Kim says:
Thanks to all for the interesting choices. I like Richard’s message in reverse, and Cecelia’s right about the little everyday things getting lost to time. The big mac…let me think…eeeeew, Belinda, eeeeew! Why not write a very long note to self, Sean, and in ten years time publish it as a book? But it’s Bren’s choices that win for me: anti-pitfall warnings followed by HP1-7 and a typewriter? Heaven.
So Bren, email Kim on: kim(at)kimwestwood(dot)com
Filed under Australian Writers, Book Giveaway, Dark Urban Fantasy
As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Kim Westwood to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: I notice that you were ‘a weedy, asthmatic kid who devoured books like dinner.’ Kate Forsyth had a speech impediment and lost herself in books. I was a fat kid who no one would play with, so I lost myself in books. Do you think this ability to be totally immersed in an invented world, then go on to create invented worlds of our own arises from loneliness in childhood?
I’d lay bets on it.
Q: You’ve lived rough, close to the land: ‘For a while I lived on a farm by a river where I learnt to crutch sheep with hand shears, raise poddy calves and hypnotize chooks.’ Does this inspire your writing?
Yes. It’s the things that live at the bottom of the garden of my psyche that I inevitably plunder in my fiction.
Q: I see you did a Bachelor of Music. My daughter did a BA at the Con in Jazz voice. By the time she finished she’d lost her love of music (fortunately, it came back). Have you gone back to music? Are you one of these writers who create a play-list for your current work-in-progress and use it to get into the right frame of mind?
I won’t ever go back to playing classical music. It’s not that I don’t love it; it’s that I’ve loved it too much. The pressure of performance and desire for perfection nearly killed me. I don’t tend to write with music, but I am one of those people who play music REALLY loud in their car. Bach, Gesualdo, Pärt, Snow Patrol, Lamb, Adele: all loud.
Q: You wrote a theatre pieces for ‘dancer, light and shadow’. My uncle danced with QLD Ballet Theatre. Did you have a background in dance? Was that what drew you to write this piece? Do you have a recording of it or has it been lost in time?
My background was in gymnastics and physical theatre, so you could say I was used to choreographing movement. The aesthetic of dance fitted the vision I had for The City of Midnight: a numinous space where sound and solo performer folded in and out of light and dark. And yes, it’s recorded for posterity…just not on YouTube.
Q: Your short stories have been well received, with an Aurealis win and several final listings, as well as Stella’s Transformation appearing in Year’s Best Fantasy 2005 and several stories appearing in Australia’s Year’s Best SF and Fantasy. Just as some stories have a natural length do you think some writers have a length that suits them best?
Before The Daughters of Moab, I didn’t know whether I could write to novel length—I thought I was more suited to haiku. But the story led the way. Now, whenever I return to writing short fiction, I’m reminded of how much I enjoy the challenge of a compact story arc. I like creating a world that fits perfectly in a teacup.
Q: Your first book The Daughters of Moab was forged in the fires of Varuna Writers Retreat. But seriously, you did work on it at the writers retreat. Can you tell us a little about this experience? I’ve always thought it was be heaven.
The Varuna Retreat Fellowship struck the perfect balance for me: the solitude and calm of writing all day (and yes, I did!) followed by the companionship and sociability of other writers in the evening. This suited me better than the routine of ClarionSouth, which I went to in 2004. The Clarionettes, as I like to call them, would be the first to tell you that I was uncomfortable group critiquing early-stage and unfinished stories. For me, letting a story out into the world before it’s ready tends to oxidise and spoil it like a piece of fruit.
Q: There seems to be a playing with gender in The Daughters of Moab, is this something you like to explore?
Yes, there is. And yes, I do.
Q: Your next book The Courier’s New Bicycle is due out in 2011. Is it also a ‘poetic apocalyptic’ book?
Upfront, I should say that The Courier’s New Bicycle is neither fantasy nor apocalyptic—even the poetic has been swapped for pacy. This is a very fast ride compared to The Daughters of Moab. Salisbury Forth is a courier of contraband in an atmospheric but ailing Melbourne at a time of major socio-political change. The first review (Australian Bookseller & Publisher, July) described it as “a disturbingly credible and darkly noir post-cyberpunk tale.” That makes me happy!
Q: I read your description of how the short story Nightship came to be, and found it riveting. When will we see the book?
It’s in gestation. Think an elephant’s gestation.
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?
The UK/US perception is news to me, but being in a club is not what makes a writer special. An individual’s prose style is moulded by such a complex array of things, one of which may or may not be their experience of maleness and/or femaleness. In other words, I don’t want to help reify that rather spurious divide.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
No. The gender of the writer is an irrelevancy to me. Their imagination—and what they do with it—is all that matters.
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’d go back to Britain at the time of the Picts, who painted themselves with woad. Love that blue.
Give-away Question:
Imagine a parcel that you are posting today to receive in ten years’ time. What would you put in it?
For a podcast of Nightship see here (skim down).
This time last week I was sitting at the Dymock’s store at Supanova surrounded by wonderful costumes and fellow writers trying desperately to talk. I have my voice back, but I’m still suffering with the ‘flu. Can’t hear properly and it’s been almost a week since I flew home. Here I am with my amazing pull-up behind me. Clint Langley‘s artwork came up really well. Made people stop and take a second look
Was wonderful to catch up with Marianne de Pierres, Alison Goodman, Kate Forsyth and Jennifer Fallon. Also met up with Kevin J Anderson and Rebecca Moesta, who I’d met at the Brisbane Writers Festival a couple of years ago. It is nice to get away with fellow writers and talk shop, everything from career moves and publishing industry to writing craft. Although I didn’t do much talking. Very frustrating. Here we are all lined up for the obligatory photo with the storm troopers!
You couldn’t be bored. There were comic artists, manga artists and lots of amazing costumes. People who’d bought the KRK trilogy at other Supanovas came by to chat.
One girl told me, I bought your books in Melbourne. You said they’d keep me up all night and I thought you were just saying that, but they did. I finished all three in three days!
I wonder if she got any sleep.
The nice thing about Supanova is that when I was growing up there were hardly any TV shows with a spec fic theme, Lost in Space, I Dream of Jeanie and Bewitched spring to mind. It wasn’t until Star Wars in 1977 that the genre I loved started to become mainstream. Back in those days there was definitely a sense of them and us. We were the fans and everyone else thought we were crazy. Now, every second TV show has elements of paranormal/SF and no one thinks anything of it. So a pop culture event like Supanova can attract crowds of between 10 to 25 thousand. People turn up in costume and they feel like they fit right in.
Thinking of wearing a costume to Supanova? Here’s some inspiration.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_VxCLbHiJM&feature=related]
Had to miss the Perth Supanova, my work load, the ‘flu and the cost made it impossible, but I’m looking forward to the more Supanovas in future. Maybe I’ll see you there.
CE Murphy says:
Sorry about the wait, deadlines and life got in the way. I like “Cecilia”, who wanted to go either to Pompeii (and hope the volcano hadn’t already erupted!) or Queen Victoria.
Cecilia, please email CE on …
cemurphyauthor(at)gmail(dot)com
.
Filed under Book Giveaway, Dark Urban Fantasy, Female Fantasy Authors
As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Kylie Chan to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: Your first book White Tiger came out in 2006. Your books have been on the best seller lists consistently since then. Why do you think they appeal so much to your readers?
Mainly, I think, because of the novelty. The Chinese mythology is a completely new set of stories to explore, with wonderful – and truly weird – characters. Many people have heard of the Monkey King but the overall philosophy and the way it fits together is fascinating. I’ve also tried to make the books a simple, straightforward and action-packed read, always fresh and never boring. It seems to have worked!
Q: There were three books in the Dark Heavens series, White Tiger
Red Phoenix, Blue Dragon’, and another three in the Journey to Wudang sequel series, Earth to Hell, Hell to Heaven, Heaven to Wudang. When do you sleep?
What is this ‘sleep’ that you speak of? I am a mother. We learn the minute our first child is born that sleep is something that is precious and fleeting and truly wonderful. It doesn’t help my quest for sleep that I work best between midnight and three am – I tried to force-write book four, ‘Earth To Hell’, during the day and failed miserably – and that I have to get up at seven to get my daughter off to school. Unsurprisingly I’m ferociously productive during school holidays, when I can stay up as late as I like and sleep the morning away. This is a good thing, as I detest mornings anyway.
Q: The second series open 8 years after the first series finishes. You’ve been writing these characters since 2004 (?) now. Do they become like old friends?
Yes, they have become like old friends. Is there a line you cross? From where the characters are talking to each other, to where they are talking to you, and the men in white coats come to take you away? Maybe to be successful as an author you have to pass that line anyway. I know many of my family and friends suffer me with bemused tolerance and believe that I should have been carted off to the madhouse a long time ago. But then they all show up at my house and it’s a madhouse anyway.
Q: In a post on the ROR site you talked about living in a different culture (you married a Chinese national and lived in Hong Kong for ten years) and how this gave you insight for your writing. Was it a bit of a culture shock to come back to Australia?
I can remember the first time I came back after being a while in Hong Kong – I was delighted at the signs. They were all in English! I was so accustomed to seeing signs in Chinese, or both languages, it was a cultural jolt.
Coming back for good has had some difficulties. There are a few really authentic provincial Chinese dishes that are simply not available here. I have an arrangement with the local Chinese restaurant to do one for me (steamed scallops on bean curd with black bean) but there’s no Chiu Chow Goose or Pepper Chicken here that’s really authentically well done. I miss the food!
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’d really love to say no but that would be lying. Male-written fantasy, particularly when done by those who are new to the craft, tends to include female characters that are two-dimensional cardboard cut outs. After a while the writer becomes aware that all his women are depicted as round smiling cooks, graceful noblewomen or buxom peasants, and he’ll add a kick-ass man-hating Amazon in a chain-mail bikini – for the hero to win over.
Women writers do the same thing when they’re starting out, but in my opinion they tend to write more rounded characters – both male and female. For them, the female characters are depicted as more realistic people. It doesn’t stop novice women from writing characters that are just as two-dimensional.
When a writer is at the peak of their craft, however, gender makes no difference whatsoever. It’s impossible to tell the difference between truly great prose written by men or women, and the characters have made the transition from being sock puppets to being real people.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
I’m ashamed to say that it does. I expect a book written by a man to be more plot-driven, and a book written by a woman to be more character-driven. This is a distressing revelation for me, I like to think I don’t pre-judge at all based on gender. Of course, since I like both types of novel, that’s the only expectation that I have; and whether it’s good or not is completely unrelated.
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?
Only one trip? That is cruel beyond belief. The Roman Empire at its height – no wait, the Byzantine Empire at its height – no, classical Athens, when the Acropolis is being built – no, hold on, Renaissance Florence, can I go to Renaissance Venice at the same time? Renaissance Rome? China during the Qing! No, during the Tang. The Ming! Angkor Wat, when the city held a million people. No! The Incan civilization. Hold on, there’s all the future, too – Brisbane, a hundred years from now. Brisbane, a thousand years from now, and throw in the rest of the world while you’re at it. Oh, I give up, that question is way too hard. Just lend me the time machine, and I promise to bring it back in five minutes.
Give-away Question:
If you could be a Shen, would you be a human, a dragon, a stone, or some other sort of spirit, and why?
Follow Kylie on Twitter: @kyliecchan
Catch up with Kylie on her blog.
As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Kaaron Warren to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: You lived in Fiji for three years. How did this come about? And do you find living in Fiji has influence your writing?
My husband was posted there as part of the diplomatic service, so we felt a bit ordinary when we came back! I was hugely influenced by Fiji in my writing; the environment, the people, the history, the culture, the shopping, the food, all of it was so different to life in Australia.
The thing is, coming back to Australia has inspired me as well. The stories I’ve written over the last 18 months have been hugely inspired by the Australian landscape. The rivers, the country towns, the suburbia and the winding roads you travel.
Q: I see you’ve sold around 70 short stories (three collections: The Grinding House, The Glass Woman, Dead Sea Fruit (coming soon from Ticonderoga Publications). Would you say the short story is your natural length? Or do you feel equally comfortable writing novel length?
Both. Some stories are naturally short stories, others require far more exploration. I really love both things and love that I can write short and long.
Q: Your stories have been described as dark and disturbing. Are you a secret dark fiction (horror) fan? Does this mean you have the kind of dreams that make you wake up with vivid images and the echoes of a scream reverberating around in your head?
I love reading horror stories, but not the slash and burn kind. I also love the best crime stories, the ones that are full of horror.
I’m not such a fan of most horror movies.
I don’t have nightmares all that often; not the sleeping kind. My horrors come from hearing the news, reading the papers and magazines, from listening to the stories people tell, from watching my elderly neighbour be locked up against her will in a dementia ward.
Q: Your mantle-piece must be getting very crowded with the swag of Ditmar and Aurealis Awards you’ve won, since way back in 1996. What do you think goes into an award winning story?
Originality of idea and voice. Sharpness and clarity. A real story. Characters you can believe in.
Q: You sold three dark fiction books to Angry Robot. That must have been a real buzz when the news came through. Slights appears to revolve around death and the afterlife. What inspired you to write this book?
It was an amazing moment, to read the email from Marc Gascoigne telling me he was buying all three novels. I had to ask my husband to read it, because I thought I was dreaming!
My concept of the afterlife in Slights is that you create your own hell by the way you behave on Earth. This was inspired very clearly by the Hare Krsna concept of hell; that your personal hell is designated by the things you do. If you are a drinker, or a meat eater, or a philanderer, a very certain hell awaits you.
Q: Walking the Tree is your second book. Even after reading the blurb I find it hard to pin down the genre. What theme are you exploring with this book?
It’s quite an anthropological theme. I wanted to understand how much difference geography makes; how being born ten kilometres apart can make two people have very different lives.
I also explored the concept of the network; how everything connects.
Then there’s the idea of women in control; women the ones who leave. They are the ones who make the major life choices. I wanted to explore how this would affect people.
I also thought about the need to go home, the draw for home at the end of one’s life. I wondered what it would be like not to have this.
In doing this, I had to change my own perceptions. I had to understand that in the world of Botanica, leaving is important; saying goodbye is a natural thing.
Q: Your latest book is Mistification. It looks like dark urban fantasy. Can you tell us a little about it?
It’s the story of Marvo, a true magician. He’s born in a strange room, in silence, and for the first four years of his life he doesn’t speak. He has no opportunity to go to school. Once he leaves this childhood home, he listens to stories, and he learns from all he knows from them.
I think Angry Robot would classify it in their category of WTF!
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’m not sure that there is. I don’t think I can pick a writer’s gender from their writing, unless they deliberately choose to write in a particular way.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Not at all. I do read some books totally on spec, but most books are either by friends, or have come recommended, so I’m dealing with those expectations instead!
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’d love to be able to solve a couple of long term murder cases! It would be hard to pick which one. I guess Jack the Ripper is a major one I’d love to know the answer to. But I’d also love to know what happened to the Beaumont Children, and to Eloise (another young girl who disappeared when I was about 7). I still have nightmares about all those kids, and feel such sorrow for the families not knowing.
Give-away Question:
What’s your favourite bricks and mortar bookshop?
Find Kaaron on GoodReads.
Follow Kaaron on Twitter: @KaaronWarren
Thanks everyone 🙂
A couple of weeks ago my writing group did really well at the Aurealis Awards. I thought I might do a round-up of their books, so if you’re looking for a ripping read like Richard is, you’ll be able to find it.
So … Starting with Trent Jamieson. Trent’s Death Works trilogy is set in Brisbane (yay!) and it’s really quirky. It starts with Steve sitting in the food court in the city when a dead girl saves his life. Steve works for corporate death, helping souls into the afterlife and there’s a take-over bid. Suddenly he’s on the run with the dead girl … Book one was a finalist in both the horror and the fantasy section of the Aurealis Awards.
And coming out next year is Trent’s new series The Roil. Very dark and full of daring do!
There’s Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Creature Court series. The first book of this series was a finalist in the fantasy section of Aurealis Award and won this section. This series combines a threatened city, with powerful shapeshifters and a dressmaker who suddenly finds herself caught up in a battle to save her home.
Marianne has been really busy. If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stepanie Plum books you’ll love her Tara Sharp series. Book one won the Davitt Award for female mystery writers. There’s just a touch of paranormal as the main character has the ability to read body language.
Then there’s her new YA series. Dark, sensual and exciting. I like reading YA because the focus is on the protagonist and you get straight into the story.
And don’t forget her two SF series. The rollercoaster ride of the Parrish books. (Aurealis Award finalists)
And the slightly more cereberal but just as addictive Sentient of Orien series. (Aurealis Award finalists and book four won the award)
Then we have Richard, who’s been having heaps of success with his quirky steam punk series. Worldshaker has just won two awards in France. It gives him an excuse to dress up in waistcoats and top hats!
And there’s Margo’s latest book Tender Morsels. I’ve lost track of the number of awards Margo has won for her writing. This book should come with a warning – disturbing.
If you like time travel, there’s Maxine McArthur’s series and her robot mystery nove, Less than Human. (Once again, finalists and winners of the Aurealis Awards).
With so many good books to read, it’s hard to know where to start!
As the next of my series featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) I’ve invited the talented Nicole Murphy to drop by.
Watch out for the give-away question at the end of the interview.
Q: With your Asarlai trilogy there is a strong love story running through each of your books. Is this because you are a romantic at heart?
Oh, absolutely. Big, soppy, kissy-kissy romantic. I’ll cry at romantic movies. I’ll sigh when the big proclamation of love scene comes. I think about Chandler proposing to Monica, or Lizzie finally accepting Darcy, and I just swoon.
When I started writing, I was trying my hand at epic fantasy and space opera. Then I realised that no matter what I attacked, it came with a strong romance subplot. So I decided to drop the rest of it and have a go at writing a fantasy romance. That was the original draft of Secret Ones.
Q: This trilogy strikes me as a modern take on Irish mythology. What attracted you to use this as a background for your world building.
Ireland came about because I couldn’t figure out how to use Australia. I’d decided the gadda were going to be a race that developed alongside humans but from different ancestors. I tried to make that ancestry Australian, but I couldn’t get my head around how to do that and not do something wrong to Indigenous mythology. So I tried another direction – humans originated in Africa. What’s the opposite of Africa? Answer – Ireland.
The great thing about this is because I’m not dealing with humans, I don’t necessarily have to be true to Irish mythology. The way I see it, the gadda are on the other side of the stories. They’d agree with some of the elements, but others from their point of view would be just plain wrong. So I’ve got the freedom to play within the mythology without having to be accurate.
Q: I hear you’ve put a proposal to your publisher for a new trilogy. Is it in the same world as the Gadda? Tell us a little about it.
It is in the same world as the Gadda. In fact, it’s the sequel to Dream of Asarlai. The new trilogy is called People of the Star and is set two years after Rogue Gadda. I’m taking the new world that’s resulted from the events of Rogue Gadda and really putting the guardians, their friends and family through the wringer.
It’s got the same structure as Dream of Asarlai, so there’s an overarching storyline but each book is a stand-along romance. You’ll be able to read People of the Star without having read Dream of Asarlai, although of course I’d prefer you to do both J
Cross fingers and toes for me that the publisher loves it and wants it too.
Q: I see you also have a story in Scary Kisses and More Scary Kisses. Did you start out writing short stories?
I was writing short stories and novels at the same time. I had more instant success with short stories – the first half a dozen stories I wrote I sold. This however twisted me a bit and while I recognised what I needed to learn with novels and worked hard on it, I kinda coasted with the shorts but as I aimed for better publications, the sales dried up.
Over the past twelve months, I’ve changed things around and started to work as hard on my short stories as I have on the novels and it’s starting to work. Apart from the two you mentioned, I’ve got a story in Issue 50 of Andromeda Spaceways, a flash piece in the upcoming Conflux Cookbook and hopefully there will be more sales this year.
I see shorts as a great way to challenge myself and experiment without having to sacrifice weeks or months to it. Learn in the shorts, apply to the novels .
Q: You went to the Romantic Times Convention in Los Angeles. What was it like? If someone was going to go, what advice would you give?
RT was fantastic! I had such a blast, I’m going to try to go again next year. RT is a convention much like our science fiction ones – panels during the day, social events at night. Except the romance community does things with a flair and bravado that would make a lot of SF people blush – and that’s not just the erotica writers J As RT isn’t just about romance nowadays but also covers fantasy, science fiction and mystery, it’s a great place to go to network with a large number of publishers, agents, writers and most importantly readers! And perhaps best of all – man will you score free books. I came home with twenty, and I stopped grabbing books cause I was worried about weight!
Q: It says in your bio that you were a teacher. Which subjects/ages did you teach and what are your best memories about being a teacher?
I taught primary school and over the nine years managed to cover everything from Kindergarten to Year Six. My favourite time was the three years I spent in Djarindjin/Lombadina, an Aboriginal community on the Dampier Peninsula in WA (north of Broome). It was fun, inspiring, awesome and a time I will never forget.
Q: You won an award for your series of article on mental illness. What prompted you to investigate this subject and what did you as a person take away from writing these articles?
I started to work on it because mental illness is something that’s always interested me. A number of members of my family have had difficulties with their mental health and in fact, I’m currently dealing with depression myself.
The thing I took away is that these are just people. It can be easy to be scared, particularly of some of the more severe conditions like bipolar or schizophrenia because some of the behaviour can be disturbing. But at the end of the day, they’re folks like you and me. They laugh. They cry. They struggle every single day with the impact of their illness and the smallest thing – a smile, a g’day, a nod – can make the world of difference.
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 do. Not that I think that one is better than the other and of course there are exceptions, but my experience is that women’s books are different to men’s. I think we’re still in an age where socialisation does impact on the life experiences of men versus women, and that inevitably has an impact on the writing. Maybe not necessarily on the content, but on the tone and the understanding of societal privilege and what perspectives of the content are shown.
I’d love to see an experiment where a range of men and women were told to write the same scene, with the same character outlines and restrictions, and see what happens. Each one would be different, because people are different, but I think you’d find that the women’s writing would reflect a group opinion different to that of the men.
Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?
Absolutely. Does that mean I read one more than the other? Well, at the moment I’m tending to read most within the genre of romance, and particularly paranormals. So I am reading more women than men, because more women write in that genre. Does that mean men can’t? Of course not – Trent Jamieson is writing a fabulous urban fantasy series at the moment.
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?
That’s such a hard question. There’s so many time periods that I love. But I’ve decided on a really personal one – I’d go back to after Worldcon last year and make some changes to my life that I’m sure would ward off the depression.
Nicole has kindly offered a copy of one of her books (you decide). Give-away Question:
Would you want to have magical powers? What would you do with them.
Follow Nicole on Twitter: @nicole_r_murphy
Over at the ROR blog I’ve done a post about the Aurealis Awards. Four wins for the ROR team!
Congratulations to all the writers who made the final lists and to the winners.
Now I’m going to give Trent Jamieson’s book a plug because his book was shortlisted for both the horror and the fantasy novel sections of the Aurealis Awards and didn’t win either, but it’s a great read!
