Fridays of Sword & Sorceress XXIV: an interview with Julia West

To conclude our interview series with the contributors of Sword & Sorceress XXIV (which you should buy immediately), we have a few questions for Julia West:

Tell us about yourself.

I’m the eldest of ten children, and now that we’re all adults, I enjoy being with all of them; we have great times together. I’ve got a wonderful husband who also writes science fiction and fantasy, and two daughters–one of whom writes fanfic and is a heck of a copy editor, and the other who writes lots of poetry and is working to finish the several fantasy novels she’s begun. I am ruled by cats; we have far too many in our household. We are also share our home with three truly adorable rats.

When not writing, I’ve held many interesting jobs, details of which often find their way into my writing. As well as other more boring jobs, I’ve been a genealogist, a quality control technician for ultrasound heart machines, an aircraft electrician in the Air Force Reserves, and a keyer for the United States Post Office.

I started out working on a degree in botany (“What will you do with a degree in botany? Teach?”) and finishing up a bachelor’s degree in anthropology (“What will you do with a degree in anthropology? Teach?”). I’m fascinated by people and the way they do things; there are cultures on this Earth far more alien to most Americans than any star-roving cultures they could imagine.

How did you get into writing?

Like so many other writers, I’ve been coming up with stories since grade school, when I wrote horrific things like “Martin the Mountain Lion.” I remember quite clearly reading a science fiction novel I’d borrowed from my dad and thinking “I could do better than this.” I started my first novel when I was 18 (in pencil on lined paper) and finished that and one other before life sidetracked my writing. I began writing again in the early 80s, and sold several non-genre stories and articles then. But I’ve loved science fiction and fantasy since I was six years old, so I went back to writing that, and have now sold several stories in the genres.

Why write fantasy?

I find it easier to fit ideas I’ve gleaned from real human cultures into fantasy societies, which are generally less high-tech, than into science fiction ones. Besides that, I’ve always enjoyed fantasy. I’m fascinated by how magic works, and have created different magic systems for several of my novels. I was greatly influence in my early writing by Andre Norton. Many of her books mix fantasy and science fiction tropes, and I enjoy doing that as well.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

I’m not sure I’m qualified to talk about the *worst* mistake, but in my opinion a writer who doesn’t finish her or his stories and submit them is making a big mistake (and will never be published, obviously). Another of the real no-nos is offending editors or publishers when you meet them (or saying offensive things online, where anyone could read it).

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

“Soul Walls” is based (loosely) on Hopi culture, which I researched for a series of novels I’m writing. Running is an important part of southwestern Native American cultures, and figures prominently in the story. The concept of soul walls, however, is my own.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

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Tiva and Honovi helped Yongosona to her feet. The old woman took a paintbrush from the basket Pamuya held and stood surveying the wall they had prepared that morning, blank white. She gestured with the brush, then said, “Red.”

Tiva took the lid off the red pot and placed it under Yongosona’s brush. Whatdid the old woman see as she surveyed the unblemished wall before her? Did the painting live behind her eyes, merely needing to be copied onto the surface? And how had she known before she came what colors she would need?

One long curving line, then another, red on the white surface. Then, “Black.”Tiva held out the other pot, and Yongosona took another brush from Pamuya.

Tiva watched carefully. She knew that at this stage in Yongosona’s Soul Walls there was no discernable design. Tiva couldn’t look at a section and say, “This will be a spine tree, this will be a gazelope.” But later, when it was nearly finished, all the various parts came together, and she would be able to see that this black line was the gazelope’s hip, and that brown one traced an eagle’s wing.

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Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

I’ve been reading fantasy and science fiction for almost fifty years and you want me to come up with *one* book? Oh, all right, I’ll try.

For fantasy, *Dragonsbane* by Barbara Hambly keeps coming to mind. I’ve always loved the way she writes characters, with real foibles and problems, and I think this novel showcases her character building. It also contains a really heart-wrenching love story, as well as magic, and dragons, and other fantasy tropes twisted to fit Hambly’s ideas of how these things should work.

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress XXIV: an interview with Annclaire Livoti

Today we have the pleasure of an interview with Annclaire Livoti, one of my fellow contributors to Sword & Sorceress XXIV, which you should buy right now.

Tell us about yourself.

I am a recent college graduate, currently attempting the dreaded task of applying for grad school. I plan on getting a Master’s in Library Science. Right now I live in Loudoun County, Virginia, working part-time at a pharmacy and interning at a local newspaper. My current interests (or obsessions, however you’d like to phrase it) are reading mysteries series by Ngaio Marsh and Harry Kemelman, and watching classic films such as Trouble in Paradise and Some Like It Hot.

How did you get into writing?

From an early age, I was fascinated with words and stories. My mother tells me I sang most of my sentences when I was younger, making up rhymes and songs. Once I got into elementary school, there was a competition known as Reflections where you could enter your writing, photography, that type of thing. As soon as I won first place for writing and realized I could get applause and smiles for making up stories, I was hooked, and haven’t stopped writing since.

Why write fantasy?

I love fantasy. I grew up on fantasy, like Tamora Pierce and Bruce Coville. I love so much about fantasy. What’s not enjoyable about crafting a story where the power of a word can change someone into an animal and back again? Or imagining a world filled with creatures that never existed in our world? With fantasy, you can use your imagination to create a new magic system or subvert fantasy tropes. Plus, you can just have fun.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

Not trying. Not writing. It may sound trite, but if you don’t try, you honestly will not succeed. And if you don’t write, you will never improve. I’ve spent most of my life writing and trying to improve my writing, and I hope to spend the rest of my life doing the same.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

“A Curious Case” is what happens when you spend a month or two reading all the mystery novels and short stories you can get your hands on. Then, when you get the urge to write a mystery yourself, you decide to add a bit of magic and supernatural to it.

Virginia Levine is a detective who occasionally accepts a job from the supernatural community. Diana is her supernatural contact, a succubus who hasn’t changed in the twenty years Virginia has known her. Now there’s been a string of succubae murders, and it’s up to Virginia and Diana to discover the murderer.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

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You might say I have a passing acquaintance with the supernatural. Every so often, a succubus will drift into my office, throw a case on my desk, and drift back out again.

She called herself Diana, and I didn’t mind when she visited. Well, I didn’t mind much. It meant that I earned some respect in the eyes of the police, and that was always a good thing. They despise cases involving the supernatural community– means extra effort, extra danger, and extra paperwork, all of which they could do without.

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Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

I’m going to cheat a little, and recommend the first book in a trilogy: “The Wizard Hunters” by Martha Wells, the first book in The Fall of Il-Rien series. When I visited Ms. Wells’ website and saw that she’d gotten her degree in anthropology, I wasn’t surprised. Her world-building is detailed and interesting, each culture fascinating and unique on its own without Wells needing to info-dump everything on the reader. Her characters are also engaging, especially her lead character, Tremaine Valiarde, who is one of the finest heroines I’ve read in a fantasy. Definitely worth a read!

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: an interview with Michael Spence & Elisabeth Waters

For this week’s edition, we have a special double interview: Michael Spence & Elisabeth Waters. Since they co-wrote their story, it seemed only appropriate to do their interview together:

>Tell us about yourself.

MS: I’ve been a theology scholar, a teacher, a chronic grad student, a security officer, a web designer, a fencer, a singer, an instrumentalist, a podcast radio announcer and actor, a writer, and an editor. Which means, among other things, that I’ve felt quite at home in the world of the Treasures stories. At the moment my wife and I are living in the Midwest, and by the time SWORD AND SORCERESS 24 sees print I hope to have gainful employment once again.

EW: I like a quiet and simple life. My idea of the perfect vacation spot is a Benedictine convent. My major leisure activity is reading, although I do enjoy some television programs – does anyone else watch Castle? I really enjoy that – I think the more writers you know, the funnier the show is.

> How did you get into writing?

MS: Hmm. It may encourage others if we put it this way: You don’t really get into writing (small w). You simply write. Hands on keyboard, pencil to paper, finger in sand, whatever. And if you like it, you keep doing it. Period.

If, on the other hand, you mean getting into Writing – capital W, full-time, pays-all-the-bills – I’m not there yet. Consult Mr. Grisham. (But he’ll probably tell you to keep going at the small-w writing until you stumble upon something people like in a big way. That’s what he did.)

That’s the “how.” The “why” is also fairly simple: I like stories, and I’ve always admired people who can tell them well. Many will tell you they began writing seriously after they read something that was so atrocious they knew they could do better, and I confess I’ve had those moments. But primarily it was aspiring to the craft. To use Diane Duane’s title, SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD…aye, I did.

EW: I was working for Marion Zimmer Bradley and living in her household, where writing fell somewhere between ‘highly contagious’ and ‘required.’ Of the four of us living there at the time of her death, the only one who wasn’t selling fiction professionally was a well-known writer and performer of filk music.

> Why write fantasy?

MS: The broader answer is that I use “fantasy” to mean “anything that steps outside consensus reality,” so that it covers the spectrum from Jonathan Swift to Larry Niven to Scott Sigler. In that sense, fantasy allows you to explore the limits of real life by going beyond those limits (cf. Clarke’s Second Law), in a way not available to merely mimetic fiction. (It’s a shame, incidentally, that “mainstream fiction” is used in contrast to the fantasy spectrum. As George Slusser has pointed out, American literature has embraced the fantastic from the beginning; see the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Mark Twain.) It expands the writer’s toolkit, if you like. There’s a fuller answer in my article “To Find the Truth, Look to the Lie,” which I invite you to check out.

Using the narrower meaning of “fantasy”: Of course, there are different hues along that spectrum, and if I’ve come closer to the non-scientific end it’s because I’m not as knowledgeable in the hard sciences. Not that this is a barrier to writing, mind you. It’s not essential that what you write about be real in the reader’s experience, but that you make it real by the way you tell the story. Using the rigor of scientific investigation helps, even when you’re writing about dragons and elves.

EW: If writing is a game of “what if…?” then fantasy is the unconstrained version. You can do anything you can get the reader to believe.

> What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

MS: Not to write. It’s that simple. And I know, since I’ve committed this error far too often.

EW: I agree with Michael. I think the second-worst mistake is to bore the reader, which produces the “life is to short to waste time finishing this” reaction.

> Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

MS: Back in SWORD AND SORCERESS 14 there was this story entitled “The Blade of Unmaking,” about a knife you really didn’t want in your collection if you knew what was good for you. It was written by one Elisabeth Waters, and I was intrigued by its insight. When we collaborated on “Salt and Sorcery” for S&S 16, I suggested that Stephen, its male lead, a chronic grad student (ahem), have Lord Logas and Lady Sarras from “The Blade of Unmaking” as academic advisers. Lisa liked the idea, and thus the University of Albion’s College of Wizardry evolved from a background reference into a world in its own right.

The Blade and other Treasures, including the Holy Grail, reside with their Guardians at the College. More specifically, the Blade is an anti-Treasure, as much to be restrained as guarded. In other stories we’ve encountered the Grail and, most recently, the Scholar’s Pin, both on the other side of the aisle. Now we’re dealing with an anti-Treasure once again, this one a rod that has a nasty effect on both its holder and his or her subordinates (see a modern translation of Psalm 125:3). Let’s just say, you don’t want the Sceptre of the Ungodly resting in a display case in the White House.

Edward, the Sceptre’s designated Guardian, and Lady Alyssa, who guards the Blade of Unmaking, have been sent to find the Sceptre and take it into custody. As you might expect, those prove to be two quite different tasks.

EW: Psalm 125 is part of the Daily Office, which means I read it once a week. I’ve been thinking for years that “the sceptre of the ungodly” sounded like a great anti-Treasure, and this year Michael and I got around to writing its story. There are still other Treasures and anti-Treasures out there – “I’ve got a little list…” (It lives on my PDA, where I can make additions as needed – the Scholar’s Pin was inspired by something I saw in a museum exhibit about four years ago.)

Collaborating with Michael is a lot of fun. I remember one conversation during the writing of “Salt and Sorcery” that ran something like this: “We’ve got to give Stephen’s wife a motive for wanting him to pass his Ordeal,” followed several minutes later by “Wait a minute, we’re giving her a motive for murder.” Michael’s wife Ramona served as a consultant on that story, and her input was invaluable. Fortunately for Michael, he has now finished his PhD.

> Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

“I’m working on a plan,” Alyssa said, wishing the plan she was coming up with was less risky. “What sort of dancing do we do at the ball tonight?”

“I forget what it’s called,” Edward said, “but we sort of walk forward and back very slowly. I think it’s so people can admire – or sneer at – each other’s clothes. Don’t worry,” he added quickly, “my mother has wonderful taste; I’m sure you’ll look gorgeous.”

“Somehow, Edward, that’s not my biggest worry at the moment.”

> Pick any one book to recommend. Other than SWORD & SORCERESS.

MS: You mean besides CHANGING FATE, by Elisabeth Waters? (Do check that one out; it’s superb.) Ray Bradbury’s FAHRENHEIT 451, which like most of Bradbury’s work, falls in the middle of the fantasy spectrum. SF writers don’t predict the future, contrary to popular opinion; they depict the present, often by isolating various trends and showing us where they could go if unchecked. And Bradbury, in the fifties, observed several factors that have helped to make us what we are today: political correctness, the readiness to “dumb down” entertainment to pull in the greatest possible audience, people’s unwillingness to take time to think and reflect, and the devaluing of education and educators. He’s nailed us.

In fact, if you get what Bradbury’s saying in FAHRENHEIT 451, you understand why we must, must continue to teach literature.
Even – perhaps especially – to the torchbearers of technology.

I’d also be most pleased if you read and reply to the articles at “Brother Osric’s Scriptorium” (http://michaelspence.us).

EW: Only one book? TRICKSTER’S QUEEN by Tamora Pierce. It’s the sequel to TRICKSTER’S CHOICE, and both of them are permanent residents on my PDA.

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: an interview with Teresa Howard

This Friday’s interview, ladies and gentlemen, is with Teresa Howard. Read and enjoy!

Tell us about yourself.

I am an avid fan of Fantasy and Science Fiction.  I enjoy reading, writing, and attending conventions.  While many of my stories are about the magical Nellari people, I have also written modern fantasy, children’s stories, and science fiction.  By day, I am a technology coordinator and computer lab instructor at a local elementary school in Birmingham, Alabama.

How did you get into writing?

I was a story teller as a child and entertained friends by creating imaginary worlds.   I always dreamed of being a writer.  As an adult I was encouraged by a friend to pursue that dream.  I took Ann Crispin’s writers workshop at Dragon*con in Atlanta and became part of the DC2K Writer’s group.

Why write fantasy?

I write what I love to read.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

The worst mistake a writer can make is not to write the stories that are trying to get out.   If you wait, you may lose them.   If you wait too long the stories may stop coming.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

Nellandra’s Keeper is set in the magical Nellari Homeland.  The main character struggles with fulfilling her family’s expectations and her own destiny.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Recalling the purpose of my mission, I delivered my message. “Grandmother has been calling for you. You’re late and if you don’t hurry back, everyone’s feast meal will be cold before we’re dressed.”

I watched embarrassment color her cheeks.

“Oh! I’d forgotten the time. I’d better hurry. Thanks, Galley!” She jumped to her feet and hurried away at a graceful sprint, heedless of the tangle of bushes that I had carefully maneuvered through.

Smiling to myself, I watched her retreating figure. That’s Nellandra, brains, beauty, grace, but not a smack of magic in her bones. I ran after her, sure that she would need my assistance before long.

Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

Robert Jordan’s – Wheel of Time series

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: an interview with Dave Smeds

For this Friday’s interview, we have the pleasure of speaking with Dave Smeds, who has written a whole lot of stuff.

Tell us about yourself.

Mid-fifties, married, two kids. I live in the wine country of California. Former graphic artist, typesetter, and farmer. I’ve taught karate as well, and still do to a limited extent.

How did you get into writing?

I became an avid reader of fantasy with the Oz books as a kid. In my middle-school years (the late 1960s), I devoured the works of such writers as Robert E. Howard, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. I read hundreds of issues of Marvel superhero comic books. With that to get me going I ended up with a permanent affection and enthusiasm for the genre. Naturally I wanted to emulate the best of what I was encountering. But probably even more important was that some of that stuff was  crap. Moreover, it was bad enough crap that I knew it to be crap even back then, with my limited pre-pubescent ability to judge what was good and what wasn’t. (Don’t ever read Tarzan Triumphant. Don’t ever read Uncanny X-Men #41.) I dared to imagine that I could write better material than those worst-case examples, and therefore maybe get published. Don’t tell me beginning writers should only be exposed to the very best material the literary world has to offer. That’s like sending someone up Half-Dome as their virgin mountain-climbing lesson. The challenge needs to be manageable. At fifteen, I thought I might be able to complete a short story for an English class. I did. After a couple of further attempts to write what I thought the teachers wanted, I started concentrating on science fiction and fantasy, and started enjoying the process of writing fiction too much to give up the habit. After that, only two more things were needed to “get into writing,” as you put it: 1) I had to produce enough pages over several years to get me past the phase of beginner mistakes and up to a level of quality worthy of publication; 2) I had to find an editor who agreed I’d made it. My first short story was bought in 1979 by Orson Scott Card for Dragons of Light. My first novel, The Sorcery Within, was bought in 1983 on the basis of sample chapters and a one-page outline by Terri Windling for Ace Books.

Why write fantasy?

In my view, there is simply no genre with as much scope and potential as imaginary-world fantasy. I find it inappropriate and ironic that the field is dismissed so readily by the so-called “lit-crit” or “awards” crowd.  I suspect it’s that they don’t know how to stretch their imaginations, and look outside themselves.

Why write it? The decision springs not only from affection and the pleasure I take in reading fantasy, but from the desire not to be subject to the limitations of other forms of literature. Whether it is mainstream literature or science fiction or horror or contemporary fantasy, there’s a formula in place that restrains one’s creativity.  I call the formula “self-expression.” At some level, the author works from a personal place, putting down in words their own particular view of the world, revealing autobiographical parts of themselves. If the author has led an interesting life or has a way of looking at the world that’s insightful, it can be marvelously rewarding for the reader. If, on the other hand, the author gets indulgent, the result can be masturbatory drivel. Think John Lennon, who gave us examples at both ends of that spectrum. When he was on top of his game, the personal-perspective aspects of his songwriting blessed the world with the magnificence of “Imagine.” When he was navel-gazing, we got the (cough, wheeze) Yoko-Ono collaboration, Two Virgins.  I wouldn’t want my work to be limited to looking out from where I’m sitting and only commenting on the view from here. I want to be able to create entire worlds, societies, customs, abilities, situations. The potential to touch the universal human experience is high. You can directly address the huge questions, the questions bigger than any one of us, bigger than our cultures and even our planet. Even a failed attempt at least has the chance to be colorful and entertaining.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

I’m going to sidestep what I think you’re asking and address a kinda sorta similar question: What is the worst mistake non-writers make about writing? This is a pet peeve issue. People ask, “Where do you get your ideas?” as if it’s hard to get ideas. As Little Orphan Annie would, say, “Leapin’ Lizards!” For a writer, ideas are the easy part. If I get an anthology assignment and need to come up with a story, I can think of about seventeen ideas in the first minute. In five minutes, I’ll come up with an idea that’s worth mulling over. I’ll sleep on it, and see if it’s good enough to devote time to. I may ultimately reject that one, and the next and the next, but within a week, I’ve got an idea good enough to form into a saleable story. I would estimate the time it takes to come up with that story-worthy idea is a fraction of an hour, even though arriving at it may require four or five tiny brainstorming sessions over several days before it all gels.

Yet we’ve all heard the tale of the wannabe who “has an idea” and thinks it’s half the work of writing a book or a screenplay or a story, and they want the professional writer to do the rest for half the money. What such people don’t realize is that, at most, they’re saving the pro a few minutes of brainstorming, and that the writer still has 99.8% of the labor looming ahead. Even more likely, the idea the wannabe has come up with is so poor it would actually harm the chances of a successful final result, and actually has negative value.

So there’s your “worst mistake” scenario. Unfortunately, as I’ve experienced firsthand, Hollywood is rampant with film-development guys who imagine their idea is ample justification to put themselves at the creator-level of a movie or even a franchise, whereas the real writer’s contribution is viewed as a connect-the-dots operation of minimal significance. This is a sore subject I won’t get into further here.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

In the last few years, I have been increasing drawn to scenarios that explore characters challenged with moral dilemmas. As in, what’s the right choice, what’s the wrong one. A clear example is my Sword & Sorceress 22 novelette, “Bearing Shadows,” that explored the question of whether it was right or wrong for a man to resort to rape in order to sire the child he and his family desperately wanted and deserved. And if that rape was wrong, what amends could he make, once the deed was done? This time I wanted to explore the matter of who deserves to have great powers of sorcery. I also wanted to create a vivid sense of place. I chose a swamp as my setting. And because I haven’t seen them used much in Sword & Sorceress, I included some crocodiles. Crocs are such intriguing critters.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Excerpts are tricky. They need to be somewhat self-contained, but not reveal the plot. Here are the opening four paragraphs. I’d like people to understand this intro section is not in the prose mode of the rest of the story, which is told in current-time,  moment-to-moment narrative.  Here you are, the first bit of “The Vapors of Crocodile Fen.”

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I was raised here in the bog. Not many can say that. Few families have chosen to tie their lives to this peat, to these sulphur mists. Would you raise your daughter where crocodiles roam? You have seen for yourself how well the creatures thrive here, where the hotsprings and honeycombed channels cure the river of its snowmelt chill. Their pervasiveness is one of the two things for which this place is famous. The other is the Tale of the Dwarf Rebels.

You have not heard that story? The Duke of the Narrows had defeated all his rivals but one, his younger half-brother, Strawhair. Having barely escaped the battle at Founders Knoll, Strawhair fled to a stilt house deep in the bog. Feverish from wounds, bereft of all but two of his fighting men, Strawhair was undone, but the duke was not satisfied. He tortured Strawhair’s vassals, learned of the hiding place, and set out with a contingent of knights to eradicate this last challenger of his claim to the fief.

The duke saw no threat in the marshdwellers. We are not dwarfs, as the legend would have you believe, but most of my folk are short and slight, the better to propel our rafts over masses of lotus and water hyacinth. The welcoming party cowered before the knights’ drawn blades. When the duke ordered a group to ferry him and his contingent to Strawhair’s refuge, they complied in all apparent meekness. But once they were deep in the swamp, they leaped into the water and rocked the vessels from below until the duke and every one of his warriors fell overboard. Burdened by their armor, the invaders sank into the muck and drowned. It was a trap of Strawhair’s design. His first victory among many. Eventually he reigned over the neighboring duchy as well, whereupon he came to be called Thrame Half-King.

Ah. You have heard that name, I see.

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Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

People reading this probably already know what kind of high fantasy they like. I’ll pick something else, then. I’m partial to Ken Grimwood’s Replay. A guy keeps reliving his life from age eighteen, in 1963, to forty-three, in 1988. (The book came out in 1986.) Grimwood never wrote another novel that good, and he’s deceased now so there’s no chance he’ll match it, but that one, which won the World Fantasy Award, is well worth checking out.

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: the Helen E. Davis interview

Today, friends and neighbors, we have the distinct pleasure of an interview with Helen E. Davis.

Tell us about yourself.

I’m a writer.  I’m also a mother, a housewife, a substitute teacher, the wife of a lawyer, a biologist, a Christian, a knitter — a lot of things, actually.  But the strongest part of my identity is as a writer.

How did you get into writing?

I just started writing down the daydreams and fantasies that were in my head, running through like background music.  I was in sixth grade when I wrote down the first one.  By eighth grade, I was writing compulsively.

Why write fantasy?

Fantasy is very popular with teenagers and young adults. These are people who are undergoing a dramatic change that they can’t quite understand. As their brains get remodeled, due to puberty, they find themselves in a world that doesn’t quite make sense, where the rules are different, and things often look different.  Fantasy describes what they feel.  Most people make it through this change and find themselves at home in this new world.  I never did — so I still think of my world in terms of Fantasy.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

Finally, an easy answer.  The worst mistake a writer can make is to believe the person who says, “It’s perfect.  Don’t change a word.”  This is a mistake in two ways.  The first is that when you believe you are perfect, you will fail to look for ways to improve, to challenge yourself.  And the second is that if you believe the work is perfect, you will not look at it critically, and you will fail to see its flaws.  Your writing will remain less than what it could have been.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

Adele, a wizard’s wife, finds herself battling her husband’s clutter — literally.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Beyond the doorway, the pile crouched like a lurking beast. Dark hollows that could have been eyes stared at her above a mouth-like pit. The jagged corners of papers formed teeth, and it had a red scarf for a tongue.

Adele quickly shook her head to dispel the vision.

Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

Just one?  Gee.  How about Howl’s Moving Castle, by Dianne Wynne Jones?

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress XXIV: an interview with Therese Arkenberg

Today, my blog friends and neighbors, you have the distinct pleasure of an interview with Therese Arkenberg. Enjoy!

How did you get into writing?

I think I’ve been writing about as long as I’ve been reading–which is quite a long time. As a little kid I made picture books, self-illustrated, and I never really outgrew the storytelling. I really started writing short stories in high school. I’m not sure what started me on those rather than picture books or novels, except perhaps I outgrew the delusion that I could draw and I realized it was far more feasible for me to finish a four thousand word short story than a hundred thousand word novel.

Why write fantasy?

Personally, I write it because they* say to “write what you know” and quite frankly, I know nothing else. I grew up reading fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction–anything that wasn’t set in the modern real world. And there’s nothing in particular in history that I want to write myself, so I create my own histories and write about them instead.

*whoever ‘they’ are.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

Aside from not reading the submission guidelines, I’d say lacking clear goals is the worst mistake. You have to have some plan for what you expect out of your stories and how you’re going to write them. Making your way by feel can be messy.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

The idea behind “Lord Shashensa” is the feeling you get when you wake up after a really good dream, one where everything in your life goes right–you’re extremely disappointed that it wasn’t real. In fact, you might feel kind of ticked off. So I decided to put some characters through that “It was all just a dream” drama. And of course, on the other hand there’s those dreams you’re glad aren’t real, nightmares…

So the meat of the story is that Treseda, a noblewoman whose country has been invaded, is facing a seige, and she keeps being plagued by dreams of better times. She thinks they’re useless and wants them to stop–but are they? And who’s causing them in the first place? And what does the runaway slave boy she takes in have to do with any of this?

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Adbara had fallen to the Dhoth, Treseda remembered through her dream. As she remembered it, she saw a black line far in the distance, moving down the beach towards her. A Dhoth army, she knew, but was untroubled. She took a bronze sword from the scabbard at her waist, a sword that rested in her hand as if familiar to her, and went out with the surf lapping at her ankles to meet them.

Others might have marched with her, she thought, though she never learned for certain. But the Dhoth warriors fell before her, and she fought as if she were an entire army, all the defender Adbara would ever need. And as she sliced and struck, she knew Poncenet was safe, because no nation could ever recover from the blow she was giving the Dhoth, not ever…

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The sword hung in an ornate case above her study door, Treseda discovered. It was her grandfather’s sword, and had been mirrored in the dream down to the last detail, though she didn’t take it down to test its heft.

Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

C.J. Cherryh’s The Dreaming Tree. It’s a beautifully written, otherworldly tale about magic, good and evil, and the legacy of Faerie.

-JM

(Editor’s note: You know, this is the second recommendation we’ve had for C.J. Cherryh in this interview series. I should really check out her books one of these days.)

Interview with Gail Carriger, author of “Soulless”

Today’s a big day for Gail Carriger, as her debut novel “Soulless” has been officially released. Since an interview on my blog is, of course, the surest guarantee of a book’s success, we sent her a few questions which she was kind enough to answer.

Tell us how you got the idea for “Soulless”.

I knew I wanted to write something with an urban fantasy feel but which challenged all the tropes of that genre: so I went with a light-hearted tone, steampunk elements, and a historical setting. Basically, I wrote the book that had everything I liked to read all in one place. I never thought it would sell, because I figured something with so many disparate elements wasn’t marketable. Luckily, Orbit didn’t agree with me.

What’s “Soulless” about?

It’s an “everything but the kitchen sink” mash up of genres in which a startlingly assertive spinster (who just happens to have no soul) takes on Victorian London’s supernatural upper crust one parasol whack at a time. There’s a grumpy werewolf investigator, a gay vampire, a dirigible or two, and some highly suspicious activity involving a wax-faced man and very ugly hats.

The market is a rather saturated with books about vampires. How is yours different?

Aside from being irreverent to the point of flippancy over the whole vampire thing (e.g. newly minted vampires suffer from fang-lisp), there’s no magic. None at all. Instead, Victorian scientists are struggling to understand vampires, werewolves, and ghosts using the scientific standards of the day. This results in steampunk gadgets and crazy theories centered about the existence of the soul.

Why parasols?

You would prefer, perhaps, octopuses?

(Editor’s note: We do see her point. Octopi are not an improvement.)

Did any other books (or movies, or songs, etc.) inspire or influence yours?

For this book authors like P.G. Wodehouse, Dickens, and Austen all have had some influence – but I try to ensure my language is accessible to a modern audiences. Those who know me well claim they can detect Pratchett and Adams lurking in Soulless as well.

You seem to have taken quite a vigorous approach to self-marketing “Soulless”. What strategies have you been using?

Ah, yes, the result of over exposure to the podcasting community, I suspect. That, plus the fact that Orbit has been really supportive of my crazy schemes. I met my publishing team at the Denver WorldCon and we got along like a house on fire (alcohol, I suspect). They liked how excited I was and that I had all sorts of promotional ideas and was clearly willing to be pro-active. It’s kind of the way I am: awful bouncy, enthusiastic, and outgoing for an author.

I think they decided I was presentable because next thing I knew they flew me out to BEA. There, by pure chance, mine happened to be one of the few urban fantasy (and the only steampunk) ARCs on offer. People got excited to read it on the way home and started talking about it at BEA. This got me a press release mention along side the likes of Dan Brown! It snowballed from there. I made friends with the manga editor of Yen press, who loved the book, and then stuck me in Yen’s magazine. I met Ron Hogan of GalleyCat who interviewed me, blogged it, and put me on youtube. Then the twitterverse started finding out. Urban fantasy fans are voracious, and super sweet, and, I suspect, getting a little exhausted by Hamilton clones. They liked the idea of my book, and that was really all it took.

As to my strategies? I like new media and I enjoy internet socialization, so that helps. I don’t feel like it’s a task to meet new people online or in real life. Whenever any review bloggers asked, no matter how small, I always put in a good word with Orbit to get an ARC sent out. A couple times I sent my own copies just to make sure. Orbit had this amazingly awesome paper doll game made featuring my main character. One of my podcasting buddies, who’s a killer audio producer, offered to do a full cast audio drama of the first chapter. So I pulled my mom and some other actor friends together and got Orbit’s permission to put the resulting audio up for free. Podcaster friends dropped it into their feeds. I also tend to think outside the genre norm, I’ve gotten permission to leave book business cards at my chiropractor’s office, at historical dance events, and in a corset-making booth. Why not? They all read too.

A lot of it has been propinquity, right place, right time, right people. A lot has been my friends: I’m peculiarly rich in that regard and have been shamelessly taping into their skill sets for everything from website design to special jewelry making to business card production to cover modeling. And a lot has been the good will of strangers – librarians, booksellers, and reviewers like the book; they find me easily on the net; and I always try to respond to questions or compliments promptly and politely. That’s all it takes to make new friends who are out and about, ground zero, promoting the book themselves. I’m not ashamed to ask people for help, and I put myself out there enough to hope people know they can come to me too and I’ll do what I can for them. If I can make it as an author, I’m dragging as many of them with me as possible, loyalty is really important to me.

I still have more up my sleeve too: contests, book launch parties, signings, trade shows, that kind of thing. The book may be out, but that’s no reason to stop having fun with it.

Recommend one book other than your own.

Everyone should read the YA scifi novel Feed by MT Anderson – brilliant because it could happen, and terrifying for exactly the same reason.

-JM

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24 – an interview with Michael Payne

Today, ladies and gentlemen, today we are honored – nay, privileged – to have an interview with Michael Payne.

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Tell us about yourself.

Everything I said last year still holds true as far as I know: I continue clerking at the local library, cantoring and playing guitar at the local Catholic church, hosting my Sunday afternoon radio program at the local university, and working on my stories and comics.

How did you get into writing?

In 4th grade, they assigned us to do some sort of artwork based on a book we’d recently read, so I made a clay model of the Martian cylinder’s landing site from H. G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds.”  They then introduced us to the concept of “creative writing,” and I realized I could do more than make clay models: I could make up a completely different story about a family of Martians coming to Earth for their vacation.  I did just that and haven’t stopped since.

Why write fantasy?

It was what I was reading: SF and fantasy.  My father has been an SF reader for longer than I’ve been alive, so Arthur C. Clarke, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Anne McCaffrey and Larry Niven books filled the shelves when I was growing up.  And Margery Sharp’s “Miss Bianca” series impressed me so greatly at an early age that I’ve spent most of my time since writing talking animal adventure stories.  And if a story has talking animal in it, folks’re pretty much gonna call it fantasy, I’ve discovered.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

I have no idea, so I’m sure I’ve made it multiple times.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

“Three on a Match” is the third story I’ve had published in the S&S series as well as the third story I’ve written about Cluny, a young squirrel who enters Huxley Academy determined to become a familiar.  Folks can read “Familiars,” the first story, at http://hyniof.livejournal.com/95025.html, but they’ve gotta buy last year’s S&S volume to read the second.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

“You are an animal, Cluny, admitted to Huxley as a potential familiar!  That you instead display a wizard’s grasp of thaumaturgy is absolutely unprecedented, and I’ve been researching the subject these nine weeks since you manifested your power in that unfortunate incident with the Queen of the Ifriti!”  Sparks shot from the edges of Master Gollantz’s eyes, Cluny’s fur crackling with static.  “Add to that the way you and Crocker mesh so perfectly that one might be tempted to call him your familiar, and you…he…it…you’re twisting the union that lies at the very core of practical magic!”

Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

Hmmm…  I’m in charge of SFWA’s Circulating Book Plan, so I see a fair percentage of the new SF and fantasy novels coming out these days.  But if I can pick any book at all, I’ll go with “The Pride of Chanur” (DAW, 1981) by C. J. Cherryh.  It’s space opera of the highest order as well as a multi-cultural, socio-economic thiller; it’s the first of four novels about Pyanfar Chanur, one of the great characters in modern SF; and its opening line (“There was something loose on the docks at Meetpoint Station…”) never fails to grab me and pull me right in.  I don’t have the time or the inclination to re-read a lotta books, but I go back to this one every couple of years just to remind myself what SF is all about.

-JM

Fridays of Sword & Sorceress 24: Deborah J. Ross

Gather round, ladies and gentlemen, gather round! Today, for your amusement, edification, and overall enlightenment, we present our interview with Deborah J. Ross, the first of our series of interviews with the contributors of Sword & Sorceress 24:

Tell us about yourself.

I have been writing science fiction and fantasy professionally since 1982, served as Secretary of SFWA and have taught writing and led writer’s workshops. As Deborah Wheeler, I wrote 2 science fiction novels, JAYDIUM and NORTHLIGHT, as well as short stories in ASIMOV’S, FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, SISTERS OF THE NIGHT, STAR WARS: TALES FROM JABBA’S PALACE, REALMS OF FANTASY, and almost all of the SWORD & SORCERESS and Darkover anthologies. My most recent projects — under my birth name, Ross — include Darkover novels with the late Marion Zimmer Bradley (the most recent of which, HASTUR LORD, will be released February 2010): and an original fantasy series, THE SEVEN-PETALED SHIELD. My 2008 editorial debut, LACE AND BLADE was received so enthusiastically that it will now be an annual anthology.. In between writing, I’ve lived in France, worked as a medical assistant to a cardiologist, revived an elementary school library, studied kung fu san soo, Hebrew and yoga, and have been active in the women’s martial arts network and local Quaker community.

How did you get into writing?

I’ve been writing since fourth grade! I thought books were magic and I wanted to make them, too. My first professional sale was to Marion Zimmer Bradley for the first SWORD & SORCERESS, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Why write fantasy?

I like to write a lot of different things, including science fiction, space opera, and stories that are so interior and character-driven they feel more like mainstream, but in terms of novel career, I work best when I focus on one genre. What I love most about fantasy is how it invites the use of archetypes and mythic elements to create deep psychological,and en spiritual meaning.

What is the worst mistake a writer can make?

I think this is different for everyone, but essentially: whatever closes your mind and stops you from getting better.

Tell us about your Sword & Sorceress 24 story.

Some of the scenes I’d sketched out when playing with an idea for a fantasy novel set in an Arabian Nights type world. This must have been 10 or 15 years ago. The story never came together, but nothing creative is ever wasted, so when I asked my inner muse for ideas for a S & S story, the weeping statue and Grandmother’s magical toys leapt to mind. As Maridah took shape as a character, I realized the Shakespearean echoes. Here she is, a scholar called home and told her uncle is a villain by another character who promptly disappears. Sound familiar? But is the uncle really a scheming, power-mad Bad Guy? What happens when we see human interactions through the lens of romantic dreams? If such dreams can deceive, they can also create immeasurable joy in our lives.

Can you share an excerpt (a paragraph or two)?

Here, Maridah encounters the statue:

The passage twisted, ever descending. At last, she caught sight of a door, its plain wood somehow preserved from the damp. In the chamber beyond, she found a tiny garden, arched over with a dome like frosted glass and filled with pale, diffuse light. She replaced the ball in her pocket.

Heat lay thick and expectant over the dustless benches. Not a fly buzzed, not a leaf of the trellised roses quivered, and not a single fallen twig marred the whiteness of the paving stones.

In the center stood a statue of a young man of transcendent beauty, naked to the hips. His head was tilted to reveal the perfect grace of his neck. His hands hung at his sides, wrought in stone that had the satiny sheen of marble and the warm hue of flesh. The flowing muscles of his torso ended in a block of uncut stone in place of legs.

Pick any one book to recommend. Other than Sword & Sorceress.

I finally read Mercedes Lackey’s PHOENIX AND ASHES, and loved it. It’s part of her “Elemental Masters” series, set in England during WW I. The system of magic fits solidly within the genre, and the plot skeleton is “Cinderella,” so there’s an illusion of familiarity. What knocked my socks off was how vividly she wove in what life was like during that time — the idiocy and hopelessness of the old way of waging war, the impoverishment of the countryside due to rationing and the absence of able-bodied men, and the abysmal ignorance of “shell shock” and how widespread it was. (Also, a magical explanation of the Spanish Influenze epidemic.) Very dark stuff, very well done.

Visit Deborah J. Ross’s website.

-JM