:
What was your favourite comic book character when you were growing up?
Follow Doug on Twitter: @douglasbot
See Doug’s Blog
My folio is here – http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/sets/72157627375431276/with/3265305994/
But some of my favourite (read, newer) images are at these links –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/5830416545/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/6304341159/in/photostream
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/5239949004/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/5308333564/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/4673721219/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/4884587173/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/2208125088/in/set-72157627375431276
http://www.flickr.com/photos/douglasbot/3265305994/in/set-72157627375431276
I have been featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) but this has morphed into interesting people in the speculative fiction world. Today I’ve invited the talented Claire Corbett to drop by.
Watch out for give-away details at the end of the interview.
Q: Your book When we have Wings appears to be a near future story with elements of the detective genre. The cover makes it look like a cross between a dark urban fantasy and a literary novel. Did you have any say in the cover design?
No, none whatsoever. In fact my publisher only showed it to me when they’d finalised it. I think they wanted to avoid stressing out the new author until they’d solved all the challenges to their satisfaction. I’m lucky that the talented, award-winning Sandy Cull was chosen to design my cover. I’m glad you used the L-word, literary! Allen & Unwin was very concerned to get that message across – that this is a book with exhilarating ideas but with real love and concern for the craft of writing.
It can be good, having the publisher protect you a bit. Writing can be so exposing, anxiety-provoking. You don’t realise how vulnerable you feel till you’re published. I also like the sense of collaboration, that when you’re picked up by an agent and a publisher your work now exists in a larger sphere. It’s exciting that my work now sparks the imaginations of others and inspires their creativity.
My agent has just emailed me a cover concept from my Dutch publishers. It’s very different but I love it too; they are also very concerned to stress that the book appeals to literary readers as well as lovers of imaginative fiction.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udovhIeyFAY&feature=player_embedded]
Q: At the core of your book’s conflict is the premise that people can fly and what would someone sacrifice for this. You said: ‘I knew I had to research flight. Sometimes it seems that every second literary novel uses flight and wings as a metaphor. I needed the opposite of the romantic use of flight; if I didn’t convince the reader of the reality of the characters flying the book would fail.
The key came to me one day while watching pigeons on the street and wondering why they scurried out of my way: you’ve got wings, why don’t you fly? And the answer came: because it’s hard work. Far from being easy and free, as flight is in our dreams, if you had wings flying would be the hardest work you’d ever do.’ You did a lot of research for this book. Is that you hang-gliding?
I wish. I was a small child when those photos were taken – I’m watching the hang-gliders in one of them. I did do a lot of research – into the evolution of bird flight, the physics of lift, air movement and clouds, and the experiences and insider talk of the paragliding community – but no actual hang-gliding or paragliding myself.
I was thrilled when a friend of mine who is a real adventurer – mountain climber, Antarctic explorer, you name it – and has spent a great deal of time paragliding and hang-gliding, said I nailed the experience of flying in the book. He said ‘you absolutely got it. That’s exactly what it’s like.’ That was one of the most gratifying comments I’ve ever had.
It was also wonderful to hear from a reader who’d studied avian physiology as part of a degree in veterinary science. She’d been sure there would be holes in the book’s research but was happy to say she couldn’t fault it.
Q: You studied film and writing at the University of Technology Sydney. Have you been tempted to write screen plays?
Strangely no, though I love film and loved my time crewing on feature films. I think a great deal about the craft of film – I used to devour copies of American Cinematographer, a highly technical magazine for Directors of Photography. I never thought of writing a screenplay because I came to writing through loving the texture of words and crafting sentences; screenplays don’t offer that pleasure.
Now that I’ve learned more about novelistic technique and the importance of character and structure I think I’m ready to write a screenplay. Especially as I’ve discovered I adore writing dialogue. I have no time for novels without good dialogue; it’s the most economical way of discovering character. You discover character through action: speech is action.
Virtually every reader has told me how much they’d love to see the book as a film, how cinematic it is. I’d love to see it made into a film. I had to think so much about the book’s structure because the plot is quite complex that I think I’d enjoy writing the screenplay – with some help from an experienced screenwriter.
Q: You had a Varuna mentorship in 2000. (Varuna is a house in the Blue Mountains where writers can write in peace. Yay!). Can you share your Varuna experience with us?
It was unusual because I live close to Varuna in the Blue Mountains and my son was a small baby so I was going home every night; it wasn’t the total escape that it is for most writers. What I loved was having Amanda Lohrey as such a fabulous mentor. She can deliver real, honest criticism without crushing you.
Though I was working on another novel, I began writing When We Have Wings during that mentorship. We had a public reading of our work and I learned a lot from that.
I’d like to go back sometime because there’s nothing that turbocharges productivity like not having to plan and make dinner every day. The house is quiet with a lush garden often wrapped in fog. Perfect for writers.
Q: In an interview on Booktopia you said (when I was eighteen) ‘I believed in the inevitability of progress – in human rights, the spread of scientific knowledge, feminism, animal welfare, environmentalism. I now see how every inch of ground gained has to be fought for over and over again. There are no permanent wins. Even slavery is probably more widespread now than it ever was. Literacy and education are the only ratchets in the flow of history, the only things that stop us slipping backwards.’ This is so true and terrifying. Do you believe genre books have a place in spreading ideas and provoking thought?
Yes, very much so. Speculative fiction in particular is increasing in importance almost by the day. Lis Bastian, the head of Varuna, has spent fantastic amounts of energy and time trying to raise awareness about climate change; she was one of Al Gore’s ambassadors. She was telling me the other day that presenting facts to people just isn’t working; they have to engage their imaginations, really feel what it might be like to live in a different world. Orwell’s 1984 has done that, Huxley’s Brave New World did that. I’ve just read The Windup Girl, set in a post-peak oil, post bio-plague world where the cities are drowning. I loved it; it made me look at our world with new eyes.
When We Have Wings is also set in a post-peak oil world where we can’t be so profligate with our natural resources. This is one reason being able to fly is so important in the story. When We Have Wings tackles urgent contemporary issues, such as how will parents use the powers that reproductive technology and genetic engineering put into their hands. Contemporary events prove that such powers will be used to the utmost; they already are, as the history of sex selection and surrogacy shows us.
It’s important to remember that speculative fiction does not just ask us to think about what might happen in the near-term; it’s also a way of looking at what has already happened. This after all is the most important function of all art: to get you to notice. To pay attention.
Huge changes are wrought in our world and we barely seem aware of them. We’ve already ignored the most significant ethical sticking points when it comes to creating families. Tens of millions of baby girls have been murdered because of their gender alone; if we can do that, there’s no moral barrier we will not smash in our rush to create the children we want or think will have an advantage.
It stuns me that so much contemporary literary fiction could have been written at any time in the past sixty years or so. I think more writers could truly engage with what is happening now.
Q: When we have Wings is your first published book. What are you working on now?
I’m contracted for a second novel with Allen & Unwin. I can’t say much about it yet but it definitely has the lush, imaginative quality of When We Have Wings as well as dealing with urgent issues we are facing now.
Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?
To be honest, I don’t know. Perhaps women writers are a bit more realistic in their depiction of character and more aware of certain kinds of politics – eg Marge Piercy, Joanna Russ and Ursula Le Guin. I love the way Robin Hobb deals in a gritty, naturalistic way with character. I could think of many exceptions to this of course. I love the Iain M Banks approach to politics in the Culture novels. The characterisation of male Golden Age SF writers as the ‘Rotary Club on Alpha Centauri’ is funny because so true but surely we’ve left that behind?
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
No. There’s a type of middle-aged to elderly ethnocentric male writer I tend to avoid because I know how cliched his portraits of women are and how narrow his concerns. Often these are writers who supposedly write ‘big’ books with ‘important’ themes but I disagree. A remarkable number of male writers do not grant female characters subjectivity, as in mainstream films where most female characters are either helpmeet or obstacle to the hero. Like most women, though, I read a good mix of male and female writers.
A certain ex-Premier of NSW published a book about his reading life which included virtually no women; the man hasn’t even read George Eliot! We have to move past the point where anyone can present themselves as any kind of thinker or be taken at all seriously while ignoring half the human race. It’s as bad as racism and yet somehow remains more respectable.
Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?
I would travel to the future of the Culture novels, where I could live indefinitely and change my form whenever I wanted. If I lived in the Culture, my life would have the drama, mystery and fantasy that now exists only in books. It’s the only writing to dent my ingrained scepticism about the desirability of the Singularity.
Give-away Question, Claire says:
There are 2 copies in the give-away, Each lucky winner also receives a signed copy of the stunning poster.
Follow Claire on Twitter: @ccorbettauthor
See Claire’s Blog
Catch up with Claire on Facebook.
Yvonne has been madly moving house and she’s finally caught up with everything. (Know how that feels, the tradies are coming today to finish the last cabinet in the kitchen and patch all the holes in the walls from 20 years of kids and teenagers wrestling). Yvonne says:
Although I really like Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, I’m going with Cecilia Jansink as the winner. How could I not when she pick Milla Jovovich, who played Ultraviolet and I wrote the novelization? Ripley from Aliens is also a good answer, too.
So congratulations Cecilia, you can email Yvonne on von(at)yvonnenavarro(dot)com
Filed under Book Giveaway, Dark Urban Fantasy, Fun Stuff
Mark has a copy of City of Ruin to give-away. He says:
“All good answers here. It would be good to see Winston Churchill knocked down a peg or two by Mary’s mother, and Gillian’s dinner party weekend was thought out in an admirable amount of detail!
But it has to go to Nicole Murhpy, whose interest in her own family history managed to chime nicely with the mood of Christmas!”
So Nicole email Mark on:
villjamur(at)gmail(dot)com
to organise the postage of your book.
Filed under Book Giveaway, Fantasy books
I have been featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) but this has morphed into interesting people in the speculative fiction world. Today I’ve invited the talented Narrelle Harris to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: You did a lot of travelling: ‘three years abroad, teaching English in Egypt and Poland’. Your husband is Tim Richards a travel writer and author. Does this mean that you two can travel all over the world and write it off your tax, (him – because he writes about it, you – because you are researching for your next book)?
It’s not quite that neat! Tim can claim pretty much everything, as he is genuinely travelling for work. I could only claim if the primary reason for the travel was research, and I’d have to keep detailed diaries and all my receipts and actually produce something. While the places I go certainly informs my writing – one of my short stories in the upcoming Showtime anthology from Twelfth Planet Press was inspired by my trip to Hungary and is set there – I’m mainly going for a holiday and to watch my husband work. 😀
I have claimed other stuff on tax, though: anything I’m not sure about I just submit to the tax accountant, and they work out what applies. They are absolutely worth the money I pay them each year!
Q: When I read The Opposite of Life I really enjoyed the daggy, Hawaiian shirt-wearing vampire. (Charlaine Harris of True Blood fame gave it a great write up).Did you deliberately set out to break with the stereotypes when you wrote this book?
It was one of the inspirations, yes. I’d been to see one of the Underworld films, with Kate Beckinsale, and thought once more about how film vampires are always slim and glamorous with fabulous hair and the most amazing fashion sense. I thought, if vampires were real and I got turned into one, I’d just be a chubby chick with fangs. That really was the first impetus. After that, as I wrote, I was trying to be as steeped in reality as the form would allow. Gary is the opposite of a glamorous vampire and Lissa is just a regular girl, not an outstanding beauty or anything: certainly not kickass slayer type. So yes, every time a scene would start looking like a regular set up for a glamour scene, I’d deliberately find ways to subvert that.
Q: I see ClanDestine Press will be bringing out the sequel to The Opposite of Life, called Walking Shadows. Can you give us a hint of what Lissa and Gary get up to?
This is the blurb I put together for Clan Destine:
While the first book dealt with a murderous vampire breaking the 21st century vampire code of staying under the radar, Walking Shadows sees Gary and Lissa facing the arrival of a frighteningly successful vampire hunter, who is relentlessly picking off Melbourne’s small vampire community. Gary also has some secrets he’s never shared with Lissa, and Lissa’s learning even more about the unexpected downsides of being undead. Mundy, Melbourne’s oldest vampire, seems to hate Lissa and Magdalene, Melbourne meanest vampire and owner of the Gold Bug, isn’t much of a fan either. So Lissa and Gary have enemies no matter which way they turn.
All that while Lissa is trying to manage the return home of her alcoholic father and trying to convince her beloved sister Kate that Gary is not going to eat anyone.
Of course, before the end, there’s the blood, the killing, the fires and the running like the clappers for their lives.
Q: You also write crime, or could it be that you write crime and also write dark fantasy? I’ve noticed a lot of authors have this cross over. Your first published book was Fly by Night. It looks like a collection of short stories or a novella, it’s hard to tell. Plus there is a novella Sacrifice, both are available as e-books. Do you find you are tempted to write in the short story/novella length?
Fly By Night is two novellas (Fly by Night and Sacrifice) presented in a single volume. The book is out of print now, so I made them available as separate novellas on Smashwords and Amazon.com. They both deal with Frank and Milo, musicians at the start of their career, who are also a couple. In each story they stumble into violent crime.
Really, I find the novel a more natural length for me to write to. I seem to have so much to say! Having said that, I recently wrote some short stories, which are coming out in the aforementioned Showtime anthology, and I enjoyed doing those very much. I think I might try some more of those.
However, I’m about to get back to work on the third Gary and Lissa novel, and I have notes and ideas for several other books. I guess I’ll keep writing to whatever length a particular story needs.
Q: Witch Honour and Witch Faith were both shortlisted for the George Turner Awards, way back in the 1990s.They look like the sort of books to challenge publishers and bookstore owners – fantasy, SF and a bit of court politics. Are you more comfortable writing books that don’t fit neatly into a particular genre?
There’s that old saying about there being no new stories, or that there are only seven stories, and everything you read is just a variation. When I write, I guess I try to find an approach that is just a new look at how to do something. That lends itself naturally to genre-blending. I’m fine with that. It’s been going on for much longer than I’ve been writing, anyway. It certainly gives you a lot of scope and room to play.
Q: Your one-act play, Stalemate, was performed by harbour theatre and won Best Original Play at the Bunbury One-Act Drama Festival. What led you to write this play? Was it a thrill to see it performed live?
Originally, I wrote it response to a call for one-act plays that were ghost stories. It didn’t get picked up in that submission, but I sent it to a friend of mine in Perth, who had directed me in plays in community theatre when I lived in Fremantle. I was just wanting her input initially on how to improve it, and she wrote and asked if she could stage it at the one act festival our old theatre group was doing. From there it went to the Bunbury One Act Theatre Festival and picked up an award. I flew over to Perth to see it performed at Harbour Theatre, before it went to Bunbury.
And oh my god, yes, it was exciting to see what somebody else did with the words I wrote! With books, obviously every reader is interpreting things through their own experiences and tastes. With theatre, though, you get to *see* how that other person is interpreting things. The production was a little unusual in that the woman playing the mother got very ill just before it went on and couldn’t perform. So instead of recasting, the director, Celia, read the part off-stage while the woman playing Helen played to the space where the other actress was meant to be. They’d rehearsed all the moves, after all. The mother is a ghost, so it worked well. It would have been a disaster the other way around!
But yes – very exciting to see that collaboration with the director and performers presenting their interpretation of the story. I think I cried.
Q: I see you had a story in Best New Zombie Tales, (vol 2) edited by James Roy Daley. What is it about zombies that makes them so popular?
That was my first foray into zombie fiction, so I’m not sure. I suppose with vampires, the fanged one can represent all kinds of metaphors, and we project a lot of different fears and desires onto them. Perhaps with zombies, they make us reflect those fears and desires back onto ourselves. Seriously, I’m just making this up on the spot. I don’t really know. But I’ve been reading some terrific zombie fiction lately, and most of it seems to contain themes of people turning inward, finding out more about themselves through how they respond to the zombie apocalypse. The Walking Dead TV series is exploring the idea that how we respond to these tragic (though dangerous) creatures questions and reflects our compassion and humanity. Felicity Dowker wrote a beautiful story about zombies, love and how much worse surviving people were than the undead.
Q: Outside the Law is a collection of True Crime essays. What did you research and write about for this collection?
I had just done jury duty for the first time ever, and became quite interested in how some fellow jurors thought about forensic evidence and the presentation of evidence generally. A few weeks later, Lindy Cameron said she was looking for essays for the collection, so I pitched that idea. Then I interviewed doctors, lawyers and forensic scientists about the issue, and whether too much forensic TV was affecting how juries operated in Australia. It was fascinating!
Q: Talk about versatility, you also write Phone Apps. Melbourne Historical, Melbourne Getaways and Melbourne Literary. How did you get involved in this?
Actually, only Melbourne Literary is my app – the other two were done by my husband, but I’ve linked to them from my site to help him promote them. I’m working on a new Melbourne app now, though, so his will probably get bumped when that’s ready!
The app happened through Tim, actually. He does contract work for Lonely Planet, and this US company, Sutro Media, sent an email around the LP Author mailing group to say they were looking for folks to write apps for them. Sutro has the software and what amounts to a content management system, but they want good writers to partner with them to create content. Tim started doing Melbourne Historical and, seeing how the categories and layout worked, I began thinking about all the literary stuff around Melbourne and how it would fit into that format. Melbourne had been declared a UNESCO City of Literature and the Wheeler Centre had just opened, so it seemed a good fit and a potential seller. So I pitched that, Sutro liked it, and off we went.
Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?
I honestly couldn’t say! I mean, there may be some kinds of fantasy where you’d think ‘well, that’s probably a male writer for a male audience’, with lots of hairy barbarians, wenches and quaffing of ale; or women writing for a female audience with… I don’t know, magic and … dragons? Even writing that down feels terribly sexist and stereotypical. Gaiman writes like Gaiman, Bujold writes like Bujold, they both write about humanity, with a philosophical heart. No doubt they are informed by their gender, but I don’t think they write *from* gender. If that makes sense.
I read a lot of fantasy, but I read a lot of SF, crime and ‘mainstream’ fiction as well as non fiction. I read both men and women, adult and YA. Good writing is good writing. Writing romantic relationships isn’t just a woman’s thing, writing action isn’t just a man’s thing.
Maybe there’s a difference in what some male or female readers choose to read; and there are obvious differences in writers and writing styles, but I don’t know that it can be split into gender differences like that.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Not really. I’m very bored by gender stereotypes no matter who is writing them. If a book is full of simplistic gender roles and sexist claptrap, I’ll generally put it down long before I finish it. I don’t get a lot of time, and life’s too short to read books I’m not enjoying.
Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?
I think the Marvellous Melbourne period of the late 1800s would be fascinating, but I’d really want to have a first aid kit containing penicillin with me. And lots of money. I’d like to see old Melbourne in style. I moved to Melbourne in 1998 and have taken into my heart with a passion. I’ve lived all over Australia, an in Egypt and Poland, is this was the first city where I thought I could live here permanently. Seeing her in her goldrush heyday would be such a treat. Meeting those characters, like George Coppin, Fergus Hume and Madam Brussels would be a hoot too. I kind of fancy myself in Victorian era dresses as well. I used to be a member of a Sherlock Holmes society and occasionally cut a bit of a dash in those long frocks with long gloves and fancy hats.
Give-away Question:
Narrelle has a copy of Best New Zombie Tales Volume Two (with her story The Truth About Brains) and a copy of The Opposite of Life to give away. She says, to win one of them:
Tell me whether you like zombie or vampire stories best, and why. The best zombie-lovin’ answer will get Brains and the best vampire-lovin’ answer will get the opposite! ;D
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