Rhonda says:
‘I think Belinda’s Teams Edward and Jacob idea could be an actual starter for the next Census and I think I actually belonged to Melissa’s Church of Buffy for a while.
But I have to go with Cecilia’s Doctor Who-ism for its sheer scope and detail. I can just almost hear the sermons! ‘
So Cecilia, you’ve won a copy of Gladiatrix. Email Rhonda to organise postage.
rhondaroberts(at)westnet(dot)com(dot)au
As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Lara Morgan to drop by.
Q: Your mother is from Bermuda and your father from Croatia and you grew up in Western Australia. I’m assuming that you had access to the cultural heritage of both your parents. Does this help you when you are creating fantasy worlds?
I was definitely brought up with stories about countries overseas but I think what influenced me more was both my parents are avid readers. We always had so many books in the house and I don’t recall ever being told I wasn’t allowed to read anything. I was brought up on a diet of fairy tales, Enid Blyton and CS Lewis and was read Tolkien before I was in double digits so I think naturally veering toward fantasy worlds was unavoidable. Being encouraged to use our imaginations to create our own worlds when we were playing and not being allowed to watch much tv also helped – although I might not have thought that at the time!
Q: On your web site it says you’ve also written under the Lara Martin and Lara Brncic (pronunciation?) names. Did you use these when you were writing as a journalist? And leading on from that why did you choose to write your novels as Lara Morgan?
Martin is my mum’s maiden name which I used once when I was trying to figure out a pen name. Brncic is my maiden name and the name I used when working for the newspaper. I chose to use Morgan because, firstly, having a last name with only one vowel makes it difficult to spell and pronounce, and secondly because my middle name is Marie the M sound worked. I also love having a pen name because it’s like a secret identity to my normal self. Lara Morgan is my writer name separate from the everyday reality of bills and housework.
Q: You write the Rosie Black Chronicles which is set 500 years in the future and is aimed at Young Adults. Genesis has been released with Equinox coming out soon from Walker Books. Set in a post apocalyptic world where Rosie is on the run with a mystery to solve, the story takes Rosie from Earth to Mars. There’s an environmental thread running through the narrative. Is this something you feel strongly about?
Yes very strongly and I know I’m not alone. I live in a state that has a huge amount of money and people invested in mining of all kinds and it’s impossible to live here and not think about how long we can keep all this up. It’s so problematic and complicated, because we need the energy, people need the jobs, but I worry that planet wide we are going to be doing too little too late to find other alternatives to feed this consumerist monster of a society we’re growing – and that a future similar to Rosie’s world might be the result, only possibly worse. I think that’s a fear most people relate to.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dyw4oaWyyxo&feature=player_embedded]
Q: You also write adult fantasy books. The Twins of Saranthium series was published by Pan Macmillan. From the cover of The Awakening there looks to be dragons. Were you a Dragon Riders of Pern fan growing up?
I have never read any of them, which surprises the hell out of most people because, Pern being the classic dragon text, most assume I have. Also the dragon – which I call serpents in my books – on the cover was a decision by the publisher because it made sense at the time. The story line itself really focuses much more on the people, the twins, of the series than the serpents. But they are in there so…
Q: In an interview on the ASIM site you say: ‘I … think good fantasy and science fiction can go just as far in exploring the nature of humanity as any literary novel and I get as much satisfaction from reading someone like LeGuin as from reading Hemmingway, if not more.’ What are the themes you keep coming back to when you write SF and F?
I don’t know if it’s really a theme, but I always find myself writing about identity – how no one is ever who they seem to be – and how power and corruption so often go together. It probably relates to my cynical view of authority and corporations – we as humans can’t seem to get our acts together and behave in a moral way when too much responsibility is allowed to too few, or there is too much money involved.
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 hate, hate that boy’s club assumption. It’s so insulting not only to women who write fantasy but also to the vast number of women who read it. And it only encourages the appalling level of ignorance of the amount of women writing fantasy today. (*jumps off soap box*).
I think in early genre writing there tended to be a stronger focus on the technical side, the world building and the wars from male writers as opposed to a greater concentration on the relationships between the characters in those worlds from the (very few) women writers. But now I think those lines are increasingly blurred. Whether it’s because it’s more acceptable now for men to talk about their feelings, and so write more emotionally accessible characters, or for women to go beyond the domestic and explore technology or because we are just learning more from each other, I don’t know but I think it’s of benefit to both. However I do think that women still tend to write more, and in greater detail, about the emotional undercurrents of characters than men, especially in YA fiction.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
I rarely pay attention to the sex of the author, but I think it depends what kind of book I’ve picked up. In epic fantasy I think what men are writing and what women are writing are pretty similar. I mean I would expect the same kind of fabulous detail of character and complex world from a Kate Elliot book the same as I would from a George RR Martin. It’s the same when I’m looking at adult dystopian like The Windup Girl or Zoo City. When it comes to YA though I do have different expectations simply because the division is fairly clear. Women are writing a lot of paranormal romance whereas men are writing more action orientated/spy thrillers. But there again, the rule is not absolute. It’s not what I write and Suzanne Collins with her Hunger Games series shows that as well.
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’ve always loved history, and would love to see ancient Greece, but the reality would undoubtedly be a lot less romantic. Plus I’m a woman so they’d probably immediately make me some kind of slave, so I’ll have to choose the future. I’d love to go forward about one thousand years to see, firstly, if humans survive that long without killing ourselves, and if we do, how far our technology goes. Are we going to become a Class 3 civilization? Do we colonise other planets and live like Star Trek and will cake still exist? Fundamental questions of course.
Podcast with Lara Morgan at the Sydney Writers Festival.
Follow Lara on Twitter: @Lara_Morgan
See Lara’s Blog.
I have been running a series of interview with female fantasy writers to redress a perception I came across – that fantasy was a bit of a boy’s club. It really isn’t like that here in Australia. We have many wonderful fantasy writers who just happen to be female.
Today I’m interviewing Richard Harland, author of the hugely popular Worldshaker books. I have been doing a series of interviews of female fantasy authors and thought it would be interesting to get a male fantasy writer’s perspective on the question of writing, gender and fantasy.
See Richard’s cool Worldshaker book trailer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ATZ8Z1Nmxo&feature=player_embedded]
Q: In an interview on Readings you describe Steampunk as: ‘a kind of retro imagining of machinery and gadgets that might have happened. … Jules Verne in his own day imagined future technology, but nowadays it looks to us like an alternative technology of the past that never actually happened. Steampunk worlds usually have a 19th century or pre-WW I feel about them.’ To me it seems a genre you are ideally suited to write because of your English background and your penchant for waistcoats. (Richard has a page on Tips for Writing Steampunk). Reading Worldshaker and the sequel, Liberator, it feels like it comes very naturally to you. Is this right?
It comes naturally to me, for sure. I look back on my earlier novels and I can see steampunky bits creeping in – the early industrial scenery in parts of the ‘Ferren’ books, the Victorian elements in The Vicar of Morbing Vyle and The Black Crusade. Deep down, I always wanted to write steampunk, and the Worldshaker world was ten years in the planning before I began writing it, fifteen years before publication. I had no hope of getting it taken up by an Australian publisher until the steampunk trend started to build momentum internationally.
My interest in early industrial technology and Victoriana goes back to my childhood, which happened to be in England. But did it have to be in England? I look at some great steampunk writers in Australia – like Michael Pryor and Scott Westerfeld (as ‘honorary Australian’) and they don’t have that kind of background.
The one area where I’m sure my English background does count is in my depiction of class. The class system is strong and flourishing on the juggernaut ‘Worldshaker’ – and that’s something that doesn’t come in much with most other steampunk writers. I think you need to suffer under a class system to have a strong emotional feel about it!
See Richard talking about Steampunk at Bialik College, Melbourne.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elLXY8629b0&feature=player_embedded]
Q: I see there was a point where you dropped out of Sydney UNI and ‘bummed around’ writing songs and performing them at venues around the city. I bet there’s a book in there somewhere. Are you ever tempted to write about this period (disguised of course)?
Yes, and I will. Promise!
Q: You are not a novice to winning awards with many final-listings in the Aurealis Awards, several wins and the Golden Aurealis Award in 2004. Recently Worldshaker won the prestigious Tam-Tam Je Bouquine award for best novel ages 10 -15. I bet you wished you were in France at the time to pick up the award. Did it come out of the blue?
I’d never even heard of the Tam-Tam Je Bouquine award until I won it! In fact, it never occurred to me that there were YA awards in France. (Makes me wonder whether it means much to anyone overseas when I can boast of winning those six Aurealis Awards.) My publisher and editor dressed up specially to accept the award on the night – and I’m sure they expressed our shared reactions to the honour of the award far better then I could have done. At least they could express them in understandable French!
See Richard reading from Worldshaker at Bialik College, Melbourne.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPqQV_IDpqg&feature=player_embedded]
Q: You have written 145 pages of writing tips for aspiring authors. (Find them here). This must have taken ages, Richard. As a University Lecturer you have a background in teaching. Have you had a good response from aspiring writers to your Writing Tips pages? Do you get emails from people? (I know I would have devoured your writing tips when I was first starting out. I still find useful things in there whenever I dip into it).
Yes, I keep getting emails and positive responses – which makes me feel good about setting up the website. Because you’re right, it ate up an enormous amount of time – four months when I could have been writing my own novels. But the feedback makes it all worthwhile.
Q: And now Liberator is coming out. Having read an earlier draft at one of our ROR weekends, I know it delivers more Steampunkery goodness. Do you envisage a another book in this series?
Not immediately. it’s a duology that resolves in an almighty battle – and although there’s obviously more story to come, the Col-Riff romance has worked itself out by the end of LIBERATOR. Not much you can do with male lead and female lead after that!
So I’m taking a breather from that particular strand of history in the juggernaut world. The novel I’ve now started writing belongs in a different time and place, with different characters. I hope to continue the Worldshaker/Liberator narrative some time further down the track.
See the Allen & Unwin Worldshaker Book trailer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLugL-GhcOA&feature=player_embedded]
Q: Wow, Richard I think I have book trailer envy. It looks like your Worldshaker has inspired quite a few people. Did you ever think you’d have book trailers?
I never thought much about book trailers. I see what people have done (in the UK, Germany and Australia), and think how clever and creative it is. But it’s an art-form I don’t have any personal connection to. I imagine my books almost like a movies unrolling in my head before I ever start writing them – that’s my form of visual imagination.
What I’d really like to see is a movie trailer!
See another book Worldshaker book trailer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5Gg0U5QGdU&feature=player_embedded]
Q:You’ve been a busy man in the last ten years or so with the Wolf Kingdom books. (This won the Aurealis Best Children’s Illustrate Work/Picture Book). Have you been approached to write more in this series?
No, and at the moment I wouldn’t want to. I’m zooming in on steampunk and YA fiction. I don’t want any distractions!
Q: And there are many other books, some aimed at children, like Sassy cat one of my son’s favourites, right through Ferren and the Angel for teens, to the SF/Mystery series Eddon and Vail. Plus there’s the duology, The Vicar of Morning Vyle and, The Black Crusade which won Best Horror and the Golden Aurealis. You say you suffered writer’s block for 25 years. When you got over this, it must have felt like a dam breaking. How did you get over your writer’s block?
Many factors, including setting up a regular writing routine. And sheer bloody-minded stubbornness, because I bogged down time after time on my first novel – and went back to begin again over and over. I guess in the end I managed to live up to my own standards. Very stupid – I couldn’t bear to show my work to anyone until it was perfect … When I should have been learning how to improve by finishing imperfect stuff and getting feedback on it from other people.
I’m a very bad role model for other writers. My writing tips website is like a way of telling other intending writers how to steer clear of the traps I fell into!
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?
Do they really think that in the US and UK? Sounds like a hangover from the far past. No one could ever think of fantasy in Australia as a boy’s club. Here, the most successful fantasy writers are mostly women, as are the vast majority of readers.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
I hope I can change my expectations according to what I read when I open the book, but maybe I do expect some things things more from male or female authors. From male authors, wild supposition and fantastical imaginings; from female authors, a fullness of fleshed-out reality, a sense of detail, and being there right in the scene.
Having said that, of course, good fantasy writing has to have both. I can think of heaps of examples of male authors who can flesh out their creations until you’re right there in the scene; and heaps of examples of female authors with powers of the very wildest imagination.
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?
The time of the French Revolution, end of the eighteenth century. The most exciting period ever, for me. (Anyone who reads LIBERATOR could guess that!)
I’m assuming that I’m guaranteed survival, though – or that I can hop back into my time machine and escape if the guillotine gets too close to my neck!
Once a year, the good folk down at the Logan North Library run a Speculative Fiction month. On Saturday 27th of August some friends and I will be on a panel talking about writing.
So if you are in the neighbourhood, drop by and say Hi!
(Logan North Library, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia)
Filed under Australian Writers, Book trailers, Covers, creativity, Dark Urban Fantasy, Fantasy books, Fun Stuff, Genre, Inspiring Art, Music and Writers, Paranormal_Crime, Promoting Friend's Books, Promoting your Book, Publishing Industry, Readers, Resonance, The Writing Fraternity, Writing craft, Young Adult Books
Q: First congratulations on the success of Gladiatrix. I feel like a proud big sister because I organised the pitching opportunity at the 2006 National SF Con, which led (eventually) to your sale. (Rhonda talks about this experience on the ROR blog). Since your sale what have you learnt about the publishing industry that you wish you could have told yourself back then?
Thanks Rowena, that pitching opportunity changed everything!
One key lesson is that you need to acquire publicity skills asap. In the standard contract you are legally required to help publicise the book. My experience has been that publishers try to work with you on this – so make choices now rather than later. Different publicity methods suit different books and, more importantly, different authors. The key thing is to go with your strong points.
If public speaking is your strength – then find ways to use that. Your publisher can help you make contacts and set up interviews etc. If, like many authors, you’d rather concentrate on the web – then work out which of the available options suit you and how you want to invest your non-writing time.
Whatever venues you choose, make sure you can sum up your book in 7, 30, and 100 words. That will save you a few uncomfortable silences while you try to compress your magnum opus into a bite size chunk and still do it an iota of justice.
Q: I like the look of your web site, Rhonda, very noir, very suitable for a time travelling detective. Do you have a background in graphic design?
That’s great to hear, thanks!
I do have a distant background in art but my husband, Richard Caladine, did all the artwork on the website, as well as the maps that go with the books. We work closely together on these projects, but he does the final images. He’s in the communication technology industry as well as being a talented artist with his own website.
I love all things noir and have spent a lot of time developing that kind of look and feel in the series. The second book, Hoodwink, is set in Hollywood in 1939 specifically because this is my hero’s first real case as a private investigator. So, of course, she had to go back to the era of The Maltese Falcon and the hard-boiled private eye.
If you like the website now, check again towards the end of this year, Hoodwink comes out in January 2012 and there’ll be some changes and additions to celebrate the launch. J
Q: I see Gladiatrix was nominated for the Norma K Hemming Award. This award celebrates excellence in the exploration of race, gender, class and sexuality. This must have been a thrill. Did you set out to explore this themes, or did it just arise naturally?
Oh yeah, I certainly was thrilled to be nominated! Gladiatrix was my first book and I had no idea whether anyone would even read it. 🙂
Gladiatrix isn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a sermon – it’s high adventure – but my politics tend to be inclusive rather than exclusive, so I guess they seep into everything.
Q: Gladiatrix was also nominated for the Davitt Award. This award is sponsored by the Sisters in Crime Australia for the best crime novel by an Australian woman. It looks like you are spanning at least two genres. Have you always been a fan of crime and mystery?
Sisters in Crime is such a wonderful organisation – I was absolutely thrilled they liked it.
Why did I venture across genres? Human history is full of deep dark mysteries and many of them involve unsolved crimes, so following a time travelling detective opens up adventures in any conceivable time or place. When you throw a slightly alternate past and present into the mix, then the adventure gets really exciting because anything can happen – and frequently does. J
Have I always been a fan of crime and mystery? On and off. Then one hot, sweaty summer – when I was bored and desperate for something new – I ended up in the crime section, where I discovered the V.I. Warshawski series by Sara Paretsky. V.I. is not only a smart, tough detective in the old school, noir tradition, but is also a compassionate modern woman. What a combination! I was hooked.
Since then I’ve discovered that noir female characters are very exciting people. You never quite know what they’re going to do next – but you can be damned sure you want to stick around and watch.
Q: Your main character, Kannon Dupree is described as feisty and bit impetuous but smart enough to get herself out of dangerous situations. Did you find that your background in martial arts helped you write realistic fight scenes?
Oh definitely. Especially the injuries incurred side of it. J (I’m rubbing my knee with one hand as I type with the other.)
Q: You PHD and work as an academic specialising in knowledge systems in different cultures and historical periods must help you create realistic settings when your main character travels through time. What advice could you give aspiring writers on research?
It depends on what kind of book you’re researching but if you’re writing about ‘a stranger in a strange land’, I’d suggest you start with what’s the same and what’s different? Then ask yourself why is it so?
Find out what your characters need to operate on a daily basis. Then go on to what belief system is dominant. Is it religious, scientific etc…? How does the power structure operate? Gender/class/ethnic relations? What does their technology look like and how does it fit into the socio-economy? Then the more psychological components come in. What is the family unit like? What are their greatest fears? How do they relax? And so forth…
Q: You grew up in Western Australia and spent your holidays rambling around the old gold rush ghost towns. Will there be a Kannon Dupree time travel mystery set against this background?
The series will regularly return to an Australian setting – that will definitely happen.
Choosing what era to visit next takes a bit of planning. There’s a particular arc going on with the main character that is suited to certain eras, so that has to be catered for. Plus some stories come roaring out of my filing cabinet and gleefully hijack the process…
Both of which happened with my second and third books. Hoodwink, (due out in January 2012) is set in Hollywood in 1939. So Kannon can put on her black trench coat and sunglasses, and slink around noir paradise.
The third book, which I’m now in the process of finishing, comes out later in 2012. I can’t tell you what it’s about yet, as my editor has a sniper ready to fire a warning shot if I mention it too soon. J
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?
Really? But what about J.K. Rowling, Ursula Le Guin, Anne Rice and the million other stunningly wonderful female writers over there? What’s going on?
Sure gender can influence writing choices, just as ethnicity, religion, class, age, breadth of life experience, political beliefs etc, etc, can too. But what’s wrong with that? Does anyone still seriously believe diversity isn’t a good thing? The point is on what basis worth is judged…what is valued, which voices are listened to and which ones are denigrated or dismissed.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Like many fantasy authors, there’s always been a special place in my heart for books – whatever the genre, whoever the author – that show off the might of the human spirit and it’s awesome potential. We need more of those books not less…
At the moment I’m besotted by John Carlin’s book on Nelson Mandela. How Mandela overcame the shackles placed on him because of his colour and basically saved South Africa from genocide. Talk about a true-life fantasy story!
So, I will happily pick-up books with any gender combination of author and subject. But…I won’t buy misogynistic books or ones that treat their female characters like convenient wallpaper – whatever the author’s gender.
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?
My two dogs are wondering why I’m laughing… There are so many possibilities! What was Joan of Arc really like? What secrets are encoded in the Voynich manuscript? What were Buddha’s last words? What was written on the Mayan codices destroyed by the Conquistadors?
But this month the answer is: to the VIP seats at the Rugby World Cup Final, Johannesburg, 1995, and in the limo that took President Mandela back home from the game.
This is the day (a fraction of which is portrayed in the film Invictus) that it became clear that Nelson Mandela had managed to divert the South African nation away from a bloody civil war – when blacks and whites alike celebrated the Springboks’ World Cup victory. I’d dearly love to watch Nelson Mandela’s face as he saw HIS people, the South African nation, share the same emotion at the same time – joy.
Give-away Question: In the last Census there were 58,053 Jedi Knights listed in Australia. What new religion would you propose for the next one? Why? What would they do and wear? How would you spread it? (Get on to merchandising if you feel that is appropriate.)
Filed under Australian Writers, Awards, Book Giveaway, Characterisation, creativity, Dark Urban Fantasy, Fantasy books, Female Fantasy Authors, Fun Stuff, Genre, Inspiring Art, Nourish the Writer, Paranormal_Crime, Pitching your book, Promoting Friend's Books, Promoting your Book, Publishing Industry
I have been running a series of interview with female fantasy writers to redress a perception I came across – that fantasy was a bit of a boy’s club. It really isn’t like that here in Australia. We have many wonderful fantasy writers who just happen to be female.
Today I’m interviewing Trent Jamieson because, for one thing he has a wonderful new book coming out. (Yay Trent!), and also I thought I’d ask him the same questions I’ve asked the female writers about fantasy writing and gender, to get his perspective as a male fantasy writer.
I’ve known Trent Jamieson since he was a fresh-faced aspiring writer coming to the VISION meetings (almost 15 years) and Trent has been a part of the ROR writing group for 8 years. He’s sold heaps of short stories, won or been a finalist in awards and now has a second series coming out.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: I can remember dropping you at the ferry after one of our critique sessions, saying – One day The Roil will be published, Trent. It’s so creative and interesting. It just has to hit the right publisher at the right time. Now it is coming out through Angry Robot. I was thrilled when you asked me for a cover quote. The Roil can be described as Steampunk, but it is so much more, dystopian SF, Lovecraftian horror. How long has The Roil (The Nightbound Land duology) been in the making?
Ooh, I remember that, too! I’m not sure if I believed you at the time, but I’m so glad you were right. In fact, I never quite believe it until I know the book is in print – just got an email from my publisher to say that copies arrived at Angry Robot today – Yay!
The Nightbound Land’s been around in my head a very long time, at least ten years though there are elements going back to my early twenties, just after I graduated Uni. I’ve notes sketches, and bits and pieces in my earliest notebooks. I think this is the world that I’ve kept circling all my adult life, and I might come back to it once I’ve finished the next book (which is due in a couple of weeks, Arrrgh!). I’ve short stories planned, there’s a novella I want to do concerning a person that really only shows up for an instant in book one (and as a corpse, no less, but up until that point they had led a very exciting, if rather tragic, life), there’s poems too. This is the world I always come back to in my mind.
It’s dark and grim (and I’ve glad you’ve noticed the Lovecraftian elements – there’s a reason my blog is called Trentonomicon) – and nonsensical. But it’s also very much grounded in my experience of city spaces. My wife Diana says she can’t read the scenes in Mirrlees or Tate without thinking of Brisbane.
This is Trent’s cool new book trailer for The Roil .
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-GIecM1jQ]
Q: You’ve written a lot of short stories with an anthology Reserved for Travelling Shows and over 23 stories published individually. Your stories have been finalists in the Aurealis Awards four times and won twice (SF and YA, but also nominated in horror). Just as it is hard to pin down The Roil, it is hard to pin down your short stories. If you had to describe your genre as a writer, how would you do it? And, if that’s too hard, what are your favourite genres to write in?
I like to mess around in various genres. Believe it or not, my first published works were nonsense poems. But I don’t set out to write in a specific genre. Stories start as either a particular image, or a weird sentence or even a beat, I just follow the pulse to end.
I don’t know if I have a favourite genre, I like the grand epic gestures of Urban Fantasy, and the way it’s also curiously intimate.
Steampunk is just glorious, the machines, the clothes, the foggy streets (or in my case rain-drenched). I’m really itching to work on a sword and sorcery novel that has been sitting in my hard drive for years (I sold Death Most Definite, before I could get back to it).
I love genre fiction, but ultimately what makes a tale work is the author writing it not the appurtenances of genre, I love authors that are their own genre, I want to read a Tansy Rayner Roberts story or a Rowena Cory Daniels story or a Marianne de Pierres story or China Mieville or Michael Swanwick or Kim Westwood.
What I would love to be is an author that drags people with them whatever genre they write in (maybe one day, eh) though my sensibilities are deeply fantastical, so they know it’s always going to be a bit weird.
Q: You’ve tutored at Clarion South and the Queensland University of Technology. I’ve always enjoyed and appreciated your critiques at our ROR weekends. Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
Honestly the most important thing is to read, and read lots. Everything you can get your hands on, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, swim in the words. You don’t learn to riff off words until you’ve heard a lot of tunes. Unless you’re some sort of genius, then you don’t need my advice anyway.
The other thing is to take a delight in it. Writing is play, writing fiction is play, if you’re not enjoying it there are far more lucrative careers than writing (pretty much anything). It’s hard work, hard, hard work, but it should sing for you, too.
Q: Your Death Works trilogy was published by Orbit. The first book, Definite Most Definite was nominated for both the horror and the fantasy section of the Aurealis Awards (again you defy genre). This trilogy combines horror with humour, zombies and death as a corporate business (not to mention a love story).
The trilogy is set in Brisbane, our home town. In an interview on Fangbooks you say: ‘Brisbane is very important to me. From the brown, and slightly ominous coils of the Brisbane River to the flashing transmitters atop Mt Coot-tha, and the knitting needle bunches of the Kurilpa Bridge Brisbane is full of stories (and the possibility of adventure, explosions and love).’ Did you come across any resistance to setting the trilogy in a little-known Australian capital city?
None whatsoever. No-one ever told me not to set it in Brisbane, it never came up. Orbit grabbed it and ran with it, and they’ve never been anything but supportive – maybe it helps that Bernadette Foley, my publisher is from Brisbane!
See Trent’s cool Death Most Definite book trailer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQtI__Zc5bY]
Q: You’ve been doing a series of quirky and amusing videos. (See See Trent’s Book corners 1- 5 and Trent’s Book Corners 6- 10). What inspired you to start these?
Honestly … I discovered that I had a video camera in my computer and thought, why not? They’re really something I do as a bit of a hobby. I have a rule that they have be pretty rough, and daggy, so far I am in no danger of breaking that rule.
And, I thought, I can do this, whereas I could never see myself podcasting. Galactic Suburbia, the Writer and the Critic, Coode St Review, all of these are brilliant podcasts – that I love, and could never hope to replicate – I figured there was some room for silliness.
Q: By the end of August, you’ll hand in the second Nightbound Land book, Night’s Engines. What do you plan to write next?
Gah! I’ve a kid’s series called The Players that I wrote with an Arts Council Grant a few years back, I’d like to see if I can sell that. I’ve a Sword and Sorcery novel called Empire December that I would like to finally polish up and send out. I’ve a story about a girl that is carried by a storm to a carnival in a cherry orchard run by the devil – and he’s a slick old devil this one. And there’s a Space Opera novel I’ve been meaning to write, not to mention an Urban Fantasy series about a family in Logan City – the city on the southern edge of Brisbane. And there’s a vampire novel that I want to write based on my short story “Day Boy”.
You know how it is, the ideas never stop coming. It’s deciding which one grabs you the most at the time and running with it.
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?
If I pick up a book without knowing the author’s gender I rarely guess correctly, and that’s usually only because the odds suggest I have to get it right some of the time! So, to me, no. Writing is about inhabiting other people’s heads. Good writers of either sex do this. I think there is a difference in the way that different people write fantasy in the politics, the concerns, the lyricism etc that they bring to their work, but gender isn’t as big a determinant of that. Though this is me coming at it as a reader, and I want to read (or at least try) EVERYTHING!
But what happens if you cut out one sex is that you miss out on fifty percent of the voices, fifty percent of the richness of the world. I don’t want to reduce my chance of being surprised and delighted by half.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
I expect to be entertained, challenged, shocked, and taken somewhere different when I pick up any book.
Margo Lanagan, Kate Griffin, Grace Dugan, Hope Mirrlees, Lucy Sussex, Kirsten Bishop, P.M. Newton, Steph Swainston, Krissy Kneen, Gail Carriger, Kate Elliott, and I could go on and on, all of these writers do that because, like any other writer I admire, they’re not me, I don’t know what they’re thinking or what game they’re playing with their stories, until I read them.
That’s the chief pleasure of reading any work of fiction, you’re reading someone else’s imagination, and mixing it with your own to form a cool sort of imaginative story stew. What an amazing thing that is.
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 it would be to the beginning of the universe. If you could somehow exist and watch the laws of physics coming into play, watch something become, well, something when before there wasn’t anything, how wonderful that would be!
Either that or I’d love to hang out with a T-rex or two.
Give-away Question:
What steampunk technology would you used to travel around the world?
Follow Trent on Twitter: @trentonomicon
See Trent’s Blog.
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As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Gail Z Martin to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: When someone has a middle name starting with Z I have to ask. What does it stand for? (Blame my obsession with words). Is it Zillah? Oh no, I just found your full name on wikipedia. It’s Zehner. OK, where does Zehner come from? Is it Dutch and an old family name?
Zehner is actually my maiden name. It’s German. I found that there are a million Gail Martins, so the Z makes it a little more identifiable.
Q: I see you are an SF fan from way back. I discovered fandom when I was 18. (Yay, people who don’t think I’m crazy). When did you discover Fandom and was it a great relief?
I discovered SF/Fantasywhen I was about 12, and got involved with fandom when I was about 17. Yes, it was a great relief. I enjoyed getting together with other people who liked the same kinds of movies and books, and it was so great to be able to talk about the things I liked without being “weird.”
Q: I see you are an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina. (I’m an Associate Lecturer in Narrative, Storyboards and Animatics). What is an Adjunct Professor?
Actually, the Adjunct Professor gig went away with budget cuts in 2008, but I guess the Internet hasn’t caught up! It’s probably very similar to your “associate lecturer” role in that as an adjunct, I wasn’t tenured faculty. I was tapped for my expertise in a particular subject, but I only taught a couple of classes and didn’t have any advisory responsibilities.
Q: With a background in marketing (25 years in fact) you run Dreamspinner Communications. You’ve written two books on the topic 30 Days to Social Media Success and Launching your Book Without Losing your Mind. I guess with your passion for fantasy, reaching out to readers was the next natural step. Do you have any 
tips for writers who are just starting out?
Being present on the Internet and on social media is really crucial for connecting with readers. It’s a great way for new writers to spread the word about their books and to begin to build a loyal readership.
Q: In amongst all the other things you do, you’ve had a book out every year (2 in 2009 and none in 2010 so it averages to a book a year) since 2007. You must have a strong work ethic. How do you juggle all your other commitments and your writing?
Actually, the second book in 2009 came out on Dec. 31, so it might as well have been 2010! I’ll have three new books out this year—one fantasy and two non-fiction. I just love writing, so it doesn’t feel like work. I own my own business, so making time for the writing is a lot easier than when I worked in corporate. And I make a lot of “to-do” lists!
Q: Your Chronicles of the Necromancer had some gorgeous covers. How much input do you get with our covers?
I’ve been very fortunate to have had some amazing cover artists. A good cover really goes a long way toward selling a book! From The Blood King onward, I had the opportunity to supply a paragraph or two of description for the character on the cover. I love all my covers, but I think Dark Haven is especially spot on!
Q: In Chronicles of Necromancer your main character has the power over the dead (not surprising since he’s necromancer). You don’t often see the exploration of ghosts and vampires in the traditional fantasy books. Was this something that you’d been wanting to write for a long time and it just bubbled up out of you?
I love ghosts and vampires, so if I was going to write a series, those had to be in there somewhere! Historically, ghosts and vampires were very much a part of medieval folklore, so to me it doesn’t seem strange. And I just wasn’t in to writing about elves and dwarves!
Q: You set four books in the Necromancer Chronicles, The Summoner, The Blood King, Dark Haven and The Dark Lady’s Chosen. By Book four Tris has become king. Does The Fallen Kings Cycle pick up right after the end of book four with The Sworn The Sworn and then The Dread which is due out next year?
Yes. There’s about six months of elapsed time in the book universe between the end of Dark Lady’s Chosen and the beginning of The Sworn. Then The Dread picks up immediately after the end of The Sworn. All six books cover just a little less than three years in the characters’ lives.
Q: You interviewed me for a podcast. (See here). When did you first start doing podcasts and what attracted you to this form of communication?
I’ve been doing podcasts now for almost four years. I stumbled upon other people doing podcasts through the conventions I attended and thought it would be a lot of fun, plus a great way to introduce my readers to the interesting people I meet. I really do have a wonderful time doing the interviews, and it’s been a terrific way to continue the conversation with many of the fabulous folks I’ve met at conventions.
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 see less of a difference in fantasy than with other genres. In general (and it is a very broad generalization with no doubt many exceptions), male writers often focus more on the action, weapons and military tactics and give short shrift to the relationships and character growth. I’m as interested in what’s going on inside of the characters and to their interactions with the people around them as I am in the action. That’s what I like to read, so that’s what I write.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
It’s usually the story synopsis on the back of a book that makes me pick it up, especially if it’s from a writer I’m not familiar with. For male writers, I probably gravitate toward books by those writers who are the exceptions to the generalization I stated and who do include character growth and invest some time exploring their friendships, romances and other interpersonal relationships.
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?
While there are a lot of time periods I think might be fun to visit as a tourist, I’m too fond of air conditioning and modern sanitation to want to live in any other time except our own!
Give-away Question: If you could go out to dinner with two fictional characters, who would they be?
Follow Gail on Twitter: @GailZMartin
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As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Erica Hayes to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: Book one of The Shadowfae Chronicles came out in 2009. This series is set in Melbourne. Did you ever consider it might be too risky? Were you tempted to set it in a generic US or British city? (Read the first chapter here).
No, not for this one. I really wanted to set the series in a city I knew. And the idea for the warring demon factions in the Shadowfae underworld came from the real-life gang shenanigans in Melbourne, so it seemed only right to leave it there. Neither my agent nor my editor ever asked me to change it, and to my knowledge no one who passed on it did so because of the non-American setting (plenty of other reasons, but setting wasn’t it!)
I wouldn’t say it’s a complete myth that American contemporary fantasy publishers don’t want exotic settings – it’s clear from the evidence of what’s on the shelves that they’re more comfortable with places they believe their readership will find familiar. And hey, most of their writers are American, and they’re writing what they know, same as I am, so American settings are to be expected. But I think if you can make the setting fresh and exciting, and so integral to the story that changing it would lose the flavour, it really doesn’t matter where the action takes place.
In my books, the scene-setting is extra important, because there’s so much sensory detail. I want readers to feel like they’re there, immersed in the sounds and smells and tastes. And I think that’s what you’ve got to do, no matter if it’s America or Australia or darkest Africa.
Q: The second book of the series, Shadowglass came out in March 2010. (Read the first chapter here). You describe your main character, Ice, as ‘a geeky little fairy girl who wants to be someone else. Anyone else. She doesn’t really care who, so long as it isn’t her own clumsy, tongue-tied self. Sure, she’s got a career, sort of, if you count ‘diamond thief’ as a job. She’s got a pair of crazy fairy friends who’d do anything for her. Life’s not so bad, even if it’s a nasty fairy-hating world out there.’ Do you find your characters spring into your mind fully formed or do you consciously build them?
Usually they spring to mind in cartoon form, if you like – kind of a line-drawing caricature of themselves, with a few defining characteristics. But I do a lot of work after that, to build their backstory and make sure they’re believable.
Ice, for instance, I immediately knew was a geeky fairy girl who steals for a living. But the wanting to be someone else came later. Thing was, I’d never anticipated writing about a main character who was a fairy, and I’d spent the first book in the series showing fairies as these wild party creatures who live fast, die young and never have a plan beyond whatever feels good at the time. Not a good motivation for a main character!
But I couldn’t contradict myself by making her a driven career girl or something. So petty thief Ice is wild and fun-loving and careless, yes, but she has this secret longing for something more, and she’s desperately in love-at-a-distance with her idol, Indigo, who’s a big-time thief and everything she both wants and wants to be. Of course, it’s that yearning that gets her into trouble. With demons, and possessed magic mirrors, and lovesick serial killers. Oyy.
Q: And six months later book three, Poison Kissed, came out. (Read the first chapter here). Were you madly scrambling to write these books to deadlines or had you written several before the first one was accepted?
I’d written two when I sold SHADOWFAE in a two-book contract. But that second manuscript still hasn’t been published – I wrote them a whole new book 2, SHADOWGLASS. That was an interesting experience. I’d never written to a deadline before, and when I told them, ‘sure, six months is no problem!’ I had no idea who or what SHADOWGLASS would be about. I had to ignore my already-written book 2 and reconsider how the series would proceed. But the editor said ‘fairies, please!’ so I said, ‘sure’, and thrashed it about until I came up with something.
Luckily, I discovered that six months is a comfortable timeline for me. The books are around 100K (except book 1, which is very short, though no one seems to have noticed!) so I spend around six weeks outlining and getting the story right, three months or so writing, and the rest of the time doing a few quick revisions before I submit.
My agent isn’t the kind who asks for revisions from the get-go, so we typically send the MS straight to the editor when I’m done. My own revisions are mostly tweaking the character arcs so the romantic development is just right. And trimming: the manuscripts are invariably too long, and because I’ve outlined them until my eyes bleed, I can’t usually cut anything substantial. So I have to lose words by trimming the writing. That gets harder as I get more experienced and my first drafts get tighter, and because these books are intended to be written in a lush and textured style. But I find I can still lose 5% to 10% pretty comfortably. It’s just a matter of ruthlessness!
Oh, and that not-published ex-book 2? Genie meets zombie cat-burglar. That’s all I’m saying…
Q: And book four, Blood Cursed, is being released in August 2011. (Read first chapter here). Have you found that releasing the books 6 months apart has created momentum for the series?
I don’t know. I hope so! But six months is pretty standard for paranormal romance. These days some series are doing back-to-back releases, with books released every month – now that’s momentum!
Still, if books aren’t working for readers, I don’t think a quick release schedule can save them – and if readers love a series, history shows they’re willing to wait. The danger used to be that if you waited too long to publish again, readers would have forgotten about the earlier books, with no chance of a recap because the paperbacks had already disappeared from bookstore shelves. But now, with e-books, the earlier books are ‘in print’ – and visible to readers – for a lot longer, maybe forever. So I’m not sure that release schedules are going to be such a factor in the future.
Q: Each of these books revolves around a mystery. Are you a closet mystery fan?
I never really looked at it that way 🙂 I suppose they are mysteries of a sort! Jade in SHADOWFAE has to hunt down four damned souls, and Mina in POISON KISSED is searching for her mother’s murderer. But it’s basically just to give the characters something to panic about while the romance happens! And the solution to the mystery is always a kick in the face for the heroine as far as the romance is concerned. The plot serves the romance, not the other way around.
I do like mysteries on TV – the gritty British police procedural kind, usually, like Wire in the Blood or Cracker or the new reboot of Sherlock. I love Doctor Who, and he solves mysteries. But I’m not sure I could ever write a procedural – they’re too clever!
Q: Is your next book going to be number five of The Shadowfae Chronicles or are you branching out? Tell us what’s in store.
I’ve got a Shadowfae short story, CHERRY KISSES, coming out in an anthology called HEX SYMBOLS from St Martin’s Press at some stage soon. It’s about a new character, a witchy con artist called Lena. But at the moment, I’m working on other things. I’ve written a space opera, and a dark paranormal romance set in a world that’s not the Shadowfae world, so I’m looking at publishing options for those. And I’m toying with some urban fantasy ideas. A surfeit of new ideas, in fact!
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?
Yeah. That’s the short answer.
What, you want the long answer? So glad you asked 🙂 The ‘big thing’ in fantasy books in America at the moment is obviously urban fantasy and paranormal romance. Not too hard to guess which side of that fence most male authors fall. Female authors – at least the published ones – seem to be willing to include a lot more romance in their books, and to focus on relationships over action. Is it because they have to in order to get published and gain a large readership, seeing as the romance genre is so dominant and it’s what publishers want – or because female writers naturally lean that way and male writers don’t?
I don’t know for sure, but it sure is interesting to note that the biggest thing in fantasy television right now is the old-fashioned antithesis of lone-wolf, kick-ass-chick urban fantasy: Game of Thrones, based on books written by a man, with male screenwriters and a heavily male-dominated cast – except for the most powerful villain, who’s a woman.
I don’t mean these are bad things – I adore Game of Thrones, both the show and the books! And the show does have other strong and important female characters, which is impressive, considering it’s set in a fantasy society that’s dominated by men. But it’s interesting to see what’s required – or what the networks think is required, and in the case of Game of Thrones at least, it worked big-time – for a fantasy show to gain large mainstream popularity. Part of which, apparently, is that the male cast I mentioned is populated with some of the sexiest actors on the planet 🙂
I mean, it’s TV Land, so everyone’s hot, right? And sex always sells, no matter the genre. But part of me suspects that someone at HBO thinks female viewers only watch fantasy for the hot guys – and that’s kind of borne out by the popularity of paranormal romance, right?
Exhibit B: True Blood, another HBO show that I also love, in a surreptitious, guilty-pleasure fashion… A female-written fantasy (Charlaine Harris) seen through the thoroughly male lenses of the show’s creator, Alan Ball. The result: soft porn, or as I saw it described on a comic book website, ‘a show that’s almost entirely about Rogue’s tits’ 🙂 HBO thought they’d get more viewers if the show was more about sex and violence than about fantasy. Which supports the theory that writers put romance in their fantasy books because it’s what the publishers want. What it doesn’t explain is why more male authors don’t do it. So perhaps some innate difference in the way the genders write fantasy is a real factor – it makes sense that we’d all write what we want to read, after all.
Another example is Supernatural, which began as a monster-of-the-week action series (remember season 1?) until, IMO, the network figured out pretty quickly who the majority of their viewers were (women and teenage girls) and turned it into a bromance, because “hell, women want stories about relationships, right? Look at all those romances they read!” As a result, Sam and Dean Winchester are maybe the hottest on-again, off-again couple on TV. Whether this is ‘what women really want’ or not, would Supernatural would be the hit it is today if Sam and Dean weren’t such handsome young things, and if they weren’t so desperately ‘in love’?
Anyway. I’m speculating. I don’t have any facts here. And anything that gets fantasy and/or romance onto the screen is golden with me! But I’d love to know the gender breakdown of viewers for Game of Thrones and True Blood, compared to that of the books’ readership. And how many straight boys watch Supernatural 🙂
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Umm. Maybe. I know I’m always interested when I see a new urban fantasy book written by a man, just because they’re so rare. I suppose I’d be surprised if I discovered that such a book had a strong romance plot, as opposed to little love-interest subplots. And I think for some reason, I expect more humour and less angst from a male UF writer. This is probably Harry Dresden’s fault.
So is that a yes? I guess it is! Remembering that I’m coming at it from the paranormal romance/urban fantasy corner. If you’re talking about the more epic-style fantasy, probably not so much.
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?
Ooh, that’s a toughie. Backwards or forwards? If backwards, I’ll cling to my desperately romantic view of history and ignore the fact that my feeble 21st century immune system would probably swiftly succumb to smallpox or some horrible rotting fever and I’d die screaming… maybe Imperial Rome? I’d love to see if it’s the way we imagine it.
Or forwards? Yeah, that’d be cool. I want to ride on an interstellar spaceship at faster than the speed of light 🙂 And see the future Galactic Empire, complete with fake gravity and Death Stars.
Give-away Question: Erica likes the idea of a time machine, so where-when would you go and why?
Follow Erica on Twitter: @ericahayes
Catch up with Erica on GoodReads.
You know you’ve made it when your books get sold in a boxed set, so you can imagine my excitement when I opened an email from my publisher that said King Rolen’s Kin Bundle, with this beautiful graphic!
So if you are into E-Books and you think $14.67 for the trilogy is a good price. Here’s the link.
And maybe one day, they’ll do a boxed set of my books. <grin>
Filed under Australian Writers, E-books, Fantasy books, Female Fantasy Authors, Fun Stuff, Genre
